Little is known about how human genetic variation affects the responses to environmental stimuli in the context of complex diseases. Experimental and computational approaches were applied to ...determine the effects of genetic variation on the induction of pathogen-responsive genes in human dendritic cells. We identified 121 common genetic variants associated in cis with variation in expression responses to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide, influenza, or interferon-β (IFN-β). We localized and validated causal variants to binding sites of pathogen-activated STAT (signal transducer and activator of transcription) and IRF (IFN-regulatory factor) transcription factors. We also identified a common variant in IRF7 that is associated in trans with type I IFN induction in response to influenza infection. Our results reveal common alleles that explain interindividual variation in pathogen sensing and provide functional annotation for genetic variants that alter susceptibility to inflammatory diseases.
To extend our understanding of the genetic basis of human immune function and dysfunction, we performed an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) study of purified CD4+ T cells and monocytes, ...representing adaptive and innate immunity, in a multi-ethnic cohort of 461 healthy individuals. Context-specific cis- and trans-eQTLs were identified, and cross-population mapping allowed, in some cases, putative functional assignment of candidate causal regulatory variants for disease-associated loci. We note an over-representation of T cell–specific eQTLs among susceptibility alleles for autoimmune diseases and of monocyte-specific eQTLs among Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease variants. This polarization implicates specific immune cell types in these diseases and points to the need to identify the cell-autonomous effects of disease susceptibility variants.
In our functional dissection of the CD33 Alzheimer's disease susceptibility locus, we found that the rs3865444(C) risk allele was associated with greater cell surface expression of CD33 in the ...monocytes (t50 = 10.06, P(joint) = 1.3 × 10(-13)) of young and older individuals. It was also associated with diminished internalization of amyloid-β 42 peptide, accumulation of neuritic amyloid pathology and fibrillar amyloid on in vivo imaging, and increased numbers of activated human microglia.
While genetic variants are known to be associated with overall gene abundance in stimulated immune cells, less is known about their effects on alternative isoform usage. By analyzing RNA-seq profiles ...of monocyte-derived dendritic cells from 243 individuals, we uncovered thousands of unannotated isoforms synthesized in response to influenza infection and type 1 interferon stimulation. We identified more than a thousand quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with alternate isoform usage (isoQTLs), many of which are independent of expression QTLs (eQTLs) for the same gene. Compared with eQTLs, isoQTLs are enriched for splice sites and untranslated regions, but depleted of sequences upstream of annotated transcription start sites. Both eQTLs and isoQTLs explain a significant proportion of the disease heritability attributed to common genetic variants. At the
locus, we shed light on the function of the gene and how two frequent, highly differentiated haplotypes with intermediate frequencies could be maintained by balancing selection. At baseline and following type 1 interferon stimulation, the major haplotype is associated with low
expression caused by nonsense-mediated decay, while the minor haplotype, known to increase Crohn's disease risk, is associated with high
expression. In response to influenza infection, we found two uncharacterized isoforms expressed from the major haplotype, likely the result of multiple perfectly linked variants affecting the transcription and splicing at the locus. Thus, genetic variants at a single locus could modulate independent gene regulatory processes in innate immune responses and, in the case of
, may confer a historical fitness advantage in response to virus.
Given multiple studies of brain microRNA (miRNA) in relation to Alzheimer's disease (AD) with few consistent results and the heterogeneity of this disease, the objective of this study was to explore ...their mechanism by evaluating their relation to different elements of Alzheimer's disease pathology, confounding factors and mRNA expression data from the same subjects in the same brain region.
We report analyses of expression profiling of miRNA (n = 700 subjects) and lincRNA (n = 540 subjects) from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of individuals participating in two longitudinal cohort studies of aging.
We confirm the association of two well-established miRNA (miR-132, miR-129) with pathologic AD in our dataset and then further characterize this association in terms of its component neuritic β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangle pathologies. Additionally, we identify one new miRNA (miR-99) and four lincRNA that are associated with these traits. Many other previously reported associations of microRNA with AD are associated with the confounders quantified in our longitudinal cohort. Finally, by performing analyses integrating both miRNA and RNA sequence data from the same individuals (525 samples), we characterize the impact of AD associated miRNA on human brain expression: we show that the effects of miR-132 and miR-129-5b converge on certain genes such as EP300 and find a role for miR200 and its target genes in AD using an integrated miRNA/mRNA analysis.
Overall, miRNAs play a modest role in human AD, but we observe robust evidence that a small number of miRNAs are responsible for specific alterations in the cortical transcriptome that are associated with AD.
Using a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), we systematically evaluated 67 candidate genes based on AD-associated genomic loci (P < 10(-4)) from published human genome-wide association ...studies (GWAS). Genetic manipulation of 87 homologous fly genes was tested for modulation of neurotoxicity caused by human Tau, which forms neurofibrillary tangle pathology in AD. RNA interference (RNAi) targeting 9 genes enhanced Tau neurotoxicity, and in most cases reciprocal activation of gene expression suppressed Tau toxicity. Our screen implicates cindr, the fly ortholog of the human CD2AP AD susceptibility gene, as a modulator of Tau-mediated disease mechanisms. Importantly, we also identify the fly orthologs of FERMT2 and CELF1 as Tau modifiers, and these loci have been independently validated as AD susceptibility loci in the latest GWAS meta-analysis. Both CD2AP and FERMT2 have been previously implicated with roles in cell adhesion, and our screen additionally identifies a fly homolog of the human integrin adhesion receptors, ITGAM and ITGA9, as a modifier of Tau neurotoxicity. Our results highlight cell adhesion pathways as important in Tau toxicity and AD susceptibility and demonstrate the power of model organism genetic screens for the functional follow-up of human GWAS.
Whether profound carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) elevations, such as > 20 times the upper limit of normal, are of diagnostic use remain unknown. Herein, we present a case of a 55-year-old female with ...profound serum CEA elevation and multiple pelvic masses but with no evidence of a primary gastrointestinal tumor following upper endoscopy and colonoscopy. Subsequent immunostaining of resected pelvic masses confirmed adenocarcinoma of colorectal origin. This case report highlights the possible diagnostic role of profound CEA elevation, particularly in cases of unknown primary tumors.
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