Bioluminescence Microscopy as a Method to Measure Single Cell Androgen Receptor Activity Heterogeneous Responses to Antiandrogens

Pallavi Jain; Bertrand Neveu; Lauriane Velot; Lily Wu; Yves Fradet; Frédéric Pouliot

doi:10.1038/srep33968

Bioluminescence Microscopy as a Method to Measure Single Cell Androgen Receptor Activity Heterogeneous Responses to Antiandrogens

Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 28:6:33968. doi: 10.1038/srep33968.

Authors

Pallavi Jain^{1

2}, Bertrand Neveu^{1

2}, Lauriane Velot^{1

2}, Lily Wu^{3

4}, Yves Fradet^{1

2}, Frédéric Pouliot^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ CHU de Québec - Université Laval Research Center, Quebec, Canada.
² Department of Surgery (Urology), Faculty of Medecine, Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
³ Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Urology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Cancer cell heterogeneity is well-documented. Therefore, techniques to monitor single cell heterogeneous responses to treatment are needed. We developed a highly translational and quantitative bioluminescence microscopy method to measure single cell androgen receptor (AR) activity modulation by antiandrogens from fluid biopsies. We showed that this assay can detect heterogeneous cellular response to drug treatment and that the sum of single cell AR activity can mirror the response in the whole cell population. This method may thus be used to monitor heterogeneous dynamic treatment responses in cancer cells.