Neutrophils Escort Circulating Tumor Cells to Enable Cell Cycle Progression. Neutrophils Escort Circulating Tumor Cells to Enable Cell Cycle Progression

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are precursors of metastasis in several cancer types, 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 achieve the isolation and interrogation of individual CTC-associated WBCs, alongside with corresponding cancer cells within each CTC-WBC-cluster, from multiple breast cancer patients and mouse models. Overall design: Single-cell RNA-Seq from CTCs and CTC-WBC-clusters obtained from multiple breast cancer patients and mouse models were used to identify CTC-associated WBCs cell types and differential expression between CTCs alone and CTC-associated to WBC.

循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cells, CTCs）是多种癌症类型发生转移的前体，偶尔可在血液循环中与白细胞（white blood cells, WBCs）等非恶性细胞共同被检出。目前，这类与循环肿瘤细胞结合的白细胞的身份与功能，以及界定二者相互作用的分子特征均尚未明确。本研究成功分离并解析了单个与循环肿瘤细胞结合的白细胞，同时获取了每个CTC-WBC簇内对应的肿瘤细胞，样本来源涵盖多名乳腺癌患者及小鼠模型。整体实验设计：本研究通过对从多名乳腺癌患者及小鼠模型中分离得到的循环肿瘤细胞与CTC-WBC簇进行单细胞RNA测序，鉴定与循环肿瘤细胞结合的白细胞的细胞类型，并分析单独存在的循环肿瘤细胞与结合白细胞的循环肿瘤细胞之间的差异表达情况。