On June 9, 2021, our part-time PI Professor Pengyuan Yang published an article titled Single-cell epigenomic landscape of peripheral immune cells reveals establishment of trained immunity in individuals convalescing from COVID-19 in Nature Cell Biology. This work uses single-cell ATAC-seq technology and the newly developed single-cell multi-omics Ti-ATAC-seq technology to describe the accessibility of peripheral immune cells to chromatin multi-dimensional atlas in patients recovering from new coronary pneumonia, and to analyze monocytes, The epigenetic mechanism of B cell and T cell immune memory formation.

Original link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-021-00690-1

On March 11, 2021, PI  Pengyuan Yang , a part-time professor of our institute, and Yungui Yang from the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,  published an online publication titled "N6-methyladenosine RNA modification suppresses antiviral innate sensing pathways via reshaping double-stranded RNA" in Nature Communications. Research paper, this study shows that for RNA virus-vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) infection, the m6A methyltransferase METL3 translocates into the cytoplasm to increase m6A modification on virus-derived transcripts and reduce the formation of viral dsRNA , Thereby reducing the induction of the virus through RLR (such as RIG-1 and MDA5) to inhibit anti-viral immune signal transmission. At the same time, genetic ablation of METL3 in monocytes or hepatocytes leads to increased expression of type I IFN and accelerates VSV clearance. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that the m6A RNA modification on viral RNA mediated by METTL3 acts as a negative regulator of the inherent sensory pathway of dsRNA, and also suggests that METL3 is a potential therapeutic target for regulating antiviral immunity.

This research is aimed at RNA virus-vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) infection. The m6A methyltransferase METL3 translocates into the cytoplasm to increase m6A modification on virus-derived transcripts and reduce the formation of viral dsRNA, thereby reducing the virus The induction effect of RLR (such as RIG-1 and MDA5) inhibits antiviral immune signal transmission. At the same time, genetic ablation of METL3 in monocytes or hepatocytes leads to increased expression of type I IFN and accelerates VSV clearance. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that the m6A RNA modification on viral RNA mediated by METTL3 acts as a negative regulator of the inherent sensory pathway of dsRNA, and also suggests that METL3 is a potential therapeutic target for regulating antiviral immunity.

Original link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21904-y