Single cell RNA sequencing of paired non small cell lung carcinoma tissue and peripheral blood from 5 donors

The immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment constitutes a significant hurdle to immune checkpoint inhibitors response. Both soluble factors and specialised immune cells such as regulatory T cells (TReg) are key components of active intratumoural immunosuppression. Previous studies have shown that Inducible Co-Stimulatory receptor (ICOS) can be highly expressed in the tumour microenvironment, especially on immunosuppressive TReg, suggesting that it represents a relevant target for preferential depletion of these cells. Here, we performed immune profiling of samples from paired tumour and peripheral blood of 5 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We found Icos mRNA expression in NSCLC samples was higher in TRegs than in other T cell subsets and higher in the TME than in the periphery with the expression pattern in both compartments following the general trend of: TReg > CD4non-TReg > CD8 > Other.