@article{Lai2025, 
author = {Guichuan Lai and Biao Xie and Cong Zhang and Xiaoni Zhong and Jielian Deng and Kangjie Li and Hui Liu and Yuan Zhang and Anbin Liu and Yi Liu and Jie Fan and Tianyi Zhou and Wei Wang and Ailong Huang},
title = {Comprehensive analysis of immune subtype characterization on identification of potential cells and drugs to predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors for hepatocellular carcinoma},
year = {2025},
journal = {Genes & Diseases},
volume = {12},
number = {3},
pages = {101471},
keywords = {Cellular heterogeneity, Drug prediction, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Immune checkpoint inhibitors, Immunosubtyping},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1016/j.gendis.2024.101471},
doi = {10.1016/j.gendis.2024.101471},
abstract = {Immunosubtyping enables the segregation of immune responders from non-responders. However, numerous studies failed to focus on the integration of cellular heterogeneity and immunophenotyping in the prediction of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients' response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We categorized HCC patients into various immune subtypes based on feature scores linked to ICI response. Single-cell sequencing technology was to investigate the cellular heterogeneity of different immune subtypes and acquire significant ICI response-associated cells. Candidate drugs were identified using a blend of various drug databases and network approaches. HCC patients were divided into two distinct immune subtypes based on characterization scores of 151 immune-related gene sets. Patients in both subtypes showed varying overall survival, immunity levels, biological activities, and TP53 mutation rates. Subtype 1-related natural killer cells showed a positive correlation with immune-promoting scores but a negative correlation with immune-suppressing scores. Notably, docetaxel sensitivity in HCC patients rose as the levels of subtype 1-related natural killer cells increased. Our study demonstrated that immune subtypes have cellular heterogeneity in predicting response to ICIs. A combination of subtype 1-associated natural killer cells and docetaxel may offer new hope for ICI treatment in HCC.}
}