TY - JOUR
T1 - The collagen landscape in cancer
T2 - profiling collagens in tumors and in circulation reveals novel markers of cancer-associated fibroblast subtypes
AU - Thorlacius-Ussing, Jeppe
AU - Jensen, Christina
AU - Nissen, Neel I.
AU - Cox, Thomas R.
AU - Kalluri, Raghu
AU - Karsdal, Morten
AU - Willumsen, Nicholas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
PY - 2024/1
Y1 - 2024/1
N2 - Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) deposit and remodel collagens in the tumor stroma, impacting cancer progression and efficacy of interventions. CAFs are the focus of new therapeutics with the aim of normalizing the tumor microenvironment. To do this, a better understanding of CAF heterogeneity and collagen composition in cancer is needed. In this study, we sought to profile the expression of collagens at multiple levels with the goal of identifying cancer biomarkers. We investigated the collagen expression pattern in various cell types and CAF subtypes in a publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) dataset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Next, we investigated the collagen expression profile in tumor samples across cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and evaluated if specific patterns of collagen expression were associated with prognosis. Finally, we profiled circulating collagen peptides using a panel of immunoassays to measure collagen fragments in the serum of cancer patients. We found that pancreatic stellate cells and fibroblasts were the primary producers of collagens in the pancreas. COL1A1, COL3A1, COL5A1, COL6A1 were expressed in all CAF subtypes, whereas COL8A1, COL10A1, COL11A1, COL12A1 were specific to myofibroblast CAFs (myCAF) and COL14A1 specific to inflammatory CAFs (iCAF). In TCGA database, myCAF collagens COL10A1 and COL11A1 were elevated across solid tumor types, and multiple associations between high expression and worse survival were found. Finally, circulating collagen biomarkers were elevated in the serum of patients with cancer relative to healthy controls with COL11A1 (myCAF) having the best diagnostic accuracy of the markers measured. In conclusion, CAFs express a noncanonical collagen profile with specific collagen subtypes associated with iCAFs and myCAFs in PDAC. These collagens are deregulated at the cellular, tumor, and systemic levels across different solid tumors and associate with survival. These findings could lead to new discoveries such as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
AB - Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) deposit and remodel collagens in the tumor stroma, impacting cancer progression and efficacy of interventions. CAFs are the focus of new therapeutics with the aim of normalizing the tumor microenvironment. To do this, a better understanding of CAF heterogeneity and collagen composition in cancer is needed. In this study, we sought to profile the expression of collagens at multiple levels with the goal of identifying cancer biomarkers. We investigated the collagen expression pattern in various cell types and CAF subtypes in a publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) dataset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Next, we investigated the collagen expression profile in tumor samples across cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and evaluated if specific patterns of collagen expression were associated with prognosis. Finally, we profiled circulating collagen peptides using a panel of immunoassays to measure collagen fragments in the serum of cancer patients. We found that pancreatic stellate cells and fibroblasts were the primary producers of collagens in the pancreas. COL1A1, COL3A1, COL5A1, COL6A1 were expressed in all CAF subtypes, whereas COL8A1, COL10A1, COL11A1, COL12A1 were specific to myofibroblast CAFs (myCAF) and COL14A1 specific to inflammatory CAFs (iCAF). In TCGA database, myCAF collagens COL10A1 and COL11A1 were elevated across solid tumor types, and multiple associations between high expression and worse survival were found. Finally, circulating collagen biomarkers were elevated in the serum of patients with cancer relative to healthy controls with COL11A1 (myCAF) having the best diagnostic accuracy of the markers measured. In conclusion, CAFs express a noncanonical collagen profile with specific collagen subtypes associated with iCAFs and myCAFs in PDAC. These collagens are deregulated at the cellular, tumor, and systemic levels across different solid tumors and associate with survival. These findings could lead to new discoveries such as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
KW - biomarkers
KW - cancer
KW - cancer-associated fibroblasts
KW - collagen
KW - extracellular matrix
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U2 - 10.1002/path.6207
DO - 10.1002/path.6207
M3 - Article
C2 - 37728068
AN - SCOPUS:85171881789
SN - 0022-3417
VL - 262
SP - 22
EP - 36
JO - Journal of Pathology
JF - Journal of Pathology
IS - 1
ER -