Single-cell analysis supports key cell subpopulations for drug resistance and metastasis in prostate cancer

Although the long-term survival rate of localized prostate cnacer is high, prostate cancer is prone to drug resistance and metastasis after intensive multimodal therapy, significantly shortening patient survival. However, the mechanisms by which drug resistance and metastasis occur in prostate cancer are unknown, and there are no effective targeted drugs to treat metastatic prostate cancer. Therefore, the goal of this study was to construct a single-cell transcriptome atlas of prostate cancer by using single-cell RNA sequencing data through bioinformatics techniques, to explore the changes in abundance and function of different cell subpopulations during drug resistance and metastasis, and to speculate on the molecular pathways that may lead to drug resistance and metastasis. We analyzed the tumor cell subpopulation and predicted that the ASCL1 , RORB , RBP1 and CALML5 might be the genes responsible for the development of drug resistance and metastasis, providing potential targets for targeted prostate cancer therapy. In addition, we performed differentiation potential analysis, trajectory analysis, and intercellular communication analysis on tumor cell subpopulations, which identified key ligand-receptor interactions between tumor cells and stromal cells that lead to disease progression, such as CCL5-SDC1/4, ICOSLG-ICOS and CD24-SIGLEC10. Our analysis identified potential targets to treat resistance and metastasis in prostate cancer, suggesting key ligand-receptor interactions that might contribute to disease progression, and provided valuable insights into targeted therapy for prostate cancer.