@article {10822, title = {Next-generation sequencing identified SPATC1L as a possible candidate gene for both early-onset and age-related hearing loss.}, journal = {Eur J Hum Genet}, volume = {27}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01}, pages = {70-79}, abstract = {

Hereditary hearing loss (HHL) and age-related hearing loss (ARHL) are two major sensory diseases affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite many efforts, additional HHL-genes and ARHL genetic risk factors still need to be identified. To fill this gap a large genomic screening based on next-generation sequencing technologies was performed. Whole exome sequencing in a 3-generation Italian HHL family and targeted re-sequencing in 464 ARHL patients were performed. We detected three variants in SPATC1L: a nonsense allele in an HHL family and a frameshift insertion and a missense variation in two unrelated ARHL patients. In silico molecular modelling of all variants suggested a significant impact on the structural stability of the protein itself, likely leading to deleterious effects and resulting in truncated isoforms. After demonstrating Spatc1l expression in mice inner ear, in vitro functional experiments were performed confirming the results of the molecular modelling studies. Finally, a candidate-gene population-based statistical study in cohorts from Caucasus and Central Asia revealed a statistically significant association of SPATC1L with normal hearing function at low and medium hearing frequencies. Overall, the amount of different genetic data presented here (variants with early-onset and late-onset hearing loss in addition to genetic association with normal hearing function), together with relevant functional evidence, likely suggest a role of SPATC1L in hearing function and loss.

}, issn = {1476-5438}, doi = {10.1038/s41431-018-0229-9}, author = {Morgan, Anna and Vuckovic, Dragana and Krishnamoorthy, Navaneethakrishnan and Rubinato, Elisa and Ambrosetti, Umberto and Castorina, Pierangela and Franz{\`e}, Annamaria and Vozzi, Diego and La Bianca, Martina and Cappellani, Stefania and Di Stazio, Mariateresa and Gasparini, Paolo and Girotto, Giorgia} } @article {10493, title = {Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {542}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 02 09}, pages = {186-190}, abstract = {

Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with approximately 700 common associated variants identified through genome-wide association studies so far. Here, we report 83 height-associated coding variants with lower minor-allele frequencies (in the range of 0.1-4.8\%) and effects of up to 2 centimetres per allele (such as those in IHH, STC2, AR and CRISPLD2), greater than ten times the average effect of common variants. In functional follow-up studies, rare height-increasing alleles of STC2 (giving an increase of 1-2 centimetres per allele) compromised proteolytic inhibition of PAPP-A and increased cleavage of IGFBP-4 in vitro, resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin-like growth factors. These 83 height-associated variants overlap genes that are mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates (such as ADAMTS3, IL11RA and NOX4) and pathways (such as proteoglycan and glycosaminoglycan synthesis) involved in growth. Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low-frequency variants of moderate-to-large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes, and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways.

}, keywords = {ADAMTS Proteins, Adult, Alleles, Body Height, Cell Adhesion Molecules, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Glycoproteins, Glycosaminoglycans, Hedgehog Proteins, Humans, Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Interferon Regulatory Factors, Interleukin-11 Receptor alpha Subunit, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, NADPH Oxidase 4, NADPH Oxidases, Phenotype, Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A, Procollagen N-Endopeptidase, Proteoglycans, Proteolysis, Receptors, Androgen, Somatomedins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature21039}, author = {Marouli, Eirini and Graff, Mariaelisa and Medina-Gomez, Carolina and Lo, Ken Sin and Wood, Andrew R and Kjaer, Troels R and Fine, Rebecca S and Lu, Yingchang and Schurmann, Claudia and Highland, Heather M and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Justice, Anne E and Lamparter, David and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Turcot, Val{\'e}rie and Young, Kristin L and Winkler, Thomas W and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Karaderi, Tugce and Locke, Adam E and Masca, Nicholas G D and Ng, Maggie C Y and Mudgal, Poorva and Rivas, Manuel A and Vedantam, Sailaja and Mahajan, Anubha and Guo, Xiuqing and Abecasis, Goncalo and Aben, Katja K and Adair, Linda S and Alam, Dewan S and Albrecht, Eva and Allin, Kristine H and Allison, Matthew and Amouyel, Philippe and Appel, Emil V and Arveiler, Dominique and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Auer, Paul L and Balkau, Beverley and Banas, Bernhard and Bang, Lia E and Benn, Marianne and Bergmann, Sven and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bots, Michiel L and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Brandslund, Ivan and Breen, Gerome and Brilliant, Murray H and Broer, Linda and Burt, Amber A and Butterworth, Adam S and Carey, David J and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Christensen, Cramer and Chu, Audrey Y and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis S and Cook, James P and Corley, Janie and Galbany, Jordi Corominas and Cox, Amanda J and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Danesh, John and Davies, Gail and de Bakker, Paul I W and de Borst, Gert J and de Denus, Simon and de Groot, Mark C H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Demerath, Ellen W and den Hollander, Anneke I and Dennis, Joe G and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Drenos, Fotios and Du, Mengmeng and Dunning, Alison M and Easton, Douglas F and Ebeling, Tapani and Edwards, Todd L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Elliott, Paul and Evangelou, Evangelos and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Faul, Jessica D and Feitosa, Mary F and Feng, Shuang and Ferrannini, Ele and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferri{\`e}res, Jean and Florez, Jose C and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franks, Paul W and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Galesloot, Tessel E and Gan, Wei and Gandin, Ilaria and Gasparini, Paolo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Giri, Ayush and Girotto, Giorgia and Gordon, Scott D and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorski, Mathias and Grarup, Niels and Grove, Megan L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Kathleen Mullan and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and He, Liang and Heid, Iris M and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Helgeland, {\O}yvind and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Hewitt, Alex W and Hocking, Lynne J and Hollensted, Mette and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Hovingh, G Kees and Howson, Joanna M M and Hoyng, Carel B and Huang, Paul L and Hveem, Kristian and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Jackson, Anne U and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Jarvik, Gail P and Jensen, Gorm B and Jhun, Min A and Jia, Yucheng and Jiang, Xuejuan and Johansson, Stefan and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and Kahali, Bratati and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamstrup, Pia R and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karaleftheri, Maria and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kee, Frank and Keeman, Renske and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Kluivers, Kirsten B and Kocher, Thomas and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kontto, Jukka and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kovacs, Peter and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kuivaniemi, Helena and K{\"u}ry, S{\'e}bastien and Kuusisto, Johanna and La Bianca, Martina and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lange, Ethan M and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Larson, Eric B and Lee, I-Te and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Huaixing and Li, Jin and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Honghuang and Lin, Li-An and Lin, Xu and Lind, Lars and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yeheng and Liu, Yongmei and Lophatananon, Artitaya and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lubitz, Steven A and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mackey, David A and Madden, Pamela A F and Manning, Alisa K and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marenne, Ga{\"e}lle and Marten, Jonathan and Martin, Nicholas G and Mazul, Angela L and Meidtner, Karina and Metspalu, Andres and Mitchell, Paul and Mohlke, Karen L and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew D and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munroe, Patricia B and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and Neville, Matt and Nielsen, Sune F and Nikus, Kjell and Nj{\o}lstad, P{\r a}l R and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ntalla, Ioanna and O{\textquoteright}Connel, Jeffrey R and Oksa, Heikki and Loohuis, Loes M Olde and Ophoff, Roel A and Owen, Katharine R and Packard, Chris J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Patel, Aniruddh P and Pattie, Alison and Pedersen, Oluf and Peissig, Peggy L and Peloso, Gina M and Pennell, Craig E and Perola, Markus and Perry, James A and Perry, John R B and Person, Thomas N and Pirie, Ailith and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Raitakari, Olli T and Rasheed, Asif and Rauramaa, Rainer and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Robertson, Neil and Robino, Antonietta and Rolandsson, Olov and Rudan, Igor and Ruth, Katherine S and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sandow, Kevin and Sapkota, Yadav and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Marjanka K and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schulze, Matthias B and Scott, Robert A and Segura-Lepe, Marcelo P and Shah, Svati and Sim, Xueling and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Albert Vernon and Smith, Jennifer A and Southam, Lorraine and Spector, Timothy D and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Starr, John M and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stringham, Heather M and Stumvoll, Michael and Surendran, Praveen and {\textquoteright}t Hart, Leen M and Tansey, Katherine E and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thompson, Deborah J and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Thuesen, Betina H and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tromp, Gerard and Trompet, Stella and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Tyrer, Jonathan P and Uher, Rudolf and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and van der Laan, Sander W and Van Der Leij, Andries R and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Schoor, Natasja M and van Setten, Jessica and Varbo, Anette and Varga, Tibor V and Varma, Rohit and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Vermeulen, Sita H and Vestergaard, Henrik and Vitart, Veronique and Vogt, Thomas F and Vozzi, Diego and Walker, Mark and Wang, Feijie and Wang, Carol A and Wang, Shuai and Wang, Yiqin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Warren, Helen R and Wessel, Jennifer and Willems, Sara M and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Woods, Michael O and Wu, Ying and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Yao, Jie and Yao, Pang and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Young, Robin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zhan, Xiaowei and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhao, Wei and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, He and Zhou, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar and McCarthy, Mark I and Willer, Cristen J and Stefansson, Kari and Borecki, Ingrid B and Liu, Dajiang J and North, Kari E and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Pers, Tune H and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Oxvig, Claus and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Loos, Ruth J F and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Deloukas, Panos and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {8295, title = {Pharmacogenetics driving personalized medicine: analysis of genetic polymorphisms related to breast cancer medications in Italian isolated populations.}, journal = {J Transl Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {22}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women characterized by a high variable clinical outcome among individuals treated with equivalent regimens and novel targeted therapies. In this study, we performed a population based approach intersecting high-throughput genotype data from Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) isolated populations with publically available pharmacogenomics information to estimate the frequency of genotypes correlated with responsiveness to breast cancer treatment thus improving the clinical management of this disease in an efficient and cost effective way.

METHODS: A list of 80 variants reported to be related to the efficacy or toxicity of breast cancer drugs was obtained from PharmGKB database. Fourty-one were present in FVG, 1000G European (EUR) and ExAC (Non Finnish European) databases. Their frequency was extracted using PLINK software and the differences tested by Fisher{\textquoteright}s exact test.

RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed that 13 out of the 41 (32 \%) variants were significantly different in frequency in our sample as compared to the EUR/ExAC cohorts. For nine variants the available level of evidence (LOE) included polymorphisms related to cyclophosphamide, tamoxifen, doxorubicin, fluorpyrimidine and paclitaxel. In particular, for trastuzumab two variants were detected: (1) rs1801274-G within FCGR2A and associated with decreased efficacy (LOE 2B); (2) rs1136201-G located within ERBB2 and associated with increased toxicity (LOE 3). Both these two variants were underrepresented in the FVG population compared to EUR/ExAC population thus suggesting a high therapeutic index of this drug in our population. Moreover, as regards fluoropyrimidines, the frequency of two polymorphisms within the DPYD gene associated with drug toxicity (e.g., rs2297595-C allele and rs3918290-T allele, LOE 2A and 1, respectively) was extremely low in FVG population thus suggesting that a larger number of FVG patients could benefit from full dosage of fluoropyrimidine therapy.

CONCLUSIONS: All these findings increase the overall knowledge on the prevalence of specific variants related with breast cancer treatment responsiveness in FVG population and highlight the importance of assessing gene polymorphisms related with cancer medications in isolated communities.

}, issn = {1479-5876}, doi = {10.1186/s12967-016-0778-z}, author = {Cocca, Massimiliano and Bedognetti, Davide and La Bianca, Martina and Gasparini, Paolo and Girotto, Giorgia} } @article {8297, title = {Understanding the role of personality and alexithymia in food preferences and PROP taste perception.}, journal = {Physiol Behav}, volume = {157}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Apr 1}, pages = {72-8}, abstract = {

Taste perception and food preferences are influenced by a variety of factors, including personality characteristics. The aims of this study were to examine the role of personality characteristics, such as alexithymia (a personality construct characterized by inability to identify, describe, and work with one{\textquoteright}s own feelings), in: 1) taste responses to the bitter genetic taste-marker PROP and 2) food liking. We studied 649 healthy subjects residing in six genetically-isolated villages of Northeast Italy. Data on PROP taste responsiveness, food liking, personality characteristics and TAS2R28 genotypes were collected. Results showed that PROP non-tasters had higher alexithymia scores than PROP tasters. Moreover, the presence of alexithymia in heterozygous individuals for the rs1726886 polymorphism of the TAS2R38 gene was associated with a reduction in the perceived intensity of PROP. Finally, higher alexithymia scores were associated with liking of alcohol, sweets and fats/meats whereas lower alexithymia scores were related to liking of vegetables, condiments and strong cheeses, Measures of temperament, character, anxiety and depression were also related to food liking. Our findings suggest that: 1) alexithymia, in addition to the TAS2R38 polymorphism, may play a role in responsiveness to the aversive and bitter taste of PROP; and 2) alexithymia, in combination with other personality traits, may provide important insights for better understanding food liking.

}, issn = {1873-507X}, doi = {10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.01.022}, author = {Robino, Antonietta and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Pirastu, Nicola and La Bianca, Martina and Gasparini, Paolo and Carlino, Davide and Tepper, Beverly J} } @article {3542, title = {The first trimester gravid serum regulates procalcitonin expression in human macrophages skewing their phenotype in vitro.}, journal = {Mediators Inflamm}, volume = {2014}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {248963}, abstract = {

Procalcitonin (PCT) is one of the best diagnostic and prognostic markers in clinical practice, widely used to evaluate the evolution of bacterial infections. Although it is mainly produced by thyroid, during sepsis almost all the peripheral tissues are involved in PCT production. Parenchymal cells have been suggested as the main source of PCT expression; however the contribution of macrophages is not clear yet. In response to environmental cues, tissue macrophages acquire distinct functional phenotypes, ranging from proinflammatory (M1) to anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotype. Macrophages at the fetal-maternal interface show immunosuppressive M2-like activities required for the maintenance of immunological homeostasis during pregnancy. This study aims to clarify the ability to synthesise PCT of fully differentiated (M0), polarized (M1/M2) macrophages and those cultured either in the presence of first trimester gravid serum (GS) or pregnancy hormones. We found out that M1 macrophages upregulate PCT expression following LPS stimulation compared to M0 and M2. The GS downregulates PCT expression in macrophages, skewing them towards an M2-like phenotype. This effect seems only partially mediated by the hormonal milieu. Our findings strengthen the key role of macrophages in counteracting inflammatory stimuli during pregnancy, suggesting PCT as a possible new marker of M1-like macrophages.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, Calcitonin, Cells, Cultured, Chorionic Gonadotropin, Estradiol, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Homeostasis, Humans, Inflammation, Macrophages, Monocytes, Phenotype, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Trimester, First, Protein Precursors, Serum, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1466-1861}, doi = {10.1155/2014/248963}, author = {Rami, Damiano and La Bianca, Martina and Agostinis, Chiara and Zauli, Giorgio and Radillo, Oriano and Bulla, Roberta} }