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Manoochehrabadi S, Arsang-Jang S, Mazdeh M, Inoko H, Sayad A, Taheri M. Analysis of STAT1, STAT2 and STAT3 mRNA expression levels in the blood of patients with multiple sclerosis. Hum Antibodies 2019; 27:91-98. [PMID: 30412483 DOI: 10.3233/hab-180352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) maintained by the secretion of a large number of cytokines [1]. The signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family has an essential role in transmitting many of the cytokine-mediated signals and failure in the signaling process contributes to the etiopathogenesis of MS. METHODS This study aimed to assess STAT1, STAT2 and STAT3 gene expression in the blood of 50 relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS) patients and 50 healthy controls by TaqMan Quantitative Real-Time PCR. RESULTS The results showed that STAT1 gene expression was significantly up-regulated (p= 0.023), whereas STAT2 gene expression was significantly down-regulated (p< 0.0001) in MS patients compared to controls. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between MS patients and controls for STAT3 gene expression (p= 0.837). In addition, there was no significant correlation between the expression of STAT1, STAT2, STAT3 genes and clinical findings, such as the level of physical disability in MS patients (according to the Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) criterion) and disease duration. CONCLUSION A significant positive correlation was demonstrated between STAT1 and STAT2 and also between STAT1 and STAT3. This study shows for the first time that a comparison of the relative quantitative expression of three different STAT genes in the blood cells of MS patients compared to controls revealed marked differences in the expression of the STAT family genes that might reflect their different roles in the pathogenesis of MS. These transcripts might be useful biomarkers for evaluating the efficacy of IFN treatment of the MS patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saba Manoochehrabadi
- Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Shahram Arsang-Jang
- Clinical Research Development Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
| | - Mehrdokht Mazdeh
- Neurophysiology Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.,Department of Neurology, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
| | - Hidetoshi Inoko
- Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Japan.,Genodive Pharma Inc., Atsugi, Japan
| | - Arezou Sayad
- Department of Medical Genetics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Taheri
- Student Research Committee, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.,Urogenital Stem Cell Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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3
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Li G, Diogo D, Wu D, Spoonamore J, Dancik V, Franke L, Kurreeman F, Rossin EJ, Duclos G, Hartland C, Zhou X, Li K, Liu J, De Jager PL, Siminovitch KA, Zhernakova A, Raychaudhuri S, Bowes J, Eyre S, Padyukov L, Gregersen PK, Worthington J, Gupta N, Clemons PA, Stahl E, Tolliday N, Plenge RM. Human genetics in rheumatoid arthritis guides a high-throughput drug screen of the CD40 signaling pathway. PLoS Genet 2013; 9:e1003487. [PMID: 23696745 PMCID: PMC3656093 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2013] [Accepted: 03/15/2013] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Although genetic and non-genetic studies in mouse and human implicate the CD40 pathway in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are no approved drugs that inhibit CD40 signaling for clinical care in RA or any other disease. Here, we sought to understand the biological consequences of a CD40 risk variant in RA discovered by a previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) and to perform a high-throughput drug screen for modulators of CD40 signaling based on human genetic findings. First, we fine-map the CD40 risk locus in 7,222 seropositive RA patients and 15,870 controls, together with deep sequencing of CD40 coding exons in 500 RA cases and 650 controls, to identify a single SNP that explains the entire signal of association (rs4810485, P = 1.4×10−9). Second, we demonstrate that subjects homozygous for the RA risk allele have ∼33% more CD40 on the surface of primary human CD19+ B lymphocytes than subjects homozygous for the non-risk allele (P = 10−9), a finding corroborated by expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 1,469 healthy control individuals. Third, we use retroviral shRNA infection to perturb the amount of CD40 on the surface of a human B lymphocyte cell line (BL2) and observe a direct correlation between amount of CD40 protein and phosphorylation of RelA (p65), a subunit of the NF-κB transcription factor. Finally, we develop a high-throughput NF-κB luciferase reporter assay in BL2 cells activated with trimerized CD40 ligand (tCD40L) and conduct an HTS of 1,982 chemical compounds and FDA–approved drugs. After a series of counter-screens and testing in primary human CD19+ B cells, we identify 2 novel chemical inhibitors not previously implicated in inflammation or CD40-mediated NF-κB signaling. Our study demonstrates proof-of-concept that human genetics can be used to guide the development of phenotype-based, high-throughput small-molecule screens to identify potential novel therapies in complex traits such as RA. A current challenge in human genetics is to follow-up “hits” from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to guide drug discovery for complex traits. Previously, we identified a common variant in the CD40 locus as associated with risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, we fine-map the CD40 signal of association through a combination of dense genotyping and exonic sequencing in large patient collections. Further, we demonstrate that the RA risk allele is a gain-of-function allele that increases the amount of CD40 on the surface of primary human B lymphocyte cells from healthy control individuals. Based on these observations, we develop a high-throughput assay to recapitulate the biology of the RA risk allele in a system suitable for a small molecule drug screen. After a series of primary screens and counter screens, we identify small molecules that inhibit CD40-mediated NF-kB signaling in human B cells. While this is only the first step towards a more comprehensive effort to identify CD40-specific inhibitors that may be used to treat RA, our study demonstrates a successful strategy to progress from a GWAS to a drug screen for complex traits such as RA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang Li
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Dorothée Diogo
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Di Wu
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Jim Spoonamore
- Chemical Biology Platform, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Vlado Dancik
- Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Lude Franke
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Fina Kurreeman
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth J. Rossin
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, Health Sciences and Technology Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Analytical and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Grant Duclos
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Cathy Hartland
- Chemical Biology Platform, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Xuezhong Zhou
- School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
| | - Kejie Li
- Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Jun Liu
- Department of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Philip L. De Jager
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Program in Translational NeuroPsychiatric Genomics, Institute for the Neurosciences Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Katherine A. Siminovitch
- Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Mount Sinai Hospital, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Alexandra Zhernakova
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Soumya Raychaudhuri
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - John Bowes
- Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, Musculoskeletal Research Group, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
- NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Steve Eyre
- Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, Musculoskeletal Research Group, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
- NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Leonid Padyukov
- Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Peter K. Gregersen
- The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System, Manhasset, New York, United States of America
| | - Jane Worthington
- Arthritis Research UK Epidemiology Unit, Musculoskeletal Research Group, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
- NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | | | - Namrata Gupta
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Paul A. Clemons
- Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Eli Stahl
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Nicola Tolliday
- Chemical Biology Platform, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Robert M. Plenge
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Allergy and Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Medical and Population Genetics Program, Chemical Biology Program, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Cagliani R, Riva S, Pozzoli U, Fumagalli M, Comi GP, Bresolin N, Clerici M, Sironi M. Balancing selection is common in the extended MHC region but most alleles with opposite risk profile for autoimmune diseases are neutrally evolving. BMC Evol Biol 2011; 11:171. [PMID: 21682861 PMCID: PMC3141431 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2011] [Accepted: 06/17/2011] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Several susceptibility genetic variants for autoimmune diseases have been identified. A subset of these polymorphisms displays an opposite risk profile in different autoimmune conditions. This observation open interesting questions on the evolutionary forces shaping the frequency of these alleles in human populations. We aimed at testing the hypothesis whereby balancing selection has shaped the frequency of opposite risk alleles. Results Since balancing selection signatures are expected to extend over short genomic portions, we focused our analyses on 11 regions carrying putative functional polymorphisms that may represent the disease variants (and the selection targets). No exceptional nucleotide diversity was observed for ZSCAN23, HLA-DMB, VARS2, PTPN22, BAT3, C6orf47, and IL10; summary statistics were consistent with evolutionary neutrality for these gene regions. Conversely, CDSN/PSORS1C1, TRIM10/TRIM40, BTNL2, and TAP2 showed extremely high nucleotide diversity and most tests rejected neutrality, suggesting the action of balancing selection. For TAP2 and BTNL2 these signatures are not secondary to linkage disequilibrium with HLA class II genes. Nonetheless, with the exception of variants in TRIM40 and CDSN, our data suggest that opposite risk SNPs are not selection targets but rather have accumulated as neutral variants. Conclusion Data herein indicate that balancing selection is common within the extended MHC region and involves several non-HLA loci. Yet, the evolutionary history of most SNPs with an opposite effect for autoimmune diseases is consistent with evolutionary neutrality. We suggest that variants with an opposite effect on autoimmune diseases should not be considered a distinct class of disease alleles from the evolutionary perspective and, in a few cases, the opposite effect on distinct diseases may derive from complex haplotype structures in regions with high genetic diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachele Cagliani
- Scientific Institute IRCCS E, Medea, 23842 Bosisio Parini, LC, Italy
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