GSE134841
Drug holiday expression profiling of non-small cell lung carcinoma cell line PC9 treated with erlotinib
The non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) PC9 cell line is an established preclinical model for tyrosine kinase inhibitors. To be able to better understand the differences in response between individual cells to drug removal after continuous treatment, we performed treatment of PC9 cells grown in cell culture with erlotinib followed by Drop-seq. We were able to clearly distinguish cells that were treated with the drug, removed from the drug and then re-treated with the same drug, and we discovered different cell populations within the treated cells, likely reflecting heterogeneity of drug resistant cells. We were able to identify specific biomarkers, as preferentially expressed genes, for each cell population. The results of our study will address drug resistance that limits clinical usefulness of targeted strategies, particularly in NSCLC. Overall design: Examining drug resistant cell populations using single cell RNA-seq