Project description:Bronchial Epithelial Cells were isolated processed as described (Chu et al., 2002 and Zhao et al., 2011). The objective of the study was to identify differentially expressed genes between normal control (NC), mild-moderate asmathic (notSA) and severe asthmatic (SA) patients. For demographics data, contact Dr.Sally Wenzel (wenzelse@upmc.edu) Bronchoscopy with endobronchial epithelial brushing was performed as previously described (Chu et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2011). The bronchial brushings generally comprised >90% epithelial cells and were placed into Trizol for mRNA analysis. Total RNA extracted using Trizol according to the manufacturer's instructions. Cy3-CTP labeled RNA was prepared according to the standard Agilent protocol from 50ng total RNA. Labeled RNA was hybridized for 17 hr at 65 C on Agilent gene expression array. Arrays were washed according to the manufacturer's protocol. Slides were scanned immediately after washing on the Agilent DNA Microarray Scanner (G2505B) using one color scan setting for 4X44K array slides. Agilent Feature Extraction v10.7.3.1 was used with default parameters. Normalized signal intensity data are presented in the matrix. The data set was normalized by cyclic-LOESS with use of Bioconductor package as described previously (Wu W et. al. 2005)
Project description:Viral-induced severe asthma exacerbations in children are characterized by IRF7hi and IRF7lo molecular phenotypes. We have developed an experimental animal model that mirrors these response patterns in asthma-resistant PVG and asthma-susceptible BN rats respectively. We aimed to i) characterize the immunological and molecular hallmarks of PVG and BN responses to virus/allergen exposure, and (ii) evaluate the utility of innate immune training with the bacterial lysate OM85 to attenuate ensuing inflammation. Animals were sensitized to OVA/alum, inoculated with murine-adapted Rhinovirus model (vMC0), and challenged with OVA 24h later. RNA-seq was performed on lung and bone marrow at several time points post virus/allergen exposure.
Project description:Bronchial Epithelial Cells were isolated processed as described (Chu et al., 2002 and Zhao et al., 2011). The objective of the study was to identify differentially expressed genes between normal control (NC), mild-moderate asmathic (notSA) and severe asthmatic (SA) patients. For demographics data, contact Dr.Sally Wenzel (wenzelse@upmc.edu)
Project description:Asthma is a complex syndrome associated with episodic decompensations provoked by aeroaller-gen exposures. The underlying pathophysiological states driving exacerbations are latent in the resting state and do not adequately inform biomarker-driven therapy. A better understanding of the pathophysiological pathways driving allergic exacerbations is needed. We hypothesized that disease-associated pathways could be identified in humans by unbiased metabolomics of bron-choalveolar fluid (BALF) during the peak inflammatory response provoked by a bronchial aller-gen challenge. We analyzed BALF metabolites in samples from 12 volunteers who underwent segmental bronchial antigen provocation (SBP-Ag). Metabolites were quantified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) followed by pathway analysis and cor-relation with airway inflammation. SBP-Ag induced statistically significant changes in 549 fea-tures that mapped to 72 uniquely identified metabolites. From these features, two distinct induci-ble metabolic phenotypes were identified by the principal component analysis, partitioning around medoids (PAM) and k-means clustering. Ten index metabolites were identified that in-formed the presence of asthma-relevant pathways, including unsaturated fatty acid produc-tion/metabolism, mitochondrial beta oxidation of unsaturated fatty acid, and bile acid metabolism. Pathways were validated using proteomics in eosinophils. A segmental bronchial allergen chal-lenge induces distinct metabolic responses in humans, providing insight into pathogenic and pro-tective endotypes in allergic asthma.