Anthony J Bjourson

University of Ulster · Northern Ireland Centre for Stratified Medicine, BioMedical Sciences Research Institute, C-TRIC

Introduction: Cellular senescence is the irreversible growth arrest subsequent to oncogenic mutations, DNA damage, or metabolic insult. Senescence is associated with ageing and chronic age associated diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The involvement of cellular senescence in acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Here, we have identified proteomic and genetic signatures for improved prognosis which is vital for COVID-19 research. Methods: We investigated the proteomic and genomic profile of COVID-19-positive pati...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. Here, we have identified proteomic and genetic signatures for improved prognosis which is vital for COVID-19 research. Methods: We investigated the proteomic and genomic profile of COVID-19 positive patie...

Cellular senescence is the irreversible growth arrest subsequent to oncogenic mutations, DNA damage or metabolic insult. Senescence is associated with aging and chronic age associated diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The involvement of cellular senescence in Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is not full...

Background With the spread of SARS-CoV-2 impacting upon public health directly and socioeconomically, further information was required to inform policy decisions designed to limit virus spread during the pandemic. This study sought to contribute to serosurveillance work within Northern Ireland to track SARS-CoV-2 progression and guide health strate...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that has a significant impact on quality of life and work capacity. Treatment of RA aims to control inflammation and alleviate pain; however, achieving remission with minimal toxicity is frequently not possible with the current suite of drugs. This review aims to summarise current treatment...

Student mental health was a growing concern globally prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the pandemic and associated restrictions on the psychological wellbeing of college students. Baseline data were collected pre-pandemic in September 2019 among students attending a university in Northern...

Background: With the impact of SARS-CoV-2 upon public health directly and socioeconomically, further information was required to inform policy decisions designed to limit virus spread. This study sought to contribute to serosurveillance work within Northern Ireland to track SARS-CoV-2 progression and guide health strategy. Methods: Sera/plasma samp...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that has significant impact on quality of life and work capacity. Treatment of RA aims to control inflammation and alleviate pain, however achieving remission with minimal toxicity is frequently not possible with the current suite of drugs. This review aims to summarise current treatment pr...

BACKGROUND Background - Health organisations and countries around the world have found it difficult to control the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019. To minimise the impact on the NHS and improve patient care, there is a drive for rapid tests capable of detecting individuals who are at high risk of contracting severe COVID-19. Early work focus...

Background Health organizations and countries around the world have found it difficult to control the spread of COVID-19. To minimize the future impact on the UK National Health Service and improve patient care, there is a pressing need to identify individuals who are at a higher risk of being hospitalized because of severe COVID-19. Early targeted...

Objective The Covid Response Study (COVRES, NCT05548829) aims to carry out an integrated multi-omic analysis of factors contributing to host susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 among a patient cohort of 1000 people from the geographically isolated island of Ireland. Background Health organisations and countries around the world have found it difficult to...

Background Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a systemic and chronic autoimmune disorder that has significant impact on quality of life and work capacity for the patient. Treatment and management of RA is aimed at gaining control of inflammation and alleviating pain, however, achieving remission and low disease activity with minimal toxicity is frequentl...

Severe COVID-19 is characterised by an overactive pro-inflammatory response of the immune system which is associated with new persistent symptoms. Differences in the persistence of symptoms, plasma inflammatory proteins and antibodies between hospitalised and non-hospitalised cases were investigated in the current study. n=120 participants were rec...

Background Elevated levels of suicidality, ADHD, mental ill-health and substance disorders are reported among college students globally, yet few receive treatment. Some faculties and courses appear to have more at-risk students than others. The current study aimed to determine if students commencing college in different academic disciplines were at...

Disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is influenced by activation of circulating and synovial immune cells. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) and monocytes are key cells that drive inflammation in RA. This study investigated if a relationship exists between disease activity in RA and circulating Treg and monocyte numbers and phenotypes. A potentia...

Abstract We investigated the association between a wide range of comorbidities and COVID-19 in-hospital mortality and assessed the influence of multi morbidity on the risk of COVID-19-related death using a large, regional cohort of 6036 hospitalized patients. This retrospective cohort study was conducted using Patient Administration System Admissio...

Multimorbidity generally refers to concurrent occurrence of multiple chronic conditions. These patients are inherently at high risk and often lead a poor quality of life due to delayed treatments. With the emergence of personalized medicine and stratified healthcare, there is a need to stratify patients right at the primary care setting. Here we de...

Multidimensional omic datasets often have correlated features leading to the possibility of discovering multiple biological signatures with similar predictive performance for a phenotype. However, their exploration is limited by low sample size and the exponential nature of the combinatorial search leading to high computational cost. To address the...

Background and aims TACE/ADAM17 is a membrane bound metalloprotease, which cleaves substrates involved in immune and inflammatory responses and plays a role in coronary artery disease (CAD). We measured TACE and its substrates in CAD patients to identify potential biomarkers within this molecular pathway with potential for acute coronary syndrome (...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune condition, characterised by joint pain, damage and disability, which can be addressed in a high proportion of patients by timely use of targeted biologic treatments. However, the patients, non-responsive to the treatments often suffer from refractoriness of the disease, leading to poor quality of li...

Gallstones affect 20% of the Western population and will grow in clinical significance as obesity and metabolic diseases become more prevalent. Gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy) is a common treatment for diseases caused by gallstones, with 1.2 million surgeries in the US each year, each costing USD 10,000. Gallbladder disease has a significant...

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Statins reduce low-density lipoproteins and positively affect CVD outcomes. Statin type and dose have differential effects on glycaemia and risk of incident T2DM; however, the impact of gender, and of individual drugs within...

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI), plans and attempts, and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Furthermore, we explored the mediating effects of depression, anxiety, alcohol and substance use on the association between ADHD and suicidal behaviors and NSS...

The current global pandemic due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has taken a substantial number of lives across the world. Although few vaccines have been rolled-out, a number of vaccine candidates are still under clinical trials at various pharmaceutical companies and laboratories around the world. Considering the in...

The dysregulated immune system represents a major target for improving health outcomes in a range of chronic conditions. This chapter describes key changes in the immune system as we age and showcases its dysregulation across five chronic conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, highlighting dysregulated key immune system...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a global pandemic associated with substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, with particular risk for severe disease and mortality in the elderly population. SARS-CoV-2 infection is driven by a pathological hyperinflammat...

Background Many students struggle with psychological problems during their college years. These problems may be even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic with the accompanying restrictions and transition to an online learning environment, but few longitudinal studies have been conducted to date. The aim of this study was to compare symptoms o...

The increase in psychological disorders and suicidal behaviour in students is a reason for growing concern. Some may start university with pre-existing problems, while others develop problems during this time. It is important to evaluate mental health and wellbeing early, identifying those at risk. The aim of this study was to compare mental health...

A growing body of evidence supports an important role for alterations in the brain-gut-microbiome axis in the aetiology of depression and other psychiatric disorders. The potential role of the oral microbiome in mental health has received little attention, even though it is one of the most diverse microbiomes in the body and oral dysbiosis has been...

Microbiota profiles measure the structure of microbial communities in a defined environment (known as microbiomes). In the past decade, microbiome research has focused on health applications as a result of which the gut microbiome has been implicated in the development of a broad range of diseases such as obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and ma...

Cellular senescence is a state of growth arrest that occurs after cells encounter various stresses. Senescence contributes to tumour suppression, embryonic development, and wound healing. It impacts on the pathology of various diseases by secreting inflammatory chemokines, immune modulators and other bioactive factors. These secretory biosignatures...

Objectives: Predicting response to anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNFα) drugs at baseline remains an elusive goal in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) management. The purpose of this study was to determine if baseline genetic variants of PTPRC, AFF3, myD228, CHUK, MTHFR1, MTHFR2, CD226 and a number of KIR and HLA alleles could predict response to...

Background: Currently the leading cause of global disability, clinical depression is a heterogeneous condition characterised by low mood, anhedonia and cognitive impairments. Its growing incidence among young people, often co-occurring with self-harm, is of particular concern. We recently reported very high rates of depression among first year uni...

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) represents a major health burden worldwide. It is driven by chronic inflammation of the arterial vasculature supplying the heart, in response to pro-inflammatory assaults such as high LDL cholesterol. The resultant atherosclerosis can cause occlusive disease and acute cardiovascular events. The pro-inflammatory cytokin...

Computerized clinical decision support systems can help to provide objective, standardized, and timely dementia diagnosis. However, current computerized systems are mainly based on group analysis, discrete classification of disease stages, or expensive and not readily accessible biomarkers, while current clinical practice relies relatively heavily...

Background: Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is currently diagnosed using a 12‑lead Electrocardiogram (ECG). Our recent work however has shown that interpretation of the 12‑lead ECG is complex and that clinicians can be sub-optimal in their interpretation. Additionally, ECG does not always identify acute total occlusions in certain patients. Purpose...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease, is an incurable neurodegenerative condition, characterized by the loss of upper and lower motor neurons. It affects 1–1.8/100,000 individuals worldwide, and the number of cases is projected to increase as the population ages. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify both ther...

The anaerobic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is believed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of the common skin disease acne vulgaris. Over the last 10 years our understanding of the taxonomic and intraspecies diversity of this bacterium has increased tremendously, and with it the realisation that particular strains are associated w...

The anaerobic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes is believed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of the common skin disease acne vulgaris. Over the last 10 years our understanding of the taxonomic and intraspecies diversity of this bacterium has increased tremendously, and with it the realisation that particular strains are associated w...

Computerized clinical decision support systems can help to provide objective, standardized, and timely dementia diagnosis. However, current computerized systems are mainly based on the group analysis, discrete classification of disease stages, or expensive and not readily accessible biomarkers, while current clinical practice relies relatively heav...

Hand osteoarthritis (HOA) includes different subsets; a particular and uncommon form is erosive HOA (EHOA). Interleukin- (IL-) 1β plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA); it is synthesized as an inactive precursor which requires the intervention of a cytosolic multiprotein complex, named inflammasome, for its activation. The...

Hand osteoarthritis (HOA) includes different subsets; a particular and uncommon form is erosive HOA (EHOA). Interleukin-(IL-) 1β plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA); it is synthesized as an inactive precursor which requires the intervention of a cytosolic multiprotein complex, named inflammasome, for its activation. The...

There is currently a lack of an efficient, objective and systemic approach towards the classification of Alzheimer's disease (AD), due to its complex etiology and pathogenesis. As AD is inherently dynamic, it is also not clear how the relationships among AD indicators vary over time. To address these issues, we propose a hybrid computational approa...

Introduction: Dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) being its most common form, is one of the most important contributors to dependence and disability of older people and the focus of growing clinical research interest. Along with the intensive search for interventions that can modify progression of dementia symptoms, researchers investigate vari...

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is an umbrella term for a group of inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis. Changes to the intestinal microbiome, the community of micro-organisms that resides in the human gut, have been shown to contribute to the pathogenesis of IBD. IBD diagnosis is of...

Mental health and behavioural problems are common among students commencing university. University life can be stressful and problems often exacerbate during their course of study, while others develop disorders for the first time. The WHO World Mental Health Surveys International College Student Project aims to conduct longitudinal research to exa...

Alternative splicing of a discrete 36 base pair segment (exon 11) of the human and rat insulin receptor leads to the formation of high and low affinity isoforms differing as much as 3-fold in affinity for insulin. Alternative splicing is a common mechanism for generating protein isoforms and is often regulated in a tissue-specific fashion (Seino &...

Leptin is the 16 kDa product of the obese gene secreted by white adipose tissue in proportion to energy intake. In several species, plasma leptin levels correlate with, and may be and endogenous signal of, the extent of body fat reserves. Leptin acts via the hypothalamus to regulate feed intake in rodents and may control gonadal activity through th...

Introduction Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide caused by atherosclerosis, now believed to be a complex inflammatory process. Mounting data indicates that the Nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich containing family, pyrin domain-containing-3 (NRLP3) inflammasome is critical in the pathogenesis and/or regulation...

Tumour necrosis factor alpha converting enzyme (TACE/ADAM17) is a member of the A disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM) family of ectodomain shedding proteinases. It regulates many inflammatory processes by cleaving several transmembrane proteins, including tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and its receptors tumour necrosis factor alpha recept...

Background: With the implementation of computer technology in cognitive testing, there is a great potential to transform our approach to conduct psychological and functional assessments for detection of dementia. While the diagnosis of dementia in primary care is often difficult due to a lack of the necessary specialized knowledge of GPs and their...

Introduction: Management of co- and multi-morbidity continues to represent a major clinical challenge. There remains a lack of understanding of how multiple pathologies or conditions co-evolve or interact and importantly how treatments should be combined to effectively improve outcomes. This review highlights the challenges presented to the clinica...

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune condition characterised by inflamed joints. Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD) are ineffective in 30–40% of patients. CD169 (Siglec-1) is expressed by monocytes and correlates with disease activity in RA. It drives pro-inflammatory processes including the suppression of Tregs through...

Background Clinical trials of anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF) have shown efficacy in 60–70% of rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA). Predicting response to anti-TNF drugs at baseline remains an elusive goal in RA management. The purpose of this study was to determine if baseline levels of circulating cytokines, soluble receptors, adhesion mol...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a life-threatening disease with high prevalence and mortality worldwide. The KRAS oncogene is mutated in approximately 40% of CRCs. While antibody based EGFR inhibitors (cetuximab and panitumumab) represent a major treatment strategy for advanced KRAS wild type (KRAS-WT) CRCs, there still remains no effective therapeutic...

Plasma cell myeloma is a clinically heterogeneous malignancy accounting for approximately one to 2% of newly diagnosed cases of cancer worldwide. Treatment options, in addition to long-established cytotoxic drugs, include autologous stem cell transplant, immune modulators, proteasome inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, plus further targeted thera...

The purpose of the present study was to examine if a stable glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) agonist could exert sustained and beneficial metabolic control in diabetic mice which had been pre-treated with sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor dapagliflozin (DAPA). High fat fed mice administered low dose streptozotocin (...

Musculoskeletal diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are complex multifactorial disorders that are chronic in nature and debilitating for patients. A number of drug families are available to clinicians to manage these disorders but few tests exist to target these to the most responsive patients. As a consequence, drug failure and switching to drug...

Musculoskeletal diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are complex multifactorial disorders that are chronic in nature and debilitating for patients. A number of drug families are available to clinicians to manage these disorders, but few tests exist to target these to the most responsive patients. As a consequence, drug failure and switching to dru...

Background Killer cell immunoglobulin like receptors (KIR) expressed on NK and T cell subsets interact with HLA ligands to influence the reactivity of these cells. The KIR/HLA genotype of an individual can affect immune responses to infection and susceptibility to autoimmunity based on the number/type of genes present (1-3). Objectives The aim of t...

One novel Kunitz BPTI-like peptide designated as BBPTI-1, with chymotrypsin inhibitory activity was identified from the venom of Burmese Daboia russelli siamensis. It was purified by three steps of chromatography including gel filtration, cation exchange and reversed phase. A partial N-terminal sequence of BBPTI-1, HDRPKFCYLPADPGECLAHMRSF was obtai...

Two trypsin inhibitors and one chymotrypsin inhibitor from Chinese Daboia russellii siamensis venom, denoted as CBPTI-1, CBPTI-2 and CBPTI-3 were purified, characterised and cloned from lyophilised venom-derived cDNA libraries. The N-terminus of CBPTI-1 was modified and not amenable to Edman degradation sequencing, however an internal partial seque...

Multidrug resistance (MDR) mediated by P-glycoprotein (P-gp) can compromise the successful treatment of many malignancies including plasma cell myeloma (PCM). However, methods do not yet exist that can accurately determine P-gp activity in PCM patient samples. In this study, we have utilized new advances in flow cytometric methods to determine the...

The identification and adoption of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis has informed and improved the clinical management of this disease. With the advent of biologic treatments such as anti-Tumour Necrosis Factor (anti-TNF) therapy, achieving disease remission has become a realistic endpoint for clinicians. The life-changi...

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) leads to impaired treatment efficacy in all forms of malignancy. The main forms of MDR are thought to be mediated by the substrate transporting actions of certain adenosine triphosphate binding cassette (ABC) transport proteins. The genes ABCB1, ABCB4, ABCC1, ABCG2 and LRP1 have been identified as the most prominent cont...