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Xia Y, Liu Y, Li T, He S, Chang H, Wang Y, Zhang Y, Ge W. Assessing parameter efficient methods for pre-trained language model in annotating scRNA-seq data. Methods 2024; 228:12-21. [PMID: 38759908 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2024.05.007] [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: 04/12/2024] [Revised: 04/28/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Annotating cell types of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data is crucial for studying cellular heterogeneity in the tumor microenvironment. Recently, large-scale pre-trained language models (PLMs) have achieved significant progress in cell-type annotation of scRNA-seq data. This approach effectively addresses previous methods' shortcomings in performance and generalization. However, fine-tuning PLMs for different downstream tasks demands considerable computational resources, rendering it impractical. Hence, a new research branch introduces parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT). This involves optimizing a few parameters while leaving the majority unchanged, leading to substantial reductions in computational expenses. Here, we utilize scBERT, a large-scale pre-trained model, to explore the capabilities of three PEFT methods in scRNA-seq cell type annotation. Extensive benchmark studies across several datasets demonstrate the superior applicability of PEFT methods. Furthermore, downstream analysis using models obtained through PEFT showcases their utility in novel cell type discovery and model interpretability for potential marker genes. Our findings underscore the considerable potential of PEFT in PLM-based cell type annotation, presenting novel perspectives for the analysis of scRNA-seq data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yucheng Xia
- Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610209, China
| | - Yuhang Liu
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Tianhao Li
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Sihan He
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Hong Chang
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Yaqing Wang
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Yongqing Zhang
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Wenyi Ge
- School of Computer Science, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China.
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Xiong YX, Zhang XF. scDOT: enhancing single-cell RNA-Seq data annotation and uncovering novel cell types through multi-reference integration. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbae072. [PMID: 38436563 PMCID: PMC10939303 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbae072] [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: 10/26/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The proliferation of single-cell RNA-seq data has greatly enhanced our ability to comprehend the intricate nature of diverse tissues. However, accurately annotating cell types in such data, especially when handling multiple reference datasets and identifying novel cell types, remains a significant challenge. To address these issues, we introduce Single Cell annotation based on Distance metric learning and Optimal Transport (scDOT), an innovative cell-type annotation method adept at integrating multiple reference datasets and uncovering previously unseen cell types. scDOT introduces two key innovations. First, by incorporating distance metric learning and optimal transport, it presents a novel optimization framework. This framework effectively learns the predictive power of each reference dataset for new query data and simultaneously establishes a probabilistic mapping between cells in the query data and reference-defined cell types. Secondly, scDOT develops an interpretable scoring system based on the acquired probabilistic mapping, enabling the precise identification of previously unseen cell types within the data. To rigorously assess scDOT's capabilities, we systematically evaluate its performance using two diverse collections of benchmark datasets encompassing various tissues, sequencing technologies and diverse cell types. Our experimental results consistently affirm the superior performance of scDOT in cell-type annotation and the identification of previously unseen cell types. These advancements provide researchers with a potent tool for precise cell-type annotation, ultimately enriching our understanding of complex biological tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Xuan Xiong
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
- Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Analysis & Applications (Ministry of Education), Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
| | - Xiao-Fei Zhang
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
- Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Analysis & Applications (Ministry of Education), Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
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3
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Zhang Y, Sun H, Zhang W, Fu T, Huang S, Mou M, Zhang J, Gao J, Ge Y, Yang Q, Zhu F. CellSTAR: a comprehensive resource for single-cell transcriptomic annotation. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:D859-D870. [PMID: 37855686 PMCID: PMC10767908 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad874] [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: 08/15/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Large-scale studies of single-cell sequencing and biological experiments have successfully revealed expression patterns that distinguish different cell types in tissues, emphasizing the importance of studying cellular heterogeneity and accurately annotating cell types. Analysis of gene expression profiles in these experiments provides two essential types of data for cell type annotation: annotated references and canonical markers. In this study, the first comprehensive database of single-cell transcriptomic annotation resource (CellSTAR) was thus developed. It is unique in (a) offering the comprehensive expertly annotated reference data for annotating hundreds of cell types for the first time and (b) enabling the collective consideration of reference data and marker genes by incorporating tens of thousands of markers. Given its unique features, CellSTAR is expected to attract broad research interests from the technological innovations in single-cell transcriptomics, the studies of cellular heterogeneity & dynamics, and so on. It is now publicly accessible without any login requirement at: https://idrblab.org/cellstar.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Zhang
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Huaicheng Sun
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Wei Zhang
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Tingting Fu
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Shijie Huang
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Minjie Mou
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Jinsong Zhang
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Jianqing Gao
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Yichao Ge
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Alibaba-Zhejiang University Joint Research Center of Future Digital Healthcare, Hangzhou 330110, China
| | - Qingxia Yang
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Therapy for Major Gynecological Diseases, Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Department of Bioinformatics, School of Geographic and Biologic Information, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Feng Zhu
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Innovation Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine of Zhejiang University, Alibaba-Zhejiang University Joint Research Center of Future Digital Healthcare, Hangzhou 330110, China
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4
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Maden SK, Kwon SH, Huuki-Myers LA, Collado-Torres L, Hicks SC, Maynard KR. Challenges and opportunities to computationally deconvolve heterogeneous tissue with varying cell sizes using single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets. Genome Biol 2023; 24:288. [PMID: 38098055 PMCID: PMC10722720 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03123-4] [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: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Deconvolution of cell mixtures in "bulk" transcriptomic samples from homogenate human tissue is important for understanding disease pathologies. However, several experimental and computational challenges impede transcriptomics-based deconvolution approaches using single-cell/nucleus RNA-seq reference atlases. Cells from the brain and blood have substantially different sizes, total mRNA, and transcriptional activities, and existing approaches may quantify total mRNA instead of cell type proportions. Further, standards are lacking for the use of cell reference atlases and integrative analyses of single-cell and spatial transcriptomics data. We discuss how to approach these key challenges with orthogonal "gold standard" datasets for evaluating deconvolution methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean K Maden
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Sang Ho Kwon
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Louise A Huuki-Myers
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Leonardo Collado-Torres
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Stephanie C Hicks
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Center for Computational Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
| | - Kristen R Maynard
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Johns Hopkins Medical Campus, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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Lazaros K, Vlamos P, Vrahatis AG. Methods for cell-type annotation on scRNA-seq data: A recent overview. J Bioinform Comput Biol 2023; 21:2340002. [PMID: 37743364 DOI: 10.1142/s0219720023400024] [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] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of single-cell technology is ongoing, continually generating massive amounts of data that reveal many mysteries surrounding intricate diseases. However, their drawbacks continue to constrain us. Among these, annotating cell types in single-cell gene expressions pose a substantial challenge, despite the myriad of tools at our disposal. The rapid growth in data, resources, and tools has consequently brought about significant alterations in this area over the years. In our study, we spotlight all note-worthy cell type annotation techniques developed over the past four years. We provide an overview of the latest trends in this field, showcasing the most advanced methods in taxonomy. Our research underscores the demand for additional tools that incorporate a biological context and also predicts that the rising trend of graph neural network approaches will likely lead this research field in the coming years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konstantinos Lazaros
- Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory, Department of Informatics, Ionian University, 49100 Corfu, Greece
| | - Panagiotis Vlamos
- Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory, Department of Informatics, Ionian University, 49100 Corfu, Greece
| | - Aristidis G Vrahatis
- Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory, Department of Informatics, Ionian University, 49100 Corfu, Greece
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