溶质载体(SLC)转运蛋白是促进营养转运的膜结合蛋白,以及从离子到氨基酸的各种底物穿过细胞膜的运动,代谢物和药物。最近,SLC由于其与先天免疫过程(如死细胞的清除和抗微生物防御)的功能联系而获得了越来越多的关注。Further,这些转运蛋白的药物性质为改善不同免疫疾病的预后提供了独特的机会.尽管SLC代表了最大的转运蛋白组,并且通常被认为是组学数据集中的重要命中,它们在免疫学中的作用尚未得到充分探索。这部分是由于缺乏允许在特定免疫细胞类型中鉴定SLC表达并在开始功能研究之前进行比较的工具。在这项研究中,我们使用公开的RNA-Seq数据集来分析适应性和先天免疫细胞中的转录组,专注于差异和高表达的SLCs。这揭示了几个新的见解:第一,我们鉴定了吞噬细胞中差异表达的SLC转录本(巨噬细胞,树突状细胞,和中性粒细胞)与适应性免疫细胞相比;第二,我们基于SLC表达鉴定了新的潜在免疫细胞标志物;第三,我们为研究人员提供用户友好的在线工具来探索感兴趣的SLC基因(以及其余的基因),在免疫细胞之间的三方比较点图中。我们希望这项工作能够促进不同免疫细胞的SLC研究和比较转录组学研究。
Solute carrier (SLC) transporters are membrane-bound proteins that facilitate nutrient transport, and the movement across cellular membranes of various substrates ranging from ions to amino acids, metabolites and drugs. Recently, SLCs have gained increased attention due to their functional linkage to innate immunological processes such as the clearance of dead cells and anti-microbial defense. Further, the druggable nature of these transporters provides unique opportunities for improving outcomes in different immunological diseases. Although the SLCs represent the largest group of transporters and are often identified as significant hits in omics data sets, their role in immunology has been insufficiently explored. This is partly due to the absence of tools that allow identification of SLC expression in particular immune cell types and enable their comparison before embarking on functional studies. In this study, we used publicly available RNA-Seq data sets to analyze the transcriptome in adaptive and innate immune cells, focusing on differentially and highly expressed SLCs. This revealed several new insights: first, we identify differentially expressed SLC transcripts in phagocytes (macrophages, dendritic cells, and neutrophils) compared to adaptive immune cells; second, we identify new potential immune cell markers based on SLC expression; and third, we provide user-friendly online tools for researchers to explore SLC genes of interest (and the rest of the genes as well), in three-way comparative dot plots among immune cells. We expect this work to facilitate SLC research and comparative transcriptomic studies across different immune cells.