Analysis of the Immunoinflammatory Microenvironment Characteristics of Epilepsy Based on Single-Cell Transcriptomics

Yutong Chen,1,2 Wei Zhang,1 Meiying Xin,1 Ming Liu,1 Tongye Zhang,1 Jinyu Xiao,1,2 Jianmin Liang,1,2 Xuemei Wu1,2 1Department of Pediatric Neurology, Children’s Medical Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 2Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Pediatric Neurology, Changchun, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xuemei Wu, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Children’s Medical Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, 1 Xinmin Street, Changchun, Jilin, 130000, People’s Republic of China, Email xmwu@jlu.edu.cnAbstract: Epilepsy is a common neurological disease that affects a wide range of people and seriously impairs patients’ quality of life and social adaptability. Neuroinflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. Glial cells, particularly astrocytes and their differentiated forms, as well as their interactions with other cell types, are critical in the process of neuroinflammation. A better understanding of the inflammatory mechanisms of epilepsy might facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies. Single-cell RNA sequencing has provided new insights into the inflammatory microenvironment of the nervous system in epilepsy by enabling high-resolution characterization of cell type-specific gene expression and signaling pathways. In this review, we summarized the differentiation, interactions, and transcriptional dynamics of microglia, astrocytes, and neurons in epilepsy using single-cell sequencing data from patients and animal models, providing a basis for the development of new strategies for epilepsy treatment.Keywords: epilepsy, inflammation, microglia, astrocytes, single-cell RNA sequencing