DeRR

DeRR detects dual T cell receptors (TCRs) in single-cell TCR sequencing (scTCR-Seq) and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) data to enable systematic characterization of dual-TCR T cell populations.

Key Features:

• Dual-TCR detection in scTCR-Seq: Identifies T cells expressing two distinct TCR α-chains or β-chains from single-cell TCR sequencing data.
• Dual-TCR detection in scRNA-Seq: Detects dual-TCR expression from single-cell RNA sequencing data.
• Large-scale analysis capability: Evaluated on over 600,000 single T cells from 147 samples.
• Cross-reactivity assessment: Enables evaluation of T cell cross-reactivity patterns mediated by secondary TCR chains in dual-TCR T cells.
• Dynamic expression analysis: Quantifies relative expression levels of the two TCRs within individual dual-TCR T cells.

Scientific Applications:

• Cancer immunology: Revealed elevated dual-TCR frequency in cancer compared to other conditions.
• Autoimmune disease research: Demonstrated positive association between dual-TCR frequency and disease duration in autoimmune disorders.
• T cell subtype characterization: Showed uniform distribution of dual-TCR T cells across all T cell subtypes.
• T cell receptor repertoire analysis: Provides first systematic landscape of dual-TCR T cells at single-cell resolution.

Methodology:

DeRR employs a computational pipeline for detection of TCRs in single-cell sequencing data, with specific algorithms to identify dual-TCR α-chains and dual-TCR β-chains in both scTCR-seq and scRNA-seq data.