Biomedical Informatics Commons^™

Myeloablative Fractionated Busulfan For Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant In Older Patients Or Patients With Comorbidities, Uday R Popat, Oren Pasvolsky, Roland Bassett, Rohtesh S Mehta, Amanda Olson, Julianne Chen, Amin M Alousi, Gheath Al-Atrash, Qaiser Bashir, Alison M Gulbis, Chitra M Hosing, Jin S Im, Partow Kebriaei, Issa Khouri, David Marin, Yago Nieto, Betul Oran, Neeraj Saini, Terri Lynn Shigle, Samer A Srour, Jeremy L Ramdial, Katayoun Rezvani, Muzaffar H Qazilbash, Borje S Andersson, Richard E Champlin, Elizabeth J Shpall

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traditional conditioning regimens for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) provide suboptimal outcomes, especially for older patients and those with comorbidities. We hypothesized that a fractionated myeloablative busulfan dose delivered over an extended period would reduce nonrelapse mortality (NRM) while retaining antileukemic effects. Here, we performed a phase 2 trial for adults with hematological malignancies receiving matched related or unrelated allo-HCT. Participants received busulfan 80 mg/m2 as outpatients on days -20 and -13 before transplant. Fludarabine 40 mg/m2 was administered on days -6 to -3, followed by busulfan dosed to achieve a target area under the curve of 20 …

Uracil-Dna Glycosylase Of Murine Gammaherpesvirus 68 Binds Cognate Viral Replication Factors Independently Of Its Catalytic Residues, Kyle R Smith, Somnath Paul, Qiwen Dong, Orchi Anannya, Darby G Oldenburg, J Craig Forrest, Kevin M Mcbride, Laurie T Krug

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Herpesviruses are large double-stranded DNA viruses that encode core replication proteins and accessory factors involved in nucleotide metabolism and DNA repair. Mammalian uracil-DNA glycosylases (UNG) excise deleterious uracil residues from their genomic DNA. Each herpesvirus UNG studied to date has demonstrated conservation of the enzymatic function to excise uracil residues from DNA. We previously reported that a murine gammaherpesvirus (MHV68) with a stop codon in ORF46 (ORF46.stop) that encodes for vUNG was defective in lytic replication and latency in vivo. However, a mutant virus that expressed a catalytically inactive vUNG (ORF46.CM) had no replication defect unless coupled with additional …

Identification Of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions In Decaying Tongue Tissues From Exhumed White-Tailed Deer, Paulina Soto, Francisca Bravo-Risi, Rebeca Benavente, Stuart Lichtenberg, Mitch Lockwood, J Hunter Reed, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions cause fatal neuropathies in farmed and free-ranging cervids. The deposition of prions in natural and humanmade environmental components has been implicated as a major mechanism mediating CWD spread in wild and captive populations. Prions can be deposited in the environment through excreta, tissues, and carcasses from pre-clinical and clinical animals. Furthermore, burial of CWD-positive animals may reduce but not completely mitigate prion spread from carcasses into the surrounding environment. Here, we analyzed exhumed, decaying deer carcasses for the presence of CWD prions. By analyzing tongue tissues through the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technique, we …

Somatic Mutational Landscape Of Hereditary Hematopoietic Malignancies Caused By Germline Variants In Runx1, Gata2, And Ddx41, Claire C Homan, Michael W Drazer, Kai Yu, David M Lawrence, Jinghua Feng, Luis Arriola-Martinez, Matthew J Pozsgai, Kelsey E Mcneely, Thuong Ha, Parvathy Venugopal, Peer Arts, Sarah L King-Smith, Jesse Cheah, Mark Armstrong, Paul Wang, Csaba Bödör, Alan B Cantor, Mario Cazzola, Erin Degelman, Courtney D Dinardo, Nicolas Duployez, Remi Favier, Stefan Fröhling, Ana Rio-Machin, Jeffery M Klco, Alwin Krämer, Mineo Kurokawa, Joanne Lee, Luca Malcovati, Neil V Morgan, Georges Natsoulis, Carolyn Owen, Keyur P Patel, Claude Preudhomme, Hana Raslova, Hugh Rienhoff, Tim Ripperger, Rachael Schulte, Kiran Tawana, Elvira Velloso, Benedict Yan, Erika Kim, Raman Sood, Amy P Hsu, Steven M Holland, Kerry Phillips, Nicola K Poplawski, Milena Babic, Andrew H Wei, Cecily Forsyth, Helen Mar Fan, Ian D Lewis, Julian Cooney, Rachel Susman, Lucy C Fox, Piers Blombery, Deepak Singhal, Devendra Hiwase, Belinda Phipson, Andreas W Schreiber, Christopher N Hahn, Hamish S Scott, Paul Liu, Lucy A Godley, Anna L Brown, Nisc Comparative Sequencing Program

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Individuals with germ line variants associated with hereditary hematopoietic malignancies (HHMs) have a highly variable risk for leukemogenesis. Gaps in our understanding of premalignant states in HHMs have hampered efforts to design effective clinical surveillance programs, provide personalized preemptive treatments, and inform appropriate counseling for patients. We used the largest known comparative international cohort of germline RUNX1, GATA2, or DDX41 variant carriers without and with hematopoietic malignancies (HMs) to identify patterns of genetic drivers that are unique to each HHM syndrome before and after leukemogenesis. These patterns included striking heterogeneity in rates of early-onset clonal hematopoiesis (CH), with a high …

Mutual-Information Based Optimal Experimental Design For Hyperpolarized [Formula: See Text]C-Pyruvate Mri, Prashant K Jha, Christopher Walker, Drew Mitchell, J Tinsley Oden, Dawid Schellingerhout, James A Bankson, David T Fuentes

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A key parameter of interest recovered from hyperpolarized (HP) MRI measurements is the apparent pyruvate-to-lactate exchange rate, [Formula: see text], for measuring tumor metabolism. This manuscript presents an information-theory-based optimal experimental design approach that minimizes the uncertainty in the rate parameter, [Formula: see text], recovered from HP-MRI measurements. Mutual information is employed to measure the information content of the HP measurements with respect to the first-order exchange kinetics of the pyruvate conversion to lactate. Flip angles of the pulse sequence acquisition are optimized with respect to the mutual information. A time-varying flip angle scheme leads to a higher parameter optimization …

White Matter Integrity Abnormalities In Healthy Overweight Individuals Revealed By Whole Brain Meta-Analysis Of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies, Xiaodong Cheng, Wenchang Wang, Chen Sun, Yana Sun, Cong Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct a coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA) to investigate white matter (WM) abnormalities in healthy individuals with overweight or obesity.

METHODS: A systematic literature search using Web of Science and PubMed datasets was performed. Original investigations that used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to explore fractional anisotropy (FA) differences between healthy overweight/obese individuals and normal weight controls were collected. The meta-analysis was conducted using the seed-based

RESULTS: The analysis included five studies comprising 232 overweight/obese individuals and 219 healthy normal weight controls. The findings showed that overweight/obese individuals exhibited reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in specific regions, namely, the …

Dual Targeted Extracellular Vesicles Regulate Oncogenic Genes In Advanced Pancreatic Cancer, Chi-Ling Chiang, Yifan Ma, Ya-Chin Hou, Junjie Pan, Sin-Yu Chen, Ming-Hsien Chien, Zhi-Xuan Zhang, Wei-Hsiang Hsu, Xinyu Wang, Jingjing Zhang, Hong Li, Lili Sun, Shannon Fallen, Inyoul Lee, Xing-Yu Chen, Yeh-Shiu Chu, Chi Zhang, Tai-Shan Cheng, Wen Jiang, Betty Y S Kim, Eduardo Reategui, Robert Lee, Yuan Yuan, Hsiao-Chun Liu, Kai Wang, Michael Hsiao, Chi-Ying F Huang, Yan-Shen Shan, Andrew S Lee, L James Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumours carry multiple gene mutations and respond poorly to treatments. There is currently an unmet need for drug carriers that can deliver multiple gene cargoes to target high solid tumour burden like PDAC. Here, we report a dual targeted extracellular vesicle (dtEV) carrying high loads of therapeutic RNA that effectively suppresses large PDAC tumours in mice. The EV surface contains a CD64 protein that has a tissue targeting peptide and a humanized monoclonal antibody. Cells sequentially transfected with plasmid DNAs encoding for the RNA and protein of interest by Transwell®-based asymmetric cell electroporation release abundant targeted …

Re-Stratification Of Patients With Copy-Number Low Endometrial Cancer By Clinicopathological Characteristics, Li Liwei, Li He, Dai Yibo, Zhao Luyang, Shen Zhihui, Kang Nan, Shen Danhua, Wang Junzhu, Wang Zhiqi, Wang Jianliu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To stratify patients with copy-number low (CNL) endometrial cancer (EC) by clinicopathological characteristics.

Methods: EC patients who underwent surgery between June 2018 and June 2022 at Peking University People's Hospital were included and further classified according to TCGA molecular subtyping: POLE ultramutated, microsatellite instability high (MSI-H), CNL, and copy-number high (CNH). Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of CNL patients were retrospectively reviewed. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was applied to perform univariate and multivariate analysis, and independent risk factors were identified. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) according to overall survival (OS) were screened based on the transcriptome of CNL cases …

Evaluating The Impact Of An Mhealth Platform For Managing Acute Postoperative Dental Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial, Bunmi Tokede, Alfa Yansane, Ana Ibarra-Noriega, Joanna Mullins, Kristen Simmons, Nicholas Skourtes, Urvi Mehta, Sayali Tungare, David Holmes, Joel White, Muhammad Walji, Elsbeth Kalenderian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Postoperative dental pain is pervasive and can affect a patient's quality of life. Adopting a patient-centric approach to pain management involves having contemporaneous information about the patient's experience of pain and using it to personalize care.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluated the use of a mobile health (mHealth) platform to collect pain-related patient-reported outcomes over 7 days after the patients underwent pain-inducing dental procedures; we then relayed the information to the dentist and determined its impact on the patient's pain experience.

METHODS: The study used a cluster-randomized experimental study design with an intervention arm where patients were prompted …

Actinide-Lanthanide Single Electron Metal-Metal Bond Formed In Mixed-Valence Di-Metallofullerenes, Yingjing Yan, Laura Abella, Rong Sun, Yu-Hui Fang, Yannick Roselló, Yi Shen, Meihe Jin, Antonio Rodríguez-Fortea, Coen De Graaf, Qingyu Meng, Yang-Rong Yao, Luis Echegoyen, Bing-Wu Wang, Song Gao, Josep M Poblet, Ning Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Understanding metal-metal bonding involving f-block elements has been a challenging goal in chemistry. Here we report a series of mixed-valence di-metallofullerenes, ThDy@C2n (2n = 72, 76, 78, and 80) and ThY@C2n (2n = 72 and 78), which feature single electron actinide-lanthanide metal-metal bonds, characterized by structural, spectroscopic and computational methods. Crystallographic characterization unambiguously confirmed that Th and Y or Dy are encapsulated inside variably sized fullerene carbon cages. The ESR study of ThY@D3h(5)-C78 shows a doublet as expected for an unpaired electron interacting with Y, and a SQUID magnetometric study of ThDy@ …

Age-Associated Spinal Stenosis In The Turquoise Killifish, Su-Hyeon Cho, Seongsin Lee, Jae-Il Park, Yoon La Yang, Song-Rae Kim, Juhee Ahn, Hoibin Jeong, Hye-Yeon Jung, Nayoung Gwak, Kil-Nam Kim, Yumi Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Aging triggers spinal degeneration, including common spinal stenosis, which causes back and leg pain in older individuals, significantly impacting their quality of life. Here, we explored aging traits in turquoise killifish spines, potentially offering a model for age-linked spinal stenosis in humans. Aged turquoise killifish exhibited body shape deformation and increased vertebral collapse, which was further accelerated by spawning. High-resolution CT scans revealed suppressed cortical bone thickness and hemal arch area in vertebrae due to spawning, and osteophyte formation was observed in both aged and breeding fish populations. Scale mineralization mirrored these changes, increasing with age but being suppressed by …

Focalizing Regions Of Biomarker Relevance Facilitates Biomarker Prediction On Histopathological Images, Jiefeng Gan, Hanchen Wang, Hui Yu, Zitong He, Wenjuan Zhang, Ke Ma, Lianghui Zhu, Yutong Bai, Zongwei Zhou, Alan Yullie, Xiang Bai, Mingwei Wang, Dehua Yang, Yanyan Chen, Guoan Chen, Joan Lasenby, Chao Cheng, Jia Wu, Jianjun Zhang, Xinggang Wang, Yaobing Chen, Guoping Wang, Tian Xia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Image-based AI has thrived as a potentially revolutionary tool for predicting molecular biomarker statuses, which aids in categorizing patients for appropriate medical treatments. However, many methods using hematoxylin and eosin-stained (H&E) whole-slide images (WSIs) have been found to be inefficient because of the presence of numerous uninformative or irrelevant image patches. In this study, we introduced the region of biomarker relevance (ROB) concept to identify the morphological areas most closely associated with biomarkers for accurate status prediction. We actualized this concept within a framework called saliency ROB search (SRS) to enable efficient and effective predictions. By evaluating various lung adenocarcinoma …

Restructuring And Serving Web-Accessible Streamflow Data From The Noaa National Water Model Historic Simulations, J Michael Johnson, David L Blodgett, Keith C Clarke, Jon Pollak

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed the first iteration of an operational National Water Model (NWM) to forecast the water cycle in the continental United States. With many versions, an hourly, multi-decadal historic simulation is made available to the public. In all released to date, the files containing simulated streamflow contain a snapshot of model conditions across the entire domain for a single timestep which makes accessing time series a technical and resource-intensive challenge. In the most recent release, extracting a complete streamflow time series for a single location requires managing 367,920 files (~16.2 TB). In this …

Adaptive Design Of Mrna-Loaded Extracellular Vesicles For Targeted Immunotherapy Of Cancer, Shiyan Dong, Xuan Liu, Ye Bi, Yifan Wang, Abin Antony, Daeyong Lee, Kristin Huntoon, Seongdong Jeong, Yifan Ma, Xuefeng Li, Weiye Deng, Benjamin R Schrank, Adam J Grippin, Jonghoon Ha, Minjeong Kang, Mengyu Chang, Yarong Zhao, Rongze Sun, Xiangshi Sun, Jie Yang, Jiayi Chen, Sarah K Tang, L James Lee, Andrew S Lee, Lirong Teng, Shengnian Wang, Lesheng Teng, Betty Y S Kim, Zhaogang Yang, Wen Jiang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The recent success of mRNA therapeutics against pathogenic infections has increased interest in their use for other human diseases including cancer. However, the precise delivery of the genetic cargo to cells and tissues of interest remains challenging. Here, we show an adaptive strategy that enables the docking of different targeting ligands onto the surface of mRNA-loaded small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). This is achieved by using a microfluidic electroporation approach in which a combination of nano- and milli-second pulses produces large amounts of IFN-γ mRNA-loaded sEVs with CD64 overexpressed on their surface. The CD64 molecule serves as an adaptor to dock …

Braf D594a Mutation Defines A Unique Biological And Immuno-Modulatory Subgroup Associated With Functional Cd8+ T Cell Infiltration In Colorectal Cancer, Wenjing Li, Chenyi Zhao, Wenhui Li, Yang Gong, Kaili Ma, Yujie Lu, Xiaowei Liu, Lianjun Zhang, Feng Guo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: BRAF non-V600 mutation occupies a relatively small but critical subset in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, little is known about the biological functions and impacts of BRAF class III mutation in CRC. Here, we aim to explore how D594A mutation impacts on biological behaviors and immune related signatures in murine CRC cells.

METHODS: BRAF V600E (class I), G469V (class II) and D594A (class III) mutant cell lines were established based on MC38 cells. The biological behaviors of cells were evaluated in respect of cell growth, cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell migration and invasion by the methods of colony-forming assay, CCK-8 …

Advances And Challenges In Bioinformatics And Biomedical Engineering: Iwbbio 2020, Olga Valenzuela, Mario Cannataro, Irena Rusur, Jianxin Wang, Zhongming Zhao, Ignacio Rojas

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This Supplement issue, presents five research articles which are distributed, mainly due to the subject they address, from the 8th International Work-Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (IWBBIO 2020), which was held on line, during September, 30th-2nd October, 2020. These contributions have been chosen because of their quality and the importance of their findings. Those contributions were then invited to participate in this supplement for the following journals of BMC: BMC Bioinformatics and BMC Genomics. In the present Editorial in BMC journal, we summarize the contributions that provide a clear overview of the thematic areas covered by the IWBBIO conference, …

Helping Frontline Workers In Texas-A Framework For Resource Development, Karima Lalani, Meredith O'Neal, Simone Lee Joannou, Bhanumathi Gopal, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders …

Helping Frontline Workers In Texas-A Framework For Resource Development, Karima Lalani, Meredith O'Neal, Simone Lee Joannou, Bhanumathi Gopal, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders …

Endogenous Renal Adiponectin Drives Gluconeogenesis Through Enhancing Pyruvate And Fatty Acid Utilization, Toshiharu Onodera, May-Yun Wang, Joseph M Rutkowski, Stanislaw Deja, Shiuhwei Chen, Michael S Balzer, Dae-Seok Kim, Xuenan Sun, Yu A An, Bianca C Field, Charlotte Lee, Ei-Ichi Matsuo, Monika Mizerska, Ina Sanjana, Naoto Fujiwara, Christine M Kusminski, Ruth Gordillo, Laurent Gautron, Denise K Marciano, Ming Chang Hu, Shawn C Burgess, Katalin Susztak, Orson W Moe, Philipp E Scherer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Adiponectin is a secretory protein, primarily produced in adipocytes. However, low but detectable expression of adiponectin can be observed in cell types beyond adipocytes, particularly in kidney tubular cells, but its local renal role is unknown. We assessed the impact of renal adiponectin by utilizing male inducible kidney tubular cell-specific adiponectin overexpression or knockout mice. Kidney-specific adiponectin overexpression induces a doubling of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase expression and enhanced pyruvate-mediated glucose production, tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates and an upregulation of fatty acid oxidation (FAO). Inhibition of FAO reduces the adiponectin-induced enhancement of glucose production, highlighting the role of FAO in the induction …

Oncolytic Virus M1 Functions As A Bifunctional Checkpoint Inhibitor To Enhance The Antitumor Activity Of Dc Vaccine, Jia Dan, Jing Cai, Yingqian Zhong, Chaoqun Wang, Shanyu Huang, Ying Zeng, Zhen Fan, Cuiying Xu, Linyi Hu, Jiayu Zhang, Jun Hu, Ying Liu, Xingwen Su, Wenbo Zhu, Guangmei Yan, Jiankai Liang, Yuan Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although promising, dendritic cell (DC) vaccines still provide limited clinical benefits, mainly due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and the lack of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Oncolytic virus therapy is an ideal strategy to overcome immunosuppression and expose TAAs; therefore, they may work synergistically with DC vaccines. In this study, we demonstrate that oncolytic virus M1 (OVM) can enhance the antitumor effects of DC vaccines across diverse syngeneic mouse tumor models by increasing the infiltration of CD8+ effector T cells in the TME. Mechanically, we show that tumor cells counteract DC vaccines through the SIRPα-CD47 immune checkpoint, while OVM can …

Impairment Of Serine Transport Across The Blood-Brain Barrier By Deletion Of Slc38a5 Causes Developmental Delay And Motor Dysfunction, Inna Radzishevsky, Maali Odeh, Oded Bodner, Salman Zubedat, Lihi Shaulov, Maxim Litvak, Kayoko Esaki, Takeo Yoshikawa, Bella Agranovich, Wen-Hong Li, Alex Radzishevsky, Eyal Gottlieb, Avi Avital, Herman Wolosker

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Brain L-serine is critical for neurodevelopment and is thought to be synthesized solely from glucose. In contrast, we found that the influx of L-serine across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is essential for brain development. We identified the endothelial Slc38a5, previously thought to be a glutamine transporter, as an L-serine transporter expressed at the BBB in early postnatal life. Young Slc38a5 knockout (KO) mice exhibit developmental alterations and a decrease in brain L-serine and D-serine, without changes in serum or liver amino acids. Slc38a5-KO brains exhibit accumulation of neurotoxic deoxysphingolipids, synaptic and mitochondrial abnormalities, and decreased neurogenesis at the dentate gyrus. …

Author Correction: Global Proteomic Identifies Multiple Cancer-Related Signaling Pathways Altered By A Gut Pathobiont Associated With Colorectal Cancer, Ewa Pasquereau-Kotula, Giulia Nigro, Florent Dingli, Damarys Loew, Patrick Poullet, Yi Xu, Scott Kopetz, Jennifer Davis, Lucie Peduto, Catherine Robbe-Masselot, Philippe Sansonetti, Patrick Trieu-Cuot, Shaynoor Dramsi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Priorities And Progress In Gram-Positive Bacterial Infection Research By The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group: A Narrative Review, Sarah B Doernberg, Cesar A Arias, Deena R Altman, Ahmed Babiker, Helen W Boucher, C Buddy Creech, Sara E Cosgrove, Scott R Evans, Vance G Fowler, Stephanie A Fritz, Toshimitsu Hamasaki, Brendan J Kelly, Sixto M Leal, Catherine Liu, Thomas P Lodise, Loren G Miller, Jose M Munita, Barbara E Murray, Melinda M Pettigrew, Felicia Ruffin, Marc H Scheetz, Bo Shopsin, Truc T Tran, Nicholas A Turner, Derek J Williams, Smitha Zaharoff, Thomas L Holland

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) has prioritized infections caused by gram-positive bacteria as one of its core areas of emphasis. The ARLG Gram-positive Committee has focused on studies responding to 3 main identified research priorities: (1) investigation of strategies or therapies for infections predominantly caused by gram-positive bacteria, (2) evaluation of the efficacy of novel agents for infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and (3) optimization of dosing and duration of antimicrobial agents for gram-positive infections. Herein, we summarize ARLG accomplishments in gram-positive bacterial infection research, including studies aiming to (1) inform optimal vancomycin dosing, …

Sptan1/Numb Axis Senses Cell Density To Restrain Cell Growth And Oncogenesis Through Hippo Signaling, Dongxue Su, Yuxi Li, Weiji Zhang, Huan Gao, Yao Cheng, Yongqiang Hou, Junhong Li, Yi Ye, Zhangjian Lai, Zhe Li, Haitao Huang, Jiaxin Li, Jinhuan Li, Mengyu Cheng, Cheng Nian, Na Wu, Zhien Zhou, Yunzhi Xing, Yu Zhao, He Liu, Jiayu Tang, Qinghua Chen, Lixin Hong, Wengang Li, Zhihai Peng, Bin Zhao, Randy L Johnson, Pingguo Liu, Wanjin Hong, Lanfen Chen, Dawang Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The loss of contact inhibition is a key step during carcinogenesis. The Hippo-Yes-associated protein (Hippo/YAP) pathway is an important regulator of cell growth in a cell density-dependent manner. However, how Hippo signaling senses cell density in this context remains elusive. Here, we report that high cell density induced the phosphorylation of spectrin α chain, nonerythrocytic 1 (SPTAN1), a plasma membrane-stabilizing protein, to recruit NUMB endocytic adaptor protein isoforms 1 and 2 (NUMB1/2), which further sequestered microtubule affinity-regulating kinases (MARKs) in the plasma membrane and rendered them inaccessible for phosphorylation and inhibition of the Hippo kinases sterile 20-like kinases MST1 and …

Possible Delayed Foreign Body Reactions Against Titanium Clips And Coating Materials After Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysm Surgery, Ryota Tatezawa, Taku Sugiyama, Shuho Gotoh, Takafumi Shindo, Hiroshi Ikeda, Masaaki Hokari, Katsumi Takizawa, Naoki Nakayama, Miki Fujimura

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Delayed foreign body reactions to either or both clipping and coating materials have been reported in several small series; however, studies in the titanium clip era are scarce. This study aims to survey the contemporary status of such reactions to titanium clips and coating materials. Among patients who received a total of 2327 unruptured cerebral aneurysmal surgeries, 12 developed delayed intraparenchymal reactions during outpatient magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) follow-up. A retrospective investigation was conducted. The patients' average age was 58.6 (45-73) years, and 11 were women. The aneurysms were located in the middle cerebral artery (n = 7), internal carotid …

Guide-Specific Loss Of Efficiency And Off-Target Reduction With Cas9 Variants, Liang Zhang, Wei He, Rongjie Fu, Shuyue Wang, Yiwen Chen, Han Xu

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High-fidelity clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 (Cas9) variants have been developed to reduce the off-target effects of CRISPR systems at a cost of efficiency loss. To systematically evaluate the efficiency and off-target tolerance of Cas9 variants in complex with different single guide RNAs (sgRNAs), we applied high-throughput viability screens and a synthetic paired sgRNA-target system to assess thousands of sgRNAs in combination with two high-fidelity Cas9 variants HiFi and LZ3. Comparing these variants against wild-type SpCas9, we found that ∼20% of sgRNAs are associated with a significant loss of efficiency when complexed with either HiFi or LZ3. …

Novobiocin Blocks Nucleic Acid Binding To Polθ And Inhibits Stimulation Of Its Atpase Activity, Aleem Syed, Frantisek Filandr, Jeffrey Patterson-Fortin, Albino Bacolla, Ramya Ravindranathan, Jia Zhou, Drew T Mcdonald, Mohammed E Albuhluli, Amy Verway-Cohen, Joseph A Newman, Miaw-Sheue Tsai, Darin E Jones, David C Schriemer, Alan D D'Andrea, John A Tainer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Polymerase theta (Polθ) acts in DNA replication and repair, and its inhibition is synthetic lethal in BRCA1 and BRCA2-deficient tumor cells. Novobiocin (NVB) is a first-in-class inhibitor of the Polθ ATPase activity, and it is currently being tested in clinical trials as an anti-cancer drug. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanism of NVB-mediated Polθ inhibition. Using hydrogen deuterium exchange-mass spectrometry (HX-MS), biophysical, biochemical, computational and cellular assays, we found NVB is a non-competitive inhibitor of ATP hydrolysis. NVB sugar group deletion resulted in decreased potency and reduced HX-MS interactions, supporting a specific NVB binding orientation. Collective results revealed that NVB …

Reap-2: An Interactive Quantitative Tool For Robust And Efficient Dose-Response Curve Estimation, Xinying Fang, Xinyi Liu, Vernon M Chinchilli, Michael Wang, Hong-Gang Wang, Nikolay V Dokholyan, Chan Shen, J Jack Lee, Shouhao Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

REAP-2 is an interactive dose-response curve estimation tool for Robust and Efficient Assessment of drug Potency. It provides user-friendly dose-response curve estimation for in vitro studies and conducts statistical testing for model comparisons with a redesigned user interface. We also make a major update of the underlying estimation method with penalized beta regression, which demonstrates great reliability and accuracy in dose estimation and uncertainty quantification. In this note, we describe the method and implementation of REAP-2 with a highlight on potency estimation and drug comparison.

Bacterial And Fungal Characterization Of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma From Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Biopsies, Robin D Wright, Thais F Bartelli, Seyda Baydogan, James Robert White, Michael P Kim, Manoop S Bhutani, Florencia Mcallister

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: The tumor microbiome (TM) has been linked to pancreatic cancer prognosis. Specific microbes can confer tumor resistance to therapies. Early knowledge of the TM at time of diagnosis would be clinically relevant for precision therapy based on microbial composition. However, it is difficult to define the TM prior to surgical resection.

METHODS: In this pilot feasibility study, patients underwent Endoscopic Ultrasound-Fine Needle Aspiration (EUS-FNA) biopsy of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. These samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing for characterization of the tumor bacteria and fungi.

RESULT: After in silico decontamination and comparison to non-matched tumor, …

Complete Loss Of Tp53 And Rb1 Is Associated With Complex Genome And Low Immune Infiltrate In Pleomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma, Hannah C Beird, Chia-Chin Wu, Michael Nakazawa, Davis Ingram, Joseph R Daniele, Rossana Lazcano, Latasha Little, Christopher Davies, Najat C Daw, Khalida Wani, Wei-Lien Wang, Xingzhi Song, Curtis Gumbs, Jianhua Zhang, Brian Rubin, Anthony Conley, Adrienne M Flanagan, Alexander J Lazar, P Andrew Futreal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Rhabdomyosarcoma accounts for roughly 1% of adult sarcomas, with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma (PRMS) as the most common subtype. Survival outcomes remain poor for patients with PRMS, and little is known about the molecular drivers of this disease. To better characterize PRMS, we performed a broad array of genomic and immunostaining analyses on 25 patient samples. In terms of gene expression and methylation, PRMS clustered more closely with other complex karyotype sarcomas than with pediatric alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Immune infiltrate levels in PRMS were among the highest observed in multiple sarcoma types and contrasted with low levels in other rhabdomyosarcoma subtypes. …