CITEseq analysis of human CSF cells in Multiple sclerosis

In CSF bulk RNA sequence, patients with MS (pwMS) exhibited higher T cell receprot (TCR) clonality and specificity to EBV lytic proteins compared to controls. TCRs from pwMS showed greater clustering coefficient (i.e. TCR similarity) in complementarity-determining regions 3 (CDR3), particularly those predicted to target EBV antigens. Importantly, TCR clustering coefficient was associated with the expression of cytotoxic CD8 module genes in WGCNA, such as CD8A, GZMH, GZMK, and NKG7 and with interferon signaling module. scRNA-seq revealed a subpopulation of GZMK+GZMH+ double positive (DP) CD8 T cells expressing genes related to identified cytotoxicity and interferon signaling modules. These DP CD8 T cells had significantly higher predicted specificity for EBV proteins than other CD8 cells.