Thomas Pulliam, Saumya Jani, Lichen Jing, Heeju Ryu, Ana Jojic, Carolyn Shasha, Jiajia Zhang, Rima Kulikauskas, Candice Church, Charlie Garnett-Benson, Ted Gooley, Aude Chapuis, Kelly Paulson, Kellie N Smith, Drew M Pardoll, Evan W Newell, David M Koelle, Suzanne L Topalian, Paul Nghiem
Understanding cancer immunobiology has been hampered by difficulty identifying cancer-specific T cells. Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) causes most Merkel cell carcinomas (MCCs). All patients with virus-driven MCC express MCPyV oncoproteins, facilitating identification of virus (cancer)-specific T cells. We studied MCPyV-specific T cells from 27 patients with MCC using MCPyV peptide-HLA-I multimers, 26-color flow cytometry, single-cell transcriptomics, and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing...
February 9, 2024: Cell reports medicine