Cell-type-specific damage scores reveal kidney and liver disease trajectories in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics.

Cell-type-specific damage scores accurately map disease progression in kidney and liver diseases across multiple single-cell and spatial transcriptomics platforms.

• Why it matters: Understanding gradual cell-intrinsic damage is crucial for diagnosing and treating degenerative diseases, but current bulk or discrete analyses lack resolution of continuous damage trajectories.
• What they did: The authors developed a framework that generates damage scores for specific cell types, applying it to chronic kidney disease and liver disease, analyzing over 10 datasets including scRNA-seq, snRNA-seq, and proteomics.
• The result: These scores reliably detect disease-related damage, identify key pathways like circadian disruption in podocytes, and reveal damage thresholds in hepatocytes, enabling precise disease mapping and targeted therapies.