Publications

468 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 468

Abstract (Expand)

The study of congenital virus infections in humans requires suitable ex vivo platforms for the species-specific events during embryonal development. A prominent example for these infections is rubella virus (RV) which most commonly leads to defects in ear, heart, and eye development. We applied teratogenic RV to human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) followed by differentiation into cells of the three embryonic lineages (ecto-, meso-, and endoderm) as a cell culture model for blastocyst- and gastrulation-like stages. In the presence of RV, lineage-specific differentiation markers were expressed, indicating that lineage identity was maintained. However, portrait analysis of the transcriptomic expression signatures of all samples revealed that mock- and RV-infected endodermal cells were less related to each other than their ecto- and mesodermal counterparts. Markers for definitive endoderm were increased during RV infection. Profound alterations of the epigenetic landscape including the expression level of components of the chromatin remodeling complexes and an induction of type III interferons were found, especially after endodermal differentiation of RV-infected iPSCs. Moreover, the eye field transcription factors RAX and SIX3 and components of the gene set vasculogenesis were identified as dysregulated transcripts. Although iPSC morphology was maintained, the formation of embryoid bodies as three-dimensional cell aggregates and as such cellular adhesion capacity was impaired during RV infection. The correlation of the molecular alterations induced by RV during differentiation of iPSCs with the clinical signs of congenital rubella syndrome suggests mechanisms of viral impairment of human development.

Authors: N. C. Bilz, E. Willscher, H. Binder, J. Bohnke, M. L. Stanifer, D. Hubner, S. Boulant, U. G. Liebert, C. Claus

Date Published: 10th Aug 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

The digitization of health records and cross-institutional data sharing is a necessary precondition to improve clinical research and patient care. The SMITH project unites several university hospitals and medical faculties in order to provide medical informatics solutions for health data integration and cross-institutional communication. In this paper, we focus on requirements elicitation and management for extracting clinical data from heterogeneous subsystems and data integration based on eHealth standards such as HL7 FHIR and IHE profiles.

Authors: Kais Tahar, Christoph Müller, Andreas Dürschmid, Silke Haferkamp, Kutaiba Saleh, Patrick Jürs, Sebastian Stäubert, Jan Erik Gewehr, Sven Zenker, Danny Ammon, Thomas Wendt

Date Published: 1st Aug 2019

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND Height and body mass index (BMI) are associated with higher ovarian cancer risk in the general population, but whether such associations exist among BRCA1/2 mutation carriers is unknown.. METHODS We applied a Mendelian randomisation approach to examine height/BMI with ovarian cancer risk using the Consortium of Investigators for the Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA) data set, comprising 14,676 BRCA1 and 7912 BRCA2 mutation carriers, with 2923 ovarian cancer cases. We created a height genetic score (height-GS) using 586 height-associated variants and a BMI genetic score (BMI-GS) using 93 BMI-associated variants. Associations were assessed using weighted Cox models. RESULTS Observed height was not associated with ovarian cancer risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.07 per 10-cm increase in height, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94-1.23). Height-GS showed similar results (HR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.85-1.23). Higher BMI was significantly associated with increased risk in premenopausal women with HR = 1.25 (95% CI: 1.06-1.48) and HR = 1.59 (95% CI: 1.08-2.33) per 5-kg/m2 increase in observed and genetically determined BMI, respectively. No association was found for postmenopausal women. Interaction between menopausal status and BMI was significant (Pinteraction \textless 0.05). CONCLUSION Our observation of a positive association between BMI and ovarian cancer risk in premenopausal BRCA1/2 mutation carriers is consistent with findings in the general population.

Authors: Frank Qian, Matti A. Rookus, Goska Leslie, Harvey A. Risch, Mark H. Greene, Cora M. Aalfs, Muriel A. Adank, Julian Adlard, Bjarni A. Agnarsson, Munaza Ahmed, Kristiina Aittomäki, Irene L. Andrulis, Norbert Arnold, Banu K. Arun, Margreet G. E. M. Ausems, Jacopo Azzollini, Daniel Barrowdale, Julian Barwell, Javier Benitez, Katarzyna Białkowska, Valérie Bonadona, Julika Borde, Ake Borg, Angela R. Bradbury, Joan Brunet, Saundra S. Buys, Trinidad Caldés, Maria A. Caligo, Ian Campbell, Jonathan Carter, Jocelyne Chiquette, Wendy K. Chung, Kathleen B. M. Claes, J. Margriet Collée, Marie-Agnès Collonge-Rame, Fergus J. Couch, Mary B. Daly, Capucine Delnatte, Orland Diez, Susan M. Domchek, Cecilia M. Dorfling, Jacqueline Eason, Douglas F. Easton, Ros Eeles, Christoph Engel, D. Gareth Evans, Laurence Faivre, Lidia Feliubadaló, Lenka Foretova, Eitan Friedman, Debra Frost, Patricia A. Ganz, Judy Garber, Vanesa Garcia-Barberan, Andrea Gehrig, Gord Glendon, Andrew K. Godwin, Encarna B. Gómez Garcia, Ute Hamann, Jan Hauke, John L. Hopper, Peter J. Hulick, Evgeny N. Imyanitov, Claudine Isaacs, Louise Izatt, Anna Jakubowska, Ramunas Janavicius, Esther M. John, Beth Y. Karlan, Carolien M. Kets, Yael Laitman, Conxi Lázaro, Dominique Leroux, Jenny Lester, Fabienne Lesueur, Jennifer T. Loud, Jan Lubiński, Alicja Łukomska, Lesley McGuffog, Noura Mebirouk, Hanne E. J. Meijers-Heijboer, Alfons Meindl, Austin Miller, Marco Montagna, Thea M. Mooij, Emmanuelle Mouret-Fourme, Katherine L. Nathanson, Bita Nehoray, Susan L. Neuhausen, Heli Nevanlinna, Finn C. Nielsen, Kenneth Offit, Edith Olah, Kai-Ren Ong, Jan C. Oosterwijk, Laura Ottini, Michael T. Parsons, Paolo Peterlongo, Georg Pfeiler, Nisha Pradhan, Paolo Radice, Susan J. Ramus, Johanna Rantala, Gad Rennert, Mark Robson, Gustavo C. Rodriguez, Ritu Salani, Maren T. Scheuner, Rita K. Schmutzler, Payal D. Shah, Lucy E. Side, Jacques Simard, Christian F. Singer, Doris Steinemann, Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, Yen Yen Tan, Manuel R. Teixeira, Mary Beth Terry, Mads Thomassen, Marc Tischkowitz, Silvia Tognazzo, Amanda E. Toland, Nadine Tung, Christi J. van Asperen, Klaartje van Engelen, Elizabeth J. van Rensburg, Laurence Venat-Bouvet, Jeroen Vierstraete, Gabriel Wagner, Lisa Walker, Jeffrey N. Weitzel, Drakoulis Yannoukakos, Antonis C. Antoniou, David E. Goldgar, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Timothy R. Rebbeck, Dezheng Huo

Date Published: 1st Jul 2019

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: hereditary breast ovarian cancer syndrome

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND The ’German Consortium for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer’ (GC-HBOC) offers women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer genetic counseling. The aim of this modeling studyy was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of genetic testing for BRCA 1/2 in women with a high familial risk followed by different preventive interventions (intensified surveillance, risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy, risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, or both mastectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy) compared to no genetic test. METHODS A Markov model with a lifelong time horizon was developed for a cohort of 35-year-old women with a BRCA 1/2 mutation probability of ≥ 10%. The perspective of the German statutory health insurance (SHI) was adopted. The model included the health states ’well’ (women with increased risk), ’breast cancer without metastases’, ’breast cancer with metastases’, ’ovarian cancer’, ’death’, and two post (non-metastatic) breast or ovarian cancer states. Outcomes were costs, quality of life years gained (QALYs) and life years gained (LYG). Important data used for the model were obtained from 4380 women enrolled in the GC-HBOC. RESULTS Compared with the no test strategy, genetic testing with subsequent surgical and non-surgical treatment options provided to women with deleterious BRCA 1 or 2 mutations resulted in additional costs of \text€7256 and additional QALYs of 0,43 (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of \text€17,027 per QALY; cost per LYG: \text€22,318). The results were robust in deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION The provision of genetic testing to high-risk women with a BRCA1 and two mutation probability of ≥ 10% based on the individual family cancer history appears to be a cost-effective option for the SHI.

Authors: Dirk Müller, Marion Danner, Rita Schmutzler, Christoph Engel, Kirsten Wassermann, Björn Stollenwerk, Stephanie Stock, Kerstin Rhiem

Date Published: 1st Jul 2019

Publication Type: Journal article

Human Diseases: hereditary breast ovarian cancer syndrome

Abstract (Expand)

CONTEXT: Steroid hormones are important regulators of physiological processes in humans and are under genetic control. A link to coronary artery disease (CAD) is supposed. OBJECTIVE: Our main objectivee was to identify genetic loci influencing steroid hormone levels. As secondary aim, we searched for causal effects of steroid hormones on CAD. DESIGN: We conducted genome-wide meta-association studies for eight steroid hormones: cortisol, DHEA-S, estradiol and testosterone in two independent cohorts (LIFE-Adult, LIFE-Heart, max. n=7667), and progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione and aldosterone in LIFE-Heart only (max. n=2070). All genome-wide significant loci were tested for sex interactions. Further, we tested if previously reported CAD SNPs were associated with our steroid hormone panel and investigated causal links between hormone levels and CAD status using Mendelian Randomization (MR) approaches. RESULTS: We discovered 15 novel associated loci for 17-hydroxyprogesterone, progesterone, DHEA-S, cortisol, androstenedione, and estradiol. Five of these loci relate to genes directly involved in steroid metabolism: CYP21A1, CYP11B1, CYP17A1, STS, and HSD17B12, almost completing the set of steroidogenic enzymes with genetic associations. Sexual dimorphisms were found for seven of the novel loci. Other loci correspond, e.g., to the WNT4/β-catenin pathway. MR revealed that cortisol, androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone and DHEA-S had causal effects on CAD. We also observed enrichment of cortisol and testosterone associations among known CAD hits. CONCLUSION: Our study greatly improves insight into genetic regulation of steroid hormones and their dependency on sex. These results could serve as a basis for analyzing sex-dimorphisms in other complex diseases.

Authors: J. Pott, YJ. Bae, K. Horn, A. Teren, Andreas Kühnapfel, H. Kirsten, U. Ceglarek, Markus Löffler, J. Thiery, J. Kratzsch, Markus Scholz

Date Published: 6th Jun 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: coronary artery disease

Abstract (Expand)

<b>Objectives:</b> Mental demands at the workplace can be preventive against cognitive decline. However, personality shapes the way information is processed and we therefore assume that Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, would moderate the beneficial effects of workplace stimulation on cognitive outcomes. <b>Methods:</b> We analyzed data from the population-based LIFE-Adult-Study (n = 6529). Cognitive outcomes were assessed via the Trail-Making Test (TMTA, TMTB) and the Verbal Fluency Test. Personality was assessed via the Personality Adjective List (16 AM). Mental demands were classified with the indices Verbal and Executive based on the O*NET database. <b>Results:</b> Multivariate regression analyses showed only two significant moderation effects of personality, i.e. in individuals with low scores on Conscientiousness/Openness, index Verbal was connected to better TMTB performance, while this effect disappeared for individuals with high values on the personality trait. However, the additional explained variance remained marginal. <b>Conclusion:</b> The findings suggest that personality does not modify associations between high mental demands at work and better cognitive functioning in old age; however, there is a tendency that high levels of Openness and Conscientiousness may offset effects of mental demands.

Authors: Felix S Hussenoeder, Ines Conrad, Susanne Roehr, Heide Glaesmer, Andreas Hinz, Cornelia Enzenbach, Christoph Engel, Veronika Witte, Matthias L Schroeter, Markus Loeffler, Joachim Thiery, Arno Villringer, Steffi G Riedel-Heller, Francisca S Rodriguez

Date Published: 25th May 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: mental depression

Abstract (Expand)

Background: During the last decades a number of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) has identified numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with different complex diseases. However, associations reported in one population are often conflicting and did not replicate when studied in other populations. One of the reasons could be that most GWAS employ a case-control design in one or a limited number of populations, but little attention was paid to the global distribution of disease-associated alleles across different populations. Moreover, the majority of GWAS have been performed on selected European, African, and Chinese populations and the considerable number of populations remains understudied. Aim: We have investigated the global distribution of so far discovered disease-associated SNPs across worldwide populations of different ancestry and geographical regions with a special focus on the understudied population of Armenians. Data and Methods: We have used genotyping data from the Human Genome Diversity Project and of Armenian population and combined them with disease-associated SNP data taken from public repositories leading to a final dataset of 44,234 markers. Their frequency distribution across 1039 individuals from 53 populations was analyzed using self-organizing maps (SOM) machine learning. Our SOM portrayal approach reduces data dimensionality, clusters SNPs with similar frequency profiles and provides two-dimensional data images which enable visual evaluation of disease-associated SNPs landscapes among human populations. Results: We find that populations from Africa, Oceania, and America show specific patterns of minor allele frequencies of disease-associated SNPs, while populations from Europe, Middle East, Central South Asia, and Armenia mostly share similar patterns. Importantly, different sets of SNPs associated with common polygenic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, neurodegeneration in populations from different geographic regions. Armenians are characterized by a set of SNPs that are distinct from other populations from the neighboring geographical regions. Conclusion: Genetic associations of diseases considerably vary across populations which necessitates health-related genotyping efforts especially for so far understudied populations. SOM portrayal represents novel promising methods in population genetic research with special strength in visualization-based comparison of SNP data.

Authors: M. Nikoghosyan, S. Hakobyan, A. Hovhannisyan, H. Loeffler-Wirth, H. Binder, A. Arakelyan

Date Published: 21st May 2019

Publication Type: Journal article

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