Project description:Long-term, low dose azithromycin reduces exacerbation frequency in COPD yet the mechanism remains unclear. This study characterises changes to gene expression in patients with neutrophilic COPD in response to long term low dose azithromycin therapy. Patients with neutrophilic COPD (>61% or >162x10^4/mL sputum neutrophils) were randomised to 12 weeks of either azithromycin or placebo treatment. RNA was extracted from sputum and blood collected before (pre) and after (post) treatment.
Project description:To further unravel the potential molecular mechanisms involved in the loss of muscle function during an acute exacerbation, a cross-sectional microarray study was designed to compare the gene expression profile of the vastus lateralis muscle in patients with an acute COPD exacerbation and in stable COPD patients. Keywords: cross-sectional patient study A cross-sectional microarray study was designed. The microarray screening was performed on a vastus lateralis biopsy obtained from 4 patients with an acute COPD exacerbation and 5 stable COPD patients. No replicates or dye-swaps were included.
Project description:To further unravel the potential molecular mechanisms involved in the loss of muscle function during an acute exacerbation, a cross-sectional microarray study was designed to compare the gene expression profile of the vastus lateralis muscle in patients with an acute COPD exacerbation and in stable COPD patients. Keywords: cross-sectional patient study
Project description:To study the effects of treatment with an inhaled PI3Kδ inhibitor during recovery from an exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) due to corrective effects on neutrophils that display dysregulated migration characteristics. We aimed to develop novel induced sputum endpoints to demonstrate changes in neutrophil phenotype and proof of mechanism of action in the lung.
Project description:To study the effects of treatment with an inhaled PI3Kδ inhibitor during recovery from an exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) due to corrective effects on neutrophils that display dysregulated migration characteristics. We aimed to develop novel induced sputum endpoints to demonstrate changes in neutrophil phenotype and proof of mechanism of action in the lung.
Project description:Acquisition of a new strain of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is often associated with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We have previously reported that COPD patients who are homozygous null for SIGLEC14 gene is less susceptible to COPD exacerbation than those who have wild-type allele with functional SIGLEC14 gene. In order to gain insight into the mechanism behind the COPD exacerbation, and to find new clues that may lead to the discovery of objective biomarker of COPD exacerbation, Siglec-14/THP-1 and Siglec-5/THP-1 cell lines, which mimic monocytes from homozygous wild-type and homozygous SIGLEC14-null person, respectively, were incubated with or without NTHi, and their gene expression profiles were compared by using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array. Four samples (2 cell lines x 2 conditions) were analyzed. No replicates were made.
Project description:Background: Assessments of airways inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) require semi-invasive procedures and specialized sample processing know-how. In this study we aimed to set up and validate a novel non-invasive processing-free method for RNA sequencing (RNAseq) of spontaneous sputum samples collected from COPD patients. Methods: Spontaneous sputum samples were collected and stabilized, with or without selection of plugs and with or without the use of a stabilizer specifically formulated for downstream diagnostic testing (PrimeStore® Molecular Transport Medium). After 8-day storage at ambient temperature RNA was isolated according to an optimized RNAzol® method. An average percentage of fragments longer than 200 nucleotides (DV200) >30% and an individual yield >50ng were required for progression of samples to sequencing. Finally, to assess if the transcriptome generated would reflect a true endotype of COPD inflammation, the outcome of single-sample gene-set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was validated using an independent set of processed induced sputum samples Results: RNA extracted from spontaneous sputum using a stabilizer showed an average DV200 higher than 30%. 70% of the samples had a yield >50ng and were submitted to downstream analysis. There was a straightforward correlation in terms of gene expression between samples handled with or without separation of plugs. This was also confirmed by principal component analysis and ssGSEA. The top ten enriched pathways resulting from spontaneous sputum ssGSEA were associated to features of COPD, namely, inflammation, immune responses and oxidative stress; up to 70% of these were in common within the top ten enriched pathways resulting from induced sputum ssGSEA. Conclusion: This analysis confirmed that the typical COPD endotype was represented within spontaneous sputum and supported the current method as a non-invasive processing-free procedure to assess the level of sputum cell inflammation in COPD patients by RNAseq analysis.
Project description:Acquisition of a new strain of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is often associated with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We have previously reported that COPD patients who are homozygous null for SIGLEC14 gene is less susceptible to COPD exacerbation than those who have wild-type allele with functional SIGLEC14 gene. In order to gain insight into the mechanism behind the COPD exacerbation, and to find new clues that may lead to the discovery of objective biomarker of COPD exacerbation, Siglec-14/THP-1 and Siglec-5/THP-1 cell lines, which mimic monocytes from homozygous wild-type and homozygous SIGLEC14-null person, respectively, were incubated with or without NTHi, and their gene expression profiles were compared by using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array.
Project description:This study identifies differentially expression genes in the sputum of people with eosinophilic, neutrophilic and paucigranulocytic asthma. A selection of markers identified using this microarray were further validated using qPCR on a wider sample set. Gene expression profiles were generated from induced sputum samples from 47 asthma patients and were grouped by the inflammatory phenotype assigned using sputum cell counts into neutrophilic asthma (n=12), eosinophilic asthma (n=17) and paucigranulocytic asthma (n=18). RNA was extracted, amplified and hybridised to Illumina Sentrix HumanRef-8 Version 2 Expression BeadChips, and genes that were differentially expressed between asthma inflammatory phenotypes were compared.
Project description:Gene expression profiles were generated from induced sputum samples in COPD and healthy controls. The study identified transcriptional phenotypes of COPD.