Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32114394›Full record

ArticleEBioMedicine2020

Single-cell transcriptomics of blood reveals a natural killer cell subset depletion in tuberculosis.

Yi Cai, Youchao Dai, Yejun Wang, Qianqing Yang, Jiubiao Guo, Cailing Wei, Weixin Chen, Huanping Huang, Jialou Zhu, Chi Zhang and 8 more

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in EBioMedicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 108 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
108citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
7.7field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

108 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 163 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  10. PMAdvanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
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  14. CD8+ lymphocytes in immunity against tuberculosis.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2026
    Review
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48 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

18 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Yi CaiGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Youchao DaiGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China; Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510000, China.
Yejun WangGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Qianqing YangGuangdong Key Lab for Diagnosis &Treatment of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Jiubiao GuoGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Cailing WeiGuangdong Key Lab for Diagnosis &Treatment of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Weixin ChenGuangdong Key Lab for Diagnosis &Treatment of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Huanping HuangGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Jialou ZhuGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Chi ZhangShenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Weidong ZhengShenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Zhihua WenYuebei Second People's Hospital, Shaoguan 512000, China.
Haiying LiuThe MOH Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens, Institute of Pathogen Biology, and Centre for Tuberculosis, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100176, China.
Mingxia ZhangGuangdong Key Lab for Diagnosis &Treatment of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Shaojun XingGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China.
Qi JinThe MOH Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens, Institute of Pathogen Biology, and Centre for Tuberculosis, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100176, China.
Carl G FengGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China; Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Sydney Medical School, the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Xinchun ChenGuangdong Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases, Department of Pathogen Biology, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen 518000, China. Electronic address: chenxinchun@szu.edu.cn.
Shenzhen University · CNSouthern University of Science and Technology · CNChinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College · CNShantou University · CNThe University of Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundTuberculosis (TB) continues to be a critical global health problem, which killed millions of lives each year. Certain circulating cell subsets are thought to differentially modulate the host immune response towards Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, but the nature and function of these subsets is unclear.

methodsPeripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from healthy controls (HC), latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and active tuberculosis (TB) and then subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) using 10 × Genomics platform. Unsupervised clustering of the cells based on the gene expression profiles using the Seurat package and passed to tSNE for clustering visualization. Flow cytometry was used to validate the subsets identified by scRNA-Seq.

findingsCluster analysis based on differential gene expression revealed both known and novel markers for all main PBMC cell types and delineated 29 cell subsets. By comparing the scRNA-seq datasets from HC, LTBI and TB, we found that infection changes the frequency of immune-cell subsets in TB. Specifically, we observed gradual depletion of a natural killer (NK) cell subset (CD3-CD7+GZMB+) from HC, to LTBI and TB. We further verified that the depletion of CD3-CD7+GZMB+ subset in TB and found an increase in this subset frequency after anti-TB treatment. Finally, we confirmed that changes in this subset frequency can distinguish patients with TB from LTBI and HC.

interpretationWe propose that the frequency of CD3-CD7+GZMB+ in peripheral blood could be used as a novel biomarker for distinguishing TB from LTBI and HC. FUND: The study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (81770013, 81525016, 81772145, 81871255 and 91942315), National Science and Technology Major Project (2017ZX10201301), Science and Technology Project of Shenzhen (JCYJ20170412101048337) and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Regional Immunity and Diseases (2019B030301009). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Indexed as

TranscriptomeAdolescentAdultBiomarkersFemaleHumansKiller Cells, NaturalLatent TuberculosisLymphocyte CountMaleMiddle AgedSingle-Cell AnalysisTuberculosis, PulmonaryBiomarkersCD3-CD7+GZMB+NK cellsSingle-cell RNA sequencingTuberculosis

Identifiers

PMID32114394
PMCPMC7047188
OpenAlexW3007094285

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.