Dataset Information

Integrative Network Analysis Linking Clinical Outcomes With Environmental Exposures and Molecular Variations in Service Personnel Deployed to Balad and Bagram.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:To develop a computational approach to link clinical outcomes with environmental exposures and molecular variations measured in Department of Defense (DOD) serum-repository samples. METHODS:International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Division codes which corresponded to cardiopulmonary symptoms for service personnel were selected to test for associations with deployment-related inhalation hazards and metabolomics, micro-RNA, cytokine, plasma markers, and environmental exposure analyses for corresponding samples. xMWAS and Mummichog were used for integrative network and pathway analysis. RESULTS:Comparison between 41 personnel exhibiting new cardio-pulmonary diagnoses after deployment start-date to 25 personnel exhibiting no symptoms identified biomarkers associated with cardiopulmonary conditions. Integrative network and pathway analysis showed communities of clinical, molecular, and environmental markers associated with fatty acid, lipid, nucleotide, and amino acid metabolism pathways. CONCLUSIONS:The current proof of principle study establishes a computational framework for integrative analysis of deployment-related exposures, molecular responses, and health outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Thakar J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6897323 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Integrative Network Analysis Linking Clinical Outcomes With Environmental Exposures and Molecular Variations in Service Personnel Deployed to Balad and Bagram.

Thakar Juilee J Thatcher Thomas H TH Smith Matthew Ryan MR Woeller Collynn F CF Walker Douglas I DI Utell Mark J MJ Hopke Philip K PK Mallon Timothy M TM Krahl Pamela L PL Rohrbeck Patricia P Go Young-Mi YM Jones Dean P DP Uppal Karan K

Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 20191201

<h4>Objective</h4>To develop a computational approach to link clinical outcomes with environmental exposures and molecular variations measured in Department of Defense (DOD) serum-repository samples.<h4>Methods</h4>International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Division codes which corresponded to cardiopulmonary symptoms for service personnel were selected to test for associations with deployment-related inhalation hazards and metabolomics, micro-RNA, cytokine, plasma markers, and environmenta ...[more]

PMID: 31800452

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Project description:IntroductionEarly onset and high prevalence of allergic diseases result in high individual and socio-economic burdens. Several studies provide evidence for possible effects of environmental factors on allergic diseases, but these are mainly single-exposure studies. The exposome provides a novel holistic approach by simultaneously studying a large set of exposures. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between a broad range of prenatal and childhood environmental exposures and allergy-related outcomes in children.Material and methodsAnalyses of associations between 90 prenatal and 107 childhood exposures and allergy-related outcomes (last 12 months: rhinitis and itchy rash; ever: doctor-diagnosed eczema and food allergy) in 6-11 years old children (n = 1270) from the European Human Early-Life Exposome cohort were performed. Initially, we used an exposome-wide association study (ExWAS) considering the exposures independently, followed by a deletion-substitution-addition selection (DSA) algorithm considering all exposures simultaneously. All the exposure variables selected in the DSA were included in a final multi-exposure model using binomial general linear model (GLM).ResultsIn ExWAS, no exposures were associated with the outcomes after correction for multiple comparison. In multi-exposure models for prenatal exposures, lower distance of residence to nearest road and higher di-iso-nonyl phthalate level were associated with increased risk of rhinitis, and particulate matter absorbance (PMabs) was associated with a decreased risk. Furthermore, traffic density on nearest road was associated with increased risk of itchy rash and diethyl phthalate with a reduced risk. DSA selected no associations of childhood exposures, or between prenatal exposures and eczema or food allergy.DiscussionThis first comprehensive and systematic analysis of many environmental exposures suggests that prenatal exposure to traffic-related variables, PMabs and phthalates are associated with rhinitis and itchy rash.

Project description:Travelers' diarrhea (TD) is the most prevalent illness encountered by deployed military personnel and has a major impact on military operations, from reduced job performance to lost duty days. Frequently, the etiology of TD is unknown and, with underreporting of cases, it is difficult to accurately assess its impact. An increasing number of ailments include an altered or aberrant gut microbiome. To better understand the relationships between long-term deployments and TD, we studied military personnel during two nine-month deployment cycles in 2015-2016 to Honduras. To collect data on the prevalence of diarrhea and impact on duty, a total of 1173 personnel completed questionnaires at the end of their deployment. 56.7% reported reduced performance and 21.1% reported lost duty days. We conducted a passive surveillance study of all cases of diarrhea reporting to the medical unit with 152 total cases and a similar pattern of etiology. Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC, 52/152), enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC, 50/152), and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC, 35/152) were the most prevalent pathogens detected. An active longitudinal surveillance of 67 subjects also identified diarrheagenic E. coli as the primary etiology (7/16 EPEC, 7/16 EAEC, and 6/16 ETEC). Eleven subjects were recruited into a nested longitudinal substudy to examine gut microbiome changes associated with deployment. A 16S rRNA amplicon survey of fecal samples showed differentially abundant baseline taxa for subjects who contracted TD versus those who did not, as well as detection of taxa positively associated with self-reported gastrointestinal distress. Disrupted microbiota was also qualitatively observable for weeks preceding and following the incidents of TD. These findings illustrate the complex etiology of diarrhea amongst military personnel in deployed settings and its impacts on job performance. Potential factors of resistance or susceptibility can provide a foundation for future clinical trials to evaluate prevention and treatment strategies.

Project description:Background: It is well-established that cancer treatment substantially increases risk of long-term adverse health outcomes among childhood cancer survivors. However, there is limited research on the underlying mechanisms. To elucidate the pathophysiology and a possible causal pathway from treatment exposures to cardiometabolic conditions, we conducted epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) to identify DNA methylation (DNAm) sites associated with cancer treatment exposures and examined whether treatment-associated DNAm sites mediate associations between specific treatments and cardiometabolic conditions. Methods: We included 2,052 survivors (median age 33.7 years) of European ancestry from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study, a retrospective hospital-based study with prospective clinical follow-up. Cumulative doses of chemotherapy and region-specific radiation were abstracted from medical records. Seven cardiometabolic conditions were clinically assessed. DNAm profile was measured using MethylationEPIC BeadChip with blood-derived DNA. Results: By performing multiple treatment-specific EWAS, we identified 935 5’-cytosine-phosphate-guanine-3′ (CpG) sites mapped to 538 genes/regions associated with one or more cancer treatments at epigenome-wide significance level (P<9×10-8). Among the treatment-associated CpGs, 8 were associated with obesity, 63 with hypercholesterolemia, and 17 with hypertriglyceridemia (False-Discovery-Rate-Adjusted P<0.05). We observed substantial mediation by methylation at four independent CpGs (cg06963130, cg21922478, cg22976567, cg07403981) for association between abdominal field radiotherapy (abdominal-RT) and risk of hypercholesterolemia (70.3%) and by methylation at three CpGs (cg19634849, cg13552692, cg09853238) for association between abdominal-RT and hypertriglyceridemia (54.6%). In addition, three CpGs (cg26572901, cg12715065, cg21163477) partially mediated the association between brain-RT and obesity with 32.9% mediation effect and two CpGs mediated the association between corticosteroids and obesity (cg22351187, 14.2%) and between brain-RT and hypertriglyceridemia (cg13360224, 10.5%). Notably, several mediator CpGs reside in the proximity of well-established dyslipidemia genes: cg21922478 (ITGA1) and cg22976567 (LMNA). Conclusions: In childhood cancer survivors, cancer treatment exposures are associated with DNAm patterns present decades following the exposure. Treatment-associated DNAm sites may mediate the causal pathway from specific treatment exposures to certain cardiometabolic conditions, suggesting the utility of DNAm sites as risk predictors and potential mechanistic targets for future intervention studies.

Dataset Information

Integrative Network Analysis Linking Clinical Outcomes With Environmental Exposures and Molecular Variations in Service Personnel Deployed to Balad and Bagram.

Publications

Integrative Network Analysis Linking Clinical Outcomes With Environmental Exposures and Molecular Variations in Service Personnel Deployed to Balad and Bagram.

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