Project description:<p>Phenotypic heterogeneity is characteristic of sickle cell anemia, a Mendelian disorder caused by homozygosity for the sickle HBB gene (glu6val). Patients have different rates of hemolysis/vasculopathy and viscosity/vasoocclusion-related complications. These complications account for a substantial reduction in life expectancy. In 1994, the median life expectancy for men and women with sickle cell anemia was 42 and 48 years, respectively, and despite many advances in care, the annual mortality still approaches 4%. Fetal hemoglobin (HbF) is one of the most studied markers of severity of sickle cell anemia, and detailed longitudinal measurements were taken on subjects enrolled in the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease (CSSCD). Cubic root transformation of the median values from follow-up in 848 African American subjects is the phenotype data used in the GWAS of fetal hemoglobin. The analysis was adjusted by sex. Details are in Solovieff et al., Blood 2010 [PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20018918" target="_blank">20018918</a>].</p> <p>To integrate individual disease complications into a comprehensive measure of severity, we developed a model of the associations among clinical and laboratory variables that scored disease severity as the risk of death within 5 years. This network was developed using data obtained from more than 3,400 subjects from the CSSCD, and its accuracy was validated in two unrelated sets of sickle cell patients. Recently, the network was also validated in a small European cohort of patients with sickle cell anemia. We used extreme values of disease severity as cases and control in the GWAS of severity of sickle cell anemia. We conducted the GWAS in 1,265 patients with either "severe" (177) or "mild" disease (1088) based on a network model of disease severity. Details are in Sebastiani et al. Am J Hematol, 2010 [PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20029952" target="_blank">20029952</a>].</p>
Project description:To analyze expression of inflammatory cytokines in Exhaled Breath Condensates from pediatric patients with sickle cell disease, asthma, sickle cell disease and asthma, and controls
Project description:Circulating platelets from Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients express distinct gene expression patterns that regulate function. The objective of this study is to identify a role of post-transcriptional regulation of the platelet transcriptional signaling by microRNAs. Comparison of microRNA expression in platelets from SCD patients and control subjects, from 2 cohorts-University of Pittsburgh and National Institutes of Health.
Project description:Polymorphonuclear neutrophils are key actors in the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease, but specific factors underlying their activation and sustained inflammation are not well documented. In the present study, we investigated the proteome of neutrophils by a label-free global comparative approach between 4 non-treated sickle patients (SS genotype) at steady state and 4 healthy donors. We identified 101 proteins differentially expressed in SS and normal neutrophils. We found overexpression of CD64 and under-expression of CD62L suggestive of an activated and aged neutrophil profile in SS patients. Comparison of the two proteomes revealed a strong involvement of the type 1 interferon (IFN) response pathway with a 3- to 84-fold increase of type 1 IFN-induced proteins in SS neutrophils, and overexpression of STAT1 and STAT2. Thus, we next determined the plasmatic concentration of type 1 IFNs (IFNα and IFNβ) using the digital-ELISA technology and found a significant higher concentration of IFNα in the plasma from half of our SS patients compared to controls. Overall, a dramatic high-level expression of IFNα signaling proteins in neutrophils from SS patients suggests auto-inflammatory-like phenotype in sickle cell disease at steady state. This finding could open the way to new anti-inflammatory therapies.
Project description:Circulating platelets from Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients express distinct gene expression patterns that regulate function. The objective of this study is to identify a role of post-transcriptional regulation of the platelet transcriptional signaling by microRNAs.