Single-cell sequencing (SCS) is a promising new technique to evaluate genomics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, and other multi-omics at the single-cell level. It can elucidate the immune microenvironment, reveal the pathomechanisms of disease and drug resistance, profile the actual state of an individual cell and can also identify a novel cell type and differentiation trajectories, which is not possible with the bulk tissue sequencing technique. 

SCS technique can help to explore the potential biomarkers of diagnosis, prognosis, and new therapeutic targets in clinical practice. This technique has been widely applied in the field of dermatology. It has assisted in the study of skin development in both healthy and diseased conditions with the precision of single-cell resolution, discovered new subsets and functions of KCs, HFs, and immune cells, clarified the pathogenesis of various skin diseases, demonstrated the interaction between pathogenic microorganisms and hosts in cases of infectious dermatoses, and investigated the heterogeneity, development, drug resistance mechanism, and prognosis of skin cancers. Illustrating the relationship between genomics, epigenetic modification, and gene expression can furnish new methods and standpoints for in-depth analysis of the behavior and mechanisms and their relationship with the organism of individual cells in a population of cells, which can serve an essential role in basic research and precision medicine.

The single-cell multi-genomics sequencing technique is thus a valuable approach for the diagnosis and treatment of skin disorders.

Source- Zou D, Qi J, Wu W, et al. Applications of Single-Cell Sequencing in Dermatology. Med Sci Monit. 2021;27:e931862. Published 2021 May 20. doi:10.12659/MSM.931862