Complement-secreting CAFs are associated with better prognosis in pancreatic cancer: single-cell multiomics

Background Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that distinct tumour-promoting and tumour-restraining cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) subtypes coexist in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Objective To develop targeted CAF therapeutic strategies by reprogramming tumour-promoting CAF subtypes. Design We leveraged multiomics technologies to systematically identify and characterise CAF subtypes transcriptionally, epigenetically and spatially and correlate them with clinicopathological features. Results We found that complement-secreting CAFs (csCAFs), initially identified by our group and inflammatory CAFs (iCAFs) share significant overlap in their transcriptional profiles and chromatin accessibility. iCAFs specifically express transcription factors from the heme and oxidative homeostasis pathway and the activator protein 1 family, which are both involved in cellular response to oxidative stress. Notably, the composition of csCAFs among all CAFs declined during pancreatic carcinogenesis, while trajectory analysis showed that csCAFs could potentially differentiate into iCAFs. Spatially resolved analysis indicated that tumour regions with a higher csCAF composition were associated with lower levels of TGF-β ligands, fewer M2 tumour-associated macrophages and increased levels of lipid mediators. Additionally, we identified a spatially defined CXCL12-CXCR4 ligand–receptor interaction between csCAFs and T cells, but in distinct patterns between different metastatic organs. Patients with a higher composition of csCAFs have significantly longer overall survival and recurrence-free survival through multiplex immunohistochemistry and bulk RNA-seq deconvolution. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that csCAFs may represent an early-stage iCAF subtype and suggests a promising strategy for reprogramming iCAFs into csCAFs.