Project description:Interventions: Group 1: Blood and sputum samples as well as paraffin embedded tumour tissue from patients with microsatellite stable colorectal cancer shall be analysed before therapy and over time to establish and validate hotspot mutation and somatic copy number variant (SCNAs) analysis. We therefore need the following samples:
- Two Cell-Free DNA BCT CE Streck tubes with 8 ml blood per sampling for preparation of plasma-DNA.
- One sputum tube (only at study inclusion).
- FFPE tissue samples from the primary tumor (from initial surgery)
Group 2: Blood samples of tumor-free control persons shall be tested for hotspot mutations and somatic copy number variants (SCNAs) to identify technical artefacts and improve our protocols. We therefore need the following samples:
- Two Cell-Free DNA BCT CE Streck tubes with 8 ml blood per sampling for preparation of plasma-DNA.
Primary outcome(s): Identification of tumorspecific SCNAs in plasma samples of colorectal cancer patients
Study Design: Allocation: ; Masking: ; Control: ; Assignment: ; Study design purpose: other
Project description:Current methods for mapping the tissue-of-origin of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are still insufficient. Here, we have extended a previously developed methylated CpG tandems amplification and sequencing (MCTA-Seq) method for quantitative analysis of tissue-of-origin of plasma cfDNA. By comparing paired plasma cfDNA and white blood cell genomic DNA, we have demonstrated that the liver is the major non-hematopoietic tissue contributing to plasma cfDNA in healthy adults, accounting for approximately 2%. Furthermore, we have detected changes in liver-derived DNA in patients with benign liver diseases and increases in pancreas-derived DNA in acute pancreatitis patients. Interestingly, our results suggest that DNA derived from pathological tissues makes a minor contribution to the increased cfDNA in many clinical cases. Finally, we have identified a tissue-specific hypermethylated cfDNA marker located in the intragenic regions of tissue-specifichighlyexpressed genes. This study represents valuable progress in the field of cfDNA and offers promise for clinical research and medical diagnostics using the described method.
Project description:We revealed a large population of long cell-free DNA molecules (up to 23,635 bp in length) in maternal plasma and developed an approach which leveraged the abundance of CpG sites on long molecules to deduce the tissue of origin of individual plasma DNA molecules based on single-molecule methylation analysis. We illustrated how such an approach may be utilized to achieve noninvasive prenatal testing of monogenic diseases. We also revealed a reduction in amounts of such long cell-free DNA molecules and a different end motif profile in maternal plasma DNA from pregnancies with preeclampsia.
Project description:Background: Cell free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma has received increasing attention and has been studied in a broad range of clinical conditions implicating inflammation, cancer, and aging. However, few studies have focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the cell free form. This study characterized the size distribution and sequence characteristics of plasma cell free mtDNA (cf mtDNA) in humans.Methods and Results: We optimized DNA isolation and next-generation sequencing library preparation protocols to better retain short DNA fragments from plasma, and applied these optimized methods to plasma samples from patients with sepsis. After massive parallel sequencing, we verified that our methods can retain substantially shorter DNA fragments than the standard isolation method, resulting in an average of 11.5 fold increase in short DNA fragments yield (DNA < 100bp). We report that cf mtDNA in plasma is highly enriched in short-size cfDNA (30 ~ 60 bp), which is much shorter than the value previously reported (~140 bp). Motivated by this unique size distribution, we size-selected short cfDNA fragments from the sequencing library, which further increased the mtDNA recovery rate by an average of 10.4 fold. Using this approach we detected mixtures of different mtDNA sequences, termed heteroplasmy, in plasma from 3 patients. In one patient who previously received bone marrow transplantation, different minor allele frequencies were observed between plasma and white blood cells (WBC) at heteroplasmic mtDNA sites, consistent with mixed-tissue origin for plasma DNA.Conclusion: mtDNA in plasma exists as very short fragments that exhibit mtDNA heteroplasmy distribution differences from that found in a single organ/tissue. This study is the first report of genome wide identification of mtDNA heteroplasmy in human plasma. Our optimized method can be used to investigate the potential utility of cf mtDNA fragments and heteroplasmy as biomarkers in various diseases.
Project description:We intend to establish an efficient method for plasma cfDNA extraction and Bisulfite transformation to facilitate the detection of DNA methylation status using multiplex fluorescence PCR. Meanwhile, we expect to identify several plasma methylation markers that can be highly sensitive for multi-cancer detection. Finally, we will provide a pan-cancer blood test that is easy to operate, low cost, accurate and easy to promote.
Project description:Through whole-genome methylation analysis of plasma samples from patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), EBV-associated lymphoma and infectious mononucleosis, we demonstrate that EBV DNA methylation profiles exhibit a disease-associated pattern. Such observation implies significant potentials in the development of methylation analysis of plasma EBV DNA for NPC diagnostics.
Project description:Ascorbate (vitamin C) is an essential micronutrient in humans. The chronic severe deficiency of ascorbate, termed scurvy, has long been associated with increased susceptibility to infections. How ascorbate affects the immune system at the cellular and molecular levels remained unclear. Here, from a micronutrient screen, we identified ascorbate as a potent enhancer for antibody response by facilitating the IL-21/STAT3-dependent plasma cell differentiation in mouse and human B cells. The effect of ascorbate is unique, as other antioxidants failed to promote plasma cell differentiation. Ascorbate is critical during early B cell activation by poising the cells to plasma cell lineage without affecting the proximal IL-21/STAT3 signaling and the overall transcriptome. Consistent with its role as a cofactor for epigenetic enzymes, ascorbate potentiates plasma cell differentiation by remodeling the epigenome via TET (Ten Eleven Translocation), the enzymes responsible for DNA demethylation by oxidizing 5-methylcytosines into 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC). Genomewide 5hmC profiling identified ascorbate responsive elements (EAR) at the Prdm1 locus, including a distal element with a STAT3 motif overlapped with a CpG that was methylated and modified by TET in the presence of ascorbate. The results suggest that an adequate level of VC is required for antibody response and highlight how micronutrients can cooperate with epigenetic enzymes to regulate gene expression. Our finding also implies that epigenetic enzymes can function as sensors to gauge the availability of metabolites and influence cell fate decisions.