In high income countries 90% of the patients achieve complete remission after induction chemotherapy. However, 30-40% of these patients suffer from relapse. These patients face a dismal prognosis, as the majority (>60%) of relapsed patients die within 5 years. As a result, outcome for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients remains poor and has stabilized over the past 15 years. To prevent or better treat relapse of AML is the best option to improve outcome. Despite patient specific differences, most patients do respond to initial therapy. This suggests that at relapse, mechanisms are active that cause the altered response to chemotherapy. Detailed understanding of mechanisms that cause relapse remain largely elusive. To gain insight in the molecular pathways that characterize relapsed AML, we performed genome wide gene expression profiling on paired initial diagnosis and relapsed AML samples of 23 pediatric AML patients. We used pathway analysis to find which molecular pathways are involved in altered gene expression between diagnosis and relapse samples of individual AML patients.
Gene expression profiles associated with pediatric relapsed AML.
Disease
View SamplesPediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by non-random genetic aberrations related to outcome. Detecting these aberrations however still lead to failures or false negative results. Therefore, we focused on the potential of gene expression profiles (GEP) to classify pediatric AML.
Evaluation of gene expression signatures predictive of cytogenetic and molecular subtypes of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesHigh VEGFC mRNA expression of AML blasts is related to increased in vitro and in vivo drug resistance. The prognostic significance of VEGFC on long-term outcome and its associated gene expression profiles remain to be defined. We studied the effect of VEGFC on treatment outcome and investigated gene expression profiles associated with VEGFC using microarray data of 525 adult and 100 pediatric AML patients. High VEGFC expression appeared strongly associated with reduced complete remission rate, reduced overall and event-free survival (OS and EFS) in adult AML. Multivariable analysis established high VEGFC as prognostic indicator independent of cytogenetic risk, FLT3-ITD, NPM1, CEBPA, age and WBC. Also in pediatric AML high VEGFC was related to reduced OS. A unique series of differentially expressed genes was identified that distinguished AML with high VEGFC from AML with low VEGFC, i.e., 331 upregulated genes (representative of proliferation, VEGF-receptor activity, signal transduction) and 44 downregulated genes (e.g. related to apoptosis) consistent with a role in enhanced chemoresistance. In conclusion, high VEGFC predicts adverse long-term prognosis and provides prognostic information in addition to well-known prognostic factors.
High VEGFC expression is associated with unique gene expression profiles and predicts adverse prognosis in pediatric and adult acute myeloid leukemia.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesLeukemias that harbor translocations involving the mixed lineage leukemia gene (MLL) possess unique biological characteristics and often have an unfavorable prognosis. Gene expression analyses demonstrate a distinct profile for MLL-rearranged leukemias with consistent high-level expression of select Homeobox genes including HOXA9. Here, we investigated the effects of HOXA9 suppression in MLL-rearranged and MLL-germline leukemias utilizing RNAi. Gene expression profiling after HOXA9 suppression demonstrated co-downregulation of a program highly expressed in human MLL-AML (this study) and murine MLL-leukemia (Krivtsov et al. 2006) stem cells including HOXA10, MEIS1, PBX3 and MEF2C. Our data indicates an important role for HOXA9 in human MLL-rearranged leukemias, and suggests targeting HOXA9 or downstream programs may be a novel therapeutic option.
HOXA9 is required for survival in human MLL-rearranged acute leukemias.
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View SamplesCalorie restriction (CR) is a dietary regimen that supports healthy aging. In this study we investigated the systemic and liver-specific responses caused by a diet switch to a medium-fat (MF) diet in 24-month-old life-long, CR-exposed mice. This study aimed to increase the knowledge base on dietary alterations of gerontological relevance. Nine-week-old C57BL/6J mice were exposed either to a control, CR or MF diet. At the age of 24 months, a subset of mice of the CR group was transferred to ad libitum MF feeding (CR-MF).The mice were sacrificed at the age of 28 months, then biochemical and molecular analyses were performed. Our results showed that, despite the long-term exposure to the CR regimen, mice in the CR-MF group displayed hyperphagia, rapid weight gain, and hepatic steatosis. However, no hepatic fibrosis/injury or alteration in CR-improved survival was observed in the diet switch group. The liver transcriptomic profile of CR-MF mice largely shifted to a profile similar to the MF-fed animals but leaving ~22% of the 1578 differentially regulated genes between the CR and MF diet groups comparable with the expression of the life-long CR group. Therefore, although the diet switch was performed at an old age, the CR-MF-exposed mice showed plasticity in coping with the challenge of a MF diet without developing severe liver pathologies.
Plasticity of lifelong calorie-restricted C57BL/6J mice in adapting to a medium-fat diet intervention at old age.
Sex
View SamplesJuvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a very rare and aggressive stem cell disease that mainly occurs in young children. RAS activation constitutes the core component of oncogenic signaling. In addition, the leukemic blasts of a quarter of JMML patients present with monosomy 7 (-7), whereas more than half of the patients show enhanced age-adjusted fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the current standard of care. This results in an event-free survival of 50 - 60%, indicating that novel molecular driven therapeutic options are urgently needed. Using gene expression profiling in an extensive series of 82 patient samples, we aimed at understanding the molecular biology behind JMML and identified a previously unrecognized molecular subgroup characterized by high LIN28B expression.
LIN28B overexpression defines a novel fetal-like subgroup of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia.
Disease
View SamplesMetformin, the most widely administered diabetes drug, has been proposed as a candidate for host directed therapy for tuberculosis although very little is known about its effects on human host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When added in vitro to PBMCs isolated from healthy non-diabetic volunteers, metformin increased glycolysis, inhibited the mTOR targets, strongly reduced M. tuberculosis induced production of TNF-alpha (-58%), IFN-gamma (-47%) and IL-beta (-20%), while increasing phagocytosis. In healthy subjects, in vivo metformin intake induced significant transcriptional changes in whole blood and isolated PBMCs, with substantial down-regulation of genes related to inflammation and the type 1 interferon response. Metformin intake also increased monocyte phagocytosis (by 1.5 to 2 fold) and ROS production (+20%). These results show that metformin in humans has a range of potentially beneficial effects on cellular metabolism, immune function and gene-transcriptional level, that affect innate host responses to M. tuberculosis. This underlines the importance of cellular metabolism for host immunity and supports a role for metformin as host-directed therapy for tuberculosis. Overall design: Peripheral Mononuclear Cells taken from 11 healthy donors, prior to administration of metformin and after 5 days of metformin. Samples were stimulated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis lysate or cultured unstimulated for 4 hours. Total 88 samples, with 11 clinical replicates.
Metformin Alters Human Host Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Healthy Subjects.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesMetformin, the most widely administered diabetes drug, has been proposed as a candidate for host directed therapy for tuberculosis although very little is known about its effects on human host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When added in vitro to PBMCs isolated from healthy non-diabetic volunteers, metformin increased glycolysis, inhibited the mTOR targets, strongly reduced M. tuberculosis induced production of TNF-a (-58%), IFN-gamma (-47%) and IL-1ß (-20%), while increasing phagocytosis. In healthy subjects, in vivo metformin intake induced significant transcriptional changes in whole blood and isolated PBMCs, with substantial down-regulation of genes related to inflammation and the type 1 interferon response. Metformin intake also increased monocyte phagocytosis (by 1.5 to 2 fold) and ROS production (+20%). These results show that metformin in humans has a range of potentially beneficial effects on cellular metabolism, immune function and gene-transcriptional level, that affect innate host responses to M. tuberculosis. This underlines the importance of cellular metabolism for host immunity and supports a role for metformin as host-directed therapy for tuberculosis. Overall design: Ex vivo blood RNA samples analyzed from 11 healthy donors, prior to administration of metformin (control) and after 5 days of metformin (test). Total 22 samples, with 11 clinical replicates.
Metformin Alters Human Host Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Healthy Subjects.
Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Treatment, Subject
View SamplesAdult Stem Cell (ASC )-derived organoids are 3D epithelial structures that recapitulate essential aspects of their organ of origin. We have developed conditions for the long-term growth of primary kidney tubular epithelial organoids ('tubuloids'). Cultures can be established from mouse and human kidney tissue, as well as from urine and can be expanded for at least 20 passages (> 6 months). The structures retain a normal number of chromosomes. Human tubuloids represent proximal as well as distal nephron segments, as evidenced by gene expression, immunofluorescence and tubular functional analyses. BK virus infection of tubuloids recapitulates in vivo phenomena. "Tumoroids" can be established from Wilms nephroblastoma. Kidney tubuloids from urine from a subject with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) allows ex vivo assessment of treatment efficacy. Finally, tubuloids cultured on microfluidic organ-on-a-chip plates adopt a tubular conformation and display active (trans-)epithelial transport function. Adult kidney-derived epithelial tubuloids allow studies of hereditary, infectious and malignant kidney disease in a personalized fashion. Overall design: We generated single cell transcriptome data of kidney tubuloids and the tissue that the tubuloids were derived from
Tubuloids derived from human adult kidney and urine for personalized disease modeling.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesAdult Stem Cell (ASC )-derived organoids are 3D epithelial structures that recapitulate essential aspects of their organ of origin. We have developed conditions for the long-term growth of primary kidney tubular epithelial organoids ('tubuloids'). Cultures can be established from mouse and human kidney tissue, as well as from urine and can be expanded for at least 20 passages (> 6 months). The structures retain a normal number of chromosomes. Human tubuloids represent proximal as well as distal nephron segments, as evidenced by gene expression, immunofluorescence and tubular functional analyses. BK virus infection of tubuloids recapitulates in vivo phenomena. "Tumoroids" can be established from Wilms nephroblastoma. Kidney tubuloids from urine from a subject with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) allows ex vivo assessment of treatment efficacy. Finally, tubuloids cultured on microfluidic organ-on-a-chip plates adopt a tubular conformation and display active (trans-)epithelial transport function. Adult kidney-derived epithelial tubuloids allow studies of hereditary, infectious and malignant kidney disease in a personalized fashion. Overall design: We generated transcriptome data of kidney tubuloids and the tissue that the tubuloids were derived from
Tubuloids derived from human adult kidney and urine for personalized disease modeling.
Specimen part, Subject
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