Project description:Epigenetic perturbations in the early embryo could have later effects during development. For a disease such as autism, where a diagnosis is hard before two years of age but earlier intervention is correlated with better outcomes, finding a molecular signature of the disease at birth could have a significant impact of the quality of life. Since placenta also derives from the early embryo, is a readily-available tissue at birth, and has a unique DNA methylation pattern, we tested whether disruptions in placental DNA methylation was predictive of autism. As part of the MARBLES study, parents that already had an autistic child and were therefore at much greater risk to have another autistic child were followed as they planned another pregnancy. Biological samples were collected at birth and the children followed for several years to determine the diagnosis. “Typical” children in this study were those that did not later develop autism.
Project description:A comparative panoramic mass spectrometric analysis of serum samples from three families with children with autistic disorders was carried out. The total number of examined samples was nine, including four control samples from healthy parents, and five samples from autistic children.
Project description:we profiled the proteome of plasma exosomes collected from preschool children with autism, and performed targeted metabolic analysis on autistic plasma
Project description:Whole blood was collected from healthy and autistic infants and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated. Transcriptional profile in PBMCs was compared between healthy and autistic infants. Comparison: healty control infants vs autistic infants. Biological replicates; 4 control infants and 4 autistic infants.
Project description:Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the expression profile in whole blood samples of children infected with respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory viruses. Method: Host mRNA profiles in whole blood samples of children were generated by next-generation sequencing using Illumina Hiseq. Sequence reads were trimmed for adapter using skewer, mapped to reference human genome using STAR, and quantified using RSEM. Differential expression analysis was performed using DESeq2. Results: Transcriptional module analysis revealed dysregulation of genes related to inflammatory response, neutrophils, monocytes, B-cell and T-cell response. Conclusion: This study showed an imbalance in innate and adaptive immune responses in children with respiratory virus infections. This study also showed that NGS provides a comprehensive assessment of transcripts in whole blood samples.
Project description:Whole blood was collected from healthy and autistic infants and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated. Transcriptional profile in PBMCs was compared between healthy and autistic infants.
Project description:Analysis of the methylation level of 27,578 CpG dinucleotides in DNA derived from peripheral blood leukocytes from autistic children and unaffected siblings was conducted using the Illumina HumanMeth27 BeadChip DNA methylation association study for autistic and non-autistic siblings
