1
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Sarkar H, Chitra U, Gold J, Raphael BJ. A count-based model for delineating cell-cell interactions in spatial transcriptomics data. Bioinformatics 2024; 40:i481-i489. [PMID: 38940134 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/29/2024] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Cell-cell interactions (CCIs) consist of cells exchanging signals with themselves and neighboring cells by expressing ligand and receptor molecules and play a key role in cellular development, tissue homeostasis, and other critical biological functions. Since direct measurement of CCIs is challenging, multiple methods have been developed to infer CCIs by quantifying correlations between the gene expression of the ligands and receptors that mediate CCIs, originally from bulk RNA-sequencing data and more recently from single-cell or spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) data. SRT has a particular advantage over single-cell approaches, since ligand-receptor correlations can be computed between cells or spots that are physically close in the tissue. However, the transcript counts of individual ligands and receptors in SRT data are generally low, complicating the inference of CCIs from expression correlations. RESULTS We introduce Copulacci, a count-based model for inferring CCIs from SRT data. Copulacci uses a Gaussian copula to model dependencies between the expression of ligands and receptors from nearby spatial locations even when the transcript counts are low. On simulated data, Copulacci outperforms existing CCI inference methods based on the standard Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients. Using several real SRT datasets, we show that Copulacci discovers biologically meaningful ligand-receptor interactions that are lowly expressed and undiscoverable by existing CCI inference methods. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Copulacci is implemented in Python and available at https://github.com/raphael-group/copulacci.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hirak Sarkar
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
- Ludwig Cancer Institute, Princeton Branch, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
| | - Uthsav Chitra
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
| | - Julian Gold
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
- Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
| | - Benjamin J Raphael
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, United States
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2
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Jin Y, Zuo Y, Li G, Liu W, Pan Y, Fan T, Fu X, Yao X, Peng Y. Advances in spatial transcriptomics and its applications in cancer research. Mol Cancer 2024; 23:129. [PMID: 38902727 PMCID: PMC11188176 DOI: 10.1186/s12943-024-02040-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2024] [Accepted: 06/10/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Malignant tumors have increasing morbidity and high mortality, and their occurrence and development is a complicate process. The development of sequencing technologies enabled us to gain a better understanding of the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms in tumors. In recent years, the spatial transcriptomics sequencing technologies have been developed rapidly and allow the quantification and illustration of gene expression in the spatial context of tissues. Compared with the traditional transcriptomics technologies, spatial transcriptomics technologies not only detect gene expression levels in cells, but also inform the spatial location of genes within tissues, cell composition of biological tissues, and interaction between cells. Here we summarize the development of spatial transcriptomics technologies, spatial transcriptomics tools and its application in cancer research. We also discuss the limitations and challenges of current spatial transcriptomics approaches, as well as future development and prospects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Jin
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Yuanli Zuo
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Public Health Clinical Center of Chengdu, Chengdu, 610061, China
| | - Wenrong Liu
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Yitong Pan
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Ting Fan
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Xin Fu
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China
| | - Xiaojun Yao
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Public Health Clinical Center of Chengdu, Chengdu, 610061, China.
| | - Yong Peng
- Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
- Frontier Medical Center, Tianfu Jincheng Laboratory, Chengdu, 610212, China.
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3
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Li Y, Zhang J, Gao X, Zhang QC. Tissue module discovery in single-cell-resolution spatial transcriptomics data via cell-cell interaction-aware cell embedding. Cell Syst 2024; 15:578-592.e7. [PMID: 38823396 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2024.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Computational methods are desired for single-cell-resolution spatial transcriptomics (ST) data analysis to uncover spatial organization principles for how individual cells exert tissue-specific functions. Here, we present ST data analysis via interaction-aware cell embedding (SPACE), a deep-learning method for cell-type identification and tissue module discovery from single-cell-resolution ST data by learning a cell representation that captures its gene expression profile and interactions with its spatial neighbors. SPACE identified spatially informed cell subtypes defined by their special spatial distribution patterns and distinct proximal-interacting cell types. SPACE also automatically discovered "cell communities"-tissue modules with discernible boundaries and a uniform spatial distribution of constituent cell types. For each cell community, SPACE outputs a characteristic proximal cell-cell interaction network associated with physiological processes, which can be used to refine ligand-receptor-based intercellular signaling analyses. We envision that SPACE can be used in large-scale ST projects to understand how proximal cell-cell interactions contribute to emergent biological functions within cell communities. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the supplemental information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhe Li
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology & Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Jinsong Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology & Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Beijing 100084, China; Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Xin Gao
- Computer Science Program, Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; KAUST Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; BioMap, Beijing 100086, China.
| | - Qiangfeng Cliff Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Structural Biology & Frontier Research Center for Biological Structure, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Beijing 100084, China.
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4
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Qian J, Bao H, Shao X, Fang Y, Liao J, Chen Z, Li C, Guo W, Hu Y, Li A, Yao Y, Fan X, Cheng Y. Simulating multiple variability in spatially resolved transcriptomics with scCube. Nat Commun 2024; 15:5021. [PMID: 38866768 PMCID: PMC11169532 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49445-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
A pressing challenge in spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) is to benchmark the computational methods. A widely-used approach involves utilizing simulated data. However, biases exist in terms of the currently available simulated SRT data, which seriously affects the accuracy of method evaluation and validation. Herein, we present scCube ( https://github.com/ZJUFanLab/scCube ), a Python package for independent, reproducible, and technology-diverse simulation of SRT data. scCube not only enables the preservation of spatial expression patterns of genes in reference-based simulations, but also generates simulated data with different spatial variability (covering the spatial pattern type, the resolution, the spot arrangement, the targeted gene type, and the tissue slice dimension, etc.) in reference-free simulations. We comprehensively benchmark scCube with existing single-cell or SRT simulators, and demonstrate the utility of scCube in benchmarking spot deconvolution, gene imputation, and resolution enhancement methods in detail through three applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingyang Qian
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Hudong Bao
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xin Shao
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Yin Fang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310013, China
| | - Jie Liao
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Zhuo Chen
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310013, China
| | - Chengyu Li
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Wenbo Guo
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Yining Hu
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Anyao Li
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Yue Yao
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China
| | - Xiaohui Fan
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China.
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Therapy for Major Gynecological Diseases, Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310006, China.
| | - Yiyu Cheng
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
- National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Modernization, Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang University, 314100, Jiaxing, China.
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Curion F, Theis FJ. Machine learning integrative approaches to advance computational immunology. Genome Med 2024; 16:80. [PMID: 38862979 PMCID: PMC11165829 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-024-01350-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
The study of immunology, traditionally reliant on proteomics to evaluate individual immune cells, has been revolutionized by single-cell RNA sequencing. Computational immunologists play a crucial role in analysing these datasets, moving beyond traditional protein marker identification to encompass a more detailed view of cellular phenotypes and their functional roles. Recent technological advancements allow the simultaneous measurements of multiple cellular components-transcriptome, proteome, chromatin, epigenetic modifications and metabolites-within single cells, including in spatial contexts within tissues. This has led to the generation of complex multiscale datasets that can include multimodal measurements from the same cells or a mix of paired and unpaired modalities. Modern machine learning (ML) techniques allow for the integration of multiple "omics" data without the need for extensive independent modelling of each modality. This review focuses on recent advancements in ML integrative approaches applied to immunological studies. We highlight the importance of these methods in creating a unified representation of multiscale data collections, particularly for single-cell and spatial profiling technologies. Finally, we discuss the challenges of these holistic approaches and how they will be instrumental in the development of a common coordinate framework for multiscale studies, thereby accelerating research and enabling discoveries in the computational immunology field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabiola Curion
- Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Center Munich, Munich, Germany
- Department of Mathematics, School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fabian J Theis
- Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Center Munich, Munich, Germany.
- Department of Mathematics, School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
- School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
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6
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Ma Y, Zhou X. Accurate and efficient integrative reference-informed spatial domain detection for spatial transcriptomics. Nat Methods 2024:10.1038/s41592-024-02284-9. [PMID: 38844627 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02284-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/23/2024]
Abstract
Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) studies are becoming increasingly common and large, offering unprecedented opportunities in mapping complex tissue structures and functions. Here we present integrative and reference-informed tissue segmentation (IRIS), a computational method designed to characterize tissue spatial organization in SRT studies through accurately and efficiently detecting spatial domains. IRIS uniquely leverages single-cell RNA sequencing data for reference-informed detection of biologically interpretable spatial domains, integrating multiple SRT slices while explicitly considering correlations both within and across slices. We demonstrate the advantages of IRIS through in-depth analysis of six SRT datasets encompassing diverse technologies, tissues, species and resolutions. In these applications, IRIS achieves substantial accuracy gains (39-1,083%) and speed improvements (4.6-666.0) in moderate-sized datasets, while representing the only method applicable for large datasets including Stereo-seq and 10x Xenium. As a result, IRIS reveals intricate brain structures, uncovers tumor microenvironment heterogeneity and detects structural changes in diabetes-affected testis, all with exceptional speed and accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Ma
- Department of Biostatistics, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
- Center for Computational Molecular Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Xiang Zhou
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
- Center for Statistical Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
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7
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Koçillari L, Lorenz GM, Engel NM, Celotto M, Curreli S, Malerba SB, Engel AK, Fellin T, Panzeri S. Sampling bias corrections for accurate neural measures of redundant, unique, and synergistic information. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.06.04.597303. [PMID: 38895197 PMCID: PMC11185652 DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.04.597303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Shannon Information theory has long been a tool of choice to measure empirically how populations of neurons in the brain encode information about cognitive variables. Recently, Partial Information Decomposition (PID) has emerged as principled way to break down this information into components identifying not only the unique information carried by each neuron, but also whether relationships between neurons generate synergistic or redundant information. While it has been long recognized that Shannon information measures on neural activity suffer from a (mostly upward) limited sampling estimation bias, this issue has largely been ignored in the burgeoning field of PID analysis of neural activity. We used simulations to investigate the limited sampling bias of PID computed from discrete probabilities (suited to describe neural spiking activity). We found that PID suffers from a large bias that is uneven across components, with synergy by far the most biased. Using approximate analytical expansions, we found that the bias of synergy increases quadratically with the number of discrete responses of each neuron, whereas the bias of unique and redundant information increase only linearly or sub-linearly. Based on the understanding of the PID bias properties, we developed simple yet effective procedures that correct for the bias effectively, and that improve greatly the PID estimation with respect to current state-of-the-art procedures. We apply these PID bias correction procedures to datasets of 53117 pairs neurons in auditory cortex, posterior parietal cortex and hippocampus of mice performing cognitive tasks, deriving precise estimates and bounds of how synergy and redundancy vary across these brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loren Koçillari
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Gabriel Matías Lorenz
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
- Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Nicola Marie Engel
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Marco Celotto
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
| | | | - Simone Blanco Malerba
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Andreas K. Engel
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | | | - Stefano Panzeri
- Institute for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
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8
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Haviv D, Kunes RZ, Dougherty T, Burdziak C, Nawy T, Gilbert A, Pe'er D. Wasserstein Wormhole: Scalable Optimal Transport Distance with Transformers. ARXIV 2024:arXiv:2404.09411v4. [PMID: 38827453 PMCID: PMC11142316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Optimal transport (OT) and the related Wasserstein metric ( W ) are powerful and ubiquitous tools for comparing distributions. However, computing pairwise Wasserstein distances rapidly becomes intractable as cohort size grows. An attractive alternative would be to find an embedding space in which pairwise Euclidean distances map to OT distances, akin to standard multidimensional scaling (MDS). We present Wasserstein Wormhole, a transformer-based autoencoder that embeds empirical distributions into a latent space wherein Euclidean distances approximate OT distances. Extending MDS theory, we show that our objective function implies a bound on the error incurred when embedding non-Euclidean distances. Empirically, distances between Wormhole embeddings closely match Wasserstein distances, enabling linear time computation of OT distances. Along with an encoder that maps distributions to embeddings, Wasserstein Wormhole includes a decoder that maps embeddings back to distributions, allowing for operations in the embedding space to generalize to OT spaces, such as Wasserstein barycenter estimation and OT interpolation. By lending scalability and interpretability to OT approaches, Wasserstein Wormhole unlocks new avenues for data analysis in the fields of computational geometry and single-cell biology. Software is available at http://wassersteinwormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doron Haviv
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
| | - Russell Zhang Kunes
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Department of Statistics, Columbia University
| | - Thomas Dougherty
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine
| | - Cassandra Burdziak
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
| | - Tal Nawy
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
| | - Anna Gilbert
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Yale University
| | - Dana Pe'er
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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9
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Armingol E, Baghdassarian HM, Lewis NE. The diversification of methods for studying cell-cell interactions and communication. Nat Rev Genet 2024; 25:381-400. [PMID: 38238518 PMCID: PMC11139546 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00685-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2024]
Abstract
No cell lives in a vacuum, and the molecular interactions between cells define most phenotypes. Transcriptomics provides rich information to infer cell-cell interactions and communication, thus accelerating the discovery of the roles of cells within their communities. Such research relies heavily on algorithms that infer which cells are interacting and the ligands and receptors involved. Specific pressures on different research niches are driving the evolution of next-generation computational tools, enabling new conceptual opportunities and technological advances. More sophisticated algorithms now account for the heterogeneity and spatial organization of cells, multiple ligand types and intracellular signalling events, and enable the use of larger and more complex datasets, including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. Similarly, new high-throughput experimental methods are increasing the number and resolution of interactions that can be analysed simultaneously. Here, we explore recent progress in cell-cell interaction research and highlight the diversification of the next generation of tools, which have yielded a rich ecosystem of tools for different applications and are enabling invaluable discoveries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erick Armingol
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
| | - Hratch M Baghdassarian
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Nathan E Lewis
- Department of Paediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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10
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Valihrach L, Zucha D, Abaffy P, Kubista M. A practical guide to spatial transcriptomics. Mol Aspects Med 2024; 97:101276. [PMID: 38776574 DOI: 10.1016/j.mam.2024.101276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2023] [Revised: 04/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Spatial transcriptomics is revolutionizing modern biology, offering researchers an unprecedented ability to unravel intricate gene expression patterns within tissues. From pioneering techniques to newly commercialized platforms, the field of spatial transcriptomics has evolved rapidly, ushering in a new era of understanding across various disciplines, from developmental biology to disease research. This dynamic expansion is reflected in the rapidly growing number of technologies and data analysis techniques developed and introduced. However, the expanding landscape presents a considerable challenge for researchers, especially newcomers to the field, as staying informed about these advancements becomes increasingly complex. To address this challenge, we have prepared an updated review with a particular focus on technologies that have reached commercialization and are, therefore, accessible to a broad spectrum of potential new users. In this review, we present the fundamental principles of spatial transcriptomic methods, discuss the challenges in data analysis, provide insights into experimental considerations, offer information about available resources for spatial transcriptomics, and conclude with a guide for method selection and a forward-looking perspective. Our aim is to serve as a guiding resource for both experienced users and newcomers navigating the complex realm of spatial transcriptomics in this era of rapid development. We intend to equip researchers with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions and contribute to the cutting-edge research that spatial transcriptomics offers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Valihrach
- Laboratory of Gene Expression, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic; Department of Cellular Neurophysiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
| | - Daniel Zucha
- Laboratory of Gene Expression, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic; Department of Informatics and Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Pavel Abaffy
- Laboratory of Gene Expression, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Mikael Kubista
- Laboratory of Gene Expression, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec, Czech Republic.
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11
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Luppi AI, Rosas FE, Mediano PAM, Demertzi A, Menon DK, Stamatakis EA. Unravelling consciousness and brain function through the lens of time, space, and information. Trends Neurosci 2024:S0166-2236(24)00087-0. [PMID: 38824075 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2024.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 04/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Disentangling how cognitive functions emerge from the interplay of brain dynamics and network architecture is among the major challenges that neuroscientists face. Pharmacological and pathological perturbations of consciousness provide a lens to investigate these complex challenges. Here, we review how recent advances about consciousness and the brain's functional organisation have been driven by a common denominator: decomposing brain function into fundamental constituents of time, space, and information. Whereas unconsciousness increases structure-function coupling across scales, psychedelics may decouple brain function from structure. Convergent effects also emerge: anaesthetics, psychedelics, and disorders of consciousness can exhibit similar reconfigurations of the brain's unimodal-transmodal functional axis. Decomposition approaches reveal the potential to translate discoveries across species, with computational modelling providing a path towards mechanistic integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea I Luppi
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; St John's College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Fernando E Rosas
- Center for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; Center for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | | | - Athena Demertzi
- Physiology of Cognition Lab, GIGA-Cyclotron Research Center In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium; Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège 4000, Belgium; National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Brussels 1000, Belgium
| | - David K Menon
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Emmanuel A Stamatakis
- Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Schmidt M, Avagyan S, Reiche K, Binder H, Loeffler-Wirth H. A Spatial Transcriptomics Browser for Discovering Gene Expression Landscapes across Microscopic Tissue Sections. Curr Issues Mol Biol 2024; 46:4701-4720. [PMID: 38785552 PMCID: PMC11119626 DOI: 10.3390/cimb46050284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2024] [Revised: 04/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
A crucial feature of life is its spatial organization and compartmentalization on the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels. Spatial transcriptomics (ST) technology has opened a new chapter of the sequencing revolution, emerging rapidly with transformative effects across biology. This technique produces extensive and complex sequencing data, raising the need for computational methods for their comprehensive analysis and interpretation. We developed the ST browser web tool for the interactive discovery of ST images, focusing on different functional aspects such as single gene expression, the expression of functional gene sets, as well as the inspection of the spatial patterns of cell-cell interactions. As a unique feature, our tool applies self-organizing map (SOM) machine learning to the ST data. Our SOM data portrayal method generates individual gene expression landscapes for each spot in the ST image, enabling its downstream analysis with high resolution. The performance of the spatial browser is demonstrated by disentangling the intra-tumoral heterogeneity of melanoma and the microarchitecture of the mouse brain. The integration of machine-learning-based SOM portrayal into an interactive ST analysis environment opens novel perspectives for the comprehensive knowledge mining of the organization and interactions of cellular ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Schmidt
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics (IZBI), Leipzig University, Härtelstr. 16-18, 04107 Leipzig, Germany; (M.S.); (H.B.)
| | - Susanna Avagyan
- Armenian Bioinformatics Institute, 3/6 Nelson Stepanyan Str., Yerevan 0062, Armenia
| | - Kristin Reiche
- Department of Diagnostics, Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI), Perlickstrasse 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute for Clinical Immunology, University Hospital of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hans Binder
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics (IZBI), Leipzig University, Härtelstr. 16-18, 04107 Leipzig, Germany; (M.S.); (H.B.)
- Armenian Bioinformatics Institute, 3/6 Nelson Stepanyan Str., Yerevan 0062, Armenia
| | - Henry Loeffler-Wirth
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics (IZBI), Leipzig University, Härtelstr. 16-18, 04107 Leipzig, Germany; (M.S.); (H.B.)
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13
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Konecny AJ, Huang Y, Setty M, Prlic M. Signals that control MAIT cell function in healthy and inflamed human tissues. Immunol Rev 2024; 323:138-149. [PMID: 38520075 DOI: 10.1111/imr.13325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/25/2024]
Abstract
Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells have a semi-invariant T-cell receptor that allows recognition of antigen in the context of the MHC class I-related (MR1) protein. Metabolic intermediates of the riboflavin synthesis pathway have been identified as MR1-restricted antigens with agonist properties. As riboflavin synthesis occurs in many bacterial species, but not human cells, it has been proposed that the main purpose of MAIT cells is antibacterial surveillance and protection. The majority of human MAIT cells secrete interferon-gamma (IFNg) upon activation, while some MAIT cells in tissues can also express IL-17. Given that MAIT cells are present in human barrier tissues colonized by a microbiome, MAIT cells must somehow be able to distinguish colonization from infection to ensure effector functions are only elicited when necessary. Importantly, MAIT cells have additional functional properties, including the potential to contribute to restoring tissue homeostasis by expression of CTLA-4 and secretion of the cytokine IL-22. A recent study provided compelling data indicating that the range of human MAIT cell functional properties is explained by plasticity rather than distinct lineages. This further underscores the necessity to better understand how different signals regulate MAIT cell function. In this review, we highlight what is known in regards to activating and inhibitory signals for MAIT cells with a specific focus on signals relevant to healthy and inflamed tissues. We consider the quantity, quality, and the temporal order of these signals on MAIT cell function and discuss the current limitations of computational tools to extrapolate which signals are received by MAIT cells in human tissues. Using lessons learned from conventional CD8 T cells, we also discuss how TCR signals may integrate with cytokine signals in MAIT cells to elicit distinct functional states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Konecny
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Yin Huang
- Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Manu Setty
- Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Martin Prlic
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
- Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
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14
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Ramirez Flores RO, Schäfer PSL, Küchenhoff L, Saez-Rodriguez J. Complementing Cell Taxonomies with a Multicellular Analysis of Tissues. Physiology (Bethesda) 2024; 39:0. [PMID: 38319138 DOI: 10.1152/physiol.00001.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The application of single-cell molecular profiling coupled with spatial technologies has enabled charting of cellular heterogeneity in reference tissues and in disease. This new wave of molecular data has highlighted the expected diversity of single-cell dynamics upon shared external queues and spatial organizations. However, little is known about the relationship between single-cell heterogeneity and the emergence and maintenance of robust multicellular processes in developed tissues and its role in (patho)physiology. Here, we present emerging computational modeling strategies that use increasingly available large-scale cross-condition single-cell and spatial datasets to study multicellular organization in tissues and complement cell taxonomies. This perspective should enable us to better understand how cells within tissues collectively process information and adapt synchronized responses in disease contexts and to bridge the gap between structural changes and functions in tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo Omar Ramirez Flores
- Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University and Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Philipp Sven Lars Schäfer
- Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University and Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Leonie Küchenhoff
- Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University and Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Julio Saez-Rodriguez
- Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University and Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
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15
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Tian J, Bai X, Quek C. Single-Cell Informatics for Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:4485. [PMID: 38674070 PMCID: PMC11050520 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25084485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2024] [Revised: 04/12/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Cancer comprises malignant cells surrounded by the tumor microenvironment (TME), a dynamic ecosystem composed of heterogeneous cell populations that exert unique influences on tumor development. The immune community within the TME plays a substantial role in tumorigenesis and tumor evolution. The innate and adaptive immune cells "talk" to the tumor through ligand-receptor interactions and signaling molecules, forming a complex communication network to influence the cellular and molecular basis of cancer. Such intricate intratumoral immune composition and interactions foster the application of immunotherapies, which empower the immune system against cancer to elicit durable long-term responses in cancer patients. Single-cell technologies have allowed for the dissection and characterization of the TME to an unprecedented level, while recent advancements in bioinformatics tools have expanded the horizon and depth of high-dimensional single-cell data analysis. This review will unravel the intertwined networks between malignancy and immunity, explore the utilization of computational tools for a deeper understanding of tumor-immune communications, and discuss the application of these approaches to aid in diagnosis or treatment decision making in the clinical setting, as well as the current challenges faced by the researchers with their potential future improvements.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Camelia Quek
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; (J.T.); (X.B.)
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16
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Samadi Z, Askary A. Spatial motifs reveal patterns in cellular architecture of complex tissues. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.08.588586. [PMID: 38645046 PMCID: PMC11030378 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.08.588586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
Spatial organization of cells is crucial to both proper physiological function of tissues and pathological conditions like cancer. Recent advances in spatial transcriptomics have enabled joint profiling of gene expression and spatial context of the cells. The outcome is an information rich map of the tissue where individual cells, or small regions, can be labeled based on their gene expression state. While spatial transcriptomics excels in its capacity to profile numerous genes within the same sample, most existing methods for analysis of spatial data only examine distribution of one or two labels at a time. These approaches overlook the potential for identifying higher-order associations between cell types - associations that can play a pivotal role in understanding development and function of complex tissues. In this context, we introduce a novel method for detecting motifs in spatial neighborhood graphs. Each motif represents a spatial arrangement of cell types that occurs in the tissue more frequently than expected by chance. To identify spatial motifs, we developed an algorithm for uniform sampling of paths from neighborhood graphs and combined it with a motif finding algorithm on graphs inspired by previous methods for finding motifs in DNA sequences. Using synthetic data with known ground truth, we show that our method can identify spatial motifs with high accuracy and sensitivity. Applied to spatial maps of mouse retinal bipolar cells and hypothalamic preoptic region, our method reveals previously unrecognized patterns in cell type arrangements. In some cases, cells within these spatial patterns differ in their gene expression from other cells of the same type, providing insights into the functional significance of the spatial motifs. These results suggest that our method can illuminate the substantial complexity of neural tissues, provide novel insight even in well studied models, and generate experimentally testable hypotheses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zainalabedin Samadi
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, CA, USA
| | - Amjad Askary
- Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, CA, USA
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17
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Qu R, Cheng X, Sefik E, Stanley Iii JS, Landa B, Strino F, Platt S, Garritano J, Odell ID, Coifman R, Flavell RA, Myung P, Kluger Y. Gene trajectory inference for single-cell data by optimal transport metrics. Nat Biotechnol 2024:10.1038/s41587-024-02186-3. [PMID: 38580861 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-024-02186-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
Single-cell RNA sequencing has been widely used to investigate cell state transitions and gene dynamics of biological processes. Current strategies to infer the sequential dynamics of genes in a process typically rely on constructing cell pseudotime through cell trajectory inference. However, the presence of concurrent gene processes in the same group of cells and technical noise can obscure the true progression of the processes studied. To address this challenge, we present GeneTrajectory, an approach that identifies trajectories of genes rather than trajectories of cells. Specifically, optimal transport distances are calculated between gene distributions across the cell-cell graph to extract gene programs and define their gene pseudotemporal order. Here we demonstrate that GeneTrajectory accurately extracts progressive gene dynamics in myeloid lineage maturation. Moreover, we show that GeneTrajectory deconvolves key gene programs underlying mouse skin hair follicle dermal condensate differentiation that could not be resolved by cell trajectory approaches. GeneTrajectory facilitates the discovery of gene programs that control the changes and activities of biological processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rihao Qu
- Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Xiuyuan Cheng
- Department of Mathematics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Esen Sefik
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - Boris Landa
- Program in Applied Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - Sarah Platt
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Dermatology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - James Garritano
- Program in Applied Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Ian D Odell
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Dermatology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Ronald Coifman
- Program in Applied Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Richard A Flavell
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Peggy Myung
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Dermatology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Yuval Kluger
- Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Program in Applied Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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18
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Adema K, Schon MA, Nodine MD, Kohlen W. Lost in space: what single-cell RNA sequencing cannot tell you. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2024:S1360-1385(24)00066-9. [PMID: 38570278 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2024.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2023] [Revised: 02/21/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
Plant scientists are rapidly integrating single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) into their workflows. Maximizing the potential of scRNA-seq requires a proper understanding of the spatiotemporal context of cells. However, positional information is inherently lost during scRNA-seq, limiting its potential to characterize complex biological systems. In this review we highlight how current single-cell analysis pipelines cannot completely recover spatial information, which confounds biological interpretation. Various strategies exist to identify the location of RNA, from classical RNA in situ hybridization to spatial transcriptomics. Herein we discuss the possibility of utilizing this spatial information to supervise single-cell analyses. An integrative approach will maximize the potential of each technology, and lead to insights which go beyond the capability of each individual technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelvin Adema
- Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Michael A Schon
- Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands; Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Michael D Nodine
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Wouter Kohlen
- Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands; Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cluster of Plant Developmental Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
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19
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Haviv D, Remšík J, Gatie M, Snopkowski C, Takizawa M, Pereira N, Bashkin J, Jovanovich S, Nawy T, Chaligne R, Boire A, Hadjantonakis AK, Pe'er D. The covariance environment defines cellular niches for spatial inference. Nat Biotechnol 2024:10.1038/s41587-024-02193-4. [PMID: 38565973 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-024-02193-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
A key challenge of analyzing data from high-resolution spatial profiling technologies is to suitably represent the features of cellular neighborhoods or niches. Here we introduce the covariance environment (COVET), a representation that leverages the gene-gene covariate structure across cells in the niche to capture the multivariate nature of cellular interactions within it. We define a principled optimal transport-based distance metric between COVET niches that scales to millions of cells. Using COVET to encode spatial context, we developed environmental variational inference (ENVI), a conditional variational autoencoder that jointly embeds spatial and single-cell RNA sequencing data into a latent space. ENVI includes two decoders: one to impute gene expression across the spatial modality and a second to project spatial information onto single-cell data. ENVI can confer spatial context to genomics data from single dissociated cells and outperforms alternatives for imputing gene expression on diverse spatial datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Doron Haviv
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
- Tri-Institutional Training Program in Computational Biology and Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ján Remšík
- Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Mohamed Gatie
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Catherine Snopkowski
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Meril Takizawa
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | | | | | | | - Tal Nawy
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ronan Chaligne
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Adrienne Boire
- Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
- Brain Tumor Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Dana Pe'er
- Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA.
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20
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Hashemi Gheinani A, Kim J, You S, Adam RM. Bioinformatics in urology - molecular characterization of pathophysiology and response to treatment. Nat Rev Urol 2024; 21:214-242. [PMID: 37604982 DOI: 10.1038/s41585-023-00805-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
The application of bioinformatics has revolutionized the practice of medicine in the past 20 years. From early studies that uncovered subtypes of cancer to broad efforts spearheaded by the Cancer Genome Atlas initiative, the use of bioinformatics strategies to analyse high-dimensional data has provided unprecedented insights into the molecular basis of disease. In addition to the identification of disease subtypes - which enables risk stratification - informatics analysis has facilitated the identification of novel risk factors and drivers of disease, biomarkers of progression and treatment response, as well as possibilities for drug repurposing or repositioning; moreover, bioinformatics has guided research towards precision and personalized medicine. Implementation of specific computational approaches such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and molecular subtyping has yet to become widespread in urology clinical practice for reasons of cost, disruption of clinical workflow and need for prospective validation of informatics approaches in independent patient cohorts. Solving these challenges might accelerate routine integration of bioinformatics into clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Hashemi Gheinani
- Department of Urology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Urology, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland
- Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jina Kim
- Department of Urology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Computational Biomedicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Sungyong You
- Department of Urology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Computational Biomedicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Rosalyn M Adam
- Department of Urology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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21
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Chen J, Song Y, Huang J, Wan X, Li Y. Integrated single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics analysis reveals the tumour microenvironment in patients with endometrial cancer responding to anti-PD-1 treatment. Clin Transl Med 2024; 14:e1668. [PMID: 38649737 PMCID: PMC11035376 DOI: 10.1002/ctm2.1668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2023] [Revised: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Junfeng Chen
- Department of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
| | - Yunfeng Song
- Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
| | - Jian Huang
- Department of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
| | - Xiaoping Wan
- Department of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
- Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
| | - Yiran Li
- Department of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
- Department of Gynecology, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, School of MedicineTongji UniversityShanghaiChina
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22
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Yin W, Wan Y, Zhou Y. SpatialcoGCN: deconvolution and spatial information-aware simulation of spatial transcriptomics data via deep graph co-embedding. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbae130. [PMID: 38557675 PMCID: PMC10982953 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbae130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2023] [Revised: 02/22/2024] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Spatial transcriptomics (ST) data have emerged as a pivotal approach to comprehending the function and interplay of cells within intricate tissues. Nonetheless, analyses of ST data are restricted by the low spatial resolution and limited number of ribonucleic acid transcripts that can be detected with several popular ST techniques. In this study, we propose that both of the above issues can be significantly improved by introducing a deep graph co-embedding framework. First, we establish a self-supervised, co-graph convolution network-based deep learning model termed SpatialcoGCN, which leverages single-cell data to deconvolve the cell mixtures in spatial data. Evaluations of SpatialcoGCN on a series of simulated ST data and real ST datasets from human ductal carcinoma in situ, developing human heart and mouse brain suggest that SpatialcoGCN could outperform other state-of-the-art cell type deconvolution methods in estimating per-spot cell composition. Moreover, with competitive accuracy, SpatialcoGCN could also recover the spatial distribution of transcripts that are not detected by raw ST data. With a similar co-embedding framework, we further established a spatial information-aware ST data simulation method, SpatialcoGCN-Sim. SpatialcoGCN-Sim could generate simulated ST data with high similarity to real datasets. Together, our approaches provide efficient tools for studying the spatial organization of heterogeneous cells within complex tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wang Yin
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
- State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
| | - You Wan
- Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Yuan Zhou
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
- State Key Laboratory of Vascular Homeostasis and Remodeling, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, China
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23
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Zhu J, Dai H, Chen L. Revealing cell-cell communication pathways with their spatially coupled gene programs. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbae202. [PMID: 38706319 PMCID: PMC11070651 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbae202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2024] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Inference of cell-cell communication (CCC) provides valuable information in understanding the mechanisms of many important life processes. With the rise of spatial transcriptomics in recent years, many methods have emerged to predict CCCs using spatial information of cells. However, most existing methods only describe CCCs based on ligand-receptor interactions, but lack the exploration of their upstream/downstream pathways. In this paper, we proposed a new method to infer CCCs, called Intercellular Gene Association Network (IGAN). Specifically, it is for the first time that we can estimate the gene associations/network between two specific single spatially adjacent cells. By using the IGAN method, we can not only infer CCCs in an accurate manner, but also explore the upstream/downstream pathways of ligands/receptors from the network perspective, which are actually exhibited as a new panoramic cell-interaction-pathway graph, and thus provide extensive information for the regulatory mechanisms behind CCCs. In addition, IGAN can measure the CCC activity at single cell/spot resolution, and help to discover the CCC spatial heterogeneity. Interestingly, we found that CCC patterns from IGAN are highly consistent with the spatial microenvironment patterns for each cell type, which further indicated the accuracy of our method. Analyses on several public datasets validated the advantages of IGAN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junchao Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cell building, No. 320 Yueyang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Hao Dai
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cell building, No. 320 Yueyang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031, China
| | - Luonan Chen
- Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cell building, No. 320 Yueyang Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031, China
- Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1, Xiangshan Zhinong, Xihu District, Hangzhou 310024, China
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24
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Rogalla S, Holman D, Rubin S, Ferenc M, Holman E, Koron A, Daniel R, Boland B, Nolan G, Chang J. Automated Spatial Omics Landscape Analysis Approach Reveals Novel Tissue Architectures in Ulcerative Colitis. RESEARCH SQUARE 2024:rs.3.rs-3965505. [PMID: 38559236 PMCID: PMC10980100 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3965505/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Abstract
The utility of spatial omics in leveraging cellular interactions in normal and diseased states for precision medicine is hampered by a lack of strategies for matching disease states with spatial heterogeneity-guided cellular annotations. Here we use a spatial context-dependent approach that matches spatial pattern detection to cell annotation. Using this approach in existing datasets from ulcerative colitis patient colonic biopsies, we identified architectural complexities and associated difficult-to-detect rare cell types in ulcerative colitis germinal-center B cell follicles. Our approach deepens our understanding of health and disease pathogenesis, illustrates a strategy for automating nested architecture detection for highly multiplexed spatial biology data, and informs precision diagnosis and therapeutic strategies.
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25
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Danishuddin, Khan S, Kim JJ. Spatial transcriptomics data and analytical methods: An updated perspective. Drug Discov Today 2024; 29:103889. [PMID: 38244672 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2024.103889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Revised: 01/01/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/22/2024]
Abstract
Spatial transcriptomics (ST) is a newly emerging field that integrates high-resolution imaging and transcriptomic data to enable the high-throughput analysis of the spatial localization of transcripts in diverse biological systems. The rapid progress in this field necessitates the development of innovative computational methods to effectively tackle the distinct challenges posed by the analysis of ST data. These platforms, integrating AI techniques, offer a promising avenue for understanding disease mechanisms and expediting drug discovery. Despite significant advances in the development of ST data analysis techniques, there is an ongoing need to enhance these models for increased biological relevance. In this review, we briefly discuss the ST-related databases and current deep-learning-based models for spatial transcriptome data analyses and highlight their roles and future perspectives in biomedical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danishuddin
- Department of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea.
| | - Shawez Khan
- National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT-DK), Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
| | - Jong Joo Kim
- Department of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea.
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26
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Li R, Chen X, Yang X. Navigating the landscapes of spatial transcriptomics: How computational methods guide the way. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. RNA 2024; 15:e1839. [PMID: 38527900 DOI: 10.1002/wrna.1839] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2023] [Revised: 02/24/2024] [Accepted: 03/04/2024] [Indexed: 03/27/2024]
Abstract
Spatially resolved transcriptomics has been dramatically transforming biological and medical research in various fields. It enables transcriptome profiling at single-cell, multi-cellular, or sub-cellular resolution, while retaining the information of geometric localizations of cells in complex tissues. The coupling of cell spatial information and its molecular characteristics generates a novel multi-modal high-throughput data source, which poses new challenges for the development of analytical methods for data-mining. Spatial transcriptomic data are often highly complex, noisy, and biased, presenting a series of difficulties, many unresolved, for data analysis and generation of biological insights. In addition, to keep pace with the ever-evolving spatial transcriptomic experimental technologies, the existing analytical theories and tools need to be updated and reformed accordingly. In this review, we provide an overview and discussion of the current computational approaches for mining of spatial transcriptomics data. Future directions and perspectives of methodology design are proposed to stimulate further discussions and advances in new analytical models and algorithms. This article is categorized under: RNA Methods > RNA Analyses in Cells RNA Evolution and Genomics > Computational Analyses of RNA RNA Export and Localization > RNA Localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Runze Li
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Center for Synthetic & Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Xu Chen
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Center for Synthetic & Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Xuerui Yang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Center for Synthetic & Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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27
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Garmire LX, Li Y, Huang Q, Xu C, Teichmann SA, Kaminski N, Pellegrini M, Nguyen Q, Teschendorff AE. Challenges and perspectives in computational deconvolution of genomics data. Nat Methods 2024; 21:391-400. [PMID: 38374264 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-02166-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Deciphering cell-type heterogeneity is crucial for systematically understanding tissue homeostasis and its dysregulation in diseases. Computational deconvolution is an efficient approach for estimating cell-type abundances from a variety of omics data. Despite substantial methodological progress in computational deconvolution in recent years, challenges are still outstanding. Here we enlist four important challenges related to computational deconvolution: the quality of the reference data, generation of ground truth data, limitations of computational methodologies, and benchmarking design and implementation. Finally, we make recommendations on reference data generation, new directions of computational methodologies, and strategies to promote rigorous benchmarking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lana X Garmire
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
| | - Yijun Li
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Qianhui Huang
- Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Chuan Xu
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | | | - Naftali Kaminski
- Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Matteo Pellegrini
- Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Quan Nguyen
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Andrew E Teschendorff
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- UCL Cancer Institute, University College London, London, UK
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28
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Sun ED, Ma R, Navarro Negredo P, Brunet A, Zou J. TISSUE: uncertainty-calibrated prediction of single-cell spatial transcriptomics improves downstream analyses. Nat Methods 2024; 21:444-454. [PMID: 38347138 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02184-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Whole-transcriptome spatial profiling of genes at single-cell resolution remains a challenge. To address this limitation, spatial gene expression prediction methods have been developed to infer the spatial expression of unmeasured transcripts, but the quality of these predictions can vary greatly. Here we present Transcript Imputation with Spatial Single-cell Uncertainty Estimation (TISSUE) as a general framework for estimating uncertainty for spatial gene expression predictions and providing uncertainty-aware methods for downstream inference. Leveraging conformal inference, TISSUE provides well-calibrated prediction intervals for predicted expression values across 11 benchmark datasets. Moreover, it consistently reduces the false discovery rate for differential gene expression analysis, improves clustering and visualization of predicted spatial transcriptomics and improves the performance of supervised learning models trained on predicted gene expression profiles. Applying TISSUE to a MERFISH spatial transcriptomics dataset of the adult mouse subventricular zone, we identified subtypes within the neural stem cell lineage and developed subtype-specific regional classifiers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric D Sun
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Rong Ma
- Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Anne Brunet
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - James Zou
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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29
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Ma W, Song X, Yuan GC, Wang P. RECCIPE: A new framework assessing localized cell-cell interaction on gene expression in multicellular ST data. Front Genet 2024; 15:1322886. [PMID: 38327830 PMCID: PMC10847567 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1322886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Cell-cell interaction (CCI) plays a pivotal role in cellular communication within the tissue microenvironment. The recent development of spatial transcriptomics (ST) technology and associated data analysis methods has empowered researchers to systematically investigate CCI. However, existing methods are tailored to single-cell resolution datasets, whereas the majority of ST platforms lack such resolution. Additionally, the detection of CCI through association screening based on ST data, which has complicated dependence structure, necessitates proper control of false discovery rates due to the multiple hypothesis testing issue in high dimensional spaces. To address these challenges, we introduce RECCIPE, a novel method designed for identifying cell signaling interactions across multiple cell types in spatial transcriptomic data. RECCIPE integrates gene expression data, spatial information and cell type composition in a multivariate regression framework, enabling genome-wide screening for changes in gene expression levels attributed to CCIs. We show that RECCIPE not only achieves high accuracy in simulated datasets but also provides new biological insights from real data obtained from a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Overall, our framework provides a useful tool for studying impact of cell-cell interactions on gene expression in multicellular systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiping Ma
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
| | - Xiaoyu Song
- Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Institute for Health Care Delivery Science, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
| | - Guo-Cheng Yuan
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
| | - Pei Wang
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
- Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
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30
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Mason K, Sathe A, Hess PR, Rong J, Wu CY, Furth E, Susztak K, Levinsohn J, Ji HP, Zhang N. Niche-DE: niche-differential gene expression analysis in spatial transcriptomics data identifies context-dependent cell-cell interactions. Genome Biol 2024; 25:14. [PMID: 38217002 PMCID: PMC10785550 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03159-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Existing methods for analysis of spatial transcriptomic data focus on delineating the global gene expression variations of cell types across the tissue, rather than local gene expression changes driven by cell-cell interactions. We propose a new statistical procedure called niche-differential expression (niche-DE) analysis that identifies cell-type-specific niche-associated genes, which are differentially expressed within a specific cell type in the context of specific spatial niches. We further develop niche-LR, a method to reveal ligand-receptor signaling mechanisms that underlie niche-differential gene expression patterns. Niche-DE and niche-LR are applicable to low-resolution spot-based spatial transcriptomics data and data that is single-cell or subcellular in resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaishu Mason
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Anuja Sathe
- Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Paul R Hess
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Jiazhen Rong
- Genomics and Computational Biology Graduate Program, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Chi-Yun Wu
- The Gladstone Institute, San Francisco, USA
| | - Emma Furth
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Katalin Susztak
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Jonathan Levinsohn
- Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Hanlee P Ji
- Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Nancy Zhang
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
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31
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Hao M, Luo E, Chen Y, Wu Y, Li C, Chen S, Gao H, Bian H, Gu J, Wei L, Zhang X. STEM enables mapping of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data with transfer learning. Commun Biol 2024; 7:56. [PMID: 38184694 PMCID: PMC10771471 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05640-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Profiling spatial variations of cellular composition and transcriptomic characteristics is important for understanding the physiology and pathology of tissues. Spatial transcriptomics (ST) data depict spatial gene expression but the currently dominating high-throughput technology is yet not at single-cell resolution. Single-cell RNA-sequencing (SC) data provide high-throughput transcriptomic information at the single-cell level but lack spatial information. Integrating these two types of data would be ideal for revealing transcriptomic landscapes at single-cell resolution. We develop the method STEM (SpaTially aware EMbedding) for this purpose. It uses deep transfer learning to encode both ST and SC data into a unified spatially aware embedding space, and then uses the embeddings to infer SC-ST mapping and predict pseudo-spatial adjacency between cells in SC data. Semi-simulation and real data experiments verify that the embeddings preserved spatial information and eliminated technical biases between SC and ST data. We apply STEM to human squamous cell carcinoma and hepatic lobule datasets to uncover the localization of rare cell types and reveal cell-type-specific gene expression variation along a spatial axis. STEM is powerful for mapping SC and ST data to build single-cell level spatial transcriptomic landscapes, and can provide mechanistic insights into the spatial heterogeneity and microenvironments of tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minsheng Hao
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Erpai Luo
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Yixin Chen
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Yanhong Wu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Chen Li
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Sijie Chen
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Haoxiang Gao
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Haiyang Bian
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Jin Gu
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Lei Wei
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
| | - Xuegong Zhang
- MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Division, BNRIST, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
- School of Life Sciences and School of Medicine, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
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32
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Yang X, Huang K, Yang D, Zhao W, Zhou X. Biomedical Big Data Technologies, Applications, and Challenges for Precision Medicine: A Review. GLOBAL CHALLENGES (HOBOKEN, NJ) 2024; 8:2300163. [PMID: 38223896 PMCID: PMC10784210 DOI: 10.1002/gch2.202300163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
The explosive growth of biomedical Big Data presents both significant opportunities and challenges in the realm of knowledge discovery and translational applications within precision medicine. Efficient management, analysis, and interpretation of big data can pave the way for groundbreaking advancements in precision medicine. However, the unprecedented strides in the automated collection of large-scale molecular and clinical data have also introduced formidable challenges in terms of data analysis and interpretation, necessitating the development of novel computational approaches. Some potential challenges include the curse of dimensionality, data heterogeneity, missing data, class imbalance, and scalability issues. This overview article focuses on the recent progress and breakthroughs in the application of big data within precision medicine. Key aspects are summarized, including content, data sources, technologies, tools, challenges, and existing gaps. Nine fields-Datawarehouse and data management, electronic medical record, biomedical imaging informatics, Artificial intelligence-aided surgical design and surgery optimization, omics data, health monitoring data, knowledge graph, public health informatics, and security and privacy-are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Yang
- Department of Pancreatic Surgery and West China Biomedical Big Data CenterWest China HospitalSichuan UniversityChengdu610041China
| | - Kexin Huang
- Department of Pancreatic Surgery and West China Biomedical Big Data CenterWest China HospitalSichuan UniversityChengdu610041China
| | - Dewei Yang
- College of Advanced Manufacturing EngineeringChongqing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChongqingChongqing400000China
| | - Weiling Zhao
- Center for Systems MedicineSchool of Biomedical InformaticsUTHealth at HoustonHoustonTX77030USA
| | - Xiaobo Zhou
- Center for Systems MedicineSchool of Biomedical InformaticsUTHealth at HoustonHoustonTX77030USA
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33
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Yang ST, Zhang XF. ENGEP: advancing spatial transcriptomics with accurate unmeasured gene expression prediction. Genome Biol 2023; 24:293. [PMID: 38129866 PMCID: PMC10734203 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03139-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Imaging-based spatial transcriptomics techniques provide valuable spatial and gene expression information at single-cell resolution. However, their current capability is restricted to profiling a limited number of genes per sample, resulting in most of the transcriptome remaining unmeasured. To overcome this challenge, we develop ENGEP, an ensemble learning-based tool that predicts unmeasured gene expression in spatial transcriptomics data by using multiple single-cell RNA sequencing datasets as references. ENGEP outperforms current state-of-the-art tools and brings biological insight by accurately predicting unmeasured genes. ENGEP has exceptional efficiency in terms of runtime and memory usage, making it scalable for analyzing large datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi-Tong Yang
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
- Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Analysis & Applications (Ministry of Education), Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiao-Fei Zhang
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
- Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Analysis & Applications (Ministry of Education), Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
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34
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Zhu JH, Guan XC, Yi LL, Xu H, Li QY, Cheng WJ, Xie YX, Li WZ, Zhao HY, Wei HJ, Zhao SM. Single-nucleus transcriptome sequencing reveals hepatic cell atlas in pigs. BMC Genomics 2023; 24:770. [PMID: 38087243 PMCID: PMC10717992 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09765-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND As the largest substantive organ of animals, the liver plays an essential role in the physiological processes of digestive metabolism and immune defense. However, the cellular composition of the pig liver remains poorly understood. This investigation used single-nucleus RNA sequencing technology to identify cell types from liver tissues of pigs, providing a theoretical basis for further investigating liver cell types in pigs. RESULTS The analysis revealed 13 cells clusters which were further identified 7 cell types including endothelial cells, T cells, hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, stellate cells, B cells, and cholangiocytes. The dominant cell types were endothelial cells, T cells and hepatocytes in the liver tissue of Dahe pigs and Dahe black pigs, which accounts for about 85.76% and 82.74%, respectively. The number of endothelial cells was higher in the liver tissue of Dahe pigs compared to Dahe black pigs, while the opposite tendency was observed for T cells. Moreover, functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that the differentially expressed genes in pig hepatic endothelial cells were significantly enriched in the protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, MAPK signaling pathway, and FoxO signaling pathway. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that the differentially expressed genes in pig hepatic T cells were significantly enriched in the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, B cell receptor signaling pathway, and focal adhesion. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that the differentially expressed genes in pig hepatic hepatocytes were significantly enriched in the metabolic pathways. CONCLUSIONS In summary, this study provides a comprehensive cell atlas of porcine hepatic tissue. The number, gene expression level and functional characteristics of each cell type in pig liver tissue varied between breeds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun-Hong Zhu
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Xuan-Cheng Guan
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Lan-Lan Yi
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Hong Xu
- School of Public Finance and Economics, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, 650221, China
| | - Qiu-Yan Li
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Wen-Jie Cheng
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Yu-Xiao Xie
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- College of Biology and Agriculture, Zunyi Normal University, Zunyi, 563006, China
| | - Wei-Zhen Li
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Hong-Ye Zhao
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China
| | - Hong-Jiang Wei
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China.
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China.
| | - Su-Mei Zhao
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China.
- Yunnan Province Key Laboratory for Porcine Gene Editing and Xenotransplantation, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, China.
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Choi J, Ehrlich ME, Roussos P, Wang P, Yuan GC, Song X. QuadST: A Powerful and Robust Approach for Identifying Cell-Cell Interaction-Changed Genes on Spatially Resolved Transcriptomics. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.04.570019. [PMID: 38106025 PMCID: PMC10723309 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.04.570019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) have enabled profiling spatial organization of cells and their transcriptome in situ. Various analytical methods have been developed to uncover cell-cell interaction processes using SRT data. To improve upon existing efforts, we developed a novel statistical framework called QuadST for the robust and powerful identification of interaction-changed genes (ICGs) for cell-type-pair specific interactions on a single-cell SRT dataset. QuadST is motivated by the idea that in the presence of cell-cell interaction, gene expression level can vary with cell-cell distance between cell type pairs, which can be particularly pronounced within and in the vicinity of cell-cell interaction distance. Specifically, QuadST infers ICGs in a specific cell type pair's interaction based on a quantile regression model, which allows us to assess the strength of distance-expression association across entire distance quantiles conditioned on gene expression level. To identify ICGs, QuadST performs a hypothesis testing with an empirically estimated FDR, whose upper bound is determined by the ratio of cumulative associations at symmetrically smaller and larger distance quantiles simultaneously across all genes. Simulation studies illustrate that QuadST provides consistent FDR control and better power performance than other compared methods. Its application on SRT datasets profiled from mouse brains demonstrates that QuadST can identify ICGs presumed to play a role in specific cell type pair interactions (e.g., synaptic pathway genes among excitatory neuron cell interactions). These results suggest that QuadST can be a useful tool to discover genes and regulatory processes involved in specific cell type pair interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinmyung Choi
- Institute for Health Care Delivery Science, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michelle E. Ehrlich
- Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Panos Roussos
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Department of Psychiatry, Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA; Mental Illness Research Education, and Clinical Center (VISN 2 South), James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Pei Wang
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn Institute for Data Science and Genomic Technology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Guo-Cheng Yuan
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA
| | - Xiaoyu Song
- Institute for Health Care Delivery Science, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
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36
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Cheng J, Cheng M, Lusis AJ, Yang X. Gene Regulatory Networks in Coronary Artery Disease. Curr Atheroscler Rep 2023; 25:1013-1023. [PMID: 38008808 DOI: 10.1007/s11883-023-01170-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/28/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Coronary artery disease is a complex disorder and the leading cause of mortality worldwide. As technologies for the generation of high-throughput multiomics data have advanced, gene regulatory network modeling has become an increasingly powerful tool in understanding coronary artery disease. This review summarizes recent and novel gene regulatory network tools for bulk tissue and single cell data, existing databases for network construction, and applications of gene regulatory networks in coronary artery disease. RECENT FINDINGS New gene regulatory network tools can integrate multiomics data to elucidate complex disease mechanisms at unprecedented cellular and spatial resolutions. At the same time, updates to coronary artery disease expression data in existing databases have enabled researchers to build gene regulatory networks to study novel disease mechanisms. Gene regulatory networks have proven extremely useful in understanding CAD heritability beyond what is explained by GWAS loci and in identifying mechanisms and key driver genes underlying disease onset and progression. Gene regulatory networks can holistically and comprehensively address the complex nature of coronary artery disease. In this review, we discuss key algorithmic approaches to construct gene regulatory networks and highlight state-of-the-art methods that model specific modes of gene regulation. We also explore recent applications of these tools in coronary artery disease patient data repositories to understand disease heritability and shared and distinct disease mechanisms and key driver genes across tissues, between sexes, and between species.
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Grants
- DK120342, HL148577, and HL147883 (AJL). NS111378, NS117148, HL147883 (XY) NIH HHS
- DK120342, HL148577, and HL147883 (AJL). NS111378, NS117148, HL147883 (XY) NIH HHS
- DK120342, HL148577, and HL147883 (AJL). NS111378, NS117148, HL147883 (XY) NIH HHS
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Cheng
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
- Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Michael Cheng
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
| | - Aldons J Lusis
- Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles, 650 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
- Departments of Human Genetics & Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
| | - Xia Yang
- Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
- Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
- Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California, Los Angeles, 610 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
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37
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Wan X, Xiao J, Tam SST, Cai M, Sugimura R, Wang Y, Wan X, Lin Z, Wu AR, Yang C. Integrating spatial and single-cell transcriptomics data using deep generative models with SpatialScope. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7848. [PMID: 38030617 PMCID: PMC10687049 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43629-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The rapid emergence of spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies is revolutionizing our understanding of tissue spatial architecture and biology. Although current ST methods, whether based on next-generation sequencing (seq-based approaches) or fluorescence in situ hybridization (image-based approaches), offer valuable insights, they face limitations either in cellular resolution or transcriptome-wide profiling. To address these limitations, we present SpatialScope, a unified approach integrating scRNA-seq reference data and ST data using deep generative models. With innovation in model and algorithm designs, SpatialScope not only enhances seq-based ST data to achieve single-cell resolution, but also accurately infers transcriptome-wide expression levels for image-based ST data. We demonstrate SpatialScope's utility through simulation studies and real data analysis from both seq-based and image-based ST approaches. SpatialScope provides spatial characterization of tissue structures at transcriptome-wide single-cell resolution, facilitating downstream analysis, including detecting cellular communication through ligand-receptor interactions, localizing cellular subtypes, and identifying spatially differentially expressed genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaomeng Wan
- Department of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jiashun Xiao
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, Shenzhen, 518172, China
| | - Sindy Sing Ting Tam
- Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Mingxuan Cai
- Department of Biostatistics, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ryohichi Sugimura
- Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Yang Wang
- Department of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Data-Driven Fluid Mechanics and Engineering Applications, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Big Data Bio-Intelligence Lab, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Xiang Wan
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, Shenzhen, 518172, China
| | - Zhixiang Lin
- Department of Statistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Angela Ruohao Wu
- Division of Life Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Center for Aging Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Can Yang
- Department of Mathematics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Data-Driven Fluid Mechanics and Engineering Applications, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Big Data Bio-Intelligence Lab, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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38
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Pham D, Tan X, Balderson B, Xu J, Grice LF, Yoon S, Willis EF, Tran M, Lam PY, Raghubar A, Kalita-de Croft P, Lakhani S, Vukovic J, Ruitenberg MJ, Nguyen QH. Robust mapping of spatiotemporal trajectories and cell-cell interactions in healthy and diseased tissues. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7739. [PMID: 38007580 PMCID: PMC10676408 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43120-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 36.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies generate multiple data types from biological samples, namely gene expression, physical distance between data points, and/or tissue morphology. Here we developed three computational-statistical algorithms that integrate all three data types to advance understanding of cellular processes. First, we present a spatial graph-based method, pseudo-time-space (PSTS), to model and uncover relationships between transcriptional states of cells across tissues undergoing dynamic change (e.g. neurodevelopment, brain injury and/or microglia activation, and cancer progression). We further developed a spatially-constrained two-level permutation (SCTP) test to study cell-cell interaction, finding highly interactive tissue regions across thousands of ligand-receptor pairs with markedly reduced false discovery rates. Finally, we present a spatial graph-based imputation method with neural network (stSME), to correct for technical noise/dropout and increase ST data coverage. Together, the algorithms that we developed, implemented in the comprehensive and fast stLearn software, allow for robust interrogation of biological processes within healthy and diseased tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duy Pham
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Xiao Tan
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Brad Balderson
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Jun Xu
- Genome Innovation Hub, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Laura F Grice
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Sohye Yoon
- Genome Innovation Hub, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Emily F Willis
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Minh Tran
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Pui Yeng Lam
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Arti Raghubar
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | | | - Sunil Lakhani
- UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Jana Vukovic
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Marc J Ruitenberg
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
| | - Quan H Nguyen
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, Australia.
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Wang H, Zhang C, Hong SH, Maye P, Rowe D, Shin DG. CGCom: a framework for inferring Cell-cell Communication based on Graph Neural Network. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.10.566642. [PMID: 38014057 PMCID: PMC10680670 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.10.566642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Cell-cell communication is crucial in maintaining cellular homeostasis, cell survival and various regulatory relationships among interacting cells. Thanks to recent advances of spatial transcriptomics technologies, we can now explore if and how cells' proximal information available from spatial transcriptomics datasets can be used to infer cell-cell communication. Here we present a cell-cell communication inference framework, called CGCom, which uses a graph neural network (GNN) to learn communication patterns among interacting cells by combining single-cell spatial transcriptomic datasets with publicly available ligand-receptor information and the molecular regulatory information down-stream of the ligand-receptor signaling. To evaluate the performance of CGCom, we applied it to mouse embryo seqFISH datasets. Our results demonstrate that CGCom can not only accurately infer cell communication between individual cell pairs but also generalize its learning to predict communication between different cell types. We compared the performance of CGCom with two existing methods, CellChat and CellPhoneDB, and our comparative study revealed both common and unique communication patterns from the three approaches. Commonly found communication patterns include three sets of ligand-receptor communication relationships, one between surface ectoderm cells and spinal cord cells, one between gut tube cells and endothelium, and one between neural crest and endothelium, all of which have already been reported in the literature thus offering credibility of all three methods. However, we hypothesize that CGCom is superior in reducing false positives thanks to its use of cell proximal information and its learning between specific cell pairs rather than between cell types. CGCom is a GNN-based solution that can take advantage of spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomic data in predicting cell-cell communication with a higher accuracy.
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40
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Alexandrov T, Saez‐Rodriguez J, Saka SK. Enablers and challenges of spatial omics, a melting pot of technologies. Mol Syst Biol 2023; 19:e10571. [PMID: 37842805 PMCID: PMC10632737 DOI: 10.15252/msb.202110571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Revised: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial omics has emerged as a rapidly growing and fruitful field with hundreds of publications presenting novel methods for obtaining spatially resolved information for any omics data type on spatial scales ranging from subcellular to organismal. From a technology development perspective, spatial omics is a highly interdisciplinary field that integrates imaging and omics, spatial and molecular analyses, sequencing and mass spectrometry, and image analysis and bioinformatics. The emergence of this field has not only opened a window into spatial biology, but also created multiple novel opportunities, questions, and challenges for method developers. Here, we provide the perspective of technology developers on what makes the spatial omics field unique. After providing a brief overview of the state of the art, we discuss technological enablers and challenges and present our vision about the future applications and impact of this melting pot.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theodore Alexandrov
- Structural and Computational Biology UnitEuropean Molecular Biology LaboratoryHeidelbergGermany
- Molecular Medicine Partnership UnitEuropean Molecular Biology LaboratoryHeidelbergGermany
- BioInnovation InstituteCopenhagenDenmark
| | - Julio Saez‐Rodriguez
- Molecular Medicine Partnership UnitEuropean Molecular Biology LaboratoryHeidelbergGermany
- Faculty of Medicine and Heidelberg University Hospital, Institute for Computational BiomedicineHeidelberg UniversityHeidelbergGermany
| | - Sinem K Saka
- Genome Biology UnitEuropean Molecular Biology LaboratoryHeidelbergGermany
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41
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Zhang X, Cao Q, Rajachandran S, Grow EJ, Evans M, Chen H. Dissecting mammalian reproduction with spatial transcriptomics. Hum Reprod Update 2023; 29:794-810. [PMID: 37353907 PMCID: PMC10628492 DOI: 10.1093/humupd/dmad017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2023] [Revised: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/25/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Mammalian reproduction requires the fusion of two specialized cells: an oocyte and a sperm. In addition to producing gametes, the reproductive system also provides the environment for the appropriate development of the embryo. Deciphering the reproductive system requires understanding the functions of each cell type and cell-cell interactions. Recent single-cell omics technologies have provided insights into the gene regulatory network in discrete cellular populations of both the male and female reproductive systems. However, these approaches cannot examine how the cellular states of the gametes or embryos are regulated through their interactions with neighboring somatic cells in the native tissue environment owing to tissue disassociations. Emerging spatial omics technologies address this challenge by preserving the spatial context of the cells to be profiled. These technologies hold the potential to revolutionize our understanding of mammalian reproduction. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE We aim to review the state-of-the-art spatial transcriptomics (ST) technologies with a focus on highlighting the novel biological insights that they have helped to reveal about the mammalian reproductive systems in the context of gametogenesis, embryogenesis, and reproductive pathologies. We also aim to discuss the current challenges of applying ST technologies in reproductive research and provide a sneak peek at what the field of spatial omics can offer for the reproduction community in the years to come. SEARCH METHODS The PubMed database was used in the search for peer-reviewed research articles and reviews using combinations of the following terms: 'spatial omics', 'fertility', 'reproduction', 'gametogenesis', 'embryogenesis', 'reproductive cancer', 'spatial transcriptomics', 'spermatogenesis', 'ovary', 'uterus', 'cervix', 'testis', and other keywords related to the subject area. All relevant publications until April 2023 were critically evaluated and discussed. OUTCOMES First, an overview of the ST technologies that have been applied to studying the reproductive systems was provided. The basic design principles and the advantages and limitations of these technologies were discussed and tabulated to serve as a guide for researchers to choose the best-suited technologies for their own research. Second, novel biological insights into mammalian reproduction, especially human reproduction revealed by ST analyses, were comprehensively reviewed. Three major themes were discussed. The first theme focuses on genes with non-random spatial expression patterns with specialized functions in multiple reproductive systems; The second theme centers around functionally interacting cell types which are often found to be spatially clustered in the reproductive tissues; and the thrid theme discusses pathological states in reproductive systems which are often associated with unique cellular microenvironments. Finally, current experimental and computational challenges of applying ST technologies to studying mammalian reproduction were highlighted, and potential solutions to tackle these challenges were provided. Future directions in the development of spatial omics technologies and how they will benefit the field of human reproduction were discussed, including the capture of cellular and tissue dynamics, multi-modal molecular profiling, and spatial characterization of gene perturbations. WIDER IMPLICATIONS Like single-cell technologies, spatial omics technologies hold tremendous potential for providing significant and novel insights into mammalian reproduction. Our review summarizes these novel biological insights that ST technologies have provided while shedding light on what is yet to come. Our review provides reproductive biologists and clinicians with a much-needed update on the state of art of ST technologies. It may also facilitate the adoption of cutting-edge spatial technologies in both basic and clinical reproductive research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Zhang
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Qiqi Cao
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Shreya Rajachandran
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Edward J Grow
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Melanie Evans
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Haiqi Chen
- Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
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42
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Bunne C, Stark SG, Gut G, Del Castillo JS, Levesque M, Lehmann KV, Pelkmans L, Krause A, Rätsch G. Learning single-cell perturbation responses using neural optimal transport. Nat Methods 2023; 20:1759-1768. [PMID: 37770709 PMCID: PMC10630137 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-023-01969-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023]
Abstract
Understanding and predicting molecular responses in single cells upon chemical, genetic or mechanical perturbations is a core question in biology. Obtaining single-cell measurements typically requires the cells to be destroyed. This makes learning heterogeneous perturbation responses challenging as we only observe unpaired distributions of perturbed or non-perturbed cells. Here we leverage the theory of optimal transport and the recent advent of input convex neural architectures to present CellOT, a framework for learning the response of individual cells to a given perturbation by mapping these unpaired distributions. CellOT outperforms current methods at predicting single-cell drug responses, as profiled by scRNA-seq and a multiplexed protein-imaging technology. Further, we illustrate that CellOT generalizes well on unseen settings by (1) predicting the scRNA-seq responses of holdout patients with lupus exposed to interferon-β and patients with glioblastoma to panobinostat; (2) inferring lipopolysaccharide responses across different species; and (3) modeling the hematopoietic developmental trajectories of different subpopulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Bunne
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
- AI Center, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Stefan G Stark
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
- AI Center, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Medical Informatics Unit, University of Zurich Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gabriele Gut
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | | | - Mitch Levesque
- Department of Dermatology, University of Zurich Hospital, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Kjong-Van Lehmann
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Cancer Research Center Cologne-Essen, Site: Center Integrated Oncology Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
| | - Lucas Pelkmans
- Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Andreas Krause
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- AI Center, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Gunnar Rätsch
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- AI Center, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Medical Informatics Unit, University of Zurich Hospital, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
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Vahid MR, Brown EL, Steen CB, Zhang W, Jeon HS, Kang M, Gentles AJ, Newman AM. High-resolution alignment of single-cell and spatial transcriptomes with CytoSPACE. Nat Biotechnol 2023; 41:1543-1548. [PMID: 36879008 PMCID: PMC10635828 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-023-01697-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
Recent studies have emphasized the importance of single-cell spatial biology, yet available assays for spatial transcriptomics have limited gene recovery or low spatial resolution. Here we introduce CytoSPACE, an optimization method for mapping individual cells from a single-cell RNA sequencing atlas to spatial expression profiles. Across diverse platforms and tissue types, we show that CytoSPACE outperforms previous methods with respect to noise tolerance and accuracy, enabling tissue cartography at single-cell resolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milad R Vahid
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Erin L Brown
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Chloé B Steen
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Cancer Immunology, Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Wubing Zhang
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Hyun Soo Jeon
- Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Minji Kang
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Andrew J Gentles
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Aaron M Newman
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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Yuan Z, Yao J. Harnessing computational spatial omics to explore the spatial biology intricacies. Semin Cancer Biol 2023; 95:25-41. [PMID: 37400044 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2023.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023]
Abstract
Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) has unlocked new dimensions in our understanding of intricate tissue architectures. However, this rapidly expanding field produces a wealth of diverse and voluminous data, necessitating the evolution of sophisticated computational strategies to unravel inherent patterns. Two distinct methodologies, gene spatial pattern recognition (GSPR) and tissue spatial pattern recognition (TSPR), have emerged as vital tools in this process. GSPR methodologies are designed to identify and classify genes exhibiting noteworthy spatial patterns, while TSPR strategies aim to understand intercellular interactions and recognize tissue domains with molecular and spatial coherence. In this review, we provide a comprehensive exploration of SRT, highlighting crucial data modalities and resources that are instrumental for the development of methods and biological insights. We address the complexities and challenges posed by the use of heterogeneous data in developing GSPR and TSPR methodologies and propose an optimal workflow for both. We delve into the latest advancements in GSPR and TSPR, examining their interrelationships. Lastly, we peer into the future, envisaging the potential directions and perspectives in this dynamic field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiyuan Yuan
- Center for Medical Research and Innovation, Shanghai Pudong Hospital, Fudan University Pudong Medical Center, Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
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45
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Wang X, Almet AA, Nie Q. The promising application of cell-cell interaction analysis in cancer from single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. Semin Cancer Biol 2023; 95:42-51. [PMID: 37454878 PMCID: PMC10627116 DOI: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2023.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Cell-cell interactions instruct cell fate and function. These interactions are hijacked to promote cancer development. Single-cell transcriptomics and spatial transcriptomics have become powerful new tools for researchers to profile the transcriptional landscape of cancer at unparalleled genetic depth. In this review, we discuss the rapidly growing array of computational tools to infer cell-cell interactions from non-spatial single-cell RNA-sequencing and the limited but growing number of methods for spatial transcriptomics data. Downstream analyses of these computational tools and applications to cancer studies are highlighted. We finish by suggesting several directions for further extensions that anticipate the increasing availability of multi-omics cancer data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyi Wang
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States
| | - Axel A Almet
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States; The NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
| | - Qing Nie
- Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States; The NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States; Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
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46
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Luo J, Deng M, Zhang X, Sun X. ESICCC as a systematic computational framework for evaluation, selection, and integration of cell-cell communication inference methods. Genome Res 2023; 33:1788-1805. [PMID: 37827697 PMCID: PMC10691505 DOI: 10.1101/gr.278001.123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
Cell-cell communication (CCC) is critical for determining cell fates and functions in multicellular organisms. With the advent of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatial transcriptomics (ST), an increasing number of CCC inference methods have been developed. Nevertheless, a thorough comparison of their performances is yet to be conducted. To fill this gap, we developed a systematic benchmark framework called ESICCC to evaluate 18 ligand-receptor (LR) inference methods and five ligand/receptor-target inference methods using a total of 116 data sets, including 15 ST data sets, 15 sets of cell line perturbation data, two sets of cell type-specific expression/proteomics data, and 84 sets of sampled or unsampled scRNA-seq data. We evaluated and compared the agreement, accuracy, robustness, and usability of these methods. Regarding accuracy evaluation, RNAMagnet, CellChat, and scSeqComm emerge as the three best-performing methods for intercellular ligand-receptor inference based on scRNA-seq data, whereas stMLnet and HoloNet are the best methods for predicting ligand/receptor-target regulation using ST data. To facilitate the practical applications, we provide a decision-tree-style guideline for users to easily choose best tools for their specific research concerns in CCC inference, and develop an ensemble pipeline CCCbank that enables versatile combinations of methods and databases. Moreover, our comparative results also uncover several critical influential factors for CCC inference, such as prior interaction information, ligand-receptor scoring algorithm, intracellular signaling complexity, and spatial relationship, which may be considered in the future studies to advance the development of new methodologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxin Luo
- Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
- School of Mathematics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
| | - Minghua Deng
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Xuegong Zhang
- Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Xiaoqiang Sun
- School of Mathematics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;
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Mages S, Moriel N, Avraham-Davidi I, Murray E, Watter J, Chen F, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Klughammer J, Regev A, Nitzan M. TACCO unifies annotation transfer and decomposition of cell identities for single-cell and spatial omics. Nat Biotechnol 2023; 41:1465-1473. [PMID: 36797494 PMCID: PMC10513360 DOI: 10.1038/s41587-023-01657-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 01/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023]
Abstract
Transferring annotations of single-cell-, spatial- and multi-omics data is often challenging owing both to technical limitations, such as low spatial resolution or high dropout fraction, and to biological variations, such as continuous spectra of cell states. Based on the concept that these data are often best described as continuous mixtures of cells or molecules, we present a computational framework for the transfer of annotations to cells and their combinations (TACCO), which consists of an optimal transport model extended with different wrappers to annotate a wide variety of data. We apply TACCO to identify cell types and states, decipher spatiomolecular tissue structure at the cell and molecular level and resolve differentiation trajectories using synthetic and biological datasets. While matching or exceeding the accuracy of specialized tools for the individual tasks, TACCO reduces the computational requirements by up to an order of magnitude and scales to larger datasets (for example, considering the runtime of annotation transfer for 1 M simulated dropout observations).
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Mages
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Noa Moriel
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Inbal Avraham-Davidi
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Evan Murray
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jan Watter
- Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Fei Chen
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Johanna Klughammer
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany.
| | - Aviv Regev
- Klarman Cell Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Mor Nitzan
- School of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
- Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
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48
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Peng L, Yuan R, Han C, Han G, Tan J, Wang Z, Chen M, Chen X. CellEnBoost: A Boosting-Based Ligand-Receptor Interaction Identification Model for Cell-to-Cell Communication Inference. IEEE Trans Nanobioscience 2023; 22:705-715. [PMID: 37216267 DOI: 10.1109/tnb.2023.3278685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Cell-to-cell communication (CCC) plays important roles in multicellular organisms. The identification of communication between cancer cells themselves and one between cancer cells and normal cells in tumor microenvironment helps understand cancer genesis, development and metastasis. CCC is usually mediated by Ligand-Receptor Interactions (LRIs). In this manuscript, we developed a Boosting-based LRI identification model (CellEnBoost) for CCC inference. First, potential LRIs are predicted by data collection, feature extraction, dimensional reduction, and classification based on an ensemble of Light gradient boosting machine and AdaBoost combining convolutional neural network. Next, the predicted LRIs and known LRIs are filtered. Third, the filtered LRIs are applied to CCC elucidation by combining CCC strength measurement and single-cell RNA sequencing data. Finally, CCC inference results are visualized using heatmap view, Circos plot view, and network view. The experimental results show that CellEnBoost obtained the best AUCs and AUPRs on the collected four LRI datasets. Case study in human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissues demonstrates that fibroblasts were more likely to communicate with HNSCC cells, which is in accord with the results from iTALK. We anticipate that this work can contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of cancers.
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Li H, Ma T, Hao M, Guo W, Gu J, Zhang X, Wei L. Decoding functional cell-cell communication events by multi-view graph learning on spatial transcriptomics. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad359. [PMID: 37824741 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Cell-cell communication events (CEs) are mediated by multiple ligand-receptor (LR) pairs. Usually only a particular subset of CEs directly works for a specific downstream response in a particular microenvironment. We name them as functional communication events (FCEs) of the target responses. Decoding FCE-target gene relations is: important for understanding the mechanisms of many biological processes, but has been intractable due to the mixing of multiple factors and the lack of direct observations. We developed a method HoloNet for decoding FCEs using spatial transcriptomic data by integrating LR pairs, cell-type spatial distribution and downstream gene expression into a deep learning model. We modeled CEs as a multi-view network, developed an attention-based graph learning method to train the model for generating target gene expression with the CE networks, and decoded the FCEs for specific downstream genes by interpreting trained models. We applied HoloNet on three Visium datasets of breast cancer and liver cancer. The results detangled the multiple factors of FCEs by revealing how LR signals and cell types affect specific biological processes, and specified FCE-induced effects in each single cell. We conducted simulation experiments and showed that HoloNet is more reliable on LR prioritization in comparison with existing methods. HoloNet is a powerful tool to illustrate cell-cell communication landscapes and reveal vital FCEs that shape cellular phenotypes. HoloNet is available as a Python package at https://github.com/lhc17/HoloNet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haochen Li
- School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Tianxing Ma
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Minsheng Hao
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Wenbo Guo
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Jin Gu
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Xuegong Zhang
- School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Lei Wei
- MOE Key Lab of Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Division of BNRIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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Luo X, Liu Z, Xu R. Adult tissue-specific stem cell interaction: novel technologies and research advances. Front Cell Dev Biol 2023; 11:1220694. [PMID: 37808078 PMCID: PMC10551553 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2023.1220694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Adult tissue-specific stem cells play a dominant role in tissue homeostasis and regeneration. Various in vivo markers of adult tissue-specific stem cells have been increasingly reported by lineage tracing in genetic mouse models, indicating that marked cells differentiation is crucial during homeostasis and regeneration. How adult tissue-specific stem cells with indicated markers contact the adjacent lineage with indicated markers is of significance to be studied. Novel methods bring future findings. Recent advances in lineage tracing, synthetic receptor systems, proximity labeling, and transcriptomics have enabled easier and more accurate cell behavior visualization and qualitative and quantitative analysis of cell-cell interactions than ever before. These technological innovations have prompted researchers to re-evaluate previous experimental results, providing increasingly compelling experimental results for understanding the mechanisms of cell-cell interactions. This review aimed to describe the recent methodological advances of dual enzyme lineage tracing system, the synthetic receptor system, proximity labeling, single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics in the study of adult tissue-specific stem cells interactions. An enhanced understanding of the mechanisms of adult tissue-specific stem cells interaction is important for tissue regeneration and maintenance of homeostasis in organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Ruoshi Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Cariology and Endodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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