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. 2017 Jun 3;12(6):433-440.
doi: 10.1080/15592294.2017.1303581. Epub 2017 Apr 7.

Novel insights into systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases using shared molecular signatures and an integrative analysis

Marie Hudson  1   2   3 , Sasha Bernatsky  3   4 , Ines Colmegna  3   4 , Maximilien Lora  4 , Tomi Pastinen  5 , Kathleen Klein Oros  1 , Celia M T Greenwood  1   6   7   8
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Novel insights into systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases using shared molecular signatures and an integrative analysis

Marie Hudson et al. Epigenetics. .

Abstract

We undertook this study to identify DNA methylation signatures of three systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs), namely rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic sclerosis, compared to healthy controls. Using a careful design to minimize confounding, we restricted our study to subjects with incident disease and performed our analyses on purified CD4+ T cells, key effector cells in SARD. We identified differentially methylated (using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array) and expressed (using the Illumina TruSeq stranded RNA-seq protocol) sites between cases and controls, and investigated the biological significance of this SARD signature using gene annotation databases. We recruited 13 seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, 19 systemic sclerosis, 12 systemic lupus erythematosus subjects, and 8 healthy controls. We identified 33 genes that were both differentially methylated and expressed (26 over- and 7 under-expressed) in SARD cases versus controls. The most highly overexpressed gene was CD1C (log fold change in expression = 1.85, adjusted P value = 0.009). In functional analysis (Ingenuity Pathway Analysis), the top network identified was lipid metabolism, molecular transport, small molecule biochemistry. The top canonical pathways included the mitochondrial L-carnitine shuttle pathway (P = 5E-03) and PTEN signaling (P = 8E-03). The top upstream regulator was HNF4A (P = 3E-05). This novel SARD signature contributes to ongoing work to further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying SARD and provides novel targets of interest.

Keywords: DNA methylation; integrative analysis; systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases; transcriptome.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Heatmap of gene expression profiles of the top differentially methylated (DM) and expressed (DE) genes in SARD subjects compared to controls. Columns under the red bar represent SARD subjects and under the blue bar controls.
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