Project description:SICAS 1 and SICAS 2 have extraordinary opportunity to evaluate the role of diet, environmental exposures and asthma in the context of school and home specific exposures and capitalize on all the data we are already collecting. Asthma affects 25 million Americans, particularly urban minority children. Children spend nearly all day in school, yet little is known about the role of a child’s exposure to widely disseminated industrial chemicals on asthma morbidity. Early animal models and population studies have begun to identify an association between phenolic chemical exposure and asthma development through proposed increased regulation of an individual’s allergic immune response. This study, nested within a school-based environmental intervention trial, (School Inner-City Asthma Intervention Study, SICAS2) , will enable urinary biomarker analyses during a school-based academic year-long environmental intervention trial to analyze the source and impact of exposures on urinary environmental exposure biomarker levels as well as the relationship between these biomarkers levels and asthma morbidity. We are poised to leverage the clinical and exposure data being collected in the clinical trial and generate cross-sectional urinary phenol biomarker data (at baseline) within the resources of CHEAR. If successful, our study will assess the impact of exposures on these biomarker levels and the impact that these exposures have on asthma morbidity, controlling comprehensively for other personal, home, and school environmental factors associated with asthma outcomes. We hypothesize that exposure to environmental exposures (e.g. phenols, phthalates, environmental tobacco smoke) in urban school children and higher urinary biomarkers will preliminarily be associated with higher asthma morbidity. Specific aims are: Aim 1. To determine the source of exposure to environmental exposures (e.g. phenols, phthalates, environmental tobacco smoke) in inner-city school children as assessed by questionnaire, product use assessment and comprehensive school and home environmental assessment of children with physician-diagnosed asthma. Aim 2. To determine whether urinary phenol/phathalate/cotinine biomarkers are associated with asthma control (e.g. asthma symptoms, such as asthma-related symptom days (primary outcome), and other phenotypes of asthma/allergic symptoms and inflammation such as allergic sensitization, health care utilization and pulmonary lung function
Project description:Aim 1: To investigate the effect of SHS exposure on asthma morbidity, systemic inflammation and oxidative stress among inner-city children with asthma. Hypotheses 1.Increasing SHS exposure will be associated with increases in asthma morbidity, systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. Aim 2: To determine if being overweight/obese modifies the effect of SHS exposure on respiratory symptoms, inflammation and oxidative stress responses among inner-city children with asthma.Hypothesis 2. SHS exposure will be associated with a worsened asthma and increases in systemic inflammation and oxidative stress among overweight/obese children compared to normal weight children. Aim 3: To determine if diet quality modifies the effect of SHS exposure on respiratory symptoms, inflammation and oxidative stress responses among inner-city children with asthma. Hypothesis 3. SHS smoke exposure will associated with worsened respiratory symptoms and increases in inflammation and oxidative stress among children with poor quality diet compared those with better quality diet inner-city children with asthma. (Diet will be assessed by dietary inflammatory index, healthy eating index, and additional serum markers proposed in this application).
Project description:Background: Epigenetic marks, like asthma, are heritable. They are influenced by the environment, direct the maturation of T cellslymphocytes, and have been shown to enhance the development of allergic airways disease in mice. Thus, we hypothesized that epigenetic marks are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children. Methods: We compared methylation patterns and gene expression in inner-city children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls, using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from inner city children aged 6-12 years with persistent atopic asthma children and healthy controls. Results were externally validated with the GABRIELA study population. Results: Comparing asthmatics (N=97) to controls (N=97), we identified 81 regions that were differentially methylated. Several immune genes were hypomethylated in asthmatics, including IL-13, RUNX3, and a number of specific genes relevant to natural killer cells (KIR2DL4, KIR2DL3, KIR3DL1, and KLRD1) and T cells lymphocytes (TIGIT). 14 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were associated with the serum IgE concentration of IgE, including RUNX3. These results were internally and externally validated with a global methylation assessment using a different methodology in our inner-city cohort and an independent European cohort (GABRIELA). Hypo- and hypermethylated genes tended to be associated with increased and decreased gene expression, respectively (P<0.6x10-11 for asthma and ; P<0.01 for IgE). To further explore the relationship between methylation and gene expression, we created a matrix of genomic changes in methylation versus transcriptional changes (methyl eQTL) for asthma, and identified cis- and trans-regulated genes whose expression was related to asthma asthma-associated methylation marks.
Project description:Background: Epigenetic marks, like asthma, are heritable. They are influenced by the environment, direct the maturation of T cellslymphocytes, and have been shown to enhance the development of allergic airways disease in mice. Thus, we hypothesized that epigenetic marks are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children. Methods: We compared methylation patterns and gene expression in inner-city children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls, using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from inner city children aged 6-12 years with persistent atopic asthma children and healthy controls. Results were externally validated with the GABRIELA study population. Results: Comparing asthmatics (N=97) to controls (N=97), we identified 81 regions that were differentially methylated. Several immune genes were hypomethylated in asthmatics, including IL-13, RUNX3, and a number of specific genes relevant to natural killer cells (KIR2DL4, KIR2DL3, KIR3DL1, and KLRD1) and T cells lymphocytes (TIGIT). 14 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were associated with the serum IgE concentration of IgE, including RUNX3. These results were internally and externally validated with a global methylation assessment using a different methodology in our inner-city cohort and an independent European cohort (GABRIELA). Hypo- and hypermethylated genes tended to be associated with increased and decreased gene expression, respectively (P<0.6x10-11 for asthma and ; P<0.01 for IgE). To further explore the relationship between methylation and gene expression, we created a matrix of genomic changes in methylation versus transcriptional changes (methyl eQTL) for asthma, and identified cis- and trans-regulated genes whose expression was related to asthma asthma-associated methylation marks. peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 97 atopic asthmatic and 97 nonatopic nonasthmatic children
Project description:Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways characterised by episodic airway obstruction resulting in cough, episodic shortness of breath. It is, and is clinically and physiologically heterogeneous. It is estimated that around 300 million people worldwide have the diseaseare diagnosed with asthma, including up to 20% of children (Asher et al, 2006), with 5–10% of these children believed to have severe or difficult-to-treat asthma. Asthma has often been classified in terms of severity and based on clinical diagnostic criteria, but it is now apparent that the heterogeneity that exists at the physiological level is also a feature of the underlying pathological mechanisms (Lotvall et al, 2011). The aim of this study was to identify blood transcriptomics profiles for children diagnosed with asthma or wheeze, and establish whether these profiles suggested endotypes or mechanisms that could underlie disease, or be related to disease severity, in these children. Importantly, given that children are currently treated with the same medicines as adults, we also aimed to compare profiles of children to those of adults with asthma to help determine whether efforts should be directed to the development of medicines targeting pathways and mechanisms that may be unique to children. To this end, we used gene transcriptome data generated from blood samples from adults and children from the U-BIOPRED consortium to ask how similar or different the differential gene expression profiles were between groups of adults and pre-school or school-aged children with severe or mild-moderate asthma (or wheeze for the pre-school aged children) using current definitions. The Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Disease Outcomes (U-BIOPRED) project was set up as a public-private partnership within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), engaging academia, the pharmaceutical industry and patient groups. The goal of this investigation was to identify transcript fingerprints in whole blood that characterize patients with severe asthma and to determine whether subgroups of severe asthmatics can be identified.
Project description:Background: Epigenetic marks, like asthma, are heritable. They are influenced by the environment, direct the maturation of T cellslymphocytes, and have been shown to enhance the development of allergic airways disease in mice. Thus, we hypothesized that epigenetic marks are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children. Methods: We compared methylation patterns and gene expression in inner-city children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls, using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from inner city children aged 6-12 years with persistent atopic asthma children and healthy controls. Results were externally validated with the GABRIELA study population. Results: Comparing asthmatics (N=97) to controls (N=97), we identified 81 regions that were differentially methylated. Several immune genes were hypomethylated in asthmatics, including IL-13, RUNX3, and a number of specific genes relevant to natural killer cells (KIR2DL4, KIR2DL3, KIR3DL1, and KLRD1) and T cells lymphocytes (TIGIT). 14 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were associated with the serum IgE concentration of IgE, including RUNX3. These results were internally and externally validated with a global methylation assessment using a different methodology in our inner-city cohort and an independent European cohort (GABRIELA). Hypo- and hypermethylated genes tended to be associated with increased and decreased gene expression, respectively (P<0.6x10-11 for asthma and ; P<0.01 for IgE). To further explore the relationship between methylation and gene expression, we created a matrix of genomic changes in methylation versus transcriptional changes (methyl eQTL) for asthma, and identified cis- and trans-regulated genes whose expression was related to asthma asthma-associated methylation marks.
Project description:Background: Epigenetic marks, like asthma, are heritable. They are influenced by the environment, direct the maturation of T cellslymphocytes, and have been shown to enhance the development of allergic airways disease in mice. Thus, we hypothesized that epigenetic marks are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children. Methods: We compared methylation patterns and gene expression in inner-city children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls, using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from inner city children aged 6-12 years with persistent atopic asthma children and healthy controls. Results were externally validated with the GABRIELA study population. Results: Comparing asthmatics (N=97) to controls (N=97), we identified 81 regions that were differentially methylated. Several immune genes were hypomethylated in asthmatics, including IL-13, RUNX3, and a number of specific genes relevant to natural killer cells (KIR2DL4, KIR2DL3, KIR3DL1, and KLRD1) and T cells lymphocytes (TIGIT). 14 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were associated with the serum IgE concentration of IgE, including RUNX3. These results were internally and externally validated with a global methylation assessment using a different methodology in our inner-city cohort and an independent European cohort (GABRIELA). Hypo- and hypermethylated genes tended to be associated with increased and decreased gene expression, respectively (P<0.6x10-11 for asthma and ; P<0.01 for IgE). To further explore the relationship between methylation and gene expression, we created a matrix of genomic changes in methylation versus transcriptional changes (methyl eQTL) for asthma, and identified cis- and trans-regulated genes whose expression was related to asthma asthma-associated methylation marks. peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 97 atopic asthmatic and 97 nonatopic nonasthmatic children
Project description:Background: Nasal epithelia are emerging as a proxy measure of gene expression of the airway epithelium in asthma. We hypothesized that epigenetic marks regulate gene expression of the nasal epithelia and consequently may provide a novel target for allergic asthma. Methods: We compared genomic DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in African American children with persistent atopic asthma [N=36] versus healthy controls [N=36]. Results were validated in an independent population of asthmatics [N=30]. Results: We identified 186 genes with significant methylation changes, either as regions (differentially methylated regions [DMRs]) or single CpGs (differentially methylated probes [DMPs]) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, batch effects, inflation, and multiple comparisons (false discovery rate-adjusted q<0.05). Genes differentially methylated include those with established roles in asthma and atopy, components of the extracellular matrix, genes related to immunity, cell adhesion, epigenetic regulation, and airway obstruction. The methylation changes are large (median 9.5%, range: 2.6-29.5% methylation change) and similar in magnitude to those observed in malignancies. Hypo- and hyper-methylated genes were associated with increased and decreased gene expression respectively (P<2.8x10-6 for DMRs and P<7.8x10-10 for DMPs). Quantitative analysis of methylation-expression relationships in 53 differentially expressed genes demonstrated that 32 (60%) have significant (q<0.05) methylation-expression relationships within 5kb of the gene. 10 loci selected based on the relevance to asthma, magnitude of methylation change, and asthma specific methylation-expression relationships were validated in an independent cohort of children with asthma. Conclusions: Our findings that epigenetic marks in respiratory epithelia are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children provide new targets for biomarker development, and novel approaches to understanding disease pathogenesis. case control design with nasal epithelial cells from 36 atopic asthmatic and 36 nonatopic nonasthmatic children from the inner city
Project description:We compared genomic DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in African American children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls. We identified 119 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and 118 differentially methylated probes (DMPs) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, batch effects, inflation, and multiple comparisons (false discovery rate-adjusted q<0.05). Genes differentially methylated include those with established roles in asthma and atopy, components of the extracellular matrix, genes related to immunity, cell adhesion, epigenetic regulation, and airway obstruction. Hypo- and hypermethylated genes were associated with increased and decreased gene expression respectively (P<2.8x10-6 for DMRs and P<7.8x10-10 for DMPs). Quantitative analysis of methylation-expression relationships in 53 differentially expressed genes demonstrated that 32 (60%) have significant (q<0.05) methylation-expression relationships within 5kb of the gene. 10 loci selected based on the relevance to asthma, magnitude of methylation change, and asthma specific methylation-expression relationships were validated in an independent cohort of children with asthma. case control design with nasal epithelial cells from 36 atopic asthmatic and 33 nonatopic nonasthmatic children from the inner city
Project description:Background: Nasal epithelia are emerging as a proxy measure of gene expression of the airway epithelium in asthma. We hypothesized that epigenetic marks regulate gene expression of the nasal epithelia and consequently may provide a novel target for allergic asthma. Methods: We compared genomic DNA methylation patterns and gene expression in African American children with persistent atopic asthma [N=36] versus healthy controls [N=36]. Results were validated in an independent population of asthmatics [N=30]. Results: We identified 186 genes with significant methylation changes, either as regions (differentially methylated regions [DMRs]) or single CpGs (differentially methylated probes [DMPs]) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, batch effects, inflation, and multiple comparisons (false discovery rate-adjusted q<0.05). Genes differentially methylated include those with established roles in asthma and atopy, components of the extracellular matrix, genes related to immunity, cell adhesion, epigenetic regulation, and airway obstruction. The methylation changes are large (median 9.5%, range: 2.6-29.5% methylation change) and similar in magnitude to those observed in malignancies. Hypo- and hyper-methylated genes were associated with increased and decreased gene expression respectively (P<2.8x10-6 for DMRs and P<7.8x10-10 for DMPs). Quantitative analysis of methylation-expression relationships in 53 differentially expressed genes demonstrated that 32 (60%) have significant (q<0.05) methylation-expression relationships within 5kb of the gene. 10 loci selected based on the relevance to asthma, magnitude of methylation change, and asthma specific methylation-expression relationships were validated in an independent cohort of children with asthma. Conclusions: Our findings that epigenetic marks in respiratory epithelia are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children provide new targets for biomarker development, and novel approaches to understanding disease pathogenesis.