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Yao M, Huang X, Guo Y, Zhao JV, Liu Z. Disentangling the common genetic architecture and causality of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus with COVID-19 outcomes: Genome-wide cross trait analysis and bidirectional Mendelian randomization study. J Med Virol 2023; 95:e28570. [PMID: 36762574 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) may cause a dysregulation of the immune system and has complex relationships with multiple autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, little is known about their common genetic architecture. Using the latest data from COVID-19 host genetics consortium and consortia on RA and SLE, we conducted a genome-wide cross-trait analysis to examine the shared genetic etiology between COVID-19 and RA/SLE and evaluated their causal associations using bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). The cross-trait meta-analysis identified 23, 28, and 10 shared genetic loci for severe COVID-19, COVID-19 hospitalization, and SARS-CoV-2 infection with RA, and 14, 17, and 7 shared loci with SLE, respectively. Co-localization analysis identified five causal variants in TYK2, IKZF3, PSORS1C1, and COG6 for COVID-19 with RA, and four in CRHR1, FUT2, and NXPE3 for COVID-19 with SLE, involved in immune function, angiogenesis and coagulation. Bidirectional MR analysis suggested RA is associated with a higher risk of COVID-19 hospitalization, and COVID-19 is not related to RA or SLE. Our novel findings improved the understanding of the genetic etiology shared by COVID-19, RA and SLE, and suggested an increased risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in people with higher genetic liability to RA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minhao Yao
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Xin Huang
- School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Yunshan Guo
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jie V Zhao
- School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Zhonghua Liu
- Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
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Yang M, Wang P, Liu T, Zou X, Xia Y, Li C, Wang X. High throughput sequencing revealed enhanced cell cycle signaling in SLE patients. Sci Rep 2023; 13:159. [PMID: 36599883 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-27310-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The multi-system involvement and high heterogeneity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) pose great challenges to its diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of the current study is to identify genes and pathways involved in the pathogenesis of SLE. High throughput sequencing was performed on the PBMCs from SLE patients. We conducted differential gene analysis, gene ontology (GO) analysis, kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) verification. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis, alternative splicing analysis, and disease correlation analysis were conducted on some key pathogenic genes as well. Furthermore, si-CDC6 was used for transfection and cell proliferation was monitored using a cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. We identified 2495 differential genes (1494 upregulated and 1001 downregulated) in SLE patients compared with healthy controls. The significantly upregulated genes were enriched in the biological process-related GO terms of the cell cycle, response to stress, and chromosome organization. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed 7 significantly upregulated pathways including SLE, alcoholism, viral carcinogenesis, cell cycle, proteasome, malaria, and transcriptional misregulation in cancer. We successfully verified some differential genes on the SLE pathway and the cell cycle pathway. CDC6, a key gene in the cell cycle pathway, had remarkably higher MXE alternative splicing events in SLE patients than that in controls, which may explain its significant upregulation in SLE patients. We found that CDC6 participates in the pathogenesis of many proliferation-related diseases and its levels are positively correlated with the severity of SLE. Knockdown of CDC6 suppressed the proliferation of Hela cells and PBMCs from SLE patients in vitro. We identified SLE-related genes and their alternative splicing events. The cell cycle pathway and the cell cycle-related biological processes are over-activated in SLE patients. We revealed a higher incidence of MXE events of CDC6, which may lead to its high expression in SLE patients. Upregulated cell cycle signaling and CDC6 may be related to the hyperproliferation and pathogenesis of SLE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingyue Yang
- Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, Translational Medicine Department, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Peisong Wang
- Thyroid Surgery Department, General Surgery Center, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Tao Liu
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Xiaojuan Zou
- Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Ying Xia
- Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, Translational Medicine Department, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Chenxu Li
- Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, Translational Medicine Department, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China
| | - Xiaosong Wang
- Laboratory for Tumor Immunology, Translational Medicine Department, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China.
- Institute of Translational Medicine, First Hospital of Jilin University, No.519 Dongminzhu Street, Changchun, 130021, China.
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Lee AY, Körner H. CC chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. Immunol Cell Biol 2020; 98:845-853. [PMID: 32634857 DOI: 10.1111/imcb.12375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2020] [Revised: 07/05/2020] [Accepted: 07/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The CC chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) and its sole chemokine ligand, CCL20, are an intriguing pair that have been implicated in a growing number of inflammatory, autoimmune and malignant disease processes. Recent observations have also highlighted this chemokine axis in the regulation of humoral immune responses. Through this review article, we explore the emerging links of CCR6-CCL20 with an archetypal autoimmune disease of humoral dysregulation: systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). CCR6 is expressed prominently on several immune cells involved in the pathogenesis of SLE, such as dendritic cells and T-helper 17 cells. CCR6's expression is correlated with disease activity and serological markers of disease severity, suggesting a possible role in disease pathogenesis. However, there are numerous holes in our understanding of the functions of CCR6 and CCL20, and future studies are required to determine if there are any diagnostic, prognostic or monitoring roles for these important molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Ys Lee
- Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia.,Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, Australia.,College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA, Australia
| | - Heinrich Körner
- Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, PR China
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Dey-Rao R, Sinha AA. In silico Analyses of Skin and Peripheral Blood Transcriptional Data in Cutaneous Lupus Reveals CCR2-A Novel Potential Therapeutic Target. Front Immunol 2019; 10:640. [PMID: 30984198 PMCID: PMC6450170 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Accepted: 03/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Cutaneous lesions feature prominently in lupus erythematosus (LE). Yet lupus and its cutaneous manifestations exhibit extraordinary clinical heterogeneity, making it imperative to stratify patients with varying organ involvement based on molecular criteria that may be of clinical value. We conducted several in silico bioinformatics-based analyses integrating chronic cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CCLE)-skin and blood expression profiles to provide novel insights into disease mechanisms and potential future therapy. In addition to substantiating well-known prominent apoptosis and interferon related response in both tissue environments, the overrepresentation of GO categories in the datasets, in the context of existing literature, led us to model a “disease road-map” demonstrating a coordinated orchestration of the autoimmune response in CCLE reflected in three phases: (1) initiation, (2) amplification, and (3) target damage in skin. Within this framework, we undertook in silico interactome analyses to identify significantly “over-connected” genes that are potential key functional players in the metabolic reprogramming associated with skin pathology in CCLE. Furthermore, overlapping and distinct transcriptional “hot spots” within CCLE skin and blood expression profiles mapping to specified chromosomal locations offer selected targets for identifying disease-risk genes. Lastly, we used a novel in silico approach to prioritize the receptor protein CCR2, whose expression level in CCLE tissues was validated by qPCR analysis, and suggest it as a drug target for use in future potential CCLE therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rama Dey-Rao
- Department of Dermatology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
| | - Animesh A Sinha
- Department of Dermatology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Inflammation is a core element of many different, systemic and chronic diseases that usually involve an important autoimmune component. The clinical phase of inflammatory diseases is often the culmination of a long series of pathologic events that started years before. The systemic characteristics and related mechanisms could be investigated through the multi-omic comparative analysis of many inflammatory diseases. Therefore, it is important to use molecular data to study the genesis of the diseases. Here we propose a new methodology to study the relationships between inflammatory diseases and signalling molecules whose dysregulation at molecular levels could lead to systemic pathological events observed in inflammatory diseases. RESULTS We first perform an exploratory analysis of gene expression data of a number of diseases that involve a strong inflammatory component. The comparison of gene expression between disease and healthy samples reveals the importance of members of gene families coding for signalling factors. Next, we focus on interested signalling gene families and a subset of inflammation related diseases with multi-omic features including both gene expression and DNA methylation. We introduce a phylogenetic-based multi-omic method to study the relationships between multi-omic features of inflammation related diseases by integrating gene expression, DNA methylation through sequence based phylogeny of the signalling gene families. The models of adaptations between gene expression and DNA methylation can be inferred from pre-estimated evolutionary relationship of a gene family. Members of the gene family whose expression or methylation levels significantly deviate from the model are considered as the potential disease associated genes. CONCLUSIONS Applying the methodology to four gene families (the chemokine receptor family, the TNF receptor family, the TGF- β gene family, the IL-17 gene family) in nine inflammation related diseases, we identify disease associated genes which exhibit significant dysregulation in gene expression or DNA methylation in the inflammation related diseases, which provides clues for functional associations between the diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Xiao
- Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Krzysztof Bartoszek
- Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Pietro Lio’
- Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Heydarifard Z, Tabarraei A, Abdollahi N, Moradi A, Khanjari Y. Evaluation of CCR5Δ32 Polymorphism in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Healthy Individuals. MEDICAL LABORATORY JOURNAL 2018. [DOI: 10.29252/mlj.12.2.38] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
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Wang T, Li Z, Li X, Chen L, Zhao H, Jiang C, Song L. Expression of CD19+CD24highCD38high B cells, IL-10 and IL-10R in peripheral blood from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Mol Med Rep 2017; 16:6326-6333. [DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2017.7381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 03/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
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Peng H, Wang W, Zhou M, Li R, Pan HF, Ye DQ. Role of interleukin-10 and interleukin-10 receptor in systemic lupus erythematosus. Clin Rheumatol 2013; 32:1255-66. [PMID: 23708831 DOI: 10.1007/s10067-013-2294-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2013] [Accepted: 05/13/2013] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototypic autoimmune disease characterized by excessive production of a variety of autoantibodies, accumulation of immune complexes, and multiple organ systems involvement. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) has an important role in the growth, survival, differentiation, and function of B cells. Abnormally increased IL-10 synthesis seems contributing to the spontaneous hyperactivity of the B cell compartment, so that it can directly result in autoantibody production by committed plasma cells, circulating immune complexes formation, and eventually in tissue and organ damage, suggesting it might associate with the development of SLE. A better understanding of the regulation of IL-10 and its receptors (IL-10R) can likely provide more valuable clues to the pathogenic mechanisms underlying specific forms of SLE, so as to pave the way toward more effective therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Peng
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, People's Republic of China
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Jones B, Koch AE, Ahmed S. Pathological role of fractalkine/CX3CL1 in rheumatic diseases: a unique chemokine with multiple functions. Front Immunol 2012; 2:82. [PMID: 22566871 PMCID: PMC3341950 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2011.00082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2011] [Accepted: 12/06/2011] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding rheumatic diseases from the perspective of chemokine biology has shaped and will continue to shape our approach for targeted drug design. Among different kinds of chemokines, fractalkine/CX3CL1 has been found to play an important role in inflammation, portraying unique functional, and structural characteristics. This review summarizes the emerging role of fractalkine/CX3CL1 from a functional and clinical perspective and provides evidence to validate it as a potential therapeutic target in rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, as well as diseases related to vascular inflammation. From this, recent studies investigating potential therapeutic agents against fractalkine/CX3CL1's role in pathology have shown promise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Jones
- Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Toledo Toledo, OH, USA
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