Project description:Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is a serious public health issue with high morbidity and mortality rates. Previous proteomic studies on sTBI have mainly focused on human cerebrospinal fluid and serum, as well as on brain protein changes in murine models. However, human proteomic data in sTBI brain is still needed. We used proteomics and bioinformatics strategies to investigate variations in protein expression in human brains after sTBI, using samples from the Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University (Hebei, P.R. China). Our proteomics data identified 4031 proteins, of which 162 proteins were overexpressed and 5 proteins were downregulated. The biological pathways that showed significant changes in protein expression according to bioinformatics analysis were glial cell differentiation, complement activation, apolipoprotein catalysis in statin pathway, and the blood coagulation cascade. Western blot verification of protein changes in a subset of the available tissue samples showed results that were consistent with the proteomics data. This study is one of the first to investigate the whole proteome of human sTBI brains, and provides a characteristic signature and overall landscape of the sTBI brain proteome.
Project description:Suicide and suicide attempts are complex behaviors that result from the interaction of different factors, including genetic variants that increase the predisposition to suicidal behaviors. Copy number variations (CNVs) are deletions or duplications of a segment of DNA usually larger than one kilobase. These structural genetic changes, although quite rare, have been associated with genetic liability to mental disorders, such as autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No genome-wide level studies have been published investigating the potential role of CNVs in suicidal behaviors. Based on single-nucleotide polymorphism array data, we followed the Penn-CNV standards to detect CNVs in 1,608 subjects, comprising 475 suicide and suicide attempt cases and 1,133 controls. Although the initial algorithms determined the presence of CNVs on chromosomes 6 and 12 in seven and eight cases, respectively, compared with none of the controls, visual inspection of the raw data did not support this finding. Furthermore we were unable to validate these findings by CNV-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction. Additionally, rare CNV burden analysis did not find an association between the frequency or length of rare CNVs and suicidal behavior in our sample population. Although our findings suggest CNVs do not play an important role in the etiology of suicidal behaviors, they are not inconsistent with the strong evidence from the literature suggesting that other genetic variants account for a portion of the total phenotypic variability in suicidal behavior.
Project description:The temporal lobe is the cerebral cortex with critical function. The superior and middle gyrus of temporal lobe have been well studied, however, present perceptions on inferior temporal gyrus remains limited. The understanding of age-related protein profile change in human inferior temporal gyrus has not yet been well established. This 3-plex TMT labeled proteomic study is performed based on the human brain bank at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. Age distribution of the donors ranges from 22 to 90 years old, and were assigned to three age groups: 20-50, 50-70, and 70-90 years of death age. In this ageing cohort, no neurodegenerative disorders or major stroke events were identified via standard neuropathological classification. Proteomics and bioinformatics strategies were applied to identify the perturbations of protein expression and associated pathways. Among all the ITG samples, 3113 proteins were isolated, with 37 proteins upregulated and 21 proteins downregulated.
Project description:To identify molecular pathological alterations in AD brains, we performed interspecies comparative microarray analyses using RNAs prepared from postmortem human brain tissues donated for the Hisayama study and hippocampal RNAs from the triple-transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD) Three-way ANOVA of microarray data from frontal cortex, temporal cortex and hippocampus with presence/absence of AD and vascular dementia, and sex, as factors revealed that the gene expression profile is most significantly altered in the hippocampi of AD brains. Comparative analyses of the brains of AD patients and a mouse model of AD showed that genes involved in non-insulin dependent DM and obesity were significantly altered in both, as were genes related to psychiatric disorders and Alzheimer’s disease. We prepared RNA samples from the gray matter of frontal and temporal cortices and hippocampi derived from 88 postmortem brains, among which 26 cases were pathologically diagnosed as having AD or an AD-like disorder. High-quality RNA (RIN≧6.9) samples were subjected to microarray analysis using the Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST platform, and only those results that passed examinations for quality assurance and quality control of the Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays were retrieved. In total, we obtained gene expression profiles from the following samples: 33 frontal cortex samples, among which 15 were from AD patients; 29 temporal cortex samples, among which 10 were from AD patients; 17 hippocampus samples, among which seven were from AD patients
Project description:Cerebral infarction (CI) remains a major cause of high mortality and long-term disability worldwide. The exploration of biomarkers and pathogenesis is crucial for early diagnosis of CI. Although the understanding of metabolic perturbations underlying CI has increased in recent years, the relationship between altered metabolites and disease pathogenesis has only been partially elucidated and requires further investigation. Here, we performed an integrated metabolomics and lipidomics analysis on 59 healthy subjects and 47 CI patients. Ultimately, 49 metabolites and 68 lipids biomarkers were identified and enriched in 24 disturbed pathways. The metabolic network revealed a significant interaction between altered lipids and other metabolites. Using ROC analysis, a panel of 3 polar metabolites and 7 lipids was optimized in training set, which was taurine, oleoylcarnitine, creatinine, PE(22:6/P-18:0), Cer 34:2, GlcCer(d18:0/18:0), DG 44:0, LysoPC(16:0), 22:6-OH/LysoPC and TAG58:7-FA22:4. Subsequently, a support vector machine (SVM) model was constructed and validated, which showed an excellent predictive ability in validation set. Thereby, the integrated metabolomics and lipidomics approach could contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the metabolic dyshomeostasis associated with the pathogenesis underlying CI. The present research may promote a deeper understanding and early diagnosis of CI in clinic.
Project description:Gonadotrope or null cell pituitary tumors present clinically with signs of hypogonadism and hypopituitarism, together with visual disturbances due to mass effects. Since there are no medical therapies, surgery and/or radiation are the only therapeutic options. To identify dysregulated genes and/or pathways that may play a role in tumorigenesis and/ or progression, molecular profiling was performed on 14 gonadotrope tumors and 9 normal human pituitaries from autopsy samples. Principle component analysis (PCA) revealed clear discrimination between tumor and normal pituitary gene expression profiles. Bioinformatic analysis identified specific genes and pathways that were highly differentially regulated, including a cohort of putative downstream effectors of p53 were repressed in gonadotrope pituitary tumors, including GADD45β, GADD45γ and Reprimo with concomitant downregulation of the upstream regulator, PLAGL1. PLAGL1 reexpression in gonadotrope cells did not directly modulate the downstream targets. Further functional analysis of GADD45β was performed. Overexpression of GADD45β in mouse gonadotrope cells blocked proliferation, increased rates of apoptosis in response to growth factor withdrawal and increased colony formation in soft agar. In contrast to prior studies with GADD45γ, methylation interference assays showed no evidence of epigenetic modification of the GADD45β promoter in pituitary tumors. Thus, our data suggest that many components downstream of p53 are suppressed in gonadotrope pituitary tumors. A novel candidate, GADD45β is low in tumors and reexpression blocks proliferation, survival and tumorigenesis in gonadotrope cells. Unlike GADD45γ, GADD45β is not methylated to block its expression. Together these studies identify new targets and mechanisms to explore concerning pituitary tumor initiation and progression. To elucidate mechanisms involved in pituitary tumorigenesis and progression, we performed individual gene expression microarray analysis using Affy U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips comparing 14 gonadotrope tumors with 9 normal pituitary samples obtained at autopsy.
Project description:Gene transcripts and proteins expressed during disease pathogenesis identify targets for therapy. We performed microarray analysis of histologically characterized multiple sclerosis (MS) brain lesions in comparison with control brain samples to identify differentially expressed molecules. We identified CD47 as a target of interest and studied its biology in MS and EAE. We isolated total RNA from acute plaque (AP), chronic active plaque (CAP) and chronic plaque (CP) from MS brains and white matter from healthy controls and performed microarray studies.
Project description:Cerebellar cortex expression in ataxia-telangiectasia patients and normal controls. The neurodegenerative disease known as ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is caused by the absence of the ATM (A-T mutated) protein. A long-standing mystery surrounding A-T is why cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) appear uniquely vulnerable to ATM-deficiency. Here, we present that 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), a newly recognized epigenetic marker found at high levels in neurons, is substantially reduced in human A-T and Atm-/- mouse cerebellar PCs. TET1, an enzyme that converts 5mC to 5hmC, responds to DNA damage. Manipulation of TET1 activity directly affects neuronal cell cycle reentry and cell death after the induction of DNA damage. Quantitative, genome-wide analysis of 5hmC of samples from human cerebellum showed that in ATM-deficiency there is a remarkable genome-wide reduction of 5hmC enrichment at both proximal and distal regulatory elements. These results reveal a role of TET1-mediated 5hmC in DNA damage response, and provide insights into the basis of a PC-specific DNA demethylation alteration in ATM-deficiency. Human frozen tissue was obtained from the NICHD Brain and Tissue Bank of Developmental Disorders at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD. RNA was prepared and run on an Illumina Human HT-12 v4 microarray. 3 ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) cases and 4 normal controls.