Single Cell Profiling of Mechanical Properties and Emt-Related Gene Expression in Cancer Finger During Collective Cell Migration Revealed the Regulatory Roles of SNAIL and VIM in Cancer Finger Formation

Collective cell migration is a common phenotype in epithelial cancers, which is associated with tumor cell metastasis and poor patient survival. Cancer fingers are formed when a group of collective migrating cancer cells follow the leader cells in the front. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important driving process of tumor metastasis. However, the role of EMT in cancer finger during collective migration remains unclear. In this work, we investigated the EMT-associated mechanical properties and gene expression at single-cell levels in cancer finger during collective cancer cell migration. We found that leader cells were more elastic and less sticky than follower cells. Spatial EMT-related gene expression profiling in cancer finger revealed cellular heterogeneity involved in collective migration. Particularly, SNAIL and VIM two genes were found to be two key common genes that positively correlated with leader cell phenotypes and controlled cancer fingers formation and migration. After SNAIL and VIM genes were inhibited, both cancer cell elasticity and adhesiveness increased. Meanwhile, cancer finger formation and migration ability decreased compared to under non-treatment condition. These findings indicated that SNAIL and VIM could be two potential gene targets for cancer finger during collective migration inhibition.