Integrating single-cell transcriptomics to reveal the ferroptosis regulators in the tumor microenvironment that contribute to bladder urothelial carcinoma progression and immunotherapy.

BACKGROUND

Ferroptosis, as a novel form of programmed cell death, plays a crucial role in the occurrence and development of bladder cancer (BCa). However, the regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of BCa remain to be elucidated.

METHODS

Based on single-cell RNA (scRNA) transcriptomic data of BCa, we employed non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) dimensionality reduction clustering to identify novel ferroptosis-related cell subtypes within the BCa TME, aiming to explore the biological characteristics of these TME cell subtypes. Subsequently, we conducted survival analysis and univariate Cox regression analysis to explore the prognostic significance of these cell subtypes. We investigated the relationship between specific subtypes and immune infiltration, as well as their implications for immunotherapy. Finally, we discovered a valuable and novel biomarker for BCa, supported by a series of in vitro experiments.

RESULTS

We subdivided cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), macrophages, and T cells into 3-5 small subpopulations through NMF and further explored the biological features. We found that ferroptosis played an important role in the BCa TME. Through bulk RNA-seq analysis, we further verified that ferroptosis affected the progression, prognosis, and immunotherapy response of BCa by regulating the TME. Especially ACSL4+CAFs, we found that high-level infiltration of this CAF subtype predicted worse prognosis, more complex immune infiltration, and less response for immunotherapy. Additionally, we found that this type of CAF was associated with cancer cells through the PTN-SDC1 axis, suggesting that SDC1 may be crucial in regulating CAFs in cancer cells. A series of in vitro experiments confirmed these inferences: SDC1 promoted the progression of BCa. Interestingly, we also discovered FTH1+ macrophages, which were closely related to SPP1+ macrophages and may also be involved in the regulation of BCa TME.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed the significant impact of ferroptosis on bladder cancer TME and identified novel ferroptosis-related TME cell subpopulations, ACSL4+CAFs, and important BCa biomarker SDC1.