Abstract 1491: Transcriptional heterogeneity identifies functional states of tumor-initiating cell differentiation in human colorectal cancer
Authors: Zowada Martina K. , Tirier Stephan M. , Dieter Sebastian M. , Krieger Teresa , Oberlack Ava , Chua Robert L. , Huerta Mario , Ten Foo Wei , Laaber Karin , Park Jeongbin , Jechow Katharina , Müller Torsten , Kalxdorf Mathias , Kriegsmann Mark , Kriegsmann Katharina , Herbst Friederike , Krijgsveld Jeroen , Schneider Martin , Eils Roland , Glimm Hanno , Conrad Christian , Ball Claudia R. 
Published: September 2020

Tumor progression in colorectal cancer (CRC) is driven by a subpopulation of cells with tumor-initiating cell (TIC) activity. In the past, bulk experiments provided strong evidence for functional heterogeneity of the CRC TIC compartment with distinct types of TICs driving CRC progression. However, in these retrospective experiments direct assignment of functional states to individual functionally relevant cell types in CRC has not been possible.

We here asked whether functional states of individual cells can be assigned to specific CRC cell subpopulations. Therefore, 4,663 single-cell profiles were generated by single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of patient-derived CRC spheroid cultures (n=12). Non-negative matrix factorization identified 13 gene expression modules linked to cell states or cell types that resemble differentiation states of normal intestinal epithelial cells.

To evaluate their presence in CRC patient tumors, the identified transcriptional programs were applied to publicly available expression data (TCGA cohort; n=459). Clustering of samples based on the contribution of individual expression signatures revealed six patient clusters with significantly different progression-free survival (p=0.043) and a trend towards different overall survival (p=0.12), indicating a relevance for patient outcome.

Comparing cell state meta-signature expression in cell type-associated subpopulations revealed differences in functional states, i.e. proliferative and metabolic activity. Interestingly, stem-like cells showed significantly increased oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and decreased glycolysis scores, suggesting a link between metabolic states and cell differentiation. scRNA-seq of patient-derived organoid and xenograft models as well as primary tumors revealed similar trends.

To assess whether metabolic states are linked to TIC activity, CRC spheroid cells were sorted according to mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and sphere forming cell (SFC) as well as TIC frequency were assessed by limiting dilutions. Strikingly, MMPhigh cells exhibited a pronounced increase of SFC frequencies in vitro compared to MMPlow cells in 80% of patients (n=5). In addition, TIC frequencies were strongly increased in the MMPhigh compared to the MMPlow subpopulation in vivo (n=2; 1/46,535 vs. 1/211,305 and 1/249 vs. 1/2,089), demonstrating that TIC activity relies on OXPHOS. In line with this, pretreatment with the OXPHOS inhibitor CCCP decreased SFC frequencies (n=3), indicating targetable metabolic vulnerability of CRC spheroid cells.

In summary, we here show that transcriptional heterogeneity identifies functional states during CRC TIC differentiation. Targeting context-dependent regulation of tumor cell differentiation might unravel novel vulnerabilities for therapeutic intervention in human CRC.

Citation Format: Martina K. Zowada, Stephan M. Tirier, Sebastian M. Dieter, Teresa Krieger, Ava Oberlack, Robert L. Chua, Mario Huerta, Foo Wei Ten, Karin Laaber, Jeongbin Park, Katharina Jechow, Torsten Müller, Mathias Kalxdorf, Mark Kriegsmann, Katharina Kriegsmann, Friederike Herbst, Jeroen Krijgsveld, Martin Schneider, Roland Eils, Hanno Glimm, Christian Conrad, Claudia R. Ball. Transcriptional heterogeneity identifies functional states of tumor-initiating cell differentiation in human colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1491.