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Whole Blood miRNA Seq of Children with Asthma in Costa Rica

ABSTRACT: Rationale: MicroRNAs have emerged as crucial post-transcriptional and network regulators in inflammatory diseases, including asthma. We hypothesized that peripheral blood miRNA would be associated with airflow obstruction in children with asthma, and that some of these effects would also be observable in adults with COPD. Methods: We analyzed small RNA-Seq data from 365 peripheral blood samples from the Genetics of Asthma in Costa Rica Study (GACRS). GACRS comprised children from the Central Valley of Costa Rica age 6-14 years with physician-diagnosed asthma and ≥2 respiratory symptoms or asthma attacks in the prior year. FEV1/FVC percent-predicted was dichotomized at 100%, splitting the cohort into those with and without evidence of airflow obstruction and used as our primary outcome. Differentially expressed (DE) miRs were identified using the DESeq2 package in R with a 10% FDR and adjustment for age, gender, and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use. We attempted to replicate the top airflow obstruction-associated microRNAs from the GACRS study in the COPDGene study, in which blood microRNA data were available in 439 current and former smoking adults with and without airflow obstruction (defined as raw FEV1/FVC < 0.7). Results: After QC, we had 361 samples and 649 miRs for DE analysis. Of the 361 samples, 220 and 141 were from subjects without and with airflow obstruction, respectively. We found 1 upregulated (let-7e-5p p=0.0004) and 2 downregulated (miR-342-3p p=0.0002; miR-671-5p p=0.0001) miRs in subjects with airflow obstruction compared to those without airflow obstruction. These three miRNAs were then tested for association with airflow obstruction in the COPDGene study, in which let-7e-5p was upregulated (p = 0.064) and miR-342-3p (p =0.085) was downregulated in participants with FEV1/FVC < 0.7 (n=196) compared to those with FEV1/FVC > 0.7 (n=243). Differentially expressed miR’s target genes were enriched for PI3K-Akt, Hippo, WNT, MAPK, and focal adhesion signaling pathways. We also separately considered the targets of only the two miRNAs that were also associated with FEV1/FVC in the adult current and former smokers, where PI3K-Akt, MAPK and Hippo signaling pathways were among the top five most enriched pathways. Conclusion: Three DE miRs were linked to airflow obstruction in children with asthma. Two miRs were associated with FEV1/FVC in current and former smoking adults. These miRs were involved in asthma and COPD-related pathways: PI3K-Akt, Hippo, MAPK, and focal adhesion signaling pathways. Together these findings provide important evidence that these two disorders may share genetic regulatory systems that contribute to airflow obstruction.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE244036 | GEO | 2023/10/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Rationale: DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that is highly disrupted in response to cigarette smoke and involved in a wide spectrum of malignant and non-malignant diseases, but surprisingly not previously assessed in small airways of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Small airways are the primary sites of airflow obstruction in COPD. We sought to determine whether DNA methylation patterns are disrupted in small airway epithelia of COPD patients, and evaluate whether changes in gene expression are associated with these disruptions. Methods: Genome-wide methylation and gene expression analysis were performed on small airway epithelial DNA and RNA obtained from the same patient during bronchoscopy, using Illumina's Infinium HM27 and Affymetrix's Genechip Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays. To control for known effects of cigarette smoking on DNA methylation, methylation and gene expression profiles were compared between former smokers (FS) with and without COPD matched for age, pack years and years of smoking cessation. Results: Our results indicate that aberrant DNA methylation is i) a genome-wide phenomenon in small airways of patients with COPD and ii) associated with altered expression of genes and pathways important to COPD, such as the Nrf2 oxidative response pathway. Conclusions: DNA methylation is likely an important mechanism contributing to modulation of genes important to COPD pathology. Since these methylation events may underlie disease-specific gene-expression changes, their characterization is a critical first step towards the development of epigenetic markers and an opportunity for developing novel epigenetic therapeutic interventions for COPD. Bisulphite converted DNA from small airway (airways less than <2 mm in diameter) from 38 former smokers: 15 subjects with COPD (post bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio <70% and FEV1 predicted M-bM-^IM-$ 80%) and 21 with normal lung function, were hybridized to the Illumina Infinium 27k Human Methylation Beadchip.

Project description:Background: Allergen inhalation challenge in mild asthmatics induces airflow obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation, providing a model for hypothesis-generating experiments to understand regulation of these responses. We have sought to evaluate the peripheral whole blood transcriptome, post-challenge compared to pre-challenge, and to determine the effect of globin mRNA reduction methodology. Methods: Asthmatic subjects (20-60 years of age, with stable, mild allergic asthma, n=17) underwent allergen inhalation challenges. All subjects had an early asthmatic response of ≥ 20% fall in FEV1; most had a late phase response of ≥ 15% fall in FEV1. Blood was collected immediately prior to, and two hours after allergen challenge. Transcriptome analysis was performed using Affymetrix GeneChip® Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays, with and without globin mRNA reduction (PAX-GR and PAX-NGR, respectively) in 4 subjects. Replication studies for expression of nine genes contributing to the top canonical pathway, Nrf2-mediated oxidative stress response pathway, were performed with 5 independent subjects with microarray data, also with the same 4 subjects had microarray results and 8 other independent subjects with QPCR. Data were analyzed using paired t-test and Partek® Genomics Suite™. Results: The number of differentially expressed probe sets from PAX-NGR samples was twice that of PAX-GR samples. Paired analysis of each subjects' pre- and post-sample additionally demonstrated twice the power to detect differentially expressed probe sets. The Nrf2-mediated oxidative stress response pathway was identified as the top canonical pathway in the PAX-NGR samples. ATP-binding cassette sub-family C member 1 (ABCC1) gene was significantly reduced two hours after allergen challenge in the 5 subjects’ microarray dataset and the 2 QPCR replication datasets with P < 0.05. Conclusions: Globin mRNA reduction does not provide benefits to detect differentially expressed genes during allergen inhalation challenge. Allergen inhalation challenge is associated with decreased peripheral blood cell transcript level of ABCC1 gene. 26 array were analyzed. We first identified differentially expreed genes between post- and pre-challenge samples from 4 asthmatic subjects by using globin reduction samples and non-globin reduction samples (16 arrays). Then we replicated our findings using 10 arrays from 5 asthmatic subjects challenged with allergen. Includes 4 normal blood samples.

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Whole Blood miRNA Seq of Children with Asthma in Costa Rica

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