Project description:The study aimed to define transcriptional signatures for detection of active TB (TB) compared to latent TB infection (LTBI) as well as to other diseases (OD) with similar clinical phenotypes in patients with and without HIV in two African adult populations. Transcriptional signatures were identified that distinguished active TB from LTBI, active TB from other diseases, and active TB from both LTBI and other diseases in HIV+/- patients. Adults were recruited from Cape Town, South Africa (n=300) and Karonga, Malawi (n=237) who were either HIV+ or HIV - with either active TB, LTBI or OD. Blood was collected into PAX gene tubes (PreAnalytiX). Total RNA integrity was assessed using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent, Palo Alto, CA). Labeled cRNA was hybridized to Illumina Human HT-12 Beadchips. Data were analysed in R.
Project description:The study aimed to define transcriptional signatures for detection of active TB (TB) compared to latent TB infection (LTBI) as well as to other diseases (OD) with similar clinical phenotypes in patients with and without HIV in two African paediatric populations. Transcriptional signatures were identified that distinguished active TB from LTBI, and active TB from other diseases. Children were recruited from Cape Town, South Africa (n=157) and Blantyre, Malawi (n=177) who were either HIV+ or HIV - with either active TB, LTBI or OD. Blood was collected into PAX gene tubes (PreAnalytiX). Total RNA integrity was assessed using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent, Palo Alto, CA). Labeled cRNA was hybridized to Illumina Human HT-12 Beadchips. Data were analysed in R.
Project description:Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is an aggressive cancer with one of the highest world incidences in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. Several genome wide studies have been performed on ESCC cohorts from Asian countries, North America, Malawi and other parts of the world but none has been conducted on ESCC tumors from South Africa to date, where the molecular pathology and etiology of this disease remains unclear. We report here tumor associated copy number changes observed in 51 ESCC patients’ samples from the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. We extracted tumor DNA from 51 archived ESCC specimens and interrogated tumor associated DNA copy number changes using Affymetrix® 500K SNP array technology. The Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer (GISTIC) algorithm was applied to identify significant focal regions of gains and losses. Gains of the top recurrent cancer genes were validated by fluorescence in situ hybridization and their protein expression assessed by immunohistochemistry. Twenty-three significant focal gains were identified across samples. Gains involving the CCND1, MYC, EGFR and JAG1 loci recapitulated those described in studies on Asian and Malawian cohorts. The two most significant gains involved the chromosomal sub-bands 3q28, encompassing the TPRG1 gene and 11q13.3 including the CTTN, PPFIA1and SHANK2 genes. There was no significant homozygous loss and the most recurrent hemizygous deletion involved the B3GAT1 gene on chromosome11q25. Focal gains on 11q13.3 in 37% of cases (19/51), consistently involved CTTN and SHANK2 genes. Twelve of these cases (23,5%), had a broader region of gain that also included the CCND1, FGF19, FGF4 and FGF3 genes. SHANK2 and CTTN are co-amplified in several cancers, these proteins interact functionally together and are involved in cell motility. Immunohistochemistry confirmed both Shank2 (79%) and cortactin (69%) protein overexpression in samples with gains of these genes. In contrast, cyclin D1 (65%) was moderately expressed in samples with CCND1 DNA gain. This study reports copy number changes in a South African ESCC cohort and highlights similarities and differences with cohorts from Asia and Malawi. Our results strongly suggest a role for CTTN and SHANK2 in the pathogenesis of ESCC in South Africa.
Project description:Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), derived from various plant sources, has been shown to ameliorate ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in vivo, and this has been attributed to its ability to reduce the oxidative stress. Here we investigated the cytoprotection of CAPE against menadione (MD)-induced oxidative stress in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) to evaluate potential gene expression involvement. CAPE exhibited dose-dependent cytoprotection of HUVEC that required preincubation. A gene screen with microarrays was performed to identify the potential cytoprotective gene(s) induced by CAPE. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) was highly upregulated by CAPE and this was confirmed with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting. Keywords: gene expression in HUVEC, CAPE cytoprotective dose response