Measuring cancer cell “fitness” reveals drug susceptibility
By studying both the physical and genomic features of cancer cells, MIT researchers have come up with a new way to investigate why some cancer cells survive drug treatment while others succumb. Their new approach, which combines measurements of cell mass and growth rate with analysis of a cell’s gene expression, could be used to reveal new drug targets that would make cancer treatment more effective. Exploiting these targets could help knock out the defenses that cells use to overcome the original drug treatment, the researchers say. In a paper appearing in the Nov. 28 issue of the journal Genome Biology, the researchers identified a growth signaling pathway that is active in glioblastoma cells that are resistant to an experimental type of drug known as an MDM2 inhibitor. “By measuring a cell's mass and growth rate immediately prior to single-cell RNA-sequencing, we can now use a cell’s ‘fitness’ to classify it as responsive...