Single-Cell Transcriptomic Profiling of MAIT Cells in Patients With COVID-19

作者：Jijing Shi, Jianglin Zhou, Xiaochang Zhang, Wei Hu, Jinfang Zhao, Shengqi Wang, Fu‐Sheng Wang, Ji‐Yuan Zhang · 发表于：Frontiers in Immunology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3389/fimmu.2021.700152 · 被引用次数：46 · 研究领域：Immune Cell Function and Interaction、Phagocytosis and Immune Regulation、Kawasaki Disease and Coronary Complications

Background: Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are considered to participate of the host immune response against acute severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection; however, single-cell transcriptomic profiling of MAIT cells in patients with COVID-19 remains unexplored. Methods: We performed single-cell RNA sequencing analyses on peripheral MAIT cells from 13 patients with COVID-19 and 5 healthy donors. The transcriptional profiles of MAIT cells, together with assembled T-cell receptor sequences, were analyzed. Flow cytometry analysis was also performed to investigate the properties of MAIT cells. Results: We identified that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of MAIT cells were involved in myeloid leukocyte activation and lymphocyte activation in patients with COVID-19. In addition, in MAIT cells from severe cases, more DEGs were enriched in adaptive cellular and humoral immune responses compared with those in moderate cases. Further analysis indicated that the increase of cell cytotoxicity (killing), chemotaxis, and apoptosis levels in MAIT cells were consistent with disease severity and displayed the highest levels in patients with severe disease. Interestingly, flow cytometry analysis showed that the frequencies of pyroptotic MAIT cells, but not the frequencies of apoptotic MAIT cells, were increased significantly in patients with COVID-19, suggesting pyroptosis is one of leading causes of MAIT cell deaths during SARS-CoV-2 infection. ...