TcEVdb: a database for T-cell-derived small extracellular vesicles from single-cell transcriptomes.

Abstract

T-Cell-derived extracellular vesicles (TcEVs) play key roles in immune regulation and tumor microenvironment modulation. However, the heterogeneity of TcEV remains poorly understood due to technical limitations of EV analysis and the lack of comprehensive data. To address this, we constructed TcEVdb, a comprehensive database that explores the expression and cluster of TcEV by the SEVtras method from T-cell single-cell RNA sequencing data. TcEVdb contains 277 265 EV droplets from 51 T-cell types across 221 samples from 21 projects, covering 9 tissue sources and 23 disease conditions. The database provides two main functional modules. The Browse module enables users to investigate EV secretion activity indices across samples, visualize TcEV clusters, analyze differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and pathway enrichment in TcEV subpopulations, and compare TcEV transcriptomes with their cellular origins. The Search module allows users to query specific genes across all datasets and visualize their expression distribution. Furthermore, our analysis of TcEV in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma revealed increased EV secretion in CD4+ T exhausted cells compared to healthy controls. Subsequent analyses identified distinct droplet clusters with differential expression genes, including clusters enriched for genes associated with cell motility and mitochondrial function. Overall, TcEVdb serves as a comprehensive resource for exploring the transcriptome of TcEV, which will contribute to advancements in EV-based diagnostics and therapeutics across a wide range of diseases. Database URL: https://guolab.wchscu.cn/TcEVdb.