Fast, streamlined fluorescence nanoscopy resolves rearrangements of SNARE and cargo proteins in platelets co-incubated with cancer cells

Authors:

Bergstrand, J., Miao, X., Srambickal, C. V., Auer, G., & Widengren, J.

Keywords:

Platelet, Cancer, Tumorigenesis, SNARE protein, Dictionary learning

Abstract:

Increasing evidence suggests that platelets play a central role in cancer progression, with altered storage and selective release from platelets of specific tumor-promoting proteins as a major mechanism. Fluorescence-based super-resolution microscopy (SRM) can resolve nanoscale spatial distribution patterns of such proteins, and how they are altered in platelets upon different activations. Analysing such alterations by SRM thus represents a promising, minimally invasive strategy for platelet-based diagnosis and monitoring of cancer progression. However, broader applicability beyond specialized research labs will require objective, more automated imaging procedures. Moreover, for statistically significant analyses many SRM platelet images are needed, of several different platelet proteins. Such proteins, showing alterations in their distributions upon cancer progression additionally need to be identified.

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