scholarly journals Insights Into the Role of DNA Methylation in Immune Cell Development and Autoimmune Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Li ◽  
Lifang Li ◽  
Yimeng Wang ◽  
Gan Huang ◽  
Xia Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Autoimmune Diseases ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Gene Expression Regulation ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Basic Function ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Disease Pathogenesis

To date, nearly 100 autoimmune diseases have been an area of focus, and these diseases bring health challenges to approximately 5% of the population worldwide. As a type of disease caused by tolerance breakdown, both environmental and genetic risk factors contribute to autoimmune disease development. However, in most cases, there are still gaps in our understanding of disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment. Therefore, more detailed knowledge of disease pathogenesis and potential therapies is indispensable. DNA methylation, which does not affect the DNA sequence, is one of the key epigenetic silencing mechanisms and has been indicated to play a key role in gene expression regulation and to participate in the development of certain autoimmune diseases. Potential epigenetic regulation via DNA methylation has garnered more attention as a disease biomarker in recent years. In this review, we clarify the basic function and distribution of DNA methylation, evaluate its effects on gene expression and discuss related key enzymes. In addition, we summarize recent aberrant DNA methylation modifications identified in the most important cell types related to several autoimmune diseases and then provide potential directions for better diagnosing and monitoring disease progression driven by epigenetic control, which may broaden our understanding and contribute to further epigenetic research in autoimmune diseases.

Epigenetics In Autoimmune Disease

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matlock A Jeffries
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Noncoding Rna ◽  
Specific Treatment ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Response To Therapy ◽  
Human Immune System ◽  
Treatment Regimens ◽  
New Research

Autoimmunity refers to a pathologic state of immunologic dysregulation in which the human immune system turns inward, attacking healthy tissues. The key step in this process is a break of self-immune tolerance. Recent studies have implicated dysregulation of gene expression via altered epigenetic control as a key mechanism in the development and promotion of autoimmunity. Epigenetics is defined as heritable changes in gene expression as a result of modification of DNA methylation, histone side chains, and noncoding RNA. Studies examining identical twins discordant for lupus, for example, were among the first to identify alterations in DNA methylation leading to lupus. Histone side-chain changes have been studied extensively in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and many pathogenic cell types in RA exhibit a hyperacetylation phenotype. Finally, new research in the noncoding RNA field has not only uncovered potentially targetable pathways (e.g., miR-155) but may lead to the development of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, helping physicians better tailor specific treatment regimens to improve response to therapy in autoimmune disease.   This review contains 4 figures, 1 table and 47 references Key Words: autoimmunity, big data, biomarkers, computational biology, DNA methylation, epigenetics, histone acetylation, histone methylation, microRNA, noncoding RNA

scholarly journals GSDMA drives the most replicated association with asthma in naïve CD4+ T cells

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Madore ◽  
Lucile Pain ◽  
Anne-Marie Boucher-Lafleur ◽  
Jolyane Meloche ◽  
Andréanne Morin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Genetic Mechanisms ◽  
New Gene

AbstractBackgroundThe 17q12-21 locus is the most replicated association with asthma. However, no study had described the genetic mechanisms underlying this association considering all genes of the locus in immune cell samples isolated from asthmatic and non-asthmatic individuals.ObjectiveThis study takes benefit of samples from naïve CD4+ T cells and eosinophils isolated from the same 200 individuals to describe specific interactions between genetic variants, gene expression and DNA methylation levels for the 17q12-21 asthma locus.Methods and ResultsAfter isolation of naïve CD4+ T cells and eosinophils from blood samples, next generation sequencing was used to measure DNA methylation levels and gene expression counts. Genetic interactions were then evaluated considering genetic variants from imputed genotype data. In naïve CD4+ T cells but not eosinophils, 20 SNPs in the fourth and fifth haplotype blocks modulated both GSDMA expression and methylation levels, showing an opposite pattern of allele frequencies and expression counts in asthmatics compared to controls. Moreover, negative correlations have been measured between methylation levels of CpG sites located within the 1.5 kb region from the transcription start site of GSDMA and its expression counts.ConclusionAvailability of sequencing data from two key cell types isolated from asthmatic and non-asthmatic individuals allowed identifying a new gene in naïve CD4+ T cells that drives the association with the 17q12-21 locus, leading to a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms taking place in it.

scholarly journals Integrative transcriptomic analysis of SLE reveals IFN-driven cross-talk between immune cells

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bharat Panwar ◽  
Benjamin J. Schmiedel ◽  
Shu Liang ◽  
Brandie White ◽  
Enrique Rodriguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
T Cells ◽  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Cross Talk ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Cell Populations ◽  
Multiple Cell ◽  
Classical Monocytes ◽  
Multiple Immune Cell

ABSTRACTThe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an incurable autoimmune disease disproportionately affecting women and may lead to damage in multiple different organs. The marked heterogeneity in its clinical manifestations is a major obstacle in finding targeted treatments and involvement of multiple immune cell types further increases this complexity. Thus, identifying molecular subtypes that best correlate with disease heterogeneity and severity as well as deducing molecular cross-talk among major immune cell types that lead to disease progression are critical steps in the development of more informed therapies for SLE. Here we profile and analyze gene expression of six major circulating immune cell types from patients with well-characterized SLE (classical monocytes (n=64), T cells (n=24), neutrophils (n=24), B cells (n=20), conventional (n=20) and plasmacytoid (n=22) dendritic cells) and from healthy control subjects. Our results show that the interferon (IFN) response signature was the major molecular feature that classified SLE patients into two distinct groups: IFN-signature negative (IFNneg) and positive (IFNpos). We show that the gene expression signature of IFN response was consistent (i) across all immune cell types, (ii) all single cells profiled from three IFNpos donors using single-cell RNA-seq, and (iii) longitudinal samples of the same patient. For a better understanding of molecular differences of IFNpos versus IFNneg patients, we combined differential gene expression analysis with differential Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA), which revealed a relatively small list of genes from classical monocytes including two known immune modulators, one the target of an approved therapeutic for SLE (TNFSF13B/BAFF: belimumab) and one itself a therapeutic for Rheumatoid Arthritis (IL1RN: anakinra). For a more integrative understanding of the cross-talk among different cell types and to identify potentially novel gene or pathway connections, we also developed a novel gene co-expression analysis method for joint analysis of multiple cell types named integrated WGNCA (iWGCNA). This method revealed an interesting cross-talk between T and B cells highlighted by a significant enrichment in the expression of known markers of T follicular helper cells (Tfh), which also correlate with disease severity in the context of IFNpos patients. Interestingly, higher expression of BAFF from all myeloid cells also shows a strong correlation with enrichment in the expression of genes in T cells that may mark circulating Tfh cells or related memory cell populations. These cell types have been shown to promote B cell class-switching and antibody production, which are well-characterized in SLE patients. In summary, we generated a large-scale gene expression dataset from sorted immune cell populations and present a novel computational approach to analyze such data in an integrative fashion in the context of an autoimmune disease. Our results reveal the power of a hypothesis-free and data-driven approach to discover drug targets and reveal novel cross-talk among multiple immune cell types specific to a subset of SLE patients. This approach is immediately useful for studying autoimmune diseases and is applicable in other contexts where gene expression profiling is possible from multiple cell types within the same tissue compartment.

scholarly journals Limited statistical evidence for shared genetic effects of eQTLs and autoimmune-disease-associated loci in three major immune-cell types

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Chun ◽  
Alexandra Casparino ◽  
Nikolaos A Patsopoulos ◽  
Damien C Croteau-Chonka ◽  
Benjamin A Raby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Genetic Effects ◽  
Statistical Evidence ◽  
Shared Genetic

scholarly journals Application of Genetic Studies to Flow Cytometry Data and Its Impact on Therapeutic Intervention for Autoimmune Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Orrù ◽  
Maristella Steri ◽  
Francesco Cucca ◽  
Edoardo Fiorillo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Cytometry ◽  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Autoimmune Diseases ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Surface Protein ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Human Immune System

In recent years, systematic genome-wide association studies of quantitative immune cell traits, represented by circulating levels of cell subtypes established by flow cytometry, have revealed numerous association signals, a large fraction of which overlap perfectly with genetic signals associated with autoimmune diseases. By identifying further overlaps with association signals influencing gene expression and cell surface protein levels, it has also been possible, in several cases, to identify causal genes and infer candidate proteins affecting immune cell traits linked to autoimmune disease risk. Overall, these results provide a more detailed picture of how genetic variation affects the human immune system and autoimmune disease risk. They also highlight druggable proteins in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases; predict the efficacy and side effects of existing therapies; provide new indications for use for some of them; and optimize the research and development of new, more effective and safer treatments for autoimmune diseases. Here we review the genetic-driven approach that couples systematic multi-parametric flow cytometry with high-resolution genetics and transcriptomics to identify endophenotypes of autoimmune diseases for the development of new therapies.

scholarly journals Enabling out-of-clinic human immunity studies via single-cell profiling of capillary blood

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Dobreva ◽  
David Brown ◽  
Jong Hwee Park ◽  
Matt Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Single Cell ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Capillary Blood ◽  
Specific Gene ◽  
Human Immune ◽  
Over Time

AbstractAn individual’s immune system is driven by both genetic and environmental factors that vary over time. To better understand the temporal and inter-individual variability of gene expression within distinct immune cell types, we developed a platform that leverages multiplexed single-cell sequencing and out-of-clinic capillary blood extraction to enable simplified, cost-effective profiling of the human immune system across people and time at single-cell resolution. Using the platform, we detect widespread differences in cell type-specific gene expression between subjects that are stable over multiple days.SummaryIncreasing evidence implicates the immune system in an overwhelming number of diseases, and distinct cell types play specific roles in their pathogenesis.1,2 Studies of peripheral blood have uncovered a wealth of associations between gene expression, environmental factors, disease risk, and therapeutic efficacy.4 For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, multiple mechanistic paths have been found that lead to disease, and gene expression of specific immune cell types can be used as a predictor of therapeutic non-response.12 Furthermore, vaccines, drugs, and chemotherapy have been shown to yield different efficacy based on time of administration, and such findings have been linked to the time-dependence of gene expression in downstream pathways.21,22,23 However, human immune studies of gene expression between individuals and across time remain limited to a few cell types or time points per subject, constraining our understanding of how networks of heterogeneous cells making up each individual’s immune system respond to adverse events and change over time.

scholarly journals Depletion of Alveolar Macrophages Does Not Prevent Hantavirus Disease Pathogenesis in Golden Syrian Hamsters

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (14) ◽  
pp. 6200-6215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Hammerbeck ◽  
Rebecca L. Brocato ◽  
Todd M. Bell ◽  
Christopher W. Schellhase ◽  
Steven R. Mraz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alveolar Macrophages ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Hantavirus Infection ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Disease Pathogenesis ◽  
Hamster Model ◽  
Syrian Hamsters ◽  
Antiviral Responses

ABSTRACTAndes virus (ANDV) is associated with a lethal vascular leak syndrome in humans termed hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The mechanism for the massive vascular leakage associated with HPS is poorly understood; however, dysregulation of components of the immune response is often suggested as a possible cause. Alveolar macrophages are found in the alveoli of the lung and represent the first line of defense to many airborne pathogens. To determine whether alveolar macrophages play a role in HPS pathogenesis, alveolar macrophages were depleted in an adult rodent model of HPS that closely resembles human HPS. Syrian hamsters were treated, intratracheally, with clodronate-encapsulated liposomes or control liposomes and were then challenged with ANDV. Treatment with clodronate-encapsulated liposomes resulted in significant reduction in alveolar macrophages, but depletion did not prevent pathogenesis or prolong disease. Depletion also did not significantly reduce the amount of virus in the lung of ANDV-infected hamsters but altered neutrophil recruitment, MIP-1α and MIP-2 chemokine expression, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in hamster bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid early after intranasal challenge. These data demonstrate that alveolar macrophages may play a limited protective role early after exposure to aerosolized ANDV but do not directly contribute to hantavirus disease pathogenesis in the hamster model of HPS.IMPORTANCEHantaviruses continue to cause disease worldwide for which there are no FDA-licensed vaccines, effective postexposure prophylactics, or therapeutics. Much of this can be attributed to a poor understanding of the mechanism of hantavirus disease pathogenesis. Hantavirus disease has long been considered an immune-mediated disease; however, by directly manipulating the Syrian hamster model, we continue to eliminate individual immune cell types. As the most numerous immune cells present in the respiratory tract, alveolar macrophages are poised to defend against hantavirus infection, but those antiviral responses may also contribute to hantavirus disease. Here, we demonstrate that, like in our prior T and B cell studies, alveolar macrophages neither prevent hantavirus infection nor cause hantavirus disease. While these studies reflect pathogenesis in the hamster model, they should help us rule out specific cell types and prompt us to consider other potential mechanisms of disease in an effort to improve the outcome of human HPS.

PATH-26. EVALUATING THE DISTRIBUTION AND PROGNOSIS OF IMMUNE CELL SIGNATURES OF THE TUMOR MICRO-ENVIRONMENT IN DIFFUSE GLIOMAS

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi120-vi120
Author(s):  
Bharati Mehani ◽  
Saleembhasha Asanigari ◽  
Hye-Jung Chung ◽  
Kenneth Aldape
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Single Cell ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Tumor Grade ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Idh Mutation ◽  
Mutation Status ◽  
Cluster Analyses ◽  
Diffuse Gliomas ◽  
Cell Expression

Abstract The tumor micro-environment (TME) plays an important role in the biology of cancer, including gliomas. Single cell studies have highlighted the role of specific TME components in gliomas, and the methods to deconvolve bulk profiling data may serve to complement these studies on clinically annotated tumors. In this study, we estimated cell type proportions in 3 large glioma datasets (TCGA, CGGA-325, CGGA-693) using CIBERSORTx. Using a signature matrix comprising 22 immune cell types, we identified IDH mutation status-specific immune cell distributions and found that the proportions of 10 cell types were significantly different between IDHmut and IDHwt tumors across the 3 datasets. Looking further within IDHmut tumors, we found that monocytes were enriched in 1p/19q non-co-deleted tumors across the 3 glioma datasets, consistent with prior single cell studies. We then examined estimated gene expression among immune cell types relative to IDH mutation status and found clear separation of gene expression in 15 of 22 cell types in all 3 datasets. When we applied these 22 gene expression signatures in each tumor sample onto cluster-of-cluster analyses to identify tumor groups with distinct immune signature patterns, we found that samples were distributed largely according to the IDH status in all 3 datasets, confirming that immune cell expression is distinct based on IDH status. Among IDH-specific groups, cluster-of-cluster analyses showed that immune cell-based cluster groups had distinct survival outcomes, and that IDHwt samples were distributed significantly based on tumor grades as well as based on EGFR overexpression. Among IDHmut tumors, the distributions of tumor grade and 1p/19q co-deletion status were significantly different in the immune-based clusters in 2 of the 3 datasets examined. Overall, these results highlight the biological and clinical significance of the immune cell environment in gliomas, including distinctions based on IDH mutation status as well as prognosis within IDH-specific groups.

Abstract P238: Remission/Cure of Autoimmune Diseases by a Lectin Limite Diet Supplemented With Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Polyphenols

Circulation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 137 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven R Gundry
Keyword(s):  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Autoimmune Diseases ◽  
Disease Activity ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Molecular Mimicry ◽  
Intestinal Barrier ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Omega 3 ◽  
Dietary Lectins ◽  
Limited Diet

All autoimmune diseases are highly associated with increased rates of coronary artery and vascular disease secondary to immune cell attack on epithelial cells. The causes of autoimmune disease (AID) seem to be multifactorial. However, the idea that derangement of the microbiome, breaches of the intestinal barrier (leaky gut) and introduction into the human diet of plant defense molecules such as lectins, which are capable of molecular mimicry, prompted our group to investigate the application of a lectin limited diet, coupled with probiotics and prebiotics (The Pant Paradox Protocol) to impact biomarker proven autoimmune disease activity in humans and their impact on endothelial biomarkers of inflammation. One hundred and two consecutive patients with immunoassay markers of autoimmune disease activity, i.e., RF, anti-CCP, ANA, Histone, etc, and signs and symptoms of RA, Lupus, Sjogrens, Crohns, Colitis, Scleroderma, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, and biomarkers of endothelial inflammation, were enrolled into a program of elimination of major dietary lectins, consisting of all grains and pseudo grains, beans and legumes, peanuts, cashews, nightshades, squashes, and Casein A1 milk products (The Plant Paradox Program), supplemented with probiotics and prebiotics including resistant starches and polyphenol supplements. All pts initially low Vit D levels and low Omega 3 index and adiponectin levels above 16mg/dl. Biomarkers of inflammation, hs-CRP, TNF-alpha, IL-6, fibrinogen, myeloperoxidase and autoimmune markers were measured every 3 months. 95/102 patients achieved complete resolution of autoimmune markers and inflammatory markers within 9 months. The other 7/102 patients all had reduced markers, but incomplete resolution. 80/102 patients were weaned from all immunosuppressive and/or biologic medications without rebound. We conclude that a lectin limited diet, supplemented with pro and prebiotics, and polyphenols are capable of curing or putting into remission most autoimmune diseases.

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