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Evans TA, Feltrin AS, Benjamin KJ, Katipalli T, Hyde T, Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR, Paquola AC, Erwin JA. Lifespan analysis of repeat expression reveals age-dependent upregulation of HERV-K in the neurotypical human brain. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.05.17.24307184. [PMID: 38798538 PMCID: PMC11118647 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.17.24307184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
DNA repetitive sequences (or repeats) comprise over 50% of the human genome and have a crucial regulatory role, specifically regulating transcription machinery. The human brain is the tissue with the highest detectable repeat expression and dysregulations on the repeat activity are related to several neurological and neurodegenerative disorders, as repeat-derived products can stimulate a pro-inflammatory response. Even so, it is unclear how repeat expression acts on the aging neurotypical brain. Here, we leverage a large postmortem transcriptome cohort spanning the human lifespan to assess global repeat expression in the neurotypical brain. We identified 21,696 differentially expressed repeats (DERs) that varied across seven age bins (Prenatal; 0-15; 16-29; 30-39; 40-49; 50-59; 60+) across the caudate nucleus (n=271), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (n=304), and hippocampus (n=310). Interestingly, we found that long interspersed nuclear elements and long terminal repeats (LTRs) DERs were the most abundant repeat families when comparing infants to early adolescence (0-15) with older adults (60+). Of these differentially regulated LTRs, we identified 17 shared across all brain regions, including increased expression of HERV-K-int in older adult brains (60+). Co-expression analysis from each of the three brain regions also showed repeats from the HERV subfamily were intramodular hubs in its subnetworks. While we do not observe a strong global relationship between repeat expression and age, we identified HERV-K as a repeat signature associated with the aging neurotypical brain. Our study is the first global assessment of repeat expression in the neurotypical brain.
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Reddam A, Bollati V, Wu H, Favero C, Tarantini L, Hoxha M, Comfort N, Gold DR, Phipatanakul W, Baccarelli AA. Air pollution and human endogenous retrovirus methylation in the school inner-city asthma intervention study. Toxicol Sci 2023; 193:166-174. [PMID: 37042721 PMCID: PMC10230279 DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfad035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are transposable genomic elements generally repressed through DNA methylation. HERVs can be demethylated and expressed in response to environmental stimuli. Therefore, more research is needed to understand the influence of environmental exposures on HERV methylation. Air pollutants are commonly linked with global hypomethylation, and as HERVs comprise of nearly 8% of repetitive elements in the human genome, our objective was to examine the association between air pollutant exposure and HERV methylation. We investigated 180 students with asthma participating in the School Inner-City Asthma Intervention Study, which evaluated the efficacy of classroom air filters and school-wide pest management on air pollutant/allergen exposure and asthma. Both air pollutants measured in classrooms and asthma outcomes assessed by surveys were collected pre- and post-intervention. Buccal swabs were also collected pre- and post-intervention, and methylation levels from 9 transposable genomic elements (HERV-E, -FRD, -K, -L, -R, -W, -9, and HRES and LINE1) were measured. Adjusting for relevant covariates, the overall air pollutant mixture was cross-sectionally associated with higher HERV-W and lower HERV-L and LINE1 methylation. Coarse PM was cross-sectionally associated with higher HERV-K methylation and CO2 with lower LINE1 methylation. These results suggest that exposure to air pollutants is associated with HERV-W and HERV-K hypermethylation and HERV-L and LINE1 hypomethylation in children with asthma. Future studies are needed to characterize the links between HERV methylation and possible adverse outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aalekhya Reddam
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA
| | - Valentina Bollati
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
| | - Haotian Wu
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA
| | - Chiara Favero
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
| | - Letizia Tarantini
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
| | - Mirjam Hoxha
- Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy
| | - Nicole Comfort
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA
| | - Diane R Gold
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Wanda Phipatanakul
- Asthma Clinical Research Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - Andrea A Baccarelli
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA
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Macías-Redondo S, Strunk M, Cebollada-Solanas A, Ara JR, Martín J, Schoorlemmer J. Correction to: Upregulation of selected HERVW loci in multiple sclerosis. Mob DNA 2021; 12:19. [PMID: 34380560 PMCID: PMC8359071 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-021-00247-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sofía Macías-Redondo
- Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de La Salud (IACS), c/Juan Bosco 13, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Mark Strunk
- Sequencing and Functional Genomics, Aragon Biomedical Research Center (CIBA), Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de La Salud (IACS), Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Alberto Cebollada-Solanas
- Aragon Biomedical Research Center (CIBA), Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de La Salud (IACS), Unidad de Biocomputación, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - José-Ramón Ara
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain.,Department of Neurology, University Hospital Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Jesús Martín
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain.,Department of Neurology, University Hospital Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Jon Schoorlemmer
- Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de La Salud (IACS), c/Juan Bosco 13, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain. .,ARAID Foundation, Avda. de Ranillas 1-D, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain. .,Placental Pathophysiology and Fetal Programming Research Group del IISA, c/Juan Bosco 13, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain.
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