Figure 4.

CCL5 is highly expressed in aPD1-sensitive tumors. A, Heat map of CC chemokine ligands (CCL) based on pretreatment bulk RNA-seq data between responders (r) and nonresponders (nr). B, CCL5 mRNA expression comparison from bulk RNA-seq data of responders and nonresponders shown as z-score [n = 8 responders (r), n = 15 nonresponders (nr)]. C, CCL5 mRNA expression from bulk RNA-seq data of MOC22 tumors harvested on day 17, and MOC1P and MOC1-esc1 tumors harvested on day 14 after implantation shown as TPM (n = 3 each). D, Correlation of CCL5 mRNA expression (TPM) and cDC score (calculated from Xcell) in pretreatment bulk RNAseq data of HNSCC patient samples (n = 8 responders, n = 15 nonresponders). E, UMAP from scRNA-seq of pretreatment neoadjuvant pembrolizumab clinical trial patient tumors. (n = 2 each responder and nonresponder). F, Feature plots showing single-cell expression levels of CCL5 in responders and nonresponders. G, Distribution plots showing expression level of CCL5 in CD8⁺ T-cell subsets. Top, responders and bottom, nonresponders. H, Violin plots showing relative expression levels of CCL5 in responders versus nonresponders in baseline tumors. Individual data and mean are plotted in B, and individual data with mean ± SD are plotted in C. Data were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test to generate two-tailed P values in B, Pearson correlation coefficient in D. ***, P < 0.001.