On November 9, 2022, Zhang Ning Research Team from the Translational Cancer Research Center (TCRC) of Peking University First Hospital (PKUFH), Zhang Zemin Research Team from the Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC) of Peking University, and Zhu Jiye Research Team from the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department of Peking University People's Hospital (PKUPH) worked closely together and published a research paper entitled "Liver tumor immune microenvironment subtypes and neutrophil heterogeneity" in Nature . This study defines for the first time five immune microenvironment subtypes (TIMELASER) of liver cancer in single cell precision, explores their cell composition, spatial distribution, genomic characteristics and chemokine receptor ligand network, comprehensively reveals the heterogeneity of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN), and discovers and verifies the tumor-promoting mechanism of two key subsets, CCL4+and PD-L1+TAN. And finally, by constructing a mouse liver cancer model, and from the three angles of In vitro, Ex vivo and In vivo, the study gradually proves that targeting tumor-related neutrophils is expected to form a new immunotherapy scheme for liver cancer. These achievements provide key information for basic research and clinical diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer.

　　Schematic diagram of the five subtypes of tumor immune microenvironment (TIMELASER)

　　The results of the study indicate that the intervention against tumor-related neutrophils will significantly increase the number of patients with effective treatment at immune checkpoints. These findings provide key information for basic research and clinical diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer and even solid tumors.

　　Written by: Wu Zhaoxia

　　Edited by:Liu Xin

　　Source: Peking University First Hospital