Unravelling cell heterogeneity and gene regulation mechanisms in multiple myeloma through single-cell RNA-seq

Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common blood cancer in the world, yet its genetic pathology is not fully understood and MM cells have highly heterogeneous regulatory mechanisms. Single-cell RNA-Sequencing (scRNA-Seq) technologies provide an unprecedented opportunity to investigate cell heterogeneity and understand regulatory mechanisms at the single-cell level. Four MM scRNA-Seq datasets were retrieved from the public domain containing 597, 172, 477, and 51,840 cells, respectively. First, they were integrated and jointly analyzed to accurately identify 24 MM cell clusters, using a normal hematopoiesis cells atlas as a control. Then we predicted 651 regulons within the 24 MM cell clusters. The identified regulons can substantially improve the elucidation of heterogeneous gene regulation mechanisms across various cell clusters, and hence can serve as a reference for diagnosis in MM.