Other - pediatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Oral
Djamel Nehar-Belaid
Postdoctoral associate
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
Seunghee Hong
Drukier Institute for Children’s Health, Weill Cornell Medicine
Radu Marches
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
Jeanine Baisch
Drukier Institute for Children’s Health, Weill Cornell Medicine
Lynnette Walters
Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children
Tracey Wright
MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center,
Robert Rossi
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
Octavio Ramilo
MD
Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ohio State University School of Medicine, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Paul Robson
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
Virginia Pascual
MD
Drukier Institute for Children’s Health, Weill Cornell Medicine
Jacques Banchereau
Deputy director
THE JACKSON LABORATORY
Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) display a complex blood transcriptome whose cellular origin is poorly resolved. Using single-cell RNA-seq, we profiled ~276,000 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 33 pediatric SLE, with different disease activity scores, as well as 11 matched healthy controls. Our analysis yielded 20 transcriptionally distinct cell populations, including three monocyte, two B cell, a plasma cell (PC), three CD8+ T cell, and two NK cell clusters. Overall, the SLE signature was comprised of each cell type, although minor populations of PCs and pDCs over contributed. Interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) were expressed within a restricted SLE CD14+ monocyte population, which correlated with disease activity. While the most prevalent ISGs found in SLE patients were restricted to few clusters, those previously associated with flares spread to every cell type. These results will be compared and validated using an adult SLE cohort and will lay a foundation for resolving the heterogeneity of SLE.