scholarly journals Immune Cell Profiling of COVID-19 Patients in the Recovery Stage by Single-Cell Sequencing

Author(s):  
Wen Wen ◽  
Wenru Su ◽  
Hao Tang ◽  
Wenqing Le ◽  
Xiaopeng Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractCOVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has recently affected over 300,000 people and killed more than 10,000. The manner in which the key immune cell subsets change and their states during the course of COVID-19 remain unclear. Here, we applied single-cell technology to comprehensively characterize transcriptional changes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells during the recovery stage of COVID-19. Compared with healthy controls, in patients in the early recovery stage (ERS) of COVID-19, T cells decreased remarkably, whereas monocytes increased. A detailed analysis of the monocytes revealed that there was an increased ratio of classical CD14++ monocytes with high inflammatory gene expression as well as a greater abundance of CD14++IL1B+ monocytes in the ERS. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells decreased significantly and expressed high levels of inflammatory genes in the ERS. Among the B cells, the plasma cells increased remarkably, whereas the naïve B cells decreased. Our study identified several novel B cell-receptor (BCR) changes, such as IGHV3-23 and IGHV3-7, and confirmed isotypes (IGHV3-15, IGHV3-30, and IGKV3-11) previously used for virus vaccine development. The strongest pairing frequencies, IGHV3-23-IGHJ4, indicated a monoclonal state associated with SARS-CoV-2 specificity. Furthermore, integrated analysis predicted that IL-1β and M-CSF may be novel candidate target genes for inflammatory storm and that TNFSF13, IL-18, IL-2 and IL-4 may be beneficial for the recovery of COVID-19 patients. Our study provides the first evidence of an inflammatory immune signature in the ERS, suggesting that COVID-19 patients are still vulnerable after hospital discharge. Our identification of novel BCR signaling may lead to the development of vaccines and antibodies for the treatment of COVID-19.Highlights-The immune response was sustained for more than 7 days in the early recovery stage of COVID-19, suggesting that COVID-19 patients are still vulnerable after hospital discharge.-Single-cell analysis revealed a predominant subset of CD14++ IL1β+ monocytes in patients in the ERS of COVID-19.-Newly identified virus-specific B cell-receptor changes, such as IGHV3-23, IGHV3-7, IGHV3-15, IGHV3-30, and IGKV3-11, could be helpful in the development of vaccines and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.-IL-1β and M-CSF were discovered as novel mediators of inflammatory cytokine storm, and TNFSF13, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-18 may be beneficial for recovery.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Sun ◽  
Hu-Qin Yang ◽  
Kan Zhai ◽  
Zhao-Hui Tong

B cells play vital roles in host defense against Pneumocystis infection. However, the features of the B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire in disease progression remain unclear. Here, we integrated single-cell RNA sequencing and single-cell BCR sequencing of immune cells from mouse lungs in an uninfected state and 1–4 weeks post-infection in order to illustrate the dynamic nature of B cell responses during Pneumocystis infection. We identified continuously increased plasma cells and an elevated ratio of (IgA + IgG) to (IgD + IgM) after infection. Moreover, Pneumocystis infection was associated with an increasing naïve B subset characterized by elevated expression of the transcription factor ATF3. The proportion of clonal expanded cells progressively increased, while BCR diversity decreased. Plasma cells exhibited higher levels of somatic hypermutation than naïve B cells. Biased usage of V(D)J genes was observed, and the usage frequency of IGHV9-3 rose. Overall, these results present a detailed atlas of B cell transcriptional changes and BCR repertoire features in the context of Pneumocystis infection, which provides valuable information for finding diagnostic biomarkers and developing potential immunotherapeutic targets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Or Shemesh ◽  
Pazit Polak ◽  
Knut E. A. Lundin ◽  
Ludvig M. Sollid ◽  
Gur Yaari

Celiac disease (CeD) is a common autoimmune disorder caused by an abnormal immune response to dietary gluten proteins. The disease has high heritability. HLA is the major susceptibility factor, and the HLA effect is mediated via presentation of deamidated gluten peptides by disease-associated HLA-DQ variants to CD4+ T cells. In addition to gluten-specific CD4+ T cells the patients have antibodies to transglutaminase 2 (autoantigen) and deamidated gluten peptides. These disease-specific antibodies recognize defined epitopes and they display common usage of specific heavy and light chains across patients. Interactions between T cells and B cells are likely central in the pathogenesis, but how the repertoires of naïve T and B cells relate to the pathogenic effector cells is unexplored. To this end, we applied machine learning classification models to naïve B cell receptor (BCR) repertoires from CeD patients and healthy controls. Strikingly, we obtained a promising classification performance with an F1 score of 85%. Clusters of heavy and light chain sequences were inferred and used as features for the model, and signatures associated with the disease were then characterized. These signatures included amino acid (AA) 3-mers with distinct bio-physiochemical characteristics and enriched V and J genes. We found that CeD-associated clusters can be identified and that common motifs can be characterized from naïve BCR repertoires. The results may indicate a genetic influence by BCR encoding genes in CeD. Analysis of naïve BCRs as presented here may become an important part of assessing the risk of individuals to develop CeD. Our model demonstrates the potential of using BCR repertoires and in particular, naïve BCR repertoires, as disease susceptibility markers.


2004 ◽  
Vol 279 (19) ◽  
pp. 19523-19530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Guilbault ◽  
Robert J. Kay

RasGRP1 is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor that activates Ras GTPases and is activated downstream of antigen receptors on both T and B lymphocytes. Ras-GRP1 provides signals to immature T cells that confer survival and proliferation, but RasGRP1 also promotes T cell receptor-mediated deletion of mature T cells. We used the WEHI-231 cell line as an experimental system to determine whether RasGRP1 can serve as a quantitative modifier of B cell receptor-induced deletion of immature B cells. A 2-fold elevation in RasGRP1 expression markedly increased apoptosis of WEHI-231 cells following B cell receptor ligation, whereas a dominant negative mutant of RasGRP1 suppressed B cell receptor-induced apoptosis. Activation of ERK1 or ERK2 kinases was not required for RasGRP1-mediated apoptosis. Instead, elevated RasGRP1 expression caused down-regulation of NF-κB and Bcl-xL, which provide survival signals counter-acting apoptosis induction by B cell receptor. Inhibition of NF-κB was sufficient to enhance B cell receptor-induced apoptosis of WEHI-231 cells, and ligation of co-stimulatory receptors that activate NF-κB suppressed the ability of RasGRP1 to promote B cell receptor-induced apoptosis. These experiments define a novel apoptosis-promoting pathway leading from B cell receptor to the inhibition of NF-κB and demonstrate that differential expression of RasGRP1 has the potential to modulate the sensitivities of B cells to negative selection following antigen encounter.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (51) ◽  
pp. 25850-25859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Csaba Huszthy ◽  
Ramakrishna Prabhu Gopalakrishnan ◽  
Johanne Tracey Jacobsen ◽  
Ole Audun Werner Haabeth ◽  
Geir Åge Løset ◽  
...  

The B cell receptors (BCRs) for antigen express variable (V) regions that are enormously diverse, thus serving as markers on individual B cells. V region-derived idiotypic (Id) peptides can be displayed as pId:MHCII complexes on B cells for recognition by CD4+T cells. It is not known if naive B cells spontaneously display pId:MHCII in vivo or if BCR ligation is required for expression, thereby enabling collaboration between Id+B cells and Id-specific T cells. Here, using a mouse model, we show that naive B cells do not express readily detectable levels of pId:MHCII. However, BCR ligation by Ag dramatically increases physical display of pId:MHCII, leading to activation of Id-specific CD4+T cells, extrafollicular T–B cell collaboration and some germinal center formation, and production of Id+IgG. Besides having implications for immune regulation, the results may explain how persistent activation of self-reactive B cells induces the development of autoimmune diseases and B cell lymphomas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S166-S166
Author(s):  
T Nagaishi ◽  
N Tsugawa ◽  
D Yamada ◽  
T Watabe ◽  
M Onizawa ◽  
...  

Abstract Background It has been recently shown that the carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) expressed in T cells may regulate immune responses in the gut. Moreover, it has also been reported that the treatments with either an agonistic monoclonal antibody (mAb) or natural ligands for this molecule can suppress colitis severity in murine models of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). On the other hand, in addition to T cells, B cells are also an important population in the gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) that orchestrate mucosal homeostasis. However, the role of CEACAM1 in B cells has not been elucidated. Methods We analysed primary B-cell subsets in the lymphoid tissues of wild-type C57BL6 mice as well as a murine B-cell line, A20, to determine the expressions and functions of CEACAM1. Results FACS analysis of the lymphocyte subsets isolated from secondary lymphoid tissues such as spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches of C57BL6 revealed higher expression level of CEACAM1 on B-cell surface than that of T cells. Bone marrow analysis showed that such CEACAM1 expression was increased during maturation and differentiation process of B cells. When isolated splenic B cells were stimulated with LPS, anti-CD40 or anti-μ chain Abs in the presence of agonistic anti-CEACAM1 mAb, the usual increased cytokine productions (such as IL-4 and IL-5 by activation via B cell receptor (BCR) signalling) were specifically suppressed by CEACAM1 signalling rather than B-cell activations via either TLR4 or CD40 signalling. Immunofluorescent studies using confocal microscopy revealed co-localisation of CEACAM1 and BCR when B cells were activated with anti-μ chain Ab. Given these results, A20 cells were transfected with CEACAM1 cDNA. Biochemical analysis showed that an inducible overexpression of CEACAM1 suppressed the BCR signalling in these cells when compared with that of vector alone-transfected control. Moreover, the overexpression of CEACAM1 in these cells resulted in reduced expressions of activation markers such as CD69, CD80, CD86, MHC-I and -II on the cell surface. These observations were associated with decreased Ca2+ influx and suppressed cytokine production by the overexpression of CEACAM1 after BCR signal activation. Conclusion These results suggest that CEACAM1 can regulate B-cell activation and differentiation specifically via BCR signalling in the lymphoid tissues. Therefore, this molecule can be a therapeutic target in IBD by regulating of both T-cell and B-cell activation in GALT.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard D Goldstein ◽  
Ying-Jiun J Chen ◽  
Jia Wu ◽  
Subhra Chaudhuri ◽  
Yi-Chun Hsiao ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTUsing high-throughput single-cell B-cell receptor sequencing (scBCR-seq) we obtained accurately paired full-length heavy- and light-chain variable domains from thousands of individual B cells in a massively parallel fashion. We sequenced more than 250,000 B cells from rat, mouse and human repertoires to characterize their lineages and expansion. In addition, we immunized rats with chicken ovalbumin and profiled antigen-reactive B cells from lymph nodes of immunized animals. The scBCR-seq data recovered 81% (n = 56/69) of B-cell lineages identified from hybridomas generated from the same set of B cells that were subjected to scBCR-seq. Importantly, scBCR-seq identified an additional 710 candidate lineages that were not recovered as hybridomas. We synthesized, expressed and tested 93 clones from the identified lineages and found that 99% (n = 92/93) of the clones were antigen-reactive. Our results establish scBCR-seq as a powerful tool for antibody discovery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liting Wu ◽  
Along Gao ◽  
Lan Li ◽  
Jianlin Chen ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
...  

Teleost fish anterior kidney (AK) is an important hematopoietic organ with multifarious immune cells, which have immune functions comparable to mammalian bone marrow. Myeloid and lymphoid cells locate in the AK, but the lack of useful specific gene markers and antibody-based reagents for the cell subsets makes the identification of the different cell types difficult. Single-cell transcriptome sequencing enables single-cell capture and individual library construction, making the study on the immune cell heterogeneity of teleost fish AK possible. In this study, we examined the transcriptional patterns of 11,388 AK leukocytes using 10× Genomics single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A total of 22 clusters corresponding to five distinct immune cell subsets were identified, which included B cells, T cells, granulocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells (DCs). However, the subsets of myeloid cells (granulocytes, macrophages, and DCs) were not identified in more detail according to the known specific markers, even though significant differences existed among the clusters. Thereafter, we highlighted the B-cell subsets and identified them as pro/pre B cells, immature/mature B cells, activated B/plasmablasts, or plasma cells based on the different expressions of the transcription factors (TFs) and cytokines. Clustering of the differentially modulated genes by pseudo-temporal trajectory analysis of the B-cell subsets showed the distinct kinetics of the responses of TFs to cell conversion. Moreover, we classified the T cells and discovered that CD3+CD4−CD8−, CD3+CD4+CD8+, CD4+CD8−, and CD4−CD8+ T cells existed in AK, but neither CD4+CD8− nor CD4−CD8+ T cells can be further classified into subsets based on the known TFs and cytokines. Pseudotemporal analysis demonstrated that CD4+CD8− and CD4−CD8+ T cells belonged to different states with various TFs that might control their differentiation. The data obtained above provide a valuable and detailed resource for uncovering the leukocyte subsets in Nile tilapia AK, as well as more potential markers for identifying the myeloid and lymphoid cell types.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Or Shemesh ◽  
Pazit Polak ◽  
Knut E.A. Lundin ◽  
Ludvig M. Sollid ◽  
Gur Yaari

AbstractCeliac disease (CeD) is a common autoimmune disorder caused by an abnormal immune response to dietary gluten proteins. The disease has high heritability. HLA is the major susceptibility factor, and the HLA effect is mediated via presentation of deamidated gluten peptides by disease-associated HLA-DQ variants to CD4+ T cells. In addition to gluten-specific CD4+ T cells the patients have antibodies to transglutaminase 2 (autoantigen) and deamidated gluten peptides. These disease-specific antibodies recognize defined epitopes and they display common usage of specific heavy and light chains across patients. Interactions between T cells and B cells are likely central in the pathogenesis, but how the repertoires of naïve T and B cells relate to the pathogenic effector cells is unexplored. To this end, we applied machine learning classification models to naïve B cell receptor (BCR) repertoires from CeD patients and healthy controls. Strikingly, we obtained a promising classification performance with an F1 score of 85%. Clusters of heavy and light chain sequences were inferred and used as features for the model, and signatures associated with the disease were then characterized. These signatures included amino acid (AA) 3-mers with distinct bio-physiochemical characteristics and enriched V and J genes. We found that CeD-associated clusters can be identified and that common motifs can be characterized from naïve BCR repertoires. The results may indicate a genetic influence by BCR encoding genes in CeD. Analysis of naïve BCRs as presented here may become an important part of assessing the risk of individuals to develop CeD. Our model demonstrates the potential of using BCR repertoires and in particular, naïve BCR repertoires, as disease susceptibility markers.


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