Publications by authors named "Gabriela Fragiadakis"

Human immune systems are highly variable, with most variation attributable to non-genetic sources. The gut microbiome crucially shapes the immune system; however, its relationship with the baseline immune states of healthy humans remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we performed multi-omic profiling of 110 healthy participants through the ImmunoMicrobiome study.

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  • - This study focused on developing a new imaging-based method called single-cell spatial transcriptomics (iSCST) to analyze archived, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, which helps to preserve the spatial context of various cell types within the tissue.
  • - Researchers benchmarked three iSCST platforms by analyzing 57 FFPE mucosal biopsies from IBD patients and healthy controls, allowing for detailed cell analysis and gene expression profiling through a consistent data processing pipeline.
  • - A custom gene panel showed the best performance for detecting and quantifying different cell subsets, revealing significant findings related to inflammation and treatment responses in ulcerative colitis, which could enhance
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Objective: To investigate if a positive result on ReceptivaDx for evaluation of B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6), a proposed marker of progesterone resistance associated with impaired uterine receptivity, correlates with a suboptimal profile of receptivity-associated markers in the window of implantation using the endometrial receptivity array and single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis.

Design: Retrospective clinical cohort study; pilot study of single-nucleus RNA sequencing of prospectively collected window of implantation endometrium undergoing ReceptivaDx BCL6 evaluation.

Setting: Academic center.

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  • The study investigates the connection between interferon and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), focusing on how transposable elements (TEs) might influence SLE symptoms, particularly autoantibody production.
  • Researchers analyzed RNA-sequencing data from immune cells in 120 SLE patients, identifying over 27,000 TEs and observing 731 that were differentially expressed among various SLE phenotypes.
  • Results indicate that specific TEs are linked to genes responsible for antiviral responses and IFN signaling, highlighting their potential role in understanding and treating SLE.
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  • This study focused on managing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by analyzing blood cells from patients and healthy individuals to identify specific cell types and their roles in disease activity.
  • Researchers discovered 18 distinct types of immune cells, noting that patients with more severe RA had an increase in certain T cells, while those in remission showed fewer nonclassical monocytes.
  • The study also highlighted key gene expressions related to inflammation and disease, providing insights into the complex biological processes that contribute to RA's variability in severity.
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  • Dexamethasone, a key treatment for critically ill COVID-19 patients, improves survival rates, but its exact mechanisms are unclear.
  • Researchers conducted RNA sequencing on respiratory and blood samples and found dexamethasone reduces T cell activation gene expression and interferes with certain immune pathways.
  • The study also reveals specific effects of dexamethasone in different immune cell compartments, suggesting new potential treatment targets and underlining the need to understand localized inflammation in severe cases.
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  • Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is an autoimmune disorder in children linked to abnormal immune responses and limited treatment options due to unclear disease mechanisms.
  • The study analyzed the blood of JDM patients at various disease stages, revealing that B cells were skewed towards an immature state and T cells showed signs of sustained Th2-mediated inflammation even during inactive disease.
  • By using network analysis, researchers found that a heightened type I IFN response across immune cells is connected to dysfunctional processes in CD4+ T cells and cell death regulation in other T cell types, highlighting the complex immune dysregulation in JDM and hinting at potential treatment strategies.
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BACKGROUNDPatients hospitalized for COVID-19 exhibit diverse clinical outcomes, with outcomes for some individuals diverging over time even though their initial disease severity appears similar to that of other patients. A systematic evaluation of molecular and cellular profiles over the full disease course can link immune programs and their coordination with progression heterogeneity.METHODSWe performed deep immunophenotyping and conducted longitudinal multiomics modeling, integrating 10 assays for 1,152 Immunophenotyping Assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort (IMPACC) study participants and identifying several immune cascades that were significant drivers of differential clinical outcomes.

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Ulcerative colitis (UC) is driven by immune and stromal subsets, culminating in epithelial injury. Vedolizumab (VDZ) is an anti-integrin antibody that is effective for treating UC. VDZ is known to inhibit lymphocyte trafficking to the intestine, but its broader effects on other cell subsets are less defined.

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There is an established yet unexplained link between interferon (IFN) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The expression of sequences derived from transposable elements (TEs) may contribute to production of type I IFNs and generation of autoantibodies. We profiled cell-sorted RNA-seq data (CD4+ T cells, CD14+ monocytes, CD19+ B cells, and NK cells) from PBMCs of 120 SLE patients and quantified TE expression identifying 27,135 TEs.

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Hospitalized COVID-19 patients exhibit diverse clinical outcomes, with some individuals diverging over time even though their initial disease severity appears similar. A systematic evaluation of molecular and cellular profiles over the full disease course can link immune programs and their coordination with progression heterogeneity. In this study, we carried out deep immunophenotyping and conducted longitudinal multi-omics modeling integrating ten distinct assays on a total of 1,152 IMPACC participants and identified several immune cascades that were significant drivers of differential clinical outcomes.

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The development of human prenatal adaptive immunity progresses faster than previously appreciated, with the emergence of memory CD4+ T cells alongside regulatory T cells by midgestation. We previously identified a prenatal specific population of promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger-positive (PLZF+) CD4+ T cells with heightened effector potential that were enriched in the developing intestine and accumulated in the cord blood of infants exposed to prenatal inflammation. However, the signals that drive their tissue distribution and effector maturation are unknown.

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  • Altered myeloid inflammation and lymphopenia are key characteristics of severe infections, particularly in patients with acute lung injuries from SARS-CoV-2.
  • The upregulated EN-RAGE gene program found in airway and blood myeloid cells is linked to increased clinical severity, predicting outcomes like mechanical ventilation and mortality.
  • IL-6 was identified as a major factor driving myeloid dysfunction, and blocking its signaling with tocilizumab effectively normalized EN-RAGE gene expression and improved T cell function in clinical trials.
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  • High-dimensional single-cell technologies have become essential for studying the immune system, but analyzing the resulting data is complex and computationally demanding.
  • The authors introduce Cyclone, an analysis pipeline that simplifies and optimizes clustering and visualization of cytometry data across different techniques and biological contexts.
  • Cyclone not only matches the accuracy of established immune cell identification methods but also helps discover new subsets of immune cells linked to specific biological characteristics, enhancing immunology research.
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Dexamethasone is the standard of care for critically ill patients with COVID-19, but the mechanisms by which it decreases mortality and its immunological effects in this setting are not understood. We performed bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing of the lower respiratory tract and blood, and plasma cytokine profiling to study the effect of dexamethasone on systemic and pulmonary immune cells. We find decreased signatures of antigen presentation, T cell recruitment, and viral injury in patients treated with dexamethasone.

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Single-cell RNA sequencing methods have led to improved understanding of the heterogeneity and transcriptomic states present in complex biological systems. Recently, the development of novel single-cell technologies for assaying additional modalities, specifically genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, and spatial data, allows for unprecedented insight into cellular biology. While certain technologies collect multiple measurements from the same cells simultaneously, even when modalities are separately assayed in different cells, we can apply novel computational methods to integrate these data.

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  • High-dimensional single cell technologies have transformed immunology research, enabling scientists to study the immune system more effectively.
  • Cyclone is a new analysis pipeline that integrates necessary tools for data processing, such as dimensionality reduction and clustering, making it easier to analyze complex cytometry data.
  • Cyclone has been tested on various cytometry techniques and has been shown to accurately identify immune cell types, facilitating further research and discoveries in immunology.
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  • The study explored how the airway epithelium responds to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, using airway organoids from 20 different subjects to better understand infection mechanisms.* -
  • Tetraspanin-8 (TSPAN8) was identified as a key factor that enhances SARS-CoV-2 infection, working independently of the ACE2-Spike protein interaction.* -
  • Although Delta and Omicron variants showed lower infection rates than the original virus, they still altered the epithelial response, indicating potential new targets for COVID-19 treatments with TSPAN8-blocking antibodies.*
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An individual's immune and metabolic status is coupled to their microbiome. Probiotics offer a promising, safe route to influence host health, possibly via the microbiome. Here, we report an 18-week, randomized prospective study that explores the effects of a probiotic vs.

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Ulcerative colitis (UC) is driven by immune and stromal subsets, culminating in epithelial injury. Vedolizumab (VDZ) is an anti-integrin antibody that is effective for treating UC. VDZ is known to inhibit lymphocyte trafficking to the intestine, but its broader effects on other cell subsets are less defined.

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To understand what determines the success of short- and long-term weight loss, we conduct a secondary analysis of dietary, metabolic, and molecular data collected from 609 participants before, during, and after a 1-year weight-loss intervention with either a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) or a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet. Through systematic analysis of multidomain datasets, we find that dietary adherence and diet quality, not just caloric restriction, are important for short-term weight loss in both diets. Interestingly, we observe minimal dietary differences between those who succeeded in long-term weight loss and those who did not.

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Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease that gravely affects patients and imposes an immense burden on caregivers. Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) has been identified as the most common genetic risk factor for AD, yet the molecular mechanisms connecting APOE4 to AD are not well understood. Past transcriptomic analyses in AD have revealed genotype-specific transcriptomic differences; however, these differences have not been explored at a single-cell level.

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Assessing the health and competence of the immune system is central to evaluating vaccination responses, autoimmune conditions, cancer prognosis, and treatment. With an increasing number of studies examining immune dysregulation, there is a growing need for a curated reference of variation in immune parameters in healthy individuals. We used mass cytometry (CyTOF) to profile blood from 86 humans in response to 15 immune stimuli.

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Animal models are an integral part of the drug development and evaluation process. However, they are unsurprisingly imperfect reflections of humans, and the extent and nature of many immunological differences are unknown. With the rise of targeted and biological therapeutics, it is increasingly important that we understand the molecular differences in the immunological behavior of humans and model organisms.

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  • Cancers can be very different from each other depending on where they start and their specific changes in genes.
  • * A research project at UCSF looked at 364 individual tumors from 12 types of cancer to find common patterns in how the immune system interacts with these tumors.
  • * The study found specific immune patterns (called archetypes) that can help doctors understand cancer better and figure out new ways to treat it.
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