Multi-omic meta-analysis of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2: an integrated approach with cell resolution

• Grant number: 22/08508-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Licio Augusto Velloso
• Grantee: Bruno Loyola Barbosa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07607-8 - OCRC - Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the execution of studies that aim to elucidate the pathophysiology of the disease, thus contributing to the progress in the development of more efficient therapeutic strategies. One of the main approaches to this process is the investigation of the identity of the cells that participate in the immune response in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. One of the tools used for this type of investigation is based on the use of single-cell technologies, identified as revolutionary in view of the potential to analyze cellular components without loss of cellular resolution, that is, allowing the identification of specific changes in cell populations. These components can be detailed by the proteome, transcriptome and secretome of the same cell, resulting in high-resolution multi-omic analyzes. Therefore, several studies using single-cell methods were published between 2020 and 2022 with the object of study blood samples and bronchoalveolar lavage from patients with COVID-19 and healthy controls. However, there are discrepancies between the main findings of the different studies published, which makes it difficult to form a consensus on the cellular aspects involved in the immune response of COVID-19. In the present study, it is proposed to integrate previously published data, generating a multi-omic meta-analysis in order to seek consensus on the cellular composition of the immune response against COVID-19 and its pathophysiology. To this end, we will use a method under development in our laboratory that allows a topological analysis of the data, allowing an expansion and integration of the set of results existing in the literature, which were analyzed in isolation. We believe that, given the results obtained in this study, we will advance in the cellular and mechanistic characterization of COVID-19. (AU)