Sex/Gender Differences in Health from Omics Approaches

A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Human Genomics and Genetic Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2021) | Viewed by 11362

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Bioinformatics & Biostatistics Unit, Prince Felipe Research Center, 46012 Valencia, Spain
Interests: sex/gender differences in disease; multi-omics; functional profiling; meta-analysis; machine learning; biomedical imaging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sex/gender differences are detected in a large number of diseases but the underlying causes of these changes are still unknown. The detection and a better understanding of these biological, clinical, and psychosocial causes would allow us to be more precise in the diagnosis and to personalize treatments for each group of patients.

Omics approaches could improve the knowledge that explains these differences to provide evidence-based useful information, in prevention and the decision-making of health stakeholders.

What signaling pathways are more activated in neurodegenerative diseases when comparing men and women? Is there any sex-dependent differential regulation? What radiomics differences are specific for women in gliomas? Could we detect specific targets for men and women to improve drug activity in cardiovascular diseases?

In this Special Issue of Genes, we would like to answer these questions and many more related to sex differences in health from omics approaches.

Dr. Francisco García García
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Sex/gender difference
  • Personalized medicine
  • Precision medicine
  • Genomics biomarkers
  • Multi-omics
  • Functional genomics
  • Systems biology
  • Biomedical imaging

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 732 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Analysis of Sex Disparities in the Genetic Architecture of Lung and Colorectal Cancers
by Alireza Nazarian and Alexander M. Kulminski
Genes 2021, 12(5), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12050686 - 1 May 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2424
Abstract
Almost all complex disorders have manifested epidemiological and clinical sex disparities which might partially arise from sex-specific genetic mechanisms. Addressing such differences can be important from a precision medicine perspective which aims to make medical interventions more personalized and effective. We investigated sex-specific [...] Read more.
Almost all complex disorders have manifested epidemiological and clinical sex disparities which might partially arise from sex-specific genetic mechanisms. Addressing such differences can be important from a precision medicine perspective which aims to make medical interventions more personalized and effective. We investigated sex-specific genetic associations with colorectal (CRCa) and lung (LCa) cancers using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data from three independent datasets. The genome-wide association analyses revealed that 33 SNPs were associated with CRCa/LCa at P < 5.0 × 10−6 neither males or females. Of these, 26 SNPs had sex-specific effects as their effect sizes were statistically different between the two sexes at a Bonferroni-adjusted significance level of 0.0015. None had proxy SNPs within their ±1 Mb regions and the closest genes to 32 SNPs were not previously associated with the corresponding cancers. The pathway enrichment analyses demonstrated the associations of 35 pathways with CRCa or LCa which were mostly implicated in immune system responses, cell cycle, and chromosome stability. The significant pathways were mostly enriched in either males or females. Our findings provided novel insights into the potential sex-specific genetic heterogeneity of CRCa and LCa at SNP and pathway levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sex/Gender Differences in Health from Omics Approaches)
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16 pages, 2027 KiB  
Article
Unveiling Sex-Based Differences in the Effects of Alcohol Abuse: A Comprehensive Functional Meta-Analysis of Transcriptomic Studies
by Franc Casanova Ferrer, María Pascual, Marta R. Hidalgo, Pablo Malmierca-Merlo, Consuelo Guerri and Francisco García-García
Genes 2020, 11(9), 1106; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11091106 - 21 Sep 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4737
Abstract
The abuse of alcohol, one of the most popular psychoactive substances, can cause several pathological and psychological consequences, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). An impaired ability to stop or control alcohol intake despite adverse health or social consequences characterize AUD. While AUDs predominantly [...] Read more.
The abuse of alcohol, one of the most popular psychoactive substances, can cause several pathological and psychological consequences, including alcohol use disorder (AUD). An impaired ability to stop or control alcohol intake despite adverse health or social consequences characterize AUD. While AUDs predominantly occur in men, growing evidence suggests the existence of distinct cognitive and biological consequences of alcohol dependence in women. The molecular and physiological mechanisms participating in these differential effects remain unknown. Transcriptomic technology permits the detection of the biological mechanisms responsible for such sex-based differences, which supports the subsequent development of novel personalized therapeutics to treat AUD. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of transcriptomics studies regarding alcohol dependence in humans with representation from both sexes. For each study, we processed and analyzed transcriptomic data to obtain a functional profile of pathways and biological functions and then integrated the resulting data by meta-analysis to characterize any sex-based transcriptomic differences associated with AUD. Global results of the transcriptomic analysis revealed the association of decreased tissue regeneration, embryo malformations, altered intracellular transport, and increased rate of RNA and protein replacement with female AUD patients. Meanwhile, our analysis indicated that increased inflammatory response and blood pressure and a reduction in DNA repair capabilities are associated with male AUD patients. In summary, our functional meta-analysis of transcriptomic studies provides evidence for differential biological mechanisms of AUD patients of differing sex. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sex/Gender Differences in Health from Omics Approaches)
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13 pages, 1660 KiB  
Article
Distinct Alteration of Gene Expression Programs in the Small Intestine of Male and Female Mice in Response to Ablation of Intestinal Fabp Genes
by Yiheng Chen and Luis B. Agellon
Genes 2020, 11(8), 943; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11080943 - 15 Aug 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3057
Abstract
Fatty acid-binding proteins (Fabps) make up a family of widely distributed cytoplasmic lipid-binding proteins. The small intestine contains three predominant Fabp species, Fabp1, Fabp2, and Fabp6. Our previous studies showed that Fabp2 and Fabp6 gene-disrupted mice exhibited sexually dimorphic phenotypes. In this study, [...] Read more.
Fatty acid-binding proteins (Fabps) make up a family of widely distributed cytoplasmic lipid-binding proteins. The small intestine contains three predominant Fabp species, Fabp1, Fabp2, and Fabp6. Our previous studies showed that Fabp2 and Fabp6 gene-disrupted mice exhibited sexually dimorphic phenotypes. In this study, we carried out a systematic comparative analysis of the small intestinal transcriptomes of 10 week-old wild-type (WT) and Fabp gene-disrupted male and female mice. We found that the small intestinal transcriptome of male and female mice showed key differences in the gene expression profiles that affect major biological processes. The deletion of specific Fabp genes induced unique and sex-specific changes in the gene expression program, although some differentially expressed genes in certain genotypes were common to both sexes. Functional annotation and interaction network analyses revealed that the number and type of affected pathways, as well as the sets of interacting nodes in each of the Fabp genotypes, are partitioned by sex. To our knowledge, this is the first time that sex differences were identified and categorized at the transcriptome level in mice lacking different intestinal Fabps. The distinctive transcriptome profiles of WT male and female small intestine may predetermine the nature of transcriptional reprogramming that manifests as sexually dimorphic responses to the ablation of intestinal Fabp genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sex/Gender Differences in Health from Omics Approaches)
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