A human minisatellite hosts an alternative transcription start site for NPRL3 driving its expression in a repeat number-dependent manner.

Minisatellites, also called variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs), are a class of repetitive elements that may affect gene expression at multiple levels and have been correlated to disease. Their identification and role as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) have been limited by their absence in comparative genomic hybridization and single nucleotide polymorphisms arrays. By taking advantage of cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE), we describe a new example of a minisatellite hosting a transcription start site (TSS) which expression is dependent on the repeat number. It is located in the third intron of the gene nitrogen permease regulator like protein 3 (NPRL3). NPRL3 is a component of the GAP activity toward rags 1 protein complex that inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) activity and it is found mutated in familial focal cortical dysplasia and familial focal epilepsy. CAGE tags represent an alternative TSS identifying TAGNPRL3 messenger RNAs (mRNAs). TAGNPRL3 is expressed in red blood cells both at mRNA and protein levels, it interacts with its protein partner NPRL2 and its overexpression inhibits cell proliferation. This study provides an example of a minisatellite that is both a TSS and an eQTL as well as identifies a new VNTR that may modify mTORC1 activity.

A comparative characterization of the circulating miRNome in whole blood and serum of HCC patients.

miRNAs are considered promising non-invasive biomarkers. Serum represents the major source of biomarkers, being readily accessible for many analytical tests. Recently, whole blood has drawn increasing interest in biomarker studies due to the presence of cancer-interacting cells and circulating cancer cells. Although Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the seventh most frequent cancer worldwide, fragmented information exists regarding the miRNome characterization in blood and serum. We profiled the circulatory miRNome of paired serum and blood samples from 20 HCC patients, identifying 274 miRNA expressed in serum and 670 in blood, most of them still uncharacterized. 157 miRNA significantly differ between the two biofluids with 28 exclusively expressed in serum. Six miRNA clusters significantly characterize the two compartments, with the cluster containing miR-4484, miR-1281, miR-3178, miR-3613-3p, miR-4532, miR-4668-5p, miR-1825, miR-4487, miR-455-3p, miR-940 having the highest average expression in serum compared to blood. The ontological analysis revealed a role of these miRNAs in cancer progression, vascular invasion and cancer immune surveillance thought the regulation of DUSP1, PD-L1 and MUC1. Taken together, these results provide the most comprehensive contribution to date towards a complete miRNome profile of blood and serum for HCC patients. We show a consistent portion of circulatory miRNAs being still unknown.

Antisense Transcription in Loci Associated to Hereditary Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Natural antisense transcripts are common features of mammalian genes providing additional regulatory layers of gene expression. A comprehensive description of antisense transcription in loci associated to familial neurodegenerative diseases may identify key players in gene regulation and provide tools for manipulating gene expression. We take advantage of the FANTOM5 sequencing datasets that represent the largest collection to date of genome-wide promoter usage in almost 2000 human samples. Transcription start sites (TSSs) are mapped at high resolution by the use of a modified protocol of cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) for high-throughput single molecule next-generation sequencing with Helicos (hCAGE). Here we present the analysis of antisense transcription at 17 loci associated to hereditary Alzheimer's disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Huntington's disease. We focused our analysis on libraries derived from brain tissues and primary cells. We also screened libraries from total blood and blood cell populations in the quest for peripheral biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. We identified 63 robust promoters in antisense orientation to genes associated to familial neurodegeneration. When applying a less stringent cutoff, this number increases to over 400. A subset of these promoters represents alternative TSSs for 24 FANTOM5 annotated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) genes, in antisense orientation to 13 of the loci analyzed here, while the remaining contribute to the expression of additional transcript variants. Intersection with GWAS studies, sample ontology, and dynamic expression reveals association to specific genetic traits as well as cell and tissue types, not limited to neurodegenerative diseases. Antisense transcription was validated for a subset of genes, including those encoding for Microtubule-Associated Protein Tau, α-synuclein, Parkinsonism-associated deglycase DJ-1, and Leucin-Rich Repeat Kinase 2. This work provides evidence for the existence of additional regulatory mechanisms of the expression of neurodegenerative disease-causing genes by previously not-annotated and/or not-validated antisense long noncoding RNAs.

Blood transcriptomics of drug-naïve sporadic Parkinson's disease patients.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is clinically defined in terms of motor symptoms. These are preceded by prodromal non-motor manifestations that prove the systemic nature of the disease. Identifying genes and pathways altered in living patients provide new information on the diagnosis and pathogenesis of sporadic PD. METHODS: Changes in gene expression in the blood of 40 sporadic PD patients and 20 healthy controls ("Discovery set") were analyzed by taking advantage of the Affymetrix platform. Patients were at the onset of motor symptoms and before initiating any pharmacological treatment. Data analysis was performed by applying Ranking-Principal Component Analysis, PUMA and Significance Analysis of Microarrays. Functional annotations were assigned using GO, DAVID, GSEA to unveil significant enriched biological processes in the differentially expressed genes. The expressions of selected genes were validated using RT-qPCR and samples from an independent cohort of 12 patients and controls ("Validation set"). RESULTS: Gene expression profiling of blood samples discriminates PD patients from healthy controls and identifies differentially expressed genes in blood. The majority of these are also present in dopaminergic neurons of the Substantia Nigra, the key site of neurodegeneration. Together with neuronal apoptosis, lymphocyte activation and mitochondrial dysfunction, already found in previous analysis of PD blood and post-mortem brains, we unveiled transcriptome changes enriched in biological terms related to epigenetic modifications including chromatin remodeling and methylation. Candidate transcripts as CBX5, TCF3, MAN1C1 and DOCK10 were validated by RT-qPCR. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support the use of blood transcriptomics to study neurodegenerative diseases. It identifies changes in crucial components of chromatin remodeling and methylation machineries as early events in sporadic PD suggesting epigenetics as target for therapeutic intervention.

Suppression of artifacts and barcode bias in high-throughput transcriptome analyses utilizing template switching.

Template switching (TS) has been an inherent mechanism of reverse transcriptase, which has been exploited in several transcriptome analysis methods, such as CAGE, RNA-Seq and short RNA sequencing. TS is an attractive option, given the simplicity of the protocol, which does not require an adaptor mediated step and thus minimizes sample loss. As such, it has been used in several studies that deal with limited amounts of RNA, such as in single cell studies. Additionally, TS has also been used to introduce DNA barcodes or indexes into different samples, cells or molecules. This labeling allows one to pool several samples into one sequencing flow cell, increasing the data throughput of sequencing and takes advantage of the increasing throughput of current sequences. Here, we report TS artifacts that form owing to a process called strand invasion. Due to the way in which barcodes/indexes are introduced by TS, strand invasion becomes more problematic by introducing unsystematic biases. We describe a strategy that eliminates these artifacts in silico and propose an experimental solution that suppresses biases from TS.

Parkinson disease-associated DJ-1 is required for the expression of the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor receptor RET in human neuroblastoma cells.

Mutations in PARK7/DJ-1 are associated with autosomal recessive, early onset Parkinson disease (PD). DJ-1 is an atypical peroxiredoxin-like peroxidase that may act as a redox-dependent chaperone and a regulator of transcription. Here we show that DJ-1 plays an essential role in the expression of rearranged during transfection (RET), a receptor for the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, a neuroprotective molecule for dopaminergic neurons, the main target of degeneration in PD. The inducible loss of DJ-1 triggers the establishment of hypoxia and the production of reactive oxygen species that stabilize the hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1a). HIF-1a expression is required for RET down-regulation. This study establishes for the first time a molecular link between the lack of functional DJ-1 and the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor signaling pathway that may explain the adult-onset loss of dopaminergic neurons. Furthermore, it suggests that hypoxia may play an important role in PD.

A proteomic approach to the bilirubin-induced toxicity in neuronal cells reveals a protective function of DJ-1 protein.

Unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) is a powerful antioxidant and a modulator of cell growth through the interaction with several signal transduction pathways. Although newborns develop a physiological jaundice, in case of severe hyperbilirubinemia UCB may become neurotoxic causing severe long-term neuronal damages, also known as bilirubin encephalopathy. To investigate the mechanisms of UCB-induced neuronal toxicity, we used the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y as an in vitro model system. We verified that UCB caused cell death, in part due to oxidative stress, which leads to DNA damage and cell growth reduction. The mechanisms of cytotoxicity and cell adaptation to UCB were studied through a proteomic approach that identified differentially expressed proteins involved in cell proliferation, intracellular trafficking, protein degradation and oxidative stress response. In particular, the results indicated that cells exposed to UCB undertake an adaptive response that involves DJ-1, a multifunctional neuroprotective protein, crucial for cellular oxidative stress homeostasis. This study sheds light on the mechanisms of bilirubin-induced neurotoxicity and might help to design a strategy to prevent or ameliorate the neuronal damages leading to bilirubin encephalopathy.

A transcriptome analysis identifies molecular effectors of unconjugated bilirubin in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.

BACKGROUND: The deposition of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) in selected regions of the brain results in irreversible neuronal damage, or Bilirubin Encephalopathy (BE). Although UCB impairs a large number of cellular functions in other tissues, the basic mechanisms of neurotoxicity have not yet been fully clarified. While cells can accumulate UCB by passive diffusion, cell protection may involve multiple mechanisms including the extrusion of the pigment as well as pro-survival homeostatic responses that are still unknown. RESULTS: Transcriptome changes induced by UCB exposure in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line were examined by high density oligonucleotide microarrays. Two-hundred and thirty genes were induced after 24 hours. A Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that at least 50 genes were directly involved in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. Validation of selected ER stress genes is shown by quantitative RT-PCR. Analysis of XBP1 splicing and DDIT3/CHOP subcellular localization is presented. CONCLUSION: These results show for the first time that UCB exposure induces ER stress response as major intracellular homeostasis in surviving neuroblastoma cells in vitro.

Rrs1 is involved in endoplasmic reticulum stress response in Huntington disease.

The induction of Rrs1 expression is one of the earliest events detected in a presymptomatic knock-in mouse model of Huntington disease (HD). Rrs1 up-regulation fulfills the HD criteria of dominance, striatal specificity, and polyglutamine dependence. Here we show that mammalian Rrs1 is localized both in the nucleolus as well as in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of neurons. This dual localization is shared with its newly identified molecular partner 3D3/lyric. We then show that both genes are induced by ER stress in neurons. Interestingly, we demonstrate that ER stress is an early event in a presymptomatic HD mouse model that persists throughout the life span of the rodent. We further show that ER stress also occurs in postmortem brains of HD patients.

Tomato heat stress protein Hsp16.1-CIII represents a member of a new class of nucleocytoplasmic small heat stress proteins in plants.

We describe a new class of plant small heat stress proteins (sHsps) with dominant nuclear localization (Hsp17-CIII). The corresponding proteins in tomato, Arabidopsis, and rice are encoded by unique genes containing a short intron in the beta4-encoding region of the alpha-crystallin domain (ACD). The strong nuclear localization results from a cluster of basic amino acid residues in the loop between beta5 and beta6 of the ACD. Using yeast 2-hybrid tests, analyses of native complexes of the sHsps, and immunofluorescence data, we demonstrate that, in contrast to earlier observations (Kirschner et al 2000), proteins of the sHsp classes CI, CII, and CIII interact with each other, thereby influencing oligomerization state and intracellular localization.