Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Coming Together To Define Membrane Contact Sites., Luca Scorrano, Maria Antonietta De Matteis, Scott Emr, Francesca Giordano, György Hajnóczky, Benoît Kornmann, Laura L. Lackner, Tim P. Levine, Luca Pellegrini, Karin Reinisch, Rosario Rizzuto, Thomas Simmen, Harald Stenmark, Christian Ungermann, Maya Schuldiner

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Close proximities between organelles have been described for decades. However, only recently a specific field dealing with organelle communication at membrane contact sites has gained wide acceptance, attracting scientists from multiple areas of cell biology. The diversity of approaches warrants a unified vocabulary for the field. Such definitions would facilitate laying the foundations of this field, streamlining communication and resolving semantic controversies. This opinion, written by a panel of experts in the field, aims to provide this burgeoning area with guidelines for the experimental definition and analysis of contact sites. It also includes suggestions on how to operationally and tractably …

Supervised Dimension Reduction For Large-Scale "Omics" Data With Censored Survival Outcomes Under Possible Non-Proportional Hazards, Lauren Spirko-Burns, Karthik Devarajan

COBRA Preprint Series

The past two decades have witnessed significant advances in high-throughput ``omics" technologies such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics and radiomics. These technologies have enabled simultaneous measurement of the expression levels of tens of thousands of features from individual patient samples and have generated enormous amounts of data that require analysis and interpretation. One specific area of interest has been in studying the relationship between these features and patient outcomes, such as overall and recurrence-free survival, with the goal of developing a predictive ``omics" profile. Large-scale studies often suffer from the presence of a large fraction of censored observations and potential …

Improving The Genetic Diagnosis Of Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Michael Iacocca

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder of severely elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol that is widely underdiagnosed and undertreated. To improve the identification of FH and initiate timely and appropriate treatment strategies, genetic testing is becoming increasingly offered worldwide as a central part of diagnosis. I describe three main ways providing a genetic diagnosis in FH can be improved. First, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based approaches can be used to reliably identify large-scale variant types known as copy number variations (CNVs) in the LDL receptor gene (LDLR); second, NGS methodology can be further applied to extend CNV screening to …

Investigating Gαs Pepducin’S Effect On Β2ar Signaling For Chf Pharmacology, Nida Bajwa, Nathan Hopfinger, Charles Scott

Phase 1

Introduction: Congestive heart failure affects nearly six million Americans and significantly impairs their quality of life. New and better interventions are needed to improve HF patients’ survival and outcomes. Pharmacologics that bias β2AR signaling towards arrestin, which promotes cardiomyocyte survival and contractility, may offer advantages over traditional β-blockers.

Objective: It has been demonstrated that peptides mimicking the C-terminus of the Gα_s subunit block downstream signaling of GPCRs. The study’s objective is to determine if a pepducin derived from the C-terminus of the Gα_s subunit of the β2AR could block G_s signaling but maintain arrestin-recruitment, thereby producing a …

Biotransformed Metabolites Of The Hop Prenylflavanone Isoxanthohumol, Hyun Jung Kim, Soon-Ho Yim, Fubo Han, Bok Yun Kang, Hyun Jin Choi, Da-Woon Jung, Darren R. Williams, Kirk R. Gustafson, Edward J. Kennelly, Ik-Soo Lee

Publications and Research

A metabolic conversion study on microbes is known as one of the most useful tools to predict the xenobiotic metabolism of organic compounds in mammalian systems. The microbial biotransformation of isoxanthohumol (1), a major hop prenylflavanone in beer, has resulted in the production of three diastereomeric pairs of oxygenated metabolites (2–7). The microbial metabolites of 1 were formed by epoxidation or hydroxylation of the prenyl group, and HPLC, NMR, and CD analyses revealed that all of the products were diastereomeric pairs composed of (2S)- and (2R)- isomers. The structures of these metabolic compounds were elucidated to be (2S,200S)- and (2R,200S)-40 …

Tubular Cell And Keratinocyte Single-Cell Transcriptomics Applied To Lupus Nephritis Reveal Type I Ifn And Fibrosis Relevant Pathways, E. Der, H. Suryawanshi, P. Morozov, M. Kustagi, Goilav, Ranabathou, P. Izmirly, A. Davidson, R. Furie, F. Zhang, +57 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. The molecular and cellular processes that lead to renal damage and to the heterogeneity of lupus nephritis (LN) are not well understood. We applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to renal biopsies from patients with LN and evaluated skin biopsies as a potential source of diagnostic and prognostic markers of renal disease. Type I interferon (IFN)-response signatures in tubular cells and keratinocytes distinguished patients with LN from healthy control subjects. Moreover, a high IFN-response signature and fibrotic signature in tubular cells were each associated with failure to respond to …

Defining Inflammatory Cell States In Rheumatoid Arthritis Joint Synovial Tissues By Integrating Single-Cell Transcriptomics And Mass Cytometry, F. Zhang, K. Wei, K. Slowikowski, C. Y. Fonseka, A. Rao, Kelly, S. M. Goodman, D. Tabechian, P. K. Gregersen, S. Raychaudhuri, +55 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc. To define the cell populations that drive joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), mass cytometry, bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and flow cytometry to T cells, B cells, monocytes, and fibroblasts from 51 samples of synovial tissue from patients with RA or osteoarthritis (OA). Utilizing an integrated strategy based on canonical correlation analysis of 5,265 scRNA-seq profiles, we identified 18 unique cell populations. Combining mass cytometry and transcriptomics revealed cell states expanded in RA synovia: THY1(CD90) + HLA-DRA hi sublining fibroblasts, IL1B + …

Metabolic And Microstructural Alterations In The Sle Brain Correlate With Cognitive Impairment, M. Mackay, A. Vo, C. C. Tang, W. Anderson, N. J. Ploran, C. Aranow, P. Watson, B. T. Volpe, B. Diamond, D. Eidelberg, +5 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Forebrain Cholinergic Signaling Regulates Innate Immune Responses And Inflammation, K. R. Lehner, H. A. Silverman, M. E. Adorissio, A. Roy, A. Al-Onaizi, S. S. Chavan, Y. Al-Abed, C. N. Metz, K. J. Tracey, V. A. Paviov, +6 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Genetic Copy Number Variants Of The Human Glut3 Glucose Transporter Gene Slc2a3 On Protein Expression, Glycolysis And Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk: A Genetic Replication Study, K. R. Simpfendorfer, W. Li, A. Shih, H. Wen, N. P. Kothari, A. Einsidler, A. Wuster, J. Hunkapiller, T. W. Behrens, P. K. Gregersen, +5 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Pain Symptoms And Quality Of Life Using The International Spinal Cord Injury Data Sets In Persons With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury, K. Gibbs, A. Beaufort, A. Stein, T. M. Leung, N. Sison, Z. Bloom

Journal Articles

Introduction: Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) triggers complex changes that can negatively impact health and quality of life. The International SCI Data Sets were developed to enable more comparable data collection on the complex sequelae of SCI across studies. This should facilitate progress in mechanistic understanding and improving treatments of SCI. Study design: Prospective observational pilot study. Objectives: To collect data on pain symptoms and quality of life (QoL) in adults living with chronic SCI. Setting: Academic medical center, New York, USA. Methods: The International SCI Basic Pain and Qol Data Sets were used to collect data from participants with …

Fc Receptor-Like 2 (Fcrl2) Is A Novel Marker Of Low-Risk Cll And Refines Prognostication Based On Ighv Mutation Status, L. K. Shea, K. Honjo, D. T. Redden, E. Tabengwa, Li, J. Li, M. Shakhmatov, N. Chiorazzi, R. S. Davis

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Erratum: Distinct Hla Associations With Rheumatoid Arthritis Subsets Defined By Serological Subphenotype (The American Journal Of Human Genetics (2019) 105(3) (616–624), (S0002929719303052), (10.1016/J.Ajhg.2019.08.002)), C. Terao, B. Brynedal, Z. Chen, X. Jiang, Westerlind, Hansson, P. J. Jakobsson, K. Lundberg, P. K. Gregersen, S. Raychaudhuri, +10 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2019 The Author(s) (The American Journal of Human Genetics 105, 616–624; September 5, 2019) In the originally published version of this article, the first author, Chikashi Tereo, had footnotes indicating affiliations with the first seven institutions. The correct affiliations are the first six plus footnote 17, indicating equal contribution. This error has been corrected here and online, and the authors and copyeditor express their regret for the mistake.

Patterns Of Ana(+) B Cells For Sle Patient Stratification, J. Suurmond, Y. Atisha-Fregoso, A. N. Barlev, S. A. Calderon, C. Mackay, Z. Aranow, B. Diamond

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Challenges And Inconsistencies In Using Lysophosphatidic Acid As A Biomarker For Ovarian Cancer, T. Yagi, M. Shoaib, C. E. Kuschner, M. Nishikimi, B. Becker, Z. T. Lee, J. Kim

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Tissue-Specific Metabolic Profiles After Prolonged Cardiac Arrest Reveal Brain Metabolome Dysfunction Predominantly After Resuscitation, J. Choi, M. Shoaib, T. Yin, G. Nayyar, Shinozaki, G. F. Stevens, L. B. Becker, J. Kim

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Vitamin D On Serum Markers Of Bone Turnover In Sle In A Randomised Controlled Trial, S. K. Tedeschi, C. Aranow, D. L. Kamen, M. Leboff, Diamond, H. Costenbader

Journal Articles

© 2019 Author(s). Objective Bone health in SLE is adversely affected by vitamin D deficiency, inflammatory cytokines and glucocorticoid use. We hypothesised that vitamin D supplementation would increase markers of bone formation and decrease markers of bone resorption in SLE subjects. Methods We studied 43 vitamin D-deficient SLE subjects who participated in a 12-week randomised controlled trial of 2000-4000 IU/day vitamin D supplementation versus placebo. Subjects had inactive SLE (SLE Disease Activity Index ≤4) and were taking D, N-terminal propeptide of type 1 collagen (P1NP) and C-telopeptide (CTX). We tested the effect of vitamin D versus placebo on change (δ) …

Aquaporin-4 Water Channel In The Brain And Its Implication For Health And Disease., S. Mader, L. Brimberg

Journal Articles

Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) is a water channel expressed on astrocytic endfeet in the brain. The role of AQP4 has been studied in health and in a range of pathological conditions. Interest in AQP4 has increased since it was discovered to be the target antigen in the inflammatory autoimmune disease neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Emerging data suggest that AQP4 may also be implicated in the glymphatic system and may be involved in the clearance of beta-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this review, we will describe the role of AQP4 in the adult and developing brain as well as its implication …

Clinically Significant Gains In Skillful Grasp Coordination By An Individual With Tetraplegia Using An Implanted Brain-Computer Interface With Forearm Transcutaneous Muscle Stimulation, M. Bockbrader, N. Annetta, D. Friedenberg, M. Schwemmer, Skomrock, Colachis, M. Zhang, C. Bouton, A. Rezai, W. J. Mysiw, +1 Additional Author

Journal Articles

© 2019 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Objective: To demonstrate naturalistic motor control speed, coordinated grasp, and carryover from trained to novel objects by an individual with tetraplegia using a brain-computer interface (BCI)-controlled neuroprosthetic. Design: Phase I trial for an intracortical BCI integrated with forearm functional electrical stimulation (FES). Data reported span postimplant days 137 to 1478. Setting: Tertiary care outpatient rehabilitation center. Participant: A 27-year-old man with C5 class A (on the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale) traumatic spinal cord injury Interventions: After array implantation in his left (dominant) motor cortex, the participant trained with BCI-FES to control …

Human B-1 Cells And B-1 Cell Antibodies Change With Advancing Age, N. Rodriguez-Zhurbenko, T. D. Quach, T. J. Hopkins, T. L. Rothstein, Z. M. Hernandez

Journal Articles

© 2019 Rodriguez-Zhurbenko, Quach, Hopkins, Rothstein and Hernandez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Age-related deficits in the immune system have been associated with an increased incidence of infections, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Human B cell populations change quantitatively …

Mus Musculus Deficient For Secretory Antibodies Show Delayed Growth With An Altered Urinary Metabolome, K. R. Simpfendorfer, N. Wang, D. L. Tull, D. P. De Souza, A. Nahid, A. Mu, D. M. Hocking, J. S. Pedersen, O. L. Wijburg, R. A. Strugnell, +1 Additional Author

Journal Articles

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: The polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) maintains the integrity of epithelial barriers by transporting polymeric antibodies and antigens through the epithelial mucosa into the lumen. In this study, we examined the role of pIgR in maintaining gut barrier integrity, which is important for the normal development in mice. Methods: Cohorts of pIgR -/- mice and their wildtype controls were housed under Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) conditions and monitored for weight gain as an indicator of development over time. The general physiology of the gastrointestinal tract was analysed using immunohistochemistry in young (8-12 weeks of age) and …

Rnai Transfection Optimized In Primary Naïve B Cells For The Targeted Analysis Of Human Plasma Cell Differentiation, T. Shih, S. De, B. J. Barnes

Journal Articles

Upon antigen recognition, naïve B cells undergo rapid proliferation followed by differentiation to specialized antibody secreting cells (ASCs), called plasma cells. Increased circulating plasma cells are reported in patients with B cell-associated malignancies, chronic graft-vs.-host disease, and autoimmune disorders. Our aim was to optimize an RNAi-based method that efficiently and reproducibly knocks-down genes of interest in human primary peripheral B cells for the targeted analysis of ASC differentiation. The unique contributions of transcriptional diversity in species-specific regulatory networks and the mechanisms of gene function need to be approached directly in human B cells with tools to hone our basic inferences …

Large-Scale Validation Of The Paddling Pool Task In The Clockmaze For Studying Hippocampus-Based Spatial Cognition In Mice, R. Sankowski, T. S. Huerta, R. Kalra, T. J. Klein, J. Strohl, A. Al-Abed, S. Robbiati, P. T. Huerta

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Focused Hla Analysis In Caucasians With Myositis Identifies Significant Associations With Autoantibody Subgroups., S. Rothwell, H. Chinoy, J. A. Lamb, F. W. Miller, L. G. Rider, L. R. Wedderburn, N. J. Mchugh, A. T. Lee, P. K. Gregersen, I. E. Lundberg, +23 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

OBJECTIVES: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a spectrum of rare autoimmune diseases characterised clinically by muscle weakness and heterogeneous systemic organ involvement. The strongest genetic risk is within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Since autoantibody presence defines specific clinical subgroups of IIM, we aimed to correlate serotype and genotype, to identify novel risk variants in the MHC region that co-occur with IIM autoantibodies.

METHODS: We collected available autoantibody data in our cohort of 2582 Caucasian patients with IIM. High resolution human leucocyte antigen (HLA) alleles and corresponding amino acid sequences were imputed using SNP2HLA from existing genotyping data and tested …

The Bin1 Rs744373 Snp Is Associated With Increased Tau-Pet Levels And Impaired Memory, N. Franzmeier, A. Rubinski, J. Neitzel, M. Ewers, W. Weiner, Aisen, R. Petersen, C. R. Jack, P. Davies, B. Ances, +90 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2019, The Author(s). The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs744373 in the bridging integrator-1 gene (BIN1) is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the brain, BIN1 is involved in endocytosis and sustaining cytoskeleton integrity. Post-mortem and in vitro studies suggest that BIN1-associated AD risk is mediated by increased tau pathology but whether rs744373 is associated with increased tau pathology in vivo is unknown. Here we find in 89 older individuals without dementia, that BIN1 rs744373 risk-allele carriers show higher AV1451 tau-PET across brain regions corresponding to Braak stages II–VI. In contrast, the BIN1 rs744373 SNP was not associated …

Trefoil Factor(S) And Ca19.9: A Promising Panel For Early Detection Of Pancreatic Cancer, Rahat Jahan, Koelina Ganguly, Lynette M. Smith, Pranita Atri, Joseph Carmicheal, Yuri Sheinin, Satyanarayana Rachagani, Gopalakrishnan Natarajan, Randall E. Brand, Muzafar A. Macha, Paul M. Grandgenett, Sukhwinder Kaur, Surinder K. Batra

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

BACKGROUND: Trefoil factors (TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3) are small secretory molecules that recently have gained significant attention in multiple studies as an integral component of pancreatic cancer (PC) subtype-specific gene signature. Here, we comprehensively investigated the diagnostic potential of all the member of trefoil family, i.e., TFF1, TFF2, and TFF3 in combination with CA19.9 for detection of PC.

METHODS: Trefoil factors (TFFs) gene expression was analyzed in publicly available cancer genome datasets, followed by assessment of their expression in genetically engineered spontaneous mouse model (GEM) of PC (KrasG12D; Pdx1-Cre (KC)) and in human tissue microarray consisting of normal pancreas adjacent …

Uncovering And Characterizing Splice Variants Associated With Survival In Lung Cancer Patients, Sean West, Sushil Kumar, Surinder K. Batra, Hesham Ali, Dario Ghersi

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Splice variants have been shown to play an important role in tumor initiation and progression and can serve as novel cancer biomarkers. However, the clinical importance of individual splice variants and the mechanisms by which they can perturb cellular functions are still poorly understood. To address these issues, we developed an efficient and robust computational method to: (1) identify splice variants that are associated with patient survival in a statistically significant manner; and (2) predict rewired protein-protein interactions that may result from altered patterns of expression of such variants. We applied our method to the lung adenocarcinoma dataset from TCGA …

Vitamin E Δ-Tocotrienol Sensitizes Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells To Trail-Induced Apoptosis Through Proteasome-Mediated Down-Regulation Of C-Flip, Rony A. Francois, Anying Zhang, Kazim Husain, Chen Wang, Sean Hutchinson, Michael Kongnyuy, Surinder K. Batra, Domenico Coppola, Said M. Sebti, Mokenge P. Malafa

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Background: Vitamin E δ-tocotrienol (VEDT), a vitamin E compound isolated from sources such as palm fruit and annatto beans, has been reported to have cancer chemopreventive and therapeutic effects.

Methods: We report a novel function of VEDT in augmenting tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand- (TRAIL-) induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. The effects of VEDT were shown by its ability to trigger caspase-8-dependent apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells.

Results: When combined with TRAIL, VEDT significantly augmented TRAIL-induced apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells. VEDT decreased cellular FLICE inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) levels without consistently modulating the expression of decoy death receptors 1, …

Lactate-Mediated Epigenetic Reprogramming Regulates Formation Of Human Pancreatic Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, Tushar D. Bhagat, Dagny Von Ahrens, Meelad Dawlaty, Yiyu Zou, Joelle Baddour, Abhinav Achreja, Hongyun Zhao, Lifeng Yang, Brijesh Patel, Changsoo Kwak, Gaurav S. Choudhary, Shanisha Gordon-Mitchell, Srinivas Aluri, Sanchari Bhattacharyya, Srabani Sahu, Yiting Yu, Matthias Bartenstein, Orsi Giricz, Masako Suzuki, Davendra Sohal, Sonal Gupta, Paola A. Guerrero, Surinder K. Batra, Michael Goggins, Ulrich Steidl, John Greally, Beamon Agarwal, Kith Pradhan, Debabrata Banerjee, Deepak Nagrath, Anirban Maitra, Amit Verma

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Even though pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with fibrotic stroma, the molecular pathways regulating the formation of cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are not well elucidated. An epigenomic analysis of patient-derived and de-novo generated CAFs demonstrated widespread loss of cytosine methylation that was associated with overexpression of various inflammatory transcripts including CXCR4. Co-culture of neoplastic cells with CAFs led to increased invasiveness that was abrogated by inhibition of CXCR4. Metabolite tracing revealed that lactate produced by neoplastic cells leads to increased production of alpha-ketoglutarate (aKG) within mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In turn, aKG mediated activation of the …

Afatinib And Temozolomide Combination Inhibits Tumorigenesis By Targeting Egfrviii-Cmet Signaling In Glioblastoma Cells, Raghupathy Vengoji, Muzafar A. Macha, Rama Krishna Nimmakayala, Satyanarayana Rachagani, Jawed A. Siddiqui, Kavita Mallya, Santhi Gorantla, Maneesh Jain, Moorthy P. Ponnusamy, Surinder K. Batra, Nicole Shonka

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor with universal recurrence and poor prognosis. The recurrence is largely driven by chemoradiation resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs). Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its mutant EGFRvIII are amplified in ~ 60% and ~ 30% of GBM patients, respectively; however, therapies targeting EGFR have failed to improve disease outcome. EGFRvIII-mediated cross-activation of tyrosine kinase receptor, cMET, regulates GBM CSC maintenance and promote tumor recurrence. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of pan-EGFR inhibitor afatinib and Temozolomide (TMZ) combination on GBM in vitro and in vivo.

METHODS: We analyzed the effect of afatinib and …