TEST

Many laboratories rely on traditional western blot and mass spectrometry methods, which detect a limited number of proteins at a time. In these methods, protein samples are either denatured or separated based on their charge, which destroys important information about target proteins, such as their phosphorylation status or specific binding domains. These methods are labor-intensive and require large amounts of sample.

 Advancements in newly developed ELISA-based bulk sequencing proteomics toolkits solve the limitations in sensitivity and robustness of traditional protein quantitation methods. One major advantage of high-throughput proteomic systems is that they contain large sets of well-characterized antibodies tailored for cancer research. Despite the tremendous progress, most proteomics toolkits for bulk cell analysis only measure average protein levels within the sample tissue, which erases cell type-specific signatures. For example, cancer cells display tremendous heterogeneity in their signaling mechanisms, some of which play a key role in the development of drug resistance. In addition, immune cells that interact with cancer tissue are heterogeneous and produce a variety of cytokines in a cell type-specific manner.

The IsoPlexis IsoCode chip combines proteomics with single-cell applications. The proteomic barcoded chip captures 500-1500 single cells simultaneously, and detects a range of protein targets, facilitating the discovery of new intracellular signaling pathways. With this state-of-the-art, automated system, researchers unraveled a novel interleukin-6- and interleukin-8-mediated signaling pathway that is amplified by increased cell density and drives migratory phenotypes in metastatic cancer.¹ Moreover, single-cell proteomics played a pivotal role in uncovering intracellular signatures and rare subsets of cells involved in drug resistance from patient-derived glioblastoma samples.²  By identifying novel pathways and biomarkers with single-cell proteomics, researchers can improve cancer diagnostics and treatments.

Reference

1. H. Jayatilaka et al., “Synergistic IL-6 and IL-8 paracrine signaling pathway infers a strategy to inhibit tumor cell migration,” Nat Commun, 8:15584, 2017.
2. W. Wei et al., “Single cell phosphoproteomics resolves adaptive signaling dynamics and informs targeted combination therapy in glioblastoma,” Cancer cell, 29(4):563-573, 2016.