Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410008, Hunan, China.
Departments of Ultrasound Imaging, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410008, Hunan, China.
J Hematol Oncol. 2022 May 12;15(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s13045-022-01280-w.
Single-cell sequencing (SCS) is an emerging high-throughput technology that can be used to study the genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenetics at a single cell level. SCS is widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Over the years, SCS has gradually become an effective clinical tool for the exploration of tumor metastasis mechanisms and the development of treatment strategies. Currently, SCS can be used not only to analyze metastasis-related malignant biological characteristics, such as tumor heterogeneity, drug resistance, and microenvironment, but also to construct metastasis-related cell maps for predicting and monitoring the dynamics of metastasis. SCS is also used to identify therapeutic targets related to metastasis as it provides insights into the distribution of tumor cell subsets and gene expression differences between primary and metastatic tumors. Additionally, SCS techniques in combination with artificial intelligence (AI) are used in liquid biopsy to identify circulating tumor cells (CTCs), thereby providing a novel strategy for treating tumor metastasis. In this review, we summarize the potential applications of SCS in the field of tumor metastasis and discuss the prospects and limitations of SCS to provide a theoretical basis for finding therapeutic targets and mechanisms of metastasis.
单细胞测序（SCS）是一种新兴的高通量技术，可用于研究单个细胞水平的基因组学、转录组学和表观遗传学。SCS 广泛应用于各种疾病的诊断和治疗，包括癌症。多年来，SCS 逐渐成为探索肿瘤转移机制和制定治疗策略的有效临床工具。目前，SCS 不仅可用于分析转移相关的恶性生物学特征，如肿瘤异质性、耐药性和微环境，还可构建转移相关的细胞图谱，用于预测和监测转移的动态变化。SCS 还可用于识别与转移相关的治疗靶点，因为它可以深入了解肿瘤细胞亚群的分布以及原发肿瘤和转移肿瘤之间的基因表达差异。此外，SCS 技术与人工智能（AI）结合用于液体活检以识别循环肿瘤细胞（CTC），从而为治疗肿瘤转移提供了一种新策略。本综述总结了 SCS 在肿瘤转移领域的潜在应用，并讨论了 SCS 的前景和局限性，为寻找转移的治疗靶点和机制提供了理论依据。
