| 1. |
- Westberg, Lars, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Variation in the Oxytocin Receptor Gene Is Associated with Face Recognition and its Neural Correlates
- 2016
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1662-5153. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to recognize faces is crucial for daily social interactions. Recent studies suggest that intranasal oxytocin administration improves social recognition in humans. Oxytocin signaling in the amygdala plays an essential role for social recognition in mice, and oxytocin administration has been shown to influence amygdala activity in humans. It is therefore possible that the effects of oxytocin on human social recognition depend on mechanisms that take place in the amygdala a central region for memory processing also in humans. Variation in the gene encoding the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) has been associated with several aspects of social behavior. The present study examined the potential associations between nine OXTR polymorphisms, distributed across the gene, and the ability to recognize faces, as well as face-elicited amygdala activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during incidental encoding of faces. The OXTR 3' polymorphism rs7632287, previously related to social bonding behavior and autism risk, was associated with participants ability to recognize faces. Carriers of the GA genotype, associated with enhanced memory, displayed higher amygdala activity during face encoding compared to carriers of the GG genotype. In line with work in rodents, these findings suggest that, in humans, naturally occurring endogenous modulation of OXTR function affects social recognition through an amygdala-dependent mechanism. These findings contribute to the understanding of how oxytocin regulates human social behaviors.
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| 2. |
- Aydemir, Özkan, et al.
(författare)
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Polymorphisms in Intron 1 of HLA-DRA Differentially Associate with Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease and Implicate Involvement of Complement System Genes C4A and C4B
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Ingår i: eLife. - 2050-084X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polymorphisms in genes in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II region comprise the most important inherited risk factors for many autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes (T1D) and celiac disease (CD): both diseases are positively associated with the HLA- DR3 haplotype (DRB1*03:01-DQA1*05:01-DQB1*02:01). Studies of two different populations have recently documented that T1D susceptibility in HLA-DR3 homozygous individuals isstratified by a haplotype consisting of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (“tri-SNP”) in intron 1 of the HLA-DRA gene. In this study, we use a large cohort from the longitudinal “The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young” (TEDDY) study to further refine the tri-SNP association with T1D and with autoantibody-defined T1D endotypes. We found that the tri-SNP association is primarily in subjects whose first-appearing T1D autoantibody is to insulin. In addition, we discovered that the tri-SNP is also associated with celiac disease (CD), and that the particular tri-SNP haplotype (“101”) that is negatively associated with T1D risk is positively associated with risk for CD. The opposite effect of the tri-SNP haplotype on two DR3-associated diseases can enhance and refine current models of disease prediction based on genetic risk. Finally, we investigated possible functional differences between the individuals carrying high and low-risk tri-SNP haplotypes, and found that differences in complement system genes C4A and C4B may underlie the observed divergence in disease risk.
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| 3. |
- Birkeland, Shanda R., et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptome analyses of the Giardia lamblia life cycle
- 2010
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Ingår i: Molecular and biochemical parasitology (Print). - : Elsevier BV. - 0166-6851 .- 1872-9428. ; 174:1, s. 62-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We quantified mRNA abundance from 10 stages in the Giardia lamblia life cycle in vitro using Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE). 163 abundant transcripts were expressed constitutively. 71 transcripts were upregulated specifically during excystation and 42 during encystation. Nonetheless, the transcriptomes of cysts and trophozoites showed major differences. SAGE detected co-expressed clusters of 284 transcripts differentially expressed in cysts and excyzoites and 287 transcripts in vegetative trophozoites and encysting cells. All clusters included known genes and pathways as well as proteins unique to Giardia or diplomonads. SAGE analysis of the Giardia life cycle identified a number of kinases, phosphatases, and DNA replication proteins involved in excystation and encystation, which could be important for examining the roles of cell signaling in giardial differentiation. Overall, these data pave the way for directed gene discovery and a better understanding of the biology of G. lamblia.
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| 4. |
- Davids, Barbara J., et al.
(författare)
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Polymeric immunoglobulin receptor in intestinal immune defense against the lumen-dwelling protozoan parasite Giardia
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Immunology. - 0022-1767 .- 1550-6606. ; 177:9, s. 6281-6290
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The polymeric Ig receptor (pIgR) is conserved in mammals and has an avian homologue, suggesting evolutionarily important functions in vertebrates. It transports multimeric IgA and IgM across polarized epithelia and is highly expressed in the intestine, yet little direct evidence exists for its importance in defense against common enteric pathogens. In this study, we demonstrate that pIgR can play a critical role in intestinal defense against the lumen-dwelling protozoan parasite Giardia, a leading cause of diarrheal disease. The receptor was essential for the eradication of Giardia when high luminal IgA levels were required. Clearance of Giardia muris, in which IgA plays a dominant role, was severely compromised in pIgR-deficient mice despite significant fecal IgA output at 10% of normal levels. In contrast, eradication of the human strain Giardia lamblia GS/M, for which adaptive immunity is less IgA dependent in mice, was unaffected by pIgR deficiency, indicating that pIgR had no physiologic role when lower luminal IgA levels were sufficient for parasite elimination. Immune IgA was greatly increased in the serum of pIgR-deficient mice, conferred passive protection against Giardia, and recognized several conserved giardial Ags, including ornithine carbamoyltransferase, arginine deiminase, alpha-enolase, and alpha- and beta-giardins, that are also detected in human giardiasis. Corroborative observations were made in mice lacking the J chain, which is required for pIgR-dependent transepithelial IgA transport. These results, together with prior data on pIgR-mediated immune neutralization of luminal cholera toxin, suggest that pIgR is essential in intestinal defense against pathogenic microbes with high-level and persistent luminal presence.
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| 5. |
- Emery-Corbin, Samantha J., et al.
(författare)
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Eukaryote-Conserved Methylarginine Is Absent in Diplomonads and Functionally Compensated in Giardia
- 2020
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 37:12, s. 3525-3549
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Methylation is a common posttranslational modification of arginine and lysine in eukaryotic proteins. Methylproteomes are best characterized for higher eukaryotes, where they are functionally expanded and evolved complex regulation. However, this is not the case for protist species evolved from the earliest eukaryotic lineages. Here, we integrated bioinformatic, proteomic, and drug-screening data sets to comprehensively explore the methylproteome of Giardia duodenalis-a deeply branching parasitic protist. We demonstrate that Giardia and related diplomonads lack arginine-methyltransferases and have remodeled conserved RGG/RG motifs targeted by these enzymes. We also provide experimental evidence for methylarginine absence in proteomes of Giardia but readily detect methyllysine. We bioinformatically infer 11 lysine-methyltransferases in Giardia, including highly diverged Su(var)3-9, Enhancer-of-zeste and Trithorax proteins with reduced domain architectures, and novel annotations demonstrating conserved methyllysine regulation of eukaryotic elongation factor 1 alpha. Using mass spectrometry, we identifymore than 200methyllysine sites in Giardia, including in species-specific gene families involved in cytoskeletal regulation, enriched in coiled-coil features. Finally, we use known methylation inhibitors to show that methylation plays key roles in replication and cyst formation in this parasite. This study highlights reduced methylation enzymes, sites, and functions early in eukaryote evolution, including absent methylarginine networks in the Diplomonadida. These results challenge the view that arginine methylation is eukaryote conserved and demonstrate that functional compensation of methylarginine was possible preceding expansion and diversification of these key networks in higher eukaryotes.
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| 6. |
- Emery-Corbin, Samantha J., et al.
(författare)
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Proteomic diversity in a prevalent human-infective Giardia duodenalis sub-species
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Parasitology. - : ELSEVIER SCI LTD. - 0020-7519 .- 1879-0135. ; 48:11, s. 817-823
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Giardia duodenalis a species complex of gastrointestinal protists, with assemblages A and B infective to humans. To date, post-genomic proteomics are largely derived from Assemblage A, biasing understanding of parasite biology. To address this gap, we quantitatively analysed the proteomes of trophozoites from the genome reference and two clinical Assemblage B isolates, revealing lower spectrum-to-peptide matches in non-reference isolates, resulting in significant losses in peptide and protein identifications, and indicating significant intra-assemblage variation. We also explored differential protein expression between in vitro cultured subpopulations putatively enriched for dividing and feeding cells, respectively. This data is an important proteomic baseline for Assemblage B, highlighting proteomic differences between physiological states, and unique differences relative to Assemblage A.
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| 7. |
- Ferella, Marcela, et al.
(författare)
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Gene expression changes during Giardia-host cell interactions in serum-free medium
- 2014
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Ingår i: Molecular and biochemical parasitology (Print). - : Elsevier BV. - 0166-6851 .- 1872-9428. ; 197:1-2, s. 21-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) was used to quantify transcriptional changes in Giardia intestinalis during its interaction with human intestinal epithelial cells (IECs, HT-29) in serum free M199 medium. Transcriptional changes were compared to those in trophozoites alone in M199 and in TYI-S-33 Giardia growth medium. In total, 90 genes were differentially expressed, mainly those involved in cellular redox homeostasis, metabolism and small molecule transport but also cysteine proteases and structural proteins of the giardin family. Only 29 genes changed their expression due to IEC interaction and the rest were due to M199 medium. Although our findings generated a small dataset, it was consistent with our earlier microarray studies performed under different interaction conditions. This study has confined the number of genes in Giardia to a small subset that specifically change their expression due to interaction with IECs.
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| 8. |
- Follin, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Hypothalamic dysfunction revealed by magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging in childhood leukemia survivors treated with cranial radiotherapy but not in craniopharyngeoma survivors
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Metabolic complications with obesity are frequent in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors treated with cranial radiotherapy (CRT). Childhood onset Craniopharyngioma (CP) survivors without hypothalamic (HT) involvement are spared gross obesity. Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides information of microstructure function of the brain and quantified as fractional anisotrophy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial and radial diffusivity (AD, RD). Since MD in HT is reportedly impaired (increased) in obese compared to non-obese subjects, we investigated DTI in the HT.Methods: Twenty nine ALL survivors on hormone supplementation were investigated 34 years after CRT (24 Gy). 17 CO-CP survivors with hormone supplementation but without HT damage were investigated. Comparisons were made with these two patient populations to 27 matched controls regarding DTI parameters in the HT and for BMI, fat mass, fat free mass and waist/hip measurements.Results: We recorded reduced FA (0.27 vs 0.29, P=0.04), and increased MD (1.13 vs 1.00, P<0.001), AD (1.41 vs 1.25, P<0.001), and RD (0.99 vs 0.86, P<0.001) in the right HT and increased MD (1.42 vs 1.25, P<0.001), AD (1.75 vs 1.58, P<0.001), and RD (1.25 vs 1.04, P<0.001) in left HT in ALL survivors compared to matched controls. The CPs showed no difference in the HT for these parameters compared to controls. ALL survivors with a BMI ≥ 25 showed elevated MD (P=0.03) and AD (P=0.02) compared to ALL survivors with a BMI < 25 and compared to controls with BMI ≥ 25 in the right HT. This was not the case in CP survivors or in controls.Conclusions: Thirty four years after CRT for ALL, DTI measures are deranged in the HT. ALL survivors with a BMI ≥ 25 were presented with worse HT dysfunction. CP survivors were unaffected. The present data suggests changes in the microstructure of the HT in these ALL survivors.
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| 9. |
- Follin, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Microstructural white matter alterations associated to neurocognitive deficits in childhood leukemia survivors treated with cranial radiotherapy–a diffusional kurtosis study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Acta Oncologica. - 0284-186X. ; 58:7, s. 1021-1028
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Cranial radiotherapy (CRT) is a known risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) are MRI techniques that quantify microstructural changes in brain white matter (WM) and DKI is regarded as the more sensitive of them. Our aim was to more thoroughly understand the nature of cognitive deficits after cranial radiotherapy (CRT) in adulthood after childhood ALL. Material and methods: Thirty-eight (21 women) ALL survivors, median age 38 (27–46) years, were investigated at median 34 years after diagnosis. All had been treated with a CRT dose of 24 Gy and with 11 years of complete hormone supplementation. DTI and DKI parameters were determined and neurocognitive tests were performed in ALL survivors and 29 matched controls. Results: ALL survivors scored lower than controls in neurocognitive tests of vocabulary, memory, learning capacity, spatial ability, executive functions, and attention (p <.001). The survivors had altered DTI parameters in the fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and ventral cingulum (all p <.05) and altered DKI parameters in the fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and dorsal and ventral cingulum (p <.05). Altered DTI parameters in the fornix were associated with impaired episodic verbal memory (r = −0.40, p <.04). The left and right uncinate fasciculus (r = 0.6, p <.001), (r = −0.5, p <.02) as well as the right ventral cingulum (r = 0.5, p <.007) were associated with impaired episodic visual memory. Altered DKI parameters in the fornix, right uncinate fasciculus (r = 0.3, r = 0.05, p =.02), and ventral cingulum (r = 0.3, p =.02) were associated with impaired results of episodic visual memory. Conclusion: ALL survivors with cognitive deficits demonstrated microstructural damage in several WM tracts that were more extensive with DKI as compared to DTI; this might be a marker of radiation and chemotherapy neurotoxicity underlying cognitive dysfunction.
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| 10. |
- Follin, Cecilia, et al.
(författare)
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Microstructure alterations in the hypothalamus in cranially radiated childhood leukaemia survivors but not in craniopharyngioma patients unaffected by hypothalamic damage
- 2017
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Ingår i: Clinical Endocrinology. - : Wiley. - 0300-0664. ; 87:4, s. 359-366
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: Metabolic complications are frequent in childhood leukaemia (ALL) survivors treated with cranial radiotherapy (CRT). These complications are potentially mediated by damage to the hypothalamus (HT), as childhood onset (CO) craniopharyngioma (CP) survivors without HT involvement are spared overt obesity. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) shows brain tissue microstructure alterations, by fractional anisotrophy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD). We used DTI to determine the integrity of the microstructure of the HT in ALL survivors. Design: Case-control study. Patients: Three groups were included: (i) 27 CRT treated ALL survivors on hormone supplementation, (ii) 17 CO-CP survivors on hormone supplementation but without HT involvement and (iii) 27 matched controls. Measurements: DTI parameters of the HT were measured and body composition. Results: Microstructural alterations in the HT were more severe in ALL survivors with a BMI ≥25 than with BMI <25. Compared to controls, ALL survivors had reduced FA (P=.04), increased MD (P<.001), AD (P<.001) and RD (P<.001) in the right and left HT. In the right HT, ALL survivors with a BMI ≥25 showed elevated MD (P=.03) and AD (P=.02) compared to ALL survivors with BMI <25. In contrast, DTI parameters did not differ between CP survivors and controls. Conclusions: Long-term follow-up after CRT for ALL DTI measures were affected in the HT despite complete hormone replacement. The present data suggest that ALL survivors have demyelination and axonal loss in the HT.
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