Tumor cells coexist with diverse immune, stromal, and neural cells in a complex microenvironment. Recent single-cell and spatial transcriptomics have uncovered specialized cell subsets that drive cancer progression, immune evasion, and treatment response. A new review synthesizes these advances, introduces the “virtual tumor” concept for AI-driven ecosystem modeling, and outlines a roadmap from fundamental tumor microenvironment (TME) biology to next-generation precision immunotherapies targeting specific cell populations and their coordinated networks.

Long COVID (LC), characterized by onset of symptoms within 3 months of COVID-19, poses a major clinical challenge. This highlights the need for biomarkers to evaluate the pathophysiology of LC. In this context, researchers have analyzed the antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins in patients with LC. It was observed that N-antibody levels reflected prior infection severity, while lower S-antibody levels were linked to memory problems and poor quality of life.