Memory-like natural killer cell and CD19-antibody based immunotherapy in combination with tyrosine-kinase inhibition of Ph(-like) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (scRNA-Seq)

The transcriptional profile of NK cells changes upon interaction with their target cells. Our in vitro experiments involving co-culturing NK cells with K562 cells to induce memory formation showed an altered transcriptional pattern. We hypothesized that leukemia-infiltrating NK (LINK) cells would exhibit a distinct transcriptional profile due to their encounter with malignant target cells. To investigate this, single cell RNA sequencing was conducted on Facs-sorted NK cells obtained from patients diagnosed with B-cell precursor ALL. The analysis of LINK cells' transcriptome revealed a significant decrease in ribosomal biogenesis transcripts, indicating that IL-mediated pre-activation of NK cells might compensate for the translational deficiency observed in LINK cells. Anonymous bone marrow samples from a healthy individual and patients with B precursor ALL were obtained from the biobank of the Dept. of Pediatric Oncology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and sorted based on NK cells markers to isolate LINK cells, prior to being subjected to single cell RNA sequencing by an Illumina NextSeq 500 machine.