Neuro-immune interactions at single-cell resolution in neurodevelopmental, infectious, and neurodegenerative diseases

ABSTRACT

Recent technological advance in single-cell and single-nucleus transcriptomics has made it possible to generate an unprecedentedly detailed landscape of neuro-immune interactions in healthy and diseased brains. In this review, we overview the recent literature that catalogs single-cell-level gene expression in brains with signs of inflammation, focusing on maternal immune activation, viral infection, and auto-immune diseases. The literature also includes a series of papers that provide strong evidence for immunological contributions to neurodegenerative diseases, which, in a strict sense, are not considered neuroinflammatory. To help with the discussion, we present a diagram of experimental and analytical flows in the single-cell analysis of the brain. We also discuss the recurring themes of neuro-immune interactions and suggest future research directions.

KEYWORDS:

• Single-cell RNA sequencing
• COVID-19
• multiple sclerosis
• Alzheimer's disease
• Parkinson's disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Samsung Science and Technology Foundation (SSTF-BA1602-13) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (2013M3A9D5072551, 2017R1A2B4002683, 2018R1A5A2025079, and 2022M3E5E8018388).