Biology subjects

Neunlist, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Neunlist, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

MiBiOmics: An interactive web application for multi-omics data exploration and integration

BackgroundMulti-omics experimental approaches are becoming common practice in biological and medical sciences underlying the need to design new integrative techniques and applications to enable the holistic characterization of biological systems. The integrative analysis of heterogeneous datasets generally allows us to acquire additional insights and generate novel hypotheses about a given biological system. However, it can often become challenging given the large size of omics datasets and the diversity of existing techniques. Moreover, visualization tools for interpretation are usually non-accessible to biologists without programming skills. ResultsHere, we present MiBiOmics, a web-based and standalone application that facilitates multi-omics data visualization, exploration, integration, and analysis by providing easy access to dedicated and interactive protocols. It implements advanced ordination techniques and the inference of omics-based (multi-layer) networks to mine complex biological systems, and identify robust biomarkers linked to specific contextual parameters or biological states. ConclusionsThrough an intuitive and interactive interface, MiBiOmics provides easy-access to ordination techniques and to a network-based approach for integrative multi-omics analyses. MiBiOmics is currently available as a Shiny app at https://shiny-bird.univ-nantes.fr/app/Mibiomics and as a standalone application at https://gitlab.univ-nantes.fr/combi-ls2n/mibiomics.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

Environmental enrichment alleviates the deleterious effects of stress in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Clinical observations support the hypothesis that stressful events increase relapse occurrence in multiple sclerosis patients, while stress-reduction strategies can modulate this effect. However, a direct cause-effect relationship between stress level and relapse cannot be firmly established from these data. The purpose of this work was to address whether modulation of stress could interfere with symptom relapse in an animal model of multiple sclerosis with relapsing-remitting course. We report that repeated acute stress induced a twofold increase in relapse incidence in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. On the other hand, environmental enrichment reduced relapse incidence and severity, and reversed the effects of repeated acute stress. These data provide the platform for further studies on the biological processes that link stress and multiple sclerosis relapses in a suitable animal model.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Tau accumulates in Crohn's disease gut

A sizeable body of evidence has recently emerged to suggest that gastrointestinal inflammation might be involved in the development of Parkinsons disease. There is now strong epidemiological and genetical evidence linking Parkinsons disease to inflammatory bowel diseases and we recently demonstrated that the neuronal protein alpha-synuclein, which is critically involved in Parkinsons disease pathophysiology, is upregulated in inflamed segments of Crohns colon. The microtubule associated protein tau is another neuronal protein critically involved in neurodegenerative disorders but, in contrast to alpha-synuclein, no data are available about its expression and phosphorylation patterns in inflammatory bowel diseases. Here, we examined the expression levels of tau isoforms, their phosphorylation profile and truncation in colon biopsy specimens from 16 Crohns disease and 6 ulcerative colitis patients and compared them to samples from 16 controls. Additional experiments were performed in full thickness segments of colon of 5 Crohns disease and 5 control subjects, in primary cultures of rat enteric neurons and in Nrf2 knockout mice. Our results show the upregulation of two main human tau isoforms in the enteric nervous system in Crohns disease but not in ulcerative colitis. This upregulation was not transcriptionally regulated but instead likely resulted from a decrease in protein clearance via an Nrf2 pathway. Our findings, which provide the first detailed characterization of tau in Crohns disease, suggest that the key proteins involved in neurodegenerative disorders such as alpha-synuclein and tau, might also play a role in Crohns disease.

neuroscience↗