Journal: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Article Title: Dual Role of Cancer Epithelial-Specific TRAF3 in Regulating Breast Cancer Cell Survival and Lymphocyte Activity
doi: 10.3390/ijms27104414
Figure Lengend Snippet: TRAF3 expression across cell populations in the scRNA human breast cancer dataset. ( a ) UMAP visualization of 81,389 quality-filtered single cells derived from the Breast Cancer Atlas, colored by cell type annotation. ( b ) Feature plot showing log-normalized TRAF3 expression projected onto the UMAP embedding. ( c ) Violin plots depicting log-normalized TRAF3 expression across each of the cell types. Statistical comparisons were performed using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, comparing each cell type against all remaining cells, followed by Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing. Asterisks (*) indicate adj p -values < 0.05. ( d ) Volcano Plot of Differential expression of TRAF3 -positive ( TRAF3 +) vs. negative ( TRAF3 -) Cancer Epithelial (CE) cells. The x-axis represents the log 2 fold change of expression in TRAF3 -positive versus TRAF3 -negative cells, and the y-axis shows the −log 10 adjusted p -value (FDR). Points are colored according to FDR significance, while labels highlight specific immunologically relevant genes, colored according to the following categories: (i) Immunogenicity—Immunogenicity/Antigen Presentation; (ii) MHC-I—MHC class I pathway (CD8 + T-cell recognition); (iii) MHC-II—MHC class II (tumor-intrinsic or antigen-presenting cell mediated); (iv) Checkpoint—Checkpoint blockade/Immune Modulation; (v) Infiltration—Increase immune infiltration into tumors; and (vi) Non-self—Promote tumor cell recognition as “non-self”. Selected genes of interest not in the above categories are colored black (‘Other’ category). ( e ) Gene Ontology (GO) Enrichment Analysis of the filtered top DE genes (FDR < 0.05 & |log2FC| > 0.1) identified via differential expression analysis between TRAF3 + and TRAF3 -cancer epithelial (CE) cells. X-axis represents the Fold Enrichment, and y-axis represents the immune-related Biological Process and Molecular Function GO terms, grouped into clusters based on functional similarity (for the full GO term graph with all the immune and non-immune related GO terms, see ). Dot size is analogous to the number of specific genes associated with each GO term, while their color gradient corresponds to the FDR-adjusted p -value (Q value). Abbreviations used include the following: CE (Cancer Epithelial cells), NE (Normal Epithelial cells), PVL (PeriVascular-Like cells), CAFs (Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts), PR (Positive Regulation), R (Regulation), prd (production), MM (Molecular Mediator), MBP (Macromolecule Biosynthetic Process), MMP (Macromolecule Metabolic Process), CR (Cellular Response), env/tal (environmental), RSP (receptor signaling pathway), SP (signaling pathway), resp. (response), ext. (external), and If-M (interferon-mediated).
Article Snippet: The TRAF3 coding sequence was amplified from a pCMV6-TRAF3-GFP (RG210417, Origene, Rockville, MD, USA) vector and cloned into pLenti-EF1a-GFP-2A-Puro (LV067, ABM Inc, Richmond, BC, Canada).
Techniques: Expressing, Derivative Assay, Quantitative Proteomics, Immunopeptidomics, Functional Assay