Publications by authors named "Piyushkumar A Mundra"

Purpose: To identify candidate susceptibility genes for dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP).

Methods: All individuals with DFSP from the International Sarcoma Kindred Study ( = 3767 individuals with sarcoma diagnoses from Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and United States) and cohorts that were not ascertained based on sarcoma status or other phenotypes (Geisinger MyCode,  = 170,503 individuals, United States; UK Biobank,  = 469,789 individuals, United Kingdom) were evaluated for germline pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants in 156 cancer genes.

Results: There were 92 unrelated individuals with DFSP across the 3 cohorts.

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Introduction: We aimed to study the frequency (prevalence) and histology of benign melanocytic naevus cells in regional lymph nodes in relation to age and sex and nodal location.

Material And Methods: Histopathology reports of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies from melanoma patients, 2002 - 2014, and from breast cancer patients, 2010- 2019, were obtained from records of a single hospital in England. All sections were similarly processed and examined.

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Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are rare genetic disorders with a spectrum of clinical manifestations caused by abnormal N-glycosylation of secreted and cell surface proteins. Over 130 genes are implicated and next generation sequencing further identifies potential disease drivers in affected individuals. However, functional testing of these variants is challenging, making it difficult to distinguish pathogenic from non-pathogenic events.

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Cancer genetics has to date focused on epithelial malignancies, identifying multiple histotype-specific pathways underlying cancer susceptibility. Sarcomas are rare malignancies predominantly derived from embryonic mesoderm. To identify pathways specific to mesenchymal cancers, we performed whole-genome germline sequencing on 1644 sporadic cases and 3205 matched healthy elderly controls.

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Article Synopsis
  • Immune cells are crucial for the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitors in cancer treatment, but their exact roles are not well understood.
  • This study used single-cell analysis of melanoma biopsies and blood samples to investigate the importance of various immune cell types in response to these treatments.
  • Results showed that specific B cell maturation and abundance can predict patient outcomes, suggesting that B cells play a significant role in anti-tumor immunity and may serve as a potential biomarker for assessing treatment risk in melanoma patients.
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Tumor infiltration by T cells is paramount for effective anti-cancer immune responses. We hypothesized that the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of tumor infiltrating T lymphocytes could therefore be indicative of the functional state of these cells and determine disease course at different stages in cancer progression. Here we show that the diversity of the TCR of tumor infiltrating T cell at baseline is prognostic in various cancers, whereas the TCR clonality of T cell infiltrating metastatic melanoma pre-treatment is predictive for activity and efficacy of PD1 blockade immunotherapy.

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Background: Recent advances in simultaneous measurement of RNA and protein abundances at single-cell level provide a unique opportunity to predict protein abundance from scRNA-seq data using machine learning models. However, existing machine learning methods have not considered relationship among the proteins sufficiently.

Results: We formulate this task in a multi-label prediction framework where multiple proteins are linked to each other at the single-cell level.

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Article Synopsis
  • In 1967, Sandy Posey declared sunglasses as a must-have for beachgoers.
  • Recent whole-genome sequencing research shows that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) can lead to melanomas in the eye's iris and conjunctiva.
  • This research gives a scientific basis for the importance of wearing sunglasses to shield our eyes from harmful UVR exposure.
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Although identified as the key environmental driver of common cutaneous melanoma, the role of ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced DNA damage in mucosal melanoma is poorly defined. We analyze 10 mucosal melanomas of conjunctival origin by whole genome sequencing and our data shows a predominance of UVR-associated single base substitution signature 7 (SBS7) in the majority of the samples. Our data shows mucosal melanomas with SBS7 dominance have similar genomic patterns to cutaneous melanomas and therefore this subset should not be excluded from treatments currently used for common cutaneous melanoma.

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Single-cell protein abundance is a fundamental type of information to characterize cell states. Due to high cost and technical barriers, however, direct quantification of proteins is difficult. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data, serving as a cost-effective substitute of single-cell proteomics, may not accurately reflect protein expression levels due to measurement error, noise, post-transcriptional and translational regulation, etc.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) influence T cell changes, highlighting a need for deeper understanding to improve treatment effectiveness.
  • - Researchers analyzed T cell populations in metastatic melanoma patients after CPI treatment, revealing early signs of immune system activation and which patients might benefit from therapy.
  • - T cell receptor dynamics and expansion of specific immune cells occurred within 3 weeks of treatment, suggesting that liquid biopsies could be a promising method for monitoring patient responses.
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Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have achieved unprecedented results in melanoma, the biological features of the durable responses initiated by these drugs remain unknown. Here we show the genetic and phenotypic changes induced by treatment with programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) blockade in a genetically engineered mouse model of melanoma driven by oncogenic BRAF. In this controlled system anti-PD-1 treatment yields responses in ~35% of the tumors, and prolongs survival in ~27% of the animals.

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BACKGROUNDStatins have pleiotropic effects on lipid metabolism. The relationship between these effects and future cardiovascular events is unknown. We characterized the changes in lipids upon pravastatin treatment and defined the relationship with risk reduction for future cardiovascular events.

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The melanoma genome is dominated by ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-induced mutations. Their relevance in disease progression is unknown. Here we classify melanomas by mutation signatures and identify ten recurrently mutated UVR signature genes that predict patient survival.

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Accurately reconstructing gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from high-throughput gene expression data has been a major challenge in systems biology for decades. Many approaches have been proposed to solve this problem. However, there is still much room for the improvement of GRN inference.

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Background: Plasma lipidomic measures may enable improved prediction of cardiovascular outcomes in secondary prevention. The aim of this study is to determine the association of plasma lipidomic measurements with cardiovascular events and assess their potential to predict such events.

Methods: Plasma lipids (n = 342) were measured in a retrospective subcohort (n = 5,991) of the LIPID study.

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Introduction: HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) have been associated with increased cardiovascular disease and important changes in lipid metabolism. Advances in mass-spectrometry technology allow for the detailed assessment of individual lipid species which may illuminate the mechanisms underlying increased cardiovascular risk. We describe the change in plasma lipidome with initiation of antiretroviral therapy and compare these by regimen.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to explore how the composition and function of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) relate to cardiovascular risk in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) compared to healthy individuals.
  • It involved analyzing plasma samples from both groups, assessing HDL properties before and after weight loss (WL) and weight loss plus exercise (WLEX) interventions in MetS patients, revealing significant differences in HDL characteristics between the two groups.
  • Results showed that WLEX treatment improved HDL composition, particle size, and cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC), suggesting that HDL lipids could be key indicators for early detection of cardiovascular risk and potential treatment targets.
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Background: Plasma lipids (i.e., cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and triglycerides) are linked to a range of metabolic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.

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The Singapore Integrative Omics Study provides valuable insights on establishing population reference measurement in 364 Chinese, Malay, and Indian individuals. These measurements include > 2.5 millions genetic variants, 21,649 transcripts expression, 282 lipid species quantification, and 284 clinical, lifestyle, and dietary variables.

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Lipids are known to influence tumour growth, inflammation and chemoresistance. However, the association of circulating lipids with the clinical outcome of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is unknown. We investigated associations between the plasma lipidome and clinical outcome in CRPC.

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Background: Asian subjects are at increased cardio-metabolic risk at comparatively lower body mass index (BMI) compared with white subjects. Sympathetic nervous system activation and dyslipidemia, both characteristics of increased adiposity, appear to be related. We therefore analyzed the association of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) with the plasma lipidomic profile in young adult Asian and white subjects.

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