Investigating evolutionary perspective of carcinogenesis with single-cell transcriptome analysis  

作　　者：Xi Zhang Cheng Zhang Zhongjun Li Jiangjian Zhong Leslie P.Weiner Jiang F.Zhong 

机构地区：[1]Department of Pathology, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine [2]Department of Hematology & Blood Transfusion, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University [3]Z-Genetic Medicine LLC, Temple City [4]Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Cancer》2013年第12期636-639,共4页

基　　金：supported by Grant R01CA164509 and R21CA134391 from the National Institutes of Health, USA (JFZ), DBI- 0852720 and CHE-1213161 from the National Science Foundation, USA (JFZ)

摘　　要：We developed phase-switch microfluidic devices for molecular profiling of a large number of single cells.Whole genome microarrays and RNA-sequencing are commonly used to determine the expression levels of genes in cell lysates(a physical mix of millions of cells)for inferring gene functions.However,cellular heterogeneity becomes an inherent noise in the measurement of gene expression.The unique molecular characteristics of individual cells,as well as the temporal and quantitative information of gene expression in cells,are lost when averaged among all cells in cell lysates.Our single-cell technology overcomes this limitation and enables us to obtain a large number of single-cell transcriptomes from a population of cells.A collection of single-cell molecular profiles allows us to study carcinogenesis from an evolutionary perspective by treating cancer as a diverse population of cells with abnormal molecular characteristics.Because a cancer cell population contains cells at various stages of development toward drug resistance,clustering similar single-cell molecular profiles could reveal how drug-resistant subclones evolve during cancer treatment.Here,we discuss how single-cell transcriptome analysis technology could enable the study of carcinogenesis from an evolutionary perspective and the development of drugresistance in leukemia.The single-cell transcriptome analysis reported here could have a direct and significant impact on current cancer treatments and future personalized cancer therapies.We developed phase-switch microfluidic devices for molecular profiling of a large number of single cells. Whole genome microarrays and RNA-sequencing are commonly used to determine the expression levels of genes in cell lysates （a physical mix of millions of cells） for inferring gene functions. However, cellular heterogeneity becomes an inherent noise in the measurement of gene expression. The unique molecular characteristics of individual cells, as well as the temporal and quantitative information of gene expression in cells, are lost when averaged among all cells in cell lysates. Our single-cell technology overcomes this limitation and enables us to obtain a large number of single-cell transcriptomes from a population of cells. A collection of single-cell molecular profiles allows us to study carcinogenesis from an evolutionary perspective by treating cancer as a diverse population of cells with abnormal molecular characteristics. Because a cancer cell population contains cells at various stages of development toward drug resistance, clustering similar single-cell molecular profiles could reveal how drug-resistant sub- clones evolve during cancer treatment. Here, we discuss how single-cell transcriptome analysis technology could enable the study of carcinogenesis from an evolutionary perspective and the development of drug- resistance in leukemia. The single-cell transcriptome analysis reported here could have a direct and significant impact on current cancer treatments and future personalized cancer therapies.

关 键 词：单细胞 转录组 进化观 组分 癌变 癌症治疗 细胞裂解液 单个细胞 

分 类 号：R73-3[医药卫生—肿瘤]