AAnet resolves a continuum of spatially-localized cell states to unveil tumor complexity

Abstract

Identifying functionally important cell states and structure within a heterogeneous tumor remains a significant biological and computational challenge. Moreover, current clustering or trajectory-based computational models are ill-equipped to address the notion that cancer cells reside along a phenotypic continuum. To address this, we present Archetypal Analysis network (AAnet), a neural network that learns key archetypal cell states within a phenotypic continuum of cell states in single-cell data. Applied to single-cell RNA sequencing data from pre-clinical models and a cohort of 34 clinical breast cancers, AAnet identifies archetypes that resolve distinct biological cell states and processes, including cell proliferation, hypoxia, metabolism and immune interactions. Notably, archetypes identified in primary tumors are recapitulated in matched liver, lung and lymph node metastases, demonstrating that a significant component of intratumoral heterogeneity is driven by cell intrinsic properties. Using spatial transcriptomics as orthogonal validation, AAnet-derived archetypes show discrete spatial organization within tumors, supporting their distinct archetypal biology. We further reveal that ligand:receptor cross-talk between cancer and adjacent stromal cells contributes to intra-archetypal biological mimicry. Finally, we use AAnet archetype identifiers to validate GLUT3 as a critical mediator of a hypoxic cell archetype harboring a cancer stem cell population, which we validate in human triple-negative breast cancer specimens. AAnet is a powerful tool to reveal functional cell states within complex samples from multimodal single-cell data.