Project description:<p>This project aims at characterizing the human host susceptibility to pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial (PNTM) infections. PNTM infections occur in patients with chronic lung disease, but also in a distinct group of elderly women without lung defects but who share a common body morphology: tall and lean with scoliosis, pectus excavatum, and mitral valve prolapse. We performed whole exome and genome sequencing in extended families of patients with active PNTM. This unique collection of familial cohorts in PNTM represents an important opportunity for a high yield search for genes that regulate mucosal immunity. We also sequenced the genome of mycobacterial isolates from PNTM patients to integrate host PNTM susceptibility with mycobacterial genotypes and gain insights into the key factors involved in this devastating disease.</p>
Project description:T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and lymphoma (T-LBL) share common morphologic and immunophenotypic features and are treated with similar therapeutic approaches. Nonetheless, they show distinct clinical presentations suggesting that they may represent two different biological entities. In order to investigate T-LBL and T-ALL biological characteristics we used transcriptional profiling approache. Genome-wide gene expression profiling, performed on 20 T-LBL and 10 T-ALL diagnostic specimens, showed that the two malignancies shared a large fraction of their transcriptional profile while a subset of genes appeared to be differentially expressed in T-LBL versus T-ALL. This gene signature included genes involved in chemotactic responses and angiogenesis which might play a role in the different tumor cell localization suggesting that T-LBL and T-ALL could be two distinct diseases with unique transcriptional characteristics. diagnostic bone marrow aspirates from 10 T-ALL and 6 common-ALL pediatric patients and tumor biopsies from 20 T-LBL pediatric patients were analyzed by gene expression profiling
Project description:Asthma and postinfectious bronchiolitis obliterans (PIBO) are chronic lung diseases characterized by recurrent episodes of wheezing. Mycoplasma, adenovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus infections can trigger both asthma and PIBO. These two diseases have common etiologic mechanisms that cause airway epithelial injury. They are often difficult to differentiate clinically in preschool children because both are exacerbated by viral infections and respond similarly to steroids and β2 agonists. PIBO, which is occasionally observed in children, is diagnosed through characteristic findings of air trapping on computed tomography or in biopsy samples of lung tissue. However, researchers have not clearly identified the specific blood markers that can distinguish these diseases or the differences in the mechanisms of development. We performed proteomic analysis of plasma to identify specific biomarkers that can be helpful in differentiating asthma from PIBO. This study discovered plasma biomarker candidates by measuring plasma proteome sequential window acquisition of all theoretical mass spectra (SWATH-MS) and included 30 healthy children, 18 with asthma and 15 with PIBO. was used to measure proteins in plasma samples. We identified and quantified 354 proteins across all 63 samples in the SWATH-MS analysis.
Project description:Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections evades antibiotic therapy and are associated with mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. We find that in vitro resistance evolution of P.aeruginosa towards clinically relevant antibiotics leads to phenotypic convergence towards distinct states. These states are associated with collateral sensitivity towards several antibiotic classes and encoded by mutations in antibiotic resistance genes, including transcriptional regulator nfxB. Longitudinal analysis of isolates from CF patients reveals similar and defined phenotypic states, which are associated with extinction of specific sub-lineages in patients. In depth investigation of chronic P.aeruginosa populations in a CF patient during antibiotic therapy revealed dramatic genotypic and phenotypic convergence. Notably, fluoroquinolone-resistant subpopulations harboring nfxB mutations were eradicated by antibiotic therapy as predicted by our in vitro data. This study supports the hypothesis that antibiotic treatment of chronic infections can be optimized by targeting phenotypic states associated with specific mutations to improve treatment success in chronic infections.
Project description:Pediatric neoplasms in the central nervous system show an extensive clinical and molecular heterogeneity. Molecular genetic testing contributes to accurate diagnosis and enables an optimal clinical management of affected children. Unsupervised visualization of genome-wide DNA methylation array data revealed a molecularly distinct type of pediatric high-grade neuroepithelial tumor with fusions involving the capicua transcriptional repressor (CIC) gene, with the most common fusion being CIC::LEUTX. Histopathological review demonstrated a morphologically heterogeneous group of high-grade neuroepithelial tumors with positive immunostaining for markers of glial differentiation in combination with weak and focal expression of synaptophysin, CD56 and CD99. In summary, we expand the spectrum of pediatric-type tumors of the CNS by reporting a previously uncharacterized group of rare high-grade neuroepithelial tumors that share a common DNA methylation signature and recurrent gene fusions involving the transcriptional repressor CIC.
Project description:Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common bacteria leading to exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients while this bacteria can be easily eradicated by the immune systems of healthy individuals. Human airway organoids derived from healthy individuals and COPD patients were infected with pseudomonas aeruginosa. This project aims (1) to understand the differences in gene expressions in healthy and COPD airway organoids during stable condition, without infection and (2) to investigate differential pathogenic mechanism (i.e. antimicrobial defense) of pseudomonoas aeruginosa infection in healthy and COPD populations. Three healthy donors and three COPD patients were included in this study and samples were collected with and without pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.
Project description:Childhood T-cell malignancies include T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL). T-ALL and T-LBL share common morphologic and immunophenotypic features and are treated with similar therapeutic approaches. Nonetheless, they show distinct clinical presentations suggesting that they may represent two different biological entities. In order to investigate the common and unique genetic aberrations of T-LBL and T-ALL, copy number alteration (CNA) analysis was performed on a subset of the samples analyzed by GEP Affymetrix SNP arrays were performed according to the manufacturer's directions on DNA extracted from diagnostic bone marrow aspirates or tumor tissue samples. Copy number analysis of Affymetrix 100K SNP arrays was performed for 9 T-ALL and 9 T-LBL pediatric samples. The samples from leukemia/lymphoma remission were used as references for copy number inference.
Project description:Squamous metaplasia is common in smokers and is associated with airway obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A major mechanism of airway obstruction in COPD is thickening of the small airway walls. We asked whether squamous metaplasia actively contributes to airway wall thickening through alteration of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in COPD. Using immunohistochemical staining, airway morphometry and fibroblast culture of lung samples from COPD patients, genome-wide analysis of a model of squamous metaplasia, and in vitro modeling of human airway epithelial-mesenchymal interactions, we have produced evidence that squamous metaplasia, through the increased secretion of IL-1, induces a fibrotic response of adjacent airway fibroblasts. We identify a pivotal role for integrin-mediated TGF-b activation in amplifying squamous metaplasia and driving IL-1-dependent profibrotic mesenchymal responses. Finally, we show that squamous metaplasia correlates with increasing severity of COPD and fibroblast expression of the integrin avb8, which is the major mediator of airway fibroblast TGF-b activation, correlates with disease severity and small airway wall thickening in COPD. Keywords: genome-wide differential expression study A dye-swap design of three two-channel arrays
Project description:Stem-like CD8 T cells maintain long-term antiviral CD8 immunity during chronic infection, and share regulatory pathways with memory precursor effector cells generated after acute infection. However, it is unclear whether stem-like CD8 T cells require distinct transcriptional and epigenetic regulation for their longevity and adaptation to the immunosuppressive environment in chronic infection. Here, our comparison of single-cell transcriptomes and epigenetic profiles of CD8 T cells responding to acute and chronic viral infections revealed that stem-like CD8 T cells became distinct from memory precursors before clonal expansion ended. We found that a coexpression gene module containing Tox exhibited higher transcriptional activities and active histone marks in stem-like T cells than memory precursors. Moreover, TOX promoted persistence of antiviral CD8 T cells, and was required for stem-like CD8 differentiation. Our results indicate that stem-like CD8 T cells require unique transcriptional and epigenetic programs for their differentiation and persistence during chronic viral infection.