Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for breast cancer have a clear clinical utility in risk prediction. PRS transferability across populations and ancestry groups is hampered by population-specific factors, ultimately leading to differences in variant effects, such as linkage disequilibrium and differences in variant frequency (allele frequency differences). Thus, locally sourced population-based phenotypic and genomic data sets are essential to assess the validity of PRSs derived from signals detected across populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Hospitalised patients with COVID-19 have a variable incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) according to studies from different nationalities. The present systematic review and meta-analysis describes the incidence of AKI, need for renal replacement therapy (RRT) and mortality among patients with COVID-19-associated AKI.
Methods: We systematically searched electronic database PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science to identify English articles published until 25 May 2020.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) causes a progressive depletion of CD4+ T cells, hampering immune function. Current experimental strategies to fight the virus focus on the reactivation of latent HIV-1 in the viral reservoir to make the virus detectable by the immune system, by searching for latency reversal agents (LRAs). We hypothesize that if common molecular pathways elicited by the presence of LRAs are known, perhaps new, more efficient, "shock-and-kill" strategies can be found.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emergent arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) responsible for congenital Zika syndrome (CZS) and a range of other congenital malformations. Evidence shows that ZIKV infects human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) in the fetal brain, prompting inflammation and tissue damage/loss. Despite recent advances, little is known about the pathways involved in CZS pathogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHIV-1 mother-to-child transmission (HIV-1 MTCT), is an important cause of children mortality worldwide. Brazil has been traditionally praised by its HIV/Aids program, which provides free-of-charge care for people living with HIV-1. Using public epidemiology and demographic databases, we aimed at modeling HIV-1 MTCT prevalence in Brazil through the years (1994-2016) and elaborate a statistical model for forecasting, contributing to HIV-1 epidemiologic surveillance and healthcare decision-making.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD) is a rare autosomal disease caused by mutations in the mevalonate kinase gene (MVK). The genotype-phenotype correlation is sometimes problematic due to the great genetic and clinical heterogeneity; so we hypothesize that genes other than MVK are able to modulate MKD clinical phenotypes. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing the exome of 22 patients with MKD all carrying MVK gene mutations, and 20 patients with recurrent fevers (RF) not carrying MVK mutations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: With the aim of searching genetic factors associated with the response to an immune treatment based on autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells pulsed with autologous inactivated HIV, we performed exome analysis by screening more than 240,000 putative functional exonic variants in 18 HIV-positive Brazilian patients that underwent the immune treatment.
Methods: Exome analysis has been performed using the ILLUMINA Infinium HumanExome BeadChip. zCall algorithm allowed us to recall rare variants.