Project description:Translational Relevance Historically, African Americans have been underrepresented in clinical cancer research. Diversity helps to ensure equal access to new cancer therapies and better treatment for everyone. Cancer research is increasingly focused on classifying patients according to molecular profiles for particular groups. We provide a detailed molecular analysis from paired NSCLC tissues that identified differential coding and noncoding RNA expression in NSCLC from African Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA). Similar to other tumor types, we determined that race-enriched gene and microRNA expression signatures suggest a more aggressive disease in African Americans. Based on predicted drug resistance to adjuvant chemotherapies, AA may not equally benefit from the same range of clinical drugs as EA. Our findings provide a rationale for integrating coding and noncoding transcriptome profiles, along with clinical, demographic, and genomic data, when determining treatment options. Abstract Purpose: To determine if racial differences in gene and microRNA expression translates to differences in lung tumor biology with clinical relevance in African Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA). Experimental Design: The NCI-Maryland Case Control Study includes seven Baltimore City hospitals and is overrepresented with AA patients (~40%). Patients that underwent curative NSCLC surgery between 1998 and 2014 were enrolled. Comparative molecular profiling used mRNA (n = 22 AAs and n = 19 EAs) and microRNA (n = 42 AAs and n = 55 EAs) expression arrays to track differences in paired fresh frozen normal tissues and lung tumor specimens from AA and EA. Pathway enrichment, predicted drug response, tumor microenvironment infiltration, cancer immunotherapy antigen profiling, and microRNA target enrichment were assessed. Results: AA-enriched differential gene expression was characterized by stem-cell and invasion pathways. Differential gene expression in lung tumors from EA were primarily characterized by cell proliferation pathways. Population-specific gene expression was partly driven by population-specific miRNA expression profiles. Drug susceptibility predictions revealed a strong inverse correlation between AA resistance and EA sensitivity to the same panel of drugs. Statistically significant differences in M1 and M2 macrophage infiltration was observed in AA (P <0.05), however, PD-L1, PD-L2 expression was similar between both. Conclusions: Comparative transcriptomic profiling revealed clear differences in lung tumor biology between AA and EA. Increased participation by AA in lung cancer clinical trials are needed to integrate, and leverage, transcriptomic differences with other clinical information to maximize therapeutic benefit in both AA and EA. GSEA, Connectivity Map, CIBERSORT, cancer immunotherapy antigen profiling, and hypergeometric testing for overlapping miRNA targets were performed.

Project description:Translational Relevance Historically, African Americans have been underrepresented in clinical cancer research. Diversity helps to ensure equal access to new cancer therapies and better treatment for everyone. Cancer research is increasingly focused on classifying patients according to molecular profiles for particular groups. We provide a detailed molecular analysis from paired NSCLC tissues that identified differential coding and noncoding RNA expression in NSCLC from African Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA). Similar to other tumor types, we determined that race-enriched gene and microRNA expression signatures suggest a more aggressive disease in African Americans. Based on predicted drug resistance to adjuvant chemotherapies, AA may not equally benefit from the same range of clinical drugs as EA. Our findings provide a rationale for integrating coding and noncoding transcriptome profiles, along with clinical, demographic, and genomic data, when determining treatment options. Abstract Purpose: To determine if racial differences in gene and microRNA expression translates to differences in lung tumor biology with clinical relevance in African Americans (AA) and European Americans (EA). Experimental Design: The NCI-Maryland Case Control Study includes seven Baltimore City hospitals and is overrepresented with AA patients (~40%). Patients that underwent curative NSCLC surgery between 1998 and 2014 were enrolled. Comparative molecular profiling used mRNA (n = 22 AAs and n = 19 EAs) and microRNA (n = 42 AAs and n = 55 EAs) expression arrays to track differences in paired fresh frozen normal tissues and lung tumor specimens from AA and EA. Pathway enrichment, predicted drug response, tumor microenvironment infiltration, cancer immunotherapy antigen profiling, and microRNA target enrichment were assessed. Results: AA-enriched differential gene expression was characterized by stem-cell and invasion pathways. Differential gene expression in lung tumors from EA were primarily characterized by cell proliferation pathways. Population-specific gene expression was partly driven by population-specific miRNA expression profiles. Drug susceptibility predictions revealed a strong inverse correlation between AA resistance and EA sensitivity to the same panel of drugs. Statistically significant differences in M1 and M2 macrophage infiltration was observed in AA (P <0.05), however, PD-L1, PD-L2 expression was similar between both. Conclusions: Comparative transcriptomic profiling revealed clear differences in lung tumor biology between AA and EA. Increased participation by AA in lung cancer clinical trials are needed to integrate, and leverage, transcriptomic differences with other clinical information to maximize therapeutic benefit in both AA and EA.

Project description:BackgroundDNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism modulated by lifestyle and environmental factors, may be an important biomarker of complex diseases including cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and subclinical atherosclerosis.MethodsDNA methylation in peripheral blood samples from 391 African-Americans from the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) was assessed at baseline, and atherosclerosis was assessed 5 and 12 years later. Using linear mixed models, we examined the association between previously identified CpGs for coronary artery calcification (CAC) and carotid plaque, both individually and aggregated into methylation risk scores (MRSCAC and MRScarotid), and four measures of atherosclerosis (CAC, abdominal aorta calcification (AAC), ankle-brachial index (ABI), and multi-site atherosclerosis based on gender-specific quartiles of the single-site measures). We also examined the association between four epigenetic age acceleration measures (IEAA, EEAA, PhenoAge acceleration, and GrimAge acceleration) and the four atherosclerosis measures. Finally, we characterized the temporal stability of the epigenetic measures using repeated DNA methylation measured 5 years after baseline (N = 193).ResultsAfter adjusting for CVD risk factors, four CpGs (cg05575921(AHRR), cg09935388 (GFI1), cg21161138 (AHRR), and cg18168448 (LRRC52)) were associated with multi-site atherosclerosis (FDR < 0.1). cg05575921 was also associated with AAC and cg09935388 with ABI. MRSCAC was associated with ABI (Beta = 0.016, P = 0.006), and MRScarotid was associated with both AAC (Beta = 0.605, equivalent to approximately 1.8-fold increase in the Agatston score of AAC, P = 0.004) and multi-site atherosclerosis (Beta = 0.691, P = 0.002). A 5-year increase in GrimAge acceleration (~ 1 SD) was associated with a 1.6-fold (P = 0.012) increase in the Agatston score of AAC and 0.7 units (P = 0.0003) increase in multi-site atherosclerosis, all after adjusting for CVD risk factors. All epigenetic measures were relatively stable over 5 years, with the highest intraclass correlation coefficients observed for MRScarotid and GrimAge acceleration (0.87 and 0.89, respectively).ConclusionsWe found evidence of an association between DNA methylation and atherosclerosis at multiple vascular sites in a sample of African-Americans. Further evaluation of these potential biomarkers is warranted to deepen our understanding of the relationship between epigenetics and atherosclerosis.

Dataset Information

Genetic Architecture of Gene Expression in European and African Americans: An eQTL Mapping Study in GENOA.

Publications

Genetic Architecture of Gene Expression in European and African Americans: An eQTL Mapping Study in GENOA.

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