- Sun, Lu;
- Kienzler, Jenny C;
- Reynoso, Jeremy G;
- Lee, Alexander;
- Shiuan, Eileen;
- Li, Shanpeng;
- Kim, Jiyoon;
- Ding, Lizhong;
- Monteleone, Amber J;
- Owens, Geoffrey C;
- Phillips, Joanna J;
- Everson, Richard G;
- Nathanson, David;
- Cloughesy, Timothy F;
- Li, Gang;
- Liau, Linda M;
- Hugo, Willy;
- Kim, Won;
- Prins, Robert M
In comparison with responses in recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM), the intracranial response of brain metastases (BrM) to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is less well studied. Here, we present an integrated single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) study of 19 ICB-naive and 9 ICB-treated BrM samples from our own and published data sets. We compared them with our previously published scRNA-Seq data from rGBM and found that ICB led to more prominent T cell infiltration into BrM than rGBM. These BrM-infiltrating T cells exhibited a tumor-specific phenotype and displayed greater activated/exhausted features. We also used multiplex immunofluorescence and spatial transcriptomics to reveal that ICB reduced a distinct CD206+ macrophage population in the perivascular space, which may modulate T cell entry into BrM. Furthermore, we identified a subset of progenitor exhausted T cells that correlated with longer overall survival in BrM patients. Our study provides a comprehensive immune cellular landscape of ICB's effect on metastatic brain tumors and offers insights into potential strategies for improving ICB efficacy for brain tumor patients.