{
  "abstract": "Background: Epithelial–mesenchymal plasticity is associated with variation in regulated-cell-death (RCD) transcription and tumor–immune communication in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). We examined these relationships across single-cell, bulk-transcriptomic, and cell-line expression data.\n\nMethods: GSE131907 UMI counts underwent quality control, normalization, dimensionality reduction, and Leiden clustering. Epithelial and mesenchymal programs were scored against expression-matched control genes; 40th/60th-percentile state assignments were compared with median and quartile rules. CNV profiles were inferred in 300 malignant-label cells and 100 normal epithelial references. Malignant-cell count pseudobulk and separate pro-/anti-apoptosis and pro-/anti-ferroptosis scores were analyzed. TCGA-LUAD included 539 tumors and 59 normal samples; overall survival was evaluated by median-split Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox models adjusted for age, sex, and stage. RT-qPCR compared BIRC3, CXCR4, MALAT1, and GPX4 between TGF-β1-treated (10 ng/mL, 48 h) and vehicle-treated control groups in A549 and NCI-H1975 cells.\n\nResults: The single-cell analysis retained 203,157 cells, including 24,341 malignant-label cells. Median inferred CNV burden was 3.15-fold higher in the malignant-label subset than in normal epithelial references. The malignant EMT-high fraction correlated positively with the myeloid fraction (ρ = 0.539, P = 0.012; BH-adjusted q = 0.059 across five comparisons). Tumor-versus-normal fold changes showed 91.5% direction concordance among genes significant in both platforms (ρ = 0.82). The EMT–RCD composite score was not independently associated with survival (HR = 0.973, 95% CI 0.829–1.141; P = 0.736). CXCR4 expression increased 2.43-fold in A549 and 2.12-fold in NCI-H1975 cells; BIRC3 and MALAT1 increased significantly only in A549 cells.\n\nConclusion: LUAD EMT-associated transcriptional heterogeneity coincides with variation in death-regulatory programs and myeloid composition. CXCR4 showed a consistent expression response in both cell lines, whereas the composite transcriptional score had no independent association with overall survival. These findings prioritize CXCR4-associated cell-state biology for further investigation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Intensive Care Unit, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center , , ,",
    "Department of Radiology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center , , ,",
    "Department of Interventional Radiology, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital , , ,"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Kuiyuan Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jia Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Tiebao Meng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jingeng Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Fangming Wu"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/daa0wzwrvvjs2.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fcell.2026.1980156",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13727517/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "daa0wzwrvvjs2",
  "issns": [
    "2296-634X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13727517",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2730|Cancer Cells and Metastasis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223036034",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13727517/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13727517",
  "pmid": "42978620",
  "published": "2026-10-20",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/daa0wzwrvvjs2.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T15:20:45Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13727517",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13727517"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-06T12:23:23Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13727517",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2026.1980156"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2730|Cancer Cells and Metastasis",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Epithelial–mesenchymal plasticity is associated with transcriptional variation in regulated cell death and immune signaling programs in lung adenocarcinoma",
  "title_text": "Epithelial–mesenchymal plasticity is associated with transcriptional variation in regulated cell death and immune signaling programs in lung adenocarcinoma",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-06T12:23:23Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/daa0wzwrvvjs2",
  "venue": "Frontiers in cell and developmental biology",
  "versions": []
}