Interferons (IFNs) are important pro-inflammatory cytokines for innate immune responses to pathogens. Multiple different IFN molecules interact with target cells to elicit cell type-specific responses. However, many previous studies have focused on systemic responses, bulk transcriptomic responses, or responses to IFNs in only one or a few cell types.
To generate a systematic reference of IFN responses in peripheral blood monouclear cells (PBMCs), we isolated specific classes of PBMC cell types and treated these cells with four IFN molecules spanning a broad range of IFN types: IFN-α2a, IFN-β, IFN-γ, and IFN-λ1. We profiled each response using a single cell transcriptomics assay to develop our Human Interferon Response in Immune Subsets Atlas (HIRISA).
We analyzed the HIRISA dataset to develop a novel scoring approach for cell population-specific Type I and Type II IFN responses. To make the HIRISA dataset and our scoring algorithm accessible to other researchers, we provide interactive tools for scoring your own data and exploring our dataset below:
Compute IFN-α and IFN-γ scores for your own DEGs and put them in context of other immune disorders with our IFN score calculator.
Score IFN Signatures
Explore more than 1.2 Million cells in the HIRISA dataset in an interactive UMAP projection tool.
Explore UMAP Visualization
Explore differentially expressed genes induced by IFN-α, IFN-β, IFN-γ, and IFN-λ1 in each immune cell population in our HIRISA resource.
Explore Differential Expression