Center of Multidisciplinary Technology for Advanced Medicine (CMUTEAM), Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
Musculoskeletal Science and Translational Research (MSTR) Center, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Aug 2;24(15):12337. doi: 10.3390/ijms241512337.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) hold unique biological characteristics that directly involve them in hematogenous dissemination. Studying CTCs systematically is technically challenging due to their extreme rarity and heterogeneity and the lack of specific markers to specify metastasis-initiating CTCs. With cutting-edge technology, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) provides insights into the biology of metastatic processes driven by CTCs. Transcriptomics analysis of single CTCs can decipher tumor heterogeneity and phenotypic plasticity for exploring promising novel therapeutic targets. The integrated approach provides a perspective on the mechanisms underlying tumor development and interrogates CTCs interactions with other blood cell types, particularly those of the immune system. This review aims to comprehensively describe the current study on CTC transcriptomic analysis through scRNA-seq technology. We emphasize the workflow for scRNA-seq analysis of CTCs, including enrichment, single cell isolation, and bioinformatic tools applied for this purpose. Furthermore, we elucidated the translational knowledge from the transcriptomic profile of individual CTCs and the biology of cancer metastasis for developing effective therapeutics through targeting key pathways in CTCs.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）具有独特的生物学特性，直接参与血行播散。由于其极度稀有性和异质性，以及缺乏特异性标记来指定起始转移的 CTC，因此系统地研究 CTC 具有技术挑战性。单细胞 RNA 测序（scRNA-seq）等前沿技术为 CTC 驱动的转移过程生物学提供了深入了解。对单个 CTC 的转录组学分析可以破译肿瘤异质性和表型可塑性，以探索有前途的新型治疗靶点。综合方法为肿瘤发展的机制提供了一个视角，并研究了 CTC 与其他血细胞类型（特别是免疫系统）的相互作用。本综述旨在全面描述通过 scRNA-seq 技术对 CTC 转录组分析的当前研究。我们强调了用于 CTC scRNA-seq 分析的工作流程，包括富集、单细胞分离以及为此目的应用的生物信息学工具。此外，我们阐明了从单个 CTC 的转录组图谱和癌症转移生物学中获得的转化知识，以通过靶向 CTC 中的关键途径来开发有效的治疗方法。
