AUTHOR=Ma Hongzhe , Li Guoqi , Huo Diwei , Su Yangguang , Jin Qing , Lu Yangxu , Sun Yanyan , Zhang Denan , Chen Xiujie TITLE=Impact of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis on the tumor microenvironment in papillary thyroid cancer: insights from single-cell analysis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology VOLUME=15 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2024.1339473 DOI=10.3389/fendo.2024.1339473 ISSN=1664-2392 ABSTRACT=

This study investigates the impact of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), an autoimmune disorder, on the papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) microenvironment using a dataset of 140,456 cells from 11 patients. By comparing PTC cases with and without HT, we identify HT-specific cell populations (HASCs) and their role in creating a TSH-suppressive environment via mTE3, nTE0, and nTE2 thyroid cells. These cells facilitate intricate immune–stromal communication through the MIF–(CD74+CXCR4) axis, emphasizing immune regulation in the TSH context. In the realm of personalized medicine, our HASC-focused analysis within the TCGA-THCA dataset validates the utility of HASC profiling for guiding tailored therapies. Moreover, we introduce a novel, objective method to determine K-means clustering coefficients in copy number variation inference from bulk RNA-seq data, mitigating the arbitrariness in conventional coefficient selection. Collectively, our research presents a detailed single-cell atlas illustrating HT–PTC interactions, deepening our understanding of HT’s modulatory effects on PTC microenvironments. It contributes to our understanding of autoimmunity–carcinogenesis dynamics and charts a course for discovering new therapeutic targets in PTC, advancing cancer genomics and immunotherapy research.