Project description:Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is one phenotype of asthma, often in the form of a severe and sudden attack. Due to time consuming and laborious oral aspirin challenge (OAC) for diagnosis of AERD, non-invasive biomarkers have been searched. Therefore, we scrutinize AERD-associated exonic SNPs and examine the diagnostic potential of combination of these candidate SNPs to predict AERD
Project description:Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is one phenotype of asthma, often in the form of a severe and sudden attack. Due to time consuming and laborious oral aspirin challenge (OAC) for diagnosis of AERD, non-invasive biomarkers have been searched. Therefore, we scrutinize AERD-associated exonic SNPs and examine the diagnostic potential of combination of these candidate SNPs to predict AERD DNA obtained from 164 AERD subjects, 397 subjects with aspirin-tolerant asthma (ATA), 398 normal controls and 10 null samples were subjected to Exome Chip assay of 240K SNPs. 1023 model (210-1) were generated from combination of the top 10 SNPs selected by p-values. The area under the curve (AUC) value of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves was calculated for each model. SNP functional Portal and PolyPhen-2 was used to validate the functional significance of the candidate SNPs
Project description:Objective: We sought to obtain detailed information about transcriptional differences in epithelial cells and immune cell subsets present in polyps of aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Methods: After enrichment for various immune subsets by flow cytometric sorting of polyp-derived cells, we performed transcriptomic profiling by employing single-cell RNA sequencing of all patients. Results: Transcriptomic profiling revealed that epithelial and mast cells not only complement one another in terms of gene expression associated with the 15-lipoxygenase pathway, but also show a clear type 2 associated inflammatory phenotype as identified by the upregulation of POSTN, CCL26 and IL13 in patients with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease.
Project description:Oral aspirin challenge may induce different global CpG methylation patterns between aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) and aspirin-tolerant asthma (ATA), which may affect gene expression several hours later. Therefore, in the present study, we compared global CpG methylation profiles before and after an oral aspirin challenge in patients with asthma. In addition, we compared differences in methylation profiles between AERD and ATA using an Illumina 860K Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip array platform, which had greater coverage than in the previous study (26,485 CpGs) to discover new methylated CpGs in PBLs associated with aspirin-induced bronchospasm.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of Homo sapiens inflammatory skin diseases (whole skin biospies): Psoriasis (Pso), vs Atopic Dermatitis (AD) vs Lichen planus (Li), vs Contact Eczema (KE), vs Healthy control (KO) In recent years, different genes and proteins have been highlighted as potential biomarkers for psoriasis, one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases worldwide. However, most of these markers are not psoriasis-specific but also found in other inflammatory disorders. We performed an unsupervised cluster analysis of gene expression profiles in 150 psoriasis patients and other inflammatory skin diseases (atopic dermatitis, lichen planus, contact eczema, and healthy controls). We identified a cluster of IL-17/TNFα-associated genes specifically expressed in psoriasis, among which IL-36γ was the most outstanding marker. In subsequent immunohistological analyses IL-36γ was confirmed to be expressed in psoriasis lesions only. IL-36γ peripheral blood serum levels were found to be closely associated with disease activity, and they decreased after anti-TNFα-treatment. Furthermore, IL-36γ immunohistochemistry was found to be a helpful marker in the histological differential diagnosis between psoriasis and eczema in diagnostically challenging cases. These features highlight IL-36γ as a valuable biomarker in psoriasis patients, both for diagnostic purposes and measurement of disease activity during the clinical course. Furthermore, IL-36γ might also provide a future drug target, due to its potential amplifier role in TNFα- and IL-17 pathways in psoriatic skin inflammation. In recent years, different genes and proteins have been highlighted as potential biomarkers for psoriasis, one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases worldwide. However, most of these markers are not psoriasis-specific but also found in other inflammatory disorders. We performed an unsupervised cluster analysis of gene expression profiles in 150 psoriasis patients and other inflammatory skin diseases (atopic dermatitis, lichen planus, contact eczema, and healthy controls). We identified a cluster of IL-17/TNFα-associated genes specifically expressed in psoriasis, among which IL-36γ was the most outstanding marker. In subsequent immunohistological analyses IL-36γ was confirmed to be expressed in psoriasis lesions only. IL-36γ peripheral blood serum levels were found to be closely associated with disease activity, and they decreased after anti-TNFα-treatment. Furthermore, IL-36γ immunohistochemistry was found to be a helpful marker in the histological differential diagnosis between psoriasis and eczema in diagnostically challenging cases. These features highlight IL-36γ as a valuable biomarker in psoriasis patients, both for diagnostic purposes and measurement of disease activity during the clinical course. Furthermore, IL-36γ might also provide a future drug target, due to its potential amplifier role in TNFα- and IL-17 pathways in psoriatic skin inflammation.
Project description:Kynureninase is a member of a large family of catalytically diverse but structurally homologous pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes known as the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily or alpha-family. The Homo sapiens and other eukaryotic constitutive kynureninases preferentially catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine to produce 3-hydroxyanthranilate and l-alanine, while l-kynurenine is the substrate of many prokaryotic inducible kynureninases. The human enzyme was cloned with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag, expressed, and purified from a bacterial expression system using Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Kinetic characterization of the recombinant enzyme reveals classic Michaelis-Menten behavior, with a Km of 28.3 +/- 1.9 microM and a specific activity of 1.75 micromol min-1 mg-1 for 3-hydroxy-dl-kynurenine. Crystals of recombinant kynureninase that diffracted to 2.0 A were obtained, and the atomic structure of the PLP-bound holoenzyme was determined by molecular replacement using the Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase structure (PDB entry 1qz9) as the phasing model. A structural superposition with the P. fluorescens kynureninase revealed that these two structures resemble the "open" and "closed" conformations of aspartate aminotransferase. The comparison illustrates the dynamic nature of these proteins' small domains and reveals a role for Arg-434 similar to its role in other AAT alpha-family members. Docking of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine into the human kynureninase active site suggests that Asn-333 and His-102 are involved in substrate binding and molecular discrimination between inducible and constitutive kynureninase substrates.
Project description:Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) were harvested from subcutaneous adipose tissue of patients with obesity or healthy controls and expanded for 3-4 passages, and 5hmC profiles were examined through hydroxymethylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (hMeDIP-seq). We hypothesized that obesity and cardiovascular risk factors induce functionally-relevant, locus-specific changes in overall exonic coverage of 5hmC in human adipose-derived MSCs.