This study is from a phase I clinical trial of neoantigen DNA vaccines in triple negative breast cancer patients with persistent disease following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The exome and RNA sequences used to identify somatic mutations, predict neoantigens, and design vaccines is within.
The goal of the study is to evaluate response of PitNET to drug therapy before surgery. Patients with and without drug therapy are compared in RNA level. The RNA is extracted from surgery material, sequenced and deferentially expressed genes (DEG) determined.
This submission contains single-cell genome and transcriptome data that is used for the following manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.13.521174. All Illumina data deposited here is retrieved from HCC38(BL) cell lines and a melanoma PDX model as described in the paper.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in children in the United States. NAFLD is associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome; however, there is limited understanding of the development and progression of NAFLD. There is evidence of abnormalities of bacterial colonization, and intestinal bacterial product-induced inflammation associated with NAFLD and disease progression. The goal of this study was to characterize the intestinal microbiome in pediatric participants with NAFLD and in both obese and normal weight controls to determine the relationship between alterations in the intestinal microbiome, inflammation, and the development of NAFLD. We hypothesized that alterations in the intestinal microbiome are associated with increased systemic inflammation and the development and severity of NAFLD.
Niemann-Pick disease, type C1 (NPC1) is neurodegenerative disorder due to pathological variants of NPC1. NPC1 is predominately a pediatric/adolescent disorder, although adult onset cases have been described. The NPC1 protein functions to move unesterified cholesterol from the endolysosomal lumen to make it bioavailable for cellular function. Impaired NPC1 function results in endolysosomal accumulation of unesterified cholesterol and other lipids. The NPC1 phenotype is extremely heterogeneous, both with respect to age of onset and sign/symptom complex. Comparison of individuals homozygous for the common p.I1061T variant and affected siblings suggests that other genes can significantly modify the clinical phenotype. The goal of this project is to obtain genome sequencing on ~200 individuals with NPC1 in order to facilitate identifying potential genetic modifiers.
Genomic imprinting provides is an epigenetic process crucial for normal development and is disrupted in congenital imprinting disorders(CIDs). There is great interest in the clinical consequences and aetiology of multilocus imprinting disturbance(MLID) which occurs in some individuals with CID, though the cause of MLID is unknown in most cases. We investigated a kindred with a CID and MLID and identified a rare genetic variant in the UHRF1 gene which has a critical role in the establishment and maintenance of DNA methylation. We generated a mouse model and found that the equivalent Uhrf1 variant was associated with prenatal lethality and disruption of normal imprinting mechanisms. These findings support UHRF1 as a novel candidate gene for CIDs with MLID.
Background and Hypotheses: Mongolia has the highest reported incidence of - and mortality from - hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the world, which is between three and seven times higher than that observed in other high-incidence populations, such as South Korea, Thailand, and China. Although its causative factors and underlying tumor biology remain unknown, risk factors such as chronic hepatitis B virus and/or hepatitis C virus infection are highly prevalent. Moreover, Mongolia has an extraordinarily high prevalence of hepatitis delta virus (HDV), more than ten times above the global estimate, which we hypothesize as a major driver of Mongolian hepatocarcinogenesis. By performing a comprehensive and integrative genomic characterization, we aimed to identify robust molecular subclasses and driver features informative of the etiology and progression of the disease. This study, the first one of this nature ever to be conducted on a Mongolian cohort, identifies similarities to previous studies performed on other populations (which reflect general characteristics of liver carcinogenesis) as well as unique features of Mongolian HCC. Study Design and Methods: Clinical information and paired tumor/non-tumor liver tissue samples were obtained from 76 HCC patients undergoing surgery at the National Cancer Center of Mongolia. Transcriptome sequencing and whole exome sequencing were performed on all tumor and non-tumor samples, followed by bioinformatics processing and quality control. Consensus clustering and regularized Cox regression analyses were performed on transcriptome data. Driver mutations and mutational signatures were assessed. These results were compared to those from 373 HCC patients of different races and ethnicities and diverse etiologies. Furthermore, molecular subclass gene signatures from multiple previous studies were assessed for validation. Results and Conclusions: Using a transcriptomics-based unsupervised approach, we identified four molecular subclasses among Mongolian HCC cases, which were associated with different patient survival outcomes. These molecular subclasses were mapped to signatures reported in other HCC cohorts, showing significant associations consistent with survival outcomes. A supervised analysis determined risk scores strongly associated with survival, consistent with the four molecular subclasses. Mutational signature analysis using recently published COSMIC and Environmental Agents Compendia identified signatures with distinct prevalence among HDV+ and HVD- groups. Signatures differentially associated with HDV+ include mutational patterns linked to alkylating agents (such as temozolomide), tobacco chewing and exposures to 1,8-Dinitropyrene and furan, whereas HDV- appeared differentially associated with aristolochic acid II. In addition to common driver mutations (TP53, CTNNB1) frequently found in pan-cancer analysis, Mongolian HCC exhibits several unique drivers (most notably GTF2IRD2B, PNRC2, and SPTA1), the latter of which may be linked to HDV infection. These results suggest the existence of new molecular mechanisms at play in Mongolian hepatocarcinogenesis.
Repression of CADM1 transcription by HPV type 18 is mediated by three-dimensional rearrangement of promoter-enhancer interactions
Osteoporosis is a condition of excessive skeletal fragility which results in high risk to low trauma fractures. It is the most prevalent metabolic bone disease and is a major public health problem which may result in devastating morbidity and mortality. The most powerful, measurable determinant of fracture risk is bone mineral density (BMD). More than 60% of BMD variation is attributable to genetic factors. There are gender differences in BMD that contribute to a substantially higher fracture risk among women than men. Genetic studies demonstrate that some osteoporosis risk genes/genomic regions are gender specific. However, specific such genes contributing to female BMD and to the sex differences of BMD are largely unknown. Recent rapid progresses in SNP genotyping technology, in our knowledge about human genome diversity and linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns in the human genome as revealed have made it feasible and timely to pursue a powerful whole genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genes for BMD. The major goal of this project is to perform a powerful GWAS study in a large sample of US Caucasian subjects. Gender specific effects of the genetic variants will be examined. The significant genetic variants discovered will be used to design diagnostic DNA chips for prognosis for potential health problems of osteoporosis later in life.
Overview: Our overall long-term goal is to determine risk factors for the complex (multifactorial) disease, venous thromboembolism (VTE), that will allow physicians to stratify individual patient risk and target VTE prophylaxis to those who would benefit most. In this genome-wide association case-control study (1300 cases and 1300 controls) we hope to identify susceptibility variants for VTE. Mutations within genes encoding for important components of the anticoagulant, procoagulant, fibrinolytic, and innate immunity pathways are risk factors for VTE. We hypothesize that other genes within these four pathways or within other pathways also are VTE disease-susceptibility genes. Therefore, we performed a genome wide association (GWA) screen and analysis using the Illumina 660W platform to identify SNPs within 1,300 clinic-based, non-cancer VTE cases primarily from Minnesota and the upper Midwest USA, and 1300 clinic-based, unrelated controls frequency-matched on patient age, gender, myocardial infarction/stroke status and state of residence. This is a subset of a slightly larger candidate gene study using 1500 case-control pairs to identify haplotype-tagging SNPs (ht-SNPs) in a large set of candidate genes (n~750) within the anticoagulant, procoagulant, fibrinolytic, and innate immunity pathways. Study Populations. Cases. VTE cases were consecutive Mayo Clinic outpatients with objectively-diagnosed deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and/or pulmonary embolism (PE) residing in the upper Midwest and referred by Mayo Clinic physician to the Mayo Clinic Special Coagulation Laboratory for clinical diagnostic testing to evaluate for an acquired or inherited thrombophilia, or to the Mayo Clinic Thrombophilia Center. Any person contacted to be a control but discovered to have had a VTE was evaluated for inclusion as a case. Cases were primarily residents from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, North or South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana. A DVT or PE was categorized as objectively diagnosed when (a) confirmed by venography or pulmonary angiography, or pathology examination of thrombus removed at surgery, or (b) if at least one non-invasive test (compression duplex ultrasonography, lung scan, computed tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging) was positive. A VTE was defined as: Proximal leg deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which includes the common iliac, internal iliac, external iliac, common femoral, superficial [now termed "femoral"] femoral, deep femoral [sometimes referred to as "profunda" femoral] and/or popliteal veins. (Note: greater and lesser saphenous veins, or other superficial or perforator veins, were not included as proximal or distal leg DVT). Distal leg DVT (or "isolated calf DVT"), which includes the anterior tibial, posterior tibial and/or peroneal veins. (Note: gastrocnemius, soleal and/or sural [e.g., "deep muscular veins" of the calf] vein thrombosis was not included as distal leg DVT). Arm DVT, which includes the axillary, subclavian and/or innominate (brachiocephalic) veins. (Note: jugular [internal or external], cephalic and brachial vein thrombosis was not included in "arm DVT"). Hepatic, portal, splenic, superior or inferior mesenteric, and/or renal vein thrombosis. (Note: ovarian, testicular, peri-prostatic and/or pelvic vein thrombosis was not included). Cerebral vein thrombosis (includes cerebral or dural sinus or vein, saggital sinus or vein, and/or transverse sinus or vein thrombosis). Inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis Superior vena cava (SVC) thrombosis Pulmonary embolism Patients with VTE related to active cancer, antiphospholipid syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, vasculitis, a rheumatoid or other autoimmune disorder, a vascular anomaly (e.g., Klippel-Trénaunay syndrome, etc.), heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, or a mechanical cause for DVT (e.g., arm DVT or SVC thrombosis related to a central venous catheter or transvenous pacemaker, portal and/or splenic vein thrombosis related to liver cirrhosis, IVC thrombosis related to retroperitoneal fibrosis, etc.), with hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula thrombosis, or with prior liver or bone marrow transplantation were excluded. Controls. A Mayo Clinic outpatient control group was prospectively recruited for this study. Controls were frequency-matched on the age group (18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80+ years), sex, myocardial infarction/stroke status, and state of residence distribution of the cases. We selected clinic-based controls using a controls' database of persons undergoing general medical examinations in the Mayo Clinic Departments of General Internal Medicine or Primary Care Internal Medicine. Additionally persons undergoing evaluation at the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center, and the Department of Family Medicine were screened for inclusion as controls. This study is part of the Gene Environment Association Studies initiative (GENEVA, http://www.genevastudy.org) funded by the trans-NIH Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI). The overarching goal is to identify novel genetic factors that contribute to venous thrombosis through large-scale genome-wide association studies of 1,300 clinic-based, VTE cases and 1300 clinic-based, unrelated controls. Genotyping was performed at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). Data cleaning and harmonization were done at the GEI-funded GENEVA Coordinating Center at the University of Washington.
