Biology subjects

Peddu, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Peddu, V..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

RNA liquid biopsy via nanopore sequencing for novel biomarker discovery and cancer early detection

Liquid biopsies detect disease noninvasively by profiling cell-free nucleic acids that are secreted into the circulation. However, existing methods exhibit low sensitivity for detecting early stages of diseases such as cancer. Here we show that long-read nanopore sequencing of full-length cell-free RNA in plasma from healthy individuals, precancerous Barretts esophagus patients with high-grade dysplasia, or patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma reveals a diverse cell-free RNA transcriptome that can be leveraged for detecting and treating disease. We discovered 270,679 novel, intergenic cell-free RNAs, which we used to build a custom transcriptome reference for quantification, feature selection, and machine learning to accurately classify both precancer and cancer. Moreover, we found potential therapeutic targets, including metabolic, signaling, and immune checkpoint pathways, that are highly upregulated in both precancer and cancer patients. Our findings highlight the utility of our RNA liquid biopsy platform technology for discovering and targeting early stages of disease with molecular precision.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

Transposable element RNA dysregulation in mutant KRAS(G12C) 3D lung cancer spheroids

Mutant KRAS regulates transposable element (TE) RNA and interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression, but it remains unclear whether diverse mutations in KRAS affect different TE RNAs throughout the genome. We analyzed the transcriptomes of 3D human lung cancer spheroids that harbor KRAS(G12C) mutations to determine the landscape of TE RNAs regulated by mutant KRAS(G12C). We found that KRAS(G12C) signaling is required for the expression of LINE- and LTR-derived TE RNAs that are distinct from TE RNAs previously shown to be regulated by mutant KRAS(G12D) or KRAS(G12V). Moreover, KRAS(G12C) inhibition specifically upregulates SINE-derived TE RNAs from the youngest Alu subfamily AluY. Our results reveal that TE RNA dysregulation in KRAS-driven lung cancer cells is mutation-dependent, while also highlighting a subset of young, Alu-derived TE RNAs that are coordinately activated with innate immunity genes upon KRAS(G12C) inhibition.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

In vivo antiviral host response to SARS-CoV-2 by viral load, sex, and age

Despite limited genomic diversity, SARS-CoV-2 has shown a wide range of clinical manifestations in different patient populations. The mechanisms behind these host differences are still unclear. Here, we examined host response gene expression across infection status, viral load, age, and sex among shotgun RNA-sequencing profiles of nasopharyngeal swabs from 430 individuals with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 and 54 negative controls. SARS-CoV-2 induced a strong antiviral response with upregulation of antiviral factors such as OAS1-3 and IFIT1-3, and Th1 chemokines CXCL9/10/11, as well as a reduction in transcription of ribosomal proteins. SARS-CoV-2 culture in human airway epithelial cultures replicated the in vivo antiviral host response. Patient-matched longitudinal specimens (mean elapsed time = 6.3 days) demonstrated reduction in interferon-induced transcription, recovery of transcription of ribosomal proteins, and initiation of wound healing and humoral immune responses. Expression of interferon-responsive genes, including ACE2, increased as a function of viral load, while transcripts for B cell-specific proteins and neutrophil chemokines were elevated in patients with lower viral load. Older individuals had reduced expression of Th1 chemokines CXCL9/10/11 and their cognate receptor, CXCR3, as well as CD8A and granzyme B, suggesting deficiencies in trafficking and/or function of cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. Relative to females, males had reduced B and NK cell-specific transcripts and an increase in inhibitors of NF-{kappa}B signaling, possibly inappropriately throttling antiviral responses. Collectively, our data demonstrate that host responses to SARS-CoV-2 are dependent on viral load and infection time course, with observed differences due to age and sex that may contribute to disease severity.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Sensitive detection of highly fragmented cytomegalovirus nucleic acid in human cfDNA

Congenital human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections are the leading cause of newborn hearing and central nervous system impairments worldwide. Currently, routine prenatal screening for congenital CMV is not performed in the United States and confirmation in suspected perinatal cases requires invasive sampling by amniocentesis. We hypothesized that detection of CMV from maternal cell-free DNA (cfDNA) plasma could provide a non-invasive indicator of congenital CMV infection. We analyzed sequence data from 2,208 individuals undergoing routine non-invasive prenatal aneuploidy screening at the University of Washington. CMV reads were identified in 117 (5.3%) samples. Positive samples were stratified based on CMV reads per million sample reads (RPM), resulting in ten samples being classified as strong positive (RPM > 0.3) and 107 as intermediate positive (0.01<RPM<0.3). Subsequent qPCR testing identified CMV in 9/10 strong positive samples and 2/32 intermediate positive samples. Median cfDNA insert size derived from CMV was significantly shorter than cfDNA derived from human chromosomes (103 vs 172 bp, p<0.0001), corresponding to the 3rd percentile of human cfDNA insert size. In addition, CMV cfDNA fragment lengths were distributed over a wider range than human cfDNA reads. These studies reveal the highly fragmented nature of CMV cfDNA and offer precise measurements of its length: these features likely explain discrepancies in serum CMV viral loads measurements determined by different qPCR assays, despite widespread efforts to standardize results. More work is required to determine how detection of CMV from maternal cfDNA can be best used as tool for congenital CMV screening or diagnosis.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6 demonstrates tissue-specific RNA expression in vivo that correlates with increased antibody immune response.

Human herpesvirus-6A and 6B (HHV-6A, HHV-6B) are human viruses capable of chromosomal integration. Approximately 1% of the human population carry one copy of HHV-6A/B integrated into every cell in their body, referred to as inherited chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6A/B (iciHHV-6A/B). Whether iciHHV-6A/B is transcriptionally active in vivo and how it shapes the immunological response is still unclear. Here, we screened DNA-Seq and RNA-Seq data for 650 individuals available through the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project and identified 2 iciHHV-6A and 4 iciHHV-6B positive candidates. When corresponding tissue-specific gene expression signatures were analyzed, low levels HHV-6A/B gene expression was found across multiple tissues, with the highest levels of gene expression in the brain (specifically for iciHHV-6A), testis, esophagus, and adrenal gland. U90 and U100 were the most highly expressed HHV-6 genes in both iciHHV-6A and iciHHV-6B individuals. To assess whether tissue-specific gene expression from iciHHV-6A/B influences the immune response, a cohort of 15,498 subjects was screened and 85 iciHHV-6A/B+ subjects were identified. Plasma samples from iciHHV-6A/B+ and age and sex matched controls were analyzed for antibodies to control antigens (CMV, EBV, FLU) or HHV-6A/B antigens. Our results indicate that iciHHV-6A/B+ subjects have significantly more antibodies against the U90 gene product (IE1) relative to non-iciHHV-6 individuals. Antibody responses against EBV and FLU antigens or HHV-6A/B gene products either not expressed or expressed at low levels, such as U47, U57 or U72, were identical between controls and iciHHV-6A/B+ subjects. CMV seropositive individuals with iciHHV-6A/B+ have more antibodies against CMV pp150, relative to CMV seropositive controls. These results argue that spontaneous gene expression from integrated HHV-6A/B leads to an increase in antigenic burden that translates into a more robust HHV-6A/B specific antibody response.\n\nImportanceHHV-6A/B are human herpesviruses that have the unique property of being able to integrate into the subtelomeric regions of human chromosomes. Approximately 1% of the worlds population carries integrated HHV-6A/B genome in every cell of their body. Whether viral genes are transcriptionally active in these individuals is unclear. By taking advantage of a unique tissue-specific gene expression dataset, we show the majority of tissues from iciHHV-6 individuals do not show HHV-6 gene expression. Brain and testes showed the highest tissue-specific expression of HHV-6 genes in two separate datasets. Two HHV-6 genes, U90 (immediate early 1 protein) and U100 (glycoproteins Q1 and Q2), were found to be selectively and consistently expressed across several human tissues. Expression of U90 translates into an increase in antigen-specific antibody response in iciHHV-6A/B+ subjects relative to controls. Future studies will be needed to determine the mechanism of gene expression, the effects of these genes on human gene transcription networks and the pathophysiological impact of having increased viral protein expression in tissue in conjunction with increased antigen-specific antibody production.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2019

Consensus Machine Learning for Gene Target Selection in Pediatric AML Risk

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of hematopoietic systems that poses high population burden, especially among pediatric populations. AML presents with high molecular heterogeneity, complicating patient risk stratification and treatment planning. While molecular and cytogenetic subtypes of AML are well described, significance of subtype-specific gene expression patterns is poorly understood and effective modeling of these patterns with individual algorithms is challenging. Using a novel consensus machine learning approach, we analyzed public RNA-seq and clinical data from pediatric AML patients (N = 137 patients) enrolled in the TARGET project.\n\nWe used a binary risk classifier (Low vs. Not-Low Risk) to study risk-specific expression patterns in pediatric AML. We applied the following workflow to identify important gene targets from RNA-seq data: (1) Reduce data dimensionality by identification of differentially expressed genes for AML risk (N = 1984 loci); (2) Optimize algorithm hyperparameters for each of 4 algorithm types (lasso, XGBoost, random forest, and SVM); (3) Study ablation test results for penalized methods (lasso and XGBoost); (4) Bootstrap Boruta permutations with a novel consensus importance metric.\n\nWe observed recurrently selected features across hyperparameter optimizations, ablation tests, and Boruta permutation bootstrap iterations, including HOXA9 and putative cofactors including MEIS1. Consensus feature selection from Boruta bootstraps identified a larger gene set than single penalized algorithm runs (lasso or XGBoost), while also including correlated and predictive genes from ablation tests.\n\nWe present a consensus machine learning approach to identify gene targets of likely importance for pediatric AML risk. The approach identified a moderately sized set of recurrent important genes from across 4 algorithm types, including genes identified across ablation tests with penalized algorithms (HOXA9 and MEIS1). Our approach mitigates exclusion biases of penalized algorithms (lasso and XGBoost) while obviating arbitrary importance cutoffs for other types (SVM and random forest). This approach is readily generalizable for research of other heterogeneous diseases, single-assay experiments, and high-dimensional data. Resources and code to recreate our findings are available online.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2018

RNA sequencing of the in vivo human herpesvirus 6B transcriptome to identify targets for clinical assays distinguishing between latent and active infections

Human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) DNA is frequently detected in human samples, especially after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Diagnostic assays distinguishing HHV-6B reactivation from latency are limited, and this has contributed to confusion in research and made the design of clinical approaches to diagnose and treat HHV-6-associated diseases challenging. We used RNA sequencing to characterize and compare the HHV-6B transcriptome in multiple in vivo and in vitro sample types, including 1) whole blood from HCT recipients with and without HHV-6B plasma viremia; 2) tumor tissue samples from subjects with large B cell lymphoma infected with HHV-6B; 3) lymphoblastoid cell lines from subjects with inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6B or latent infection with HHV-6B; and 4) HHV-6B Z29 infected SupT1 CD4+ T cells. We demonstrated substantial overlap in the HHV-6B transcriptome observed in in vivo and in vitro samples, although there was variability in the breadth and quantity of gene expression across samples. No HHV-6B transcripts were detected in whole blood samples from subjects without plasma HHV-6B viremia. The HHV-6B viral polymerase gene U38 was the only HHV-6B transcript detected in all RNA-seq data sets and was one of the most highly expressed genes. Using a novel reverse transcription PCR assay targeting HHV-6B U38, we identified U38 messenger RNA in all tested whole blood samples from patients with concurrent HHV-6B viremia, indicating its utility as a diagnostic assay for HHV-6B replication. This study demonstrates the feasibility of pathogen transcriptome analyses in HCT recipients to identify better targets for diagnostic, and potentially therapeutic, applications.\n\nIMPORTANCEInfection with human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B), a DNA virus, occurs early in life, results in chronic viral latency in diverse cell types, and affects the population at large. Additionally, HHV- 6B can integrate into germline chromosomes, resulting in individuals with viral DNA in every nucleated cell. Given that PCR to detect viral DNA is the mainstay for diagnosing HHV-6B infection, the characteristics of HHV-6B infection complicate efforts to distinguish between latent and active viral infection, particularly in immunocompromised patients who have frequent HHV- 6B reactivation. In this study, we used RNA sequencing to characterize the HHV-6B gene expression profile in multiple sample types, and our findings identified evidence-based targets for diagnostic tests that distinguish between latent and active viral infection.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Genomic and proteomic analysis of Human herpesvirus 6 reveals distinct clustering of acute versus inherited forms and reannotation of reference strain

Human herpesvirus-6A and -6B (HHV-6) are betaherpesviruses that reach >90% seroprevalence in the adult population. Unique among human herpesviruses, HHV-6 can integrate into the subtelomeric regions of human chromosomes; when this occurs in germ line cells it causes a condition called inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (iciHHV-6). To date, only two complete genomes are available for HHV-6B. Using a custom capture panel for HHV-6B, we report near-complete genomes from 61 isolates of HHV-6B from active infections (20 from Japan, 35 from New York state, and 6 from Uganda), and 64 strains of iciHHV-6B (mostly from North America). We also report partial genome sequences from 10 strains of iciHHV-6A. Although the overall sequence diversity of HHV-6 is limited relative to other human herpesviruses, our sequencing identified geographical clustering of HHV-6B sequences from active infections, as well as evidence of recombination among HHV-6B strains. One strain of active HHV-6B was more divergent than any other HHV-6B previously sequenced. In contrast to the active infections, sequences from iciHHV-6 cases showed reduced sequence diversity. Strikingly, multiple iciHHV-6B sequences from unrelated individuals were found to be completely identical, consistent with a founder effect. However, several iciHHV-6B strains intermingled with strains from active pediatric infection, consistent with the hypothesis that intermittent de novo integration into host germline cells can occur during active infection Comparative genomic analysis of the newly sequenced strains revealed numerous instances where conflicting annotations between the two existing reference genomes could be resolved. Combining these findings with transcriptome sequencing and shotgun proteomics, we reannotated the HHV-6B genome and found multiple instances of novel splicing and genes that hitherto had gone unannotated. The results presented here constitute a significant genomic resource for future studies on the detection, diversity, and control of HHV-6.\n\nAuthor SummaryHHV-6 is a ubiquitous large DNA virus that is the most common cause of febrile seizures and reactivates in allogeneic stem cell patients. It also has the unique ability among human herpesviruses to be integrated into the genome of every cell via integration in the germ line, a condition called inherited chromosomally integrated (ici)HHV-6, which affects approximately 1% of the population. To date, very little is known about the comparative genomics of HHV-6. We sequenced 61 isolates of HHV-6B from active infections, 64 strains of iciHHV-6B, and 10 strains of iciHHV-6A. We found geographic clustering of HHV-6B strains from active infections. In contrast, iciHHV-6B had reduced sequence diversity, with many identical sequences of iciHHV-6 found in individuals not known to share recent common ancestry, consistent with a founder effect from a remote common ancestor with iciHHV-6. We also combined our genomic analysis with transcriptome sequencing and shotgun proteomics to correct previous misannotations of the HHV-6 genome.

microbiology↗