13413 results for ""60+mice"+"6+weeks"+diet+study+2014+2017+DOI"

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• An alternative splicing modulator decreases mutant HTT and improves the molecular fingerprint in Huntington’s disease patient neurons

  Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by poly-Q expansion in the Huntingtin (HTT) protein. Here, we delineate elevated mutant HTT (mHTT) levels in patient-derived cells including fibroblasts and iPSC derived cortical neurons using a GLP approved HTT assay. HD patients’ fibroblasts and cortical neurons recapitulate aberrant alternative splicing as a molecular fingerprint of HD. Branaplam is a splicing modulator currently tested in a phase II study in HD (NCT05111249). The drug lowers total HTT (tHTT) and mHTT levels in fibroblasts, iPSC, cortical progenitors, and neurons in a dose dependent manner at an IC50 consistently below 10nm without inducing cellular toxicity. Branaplam promotes inclusion of non-annotated novel exons. Amongst, a 115bp frameshift-inducing exon in the HTT transcript in Branaplam treated cells from Ctrl and HD patients leading to a profound reduction of HTT RNA and protein levels. Importantly, Branaplam ameliorates aberrant alternative splicing in HD patients’ fibroblasts and cortical neurons. These findings highlight the applicability of splicing modulators in the treatment of CAG repeat disorders and decipher their molecular effects associated with the pharmacokinetic and -dynamic properties in patient-derived cellular models.

  Study EGAS00001006289

• A Single-Cell and Spatial Atlas of Early Human Olfactory Development

  The human nasal region is a complex anatomical structure comprising neural crest- and placode-derived lineages, yet its developmental dynamics in humans remain poorly understood due to limited access to fetal tissue and challenges in resolving its spatial and cellular complexity. We built a single-cell and spatial transcriptomic atlas of the human fetal nasal region from 10 fetuses spanning post-conceptional weeks 7 to 12. Using snRNA-seq, we identify 34 cell types in the fetal nasal region and reconstruct lineage trajectories in the olfactory epithelium (OE). Spatial analyses uncover regionalized OE organization, dorsoventral gradients of olfactory receptors (ORs) and high-resolution OR expression. Combining snRNAseq and MERFISH, we reveal early onset of OR gene expression, with most olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) following the one neuron-one receptor rule already during the first trimester. This work provides the first integrated molecular and spatial framework of early human nasal region and it provides an unprecedented molecular blueprint of the human olfactory system development. In addition, this study offers a foundational resource for embryologists and developmental biologists investigating sensory neurogenesis, epithelial patterning, and congenital diseases.

  Study EGAS50000001203

• E-cadherin inactivation shapes tumor microenvironment specificities in invasive lobular carcinoma

  Invasive lobular breast carcinoma (ILC) shows specific stromal features, T lymphocyte infiltration (TIL) being associated with poor prognosis. Here, we reveal the involved mechanism by performing single cell RNA sequencing, combined immunohistochemistry, deconvolution of bulk RNA sequencing from large retrospective ILC series, and functional assays using primary cells. We show that ILC accumulates FAP+ inflammatory cancer-associated fibroblasts (iCAF) through a previously undescribed mechanism mediated by E-cadherin/CDH1 on CAF plasticity. Indeed, CDH1 inactivation in ILC cancer cells prevents differentiation of iCAF into myofibroblastic CAF (myCAF), leading to iCAF accumulation. In turn, iCAF attract TILs into the tumor center and shape their spatial organization in ILC. Subsequently, CDH1-inactivated ILC cancer cells promote immune escape by lack of retention and activation of ITGAE-expressing resident memory CD8+ T lymphocytes (TRM). Hence, our study uncovers reciprocal interactions between CDH1-inactivated cancer cells, iCAF and CD8+ TRM, gaining insight into the underlying mechanism associated with the distinctive stromal reaction observed in ILC and revealing why and how TILs have a poor prognosis in ILC patients, a mechanism that can be generalized to other CDH1-inactivated cancer types.

  Study EGAS50000001760

• Cross-Sectional Characterization of Idiopathic Bronchiectasis

  This GDMCC protocol will study adult patients with non-CF, idiopathic bronchiectasis, whose genetic etiologies are not known. Idiopathic bronchiectasis is reportedly more common in females with certain tall, thin body types and associated with environmental organisms, such as nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). The other susceptibility factors predisposing to bronchiectasis or acquisition of NTM are unclear. The study will attempt to broaden the understanding of this disease by comparing gender-associated factors and NTM status. A relatively equal number of both females/males and NTM/non-NTM infected subjects will be enrolled. Approximately 300 people may be screened to find 260 eligible subjects, since a small number (e.g., 40 patients) may be diagnosed with PCD, vCF, or other known etiology as an explanation for the bronchiectasis. This single-visit protocol will use a systematic approach to characterize the physical features, radiographic patterns, and associated lower airway microbial flora. There is no natural history of disease course follow-up component to this protocol. Participants will have one outpatient clinic visit for evaluation with a physical examination including detailed body size measurements, medical history, collection of blood samples for routine lab tests and genetic analyses, and a chest X-ray if no recent one is available. Participants will also have tests of lung function, and measurement of a gas called nitric oxide in the nose. Participants whose initial tests show abnormal results may also be asked to have a nasal scrape to collect cell samples and/or a skin sweat test to measure salt concentrations. Participants will also have a sputum specimen collected during the visit and will be asked to collect two additional early morning sputum samples and a mouth rinse at home within 2 weeks of the clinic visit, and mail the sample collection materials to the research team. Careful evaluation and characterization of the physical and clinical characteristics will guide the genetic characterization of idiopathic bronchiectasis, and likely lead to an improved diagnostic approach. Identification of disease causing genes may provide new therapeutic targets.

  Study phs001279

• Precision Medicine for ABCA4 Disease: Modifier Alleles

  Genetic variation affecting the structure and function of the ABCA4 protein gives rise to a broad collection of genetically and clinically heterogeneous diseases, collectively known as ABCA4 disease, which are characterized by both phenotypic overlap and variable penetrance and expressivity. These include autosomal recessive Stargardt disease, cone-rod dystrophy, occult maculopathy, bull's eye macular dystrophy, retinitis pigmentosa-like retinal dystrophy, etc. Some phenotypic variation can be attributed to variability of highly penetrant ABCA4 mutations; however, much of the heterogeneity cannot be explained by ABCA4 mutations alone. The concept of Precision Medicine requires, by definition, identification of all genetic variation contributing to specific disease phenotypes. The main goal of this study is to identify all genetic variation resulting in phenotypes compatible with ABCA4 disease, which, in addition to biallelic disease-causing variants in the ABCA4 locus, include cis- and trans-acting modifiers and mutations in genes other than ABCA4.The study was carried out by performing whole exome sequencing (WES) of affected individuals to identify causal and modifying genetic variation for patients with macular dystrophies compatible with ABCA4 disease. All samples were sequenced with the IDT's Exome Research Panel Version 1 with SeqCap EZ Exome v2 and SeqCap EZ Exome v3 capture kits. Samples were sequenced on Illumina next-generation sequencing machines (San Diego, CA, USA) using DRAGEN Bio-IT Platform v. 2.5.1 (Illumina) to align reads to the Genome Reference Consortium Human Build 37, calling variants in accordance with the Genome Analysis Tool Kit (GATK, v.4.0.2.1) Best Practices Workflow, using ATAV (v.7.0.16) variant-calling pipeline. Variants for analysis were restricted to the consensus coding sequencing public transcripts (CCDS release 20) plus 2 base pair (bp) intronic extensions. Variants were annotated using ClinEff (DnaMiner) with Ensembl-HGRCh37.73 annotations.This set of WES data from unrelated patients of different racial and ethnic backgrounds can be stored and shared through dbGaP. These data provide information on frequencies of disease-causing variants in genes other than ABCA4 in patients with macular dystrophies. These also provide frequencies of selected pathogenic and none-pathogenic variants in different ethnicities.

  Study phs002393

• NHLBI and NIDDK Sponsored GWAS in Benign Ethnic Neutropenia/Leukopenia (BEN) in African-Americans (age >45 yrs old) from the REGARDS

  Benign ethnic neutropenia (BEN) is a clinical condition more commonly observed in African-Americans. It is characterized by a relative reduction in neutrophil count by about 1000 cells per microliter, leading to a decrease in total leukocyte count by similar decrement. Previous reports of this condition showed that there was neither higher frequency nor increased severity of infections in affected individuals. Bone marrow examinations showed normal white cell maturation; and ex vivo culture of marrow cells showed low normal or slightly reduced number of myeloid colonies. Under physiologic stress, the increases in neutrophil and leukocyte counts of BEN individuals are slightly lower, compared to normal African-Americans or Caucasians. These clinical observations suggest that BEN results from a lower 'set point' for cell number in the marrow. Additionally, case reports of familial BEN, the persistence of BEN over many decades in the US, UK, and Africa, and the recent report of Duffy antigen and chemokine receptor (DARC) being associated with neutropenia, all suggest a strong genetic association to neutropenia/leukopenia. Our initial look into microarray analyses in a pilot trial of subjects showed that there were no significant differences in mRNA signals between BEN and normal subjects. Therefore, we are now proposing a larger study, utilizing Illumina Omni Express chips, to look for genetic associations. We have partnered with the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study (REGARDS), where nearly half of the cohort are African-Americans. This will be one of the few GWAS being performed in only African-Americans, and will provide valuable genetic information to link with neutropenia and possibly other conditions/diseases. Genotyping was performed by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). Quality control of the genotypic and phenotypic data was performed through a collaboration between CIDR and the Genetics Coordinating Center, Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington, which is funded by a federal contract supported by 14 NIH Institutes (HHSN268200782096C).

  Study phs000507

• Longitudinal Studies of Patients with Familial Platelet Disorder with Associated Myeloid Malignancy (FPDMM)

  FPDMM (OMIM #601399) is a rare autosomal dominant disease characterized by defective megakaryocytic development, thrombocytopenia, platelet functional defects, and a life-long risk of developing hematological malignancies. FPDMM is caused by germline mutations in the RUNX1 gene, which encodes a master regulator of hematopoiesis. The overall lifetime risk of hematological malignancies in FPDMM patients is 35 - 45%. It is hypothesized that mutations in other genes cooperate with the germline RUNX1 mutations for leukemia development. However, it is not clear which genes need to be mutated for leukemia to develop and which biomarkers or clinical tests can be used to predict which patients will progress to leukemia. Likewise, there are no treatments and/or preventative measures that can reduce or stop disease progression except for stem cell transplantation, which is not available for all patients and may be associated with significant complications. To address these questions, we launched a longitudinal natural history study of patients associated with RUNX1 germline mutations at the NIH Clinical Center in early 2019 (Trial Registration ID: NCT03854318). The goals of this study are to: (1) perform comprehensive longitudinal phenotyping of FPDMM patients to document the full spectrum of both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic manifestations of the disease; and (2) perform extensive genomic analyses of FPDMM patient samples to identify cooperating genomic variants, which may confer growth advantage that leads to clonal expansion of affected hematopoietic cells that may serve as the precursor to malignancies. The data available through dbGaP include exome sequencing and RNA-seq data from these patients. Diverse germline mutation types were identified in the RUNX1 gene, including splice site mutations and large deletions, in addition to nucleotide substitutions and small indels. Somatic mutations, especially in genes associated with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), were found in a substantial proportion of FPDMM patients who were leukemia-free. The findings suggest that the genomes in these patients are prone to somatic mutations and monitoring the dynamic changes of these somatic mutations prospectively may provide a way to predict progression to malignancies.

  Study phs003075

• Evolution of Chromatin Architecture and Transcriptional Regulation in Mammals

  Changes in gene expression are a critical force driving the evolution of form and function. As a result, the mechanisms by which gene expression evolves have become a subject of intense interest. A number of investigators have measured evolutionary changes in gene expression at the chromatin, mRNA, and protein levels, leading to new insights about how species evolve. However, studies of different stages in gene expression have not always been in agreement. For example, the extremely rapid rates of evolutionary changes that have been widely observed at enhancers appear to conflict with the slower rates observed in mRNA abundance. We recently completed a major comparative study in primates showing that this disparity between enhancer and mRNA evolution, in part, reflects extensive compensation at enhancers that jointly determine transcription at target genes. Likewise, related findings have demonstrated that post-transcriptional changes buffer protein abundance to relatively more common differences in mRNA expression. Together, these recent findings demonstrate that evolutionary changes affecting multiple stages of transcriptional regulation often have interdependent effects on gene expression. Here we propose to determine how stages early during transcriptional regulation work in concert, either to conserve gene expression through compensatory changes across stages, or, in rare cases, to change mRNA in ways that alter organism phenotypes. Our central hypothesis is that interactions between stages are common, especially at long evolutionary time-scales. To test this hypothesis we propose an ambitious plan to collect rich genomic data profiling distinct stages of gene expression in two cell types and three tissues from nine mammalian species. We have focused our study on several early rate-limiting steps in mRNA production, using molecular assays selected to provide orthogonal sources of information about chromatin architecture (Hi-C/Hi-ChIP), accessibility (ATAC-seq), transcription (PRO-seq), and mRNA levels (RNA-seq). This project will produce the largest resource of genomic data uniformly collected across mammals to date. We will integrate genomic data using a suite of new computational tools, which together will provide a new understanding of how distinct regulatory stages work in concert during regulatory evolution.

  Study phs002146

• Exceptional Responders Initiative

  The Exceptional Responders Initiative is a pilot study to investigate the underlying molecular factors driving exceptional treatment responses of cancer patients to drug therapies. Study researchers will examine molecular profiles of tumors from patients either enrolled in a clinical trial for an investigational drug(s) and who achieved an exceptional response relative to other trial participants, or who achieved an exceptional response to a non-investigational chemotherapy. An exceptional response is defined as achievement of either a complete response or a partial response for at least 6 months duration in a trial or treatment where the overall response rate is < 10%. The hope is to discover underlying molecular features that can be further investigated and may eventually predict benefit from a given drug or class of drugs for a particular patient. This pilot project will successfully characterize approximately 100 cases of tumor tissue and, when available, case-matched germline DNA. All samples will undergo whole exome sequencing, and cases with sufficient nucleic acids will undergo additional analyses (e.g. whole genome sequencing, mRNA-sequencing, mi RNA sequencing, promoter methylation analysis, SNP etc). Each case will be annotated with demographic and clinical information, along with follow-up information minimally sufficient to correlate molecular profiles with response. Both retrospective and prospective collections will be considered. The project will also accept sequencing data and clinical data from patients who have had sequencing performed outside of this project. All data will be de-identified and placed in a controlled access database so other investigators may use them for additional insights. Clinically annotated tissue specimens meeting the criteria will be provided by groups participating in the Exceptional Cases Initiative to a Biospecimen Core Resource (BCR), which will perform quality control on the tissues, and will use a standard operating procedure to isolate nucleic acids. The nucleic acids will be shipped to a sequencing center to perform whole exome sequencing and analysis. These findings will be made available to the broader cancer research community in a controlled access database.

  Study phs001145

• CTN - 0051: Extended-Release Naltrexone vs. Buprenorphine for Opioid Treatment (X:BOT)

  The overarching goal of CTN-0051 is to foster adoption of new relapse-prevention pharmacotherapies in community-based treatment programs (CTPs) where these could have a substantial public health impact. To this end CTN-0051 will assess the comparative effectiveness of extended-release injectable naltrexone (XR-NTX, Vivitrol®), an opioid antagonist recently approved and indicated for the prevention of relapse to opioid dependence, versus buprenorphine-naloxone (BUP-NX, Suboxone®), a high affinity partial agonist indicated for maintenance treatment of opioid dependence, as pharmacotherapeutic aids to recovery. The study is conducted in 8 CTN-affiliated CTPs that provide or partner with detoxification services (inpatient/residential) which have the capacity to maintain participants opioid-free for approximately 3-7 days, have the capacity to provide medication-assisted therapy, and can provide a minimum of one group or individual counseling session per week during the 24-week treatment period. Up to 600 eligible participants will be randomized to treatment with XR-NTX or BUP-NX for 24 weeks (sufficient to include 350 participants who are randomized more than 72 hours after their last opioid). To maximize generalizability, the point of randomization is flexible, from shortly after program admission until just prior to program discharge. The primary goal of the study is to estimate the difference, if one exists, between XR-NTX and BUP-NX in the distribution of the time to relapse (i.e., loss of persistent abstinence) during the 6-month trial. The primary outcome measure is the time to the event, with the event called relapse. Secondary objectives are to: (1) compare outcome on XR-NTX versus BUP-NX across a range of clinical safety and secondary efficacy domains, (2) explore demographic, clinical, and genetic predictors of successful treatment and moderators of differential effectiveness (i.e., what variables may help clinicians choose which of these treatments is best for a given patient), and (3) collect a limited dataset to permit analyses of economic costs and benefits of the two treatments.

  Study phs002876