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Stossi F, Singh PK, Marini M, Safari K, Szafran AT, Tostado AR, Candler CD, Mancini MG, Mosa EA, Bolt MJ, Labate D, Mancini MA. SPACe (Swift Phenotypic Analysis of Cells): an open-source, single cell analysis of Cell Painting data. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.21.586132. [PMID: 38585902 PMCID: PMC10996526 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.21.586132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
Phenotypic profiling by high throughput microscopy has become one of the leading tools for screening large sets of perturbations in cellular models. Of the numerous methods used over the years, the flexible and economical Cell Painting (CP) assay has been central in the field, allowing for large screening campaigns leading to a vast number of data-rich images. Currently, to analyze data of this scale, available open-source software ( i.e. , CellProfiler) requires computational resources that are not available to most laboratories worldwide. In addition, the image-embedded cell-to-cell variation of responses within a population, while collected and analyzed, is usually averaged and unused. Here we introduce SPACe ( S wift P henotypic A nalysis of Ce lls), an open source, Python-based platform for the analysis of single cell image-based morphological profiles produced by CP experiments. SPACe can process a typical dataset approximately ten times faster than CellProfiler on common desktop computers without loss in mechanism of action (MOA) recognition accuracy. It also computes directional distribution-based distances (Earth Mover's Distance - EMD) of morphological features for quality control and hit calling. We highlight several advantages of SPACe analysis on CP assays, including reproducibility across multiple biological replicates, easy applicability to multiple (∼20) cell lines, sensitivity to variable cell-to-cell responses, and biological interpretability to explain image-based features. We ultimately illustrate the advantages of SPACe in a screening campaign of cell metabolism small molecule inhibitors which we performed in seven cell lines to highlight the importance of testing perturbations across models.
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Stossi F, Singh PK, Safari K, Marini M, Labate D, Mancini MA. High throughput microscopy and single cell phenotypic image-based analysis in toxicology and drug discovery. Biochem Pharmacol 2023; 216:115770. [PMID: 37660829 DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2023.115770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Measuring single cell responses to the universe of chemicals (drugs, natural products, environmental toxicants etc.) is of paramount importance to human health as phenotypic variability in sensing stimuli is a hallmark of biology that is considered during high throughput screening. One of the ways to approach this problem is via high throughput, microscopy-based assays coupled with multi-dimensional single cell analysis methods. Here, we will summarize some of the efforts in this vast and growing field, focusing on phenotypic screens (e.g., Cell Painting), single cell analytics and quality control, with particular attention to environmental toxicology and drug screening. We will discuss advantages and limitations of high throughput assays with various end points and levels of complexity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabio Stossi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA.
| | - Pankaj K Singh
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA; Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Kazem Safari
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA; Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Michela Marini
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Demetrio Labate
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Michael A Mancini
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, TX, USA; Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, TX, USA
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Stossi F, Singh PK, Mistry RM, Johnson HL, Dandekar RD, Mancini MG, Szafran AT, Rao AU, Mancini MA. Quality Control for Single Cell Imaging Analytics Using Endocrine Disruptor-Induced Changes in Estrogen Receptor Expression. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2022; 130:27008. [PMID: 35167326 PMCID: PMC8846386 DOI: 10.1289/ehp9297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2021] [Revised: 01/16/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Diverse toxicants and mixtures that affect hormone responsive cells [endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs)] are highly pervasive in the environment and are directly linked to human disease. They often target the nuclear receptor family of transcription factors modulating their levels and activity. Many high-throughput assays have been developed to query such toxicants; however, single-cell analysis of EDC effects on endogenous receptors has been missing, in part due to the lack of quality control metrics to reproducibly measure cell-to-cell variability in responses. OBJECTIVE We began by developing single-cell imaging and informatic workflows to query whether the single cell distribution of the estrogen receptor-α (ER), used as a model system, can be used to measure effects of EDCs in a sensitive and reproducible manner. METHODS We used high-throughput microscopy, coupled with image analytics to measure changes in single cell ER nuclear levels on treatment with ∼100 toxicants, over a large number of biological and technical replicates. RESULTS We developed a two-tiered quality control pipeline for single cell analysis and tested it against a large set of biological replicates, and toxicants from the EPA and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry lists. We also identified a subset of potentially novel EDCs that were active only on the endogenous ER level and activity as measured by single molecule RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (RNA FISH). DISCUSSION We demonstrated that the distribution of ER levels per cell, and the changes upon chemical challenges were remarkably stable features; and importantly, these features could be used for quality control and identification of endocrine disruptor toxicants with high sensitivity. When coupled with orthogonal assays, ER single cell distribution is a valuable resource for high-throughput screening of environmental toxicants. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9297.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabio Stossi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Integrated Microscopy Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Pankaj K. Singh
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
- Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Ragini M. Mistry
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Hannah L. Johnson
- Integrated Microscopy Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
| | | | - Maureen G. Mancini
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Adam T. Szafran
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Arvind U. Rao
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Biomedical Engineering & Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Michael A. Mancini
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Integrated Microscopy Core, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
- GCC Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics, Houston, Texas, USA
- Center for Translational Cancer Research, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University, Houston, Texas, USA
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Fennell M, Johnston PA. High-Content Imaging and Informatics: A Joint Special Issue with Society for Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics and SLAS. SLAS DISCOVERY 2021; 25:668-671. [PMID: 32687017 DOI: 10.1177/2472555220937652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Paul A Johnston
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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