BACKGROUND: High-risk neuroblastoma tumors respond differently to therapy due to their unique molecular makeup and tumor microenvironment. Therefore, molecularly profiling of these tumors helps tailoring treatment. Spatial transcriptomics enables detailed transcriptional profiling while preserving spatial context. We are working on a customized version of this technology using a DNA microarray printer and an in-house developed library preparation protocol.
AIMS: We aim to develop a novel, cost-effective spatial transcriptomics platform, providing an unbiased transcriptome view at single-cell resolution.
Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer of the sympathetic nervous system. Recent studies have shown that neuroblastoma tumors are composed of two cell identities, i.e. the adrenergic and mesenchymal identity. Both identities are driven by a core regulatory transcriptional circuitry, which acts as an autoregulatory positive feedforward loop, to delineate the cell identity through regulation of its target genes. We identified the long non-coding RNA NESPR to be specifically expressed in neuroblastoma cells of the adrenergic cell identity.