CCL3 is produced by aged neutrophils across cancers and promotes tumor growth.
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BORIS DOI
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
41650972
Description
Tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) are abundant across cancers, yet their phenotypic diversity and functional states remain poorly defined. Here, we introduce a cell-type probability classifier that recovers low-transcript neutrophils from scRNAseq datasets, enabling pan-cancer analyses of TAN heterogeneity. Across >190 human and murine tumors, we identify a conserved differentiation trajectory that culminates in a terminal CCL3hi state. This state exhibits pro-tumor transcriptional programs, including those involved in hypoxic adaptation and senescence. Consistently, CCL3hi TANs are enriched in hypoxic tumor niches in both humans and mice. Through mechanistic perturbations of neutrophil-derived CCL3 in mice, we show that it sustains TAN survival in hypoxic tumor regions via CCR1-dependent signaling. These findings establish CCL3 as a conserved marker and functional driver of pro-tumor neutrophils in growing tumors, and provide a scalable framework for dissecting neutrophil biology across cancer types.
Date of Publication
2026-03-09
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Keyword(s)
CCL3-CCR1 signaling
•
CRISPR perturbation
•
hypoxia
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neutrophil aging
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neutrophil differentiation
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neutrophil heterogeneity
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pan-cancer analysis
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single-cell RNA sequencing
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tumor microenvironment
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tumor-promoting neutrophils
Language(s)
en
Contributor(s)
Bolli, Evangelia | |
Wirapati, Pratyaksha | |
Hicham, Mehdi | |
Xie, Yuxuan | |
Siwicki, Marie | |
Duval, Florent | |
Goubet, Anne-Gaëlle | |
Kiss, Máté | |
Zitti, Béatrice | |
Zwahlen, Thomas | |
Mcdowell, Sheri | |
Angerani, Simona | |
Engblom, Camilla | |
Anderson, Seth | |
Jiang, Aiping | |
Hartley, Oliver | |
Sykes, David B | |
Jankovic, Maja | |
Fournier, Nadine | |
Gunzer, Matthias | |
Tarussio, David | |
Tissot, Stéphanie | |
Sadow, Peter M | |
Faquin, William C | |
Sade-Feldman, Moshe | |
Weissleder, Ralph | |
Pai, Sara | |
Mercier, François | |
Manguso, Robert | |
Pittet, Mikaël J |
Additional Credits
Series
Cancer Cell
Publisher
Cell Press
ISSN
1878-3686
1535-6108
Access(Rights)
open.access