Pathological mechanisms and treatment strategies for immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis: insights from single-cell sequencing.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have significantly advanced cancer treatment, but they can lead to immune-related adverse events. Among these, immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated myocarditis (ICI-M) represents a rare yet severe cardiotoxicity. The underlying pathogenesis of ICI-M is not fully elucidated, necessitating deeper mechanistic investigation. Traditional bulk sequencing technology measures average gene expression across entire cell populations, which affects the interpretation of gene function in complex tissues. In contrast, single-cell sequencing technology represents a transformative advancement by enabling multi-omics analysis at single-cell resolution. This cutting-edge approach offers key insights into disease mechanisms by accurately identifying the composition changes and gene expression characteristics of specific cell populations in ICI-M. This review summarizes recent advances in single-cell sequencing applications in ICI-M research and highlights its role in elucidating pathogenesis. Building on these mechanistic insights, the review further discusses emerging targeted strategies that aim to mitigate cardiac inflammation without compromising antitumor immunity, offering a promising framework for precision intervention in ICI-M.