Project description:In Asia, oral cancer (OC) and oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) constitute major health problems linked to use of betel quid. This work performed CGH genome-wide analysis of OC (12 from India, 12 from Sri Lanka) and OSF (6 from India) cases with normal controls.
Project description:Background: Pregnant and postpartum women are at high risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB), but transcriptional TB studies have excluded pregnant women. We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in pregnant women who did and did not progress to active TB. Methods: We followed a cohort of pregnant Indian women with TB infection for one year postpartum, collecting blood at study entry, 6 weeks postpartum and active TB diagnosis. A prospective signature of risk was identified by comparing whole blood RNA sequencing data from women who developed active TB postpartum (cases) with those who remained healthy (controls). Results: We identified 9 cases and matched them to 18 controls by HIV status and gestational age. A gene set of risk was identified: Expression of KCNIP4 > 2.2 log CPM and S1PR4 < 7.3 log CPM indicated a high probability of developing active TB postpartum. SF3B4 (>4.3 log CPM) and PGAM1 (>6.6 log CPM) correctly classified postpartum cases and controls. Both pairs displayed high accuracy (AUC >0.9) and were unique from 36 published TB signatures.Conclusions: We identified two genes that prospectively differentiated pregnant women who developed active TB postpartum from those who did not. If validated, this signature could be useful in targeted TB prevention programs.
Project description:Background: Epigenetic marks, like asthma, are heritable. They are influenced by the environment, direct the maturation of T cellslymphocytes, and have been shown to enhance the development of allergic airways disease in mice. Thus, we hypothesized that epigenetic marks are associated with allergic asthma in inner-city children. Methods: We compared methylation patterns and gene expression in inner-city children with persistent atopic asthma versus healthy controls, using DNA and RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from inner city children aged 6-12 years with persistent atopic asthma children and healthy controls. Results were externally validated with the GABRIELA study population. Results: Comparing asthmatics (N=97) to controls (N=97), we identified 81 regions that were differentially methylated. Several immune genes were hypomethylated in asthmatics, including IL-13, RUNX3, and a number of specific genes relevant to natural killer cells (KIR2DL4, KIR2DL3, KIR3DL1, and KLRD1) and T cells lymphocytes (TIGIT). 14 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were associated with the serum IgE concentration of IgE, including RUNX3. These results were internally and externally validated with a global methylation assessment using a different methodology in our inner-city cohort and an independent European cohort (GABRIELA). Hypo- and hypermethylated genes tended to be associated with increased and decreased gene expression, respectively (P<0.6x10-11 for asthma and ; P<0.01 for IgE). To further explore the relationship between methylation and gene expression, we created a matrix of genomic changes in methylation versus transcriptional changes (methyl eQTL) for asthma, and identified cis- and trans-regulated genes whose expression was related to asthma asthma-associated methylation marks.