Publications

227 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 227

Abstract (Expand)

Background: Patients with cardiac complaints but without confirmed diagnosis of coronary heart disease by angiography frequently develop cardiac events in the following years. This follow-up study investigated the frequency of cardiac symptoms and cardiovascular events (CVE) 5 years after initial angiography of patients with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (NobCAD, LIFE Heart study), with the aim to identify gender-specific indicators for CVE. Methods: In 2014/2015, 1462 women and men with NobCAD, defined as no or non-relevant obstructive coronary artery disease were identified among 2660 subjects participating in the observational angiographic LIFE Heart study. Questionnaires of 820 responding patients were analyzed. Results: The median observation time was 55 months. Cardiac symptoms were found in 53.6% of all patients, significantly more often in women than in men (59.4% vs. 48.8%; p = 0.002). CVE occurred in 46.1% of all participants (n = 378/820). Patients with cardiac symptoms had a 2.94 time higher risk for CVE than those without cardiac symptoms (p \textless 0.001). Men with no cardiac symptoms had significantly more CVE (p = 0.042) than women. Common risk factors for CVE comprised cardiac symptoms, atrial fibrillation, and age. Sex-specific risk factors comprised body mass index (BMI) \geq25 kg/m2 for women and anxiety for men. Conclusions: Patients with cardiac symptoms have about three times higher risk for CVE within 5 years than patients without cardiac symptoms. Sex differences exist in patients without symptoms where men were at higher risk for CVE. Atrial fibrillation was the strongest indicator for CVE, whereas anxiety was an indicator only in men and BMI \geq25 kg/m2 only in women, suggesting sex- and gender-specific phenotypic profiles.

Authors: Ahmad T. Nauman, Andrej Teren, Samira Zeynalova, Joachim Thiery, Vera Regitz-Zagrosek, Markus Scholz, Ute Seeland

Date Published: 1st Mar 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

A combined OMICS screening approach of human plasma and serum was used to characterize protein and metabolome signatures displaying association to severity of Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). 240 serum and BD P100 EDTA plasma samples from patients diagnosed with CAP, collected during the day of enrolment to the hospital, were analyzed by a metabolomic and proteomic approach, respectively. Disease severity of CAP patients was stratified using the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. Quantitative proteome and metabolome data, derived by LC-MS/MS, were associated to SOFA and specific parameters of SOFA using linear regression models adjusted for age, BMI, sex, smoking and technical variables. Both proteome and metabolome profiling revealed remarkable strong changes in plasma and serum composition in relation to severity of CAP. Proteins and metabolites displaying SOFA associated levels are involved in immune response, particularly in processes of lipid metabolism. Proteins, which show an association to SOFA score, are involved in acute phase response, coagulation, complement activation and inflammation. Many of these metabolites and proteins displayed not only associations to SOFA, but also to parameters of SOFA score, which likely reflect the strong influence of lung-, liver-, kidney- and heart-dysfunction on the metabolome and proteome patterns. SIGNIFICANCE: Community-acquired pneumonia is the most frequent infection disease with high morbidity and mortality. So far, only few studies focused on the identification of proteins or metabolites associated to severity of CAP, often based on smaller sample sets. A screening for new diagnostic markers requires extensive sample collections in combination with high quality clinical data. To characterize the proteomic and metabolomics pattern associated to severity of CAP we performed a combined metabolomics and proteomic approach of serum and plasma sample from a multi-center clinical study focused on patients with CAP, requiring hospitalization. The results of this association study of omics data to the SOFA score enable not only an interpretation of changes in molecular patterns with severity of CAP but also an assignment of altered molecules to dysfunctions of respiratory, renal, coagulation, cardiovascular systems as well as liver.

Authors: Manuela Gesell Salazar, Sophie Neugebauer, Tim Kacprowski, Stephan Michalik, Peter Ahnert, Petra Creutz, Maciej Rosolowski, Markus Löffler, Michael Bauer, Norbert Suttorp, Michael Kiehntopf, Uwe Völker

Date Published: 1st Mar 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

CONTEXT Common genetic susceptibility may underlie the frequently observed co-occurrence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in families. Given the role of HLA class II genes in the pathophysiology of typee 1 diabetes, the aim of the present study was to test the association of high density imputed human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotypes with type 2 diabetes. OBJECTIVES AND DESIGN Three cohorts (Ntotal = 10 413) from Leipzig, Germany were included in this study: LIFE-Adult (N = 4649), LIFE-Heart (N = 4815) and the Sorbs (N = 949) cohort. Detailed metabolic phenotyping and genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data were available for all subjects. Using 1000 Genome imputation data, HLA genotypes were imputed on 4-digit level and association tests for type 2 diabetes, and related metabolic traits were conducted. RESULTS In a meta-analysis including all 3 cohorts, the absence of HLA-DRB5 was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes (P = 0.001). In contrast, HLA-DQB*06:02 and HLA-DQA*01:02 had a protective effect on type 2 diabetes (P = 0.005 and 0.003, respectively). Both alleles are part of the well-established type 1 diabetes protective haplotype DRB1*15:01~DQA1*01:02~DQB1*06:02, which was also associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (OR 0.84; P = 0.005). On the contrary, the DRB1*07:01~DQA1*02:01~DQB1*03:03 was identified as a risk haplotype in non-insulin-treated diabetes (OR 1.37; P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS Genetic variation in the HLA class II locus exerts risk and protective effects on non-insulin-treated type 2 diabetes. Our data suggest that the genetic architecture of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes might share common components on the HLA class II locus.

Authors: Thomas Jacobi, Lucas Massier, Nora Klöting, Katrin Horn, Alexander Schuch, Peter Ahnert, Christoph Engel, Markus Löffler, Ralph Burkhardt, Joachim Thiery, Anke Tönjes, Michael Stumvoll, Matthias Blüher, Ilias Doxiadis, Markus Scholz, Peter Kovacs

Date Published: 1st Mar 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a lung inflammatory process caused mainly by sepsis. Most previous studies that identified genetic risks for ARDS focused on candidates withh biological relevance. We aimed to identify novel genetic variants associated with ARDS susceptibility and to provide complementary functional evidence of their effect in gene regulation. METHODS We did a case-control genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 1935 European individuals, using patients with sepsis-associated ARDS as cases and patients with sepsis without ARDS as controls. The discovery stage included 672 patients admitted into a network of Spanish intensive care units between January, 2002, and January, 2017. The replication stage comprised 1345 individuals from two independent datasets from the MESSI cohort study (Sep 22, 2008-Nov 30, 2017; USA) and the VISEP (April 1, 2003-June 30, 2005) and MAXSEP (Oct 1, 2007-March 31, 2010) trials of the SepNet study (Germany). Results from discovery and replication stages were meta-analysed to identify association signals. We then used RNA sequencing data from lung biopsies, in-silico analyses, and luciferase reporter assays to assess the functionallity of associated variants. FINDINGS We identified a novel genome-wide significant association with sepsis-associated ARDS susceptibility (rs9508032, odds ratio [OR] 0·61, 95% CI 0·41-0·91, p=5·18 \times 10-8) located within the Fms-related tyrosine kinase 1 (FLT1) gene, which encodes vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR-1). The region containing the sentinel variant and its best proxies acted as a silencer for the FLT1 promoter, and alleles with protective effects in ARDS further reduced promoter activity (p=0·0047). A literature mining of all previously described ARDS genes validated the association of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA; OR 0·55, 95% CI 0·41-0·73; p=4·69 \times 10-5). INTERPRETATION A common variant within the FLT1 gene is associated with sepsis-associated ARDS. Our findings support a role for the vascular endothelial growth factor signalling pathway in ARDS pathogenesis and identify VEGFR-1 as a potential therapeutic target. FUNDING Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Regional Development Funds, Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables.

Authors: Beatriz Guillen-Guio, Jose M. Lorenzo-Salazar, Shwu-Fan Ma, Pei-Chi Hou, Tamara Hernandez-Beeftink, Almudena Corrales, M. Isabel García-Laorden, Jonathan Jou, Elena Espinosa, Arturo Muriel, David Domínguez, Leonardo Lorente, María M. Martín, Carlos Rodríguez-Gallego, Jordi Solé-Violán, Alfonso Ambrós, Demetrio Carriedo, Jesús Blanco, José M. Añón, John P. Reilly, Tiffanie K. Jones, Caroline Ag Ittner, Rui Feng, Franziska Schöneweck, Michael Kiehntopf, Imre Noth, Markus Scholz, Frank M. Brunkhorst, André Scherag, Nuala J. Meyer, Jesús Villar, Carlos Flores

Date Published: 1st Mar 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

Short-chain fatty acids are processed from indigestible dietary fibers by gut bacteria and have immunomodulatory properties. Here, we investigate propionic acid (PA) in multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease. Serum and feces of subjects with MS exhibited significantly reduced PA amounts compared with controls, particularly after the first relapse. In a proof-of-concept study, we supplemented PA to therapy-naive MS patients and as an add-on to MS immunotherapy. After 2 weeks of PA intake, we observed a significant and sustained increase of functionally competent regulatory T (Treg) cells, whereas Th1 and Th17 cells decreased significantly. Post-hoc analyses revealed a reduced annual relapse rate, disability stabilization, and reduced brain atrophy after 3 years of PA intake. Functional microbiome analysis revealed increased expression of Treg-cell-inducing genes in the intestine after PA intake. Furthermore, PA normalized Treg cell mitochondrial function and morphology in MS. Our findings suggest that PA can serve as a potent immunomodulatory supplement to MS drugs.

Authors: Alexander Duscha, Barbara Gisevius, Sarah Hirschberg, Nissan Yissachar, Gabriele I. Stangl, Eva Eilers, Verian Bader, Stefanie Haase, Johannes Kaisler, Christina David, Ruth Schneider, Riccardo Troisi, Daniel Zent, Tobias Hegelmaier, Nikolaos Dokalis, Sara Gerstein, Sara Del Mare-Roumani, Sivan Amidror, Ori Staszewski, Gereon Poschmann, Kai Stühler, Frank Hirche, Andras Balogh, Stefan Kempa, Pascal Träger, Mario M. Zaiss, Jacob Bak Holm, Megan G. Massa, Henrik Bjørn Nielsen, Andreas Faissner, Carsten Lukas, Sören G. Gatermann, Markus Scholz, Horst Przuntek, Marco Prinz, Sofia K. Forslund, Konstanze F. Winklhofer, Dominik N. Müller, Ralf A. Linker, Ralf Gold, Aiden Haghikia

Date Published: 1st Mar 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

Open spina bifida (OSB) is one of the most prevalent congenital malformations of the central nervous system that often leads to severe disabilities. Previous studies reported the volume and thickness of the neocortex to be altered in children and adolescents diagnosed with OSB. Until now, the onset and the underlying cause of the atypical neocortex organization in OSB patients remain largely unknown. To examine the effects of OSB on foetal neocortex development, we analysed human foetuses of both sexes diagnosed with OSB between 11-15 weeks of gestation by immunofluorescence for established neuronal and neural progenitor marker proteins and compared the results with healthy controls of the same, or very similar, gestational age. Our data indicate that neocortex development in OSB foetuses is altered as early as 11 weeks of gestation. We observed a marked reduction in the radial thickness of the OSB neocortex, which appears to be attributable to a massive decrease in the number of deep- and upper-layer neurons per field, and found a marked reduction in the number of basal progenitors (BPs) per field in the OSB neocortex, consistent with an impairment of cortical neurogenesis underlying the neuronal decrease in OSB foetuses. Moreover, our data suggest that the decrease in BP number in the OSB neocortex may be associated with BPs spending a lesser proportion of their cell cycle in M-phase. Together, our findings expand our understanding of the pathophysiology of OSB and support the need for an early foetal therapy, i.e. in the first trimester of pregnancy.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTOpen spina bifida (OSB) is one of the most prevalent congenital malformations of the central nervous system. This study provides novel data on neocortex development of human OSB foetuses. Our data indicate that neocortex development in OSB foetuses is altered as early as 11 weeks of gestation. We observed a marked reduction in the radial thickness of the OSB neocortex, which appears to be attributable a decrease in the number of deep- and upper-layer neurons per field, and found a marked reduction in the number of basal progenitors per field, indicating that impaired neurogenesis underlies the neuronal decrease in OSB foetuses. Our findings support the need for an early foetal therapy and expand our understanding of the pathophysiology of OSB.

Authors: Simone A. Fietz, Takashi Namba, Holger Kirsten, Wieland B. Huttner, Robert Lachmann

Date Published: 19th Feb 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

Gallstones Disease (GSD) is one of the most common digestive diseases requiring hospitalization and surgical procedures in the world. GSD has a high prevalence in populations with European or Amerindian ancestry (10-20%) and the influence of genetic factors is broadly acknowledged. However, known genetic variants do not entirely explain the disease heritability suggesting that additional genetic variants remain to be identified. Here, we examined the association of copy number variants (CNVs) with GSD in a sample of 4778 individuals (1929 GSD cases and 2849 controls) including two European cohorts from Germany (n = 3702) and one admixed Latin American cohort from Chile (n = 1076). We detected 2936 large and rare CNVs events (size \textgreater 100 kb, frequency \textless 1%). Case-control burden analysis and generalized linear regression models revealed significant association of CNVs with GSD in men, with the strongest effect observed with CNVs overlapping lipid metabolism genes (p-value = 6.54 \times 10-4; OR = 2.76; CI 95% = 1.53-4.89). Our results indicate a clear link between CNVs and GSD in men and provides additional evidence that the genetic components of risk for GSD are complex, can be sex specific and include CNVs affecting genes involved in lipid metabolism.

Authors: Eduardo Pérez-Palma, Bernabé I. Bustos, Dennis Lal, Stephan Buch, Lorena Azocar, Mohammad Reza Toliat, Wolfgang Lieb, Andre Franke, Sebastian Hinz, Greta Burmeister, Witigo von Shönfels, Clemens Schafmayer, Peter Ahnert, Henry Völzke, Uwe Völker, Georg Homuth, Markus M. Lerch, Klaus Puschel, Rodrigo A. Gutiérrez, Jochen Hampe, Peter Nürnberg, Juan Francisco Miquel, Giancarlo V. de Ferrari

Date Published: 1st Feb 2020

Publication Type: Journal article

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