Journal: Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer
Article Title: Carbonic anhydrase 9 as a circulating biomarker and therapeutic target in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab
doi: 10.1136/jitc-2025-013384
Figure Lengend Snippet: Tumorous CA9 flourishes the immunosuppressive and angiogenic tumor microenvironment in HCC. ( A–C ) Relative mRNA expression of the indicated genes in syngeneic subcutaneous tumors derived from Hep55.1c cells with NC or Car9 OE, measured by quantitative RT-PCR (NC: n=28; OE: n=25). Each dot represents one tumor; bars indicate mean±SEM. ( D ) UMAP of single-cell RNA sequencing data from NC and CA9 OE tumors, colored by annotated cell type (eg, malignant cells, T cells, TAMs, endothelial cells). ( E ) Frequency of CTLs per tumor sample, calculated as CTLs divided by total cells profiled by scRNA-seq (NC: n=3; CA9 OE: n=3). ( F, G ) Differential gene expression and representative cytotoxicity-related genes in CD8 + T cells from CA9 OE versus NC tumors. ( H, I ) Differential gene expression and representative TAM-related genes in TAMs from CA9 OE versus NC tumors. ( J–L ) Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (Gene Ontology) showed the top 20 pathways in TAMs ( J ), dendritic cells ( K ), and endothelial cells ( L ). ( M ) Tumor growth curves of syngeneic subcutaneous tumors derived from Car9-overexpressing Hep55.1c cells treated with vehicle, CA9 inhibitor alone, anti-PD-L1 plus anti-VEGF antibodies (Combi), or Combi plus CA9 inhibitor (Combi+CA9 inhibitor) (n=8–12 per group). Data are shown as mean±SEM. Group comparisons were performed using two-tailed unpaired Student’s t-tests or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, as appropriate; p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. CAF, cancer-associated fibroblast; CA9, carbonic anhydrase 9; CTLs, cytotoxic T lymphocytes; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; mRNA, messenger RNA; NC, negative control; NK, natural killer; OE, overexpression; PD-L1, programmed death-ligand 1; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR; scRNA-seq, single-cell RNA sequencing; TAM, tumor-associated macrophage; TAN, tumor-associated neutrophils; TPM, transcripts per million; UMAP, Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; WT, wild type.
Article Snippet: CA9 inhibitor S4 (MedChemExpress, Cat# HY-110243; 5 mg/kg, i.p.).
Techniques: Expressing, Derivative Assay, Quantitative RT-PCR, Single Cell, RNA Sequencing, Gene Expression, Two Tailed Test, Negative Control, Over Expression, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, Reverse Transcription