Translational Medical Research Commons^™

A Drive To Driven Model Of Mapping Intraspecific Interaction Networks., Libo Jiang, Jian Xu, Mengmeng Sang, Yan Zhang, Meixia Ye, Hanyuan Zhang, Biyin Wu, Youxiu Zhu, Peng Xu, Ruyu Tai, Zixia Zhao, Yanliang Jiang, Chuanju Dong, Lidan Sun, Christopher H. Griffin, Claudia Gragnoli, Rongling Wu

Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Faculty Papers

Community ecology theory suggests that an individual's phenotype is determined by the phenotypes of its coexisting members to the extent at which this process can shape community evolution. Here, we develop a mapping theory to identify interaction quantitative trait loci (QTL) governing inter-individual dependence. We mathematically formulate the decision-making strategy of interacting individuals. We integrate these mathematical descriptors into a statistical procedure, enabling the joint characterization of how QTL drive the strengths of ecological interactions and how the genetic architecture of QTL is driven by ecological networks. In three fish full-sib mapping experiments, we identify a set of genome-wide QTL …

The Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Tubacin Mitigates Endothelial Dysfunction By Up-Regulating The Expression Of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase., Jihui Chen, Jian Zhang, Noor F. Shaik, Bing Yi, Xin Wei, Xiao-Feng Yang, Ulhas P. Naik, Ross Summer, Guijun Yan, Xinyun Xu, Jianxin Sun

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) plays a critical role in the maintenance of blood vessel homeostasis. Recent findings suggest that cytoskeletal dynamics play an essential role in regulating eNOS expression and activation. Here, we sought to test whether modulation of cytoskeletal dynamics through pharmacological regulation of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6)-mediated tubulin deacetylation affects eNOS expression and endothelial function in vitro and in vivo.Wefound that tubulin acetylation inducer (tubacin), a compound that appears to selectively inhibit HDAC6 activity, dramatically increased eNOS expression in several different endothelial cell lines, as determined by both immunoblotting and NO production assays. Mechanistically, we found …

Twenty Novel Disease Group-Specific And 12 New Shared Macrophage Pathways In Eight Groups Of 34 Diseases Including 24 Inflammatory Organ Diseases And 10 Types Of Tumors., Bin Lai, Jiwei Wang, Alexander Fagenson, Yu Sun, Jason Saredy, Yifan Lu, Gayani Nanayakkara, William Y Yang, Daohai Yu, Ying Shao, Charles Drummer, Candice Johnson, Fatma Saaoud, Ruijing Zhang, Qian Yang, Keman Xu, Kevin Mastascusa, Ramon Cueto, Hangfei Fu, Susu Wu, Lizhe Sun, Peiqian Zhu, Xuebin Qin, Jun Yu, Daping Fan, Ying H Shen, Jianxin Sun, Thomas Rogers, Eric T Choi, Hong Wang, Xiaofeng Yang

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

The mechanisms underlying pathophysiological regulation of tissue macrophage (Mφ) subsets remain poorly understood. From the expression of 207 Mφ genes comprising 31 markers for 10 subsets, 45 transcription factors (TFs), 56 immunometabolism enzymes, 23 trained immunity (innate immune memory) enzymes, and 52 other genes in microarray data, we made the following findings. (1) When 34 inflammation diseases and tumor types were grouped into eight categories, there was differential expression of the 31 Mφ markers and 45 Mφ TFs, highlighted by 12 shared and 20 group-specific disease pathways. (2) Mφ in lung, liver, spleen, and intestine (LLSI-Mφ) express higher M1 Mφ …

Insights Into The Hiv Latency And The Role Of Cytokines., Joseph Hokello, Adhikarimayum Lakhikumar Sharma, Manjari Dimri, Mudit Tyagi

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) has the ability to infect latently at the level of individual CD4+ cells. Latent HIV-1 proviruses are transcriptionally silent and immunologically inert, but are still capable of reactivating productive lytic infection following cellular activation. These latent viruses are the main obstacle in the eradication of HIV-1, because current HIV-1 treatment regimens are ineffective against them. Normal immunological response against an antigen activates CD4+ naïve T cells. The activated CD4+ naïve T cells undergo cell cycle, resulting in further transformation and profound proliferation to form effector CD4+ T-cells. Notably, in HIV-1 infected individuals, some of the effector …

Mechanisms Of Simvastatin Myotoxicity: The Role Of Autophagy Flux Inhibition., Arya Emami, Shahla Shojaei, Simone C. Da Silva Rosa, Mahmoud Aghaei, Ehsan Samiei, Amir Reza Vosoughi, Forouh Kalantari, Philip Kawalec, James Thliveris, Pawan Sharma, Amir A. Zeki, Mohsen Akbari, Joseph W. Gordon, Saeid Ghavami

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Statins are some of the most widely used drugs worldwide, but one of their major side effects is myotoxicity. Using mouse myoblast (C2C12) and human alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines (RH30) in both 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) cell culture, we investigated the mechanisms of simvastatin's myotoxicity. We found that simvastatin significantly reduced cell viability in C2C12 cells compared to RH30 cells. However, simvastatin induced greater apoptosis in RH30 compared to C2C12 cells. Simvastatin-induced cell death is dependent on geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate (GGPP) in C2C12 cells, while in RH30 cells it is dependent on both farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) and GGPP. Simvastatin inhibited …

Spg7 Targets The M-Aaa Protease Complex To Process Mcu For Uniporter Assembly, Ca2 Influx, And Regulation Of Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore Opening, Stephen Hurst, Ariele Baggett, György Csordás, Shey-Shing Sheu

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

The mitochondrial matrix ATPase associated with diverse cellular activities (m-AAA) protease spastic paraplegia 7 (SPG7) has been recently implicated as either a negative or positive regulatory component of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) by two research groups. To address this controversy, we investigated possible mechanisms that explain the discrepancies between these two studies. We found that loss of the SPG7 gene increased resistance to Ca²-induced mPTP opening. However, this occurs independently of cyclophilin D (cyclosporine A insensitive) rather it is through decreased mitochondrial Ca² concentrations and subsequent adaptations mediated by impaired formation of functional mitochondrial Ca …

Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity In The Lung Is Increased In Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome., Ross Summer, Rachana Krishna, Deleila Schriner, Karina Cuevas-Mora, Dominic Sales, Rachel Para, Jesse Roman, Carl Nieweld, Bernadette R. Gochuico, Freddy Romero

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by oculocutaneous albinism and platelet dysfunction and can sometimes lead to a highly aggressive form of pulmonary fibrosis that mimics the fatal lung condition called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Although the activities of various matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are known to be dysregulated in IPF, it remains to be determined whether similar changes in these enzymes can be detected in HPS.

RESULTS: Here, we show that transcript and protein levels as well as enzymatic activities of MMP-2 and -9 are markedly increased in the lungs of mice carrying the HPS …

Glucocorticoids And Airway Smooth Muscle: A Few More Answers, Still More Questions, Ajay P. Nayak

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

C1q/Tnf-Related Protein 3 (Ctrp3) And 9 (Ctrp9) Concentrations Are Decreased In Patients With Heart Failure And Are Associated With Increased Morbidity And Mortality., Chao Gao, Shasha Zhao, Kun Lian, Baibing Mi, Rui Si, Zhijun Tan, Feng Fu, Shuai Wang, Rutao Wang, Xin-Liang Ma, Ling Tao

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Biochemical marker has revolutionized the approach to the diagnosis of heart failure. However, it remains difficult to assess stability of the patient. As such, novel means of stratifying disease severity are needed. C1q/TNF-Related Protein 3 (CTRP3) and C1q/TNF-Related Protein 9 (CTRP9) are novel adipokines that contribute to energy homeostasis with additional anti-inflammatory and anti-ischemic properties. The aim of our study is to evaluate concentrations of CTRP3 and CTRP9 in patients with HFrEF (heart failure with reduced ejection fraction) and whether associated with mortality.

METHODS: Clinical data and plasma were obtained from 176 healthy controls and 168 patients with HFrEF. …

Increasing Upstream Chromatin Long-Range Interactions May Favor Induction Of Circular Rnas In Lysopc-Activated Human Aortic Endothelial Cells., Angus Li, Yu Sun, Charles Drummer, Yifan Lu, Daohai Yu, Yan Zhou, Xinyuan Li, Simone J. Pearson, Candice Johnson, Catherine Yu, William Y. Yang, Kevin Mastascusa, Xiaohua Jiang, Jianxin Sun, Thomas Rogers, Wenhui Hu, Hong Wang, Xiaofeng Yang

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that form covalently closed continuous loops, and act as gene regulators in physiological and disease conditions. To test our hypothesis that proatherogenic lipid lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) induce a set of circRNAs in human aortic endothelial cell (HAEC) activation, we performed circRNA analysis by searching our RNA-Seq data from LPC-activated HAECs, and found: (1) LPC induces significant modulation of 77 newly characterized cirRNAs, among which 47 circRNAs (61%) are upregulated; (2) 34 (72%) out of 47 upregulated circRNAs are upregulated when the corresponding mRNAs are downregulated, suggesting that the majority of circRNAs are upregulated presumably via …

Lipid Uptake By Alveolar Macrophages Drives Fibrotic Responses To Silica Dust., Xiaomin Hou, Ross Summer, Ziying Chen, Ying Tian, Jingjing Ma, Jie Cui, Xiaohui Hao, Lingli Guo, Hong Xu, Hongli Wang, Heliang Liu

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Silicosis is a common occupational disease and represents a significant contributor to respiratory morbidity and mortality worldwide. Lipid-laden macrophages, or foam cells, are observed in the lungs of patients with silicosis but the mechanisms mediating their formation remain poorly understood. In this study, we sought to elucidate the mechanisms by which silica promotes foam cell formation in the lung, and to determine whether uptake of lipids alone is sufficient to drive TGF-β production by alveolar macrophages. Consistent with previous reports, we found that foam cells were markedly increased in the lungs of patients with silicosis and that these findings associated …

Inflammatory Serine Proteases Play A Critical Role In The Early Pathogenesis Of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy., Mikhail A Kolpakov, Kunal Sikder, Amrita Sarkar, Shaswati Chaki, Sanket K Shukla, Xinji Guo, Zhao Qi, Carlos Barbery, Abdelkarim Sabri, Khadija Rafiq

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by structural and functional alterations that can lead to heart failure. Several mechanisms are known to be involved in the pathogenesis of DCM, however, the molecular mechanism that links inflammation to DCM is incompletely understood. To learn about this mechanism, we investigated the role of inflammatory serine proteases (ISPs) during the development of DCM.

METHODS: Eight weeks old mice with deletion of dipeptidyl peptidase I (DPPI), an enzyme involved in the maturation of major ISPs, and wild type (WT) mice controls were injected with streptozotocin (50 mg/kg for 5 days intraperitoneally) and studied after …