Single-cell transcriptomic atlas of cystic echinococcosis reveals diversity roles of small extracellular vesicles derived from Echinococcus granulosus during liver infection

Cystic echinococcosis acts as a public health threat worldwide and causes considerable economic loss. Liver is the main paraistic organ during infection, whereas the the regulatory roles of PSC-sEV for liver cells remains unclear. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed single-cell transcriptomic of liver targeted by PSC -sEV, to illuminate the cross-talk between protoscoleces and host cells. Overall design: For cystic echinococcosis infection in situ of liver, PSC were injected via portal vein in C57BL/6 mice. Six months after the surgery, another two groups of mice were injected with PSC-sEV or PBS-HAT via the tail vein, respectively. Livers were cut into 0.25 cm3 and transferred into protoplast enzyme solution. After digestion and cell viability check, cells were loaded into single cell instrument (DG1000, Biomarker, China) to produce single-cell GEMs and then sequenced at next generation sequencing platform (BGISEQ-500, BGI, China) after performing cDNA amplification.