Evaluación del polimorfismo en el codón 129 del gen PRNP: estudio piloto

Las enfermedades causadas por priones, llamadas encefalopatías espongiformes transmisibles, son el producto de la conversión espontánea de la proteína celular PrPC inofensiva en su forma patógena, la PrPSc. Todavía se desconoce cómo se lleva a cabo esta conversión, aunque se conocen mutaciones que pueden inducirla debido a la interacción con las partículas priónicas. También se han reportado polimorfismos que aumentan la susceptibilidad al desarrollo de este tipo de enfermedades, entre ellos, el M129V en el gen PRNP, el cual se asocia con el aumento de la susceptibilidad cuando el incluye el genotipo homocigoto para metionina. De acuerdo con lo anterior, el objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la distribución del polimorfismo M129V en la población colombiana y compararla con algunas poblaciones reportadas previamente en la literatura. El fragmento que alberga la variante M129V fue amplificado por PCR, en 202 individuos colombianos, no relacionados, de ambos géneros, y se llevó a cabo análisis por RFLPs mediante el uso de la enzima de restricción NspI. Las frecuencias génicas y genotípicas y el ajuste al equilibrio de Hardy-Weinberg fueron calculadas utilizando el software GENEPOP. Al no encontrarse estudios en la población colombiana en cuanto a la distribución del polimorfismo de estudio, es necesario realizar trabajos que determinen el riesgo de la población colombiana a desarrollar enfermedades causadas por priones.

MicroRNA-3148 Modulates Allelic Expression of Toll-Like Receptor 7 Variant Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

We previously reported that the G allele of rs3853839 at 3′untranslated region (UTR) of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) was associated with elevated transcript expression and increased risk for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 9,274 Eastern Asians [P = 6.5×10−10, odds ratio (OR) (95%CI) = 1.27 (1.17–1.36)]. Here, we conducted trans-ancestral fine-mapping in 13,339 subjects including European Americans, African Americans, and Amerindian/Hispanics and confirmed rs3853839 as the only variant within the TLR7-TLR8 region exhibiting consistent and independent association with SLE (Pmeta = 7.5×10−11, OR = 1.24 [1.18–1.34]). The risk G allele was associated with significantly increased levels of TLR7 mRNA and protein in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and elevated luciferase activity of reporter gene in transfected cells. TLR7 3′UTR sequence bearing the non-risk C allele of rs3853839 matches a predicted binding site of microRNA-3148 (miR-3148), suggesting that this microRNA may regulate TLR7 expression. Indeed, miR-3148 levels were inversely correlated with TLR7 transcript levels in PBMCs from SLE patients and controls (R2 = 0.255, P = 0.001). Overexpression of miR-3148 in HEK-293 cells led to significant dose-dependent decrease in luciferase activity for construct driven by TLR7 3′UTR segment bearing the C allele (P = 0.0003). Compared with the G-allele construct, the C-allele construct showed greater than two-fold reduction of luciferase activity in the presence of miR-3148. Reduced modulation by miR-3148 conferred slower degradation of the risk G-allele containing TLR7 transcripts, resulting in elevated levels of gene products. These data establish rs3853839 of TLR7 as a shared risk variant of SLE in 22,613 subjects of Asian, EA, AA, and Amerindian/Hispanic ancestries (Pmeta = 2.0×10−19, OR = 1.25 [1.20–1.32]), which confers allelic effect on transcript turnover via differential binding to the epigenetic factor miR-3148.

Can consumer complaints reduce product reliability? Should we worry?

We analyze a monopolist’s pricing and product reliability problem when consumers are entitled to product replacement but have heterogeneous cost of exercising this right, and we assess the implications of a decrease in consumers’ claiming cost on reliability, profit, and welfare. We find that reducing consumers’ claiming cost may reduce reliability and increase profit. Additionally, the model can explain why some firms encourage consumers to complain while others discourage consumers from complaining. We also show that welfare and profit are partially aligned, specially when consumers’ claiming cost are relatively low and the firm prefers to promote complaints; consequently, we find that encouraging complaints will eventually increase welfare