scholarly journals Biological Threat Detection via Host Gene Expression Profiling

2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 1045-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baochuan Lin ◽  
Maryanne T Vahey ◽  
Dzung Thach ◽  
David A Stenger ◽  
Joseph J Pancrazio

Abstract With the increased threat posed by biological weapons, detection techniques for biothreat pathogens are critically needed to monitor and assess the severity of the illness once exposure has occurred. Current approaches for detecting biological threats are either time-consuming or highly specific but provide little information regarding pathogenicity. Genotyping of pathogens by PCR provides a fast and definitive means for identifying pathogens, but reliance on pathogen genotypic endpoints has several limitations. Current progress in DNA microarrays technology provides an alternative way to address the issues faced by traditional detection systems through host gene expression profiles of peripheral blood cells. We discuss the advantages and critical issues facing the use of host gene expression profiling for biological threat detection.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Bertucci ◽  
Bruno Chetaille ◽  
Luc Xerri

Gene expression profiling studies based on DNA microarrays have demonstrated their ability to define the interaction pathways between neoplastic and nonmalignant stromal cells in cancer tissues. During the past ten years, a number of approaches including microdissection have tried to resolve the variability in DNA microarray measurements stemming from cancer tissue sample heterogeneity. Another approach, designated as virtual orin silicomicrodissection, avoids the laborious and time-consuming step of anatomic microdissection. It consists of confronting the gene expression profiles of complex tissue samples to those of cell lines representative of different cell lineages, different differentiation stages, or different signaling pathways. This strategy has been used in recent studies aiming to analyze microenvironment alterations using gene expression profiling of nonmicrodissected classical Hodgkin lymphoma tissues in order to generate new prognostic factors. These recent contributions are detailed and discussed in the present paper.


2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1826-1838 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Michael Ghadimi ◽  
Marian Grade ◽  
Michael J. Difilippantonio ◽  
Sudhir Varma ◽  
Richard Simon ◽  
...  

Purpose There is a wide spectrum of tumor responsiveness of rectal adenocarcinomas to preoperative chemoradiotherapy ranging from complete response to complete resistance. This study aimed to investigate whether parallel gene expression profiling of the primary tumor can contribute to stratification of patients into groups of responders or nonresponders. Patients and Methods Pretherapeutic biopsies from 30 locally advanced rectal carcinomas were analyzed for gene expression signatures using microarrays. All patients were participants of a phase III clinical trial (CAO/ARO/AIO-94, German Rectal Cancer Trial) and were randomized to receive a preoperative combined-modality therapy including fluorouracil and radiation. Class comparison was used to identify a set of genes that were differentially expressed between responders and nonresponders as measured by T level downsizing and histopathologic tumor regression grading. Results In an initial set of 23 patients, responders and nonresponders showed significantly different expression levels for 54 genes (P < .001). The ability to predict response to therapy using gene expression profiles was rigorously evaluated using leave-one-out cross-validation. Tumor behavior was correctly predicted in 83% of patients (P = .02). Sensitivity (correct prediction of response) was 78%, and specificity (correct prediction of nonresponse) was 86%, with a positive and negative predictive value of 78% and 86%, respectively. Conclusion Our results suggest that pretherapeutic gene expression profiling may assist in response prediction of rectal adenocarcinomas to preoperative chemoradiotherapy. The implementation of gene expression profiles for treatment stratification and clinical management of cancer patients requires validation in large, independent studies, which are now warranted.


Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 1377-1377
Author(s):  
Kazem Zibara ◽  
Daniel Pearce ◽  
David Taussig ◽  
Spyros Skoulakis ◽  
Simon Tomlinson ◽  
...  

Abstract The identification of LSC has important implications for future research as well as for the development of novel therapies. The phenotypic description of LSC now enables their purification and should facilitate the identification of genes that are preferentially expressed in these cells compared to normal HSC. However, gene-expression profiling is usually conducted on mononuclear cells of AML patients from either peripheral blood and/or bone marrow. These samples contain a mixture of blasts cells, normal hematopoietic cells and limited number of leukemic stem cells. Thus, this results in a composite profile that obscure differences between LSC and blasts cells with low proliferative potential. The aim of this study was to compare the gene expression profile of highly purified LSC versus leukemic blasts in order to identify genes that might have important roles in driving the leukemia. For this purpose, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of highly purified LSCs (Lin−CD34+CD38−) and more mature blast cells (Lin−CD34+CD38+) isolated from 7 adult AML patients. All samples were previously tested for the ability of the Lin−CD34+CD38− cells but not the Lin−CD34+CD38+ fraction to engraft using the non-obese diabetic/severe combined immuno-deficiency (NOD-SCID) repopulation assay. Affymetrix microarrays (U133A chip), containing 22,283 genes, were used for the analysis. Comparison of Lin-CD34+CD38- cell population to the Lin−CD34+CD38+ cell fraction showed 5421 genes to be expressed in both fractions. Comparative analysis of gene-expression profiles showed statistically significant differential expression of 133 genes between the 2 cell populations. Most of the genes were downregulated in the LSC-enriched fraction, compared to the more differentiated fraction. Gene ontology was used to determine the categories of the up-regulated transcripts. These transcripts, which are selectively expressed, include a number of known genes (e.g., receptors, signalling genes, proliferation and cell cycle genes and transcription factors). These genes play important roles in differentiation, self-renewal, migration and adhesion of HSCs. Among the genes showing the highest differences in expression levels were the following: ribonucleotide reductase M2 polypeptide, thymidylate synthetase, ZW10 interactor, cathepsin G, azurocidin 1, topoisomerase II, CDC20, nucleolar and spindle associated protein 1, Rac GTPase activating protein 1, leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, myeloperoxidase, cyclin A1 (RRM2, TYMS, ZWINT, CTSG, AZU1, TOP2A, CDC20, NUSAP1, RACGAP1, LILRB2, PCNA, MPO, CCNA1). Some transcripts detected have not been implicated in HSC functions, and others have unknown function so far. This work identifies new genes that might play a role in leukemogenesis and cancer stem cells. It also leads to a better description and understanding of the molecular phenotypes of these 2 cell populations. Hence, in addition to being a more efficient way to further understand the biology of LSC, this should also provide a more efficient way of identifying new therapeutics and diagnostic targets.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Weidenbusch ◽  
Severin Rodler ◽  
Shangqing Song ◽  
Simone Romoli ◽  
Julian A. Marschner ◽  
...  

Notch and interleukin-22 (IL-22) signaling are known to regulate tissue homeostasis and respond to injury in humans and mice, and the induction of endogenous aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) ligands through Notch links the two pathways in a hierarchical fashion. However in adults, the species-, organ- and injury-specific gene expression of the Notch-AhR-IL22 axis components is unknown. We therefore performed gene expression profiling of DLL1, DLL3, DLL4, DLK1, DLK2, JAG1, JAG2, Notch1, Notch2, Notch3, Notch4, ADAM17/TNF-α ADAM metalloprotease converting enzyme (TACE), PSEN1, basigin (BSG)/CD147, RBP-J, HES1, HES5, HEY1, HEYL, AHR, ARNT, ARNT2, CYP1A1, CYP24A1, IL-22, IL22RA1, IL22RA2, IL10RB, and STAT3 under homeostatic conditions in ten mature murine and human organs. Additionally, the expression of these genes was assessed in murine models of acute sterile inflammation and progressive fibrosis. We show that there are organ-specific gene expression profiles of the Notch-AhR-IL22 axis in humans and mice. Although there is an overall interspecies congruency, specific differences between human and murine expression signatures do exist. In murine tissues with AHR/ARNT expression CYP1A1 and IL-22 were correlated with HES5 and HEYL expression, while in human tissues no such correlation was found. Notch and AhR signaling are involved in renal inflammation and fibrosis with specific gene expression changes in each model. Despite the presence of all Notch pathway molecules in the kidney and a model-specific induction of Notch ligands, IL-22 was only up-regulated in acute inflammation, but rapidly down-regulated during regeneration. This implies that for targeting injury responses, e.g. via IL-22, species-specific differences, injury type and time points have to be considered.


2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 282-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Bourmenskaya ◽  
Ekaterina Shubina ◽  
Dmitry Trofimov ◽  
Denis Rebrikov ◽  
Elina Sabdulaeva ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Hossain ◽  
Svetlin Tchatalbachev ◽  
Trinad Chakraborty

Blood ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 119 (21) ◽  
pp. e148-e150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiming Zhou ◽  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Owen Stephens ◽  
Christoph J. Heuck ◽  
Erming Tian ◽  
...  

Abstract Cytogenetic abnormalities are important clinical parameters in various types of cancer, including multiple myeloma. We developed a model to predict cytogenetic abnormalities in patients with multiple myeloma using gene expression profiling and validated it by different cytogenetic techniques. The model has an accuracy rate up to 0.89. These results provide proof of concept for the hypothesis that gene expression profiling is a superior genomic method for clinical molecular diagnosis and/or prognosis.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. e86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Fink ◽  
Feng Gu ◽  
Ling Ling ◽  
Thomas Tolfvenstam ◽  
Farzad Olfat ◽  
...  

Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 2757-2757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Urtishak ◽  
Li-San Wang ◽  
Richard Harvey ◽  
Susan R Atlas ◽  
I-Ming L. Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2757 Introduction: The outcome of infants with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains poor because of the association of frequently occurring MLL translocations with drug resistance and vulnerability of the very young to treatment complications. The two most common MLL partner genes in infant ALL, AF4 (AFF1) and ENL (MLLT1), are associated with particularly poor survival. Better therapies are urgent. One candidate is obatoclax (GeminX Biotechnologies, Inc.), which targets interactions of pan-anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family proteins with BH3 proteins and is now in a Phase I trial for relapsed/refractory pediatric cancers (COG ADVL0816). Previously we showed potent single agent in vitro activity of obatoclax against MLL-rearranged infant ALL (Zhang ASH 2008). Here we evaluate correlations of obatoclax activity with MLL translocation status and gene expression profiles in a large number of cases of infant ALL to define molecular determinants of sensitivity. Methods: Bone marrow, peripheral blood or apheresis samples from the time of diagnosis in 54 infants (age 1–365 d, median 168 d; WBC count 15–1230×103/μL, median 445×103/μL) with ALL (n=52) or bilineal acute leukemia (n=2) were examined, 48 of which were from the COG P9407 trial. By molecular/cytogenetic classification, the cases were MLL-AF4+ (n= 28), MLL-ENL+ (n= 11), other MLL rearrangement positive (other MLL+) (n= 8) or MLL germline (MLL-) (n= 7). Single agent IC50 values from MTT assays after 72 h obatoclax exposures were determined in all cases (including 13 previously tested; Zhang ASH 2008) by plotting the surviving fractions. IC50s in the MLL-AF4+ group were compared to those in each of the other 3 molecular/cytogenetic groups by Wilcoxon's test. Gene expression profiling was performed on Affymetrix HG_U133 Plus2.0 arrays in 47 of the 48 COG P9407 cases. Spearman test was used to identify correlation between log2 expression levels for each probeset and IC50 values across subjects. A heatmap of significant probesets (p≤0.001) was generated by transforming expression levels to z-scores and ordering rows and columns by complete linkage hierarchical clustering. Ingenuity pathway analysis was applied to all probesets with p≤0.01 to identify pathways significantly correlated with IC50. Additional MTT assays were initiated to test sensitivity to agents targeting these pathways. Results: Even though most cases in all 4 groups were sensitive to obatoclax as indicated by IC50s within a clinically achievable range, MLL translocation status still had a significant effect on IC50. MLL-AF4+ cases were least sensitive and MLL-ENL+ cases were most sensitive to obatoclax. Respective IC50 ranges across all 54 cases were: MLL-AF4+, 26–918 nM; MLL-ENL+, 13–294 nM; other MLL+ 10–356 nM; MLL−, 31–488. Compared to MLL-AF4+, the IC50s in MLL-ENL+ cases were significantly lower (p=0.047), IC50s in other MLL+ cases were lower but the difference did not achieve significance (p=0.10), and IC50s in MLL- cases were not significantly different (p=0.64). In the 47 COG P9407 cases studied by MTT assay and gene expression profiling, 450 probesets defined a cluster of 16 cases with higher IC50s, which were predominantly MLL-AF4+ (68.7%). Ingenuity analysis identified significant correlations of the following canonical pathways with the IC50 in the same 47 cases: glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, mTOR signaling, regulation of eIF4 and p70S6K signaling, EIF2 signaling, and fructose and mannose metabolism. In preliminary analyses, cell lines with t(4;11) exhibited time and dose-dependant sensitivity to the eIF4e inhibitor ribavirin. Conclusions: In infant ALL, obatoclax has broad-spectrum activity and there is pan-sensitivity across MLL translocation subtypes and MLL− cases. Still specific MLL partner genes have a strong effect on obatoclax IC50 and there is exquisite sensitivity in MLL-ENL+ cases. This result is important because MLL-ENL is associated with particularly poor survival when conventional therapies are used. The association of differentially expressed genes in canonical cell signaling and metabolism pathways with differences in obatoclax sensitivity forms the basis to combine obatoclax with targeted agents directed at restoring these pathways to enhance responsiveness even further. Disclosures: Felix: None: Patent not licensed.


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