Single Cell RNA Sequencing Identifies an Early Monocyte Gene Signature in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) results from overwhelming pulmonary inflammation. We used single cell RNA sequencing to probe ARDS at a higher resolution for  insights into ARDS pathogenesis. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with pneumonia and sepsis with early ARDS were compared to that of sepsis patients who did not develop ARDS. Monocyte clusters from ARDS patients revealed multiple distinguishing characteristics in comparison to monocytes from patients without ARDS including down-regulation of SOCS3 expression accompanied by a pro-inflammatory signature with up-regulation of multiple type I IFN-induced genes, especially in CD16+ cells. These data show that monocytes of ARDS patients up-regulate expression of genes not just restricted to those associated with inflammation. Together, our findings identify molecules that are likely involved in ARDS pathogenesis that may inform biomarker and therapeutic development. Overall design: 7 Frozen PBMC samples, 4 with sepsis only, 3 with sepsis and ARDS