Application of single cell gene expression technologies to neurotoxicology

Neurotoxicological research faces the challenge of linking biological changes resulting from exposures to neuronal function. An additional challenge is understanding cell-type-specific differences and selective vulnerabilities of distinct neuronal populations to toxic insults. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) allows for measurement of the transcriptome of individual cells. This makes it a valuable tool for validating and characterizing cell types present in multi-cell type samples in complex tissue or cell culture models, but also for understanding how different cell types respond to toxic insults. Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes can provide in-depth insights into underlying cell-type-specific mechanisms of neurotoxicity. Toxicological data often has to be translated to outcomes for human health which requires an understanding of inter-species differences. Transcriptomic data aids in understanding these differences, including understanding the developmental timelines of different species. We believe that scRNA-seq holds exciting promises for future neurotoxicological research.