Targeted therapies have made a big splash in the cancer therapeutics field. However, many cancers fail to respond to these treatments, or patients experience the return of their regressed tumors. These problems arise because certain cells within a tumor undergo cell-state changes that promote drug tolerance. To study this process, researchers employ sophisticated multi-omic technologies to identify cells responsible for drug tolerance and to develop strategies for personalized medicine.
Metabolic pathways within cancer cells can change in ways that enhance energy production and cell growth.1 These cell-state changes can be genetic or non-genetic2 and lead to differences in gene expression, protein signaling, and metabolism in certain cells within a population. Cell-state alterations affect the response to cancer therapies, as cells that were once responsive to pharmacological agents adopt drug-resistant states during the course of treatment.
Previous methods for studying drug tolerance relied on bulk analyses of heterogeneous cell samples; however, ...
