Project description:BACKGROUND: Disease activity measurement is a key component of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) management. Biomarkers that capture the complex and heterogeneous biology of RA have the potential to complement clinical disease activity assessment. OBJECTIVES: To develop a multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) test for rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: Candidate serum protein biomarkers were selected from extensive literature screens, bioinformatics databases, mRNA expression and protein microarray data. Quantitative assays were identified and optimized for measuring candidate biomarkers in RA patient sera. Biomarkers with qualifying assays were prioritized in a series of studies based on their correlations to RA clinical disease activity (e.g. the Disease Activity Score 28-C-Reactive Protein [DAS28-CRP], a validated metric commonly used in clinical trials) and their contributions to multivariate models. Prioritized biomarkers were used to train an algorithm to measure disease activity, assessed by correlation to DAS and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for classification of low vs. moderate/high disease activity. The effect of comorbidities on the MBDA score was evaluated using linear models with adjustment for multiple hypothesis testing. RESULTS: 130 candidate biomarkers were tested in feasibility studies and 25 were selected for algorithm training. Multi-biomarker statistical models outperformed individual biomarkers at estimating disease activity. Biomarker-based scores were significantly correlated with DAS28-CRP and could discriminate patients with low vs. moderate/high clinical disease activity. Such scores were also able to track changes in DAS28-CRP and were significantly associated with both joint inflammation measured by ultrasound and damage progression measured by radiography. The final MBDA algorithm uses 12 biomarkers to generate an MBDA score between 1 and 100. No significant effects on the MBDA score were found for common comorbidities. CONCLUSION: We followed a stepwise approach to develop a quantitative serum-based measure of RA disease activity, based on 12-biomarkers, which was consistently associated with clinical disease activity levels.

Project description:Introduction: Sepsis is a complex immunological response to infection characterized by early hyperinflammation followed by severe and protracted immunosuppression, suggesting that a multi-marker approach has the greatest clinical utility for early detection, within a clinical environment focused on SIRS differentiation. Pre-clinical research using an equine sepsis model identified a panel of gene expression biomarkers that define the early aberrant immune activation. Thus, the primary objective was to apply these gene expression biomarkers to distinguish patients with sepsis from those who had undergone major open surgery and had clinical outcomes consistent with systemic inflammation due to physical trauma and wound healing. Methods: This was a multi-centre, prospective clinical trial conducted across 4 tertiary critical care settings in Australia. Sepsis patients were recruited if they met the 1992 Consensus Statement criteria and had clinical evidence of systemic infection based on microbiology diagnoses (n=27). Participants in the post-surgical (PS) group were recruited pre-operatively and blood samples collected within 24 hours following surgery (n=38). Healthy controls (HC) included hospital staff with no known concurrent illnesses (n=20). Each participant had minimally 5ml of PAXgene blood collected for leucocyte RNA isolation and gene expression analyses. Affymetrix array and multiplex tandem (MT)-PCR studies were conducted to evaluate transcriptional profiles in circulating white blood cells applying a set of 42 molecular markers that had been identified a priori. A LogitBoost algorithm was used to create a machine learning diagnostic rule to predict sepsis outcomes. Results: Based on preliminary microarray analyses comparing HC and sepsis groups. A panel of 42-gene expression markers were identified that represented key innate and adaptive immune function, cell cycling, WBC differentiation, extracellular remodelling and immune modulation pathways. Comparisons against GEO data confirmed the definitive separation of the sepsis cohort. Quantitative PCR results suggest the capacity for this test to differentiate severe systemic inflammation from HC is 92%. AUC ROC curve findings demonstrated sepsis prediction within a mixed inflammatory population, was between 86 - 92%. Conclusions: This novel molecular biomarker test has a clinically relevant sensitivity and specificity profile, and has the capacity for early detection of sepsis via the monitoring of critical care patients. GEO Note: Data made available represents the preliminary microarray investigation performed on Human U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix), assaying 41 patient samples (Sepsis n=10, Post-Surgical n=11, Control n=20).

Project description:Introduction: Sepsis is a complex immunological response to infection characterized by early hyperinflammation followed by severe and protracted immunosuppression, suggesting that a multi-marker approach has the greatest clinical utility for early detection, within a clinical environment focused on SIRS differentiation. Pre-clinical research using an equine sepsis model identified a panel of gene expression biomarkers that define the early aberrant immune activation. Thus, the primary objective was to apply these gene expression biomarkers to distinguish patients with sepsis from those who had undergone major open surgery and had clinical outcomes consistent with systemic inflammation due to physical trauma and wound healing. Methods: This was a multi-centre, prospective clinical trial conducted across 4 tertiary critical care settings in Australia. Sepsis patients were recruited if they met the 1992 Consensus Statement criteria and had clinical evidence of systemic infection based on microbiology diagnoses (n=27). Participants in the post-surgical (PS) group were recruited pre-operatively and blood samples collected within 24 hours following surgery (n=38). Healthy controls (HC) included hospital staff with no known concurrent illnesses (n=20). Each participant had minimally 5ml of PAXgene blood collected for leucocyte RNA isolation and gene expression analyses. Affymetrix array and multiplex tandem (MT)-PCR studies were conducted to evaluate transcriptional profiles in circulating white blood cells applying a set of 42 molecular markers that had been identified a priori. A LogitBoost algorithm was used to create a machine learning diagnostic rule to predict sepsis outcomes. Results: Based on preliminary microarray analyses comparing HC and sepsis groups. A panel of 42-gene expression markers were identified that represented key innate and adaptive immune function, cell cycling, WBC differentiation, extracellular remodelling and immune modulation pathways. Comparisons against GEO data confirmed the definitive separation of the sepsis cohort. Quantitative PCR results suggest the capacity for this test to differentiate severe systemic inflammation from HC is 92%. AUC ROC curve findings demonstrated sepsis prediction within a mixed inflammatory population, was between 86 - 92%. Conclusions: This novel molecular biomarker test has a clinically relevant sensitivity and specificity profile, and has the capacity for early detection of sepsis via the monitoring of critical care patients. GEO Note: Data made available represents the preliminary microarray investigation performed on Human U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix), assaying 41 patient samples (Sepsis n=10, Post-Surgical n=11, Control n=20). This was a multi-centre, prospective clinical trial conducted across 4 tertiary critical care settings in Australia. Sepsis patients were recruited if they met the 1992 Consensus Statement criteria and had clinical evidence of systemic infection based on microbiology diagnoses (n=27). Participants in the post-surgical (PS) group were recruited pre-operatively and blood samples collected within 24 hours following surgery (n=38). Healthy controls (HC) included hospital staff with no known concurrent illnesses (n=20). Each participant had minimally 5ml of PAXgene blood collected for leucocyte RNA isolation and gene expression analyses. The GEO data represents the preliminary microarray investigation performed on Human U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix), assaying 41 patient samples (Sepsis n=10, Post-Surgical n=11, Control n=20).

Project description:INTRODUCTION: Sepsis is a complex immunological response to infection characterized by early hyper-inflammation followed by severe and protracted immunosuppression, suggesting that a multi-marker approach has the greatest clinical utility for early detection, within a clinical environment focused on Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) differentiation. Pre-clinical research using an equine sepsis model identified a panel of gene expression biomarkers that define the early aberrant immune activation. Thus, the primary objective was to apply these gene expression biomarkers to distinguish patients with sepsis from those who had undergone major open surgery and had clinical outcomes consistent with systemic inflammation due to physical trauma and wound healing. METHODS: This was a multi-centre, prospective clinical trial conducted across four tertiary critical care settings in Australia. Sepsis patients were recruited if they met the 1992 Consensus Statement criteria and had clinical evidence of systemic infection based on microbiology diagnoses (n = 27). Participants in the post-surgical (PS) group were recruited pre-operatively and blood samples collected within 24 hours following surgery (n = 38). Healthy controls (HC) included hospital staff with no known concurrent illnesses (n = 20). Each participant had minimally 5 ml of PAXgene blood collected for leucocyte RNA isolation and gene expression analyses. Affymetrix array and multiplex tandem (MT)-PCR studies were conducted to evaluate transcriptional profiles in circulating white blood cells applying a set of 42 molecular markers that had been identified a priori. A LogitBoost algorithm was used to create a machine learning diagnostic rule to predict sepsis outcomes. RESULTS: Based on preliminary microarray analyses comparing HC and sepsis groups, a panel of 42-gene expression markers were identified that represented key innate and adaptive immune function, cell cycling, WBC differentiation, extracellular remodelling and immune modulation pathways. Comparisons against GEO data confirmed the definitive separation of the sepsis cohort. Quantitative PCR results suggest the capacity for this test to differentiate severe systemic inflammation from HC is 92%. The area under the curve (AUC) receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve findings demonstrated sepsis prediction within a mixed inflammatory population, was between 86 and 92%. CONCLUSIONS: This novel molecular biomarker test has a clinically relevant sensitivity and specificity profile, and has the capacity for early detection of sepsis via the monitoring of critical care patients.

Project description:BackgroundThere is increasing evidence that Parkinson's disease (PD) might start in the gut, thus involving and compromising also the enteric nervous system (ENS). At the clinical onset of the disease the majority of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain is already destroyed, so that the lack of early biomarkers for the disease represents a major challenge for developing timely treatment interventions. Here, we use a transgenic A30P-α-synuclein-overexpressing PD mouse model to identify appropriate candidate markers in the gut before hallmark symptoms begin to manifest.MethodsBased on a gait analysis and striatal dopamine levels, we defined 2-month-old A30P mice as pre-symptomatic (psA30P), since they are not showing any motoric impairments of the skeletal neuromuscular system and no reduced dopamine levels, but an intestinal α-synuclein pathology. Mice at this particular age were further used to analyze functional and molecular alterations in both, the gastrointestinal tract and the ENS, to identify early pathological changes. We examined the gastrointestinal motility, the molecular composition of the ENS, as well as the expression of regulating miRNAs. Moreover, we applied A30P-α-synuclein challenges in vitro to simulate PD in the ENS.ResultsA retarded gut motility and early molecular dysregulations were found in the myenteric plexus of psA30P mice. We found that i.e. neurofilament light chain, vesicle-associated membrane protein 2 and calbindin 2, together with the miRNAs that regulate them, are significantly altered in the psA30P, thus representing potential biomarkers for early PD. Many of the dysregulated miRNAs found in the psA30P mice are reported to be changed in PD patients as well, either in blood, cerebrospinal fluid or brain tissue. Interestingly, the in vitro approaches delivered similar changes in the ENS cultures as seen in the transgenic animals, thus confirming the data from the mouse model.ConclusionsThese findings provide an interesting and novel approach for the identification of appropriate biomarkers in men.

Project description:BackgroundLeprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is often late- or misdiagnosed leading to irreversible disabilities. Blood transcriptomic biomarkers that prospectively predict those who progress to leprosy (progressors) would allow early diagnosis, better treatment outcomes and facilitate interventions aimed at stopping bacterial transmission. To identify potential risk signatures of leprosy, we collected whole blood of household contacts (HC, n=5,352) of leprosy patients, including individuals who were diagnosed with leprosy 4-61 months after sample collection.MethodsWe investigated differential gene expression (DGE) by RNA-Seq between progressors before presence of symptoms (n=40) and HC (n=40), as well as longitudinal DGE within each progressor. A prospective leprosy signature was identified using a machine learning approach (Random Forest) and validated using reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).FindingsAlthough no significant intra-individual longitudinal variation within leprosy progressors was identified, 1,613 genes were differentially expressed in progressors before diagnosis compared to HC. We identified a 13-gene prospective risk signature with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 95.2%. Validation of this RNA-Seq signature in an additional set of progressors (n=43) and HC (n=43) by RT-qPCR, resulted in a final 4-gene signature, designated RISK4LEP (MT-ND2, REX1BD, TPGS1, UBC) (AUC=86.4%).InterpretationThis study identifies for the first time a prospective transcriptional risk signature in blood predicting development of leprosy 4 to 61 months before clinical diagnosis. Assessment of this signature in contacts of leprosy patients can function as an adjunct diagnostic tool to target implementation of interventions to restrain leprosy development.FundingThis study was supported by R2STOP Research grant, the Order of Malta-Grants-for-Leprosy-Research, the Q.M. Gastmann-Wichers Foundation and the Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI) together with the Turing Foundation (ILEP# 702.02.73 and # 703.15.07).

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Development of a blood-based molecular biomarker test for identification of schizophrenia before disease onset.

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Development of a blood-based molecular biomarker test for identification of schizophrenia before disease onset.

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