Gene expression profiling study by RNA-seq for identifying genes associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and acquired resistance to ALK inhibitors

Treatment with ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors often elicits profound initial antitumor responses in ALK fusion-positive patients with lung adenocarcinoma. However, patients invariably develop acquired resistance to ALK inhibitors. In this study, we aimed to identify molecular events that limit the response to ALK inhibition using genetic and epigenetic approaches. To identify novel mechanisms of acquired resistance to ALK inhibitors, we established in vitro models of acquired resistance to ceritinib using H3122 cell. For in vitro model, H3122 parental cells, ceritinib-treated resistant cells, and non-resistant cells that combinely treated with certinib and panobinostat were used for RNA-seq based gene expression profiling. Overall design: RNA-seq data of 6 samples, two H3122 parental cells, two ceritinib-treated resistant cells, and two non-resistant cells that combinely treated with certinib and panobinostat, were generated. Total RNA was isolated by RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, CA, USA), according to the manufacturer's protocol. The quality and integrity of the RNA were confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining, followed by visual examination under ultraviolet light. Sequencing library was prepared using TruSeq RNA Sample Preparation kit v2 (Illumina, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's protocols. Briefly, mRNA was purified from total RNA using poly-T oligo-attached magnetic beads, fragmented, and converted into cDNAs. Then, adapters were ligated and the fragments were amplified on a PCR. Sequencing was performed in paired end reads (2x75 bp) using NextSeq 500 platform (Illumina).