A multiscale signalling network map of innate immune response in cancer reveals cell heterogeneity signatures

Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 22;10(1):4808. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12270-x.

Abstract

The lack of integrated resources depicting the complexity of the innate immune response in cancer represents a bottleneck for high-throughput data interpretation. To address this challenge, we perform a systematic manual literature mining of molecular mechanisms governing the innate immune response in cancer and represent it as a signalling network map. The cell-type specific signalling maps of macrophages, dendritic cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells and natural killers are constructed and integrated into a comprehensive meta map of the innate immune response in cancer. The meta-map contains 1466 chemical species as nodes connected by 1084 biochemical reactions, and it is supported by information from 820 articles. The resource helps to interpret single cell RNA-Seq data from macrophages and natural killer cells in metastatic melanoma that reveal different anti- or pro-tumor sub-populations within each cell type. Here, we report a new open source analytic platform that supports data visualisation and interpretation of tumour microenvironment activity in cancer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Dendritic Cells / immunology
  • Humans
  • Immunity, Innate*
  • Killer Cells, Natural / immunology
  • Macrophages / immunology
  • Neoplasms / genetics
  • Neoplasms / immunology*
  • Signal Transduction
  • Tumor Microenvironment