The discovery of expression quantitative trait loci ("eQTLs") can help to unravel genetic contributions to complex traits. We identified genetic determinants of human liver gene expression variation ...using two independent collections of primary tissue profiled with Agilent (n = 206) and Illumina (n = 60) expression arrays and Illumina SNP genotyping (550K), and we also incorporated data from a published study (n = 266). We found that ∼30% of SNP-expression correlations in one study failed to replicate in either of the others, even at thresholds yielding high reproducibility in simulations, and we quantified numerous factors affecting reproducibility. Our data suggest that drug exposure, clinical descriptors, and unknown factors associated with tissue ascertainment and analysis have substantial effects on gene expression and that controlling for hidden confounding variables significantly increases replication rate. Furthermore, we found that reproducible eQTL SNPs were heavily enriched near gene starts and ends, and subsequently resequenced the promoters and 3'UTRs for 14 genes and tested the identified haplotypes using luciferase assays. For three genes, significant haplotype-specific in vitro functional differences correlated directly with expression levels, suggesting that many bona fide eQTLs result from functional variants that can be mechanistically isolated in a high-throughput fashion. Finally, given our study design, we were able to discover and validate hundreds of liver eQTLs. Many of these relate directly to complex traits for which liver-specific analyses are likely to be relevant, and we identified dozens of potential connections with disease-associated loci. These included previously characterized eQTL contributors to diabetes, drug response, and lipid levels, and they suggest novel candidates such as a role for NOD2 expression in leprosy risk and C2orf43 in prostate cancer. In general, the work presented here will be valuable for future efforts to precisely identify and functionally characterize genetic contributions to a variety of complex traits.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Tumour heterogeneity in the clinic Bedard, Philippe L; Hansen, Aaron R; Ratain, Mark J ...
Nature,
09/2013, Letnik:
501, Številka:
7467
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Recent therapeutic advances in oncology have been driven by the identification of tumour genotype variations between patients, called interpatient heterogeneity, that predict the response of patients ...to targeted treatments. Subpopulations of cancer cells with unique genomes in the same patient may exist across different geographical regions of a tumour or evolve over time, called intratumour heterogeneity. Sequencing technologies can be used to characterize intratumour heterogeneity at diagnosis, monitor clonal dynamics during treatment and identify the emergence of clinical resistance during disease progression. Genetic interpatient and intratumour heterogeneity can pose challenges for the design of clinical trials that use these data.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Lurbinectedin is an alkylating agent approved for the second-line treatment of small cell lung cancer. Although initial studies showed no association between body surface area (BSA) and drug ...clearance, the recommended dose is 3.2 mg/m
2
every 3 weeks. This recommendation was based on an exposure–response study, which demonstrated that patients with lower BSA had a higher incidence of thrombocytopenia. Herein we present the factors associated with BSA and thrombopoiesis, which may have contributed to the observed relationship.
The concept of complete molecular profiling to select investigational treatment options is appealing, theoretically allowing the matching of patients to investigational drugs specifically targeted to ...molecular features of each patient's cancer. Although some patients do benefit from such a strategy, the vast majority do not.