Cardiovascular disease biomarkers derived from circulating cell-free DNA methylation

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains a major cause of worldwide mortality. The syndrome occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is decreased or blocked, causing muscle tissues to die or malfunction. There are three main types of ACS: Non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and unstable angina. The treatment depends on the type of ACS, and this is decided by a combination of clinical findings, such as electrocardiogram and plasma biomarkers. Circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) is proposed as an additional marker for ACS since the damaged tissues can release DNA to the bloodstream. We used ccfDNA methylation profiles for differentiating between the ACS types and provided computational tools to repeat similar analysis for other diseases. We leveraged cell type specificity of DNA methylation to deconvolute the ccfDNA cell types of origin and to find methylation-based biomarkers that stratify patients. We identified hundreds of methylation markers associated with ACS types and validated them in an independent cohort. Many such markers were associated with genes involved in cardiovascular conditions and inflammation. ccfDNA methylation showed promise as a non-invasive diagnostic for acute coronary events. These methods are not limited to acute events, and may be used for chronic cardiovascular diseases as well

A software reconfigurable multi-networks simulator using a custom associative chip

International audienceA special-purpose simulator is described. It has been designed to try various interconnection schemes between several similar associative chips, in order to assess hierarchical assemblies of neural networks. These chips are digital feedback networks with 64 fully interconnected binary neurons, capable of on-chip learning and automatic detection of spurious attractors. This simulator is based on the MCP development board. Each such board can house four associative chips. The simulator is designed to transparently address chips not only inside the machine in which it resides, but also chips in other machines. All the virtual interconnections between chips are made at the neuron level, which means that the individual components of binary vectors processed by each chip can be routed to the input or from the output of any other chip. Simulator scheduling allows sequentiality in information processin