Correction to: Large‑scale pathway specific polygenic risk and transcriptomic community network analysis identifies novel functional pathways in Parkinson disease

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00401-021-02309-z

Large-scale pathway specific polygenic risk and transcriptomic community network analysis identifies novel functional pathways in Parkinson disease

Polygenic inheritance plays a central role in Parkinson disease (PD). A priority in elucidating PD etiology lies in defining the biological basis of genetic risk. Unraveling how risk leads to disruption will yield disease-modifying therapeutic targets that may be effective. Here, we utilized a high-throughput and hypothesis-free approach to determine biological processes underlying PD using the largest currently available cohorts of genetic and gene expression data from International Parkinson's Disease Genetics Consortium (IPDGC) and the Accelerating Medicines Partnership-Parkinson's disease initiative (AMP-PD), among other sources. We applied large-scale gene-set specific polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses to assess the role of common variation on PD risk focusing on publicly annotated gene sets representative of curated pathways. We nominated specific molecular sub-processes underlying protein misfolding and aggregation, post-translational protein modification, immune response, membrane and intracellular trafficking, lipid and vitamin metabolism, synaptic transmission, endosomal-lysosomal dysfunction, chromatin remodeling and apoptosis mediated by caspases among the main contributors to PD etiology. We assessed the impact of rare variation on PD risk in an independent cohort of whole-genome sequencing data and found evidence for a burden of rare damaging alleles in a range of processes, including neuronal transmission-related pathways and immune response. We explored enrichment linked to expression cell specificity patterns using single-cell gene expression data and demonstrated a significant risk pattern for dopaminergic neurons, serotonergic neurons, hypothalamic GABAergic neurons, and neural progenitors. Subsequently, we created a novel way of building de novo pathways by constructing a network expression community map using transcriptomic data derived from the blood of PD patients, which revealed functional enrichment in inflammatory signaling pathways, cell death machinery related processes, and dysregulation of mitochondrial homeostasis. Our analyses highlight several specific promising pathways and genes for functional prioritization and provide a cellular context in which such work should be done.

Effects of critical care unit noise on the subjective quality of sleep

Nurse researchers have provided evidence that hospital critical care unit (CCU) noise may put patients at risk for sleep problems. Technological advances in this setting have been described as contributing to this problem. Although data on the negative effects of CCU noise on physiological sleep are available, less attention has been given to self-reports of the subjective quality of sleep following exposure to this stressor. This study hypothesized that subjects exposed to CCU sound levels would report poorer subjective sleep than subjects in a quieter environment. Sixty female subjects, attempting to sleep overnight in a laboratory, were randomly assigned to an experimental group, where they heard an audiotape recording of CCU sounds throughout the night, or to a quiet group where the audiotape recording of CCU sounds was withheld. A self-rating questionnaire was used to assess subjective sleep. The noise condition subjects reported taking longer to fall asleep, less time sleeping, more awakenings, poorer quality of sleep compared to home, as well as fewer positive and more negative adjectives descriptive of sleep. Self-reports of the time spent sleeping and the number of negative adjectives descriptive of sleep yielded the greatest number of significant correlations with scores for the other measures of sleep, indicating that these measures may be more accurate. Data on the quality of dreams yielded no difference between groups. The results provide support for the hypothesis that CCU sound levels impact negatively on subjective sleep. It was recommended, now that CCU sound levels were isolated in the laboratory as a potential stressor, that future research should attempt to replicate this study in a hospital CCU.

A phase II trial of edatrexate in previously treated ovarian cancer. A Gynecologic Oncology Group study

Twenty-two patients with recurrent ovarian cancer were entered into a Phase II trial of edatrexate at a dose of 80 mg/m2 i.v. weekly for five consecutive weeks. One patient received an inadequate trial, and six did not complete one cycle due to adverse effects. There were 21 patients evaluable for toxicity and 15 for response. There were no objective responses, 10/15 (67%) had stable disease, 5/15 (33%) increasing disease. Toxicity was predominantly stomatitis and hematologic. Two patients developed skin rashes, and one experienced pulmonary toxicity felt to be related to the drug. Edatrexate administered in this dose and schedule has no demonstrated activity, but moderately severe toxicity in patients with previously treated advanced ovarian cancer.

Correlations between T-cell specificity and the structure of the antigen receptor

The derived amino-acid sequences of the heterodimeric antigen receptors expressed by a series of murine T-cell clones are presented. A comparison of the receptor sequences indicates that several mechanisms for generating receptor diversity can influence T-cell specificity, including junctional diversity, combinatorial joining, and combinatorial chain associations.