Abstract
Extracellular adenosine is extensively involved in regulating the tumor microenvironment. Given the disappointing results of adenosine-targeted therapy trials, personalized treatment might be necessary, tailored to the microenvironment status of individual patients. Here, we introduce the adenosine signaling score (ADO-score) model using non-negative matrix fraction identified patient subtypes using publicly available melanoma dataset, which aimed to profile adenosine signaling-related genes and construct a model to predict prognosis. We analyzed 580 malignant melanoma samples and demonstrated its robust value for prognosis. Further investigation in immune checkpoint inhibitor dataset suggests its potential as a stratified factor of immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy. We validated the power of the ADO-score at the protein level immunofluorescence in a melanoma cohort from Xiangya Hospital. More importantly, single-cell and spatial transcriptomic data highlighted the cell-specific expression patterns of adenosine signaling-related genes and the existence of adenosine signaling-mediated crosstalk between tumor cells and immune cells in melanoma. Our study reveals a robust connection between adenosine signaling and clinical benefits in melanoma patients and proposes a universally applicable adenosine signaling model, the ADO-score, in gene expression profiles and histological sections. This model enables us to more precisely and conveniently select patients who are likely to benefit from immunotherapy.