Multi-omic analysis of gallbladder cancer identifies distinct tumor microenvironments associated with disease progression

Abstract

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is the most aggressive biliary tract cancer and is associated with a high mortality rate. Treatment of GBC faces therapeutic challenges owing to the elusive nature of in situ drivers within the local tumor microenvironment that drive its progression. Here, we created a single-cell atlas of 1,117,245 cells and a mutational landscape from 102 patients, which unveiled spatial-temporal characterizations of cellular constitutions, spatial interplays and molecular functions, and generalized five local ecosystems stratifying clinical outcomes. An integrated epithelial program, AI-EPI, combined with spatial transcriptome analysis, revealed the concurrent localization of a highly malignant tumor subtype (GM16) and AREG⁺ T cell, B cell, dendritic cell and macrophage subtypes within the pro-metastatic niche of primary adenocarcinomas. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that in addition to promoting metastasis, AREG facilitates CXCL5 expression in tumor cells through EGFR-pERK-EGR1 signaling, leading to increased neutrophil infiltration and impeding the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Our study provides a spatial-temporal landscape of the GBC microenvironment and sheds light on potential strategies for preventing immunotherapy resistance.