Digital Commons Network^™

Ethological Computational Psychiatry: Challenges And Opportunities, Ilya E Monosov, Jan Zimmermann, Michael J Frank, Mackenzie W Mathis, Justin T Baker

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Studying the intricacies of individual subjects' moods and cognitive processing over extended periods of time presents a formidable challenge in medicine. While much of systems neuroscience appropriately focuses on the link between neural circuit functions and well-constrained behaviors over short timescales (e.g., trials, hours), many mental health conditions involve complex interactions of mood and cognition that are non-stationary across behavioral contexts and evolve over extended timescales. Here, we discuss opportunities, challenges, and possible future directions in computational psychiatry to quantify non-stationary continuously monitored behaviors. We suggest that this exploratory effort may contribute to a more precision-based approach to treating mental …

Genetic Loci Regulate Sarbecovirus Pathogenesis: A Comparison Across Mice And Humans, Alexandra Schäfer, Laura A Vanblargan, Larissa B Thackray, Michael S Diamond, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Coronavirus (CoV) cause considerable morbidity and mortality in humans and other mammals, as evidenced by the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory CoV (SARS-CoV) in 2003, Middle East Respiratory CoV (MERS-CoV) in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. Although poorly characterized, natural genetic variation in human and other mammals modulate virus pathogenesis, as reflected by the spectrum of clinical outcomes ranging from asymptomatic infections to lethal disease. Using multiple human epidemic and zoonotic Sarbecoviruses, coupled with murine Collaborative Cross genetic reference populations, we identify several dozen quantitative trait loci that regulate SARS-like group-2B CoV pathogenesis and replication. Under a Chr4 QTL, we …

Naturalistic Assessment Of Reaction Time Variability In Older Adults At Risk For Alzheimer's Disease, Matthew S Welhaf, Hannah Wilks, Andrew J Aschenbrenner, David A Balota, Suzanne E Schindler, Tammie L S Benzinger, Brian A Gordon, Carlos Cruchaga, Chengjie Xiong, John C Morris, Jason Hassenstab

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: Maintaining attention underlies many aspects of cognition and becomes compromised early in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The consistency of maintaining attention can be measured with reaction time (RT) variability. Previous work has focused on measuring such fluctuations during in-clinic testing, but recent developments in remote, smartphone-based cognitive assessments can allow one to test if these fluctuations in attention are evident in naturalistic settings and if they are sensitive to traditional clinical and cognitive markers of AD.

METHOD: Three hundred and seventy older adults (aged 75.8 +/- 5.8 years) completed a week of remote daily testing on the …

Mendelian Segregation And High Recombination Rates Facilitate Genetic Analyses In Cryptosporidium Parvum, Abigail Kimball, Lisa Funkhouser-Jones, Wanyi Huang, Rui Xu, William H. Witola, L. David Sibley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Very little is known about the process of meiosis in the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium despite the essentiality of sex in its life cycle. Most cell lines only support asexual growth of Cryptosporidium parvum (C. parvum), but stem cell derived intestinal epithelial cells grown under air-liquid interface (ALI) conditions support the sexual cycle. To examine chromosomal dynamics during meiosis in C. parvum, we generated two transgenic lines of parasites that were fluorescently tagged with mCherry or GFP on chromosomes 1 or 5, respectively. Infection of ALI cultures or Ifngr1-/- mice with mCherry and GFP parasites resulted in cross-fertilization and the formation …

Faculty Onboarding For Workforce Readiness And Belonging, Melissa M. Masaracchia, Scott D. Markowitz, Norah R. Janosy, Kim M. Strupp

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: An academic anesthesiology department benefits from recruiting faculty from various centers, from new graduates to experienced clinicians. Two critical objectives for a department are getting the faculty members up-to-speed thoroughly and efficiently and retaining the faculty members to benefit from their contributions over time. Onboarding plays a pivotal role in meeting both objectives. A successful onboarding process is critical to the enculturation of new employees into an existing work environment. Organizations focusing on improving onboarding practices increase overall success, decrease attrition, and enhance member performance and satisfaction. In this study, we examine our onboarding practices and then create structured …

Inherited C-Terminal Trex1 Variants Disrupt Homology-Directed Repair To Cause Senescence And Dna Damage Phenotypes In Drosophila, Mice, And Humans, Samuel D Chauvin, Fang R Zhao, W Alexander Stinson, Wei Qian, Prabhakar S Andhey, Maxim N Artyomov, Elisha D O Roberson, Jonathan J Miner, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Age-related microangiopathy, also known as small vessel disease (SVD), causes damage to the brain, retina, liver, and kidney. Based on the DNA damage theory of aging, we reasoned that genomic instability may underlie an SVD caused by dominant C-terminal variants in TREX1, the most abundant 3'-5' DNA exonuclease in mammals. C-terminal TREX1 variants cause an adult-onset SVD known as retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukoencephalopathy (RVCL or RVCL-S). In RVCL, an aberrant, C-terminally truncated TREX1 mislocalizes to the nucleus due to deletion of its ER-anchoring domain. Since RVCL pathology mimics that of radiation injury, we reasoned that nuclear TREX1 would cause …

Co-Aggregation With Apolipoprotein E Modulates The Function Of Amyloid-Β In Alzheimer's Disease, Zengjie Xia, Michael R Strickland, Hong Jiang, David M Holtzman, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Which isoforms of apolipoprotein E (apoE) we inherit determine our risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD), but the mechanism underlying this link is poorly understood. In particular, the relevance of direct interactions between apoE and amyloid-β (Aβ) remains controversial. Here, single-molecule imaging shows that all isoforms of apoE associate with Aβ in the early stages of aggregation and then fall away as fibrillation happens. ApoE-Aβ co-aggregates account for ~50% of the mass of diffusible Aβ aggregates detected in the frontal cortices of homozygotes with the higher-risk APOE4 gene. We show how dynamic interactions between apoE and Aβ tune disease-related …

Propofol Enhancement Of Slow Wave Sleep To Target The Nexus Of Geriatric Depression And Cognitive Dysfunction: Protocol For A Phase I Open Label Trial, Rachel Lynn Rios, Michael Green, S Kendall Smith, Mohammadmehdi Kafashan, Shinung Ching, Nuri B Farber, Nan Lin, Brendan P Lucey, Charles F Reynolds, Eric J Lenze, Ben Julian Agustin Palanca, Swiped Study Team

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Late-life treatment-resistant depression (LL-TRD) is common and increases risk for accelerated ageing and cognitive decline. Impaired sleep is common in LL-TRD and is a risk factor for cognitive decline. Slow wave sleep (SWS) has been implicated in key processes including synaptic plasticity and memory. A deficiency in SWS may be a core component of depression pathophysiology. The anaesthetic propofol can induce electroencephalographic (EEG) slow waves that resemble SWS. Propofol may enhance SWS and oral antidepressant therapy, but relationships are unclear. We hypothesise that propofol infusions will enhance SWS and improve depression in older adults with LL-TRD. This hypothesis has …

Tcaf1 Promotes Trpv2-Mediated Ca2+ Release In Response To Cytosolic Dna To Protect Stressed Replication Forks, Lingzhen Kong, Chen Cheng, Abigael Cheruiyot, Jiayi Yuan, Yichan Yang, Sydney Hwang, Daniel Foust, Ning Tsao, Emily Wilkerson, Nima Mosammaparast, Michael B Major, David W Piston, Shan Li, Zhongsheng You

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The protection of the replication fork structure under stress conditions is essential for genome maintenance and cancer prevention. A key signaling pathway for fork protection involves TRPV2-mediated Ca

Lxr/Cd38 Activation Drives Cholesterol-Induced Macrophage Senescence And Neurodegeneration Via Nad+ Depletion, Ryo Terao, Tae Jun Lee, Jason Colasanti, Charles W Pfeifer, Joseph B Lin, Andrea Santeford, Keitaro Hase, Shinobu Yamaguchi, Daniel Du, Brian S Sohn, Yo Sasaki, Mitsukuni Yoshida, Rajendra S Apte

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Although dysregulated cholesterol metabolism predisposes aging tissues to inflammation and a plethora of diseases, the underlying molecular mechanism remains poorly defined. Here, we show that metabolic and genotoxic stresses, convergently acting through liver X nuclear receptor, upregulate CD38 to promote lysosomal cholesterol efflux, leading to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD

Metabolic Regulation Of Single Synaptic Vesicle Exo- And Endocytosis In Hippocampal Synapses, Jongyun Myeong, Marion I Stunault, Vitaly A Klyachko, Ghazaleh Ashrafi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Glucose has long been considered a primary energy source for synaptic function. However, it remains unclear to what extent alternative fuels, such as lactate/pyruvate, contribute to powering synaptic transmission. By detecting individual release events in hippocampal synapses, we find that mitochondrial ATP production regulates basal vesicle release probability and release location within the active zone (AZ), evoked by single action potentials. Mitochondrial inhibition shifts vesicle release closer to the AZ center and alters the efficiency of vesicle retrieval by increasing the occurrence of ultrafast endocytosis. Furthermore, we uncover that terminals can use oxidative fuels to maintain the vesicle cycle during …

Graded Decisions In The Human Brain, Tao Xie, Markus Adamek, Hohyun Cho, Matthew A Adamo, Anthony L Ritaccio, Jon T Willie, Peter Brunner, Jan Kubanek

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Decision-makers objectively commit to a definitive choice, yet at the subjective level, human decisions appear to be associated with a degree of uncertainty. Whether decisions are definitive (i.e., concluding in all-or-none choices), or whether the underlying representations are graded, remains unclear. To answer this question, we recorded intracranial neural signals directly from the brain while human subjects made perceptual decisions. The recordings revealed that broadband gamma activity reflecting each individual's decision-making process, ramped up gradually while being graded by the accumulated decision evidence. Crucially, this grading effect persisted throughout the decision process without ever reaching a definite bound at the …

Common Single-Base Insertions In The Vntr Of The Carboxyl Ester Lipase (Cel) Gene Are Benign And Also Likely To Arise Somatically In The Exocrine Pancreas, Ranveig S Brekke, Anny Gravdal, Khadija El Jellas, Grace E Curry, Jianguo Lin, Steven J Wilhelm, Solrun J Steine, Eric Mas, Stefan Johansson, Mark E Lowe, Bente B Johansson, Xunjun Xiao, Karianne Fjeld, Anders Molven

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The CEL gene encodes carboxyl ester lipase, a pancreatic digestive enzyme. CEL is extremely polymorphic due to a variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) located in the last exon. Single-base deletions within this VNTR cause the inherited disorder MODY8, whereas little is known about VNTR single-base insertions in pancreatic disease. We therefore mapped CEL insertion variants (CEL-INS) in 200 Norwegian patients with pancreatic neoplastic disorders. Twenty-eight samples (14.0%) carried CEL-INS alleles. Most common were insertions in repeat 9 (9.5%), which always associated with a VNTR length of 13 repeats. The combined INS allele frequency (0.078) was similar to that observed in …

Liver Acox1 Regulates Levels Of Circulating Lipids That Promote Metabolic Health Through Adipose Remodeling, Dongliang Lu, Anyuan He, Min Tan, Marguerite Mrad, Amal El Daibani, Donghua Hu, Xuejing Liu, Brian Kleiboeker, Tao Che, Fong-Fu Hsu, Monika Bambouskova, Clay F. Semenkovich, Irfan J. Lodhi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Quantitative T2 Mapping-Based Longitudinal Assessment Of Brain Injury And Therapeutic Rescue In The Rat Following Acute Organophosphate Intoxication, Alita Jesal D Almeida, Brad A Hobson, Naomi Saito, Donald A Bruun, Valerie A Porter, Danielle J Harvey, Joel R Garbow, Abhijit J Chaudhari, Pamela J Lein

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Acute intoxication with organophosphate (OP) cholinesterase inhibitors poses a significant public health risk. While currently approved medical countermeasures can improve survival rates, they often fail to prevent chronic neurological damage. Therefore, there is need to develop effective therapies and quantitative metrics for assessing OP-induced brain injury and its rescue by these therapies. In this study we used a rat model of acute intoxication with the OP, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP), to test the hypothesis that T

Mv140 Mucosal Vaccine Induces Targeted Immune Response For Enhanced Clearance Of Uropathogenic E. Coli In Experimental Urinary Tract Infection, Paula Saz-Leal, Marianne Morris Ligon, Carmen María Diez-Rivero, Diego García-Ayuso, Soumitra Mohanty, Marcos Viñuela, Irene Real-Arévalo, Laura Conejero, Annelie Brauner, José Luis Subiza, Indira Uppugunduri Mysorekar

2020-Current year OA Pubs

MV140 is an inactivated whole-cell bacterial mucosal vaccine with proven clinical efficacy against recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). These infections are primarily caused by uropathogenic

Targeting Cathepsin C Ameliorates Murine Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury, Jessica Raith, Malte Bachmann, Sina Gonther, Hendrik Stülb, Ali A Aghdassi, Christine T N Pham, Heiko Mühl

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdosing is a major cause of acute liver failure worldwide and an established model for drug-induced acute liver injury (ALI). While studying gene expression during murine APAP-induced ALI by 3'mRNA sequencing (massive analysis of cDNA ends, MACE), we observed splenic mRNA accumulation encoding for the neutrophil serine proteases cathepsin G, neutrophil elastase, and proteinase-3 - all are hierarchically activated by cathepsin C (CtsC). This, along with increased serum levels of these proteases in diseased mice, concurs with the established phenomenon of myeloid cell mobilization during APAP intoxication.

Reverse Genetics Of Murine Rotavirus: A Comparative Analysis Of The Wild-Type And Cell-Culture-Adapted Murine Rotavirus Vp4 In Replication And Virulence In Neonatal Mice, Takahiro Kawagishi, Liliana Sánchez-Tacuba, Ningguo Feng, Harry B Greenberg, Siyuan Ding

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Small-animal models and reverse genetics systems are powerful tools for investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying viral replication, virulence, and interaction with the host immune response in vivo. Rotavirus (RV) causes acute gastroenteritis in many young animals and infants worldwide. Murine RV replicates efficiently in the intestines of inoculated suckling pups, causing diarrhea, and spreads efficiently to uninoculated littermates. Because RVs derived from human and other non-mouse animal species do not replicate efficiently in mice, murine RVs are uniquely useful in probing the viral and host determinants of efficient replication and pathogenesis in a species-matched mouse model. Previously, we established an …

Genome-Wide Epistatic Network Analyses Of Semantic Fluency In Older Adults, Qihua Tan, Weilong Li, Marianne Nygaard, Ping An, Mary Feitosa, Mary K Wojczynski, Joseph Zmuda, Konstantin Arbeev, Svetlana Ukraintseva, Anatoliy Yashin, Kaare Christensen, Jonas Mengel-From

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Semantic fluency impairment has been attributed to a wide range of neurocognitive and psychiatric conditions, especially in the older population. Moderate heritability estimates on semantic fluency were obtained from both twin and family-based studies suggesting genetic contributions to the observed variation across individuals. Currently, effort in identifying the genetic variants underlying the heritability estimates for this complex trait remains scarce. Using the semantic fluency scale and genome-wide SNP genotype data from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS), we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and epistasis network analysis on semantic fluency in 2289 individuals aged over 60 years from the …

The Ire1Α/Xbp1 Pathway Sustains Cytokine Responses Of Group 3 Innate Lymphoid Cells In Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Siyan Cao, Jose L. Fachi, Kaiming Ma, Alina Ulezko Antonova, Qianli Wang, Zhangying Cai, Randal J. Kaufman, Matthew A. Ciorba, Parakkal Deepak, Marco Colonna

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) are key players in intestinal homeostasis. ER stress is linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here, we used cell culture, mouse models, and human specimens to determine whether ER stress in ILC3s affects IBD pathophysiology. We show that mouse intestinal ILC3s exhibited a 24-hour rhythmic expression pattern of the master ER stress response regulator inositol-requiring kinase 1α/X-box-binding protein 1 (IRE1α/XBP1). Proinflammatory cytokine IL-23 selectively stimulated IRE1α/XBP1 in mouse ILC3s through mitochondrial ROS (mtROS). IRE1α/XBP1 was activated in ILC3s from mice exposed to experimental colitis and in inflamed human IBD specimens. Mice with Ire1α deletion …

Visual Deprivation During Mouse Critical Period Reorganizes Network-Level Functional Connectivity, Siyu Chen, Rachel M Rahn, Annie R Bice, Seana H Gaines, Jonah A Padawer-Curry, Keith B Hengen, Joseph D Dougherty, Joseph P Culver

2020-Current year OA Pubs

A classic example of experience-dependent plasticity is ocular dominance (OD) shift, in which the responsiveness of neurons in the visual cortex is profoundly altered following monocular deprivation (MD). It has been postulated that OD shifts also modify global neural networks, but such effects have never been demonstrated. Here, we use wide-field fluorescence optical imaging (WFOI) to characterize calcium-based resting-state functional connectivity during acute (3 d) MD in female and male mice with genetically encoded calcium indicators (

Stay On Track: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial On The Feasibility Of A Diet And Exercise Intervention In Patients With Breast Cancer Receiving Radiotherapy, Gopika Senthilkumar, Aronne M Schottstaedt, Lindsay L Peterson, Lauren N Pedersen, Christopher R Chitambar, Alexis Vistocky, Anjishnu Banerjee, John M Longo, Tracy Kelly, Adam Currey, Melinda R Stolley, Carmen Bergom

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Among patients with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy, posttreatment cardiovascular disease and worsened quality of life (QoL) are leading causes of morbidity and mortality. To overcome these negative radiotherapy effects, this prospective, randomized clinical trial pilots a 12-week Stay on Track exercise and diet intervention for overweight patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer undergoing whole-breast radiotherapy.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: The intervention group (n = 22) participated in three personal exercise and dietary counseling sessions, and received three text reminders/week to adhere to recommendations. The control group (n = 22) was administered a diet/exercise information binder. All patients received a Fitbit, and at …

Memory-Like Differentiation Enhances Nk Cell Responses Against Colorectal Cancer, Nancy D Marin, Michelle Becker-Hapak, Wilbur M Song, Quazim A Alayo, Lynne Marsala, Naomi Sonnek, Melissa M Berrien-Elliott, Mark Foster, Jennifer A Foltz, Jennifer Tran, Pamela Wong, Celia C Cubitt, Patrick Pence, Kimberly Hwang, Alice Y Zhou, Miriam T Jacobs, Timothy Schappe, David A Russler-Germain, Ryan C Fields, Matthew A Ciorba, Todd A Fehniger

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Metastatic (m) colorectal cancer (CRC) is an incurable disease with a poor prognosis and thus remains an unmet clinical need. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB)-based immunotherapy is effective for mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR)/microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) mCRC patients, but it does not benefit the majority of mCRC patients. NK cells are innate lymphoid cells with potent effector responses against a variety of tumor cells but are frequently dysfunctional in cancer patients. Memory-like (ML) NK cells differentiated after IL-12/IL-15/IL-18 activation overcome many challenges to effective NK cell anti-tumor responses, exhibiting enhanced recognition, function, and in vivo persistence. We hypothesized that ML differentiation enhances the …

Deficiency Of Il-22-Binding Protein Enhances The Ability Of The Gut Microbiota To Protect Against Enteric Pathogens, José L Fachi, Blanda Di Luccia, Susan Gilfillan, Hao-Wei Chang, Christina Song, Jiye Cheng, Marina Cella, Marco Aurelio Vinolo, Jeffrey I Gordon, Marco Colonna

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Interleukin 22 (IL-22) promotes intestinal barrier integrity, stimulating epithelial cells to enact defense mechanisms against enteric infections, including the production of antimicrobial peptides. IL-22 binding protein (IL-22BP) is a soluble decoy encoded by the

Wormbase 2024: Status And Transitioning To Alliance Infrastructure, Paul W Sternberg, Tim Schedl, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

WormBase has been the major repository and knowledgebase of information about the genome and genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans and other nematodes of experimental interest for over 2 decades. We have 3 goals: to keep current with the fast-paced C. elegans research, to provide better integration with other resources, and to be sustainable. Here, we discuss the current state of WormBase as well as progress and plans for moving core WormBase infrastructure to the Alliance of Genome Resources (the Alliance). As an Alliance member, WormBase will continue to interact with the C. elegans community, develop new features as needed, and curate …

Effects Of Amyloid Beta (Aβ) Oligomers On Blood–Brain Barrier Using A 3d Microfluidic Vasculature-On-A-Chip Model, Samuel C. Uzoechi, Boyce E. Collins, Cody J. Badeaux, Yan Li, Sang S. Kwak, Doo Y. Kim, Daniel T. Laskowitz, Jin-Moo Lee, Yeoheung Yun

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Diet-Omics In The Study Of Urban And Rural Crohn Disease Evolution (Source) Cohort, Tzipi Braun, Ta-Chiang Liu, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Crohn disease (CD) burden has increased with globalization/urbanization, and the rapid rise is attributed to environmental changes rather than genetic drift. The Study Of Urban and Rural CD Evolution (SOURCE, n = 380) has considered diet-omics domains simultaneously to detect complex interactions and identify potential beneficial and pathogenic factors linked with rural-urban transition and CD. We characterize exposures, diet, ileal transcriptomics, metabolomics, and microbiome in newly diagnosed CD patients and controls in rural and urban China and Israel. We show that time spent by rural residents in urban environments is linked with changes in gut microbial composition and metabolomics, which …

Intermittent Glucocorticoid Treatment Improves Muscle Metabolism Via The Pgc1Α/Lipin1 Axis In An Aging-Related Sarcopenia Model, Ashok D. Prabakaran, Kevin Mcfarland, Karen Miz, Hima Bindu Durumutla, Kevin Piczer, Fadoua El Abdellaoui Soussi, Hannah Latimer, Cole Werbrich, Hyun-Jy Chung, N. Scott Blair, Douglas P. Millay, Andrew J. Morris, Brendan Prideaux, Brian N. Finck, Mattia Quattrocelli

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Sarcopenia burdens the older population through loss of muscle energy and mass, yet treatments to functionally rescue both parameters are lacking. The glucocorticoid prednisone remodels muscle metabolism on the basis of frequency of intake, but its mechanisms in sarcopenia are unknown. We found that once-weekly intermittent prednisone administration rescued muscle quality in aged 24-month-old mice to a level comparable to that seen in young 4-month-old mice. We discovered an age- and sex-independent glucocorticoid receptor transactivation program in muscle encompassing peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1 α (PGC1α) and its cofactor Lipin1. Treatment coordinately improved mitochondrial abundance through isoform 1 and …

Novel Loss-Of-Function Variants Expand Abcc9-Related Intellectual Disability And Myopathy Syndrome, Stephanie Efthymiou, Robert C Tryon, Colin G Nichols, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Loss-of-function mutation of ABCC9, the gene encoding the SUR2 subunit of ATP sensitive-potassium (KATP) channels, was recently associated with autosomal recessive ABCC9-related intellectual disability and myopathy syndrome (AIMS). Here we identify nine additional subjects, from seven unrelated families, harbouring different homozygous loss-of-function variants in ABCC9 and presenting with a conserved range of clinical features. All variants are predicted to result in severe truncations or in-frame deletions within SUR2, leading to the generation of non-functional SUR2-dependent KATP channels. Affected individuals show psychomotor delay and intellectual disability of variable severity, microcephaly, corpus callosum and white matter abnormalities, seizures, spasticity, short stature, muscle …

Cytotoxic Sigma-2 Ligands Trigger Cancer Cell Death Via Cholesterol-Induced-Er-Stress, Rony Takchi, Bethany C Prudner, Qingqing Gong, Takaomi Hagi, Kenneth F Newcomer, Linda X Jin, Suwanna Vangveravong, Brian A Van Tine, William G Hawkins, Dirk Spitzer

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Sigma-2-ligands (S2L) are characterized by high binding affinities to their cognate sigma-2 receptor, overexpressed in rapidly proliferating tumor cells. As such, S2L were developed as imaging probes (ISO1) or as cancer therapeutics, alone (SV119 [C6], SW43 [C10]) and as delivery vehicles for cytotoxic drug cargoes (C6-Erastin, C10-SMAC). However, the exact mechanism of S2L-induced cytotoxicity remains to be fully elucidated. A series of high-affinity S2L were evaluated regarding their cytotoxicity profiles across cancer cell lines. While C6 and C10 displayed distinct cytotoxicities, C0 and ISO1 were essentially non-toxic. Confocal microscopy and lipidomics analysis in cellular and mouse models revealed that C10 …