Zheng HB. Application of single-cell omics in inflammatory bowel disease. World J Gastroenterol 2023; 29(28): 4397-4404 [PMID: 37576705 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i28.4397]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hengqi Betty Zheng, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Washington, 4800 Sandpoint Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, United States. betty.zheng@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2023; 29(28): 4397-4404 Published online Jul 28, 2023. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i28.4397
Application of single-cell omics in inflammatory bowel disease
Hengqi Betty Zheng
Hengqi Betty Zheng, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, United States
Author contributions: Zheng HB has written, revised, and approve the original and final versions of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author reports no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hengqi Betty Zheng, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Washington, 4800 Sandpoint Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, United States. betty.zheng@gmail.com
Received: May 25, 2023 Peer-review started: May 25, 2023 First decision: June 14, 2023 Revised: June 27, 2023 Accepted: July 7, 2023 Article in press: July 7, 2023 Published online: July 28, 2023
Abstract
Over the past decade, the advent of single cell RNA-sequencing has revolutionized the approach in cellular transcriptomics research. The current technology offers an unbiased platform to understand how genotype correlates to phenotype. Single-cell omics applications in gastrointestinal (GI) research namely inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has become popular in the last few years with multiple publications as single-cell omics techniques can be applied directly to the target organ, the GI tract at the tissue level. Through examination of mucosal tissue and peripheral blood in IBD, the recent boom in single cell research has identified a myriad of key immune players from enterocytes to tissue resident memory T cells, and explored functional heterogeneity within cellular subsets previously unreported. As we begin to unravel the complex mucosal immune system in states of health and disease like IBD, the power of exploration through single-cell omics can change our approach to translational research. As novel techniques evolve through multiplexing single-cell omics and spatial transcriptomics come to the forefront, we can begin to fully comprehend the disease IBD and better design targets of treatment. In addition, hopefully these techniques can ultimately begin to identify biomarkers of therapeutic response and answer clinically relevant questions in how to tailor individual therapy to patients through personalized medicine.
Core Tip: Single-cell techniques and omics have taken off in the last few years and the ability to detect individual cellular transcript details has revolutionized the world of research. In the field of gastroenterology in just the last five years, several single-cell techniques have been applied to inflammatory bowel disease research with the identification of novel cellular immune players in the pathogenesis of both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
