1
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Hsu AP, Korzeniowska A, Aguilar CC, Gu J, Karlins E, Oler AJ, Chen G, Reynoso GV, Davis J, Chaput A, Peng T, Sun L, Lack JB, Bays DJ, Stewart ER, Waldman SE, Powell DA, Donovan FM, Desai JV, Pouladi N, Long Priel DA, Yamanaka D, Rosenzweig SD, Niemela JE, Stoddard J, Freeman AF, Zerbe CS, Kuhns DB, Lussier YA, Olivier KN, Boucher RC, Hickman HD, Frelinger J, Fierer J, Shubitz LF, Leto TL, Thompson GR, Galgiani JN, Lionakis MS, Holland SM. Immunogenetics associated with severe coccidioidomycosis. JCI Insight 2022; 7:159491. [PMID: 36166305 PMCID: PMC9746810 DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.159491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Disseminated coccidioidomycosis (DCM) is caused by Coccidioides, pathogenic fungi endemic to the southwestern United States and Mexico. Illness occurs in approximately 30% of those infected, less than 1% of whom develop disseminated disease. To address why some individuals allow dissemination, we enrolled patients with DCM and performed whole-exome sequencing. In an exploratory set of 67 patients with DCM, 2 had haploinsufficient STAT3 mutations, and defects in β-glucan sensing and response were seen in 34 of 67 cases. Damaging CLEC7A and PLCG2 variants were associated with impaired production of β-glucan-stimulated TNF-α from PBMCs compared with healthy controls. Using ancestry-matched controls, damaging CLEC7A and PLCG2 variants were overrepresented in DCM, including CLEC7A Y238* and PLCG2 R268W. A validation cohort of 111 patients with DCM confirmed the PLCG2 R268W, CLEC7A I223S, and CLEC7A Y238* variants. Stimulation with a DECTIN-1 agonist induced DUOX1/DUOXA1-derived hydrogen peroxide [H2O2] in transfected cells. Heterozygous DUOX1 or DUOXA1 variants that impaired H2O2 production were overrepresented in discovery and validation cohorts. Patients with DCM have impaired β-glucan sensing or response affecting TNF-α and H2O2 production. Impaired Coccidioides recognition and decreased cellular response are associated with disseminated coccidioidomycosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy P Hsu
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.,Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
| | - Agnieszka Korzeniowska
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Cynthia C Aguilar
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Jingwen Gu
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Eric Karlins
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Andrew J Oler
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Gang Chen
- Marsico Lung Institute and Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Glennys V Reynoso
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Joie Davis
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Alexandria Chaput
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Tao Peng
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Ling Sun
- Marsico Lung Institute and Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.,Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Laboratory of Pulmonary Immunology and Inflammation, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
| | - Justin B Lack
- NIAID Collaborative Bioinformatics Resource, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.,Advanced Biomedical Computational Science, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick, Maryland, USA
| | - Derek J Bays
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, USA
| | - Ethan R Stewart
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, USA
| | - Sarah E Waldman
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, USA
| | - Daniel A Powell
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA.,Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Fariba M Donovan
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Jigar V Desai
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics and.,The Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Debra A Long Priel
- Neutrophil Monitoring Laboratory, Applied/Developmental Research Directorate, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland, USA
| | - Daisuke Yamanaka
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.,Laboratory for Immunopharmacology of Microbial Products, School of Pharmacy, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Julie E Niemela
- Immunology Service, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Center and
| | - Jennifer Stoddard
- Immunology Service, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Center and
| | - Alexandra F Freeman
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Christa S Zerbe
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Douglas B Kuhns
- Neutrophil Monitoring Laboratory, Applied/Developmental Research Directorate, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland, USA
| | - Yves A Lussier
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics and.,The Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Kenneth N Olivier
- Laboratory of Chronic Airway Infection, Pulmonary Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Richard C Boucher
- Marsico Lung Institute and Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
| | - Heather D Hickman
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Jeffrey Frelinger
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA.,Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Joshua Fierer
- VA HealthCare San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.,Division of Infectious Diseases, Departments of Pathology and Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Lisa F Shubitz
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Thomas L Leto
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - George R Thompson
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, USA.,Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - John N Galgiani
- Valley Fever Center for Excellence, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Michail S Lionakis
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Steven M Holland
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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2
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Chang EH, Pouladi N, Guerra S, Jandova J, Kim A, Li H, Li J, Morgan W, Stern DA, Willis AL, Lussier YA, Martinez FD. Epithelial cell responses to rhinovirus identify an early-life-onset asthma phenotype in adults. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2022; 150:604-611. [PMID: 35367470 PMCID: PMC9463086 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2022.03.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [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: 08/27/2021] [Revised: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The study of pathogenic mechanisms in adult asthma is often marred by a lack of precise information about the natural history of the disease. Children who have persistent wheezing (PW) during the first 6 years of life and whose symptoms start before age 3 years (PW+) are much more likely to have wheezing illnesses due to rhinovirus (RV) in infancy and to have asthma into adult life than are those who do not have PW (PW-). OBJECTIVE Our aim was to determine whether nasal epithelial cells from PW+ asthmatic adults as compared with cells from PW- asthmatic adults show distinct biomechanistic processes activated by RV exposure. METHODS Air-liquid interface cultures derived from nasal epithelial cells of 36-year old participants with active asthma with and without a history of PW in childhood (10 PW+ participants and 20 PW- participants) from the Tucson Children's Respiratory Study were challenged with a human RV-A strain (RV-A16) or control, and their RNA was sequenced. RESULTS A total of 35 differentially expressed genes involved in extracellular remodeling and angiogenesis distinguished the PW+ group from the PW- group at baseline and after RV-A stimulation. Notably, 22 transcriptomic pathways showed PW-by-RV interactions; the pathways were invariably overactivated in PW+ patients, and were involved in Toll-like receptor- and cytokine-mediated responses, remodeling, and angiogenic processes. CONCLUSIONS Asthmatic adults with a history of persistent wheeze in the first 6 years of life have specific biomolecular alterations in response to RV-A that are not present in patients without such a history. Targeting these mechanisms may slow the progression of asthma in these patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugene H Chang
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Asthma / Airway Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
| | - Stefano Guerra
- College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Asthma / Airway Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Jana Jandova
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Alexander Kim
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Haiquan Li
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Jianrong Li
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
| | - Wayne Morgan
- College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Asthma / Airway Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Debra A Stern
- College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Asthma / Airway Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Amanda L Willis
- Department of Otolaryngology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | - Yves A. Lussier
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
| | - Fernando D Martinez
- College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Asthma / Airway Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- The University of Arizona BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
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3
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Aberasturi D, Pouladi N, Zaim SR, Kenost C, Berghout J, Piegorsch WW, Lussier YA. 'Single-subject studies'-derived analyses unveil altered biomechanisms between very small cohorts: implications for rare diseases. Bioinformatics 2021; 37:i67-i75. [PMID: 34252934 PMCID: PMC8336591 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btab290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Identifying altered transcripts between very small human cohorts is particularly challenging and is compounded by the low accrual rate of human subjects in rare diseases or sub-stratified common disorders. Yet, single-subject studies (S3) can compare paired transcriptome samples drawn from the same patient under two conditions (e.g. treated versus pre-treatment) and suggest patient-specific responsive biomechanisms based on the overrepresentation of functionally defined gene sets. These improve statistical power by: (i) reducing the total features tested and (ii) relaxing the requirement of within-cohort uniformity at the transcript level. We propose Inter-N-of-1, a novel method, to identify meaningful differences between very small cohorts by using the effect size of 'single-subject-study'-derived responsive biological mechanisms. RESULTS In each subject, Inter-N-of-1 requires applying previously published S3-type N-of-1-pathways MixEnrich to two paired samples (e.g. diseased versus unaffected tissues) for determining patient-specific enriched genes sets: Odds Ratios (S3-OR) and S3-variance using Gene Ontology Biological Processes. To evaluate small cohorts, we calculated the precision and recall of Inter-N-of-1 and that of a control method (GLM+EGS) when comparing two cohorts of decreasing sizes (from 20 versus 20 to 2 versus 2) in a comprehensive six-parameter simulation and in a proof-of-concept clinical dataset. In simulations, the Inter-N-of-1 median precision and recall are > 90% and >75% in cohorts of 3 versus 3 distinct subjects (regardless of the parameter values), whereas conventional methods outperform Inter-N-of-1 at sample sizes 9 versus 9 and larger. Similar results were obtained in the clinical proof-of-concept dataset. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION R software is available at Lussierlab.net/BSSD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dillon Aberasturi
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, UT, USA 84108
| | - Samir Rachid Zaim
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721
| | - Colleen Kenost
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, UT, USA 84108
| | - Joanne Berghout
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Ctr for Appl. Genetics and Genomic Medic, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721
| | - Walter W Piegorsch
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721
| | - Yves A Lussier
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2), University of Arizona Health Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85724-5035.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, UT, USA 84108.,Ctr for Appl. Genetics and Genomic Medic, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721.,Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721
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4
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Hsu AP, Davis J, Chaput AL, Powell DA, Pouladi N, Lussier Y, Fierer J, Frelinger JA, Galgiani JN, Lionakis M, Holland SM. 42. Common Population Variants Cause Susceptibility to Disseminated Coccidioidomycosis. Open Forum Infect Dis 2020. [PMCID: PMC7776098 DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa417.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [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: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Coccidioides are endemic, dimorphic fungi found in soils of southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America. Infection occurs via inhalation of arthroconidia which swell, differentiate into spherules and rupture releasing endospores. While the majority of infected individuals will never report illness, roughly 1/3 seek medical attention for fungal pneumonia and ~1% of those present with disseminated coccidioidomycosis (DCM). IL12-IFNγ pathway mutations have been reported in DCM but are exceedingly rare and cannot account for the ~500–600 cases of DCM/year.
Methods
We performed whole exome sequencing on 66 individuals with DCM, retaining variants predicted damaging (CADD >15) with a population frequency < 10%.
Results
Homozygous CLEC7A c.714T >G; p.Y238* causing a truncated Dectin-1 receptor was overrepresented (OR=9.8449, 95% CI 3.0841 to 31.4260, P=0.0001). Dectin-1 signaling pathway variants included 3 homozygous and 11 heterozygous CLEC7A p.Y238* individuals, one each CLEC7A p.I223S and MALT1 p.R149Q and five PLCG2 p.R268W. Since Dectin-1 is the receptor for b-glucan, a major Coccidioides cell-wall component, we hypothesized that Dectin-1 pathway variants could affect fungal recognition and cellular response. Healthy control PBMCs stimulated with purified β-glucan or heat-killed Candida albicans induced 6-fold more TNFα than patients with homozygous or heterozygous CLEC7A, PLCG2 or MALT1 variants (P=0.0022, Ordinary one-way ANOVA). Additionally, one patient with a family history of DCM but lacking a defined mutation also failed to up-regulate TNFα after stimulation.
Normalized TNF production from healthy control and DCM patient’s peripheral blood mononuclear cells
Conclusion
These data are consonant with increased dissemination in Clec7a-/- mice as well as in patients receiving anti-TNF biologics. These gene variants accounted for 31% of our DCM cohort (21/66 patients). This is the first demonstration of variants outside the IL12-IFNg pathway impairing fungal recognition and cellular response in coccidioidomycosis. Common heterozygous variants may be sufficient for disease susceptibility to highly pathogenic organisms.
Disclosures
Michail Lionakis, MD, ScD, Matinas BioPharma (Research Grant or Support)
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy P Hsu
- NIAID / NIH; University of Maryland, College Park, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Joie Davis
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, Bethesda, Maryland
| | | | | | | | | | - Joshua Fierer
- UC San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California
| | | | | | - Michail Lionakis
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Steven M Holland
- Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
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5
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Chang EH, Willis AL, Romanoski CE, Cusanovich DA, Pouladi N, Li J, Lussier YA, Martinez FD. Rhinovirus Infections in Individuals with Asthma Increase ACE2 Expression and Cytokine Pathways Implicated in COVID-19. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2020; 202:753-755. [PMID: 32649217 PMCID: PMC7462393 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202004-1343le] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
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6
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Li H, Fan J, Vitali F, Berghout J, Aberasturi D, Li J, Wilson L, Chiu W, Pumarejo M, Han J, Kenost C, Koripella PC, Pouladi N, Billheimer D, Bedrick EJ, Lussier YA. Novel disease syndromes unveiled by integrative multiscale network analysis of diseases sharing molecular effectors and comorbidities. BMC Med Genomics 2018; 11:112. [PMID: 30598089 PMCID: PMC6311938 DOI: 10.1186/s12920-018-0428-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [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] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Forty-two percent of patients experience disease comorbidity, contributing substantially to mortality rates and increased healthcare costs. Yet, the possibility of underlying shared mechanisms for diseases remains not well established, and few studies have confirmed their molecular predictions with clinical datasets. Methods In this work, we integrated genome-wide association study (GWAS) associating diseases and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with transcript regulatory activity from expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL). This allowed novel mechanistic insights for noncoding and intergenic regions. We then analyzed pairs of SNPs across diseases to identify shared molecular effectors robust to multiple test correction (False Discovery Rate FDReRNA < 0.05). We hypothesized that disease pairs found to be molecularly convergent would also be significantly overrepresented among comorbidities in clinical datasets. To assess our hypothesis, we used clinical claims datasets from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and calculated significant disease comorbidities (FDRcomorbidity < 0.05). We finally verified if disease pairs resulting molecularly convergent were also statistically comorbid more than by chance using the Fisher’s Exact Test. Results Our approach integrates: (i) 6175 SNPs associated with 238 diseases from ~ 1000 GWAS, (ii) eQTL associations from 19 tissues, and (iii) claims data for 35 million patients from HCUP. Logistic regression (controlled for age, gender, and race) identified comorbidities in HCUP, while enrichment analyses identified cis- and trans-eQTL downstream effectors of GWAS-identified variants. Among ~ 16,000 combinations of diseases, 398 disease-pairs were prioritized by both convergent eQTL-genetics (RNA overlap enrichment, FDReRNA < 0.05) and clinical comorbidities (OR > 1.5, FDRcomorbidity < 0.05). Case studies of comorbidities illustrate specific convergent noncoding regulatory elements. An intergenic architecture of disease comorbidity was unveiled due to GWAS and eQTL-derived convergent mechanisms between distinct diseases being overrepresented among observed comorbidities in clinical datasets (OR = 8.6, p-value = 6.4 × 10− 5 FET). Conclusions These comorbid diseases with convergent eQTL genetic mechanisms suggest clinical syndromes. While it took over a decade to confirm the genetic underpinning of the metabolic syndrome, this study is likely highlighting hundreds of new ones. Further, this knowledge may improve the clinical management of comorbidities with precision and shed light on novel approaches of drug repositioning or SNP-guided precision molecular therapy inclusive of intergenic risks. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-018-0428-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiquan Li
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,Department of Biosystems Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
| | - Jungwei Fan
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Francesca Vitali
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,University of Arizona Health Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Joanne Berghout
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,The Center for Applied Genetics and Genomics Medicine, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,The Center for Innovation in Brain Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Dillon Aberasturi
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Jianrong Li
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,University of Arizona Health Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Liam Wilson
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Wesley Chiu
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Minsu Pumarejo
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Jiali Han
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Systems & Industrial Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Colleen Kenost
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Pradeep C Koripella
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Dean Billheimer
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,University of Arizona Health Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, College of Public Health, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Edward J Bedrick
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,University of Arizona Health Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.,Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, College of Public Health, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Yves A Lussier
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine-Tucson, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,The Center for Applied Genetics and Genomics Medicine, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,The Center for Innovation in Brain Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,UA Cancer Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA. .,University of Arizona Health Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
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Bime C, Pouladi N, Sammani S, Batai K, Casanova N, Zhou T, Kempf CL, Sun X, Camp SM, Wang T, Kittles RA, Lussier YA, Jones TK, Reilly JP, Meyer NJ, Christie JD, Karnes JH, Gonzalez-Garay M, Christiani DC, Yates CR, Wurfel MM, Meduri GU, Garcia JGN. Genome-Wide Association Study in African Americans with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Identifies the Selectin P Ligand Gene as a Risk Factor. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2018; 197:1421-1432. [PMID: 29425463 PMCID: PMC6005557 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201705-0961oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [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: 05/16/2017] [Accepted: 02/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
RATIONALE Genetic factors are involved in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) susceptibility. Identification of novel candidate genes associated with increased risk and severity will improve our understanding of ARDS pathophysiology and enhance efforts to develop novel preventive and therapeutic approaches. OBJECTIVES To identify genetic susceptibility targets for ARDS. METHODS A genome-wide association study was performed on 232 African American patients with ARDS and 162 at-risk control subjects. The Identify Candidate Causal SNPs and Pathways platform was used to infer the association of known gene sets with the top prioritized intragenic SNPs. Preclinical validation of SELPLG (selectin P ligand gene) was performed using mouse models of LPS- and ventilator-induced lung injury. Exonic variation within SELPLG distinguishing patients with ARDS from sepsis control subjects was confirmed in an independent cohort. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Pathway prioritization analysis identified a nonsynonymous coding SNP (rs2228315) within SELPLG, encoding P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1, to be associated with increased susceptibility. In an independent cohort, two exonic SELPLG SNPs were significantly associated with ARDS susceptibility. Additional support for SELPLG as an ARDS candidate gene was derived from preclinical ARDS models where SELPLG gene expression in lung tissues was significantly increased in both ventilator-induced (twofold increase) and LPS-induced (5.7-fold increase) murine lung injury models compared with controls. Furthermore, Selplg-/- mice exhibited significantly reduced LPS-induced inflammatory lung injury compared with wild-type C57/B6 mice. Finally, an antibody that neutralizes P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 significantly attenuated LPS-induced lung inflammation. CONCLUSIONS These findings identify SELPLG as a novel ARDS susceptibility gene among individuals of European and African descent.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Department of Medicine
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Yves A. Lussier
- Department of Medicine
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics
| | - Tiffanie K. Jones
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - John P. Reilly
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Nuala J. Meyer
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jason D. Christie
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jason H. Karnes
- Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
| | | | - David C. Christiani
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
- Pulmonary and Critical Care Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | | | - Mark M. Wurfel
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
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8
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Berghout J, Li Q, Pouladi N, Li J, Lussier YA. Single subject transcriptome analysis to identify functionally signed gene set or pathway activity. Pac Symp Biocomput 2018; 23:400-411. [PMID: 29218900 PMCID: PMC5730358] [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] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Analysis of single-subject transcriptome response data is an unmet need of precision medicine, made challenging by the high dimension, dynamic nature and difficulty in extracting meaningful signals from biological or stochastic noise. We have proposed a method for single subject analysis that uses a mixture model for transcript fold-change clustering from isogenically paired samples, followed by integration of these distributions with Gene Ontology Biological Processes (GO-BP) to reduce dimension and identify functional attributes. We then extended these methods to develop functional signing metrics for gene set process regulation by incorporating biological repressor relationships encoded in GO-BP as negatively_regulates edges. Results revealed reproducible and biologically meaningful signals from analysis of a single subject's response, opening the door to future transcriptomic studies where subject and resource availability are currently limiting. We used inbred mouse strains fed different diets to provide isogenic biological replicates, permitting rigorous validation of our method. We compared significant genotype-specific GO-BP term results for overlap and rank order across three replicate pairs per genotype, and cross-methods to reference standards (limma+FET, SAM+FET, and GSEA). All single-subject analytics findings were robust and highly reproducible (median area under the ROC curve=0.96, n=24 genotypes × 3 replicates), providing confidence and validation of this approach for analyses in single subjects. R code is available online at http://www.lussiergroup.org/publications/PathwayActivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanne Berghout
- Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics (CB2) & The Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA,
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9
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Zhou T, Casanova N, Pouladi N, Wang T, Lussier Y, Knox KS, Garcia JGN. Identification of Jak-STAT signaling involvement in sarcoidosis severity via a novel microRNA-regulated peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene signature. Sci Rep 2017; 7:4237. [PMID: 28652588 PMCID: PMC5484682 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04109-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2016] [Accepted: 05/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous lung disorder of unknown cause. The majority of individuals with sarcoidosis spontaneously achieve full remission (uncomplicated sarcoidosis), however, ~20% of sarcoidosis-affected individuals experience progressive lung disease or cardiac and nervous system involvement (complicated sarcoidosis). We investigated peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) microRNA and protein-coding gene expression data from healthy controls and patients with uncomplicated or complicated sarcoidosis. We identified 46 microRNAs and 1,559 genes that were differentially expressed across a continuum of sarcoidosis severity (healthy control → uncomplicated sarcoidosis → complicated sarcoidosis). A total of 19 microRNA-mRNA regulatory pairs were identified within these deregulated microRNAs and mRNAs, which consisted of 17 unique protein-coding genes yielding a 17-gene signature. Pathway analysis of the 17-gene signature revealed Jak-STAT signaling pathway as the most significantly represented pathway. A severity score was assigned to each patient based on the expression of the 17-gene signature and a significant increasing trend in the severity score was observed from healthy control, to uncomplicated sarcoidosis, and finally to complicated sarcoidosis. In addition, this microRNA-regulated gene signature differentiates sarcoidosis patients from healthy controls in independent validation cohorts. Our study suggests that PBMC gene expression is useful in diagnosis of sarcoidosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Zhou
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV, 89557, USA
| | - Nancy Casanova
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Center for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA
| | - Ting Wang
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA
| | - Yves Lussier
- Center for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA
| | - Kenneth S Knox
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA
| | - Joe G N Garcia
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 78721, USA.
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11
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Pouladi N, Achour I, Li H, Berghout J, Kenost C, Gonzalez-Garay ML, Lussier YA. Biomechanisms of Comorbidity: Reviewing Integrative Analyses of Multi-omics Datasets and Electronic Health Records. Yearb Med Inform 2016; 25:194-206. [PMID: 27830251 PMCID: PMC5171562 DOI: 10.15265/iy-2016-040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [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] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Disease comorbidity is a pervasive phenomenon impacting patients' health outcomes, disease management, and clinical decisions. This review presents past, current and future research directions leveraging both phenotypic and molecular information to uncover disease similarity underpinning the biology and etiology of disease comorbidity. METHODS We retrieved ~130 publications and retained 59, ranging from 2006 to 2015, that comprise a minimum number of five diseases and at least one type of biomolecule. We surveyed their methods, disease similarity metrics, and calculation of comorbidities in the electronic health records, if present. RESULTS Among the surveyed studies, 44% generated or validated disease similarity metrics in context of comorbidity, with 60% being published in the last two years. As inputs, 87% of studies utilized intragenic loci and proteins while 13% employed RNA (mRNA, LncRNA or miRNA). Network modeling was predominantly used (35%) followed by statistics (28%) to impute similarity between these biomolecules and diseases. Studies with large numbers of biomolecules and diseases used network models or naïve overlap of disease-molecule associations, while machine learning, statistics, and information retrieval were utilized in smaller and moderate sized studies. Multiscale computations comprising shared function, network topology, and phenotypes were performed exclusively on proteins. CONCLUSION This review highlighted the growing methods for identifying the molecular mechanisms underpinning comorbidities that leverage multiscale molecular information and patterns from electronic health records. The survey unveiled that intergenic polymorphisms have been overlooked for similarity imputation compared to their intragenic counterparts, offering new opportunities to bridge the mechanistic and similarity gaps of comorbidity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Y A Lussier
- Dr. Yves A. Lussier, The University of Arizona, Bio5 Building, 1657 East Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA, Fax: +1 520 626 4824, E-Mail:
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12
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Pouladi N, Bime C, Garcia JGN, Lussier YA. Complex genetics of pulmonary diseases: lessons from genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing. Transl Res 2016; 168:22-39. [PMID: 26006746 PMCID: PMC4658294 DOI: 10.1016/j.trsl.2015.04.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2015] [Revised: 04/27/2015] [Accepted: 04/29/2015] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
The advent of high-throughput technologies has provided exceptional assistance for lung scientists to discover novel genetic variants underlying the development and progression of complex lung diseases. However, the discovered variants thus far do not explain much of the estimated heritability of complex lung diseases. Here, we review the literature of successfully used genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and identified the polymorphisms that reproducibly underpin the susceptibility to various noncancerous complex lung diseases or affect therapeutic responses. We also discuss the inherent limitations of GWAS approaches and how the use of next-generation sequencing technologies has furthered our understanding about the genetic determinants of these diseases. Next, we describe the contribution of the metagenomics to understand the interactions of the airways microbiome with lung diseases. We then highlight the urgent need for new integrative genomics-phenomics methods to more effectively interrogate and understand multiple downstream "omics" (eg, chromatin modification patterns). Finally, we address the scarcity of genetic studies addressing under-represented populations such as African Americans and Hispanics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nima Pouladi
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz
| | - Christian Bime
- University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz
| | - Joe G N Garcia
- University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz
| | - Yves A Lussier
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz; Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, Argonne National Laboratory and University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
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Li H, Pouladi N, Achour I, Gardeux V, Li J, Li Q, Zhang HH, Martinez FD, 'Skip' Garcia JGN, Lussier YA. eQTL networks unveil enriched mRNA master integrators downstream of complex disease-associated SNPs. J Biomed Inform 2015; 58:226-234. [PMID: 26524128 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2015.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [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: 08/21/2015] [Revised: 10/15/2015] [Accepted: 10/20/2015] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
The causal and interplay mechanisms of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with complex diseases (complex disease SNPs) investigated in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) at the transcriptional level (mRNA) are poorly understood despite recent advancements such as discoveries reported in the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTex). Protein interaction network analyses have successfully improved our understanding of both single gene diseases (Mendelian diseases) and complex diseases. Whether the mRNAs downstream of complex disease genes are central or peripheral in the genetic information flow relating DNA to mRNA remains unclear and may be disease-specific. Using expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTL) that provide DNA to mRNA associations and network centrality metrics, we hypothesize that we can unveil the systems properties of information flow between SNPs and the transcriptomes of complex diseases. We compare different conditions such as naïve SNP assignments and stringent linkage disequilibrium (LD) free assignments for transcripts to remove confounders from LD. Additionally, we compare the results from eQTL networks between lymphoblastoid cell lines and liver tissue. Empirical permutation resampling (p<0.001) and theoretic Mann-Whitney U test (p<10(-30)) statistics indicate that mRNAs corresponding to complex disease SNPs via eQTL associations are likely to be regulated by a larger number of SNPs than expected. We name this novel property mRNA hubness in eQTL networks, and further term mRNAs with high hubness as master integrators. mRNA master integrators receive and coordinate the perturbation signals from large numbers of polymorphisms and respond to the personal genetic architecture integratively. This genetic signal integration contrasts with the mechanism underlying some Mendelian diseases, where a genetic polymorphism affecting a single protein hub produces a divergent signal that affects a large number of downstream proteins. Indeed, we verify that this property is independent of the hubness in protein networks for which these mRNAs are transcribed. Our findings provide novel insights into the pleiotropy of mRNAs targeted by complex disease polymorphisms and the architecture of the information flow between the genetic polymorphisms and transcriptomes of complex diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiquan Li
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Nima Pouladi
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Ikbel Achour
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Vincent Gardeux
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Jianrong Li
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Qike Li
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Hao Helen Zhang
- Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Fernando D Martinez
- Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Joe G N 'Skip' Garcia
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Yves A Lussier
- Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
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14
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Pouladi N, Cowper-Sallari R, Moore JH. Combining functional genomics strategies identifies modular heterogeneity of breast cancer intrinsic subtypes. BioData Min 2014; 7:27. [PMID: 25745517 PMCID: PMC4350320 DOI: 10.1186/1756-0381-7-27] [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] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2013] [Accepted: 10/18/2014] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The discovery of breast cancer subtypes and subsequent development of treatments aimed at them has allowed for a great reduction in the mortality of breast cancer. But despite this progress, tumors with similar characteristics that belong to the same subtype continue to respond differently to the same treatment. Five subtypes of breast cancer, namely intrinsic subtypes, have been characterized to date based on their gene expression profiles. Among other characteristics, subtypes vary in their degree of intra-subtype heterogeneity. It is not clear, however, whether this heterogeneity is shared across all tumor traits. It is also unclear whether individual traits can be highly heterogeneous among a majority of homogeneous traits. Results We employ network theory to uncover gene modules and accordingly consider them as tumor traits, which capture shared biological processes among the subtypes. We then use the β-diversity metric from ecology to quantify the heterogeneity in these gene modules. In doing so, we show that breast cancer heterogeneity is contained in gene modules and that this modular heterogeneity increases monotonically across the subtypes. We identify a core of two modules that are shared among all subtypes which contain nucleosome assembly and mammary morphogenesis genes, and a number of modules that are specific to subtypes. This modular heterogeneity, which increases with global heterogeneity, relates to tumor aggressiveness. Indeed, we observe that Luminal A, the most treatable of subtypes, has the lowest modular heterogeneity whereas the Basal-like subtype, which is among the hardest to treat, has the highest. Furthermore, our analysis shows that a higher degree of global heterogeneity does not imply higher heterogeneity for all modules, as Luminal B shows the highest heterogeneity for core modules. Conclusions Overall, modular heterogeneity provides a framework with which to dissect cancer heterogeneity and better understand its underpinnings, thereby ultimately advancing our knowledge towards a more effective personalized cancer therapy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1756-0381-7-27) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nima Pouladi
- Departments of Genetics and Community and Family Medicine, Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA ; The Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA
| | - Richard Cowper-Sallari
- Departments of Genetics and Community and Family Medicine, Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA ; The Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA
| | - Jason H Moore
- Departments of Genetics and Community and Family Medicine, Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA ; The Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, One Medical Center Dr, Lebanon, NH 03756 USA
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15
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Lussier YA, Li H, Pouladi N, Li Q. Accelerating precision biology and medicine with computational biology and bioinformatics. Genome Biol 2014; 15:450. [PMID: 25316263 PMCID: PMC4709972 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-014-0450-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
A report on the 22nd Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, July 11-15, 2014.
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Motamed F, Aghamohammadi A, Soltani M, Mansouri M, Rezaei N, Teimourian S, Pouladi N, Abdollahzadeh S, Parvaneh N. Evaluation of liver diseases in Iranian patients with primary antibody deficiencies. Ann Hepatol 2010; 8:196-202. [PMID: 19841497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Patients with primary antibody deficiency (PAD) can complicate with liver disease. This study was performed in order to study the prevalence and causes of hepatobiliary diseases in Iranian patients with PAD. MATERIAL AND METHODS Sixty-two patients with PAD were followed-up and signs and symptoms of liver disease were recorded. All patients were screened for hepatitis C virus (HCV-RNA) and those patients with any sign of liver disease or gastrointestinal complaints were tested for Cryptosporidium parvum. RESULTS Clinical evidences of liver disease, including hepatomegaly, were documented in 22 patients (35.5%). Eight patients (13%) had clinical and/or laboratory criteria of chronic liver disease. Only one patient was HCV-RNA positive; he had stigmata of chronic liver disease and pathologic evidence of chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis. Cryptosporidium parvum test was positive for one patient with hyper-IgM syndrome. In liver biopsy of patients with liver involvement, one had histological findings related to sclerosing cholangitis, and five had mild to moderate chronic active hepatitis with unknown reason. CONCLUSIONS Chronic active hepatitis is the most common pathologic feature of liver injury in Iranian patients with PAD. Liver disease in PAD usually accompanies with other organ involvements and could increase the mortality of PAD. Whether this high rate of liver disease with unknown origin (75%) is the result of an unidentified hepatotropic virus or other mechanisms such as autoimmunity, is currently difficult to understand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farzaneh Motamed
- Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Ramyar A, Aghamohammadi A, Moazzami K, Rezaei N, Yeganeh M, Cheraghi T, Pouladi N, Heydari G, Abolhassani H, Amirzargar AA, Parvaneh N, Moin M. Presence of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura and autoimmune hemolytic anemia in the patients with common variable immunodeficiency. Iran J Allergy Asthma Immunol 2009; 7:169-75. [PMID: 18780952 DOI: 07.03/ijaai.169175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia and an increased susceptibility to recurrent infections as well as autoimmunity and malignancies. Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) and Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA) are two autoimmune disorders which may be seen in association with CVID. Among 85 CVID patients, seven cases had ITP and/or AIHA (8%). Four of these patients had one or more episodes of ITP, one patient had AIHA, and two patients had both ITP and AIHA (Evans syndrome). Almost, all patients experienced chronic and recurrent infections mostly in respiratory and gastrointestinal systems during the course of the disease. Among the seven patients, five presented their underlying disease with recurrent respiratory and/or gastrointestinal tract infections, while in two remaining patients, CVID was presented with ITP. Three patients died until now; two because of hepatic failure and one due to pulmonary hemorrhage. As CVID is prone to autoimmune disorders, it should be considered as a differential diagnosis of adult-onset ITP and possibly in children. Chronic and recurrent ITP, especially in the presence of propensity to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections mandate the evaluation for an underlying immune dysregulation such as CVID.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asghar Ramyar
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology, Children Medical Center Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Dashti-Khavidaki S, Aghamohammadi A, Farshadi F, Movahedi M, Parvaneh N, Pouladi N, Moazzami K, Cheraghi T, Mahdaviani SA, Saghafi S, Heydari G, Abdollahzade S, Rezaei N. Adverse reactions of prophylactic intravenous immunoglobulin; a 13-year experience with 3004 infusions in Iranian patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol 2009; 19:139-145. [PMID: 19476018] [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: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) replacement therapy improves health-related quality of life in patients with a primary immunodeficiency disease, although there have been reports of adverse reactions associated with its regular administration. The study population was composed of 99 patients with primary antibody deficiencies. All the patients were diagnosed with a primary immunodeficiency disease and received at least 4 infusions of IVIG at the Children's Medical Center Hospital, Tehran, Iran over a 13-year period (1995-2007). A total of 3004 infusions were recorded, and 216 (7.2%) of these were associated with adverse reactions in 66 patients. Adverse reactions were classified as mild (172 reactions), moderate (41 reactions), and severe (3 reactions). The rate of adverse reaction varied by diagnosis from 3.35% in patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia to 17.4% in IgG subclass deficiency. There were no age-related differences in the rates of adverse reactions. Adverse reactions to IVIG infusions are occasionally encountered; therefore, physicians and nurses should be aware of these reactions in order to manage and prevent them.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Dashti-Khavidaki
- Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Aghamohammadi A, Moin M, Karimi A, Naraghi M, Zandieh F, Isaeian A, Tahaei A, Talaei-Khoei M, Kouhi A, Abdollahzade S, Pouladi N, Heidari G, Amirzargar AA, Rezaei N, Sazgar AA. Immunologic evaluation of patients with recurrent ear, nose, and throat infections. Am J Otolaryngol 2008; 29:385-92. [PMID: 19144299 DOI: 10.1016/j.amjoto.2007.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2007] [Accepted: 11/04/2007] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE In this study, we aimed to study the frequency of possible underlying immunodeficiency responsible for susceptibility to ear, nose, and throat (ENT) infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred three (72 males and 31 females) consecutive children and adult patients with history of recurrent or chronic ENT infections, referred by otolaryngologists to the Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Children's Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran), were enrolled to the study from March 2003 to March 2006. For each patient, demographic information and medical histories of any ENT infections were collected by reviewing the patient's records. We measured immunoglobulin isotype concentrations and immunoglobulin (Ig) G subclasses by nephelometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay methods, respectively. Of 103 patients, 75 received unconjugated pneumococcus polyvalent vaccine, and blood samples were taken before and 21 days after vaccination. Specific antibodies against whole pneumococcal antigens were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Existence of bronchiectasis was confirmed in each patient using high resolution computed tomography scan. RESULTS Among 103 patients, 17 (16.5%) patients were diagnosed to have defects in antibody-mediated immunity including 6 patients with immunoglobulin class deficiency (2 common variable deficiency and 4 IgA deficiency), 3 with IgG subclass deficiency (2 IgG2 and 1 IgG3), and 8 with specific antibody deficiency against polysaccharide antigens. In our series, bronchiectasis was detected in 5 cases associated with primary immunodeficiency. CONCLUSIONS Long-standing history of ENT infections could be an alarm for ENT infections associated with primary antibody deficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asghar Aghamohammadi
- Department of Pediatrics, Children's Medical Center Hospital, Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Medical Sciences/University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
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Aghamohammadi A, Moazzami K, Rezaei N, Karimi A, Movahedi M, Gharagozlou M, Abdollahzade S, Pouladi N, Kouhi A, Moin M. ENT manifestations in Iranian patients with primary antibody deficiencies. J Laryngol Otol 2007; 122:409-13. [PMID: 17524170 DOI: 10.1017/s0022215107008626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE One hundred and nine patients with primary antibody deficiencies were selected in order to determine the frequency of ENT complications. METHOD Demographic information and ENT medical histories were collected for each patient. Duration of study for each patient was divided into two periods of before diagnosis and after diagnosis and the initiation of treatment. RESULTS Eighty-two of 109 patients (75.2 per cent) experienced ENT infections during the course of the disease (63: otitis media, 75: sinusitis and nine: mastoiditis). At the time of diagnosis, 52 (47.7 per cent) out of 109 patients presented with an ENT symptom. The frequencies of episodes were 27 for sinusitis and 25 for otitis media (one complicated with mastoiditis). After immunoglobulin replacement therapy the incidence of otitis media was reduced from 1.75 before treatment to 0.39 after treatment per patient per year (p = 0.008). The incidence of sinusitis also significantly decreased from 2.38 to 0.78 (p value = 0.011). CONCLUSION ENT infections are common medical problems in primary antibody deficiency patients. Persistent and recurrent ENT infections should be suspected as originating from a possible underlying immunodeficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Aghamohammadi
- Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Children's Medical Center, Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Parvaneh N, Ashrafi MR, Yeganeh M, Pouladi N, Sayarifar F, Parvaneh L. Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency. Brain Dev 2007; 29:124-6. [PMID: 16949240 DOI: 10.1016/j.braindev.2006.07.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2006] [Revised: 07/12/2006] [Accepted: 07/17/2006] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy is a demyelinating disease caused by JC virus, an opportunistic infection of the central nervous system. Although the majority of cases are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other immunocompromised patients are also at risk. Purine nucleoside phosphorylase is an enzyme in the purine salvage pathway that reversibly converts inosine to hypoxanthine and guanosine to guanine. Purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency is a combined immunodeficiency with a profound cellular defect. Neurologic abnormalities are salient features of this syndrome. We describe for the first time a patient with this rare disorder presented with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nima Parvaneh
- Children's Hospital Center, Department of Pediatrics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Aghamohammadi A, Pouladi N, Parvaneh N, Yeganeh M, Movahedi M, Gharagolou M, Pourpak Z, Rezaei N, Salavati A, Abdollahzade S, Moin M. Mortality and morbidity in common variable immunodeficiency. J Trop Pediatr 2007; 53:32-8. [PMID: 17166933 DOI: 10.1093/tropej/fml077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous group of disorders, characterized by hypogammaglobulinemia, defective specific-antibody production resulting in recurrent bacterial infections. Delay in diagnosis and inadequate treatment result in increased irreversible complications and mortality. To determine persistent morbidities, mortality rate and survival in Iranian patients with CVID, hospital records of 72 (39 males and 33 females) diagnosed CVID patients were reviewed. Probabilities of survival after diagnosis of CVID were estimated from Kaplan-Meier life tables. Studied patients were enrolled over a 20-year period (1984-2005). The most commonly observed complication was bronchiectasis (24 cases), followed by splenomegaly, intestinal villous atrophy (11 cases), and failure to thrive (10 cases). Post-diagnosis survival was estimated as 65% for the first 6.5 years, which remains the same until 14 years after diagnosis when the survival curve drops to nearly 45%. The mortality rate among patients who had no regular visits and did not receive periodical IVIG was more remarkable when compared with those who had been followed up timely (p-value = 0.001). The most common cause of death was respiratory failure. Based on our observation, it can be highlighted that all patients with CVID, even under regular immunoglobulin replacement, need close monitoring for early detection of complications and introduction of appropriate management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asghar Aghamohammadi
- Children's Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Aghamohammadi A, Fiorini M, Moin M, Parvaneh N, Teimourian S, Yeganeh M, Goffi F, Kanegane H, Amirzargar AA, Pourpak Z, Rezaei N, Salavati A, Pouladi N, Abdollahzade S, Notarangelo LD, Miyawaki T, Plebani A. Clinical, immunological and molecular characteristics of 37 Iranian patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia. Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2006; 141:408-14. [PMID: 16943681 DOI: 10.1159/000095469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2006] [Accepted: 06/27/2006] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is a hereditary immunodeficiency characterized by an early onset of recurrent bacterial infections, a profound deficiency of all immunoglobulin isotypes and a markedly reduced number of peripheral B lymphocytes. Eighty-five percent of the patients with this phenotype have mutations in Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) gene. METHODS To provide an informative outlook of clinical and immunological manifestations of XLA in Iran, 37 Iranian male patients with an age range of 1-34 years, followed over a period of 25 years, were studied. Twenty-four of the 37 patients were screened for BTK gene mutation using PCR-SSCP followed by direct sequencing. BTK protein expression assay was done by flow cytometry in 9 families. RESULTS All patients first presented with infectious diseases, the most common of which were respiratory tract infections. Eighteen different mutations were identified, 13 of which were novel: IVS1+5G>C, 1896G>A, 349delA, 1618C>T, 1783T>C, 2084A>G, 1346delT, 1351delGAG, 587A>G, IVS14-1G>A, IVS3+2T>C, 1482G>A, 1975C>A. CONCLUSION The fact that we found a great number of novel mutations in a relatively limited number of patients underlines the heterogeneity of BTK mutations in the Iranian population. The large number of new mutations indicates that extended studies in this region would be rewarding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asghar Aghamohammadi
- Division of Clinical Pediatric Immunology, Children's Medical Center, Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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