Cited by 171Spectroscopy Techniques in Biomedical and Chemical ResearchCancer, Lipids, and MetabolismMetabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies

Raman-guided subcellular pharmaco-metabolomics for metastatic melanoma cells

Open access
Du, Jiajun, Su, Yapeng, Qian, Chenxi, Yuan, Dan, Miao, Kun, Lee, Dongkwan, Ng, Alphonsus H. C., Wijker, Reto S. +4 more·2020·Nature Communications

Abstract

Non-invasively probing metabolites within single live cells is highly desired but challenging. Here we utilize Raman spectro-microscopy for spatial mapping of metabolites within single cells, with the specific goal of identifying druggable metabolic susceptibilities from a series of patient-derived melanoma cell lines. Each cell line represents a different characteristic level of cancer cell de-differentiation. First, with Raman spectroscopy, followed by stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy and transcriptomics analysis, we identify the fatty acid synthesis pathway as a druggable susceptibility for differentiated melanocytic cells. We then utilize hyperspectral-SRS imaging of intracellular lipid droplets to identify a previously unknown susceptibility of lipid mono-unsaturation within de-differentiated mesenchymal cells with innate resistance to BRAF inhibition. Drugging this target leads to cellular apoptosis accompanied by the formation of phase-separated intracellular membrane domains. The integration of subcellular Raman spectro-microscopy with lipidomics and transcriptomics suggests possible lipid regulatory mechanisms underlying this pharmacological treatment. Our method should provide a general approach in spatially-resolved single cell metabolomics studies.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-020-18376-x

Cites

84 of 84 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The drug-resistant U cancer cell state displays increased activity of enzymes promoting the synthesis and uptake of PUFAs such as arachidonic acid and linolenic acid.

    “The drug-resistant, U cancer cell state displays increased activity of enzymes promoting the synthesis and uptake of PUFAs (16, 17), such as arachidonic acid (AA, C20:4) and linolenic acid (C18:2), which are major substrates for ROS attack.”

    From Secreted Apoe rewires melanoma cell state vulnerability to ferroptosis (2024) · cites this paper as [16]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) reports upregulated lipid-unsaturation-associated activity in drug-resistant mesenchymal M381 cells, and the Results section on desaturases shows that a PUFA-synthesis enzyme contributes to their lipid-droplet unsaturation. But the Discussion says M381 had the lowest relative lipid-uptake activity, not increased uptake. The desaturases Results section also identifies C18:2 as linoleic acid, not linolenic acid. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 85 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Du, J., Su, Y., Qian, C., Yuan, D., Miao, K., Lee, D., Ng, A. H. C., Wijker, R. S., Ribas, A., Levine, R. D., Heath, J. R., & Wei, L.
Affiliations
  • California Institute of Technology (US)
  • Institute for Systems Biology (US)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
  • Heath, James R.
  • Wei, Lu
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2020-09-24
Volume
11
Issue
1
Pages
4830-4830
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3087886129
Cited by
171
References
85
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 1
FWCI
10.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • California Institute of Technology (start-up)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (U01 CA217655)
  • The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the WA State Andy Hill CARE Foundation, and an ISB Innovator Award.
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biophysics › Spectroscopy Techniques in Biomedical and Chemical Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Lipids, and Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
Keywords
metastatic melanoma, Raman spectroscopy, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, single-cell metabolomics, fatty acid synthesis, lipid droplets, BRAF inhibitor resistance, dedifferentiation, lipidomics, transcriptomics, membrane phase separation, apoptosis
MeSH terms
Lipidomics, Fatty Acids, Humans, Lipids, Melanoma, Microscopy, Spectrum Analysis, Raman, Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase, Apoptosis, Oleic Acid, Cell Line, Tumor, Lipid Metabolism, Metabolomics, Transcriptome, Lipid Droplets

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review