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Published on: February 4, 2017
Immunometabolism in the Single-Cell Era
Maxim N Artyomov1, Jan Van den Bossche2
1Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Insights
Single-cell technologies reveal immune cell metabolism, uncovering how metabolic dysfunction drives disease. This advances understanding of immunometabolism for new diagnostics and therapeutics.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Metabolic research
- Cellular biology
Background:
- Metabolic pathways are vital for immune cell function and regulation.
- Deranged metabolism in immune cells can lead to dysfunction and disease.
- Previous insights were limited by bulk measurements, often using in vitro activated cells.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review single-cell techniques for analyzing immune cell metabolism.
- To highlight how these methods validate existing immunometabolism principles.
- To identify context-dependent metabolic heterogeneity within immune cells.
Main Methods:
- Review of emerging single-cell technologies.
- Analysis of their application to clinical immune cell samples.
- Comparison with traditional bulk measurement techniques.
Main Results:
- Single-cell approaches enable metabolic state estimation in individual immune cells.
- These techniques validate established immunometabolism concepts.
- They reveal significant metabolic heterogeneity across different immune cell types and contexts.
Conclusions:
- Single-cell analysis is revolutionizing immunometabolism research.
- It offers a deeper understanding of immune cell metabolic states.
- Future opportunities lie in developing novel therapeutic targets and diagnostic tools.
Abstract:
Emerging research has identified metabolic pathways that are crucial for the proper regulation of immune cells and how, when deranged, they can cause immune dysfunction and disease progression. However, due to technical limitations such insights have relied heavily on bulk measurements in immune cells, often activated in vitro. But with the emergence of single-cell applications, researchers can now estimate the metabolic state of individual immune cells in clinical samples. Here, we review these single-cell techniques and their ability to validate common principles in immunometabolism, while also revealing context-dependent metabolic heterogeneity within the immune cell compartment. We also discuss current gaps and limitations, as well as identify future opportunities to move the field forward toward the development of therapeutic targets and improved diagnostic capabilities.
