Biology subjects

Zhou, W.

Publications and source records attributed to Zhou, W..

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Comparative genetic architectures of schizophrenia in East Asian and European populations

Author summarySchizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with a lifetime risk of about 1% world-wide. Most large schizophrenia genetic studies have studied people of primarily European ancestry, potentially missing important biological insights. Here we present a study of East Asian participants (22,778 schizophrenia cases and 35,362 controls), identifying 21 genome-wide significant schizophrenia associations in 19 genetic loci. Over the genome, the common genetic variants that confer risk for schizophrenia have highly similar effects in those of East Asian and European ancestry (rg=0.98), indicating for the first time that the genetic basis of schizophrenia and its biology are broadly shared across these world populations. A fixed-effect meta-analysis including individuals from East Asian and European ancestries revealed 208 genome-wide significant schizophrenia associations in 176 genetic loci (53 novel). Trans-ancestry fine-mapping more precisely isolated schizophrenia causal alleles in 70% of these loci. Despite consistent genetic effects across populations, polygenic risk models trained in one population have reduced performance in the other, highlighting the importance of including all major ancestral groups with sufficient sample size to ensure the findings have maximum relevance for all populations.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

DIAlign provides precise retention time alignment across distant runs in DIA and targeted proteomics

SWATH-MS has been widely used for proteomics analysis given its high-throughput and reproducibility but ensuring consistent quantification of analytes across large-scale studies of heterogeneous samples such as human-plasma remains challenging. Heterogeneity in large-scale studies can be caused by large time intervals between data-acquisition, acquisition by different operators or instruments, intermittent repair or replacement of parts, such as the liquid chromatography column, all of which affect retention time (RT) reproducibility and successively performance of SWATH-MS data analysis. Here, we present a novel algorithm for retention time alignment of SWATH-MS data based on direct alignment of raw MS2 chromatograms using a hybrid dynamic programming approach. The algorithm does not impose a chronological order of elution and allows for alignment of elution-order swapped peaks. Furthermore, allowing RT-mapping in a certain window around coarse global fit makes it robust against noise. On a manually validated dataset, this strategy outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches. In addition, on a real-world clinical data, our approach outperforms global alignment methods by mapping 98% of peaks compared to 67% cumulatively and DIAlignR can reduce alignment error up to 30-fold for extremely distant runs. The robustness of technical parameters used in this pairwise alignment strategy has also been demonstrated. The source code is released under the BSD license at https://github.com/Roestlab/DIAlignR.\n\nAbbreviations\n\nData AvailabilityRaw chromatograms and features extracted by OpenSWATH are available on PeptideAtlas.\n\nServername: ftp.peptideatlas.org\n\nUsername: PASS01280\n\nPassword: KQ2592b

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2018

Gating TrkB switch by methylglyoxal enables GLO1 as a target for depression

The endogenous metabolite methylglyoxal (MGO) has recently emerged as a potential mediator of psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, but its precise mechanism of action remains poorly understood. Here, we find that MGO concentrations are decreased in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in rats subjected to chronic stress, and low-dose MGO treatment remarkedly enhances resilience to stress and alleviates depression-like symptoms. This effect is achieved by MGOs promotion on the synaptic plasticity in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments show that MGO provokes the dimerization and autophosphorylation of TrkB and the subsequent activation of downstream Akt/CREB signaling, which leads to a rapid and sustained expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We further demonstrate that MGO directly binds to the extracellular domain of TrkB, but not its intracellular domain. In addition, we also identify a natural product luteolin and its derivative lutD as potent inhibitors of Glyoxalase 1 and validate their antidepressant effects in chronic stress rat models. The antidepressant role of endogenous MGO provides a new basis for the understanding and therapeutic intervention design for stress-associated mental disorders.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

5-Hydroxymethylcytosines from Circulating Cell-free DNA as Diagnostic and Prognostic Markers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The lack of highly sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers is a major contributor to the poor outcomes of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the second-most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. We sought to develop a clinically convenient and minimally-invasive approach that can be deployed at scale for the sensitive, specific, and highly reliable diagnosis of HCC, and to evaluate the potential prognostic value of this approach. The study cohort comprised of 2,728 subjects, including HCC patients (n = 1,208), controls (n = 965) (572 healthy individuals and 393 patients with benign lesions), as well as patients with chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB) (n =291), liver cirrhosis (LC) (n = 110), and cholangiocarcinoma (CCC) (n = 154), was recruited from three major liver cancer hospitals in Shanghai, China, from July 2016 to November 2017. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) were collected from plasma samples from these individuals before surgery or any radical treatment. Applying our 5hmC-Seal technique, the summarized 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) profiles in cfDNA were obtained. Molecular annotation analysis suggested that the profiled 5hmC loci in cfDNA were enriched with liver tissue-derived regulatory markers (e.g., H3K4me1). We showed that a weighted diagnostic score (wd-score) based on 117 genes detected using the summarized 5hmC profiles in cfDNA accurately distinguished HCC patients from controls (AUC = 95.1%; 95% CI, 93.6-96.5%) in the validation set, markedly outperformed -fetoprotein (AFP) with superior sensitivity. The wd-scores, which not only detected early BCLC stages (e.g., Stage 0: AUC = 96.2%; 95% CI,94.1-98.4%) and small tumors (e.g., < 2 cm: AUC = 95.7%; 95% CI: 93.6-97.7%), also showed high capacity for distinguishing HCC from non-cancer patients with CHB/LC (AUC = 80.2%; 95% CI, 75.8-84.6%). Moreover, the prognostic value of 5hmC markers in cfDNA was evaluated for HCC recurrence, showing that a weighted prognostic score (wp-score) based on 16 marker genes predicted the recurrence risk (HR = 6.67; 95% CI, 2.81-15.82, p < 0.0001) in 555 patients who have been followed up after surgery. In conclusion, we have developed and validated a robust 5hmC-based diagnostic model that can be applied routinely with clinically feasible amount of cfDNA (e.g., from ~2-5 mL of plasma). Applying this new approach in the clinic could significantly improve the clinical outcomes of HCC patients, for example by early detection of those patients with surgically resectable tumors or as a convenient disease surveillance tool for recurrence.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Sex-specific and pleiotropic effects underlying kidney function identified from GWAS meta-analysis

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a growing health burden currently affecting 10-15% of adults worldwide. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) as a marker of kidney function is commonly used to diagnose CKD. Previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses of CKD and eGFR or related phenotypes have identified a number of variants associated with kidney function, but these only explain a fraction of the variability in kidney phenotypes attributed to genetic components. To extend these studies, we analyzed data from the Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT), which is more densely imputed than previous studies, and performed a GWAS meta-analysis of eGFR with publicly available summary statistics, more than doubling the sample size of previous meta-analyses. We identified 147 loci (53 novel loci) associated with eGFR, including genes involved in transcriptional regulation, kidney development, cellular signaling, metabolism, and solute transport. Moreover, genes at these loci show enriched expression in urogenital tissues and highlight gene sets known to play a role in kidney function. In addition, sex-stratified analysis identified three regions (prioritized genes: PPM1J, MCL1, and SLC47A1) with more significant effects in women than men. Using genetic risk scores constructed from these eGFR meta-analysis results, we show that associated variants are generally predictive of CKD but improve detection only modestly compared with other known clinical risk factors. Collectively, these results yield additional insight into the genetic factors underlying kidney function and progression to CKD.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

Comprehensive analysis of immune evasion in breast cancer by single-cell RNA-seq

The tumor microenvironment is composed of numerous cell types, including tumor, immune and stromal cells. Cancer cells interact with the tumor microenvironment to suppress anticancer immunity. In this study, we molecularly dissected the tumor microenvironment of breast cancer by single-cell RNA-seq. We profiled the breast cancer tumor microenvironment by analyzing the single-cell transcriptomes of 52,163 cells from the tumor tissues of 15 breast cancer patients. The tumor cells and immune cells from individual patients were analyzed simultaneously at the single-cell level. This study explores the diversity of the cell types in the tumor microenvironment and provides information on the mechanisms of escape from clearance by immune cells in breast cancer.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryLandscape of tumor cells and immune cells in breast cancer by single cell RNA-seq

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Endoplasmic reticulum stress may activate NLRP3 inflammasomes via TXNIP in preeclampsia

Preeclampsia (PE) development is often associated with placental immune and inflammatory dysregulation, as well as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. However, the mechanisms linking ER stress and inflammatory dysregulation to PE have not been clarified. It has been reported that thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP), which can bind with and activate the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, plays a critical role in immune regulation. Recent experimental evidence suggests that activated NLRP3 inflammasomes can activate interleukin-1{beta} (IL-1{beta}) production in the placenta of patients with PE. The objective of the current study was to explore if TXNIP plays a critical signaling role linking ER stress with NLRP3 inflammasome activation in PE. We hypothesised that ER stress would induce TXNIP production, which would bind with NLRP3 inflammasomes to activate IL-1{beta} production. HTR8/SVneo cells were subjected to six hours hypoxia followed by six hours reoxygenation (H/R). These cells showed a higher protein level of NLRP3 and IL-1{beta}, as well as a higher enzymatic activity of caspase-1, indicating enhanced inflammatory dysregulation and ER stress. Cells transfected with TXNIP siRNA showed reduced NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Cells treated with 4-phenylbutyric acid, an inhibitor of ER stress, showed a similar result. In addition, the outgrowth of explant with TXNIP lentivirus in H/R or Tunicamycin (inducers of ER stress) was also measured to verify our hypothesis. These findings demonstrated that TXNIP could influence inflammatory dysregulation by mediating ER stress and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in PE. This novel mechanism may further explain the inflammation observed at the maternal-fetal interface, which leads to placental dysfunction in a patient with PE.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2018

The reduced prevalence of macrolide resistance in Mycoplasma pneumoniae clinical isolates from pediatric patients in Beijing in 2016

Older children especially from seven to thirteen years old are more prone to develop Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection; in winter children are more susceptible to infect with MP. In Beijing, China in 2016 the rates of macrolide resistance of MP were 69.48% (in total children), 61.59% (in outpatients) and 79.28% (in hospitalized patients), respectively. All the macrolide resistant isolates harbored A2063G or A2064G mutation in the 23S rRNA gene. Seven isolates showed a mixed infection. Susceptibility results showed that 73 isolates with the A2063G mutation demonstrated different levels resistance to erythromycin (MIC=8 to>256g/ml), azithromycin (MIC=8 to>64g/ml) and josamycin (MIC=2 to 8g/ml). No cross-resistance was observed in the in the antibiotics of levofloxacin and tetracycline against MP.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2018

Identification of Common Adulterants in Walnut Beverage Based on Plant DNA Barcode Technology

Walnut beverage is a common vegetable protein drink that is rich in proteins and has a wide consumption market. In this study, a plant DNA barcode technology was used to establish a method to identify common adulterated ingredients (peanut and soybean) in walnut beverage. In this experiment, universal primers were designed, and PCR amplification was performed. The universal primers were screened by sequencing and comparing the amplified products. Results showed that the primers rbcL-4 and matK-4 amplified walnut, peanut, sesame, soybean, and hazelnut. Peanut genomic DNA and soybean genomic DNA were added to the genomic DNA of walnut in different proportions. Primer rbcL-4 can detect 10% peanut genome DNA, and primer matK-4 can detect 10% soybean genome DNA. Calculation results of the extraction rate revealed that primer rbcL-4 can detect 8.88% peanut raw materials and primer matK-4 can detect 2.30% soybean raw materials. The combination of these two primers can be used as a universal primer for the identification of adulterated components in walnut beverage. This experiment could serve as a theoretical reference for related research and detection.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Dynamics and spatial genomics of the nascent transcriptome in single mESCs by intron seqFISH

Recent single cell experiments have revealed significant heterogeneities at the levels of transcription, DNA methylation and chromosome organization in individual cells. However, existing method of profiling mRNAs effectively averages transcriptional dynamics over many hours due to hours-long life time of most mRNAs. To capture the instantaneous activity of the transcriptome that reflects the rapid regulatory changes in cells, we imaged up to 10,421 nascent transcription active sites (TAS) in single mouse embryonic stem cells using seqFISH followed by multiple rounds of single molecule FISH and immunofluorescence. We observed that nascent transcription active sites appear to be distributed on the surface of individual chromosome territories and are dispersed throughout the nucleus. In addition, there are significant variability in the number of active transcription sites in single cells, representing globally more active to quiescent states. These states interconverted on the time scale of 2 hours as determined by a single cell pulse-chase experiment. Thus, transcriptome level seqFISH experiments provide an unprecedented spatial and dynamic view of chromosome organization and global nascent transcription activity in single cells.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Evidence of a common causal relationship between body mass index and inflammatory skin disease: a Mendelian Randomization study

ObjectivePsoriasis and eczema are common inflammatory skin diseases that have been reported to be associated with obesity. However, causality has not yet been established. We aimed to investigate the possible causal relationship between body mass index (BMI) and psoriasis or eczema.\n\nMethodsFollowing a review of published epidemiological evidence of the association between obesity and either psoriasis or eczema, Mendelian Randomization (MR) was used to test for a causal relationship between BMI and these inflammatory skin conditions. We used a genetic instrument comprising 97 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMI. One-sample MR was conducted using individual-level data (401,508 individuals) from the UK Biobank and the Nord-Trondelag Health Study (HUNT), Norway. Two-sample MR was performed with summary-level data (731,021 individuals) from published BMI, psoriasis and eczema GWAS. The one-sample and two-sample MR estimates were meta-analysed using a fixed effect model. To explore the reverse causal direction, MR analysis with genetic instruments comprising variants from recent genome-wide analyses for psoriasis and eczema were used to test if inflammatory skin disease has a causal effect on BMI.\n\nResultsPublished observational data show an association of greater BMI with both psoriasis and eczema case status. The observational associations were confirmed in UK Biobank and HUNT datasets. MR analyses provide evidence that higher BMI causally increases the odds of psoriasis (by 53% per 5 units higher BMI; OR= 1.09 (1.06 to 1.12) per 1 kg/m2; P=4.67x10-9) and eczema (by 8% per 5 units higher BMI; OR=1.02 (1.00 to 1.03) per 1 kg/m2; P=0.09). When investigating causality in the opposite direction, MR estimates provide little evidence for an effect of either psoriasis or eczema influencing BMI.\n\nConclusionOur study, using genetic variants as instrumental variables for BMI, shows that higher BMI leads to a higher risk of inflammatory skin disease. The causal relationship was stronger for psoriasis than eczema. Therapies and life-style interventions aimed at controlling BMI or targeting the mechanisms linking obesity with skin inflammation may offer an opportunity for the prevention or treatment of these common skin diseases.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2018

Genome-wide association study of 1 million people identifies 111 loci for atrial fibrillation

To understand the genetic variation underlying atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of > 1 million people, including 60,620 AF cases and 970,216 controls. We identified 163 independent risk variants at 111 loci and prioritized 165 candidate genes likely to be involved in AF. Many of the identified risk variants fall near genes where more deleterious mutations have been reported to cause serious heart defects in humans or mice (MYH6, NKX2-5, PITX2, TBC1D32, TBX5),1,2 or near genes important for striated muscle function and integrity (e.g. MYH7, PKP2, SSPN, SGCA). Experiments in rabbits with heart failure and left atrial dilation identified a heterogeneous distributed molecular switch from MYH6 to MYH7 in the left atrium, which resulted in contractile and functional heterogeneity and may predispose to initiation and maintenance of atrial arrhythmia.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2017

TORC1 inhibition as an immunotherapy to reduce infections in the elderly

mTOR inhibition extends lifespan and ameliorates aging-related pathologies including declining immune function in model organisms. The objective of this Phase 2a clinical trial was to determine if low dose mTOR inhibitor therapy enhanced immune function and thereby decreased infection rates in elderly subjects. The results indicate that 6 weeks of treatment with a low dose combination of a catalytic (BEZ235) plus an allosteric (RAD001) mTOR inhibitor (that selectively inhibits TORC1 downstream of mTOR) was safe, significantly decreased the rate of infections reported by elderly subjects for a year following study drug initiation, upregulated antiviral gene expression, and significantly improved influenza vaccination response. Thus selective TORC1 inhibition with a combination of BEZ235 and RAD001 may be efficacious as immunotherapy to reduce infections, a leading cause of death in the elderly.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryTreatment of elderly subjects with a low dose mTOR inhibitor regimen that selectively inhibits TORC1 significantly decreased infection rates

clinical trials↗

bioRxiv2017

ReprDB and panDB: minimalist databases with maximal microbial representation

BackgroundProfiling of shotgun metagenomic samples is hindered by a lack of unified microbial reference genome databases that i) assemble genomic information from all open access microbial genomes, ii) have relatively small sizes, and iii) are compatible to various metagenomic read mapping tools. Moreover, computational tools to rapidly compile and update such databases to accommodate the rapid increase in new reference genomes do not exist. As a result, database-guided analyses often fail to profile a substantial fraction of metagenomic shotgun sequencing reads from complex microbiomes.\n\nResultsWe report pipelines that efficiently traverse all open access microbial genomes and assemble non-redundant genomic information. The pipelines result in two species-resolution microbial reference databases of relatively small sizes: reprDB, which assembles microbial representative or reference genomes, and panDB, for which we developed a novel iterative alignment algorithm to identify and assemble non-redundant genomic regions in multiple sequenced strains. With the databases, we managed to assign taxonomic labels and genome positions to the majority of metagenomic reads from human skin and gut microbiomes, demonstrating a significant improvement over a previous database-guided analysis on the same datasets.\n\nConclusionsreprDB and panDB leverage the rapid increases in the number of open access microbial genomes to more fully profile metagenomic samples. Additionally, the databases exclude redundant sequence information to avoid inflated storage or memory space and indexing or analyses time. Finally, the novel iterative alignment algorithm significantly increases efficiency in pan-genome identification and can be useful in comparative genomic analyses.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2017

Genome-wide analysis yields new loci associating with aortic valve stenosis

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease, characterized by a thickened and calcified valve causing left ventricular outflow obstruction. Severe AS is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, affecting approximately 5% of those over 70 years of age1,2,3. Little is known about the genetics of AS, although recently a variant at the LPA locus4 and a rare MYH6 missense variant were found to associate with AS5. We report a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) with a follow-up in up to 7,307 AS cases and 801,073 controls. We identified two new AS loci, on chromosome 1p21 near PALMD (rs7543130; OR=1.20, P=1.2x10-22) and on chromosome 2q22 in TEX41 (rs1830321; OR=1.15, P=1.8x10-13). Rs7543130 also associates with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) (OR=1.28, P=6.6x10-10) and aortic root diameter (P=1.30x10-8) and rs1830321 associates with BAV (OR=1.12, P=5.3x10-3 and coronary artery disease (CAD) (OR=1.05, P=9.3x10-5). These results indicate that AS is partly rooted in the same processes as cardiac development and atherosclerosis.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2017

Efficiently controlling for case-control imbalance and sample relatedness in large-scale genetic association studies

In genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for thousands of phenotypes in large biobanks, most binary traits have substantially fewer cases than controls. Both of the widely used approaches, linear mixed model and the recently proposed logistic mixed model, perform poorly - producing large type I error rates - in the analysis of phenotypes with unbalanced case-control ratios. Here we propose a scalable and accurate generalized mixed model association test that uses the saddlepoint approximation (SPA) to calibrate the distribution of score test statistics. This method, SAIGE, provides accurate p-values even when case-control ratios are extremely unbalanced. It utilizes state-of-art optimization strategies to reduce computational time and memory cost of generalized mixed model. The computation cost linearly depends on sample size, and hence can be applicable to GWAS for thousands of phenotypes by large biobanks. Through the analysis of UK Biobank data of 408,961 white British European-ancestry samples for >1400 binary phenotypes, we show that SAIGE can efficiently analyze large sample data, controlling for unbalanced case-control ratios and sample relatedness.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Sex differences in gene regulation in the dorsal root ganglion after nerve injury

Pain is a subjective experience derived from complex interactions among biological, environmental, and psychosocial pathways. Sex differences in pain sensitivity and chronic pain prevalence are well established. However, the molecular causes underlying these sex dimorphisms are poorly understood particularly with regard to the role of the peripheral nervous system. Here we sought to identify shared and distinct gene networks functioning in the peripheral nervous systems that may contribute to sex differences of pain after nerve injury. We performed RNA-seq on dorsal root ganglia following chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve in male and female rats. Analysis from paired naive and injured tissues showed that 1456 genes were differentially expressed between sexes. Appreciating sex-related gene expression differences and similarities in neuropathic pain models may help to improve the translational relevance to clinical populations and efficacy of clinical trials of this major health issue.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

High Frequency Actionable Pathogenic Exome Mutations in an Average-Risk Cohort

Whole exome sequencing (WES) is increasingly utilized in both clinical and non-clinical settings, but little is known about the utility of WES in healthy individuals. In order to determine the frequency of both medically actionable and non-actionable but medically relevant exome findings in the general population we assessed the exomes of 70 participants who have been extensively characterized over the past several years as part of a longitudinal integrated multi-omics profiling study at Stanford University. We assessed exomes for rare likely pathogenic and pathogenic variants in genes associated with Mendelian disease in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database. We used American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) guidelines were used for the classification of rare sequence variants, and additionally we assessed pharmacogenetic variants. Twelve out of 70 (17%) participants had medically actionable findings in Mendelian disease genes, including 6 (9%) with mutations in genes not currently included in the ACMGs list of 59 actionable genes. This number is higher than that reported in previous studies and suggests added benefit from utilizing expanded gene lists and manual curation to assess actionable findings. A total of 60 participants (89%) had non-actionable findings identified including 57 who were found to be mutation carriers for recessive diseases and 21 who have increased Alzheimers disease risk due to heterozyg ous or homozygous APOE e4 alleles (18 participants had both). These results suggest that exome sequencing may have considerably more utility for health management in the general population than previously thought.

genomics↗