Project description:This project analyzes the correlation between stress prevalence in a normal Thai population and MDD-related point mutations, HHV-6 infection, and TNF-α levels. The study aims to reveal molecular insights into stress-induced neuroinflammation and genetic susceptibility to depression.
Project description:The tumor evolution model posits that malignant transformation is preceded by randomly distributed driver mutations in cancer genes, which cause clonal expansions in phenotypically normal tissues. Although clonal expansions can remodel entire tissues1-3, the mechanisms behind why only a small number of clones transform into malignant tumors remain enigmatic. Here, we develop an in vivo single-cell CRISPR strategy to systematically investigate tissue-wide clonal dynamics of the 150 most frequently mutated squamous cell carcinoma genes. We couple ultrasound-guided in utero lentiviral microinjections, single-cell RNA sequencing and guide capture to longitudinally monitor clonal expansions and document their underlying gene programs at single-cell transcriptomic resolution. We uncover a TNF-α signaling module, dependent on TNF receptor 1 and involving macrophages, that acts as a generalizable driver of clonal expansions in epithelial tissues. Conversely, during tumorigenesis, the TNF-α signaling module is downregulated. Instead, we identify a subpopulation of invasive cancer cells that switch to an autocrine TNF-α gene program, associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Finally, we provide in vivo evidence that the autocrine TNF-α gene program is sufficient to mediate invasive properties and show that the TNF-α signature correlates with shorter overall survival in human squamous cell carcinoma patients. Collectively, our study demonstrates the power of applying in vivo single-cell CRISPR screening to mammalian tissues, unveils distinct TNF-α programs in tumor evolution and highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between clonal expansions in epithelia and tumorigenesis.
Project description:Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a moderately heritable disorder with a high lifetime prevalence. At present, laboratory blood tests to support MDD diagnosis are not available. Methods: We used a classifier approach on blood gene expression profiles of a unique set of non-medicated subjects (MDD patients and controls) to select genes of which expression is predictive for disease status. To reveal blood gene expression changes related to MDD disease, we applied a powerful ex vivo stimulus to the blood, i.e. incubation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 10 ng/ml blood). Results: Based on LPS-stimulated blood gene expression using whole-genome microarrays in 42 subjects (primary cohort; 21 MDD patients (mean age 42.3 years), 21 healthy controls (mean age 41.9 years)), we identified a set of genes (CAPRIN1, CLEC4A, KRT23, MLC1, PLSCR1, PROK2, ZBTB16) that serves as a molecular signature of MDD. These findings were validated for the primary cohort using an independent quantitative PCR method (P = 0.007). The difference between depressive patients and controls was confirmed (P = 0.019) in a replication cohort of 13 patients with MDD (mean age 42.8 years) and 14 controls (mean age 45.6 years). The MDD-signature score comprised of expression levels of 7 genes could discriminate depressive patients from controls with sensitivity of 76.9% and specificity of 71.8%. Conclusions: We show for the first time that molecular analysis of stimulated blood cells can be used as an endophenotype for MDD diagnosis, which is a milestone in establishing biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders with moderate heritability in general. Our results may provide a new entry point for following and predicting treatment outcome, as well as prediction of severity and recurrence of MDD. In total, 33 MDD patients and 34 healthy controls were analyzed using basal gene expression in whole blood, and gene expression from whole blood that was stimulated with LPS for 5-6 h, using microarrays. Patients were arbitrarily selected from all patients to serve as primary cohort (nMDD = 21 (MDD01-MDD21); nControls = 21 (Con01-Con21)), or replication cohort (nMDD = 12 (MDD22-MDD35); nControls = 13 (Con22-Con37)) using microarrays. This submission does not include Samples CON21_LPS or CON30_LPS.
Project description:Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a moderately heritable disorder with a high lifetime prevalence. At present, laboratory blood tests to support MDD diagnosis are not available. Methods: We used a classifier approach on blood gene expression profiles of a unique set of non-medicated subjects (MDD patients and controls) to select genes of which expression is predictive for disease status. To reveal blood gene expression changes related to MDD disease, we applied a powerful ex vivo stimulus to the blood, i.e. incubation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 10 ng/ml blood). Results: Based on LPS-stimulated blood gene expression using whole-genome microarrays in 42 subjects (primary cohort; 21 MDD patients (mean age 42.3 years), 21 healthy controls (mean age 41.9 years)), we identified a set of genes (CAPRIN1, CLEC4A, KRT23, MLC1, PLSCR1, PROK2, ZBTB16) that serves as a molecular signature of MDD. These findings were validated for the primary cohort using an independent quantitative PCR method (P = 0.007). The difference between depressive patients and controls was confirmed (P = 0.019) in a replication cohort of 13 patients with MDD (mean age 42.8 years) and 14 controls (mean age 45.6 years). The MDD-signature score comprised of expression levels of 7 genes could discriminate depressive patients from controls with sensitivity of 76.9% and specificity of 71.8%. Conclusions: We show for the first time that molecular analysis of stimulated blood cells can be used as an endophenotype for MDD diagnosis, which is a milestone in establishing biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders with moderate heritability in general. Our results may provide a new entry point for following and predicting treatment outcome, as well as prediction of severity and recurrence of MDD.
Project description:Roseolovirus, or human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is a ubiquitous human pathogen infecting over 95% of the population by the age of two years. As with other herpesviruses, reactivation of HHV-6 can present with severe complications in immunocompromised individuals. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of herpesvirus-derived micro (mi)RNAs in modulating both cellular and viral gene expression. An initial report, which computed the likelihood of various viruses to encode for miRNAs, did not predict HHV-6 miRNAs. To experimentally screen for small HHV-6 encoded RNAs, we conducted large-scale sequencing of Sup-T-1 cells lytically infected with a laboratory strain of HHV-6B. This revealed an abundant 60-65 nucleotide RNA of unknown function derived from the lytic origin of replication (OriLyt) that gave rise to smaller RNA species of 18-19 nucleotides in length. In addition, we identified four pre-miRNAs, whose mature forms accumulated in Argonaute 2. In contrast to other beta-herpesviruses, HHV-6B miRNAs are expressed from direct repeat regions (DRL and DRR) located at either side of the genome. All miRNAs are conserved in the closely related HHV-6A variant, and one of them is a seed ortholog of the human miR-582-5p. Similar to alpha-herpesvirus miRNAs, they are expressed antisense to immediate early ORFs and thus have the potential to regulate key viral regulators. Small RNA sequencing from total RNA or Ago2 associated small RNAs extracted from HHV-6 infected Sup-T-1 cells
Project description:Cardiac-specific TNF-alpha transgenic mice are an excellent model to study the pathologenesis of heart failure. Affymetrix U74V2A was used to analyze the gene expression profile of male and female wildtype FVB and TNF-alpha transgenic mice at the time point of compensated hypertrophy and dilated heart failure. 3 week, 13 week and 40 week samples examined. Keywords: other
Project description:Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as depression, is a state characterized by low mood and aversion to activity. Platycodins Folium (PF) is the dried leaf of Platycodon grandiflorum, with anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities. Our previous research suggested that PF was rich in flavonoids, phenols, organic acids, triterpenoid saponins, coumarins and terpenoids. This study aimed to investigate the antidepressant effect of PF using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depressive mice. Several behavior tests (sucrose preference test (SPT), forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST)) and biochemical parameters (IL-6, TNF-α and SOD levels) were used to evaluate the antidepressive effect of PF on LPS-induced depression model. Furthermore, a UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based metabolomics approach was applied to explore the latent mechanism of PF in attenuating depression. As a result, a total of 21 and 11 metabolites that potentially contribute to MDD progress and PF treatment were identified in serum and hippocampus, respectively. The analysis of metabolic pathways revealed that lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, arachidonic acid metabolism, glutathione metabolism and inositol phosphate metabolism were disturbed in a model of mice undergoing MDD and PF treatment. These results help us to understand the pathogenesis of depression in depth, and to discover targets for clinical diagnosis and treatment. They also provide the possibility of developing PF into an anti-depressantive agent.
Project description:We use a novel microfluidic device to provide different concentrations of a point source of TNF-α to a population of NIH3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These cells are then retrieved in a spatially resolved manner (notated as near, mid, and far from point source) and sequenced using a modified version of the Smart-Seq2 protocol. We find that spatially resolved transcriptomes reveal distinct gene regulation patterns based on TNF dose and/or distance from the point source
Project description:Cardiac-specific TNF-alpha transgenic mice are an excellent model to study the pathologenesis of heart failure. Affymetrix U74V2A was used to analyze the gene expression profile of male and female wildtype FVB and TNF-alpha transgenic mice at the time point of compensated hypertrophy and dilated heart failure. 3 week, 13 week and 40 week samples examined.