1
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Suryadevara R, Gregory A, Lu R, Xu Z, Masoomi A, Lutz SM, Berman S, Yun JH, Saferali A, Ryu MH, Moll M, Sin DD, Hersh CP, Silverman EK, Dy J, Pratte KA, Bowler RP, Castaldi PJ, Boueiz A. Blood-based Transcriptomic and Proteomic Biomarkers of Emphysema. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2024; 209:273-287. [PMID: 37917913 PMCID: PMC10840768 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202301-0067oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Rationale: Emphysema is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease phenotype with important prognostic implications. Identifying blood-based biomarkers of emphysema will facilitate early diagnosis and development of targeted therapies. Objectives: To discover blood omics biomarkers for chest computed tomography-quantified emphysema and develop predictive biomarker panels. Methods: Emphysema blood biomarker discovery was performed using differential gene expression, alternative splicing, and protein association analyses in a training sample of 2,370 COPDGene participants with available blood RNA sequencing, plasma proteomics, and clinical data. Internal validation was conducted in a COPDGene testing sample (n = 1,016), and external validation was done in the ECLIPSE study (n = 526). Because low body mass index (BMI) and emphysema often co-occur, we performed a mediation analysis to quantify the effect of BMI on gene and protein associations with emphysema. Elastic net models with bootstrapping were also developed in the training sample sequentially using clinical, blood cell proportions, RNA-sequencing, and proteomic biomarkers to predict quantitative emphysema. Model accuracy was assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for subjects stratified into tertiles of emphysema severity. Measurements and Main Results: Totals of 3,829 genes, 942 isoforms, 260 exons, and 714 proteins were significantly associated with emphysema (false discovery rate, 5%) and yielded 11 biological pathways. Seventy-four percent of these genes and 62% of these proteins showed mediation by BMI. Our prediction models demonstrated reasonable predictive performance in both COPDGene and ECLIPSE. The highest-performing model used clinical, blood cell, and protein data (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in COPDGene testing, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.90). Conclusions: Blood transcriptome and proteome-wide analyses revealed key biological pathways of emphysema and enhanced the prediction of emphysema.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Robin Lu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
| | | | - Aria Masoomi
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Sharon M. Lutz
- Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | | | - Jeong H. Yun
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and
| | | | | | - Matthew Moll
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and
- Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine Section, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury, Massachusetts
| | - Don D. Sin
- Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Respiratory Division, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and
| | - Craig P. Hersh
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and
| | - Edwin K. Silverman
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and
| | - Jennifer Dy
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
| | | | - Russell P. Bowler
- Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, Colorado
| | - Peter J. Castaldi
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Adel Boueiz
- Channing Division of Network Medicine
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and
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2
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Yin Q, Morris GF, Saito S, Zhuang Y, Thannickal VJ, Jazwinski SM, Lasky JA. Enhanced Expression of a Novel Lamin A/C Splice Variant in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Lung. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2023; 68:625-637. [PMID: 36848480 PMCID: PMC10257069 DOI: 10.1165/rcmb.2022-0222oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/01/2023] Open
Abstract
In idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the normal delicate lung architecture is replaced with rigid extracellular matrix (ECM) as a result of the accumulation of activated myofibroblasts and excessive deposition of ECM. Lamins have a role in fostering mechanosignaling from the ECM to the nucleus. Although there is a growing number of studies on lamins and associated diseases, there are no prior reports linking aberrations in lamins with pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we discovered, through analysis of RNA sequencing data, a novel isoform of lamin A/C that is more highly expressed in IPF compared with control lung. This novel LMNA (lamin A/C) splice variant includes retained introns 10 and 11 and exons 11 and 12 as documented by rapid amplification of cDNA ends. We found that this novel isoform is induced by stiff ECM. To better clarify the specific effects of this novel isoform of lamin A/C and how it may contribute to the pathogenesis of IPF, we transduced the lamin transcript into primary lung fibroblasts and alveolar epithelial cells and found that it impacts several biological effects, including cell proliferation, senescence, cell contraction, and the transition of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. We also observed that type II epithelial cells and myofibroblasts in the IPF lung exhibited wrinkled nuclei, and this is notable because this has not been previously described and is consistent with laminopathy-mediated cellular effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qinyan Yin
- Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine
| | | | - Shigeki Saito
- Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine
| | - Yan Zhuang
- Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine
| | - Victor J. Thannickal
- Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana; and
| | - S. Michal Jazwinski
- Tulane Center for Aging, General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics, New Orleans, Louisiana
| | - Joseph A. Lasky
- Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine
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3
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Li H, Zhu B, Xu Z, Adams T, Kaminski N, Zhao H. A Markov random field model for network-based differential expression analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:524. [PMID: 34702190 PMCID: PMC8549347 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04412-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 09/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent development of single cell sequencing technologies has made it possible to identify genes with different expression (DE) levels at the cell type level between different groups of samples. In this article, we propose to borrow information through known biological networks to increase statistical power to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). RESULTS We develop MRFscRNAseq, which is based on a Markov random field (MRF) model to appropriately accommodate gene network information as well as dependencies among cell types to identify cell-type specific DEGs. We implement an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm with mean field-like approximation to estimate model parameters and a Gibbs sampler to infer DE status. Simulation study shows that our method has better power to detect cell-type specific DEGs than conventional methods while appropriately controlling type I error rate. The usefulness of our method is demonstrated through its application to study the pathogenesis and biological processes of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) using a single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data set, which contains 18,150 protein-coding genes across 38 cell types on lung tissues from 32 IPF patients and 28 normal controls. CONCLUSIONS The proposed MRF model is implemented in the R package MRFscRNAseq available on GitHub. By utilizing gene-gene and cell-cell networks, our method increases statistical power to detect differentially expressed genes from scRNA-seq data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongyu Li
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Biqing Zhu
- Program of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Zhichao Xu
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
| | - Taylor Adams
- Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
| | - Naftali Kaminski
- Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
| | - Hongyu Zhao
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
- Program of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 USA
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4
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Myofibroblasts: Function, Formation, and Scope of Molecular Therapies for Skin Fibrosis. Biomolecules 2021; 11:biom11081095. [PMID: 34439762 PMCID: PMC8391320 DOI: 10.3390/biom11081095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2021] [Revised: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Myofibroblasts are contractile, α-smooth muscle actin-positive cells with multiple roles in pathophysiological processes. Myofibroblasts mediate wound contractions, but their persistent presence in tissues is central to driving fibrosis, making them attractive cell targets for the development of therapeutic treatments. However, due to shared cellular markers with several other phenotypes, the specific targeting of myofibroblasts has long presented a scientific and clinical challenge. In recent years, myofibroblasts have drawn much attention among scientific research communities from multiple disciplines and specialisations. As further research uncovers the characterisations of myofibroblast formation, function, and regulation, the realisation of novel interventional routes for myofibroblasts within pathologies has emerged. The research community is approaching the means to finally target these cells, to prevent fibrosis, accelerate scarless wound healing, and attenuate associated disease-processes in clinical settings. This comprehensive review article describes the myofibroblast cell phenotype, their origins, and their diverse physiological and pathological functionality. Special attention has been given to mechanisms and molecular pathways governing myofibroblast differentiation, and updates in molecular interventions.
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5
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Zhang L, Yan H, Tai Y, Xue Y, Wei Y, Wang K, Zhao Q, Wang S, Kong D, Midgley AC. Design and Evaluation of a Polypeptide that Mimics the Integrin Binding Site for EDA Fibronectin to Block Profibrotic Cell Activity. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22041575. [PMID: 33557232 PMCID: PMC7913925 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22041575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Fibrosis is characterized by excessive production of disorganized collagen- and fibronectin-rich extracellular matrices (ECMs) and is driven by the persistence of myofibroblasts within tissues. A key protein contributing to myofibroblast differentiation is extra domain A fibronectin (EDA-FN). We sought to target and interfere with interactions between EDA-FN and its integrin receptors to effectively inhibit profibrotic activity and myofibroblast formation. Molecular docking was used to assist in the design of a blocking polypeptide (antifibrotic 38-amino-acid polypeptide, AF38Pep) for specific inhibition of EDA-FN associations with the fibroblast-expressed integrins α4β1 and α4β7. Blocking peptides were designed and evaluated in silico before synthesis, confirmation of binding specificity, and evaluation in vitro. We identified the high-affinity EDA-FN C-C′ loop binding cleft within integrins α4β1 and α4β7. The polypeptide with the highest predicted binding affinity, AF38Pep, was synthesized and could achieve specific binding to myofibroblast fibronectin-rich ECM and EDA-FN C-C′ loop peptides. AF38Pep demonstrated potent myofibroblast inhibitory activity at 10 µg/mL and was not cytotoxic. Treatment with AF38Pep prevented integrin α4β1-mediated focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation and early signaling through extracellular-signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), attenuated the expression of pro-matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) and pro-MMP2, and inhibited collagen synthesis and deposition. Immunocytochemistry staining revealed an inhibition of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) incorporation into actin stress fibers and attenuated cell contraction. Increases in the expression of mRNA associated with fibrosis and downstream from integrin signaling were inhibited by treatment with AF38Pep. Our study suggested that AF38Pep could successfully interfere with EDA-FN C-C′ loop-specific integrin interactions and could act as an effective inhibitor of fibroblast of myofibroblast differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Hongyu Yan
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Yifan Tai
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Yueming Xue
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Yongzhen Wei
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Kai Wang
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Qiang Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
| | - Shufang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
- Correspondence: (S.W.); (A.C.M.); Tel.: +86-1562-004-7851 (A.C.M.)
| | - Deling Kong
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
- Rongxiang Xu Center for Regenerative Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
| | - Adam C. Midgley
- Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China; (L.Z.); (H.Y.); (Y.T.); (Y.X.); (Y.W.); (K.W.); (Q.Z.); (D.K.)
- Rongxiang Xu Center for Regenerative Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
- Correspondence: (S.W.); (A.C.M.); Tel.: +86-1562-004-7851 (A.C.M.)
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6
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Huang C, Liang Y, Zeng X, Yang X, Xu D, Gou X, Sathiaseelan R, Senavirathna LK, Wang P, Liu L. Long Noncoding RNA FENDRR Exhibits Antifibrotic Activity in Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 2020; 62:440-453. [PMID: 31697569 PMCID: PMC7110975 DOI: 10.1165/rcmb.2018-0293oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2019] [Accepted: 11/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Abnormal activation of lung fibroblasts contributes to the initiation and progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of fetal-lethal noncoding developmental regulatory RNA (FENDRR) in the activation of lung fibroblasts. Dysregulated long noncoding RNAs in IPF lungs were identified by next-generation sequencing analysis from the two online datasets. FENDRR expression in lung tissues from patients with IPF and mice with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. IRP1 (iron-responsive element-binding protein 1), a protein partner of FENDRR, was identified by RNA pulldown-coupled mass spectrometric analysis and confirmed by RNA immunoprecipitation. The interaction region between FENDRR and IRP1 was determined by cross-linking immunoprecipitation. The in vivo role of FENDRR in pulmonary fibrosis was studied using adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in mice. The expression of FENDRR was downregulated in fibrotic human and mouse lungs as well as in primary lung fibroblasts isolated from bleomycin-treated mice. TGF-β1 (transforming growth factor-β1)-SMAD3 signaling inhibited FENDRR expression in lung fibroblasts. FENDRR was preferentially localized in the cytoplasm of adult lung fibroblasts and bound IRP1, suggesting its role in iron metabolism. FENDRR reduced pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting fibroblast activation by reducing iron concentration and acting as a competing endogenous RNA of the profibrotic microRNA-214. Adenovirus-mediated FENDRR gene transfer in the mouse lung attenuated bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and improved lung function. Our data suggest that FENDRR is an antifibrotic long noncoding RNA and a potential therapeutic target for pulmonary fibrosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaoqun Huang
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Yurong Liang
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Xiangming Zeng
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Xiaoyun Yang
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Dao Xu
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Xuxu Gou
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Roshini Sathiaseelan
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Lakmini Kumari Senavirathna
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
| | - Pengcheng Wang
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Medical School of Jinan University, Guangdong, China
| | - Lin Liu
- Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases, and
- Lundberg-Kienlen Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and
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7
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Babarinde IA, Li Y, Hutchins AP. Computational Methods for Mapping, Assembly and Quantification for Coding and Non-coding Transcripts. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2019; 17:628-637. [PMID: 31193391 PMCID: PMC6526290 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2019.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2019] [Revised: 04/24/2019] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The measurement of gene expression has long provided significant insight into biological functions. The development of high-throughput short-read sequencing technology has revealed transcriptional complexity at an unprecedented scale, and informed almost all areas of biology. However, as researchers have sought to gather more insights from the data, these new technologies have also increased the computational analysis burden. In this review, we describe typical computational pipelines for RNA-Seq analysis and discuss their strengths and weaknesses for the assembly, quantification and analysis of coding and non-coding RNAs. We also discuss the assembly of transposable elements into transcripts, and the difficulty these repetitive elements pose. In summary, RNA-Seq is a powerful technology that is likely to remain a key asset in the biologist's toolkit.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Andrew P. Hutchins
- Department of Biology, Southern University of Science and Technology, 1088 Xueyuan Lu, Shenzhen, China
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8
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Weng T, Ko J, Masamha CP, Xia Z, Xiang Y, Chen NY, Molina JG, Collum S, Mertens TC, Luo F, Philip K, Davies J, Huang J, Wilson C, Thandavarayan RA, Bruckner BA, Jyothula SS, Volcik KA, Li L, Han L, Li W, Assassi S, Karmouty-Quintana H, Wagner EJ, Blackburn MR. Cleavage factor 25 deregulation contributes to pulmonary fibrosis through alternative polyadenylation. J Clin Invest 2019; 129:1984-1999. [PMID: 30830875 DOI: 10.1172/jci122106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and deadly disease with a poor prognosis and few treatment options. Pathological remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) by myofibroblasts is a key factor that drives disease pathogenesis, although the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Alternative polyadenylation (APA) has recently been shown to play a major role in cellular responses to stress by driving the expression of fibrotic factors and ECMs through altering microRNA sensitivity, but a connection to IPF has not been established. Here, we demonstrate that CFIm25, a global regulator of APA, is down-regulated in the lungs of patients with IPF and mice with pulmonary fibrosis, with its expression selectively reduced in alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) positive fibroblasts. Following the knockdown of CFIm25 in normal human lung fibroblasts, we identified 808 genes with shortened 3'UTRs, including those involved in the transforming growth factor-β signaling pathway, the Wnt signaling pathway, and cancer pathways. The expression of key pro-fibrotic factors can be suppressed by CFIm25 overexpression in IPF fibroblasts. Finally, we demonstrate that deletion of CFIm25 in fibroblasts or myofibroblast precursors using either the Col1a1 or the Foxd1 promoter enhances pulmonary fibrosis after bleomycin exposure in mice. Taken together, our results identified CFIm25 down-regulation as a novel mechanism to elevate pro-fibrotic gene expression in pulmonary fibrosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingting Weng
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Junsuk Ko
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Chioniso P Masamha
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Zheng Xia
- Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Yu Xiang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Ning-Yuan Chen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jose G Molina
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Scott Collum
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Tinne C Mertens
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Fayong Luo
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Kemly Philip
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jonathan Davies
- Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Jingjing Huang
- The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Cory Wilson
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | | | - Brian A Bruckner
- Houston Methodist DeBakey Transplant Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Soma Sk Jyothula
- Department of Internal Medicine, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Kelly A Volcik
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Lei Li
- Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Leng Han
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Wei Li
- Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Shervin Assassi
- Department of Internal Medicine, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Harry Karmouty-Quintana
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Eric J Wagner
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA
| | - Michael R Blackburn
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, Texas, USA
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9
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Froussios K, Mourão K, Simpson G, Barton G, Schurch N. Relative Abundance of Transcripts ( RATs): Identifying differential isoform abundance from RNA-seq. F1000Res 2019; 8:213. [PMID: 30906538 PMCID: PMC6426083 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.17916.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The biological importance of changes in RNA expression is reflected by the wide variety of tools available to characterise these changes from RNA-seq data. Several tools exist for detecting differential transcript isoform usage (DTU) from aligned or assembled RNA-seq data, but few exist for DTU detection from alignment-free RNA-seq quantifications. We present the RATs, an R package that identifies DTU transcriptome-wide directly from transcript abundance estimates. RATs is unique in applying bootstrapping to estimate the reliability of detected DTU events and shows good performance at all replication levels (median false positive fraction < 0.05). We compare RATs to two existing DTU tools, DRIM-Seq & SUPPA2, using two publicly available simulated RNA-seq datasets and a published human RNA-seq dataset, in which 248 genes have been previously identified as displaying significant DTU. RATs with default threshold values on the simulated Human data has a sensitivity of 0.55, a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.71 and a false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.04, outperforming both other tools. Applying the same thresholds for SUPPA2 results in a higher sensitivity (0.61) but poorer FDR performance (0.33). RATs and DRIM-seq use different methods for measuring DTU effect-sizes complicating the comparison of results between these tools, however, for a likelihood-ratio threshold of 30, DRIM-Seq has similar FDR performance to RATs (0.06), but worse sensitivity (0.47). These differences persist for the simulated drosophila dataset. On the published human RNA-seq dataset the greatest agreement between the tools tested is 53%, observed between RATs and SUPPA2. The bootstrapping quality filter in RATs is responsible for removing the majority of DTU events called by SUPPA2 that are not reported by RATs. All methods, including the previously published qRT-PCR of three of the 248 detected DTU events, were found to be sensitive to annotation differences between Ensembl v60 and v87.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimon Froussios
- Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK
| | - Kira Mourão
- Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK
| | - Gordon Simpson
- Centre for Gene Regulation & Expression, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK.,Division of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK.,The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 4DA, UK
| | - Geoff Barton
- Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK
| | - Nicholas Schurch
- Division of Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK
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10
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Merrick BA, Chang JS, Phadke DP, Bostrom MA, Shah RR, Wang X, Gordon O, Wright GM. HAfTs are novel lncRNA transcripts from aflatoxin exposure. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190992. [PMID: 29351317 PMCID: PMC5774710 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190992] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Accepted: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The transcriptome can reveal insights into precancer biology. We recently conducted RNA-Seq analysis on liver RNA from male rats exposed to the carcinogen, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), for 90 days prior to liver tumor onset. Among >1,000 differentially expressed transcripts, several novel, unannotated Cufflinks-assembled transcripts, or HAfTs (Hepatic Aflatoxin Transcripts) were found. We hypothesized PCR-cloning and RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) could further HAfT identification. Sanger data was obtained for 6 transcripts by PCR and 16 transcripts by 5’- and 3’-RACE. BLAST alignments showed, with two exceptions, HAfT transcripts were lncRNAs, >200nt without apparent long open reading frames. Six rat HAfT transcripts were classified as ‘novel’ without RefSeq annotation. Sequence alignment and genomic synteny showed each rat lncRNA had a homologous locus in the mouse genome and over half had homologous loci in the human genome, including at least two loci (and possibly three others) that were previously unannotated. While HAfT functions are not yet clear, coregulatory roles may be possible from their adjacent orientation to known coding genes with altered expression that include 8 HAfT-gene pairs. For example, a unique rat HAfT, homologous to Pvt1, was adjacent to known genes controlling cell proliferation. Additionally, PCR and RACE Sanger sequencing showed many alternative splice variants and refinements of exon sequences compared to Cufflinks assembled transcripts and gene prediction algorithms. Presence of multiple splice variants and short tandem repeats found in some HAfTs may be consequential for secondary structure, transcriptional regulation, and function. In summary, we report novel, differentially expressed lncRNAs after exposure to the genotoxicant, AFB1, prior to neoplastic lesions. Complete cloning and sequencing of such transcripts could pave the way for a new set of sensitive and early prediction markers for chemical hepatocarcinogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- B. Alex Merrick
- Biomolecular Screening Branch, Division National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Justin S. Chang
- Biomolecular Screening Branch, Division National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Dhiral P. Phadke
- Sciome, LLC, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Meredith A. Bostrom
- Genomics Laboratory, David H. Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United State of America
| | - Ruchir R. Shah
- Sciome, LLC, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Xinguo Wang
- Genomics Laboratory, David H. Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United State of America
| | - Oksana Gordon
- Genomics Laboratory, David H. Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United State of America
| | - Garron M. Wright
- Genomics Laboratory, David H. Murdock Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United State of America
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11
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Transcriptomic evidence of immune activation in macroscopically normal-appearing and scarred lung tissues in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Cell Immunol 2018; 325:1-13. [PMID: 29329637 DOI: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2018.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2017] [Revised: 12/19/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung disease manifested by overtly scarred peripheral and basilar regions and more normal-appearing central lung areas. Lung tissues from macroscopically normal-appearing (IPFn) and scarred (IPFs) areas of explanted IPF lungs were analyzed by RNASeq and compared with healthy control (HC) lung tissues. There were profound transcriptomic changes in IPFn compared with HC tissues, which included elevated expression of numerous immune-, inflammation-, and extracellular matrix-related mRNAs, and these changes were similar to those observed with IPFs compared to HC. Comparing IPFn directly to IPFs, elevated expression of epithelial mucociliary mRNAs was observed in the IPFs tissues. Thus, despite the known geographic tissue heterogeneity in IPF, the entire lung is actively involved in the disease process, and demonstrates pronounced elevated expression of numerous immune-related genes. Differences between normal-appearing and scarred tissues may thus be driven by deranged epithelial homeostasis or possibly non-transcriptomic factors.
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12
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Barratt SL, Blythe T, Jarrett C, Ourradi K, Shelley-Fraser G, Day MJ, Qiu Y, Harper S, Maher TM, Oltean S, Hames TJ, Scotton CJ, Welsh GI, Bates DO, Millar AB. Differential Expression of VEGF-A xxx Isoforms Is Critical for Development of Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2017; 196:479-493. [PMID: 28661183 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201603-0568oc] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
RATIONALE Fibrosis after lung injury is related to poor outcome, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can be regarded as an exemplar. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A has been implicated in this context, but there are conflicting reports as to whether it is a contributory or protective factor. Differential splicing of the VEGF-A gene produces multiple functional isoforms including VEGF-A165a and VEGF-A165b, a member of the inhibitory family. To date there is no clear information on the role of VEGF-A in IPF. OBJECTIVES To establish VEGF-A isoform expression and functional effects in IPF. METHODS We used tissue sections, plasma, and lung fibroblasts from patients with IPF and control subjects. In a bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis model we used wild-type MMTV mice and a triple transgenic mouse SPC-rtTA+/-TetoCre+/-LoxP-VEGF-A+/+ to conditionally induce VEGF-A isoform deletion specifically in the alveolar type II (ATII) cells of adult mice. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS IPF and normal lung fibroblasts differentially expressed and responded to VEGF-A165a and VEGF-A165b in terms of proliferation and matrix expression. Increased VEGF-A165b was detected in plasma of progressing patients with IPF. In a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis, ATII-specific deficiency of VEGF-A or constitutive overexpression of VEGF-A165b inhibited the development of pulmonary fibrosis, as did treatment with intraperitoneal delivery of VEGF-A165b to wild-type mice. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that changes in the bioavailability of VEGF-A sourced from ATII cells, namely the ratio of VEGF-Axxxa to VEGF-Axxxb, are critical in development of pulmonary fibrosis and may be a paradigm for the regulation of tissue repair.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Thomas Blythe
- 1 Academic Respiratory Unit, School of Clinical Sciences
| | | | | | - Golda Shelley-Fraser
- 2 Department of Histopathology, Cheltenham and Gloucestershire NHS Trust, Cheltenham, United Kingdom
| | | | | | | | - Toby M Maher
- 5 NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sebastian Oltean
- 6 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas J Hames
- 7 University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom; and
| | - Chris J Scotton
- 7 University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom; and
| | | | - David O Bates
- 8 Cancer Biology, Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Ann B Millar
- 1 Academic Respiratory Unit, School of Clinical Sciences
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13
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Gangwar I, Kumar Sharma N, Panzade G, Awasthi S, Agrawal A, Shankar R. Detecting the Molecular System Signatures of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis through Integrated Genomic Analysis. Sci Rep 2017; 7:1554. [PMID: 28484236 PMCID: PMC5431532 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01765-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2016] [Accepted: 04/12/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable progressive fibrotic disease of the lungs. We currently lack a systematic understanding of IPF biology and a systems approach may offer new therapeutic insights. Here, for the first time, a large volume of high throughput genomics data has been unified to derive the most common molecular signatures of IPF. A set of 39 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was found critical to distinguish IPF. Using high confidence evidences and experimental data, system level networks for IPF were reconstructed, involving 737 DEGs found common across at least two independent studies. This all provided one of the most comprehensive molecular system views for IPF underlining the regulatory and molecular consequences associated. 56 pathways crosstalks were identified which included critical pathways with specified directionality. The associated steps gained and lost due to crosstalk during IPF were also identified. A serially connected system of five crucial genes was found, potentially controlled by nine miRNAs and eight transcription factors exclusively in IPF when compared to NSIP and Sarcoidosis. Findings from this study have been implemented into a comprehensive molecular and systems database on IPF to facilitate devising diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for this deadly disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Indu Gangwar
- Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India.,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai, TN, India
| | - Nitesh Kumar Sharma
- Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India.,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai, TN, India
| | - Ganesh Panzade
- Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India.,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai, TN, India
| | - Supriya Awasthi
- Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India
| | - Anurag Agrawal
- Centre of Excellence for Translational Research in Asthma & Lung Diseases, CSIR-IGIB, Mall Road, Delhi, India.,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai, TN, India
| | - Ravi Shankar
- Studio of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, HP, India. .,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai, TN, India.
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14
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Zhou G, Zhang F, Liu Y, Sun B. Pathway‑based detection of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at an early stage. Mol Med Rep 2017; 15:2023-2028. [PMID: 28260097 PMCID: PMC5364974 DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2017.6274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2016] [Accepted: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common interstitial pneumonia and the most aggressive interstitial lung disease. Usually, IPF is confirmed by the histopathological pattern of typical interstitial pneumonia and requires an integrated multidisciplinary approach from pulmonologists, radiologists and pathologists. However, these diagnoses are performed at an advanced stage of IPF. At present, pathway‑based detection requires investigation, as it can be performed at an early stage of the disease. The aim of the present study was to find an effective method of diagnosing IPF at an early stage. Microarray data forE‑GEOD‑33566 were downloaded from the ArrayExpress database. Human pathways were downloaded from Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database. An individual pathway‑based method to diagnose IPF at an early stage was introduced. Pathway statistics were analyzed with an individualized pathway aberrance score. P‑values were obtained with different methods, including the Wilcoxon test, linear models for microarray data (Limma) test and attract methods, generating three pathway groups. Support vector machines (SVM) were used to identify the best group for diagnosing IPF at an early stage. There were 106 differential pathways in Wilcoxon‑based KEGG Pathway (n>5) group, 100 in the Limma‑based KEGG Pathway (n>5) group, and seven in the attract‑based KEGG Pathway (n>5) group. The pathway statistics of these differential pathways in three groups were analyzed with linear SVM. The results demonstrated that the Wilcoxon‑based KEGG Pathway (n>5) group performed best in diagnosing IPF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guojun Zhou
- Department of Emergency, Medical University Hospital of Binzhou, Binzhou, Shandong 256600, P.R. China
| | - Fangxia Zhang
- Department of Cardiology, Medical University Hospital of Binzhou, Binzhou, Shandong 256600, P.R. China
| | - Yufang Liu
- Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Medical University Hospital of Binzhou, Binzhou, Shandong 256600, P.R. China
| | - Bin Sun
- Department of Emergency, Medical University Hospital of Binzhou, Binzhou, Shandong 256600, P.R. China
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15
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Plantier L, Renaud H, Respaud R, Marchand-Adam S, Crestani B. Transcriptome of Cultured Lung Fibroblasts in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Meta-Analysis of Publically Available Microarray Datasets Reveals Repression of Inflammation and Immunity Pathways. Int J Mol Sci 2016; 17:ijms17122091. [PMID: 27983601 PMCID: PMC5187891 DOI: 10.3390/ijms17122091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2016] [Revised: 12/02/2016] [Accepted: 12/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Heritable profibrotic differentiation of lung fibroblasts is a key mechanism of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Its mechanisms are yet to be fully understood. In this study, individual data from four independent microarray studies comparing the transcriptome of fibroblasts cultured in vitro from normal (total n = 20) and IPF (total n = 20) human lung were compiled for meta-analysis following normalization to z-scores. One hundred and thirteen transcripts were upregulated and 115 were downregulated in IPF fibroblasts using the Significance Analysis of Microrrays algorithm with a false discovery rate of 5%. Downregulated genes were highly enriched for Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional classes related to inflammation and immunity such as Defense response to virus, Influenza A, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) mediated signaling pathway, interferon-inducible absent in melanoma2 (AIM2) inflammasome as well as Apoptosis. Although upregulated genes were not enriched for any functional class, select factors known to play key roles in lung fibrogenesis were overexpressed in IPF fibroblasts, most notably connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and serum response factor (SRF), supporting their role as drivers of IPF. The full data table is available as a supplement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurent Plantier
- Centre d'Étude des Pathologies Respiratoires-CEPR, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-INSERM, Unité Mixte de Recherche-UMR1100, Labex Mabimprove, 37000 Tours, France.
- Université François Rabelais, 37000 Tours, France.
- Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire-CHRU de Tours, Hôpital Bretonneau, Service de Pneumologie et Explorations Fonctionnelles Respiratoires, 37000 Tours, France.
| | - Hélène Renaud
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-INSERM, Unité Mixte de Recherche-UMR1152, Labex Inflamex, 75018 Paris, France.
| | - Renaud Respaud
- Centre d'Étude des Pathologies Respiratoires-CEPR, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-INSERM, Unité Mixte de Recherche-UMR1100, Labex Mabimprove, 37000 Tours, France.
- Université François Rabelais, 37000 Tours, France.
- Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire-CHRU de Tours, Hôpital Trousseau, Service de Pharmacie, 37170 Chambray-les-Tours, France.
| | - Sylvain Marchand-Adam
- Centre d'Étude des Pathologies Respiratoires-CEPR, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-INSERM, Unité Mixte de Recherche-UMR1100, Labex Mabimprove, 37000 Tours, France.
- Université François Rabelais, 37000 Tours, France.
- Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire-CHRU de Tours, Hôpital Bretonneau, Service de Pneumologie et Explorations Fonctionnelles Respiratoires, 37000 Tours, France.
| | - Bruno Crestani
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-INSERM, Unité Mixte de Recherche-UMR1152, Labex Inflamex, 75018 Paris, France.
- Université Paris Diderot, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75018 Paris, France.
- AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat, Service de Pneumologie A, DHU FIRE, 75018 Paris, France.
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16
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Sosulski ML, Gongora R, Danchuk S, Dong C, Luo F, Sanchez CG. Deregulation of selective autophagy during aging and pulmonary fibrosis: the role of TGFβ1. Aging Cell 2015; 14:774-83. [PMID: 26059457 PMCID: PMC4568965 DOI: 10.1111/acel.12357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 123] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/10/2015] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Aging constitutes a significant risk factor for fibrosis, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characteristically associated with advancing age. We propose that age-dependent defects in the quality of protein and cellular organelle catabolism may be causally related to pulmonary fibrosis. Our research found that autophagy diminished with corresponding elevated levels of oxidized proteins and lipofuscin in response to lung injury in old mice and middle-aged mice compared to younger animals. More importantly, older mice expose to lung injury are characterized by deficient autophagic response and reduced selective targeting of mitochondria for autophagy (mitophagy). Fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation (FMD) is an important feature of pulmonary fibrosis in which the profibrotic cytokine TGFβ1 plays a pivotal role. Promotion of autophagy is necessary and sufficient to maintain normal lung fibroblasts’ fate. On the contrary, FMD mediated by TGFβ1 is characterized by reduced autophagy flux, altered mitophagy, and defects in mitochondrial function. In accord with these findings, PINK1 expression appeared to be reduced in fibrotic lung tissue from bleomycin and a TGFβ1-adenoviral model of lung fibrosis. PINK1 expression is also reduced in the aging murine lung and biopsies from IPF patients compared to controls. Furthermore, deficient PINK1 promotes a profibrotic environment. Collectively, this study indicates that an age-related decline in autophagy and mitophagy responses to lung injury may contribute to the promotion and/or perpetuation of pulmonary fibrosis. We propose that promotion of autophagy and mitochondrial quality control may offer an intervention against age-related fibrotic diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meredith L. Sosulski
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
| | - Rafael Gongora
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
| | - Svitlana Danchuk
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
| | - Chunmin Dong
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
| | - Fayong Luo
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
| | - Cecilia G. Sanchez
- Department of Medicine Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Environmental Medicine Tulane University Health Sciences Center New Orleans LA 70112USA
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17
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Zhu D, Deng N, Bai C. A generalized dSpliceType framework to detect differential splicing and differential expression events using RNA-Seq. IEEE Trans Nanobioscience 2015; 14:192-202. [PMID: 25680210 DOI: 10.1109/tnb.2015.2388593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Transcriptomes are routinely compared in term of a list of differentially expressed genes followed by functional enrichment analysis. Due to the technology limitations of microarray, the molecular mechanisms of differential expression is poorly understood. Using RNA-seq data, we propose a generalized dSpliceType framework to systematically investigate the synergistic and antagonistic effects of differential splicing and differential expression. We applied the method to two public RNA-seq data sets and compared the transcriptomes between treatment and control conditions. The generalized dSpliceType detects and prioritizes a list of genes that are differentially expressed and/or spliced. In particular, the multivariate dSpliceType is among the fist to utilize sequential dependency of normalized base-wise read coverage signals and capture biological variability among replicates using a multivariate statistical model. We compared dSpliceType with two other methods in terms of five most common types of differential splicing events between two conditions using RNA-Seq. dSpliceType is free, available from http://dsplicetype.sourceforge.net/.
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18
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Selman M, Pardo A. Revealing the pathogenic and aging-related mechanisms of the enigmatic idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. an integral model. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2014; 189:1161-72. [PMID: 24641682 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201312-2221pp] [Citation(s) in RCA: 325] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing body of evidence indicates that aberrant activation of alveolar epithelial cells and fibroblasts in an aging lung plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, the biopathological processes linking aging with IPF and the mechanisms responsible for the abnormal activation of epithelial cells and fibroblasts have not been elucidated. Many of the hallmarks of aging (e.g., genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cellular senescence) have been proposed as essential mechanisms for the development of IPF; however, these disturbances are not restricted to IPF and also occur in other aging-related lung disorders, primarily chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, an unanswered question is why a current/former smoker of about 60 years of age with shorter telomeres, alveolar epithelial senescence, excessive oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction develops IPF and not COPD; in other words, what makes old lungs specifically susceptible to develop IPF? In this Perspective, we propose an integral model in which the combination of some gene variants and/or gene expression in the aging lung results in the loss of epithelial integrity and consequently in the failure of the alveoli to correctly respond to injury and to face the stress associated with mechanical stretch. Afterward, a distinctive epigenetic "reprogramming" that affects both epithelial cells and fibroblasts provokes, among others, the recapitulation of developmental pathways and the aberrant activation and miscommunication between both cell types, resulting in the exaggerated production and accumulation of extracellular matrix and the subsequent destruction of the lung architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moisés Selman
- 1 Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias "Ismael Cosío Villegas," México DF, Mexico; and
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19
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Genomic profiling of collaborative cross founder mice infected with respiratory viruses reveals novel transcripts and infection-related strain-specific gene and isoform expression. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2014; 4:1429-44. [PMID: 24902603 PMCID: PMC4132174 DOI: 10.1534/g3.114.011759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Genetic variation between diverse mouse species is well-characterized, yet existing knowledge of the mouse transcriptome comes largely from one mouse strain (C57BL/6J). As such, it is unlikely to reflect the transcriptional complexity of the mouse species. Gene transcription is dynamic and condition-specific; therefore, to better understand the mouse transcriptional response to respiratory virus infection, we infected the eight founder strains of the Collaborative Cross with either influenza A virus or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and sequenced lung RNA samples at 2 and 4 days after infection. We found numerous instances of transcripts that were not present in the C57BL/6J reference annotation, indicating that a nontrivial proportion of the mouse genome is transcribed but poorly annotated. Of these novel transcripts, 2150 could be aligned to human or rat genomes, but not to existing mouse genomes, suggesting functionally conserved sequences not yet recorded in mouse genomes. We also found that respiratory virus infection induced differential expression of 4287 splicing junctions, resulting in strain-specific isoform expression. Of these, 59 were influenced by strain-specific mutations within 2 base pairs of key intron–exon boundaries, suggesting cis-regulated expression. Our results reveal the complexity of the transcriptional response to viral infection, previously undocumented genomic elements, and extensive diversity in the response across mouse strains. These findings identify hitherto unexplored transcriptional patterns and undocumented transcripts in genetically diverse mice. Host genetic variation drives the complexity and diversity of the host response by eliciting starkly different transcriptional profiles in response to a viral infection.
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20
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Nance T, Smith KS, Anaya V, Richardson R, Ho L, Pala M, Mostafavi S, Battle A, Feghali-Bostwick C, Rosen G, Montgomery SB. Transcriptome analysis reveals differential splicing events in IPF lung tissue. PLoS One 2014; 9:e92111. [PMID: 24647608 PMCID: PMC3960165 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2013] [Accepted: 02/18/2014] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a complex disease in which a multitude of proteins and networks are disrupted. Interrogation of the transcriptome through RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) enables the determination of genes whose differential expression is most significant in IPF, as well as the detection of alternative splicing events which are not easily observed with traditional microarray experiments. We sequenced messenger RNA from 8 IPF lung samples and 7 healthy controls on an Illumina HiSeq 2000, and found evidence for substantial differential gene expression and differential splicing. 873 genes were differentially expressed in IPF (FDR<5%), and 440 unique genes had significant differential splicing events in at least one exonic region (FDR<5%). We used qPCR to validate the differential exon usage in the second and third most significant exonic regions, in the genes COL6A3 (RNA-Seq adjusted pval = 7.18e-10) and POSTN (RNA-Seq adjusted pval = 2.06e-09), which encode the extracellular matrix proteins collagen alpha-3(VI) and periostin. The increased gene-level expression of periostin has been associated with IPF and its clinical progression, but its differential splicing has not been studied in the context of this disease. Our results suggest that alternative splicing of these and other genes may be involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. We have developed an interactive web application which allows users to explore the results of our RNA-Seq experiment, as well as those of two previously published microarray experiments, and we hope that this will serve as a resource for future investigations of gene regulation in IPF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracy Nance
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (TN); (GR); (SBM)
| | - Kevin S. Smith
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Vanessa Anaya
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Rhea Richardson
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Lawrence Ho
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Mauro Pala
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Sara Mostafavi
- Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Alexis Battle
- Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Carol Feghali-Bostwick
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Glenn Rosen
- Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (TN); (GR); (SBM)
| | - Stephen B. Montgomery
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (TN); (GR); (SBM)
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