A large-scale single-cell atlas reveals the pulmonary immune panorama in adult patients with influenza.

Abstract

The host immune determinants that distinguish protective from life-threatening responses to influenza are poorly understood. Identifying drivers of immunopathology in the human lung is critical for developing potential therapies. To define the cellular and molecular immune landscape of the lung in mild vs severe influenza and to identify key cellular states and pathways associated with disease severity. We generated a large-scale single-cell atlas by sequencing more than 520 000 cells from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 88 nonimmunocompromised adult individuals with mild or severe influenza A and healthy controls. Key findings were validated by flow cytometry and protein quantification, and machine-learning models were used to identify predictive signatures. Severe influenza was characterized by profound pulmonary lymphopenia and a massive influx of functionally dysregulated neutrophils. The infiltrating neutrophils were primed for extracellular trap formation, driving a cytokine storm via the S100A8/A9/A12-TLR4 and CXCL8-CXCR1/2 axes. This pathology coincided with the depletion and functional impairment of resident alveolar macrophages and an expansion of pro-inflammatory, monocyte-derived macrophages that amplified neutrophil recruitment. Lymphopenia in severe disease arose from synergistic cell-death programs, while remaining lymphocytes exhibited a dysfunctional state of concurrent exhaustion and hypercytotoxicity. Mild influenza featured a coordinated adaptive immune response, distinguished by an enrichment of T follicular helper cells and plasma cells. Machine-learning models identified robust cellular and transcriptional signatures predictive of disease severity. Our atlas defines the divergent immune trajectories in influenza, revealing specific cellular states and pathways that drive immunopathology and provide novel targets for host-directed therapies.