Comprehensive sequencing of the lung neuroimmune landscape in response to asthmatic induction

This study investigates how asthmatic induction alters the neuroimmune transcriptome in the vagal ganglia (nodose and jugular ganglia) and lungs. We hypothesized that asthma would upregulate genes in the vagal ganglia related to immune responses and allergen sensing, with these changes primarily occurring in nodose neurons. Bulk RNA-seq was performed on asthmatic and control ganglia, revealing increased expression of genes linked to allergen sensing in asthmatic conditions. Single-nucleus RNA-seq further showed that these genes were associated with distinct clusters of nodose neurons, while spatial transcriptomics highlighted a specific caudal-to-rostral arrangement of these clusters. In the lungs, transcripts related to neural excitation were upregulated in neuroendocrine-like cells, club cells, and neurons following asthmatic induction. This dataset provides insight into the spatial and cell-type-specific alterations of the neuroimmune transcriptome in asthma, offering valuable information for understanding the neural-immune interactions in allergic airway responses.