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Sustained Sensitizing Effects Of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha On Sensory Nerves In Lung And Airways, Ruei-Lung Lin, Qihai Gu, Mehdi Khosravi, Lu-Yuan Lee

Physiology Faculty Publications

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of airway inflammatory diseases. Inhalation of aerosolized TNFα induced airway hyperresponsiveness accompanied by airway inflammation in healthy human subjects, but the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. We recently reported a series of studies aimed to investigate if TNFα elevates the sensitivity of vagal bronchopulmonary sensory nerves in a mouse model; these studies are summarized in this mini-review. Our results showed that intratracheal instillation of TNFα induced pronounced airway inflammation 24 hours later, as illustrated by infiltration of eosinophils and neutrophils and the release of inflammatory mediators and …

Surgical Approaches To Adenocarcinoma Of The Gastroesophageal Junction: The Siewert Ii Conundrum., Andrew M. Brown, Danica N. Giugliano, Adam C. Berger, Michael J. Pucci, Francesco Palazzo

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The Siewert classification system for gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma has provided morphological and topographical information to help guide surgical decision-making. Evidence has shown that Siewert I and III tumors are distinct entities with differing epidemiologic and histologic characteristics and distinct patterns of disease progression, requiring different treatment. Siewert II tumors share some of the characteristics of type I and III lesions, and the surgical approach is not universally agreed upon. Appropriate surgical options include transthoracic esophagogastrectomy, transhiatal esophagectomy, and transabdominal extended total gastrectomy.

PURPOSE: A review of the available evidence of the surgical management of Siewert II tumors is presented. …

Linkage, Whole Genome Sequence, And Biological Data Implicate Variants In Rab10 In Alzheimer's Disease Resilience., Perry G Ridge, Celeste M Karch, Simon Hsu, Ivan Arano, Craig C Teerlink, Mark T W Ebbert, Josue D Gonzalez Murcia, James M Farnham, Anna R Damato, Mariet Allen, Xue Wang, Oscar Harari, Victoria M Fernandez, Rita Guerreiro, Jose Bras, John Hardy, Ronald Munger, Maria Norton, Celeste Sassi, Andrew Singleton, Steven G Younkin, Dennis W Dickson, Todd E Golde, Nathan D Price, Nilüfer Ertekin-Taner, Carlos Cruchaga, Alison M Goate, Christopher Corcoran, Joann Tschanz, Lisa A Cannon-Albright, John S K Kauwe

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: While age and the APOE ε4 allele are major risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD), a small percentage of individuals with these risk factors exhibit AD resilience by living well beyond 75 years of age without any clinical symptoms of cognitive decline.

METHODS: We used over 200 "AD resilient" individuals and an innovative, pedigree-based approach to identify genetic variants that segregate with AD resilience. First, we performed linkage analyses in pedigrees with resilient individuals and a statistical excess of AD deaths. Second, we used whole genome sequences to identify candidate SNPs in significant linkage regions. Third, we replicated SNPs …

The Association Of Social Anxiety Disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder And Reproduction: Results From Four Nationally Representative Samples Of Adults In The Usa., B Miloyan, A Bulley, B Brilot, T Suddendorf

School of Psychology

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) are highly prevalent and frequently co-occur. The results of population studies suggest that SAD tends to precede AUD, and the results of laboratory studies suggest that alcohol use facilitates social behaviors in socially anxious individuals. Therefore, we posited that, in a modern context, a tendency to consume alcohol may be positively selected for among socially anxious individuals by its effect on the likelihood of finding a partner and reproducing. We tested the hypothesis that a higher proportion of individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of SAD and AUD reproduce (i.e., have at …

Top2a And Ezh2 Provide Early Detection Of An Aggressive Prostate Cancer Subgroup., David P. Labbé, Christopher J. Sweeney, Myles Brown, Phillip Galbo, Spencer Rosario, Kristine M. Wadosky, Sheng-Yu Ku, Martin Sjöström, Mohammed Alshalalfa, Nicholas Erho, Elai Davicioni, R. Jeffrey Karnes, Edward M. Schaeffer, Robert B. Jenkins, Robert B. Den, Ashley E. Ross, Michaela Bowden, Ying Huang, Kathryn P. Gray, Felix Y. Feng, Daniel E. Spratt, David W. Goodrich, Kevin H. Eng, Leigh Ellis

Department of Radiation Oncology Faculty Papers

Purpose: Current clinical parameters do not stratify indolent from aggressive prostate cancer. Aggressive prostate cancer, defined by the progression from localized disease to metastasis, is responsible for the majority of prostate cancer–associated mortality. Recent gene expression profiling has proven successful in predicting the outcome of prostate cancer patients; however, they have yet to provide targeted therapy approaches that could inhibit a patient's progression to metastatic disease. Experimental Design: We have interrogated a total of seven primary prostate cancer cohorts (n = 1,900), two metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer datasets (n = 293), and one prospective cohort (n = 1,385) to assess …

Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Neutralize The Anti-Tumor Effect Of Csf1 Receptor Blockade By Inducing Pmn-Mdsc Infiltration Of Tumors., Vinit Kumar, Laxminarasimha Donthireddy, Douglas Marvel, Thomas Condamine, Fang Wang, Sergio Lavilla-Alonso, Ayumi Hashimoto, Prashanthi Vonteddu, Reeti Behera, Marlee A. Goins, Charles Mulligan, Brian Nam, Neil Hockstein, Fred Denstman, Shanti Shakamuri, David W. Speicher, Ashani T. Weeraratna, Timothy Chao, Robert H. Vonderheide, Lucia R. Languino, Peter Ordentlich, Qin Liu, Xiaowei Xu, Albert Lo, Ellen Puré, Chunsheng Zhang, Andrey Loboda, Manuel A. Sepulveda, Linda A. Snyder, Dmitry I. Gabrilovich

Kimmel Cancer Center Papers, Presentations, and Grand Rounds

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) contribute to all aspects of tumor progression. Use of CSF1R inhibitors to target TAM is therapeutically appealing, but has had very limited anti-tumor effects. Here, we have identified the mechanism that limited the effect of CSF1R targeted therapy. We demonstrated that carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAF) are major sources of chemokines that recruit granulocytes to tumors. CSF1 produced by tumor cells caused HDAC2-mediated downregulation of granulocyte-specific chemokine expression in CAF, which limited migration of these cells to tumors. Treatment with CSF1R inhibitors disrupted this crosstalk and triggered a profound increase in granulocyte recruitment to tumors. Combining CSF1R inhibitor with …

Tumor Suppressor Pdcd4 Attenuates Sin1 Translation To Inhibit Invasion In Colon Carcinoma, Qing Wang, Jiang Zhu, Ya-Wen Wang, Yong Dai, Yanlei Wang, Chi Wang, Jinpeng Liu, Alyson Baker, Nancy H. Colburn, Hsin-Sheng Yang

Toxicology and Cancer Biology Faculty Publications

Programmed cell death 4 (Pdcd4), a tumor invasion suppressor, is frequently downregulated in colorectal cancer and other cancers. In this study, we find that loss of Pdcd4 increases the activity of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2) and thereby upregulates Snail expression. Examining the components of mTORC2 showed that Pdcd4 knockdown increased the protein but not mRNA level of stress-activated-protein kinase interacting protein 1 (Sin1), which resulted from enhanced Sin1 translation. To understand how Pdcd4 regulates Sin1 translation, the SIN1 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) was fused with luciferase reporter and named as 5′Sin1-Luc. Pdcd4 knockdown/knockout significantly increased the translation …

B Cell-Derived Il-4 Acts On Podocytes To Induce Proteinuria And Foot Process Effacement, Alfred Hj Kim, Jun-Jae Chung, Shreeram Akilesh, Ania Koziell, Sanjay Jain, Jeffrey B. Hodgin, Mark J. Miller, Thaddeus S. Stappenbeck, Jeffrey H. Miner, Andrey S. Shaw

Open Access Publications

The efficacy of B cell depletion therapies in diseases such as nephrotic syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis suggests a broader role in B cells in human disease than previously recognized. In some of these diseases, such as the minimal change disease subtype of nephrotic syndrome, pathogenic antibodies and immune complexes are not involved. We hypothesized that B cells, activated in the kidney, might produce cytokines capable of directly inducing cell injury and proteinuria. To directly test our hypothesis, we targeted a model antigen to the kidney glomerulus and showed that transfer of antigen-specific B cells could induce glomerular injury and proteinuria. …

Identification Of A Novel Synaptic Protein, Tmtc3, Involved In Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia With Intellectual Disability And Epilepsy, Sali M K Farhan, Kevin C J Nixon, Michelle Everest, Tara N Edwards, Shirley Long, Dmitri Segal, Maria J Knip, Heleen H Arts, Rana Chakrabarti, Jian Wang, John F Robinson, Donald Lee, Seyed M Mirsattari, C Anthony Rupar, Victoria M Siu, Forge Canada Consortium, Michael O Poulter, Robert A Hegele, Jamie M Kramer

Paediatrics Publications

Defects in neuronal migration cause brain malformations, which are associated with intellectual disability (ID) and epilepsy. Using exome sequencing, we identified compound heterozygous variants (p.Arg71His and p. Leu729ThrfsTer6) in TMTC3, encoding transmembrane and tetratricopeptide repeat containing 3, in four siblings with nocturnal seizures and ID. Three of the four siblings have periventricular nodular heterotopia (PVNH), a common brain malformation caused by failure of neurons to migrate from the ventricular zone to the cortex. Expression analysis using patient-derived cells confirmed reduced TMTC3 transcript levels and loss of the TMTC3 protein compared to parental and control cells. As TMTC3 function is currently …

Tox Regulates Growth, Dna Repair, And Genomic Instability In T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Riadh Lobbardi, Jordan Pinder, Barbara Martinez-Pastor, Marina Theodorou, Jessica S. Blackburn, Brian J. Abraham, Yuka Namiki, Marc Mansour, Nouran S. Abdelfattah, Aleksey Molodtsov, Gabriela Alexe, Debra Toiber, Manon De Waard, Esha Jain, Myriam Boukhali, Mattia Lion, Deepak Bhere, Khalid Shah, Alejandro Gutierrez, Kimberly Stegmaier, Lewis B. Silverman, Ruslan I. Sadreyev, John M. Asara, Marjorie A. Oettinger, Wilhelm Haas, A. Thomas Look, Richard A. Young, Raul Mostoslavsky, Graham Dellaire, David M. Langenau

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive malignancy of thymocytes. Using a transgenic screen in zebrafish, thymocyte selection–associated high mobility group box protein (TOX) was uncovered as a collaborating oncogenic driver that accelerated T-ALL onset by expanding the initiating pool of transformed clones and elevating genomic instability. TOX is highly expressed in a majority of human T-ALL and is required for proliferation and continued xenograft growth in mice. Using a wide array of functional analyses, we uncovered that TOX binds directly to KU70/80 and suppresses recruitment of this complex to DNA breaks to inhibit nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) repair. …

Predicting Mental Conditions Based On "History Of Present Illness" In Psychiatric Notes With Deep Neural Networks, Tung Tran, Ramakanth Kavuluru

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background—Applications of natural language processing to mental health notes are not common given the sensitive nature of the associated narratives. The CEGS N-GRID 2016 Shared Task in Clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP) changed this scenario by providing the first set of neuropsychiatric notes to participants. This study summarizes our efforts and results in proposing a novel data use case for this dataset as part of the third track in this shared task.

Objective—We explore the feasibility and effectiveness of predicting a set of common mental conditions a patient has based on the short textual description of patient’s history …

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy-Integration Of Canonical Traumatic Brain Injury Secondary Injury Mechanisms With Tau Pathology, Jacqueline R. Kulbe, Edward D. Hall

Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center Faculty Publications

In recent years, a new neurodegenerative tauopathy labeled Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), has been identified that is believed to be primarily a sequela of repeated mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), often referred to as concussion, that occurs in athletes participating in contact sports (e.g. boxing, football, football, rugby, soccer, ice hockey) or in military combatants, especially after blast-induced injuries. Since the identification of CTE, and its neuropathological finding of deposits of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, mechanistic attention has been on lumping the disorder together with various other non-traumatic neurodegenerative tauopathies. Indeed, brains from suspected CTE cases that have come to autopsy …

Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy In Down Syndrome And Sporadic And Autosomal-Dominant Alzheimer's Disease, María Carmona-Iragui, Mircea Balasa, Bessy Benejam, Daniel Alcolea, Susana Fernández, Laura Videla, Isabel Sala, María Belén Sánchez-Saudinós, Estrella Morenas-Rodriguez, Roser Ribosa-Nogué, Ignacio Illán-Gala, Sofía Gonzalez-Ortiz, Jordi Clarimón, Frederick A. Schmitt, David K. Powell, Beatriz Bosch, Albert Lladó, Michael S. Rafii, Elizabeth Head, José Luis Molinuevo, Rafael Blesa, Sebastián Videla, Alberto Lleó, Raquel Sánchez-Valle, Juan Fortea

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Introduction—We aimed to investigate if cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is more frequent in genetically determined than in sporadic early-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) (early-onset AD [EOAD]).

Methods—Neuroimaging features of CAA, APOE, and cerebrospinal fluid-Aβ40 levels were studied in subjects with Down syndrome (DS, n = 117), autosomal-dominant AD (ADAD, n = 29), sporadic EOAD (n = 42), and healthy controls (n = 68).

Results—CAA was present in 31%, 38%, and 12% of cognitively impaired DS, symptomatic ADAD, and sporadic EOAD subjects and in 13% and 4% of cognitively unimpaired DS individuals and healthy controls, respectively. …

A Nationwide Study On The Prevalence Of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders In School-Children., Miguel Saps, Jairo Enrique Moreno-Gomez, Carmen Rossy Ramírez-Hernández, John M. Rosen, C A. Velasco-Benitez

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Introduction: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are highly prevalent worldwide and are thought to result from the interplay of multiple factors that can vary from region to region. Nationwide studies can help understand the regional epidemiology and the pathogenesis of FGIDs. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of FGIDs in school-children of Colombia and assess associated factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at twelve private and public schools in ten cities distributed through the four main geographic regions of Colombia. School-children completed a validated questionnaire to assess functional gastrointestinal disorders according to Rome III criteria. …

Outlier Identification In Radiation Therapy Knowledge-Based Planning: A Study Of Pelvic Cases., Yang Sheng, Yaorong Ge, Lulin Yuan, Taoran Li, Fang-Fang Yin, Qingrong Jackie Wu

Department of Radiation Oncology Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to apply statistical metrics to identify outliers and to investigate the impact of outliers on knowledge-based planning in radiation therapy of pelvic cases. We also aimed to develop a systematic workflow for identifying and analyzing geometric and dosimetric outliers.

METHODS: Four groups (G1-G4) of pelvic plans were sampled in this study. These include the following three groups of clinical IMRT cases: G1 (37 prostate cases), G2 (37 prostate plus lymph node cases) and G3 (37 prostate bed cases). Cases in G4 were planned in accordance with dynamic-arc radiation therapy procedure and include 10 …

Pro-Inflammatory Chemokines And Cytokines Dominate The Blister Fluid Molecular Signature In Patients With Epidermolysis Bullosa And Affect Leukocyte And Stem Cell Migration., Vitali Alexeev, Julio Cesar Salas-Alanis, Francis Palisson, Lila Mukhtarzada, Giulio Fortuna, Jouni Uitto, Andrew P. South, Olga Igoucheva

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

Hereditary epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is associated with skin blistering and the development of chronic nonhealing wounds. Although clinical studies have shown that cell-based therapies improve wound healing, the recruitment of therapeutic cells to blistering skin and to more advanced skin lesions remains a challenge. Here, we analyzed cytokines and chemokines in blister fluids of patients affected by dystrophic, junctional, and simplex EB. Our analysis revealed high levels of CXCR1, CXCR2, CCR2, and CCR4 ligands, particularly dominant in dystrophic and junctional EB. In vitro migration assays demonstrated the preferential recruitment of CCR4⁺ lymphocytes and CXCR1⁺, CXCR2⁺, …

Beautifully Sustainable, Lisa Gervasoni

Agora

No abstract provided.

Nadph Oxidase 4 Modulates Hepatic Responses To Lipopolysaccharide Mediated By Toll-Like Receptor-4., Anand Singh, Bhargav Koduru, Cameron Carlisle, Hasina Akhter, Rui-Ming Liu, Katrin Schroder, Ralf P. Brandes, David M. Ojcius

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Chronic inflammation plays a key role in development of many liver diseases. Stimulation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) initiates inflammation and promotes development of hepatocellular carcinoma and other liver diseases. NADPH oxidases contribute to LPS-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and modulate TLR responses, but whether these enzymes function in TLR4 responses of hepatocytes is unknown. In the present work, we examined the role of NADPH oxidase 4 (Nox4) in LPS-induced TLR4 responses in human hepatoma cells and wildtype and Nox4-deficient mice. We found that LPS increased expression of Nox4, TNF-α, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen …

Vitamin D, Heidi D Moretti, Vincent J Colucci, Bradley D Berry

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D status may influence heart failure (HF) patient outcomes by affecting b-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), parathyroid hormone (PTH), and enhancing cardiac contractility. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with morbidity and mortality in HF patients. The objective of this study was to determine if vitamin D3 at a comparatively high dose would replete 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) stores, improve BNP, PTH, cardiopulmonary function, reduce inflammatory markers, and improve quality of life (QOL) in HF patients.

METHODS: This was a 6 month, parallel group, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single clinic center, randomized trial of supplemental vitamin D3 using a dose of 10,000 IU …

Intravesical Rad-Ifnα/Syn3 For Patients With High-Grade, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin-Refractory Or Relapsed Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: A Phase Ii Randomized Study., Neal D Shore, Stephen A Boorjian, Daniel J Canter, Kenneth Ogan, Lawrence I Karsh, Tracy M Downs, Leonard G Gomella, Ashish M Kamat, Yair Lotan, Robert S Svatek, Trinity J Bivalacqua, Robert L Grubb, Tracey L Krupski, Seth P Lerner, Michael E Woods, Brant A Inman, Matthew I Milowsky, Alan Boyd, F Peter Treasure, Gillian Gregory, David G Sawutz, Seppo Yla-Herttuala, Nigel R Parker, Colin P N Dinney

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Purpose Many patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) are either refractory to bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) treatment or may experience disease relapse. We assessed the efficacy and safety of recombinant adenovirus interferon alfa with Syn3 (rAd-IFNα/Syn3), a replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus gene transfer vector, for patients with high-grade (HG) BCG-refractory or relapsed NMIBC. Methods In this open-label, multicenter (n = 13), parallel-arm, phase II study ( ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01687244), 43 patients with HG BCG-refractory or relapsed NMIBC received intravesical rAd-IFNα/Syn3 (randomly assigned 1:1 to 1 × 10(11) viral particles (vp)/mL or 3 × 10(11) vp/mL). Patients who responded at months 3, …

Tnf-Α Promotes Nuclear Enrichment Of The Transcription Factor Tonebp/Nfat5 To Selectively Control Inflammatory But Not Osmoregulatory Responses In Nucleus Pulposus Cells., Zariel I. Johnson, Alexandra C. Doolittle, Joseph W. Snuggs, Irving M. Shapiro, Christine L. Le Maitre, Makarand V. Risbud

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Papers

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) causes chronic back pain and is linked to production of proinflammatory molecules by nucleus pulposus (NP) and other disc cells. Activation of tonicity-responsive enhancer-binding protein (TonEBP)/NFAT5 by non-osmotic stimuli, including proinflammatory molecules, occurs in cells involved in immune response. However, whether inflammatory stimuli activate TonEBP in NP cells and whether TonEBP controls inflammation during IDD is unknown. We show that TNF-α, but not IL-1β or LPS, promoted nuclear enrichment of TonEBP protein. However, TNF-α-mediated activation of TonEBP did not cause induction of osmoregulatory genes. RNA sequencing showed that 8.5% of TNF-α transcriptional responses were TonEBP-dependent and …

Differentiation And Protective Capacity Of Virus-Specific Cd8, Vesselin T. Tomov, Olesya Palko, Chi Wai Lau, Ajinkya Pattekar, Yuhang Sun, Ralitza Tacheva, Bertram Bengsch, Sasikanth Manne, Gabriela L. Cosma, Laurence C. Eisenlohr, Timothy J. Nice, Herbert W. Virgin, E. John Wherry

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Noroviruses can establish chronic infections with active viral shedding in healthy humans but whether persistence is associated with adaptive immune dysfunction is unknown. We used genetically engineered strains of mouse norovirus (MNV) to investigate CD8⁺ T cell differentiation during chronic infection. We found that chronic infection drove MNV-specific tissue-resident memory (Trm) CD8⁺ T cells to a differentiation state resembling inflationary effector responses against latent cytomegalovirus with only limited evidence of exhaustion. These MNV-specific Trm cells remained highly functional yet appeared ignorant of ongoing viral replication. Pre-existing MNV-specific Trm cells provided partial protection against chronic infection but largely ceased …

Nanoparticle Delivery Of Mir-34a Eradicates Long-Term-Cultured Breast Cancer Stem Cells Via Targeting C22orf28 Directly, Xiaoti Lin, Weiyu Chen, Fengqin Wei, Binhua P. Zhou, Mien-Chie Hung, Xiaoming Xie

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Rationale: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been implicated as the seeds of therapeutic resistance and metastasis, due to their unique abilities of self-renew, wide differentiation potentials and resistance to most conventional therapies. It is a proactive strategy for cancer therapy to eradicate CSCs. Methods: Tumor tissue-derived breast CSCs (BCSC), including XM322 and XM607, were isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS); while cell line-derived BCSC, including MDA-MB-231.SC and MCF-7.SC, were purified by magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS). Analyses of microRNA and mRNA expression array profiles were performed in multiple breast cell lines. The mentioned nanoparticles were constructed following the standard molecular cloning …

Timing Of Pd-1 Blockade Is Critical To Effective Combination Immunotherapy With Anti-Ox40., David J Messenheimer, Shawn M. Jensen, Michael E Afentoulis, Keith W Wegman, Zipei Feng, David J Friedman, Michael J. Gough, Walter Urba, Bernard A Fox

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Purpose: Antibodies specific for inhibitory checkpoints PD-1 and CTLA-4 have shown impressive results against solid tumors. This has fueled interest in novel immunotherapy combinations to affect patients who remain refractory to checkpoint blockade monotherapy. However, how to optimally combine checkpoint blockade with agents targeting T-cell costimulatory receptors, such as OX40, remains a critical question.Experimental Design: We utilized an anti-PD-1-refractory, orthotopically transplanted MMTV-PyMT mammary cancer model to investigate the antitumor effect of an agonist anti-OX40 antibody combined with anti-PD-1. As PD-1 naturally aids in immune contraction after T-cell activation, we treated mice with concurrent combination treatment versus sequentially administering anti-OX40 …

Mir-181a Increases Foxo1 Acetylation And Promotes Granulosa Cell Apoptosis Via Sirt1 Downregulation., Mei Zhang, Qun Zhang, Yali Hu, Lu Xu, Yue Jiang, Chunxue Zhang, Lijun Ding, Ruiwei Jiang, Jianxin Sun, Haixiang Sun, Guijun Yan

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Oxidative stress impairs follicular development by inducing granulosa cell (GC) apoptosis, which involves enhancement of the transcriptional activity of the pro-apoptotic factor Forkhead box O1 (FoxO1). However, the mechanism by which oxidative stress promotes FoxO1 activity is still unclear. Here, we found that miR-181a was upregulated in hydrogen peroxide (H

Interleukin-17 Limits Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1Α And Development Of Hypoxic Granulomas During Tuberculosis, Racquel Domingo-Gonzalez, Shibali Das, Kristin L. Griffiths, Mushtaq Ahmed, Monika Bambouskova, Suhas Gondi, Noor Al-Hammadi, Reid Townsend, Maxim N. Artyomov, Shabaana A. Khader, Et Al.

Open Access Publications

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a global health threat, compounded by the emergence of drug-resistant strains. A hallmark of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is the formation of hypoxic necrotic granulomas, which upon disintegration, release infectious Mtb. Furthermore, hypoxic necrotic granulomas are associated with increased disease severity and provide a niche for drug-resistant Mtb. However, the host immune responses that promote the development of hypoxic TB granulomas are not well described. Using a necrotic Mtb mouse model, we show that loss of Mtb virulence factors, such as phenolic glycolipids, decreases the production of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-17 (also referred to as IL-17A). IL-17 …

Mutations In Keops-Complex Genes Cause Nephrotic Syndrome With Primary Microcephaly, Daniela A Braun, Jia Rao, Geraldine Mollet, David Schapiro, Marie-Claire Daugeron, Weizhen Tan, Olivier Gribouval, Olivia Boyer, Patrick Revy, Tilman Jobst-Schwan, Johanna Magdalena Schmidt, Jennifer A Lawson, Denny Schanze, Shazia Ashraf, Jeremy F P Ullmann, Charlotte A Hoogstraten, Nathalie Boddaert, Bruno Collinet, Gaëlle Martin, Dominique Liger, Svjetlana Lovric, Monica Furlano, I Chiara Guerrera, Oraly Sanchez-Ferras, Jennifer F Hu, Anne-Claire Boschat, Sylvia Sanquer, Björn Menten, Sarah Vergult, Nina De Rocker, Merlin Airik, Tobias Hermle, Shirlee Shril, Eugen Widmeier, Heon Yung Gee, Won-Il Choi, Carolin E Sadowski, Werner L Pabst, Jillian K Warejko, Ankana Daga, Tamara Basta, Verena Matejas, Karin Scharmann, Sandra D Kienast, Babak Behnam, Brendan Beeson, Amber Begtrup, Malcolm Bruce, Gaik-Siew Ch'ng, Shuan-Pei Lin, Jui-Hsing Chang, Chao-Huei Chen, Megan T Cho, Patrick M Gaffney, Patrick E Gipson, Chyong-Hsin Hsu, Jameela A Kari, Yu-Yuan Ke, Cathy Kiraly-Borri, Wai-Ming Lai, Emmanuelle Lemyre, Rebecca Okashah Littlejohn, Amira Masri, Mastaneh Moghtaderi, Kazuyuki Nakamura, Fatih Ozaltin, Marleen Praet, Chitra Prasad, Agnieszka Prytula, Elizabeth R Roeder, Patrick Rump, Rhonda E Schnur, Takashi Shiihara, Manish D Sinha, Neveen A Soliman, Kenza Soulami, David A Sweetser, Wen-Hui Tsai, Jeng-Daw Tsai, Rezan Topaloglu, Udo Vester, David H Viskochil, Nithiwat Vatanavicharn, Jessica L Waxler, Klaas J Wierenga, Matthias T F Wolf, Sik-Nin Wong, Sebastian A Leidel, Gessica Truglio, Peter C Dedon, Annapurna Poduri, Shrikant Mane, Richard P Lifton, Maxime Bouchard, Peter Kannu, David Chitayat, Daniella Magen, Bert Callewaert, Herman Van Tilbeurgh, Martin Zenker, Corinne Antignac, Friedhelm Hildebrandt

Paediatrics Publications

Galloway-Mowat syndrome (GAMOS) is an autosomal-recessive disease characterized by the combination of early-onset nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and microcephaly with brain anomalies. Here we identified recessive mutations in OSGEP, TP53RK, TPRKB, and LAGE3, genes encoding the four subunits of the KEOPS complex, in 37 individuals from 32 families with GAMOS. CRISPR-Cas9 knockout in zebrafish and mice recapitulated the human phenotype of primary microcephaly and resulted in early lethality. Knockdown of OSGEP, TP53RK, or TPRKB inhibited cell proliferation, which human mutations did not rescue. Furthermore, knockdown of these genes impaired protein translation, caused endoplasmic reticulum stress, activated DNA-damage-response signaling, and ultimately induced …

Circulating Early- And Mid-Pregnancy Micrornas And Risk Of Gestational Diabetes., Pandora L Wander, Edward J Boyko, Karin Hevner, Viraj J Parikh, Mahlet G Tadesse, Tanya K Sorensen, Michelle A Williams, Daniel A Enquobahrie

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

AIMS: Epigenetic regulators, including microRNAs (miRNAs), are implicated in type 2 diabetes, but evidence linking circulating miRNAs in pregnancy and risk of gestational diabetes (GDM) is sparse. Potential modifiers, including pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity and offspring sex, are unexamined. We hypothesized that circulating levels of early-mid-pregnancy (range 7-23weeks of gestation) candidate miRNAs are related to subsequent development of GDM. We also hypothesized that miRNA-GDM associations might vary by pre-pregnancy body-mass index (ppBMI) or offspring sex.

METHODS: In a case-control analysis (36GDM cases/80 controls) from the Omega study, a prospective cohort study of pregnancy complications, we measured early-mid-pregnancy plasma levels of 10miRNAs chosen …

Hne-Modified Proteins In Down Syndrome: Involvement In Development Of Alzheimer Disease Neuropathology, Eugenio Barone, Elizabeth Head, D. Allan Butterfield, Marzia Perluigi

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Down syndrome (DS), trisomy of chromosome 21, is the most common genetic form of intellectual disability. The neuropathology of DS involves multiple molecular mechanisms, similar to AD, including the deposition of beta-amyloid (Aβ) into senile plaques and tau hyperphosphorylating in neurofibrillary tangles. Interestingly, many genes encoded by chromosome 21, in addition to being primarily linked to amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) pathology, are responsible for increased oxidative stress (OS) conditions that also result as a consequence of reduced antioxidant system efficiency. However, redox homeostasis is disturbed by overproduction of Aβ, which accumulates into plaques across the lifespan in DS as well as …

Hypothermic Cooling Measured By Thermal Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Feasibility And Implications For Virtual Imaging In The Urogenital Pelvis., Douglas Skarecky, Hon Yu, Jennifer Linehan, Blanca Morales, Min-Ying Su, Peter Fwu, Thomas Ahlering

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

OBJECTIVE: To study the combination of thermal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and novel hypothermic cooling, via an endorectal cooling balloon (ECB), to assess the effective dispersion and temperature drop in pelvic tissue to potentially reduce inflammatory cascade in surgical applications.

METHODS: Three male subjects, before undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, were cooled via an ECB, rendered MRI compatible for patient safety before ECB hypothermia. MRI studies were performed using a 3T scanner and included T2-weighted anatomic scan for the pelvic structures, followed by a temperature mapping scan. The sequence was performed repeatedly during the cooling experiment, whereas the phase data were …