Division of Biotechnology and Life science, Institute of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16, Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan.
Department of Medical Oncology, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Commun Biol. 2022 Jan 11;5(1):20. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02937-x.
Transcriptome analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which migrate into blood vessels from primary tumor tissues, at the single-cell level offers critical insights into the biology of metastasis and contributes to drug discovery. However, transcriptome analysis of single CTCs has only been reported for a limited number of cancer types, such as multiple myeloma, breast, hepatocellular, and prostate cancer. Herein, we report the transcriptome analysis of gastric cancer single-CTCs. We utilized an antigen-independent strategy for CTC isolation from metastatic gastric cancer patients involving a size-dependent recovery of CTCs and a single cell isolation technique. The transcriptomic profile of single-CTCs revealed that a majority of gastric CTCs had undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and indicated the contribution of platelet adhesion toward EMT progression and acquisition of chemoresistance. Taken together, this study serves to employ CTC characterization to elucidate the mechanisms of chemoresistance and metastasis in gastric cancer.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）的转录组分析，这些细胞从原发性肿瘤组织迁移到血管中，为转移的生物学提供了关键的见解，并有助于药物发现。然而，只有少数几种癌症类型（如多发性骨髓瘤、乳腺癌、肝癌和前列腺癌）的单细胞 CTCs 的转录组分析得到了报道。在这里，我们报告了胃癌单细胞 CTC 的转录组分析。我们利用一种抗原非依赖性策略从转移性胃癌患者中分离 CTC，该策略涉及基于大小的 CTC 回收和单细胞分离技术。单细胞 CTC 的转录组谱表明，大多数胃 CTC 已经经历了上皮-间充质转化（EMT），并表明血小板黏附对 EMT 进展和获得化疗耐药性的贡献。总的来说，这项研究旨在利用 CTC 特征来阐明胃癌中化疗耐药性和转移的机制。
