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Study Enabled by 10x Genomics Single Cell and Spatial Technologies Explains Why Immunotherapy is More Effective for Certain Brain Tumors Than Others
Researchers uncover mechanisms behind divergent responses to immune checkpoint blockade between primary and metastatic brain tumors PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept.
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[{"type":"text","content":"Researchers uncover mechanisms behind divergent responses to immune checkpoint blockade between primary and metastatic brain tumors\nPLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 10x Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TXG), a leader in single cell and spatial biology, announced today that its technologies were used in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation to explain why immune checkpoint blockade, a type of immunotherapy, is more effective for treating cancers that spread to the brain than it is for cancers that originate in the brain, like glioblastoma. The collaborative research project was led by researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nResearchers conducting the study, \"Immune checkpoint blockade induces distinct alterations in the microenvironment of primary and metastatic brain tumors,\" analyzed resected glioblastoma and brain metastases from patients prior to immunotherapy and after with Chromium Single Cell Immune Profiling and Visium Spatial Gene Expression. Spatial transcriptomics revealed that brain metastases had higher T-cell infiltration into the tumor parenchyma, potentially because T-cells have already been primed in the draining lymph nodes by tumor antigens from extracranial tumors. Such priming may not occur for primary brain tumors, like glioblastoma.\nResearchers also found an immune subpopulation in both tumor types that was correlated with better overall survival. This population can be rejuvenated by blocking inhibitory CTLA-4 and TIGIT receptors, suggesting new combination immunotherapy strategies that are now being investigated in phase 1 trials by the group.\n\"Single cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics technologies were integral to this study. In particular, we used single cell RNA-seq to identify the transcriptional program of distinct T cell sub-populations that infiltrated these tumors and how these programs changed with immunotherapy,\" said the study's senior author, Robert Prins, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. \"Spatial transcriptomics was used to overlay many of the gene signatures specific to the immune subsets and highlight how there were distinct changes in the spatial architecture following immunotherapy.\"\n\"This study is the latest in...