Network-informed deconvolution of bulk immune gene co-expression reveals single-cell programs and spatial...

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has opened unprecedented possibilities to explore the complexity of the immune system. However, existing methods primarily rely on expression-based clustering analysis, which lacks mechanistic explanations for immune cell states and encounters challenges in integrating multi-scale data.

We developed a network-informed deconvolution framework that constructs Bayesian network-derived regulatory structures using immune-related genes from context-matched bulk RNA-seq datasets. Network markers were extracted from these structures and projected onto peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) scRNA-seq datasets to identify network biomarkers and define immune cell states. Spatial transcriptomic analysis was further used to evaluate the spatial coherence of network-defined cell states. The scRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomic datasets analyzed in this study were generated from prospectively collected samples by our team, while context-matched bulk RNA-seq cohorts were used to derive population-level immune gene network structures.

The framework identified structure-defined immune subpopulations in both PBMC and LUAD datasets and revealed functional heterogeneity across multiple immune lineages. Spatial transcriptomic analysis further showed that network-associated immune clusters exhibited closer spatial proximity than non-associated clusters, supporting the spatial coherence of network-defined cell states.

This framework provides a network-informed representation for immune cell subpopulation identification and functional characterization. By linking bulk immune gene co-expression, single-cell programs, and spatial organization, this approach offers an additional perspective for understanding immune dynamics in both normal and pathological states and may provide an analytical basis for more precise immunotherapy-related studies.