Issue 37, 2022

Spatially resolved single-molecule profiling of microRNAs in migrating cells driven by microconfinement

Abstract

Cancer cells utilize a range of migration modes to navigate through a confined tissue microenvironment in vivo, while regulatory roles of key microRNAs (miRNAs) remain unclear. Precisely engineered microconfinement and the high spatial-resolution imaging strategy offer a promising avenue for deciphering the molecular mechanisms that drive cell migration. Here, enzyme-free signal-amplification nanoprobes as an effective tool are developed for three-dimensional (3D) high-resolution profiling of key miRNA molecules in single migrating cells, where distinct migration modes are precisely driven by microconfinement-engineered microchips. The constructed nanoprobes exhibit intuitive and ultrasensitive miRNA characterization in vitro by virtue of a single-molecule imaging microscope, and the differential expression and intracellular locations in different cell lines are successfully monitored. Furthermore, 3D spatial distribution of miR-141 at high resolution in flexible phenotypes of migrating cells is reconstructed in the engineered biomimetic microenvironment. The results indicate that miR-141 may be involved in the metastatic transition from a slow to a fast migration state. This work offers a new opportunity for investigating regulatory mechanisms of intracellular key biomolecules during cell migration in biomimetic microenvironments, which may advance in-depth understanding of cancer metastasis in vivo.

Graphical abstract: Spatially resolved single-molecule profiling of microRNAs in migrating cells driven by microconfinement

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
24 Jul 2022
Accepted
02 Sep 2022
First published
06 Sep 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 11197-11204

Spatially resolved single-molecule profiling of microRNAs in migrating cells driven by microconfinement

Z. Fan, B. Li, Y. Wang, X. Huang, B. Li, S. Wang, Y. Liu, Y. Liu and B. Liu, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 11197 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04132D

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