14478 results for "PLOS+ONE+Pennsylvania+German+ACS+language+code+pdc+open+access+study"

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• InTEAM Consortium - Alcoholic Hepatitis

  Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is a life-threatening condition characterized by profound hepatocellular dysfunction for which targeted treatments are urgently needed. Identification of molecular drivers is hampered by the lack of suitable animal models. By performing RNA sequencing in livers from patients with different phenotypes of alcohol-related liver disease (ALD), we describe the transcriptional programs involved in disease progression. We uncovered that development of AH is characterized by the defective activity of liver-enriched transcription factors (LETFs). The PPARG predicted activation state was found increased in early forms of ALD, while AH was associated by a marked decrease in HNF4A-dependent gene expression along with a marked expression of the fetal HNF4A isoform (P2). TGFB1, a key upstream transcriptome regulator in AH, induced the use of HNF4a P2 promoter in hepatocytes, which resulted in abnormal bile acid synthesis and defective metabolic and synthetic functions. PPARG agonists partially prevented this effect. We conclude that targeting TGFB1 and epigenetic drivers that modulate HNF4A-dependent gene expression could be beneficial to improve hepatocellular function in patients with AH. The study was conducted thanks to a multicenter collaboration under the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)-funded consortium: Integrated Approaches for Identifying Molecular Targets in Alcoholic Hepatitis (InTEAM).

  Study phs001807

• Comparison Between qPCR and RNA-Seq Reveals Challenges of Quantifying HLA Expression

  Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and HLA class II loci are essential elements of innate and acquired immunity. Their exceptional influence on disease outcome is well documented by GWAS and candidate gene studies. The impact of HLA allelic variation on human disease through allele-specific presentation of antigenic peptides to T cells has been the main focus to determine HLA effects on disease susceptibility/pathogenesis. However, HLA expression levels have also been implicated in disease, adding another dimension to the extreme diversity of HLA that impacts variability in immune responses across individuals. HLA expression levels routinely rely on quantitative PCR (qPCR). An alternative is adoption of high throughput technologies such as RNA-Seq. This provides the opportunity to quantify HLA expression in large datasets, but also allows comparison between RNA-Seq and qPCR. In this study, we analyze expression data for HLA Class I genes for a matched set of individuals (N = 96) by RNA-Seq, qPCR and cell surface expression. Samples were obtained from the Research Donor Program (NCI-Frederick). We observed a moderate correlation between RNA-Seq and qPCR. We suggest technical and biological factors that might contribute to differences in the techniques.

  Study phs003177

• Identification of Host Genetic Factors That Are Determinant for the Development of Severe Forms of COVID-19

  We conducted whole exome sequencing (WXS) on 21 cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) related to COVID-19 from Brazil. All patients who were hospitalized underwent serum (ELISA) and molecular (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2, and the main clinical symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection were collected. During hospitalization, data on complications, medical interventions, and laboratory findings were also collected. Our results revealed in an unprecedented way the occurrence of several rare loss-of-function variants in the NLRP12 gene among the affected children, and three other SNVs, predicted to be highly pathogenic, were identified in the IL17RC gene. An additional nonsense variant, in the IFNA10 gene, was identified in a single patient. Through in vitro functional analysis, we unequivocally demonstrated that these mutations impact NF-kB activation. These findings are similar to those observed in NLRP12-associated systemic autoinflammatory disorders, characterized by altered innate immune response, with increased NF-κB activation and excessive production of inflammatory cytokines. To our knowledge, our study is the first to provide a plausible molecular mechanism for MIS-C involving inborn errors in NLRP12. We suggest that some patients with MIS-C may benefit from Interleukin (IL)-1 pathway blockade treatments.

  Study phs003512

• Exploring the Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis with Respect to Psychoneurological Symptoms for Children with Solid Tumors

  The human body hosts tens of trillions of microbes, a number 10 times greater than the number of human body cells. The collection of these human-associated microbes and their genomes is called the “human microbiome”. More than 90% of these microbes live in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, representing 500 species on average. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools (e.g., 16S ribosomal RNA or 16S rRNA sequencing and shotgun metagenomics analysis), recent progress has been made to elaborate the critical role that the gut microbiome plays in human health and disease. A significant disruption (dysbiosis) of the composition and function of the gut microbiome is associated with carcinogenesis, chemotherapeutic metabolism, and treatment-related symptom toxicities. The current state of science on the gut microbiome in cancer has only recently started in animal models and adults, and has not been well investigated in children diagnosed and treated for cancer, nor with respect to associations with cancer treatment-related toxicities. This proposed study will explore the hypothesis that dysbiosis of the gut microbiome is associated with cancer treatment-related GI and psychoneurological symptoms. We will collect both stool samples (for the gut microbiome) and patient-reported outcomes across chemotherapy.

  Study phs002960

• Early Detection of Malignant and Pre-Malignant Peripheral Nerve Tumors Using Cell-Free DNA Fragmentomics

  Early detection of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) associated peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNST) informs clinical decision-making, potentially averting deadly outcomes. Here, we describe a cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomic approach which distinguishes non-malignant, pre-malignant and malignant forms of NF1 PNST. Using plasma samples from a novel cohort of 101 NF1 patients and 21 healthy controls, we validated that our previous cfDNA copy number alteration (CNA)-based approach identifies malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) but cannot distinguish among benign and premalignant states. We therefore investigated the ability of fragment-based cfDNA features to differentiate NF1-associated tumors including binned genome-wide fragment length ratios, end motif analysis, and non-negative matrix factorization deconvolution of fragment lengths. Fragmentomic methods were able to differentiate pre-malignant states including atypical neurofibromas (AN). Fragmentomics also adjudicated AN cases suspicious for MPNST, correctly diagnosing samples noninvasively, which could have informed clinical management. Overall, this study pioneers the early detection of malignant and premalignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors in NF1 patients using plasma cfDNA fragmentomics. In addition to screening applications, this novel approach distinguishes atypical neurofibromas from benign plexiform neurofibromas and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, enabling more precise clinical diagnosis and management.

  Study phs003712

• Pre-Existing Skin-Resident CD8 and γδ T Cell Circuits Mediate Immune Response in Merkel Cell Carcinoma and Predict Immunotherapy Efficacy

  Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer with a ~50% response rate to immunotherapy. Here, we attempted to identify novel predictive biomarkers of response through extensive and deep multi-omics interrogation of 186 samples from 116 patients. We collectively integrated bulk RNAseq, single-cell RNAseq, multiplex immunofluorescence, and spatial transcriptomics. Importantly, we were also able to study 14 matched pairs of tissue samples from pre- and post-immunotherapy. In non-responders, tumors show evidence of increased tumor cell cycling, expression of neuronal stem cell markers, and IL-1α/β. Responders have evidence of increased type I/II interferon signatures and evidence of pre-existing tissue resident (Trm) CD8 or Vδ1 γδ T cells that functionally converge with overlapping antigen-specific transcriptional programs and clonal expansion of multiple T cell receptors. Spatial transcriptomics demonstrated higher co-localization of T cells with B and dendritic cells in responders, with evidence of expression of chemokines important for co-stimulation. Finally, immunotherapy increased clonal expansion or recruitment of Trm and Vδ1 cells in tumors in responders, further underscoring their therapeutic importance. These data identify potential novel actionable biomarkers and therapeutic targets for MCC.

  Study phs003629

• Reconstructing oral cavity tumor evolution through brush biopsy

  Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) with genomic alterations have a heightened risk of evolving into oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Currently, genomic data are typically obtained through invasive tissue biopsy. However, brush biopsy is a non-invasive method that has been utilized for identifying dysplastic cells in OPMD but its effectiveness in reflecting the genomic landscape of OPMDs remains uncertain. This pilot study investigates the potential of brush biopsy samples in accurately reconstructing the genomic profile and tumor evolution in a patient with both OPMD and OSCC. We analyzed single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number aberrations (CNAs), and subclonal architectures in paired tissue and brush biopsy samples. The results showed that brush biopsy effectively captured 90% of SNVs and had similar CNA profiles as those seen in its paired tissue biopsies in all lesions. It was specific, as normal buccal mucosa did not share these genomic alterations. Interestingly, brush biopsy revealed shared SNVs and CNAs between the distinct OPMD and OSCC lesions from the same patient, indicating a common ancestral origin. Subclonal reconstruction confirmed this shared ancestry, followed by divergent evolution of the lesions. These findings highlight the potential of brush biopsies in accurately representing the genomic profile of OPL and OSCC, proving insight into reconstructing tumor evolution.

  Study EGAS50000000602

• Full characterization of structural variation

  Structural variants (SVs) are important contributors to human disease. Their characterization remains however difficult due to their size and association with repetitive regions. Long-read sequencing (LRS) and optical genome mapping (OGM) can aid as their molecules span multiple kilobases and capture SVs in full. In this study, we selected six individuals who presented with unresolved SVs. We applied LRS onto all individuals and OGM to a subset of three complex cases. LRS detected and fully resolved the interrogated SV in all samples. This enabled a precise molecular diagnosis in two individuals. Overall, LRS identified 100% of the junctions at single-basepair level, providing valuable insights into their formation mechanisms without need for additional data sources. Application of OGM added straightforward variant phasing, aiding in the unravelment of complex rearrangements. These results highlight the potential of LRS and OGM as follow-up molecular tests for complete SV characterization. We show that they can assess clinically relevant structural variation at unprecedented resolution. Additionally, they detect (complex) cryptic rearrangements missed by conventional methods. This ultimately leads to an increased diagnostic yield, emphasizing their added benefit in a diagnostic setting. To aid their rapid adoption, we provide detailed laboratory and bioinformatics workflows in this manuscript.

  Study EGAS50000000520

• Early detection of ovarian cancer using cell-free DNA fragmentomes and protein biomarkers

  Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological cancers worldwide. No effective screening methods exist, and tumors are commonly detected at advanced stages where treatment is much less effective. In this study, we used whole-genome cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentome and protein biomarker (CA-125 and HE4) analyses to evaluate 591 women from the European Union or the United States with ovarian cancer, benign adnexal masses, or without ovarian lesions. Using a machine learning model that incorporated multi-analyte fragmentome data and protein measurements, we detected ovarian cancer with high specificity >99% and sensitivity of 72%, 69%, 87%, and 100% for stages I–IV, respectively (AUC=0.96, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99), including 90% of high grade serous ovarian cancers. At the same specificity, CA-125 alone detected 34%, 62%, 63%, and 100% of ovarian cancers for stages I–IV (p=0.001, two-sided test of equal proportions). Additionally, our approach distinguished benign masses from ovarian cancers with high accuracy (AUC of 0.88, 95% CI=0.83-0.92). These results were validated in an independent population. These findings show that integrated cfDNA fragmentome and protein analyses detect ovarian cancers with high performance, enabling a new accessible approach for noninvasive ovarian cancer screening and diagnostic evaluation.

  Study EGAS50000000484

• A neoadjuvant, phase II trial demonstrates efficacy and tolerability of Talimogene laherparepvec in cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (NeoBCC trial)

  We present a single arm, phase II neoadjuvant trial with the oncolytic virus Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) in 18 patients with difficult-to-resect basal cell carcinomas. Six cycles of T-VEC were applied intralesionally. The primary endpoint of the study, defined as the proportion of the patients, who after six cycles of T-VEC (13 weeks) at the time point of surgery, become resectable with primary wound closure without the need for plastic reconstructive surgery like skin flaps or skin grafts, was achieved (9/18 patients; 50.0%). Secondary endpoints also included the relapse free survival rate (100%), overall survival (100%) and biological read outs in the tumor samples. T-VEC led to a significant increase of cytotoxic T cells, B cells and myeloid cells, and a decrease of Tregs within the tumor microenvironment. We observed a potent induction of antitumoral and antiviral T cell clones, as well as a strong humoral immune response. The objective response rate was 55.6% and the complete pathological response rate was 33.3%. Only mild adverse events occurred. Together, neoadjuvant T-VEC represents a viable treatment option for patients with difficult-to-resect BCCs (EudraCT Number 2018-002165-19).

  Study EGAS50000000252

• 3D tissue engineered human skeletal muscle modelling Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy

  acioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is caused by sporadic misexpression of the transcription factor double homeobox 4 (DUX4) in skeletal muscles. So far, monolayer cultures and animal models have been used to study the FSHD disease mechanism and for FSHD therapy development, but these models do not fully recapitulate the disease and there is a lack of knowledge on how DUX4 misexpression leads to skeletal muscle dysfunction. To overcome these barriers, we have developed a 3D tissue engineered skeletal muscle (3D-TESM) model by generating genetically matched myogenic progenitors (MPs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells of three mosaic FSHD patients. 3D-TESMs derived from genetically affected MPs recapitulate pathological features including DUX4 and DUX4 target gene expression, smaller myofiber diameters, and reduced absolute forces upon electrical stimulation. RNA sequencing data illustrates increased expression of DUX4 target genes in 3D-TESMs compared to 2D myotubes, and cellular differentiation was improved by 3D culture conditions. Treatment of 3D-TESMs with small molecules identified in drug development screens in 2D muscle culture showed no improvements in contractile force and sarcomere organization, highlighting the potential benefit of 3D-TESMs for preclinical drug potency screening by eliminating false-positive compounds for FSHD research and drug development.

  Study EGAS50000000502

• APOBEC3 mutagenesis drives therapy resistance in breast cancer

  Acquired genetic alterations commonly drive resistance to endocrine and targeted therapies in metastatic breast cancer, however the underlying processes engendering these diverse alterations are largely uncharacterized. To identify the mutational processes operant in breast cancer and their impact on clinical outcomes, we utilized a well-annotated cohort of 3,880 patient samples with paired tumor-normal sequencing data. The mutational signatures associated with apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3) enzymes were highly prevalent and enriched in post-treatment compared to treatment-naïve hormone receptor-positive (HR+) cancers. APOBEC3 mutational signatures were independently associated with shorter progression-free survival on antiestrogen plus CDK4/6 inhibitor combination therapy in patients with HR+ metastatic breast cancer. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of breast cancer models and selected paired primary-metastatic samples demonstrated that active APOBEC3 mutagenesis promoted resistance to both endocrine and targeted therapies through characteristic alterations such as RB1 loss-of-function mutations. Evidence of APOBEC3 activity in pre-treatment samples illustrated a pervasive role for this mutational process in breast cancer evolution. The study reveals APOBEC3 mutagenesis to be a frequent mediator of therapy resistance in breast cancer and highlights its potential as a biomarker and target for overcoming resistance.

  Study EGAS50000000875

• Myeloid cell networks govern re-establishment of original immune landscapes in recurrent ovarian cancer

  Immunotherapy has produced disappointing results in recurrent ovarian cancer (OC). However, the prognostic value of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is largely based on the analysis of treatment-naive tumours. To understand the immunobiology of recurrent cancers, and their evolution, we profiled a total of 697 OC tumour samples (566 primary and 131 recurrent including 69 patient-matched samples) from 595 patients of five independent multi-institutional cohorts. By capturing heterogeneous TIL distributions, we identified four immune phenotypes associated with differential prognosis, TILs states and TILs:myeloid networks, which dictate malignant progression after chemotherapy and recurrence. Notably, recurrent tumours recapitulate the immunogenic landscapes of original cancers. Mirroring inflamed human OC, preclinical recurrent Brca1mut tumours maintained activated TILs:dendritic cells (DCs) niches but evaded immune control through COX/PGE2 signaling upregulation. Conversely, recurrent Brca1wt tumours displayed loss of TILs:DCs niches and accumulated immunosuppressive myeloid networks featuring Trem2/ApoEhigh TAMs and Nduf4l2high/Galectin3high malignant states. Our study highlights that persistent immunogenicity in recurrent OC is governed by the BRCA-dependent crosstalk between dissimilar myeloid cells and TILs. We propose new targets to modulate the malignant and TAM compartments which improve efficacy of standard of care chemotherapy in mouse OC models with HR deficiency.

  Study EGAS50000001069

• 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

• Comparison of structural variations from 10X Genomics linked-reads and conventional Illumina short-reads sequencing

  Structural variations (SVs) are large genomic rearrangements that can drive many diseases. Conventional short-reads whole genome sequencing (cWGS) allows their identification with base-pair resolution, but suffers from high false discovery rate. cWGS taps in short-range information from short-reads while linked-reads sequencing (10XWGS) utilizes long-range information. 10XWGS allows linkage of short-reads originating from the same large DNA molecule with a unique barcode captured in a gel bead in emulsion. This mitigates alignment-based artefacts from cWGS especially in repetitive regions. However, the false discovery rate of this technology is unclear. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of different type and size of SVs predicted from these two technologies. The SVs common between both technologies were found to be highly specific by PCR and Sanger sequencing while validation rate dropped for uncommon events. Further, we propose a novel enrichment approach for filtering out false positive calls from both the technologies independently. To this end, we trained a machine learning model for respective technologies and used it to characterise SVs from MCF7 cell line and a primary breast cancer tumor with high precision. This approach would be valuable in understanding true mechanisms driven by SVs in various diseases.

  Study EGAS00001004093

• Inhibiton of the GABPB1L-containing GABP tetramer is sufficient to reverse replicative immortality in TERT promoter mutant glioblastoma cells.

  Over 50 types of cancer acquire TERT promoter mutations. These single point mutations reactivate telomerase, allowing for indefinite maintenance of telomere length and enabling cellular immortalization. The transcription factor binding site created by the point mutations specifically recruit the ETS factor GABP, a multimeric transcription factor composed of the GABPα and GABPβ subunits. GABP can form two functionally independent transcription factor species – a dimer or a tetramer – depending on which of the structurally distinct GABPβ isoforms is incorporated into the complex. In this study, we show that genetic disruption of GABPβ1L, a tetramer forming isoform of GABPβ that is dispensable in normal development, results in TERT silencing in a TERT promoter mutation dependent manner. Failure to activate TERT expression by GABPβ1L culminates in telomere dysfunction, DNA damage, and mitotic cell death exclusively in TERT promoter mutant cells. Furthermore, exogenous expression of TERT is sufficient to prevent telomere degradation and loss of cell viability in GABPβ1L-reduced lines bearing the mutant TERT promoter. Orthotopic injection of tetramer-deficient mutant TERT promoter GBM cells rendered lower tumor burden and prolonged the overall survival of the tumor-bearing mice. These results highlight the potentially widespread role of GABPB1L in enabling replicative immortality of TERT promoter cancers.

  Study EGAS00001002582

• WGS of 32 paired SRCC samples

  Signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) has specific epidemiology and oncogenesis in gastric cancer, however with no systematical investigation for prognostic genomic features. We systematically investigated the clinical characteristics of 1,868 Chinese gastric cancer patients, and found that signet-ring cell content was significantly related to multiple clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes. Next, we performed whole genome sequencing for 32 SRCC patients with > 80% signet-ring cells in tumor, and identified frequent5 CLDN18-ARHGAP26/6 fusion (25%). With additional 797 patients for validation, we notice that prevalence of CLDN18-ARHGAP26/6 fusion is positively associated with signet-ring cell content (P = 4.1 x 10 -9 ), younger age at diagnosis (P = 4.2 x 10 -10 ), female/male ratio (P = 1.7 x 10 -9 ), and advanced TNM stage (P = 1.7 x 10 -5 ). Importantly, patients with CLDN18-ARHGAP26/6 fusion had a worse survival outcomes (P = 0.03), and got no benefit0 from platinum/fluoropyrimidines based chemotherapy (P = 0.92) compared to fusion-free patients (P = 0.001), which is consistent with the fact of oxaliplatin/fluoropyrimidine resistance acquired in CLDN18-ARHGAP26 introduced gastric cancer cell lines. Overall, this study provides new insights into the clinical and genomic features of SRCC, and highlights the importance of frequent CLDN18-ARHGAP26/6 fusions in chemotherapy response for SRCC.

  Study EGAS00001002668

• Clonal_haematopoiesis_in_patients_with_AAA

  Recent advances in genomics have demonstrated that clonal haemopoiesis driven by leukaemia associated somatic mutations is a relatively common phenomenon that increases in frequency with advancing age. Whilst individuals with clonal haemopoiesis have an increased risk of developing haematological malignancies, they also have an increased mortality from other causes. Additionally, certain mutations are almost exclusively seen in individuals aged 70 years or older, whilst others are seen in individuals with non-haematological cancers including breast and ovarian. Recently, clonal haemopoiesis was found to be associated with a significantly increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This association is thought to be causative with clonally-derived macrophages showing elevated expression of several chemokine and cytokine genes that contribute to atherosclerosis. Another vascular pathology, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), increases with age and shares risk factors with atherosclerosis (including smoking, male sex, high cholesterol). However, the impact of these risk factors and the overlap between AAA and atherosclerosis is poorly understood. To investigate a possible link between clonal haemopoiesis and AAA, we will study DNA samples from 300 patients with AAA and up to 200 controls for evidence of clonal haemopoiesis. This will be done using target DNA enrichment with biotinylated RNA baits followed by high throughput sequencing.

  Study EGAS00001002873

• Genomics of enteropathy associated T cell lymphoma (EATL)

  Enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma (EATL) is a lethal and the most common neoplastic complication of celiac disease. In this study, we applied whole exome sequencing in 69 EATL tumors to define the genetic landscape of EATLs. The most frequently mutated gene in EATL was SETD2 (32% of cases), with loss of function mutations comprising a large proportion (41%) of those mutations. The JAK-STAT pathway was the most frequently mutated signaling pathway, with mutations in STAT5B being the most common, followed by JAK1, JAK3, STAT3, and the negative regulator of the pathway, SOCS1. We also identified mutations in NRAS and KRAS, as well as TP53 and TERT. Interestingly, the two types of EATL had highly overlapping genetic alterations indicating shared mechanisms underlying their pathogenesis. Gene expression analysis of the two types of EATL identify robust differences in transcriptional profiles. We further modeled the effects of SETD2 loss in vivo by developing a T cell specific knockout mouse model. These mice manifested an expansion of γδ T cells that identify novel roles for SETD2 in T cell development and lymphomagenesis. Together, our data render the most comprehensive genetic portrait yet of this uncommon but lethal disease, and may inform future classification schemes.

  Study EGAS00001001954

• Whole-Genome Sequencing Suggests Schizophrenia Risk Mechanisms in Humans with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

  Chromosome 22q11.2 microdeletions impart a high but incomplete risk for schizophrenia. Possible mechanisms include genome-wide effects of DGCR8 haploinsufficiency. In a proof-of-principle study to assess the power of this model, we used high-quality, whole-genome sequencing of nine individuals with 22q11.2 deletions and extreme phenotypes (schizophrenia, or no psychotic disorder at age >50 years). The schizophrenia group had a greater burden of rare, damaging variants impacting protein-coding neurofunctional genes, including genes involved in neuron projection (nominal P = 0.02, joint burden of three variant types). Variants in the intact 22q11.2 region were not major contributors. Restricting to genes affected by a DGCR8 mechanism tended to amplify between-group differences. Damaging variants in highly conserved long intergenic noncoding RNA genes also were enriched in the schizophrenia group (nominal P = 0.04). The findings support the 22q11.2 deletion model as a threshold-lowering first hit for schizophrenia risk. If applied to a larger and thus better-powered cohort, this appears to be a promising approach to identify genome-wide rare variants in coding and noncoding sequence that perturb gene networks relevant to idiopathic schizophrenia. Similarly designed studies exploiting genetic models may prove useful to help delineate the genetic architecture of other complex phenotypes.

  Study EGAS00001002344

• METABRIC: Data from Batra et al (2021); DNA methylation landscapes of 1538 breast cancers reveal a replication-linked clock, epigenomic instability and cis-regulation

  DNA methylation is aberrant in cancer, but the dynamics, regulatory role and clinical implications of such epigenetic changes are still poorly understood. Here, RRBS-based profiles of 1538 breast tumors and 244 normal breast tissues from the METABRIC cohort are reported, facilitating detailed analysis of DNA methylation within a rich context of genomic, transcriptional, and clinical data. Tumor methylation from immune and stromal signatures are deconvoluted leading to the discovery of a tumor replication-linked clock with genome-wide methylation loss in non-CpG island sites. Unexpectedly, methylation in most tumor CpG islands follows two replication-independent processes of gain (MG) or loss (ML) that we term epigenomic instability. Epigenomic instability is correlated with tumor grade and stage, TP53 mutations and poorer prognosis. After controlling for these global trans-acting trends, as well as for X-linked dosage compensation effects, cis-specific methylation and expression correlations are uncovered at hundreds of promoters and over a thousand distal elements. Some of these targeted known tumor suppressors and oncogenes. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that global epigenetic instability can erode cancer methylomes and expose them to localized methylation aberrations in-cis resulting in transcriptional changes seen in tumors.

  Study EGAS00001004327

• Mutational Patterns in Metastatic Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

  Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) from the head and neck typically metastasizes to the lymph nodes of the neck and parotid glands. When a primary is not identified, they are difficult to distinguish from metastases of mucosal origin and primary salivary gland SCC. Ultraviolet radiation causes a mutation pattern that predominantly features cytosine to thymine transitions at dipyrimidine sites and has been associated with cSCC. In this study, we used whole genome sequencing data from 15 cSCC metastases and show that a UV signature mutation is pervasive across the cohort and distinct from mucosal SCC. The mutational burden was exceptionally high and concentrated in some regions of the genome, especially insulator elements (mean 162 mutations / Mb). We therefore evaluated the likely impact of UV-induced mutations on the dipyrimidine rich binding site of the main human insulator protein, CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF), and the possible implications on CTCF function and the spatial organization of the genome. Our findings suggest that mutation signature analysis may be useful in determining the origin of metastases in the neck and the parotid gland. Furthermore, UV-induced DNA damage to insulator binding sites may play a role in the carcinogenesis and progression of cSCC.

  Study EGAS00001003370

• Genome-wide DNA-methylation assessment by MethylCap-seq and Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips: an independent large-scale comparison

  DNA-methylation is an important epigenetic feature in health and disease. Two cost-efficient genome-scale methodologies to assess DNA-methylation are MethylCap-seq and Illumina's Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips (HM450). However, objective information regarding the best-suited methodology for a specific research question is scant. Therefore, we performed a large-scale evaluation on a set of 70 brain tissue samples obtained from 65 glioblastoma and 5 non-tumoral brain tissues, using a gold standard free Bayesian modeling procedure. While conditional specificity was adequate for both approaches, conditional sensitivity was systematically higher for HM450. Also the genome-wide characteristics were compared, revealing that the HM450 probes assess less than 10% of the regions identified as methylated by MethylCap-seq. Hence the latter method may detect more potentially relevant DNA-methylation, defined by either functional location or previously reported differentially methylated candidate regions. Our results therefore indicate that – at least for the tissue under study - both methodologies are complementary, with a higher sensitivity for HM450, but a far larger genome-wide coverage for MethylCap-seq. Note that here only the relevant MethylCap-seq data is deposited, for the HM450 data we refer to GEO (GSE60274).

  Study EGAS00001001191

• The HLA-DQβ1 insertion is a strong achalasia risk factor and displays a geospatial north-south gradient among Europeans

  Idiopathic achalasia is a severe motility disorder of the esophagus and is characterized by a failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax due to a loss of neurons in the myenteric plexus. Most recently, we identified an 8 amino acid insertion in the cytoplasmic tail of HLA-DQβ1 as strong achalasia risk factor in a sample set from Central Europe, Italy, and Spain. Here, we tested whether the HLA-DQβ1 insertion also confers achalasia risk in the Polish and Swedish population. We could replicate the initial findings and the insertion shows strong achalasia association in both samples (Poland P = 1.84×10-04, Sweden P = 7.44×10-05). Combining all five European data sets – Central Europe, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Sweden – the insertion is achalasia associated with Pcombined = 1.67×10-35. In addition, we observe that the frequency of the insertion shows a geospatial north-south gradient. The insertion is less common in northern (around 6-7% in patients and 2% in controls from Sweden and Poland) compared to southern Europeans (around 16% in patients and 8% in controls from Italy) and shows a stronger attributable risk (AR) in the southern European population. Our study provides evidence that the prevalence of achalasia may differ between populations.

  Study EGAS00001001515

• Molecular characteristics in Burkitt lymphoma over age groups

  Treatment optimization has improved the overall survival in Burkitt lymphoma (BL) patients but there are still relevant outcome differences between pediatric and adult patients. In both age groups survival remains poor for patients who suffer relapse. Therefore, new treatment approaches are warranted to improve survival. Thus, we conducted a comparative study in the largest pediatric cohort to date including 191 cases and 97 samples from adult patients and analyzed the mutational landscape. We detected overlapping molecular profiles but also significant differences in the mutational pattern. Samples from pediatric patients show a higher frequency of mutations in ID3, DDX3X and BAF-complex components ARID1A and SMARCA4, while YY1AP1 and BCL2 are more frequently mutated in cases from adult BL patients. Correlation of the mutational profile with clinical data was available for the pediatric cohort and identified TP53 mutations to be highly significantly associated with the incidence of relapse thus identifying the first molecular marker to be associated with the incidence of relapse in pediatric BL. As the hotspot analysis of TP53 mutations showed mostly gain of function mutations, it is tempting to speculate that drugs decreasing the amount of malignant TP53 or increase the abundance of wildtype TP53 could be a promising approach for future treatment regimens to further improve prognosis.

  Study EGAS00001005270

• The_Genomic_Advances_in_Sepsis__GAinS__RNA_seq

  Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. This cohort comprises a subset of patients enrolled in the Genomic Advances in Sepsis (GAinS) study, an established biobank of adult sepsis patients. Patients with sepsis due to community acquired pneumonia or faecal peritonitis were recruited from 34 hospitals across the UK from 2005-2018, with samples for functional genomics and detailed clinical information collected on the first, third and/or fifth day following ICU admission. RNA was extracted from leukocytes isolated at the bedside using LeukoLOCK kits. We have previously identified sepsis response signatures (SRSs), transcriptomic endotypes that are associated with differential early mortality (Davenport et al, Lancet Respir Med, 2016; Burnham et al, AJRCCM, 2017) and response to treatment in a clinical trial (Antcliffe et al, AJRCCM, 2018). We generated RNA sequencing data on 903 samples, including 134 samples repeated from our previously released microarray data. Libraries were prepared using NEB Ultra II Library Prep kits (Illumina) and sequenced on a NovaSeq 6000. Reads were aligned to the reference genome (GRCh38) using STAR and gene counts quantified using featureCounts (annotation Ensembl v99). Counts were TMM-normalised and log-transformed. Following QC, processed data were available on 864 samples from 667 unique patients.

  Study EGAS00001003772

• Extreme phenotypes define epigenetic and metabolic signatures in cardiovascular diseases.

  Improving the understanding of cardiometabolic syndrome pathophysiology and its relationship with thrombosis are ongoing healthcare challenges. Using plasma biomarkers analysis coupled with the transcriptional and epigenetic characterisation of cell types involved in thrombosis, obtained from two extreme phenotype groups (obese and lipodystrophy) and comparing these to lean individuals and blood donors, the present study identifies the molecular mechanisms at play, highlighting patterns of abnormal activation in innate immune phagocytic cells and shows that extreme phenotype groups could be distinguished from lean individuals, and from each other, across all data layers. The characterisation of the same obese group, six months after bariatric surgery shows the loss of the patterns of abnormal activation of innate immune cells previously observed. However, rather than reverting to the gene expression landscape of lean individuals, this occurs via the establishment of novel gene expression landscapes. Netosis and its control mechanisms emerge amongst the pathways that show an improvement after surgical intervention. Taken together, by integrating across data layers, the observed molecular and metabolic differences form a disease signature that is able to discriminate, amongst the blood donors, those individuals with a higher likelihood of having cardiometabolic syndrome, even when not presenting with the classic features.

  Study EGAS00001003780

• THE GENOMIC LANDSCAPE OF ACTINIC KERATOSIS

  Actinic keratoses (AK) are lesions of epidermal keratinocyte dysplasia and are pre-cursor lesions to invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Identifying the specific genomic alterations driving the progression of normal skin to AK and invasive cSCC is challenging due to the massive, ultraviolet radiation-induced mutational burden characteristic to these lesions. Here, we present the largest whole exome sequencing study to date on AK with matched cSCC and demonstrate that AK and cSCC are almost indistinguishable at the genomic level, in terms of mutational burden, patterns of driver gene mutations and copy number alterations. We identified 44 significantly mutated AK driver genes through our established bioinformatics pipeline and demonstrate these genes are similarly mutated in cSCC. We also identified mutational signature-32 exclusively in AK from patients exposed to azathioprine, providing further, compelling evidence for this drug’s role in keratinocyte carcinogenesis, likely through its blocking of transcription coupled repair. We demonstrated that cSCC had higher levels of intra-sample heterogeneity than AK and that several signaling pathways, including immune-related signaling and TGF-beta signaling were significantly more mutated in cSCC. Integrating our findings with independent gene expression data confirms that dysregulated TGF-beta signaling may represent the critical pathway in the progression from AK to cSCC.

  Study EGAS00001004243

• Host whole genome variations are associated with neurocognitive outcome in survivors of pediatric medulloblastoma

  Host whole genome analysis is a promising source of predictive information for long-term morbidity in cancer survivors. However, studies on genetic predictors of long-term outcome, particularly neurocognitive function following chemoradiation in pediatric oncology are limited. In the present study, we evaluated variations in host whole genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and their association with cognitive outcome. Whole-genome SNP analysis of host peripheral blood was conducted on 22 medulloblastoma long-term survivors, of whom 18 completed neuropsychological testing. First, unsupervised consensus clustering of the most variable SNPs within 409 genes involved in DNA repair was performed. Discrete variant groups were identified, although they were not associated with cognitive outcome, suggesting that variations in genes corresponding to a single functional group may be insufficient to predict long-term outcome alone. In support of this interpretation, unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis using disease-associated gene variants by cognitive impairment status yielded two distinct variant clusters comprised of 36 variants, 34 of which were in noncoding regions. These findings illustrate for the first time that cognitively impaired survivors have a distinct variant profile compared to other medulloblastoma survivors. Future research in larger cohorts is needed to validate host genome predictors of cognitive impairment that may impact clinical management.

  Study EGAS00001002996

• Unifying recovery dynamics in heterogeneous diseases exemplified by COVID-19

  Studying the recovery dynamics in different diseases poses many difficulties, as patients often display high heterogeneity in their recovery courses. Moreover, most attempts to study disease dynamics focus on disease progression rather than disease recovery mechanisms. To model recovery dynamics, using severe COVID-19 as the example, we align heterogeneous recovery trajectories via a novel computational scheme applied to longitudinally sampled blood transcriptomes. We thus generate pseudotime trajectories, which we then link to cellular and molecular mechanisms based on cell deconvolution analysis and molecular pathway prediction, thus presenting a unique framework for studying recovery processes over time. Specifically, mature neutrophils displayed a gradual decrease during recovery, allowing superior useability for outcome prediction compared to currently used clinical markers. Further, we discovered a recovery-related regulatory change in gene programs resulting in immune rebalancing between interferon and NFkB activity and the restoration of cell homeostasis. We thus propose regulatory mechanisms governing COVID-19 recovery and suggest mature neutrophils and additional gene markers, as novel clinical biomarkers for disease outcome. Overall, we present a novel clinically relevant computational framework for modeling disease recovery, paving the way for future studies of the recovery dynamics in other diseases and tissues.

  Study EGAS00001005735

• Nanopore_and_Illumina_sequencing_of_human_glioblastomas

  Liquid biopsy analysis refers to methods designed to detect tumour-specific material (e.g., circulating tumour cells or tumour DNA) in body fluids, such as urine or blood samples. A widely-used liquid biopsy approach consists of genotyping the circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) through sequencing of plasma/serum DNA. Although useful in the context of metastatic disease (where the concentration of ctDNA is high), current liquid biopsy technologies show limited sensitivity of detection for the early detection of cancer, and low specificity, as cancer-related mutations accumulate in healthy tissues as part of the ageing process, thus making it difficult to distinguish these from tumour mutations, and because sequencing errors and true mutations show overlapping profiles. Therefore, developing liquid biopsy protocols with increased sensitivity and specificity represents an urgent clinical need. Here we harness extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) elements, which are circular DNA structures physically separated from the chromosomes of up to several Mbp long pervasive in human cancers, for liquid biopsy analysis. In this pilot study we will focus on the analysis of glioblastomas, because there is strong evidence for the presence of eccDNA in these tumour types, and because developing liquid biopsy approaches for brain tumours to reduce the invasiveness of brain tumour biopsies remains an unmet clinical need.

  Study EGAS00001005812

• Multi-omics integration reveals only minor long-term molecular and functional sequelae in immune cells of individuals recovered from COVID-19

  The majority of COVID-19 patients experience mild to moderate disease course and recover within a few weeks. An increasing number of studies characterized the long-term changes in the specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune responses, but how COVID-19 shapes the innate and heterologous adaptive immune system after recovery is less well known. To comprehensively investigate the post-SARS-CoV-2 infection sequelae on the immune system, we performed a multi-omics study by integrating single-cell RNA-sequencing, single-cell ATAC-sequencing, genome-wide DNA methylation profiling, and functional validation experiments in convalescent COVID-19 and healthy individuals. We showed that immune responses generally recover without major sequelae after COVID-19. However, subtle differences persist at the transcriptomic level in monocytes, with downregulation of the interferon pathway, while DNA methylation also displays moderate changes in convalescent COVID-19 individuals. However, these differences did not affect the cytokine production capacity of PBMCs upon different bacterial, viral, and fungal stimuli, although baseline release of IL-1RA and IFN?? was higher in convalescent individuals. In conclusion, despite minor differences in epigenetic and transcriptional programs, the immune system of convalescent COVID-19 patients largely recovers to the homeostatic level of healthy individuals.

  Study EGAS00001005529

• Spatiotemporal Genomic Profiling of Intestinal Metaplasia Reveals Clonal Dynamics of Gastric Cancer Progression

  Intestinal metaplasia (IM) is a pre-malignant condition of the gastric mucosa associated with increased gastric cancer (GC) risk. We analyzed 1256 gastric samples (1152 IMs) from 692 subjects from a 10-year prospective study. We identified 26 IM driver genes in diverse pathways including chromatin regulation (ARID1A) and intestinal homeostasis (SOX9), largely occurring as subclonal events. Analysis of clonal dynamics between and within subjects, and also longitudinally across time, revealed that IM clones are likely transient but increase in size upon progression to dysplasia, with eventual transmission of genetic events to paired GCs. Single-cell and spatial profiling highlighted changes in tissue ecology and lineage heterogeneity in IM, including an intestinal stem-cell dominant cellular compartment linked to early malignancy. Expanded transcriptome profiling revealed expression-based molecular subtypes of IM, including a body-resident “pseudoantralized” subtype associated with incomplete histology, antral/intestinal cell types, ARID1A mutations, inflammation, and microbial communities normally associated with the healthy oral tract. We demonstrate that combined clinical-genomic models outperform clinical-only models in predicting IMs likely to progress. Our results raise opportunities for GC precision prevention and interception by highlighting strategies for accurately identifying IM patients at high GC risk and a role for microbial dysbiosis in IM progression.

  Study EGAS00001007067

• Human liver NPCs single cell project

  Independent of their inflammatory phenotype, macrophages are key orchestrators of hepatic metabolism. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) often occurs in obese individuals and is among the most common causes of cirrhosis, the terminal chronic liver disease that may necessitate liver transplantation. While multiple populations of macrophages have been described in the human liver, their function and turnover in obese patients at high risk of developing NAFLD and cirrhosis is currently unknown. Herein we identified a specific human population of resident liver myeloid cells that protects against the metabolic impairment associated with obesity. By studying the turnover of liver myeloid cells in individuals undergoing liver transplantation using markers of donor-recipient mismatch, we made the novel discovery that liver myeloid cell turnover differs between humans and mice. Using single cell techniques and flow cytometry we determined that the proportion of the protective resident liver myeloid cells, denoted liver myeloid cells 2 (LM2), decreases during obesity. Functional validation approaches using human 2D and 3D cultures revealed that the presence of LM2 ameliorates the oxidative stress associated with obese conditions. Our study indicates that resident myeloid cells could be a therapeutic target to decrease the oxidative stress associated with NAFLD.

  Study EGAS00001007194

• Finding the way towards the eradication of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms

  Therapy-related neoplasms are directly caused by the drugs used to eradicate a previous cancer. It is well known that a subset of drugs designed to kill cancer cells through DNA-damage-induced apoptosis can intrinsically, as secondary effect, cause DNA-damage in other cells, thus inducing a neoplasm. Those neoplasms have especially bad prognosis. Why are these drugs still in use? Because for many diseases we do not have anything better, at the moment. Approximately 0.5-1% of the kids treated for various types of cancers develop a therapy-related myeloid neoplasm (tMN) as a result of the treatment. Despite having the same origin, their prognostic and molecular features are different from the adult ones, and a complete understanding of the pathogenesis of tMN in children is still missing. A total of 84 paediatrics neoplasms have been profiled by either Whole Genome or Whole Exome sequencing by Jason R. Schwartz and his colleagues, in a collaborative effort guided at the St. Jude Children's hospital, in Memphis. They identified a mean of 28 somatic mutations per patient, a number which is significantly bigger than the number of mutations found in paediatrics primary neoplasms, as depicted in the original paper's figure 1b, shown here. Their sequencing data identified that Ras/MAPK pathway mutations, alterations in RUNX1 or TP53, and KMT2A rearrangements as the most frequent drivers of the disease. Clonal evolution analysis (the comparative study of the behaviour of cells harbouring different mutations) highlighted that, unlike in adults’ tMN, there were not pre-existing leukemic clones, and virtually all mutated cells were found arising as a direct consequence of cytotoxic therapy. This represents yet another important difference between adult and paediatric tMN. This important study have been published in Nature communications in February 2021. The sequencing data have been deposited at EGA under the study number EGAS00001004850. Thanks to this, other researchers around the world could re-use it to uncover more information, integrate and validate their studies. Revealing the molecular features underlying the development of cancers is the only way towards the development of new generation targeted therapies, which will allow us to finally drop the cytotoxic drugs eliciting such unwanted and catastrophic secondary effects as tMN. It is not an overstatement to say that, while improving the treatment of primary tumours, we could entirely eradicate therapy-related neoplasms right from their origin. Looking forward.

  Blog eradication-of-therapy-related-myeloid-neoplasms

• Presence of rare potential pathogenic variants in subjects under 65 years old with very severe or fatal COVID‑19

  Rare variants affecting host defense against pathogens could be involved in COVID‑19 severity and may help explain fatal outcomes in young and middle‑aged patients. Our aim was to report the presence of rare genetic variants in certain genes, by using whole exome sequencing, in a selected group of COVID‑19 patients under 65 years who required intubation or resulting in death (n = 44). To this end, different etiopathogenic mechanisms were explored using gene prioritization‑based analysis in which genes involved in immune response, immunodeficiencies or blood coagulation were studied. We detected 44 different variants of interest, in 29 different patients (66%). Some of these variants were previously described as pathogenic and were located in genes mainly involved in immune response. A network analysis, including the 42 genes with candidate variants, showed three main components, consisting of 25 highly interconnected genes related to immune response and two additional networks composed by genes enriched in carbohydrate metabolism and in DNA metabolism and repair processes. In conclusion, we have detected candidate variants that may potentially influence COVID‑19 outcome in our cohort of patients. Further studies are needed to confirm the ultimate role of the genetic variants described in the present study on COVID‑19 severity.

  Study EGAS00001006372

• International Consortium to Identify Genes and Interactions Controlling Oral Clefts

  Oral clefts represent the most common group of craniofacial birth defects in humans, and include cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) and cleft palate (CP). Oral clefts have a complex and heterogeneous etiology, with strong evidence for both genetic and environmental causal factors. Candidate gene studies and genome wide linkage studies have yielded compelling but inconsistent evidence that multiple genes control risk, and several studies have shown evidence for interaction between genes and environmental exposures, especially maternal smoking and nutrient intake. This consortium pulls together a very large collection of cases and their parents from multiple populations, and offers a unique opportunity to expand the search for genes controlling risk to the genome wide level. The specific aims are: To conduct a genome wide analysis on 2000+ case-parent trios ascertained through a case with isolated, non-syndromic CL/P or CP to test for linkage and disequilibrium. Initial analysis will consist of individual tests for gene effects while simultaneously testing for GxE interaction with common maternal exposures including vitamin supplementation, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption (which have all been implicated as environmental risk factors for oral clefts). To use haplotypes in tests for GxE interaction incorporating population specific estimates. Since haplotype frequencies vary among populations, trios will be assigned haplotypes in a stratified estimation and then a pooled test statistic will be constructed. To test for interaction between SNPs in different genes showing evidence of influencing risk in a test for GxG interaction. To test for interaction between genes and maternal biomarkers using trios from Utah where measures of plasma folate, vitamin B-6, homocysteine and zinc in mothers are available. This study is part of the Gene Environment Association Studies initiative (GENEVA, http://www.genevastudy.org), which was developed through the trans-NIH Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI). The overarching goal is to identify novel genetic factors that contribute to oral clefts through large-scale genome-wide association studies of well-characterized cases and their parents from multiple populations. Genotyping was performed at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). The study was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Data cleaning and harmonization were done at the GEI-funded GENEVA Coordinating Center at the University of Washington.

  Study phs000094

• Characterization of Structural Variants in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients

  Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults and is expected to increase in frequency as the population ages. Most subtypes of AML are difficult to treat, in part due to a lack of understanding of possible molecular targets. Furthermore, the peak incidence of AML is in the sixth decade, and patients over the age of 65 do not tolerate chemotherapeutic regimens well. Moreover, AML has been highly studied as a model for other cancers. An RNA Biology Program is established aiming to develop comprehensive datasets through the profiling of all different classes of RNA expression, RNA editing, alternative splicing, and non-coding RNAs in CD34+ normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), their differentiated progeny, and AML clinical samples that could be utilized to understand leukemia. These datasets will allow us to computationally identify and characterize various RNA species and processes to enable the development of effective therapeutics to AML, leukemia and other types of cancers. Epigenetic factors such as methylation and histone modifications will also be characterized from these clinical samples allowing for integrated dataset analysis to look at the cross-talk between RNA and DNA/epigenomics in leukemia. The following is a subsidiary study of the above study description where whole genome sequencing was performed on two collected AML patients' samples using Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing technologies. The aim is to characterize the roles of structural variants (SV) in RNA biology which are potentially important for AML development using our own established long-read SV characterization tool, NanoVar. The advent of Oxford Nanopore sequencing technologies has opened a new avenue for better SV characterization by having longer sequencing reads. NanoVar is an accurate and rapid SV characterization tool that utilizes low-depth Nanopore sequencing data. NanoVar makes use of split-reads and hard-clipped reads for SV discovery and employs a simulation-trained neural network classifier for true positive enrichment. NanoVar exhibited higher accuracy and faster computational speed amongst other long-read SV detection tools in simulated data. In AML patient data, NanoVar displayed excellent accuracy in SV characterization (16/16 SVs validated in two patients) by using only 4x depth sequencing data. In summary, NanoVar improves the accuracy and speed of SV characterization at a lower sequencing cost, an approach compatible with clinical studies.

  Study phs001847

• University of Michigan Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER)

  Overview. The personalization of therapy for cancer will require molecular characterization of unique and shared genetic aberrations. In particular, patients who have a sarcoma or other rare cancers and are candidates for clinical trials could potentially benefit by identifying eligibility for "targeted" drugs based on the "actionable" genes in their specific tumor. Growing technological advances in genomic sequencing has now made it possible to consider the use of sequence data in a clinical setting. For instance, comprehensive testing that includes whole exome and transcriptome sequencing may identify biomarkers for predictive or prognostic purposes and thereby inform treatment choices and prevention strategies. Thus, the translation of high throughput next generation sequencing would support a "personalized" strategy for cancer. However, the translation of clinical sequencing bears unique challenges including identifying patients who could benefit, developing informed consent and human subjects protections, outlining measurable outcomes, interpreting what results should be reported and validated, and how results should be reported. In addition, we know very little about how patients and clinicians will respond to the potentially confusing and overwhelming amount of information generated by genomic sequencing, and we lack model processes for clinically evaluating and presenting these data. For the promise of our innovative biotechnologies to be realized, "translational genomics" research that evaluates genomic applications within real-world clinical settings will be required. This proposal brings together expertise at the University of Michigan including clinical oncology, cancer genetics, genomic science/bioinformatics, clinical pathology, social and behavioral sciences, and bioethics in order to implement this clinical cancer sequencing project. Three integrated Projects have the following themes: Project 1) "Clinical Genomic Study" will identify patients with a rare cancer (i.e., 15 out of 100,000 individuals per year) who are eligible for clinical trials, consent them to the study, obtain biospecimens (tumor tissue, germline tissue), store clinical data, and assemble a multi-disciplinary Sequencing Tumor Board to deliberate on return of actionable or incidental genomic results; Project 2) "Sequencing & Analysis" will process biospecimens and perform comprehensive sequencing and analysis of tumors to identify point mutations, copy number changes, rearrangements/gene fusions, and aberrant gene expression; Project 3) "Ethics & Psychosocial Analysis" will observe the expert review process for evaluating sequence results and will examine the clinician and patient response to the informed consent process, delivery of genomic sequence results, and use of genomic results.

  Study phs000673

• Environmental Arsenic and Diabetes Mellitus (Chihuahua Cohort)

  The Chihuahua Cohort was established as part of a larger NIEHS-funded project that used laboratory models (tissue culture and mice) and human subjects to examine the association between exposure to arsenic and diabetes, including identification of mechanisms underlying this association. All procedures involving human subjects were approved by institutional review boards at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Cinvestav-IPN (Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico). All participants provided signed informed consent. A total of 1,160 adults (≥ 18 years old) with a minimum 5-year uninterrupted residency in the Chihuahua study area were recruited between 2008 and 2012. Samples of drinking water were obtained from the participants' households. Data on residency, occupation, drinking-water sources and use, smoking, alcohol consumption, and medical history were recorded by a study questionnaire. Spot urine and fasting venous blood were collected during medical examination that included an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with blood drawn 2 hr after a 75-g glucose dose. Plasma from both fasting and 2-hr blood samples was collected. Body mass index (BMI) of each participant was calculated from body weight and height. BMI cutoffs of ≥ 25.0, ≥ 30, and < 18.5 kg/m2 were used to define overweight, obese, and underweight individuals, respectively. Participants' waist circumference was also measured. Blood pressure was assessed using a manual sphygmomanometer. Three measurements were taken at intervals of at least 1 min, with a 5-min rest before obtaining the first reading; the mean of the last two measurements was used. The concentrations of arsenic in drinking water and arsenic species in urine were measured by hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry. The limit of detection for As in water as well as for As species in urine was 0.01 µg As/L. Creatinine concentration in urine was determined using an established colorimetric assay. DNA was isolated from blood for genotyping analysis.The following measures were taken: glucose concentration in fasting blood (FBG) and in blood collected 2 hours into OGTT (2HBG); concentrations of triglycerides, HDL and total cholesterol (TC) in fasting plasma; and LDL was calculated using the Friedewald equation. Diabetes was classified by FPG ≥ 126 mg/dL, 2HPG ≥ 200 mg/dL, or self-reported diabetes diagnosis or medication use (WHO/International Diabetes Federation 2006). Prediabetes was defined as the absence of diabetes with FPG ≥ 110 mg/ dL or 2HPG ≥ 140 mg/dL. Elevated fasting levels of each lipid were defined as plasma TG ≥ 150 mg/dL, TC ≥ 200 mg/dL, and LDL ≥ 130 mg/dL. Fasting HDL < 40 mg/dL in men and < 50 mg/dL in women were designated as low. Hypertension was defined by systolic blood pressure (SBP) > 140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > 90 mmHg, or self-reported use of anti-hypertensive medication. Genotyping analysis, which will be available in version 2 of this study, was carried out in a subset of ~600 subjects with focus on enzymes involved in the metabolism of arsenic, including AS3MT, GSTs.All data collected during the medical exams or generated by the above-described chemical and biochemical analysis of water, urine and blood/plasma, as well as results of the genotyping analysis are included in dbGaP. Data generated by metabolomics and epigenetic analyses in small subsets of the Chihuahua cohort are not included, but are available in published articles.

  Study phs002139

• Asthma in the Lives of Families Today (ALOFT)

  Social interactions and the overall psychosocial environment have a demonstrated impact on health, particularly for people living in disadvantaged urban areas. Here we investigated the effect of psychosocial experiences on gene expression in peripheral blood immune cells of 251 children with asthma in Metro Detroit. Participants were included from an ongoing longitudinal study Asthma in the Lives of Families Today (ALOFT; recruited from November 2010-July 2018. The ALOFT project was established to identify the behavioral and biological pathways through which family social environments impact youth with asthma.In version 1 we used RNA-sequencing and a new machine learning approach to identify transcriptional signatures of 19 variables including psychosocial factors, blood cell composition and asthma symptoms. Using longitudinal data collected from a subset of the participants we showed that transcriptional signatures track the longitudinal changes in measured phenotypes. Importantly, we found 169 genes associated with asthma that are regulated by psychosocial factors, and 344 significant gene-environment interactions for gene expression levels. These results demonstrate that immune gene expression mediates the link between negative psychosocial experiences and asthma risk.In version 2, we focused on pubertal development. We identified substantial gene expression changes associated with age and pubertal development. We showed that genetic effects on gene expression change dynamically during pubertal development. Gene expression changes during puberty are correlated with gene expression changes associated with asthma and may explain sex differences in prevalence. Our results show that molecular data used to study the genetics of early onset diseases should consider pubertal development as an important factor that modifies the transcriptome.Version 3 uses single cell RNA-seq to study the dynamics of the transcriptional response to glucocorticoids in activated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from 96 African American children. We employed novel statistical approaches to calculate a mean-independent measure of gene expression variability and a measure of transcriptional response pseudotime. Using these approaches, we demonstrated that glucocorticoids reverse the effects of immune stimulation on both gene expression mean and variability. Our novel measure of gene expression response dynamics, based on the diagonal linear discriminant analysis, separated individual cells by response status on the basis of their transcriptional profiles and allowed us to identify different dynamic patterns of gene expression along the response pseudotime. We identified genetic variants regulating gene expression mean and variability, including treatment-specific effects, and demonstrated widespread genetic regulation of the transcriptional dynamics of the gene expression response.Version 4 adds scATAC-seq in activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 16 children with asthma with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and treated with dexamethasone (DEX), an anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid. We analyzed changes in chromatin accessibility, measured transcription factor motif activity, and identified treatment and cell-type specific transcription factors that drive changes in both gene expression mean and variability. We observed strong positive linear dependence between motif response and their target gene expression changes, but negative in variability changes. This result suggests that an increase of transcription factor binding tightens the variability of gene expression around the mean. We then annotated genetic variants in chromatin accessibility peaks and response motifs followed by computational fine-mapping of eQTL signals from a pediatric asthma cohort. We found that eQTLs were 5-fold enriched in peaks with response motifs and refined the credible set for 410 asthma risk genes, with 191 having the causal variant in response motifs. These results enhance the understanding of molecular mechanisms for asthma risk variants mediated by gene expression.

  Study phs002182

• Human Lung Tissue eQTL Study

  Genetic risks underlying respiratory diseases (e.g. COPD and asthma) are carefully studied by large genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where many loci were identified. In the post-GWAS era, the main challenge is to find the causal genes and pathways in GWAS-nominated chromosomal regions and to characterize etiology mechanism. The Lung eQTL Consortium is an international effort to systematically capture the genetic architecture of gene expression regulation in human lung. By studying lung specimens from 1,103 individuals of mostly European ancestry, we report a large number of genetic variants affecting gene expression in the lung, or lung expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL). These lung eQTLs will serve as an important resource to aid in the understanding of the molecular underpinnings of lung biology and its disruption in disease.

  Study phs001745

• Hereditary Gastric Cancer Syndromes: An Integrated Genomic and Clinicopathologic Study of the Predisposition to Gastric Cancer

  Gastric cancers are cancers of the stomach. Hereditary cancers are passed from parent to child. Researchers want to gather data about hereditary gastric cancers. Bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of signet ring cells (SRCs) and adjacent non-SRC epithelium (NEP) was performed on laser-capture microdissected (LCM) regions of interest found in risk-reducing total gastrectomy specimens from hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) patients (Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT03030404). Twenty patients (6 male, 14 female) with confirmed HDGC were identified. Analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) demonstrated upregulation of certain individual epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and proliferation genes. SRC regions had significant enrichment in pathways involved in T cell signaling. CIBERSORTx predicted significant increases in the presence of regulatory T cells (Tregs) specific to SRC regions.

  Study phs003422

• The KATHERINE study of adjuvant trastuzumab emtansine in HER2-positive breast cancer: analysis of patients with HER2-negative residual invasive disease on re-testing

  Following chemotherapy and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)-targeted neoadjuvant therapy for HER2-positive early breast cancer, residual invasive breast cancer at surgery may be HER2-negative on retesting in some patients. We evaluated outcomes with T-DM1 and trastuzumab in patients randomized in the phase III KATHERINE trial based on HER2-positive central testing of the core biopsy with HER2-negative central testing on their corresponding surgical specimen. In the 70/845 (8.3%) patients with HER2-negative residual disease on retesting at surgery, there were 11 IDFS events in the 42 trastuzumab-treated patients (26.2%) and none in the 28 T-DM1-treated patients, suggesting that T-DM1 should not be withheld in this patient population.

  Study EGAS00001006037

• Ex vivo RNA-seq in moderate COVID-19 monocytes

  This dataset was used to compare gene expression profiles of ex vivo isolated classical CD14+ monocytes from patients with moderate COVID-19 to those of healthy individuals. Blood samples were taken from patients with moderate COVID-19 admitted to hospitals in London (Hammersmith Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital) 3-14 days after disease onset and 0-2 days after hospitalization and positive PCR, and before study treatment initiation. Moderate patients displayed mild or moderate COVID-19 pneumonia, defined as grade 3 or 4 WHO severity. Samples were collected from March 2020 to February 2021. Healthy donors were Imperial College staff with no prior diagnosis of or recent symptoms consistent with COVID-19, and where possible, were matched in age and sex distribution with COVID-19 patients. None of the participants of this study were COVID-19 vaccinated. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated by Ficoll Hypaque (GE Healthcare) gradient centrifugation <4 hours after blood collection. CD14+ monocytes were isolated using a positive selection magnetic sorting kit (StemCell Technologies, UK) from total PBMC and stimulated with vehicle, UV-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (CoV-2). RNA was isolated using the RNeasy Micro Plus Kit (QIAGEN) following the manufacturer’s guidelines. RNA-sequencing was performed by the Oxford Genomics Centre. PolyA-enriched strand- specific libraries were prepared using NEBNext Ultra II Directional RNA Library Prep Kits (Illumina). All samples were pooled together and 150bp PE reads were sequenced on a Novaseq 6000 system.

  Dataset EGAD00001009800

• Samples linked to the study "Performance comparison of three DNA extraction kits on human whole-exome data from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded normal and tumor samples"

  We generated 42 human whole-exome sequencing data sets from fresh-frozen (FF) and FFPE samples. These samples include normal and tumor tissues from two different organs (liver and colon), that we extracted with three different FFPE extraction kits (QIAamp DNA FFPE Tissue kit and GeneRead DNA FFPE kit from Qiagen, Maxwell\textsuperscript{TM} RSC DNA FFPE Kit from Promega). Variant calling analysis shows a very high rate of concordance between matched FF / FFPE pairs and equivalent performance for the three kits we analyzed. We find a significant variation in the difference of total number of variants called between FF and FFPE samples for the three different FFPE DNA extraction kits. Coverage analysis shows that FFPE samples have less good indicators than FF samples, yet the coverage quality remains above accepted thresholds. We detect limited but significant variations in coverage indicator values between the three FFPE extraction kits. Globally, the GeneRead and QIAamp kits have better variant calling and coverage indicators than the Maxwell kit on the samples used in this study, although this kit performs better on some indicators and has advantages in terms of practical usage. Taken together, our results confirm the potential of FFPE samples analysis for clinical genomic studies, but also indicate that the choice of a FFPE DNA extraction kit should be done with careful testing and analysis beforehand in order to maximize the accuracy of the results.

  Dataset EGAD00001004066

• Transcriptome human nasal epithelium

  1. Odors are detected, firstly, by olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) in the olfactory epithelium of the nose. This neurons then project directly to the olfactory bulb in the brain. Olfaction depends on cellular regeneration of the OE, olfactory bulb and hippocampus, and on their continual re-wiring. The olfactory neural pathway includes regions of the frontal, temporal and limbic brain, which in turn overlap with brain areas involved in brain disorders. OSNs are the only aspect of the human brain exposed to the external environment. This not only makes them vulnerable to environmental changes, but also accessible for biomedical studies. We have already sequenced and developed a protocol for analyzing the transcriptome of mouse main olfactory epithelium and single OSNs. We propose here to perform a similar study for samples from the human olfactory epithelium. We have developed a minimally invasive method for obtaining human OSNs, among other cells from the nasal epithelium. In this experiment, we have obtained cell samples from the olfactory epithelium, including OSN, from healthy volunteers. We would like to further characterize them by RNA sequencing. This will give us valuable insight into human olfaction. It will also provide a first step into a new avenue to study, and find biomarkers for, brain diseases though the analysis of these easily available neurons. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/

  Dataset EGAD00001002226

• Cambridge_INTERVAL_SomaLogic_pQTLs

  This dataset contains four data files relating to the Cambridge Interval SomaLogic pQTL study to go with the corresponding genetic data: (1) Genome-wide pQTL summary associations for each analyte. (2) Mapping table for the genetic variants analysed - containing rsID, position and allele information. (3) Normalised quantitative readouts for each analyte, along with covariates used for the pQTL analysis. (4) Table of SOMAmer analytes mapped to their protein targets. Please see the readme file in the dataset for more information.

  Dataset EGAD00001004080

• Nurminen et al ("GP2Men") Study Primary and Metastatic Prostate Cancer Whole Genome Sequence Data

  We used novel processing techniques to obtain whole genome data together with 3D anatomic and histomorphologic analysis in two men (GP5 and GP12) with high risk PrCa undergoing radical prostatectomy. A total of 22 whole genome-sequenced sites (16 primary cancer foci and 6 lymph node metastatic) were analyzed using evolutionary reconstruction tools and spatio-evolutionary models. Probability models were used to trace spatial and chronological origins of the primary tumor and metastases, chart their genetic drivers, and distinguish metastatic and non-metastatic subclones.

  Dataset EGAD50000000005

• IBD dataset

  We performed multi-omics profiling of 38 Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis patients across several stimulations (RPMI, LPS, Salmonella, in total 80 samples). Nuclei were profiled using the 10X Multiome protocol which offers paired RNA+ATAC from the same nucleus (e.g. shared barcodes). Per library, the ATAC (I1, R1, R2, R3 reads) and RNA (I1, I2, R1, R2 reads) are provided. Pools are genetically multiplexed across donors. Genotype files are provided to allow genetic demultiplexing.

  Dataset EGAD50000000198