Novel Crohn Disease Locus Identified by Genome-Wide Association Maps to a Gene Desert on 5p13.1 and Modulates Expression of PTGER4

To identify novel susceptibility loci for Crohn disease (CD), we undertook a genome-wide association study with more than 300,000 SNPs characterized in 547 patients and 928 controls. We found three chromosome regions that provided evidence of disease association with p-values between 10(−6) and 10(−9). Two of these (IL23R on Chromosome 1 and CARD15 on Chromosome 16) correspond to genes previously reported to be associated with CD. In addition, a 250-kb region of Chromosome 5p13.1 was found to contain multiple markers with strongly suggestive evidence of disease association (including four markers with p < 10(−7)). We replicated the results for 5p13.1 by studying 1,266 additional CD patients, 559 additional controls, and 428 trios. Significant evidence of association (p < 4 × 10(−4)) was found in case/control comparisons with the replication data, while associated alleles were over-transmitted to affected offspring (p < 0.05), thus confirming that the 5p13.1 locus contributes to CD susceptibility. The CD-associated 250-kb region was saturated with 111 SNP markers. Haplotype analysis supports a complex locus architecture with multiple variants contributing to disease susceptibility. The novel 5p13.1 CD locus is contained within a 1.25-Mb gene desert. We present evidence that disease-associated alleles correlate with quantitative expression levels of the prostaglandin receptor EP4, PTGER4, the gene that resides closest to the associated region. Our results identify a major new susceptibility locus for CD, and suggest that genetic variants associated with disease risk at this locus could modulate cis-acting regulatory elements of PTGER4

Evidence for Significant Overlap between Common Risk Variants for Crohn's Disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis

BACKGROUND: A multicenter genome-wide association scan for Crohn's Disease (CD) has recently reported 40 CD susceptibility loci, including 29 novel ones (19 significant and 10 putative). To gain insight into the genetic overlap between CD and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), these markers were tested for association in AS patients. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Two previously established associations, namely with the MHC and IL23R loci, were confirmed. In addition, rs2872507, which maps to a locus associated with asthma and influences the expression of the ORMDL3 gene in lymphoblastoid cells, showed a significant association with AS (p = 0.03). In gut biopsies of AS and CD patients, ORMDL3 expression was not significantly different from controls and no correlation was found with the rs2872507 genotype (Spearman's rho: -0.067). The distribution of p-values for the remaining 36 SNPs was significantly skewed towards low p-values unless the top 5 ranked SNPs (ORMDL3, NKX2-3, PTPN2, ICOSLG and MST1) were excluded from the analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Association analysis using risk variants for CD led to the identification of a new risk variant associated with AS (ORMDL3), underscoring a role for ER stress in AS. In addition, two known and five potentially relevant associations were detected, contributing to common susceptibility of CD and AS

Kinetics and persistence of the cellular and humoral immune responses to BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in SARS-CoV-2-naive and -experienced subjects

Background: Understanding and measuring the individual level of immune protection and its persistence at both humoral and cellular levels after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is mandatory for the management of the vaccination booster campaign. Our prospective study was designed to assess the immunogenicity of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in triggering the humoral and the cellular immune response in healthcare workers up to 6 months after two doses vaccination. Methods: This prospective study enrolled 208 healthcare workers from the Liège University Hospital (CHU) of Liège in Belgium. All participants received two doses of BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2). Fifty participants were SARS-CoV-2 experienced (self-reported SARS-CoV-2 infection) and 158 were naïve (no reported SARS-CoV-2 infection) before the vaccination. Blood sampling was performed at the day of the first (T0) and second (T1) vaccine doses administration, then at 2 weeks (T2), 4 weeks (T3) and 6 months (T4) after the 1st vaccine dose administration. A total of 1024 blood samples were collected. All samples were tested for the presence of anti-Spike antibodies using DiaSorin LIAISON SARS-CoV-2 TrimericS IgG assay. Neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-like variant strain were quantified in all samples using a Vero E6 cell-based neutralization-based assay. Cell-mediated immune response was evaluated at T4 on 80 participants by measuring the secretion of IFN- on peripheral blood lymphocytes using the QuantiFERON Human IFN- SARS-CoV-2, Qiagen. All participants were monitored on weekly-basis for the novo SARS-COV-2 infection for 4 weeks after the 1st vaccine dose administration. We analyzed separately the naïve and experienced participants. Findings: We found that anti-spike antibodies and neutralization capacity levels were significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 experienced healthcare workers (HCWs) compared to naïve HCWs at all time points analyzed. Cellular immune response was similar in the two groups six months following 2nd dose of the vaccine. Reassuringly, most participants had a detectable cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 six months after vaccination. Besides the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection history on immune response to BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, we observed a significant negative correlation between age and persistence of humoral response. Cellular immune response was, however, not significantly correlated to age, although a trend towards a negative impact of age was observed. Conclusions: Our data strengthen previous findings demonstrating that immunization through vaccination combined with natural infection is better than 2 vaccine doses immunization or natural infection alone. It may have implications for personalizing mRNA vaccination regimens used to prevent severe COVID-19 and reduce the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare system. More specifically, it may help prioritizing vaccination, including for the deployment of booster doses

Large-scale sequencing identifies multiple genes and rare variants associated with Crohn’s disease susceptibility

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Frequency of mosaicism points towards mutation-prone early cleavage cell divisions in cattle.

It has recently become possible to directly estimate the germ-line de novo mutation (dnm) rate by sequencing the whole genome of father-mother-offspring trios, and this has been conducted in human1–5, chimpanzee6, mice7, birds8and fish9. In these studiesdnm’s are typically defined as variants that are heterozygous in the offspring while being absent in both parents. They are assumed to have occurred in the germ-line of one of the parents and to have been transmitted to the offspring via the sperm cell or oocyte. This definition assumes that detectable mosaïcism in the parent in which the mutation occurred is negligible. However, instances of detectable mosaïcism or premeiotic clusters are well documented in humans and other organisms, including ruminants10–12. We herein take advantage of cattle pedigrees to show that as much as ∼30% to ∼50% ofdnm’s present in a gamete may occur during the early cleavage cell divisions in males and females, respectively, resulting in frequent detectable mosaïcism and a high rate of sharing of multiplednm’s between siblings. This should be taken into account to accurately estimate the mutation rate in cattle and other species.</jats:p

Microsatellite mapping of a major determinant of White Heifer Disease: the bovine roan locus

In the Belgian Blue Cattle breed, coat color variation is mainly under the influence of a single autosomal locus, the roan locus, characterized by a pair of codominant alleles: r + (black) and R (white). Heterozygous r + R animals have intermingled black and white hairs, yielding the ``blue'' phenotype typical of the breed. Major interest for the roan locus stems from its pleiotropic effect on fertility, owing to the critical role of the R allele in the determinism of White Heifer Disease. We describe the linkage mapping of the roan locus to bovine Chromosome (Chr) 5, in the interval between microsatellite markers BPI and AGLA293, with an associated lodscore of 11.2. Moreover, we map a candidate gene, the Steel locus coding for the mast cell growth factor, to bovine Chr 5

The mh gene causing double-muscling in cattle maps to bovine chromosome 2

While the hereditary nature of the double-muscling phenotype (a generalized muscular hypertrophy documented in several cattle breeds) is well established, its precise segregation mode has remained controversial. Both monogenic models (autosomal dominant or recessive) and oligogenic models have been proposed. Using a panel of 213 bovine microsatellite markers, and an experimental pedigree obtained by backcrossing double-muscled (Belgian Blue)xconventional (Friesian) F1 dams to double-muscled sire, we have mapped a locus on bovine Chromosome (Chr) 2 that accounts for all the phenotypic variance in the backcross generation. This locus, referred to as mh (muscular hypertrophy), has been positioned with respect to a map composed of seven Chr 2-specific microsatellites, at 2 cM from the closest marker. This result confirms the validity in the Belgian Blue population of the monogenic model involving an autosomal mh locus, characterized by a wild-type + and a recessive mh allele, causing the double-muscling phenotype in the homozygous condition. The linkage relationship between the mh locus and the Chr 2 markers was confirmed in three informative pedigrees collected from the general Belgian Blue Cattle population, reinforcing the notion of genetic homogeneity of the double-muscling trait in this breed. This work paves the way towards marker-assisted selection for or against the double-muscling trait, and towards positional cloning of the corresponding gene

Genetic and functional confirmation of the causality of the DGAT1 K232A quantitative trait nucleotide in affecting milk yield and composition

We recently used a positional cloning approach to identify a nonconservative lysine to alanine substitution (K232A) in the bovine DGAT1 gene that was proposed to be the causative quantitative trait nucleotide underlying a quantitative trait locus (QTL) affecting milk fat composition, previously mapped to the centromeric end of bovine chromosome 14. We herein generate genetic and functional data that confirm the causality of the DGAT1 K232A mutation. We have constructed a high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism map of the 3.8-centimorgan BULGE30–BULGE9 interval containing the QTL and show that the association with milk fat percentage maximizes at the DGAT1 gene. We provide evidence that the K allele has undergone a selective sweep. By using a baculovirus expression system, we have expressed both DGAT1 alleles in Sf9 cells and show that the K allele, causing an increase in milk fat percentage in the live animal, is characterized by a higher V(max) in producing triglycerides than the A allele

Identifying Inflammatory Bowel Disease causative genes through trans-eQTLs mapping within GWAS loci

Lifetime prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is reaching an alarming rate of >1/400 in industrialized societies. Improved understanding of disease pathogenesis is essential to develop more effective preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~ 160 risk loci contributing to inherited predisposition to IBD, leading to the identification of new perturbed pathways and potential drug targets. Nevertheless, causative genes and variants remain unknown for the vast majority of risk loci. GWAS loci are likely to be regulatory and therefore alter expression levels of other genes. We hypothesize that if an IBD associated SNP is an expression quantitative loci (eQTL)-the " disease-association pattern " (DAP) should mirror the " eQTL association pattern " (EAP) of the causative gene if looking in the right target tissue(s). With this premise, our project aims to detect causative genes implicated in IBD's susceptibility through the evaluation of trans-eQTLs within GWAS loci. To this purpose, nine blood cell types and ileal, colonic and rectal biopsies have been collected for 330 healthy individuals of Northern European descent. All individuals have been genotyped with the OmniExpress Illumina array interrogating > 700K genetic variants. Transcriptome analysis has been conducted for all individuals and all cell/tissue types using Illumina HT12 arrays interrogating > 47,000 transcripts. Genotype and transcriptome data have undergone rigorous quality control. Transcriptome data have been pretreated variance stabilizing transformation, QQ normalization and correction for random and fixed effects in each cell type. Only expression probes mapped against Refseq have been considered. Genomic positions have been recovered and probes mapping to more than one genomic position (taking into account splice junctions with Tophat software) with a 96% identity have been discarded. Trans-eQTL mapping will be conducted on a SNP-by-SNP basis using linear regression (additive model) with PLINK software. In order to circumvent genome wide multiple testing penalty, we will test for a given SNP in the genome, any evidence for an excess of low p-values when testing its effect on the expression of genes located on other chromosomes or far away on the same chromosome. Confirmation of putative multigene transregulators will afterwards be performed by RNAseq experiments. We will then quantify the resemblance between DAP in the 160 GWAS-identified risk loci (raw data from IIBDGC plus imputed data) and " multigene trans-EAP " with Spearman's rank correlation. We will also evaluate the biological relevance of this list by performing a network analysis after adding the identified trans targets to the list of previously identified positional candidate genes (mapping to GWAS-identified IBD risk loci). Finally, as a the ultimate proof of causality, the selected genes will be resequenced in 3,000 IBD cases and 3,000 controls, using 600 DNA pools of 10 individuals with Illumina Truseq Amplicon. With this strategy, we expect to detect new causative variants that may constitute new drug targets for IBD. Latest results will be presented