Immune landscape of the affected brain in Rasmussen encephalitis
Rasmussen encephalitis (RE) is a rare neuroinflammatory disease characterized by intractable seizures and progressive brain atrophy. We used single cell RNA sequencing to define the types of immune cells in affected brain tissue removed to control seizures. Our analysis highlights the complexity of the immune landscape in brain areas affected by RE and supports the involvement of clonally expanded antigen experienced resident memory CD8 T cells in the etiology of the disease. Overall design: Blocks of fresh resected brain tissue were obtained from three RE surgery cases and immune cells were isolated. Single cell RNA-sequencing was used to analyze the types of immune cells present in the affected brain tissue and the potential crosstalk between them.