The Karolinska KI/K COVID-19 Immune Atlas: An open resource for immunological research and educational purposes

The Karolinska KI/K COVID-19 Immune Atlas project was conceptualized in March 2020 as a part of the academic research response to the developing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The aim was to rapidly provide a curated dataset covering the acute immune response towards SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, as it occurred during the first wave. The Immune Atlas was built as an open resource for broad research and educational purposes. It contains a presentation of the response evoked by different immune and inflammatory cells in defined naïve patient-groups as they presented with moderate and severe COVID-19 disease. The present Resource Article describes how the Karolinska KI/K COVID-19 Immune Atlas allow scientists, students, and other interested parties to freely explore the nature of the immune response towards human SARS-CoV-2 infection in an online setting.

Genomic Instability Promotes the Progression of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Through Influencing the Immune Microenvironment

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are now under discussion as novel promising biomarkers for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). However, the role of genomic instability-associated lncRNA signatures in tumors has not been thoroughly uncovered. The purpose of our study is to probe the role of genomic instability-derived lncRNA signature (GILncSig) and to further investigate the mechanism of genomic instability-mediated ccRCC progression. Methods: The transcriptome data and somatic mutation profiles of ccRCC as well as clinical characteristics used in this study were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and Gene Expression Omnibus database. Lasso regression analysis was performed to construct the GILncSig. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to elucidate the biological functions and relative pathways. CIBERSORT and EPIC algorithm were applied to calculate the proportion of immune cells in ccRCC. ESTIMATE algorithm was utilized to compute the immune microenvironment scores. Results: In total, 148 novel genomic instability-derived lncRNAs in ccRCC were identified. Immediately, on the basis of univariate cox analysis and lasso analysis, a GILncSig was appraised, through which the patients were allocated into High-Risk and Low-Risk groups with significantly different characteristics and prognoses. In addition, we confirmed that the somatic mutation count, tumor mutation burden, and the expression of UBQLN4, which were ascertainably associated with genomic instability, were significantly correlated with the GILncSig, indicating its reliability as a measurement of the genomic instability. Furthermore, the efficiency of GILncSig in prognostic aspects was better than the single mutation gene in ccRCC. In addition, MNX1-AS1 was defined to be a potential biomarker characterized by strong correlation with clinical features. Moreover, GSEA results indicated that the IL6/JAK/STAT3/SIGNALING pathway could be considered as a potential mechanism of genomic instability to influence tumor progression. Besides, the immune microenvironment showed significant differences between the GS-like group and the GU-like group, which was specifically manifested as high expression of CTLA4, GITR, TNFSF14, and regulatory T cells (Tregs) as well as low expression of endothelial cells (ECs) in the GU-like group. Finally, the prognostic value and clinical relevance of GILncSig were verified in GEO datasets and other urinary tumors in TCGA dataset. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study provided a new perspective for the role of lncRNAs in genomic instability and revealed that genomic instability may mediate tumor progression by affecting immunity. Besides, MNX1-AS1 played critical roles in promoting the progression of ccRCC, which may be a potential therapeutic target. What is more, the immune atlas of genomic instability was characterized by high expression of CTLA4, GITR, TNFSF14, and Tregs, and low expression of ECs.