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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 4.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Immunol. 2019 Jun 3;20(7):835–851. doi: 10.1038/s41590-019-0400-7

Figure 1: LINK-A predicts immunosuppression and immunotherapy resistance.

Figure 1:

a, Pearson correlation of LINK-A expression and relative immune cell abundance based on gene set variance analysis (GSVA) score across 18 cancer types (n=5662). The sample size for each cancer type is as follows: Bladder urothelial carcinoma [BLCA] (n=252), Breast invasive carcinoma [BRCA] (n=836), Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma [CESC] (n=196), Colon adenocarcinoma [COAD] (n=18), Glioblastoma multiforme [GBM] (n=154), Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma [HNSC] (n=426), Kidney chromophobe [KICH] (n=66), Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma [KIRC] (n=448), Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma [KIRP] (n=198), Brain lower grade glioma [LGG] (n=486), Liver hepatocellular carcinoma [LIHC] (n=200), Lung adenocarcinoma [LUAD] (n=488), Lung squamous cell carcinoma [LUSC] (n=220), Ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma [OV] (n=294), Prostate adenocarcinoma [PRAD] (n=374), Skin cutaneous melanoma [SKCM] (n=226), Stomach adenocarcinoma [STAD] (n=284), Thyroid carcinoma [THCA] (n=496). The sample size for each BRCA subtype: Basal (n=139), Her2 (n=67), LumA (n=417), LumB (n=191). b, Fluorescent multiplex immunohistochemistry labeling using indicated antibodies (upper panel) or RNAscope (bottom panel) of human breast cancer tissues. Three independent experiments were performed and yielded similar results. Scale bar: 100 μm. c, Pearson correlation between relative LINK-A expression and CD8 staining intensity per visual field. Six field per tissue were measured (n=78 tissues). d, Fluorescent multiplex immunohistochemistry labeling using indicated antibodies of human TNBC tissues upon Pembrolizumab treatment. Three independent experiments were performed and yielded similar results. Scale bar: 100 μm. e, Measurement of LINK-A RNA copy number (left), or GAPDH RNA copy number (right), of human TNBC tissues upon Pembrolizumab treatment (n=12 tissues) (n.s., p=0.925, **p=0.0062). Results are mean ± s.d.. P values were determined by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test. f, Pearson correlation of CD8 staining intensity with the LINK-A copy number of human TNBC tissues upon Pembrolizumab treatment (n=12 tissues). g, Immunoblotting detection using indicated antibodies of human TNBC tissues upon Pembrolizumab treatment. Three independent experiments were performed and yielded similar results. h, Pearson correlation of TAP1 immunoblotting intensities with the LINK-A copy number of human TNBC tissues upon Pembrolizumab treatment (n=12 tissues).