Clonally resolved single-cell multi-omics identifies routes of cellular differentiation in acute myeloid leukemia

Inter-patient variability and the similarity of healthy and leukemic stem cells (LSCs) have impeded the characterization of LSCs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and their differentiation landscape. Here, we introduce CloneTracer, a novel method that adds clonal resolution to single-cell RNA-seq data...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Beneyto Calabuig, Sergi, Szu-Tu, Chelsea, Velten, Lars
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repository:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/57259
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57259
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2023.04.001
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:AML
CSC
HSC
LSC
Acute myeloid leukemia
Cancer stem cells
Cellular differentiation
Computational biology
Computational method
Hematopoietic stem cells
Leukemic stem cells
Single-cell RNA-seq
Single-cell genomics
Single-cell transcriptomics
Description
Summary:Inter-patient variability and the similarity of healthy and leukemic stem cells (LSCs) have impeded the characterization of LSCs in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and their differentiation landscape. Here, we introduce CloneTracer, a novel method that adds clonal resolution to single-cell RNA-seq datasets. Applied to samples from 19 AML patients, CloneTracer revealed routes of leukemic differentiation. Although residual healthy and preleukemic cells dominated the dormant stem cell compartment, active LSCs resembled their healthy counterpart and retained erythroid capacity. By contrast, downstream myeloid progenitors constituted a highly aberrant, disease-defining compartment: their gene expression and differentiation state affected both the chemotherapy response and leukemia's ability to differentiate into transcriptomically normal monocytes. Finally, we demonstrated the potential of CloneTracer to identify surface markers misregulated specifically in leukemic cells. Taken together, CloneTracer reveals a differentiation landscape that mimics its healthy counterpart and may determine biology and therapy response in AML.