Search

Directing immune development to curb sky-rocketing disease

Once upon a time it was infectious diseases like polio, measles or tuberculosis that most worried parents. With these threats now largely under control, parents face a new challenge – sky-rocketing rates of non-infectious diseases such as asthma, allergies and autism.

Anti-Interleukin-10 Unleashes Transcriptional Response to Leishmanial Antigens in Visceral Leishmaniasis Patients

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL; Leishmania donovani) cases produce interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor in response to soluble leishmanial antigen in whole-blood assays. Using transcriptional profiling, we demonstrate the impact of interleukin-10, a cytokine implicated in VL, on this response.

Zika Virus Changes Methylation of Genes Involved in Immune Response and Neural Development in Brazilian Babies Born With Congenital Microcephaly

The recent increase in babies born with brain and eye malformations in Brazil is associated with Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in utero. ZIKV alters host DNA methylation in vitro. Using genome-wide DNA methylation profiling we compared 18 babies born with congenital ZIKV microcephaly with 20 controls. We found ZIKV-associated alteration of host methylation patterns, notably at RABGAP1L which is important in brain development, at viral host immunity genes MX1 and ISG15, and in an epigenetic module containing the causal microcephaly gene MCPH1. Our data support the hypothesis that clinical signs of congenital ZIKV are associated with changes in DNA methylation.

Dr Sarra E Jamieson

Senior Research Fellow

An in silico pipeline to filter the Toxoplasma gondii proteome for proteins that could traffic to the host cell nucleus and influence host cell epigenetic regulation

To identify genes with putative epigenetic functions, we developed an in silico pipeline to interrogate the T. gondii proteome of 8313 proteins

Comparative analyses of whole genome sequences of Leishmania infantum isolates from humans and dogs in northeastern Brazil

Overall the analyses do not suggest individual sequence variants account for differences in clinical outcome or adaptation to different hosts.

Analysis of expression of FLI1 and MMP1 in American cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania braziliensis infection

MMP1 is regulated by factors other than FLI1, and that the influence of IL-6 on MMP1 was independent of its effect on FLI1 in Leishmania braziliensis

Comprehensive candidate gene analysis for symptomatic or asymptomatic outcomes of Leishmania infantum infection in Brazil

Our results imply a role for IgG-mediated inflammation in determining delayed-type hypersensitivity associated with asymptomatic leishmaniasis

FANTOM5 CAGE profiles of human and mouse samples

Resulting data represents the consequence of transcriptional regulation in each analyzed state of mammalian cells.

A Method to Exploit the Structure of Genetic Ancestry Space to Enhance Case-Control Studies

These results highlight how UNICORN can enable reliable, powerful, and convenient genetic association analyses without access to the individual-level data