<p>Dear Editor:</p><p>Because aging plays critical roles in immune response and tumour development, alterations of the tumour immune microenvironment with age may be predictive of prognosis. Hence, we analysed single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data of gastrointestinal (GI) tract tumours to search for immune cells enriched in elderly patients, and thereby raised an immune index with potential clinical values.</p><p>We initially constructed a single-cell atlas using scRNA-seq datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) for gastric cancer (GC) , colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and oesophageal carcinoma (OSCA), which contained 115 samples and 419 000 cells (Figure S1A,B and Table S1). The lymphoid and myeloid cells were reclustered to subpopulations (Figures S1C–G and S2A,B; Figure 1A,B), and their biased distributions in older (>60 years) and younger (≤60 years) patients were evaluated by the ratio of observed to expected cell numbers (Ro/e) analysis<span><sup>1</sup></span> (Figure 1C). For each subpopulation showing preference for older patients, the top 100 differentially expressed genes were employed to score patients from TCGA datasets via ssGSEA.<span><sup>2</sup></span> The following Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed several subpopulations that were inversely correlated to survival (Figure 1D and Table S2). Further analysis of the differentially expressed genes of these subpopulations discovered multiple commonly enriched pathways (Figure S2C–F). Moreover, among these subpopulations, the CD8T_C2 and Proli_T_C1 had high expression of T cell exhaustion markers (Figure S2G), although this may not necessarily stand for a canonical exhaustion state. Taken together, several immune subpopulations are enriched in older GI tract tumour patients and may affect prognosis.</p><p>We analysed the potential communications between immune subpopulations with CellChat,<span><sup>3, 4</sup></span> and evaluated strength of intercellular signalling pathway with IMPORTANCE (Figure S3A,B). Among the immune subpopulations with enrichment in older patients and correlation to prognosis, nine subpopulations demonstrated markedly altered signalling in older relative to younger patients (ΔIMPORTANCE > 10) (Figure 2A) and had intensive interactions (Figure S3C). Therefore, the nine subpopulations may constitute an elderly enriched immune meta-cluster (EIM). Deconvolution analysis of spatial transcriptomic data for GC tumours defined distinctive distribution patterns of immune subpopulations, and the pattern with preference for older patients contained several EIM component subpopulations (Figure 2B–D and Figure S3D). The spatial co-enrichment of EIM component subpopulations were observed by multiple methods (Figure S3D,E). Moreover, GI tract tumour patients in TCGA were scored for EIM followed by Kaplan–Meier analysis, which revealed an inverse correlation between EIM and survival (Figure 2E and Figure S3F). Meanwhile, pathway enrichment network analysis of the signature gen
{"title":"Alterations of the immune microenvironment with age predicts patient prognosis of gastrointestinal tract tumours","authors":"Fangzhen Li, Jingjing Chen, Junjie Wang, Qiuhong Zhu, Cuiying Chu, Zhiwen Zhang, Yuting Deng, Liang Zhang, Xu Lu, Wei Wang, Huipeng Wang, Dongxue Li, Aili Zhang, Hai-bo Wu, Wenchao Zhou","doi":"10.1002/ctm2.70592","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ctm2.70592","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dear Editor:</p><p>Because aging plays critical roles in immune response and tumour development, alterations of the tumour immune microenvironment with age may be predictive of prognosis. Hence, we analysed single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data of gastrointestinal (GI) tract tumours to search for immune cells enriched in elderly patients, and thereby raised an immune index with potential clinical values.</p><p>We initially constructed a single-cell atlas using scRNA-seq datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) for gastric cancer (GC) , colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and oesophageal carcinoma (OSCA), which contained 115 samples and 419 000 cells (Figure S1A,B and Table S1). The lymphoid and myeloid cells were reclustered to subpopulations (Figures S1C–G and S2A,B; Figure 1A,B), and their biased distributions in older (>60 years) and younger (≤60 years) patients were evaluated by the ratio of observed to expected cell numbers (Ro/e) analysis<span><sup>1</sup></span> (Figure 1C). For each subpopulation showing preference for older patients, the top 100 differentially expressed genes were employed to score patients from TCGA datasets via ssGSEA.<span><sup>2</sup></span> The following Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed several subpopulations that were inversely correlated to survival (Figure 1D and Table S2). Further analysis of the differentially expressed genes of these subpopulations discovered multiple commonly enriched pathways (Figure S2C–F). Moreover, among these subpopulations, the CD8T_C2 and Proli_T_C1 had high expression of T cell exhaustion markers (Figure S2G), although this may not necessarily stand for a canonical exhaustion state. Taken together, several immune subpopulations are enriched in older GI tract tumour patients and may affect prognosis.</p><p>We analysed the potential communications between immune subpopulations with CellChat,<span><sup>3, 4</sup></span> and evaluated strength of intercellular signalling pathway with IMPORTANCE (Figure S3A,B). Among the immune subpopulations with enrichment in older patients and correlation to prognosis, nine subpopulations demonstrated markedly altered signalling in older relative to younger patients (ΔIMPORTANCE > 10) (Figure 2A) and had intensive interactions (Figure S3C). Therefore, the nine subpopulations may constitute an elderly enriched immune meta-cluster (EIM). Deconvolution analysis of spatial transcriptomic data for GC tumours defined distinctive distribution patterns of immune subpopulations, and the pattern with preference for older patients contained several EIM component subpopulations (Figure 2B–D and Figure S3D). The spatial co-enrichment of EIM component subpopulations were observed by multiple methods (Figure S3D,E). Moreover, GI tract tumour patients in TCGA were scored for EIM followed by Kaplan–Meier analysis, which revealed an inverse correlation between EIM and survival (Figure 2E and Figure S3F). Meanwhile, pathway enrichment network analysis of the signature gen","PeriodicalId":10189,"journal":{"name":"Clinical and Translational Medicine","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12779932/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145917207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}