Project description:Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi infection) is increasingly recognized as a significant source of morbidity world-wide. Here, we investigated B cell responses to Lyme disease through molecular identifier-enabled antibody heavy chain sequencing of bulk B cells from PBMCs. Single-cell immunoglobulin sequencing of paired heavy- and light-chain genes from this project will also be separately deposited. Additional information regarding patient characteristics and overlap with other data from the SLICE study is available upon request.
Project description:Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi infection) is increasingly recognized as a significant source of morbidity world-wide. Here, we investigated B cell responses to Lyme disease through barcode-enabled single cell sequencing of activated B cells (plasmablasts) sorted from PBMCs. Bulk immunglobulin heavy-chain sequencing from this project has also been separately deposited. Additional information regarding patient characteristics and overlap with other data from the SLICE study is available upon request.
Project description:One of the major challenges in cancer research is to find models closely resembling the tumor within patients. Human tissue slice cultures represent a promising approach to display the patient's biology ex vivo. Recently, it was shown that these slices can be successfully analyzed by whole transcriptome sequencing as well as automated histochemistry, increasing their usability as preclinical model. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly malignant brain tumor with poor prognosis and little is known about its genetic background and heterogeneity regarding therapy success. In this study, tissue of 25 patients with primary GBM were processed into slice cultures and treated with standard therapy (irradiation and temozolomide). Total RNA sequencing and automated histochemistry were performed to display treatment-mediated effects at a transcriptional and histological level. Slice cultures from long-term survivors (OS > 24 months) exhibited higher apoptosis than cultures from patients with shorter OS. Proliferation within these slices was slightly increased in contrast to other groups, but not significant. Among all samples, 58 protein-coding genes were upregulated and 32 downregulated in treated vs. untreated slice cultures. In general, an upregulation of DNA damage-related and cell cycle checkpoint genes as well as enrichment of genotoxicity pathways and p53-dependent signaling was found after treatment. In conclusion, we demonstrate that treatment-mediated effects in GBM slice cultures can be determined by RNA sequencing and histological staining. The slice culture model reproduces knowledge from former studies regarding transcriptomic changes and its applicability is further improved by a comprehensible correlation with survival data of the patients.
Project description:Chemokines and cytokines are key signaling molecules that orchestrate the trafficking of immune cells, direct them to sites of tissue injury and inflammation and modulate their states of activation and effector cell function. We have measured, using a multiplex-based approach, the levels of 58 immune mediators and 7 acute phase markers in sera derived from of a cohort of patients diagnosed with acute Lyme disease and matched controls. This analysis identified a cytokine signature associated with the early stages of infection and allowed us to identify two subsets (mediator-high and mediator-low) of acute Lyme patients with distinct cytokine signatures that also differed significantly (p<0.0005) in symptom presentation. In particular, the T cell chemokines CXCL9 (MIG), CXCL10 (IP-10) and CCL19 (MIP3B) were coordinately increased in the mediator-high group and levels of these chemokines could be associated with seroconversion status and elevated liver function tests (p=0.027 and p=0.021 respectively). There was also upregulation of acute phase proteins including CRP and serum amyloid A. Consistent with the role of CXCL9/CXCL10 in attracting immune cells to the site of infection, CXCR3+ CD4 T cells are reduced in the blood of early acute Lyme disease (p=0.01) and the decrease correlates with chemokine levels (p=0.0375). The levels of CXCL9/10 did not relate to the size or number of skin lesions but elevated levels of serum CXCL9/CXCL10 were associated with elevated liver enzymes levels. Collectively these results indicate that the levels of serum chemokines and the levels of expression of their respective chemokine receptors on T cell subsets may prove to be informative biomarkers for Lyme disease and related to specific disease manifestations. A total of 65 immune and inflammatory mediators were profiled in serum samples derived from early Lyme disease patients and age- and sex-matched controls. These samples have been generated as part of a prospective cohort study that includes a well-defined cohort of patients with acute Lyme disease enrolled from a Lyme endemic area of the mid-Atlantic United States. Only patients with untreated, confirmed early Lyme disease manifesting an active EM skin lesion at the time of enrollment, as defined by CDC case criteria are eligible. Patients with a history of prior Lyme disease or the presence of confounding preexisting medical conditions associated with prolonged fatigue, pain or neurocognitive symptoms are excluded. Controls are nonhospitalized age- and sex-matched and have no prior history of Lyme disease or any exclusionary medical conditions including lack of inflammatory disorders.
Project description:Lyme disease is challenging to diagnose, as clinical manifestations are variable and current tools to detect nucleic acid or antibody responses from Borrelia burgdorferi infection have low sensitivity. Here we conducted the first study of the global transcriptome of patients with Lyme disease to identify potential diagnostic biomarkers. Twenty-nine patients were enrolled and compared to 13 healthy controls at three time points after infection. Fifteen publicly available transcriptome datasets from patients in vivo or infection models in vitro were used to assess specificity of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We found that Lyme disease results in profound and sustained changes in the patient transcriptomes, with a specific signature that shares 44% DEGs with other infections. Gene expression profile from peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PBMC) of Lyme disease patients against healthy controls was undertaken. A total of 29 Lyme disease patients were sampled at 3 time points: acute Lyme pre-treatment (V1), 3 weeks later, immediately following completion of a standard course of antibiotics (V2), and 6 months following treatment completion (V5). 13 healthy controls were also sampled at one time point. Total RNA was extracted from 10e7 PBMC, followed by mRNA purification, paired-end barcode library preparation and sequencing on an Illumina Hiseq 2000.
Project description:Lyme disease is a tickborne illness that causes an estimated 476,000 infections annually in the United States. New diagnostic tests are urgently needed, as existing antibody-based assays lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity. Using transcriptome profiling by RNA-Seq, targeted RNA sequencing, and machine learning (ML)-based classification of 218 subjects, we identified a 31-gene Lyme disease classifier (LDC) to discriminate early Lyme patients from “non-Lyme” controls infected with influenza, bacteremia, or tuberculosis or uninfected asymptomatic controls. Among the 31 classifier genes, 23 (74.2%) had previously been described in association with clinical investigations of Lyme disease patients or in vitro cell culture and rodent studies of Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Evaluation of the LDC using an independent test set of samples from 63 subjects (16 Lyme seropositive patients, 14 Lyme seronegative patients, and 33 controls) yielded an overall sensitivity of 90.0%, specificity of 100%, and accuracy of 95.2%. The LDC was positive in 85.7% of seronegative patients and persisted for ≥3 weeks in available longitudinal samples from 9 of 12 (75%) patients. These results highlight the potential clinical utility of a gene expression classifier for diagnosis of early Lyme disease.
Project description:Gene expression changes induced by alpha-secretase cleaved amyloid precursor protein (sAPPalpha) in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures of male, postnatal day 15 mice (C57B6/SJL). Hippocampal slice cultures were treated with phosphate buffered saline (GSM26700, GSM26701, GSM26702) or 1 nM sAPPalpha (GSM26703, GSM26704, GSM26705) for 24 h. Each sample consists of total RNA isolated from 8-12 slices from 4 mice. Data were analyzed with MAS 5.0 and scaled to 2500. sAPPalpha induces the amyloid sequestration protein transthyretin, insulin-like growth factor 2, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2, and other genes involved in protective pathways such as apoptosis inhibition, detoxification, and retinol transport. Keywords = Alzheimer's disease Keywords = neuroprotection Keywords = sAPPalpha