Fig. 8: scRNA-seq was used to dissect the potential immunotherapy targets for TPDA-ViBT-COF-mediated phototherapy in MC38-tumor-bearing mice.

a Visualization of the T cell subsets using Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP). b A pie chart was generated to display the percentages of distinct cell subtypes among T cells treatment with control or AIE COF. The z-score normalized mean expression levels of T cell function-associated genes. c In each cell cluster, as well as M1 and M2 signature genes (f) in each Mφ cell cluster and presented as box plots showing median with whiskers at minimum and maximum values, n = 3988 biologically independent cells. d UMAP visualization of Mφ cell subsets. e Histogram chart showing the relative fold change of Mφ cell subsets under different treatments. g Overview of chosen ligand-receptor interactions among various cell types. h A bubble plot was employed in this study to illustrate changes in selected ligand-receptor interactions with or without TPDA-ViBT-COF treatment, statistical significance was calculated using a permutation test, assessing the significance of cell-cell communication by comparing observed mean expression with a null distribution generated by random permutations. i The variation of ligand-receptor pair between immune cell subtypes and epithelial cells with or without TPDA-ViBT-COF treatment. j A violin plot was utilized to depict the expression levels of specific genes in B cells, Mφ cells, and Treg cells. The p-values were computed using a two-tailed Student’s t-test. k Representative multiplexed immunohistochemical staining images of CD19 (magenta), CD86 (green), F4/80 (yellow), and DAPI (blue) in MC38 tumor samples that underwent treatment with either control or AIE COF, scale bar: 50 µm. Data were repeated 4 times independently with similar results. scRNAseq data are available through the Gene Expression Omnibus with accession number GSE268619.