Summary Background Parkinson's disease has been reported in a small number of patients with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. In this study, we screened a series of large, independent Parkinson's ...disease case-control studies for deletions at 22q11.2. Methods We used data on deletions spanning the 22q11.2 locus from four independent case-control Parkinson's disease studies (UK Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2, Dutch Parkinson's Disease Genetics Consortium, US National Institute on Aging, and International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium studies), which were independent of the original reports of chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. We did case-control association analysis to compare the proportion of 22q11.2 deletions found, using the Fisher's exact test for the independent case-control studies and the Mantel-Haenszel test for the meta-analyses. We retrieved clinical details of patients with Parkinson's disease who had 22q11.2 deletions from the medical records of these patients. Findings We included array-based copy number variation data from 9387 patients with Parkinson's disease and 13 863 controls. Eight patients with Parkinson's disease and none of the controls had 22q11.2 deletions (p=0·00082). In the 8451 patients for whom age at onset data were available, deletions at 22q11.2 were associated with Parkinson's disease age at onset (Mann-Whitney U test p=0·001). Age at onset of Parkinson's disease was lower in patients carrying a 22q11.2 deletion (median 37 years, 95% CI 32·0–55·5; mean 42·1 years SD 11·9) than in those who did not carry a deletion (median 61 years, 95% CI 60·5–61·0; mean 60·3 years SD 12·8). A 22q11.2 deletion was present in more patients with early-onset (p<0·0001) and late-onset Parkinson's disease (p=0·016) than in controls, and in more patients with early-onset than late-onset Parkinson's disease (p=0·005). Interpretation Clinicians should be alert to the possibility of 22q11.2 deletions in patients with Parkinson's disease who have early presentation or features associated with the chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, or both. Funding UK Medical Research Council, UK Wellcome Trust, Parkinson's UK, Patrick Berthoud Trust, National Institutes of Health, “Investissements d'Avenir” ANR-10-IAIHU-06, Dutch Parkinson Foundation (Parkinson Vereniging), Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, National Institute for Health Research, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health.
The bacterial nicotine-degrading enzyme NicA2 isolated from P. putida was studied to assess its potential use in the treatment of tobacco dependence.
Rats were pretreated with varying i.v. doses of ...NicA2, followed by i.v. administration of nicotine at 0.03 mg/kg. NicA2 had a rapid onset of action reducing blood and brain nicotine concentrations in a dose-related manner, with a rapid onset of action. A 5 mg/kg NicA2 dose reduced the nicotine concentration in blood by > 90% at 1 min after the nicotine dose, compared to controls. Brain nicotine concentrations were reduced by 55% at 1 min and 92% at 5 min post nicotine dose. To evaluate enzyme effects at a nicotine dosing rate equivalent to heavy smoking, rats pretreated with NicA2 at 10 mg/kg were administered 5 doses of nicotine 0.03 mg/kg i.v. over 40 min. Nicotine levels in blood were below the assay detection limit 3 min after either the first or fifth nicotine dose, and nicotine levels in brain were reduced by 82 and 84%, respectively, compared to controls. A 20 mg/kg NicA2 dose attenuated nicotine discrimination and produced extinction of nicotine self-administration (NSA) in most rats, or a compensatory increase in other rats, when administered prior to each daily NSA session. In rats showing compensation, increasing the NicA2 dose to 70 mg/kg resulted in extinction of NSA. An enzyme construct with a longer duration of action, via fusion with an albumin-binding domain, similarly reduced NSA in a 23 h nicotine access model at a dose of 70 mg/kg.
These data extend knowledge of NicA2's effects on nicotine distribution to brain and its ability to attenuate addiction-relevant behaviors in rats and support its further investigation as a treatment for tobacco use disorder.
CARD15 is a major susceptibility gene for a frequent multifactorial chronic inflammatory bowel disorder, Crohn disease (CD). By using NF-κB activation assays, the cytosolic CARD15 was shown to ...efficiently detect bacterial peptidoglycan (PGN), reminiscent of the PGN recognition protein surveillance mechanism in Drosophila. The 3 CD-associated variants and 13 additional variants carried by CD patients demonstrated impaired PGN-dependent response revealing null, hypomorphic, or dominant-negative properties. Quantitative parametrization of this response, computed from the patients' CARD15 genotypes, was predictive of several variable CD manifestations. In contrast, CARD15 alleles associated with Blau's syndrome promoted PGN-independent NF-κB activation, an observation that accounts for the minimal microbial input in the etiology of this dominant, monogenic inflammatory disorder affecting solely aseptic sites.
Nuclear receptors (NRs) play crucial roles in the regulation of hepatic cholesterol synthesis, metabolism, and conversion to bile acids, but their actions in cholangiocytes have not been examined. In ...this study, we investigated the roles of NRs in cholangiocyte physiology and cholesterol metabolism and flux. We examined the expression of NRs and other genes involved in cholesterol homeostasis in freshly isolated and cultured murine cholangiocytes and found that these cells express a specific subset of NRs, including liver X receptor (LXR) β and peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR) δ. Activation of LXRβ and/or PPARδ in cholangiocytes induces ATP‐binding cassette cholesterol transporter A1 (ABCA1) and increases cholesterol export at the basolateral compartment in polarized cultured cholangiocytes. In addition, PPARδ induces Niemann‐Pick C1‐like L1 (NPC1L1), which imports cholesterol into cholangiocytes and is expressed on the apical cholangiocyte membrane via specific interaction with a peroxisome proliferator‐activated response element (PPRE) within the NPC1L1 promoter. Conclusion: We propose that (1) LXRβ and PPARδ coordinate NPC1L1/ABCA1‐dependent vectorial cholesterol flux from bile through cholangiocytes and (2) manipulation of these processes may influence bile composition with important applications in cholestatic liver disease and gallstone disease, two serious health concerns for humans. (HEPATOLOGY 2012;56:2288–2296)
IMPORTANCE: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and pathway analyses supported long-standing observations of an association between immune-mediated diseases and Parkinson disease (PD). The ...post-GWAS era provides an opportunity for cross-phenotype analyses between different complex phenotypes. OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that there are common genetic risk variants conveying risk of both PD and autoimmune diseases (ie, pleiotropy) and to identify new shared genetic variants and their pathways by applying a novel statistical framework in a genome-wide approach. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Using the conjunction false discovery rate method, this study analyzed GWAS data from a selection of archetypal autoimmune diseases among 138 511 individuals of European ancestry and systemically investigated pleiotropy between PD and type 1 diabetes, Crohn disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis. NeuroX data (6927 PD cases and 6108 controls) were used for replication. The study investigated the biological correlation between the top loci through protein-protein interaction and changes in the gene expression and methylation levels. The dates of the analysis were June 10, 2015, to March 4, 2017. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was a list of novel loci and their pathways involved in PD and autoimmune diseases. RESULTS: Genome-wide conjunctional analysis identified 17 novel loci at false discovery rate less than 0.05 with overlap between PD and autoimmune diseases, including known PD loci adjacent to GAK, HLA-DRB5, LRRK2, and MAPT for rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease. Replication confirmed the involvement of HLA, LRRK2, MAPT, TRIM10, and SETD1A in PD. Among the novel genes discovered, WNT3, KANSL1, CRHR1, BOLA2, and GUCY1A3 are within a protein-protein interaction network with known PD genes. A subset of novel loci was significantly associated with changes in methylation or expression levels of adjacent genes. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The study findings provide novel mechanistic insights into PD and autoimmune diseases and identify a common genetic pathway between these phenotypes. The results may have implications for future therapeutic trials involving anti-inflammatory agents.
IL-12 and IL-23 cytokines respectively drive Th1 and Th17 type responses. Yet, little is known regarding the biology of these receptors. As the IL-12 and IL-23 receptors share a common subunit, it ...has been assumed that these receptors are co-expressed. Surprisingly, we find that the expression of each of these receptors is restricted to specific cell types, in both mouse and human. Indeed, although IL-12Rβ2 is expressed by NK cells and a subset of γδ T cells, the expression of IL-23R is restricted to specific T cell subsets, a small number of B cells and innate lymphoid cells. By exploiting an IL-12- and IL-23-dependent mouse model of innate inflammation, we demonstrate an intricate interplay between IL-12Rβ2 NK cells and IL-23R innate lymphoid cells with respectively dominant roles in the regulation of systemic versus local inflammatory responses. Together, these findings support an unforeseen lineage-specific dichotomy in the in vivo role of both the IL-12 and IL-23 pathways in pathological inflammatory states, which may allow more accurate dissection of the roles of these receptors in chronic inflammatory diseases in humans.
Summary Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for Parkinson's disease have linked two loci ( MAPT and SNCA ) to risk of Parkinson's disease. We aimed to identify novel risk loci for ...Parkinson's disease. Methods We did a meta-analysis of datasets from five Parkinson's disease GWAS from the USA and Europe to identify loci associated with Parkinson's disease (discovery phase). We then did replication analyses of significantly associated loci in an independent sample series. Estimates of population-attributable risk were calculated from estimates from the discovery and replication phases combined, and risk-profile estimates for loci identified in the discovery phase were calculated. Findings The discovery phase consisted of 5333 case and 12 019 control samples, with genotyped and imputed data at 7 689 524 SNPs. The replication phase consisted of 7053 case and 9007 control samples. We identified 11 loci that surpassed the threshold for genome-wide significance (p<5×10−8 ). Six were previously identified loci ( MAPT, SNCA, HLA-DRB5, BST1, GAK and LRRK2 ) and five were newly identified loci ( ACMSD, STK39, MCCC1/LAMP3, SYT11 , and CCDC62/HIP1R ). The combined population-attributable risk was 60·3% (95% CI 43·7–69·3). In the risk-profile analysis, the odds ratio in the highest quintile of disease risk was 2·51 (95% CI 2·23–2·83) compared with 1·00 in the lowest quintile of disease risk. Interpretation These data provide an insight into the genetics of Parkinson's disease and the molecular cause of the disease and could provide future targets for therapies. Funding Wellcome Trust, National Institute on Aging, and US Department of Defense.
Regulatory T cell (Treg) therapy is a potential curative approach for a variety of immune-mediated conditions, including autoimmunity and transplantation, in which there is pathological tissue ...damage. In mice, IL-33R (ST2)-expressing Tregs mediate tissue repair by producing the growth factor amphiregulin, but whether similar tissue-reparative Tregs exist in humans remains unclear. We show that human Tregs in blood and multiple tissue types produced amphiregulin, but this was neither a unique feature of Tregs nor selectively upregulated in tissues. Human Tregs in blood, tonsil, synovial fluid, colon, and lung tissues did not express ST2, so ST2
Tregs were engineered via lentiviral-mediated overexpression, and their therapeutic potential for cell therapy was examined. Engineered ST2
Tregs exhibited TCR-independent, IL-33-stimulated amphiregulin expression and a heightened ability to induce M2-like macrophages. The finding that amphiregulin-producing Tregs have a noneffector phenotype and are progressively lost upon TCR-induced proliferation and differentiation suggests that the tissue repair capacity of human Tregs may be an innate function that operates independently from their classical suppressive function.
Objective:
Outcome measures are rarely available for surveillance and system performance monitoring for mental disorders and addictions. Our study aims to demonstrate the feasibility and face ...validity of routinely measuring the mortality gap in the Canadian context at the provincial and regional levels using the methods and data available to the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS) of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Methods:
We used longitudinal data from the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System, which also provides aggregated data to the CCDSS. This includes data from the health insurance registry physician claims and the hospital discharge abstract for all mental disorder diagnoses (International Classification of Diseases ICD-9 290–319 or ICD-10 F00–F99). Patients were defined as having had received a mental disorder diagnosis at least once during the year. Life expectancy was measured using Chiang's method for abridged life tables, complemented by the Hsieh method for adjustment of the last age interval.
Results:
We found a lower life expectancy among psychiatric patients of 8 years for men and 5 years for women. For patients with schizophrenia, life expectancy was lowered by 12 years for men and 8 years for women. Cardiovascular disease and cancer were the most common causes of premature death. Findings were consistent across time and regions of the province. Lower estimates of the mortality gap, compared with literature, could be explained by the inclusion of primary care patients and methods.
Conclusions:
Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using administrative data to measure the impact of current and future mental health plans in Canada provided the techniques can be replicated in other Canadian provinces.
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