Immunological factors in healthy individuals that lead to different disease risks : influenza susceptibility and sex differences
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Current technology cannot fully predict a healthy person's disease susceptibilities. This is particularly true of immune-mediated disease, such as infection and autoimmunity, which are caused by both genetic and environmental factors. If we could predict an individual's disease risks, we could start treatment earlier and potentially prevent disease entirely. We propose using the blood transcriptome as a measure of disease risk, because it reflects an individual's immune state through cellular phenotypes and immune cell proportions. We pursued this idea through two projects: influenza susceptibility and sex differences. First, using influenza challenge studies we identified a gene, KLRD1, that could predict who would become sick upon challenge with influenza. Second, as females are at higher risk for autoimmune disease and males are at higher risk for infection and cancer, we examined sex differences in the healthy transcriptome. We identified an autosomal gene signature that consistently separated males and females 18-40 years old, changed with age, and predicted male, but not female, antibody responses to influenza infection. Our work demonstrates that the blood transcriptome reflects population variation in our immune systems, and can even predict disease outcomes.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Bongen, Erika |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Khatri, Purvesh |
| Degree supervisor | Utz, Paul |
| Thesis advisor | Khatri, Purvesh |
| Thesis advisor | Utz, Paul |
| Thesis advisor | Mallick, Parag, 1976- |
| Thesis advisor | Stefanick, Marcia Lynn |
| Degree committee member | Mallick, Parag, 1976- |
| Degree committee member | Stefanick, Marcia Lynn |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Program in Immunology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Erika Bongen. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Program in Immunology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Erika Bongen
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...