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Micromanipulation of Circulating Tumor Cells for Downstream Molecular Analysis and Metastatic Potential Assessment

Blood-borne metastasis accounts for&#160;most cancer-related deaths and involves circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that are successful in establishing new ...

University of Basel and University Hospital Basel

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

The field of cancer diagnostics has recently been impacted by new and exciting developments in the area of liquid biopsy. A liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive alternative to surgical biopsies of solid tissues, typically achieved through the withdrawal of a blood sample or other body fluids, allowing the interrogation of tumor-derived material including circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) fragments that are present at a given time point. In this short review, we discuss a few studies that summarize the state-of-the-art in the liquid biopsy field from a diagnostic perspective, and speculate on current challenges and expectations of implementing liquid biopsy testing for cancer diagnosis and monitoring in the clinical setting.

Cancer Diagnosis Using a Liquid Biopsy: Challenges and Expectations.

Joint pain causes significant morbidity in osteoarthritis (OA). The aetiology of joint pain in OA is not well understood. The synovial membrane as an innervated joint structure represents a potential source of peripheral pain in OA. Here we analyse, using a hypothesis-free next generation RNA sequencing, the differences in protein-coding and non-coding transcriptomes in knee synovial tissues from OA patients with high knee pain ( = 5) compared with OA patients with low knee pain ( = 5), as evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). We conduct Gene Ontology and pathway analyses on differentially expressed mRNA genes. We identify new protein-coding, long non-coding RNA and microRNA candidates that can be associated with OA joint pain. Top enriched genes in painful OA knees encode neuronal proteins that are known to promote neuronal survival under cellular stress or participate in calcium-dependent synaptic exocytosis and modulation of GABA(&gamma;-aminobutyric acid)ergic activity. Our study uncovers transcriptome changes associated with pain in synovial microenvironment of OA knees. This sets a firm ground for future mechanistic studies and drug discovery to alleviate joint pain in OA.

Pain-Associated Transcriptome Changes in Synovium of Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.

A better understanding of the features that define the interaction between cancer cells and immune cells is important for the development of new cancer therapies. However, focus is often given to interactions that occur within the primary tumour and its microenvironment, whereas the role of immune cells during cancer dissemination in patients remains largely uncharacterized. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are precursors of metastasis in several types of cancer, and are occasionally found within the bloodstream in association with non-malignant cells such as white blood cells (WBCs). The identity and function of these CTC-associated WBCs, as well as the molecular features that define the interaction between WBCs and CTCs, are unknown. Here we isolate and characterize individual CTC-associated WBCs, as well as corresponding cancer cells within each CTC-WBC cluster, from patients with breast cancer and from mouse models. We use single-cell RNA sequencing to show that in the majority of these cases, CTCs were associated with neutrophils. When comparing the transcriptome profiles of CTCs associated with neutrophils against those of CTCs alone, we detect a number of differentially expressed genes that outline cell cycle progression, leading to more efficient metastasis formation. Further, we identify cell-cell junction and cytokine-receptor pairs that define CTC-neutrophil clusters, representing key vulnerabilities of the metastatic process. Thus, the association between neutrophils and CTCs drives cell cycle progression within the bloodstream and expands the metastatic potential of CTCs, providing a rationale for targeting this interaction in treatment of breast cancer.

Francesc Castro-Giner

Cancer Metastasis Laboratory,
Department of Biomedicine,
Cancer Metastasis Laboratory, Department of Biomedicine

University of Basel and University Hospital Basel

Micromanipulation of Circulating Tumor Cells for Downstream Molecular Analysis and Metastatic Potential Assessment

Francesc Castro-Giner

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University of Basel and University Hospital Basel

Micromanipulation of Circulating Tumor Cells for Downstream Molecular Analysis and Metastatic Potential Assessment

Cancer Metastasis Laboratory,
Department of Biomedicine,
Cancer Metastasis Laboratory, Department of Biomedicine