Browsing by Author "Meyers, Deborah A."

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    Benefits of Airway Androgen Receptor Expression in Human Asthma
    (American Thoracic Society, 2021) Zein, Joe G.; McManus, Jeffrey M.; Sharifi, Nima; Erzurum, Serpil C.; Marozkina, Nadzeya; Lahm, Timothy; Giddings, Olivia; Davis, Michael D.; DeBoer, Mark D.; Comhair, Suzy A.; Bazeley, Peter; Kim, Hyun Jo; Busse, William; Calhoun, William; Castro, Mario; Chung, Kian Fan; Fahy, John V.; Israel, Elliot; Jarjour, Nizar N.; Levy, Bruce D.; Mauger, David T.; Moore, Wendy C.; Ortega, Victor E.; Peters, Michael; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Zhao, Yi; Wenzel, Sally E.; Gaston, Benjamin; Biostatistics, School of Public Health
    Rationale: Androgens are potentially beneficial in asthma, but AR (androgen receptor) has not been studied in human airways. Objectives: To measure whether AR and its ligands are associated with human asthma outcomes. Methods: We compared the effects of AR expression on lung function, symptom scores, and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in adults enrolled in SARP (Severe Asthma Research Program). The impact of sex and of androgens on asthma outcomes was also evaluated in the SARP with validation studies in the Cleveland Clinic Health System and the NHANES (U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).Measurements and Main Results: In SARP (n = 128), AR gene expression from bronchoscopic epithelial brushings was positively associated with both FEV1/FVC ratio (R2 = 0.135, P = 0.0002) and the total Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire score (R2 = 0.056, P = 0.016) and was negatively associated with FeNO (R2 = 0.178, P = 9.8 × 10-6) and NOS2 (nitric oxide synthase gene) expression (R2 = 0.281, P = 1.2 × 10-10). In SARP (n = 1,659), the Cleveland Clinic Health System (n = 32,527), and the NHANES (n = 2,629), women had more asthma exacerbations and emergency department visits than men. The levels of the AR ligand precursor dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate correlated positively with the FEV1 in both women and men. Conclusions: Higher bronchial AR expression and higher androgen levels are associated with better lung function, fewer symptoms, and a lower FeNO in human asthma. The role of androgens should be considered in asthma management.
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    CCL5 is a Potential Bridge Between Type-1 and Type-2 Inflammation in Asthma
    (Elsevier, 2023) Gauthier, Marc; Kale, Sagar Laxman; Oriss, Timothy B.; Gorry, Michael; Ramonell, Richard P.; Dalton, Kathryn; Ray, Prabir; Fahy, John V.; Seibold, Max A.; Castro, Mario; Jarjour, Nizar; Gaston, Benjamin; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Moore, Wendy; Hastie, Annette T.; Israel, Elliot; Levy, Bruce D.; Mauger, David; Erzurum, Serpil; Comhair, Suzy A.; Wenzel, Sally E.; Ray, Anuradha; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Background: Type 1 (T1) inflammation (marked by IFN-γ expression) is now consistently identified in subsets of asthma cohorts, but how it contributes to disease remains unclear. Objective: We sought to understand the role of CCL5 in asthmatic T1 inflammation and how it interacts with both T1 and type 2 (T2) inflammation. Methods: CCL5, CXCL9, and CXCL10 messenger RNA expression from sputum bulk RNA sequencing, as well as clinical and inflammatory data were obtained from the Severe Asthma Research Program III (SARP III). CCL5 and IFNG expression from bronchoalveolar lavage cell bulk RNA sequencing was obtained from the Immune Mechanisms in Severe Asthma (IMSA) cohort and expression related to previously identified immune cell profiles. The role of CCL5 in tissue-resident memory T-cell (TRM) reactivation was evaluated in a T1high murine severe asthma model. Results: Sputum CCL5 expression strongly correlated with T1 chemokines (P < .001 for CXCL9 and CXCL10), consistent with a role in T1 inflammation. CCL5high participants had greater fractional exhaled nitric oxide (P = .009), blood eosinophils (P < .001), and sputum eosinophils (P = .001) in addition to sputum neutrophils (P = .001). Increased CCL5 bronchoalveolar lavage expression was unique to a previously described T1high/T2variable/lymphocytic patient group in the IMSA cohort, with IFNG trending with worsening lung obstruction only in this group (P = .083). In a murine model, high expression of the CCL5 receptor CCR5 was observed in TRMs and was consistent with a T1 signature. A role for CCL5 in TRM activation was supported by the ability of the CCR5 inhibitor maraviroc to blunt reactivation. Conclusion: CCL5 appears to contribute to TRM-related T1 neutrophilic inflammation in asthma while paradoxically also correlating with T2 inflammation and with sputum eosinophilia.
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    Comparison of whole genome sequencing and targeted sequencing for mitochondrial DNA
    (Elsevier, 2021) Chen, Ruoying; Aldred, Micheala A.; Xu, Weiling; Zein, Joe; Bazeley, Peter; Comhai, Suzy A. A.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Liu, Chunyu; Erzurum, Serpil C.; Hu, Bo; NHLBI Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP); Medicine, School of Medicine
    Mitochondrial dysfunction has emerged to be associated with a broad spectrum of diseases, and there is an increasing demand for accurate detection of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has been the dominant sequencing approach to identify genetic variants in recent decades, but most studies focus on variants on the nuclear genome. Whole genome sequencing is also costly and time consuming. Sequencing specifically targeted for mtDNA is commonly used in the diagnostic settings and has lower costs. However, there is a lack of pairwise comparisons between these two sequencing approaches for calling mtDNA variants on a population basis. In this study, we compared WGS and mtDNA-targeted sequencing (targeted-seq) in analyzing mitochondrial DNA from 1499 participants recruited into the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP). Our study reveals that targeted-sequencing and WGS have comparable capacity to determine genotypes and to call haplogroups and homoplasmies on mtDNA. However, there exists a large variability in calling heteroplasmies, especially for low-frequency heteroplasmies, which indicates that investigators should be cautious about heteroplasmies acquired from different sequencing methods. Further research is highly desired to improve variant detection methods for mitochondrial DNA.
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    Genetic analyses identify GSDMB associated with asthma severity, exacerbations, and antiviral pathways
    (Elsevier, 2020) Li, Xingnan; Christenson, Stephanie A.; Modena, Brian; Li, Huashi; Busse, William W.; Castro, Mario; Denlinger, Loren C.; Erzurum, Serpil C.; Fahy, John V.; Gaston, Benjamin; Hastie, Annette T.; Israel, Elliot; Jarjour, Nizar N.; Levy, Bruce D.; Moore, Wendy C.; Woodruff, Prescott G.; Kaminski, Naftali; Wenzel, Sally E.; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Background The Chr17q12-21.2 region is the strongest and most consistently associated region with asthma susceptibility. The functional genes or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are not obvious due to linkage disequilibrium. Objectives We sought to comprehensively investigate whole-genome sequence and RNA sequence from human bronchial epithelial cells to dissect functional genes/SNPs for asthma severity in the Severe Asthma Research Program. Methods Expression quantitative trait loci analysis (n = 114), correlation analysis (n = 156) of gene expression and asthma phenotypes, and pathway analysis were performed in bronchial epithelial cells and replicated. Genetic association for asthma severity (426 severe vs 531 nonsevere asthma) and longitudinal asthma exacerbations (n = 273) was performed. Results Multiple SNPs in gasdermin B (GSDMB) associated with asthma severity (odds ratio, >1.25) and longitudinal asthma exacerbations (P < .05). Expression quantitative trait loci analyses identified multiple SNPs associated with expression levels of post-GPI attachment to proteins 3, GSDMB, or gasdermin A (3.1 × 10−9 < P < 1.8 × 10−4). Higher expression levels of GSDMB correlated with asthma and greater number of exacerbations (P < .05). Expression levels of GSDMB correlated with genes involved in IFN signaling, MHC class I antigen presentation, and immune system pathways (false-discovery rate–adjusted P < .05). rs1031458 and rs3902920 in GSDMB colocalized with IFN regulatory factor binding sites and associated with GSDMB expression, asthma severity, and asthma exacerbations (P < .05). Conclusions By using a unique set of gene expression data from lung cells obtained using bronchoscopy from comprehensively characterized subjects with asthma, we show that SNPs in GSDMB associated with asthma severity, exacerbations, and GSDMB expression levels. Furthermore, its expression levels correlated with asthma exacerbations and antiviral pathways. Thus, GSDMB is a functional gene for both asthma susceptibility and severity.
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    Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number Variation in Asthma Risk, Severity, and Exacerbations
    (medRxiv, 2023-12-05) Xu, Weiling; Hong, Yun Soo; Hu, Bo; Comhair, Suzy A. A.; Janocha, Allison J.; Zein, Joe G.; Chen, Ruoying; Meyers, Deborah A.; Mauger, David T.; Ortega, Victor E.; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Castro, Mario; Denlinger, Loren C.; Fahy, John V.; Israel, Elliot; Levy, Bruce D.; Jarjour, Nizar N.; Moore, Wendy C.; Wenzel, Sally E.; Gaston, Benjamin; Liu, Chunyu; Arking, Dan E.; Erzurum, Serpil C.; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) and TOPMed mtDNA Working Group in NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Rationale: Although airway oxidative stress and inflammation are central to asthma pathogenesis, there is limited knowledge of the relationship of asthma risk, severity, or exacerbations to mitochondrial dysfunction, which is pivotal to oxidant generation and inflammation. Objectives: We investigated whether mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) as a measure of mitochondrial function is associated with asthma diagnosis, severity, oxidative stress, and exacerbations. Methods: We measured mtDNA-CN in blood in two cohorts. In the UK Biobank (UKB), we compared mtDNA-CN in mild and moderate-severe asthmatics to non-asthmatics. In the Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP), we evaluated mtDNA-CN in relation to asthma severity, biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation, and exacerbations. Measures and main results: In UK Biobank, asthmatics (n = 29,768) have lower mtDNA-CN compared to non-asthmatics (n = 239,158) (beta, -0.026 [95% CI, -0.038 to -0.014], P = 2.46×10-5). While lower mtDNA-CN is associated with asthma, mtDNA-CN did not differ by asthma severity in either UKB or SARP. Biomarkers of inflammation show that asthmatics have higher white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils, eosinophils, fraction exhaled nitric oxide (FENO), and lower superoxide dismutase (SOD) than non-asthmatics, confirming greater oxidative stress in asthma. In one year follow-up in SARP, higher mtDNA-CN is associated with reduced risk of three or more exacerbations in the subsequent year (OR 0.352 [95% CI, 0.164 to 0.753], P = 0.007). Conclusions: Asthma is characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction. Higher mtDNA-CN identifies an exacerbation-resistant asthma phenotype, suggesting mitochondrial function is important in exacerbation risk.
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    Responsiveness to Parenteral Corticosteroids and Lung Function Trajectory in Adults with Moderate-to-Severe Asthma
    (American Thoracic Society, 2021) Denlinger, Loren C.; Phillips, Brenda R.; Sorkness, Ronald L.; Bleecker, Eugene R.; Castro, Mario; DeBoer, Mark D.; Fitzpatrick, Anne M.; Hastie, Annette T.; Gaffin, Jonathan M.; Moore, Wendy C.; Peters, Michael C.; Peters, Stephen P.; Phipatanakul, Wanda; Cardet, Juan Carlos; Erzurum, Serpil C.; Fahy, John V.; Fajt, Merritt L.; Gaston, Benjamin; Levy, Bruce D.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Ross, Kristie; Teague, W. Gerald; Wenzel, Sally E.; Woodruff, Prescott G.; Zein, Joe; Jarjour, Nizar N.; Mauger, David T.; Israel, Elliot; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Rationale: It is unclear why select patients with moderate-to-severe asthma continue to lose lung function despite therapy. We hypothesized that participants with the smallest responses to parenteral corticosteroids have the greatest risk of undergoing a severe decline in lung function. Objectives: To evaluate corticosteroid-response phenotypes as longitudinal predictors of lung decline. Methods: Adults within the NHLBI SARP III (Severe Asthma Research Program III) who had undergone a course of intramuscular triamcinolone at baseline and at ≥2 annual follow-up visits were evaluated. Longitudinal slopes were calculated for each participant’s post-bronchodilator FEV1% predicted. Categories of participant FEV1 slope were defined: severe decline, >2% loss/yr; mild decline, >0.5–2.0% loss/yr; no change, 0.5% loss/yr to <1% gain/yr; and improvement, ≥1% gain/yr. Regression models were used to develop predictors of severe decline. Measurements and Main Results: Of 396 participants, 78 had severe decline, 91 had mild decline, 114 had no change, and 113 showed improvement. The triamcinolone-induced difference in the post-bronchodilator FEV1% predicted (derived by baseline subtraction) was related to the 4-year change in lung function or slope category in univariable models (P < 0.001). For each 5% decrement in the triamcinolone-induced difference the FEV1% predicted, there was a 50% increase in the odds of being in the severe decline group (odds ratio, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.3–1.8), when adjusted for baseline FEV1, exacerbation history, blood eosinophils and body mass index. Conclusions: Failure to improve the post-bronchodilator FEV1 after a challenge with parenteral corticosteroids is an evoked biomarker for patients at risk for a severe decline in lung function.
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    Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program
    (Springer Nature, 2021) Taliun, Daniel; Harris, Daniel N.; Kessler, Michael D.; Carlson, Jedidiah; Szpiech, Zachary A.; Torres, Raul; Gagliano Taliun, Sarah A.; Corvelo, André; Gogarten, Stephanie M.; Kang, Hyun Min; Pitsillides, Achilleas N.; LeFaive, Jonathon; Lee, Seung-Been; Tian, Xiaowen; Browning, Brian L.; Das, Sayantan; Emde, Anne-Katrin; Clarke, Wayne E.; Loesch, Douglas P.; Shetty, Amol C.; Blackwell, Thomas W.; Smith, Albert V.; Wong, Quenna; Liu, Xiaoming; Conomos, Matthew P.; Bobo, Dean M.; Aguet, François; Albert, Christine; Alonso, Alvaro; Ardlie, Kristin G.; Arking, Dan E.; Aslibekyan, Stella; Auer, Paul L.; Barnard, John; Barr, R. Graham; Barwick, Lucas; Becker, Lewis C.; Beer, Rebecca L.; Benjamin, Emelia J.; Bielak, Lawrence F.; Blangero, John; Boehnke, Michael; Bowden, Donald W.; Brody, Jennifer A.; Burchard, Esteban G.; Cade, Brian E.; Casella, James F.; Chalazan, Brandon; Chasman, Daniel I.; Chen, Yii-Der Ida; Cho, Michael H.; Choi, Seung Hoan; Chung, Mina K.; Clish, Clary B.; Correa, Adolfo; Curran, Joanne E.; Custer, Brian; Darbar, Dawood; Daya, Michelle; de Andrade, Mariza; DeMeo, Dawn L.; Dutcher, Susan K.; Ellinor, Patrick T.; Emery, Leslie S.; Eng, Celeste; Fatkin, Diane; Fingerlin, Tasha; Forer, Lukas; Fornage, Myriam; Franceschini, Nora; Fuchsberger, Christian; Fullerton, Stephanie M.; Germer, Soren; Gladwin, Mark T.; Gottlieb, Daniel J.; Guo, Xiuqing; Hall, Michael E.; He, Jiang; Heard-Costa, Nancy L.; Heckbert, Susan R.; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Johnsen, Jill M.; Johnson, Andrew D.; Kaplan, Robert; Kardia, Sharon L. R.; Kelly, Tanika; Kelly, Shannon; Kenny, Eimear E.; Kiel, Douglas P.; Klemmer, Robert; Konkle, Barbara A.; Kooperberg, Charles; Köttgen, Anna; Lange, Leslie A.; Lasky-Su, Jessica; Levy, Daniel; Lin, Xihong; Lin, Keng-Han; Liu, Chunyu; Loos, Ruth J. F.; Garman, Lori; Gerszten, Robert; Lubitz, Steven A.; Lunetta, Kathryn L.; Mak, Angel C. Y.; Manichaikul, Ani; Manning, Alisa K.; Mathias, Rasika A.; McManus, David D.; McGarvey, Stephen T.; Meigs, James B.; Meyers, Deborah A.; Mikulla, Julie L.; Minear, Mollie A.; Mitchell, Braxton D.; Mohanty, Sanghamitra; Montasser, May E.; Montgomery, Courtney; Morrison, Alanna C.; Murabito, Joanne M.; Natale, Andrea; Natarajan, Pradeep; Nelson, Sarah C.; North, Kari E.; O'Connell, Jeffrey R.; Palmer, Nicholette D.; Pankratz, Nathan; Peloso, Gina M.; Peyser, Patricia A.; Pleiness, Jacob; Post, Wendy S.; Psaty, Bruce M.; Rao, D. C.; Redline, Susan; Reiner, Alexander P.; Roden, Dan; Rotter, Jerome I.; Ruczinski, Ingo; Sarnowski, Chloé; Schoenherr, Sebastian; Schwartz, David A.; Seo, Jeong-Sun; Seshadri, Sudha; Sheehan, Vivien A.; Sheu, Wayne H.; Shoemaker, M. Benjamin; Smith, Nicholas L.; Smith, Jennifer A.; Sotoodehnia, Nona; Stilp, Adrienne M.; Tang, Weihong; Taylor, Kent D.; Telen, Marilyn; Thornton, Timothy A.; Tracy, Russell P.; Van Den Berg, David J.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.; Viaud-Martinez, Karine A.; Vrieze, Scott; Weeks, Daniel E.; Weir, Bruce S.; Weiss, Scott T.; Weng, Lu-Chen; Willer, Cristen J.; Zhang, Yingze; Zhao, Xutong; Arnett, Donna K.; Ashley-Koch, Allison E.; Barnes, Kathleen C.; Boerwinkle, Eric; Gabriel, Stacey; Gibbs, Richard; Rice, Kenneth M.; Rich, Stephen S.; Silverman, Edwin K.; Qasba, Pankaj; Gan, Weiniu; NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; Papanicolaou, George J.; Nickerson, Deborah A.; Browning, Sharon R.; Zody, Michael C.; Zöllner, Sebastian; Wilson, James G.; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Laurie, Cathy C.; Jaquish, Cashell E.; Hernandez, Ryan D.; O'Connor, Timothy D.; Abecasis, Gonçalo R.; Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
    The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme seeks to elucidate the genetic architecture and biology of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders, with the ultimate goal of improving diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these diseases. The initial phases of the programme focused on whole-genome sequencing of individuals with rich phenotypic data and diverse backgrounds. Here we describe the TOPMed goals and design as well as the available resources and early insights obtained from the sequence data. The resources include a variant browser, a genotype imputation server, and genomic and phenotypic data that are available through dbGaP (Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes)1. In the first 53,831 TOPMed samples, we detected more than 400 million single-nucleotide and insertion or deletion variants after alignment with the reference genome. Additional previously undescribed variants were detected through assembly of unmapped reads and customized analysis in highly variable loci. Among the more than 400 million detected variants, 97% have frequencies of less than 1% and 46% are singletons that are present in only one individual (53% among unrelated individuals). These rare variants provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history. The extensive catalogue of genetic variation in TOPMed studies provides unique opportunities for exploring the contributions of rare and noncoding sequence variants to phenotypic variation. Furthermore, combining TOPMed haplotypes with modern imputation methods improves the power and reach of genome-wide association studies to include variants down to a frequency of approximately 0.01%.