Lymphocyte networks are dynamic cellular communities in the immunoregulatory landscape of lung adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Lymphocytes play a key role in immune surveillance of tumors, but our understanding of the spatial organization and physical interactions that facilitate lymphocyte anti-cancer functions is limited. Here, we used multiplexed imaging, quantitative spatial analysis, and machine learning to create high-definition maps of tumor-bearing lung tissues from a Kras/p53 (KP) mouse model and human resections. Networks of directly interacting lymphocytes ( lymphonets) emerge as a distinctive feature of the anti-cancer immune response. Lymphonets nucleate from small T-cell clusters and incorporate B cells with increasing size. CXCR3-mediated trafficking modulates lymphonet size and number, but neoantigen expression directs intratumoral localization. Lymphonets preferentially harbor TCF1+/PD1+ progenitor CD8 T cells involved in responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Upon treatment of mice with ICB therapy or a neoantigen-targeted vaccine, lymphonets retain progenitor and gain cytotoxic CD8 T-cell populations, likely via progenitor differentiation. These data show that lymphonets create a spatial environment supportive of CD8 T-cell anti-tumor responses.