GWAS have linked SNPs to risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but a systematic characterization of disease-associated genes has been lacking. Prior studies utilized microarrays that did not capture many genes encoded within risk loci or defined expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) using peripheral blood, which is not the target tissue in IBD. To address these gaps, we sought to characterize the expression of IBD-associated risk genes in disease-relevant tissues and in the setting of active IBD. Terminal ileal (TI) and colonic mucosal tissues were obtained from patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis and from healthy controls. We developed a NanoString code set to profile 678 genes within IBD risk loci. A subset of patients and controls were genotyped for IBD-associated risk SNPs. Analyses included differential expression and variance analysis, weighted gene coexpression network analysis, and eQTL analysis. We identified 116 genes that discriminate between healthy TI and colon samples and uncovered patterns in variance of gene expression that highlight heterogeneity of disease. We identified 107 coexpressed gene pairs for which transcriptional regulation is either conserved or reversed in an inflammation-independent or -dependent manner. We demonstrate that on average approximately 60% of disease-associated genes are differentially expressed in inflamed tissue. Last, we identified eQTLs with either genotype-only effects on expression or an interaction effect between genotype and inflammation. Our data reinforce tissue specificity of expression in disease-associated candidate genes, highlight genes and gene pairs that are regulated in disease-relevant tissue and inflammation, and provide a foundation to advance the understanding of IBD pathogenesis.
Joanna M. Peloquin, Gautam Goel, Lingjia Kong, Hailiang Huang, Talin Haritunians, R. Balfour Sartor, Mark J. Daly, Rodney D. Newberry, Dermot P. McGovern, Vijay Yajnik, Sergio A. Lira, Ramnik J. Xavier
Recent gene-profiling analyses showed significant upregulation of the folate hydrolase (
Rana Rais, Weiwei Jiang, Huihong Zhai, Krystyna M. Wozniak, Marigo Stathis, Kristen R. Hollinger, Ajit G. Thomas, Camilo Rojas, James J. Vornov, Michael Marohn, Xuhang Li, Barbara S. Slusher
Homeostasis of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is controlled by complex interactions between epithelial and immune cells and the resident microbiota. Here, we studied the role of Wnt signaling in GI homeostasis using
Haim Belinson, Adam K. Savage, Douglas Fadrosh, Yien-Ming Kuo, Din Lin, Ricardo Valladares, Ysbrand Nusse, Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, Susan V. Lynch, Richard M. Locksley, Ophir D. Klein
Novel, tumor-specific drugs are urgently needed for a breakthrough in cancer therapy. Herein, we generated a first-in-class humanized antibody (PRL3-zumab) against PRL-3, an intracellular tumor-associated phosphatase upregulated in multiple human cancers, for unconventional cancer immunotherapies. We focused on gastric cancer (GC), wherein elevated
Min Thura, Abdul Qader Omer Al-Aidaroos, Wei Peng Yong, Koji Kono, Abhishek Gupta, You Bin Lin, Kousaku Mimura, Jean Paul Thiery, Boon Cher Goh, Patrick Tan, Ross Soo, Cheng William Hong, Lingzhi Wang, Suling Joyce Lin, Elya Chen, Sun Young Rha, Hyun Cheol Chung, Jie Li, Sayantani Nandi, Hiu Fung Yuen, Shu-Dong Zhang, Yeoh Khay Guan, Jimmy So, Qi Zeng
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (Pdac) is a malignancy with a poor prognosis due to difficulties in early detection. Although promising biomarkers are increasingly reported, such methods are not yet easy to apply clinically, mainly due to their low reproducibility or technical difficulties. In this study, we developed a convenient and sensitive method for quantifying aberrantly expressed satellite repeat RNAs in sera, which can be used to efficiently detect patients with Pdac. Here, we introduce a Tandem Repeat Amplification by nuclease Protection (TRAP) method combined with droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to detect human satellite II (HSATII) RNAs, which are specifically expressed in human Pdacs at greater levels than normal tissues but are difficult to measure due to their repetitive sequences and irregularities. HSATII RNA core sequence levels in sera were significantly higher in Pdac patients compared with noncancer patients (median copy number: 14.75 and 3.17 per μl in the training set and 17.35 and 2.9 in the validation set, respectively). In addition, patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN), a precancerous lesion of Pdac, could also be efficiently detected. This method can be routinely applied to screen patients with Pdac and high-risk patients, facilitating the development of preventive medicine for this disease.
Takahiro Kishikawa, Motoyuki Otsuka, Takeshi Yoshikawa, Motoko Ohno, Keisuke Yamamoto, Natsuyo Yamamoto, Ai Kotani, Kazuhiko Koike
BACKGROUND. Paneth cell dysfunction has been implicated in a subset of Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. We previously stratified clinical outcomes of CD patients by using Paneth cell phenotypes, which we defined by the intracellular distribution of antimicrobial proteins. Animal studies suggest that Paneth cells shape the intestinal microbiome. However, it is unclear whether Paneth cell phenotypes alter the microbiome complexity in CD subjects. Therefore, we analyzed the correlation of Paneth cell phenotypes with mucosal microbiome composition and ileal RNA expression in pediatric CD and noninflammatory bowel disease (non-IBD) patients.
METHODS. Pediatric CD (
RESULTS. The prevalence of abnormal Paneth cells was higher in pediatric versus adult CD cohorts. For pediatric CD patients, those with abnormal Paneth cells showed significant changes in their ileal mucosal microbiome, highlighted by reduced protective microbes and enriched proinflammatory microbes. Ileal transcriptome profiles showed reduced transcripts for genes that control oxidative phosphorylation in CD patients with abnormal Paneth cells. These transcriptional changes in turn were correlated with specific microbiome alterations. In non-IBD patients, a subset contained abnormal Paneth cells. However, this subset was not associated with alterations in the microbiome or host transcriptome.
CONCLUSION. Paneth cell abnormalities in human subjects are associated with mucosal dysbiosis in the context of CD, and these changes are associated with alterations in oxidative phosphorylation, potentially in a feedback loop.
FUNDING. The research was funded by Helmsley Charitable Trust (to T.S. Stappenbeck, R.J. Xavier, and D.P.B. McGovern), Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (to N.H. Salzman, T.S. Stappenbeck, R.J. Xavier, and C. Huttenhower), and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant 2014103 (to T.C. Liu).
Ta-Chiang Liu, Bhaskar Gurram, Megan T. Baldridge, Richard Head, Vy Lam, Chengwei Luo, Yumei Cao, Pippa Simpson, Michael Hayward, Mary L. Holtz, Pavlos Bousounis, Joshua Noe, Diana Lerner, Jose Cabrera, Vincent Biank, Michael Stephens, Curtis Huttenhower, Dermot P.B. McGovern, Ramnik J. Xavier, Thaddeus S. Stappenbeck, Nita H. Salzman
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