Browsing by Author "Zhao H"

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    An accumulated mutation gained in mosquito cells enhances Zika virus virulence and fitness in mice.
    (American Society for Microbiology, 2024-10-16) Fan X-X; Li R-T; Zhu Y-B; Chen Q; Li X-F; Cao T-S; Zhao H; Cheng G; Qin C-F; Heise MT
    Zika virus (ZIKV) remains a significant public health threat worldwide. A number of adaptive mutations have accumulated within the genome of ZIKV during global transmission, some of which have been linked to specific phenotypes. ZIKV maintains an alternating cycle of replication between mosquitoes and vertebrate hosts, but the role of mosquito-specific adaptive mutations in ZIKV has not been well investigated. In this study, we demonstrated that serial passaging of ZIKV in mosquito Aag2 cells led to the emergence of critical amino acid substitutions, including A94V in the prM protein and V153D and H401Y in the E protein. Further characterization via reverse genetics revealed that the H401Y substitution in the E protein did not augment viral replication in mosquitoes but significantly enhanced neurovirulence and lethality compared with those of the wild-type (WT) virus in mice. More importantly, the H401Y mutant maintained its virulence phenotype in mice after propagation in mosquitoes in mosquito-mouse cycle model. In particular, recombinant ZIKV harboring the H401Y substitution showed enhanced competitive fitness over WT ZIKV in various mammalian cells and mouse brains, but not in mosquito cells. Notably, the H401Y substitution in the ZIKV E protein has been detected in recent isolates derived from both mosquitoes and humans in Asia and the Americas. In summary, our findings not only identify a novel virulence determinant of ZIKV but also highlight the complexity of the relationship between the evolution of vector-borne viruses and their clinical outcome in nature.
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    Fine-mapping analysis including over 254,000 East Asian and European descendants identifies 136 putative colorectal cancer susceptibility genes.
    (Springer Nature, 2024-04-26) Chen Z; Guo X; Tao R; Huyghe JR; Law PJ; Fernandez-Rozadilla C; Ping J; Jia G; Long J; Li C; Shen Q; Xie Y; Timofeeva MN; Thomas M; Schmit SL; Díez-Obrero V; Devall M; Moratalla-Navarro F; Fernandez-Tajes J; Palles C; Sherwood K; Briggs SEW; Svinti V; Donnelly K; Farrington SM; Blackmur J; Vaughan-Shaw PG; Shu X-O; Lu Y; Broderick P; Studd J; Harrison TA; Conti DV; Schumacher FR; Melas M; Rennert G; Obón-Santacana M; Martín-Sánchez V; Oh JH; Kim J; Jee SH; Jung KJ; Kweon S-S; Shin M-H; Shin A; Ahn Y-O; Kim D-H; Oze I; Wen W; Matsuo K; Matsuda K; Tanikawa C; Ren Z; Gao Y-T; Jia W-H; Hopper JL; Jenkins MA; Win AK; Pai RK; Figueiredo JC; Haile RW; Gallinger S; Woods MO; Newcomb PA; Duggan D; Cheadle JP; Kaplan R; Kerr R; Kerr D; Kirac I; Böhm J; Mecklin J-P; Jousilahti P; Knekt P; Aaltonen LA; Rissanen H; Pukkala E; Eriksson JG; Cajuso T; Hänninen U; Kondelin J; Palin K; Tanskanen T; Renkonen-Sinisalo L; Männistö S; Albanes D; Weinstein SJ; Ruiz-Narvaez E; Palmer JR; Buchanan DD; Platz EA; Visvanathan K; Ulrich CM; Siegel E; Brezina S; Gsur A; Campbell PT; Chang-Claude J; Hoffmeister M; Brenner H; Slattery ML; Potter JD; Tsilidis KK; Schulze MB; Gunter MJ; Murphy N; Castells A; Castellví-Bel S; Moreira L; Arndt V; Shcherbina A; Bishop DT; Giles GG; Southey MC; Idos GE; McDonnell KJ; Abu-Ful Z; Greenson JK; Shulman K; Lejbkowicz F; Offit K; Su Y-R; Steinfelder R; Keku TO; van Guelpen B; Hudson TJ; Hampel H; Pearlman R; Berndt SI; Hayes RB; Martinez ME; Thomas SS; Pharoah PDP; Larsson SC; Yen Y; Lenz H-J; White E; Li L; Doheny KF; Pugh E; Shelford T; Chan AT; Cruz-Correa M; Lindblom A; Hunter DJ; Joshi AD; Schafmayer C; Scacheri PC; Kundaje A; Schoen RE; Hampe J; Stadler ZK; Vodicka P; Vodickova L; Vymetalkova V; Edlund CK; Gauderman WJ; Shibata D; Toland A; Markowitz S; Kim A; Chanock SJ; van Duijnhoven F; Feskens EJM; Sakoda LC; Gago-Dominguez M; Wolk A; Pardini B; FitzGerald LM; Lee SC; Ogino S; Bien SA; Kooperberg C; Li CI; Lin Y; Prentice R; Qu C; Bézieau S; Yamaji T; Sawada N; Iwasaki M; Le Marchand L; Wu AH; Qu C; McNeil CE; Coetzee G; Hayward C; Deary IJ; Harris SE; Theodoratou E; Reid S; Walker M; Ooi LY; Lau KS; Zhao H; Hsu L; Cai Q; Dunlop MG; Gruber SB; Houlston RS; Moreno V; Casey G; Peters U; Tomlinson I; Zheng W
    Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 common genetic variants independently associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the causal variants and target genes are mostly unknown. We sought to fine-map all known CRC risk loci using GWAS data from 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry. Our stepwise conditional analyses revealed 238 independent association signals of CRC risk, each with a set of credible causal variants (CCVs), of which 28 signals had a single CCV. Our cis-eQTL/mQTL and colocalization analyses using colorectal tissue-specific transcriptome and methylome data separately from 1299 and 321 individuals, along with functional genomic investigation, uncovered 136 putative CRC susceptibility genes, including 56 genes not previously reported. Analyses of single-cell RNA-seq data from colorectal tissues revealed 17 putative CRC susceptibility genes with distinct expression patterns in specific cell types. Analyses of whole exome sequencing data provided additional support for several target genes identified in this study as CRC susceptibility genes. Enrichment analyses of the 136 genes uncover pathways not previously linked to CRC risk. Our study substantially expanded association signals for CRC and provided additional insight into the biological mechanisms underlying CRC development.