Publications by authors named "Chad A Pollard"
Article Synopsis
- Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's are on the rise due to an aging population and lack of effective early treatments, making early detection crucial for better outcomes.
- Current diagnostics primarily focus on observable symptoms and existing neuronal damage, while specific biomarkers for Alzheimer's are too narrow, and general biomarkers like NfL lack precise insights.
- Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) shows promise as a minimally invasive early detection biomarker, providing both general and disease-specific information, but further research is essential to overcome technical challenges and establish its clinical use.
Objective: To investigate the power of DNA methylation variability in sperm cells in assessing male fertility potential.
Design: Retrospective cohort.
Setting: Fertility care centers.
Complex diseases have multifactorial etiologies making actionable diagnostic biomarkers difficult to identify. Diagnostic research must expand beyond single or a handful of genetic or epigenetic targets for complex disease and explore a broader system of biological pathways. With the objective to develop a diagnostic tool designed to analyze a comprehensive network of epigenetic profiles in complex diseases, we used publicly available DNA methylation data from over 2,400 samples representing 20 cell types and various diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpigenetic mechanisms within the sperm epigenome and their diagnostic potential.
Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab
December 2020
The sperm epigenome contains a highly unique and specialized epigenetic landscape. Insightful questions need be asked about these epigenetic signatures and their predictive potential to assess the approximately 1 in 6 couples who experience infertility. Among those couples that do experience infertility, approximately half of the cases involve a male factor.
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