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Dibble JJ, Ferneyhough B, Roddis M, Millington S, Fischer MD, Parkinson NJ, Ponting CP. Comparison of T-cell receptor diversity of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis versus controls. BMC Res Notes 2024; 17:17. [PMID: 38178251 PMCID: PMC10768444 DOI: 10.1186/s13104-023-06616-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME; sometimes referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) is a chronic disease without laboratory test, detailed aetiological understanding or effective therapy. Its symptoms are diverse, but it is distinguished from other fatiguing illnesses by the experience of post-exertional malaise, the worsening of symptoms even after minor physical or mental exertion. Its frequent onset after infection suggests autoimmune involvement or that it arises from abnormal T-cell activation. RESULTS To test this hypothesis, we sequenced the genomic loci of α/δ, β and γ T-cell receptors (TCR) from 40 human blood samples from each of four groups: severely affected people with ME; mildly or moderately affected people with ME; people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, as disease controls; and, healthy controls. Seeking to automatically classify these individuals' samples by their TCR repertoires, we applied P-SVM, a machine learning method. However, despite working well on a simulated data set, this approach did not allow statistically significant partitioning of samples into the four subgroups. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that blood samples from people with ME frequently contain altered T-cell receptor diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua J Dibble
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Crewe Road South, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK
| | - Ben Ferneyhough
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4SA, UK
| | - Matthew Roddis
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4SA, UK
| | - Sam Millington
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4SA, UK
| | | | - Nick J Parkinson
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4SA, UK.
| | - Chris P Ponting
- MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh, Crewe Road South, Edinburgh, EH4 2XU, UK.
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Hart JE, Clarke IJ, Risbridger GP, Ferneyhough B, Vega-Hernández M. Mysterious inhibitory cell regulator investigated and found likely to be secretogranin II related. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3833. [PMID: 29043108 PMCID: PMC5642266 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2017] [Accepted: 08/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In the context of a hunt for a postulated hormone that is tissue-mass inhibiting and reproductively associated, there is described probable relatedness to a granin protein. A 7–8 kDa polypeptide candidate (gels/MS) appeared in a bioassay-guided fractionation campaign involving sheep plasma. An N-terminal sequence of 14 amino acids was obtained for the polypeptide by Edman degradation. Bioinformatics and molecular biology failed to illuminate any ovine or non-ovine protein which might relate to this sequence. The N-terminal sequence was synthesized as the 14mer EPL001 peptide and surprisingly found to be inhibitory in an assay in vivo of compensatory renal growth in the rat and modulatory of nematode fecundity, in line with the inhibitory hormone hypothesis. Antibodies were raised to EPL001 and their deployment upheld the hypothesis that the EPL001 amino acid sequence is meaningful and relevant, notwithstanding bioinformatic obscurity. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) in sheep, rodents and humans yielded staining of seeming endocrine relevance (e.g. hypothalamus, gonads and neuroendocrine cells in diverse tissues), with apparent upregulation in certain human tumours (e.g. pheochromocytoma). Discrete IHC staining in Drosophila melanogaster embryo brain was seen in glia and in neuroendocrine cells, with staining likely in the corpus cardiacum. The search for the endogenous antigen involved immunoprecipitation (IP) followed by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC–MS). Feedstocks were PC12 conditioned medium and aqueous extract of rat hypothalamus—both of which had anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in an assay in vitro involving rat bone marrow cells, which inhibition was subject to prior immunodepletion with an anti-EPL001 antibody—together with fruit fly embryo material. It is concluded that the mammalian antigen is likely secretogranin II (SgII) related. The originally seen 7–8 kDa polypeptide is suggested to be a new proteoform of secretogranin II of ∼70 residues, SgII-70, with the anti-EPL001 antibody seeing a discontinuous epitope. The fly antigen is probably Q9W2X8 (UniProt), an uncharacterised protein newly disclosed as a granin and provisionally dubbed macrogranin I (MgI). SgII and Q9W2X8 merit further investigation in the context of tissue-mass inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- John E Hart
- Endocrine Pharmaceuticals, Tadley, Hampshire, UK
| | - Iain J Clarke
- Department of Physiology, Neuroscience Program, Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Gail P Risbridger
- Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Biomedical Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | | | - Mónica Vega-Hernández
- Department of Zoology, Lawrence Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK
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Parkinson NJ, Roddis M, Ferneyhough B, Zhang G, Marsden AJ, Maslau S, Sanchez-Pearson Y, Barthlott T, Humphreys IR, Ladell K, Price DA, Ponting CP, Hollander G, Fischer MD. Violation of the 12/23 rule of genomic V(D)J recombination is common in lymphocytes. Genome Res 2014; 25:226-34. [PMID: 25367293 PMCID: PMC4315296 DOI: 10.1101/gr.179770.114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
V(D)J genomic recombination joins single gene segments to encode an extensive repertoire of antigen receptor specificities in T and B lymphocytes. This process initiates with double-stranded breaks adjacent to conserved recombination signal sequences that contain either 12- or 23-nucleotide spacer regions. Only recombination between signal sequences with unequal spacers results in productive coding genes, a phenomenon known as the “12/23 rule.” Here we present two novel genomic tools that allow the capture and analysis of immune locus rearrangements from whole thymic and splenic tissues using second-generation sequencing. Further, we provide strong evidence that the 12/23 rule of genomic recombination is frequently violated under physiological conditions, resulting in unanticipated hybrid recombinations in ∼10% of Tcra excision circles. Hence, we demonstrate that strict adherence to the 12/23 rule is intrinsic neither to recombination signal sequences nor to the catalytic process of recombination and propose that nonclassical excision circles are liberated during the formation of antigen receptor diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Matthew Roddis
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom
| | - Ben Ferneyhough
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom
| | - Gang Zhang
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom
| | - Adam J Marsden
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom
| | - Siarhei Maslau
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom; MRC Functional Genomics Unit, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom
| | | | - Thomas Barthlott
- Paediatric Immunology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel and The Basel University Children's Hospital, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Ian R Humphreys
- Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, United Kingdom
| | - Kristin Ladell
- Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, United Kingdom
| | - David A Price
- Institute of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XN, United Kingdom; Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
| | - Chris P Ponting
- MRC Functional Genomics Unit, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PT, United Kingdom
| | - Georg Hollander
- Paediatric Immunology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel and The Basel University Children's Hospital, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; Developmental Immunology, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, United Kingdom
| | - Michael D Fischer
- Systems Biology Laboratory UK, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SA, United Kingdom; Department of Oncology, Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, St. George's, University of London, London SW17 0QT, United Kingdom
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Parkinson NJ, Maslau S, Ferneyhough B, Zhang G, Gregory L, Buck D, Ragoussis J, Ponting CP, Fischer MD. Preparation of high-quality next-generation sequencing libraries from picogram quantities of target DNA. Genome Res 2011; 22:125-33. [PMID: 22090378 DOI: 10.1101/gr.124016.111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
New sequencing technologies can address diverse biomedical questions but are limited by a minimum required DNA input of typically 1 μg. We describe how sequencing libraries can be reproducibly created from 20 pg of input DNA using a modified transpososome-mediated fragmentation technique. Resulting libraries incorporate in-line bar-coding, which facilitates sample multiplexes that can be sequenced using Illumina platforms with the manufacturer's sequencing primer. We demonstrate this technique by providing deep coverage sequence of the Escherichia coli K-12 genome that shows equivalent target coverage to a 1-μg input library prepared using standard Illumina methods. Reducing template quantity does, however, increase the proportion of duplicate reads and enriches coverage in low-GC regions. This finding was confirmed with exhaustive resequencing of a mouse library constructed from 20 pg of gDNA input (about seven haploid genomes) resulting in ∼0.4-fold statistical coverage of uniquely mapped fragments. This implies that a near-complete coverage of the mouse genome is obtainable with this approach using 20 genomes as input. Application of this new method now allows genomic studies from low mass samples and routine preparation of sequencing libraries from enrichment procedures.
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Ray S, Ferneyhough B. Behavioral development and olfactory learning in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). Dev Psychobiol 1999; 34:21-7. [PMID: 9919430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) can be readily conditioned in the laboratory to specific odors paired with a subsequent sucrose reward. A series of experiments are reported which demonstrate that the ability of bees to acquire and retain this learning is affected by the stage of behavioral development (caste). Results show rapid acquisition of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) conditioning in adult forager bees, however much slower acquisition and poorer retention of the same learning paradigm in younger adults, i.e., nurse bees and guard bees. Further, if nurse bees are made to forage precocially by manipulation of the hive population, these bees show excellent acquisition and retention of PER conditioning comparable to normal adult forager bees. Results are discussed in terms of olfactory learning requirements of bees performing caste-specific behaviors and the maturation of the bee nervous system.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Ray
- School of Biological & Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, UK
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Abstract
THE proboscis extension reflex (PER) has been used extensively in studies of bee learning. This paper reports the effect of age of bees on conditioning of the response. An initial experiment investigated acquisition and retention of PER conditioning in bees emerged from a sealed brood in a laboratory incubator. Reliable acquisition and retention of the learning was not achieved until bees were 6 days of age. With comparable learning and memory to mature forager bees only at day 10. In a second study, bees from the same colonies were reared in a full hive colony, and a much slower development of this behaviour was seen. The results suggest that the behavioural role of the bee in the hive colony is as important as brain maturation for olfactory learning. This was explored further by producing precocious learning abilities in young (3-day-old) bees by preventing their normal nurse bee activities. The results are discussed in terms of the anatomical maturation of the bee nervous system and behavioral demands on the olfactory system throughout adult development.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Ray
- School of Biological and Molecular Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, UK
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