Webinar: Complementary Application of Milo Single-cell Western Technology to Single Cell Analysis of Cancer

Tumor cell-intrinsic mechanisms and complex interactions with the tumor microenvironment contribute to therapeutic failure via tumor evolution. It may be possible to overcome treatment resistance by developing a personalized approach based on a comprehensive analysis of tumors. We used single-cell analysis technologies to depict the tumor landscape of a single case of chemo-resistant metastatic, muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer (MIUBC) and found out that it was addicted to an HRAS mutation and that HRAS targeting treatment provoked upregulation of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) in surviving tumor cells. Based on the analysis, tipifarnib, a HRAS-targeting agent and then, atezolizumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, was clinically applied; this resulted in a favorable response from the patient (Lee et al., 2020). In this study, we used the single-cell western blot technology (Milo) from Bio-techne to confirm the results from single-cell RNA sequencing. Since the targets of anti-cancer treatments are proteins, the expression and phosphorylation status of the proteins should be more predictive than the amount of mRNA. Comprehensive use of single-cell analysis technologies would expect accurate identification of personalized treatment targets for cancer patients.

Speakers

Kyeung Min Joo, PhD. Professor, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine
Surashree Kulkarni, Ph.D. Applications Scientist, Bio-techne