CITE-Seq Analysis Reveals a Differential Natural Killer Cell Expression in Cardiovascular Disease Patients Impacted by Human-Cytomegalovirus Serostatus and Diabetes.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is linked to atherosclerosis plaque formation. In pro-inflammatory conditions, human Natural Killer (NK) cell frequencies in blood or plaque decrease; however, NK cells are underexplored in CAD pathogenesis, inflammatory mechanisms, and CAD comorbidities, such as human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection and diabetes. Analysis of PBMC CITE-seq data from sixty-one CAD patients revealed higher blood NK cell expression in CAD patients with higher stenosis severity. Conversely, NK cell expression was lower in pro-inflammatory atherosclerosis plaque tissue with an enriched adaptive NK cell gene signature. In CAD patients with higher stenosis severity, peripheral blood NK cell expression was lower in patients with high HCMV-induced adaptive NK cell frequencies and corresponded to lower PBMC transcript expression with dependency on diabetes status. These results suggest that high NK cell expression is linked to atherosclerosis pro-homeostatic status and may have diagnostic and prognostic implications in cardiovascular disease.