Integration analysis reveal De Novo Angioimmunoblastic T Cell Lymphoma with Virus Responsive CD8+ T cell Features

AITL usually consists of a small population of malignant T cells extensively infiltrated by multiple lineages of other immune cells. It is challenging to characterize the tumour cells with traditional histopathology or next-generation sequencing technique using bulk tumour. However, the recent advances in single-cell sequencing technologies have enabled scientists to dissect cellular heterogeneity and gain new insights into cell origins and tumorigenesis of various hematologic malignancy5-8. In this study, we holistically analysis a typical case of AITL tumour using single-cell profiling, including CITE-Seq and immune repertoire sequencing on the same cell. The integration analysis revealed that the neoplastic cells are more similar to CD8+ cytotoxic T cells instead of Tfh cells. Moreover, we further confirmed that GAPDH-activated NFκB pathway was the key driver pathway on tumorigenesis. An 80-year-old male of Chinese was diagnosed as AITL according to the WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues (2016). The fresh tissue specimen (AITL3823) was obtained from cervical lymph node.