Spec-seq unveils transcriptional subpopulations of antibody-secreting cells following influenza vaccination. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Vaccines are among the most effective public health tools for combating certain infectious diseases such as influenza. The role of the humoral immune system in vaccine-induced protection is widely appreciated; however, our understanding of how antibody specificities relate to B cell function remains limited due to the complexity of polyclonal antibody responses. To address this, we developed the Spec-seq framework, which allows for simultaneous monoclonal antibody (mAb) characterization and transcriptional profiling from the same single cell. Here, we present the first application of the Spec-seq framework, which we applied to human plasmablasts after influenza vaccination in order to characterize transcriptional differences governed by B cell receptor (BCR) isotype and vaccine reactivity. Our analysis did not find evidence of long-term transcriptional specialization between plasmablasts of different isotypes. However, we did find enhanced transcriptional similarity between clonally related B cells, as well as distinct transcriptional signatures ascribed by BCR vaccine recognition. These data suggest IgG and IgA vaccine-positive plasmablasts are largely similar, whereas IgA vaccine-negative cells appear to be transcriptionally distinct from conventional, terminally differentiated, antigen-induced peripheral blood plasmablasts.

publication date

  • November 19, 2018

Research

keywords

  • Influenza Vaccines
  • Plasma Cells
  • Transcription, Genetic
  • Vaccination

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC6307935

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85059360036

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.ymeth.2015.06.021

PubMed ID

  • 30457979

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 129

issue

  • 1