Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2012-03-28"
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- A Rare Disease Patient ManagerPublication . Lopes, Pedro; Mendonça, Rafael; Rocha, Hugo; Oliveira, Jorge; Vilarinho, Laura; Santos, Rosário; Oliveira, JoséThe personal health implications behind rare diseases are seldom considered in widespread medical care. The low incidence rate and complex treatment process makes rare disease research an underrated field in the life sciences. However, it is in these particular conditions that the strongest relations between genotypes and phenotypes are identified. The rare disease patient manager, detailed in this manuscript, presents an innovative perspective for a patient-centric portal integrating genetic and medical data. With this strategy, patient’s digital records are transparently integrated and connected to wet-lab genetics research in a seamless working environment. The resulting knowledge base offers multiple data views, geared towards medical staff, with patient treatment and monitoring data; genetics researchers, through a custom locus-specific database; and patients, who for once play an active role in their treatment and rare diseases research.
- TTC7B emerges as a novel risk factor for ischemic stroke through the convergence of several genome-wide approachesPublication . Krug, T.; Gabriel, J.P.; Taipa, R.; Fonseca, B.V.; Domingues-Montanari, S.; Fernandez-Cadenas, I.; Manso, H.; Gouveia, L.O.; Sobral, J.; Albergaria, I.; Gaspar, G.; Jiménez-Conde, J.; Rabionet, R.; Ferro, J.M.; Montaner, J.; Vicente, A.M.; Silva, M.R.; Matos, I.; Lopes, G.; Oliveira, S.A.We hereby propose a novel approach to the identification of ischemic stroke (IS) susceptibility genes that involves converging data from several unbiased genetic and genomic tools. We tested the association between IS and genes differentially expressed between cases and controls, then determined which data mapped to previously reported linkage peaks and were nominally associated with stroke in published genome-wide association studies. We first performed gene expression profiling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 20 IS cases and 20 controls. Sixteen differentially expressed genes mapped to reported whole-genome linkage peaks, including the TTC7B gene, which has been associated with major cardiovascular disease. At the TTC7B locus, 46 tagging polymorphisms were tested for association in 565 Portuguese IS cases and 520 controls. Markers nominally associated in at least one test and defining associated haplotypes were then examined in 570 IS Spanish cases and 390 controls. Several polymorphisms and haplotypes in the intron 5-intron 6 region of TTC7B were also associated with IS risk in the Spanish and combined data sets. Multiple independent lines of evidence therefore support the role of TTC7B in stroke susceptibility, but further work is warranted to identify the exact risk variant and its pathogenic potential.
- A Rare Disease Patient ManagerPublication . Lopes, Pedro; Mendonça, Rafael; Rocha, Hugo; Oliveira, Jorge; Vilarinho, Laura; Santos, Rosário; Oliveira, JoséThe personal health implications behind rare diseases are seldom considered in widespread medical care. The low incidence rate and complex treatment process makes rare disease research an underrated field in the life sciences. However, it is in these particular conditions that the strongest relations between genotypes and phenotypes are identified. The rare disease patient manager, detailed in this manuscript, presents an innovative perspective for a patient-centric portal integrating genetic and medical data. With this strategy, patient’s digital records are transparently integrated and connected to wet-lab genetics research in a seamless working environment. The resulting knowledge base offers multiple data views, geared towards medical staff, with patient treatment and monitoring data; genetics researchers, through a custom locus-specific database; and patients, who for once play an active role in their treatment and rare diseases research.