Project description:Glomerular expression data from human kidney biopsy in African American subjects with glomerulopathies We used microarrays to analyze the transcriptome of African American subjects with glomerulopathies and the association of expression with APOL1 risk alleles (G1 and G2)
Project description:Tubulointersitial expression data from human kidney biopsy in African American subjects with glomerulopathies We used microarrays to analyze the transcriptome of African American subjects with glomerulopathies and the association of expression with APOL1 risk alleles (G1 and G2)
Project description:Cigarette smoking is one of the largest causes of preventable death worldwide. Smoking behaviors, including age at smoking initiation (ASI), smoking dependence (SD), and smoking cessation (SC), are all complex phenotypes determined by both genetic and environmental factors as well as their interactions. To identify susceptibility loci for each smoking phenotype, numerous studies have been conducted, with approaches including genome-wide linkage scans, candidate gene-based association analysis, and genome-wide association study (GWAS). Therefore, we conducted an exome-wide association study to identify new susceptibility loci for the risk of nicotine dependence in African-American populations.
Project description:We have demonstrated that the miR-182 level, in addition to being significantly increased in colon cancer compared to adjacent normal colon tissue, is also significantly increased in African American(AA) compared to Caucasian American (CA) colon cancer. Since miR-182 has been previously associated with decreased survival in colon cancer patients and with increased liver metastases, this observation supports the concept that biological differences between AA and CA colon cancers may contribute to AA disparities in colon cancer survival. We aimed to identify miRNAs that were associated with effects of both tumor and race by generating Agilent miRNA expression profiles on paired colon cancer and adjacent normal colon collected from AA and CA colon cancer subjects. For the 30 paired Stony Brook University (SBU) colon cancer and adjacent normal colon samples, attempts were made to control for other covariates such as age, colon cancer location, stage, BMI and smoking in the selection of the CA samples . However no attempt was made to control for the other covariates in the 30 paired Washington University (WU) colon cancer and adjacent normal colon samples.
Project description:The incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer are significantly higher in African-American men when compared to European-American men. We tested the hypothesis that differences in tumor biology contribute to this survival health disparity. Using microarray technology, we obtained gene expression profiles of primary prostate tumors resected from 33 African-American and 36 European-American patients. These tumors were matched on clinical parameters. We also evaluated 18 non-tumor prostate tissues from 7 African-American and 11 European-American patients. The resulting datasets were analyzed for expression differences on the gene and pathway level comparing African-American with European-American patients. Our analysis revealed a significant number of genes, e.g., 162 transcripts at a false-discovery rate less than 5%, to be differently expressed between African-American and European-American patients. Using a disease association analysis, we identified a common relationship of these transcripts with autoimmunity and inflammation. These findings were corroborated on the pathway level with numerous differently expressed genes clustering in immune response, stress response, cytokine signaling, and chemotaxis pathways. Furthermore, a two-gene tumor signature was identified that accurately differentiated between African-American and European-American patients. This finding was confirmed in a blinded analysis of a second sample set. In conclusion, the gene expression profiles of prostate tumors indicate prominent differences in tumor immunobiology between African-American and European-American men. The profiles portray the existence of a distinct tumor microenvironment in these two patient groups. Experiment Overall Design: A total of 69 fresh-frozen prostate tumors were obtained from the NCI Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource (CPCTR) and the Department of Pathology at the University of Maryland (UMD). All tumors were resected adenocarcinomas that had not received any therapy prior to prostatectomy. The macro-dissected CPCTR tumor specimens (n = 59) were reviewed by a CPCTR-associated pathologist, who confirmed the presence of tumor in the specimens. These tissues were collected between 2002 and 2004 at four different sites, with each site providing tissues from both African-American and European-American patients. Information on race/ethnicity (33 African-Americans and 36 European-Americans) was either extracted from medical records (CPCTR) or obtained through an epidemiological questionnaire in which race/ethnicity was self-reported (UMD). Only one patient, a European-American, was also Hispanic. Surrounding non-tumor prostate tissue was collected from 18 of the recruited patients in this study. Of those, 7 were African-American men and 11 were European-American men. We also isolated total RNA from 10 needle biopsy specimens collected from patients at the National Naval Medical Center (one African-American and 9 European-Americans) that did not have prostate cancer. From those, we prepared two RNA pools, each representing 5 patients. Clinicopathological characteristics of the patients, including age at prostatectomy, histology, Gleason score, pathological stage, PSA at diagnosis, tumor size, extraprostatic extension, margin involvement, and seminal vesicle invasion were obtained from CPCTR. For UMD cases, this information was extracted from the medical and pathology records, if available. Written informed consent was obtained from all donors. Tissue collection and study design were approved by the institutional review boards of the participating institutions.
Project description:To investigate genetic and molecular differences that may exist between prostate cancers of African American and European American origin. Gene expression profile analysis was performed comparing RNA seq data of African American prostate cancer cell lines (inhouse) and European American prostate cancer cell lines (public repository)