Single cell RNA sequence of murine pancreatic cancer
This exploratory single-cell RNA-sequencing study aimed to characterize treatment-induced changes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), including cancer-cell subtype shifts, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, cancer-associated fibroblast phenotypes, and immune-cell infiltration within the tumor microenvironment. Tumors were collected from KPC genetically engineered mouse models of PDAC treated with vehicle control, nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine/cisplatin (NGC), NGC plus calcipotriol (NGC+Cal), or NGC plus losartan (NGC+Losa). Two tumors per treatment group were pooled for analysis. Viable cells were processed using the 10x Genomics Chromium Single Cell 3 platform, aligned to the mouse transcriptome with Cell Ranger, and analyzed using Seurat, SCTransform, SingleR/celldex, and Cirrocumulus. Cell types and epithelial, basal/mesenchymal, and fibroblast-associated transcriptional programs were interpreted using published marker sets. Given the pooled, exploratory design, the study was intended to generate hypotheses regarding treatment-associated molecular and cellular changes for validation in future investigations.