Revealing the Immune Heterogeneity in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Based on Multi-Omics Data Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disorder characterized by a spectrum of clinical manifestations. With the progress of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, novel techniques for sequencing T cell receptors and B cell receptors have emerged. In this study, we employed the computational approach TRUST4 to construct TCR and BCR libraries using a substantial volume of RNA-seq data extracted from the peripheral blood of sepsis patients. Subsequently, we conducted an analysis to assess the clonality and diversity of the immune repertoire associated with this disease. A total of 30 distinct cell types were annotated and subsequently categorized into 12 clusters. SLE group demonstrated an increase in the innate immune responses of CD14 monocytes, CD16 monocytes, Megakaryocytes, NK cells, and Neutrophis in comparison to the HC group. The CellChat analysis findings unveiled four distinct patterns for input signals and four patterns for output signals. The results of trajectory analysis revealed that the majority of cell subsets are positioned in a single developmental stage. Our research results comprehensively demonstrate the dynamic changes of immune cells during the onset of SLE, and identify specific V and J genes in TCR and BCR that can be used to expand our understanding of SLE.