Whole-transcriptome profilings between a pair of HCA7-derived KRAS-wildtype cetuximab sensitive and resistant colon cancer cells from 3D culture

We report the results of RNA-Seq and small RNA-Seq from a pair of HCA7-derived, KRAS wildtype CC and CC-CR cultured in 3D. A total of 361 genes showed more than a two-fold change in expression (false-discovery rate [FDR] - adjusted p<0.01) between CC-CR and CC; there were 141 transcripts upregulated and 220 transcripts downregulated in CC-CR compared to CC. Small RNA-Seq detected 7 miRNAs upregulated and 24 miRNAs downregulated in CC-CR cells compared to CC cells (fold change>2, FDR<0.01). Differential expression analysis revealed several novel candidates that may contribute to cetuximab resistance. The whole-transcriptome profilings using cetuximab resistance model from 3D culture provide novel candidates for cetuximab resistance and further functional studies might open the door to a novel understanding of how non-mutational mechanisms mediate cetuximab resistance. Overall design: mRNA and small-RNA profiles of cetuximab sensitive CC and resistant CC-CR from 3D culture were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina NextSeq 500 sequencer.