<p>We conducted a prospective observational study (RESERVE-U-2-TOR) of adults admitted to Tororo General Hospital in eastern Uganda with severe, undifferentiated infection (i.e., suspected sepsis). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from freshly collected heparinized whole-blood samples (4 - 5 mL) using a standard density-gradient protocol (STEMCELL Technologies). PBMCs were aliquoted, cryopreserved in CryoStor CS10 (STEMCELL Technologies), stored overnight at -80°C, and transferred to liquid nitrogen for longer-term storage. Upon thawing, viability was assessed using the Nexcelom Cellaca Cell Counter, and cells were diluted to optimal concentrations for loading onto the Chromium Controller (10X Genomics). Each sample targeted the capture of ~10,000 GEMs (gel bead-in-emulsions). Single-cell RNA libraries were prepared using the Chromium Single Cell 3' Reagent Kit v3.1 following the manufacturer's standard protocol. Libraries were quality-assessed using an Agilent TapeStation and quantified using both Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer (Invitrogen) and qPCR (Applied Biosystems). Sequencing was performed on the NovaSeq X Plus platform (Illumina) using a 28×91 read configuration per 10X guidelines, targeting ~50,000 reads per cell. Data from this study available through dbGaP include raw single-cell RNA-seq data generated from PBMC samples collected from a subset of RESERVE-U-2-TOR participants at study enrollment (N=8).</p>

Single-Cell RNA-Seq Profiling of Peripheral Immune Responses to Severe Infection in Uganda