DNA methylation signatures of illicit drug injection and hepatitis C are associated with HIV frailty
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Authors: Zhang, Xinyu; Hu, Ying; Justice, Amy C.; Li, Boyang; Wang, Zuoheng; Zhao, Hongyu; Krystal, John H.; Xu, Ke
Abstract
Intravenous illicit drug use (IDU) and hepatitis C infection (HCV) commonly co-occur among HIV-infected individuals. These co-occurring conditions may produce interacting epigenetic effects in white blood cells that influence immune function and health outcomes. Here, we report an epigenome-wide association analysis comparing IDU+/HCV+ and IDU-/HCV-in 386 HIV-infected individuals as a discovery sample and in 412 individuals as a replication sample. We observe 6 significant CpGs in the promoters of 4 genes, NLRC5, TRIM69, CX3CR1, and BCL9, in the discovery sample and in meta-analysis. We identify 19 differentially methylated regions on chromosome 6 harboring MHC gene clusters. Importantly, a panel of IDU+/HCV+-associated CpGs discriminated HIV frailty based upon a validated index with an area under the curve of 79.3% for high frailty and 82.3% for low frailty. These findings suggest that IDU and HCV involve epigenetic programming and that their associated methylation signatures discriminate HIV pathophysiologic frailty.
Structural genome variations in individuals with childhood cancer and tumour predisposition syndromes
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER
Authors: Hopman, Saskia; Merks, Johannes; Eussen, Hubertus; Douben, Hannie; Snijder, Simone; Hennekam, Raoul; de Klein, Annelies; Caron, Huib
Abstract
Background: Previous studies have shown a high prevalence of syndromes in children with cancer. We described four patterns of co-occurring morphological abnormalities indicating new tumour predisposition syndromes. These patterns were named after their key-abnormalities: blepharophimosis (BP), epicanthal folds (EF), asymmetric lower limbs (LLA) and Sydney creases (SC) pattern. The purpose of our study was to identify structural genomic variants possibly involved in these tumour predisposition syndromes. Patients and methods: In 49 probands (13 from BP, nine from EF, 20 from LLA and seven from SC patterns respectively) karyotyping was performed. Copy number variation (CNV) in genomic DNA of the probands was analysed to detect microdeletions/-duplications using SNP array. FISH and quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) experiments were done to validate events identified by cytogenetic and CNV analysis. Results: Cytogenetic analysis showed an inherited inversion of chromosome 15, inv(15) (q25q26) in a proband with LLA-pattern. Evaluation of the genes at the breakpoints made it unlikely that these explained the phenotype and tumour in this patient. Eleven CNV events met our inclusion criteria; three inherited CNV events involved an oncogene. A duplication involving BCL9 was identified in a proband diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma. A duplication involving PCM1 was identified in a proband diagnosed with pre-B-ALL. Both probands showed the EF-pattern of morphological abnormalities. A deletion involving TRA@ was identified in two probands from the BP-pattern diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma and pre-B-ALL respectively. Conclusions: We report on structural genomic variants in paediatric cancer patients with newly recognised tumour predisposition syndromes. We identify three CNV events which we suggest to be susceptibility loci. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.