| 1. |
- Clark, Andrew G., et al.
(författare)
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Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny
- 2007
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 450:7167, s. 203-218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comparative analysis of multiple genomes in a phylogenetic framework dramatically improves the precision and sensitivity of evolutionary inference, producing more robust results than single-genome analyses can provide. The genomes of 12 Drosophila species, ten of which are presented here for the first time (sechellia, simulans, yakuba, erecta, ananassae, persimilis, willistoni, mojavensis, virilis and grimshawi), illustrate how rates and patterns of sequence divergence across taxa can illuminate evolutionary processes on a genomic scale. These genome sequences augment the formidable genetic tools that have made Drosophila melanogaster a pre-eminent model for animal genetics, and will further catalyse fundamental research on mechanisms of development, cell biology, genetics, disease, neurobiology, behaviour, physiology and evolution. Despite remarkable similarities among these Drosophila species, we identified many putatively non-neutral changes in protein-coding genes, non-coding RNA genes, and cis-regulatory regions. These may prove to underlie differences in the ecology and behaviour of these diverse species.
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| 2. |
- Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O., et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of morbidity and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery in children in low-income and middle-income countries
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 1:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Child health is a key priority on the global health agenda, yet the provision of essential and emergency surgery in children is patchy in resource-poor regions. This study was aimed to determine the mortality risk for emergency abdominal paediatric surgery in low-income countries globally.Methods: Multicentre, international, prospective, cohort study. Self-selected surgical units performing emergency abdominal surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive children aged <16 years during a 2-week period between July and December 2014. The United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI) was used to stratify countries. The main outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality, analysed by multilevel logistic regression.Results: This study included 1409 patients from 253 centres in 43 countries; 282 children were under 2 years of age. Among them, 265 (18.8%) were from low-HDI, 450 (31.9%) from middle-HDI and 694 (49.3%) from high-HDI countries. The most common operations performed were appendectomy, small bowel resection, pyloromyotomy and correction of intussusception. After adjustment for patient and hospital risk factors, child mortality at 30 days was significantly higher in low-HDI (adjusted OR 7.14 (95% CI 2.52 to 20.23), p<0.001) and middle-HDI (4.42 (1.44 to 13.56), p=0.009) countries compared with high-HDI countries, translating to 40 excess deaths per 1000 procedures performed.Conclusions: Adjusted mortality in children following emergency abdominal surgery may be as high as 7 times greater in low-HDI and middle-HDI countries compared with high-HDI countries. Effective provision of emergency essential surgery should be a key priority for global child health agendas.
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| 3. |
- Pircs, Karolina, et al.
(författare)
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Distinct subcellular autophagy impairments in induced neurons from patients with Huntington's disease
- 2022
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Ingår i: Brain : a journal of neurology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1460-2156. ; 145:9, s. 3035-3057
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by CAG expansions in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Modelling Huntington's disease is challenging, as rodent and cellular models poorly recapitulate the disease as seen in aging humans. To address this, we generated induced neurons (iNs) through direct reprogramming of human skin fibroblasts, which retain age-dependent epigenetic characteristics. HD-iNs displayed profound deficits in autophagy, characterised by reduced transport of late autophagic structures from the neurites to the soma. These neurite-specific alterations in autophagy resulted in shorter, thinner and fewer neurites specifically in HD-iNs. CRISPRi-mediated silencing of HTT did not rescue this phenotype but rather resulted in additional autophagy alterations in ctrl-iNs, highlighting the importance of wild type HTT in normal neuronal autophagy. In summary, our work identifies a distinct subcellular autophagy impairment in adult patient derived Huntington's disease neurons and provides a new rational for future development of autophagy activation therapies.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Swallow, Diane M A, et al.
(författare)
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Statins are underused in recent-onset Parkinson's disease with increased vascular risk : findings from the UK Tracking Parkinson's and Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC) discovery cohorts
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. - : BMJ. - 1468-330X .- 0022-3050. ; 87:11, s. 1183-1190
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) influences phenotypic variation in Parkinson's disease (PD), and is usually an indication for statin therapy. It is less clear whether cardiovascular risk factors influence PD phenotype, and if statins are prescribed appropriately.OBJECTIVES: To quantify vascular risk and statin use in recent-onset PD, and examine the relationship between vascular risk, PD severity and phenotype.METHODS: Cardiovascular risk was quantified using the QRISK2 calculator (high ≥20%, medium ≥10 and <20%, low risk <10%). Motor severity and phenotype were assessed using the Movement Disorder Society Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) and cognition by the Montreal cognitive assessment.RESULTS: In 2909 individuals with recent-onset PD, the mean age was 67.5 years (SD 9.3), 63.5% were men and the mean disease duration was 1.3 years (SD 0.9). 33.8% of cases had high vascular risk, 28.7% medium risk, and 22.3% low risk, while 15.2% of cases had established CVD. Increasing vascular risk and CVD were associated with older age (p<0.001), worse motor score (p<0.001), more cognitive impairment (p<0.001) and worse motor phenotype (p=0.021). Statins were prescribed in 37.2% with high vascular risk, 15.1% with medium vascular risk and 6.5% with low vascular risk, which compared with statin usage in 75.3% of those with CVD.CONCLUSIONS: Over 60% of recent-onset PD patients have high or medium cardiovascular risk (meriting statin usage), which is associated with a worse motor and cognitive phenotype. Statins are underused in these patients, compared with those with vascular disease, which is a missed opportunity for preventive treatment.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: GN11NE062, NCT02881099.
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| 6. |
- Garza, Raquel, et al.
(författare)
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LINE-1 retrotransposons drive human neuronal transcriptome complexity and functional diversification
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - 2375-2548. ; 9:44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genetic mechanisms underlying the expansion in size and complexity of the human brain remain poorly understood. Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) retrotransposons are a source of divergent genetic information in hominoid genomes, but their importance in physiological functions and their contribution to human brain evolution are largely unknown. Using multiomics profiling, we here demonstrate that L1 promoters are dynamically active in the developing and the adult human brain. L1s generate hundreds of developmentally regulated and cell type-specific transcripts, many that are co-opted as chimeric transcripts or regulatory RNAs. One L1-derived long noncoding RNA, LINC01876, is a human-specific transcript expressed exclusively during brain development. CRISPR interference silencing of LINC01876 results in reduced size of cerebral organoids and premature differentiation of neural progenitors, implicating L1s in human-specific developmental processes. In summary, our results demonstrate that L1-derived transcripts provide a previously undescribed layer of primate- and human-specific transcriptome complexity that contributes to the functional diversification of the human brain.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Williams-Gray, Caroline H, et al.
(författare)
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Serum immune markers and disease progression in an incident Parkinson's disease cohort (ICICLE-PD)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Movement Disorders. - : Wiley. - 0885-3185 .- 1531-8257. ; 31:7, s. 995-1003
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: The immune system is a promising therapeutic target for disease modification in Parkinson's disease (PD), but appropriate immune-related biomarkers must be identified to allow patient stratification for trials and tracking of therapeutic effects. The objective of this study was to investigate whether immune markers in peripheral blood are candidate prognostic biomarkers through determining their relationship with disease progression in PD.METHODS: Serum samples were collected in incident PD cases and age-matched controls. Subjects were clinically evaluated at baseline and 18 and 36 months. Ten cytokines and C-reactive protein were measured, with data reduction using principal-component analysis, and relationships between component scores and motor (MDS Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale - part 3) and cognitive (Mini Mental State Examination [MMSE]) measures of disease severity/progression were investigated.RESULTS: TNF-α, IL1-β, IL-2, and IL-10 were higher in PD (n = 230) than in controls (n = 93), P ≤ 0.001). Principal-component analysis of log-transformed data resulted in a 3-component solution explaining 51% of the variance. Higher "proinflammatory" and lower "anti-inflammatory" component scores were associated with more rapid motor progression over 36 months (P < 0.05), and higher "proinflammatory" component scores were associated with lower MMSE at all times (P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis with adjustment for covariates confirmed "anti-inflammatory" component score was the strongest predictor of slower motor progression (β = -0.22, P = 0.002), whereas proinflammatory cytokines were associated with lower baseline MMSE (β = -0.175, P = 0.007).CONCLUSIONS: Serum immune marker profile is predictive of disease progression in PD and hence a potential prognostic biomarker. However, interventional trials are needed to clarify whether peripheral immune changes causally contribute to the progression of PD. © 2016 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
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| 9. |
- Barker, Roger A., et al.
(författare)
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GDNF and Parkinson's Disease : Where Next? A Summary from a Recent Workshop
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Parkinson's Disease. - 1877-7171. ; 10:3, s. 875-891
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concept of repairing the brain with growth factors has been pursued for many years in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases including primarily Parkinson's disease (PD) using glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). This neurotrophic factor was discovered in 1993 and shown to have selective effects on promoting survival and regeneration of certain populations of neurons including the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway. These observations led to a series of clinical trials in PD patients including using infusions or gene delivery of GDNF or the related growth factor, neurturin (NRTN). Initial studies, some of which were open label, suggested that this approach could be of value in PD when the agent was injected into the putamen rather than the cerebral ventricles. In subsequent double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, the most recent reporting in 2019, treatment with GDNF did not achieve its primary end point. As a result, there has been uncertainty as to whether GDNF (and by extrapolation, related GDNF family neurotrophic factors) has merit in the future treatment of PD. To critically appraise the existing work and its future, a special workshop was held to discuss and debate this issue. This paper is a summary of that meeting with recommendations on whether there is a future for this therapeutic approach and also what any future PD trial involving GDNF and other GDNF family neurotrophic factors should consider in its design.
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| 10. |
- Drouin-Ouellet, Janelle, et al.
(författare)
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REST suppression mediates neural conversion of adult human fibroblasts via microRNA-dependent and -independent pathways
- 2017
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Ingår i: EMBO Molecular Medicine. - : EMBO. - 1757-4684 .- 1757-4676. ; 9:8, s. 1117-1131
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Direct conversion of human fibroblasts into mature and functional neurons, termed induced neurons (iNs), was achieved for the first time 6 years ago. This technology offers a promising shortcut for obtaining patient- and disease-specific neurons for disease modeling, drug screening, and other biomedical applications. However, fibroblasts from adult donors do not reprogram as easily as fetal donors, and no current reprogramming approach is sufficiently efficient to allow the use of this technology using patient-derived material for large-scale applications. Here, we investigate the difference in reprogramming requirements between fetal and adult human fibroblasts and identify REST as a major reprogramming barrier in adult fibroblasts. Via functional experiments where we overexpress and knockdown the REST-controlled neuron-specific microRNAs miR-9 and miR-124, we show that the effect of REST inhibition is only partially mediated via microRNA up-regulation. Transcriptional analysis confirmed that REST knockdown activates an overlapping subset of neuronal genes as microRNA overexpression and also a distinct set of neuronal genes that are not activated via microRNA overexpression. Based on this, we developed an optimized one-step method to efficiently reprogram dermal fibroblasts from elderly individuals using a single-vector system and demonstrate that it is possible to obtain iNs of high yield and purity from aged individuals with a range of familial and sporadic neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's, Huntington's, as well as Alzheimer's disease.
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