New dictionary of immune responses at single cell resolution reveals far more complexity in the immune system than previously thought

Good news! Amazing stuff!

"... Using single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze gene expression in individual cells, the researchers have found how 86 major cytokines affect 17 immune cell types in mice. They found a surprising level of complexity in the immune system: Cytokines can trigger more immune responses, and immune cells can perform more functions than previously thought. ...
This is the first single-cell resolution dictionary of each major immune cell type responding to each major cytokine in vivo at an unprecedented scale. Typical studies of immune responses may look at roughly five immune cell types in a couple of conditions, whereas this study looked at nearly all major immune cell types responding to nearly all of the major cytokines. That’s more than 1,400 cytokine-cell type combinations — two orders of magnitude larger than typical studies, allowing the team to comprehensively document the complexity of the immune system.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Cytokines mediate cell–cell communication in the immune system and represent important therapeutic targets. A myriad of studies have highlighted their central role in immune function, yet we lack a global view of the cellular responses of each immune cell type to each cytokine. To address this gap, we created the Immune Dictionary, a compendium of single-cell transcriptomic profiles of more than 17 immune cell types in response to each of 86 cytokines (>1,400 cytokine–cell type combinations) in mouse lymph nodes in vivo. A cytokine-centric view of the dictionary revealed that most cytokines induce highly cell-type-specific responses. For example, the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β induces distinct gene programmes in almost every cell type. A cell-type-centric view of the dictionary identified more than 66 cytokine-driven cellular polarization states across immune cell types, including previously uncharacterized states such as an interleukin-18-induced polyfunctional natural killer cell state. Based on this dictionary, we developed companion software, Immune Response Enrichment Analysis, for assessing cytokine activities and immune cell polarization from gene expression data, and applied it to reveal cytokine networks in tumours following immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Our dictionary generates new hypotheses for cytokine functions, illuminates pleiotropic effects of cytokines, expands our knowledge of activation states of each immune cell type, and provides a framework to deduce the roles of specific cytokines and cell–cell communication networks in any immune response."

New “dictionary” of immune responses reveals far more complexity in the immune system than previously thought | Broad Institute Scientists map the effects of 86 immune-signaling molecules called cytokines on every major immune cell type, creating a reference for studying the inner workings of the immune system.

Dictionary of immune responses to cytokines at single-cell resolution (open access)

Immune Dictionary Portal

Looks similar to the Periodic Table of Elements! What a coincidence! 😊