Modern research on Chinese medicine based on single-cell omics: technologies and strategies

Abstract

As one of the most advanced technologies, single-cell omics technology develops rapidly in recent years. Based on different technical strategies, it enables unbiased and high-throughput access to multiple omics information at single-cell resolution. So far, single-cell omics technology, by virtue of its great powder in resolving tissue heterogeneity, has become a revolutionary tool to deeply understand the functional structure of tissues, reveal complex disease processes, and elucidate drug mechanisms of action. In view of the technical challenges in deconstructing the complexity of Chinese medicine and clarifying the modern scientific connotation of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) theory, single-cell omics technology has huge application potential in the discovery of pharmacodynamic substances, construction of action networks, and elucidation of integrated regulatory mechanisms, which brings new opportunities for modern research in TCM. The present study briefly introduced three representative single-cell omics technologies, i.e., single-cell transcriptome sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell multimodal omics, and their main application patterns. On this basis, an outlook was proposed on the strategies and applications for modern research in TCM using single-cell omics technology.