Large Single-Cell Gene Atlas of Human Eye Disorders

Article: First single-cell atlas of human, porcine eyes maps genes involved in eye disorders
Source: Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (Singapore)
Published: December 6, 2021 

Creating a disease map of the human eye  (click to enlarge)

An international team led by researchers from several universities in Singapore, with colleagues in the U.S. and other countries, have produced the first single-cell atlas of human and porcine eyes. They report applying single-cell RNA sequencing to catalogue more than 50,000 cells in human and porcine eyes, as well as developing a cell atlas that distinguishes these cells by the activity of their genes. The use of porcine eyes (and other animal species, such as zebrafish) in this study allowed for comparison of interspecies differences as well as conserved regulating factors in the eye, which the authors state is lacking in integrative research of the eye. The study produced a wide range of findings, some of which are simple, such as evidence of adult stems cells in iris tissue. Others have clinical implications regarding ocular routes of infection and disease transmission. For example, the team found that ACE2 and TMPRSS2, the primary cell surface proteins responsible for entry of SARS-CoV-2 into human, are expressed in the eye's conjunctival cells. Some of the researchers also worked on lab techniques in regenerative medicine, such as using embryonic stem cells to generate retinal ganglion cell (RGC) progenitors in culture; they discovered that a switch called KLF7 could accelerate RGC generation, with results that could inform potential therapies for eye diseases like glaucoma that results from progressive damage to the RGCs that make up the optic nerve. They are working to further validate the KLF7-derived RGCs for preclinical studies, with broad aims of understanding key molecular switches to better engineer lab-grown cells as a means of therapy.

My rating of this study: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Gautam P, Hamashima K, Chen Y, et al. "Multi-species single-cell transcriptomic analysis of ocular compartment regulons." Nature Communications.  12:5675. 28 September 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25968-8