Single-cell characterization of macrophages in glioblastoma reveals MARCO as a mesenchymal pro-tumor marker

ABSTRACT: Macrophages are the most common infiltrating immune cells in glioblastoma (GBM), and play a wide variety of pro-tumor and anti-tumor roles. However, the different subpopulations of macrophages and their effects on the tumor microenvironment remain poorly understood. Here, we combine new and previously-published single-cell RNA-seq data from 86,279 single cells from a total of 63 gliomas to profile 17,774 individual macrophages. Unsupervised clustering revealed an anti-inflammatory subpopulation of macrophages characterized by expression of MARCO (macrophage receptor with collagenous structure), a gene which has not been previously well-characterized in gliomas. MARCO is almost exclusively expressed in macrophages of IDH1-wildtype GBM rather than IDH1-mutated GBM or lower-grade gliomas. Previous studies have implicated MARCO as an unfavorable marker in melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer; here, we find that bulk MARCO expression is associated with worse prognosis in TCGA glioblastomas, and associates with the mesenchymal expression subtype. Our single-cell analysis shows that this previously-reported mesenchymal signature primarily arises from MARCO-expressing macrophages. These MARCO-expressing macrophages differentially over-express gene sets related to hypoxia and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and under-express gene sets related to inflammation and antigen presentation. We show evidence that MARCO-expressing macrophages are recruited from the blood (as opposed to being resident microglia), and paired single-cell analysis of tumor and myeloid cells demonstrate that this recruitment may be driven by known chemoattractant factors. Furthermore, MARCO expression is significantly altered over the course of treatment with PD1 checkpoint inhibitors. These findings illustrate a novel myeloid subpopulation that drives tumor progression in glioblastomas, and suggest potential therapeutic targets to prevent their recruitment glioblastoma.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE141383 | GEO | 2020/12/23

REPOSITORIES: GEO