Application of Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Technology: Advancing Targeted Fatty Acids for Antitumor Therapy

Abstract

The occurrence and progression of tumors are closely linked to the abnormal metabolic mechanism of fatty acids. In tumor cells, fatty acids are highly expressed and provide molecular structural substances for cells, thereby sustaining tumor growth. In previous experiments, researchers cultured cells in a fatty acid-deficient environment and analyzed the growth status of the cells in batches. These studies confirmed that fatty acids play crucial roles in tumorigenesis and have spurred research on targeted regulation for tumor therapy. However, traditional cellular and molecular experiments have certain limitations, making it difficult to resolve the key issue of metabolic heterogeneity among different subpopulations of tumor cells. This limitation has contributed to the failure of targeted therapies to achieve long-lasting therapeutic effects in the treatment of some solid tumors. In contrast, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology can analyze gene expression profiles at the single-cell level, overcoming the constraints of traditional methods, and has thus been widely applied in research on tumor metabolism. This technology can accurately identify tumor cell subpopulations with specific phenotypes (such as cancer cell subpopulations with high expression of fatty acid synthase and radiotherapy-resistant glioblastoma cell subpopulations dependent on fatty acid oxidation), clarify the remodeling effects of metabolic heterogeneity on the tumor microenvironment, and provide a detailed molecular mechanism basis for research on targeted tumor therapy. Consequently, it can effectively address the problem of metabolic heterogeneity in tumor cells. In the future, we can integrate scRNA-seq with technologies such as lipidomics and spatial transcriptomics to promote its clinical translation, guide personalized targeted therapy, and provide a precise and efficient new strategy for metabolic targeted therapy in tumors.