美国宾夕法尼亚大学罗文琴团队在研究中取得进展。他们的研究利用深度单体RNA测序来探索人类躯体感觉的神经基础。2024年11月4日，国际知名学术期刊《自然—神经科学》发表了这一成果。

据了解，躯体感觉的多功能性源于背根神经节（DRG）神经元的异质性。然而，由于技术上的困难，个体人类DRG神经元的体细胞转录组——破译其功能的关键信息——非常缺乏。

在这项研究中，研究人员从单个hDRG神经元中分离出体细胞，并进行了深度RNA测序（RNA-seq），平均每个神经元检测到9000多个独特基因，并确定了16种神经元类型。这些结果被空间转录组学和RNAscope原位杂交证实。

跨物种分析揭示了潜在痛觉神经元之间的差异，以及可能存在的人类特异性神经元类型。分子谱信息微神经摄影记录揭示了人类感觉传入类型的温度传感特性。

总之，通过使用单体细胞深度RNA测序和空间转录组学，研究人员生成了hDRG神经元图谱，这为人类体感生理学提供了见解，并为翻译工作奠定了基础。

附：英文原文

Title: Leveraging deep single-soma RNA sequencing to explore the neural basis of human somatosensation

Author: Yu, Huasheng, Nagi, Saad S., Usoskin, Dmitry, Hu, Yizhou, Kupari, Jussi, Bouchatta, Otmane, Yan, Hanying, Cranfill, Suna Li, Gautam, Mayank, Su, Yijing, Lu, You, Wymer, James, Glanz, Max, Albrecht, Phillip, Song, Hongjun, Ming, Guo-Li, Prouty, Stephen, Seykora, John, Wu, Hao, Ma, Minghong, Marshall, Andrew, Rice, Frank L., Li, Mingyao, Olausson, Hkan, Ernfors, Patrik, Luo, Wenqin

Issue&Volume: 2024-11-04

Abstract: The versatility of somatosensation arises from heterogeneous dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. However, soma transcriptomes of individual human (h)DRG neurons—critical information to decipher their functions—are lacking due to technical difficulties. In this study, we isolated somata from individual hDRG neurons and conducted deep RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to detect, on average, over 9,000 unique genes per neuron, and we identified 16 neuronal types. These results were corroborated and validated by spatial transcriptomics and RNAscope in situ hybridization. Cross-species analyses revealed divergence among potential pain-sensing neurons and the likely existence of human-specific neuronal types. Molecular-profile-informed microneurography recordings revealed temperature-sensing properties across human sensory afferent types. In summary, by employing single-soma deep RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics, we generated an hDRG neuron atlas, which provides insights into human somatosensory physiology and serves as a foundation for translational work.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01794-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01794-1