Integration of Bulk RNA Sequencing and Single-Cell RNA Sequencing to Reveal Uveal Melanoma Tumor Heterogeneity and Cells Related to Survival

Abstract

Molecular classification based on transcriptional characteristics is often used to study tumor heterogeneity. Human cancer has different cell populations with distinct transcription in tumors, and their heterogeneity is the focus of tumor therapy. Our purpose was to explore the tumor heterogeneity of uveal melanoma (UM) through RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). Based on the consensus clustering assays of the prognosis-related immune gene set, the immune subtype (IS) of UM and its corresponding immune characteristics were comprehensively analyzed. The heterogeneous cell groups and corresponding marker genes of UM were identified from GSE138433 using scRNA-seq analysis. Pseudotime trajectory analysis and SCENIC analysis were conducted to explore the trajectory of cell differentiation and the regulatory network of single-cell transcription factors (TFs). Based on 37 immune gene sets, UM was divided into two different immune subtypes (IS1 and IS2). The two kinds of ISs have different characteristics in prognosis, immune-related molecules, immune score, and immune cell infiltration. According to 11,988 cells of scRNA-seq data from six UM samples, 11 cell clusters and 10 cell types were identified. The subsets of C1, C4, C5, C8, and C9 were related to the prognosis of UM, and different TF-target gene regulatory networks were involved. These five cell subsets differentiated into 3 different states. Our results provided valuable information about the heterogeneity of UM tumors and the expression patterns of TFs in different cell types.

Keywords: RNA sequencing; single-cell RNA sequencing; transcription factors; tumor heterogeneity; uveal melanoma.