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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Navarro, NataliaAuthor

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February 14, 2023
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Single-cell profiling of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma reveals RAS pathway inhibitors as cell-fate hijackers with therapeutic relevance

Publicated to:Science Advances. 9 (6): eade9238- - 2023-01-01 9(6), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade9238

Authors: Sara G. Danielli; Ermelinda Porpiglia; Andrea J. De Micheli; Natalia Navarro; Michael J. Zellinger; Ingrid Bechtold; Samanta Kisele; Larissa Volken; Joana G. Marques; Stephanie Kasper; Peter Bode; Anton G. Henssen; Dennis Gürgen; Olivier Delattre; Didier Surdez; Josep Roma; Peter Bühlmann; Helen M. Blau; Marco Wachtel; Beat W. Schäfer

Affiliations

Aarhus University - Author
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin - Author
ETH Zürich - Author
INSERM - Author
Institut Curie - Author
Stanford University - Author
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Author
University of Zurich - Author
Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca - Author
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Abstract

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a group of pediatric cancers with features of developing skeletal muscle. The cellular hierarchy and mechanisms leading to developmental arrest remain elusive. Here, we combined single-cell RNA sequencing, mass cytometry, and high-content imaging to resolve intratumoral heterogeneity of patient-derived primary RMS cultures. We show that the aggressive alveolar RMS (aRMS) subtype contains plastic muscle stem-like cells and cycling progenitors that drive tumor growth, and a subpopulation of differentiated cells that lost its proliferative potential and correlates with better outcomes. While chemotherapy eliminates cycling progenitors, it enriches aRMS for muscle stem-like cells. We screened for drugs hijacking aRMS toward clinically favorable subpopulations and identified a combination of RAF and MEK inhibitors that potently induces myogenic differentiation and inhibits tumor growth. Overall, our work provides insights into the developmental states underlying aRMS aggressiveness, chemoresistance, and progression and identifies the RAS pathway as a promising therapeutic target.

Keywords

Good health and well-being

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Science Advances due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 11/134, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Multidisciplinary Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 11.78, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Aug 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-08-29, the following number of citations:

  • Open Alex: 28

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-29:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 57.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 58 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 15.8.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 15 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 3 - Good Health And Well-being, with a probability of 81% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: France; Switzerland; United States of America.