circGPA: circRNA functional annotation based on probability-generating functions.

Recent research has already shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are functional in gene expression regulation and potentially related to diseases. Due to their stability, circRNAs can also be used as biomarkers for diagnosis. However, the function of most circRNAs remains unknown, and it is expensive and time-consuming to discover it through biological experiments. In this paper, we predict circRNA annotations from the knowledge of their interaction with miRNAs and subsequent miRNA-mRNA interactions. First, we construct an interaction network for a target circRNA and secondly spread the information from the network nodes with the known function to the root circRNA node. This idea itself is not new; our main contribution lies in proposing an efficient and exact deterministic procedure based on the principle of probability-generating functions to calculate the p-value of association test between a circRNA and an annotation term. We show that our publicly available algorithm is both more effective and efficient than the commonly used Monte-Carlo sampling approach that may suffer from difficult quantification of sampling convergence and subsequent sampling inefficiency. We experimentally demonstrate that the new approach is two orders of magnitude faster than the Monte-Carlo sampling, which makes summary annotation of large circRNA files feasible; this includes their reannotation after periodical interaction network updates, for example. We provide a summary annotation of a current circRNA database as one of our outputs. The proposed algorithm could be generalized towards other types of RNA in way that is straightforward.

Semantic clustering analysis of E3-ubiquitin ligases in gastrointestinal tract defines genes ontology clusters with tissue expression patterns.

BACKGROUND: Ubiquitin ligases (Ub-ligases) are essential intracellular enzymes responsible for the regulation of proteome homeostasis, signaling pathway crosstalk, cell differentiation and stress responses. Individual Ub-ligases exhibit their unique functions based on the nature of their substrates. They create a complex regulatory network with alternative and feedback pathways to maintain cell homeostasis, being thus important players in many physiological and pathological conditions. However, the functional classification of Ub-ligases needs to be revised and extended. METHODS: In the current study, we used a novel semantic biclustering technique for expression profiling of Ub-ligases and ubiquitination-related genes in the murine gastrointestinal tract (GIT). We accommodated a general framework of the algorithm for finding tissue-specific gene expression clusters in GIT. In order to test identified clusters in a biological system, we used a model of epithelial regeneration. For this purpose, a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) mouse model, following with in situ hybridization, was used to expose genes with possible compensatory features. To determine cell-type specific distribution of Ub-ligases and ubiquitination-related genes, principal component analysis (PCA) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection technique (UMAP) were used to analyze the Tabula Muris scRNA-seq data of murine colon followed by comparison with our clustering results. RESULTS: Our established clustering protocol, that incorporates the semantic biclustering algorithm, demonstrated the potential to reveal interesting expression patterns. In this manner, we statistically defined gene clusters consisting of the same genes involved in distinct regulatory pathways vs distinct genes playing roles in functionally similar signaling pathways. This allowed us to uncover the potentially redundant features of GIT-specific Ub-ligases and ubiquitination-related genes. Testing the statistically obtained results on the mouse model showed that genes clustered to the same ontology group simultaneously alter their expression pattern after induced epithelial damage, illustrating their complementary role during tissue regeneration. CONCLUSIONS: An optimized semantic clustering protocol demonstrates the potential to reveal a readable and unique pattern in the expression profiling of GIT-specific Ub-ligases, exposing ontologically relevant gene clusters with potentially redundant features. This extends our knowledge of ontological relationships among Ub-ligases and ubiquitination-related genes, providing an alternative and more functional gene classification. In a similar way, semantic cluster analysis could be used for studding of other enzyme families, tissues and systems.

On tower and checkerboard neural network architectures for gene expression inference.

BACKGROUND: One possible approach how to economically facilitate gene expression profiling is to use the L1000 platform which measures the expression of ∼1,000 landmark genes and uses a computational method to infer the expression of another ∼10,000 genes. One such method for the gene expression inference is a D-GEX which employs neural networks. RESULTS: We propose two novel D-GEX architectures that significantly improve the quality of the inference by increasing the capacity of a network without any increase in the number of trained parameters. The architectures partition the network into individual towers. Our best proposed architecture - a checkerboard architecture with a skip connection and five towers - together with minor changes in the training protocol improves the average mean absolute error of the inference from 0.134 to 0.128. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed approach increases the gene expression inference accuracy without increasing the number of weights of the model and thus without increasing the memory footprint of the model that is limiting its usage.

Ordinary Gasoline Emissions Induce a Toxic Response in Bronchial Cells Grown at Air-Liquid Interface.

Gasoline engine emissions have been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans and represent a significant health risk. In this study, we used MucilAir™, a three-dimensional (3D) model of the human airway, and BEAS-2B, cells originating from the human bronchial epithelium, grown at the air-liquid interface to assess the toxicity of ordinary gasoline exhaust produced by a direct injection spark ignition engine. The transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), production of mucin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and adenylate kinase (AK) activities were analyzed after one day and five days of exposure. The induction of double-stranded DNA breaks was measured by the detection of histone H2AX phosphorylation. Next-generation sequencing was used to analyze the modulation of expression of the relevant 370 genes. The exposure to gasoline emissions affected the integrity, as well as LDH and AK leakage in the 3D model, particularly after longer exposure periods. Mucin production was mostly decreased with the exception of longer BEAS-2B treatment, for which a significant increase was detected. DNA damage was detected after five days of exposure in the 3D model, but not in BEAS-2B cells. The expression of CYP1A1 and GSTA3 was modulated in MucilAir™ tissues after 5 days of treatment. In BEAS-2B cells, the expression of 39 mRNAs was affected after short exposure, most of them were upregulated. The five days of exposure modulated the expression of 11 genes in this cell line. In conclusion, the ordinary gasoline emissions induced a toxic response in MucilAir™. In BEAS-2B cells, the biological response was less pronounced, mostly limited to gene expression changes.

The Differential Effect of Carbon Dots on Gene Expression and DNA Methylation of Human Embryonic Lung Fibroblasts as a Function of Surface Charge and Dose.

This study presents a toxicological evaluation of two types of carbon dots (CD), similar in size (<10 nm) but differing in surface charge. Whole-genome mRNA and miRNA expression (RNAseq), as well as gene-specific DNA methylation changes, were analyzed in human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HEL 12469) after 4 h and 24 h exposure to concentrations of 10 and 50 µg/mL (for positive charged CD; pCD) or 10 and 100 µg/mL (for negative charged CD, nCD). The results showed a distinct response for the tested nanomaterials (NMs). The exposure to pCD induced the expression of a substantially lower number of mRNAs than those to nCD, with few commonly differentially expressed genes between the two CDs. For both CDs, the number of deregulated mRNAs increased with the dose and exposure time. The pathway analysis revealed a deregulation of processes associated with immune response, tumorigenesis and cell cycle regulation, after exposure to pCD. For nCD treatment, pathways relating to cell proliferation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, gene expression, and cycle regulation were detected. The expression of miRNAs followed a similar pattern: more pronounced changes after nCD exposure and few commonly differentially expressed miRNAs between the two CDs. For both CDs the pathway analysis based on miRNA-mRNA interactions, showed a deregulation of cancer-related pathways, immune processes and processes involved in extracellular matrix interactions. DNA methylation was not affected by exposure to any of the two CDs. In summary, although the tested CDs induced distinct responses on the level of mRNA and miRNA expression, pathway analyses revealed a potential common biological impact of both NMs independent of their surface charge.

DNA Methylation Profiles in a Group of Workers Occupationally Exposed to Nanoparticles.

The risk of exposure to nanoparticles (NPs) has rapidly increased during the last decade due to the vast use of nanomaterials (NMs) in many areas of human life. Despite this fact, human biomonitoring studies focused on the effect of NP exposure on DNA alterations are still rare. Furthermore, there are virtually no epigenetic data available. In this study, we investigated global and gene-specific DNA methylation profiles in a group of 20 long-term (mean 14.5 years) exposed, nanocomposite, research workers and in 20 controls. Both groups were sampled twice/day (pre-shift and post-shift) in September 2018. We applied Infinium Methylation Assay, using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChips with more than 850,000 CpG loci, for identification of the DNA methylation pattern in the studied groups. Aerosol exposure monitoring, including two nanosized fractions, was also performed as proof of acute NP exposure. The obtained array data showed significant differences in methylation between the exposed and control groups related to long-term exposure, specifically 341 CpG loci were hypomethylated and 364 hypermethylated. The most significant CpG differences were mainly detected in genes involved in lipid metabolism, the immune system, lung functions, signaling pathways, cancer development and xenobiotic detoxification. In contrast, short-term acute NP exposure was not accompanied by DNA methylation changes. In summary, long-term (years) exposure to NP is associated with DNA epigenetic alterations.

Bulky DNA adducts, microRNA profiles, and lipid biomarkers in Norwegian tunnel finishing workers occupationally exposed to diesel exhaust.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the biological impact of occupational exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) including DE particles (DEP) from heavy-duty diesel-powered equipment in Norwegian tunnel finishing workers (TFW). METHODS: TFW (n=69) and referents (n=69) were investigated for bulky DNA adducts (by 32P-postlabelling) and expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) (by small RNA sequencing) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), as well as circulating free arachidonic acid (AA) and eicosanoid profiles in plasma (by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry). RESULTS: PBMC from TFW showed significantly higher levels of DNA adducts compared with referents. Levels of DNA adducts were also related to smoking habits. Seventeen miRNAs were significantly deregulated in TFW. Several of these miRNAs are related to carcinogenesis, apoptosis and antioxidant effects. Analysis of putative miRNA-gene targets revealed deregulation of pathways associated with cancer, alterations in lipid molecules, steroid biosynthesis and cell cycle. Plasma profiles showed higher levels of free AA and 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, and lower levels of prostaglandin D2 and 9-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid in TFW compared with referents. CONCLUSION: Occupational exposure to DE/DEP is associated with biological alterations in TFW potentially affecting lung homoeostasis, carcinogenesis, inflammation status and the cardiovascular system. Of particular importance is the finding that tunnel finishing work is associated with an increased level of DNA adducts formation in PBMC.

The Biological Effects of Complete Gasoline Engine Emissions Exposure in a 3D Human Airway Model (MucilAirTM) and in Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells (BEAS-2B).

The biological effects induced by complete engine emissions in a 3D model of the human airway (MucilAirTM) and in human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) grown at the air-liquid interface were compared. The cells were exposed for one or five days to emissions generated by a Euro 5 direct injection spark ignition engine. The general condition of the cells was assessed by the measurement of transepithelial electrical resistance and mucin production. The cytotoxic effects were evaluated by adenylate kinase (AK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. Phosphorylation of histone H2AX was used to detect double-stranded DNA breaks. The expression of the selected 370 relevant genes was analyzed using next-generation sequencing. The exposure had minimal effects on integrity and AK leakage in both cell models. LDH activity and mucin production in BEAS-2B cells significantly increased after longer exposures; DNA breaks were also detected. The exposure affected CYP1A1 and HSPA5 expression in MucilAirTM. There were no effects of this kind observed in BEAS-2B cells; in this system gene expression was rather affected by the time of treatment. The type of cell model was the most important factor modulating gene expression. In summary, the biological effects of complete emissions exposure were weak. In the specific conditions used in this study, the effects observed in BEAS-2B cells were induced by the exposure protocol rather than by emissions and thus this cell line seems to be less suitable for analyses of longer treatment than the 3D model.

Early isolated V-lesion may not truly represent rejection of the kidney allograft.

Intimal arteritis is known to be a negative prognostic factor for kidney allograft survival. Isolated v-lesion (IV) is defined as intimal arteritis with minimal tubulointerstitial inflammation (TI). Although the Banff classification assesses IV as T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), clinical, and prognostic significance of early IV (early IV, eIV) with negative C4d and donor-specific antibodies (DSA) remains unclear. To help resolve if such eIV truly represents acute rejection, a molecular study was performed. The transcriptome of eIV (n=6), T cell-mediated vascular rejection with rich TI (T cell-mediated vascular rejection, TCMRV, n=4) and non-rejection histologic findings (n=8) was compared using microarrays. A total of 310 genes were identified to be deregulated in TCMRV compared with eIV. Gene enrichment analysis categorized deregulated genes to be associated primarily with T-cells associated biological processes involved in an innate and adaptive immune and inflammatory response. Comparison of deregulated gene lists between the study groups and controls showed only a 1.7% gene overlap. Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis revealed clear distinction of eIV from TCMRV and showed similarity with a control group. Up-regulation of immune response genes in TCMRV was validated using RT-qPCR in a different set of eIV (n=12) and TCMRV (n=8) samples. The transcriptome of early IV (< 1 month) with negative C4d and DSA is associated with a weak immune signature compared with TCMRV and shows similarity with normal findings. Such eIV may feature non-rejection origin and reflect an injury distinct from an alloimmune response. The present study supports use of molecular methods when interpreting kidney allograft biopsy findings.

Semantic biclustering for finding local, interpretable and predictive expression patterns.

BACKGROUND: One of the major challenges in the analysis of gene expression data is to identify local patterns composed of genes showing coherent expression across subsets of experimental conditions. Such patterns may provide an understanding of underlying biological processes related to these conditions. This understanding can further be improved by providing concise characterizations of the genes and situations delimiting the pattern. RESULTS: We propose a method called semantic biclustering with the aim to detect interpretable rectangular patterns in binary data matrices. As usual in biclustering, we seek homogeneous submatrices, however, we also require that the included elements can be jointly described in terms of semantic annotations pertaining to both rows (genes) and columns (samples). To find such interpretable biclusters, we explore two strategies. The first endows an existing biclustering algorithm with the semantic ingredients. The other is based on rule and tree learning known from machine learning. CONCLUSIONS: The two alternatives are tested in experiments with two Drosophila melanogaster gene expression datasets. Both strategies are shown to detect sets of compact biclusters with semantic descriptions that also remain largely valid for unseen (testing) data. This desirable generalization aspect is more emphasized in the strategy stemming from conventional biclustering although this is traded off by the complexity of the descriptions (number of ontology terms employed), which, on the other hand, is lower for the alternative strategy.

Network-constrained forest for regularized classification of omics data.

Contemporary molecular biology deals with wide and heterogeneous sets of measurements to model and understand underlying biological processes including complex diseases. Machine learning provides a frequent approach to build such models. However, the models built solely from measured data often suffer from overfitting, as the sample size is typically much smaller than the number of measured features. In this paper, we propose a random forest-based classifier that reduces this overfitting with the aid of prior knowledge in the form of a feature interaction network. We illustrate the proposed method in the task of disease classification based on measured mRNA and miRNA profiles complemented by the interaction network composed of the miRNA-mRNA target relations and mRNA-mRNA interactions corresponding to the interactions between their encoded proteins. We demonstrate that the proposed network-constrained forest employs prior knowledge to increase learning bias and consequently to improve classification accuracy, stability and comprehensibility of the resulting model. The experiments are carried out in the domain of myelodysplastic syndrome that we are concerned about in the long term. We validate our approach in the public domain of ovarian carcinoma, with the same data form. We believe that the idea of a network-constrained forest can straightforwardly be generalized towards arbitrary omics data with an available and non-trivial feature interaction network. The proposed method is publicly available in terms of miXGENE system (http://mixgene.felk.cvut.cz), the workflow that implements the myelodysplastic syndrome experiments is presented as a dedicated case study.

Comparative Analysis of Toxic Responses of Organic Extracts from Diesel and Selected Alternative Fuels Engine Emissions in Human Lung BEAS-2B Cells.

This study used toxicogenomics to identify the complex biological response of human lung BEAS-2B cells treated with organic components of particulate matter in the exhaust of a diesel engine. First, we characterized particles from standard diesel (B0), biodiesel (methylesters of rapeseed oil) in its neat form (B100) and 30% by volume blend with diesel fuel (B30), and neat hydrotreated vegetable oil (NEXBTL100). The concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their derivatives in organic extracts was the lowest for NEXBTL100 and higher for biodiesel. We further analyzed global gene expression changes in BEAS-2B cells following 4 h and 24 h treatment with extracts. The concentrations of 50 µg extract/mL induced a similar molecular response. The common processes induced after 4 h treatment included antioxidant defense, metabolism of xenobiotics and lipids, suppression of pro-apoptotic stimuli, or induction of plasminogen activating cascade; 24 h treatment affected fewer processes, particularly those involved in detoxification of xenobiotics, including PAHs. The majority of distinctively deregulated genes detected after both 4 h and 24 h treatment were induced by NEXBTL100; the deregulated genes included, e.g., those involved in antioxidant defense and cell cycle regulation and proliferation. B100 extract, with the highest PAH concentrations, additionally affected several cell cycle regulatory genes and p38 signaling.

Genome-wide miRNA profiling in myelodysplastic syndrome with del(5q) treated with lenalidomide.

OBJECTIVES: Lenalidomide is a potent drug with pleiotropic effects in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with deletion of the long arm of chromosome 5 [del(5q)]. We investigated its effect on regulation of microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles in del(5q) patients with MDS in vivo. METHODS: We used miRNA expression microarrays to study changes in miRNA levels in peripheral blood CD14+ monocytes collected from patients before and during lenalidomide treatment and compared them with those from healthy donors. RESULTS: Before treatment, we observed strong upregulation of pro-apoptotic miR-34a and miR-34a* that diminished during lenalidomide exposure. Upregulation of HOX-related miR-196b and erythroid-specific miR-451 seen in untreated patients remained unchanged after the treatment. At the time of hematologic response, expression of several miRNAs clustering to the 14q32 locus was reduced. Additionally, we focused more deeply on miRNAs from the 5q commonly deleted region and found that levels of miR-378 and miR-378* followed haploinsufficiency trend. CONCLUSIONS: This report describes changes in miRNA expression in del(5q) patients with MDS treated with lenalidomide, likely arising from deregulation of pathways implicated in lenalidomide action.

Gene expression profiles and protein-protein interaction networks in THP-1 cells exposed to metal-based nanomaterials.

We analyzed gene expression in THP-1 cells exposed to metal-based nanomaterials (NMs) [TiO2 (NM-100), ZnO (NM-110), SiO2 (NM-200), Ag (NM-300 K)]. A functional enrichment analysis of the significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified the key modulated biological processes and pathways. DEGs were used to construct protein-protein interaction networks. NM-110 and NM-300 K induced changes in the expression of genes involved in oxidative and genotoxic stress, immune response, alterations of cell cycle, detoxification of metal ions and regulation of redox-sensitive pathways. Both NMs shared a number of highly connected protein nodes (hubs) including CXCL8, ATF3, HMOX1, and IL1B. NM-200 induced limited transcriptional changes, mostly related to the immune response; however, several hubs (CXCL8, ATF3) were identical with NM-110 and NM-300 K. No effects of NM-100 were observed. Overall, soluble nanomaterials NM-110 and NM-300 K exerted a wide variety of toxic effects, while insoluble NM-200 induced immunotoxicity; NM-100 caused no detectable changes on the gene expression level.

Transcriptome changes in humans acutely exposed to nanoparticles during grinding of dental nanocomposites.

Aim: Today, there is a lack of research studies concerning human acute exposure to nanoparticles (NPs). Our investigation aimed to simulate real-world acute inhalation exposure to NPs released during work with dental nanocomposites in a dental office or technician laboratory. Methods: Blood samples from female volunteers were processed before and after inhalation exposure. Transcriptomic mRNA and miRNA expression changes were analyzed. Results: We detected large interindividual variability, 90 significantly deregulated mRNAs, and 4 miRNAs when samples of participants before and after dental nanocomposite grinding were compared. Conclusion: The results suggest that inhaled dental NPs may present an occupational hazard to human health, as indicated by the changes in the processes related to oxidative stress, synthesis of eicosanoids, and cell division.

What is this article about? We searched for a possible impact of acute inhalation exposure to nanoparticles (NPs) released during the grinding of dental nanocomposites used for teeth reconstruction. The exposure design utilized in our study simulated the acute exposure of the dental staff to the NPs. Our research fills the gaps in knowledge in the field of acute human inhalation exposure to dental nanocomposites.What were the results? Results indicate that the impact of exposure to NPs is dependent on the style of working as well as on the interindividual biological variability among study subjects. Changes in expression levels of genes associated with an increase of oxidative stress, synthesis of eicosanoids (signaling molecules related to e.g., immune responses), and cell division were detected.What do the results of the study mean? All the observed changes may contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, carcinogenesis, or problems during pregnancy. Occupational exposure to inhaled NPs, including those generated in dental practice can pose a significant health risk, and protective measures when working with these materials should be considered. More research is needed to compare our results with chronic (long-term) exposure to similar materials to show the hazards related to their inhalation.

Transcriptomic alterations in the olfactory bulb induced by exposure to air pollution: Identification of potential biomarkers and insights into olfactory system function.

This study evaluated how exposure to the ubiquitous air pollution component, ultrafine particles (UFPs), alters the olfactory bulb (OB) transcriptome. The study utilised a whole-body inhalation chamber to simulate real-life conditions and focused on UFPs due to their high translocation and deposition ability in OBs as well as their prevalence in ambient air. Female C57BL/6J mice were exposed to clean air or to freshly generated combustion derived UFPs for two weeks, after which OBs were dissected and mRNA transcripts were investigated using RNA sequencing analysis. For the first time, transcriptomics was applied to determine changes in mRNA expression levels occurring after subacute exposure to UFPs in the OBs. We found forty-five newly described mRNAs to be involved in air pollution-induced responses, including genes involved in odorant binding, synaptic regulation, and myelination signalling pathway, providing new gene candidates for future research. This study provides new insights for the environmental science and neuroscience fields and nominates future research directions.

Improved recovery and annotation of genes in metagenomes through the prediction of fungal introns.

Metagenomics provides a tool to assess the functional potential of environmental and host-associated microbiomes based on the analysis of environmental DNA: assembly, gene prediction and annotation. While gene prediction is straightforward for most bacterial and archaeal taxa, it has limited applicability in the majority of eukaryotic organisms, including fungi that contain introns in gene coding sequences. As a consequence, eukaryotic genes are underrepresented in metagenomics datasets and our understanding of the contribution of fungi and other eukaryotes to microbiome functioning is limited. Here, we developed a machine intelligence-based algorithm that predicts fungal introns in environmental DNA with reasonable precision and used it to improve the annotation of environmental metagenomes. Intron removal increased the number of predicted genes by up to 9.1% and improved the annotation of several others. The proportion of newly predicted genes increased with the share of eukaryotic genes in the metagenome and-within fungal taxa-increased with the number of introns per gene. Our approach provides a tool named SVMmycointron for improved metagenome annotation, especially of microbiomes with a high proportion of eukaryotes. The scripts described in the paper are made publicly available and can be readily utilized by microbiome researchers analysing metagenomics data.

Novel transcriptomic signatures associated with premature kidney allograft failure.

BACKGROUND: The power to predict kidney allograft outcomes based on non-invasive assays is limited. Assessment of operational tolerance (OT) patients allows us to identify transcriptomic signatures of true non-responders for construction of predictive models. METHODS: In this observational retrospective study, RNA sequencing of peripheral blood was used in a derivation cohort to identify a protective set of transcripts by comparing 15 OT patients (40% females), from the TOMOGRAM Study (NCT05124444), 14 chronic active antibody-mediated rejection (CABMR) and 23 stable graft function patients ≥15 years (STA). The selected differentially expressed transcripts between OT and CABMR were used in a validation cohort (n = 396) to predict 3-year kidney allograft loss at 3 time-points using RT-qPCR. FINDINGS: Archetypal analysis and classifier performance of RNA sequencing data showed that OT is clearly distinguishable from CABMR, but similar to STA. Based on significant transcripts from the validation cohort in univariable analysis, 2 multivariable Cox models were created. A 3-transcript (ADGRG3, ATG2A, and GNLY) model from POD 7 predicted graft loss with C-statistics (C) 0.727 (95% CI, 0.638-0.820). Another 3-transcript (IGHM, CD5, GNLY) model from M3 predicted graft loss with C 0.786 (95% CI, 0.785-0.865). Combining 3-transcripts models with eGFR at POD 7 and M3 improved C-statistics to 0.860 (95% CI, 0.778-0.944) and 0.868 (95% CI, 0.790-0.944), respectively. INTERPRETATION: Identification of transcripts distinguishing OT from CABMR allowed us to construct models predicting premature graft loss. Identified transcripts reflect mechanisms of injury/repair and alloimmune response when assessed at day 7 or with a loss of protective phenotype when assessed at month 3. FUNDING: Supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic under grant NV19-06-00031.

Expression of circular RNAs in myelodysplastic neoplasms and their association with mutations in the splicing factor gene SF3B1.

Mutations in the splicing factor 3b subunit 1 (SF3B1) gene are frequent in myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS). Because the splicing process is involved in the production of circular RNAs (circRNAs), we investigated the impact of SF3B1 mutations on circRNA processing. Using RNA sequencing, we measured circRNA expression in CD34+ bone marrow MDS cells. We defined circRNAs deregulated in a heterogeneous group of MDS patients and described increased circRNA formation in higher-risk MDS. We showed that the presence of SF3B1 mutations did not affect the global production of circRNAs; however, deregulation of specific circRNAs was observed. Particularly, we demonstrated that strong upregulation of circRNAs processed from the zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) transcription factor; this upregulation was exclusive to SF3B1-mutated patients and was not observed in those with mutations in other splicing factors or other recurrently mutated genes, or with other clinical variables. Furthermore, we focused on the most upregulated ZEB1-circRNA, hsa_circ_0000228, and, by its knockdown, we demonstrated that its expression is related to mitochondrial activity. Using microRNA analyses, we proposed miR-1248 as a direct target of hsa_circ_0000228. To conclude, we demonstrated that mutated SF3B1 leads to deregulation of ZEB1-circRNAs, potentially contributing to the defects in mitochondrial metabolism observed in SF3B1-mutated MDS.

Comparative evaluation of set-level techniques in predictive classification of gene expression samples.

BACKGROUND: Analysis of gene expression data in terms of a priori-defined gene sets has recently received significant attention as this approach typically yields more compact and interpretable results than those produced by traditional methods that rely on individual genes. The set-level strategy can also be adopted with similar benefits in predictive classification tasks accomplished with machine learning algorithms. Initial studies into the predictive performance of set-level classifiers have yielded rather controversial results. The goal of this study is to provide a more conclusive evaluation by testing various components of the set-level framework within a large collection of machine learning experiments. RESULTS: Genuine curated gene sets constitute better features for classification than sets assembled without biological relevance. For identifying the best gene sets for classification, the Global test outperforms the gene-set methods GSEA and SAM-GS as well as two generic feature selection methods. To aggregate expressions of genes into a feature value, the singular value decomposition (SVD) method as well as the SetSig technique improve on simple arithmetic averaging. Set-level classifiers learned with 10 features constituted by the Global test slightly outperform baseline gene-level classifiers learned with all original data features although they are slightly less accurate than gene-level classifiers learned with a prior feature-selection step. CONCLUSION: Set-level classifiers do not boost predictive accuracy, however, they do achieve competitive accuracy if learned with the right combination of ingredients. AVAILABILITY: Open-source, publicly available software was used for classifier learning and testing. The gene expression datasets and the gene set database used are also publicly available. The full tabulation of experimental results is available at http://ida.felk.cvut.cz/CESLT.