Project description:Current methods for mapping the tissue-of-origin of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) are still insufficient. Here, we have extended a previously developed methylated CpG tandems amplification and sequencing (MCTA-Seq) method for quantitative analysis of tissue-of-origin of plasma cfDNA. By comparing paired plasma cfDNA and white blood cell genomic DNA, we have demonstrated that the liver is the major non-hematopoietic tissue contributing to plasma cfDNA in healthy adults, accounting for approximately 2%. Furthermore, we have detected changes in liver-derived DNA in patients with benign liver diseases and increases in pancreas-derived DNA in acute pancreatitis patients. Interestingly, our results suggest that DNA derived from pathological tissues makes a minor contribution to the increased cfDNA in many clinical cases. Finally, we have identified a tissue-specific hypermethylated cfDNA marker located in the intragenic regions of tissue-specifichighlyexpressed genes. This study represents valuable progress in the field of cfDNA and offers promise for clinical research and medical diagnostics using the described method.
Project description:5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is an important mammalian DNA epigenetic modification that has been linked to gene regulation and cancer pathogenesis. Here we explored the diagnostic potential of 5hmC in cell-free DNA (cfDNA), the circulating DNA found in human plasma which represents a noninvasive window into the health status of the body. We showed that the genome-wide 5hmC distribution in cfDNA can be reliably sequenced by chemical labeling-based 5hmC enrichment. We sequenced cell-free 5hmC from 49 patients of seven different cancer types and found distinct features that can be used for monitoring disease status and progression. Specifically, we discovered that lung cancer leads to a stage-dependent hypohydroxymethlation in cfDNA, whereas hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pancreatic cancer lead to disease-specific changes in the cell-free hydroxymethylome. Our results demonstrate that cell-free 5hmC can be used not only to track the stage of cancer but also to identify tissue of origin in some solid tumors.
Project description:We used a highly sensitive nano-5hmC-Seal method and profiled the genome-wide distribution of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from 384 patients with bladder, breast, colorectal, kidney, lung, or prostate cancer and 221 controls. We used machine learning and developed plasma cfDNA 5hmC signatures that are highly sensitive for cancer detection and cancer origin determination. We also identified genes and signaling pathways with aberrant DNA hydroxymethylation in six cancers.
Project description:We revealed a large population of long cell-free DNA molecules (up to 23,635 bp in length) in maternal plasma and developed an approach which leveraged the abundance of CpG sites on long molecules to deduce the tissue of origin of individual plasma DNA molecules based on single-molecule methylation analysis. We illustrated how such an approach may be utilized to achieve noninvasive prenatal testing of monogenic diseases. We also revealed a reduction in amounts of such long cell-free DNA molecules and a different end motif profile in maternal plasma DNA from pregnancies with preeclampsia.
Project description:Sampling the live brain is difficult and dangerous, and withdrawing cerebrospinal fluid is uncomfortable and frightening to the subject, so new sources of real-time analysis are constantly sought. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) derived from glia and neurons offers the potential for wide-ranging neurological disease diagnosis and monitoring. However, new laboratory and bioinformatic strategies are needed. DNA methylation patterns on individual cfDNA fragments can be used to ascribe their cell-of-origin. Here we describe bisulfite sequencing assays and bioinformatic processing methods to identify cfDNA derived from glia and neurons. In proof-of-concept experiments we describe the presence of both glia- and neuron-cfDNA in the blood plasma of human subjects following mild trauma. These detection of glia- and neuron-cfDNA represents a significant step forward in the translation of liquid biopsies for neurological diseases.
Project description:Sequencing based approaches have led to new insights about DNA methylation. While many different techniques for genome-scale mapping of DNA methylation have been employed, throughput has been a key limitation for most. To further facilitate the mapping of DNA methylation, we describe a protocol for gel-free multiplexed reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (mRRBS) that reduces the workload dramatically and enables processing of 96 or more samples per week. mRRBS achieves similar CpG coverage as the original RRBS protocol, while the higher throughput and lower cost make it better suited for large-scale DNA methylation mapping studies including cohorts of cancer samples.
Project description:Background: Cell free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma has received increasing attention and has been studied in a broad range of clinical conditions implicating inflammation, cancer, and aging. However, few studies have focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the cell free form. This study characterized the size distribution and sequence characteristics of plasma cell free mtDNA (cf mtDNA) in humans.Methods and Results: We optimized DNA isolation and next-generation sequencing library preparation protocols to better retain short DNA fragments from plasma, and applied these optimized methods to plasma samples from patients with sepsis. After massive parallel sequencing, we verified that our methods can retain substantially shorter DNA fragments than the standard isolation method, resulting in an average of 11.5 fold increase in short DNA fragments yield (DNA < 100bp). We report that cf mtDNA in plasma is highly enriched in short-size cfDNA (30 ~ 60 bp), which is much shorter than the value previously reported (~140 bp). Motivated by this unique size distribution, we size-selected short cfDNA fragments from the sequencing library, which further increased the mtDNA recovery rate by an average of 10.4 fold. Using this approach we detected mixtures of different mtDNA sequences, termed heteroplasmy, in plasma from 3 patients. In one patient who previously received bone marrow transplantation, different minor allele frequencies were observed between plasma and white blood cells (WBC) at heteroplasmic mtDNA sites, consistent with mixed-tissue origin for plasma DNA.Conclusion: mtDNA in plasma exists as very short fragments that exhibit mtDNA heteroplasmy distribution differences from that found in a single organ/tissue. This study is the first report of genome wide identification of mtDNA heteroplasmy in human plasma. Our optimized method can be used to investigate the potential utility of cf mtDNA fragments and heteroplasmy as biomarkers in various diseases.
Project description:Sequencing based approaches have led to new insights about DNA methylation. While many different techniques for genome-scale mapping of DNA methylation have been employed, throughput has been a key limitation for most. To further facilitate the mapping of DNA methylation, we describe a protocol for gel-free multiplexed reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (mRRBS) that reduces the workload dramatically and enables processing of 96 or more samples per week. mRRBS achieves similar CpG coverage as the original RRBS protocol, while the higher throughput and lower cost make it better suited for large-scale DNA methylation mapping studies including cohorts of cancer samples. Libraries of 96 human samples
Project description:High-resolution detection of genome-wide 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) sites of small-scale samples represents a continuous challenge. Here, we present CATCH-seq, a bisulfite-free, base-resolution method for the genome-wide detection of 5hmC. CATCH-seq is based on selective 5hmC oxidation, labeling and subsequent C-to-T transition during PCR. Applications of CATCH-seq to nano-scale DNA samples reveal previously underappreciated non-CG 5hmCs in the hESC genome and base-resolution hydroxymethylome in human cell-free DNA.