218 results for ""option,com_discussions"+since"

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• Hematopoietic Tet2 inactivation enhances the response to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy

  Somatic mutations inactivating TET2 are among the most common drivers of clonal hematopoiesis (CH). While TET2 inactivation is associated with monocyte-derived inflammation and improved chimeric antigen-receptor-T cell function, its impact on immunotherapy response is unknown. In murine models, hematopoietic Tet2 mutation enhanced the immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) response via the combined presence of phagocytes, CD4 and CD8 T cells. This effect was lost with myeloid- or T-cell restricted Tet2 inactivation, or in mice with 20% Tet2-mutant hematopoiesis. Mechanistically, in Tet2-mutant tumor-infiltrating leukocytes (TILs), ICB preferentially restricted cell states linked to tumor progression while inducing anti-tumor states. Tet2-mutant monocytes activated costimulatory programs, while Tet2-mutant T cells showed enhanced T cell memory signatures, alongside decreased exhaustion and regulatory phenotypes. This murine data was clinically relevant, since tumors from colorectal cancer and melanoma patients with TET2 driver mutation-CH (TET2-CH) showed enhanced immune infiltration, inflammation, and T cell activation. In melanoma patients treated with ICB, TET2-CH was associated with 6-fold greater odds of clinical benefit. Collectively, we demonstrate that hematopoietic Tet2 inactivation primes leukocytes for anti-tumor states associated with immunotherapy response and provides a potential biomarker for personalized therapy.

  Study EGAS50000001191

• Drug Development against Tumor Microtube Networks in Glioblastoma

  Glioblastomas are aggressive brain tumors that resist current therapies by hijacking neurodevelopmental programs to invade the brain and form resilient multicellular networks. Tumor Microtubes (TMs), neurite-like processes extended by cancer cells, drive this pathobiology, but TM-inhibiting drugs are lacking. Here we developed a comprehensive, combined in vitro and in vivo drug screening approach, including novel AI-based analysis tools of TM parameters. Two Protein Kinase C (PKC) activators, TPPB and PMA, exhibited robust inhibition of TM formation in cell-based assays. Since unconnected glioblastoma cells exhibit increased sensitivity to cytotoxic therapy in vivo, brain tumor-bearing mice received TPPB, the most consistent TM-inhibiting compound, in combination with radiotherapy. Long-term intravital 2-photon microscopy confirmed anti-TM and anti-tumor effects of the co-treatment. Mechanistically, TPPB treatment inhibited several key molecular and functional components of TM-related glioblastoma cell network communication and decreased the expression of TTYH1, a key driver of invasive TMs. By establishing a novel screening pipeline for anti-TM drug development, our study identifies a druggable TM master regulator pathway and a small molecule with robust anti-TM effects. It provides a proof-of-principle that disrupting TMs and disconnecting tumor networks is a pharmacologically feasible strategy to make therapies against glioblastoma more effective.

  Study EGAS50000000477

• Exploring the role of mtDNA variation in Multiple Sclerosis in a large cohort of discordant monozygotic twins

  Several lines of evidence indicate that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants might predispose to multiple sclerosis (MS). We examined this in 49 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs clinically discordant for MS at study entry. Since the nuclear DNA of MZ twins is identical, our study provides a unique setting to functionally associate unique mtDNA variants and skewed heteroplasmy with MS development. In order to identify mtDNA variants in the twin cohort, we deeply sequenced the mitochondrial genome in blood of all 49 MZ twin pairs using next generation sequencing (Illumina, HiSeq or MiSeq) with an average coverage depth of ~25,000 sequences per base. Heteroplasmic variants were validated using targeted deep sequencing (TDS) (Illumina, MiSeq) in DNA isolated from blood and buccal swabs. In addition, whole blood was also available of 5 additional MS-affected or healthy siblings and 1 dizygotic twin pair discordant for MS, comprising in total 6 non-identical sib pairs. Moreover, all cases were screened for pathogenic mtDNA polymerase gamma (POLG) mutations. The data provides valuable insights in the possible involvement of mtDNA variants in the pathogenesis of MS, and gives information on the segregation of heteroplasmic variants within MZ twins and non-identical siblings and across different tissues.

  Study EGAS00001001240

• Cardiovascular disease biomarkers derived from circulating cell-free DNA methylation

  Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains a major cause of worldwide mortality. The syndrome occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is decreased or blocked, causing muscle tissues to die or malfunction. There are three main types of ACS: Non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and unstable angina. The treatment depends on the type of ACS, and this is decided by a combination of clinical findings, such as electrocardiogram and plasma biomarkers. Circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) is proposed as an additional marker for ACS since the damaged tissues can release DNA to the bloodstream. We used ccfDNA methylation profiles for differentiating between the ACS types and provided computational tools to repeat similar analysis for other diseases. We leveraged cell type specificity of DNA methylation to deconvolute the ccfDNA cell types of origin and to find methylation-based biomarkers that stratify patients. We identified hundreds of methylation markers associated with ACS types and validated them in an independent cohort. Many such markers were associated with genes involved in cardiovascular conditions and inflammation. ccfDNA methylation showed promise as a non-invasive diagnostic for acute coronary events. These methods are not limited to acute events, and may be used for chronic cardiovascular diseases as well.

  Study EGAS00001007263

• Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma case report

  Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a rare and aggressive soft tissue sarcomathought to originate in fibroblasts of the tissues surrounding tendons, ligaments and muscles. Minimally responsive to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapies, greater than 50% of SEF patients experience relapse and/or metastatic disease. SEF is most commonly discovered in middle-aged and elderly adults, but also rarely in children. A common gene fusion occurring between the EWSR1 and CREB3L1 genes has been observed in 80-90% of SEF cases. We describe here the youngest SEF patient reported to date (a 3-year-old Caucasian male) who presented with numerous bony and lung metastases. Additionally, we perform a comprehensive literature review of all SEF-related articles published since the disease was first characterized. The patient described in this report experienced persistent disease progression despite being heavily treated with multiple surgeries, radiation, numerous chemotherapies and targeted therapeutics. Primary tumor, metastatic and relapse sites were sequenced by whole genome, whole exome, and deep transcriptome next generation sequencing with comparison to a patient-matched normal blood sample. Consistent across all sequencing analyses was the disease-defining EWSR1-CREB3L1 fusion as a single feature consensus. We provide an analysis of our genomic findings and a discussion as to potential therapeutic strategies for SEF.

  Study EGAS00001005214

• Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma case report

  Sclerosing epithelioid fibrosarcoma (SEF) is a rare and aggressive soft tissue sarcomathought to originate in fibroblasts of the tissues surrounding tendons, ligaments and muscles. Minimally responsive to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapies, greater than 50% of SEF patients experience relapse and/or metastatic disease. SEF is most commonly discovered in middle-aged and elderly adults, but also rarely in children. A common gene fusion occurring between the EWSR1 and CREB3L1 genes has been observed in 80-90% of SEF cases. We describe here the youngest SEF patient reported to date (a 3-year-old Caucasian male) who presented with numerous bony and lung metastases. Additionally, we perform a comprehensive literature review of all SEF-related articles published since the disease was first characterized. The patient described in this report experienced persistent disease progression despite being heavily treated with multiple surgeries, radiation, numerous chemotherapies and targeted therapeutics. Primary tumor, metastatic and relapse sites were sequenced by whole genome, whole exome, and deep transcriptome next generation sequencing with comparison to a patient-matched normal blood sample. Consistent across all sequencing analyses was the disease-defining EWSR1-CREB3L1 fusion as a single feature consensus. We provide an analysis of our genomic findings and a discussion as to potential therapeutic strategies for SEF.

  Study EGAS00001005215

• Synthetic - FEGA Sweden Heilsa synthetic dataset December 2023

  Synthetic - This submission contains a subset of a synthetic dataset derived from the project Heilsa Tryggvedottir - a Nordic collaboration on sharing sensitive human data. Heilsa Tryggvedottir is funded by the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC), the ELIXIR nodes of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, Computerome in Denmark, and the Estonian Scientific Computing Infrastructure (ETAIS). In the synthetic data creation process, it was attempted to strike a fine balance between the usability of the datasets (e.g. technical FEGA development, testing, user training, and basic bioinformatics) and compliance with GDPR. File names and file content (e.g. headers in fastq) are anonymized. Moreover, the X, Y, and mitochondrial sequences have been discarded from the original data since these data can be used for maternal, paternal, or ethnic origin tracing. The dataset does not follow natural haplotype distribution (inherent to imputation panels). The only inputs derived from real sequence data are variant distribution density per chromosome and learning sequencing error models. The synthetic dataset consists of two fastq files, a cram file, a vcf file, and two index files.

  Dataset EGAD50000000119

• High Density SNP Association Analysis of Lung Cancer

  This research builds upon an extensive resource of a case-control study that has been ongoing at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center since 1991. To identify risk variants for lung cancer, we conducted a genome-wide association study. Cases are newly diagnosed, histologically-confirmed patients presenting at MD Anderson Cancer and who had not previously received treatment other than surgery. Controls are healthy individuals seen for routine care at Kelsey-Seybold Clinics, the largest physician group-practice plan in the Houston Metropolitan area. This lung GWAS led to the identification of a susceptibility locus for lung cancer at 15q25.1. We used data from 315,450 tagging SNPs in 1,154 current and former (ever) smoking cases of European ancestry and 1,137 frequency-matched, ever-smoking controls from Houston, Texas in the discovery followed by the replication of the ten SNPs most significantly associated with lung cancer in an additional 711 cases and 632 controls from Texas and 2,013 cases and 3,062 controls from the UK. Two SNPs, rs1051730 and rs8034191, were significantly associated with risk of lung cancer with combined analysis yielded odds ratios of 1.32 (P < 1X10-17) for both SNPs. These two SNPs mapped to a region of strong linkage disequilibrium within 15q25.1 containing PSMA4 and the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit genes CHRNA3 and CHRNA5. (Nat Genet. 2008 May;40(5):616-22. PMID:18385676)

  Study phs000753

• Fixed single-cell transcriptomic characterization of human radial glial diversity

  The human neocortex is created from diverse intermixed progenitors in the prenatal germinal zones. These progenitors have been difficult to characterize since progenitors - particularly radial glia (RG) - are rare, and are defined by a combination of intracellular markers, position and morphology. To circumvent these problems we developed a method called FRISCR (Fixed and Recovered Intact Single Cell RNA) for transcriptome profiling of individual fixed, stained and sorted cells. We developed and validated FRISCR on human embryonic stem cells. We then profiled primary human RG (96 - 132 days post conception) that constitute only 1% of the mid-gestation cortex. These RG could be classified into ventricular zone-enriched RG (vRG) that express ANXA1 and CRYAB, and outer subventricular zone-localized RG (oRG) that express HOPX. Our study identifies the first markers and molecular profiles of vRG and oRG cells, and provides an essential step for understanding molecular networks driving the lineage of human neocortical progenitors. Reprinted from Thomsen et. al. Nature Methods (2015), with permission from Nature Publishing. Human embryonic stem cell data may be obtained through NCBI's GEO database, using accession number GSE71858. Raw data from one human sample that was not consented to be released to dbGaP may be obtained directly from the authors of Thomsen et. al., 2015.

  Study phs001016

• AIDS Linked to the Intravenous Experience (ALIVE) Cohort

  The AIDS Linked to the Intravenous Experience (ALIVE) Study is a long-standing community based research effort that includes past and current injection drug users (IDUs). ALIVE has been ongoing since 1988 and is one of the longest-running community-based cohorts of IDUs in existence. The primary objectives when the study started were to characterize the incidence and natural history of HIV among injection drug users (IDUs). At each study visit, participants undergo a series of questionnaires that elicit information about substance use (including drugs used and route of administration) and a blood draw. A subsample of 1200 subjects was selected for genotyping for the NIDA Smokescreen effort who report heroin injection and have existing peripheral blood samples (isolated buffy coat). In addition to injected heroin, ALIVE subjects are assessed on lifetime and previous six months use of marijuana (76.3%), crack (55.5%), snorted cocaine (48.3%), injected cocaine (89.9%), injected speedball (87.0%), and smoking heroin (9.0%). The sample is 33.4% female, ~85% African-American and assessed through a mean maximum age of 49.9 years old. Importantly, subjects are not assessed to meet DSM criteria, but all subjects report having injected drugs. We provide demographic data (age at assessment, sex, self-reported race) and drug use data (lifetime "use" ever endorsed) for each drug class/route described above for each subject

  Study phs001494