scholarly journals Comparative analysis of public RNA-sequencing data from human intestinal enteroid (HIEs) infected with enteric RNA viruses identifies universal and virus-specific epithelial responses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto J Cieza ◽  
Jonathan Louis Golob ◽  
Justin A Colacino ◽  
Christiane E Wobus

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) has a significant disease burden on society. Noroviruses, rotaviruses and astroviruses are important viral causes of AGE but are relatively understudied enteric pathogens. Recent developments in novel biomimetic human models of enteric disease are opening new possibilities for studying human-specific host-microbe interactions. Human intestinal enteroids (HIE), which are epithelium-only intestinal organoids derived from stem cells isolated from human intestinal biopsy tissues, have been successfully used to culture representative norovirus, rotavirus and astrovirus strains. Previous studies investigated host-virus interactions at the intestinal epithelial interface by individually profiling the epithelial transcriptional response to a member of each virus family by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). We used these publicly available datasets to uniformly analyze these data and identify shared and unique transcriptional changes in the human intestinal epithelium upon human enteric virus infections.

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1059
Author(s):  
Roberto J. Cieza ◽  
Jonathan L. Golob ◽  
Justin A. Colacino ◽  
Christiane E. Wobus

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) has a significant disease burden on society. Noroviruses, rotaviruses, and astroviruses are important viral causes of AGE but are relatively understudied enteric pathogens. Recent developments in novel biomimetic human models of enteric disease are opening new possibilities for studying human-specific host–microbe interactions. Human intestinal enteroids (HIE), which are epithelium-only intestinal organoids derived from stem cells isolated from human intestinal biopsy tissues, have been successfully used to culture representative norovirus, rotavirus, and astrovirus strains. Previous studies investigated host–virus interactions at the intestinal epithelial interface by individually profiling the epithelial transcriptional response to a member of each virus family by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Despite differences in the tissue origin, enteric virus used, and hours post infection at which RNA was collected in each data set, the uniform analysis of publicly available datasets identified a conserved epithelial response to virus infection focused around “type I interferon production” and interferon-stimulated genes. Additionally, transcriptional changes specific to only one or two of the enteric viruses were also identified. This study can guide future explorations into common and unique aspects of the host response to virus infections in the human intestinal epithelium and demonstrates the promise of comparative RNA-seq analysis, even if performed under different experimental conditions, to discover universal and virus-specific genes and pathways responsible for antiviral host defense.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lakbira Sheffield ◽  
Noah Sciambra ◽  
Alysa Evans ◽  
Eli Hagedorn ◽  
Megan Delfeld ◽  
...  

SummaryAdvanced age in humans is associated with greater susceptibility to and higher mortality rates from infections, including infections with some RNA viruses. The underlying innate immune mechanisms, which represent the first line of defense against pathogens, remain incompletely understood. Drosophila melanogaster is able to mount potent and evolutionarily conserved innate immune defenses against a variety of microorganisms including viruses and serves as an excellent model organism for studying host-pathogen interactions. With its relatively short lifespan, Drosophila also is an organism of choice for aging studies. Despite numerous advantages that this model offers, Drosophila has not been used to its potential to investigate the response of the aged host to viral infection. Here we show that in comparison to younger flies, aged Drosophila succumb more rapidly to infection with the RNA-containing Flock House Virus (FHV) due to an age-dependent defect in disease tolerance. In comparison to younger individuals, we find that older Drosophila mount larger transcriptional responses characterized by differential regulation of more genes and genes regulated to a greater extent. Our results indicate that loss of disease tolerance to FHV with age possibly results from a stronger regulation of genes involved in apoptosis, activation of the Drosophila Immune deficiency (IMD) NF-kB pathway or from downregulation of genes whose products function in mitochondria and mitochondrial respiration. Our work shows that Drosophila can serve as a model to investigate host-virus interactions during aging and sets the stage for future analysis of the age-dependent mechanisms that govern survival and control of virus infections at older age.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Yiyun Sun ◽  
Dandan Xu ◽  
Chundong Zhang ◽  
Yitao Wang ◽  
Lian Zhang ◽  
...  

We previously demonstrated that proline-rich protein 11 (PRR11) and spindle and kinetochore associated 2 (SKA2) constituted a head-to-head gene pair driven by a prototypical bidirectional promoter. This gene pair synergistically promoted the development of non-small cell lung cancer. However, the signaling pathways leading to the ectopic expression of this gene pair remains obscure. In the present study, we first analyzed the lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) relevant RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database using the correlation analysis of gene expression and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), which revealed that the PRR11-SKA2 correlated gene list highly resembled the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway activation-related gene set. Subsequently, GLI1/2 inhibitor GANT-61 or GLI1/2-siRNA inhibited the Hh pathway of LSCC cells, concomitantly decreasing the expression levels of PRR11 and SKA2. Furthermore, the mRNA expression profile of LSCC cells treated with GANT-61 was detected using RNA sequencing, displaying 397 differentially expressed genes (203 upregulated genes and 194 downregulated genes). Out of them, one gene set, including BIRC5, NCAPG, CCNB2, and BUB1, was involved in cell division and interacted with both PRR11 and SKA2. These genes were verified as the downregulated genes via RT-PCR and their high expression significantly correlated with the shorter overall survival of LSCC patients. Taken together, our results indicate that GLI1/2 mediates the expression of the PRR11-SKA2-centric gene set that serves as an unfavorable prognostic indicator for LSCC patients, potentializing new combinatorial diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in LSCC.


Author(s):  
Vincent M. Tutino ◽  
Haley R. Zebraski ◽  
Hamidreza Rajabzadeh-Oghaz ◽  
Lee Chaves ◽  
Adam A. Dmytriw ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kolja Becker ◽  
Holger Klein ◽  
Eric Simon ◽  
Coralie Viollet ◽  
Christian Haslinger ◽  
...  

AbstractDiabetic Retinopathy (DR) is among the major global causes for vision loss. With the rise in diabetes prevalence, an increase in DR incidence is expected. Current understanding of both the molecular etiology and pathways involved in the initiation and progression of DR is limited. Via RNA-Sequencing, we analyzed mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of 80 human post-mortem retinal samples from 43 patients diagnosed with various stages of DR. We found differentially expressed transcripts to be predominantly associated with late stage DR and pathways such as hippo and gap junction signaling. A multivariate regression model identified transcripts with progressive changes throughout disease stages, which in turn displayed significant overlap with sphingolipid and cGMP–PKG signaling. Combined analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression further uncovered disease-relevant miRNA/mRNA associations as potential mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation. Finally, integrating human retinal single cell RNA-Sequencing data revealed a continuous loss of retinal ganglion cells, and Müller cell mediated changes in histidine and β-alanine signaling. While previously considered primarily a vascular disease, attention in DR has shifted to additional mechanisms and cell-types. Our findings offer an unprecedented and unbiased insight into molecular pathways and cell-specific changes in the development of DR, and provide potential avenues for future therapeutic intervention.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 999
Author(s):  
Sue E. Crawford ◽  
Sasirekha Ramani ◽  
Sarah E. Blutt ◽  
Mary K. Estes

Historically, knowledge of human host–enteric pathogen interactions has been elucidated from studies using cancer cells, animal models, clinical data, and occasionally, controlled human infection models. Although much has been learned from these studies, an understanding of the complex interactions between human viruses and the human intestinal epithelium was initially limited by the lack of nontransformed culture systems, which recapitulate the relevant heterogenous cell types that comprise the intestinal villus epithelium. New investigations using multicellular, physiologically active, organotypic cultures produced from intestinal stem cells isolated from biopsies or surgical specimens provide an exciting new avenue for understanding human specific pathogens and revealing previously unknown host–microbe interactions that affect replication and outcomes of human infections. Here, we summarize recent biologic discoveries using human intestinal organoids and human enteric viral pathogens.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1018
Author(s):  
Abby C. Lee ◽  
Grant Castaneda ◽  
Wei Tse Li ◽  
Chengyu Chen ◽  
Neil Shende ◽  
...  

Patients with underlying cardiovascular conditions are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19. In this project, we aimed to characterize similarities in dysregulated immune pathways between COVID-19 patients and patients with cardiomyopathy, venous thromboembolism (VTE), or coronary artery disease (CAD). We hypothesized that these similarly dysregulated pathways may be critical to how cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) exacerbate COVID-19. To evaluate immune dysregulation in different diseases, we used four separate datasets, including RNA-sequencing data from human left ventricular cardiac muscle samples of patients with dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathy and healthy controls; RNA-sequencing data of whole blood samples from patients with single or recurrent event VTE and healthy controls; RNA-sequencing data of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with and without obstructive CAD; and RNA-sequencing data of platelets from COVID-19 subjects and healthy controls. We found similar immune dysregulation profiles between patients with CVDs and COVID-19 patients. Interestingly, cardiomyopathy patients display the most similar immune landscape to COVID-19 patients. Additionally, COVID-19 patients experience greater upregulation of cytokine- and inflammasome-related genes than patients with CVDs. In all, patients with CVDs have a significant overlap of cytokine- and inflammasome-related gene expression profiles with that of COVID-19 patients, possibly explaining their greater vulnerability to severe COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii110-ii110
Author(s):  
Christina Jackson ◽  
Christopher Cherry ◽  
Sadhana Bom ◽  
Hao Zhang ◽  
John Choi ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND Glioma associated myeloid cells (GAMs) can be induced to adopt an immunosuppressive phenotype that can lead to inhibition of anti-tumor responses in glioblastoma (GBM). Understanding the composition and phenotypes of GAMs is essential to modulating the myeloid compartment as a therapeutic adjunct to improve anti-tumor immune response. METHODS We performed single-cell RNA-sequencing (sc-RNAseq) of 435,400 myeloid and tumor cells to identify transcriptomic and phenotypic differences in GAMs across glioma grades. We further correlated the heterogeneity of the GAM landscape with tumor cell transcriptomics to investigate interactions between GAMs and tumor cells. RESULTS sc-RNAseq revealed a diverse landscape of myeloid-lineage cells in gliomas with an increase in preponderance of bone marrow derived myeloid cells (BMDMs) with increasing tumor grade. We identified two populations of BMDMs unique to GBMs; Mac-1and Mac-2. Mac-1 demonstrates upregulation of immature myeloid gene signature and altered metabolic pathways. Mac-2 is characterized by expression of scavenger receptor MARCO. Pseudotime and RNA velocity analysis revealed the ability of Mac-1 to transition and differentiate to Mac-2 and other GAM subtypes. We further found that the presence of these two populations of BMDMs are associated with the presence of tumor cells with stem cell and mesenchymal features. Bulk RNA-sequencing data demonstrates that gene signatures of these populations are associated with worse survival in GBM. CONCLUSION We used sc-RNAseq to identify a novel population of immature BMDMs that is associated with higher glioma grades. This population exhibited altered metabolic pathways and stem-like potentials to differentiate into other GAM populations including GAMs with upregulation of immunosuppressive pathways. Our results elucidate unique interactions between BMDMs and GBM tumor cells that potentially drives GBM progression and the more aggressive mesenchymal subtype. Our discovery of these novel BMDMs have implications in new therapeutic targets in improving the efficacy of immune-based therapies in GBM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Wang ◽  
Chengjian Han ◽  
Rongsheng zhou ◽  
Jinjin Zhu ◽  
Famin Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The predominant genotype of Toxoplasma in China is the Chinese 1 (ToxoDB#9) lineage. TgCtwh3 and TgCtwh6 are two representative strains of Chinese 1, exhibiting high and low virulence to mice, respectively. Little is known regarding the virulence mechanism of this non-classical genotype. Our previous RNA sequencing data revealed differential mRNA levels of TgMIC1 in TgCtwh3 and TgCtwh6. We aim to further confirm the differential expression of TgMIC1 and its significance in this atypical genotype. Methods Quantitative real-time PCR was used to verify the RNA sequencing data; then, polyclonal antibodies against TgMIC1 were prepared and identified. Moreover, the invasion and proliferation of the parasite in HFF cells were observed after treatment with TgMIC1 polyclonal antibody or not. Results The data showed that the protein level of TgMIC1 was significantly higher in high-virulence strain TgCtwh3 than in low-virulence strain TgCtwh6 and that the invasion and proliferation of TgCtwh3 were inhibited by TgMIC1 polyclonal antibody. Conclusion Differential expression of TgMIC1 in TgCtwh3 and TgCtwh6 may explain, at least partly, the virulence mechanism of this atypical genotype.


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