Leveraging Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Experiments to Model Intratumor Heterogeneity

Abstract

PURPOSE: Many cancers can be treated with targeted therapy. Almost inevitably, tumors develop resistance to targeted therapy, either from preexistence or by evolving new genotypes and traits. Intra-tumor heterogeneity serves as a reservoir for resistance, which often occurs due to selection of minor cellular sub-clones. On the level of gene expression, the 'clonal' heterogeneity can only be revealed by high-dimensional single cell methods. We propose to use a general diversity index (GDI) to quantify heterogeneity on multiple scales and relate it to disease evolution. METHODS: We focused on individual patient samples probed with single cell RNA sequencing to describe heterogeneity. We developed a pipeline to analyze single cell data, via sample normalization, clustering and mathematical interpretation using a generalized diversity measure, and exemplify the utility of this platform using single cell data. RESULTS: We focused on three sources of RNA sequencing data: two healthy bone marrow (BM) samples, two acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, each sampled before and after BM transplant (BMT), four samples of pre-sorted lineages, and six lung carcinoma patients with multi-region sampling. While healthy/normal samples scored low in diversity overall, GDI further quantified in which respect these samples differed. While a widely used Shannon diversity index sometimes reveals less differences, GDI exhibits differences in the number of potential key drivers or clonal richness. Comparing pre and post BMT AML samples did not reveal differences in heterogeneity, although they can be very different biologically. CONCLUSION: GDI can quantify cellular heterogeneity changes across a wide spectrum, even when standard measures, such as the Shannon index, do not. Our approach offers wide applications to quantify heterogeneity across samples and conditions.