Biomedical Informatics Commons^™

A Time And Place For Inhibiting Autophagy, Boyi Gan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Autophagy is an attractive therapeutic target in cancer. Successful autophagy-focused clinical intervention will require a detailed understanding of when and where autophagy is important during tumorigenesis. In this issue of Cancer Research, Khayati and colleagues use state-of-the-art genetically engineered mouse models to demonstrate that transient systemic inhibition of autophagy can irreversibly impair the growth of established lung tumors with a good tolerability in normal tissues, suggesting a therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment.

Treatment Of Epilepsy Using A Targeted P38Γ Kinase Gene Therapy, Nicolle Morey, Magdalena Przybyla, Julia Van Der Hoven, Yazi D Ke, Fabien Delerue, Janet Van Eersel, Lars M Ittner

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Hyperphosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau has been implicated in dementia, epilepsy, and other neurological disorders. In contrast, site-specific phosphorylation of tau at threonine 205 (T205) by the kinase p38γ was shown to disengage tau from toxic pathways, serving a neuroprotective function in Alzheimer's disease. Using a viral-mediated gene delivery approach in different mouse models of epilepsy, we show that p38γ activity-enhancing treatment reduces seizure susceptibility, restores neuronal firing patterns, reduces behavioral deficits, and ameliorates epilepsy-induced deaths. Furthermore, we show that p38γ-mediated phosphorylation of tau at T205 is essential for this protection in epilepsy, as a lack of this critical interaction reinstates …

Targeted Ablation Of Fn14 Receptor Improves Exercise Capacity And Inhibits Neurogenic Muscle Atrophy, Meiricris Tomaz Da Silva, Aniket S Joshi, Tatiana E Koike, Anirban Roy, Kavya Mathukumalli, Danesh H Sopariwala, Vihang A Narkar, Ashok Kumar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Skeletal muscle atrophy is a prevalent complication in multiple chronic diseases and disuse conditions. Fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (Fn14) is a member of the TNF receptor superfamily and a bona fide receptor of the TWEAK cytokine. Accumulating evidence suggests that Fn14 levels are increased in catabolic conditions as well as during exercise. However, the role of Fn14 in the regulation of skeletal muscle mass and function remains poorly understood. In this study, through the generation of novel skeletal muscle-specific Fn14-knockout mice, we have investigated the muscle role of Fn14 in the regulation of exercise capacity and denervation-induced muscle atrophy. Our …

Direct Cd32 T-Cell Cytotoxicity: Implications For Breast Cancer Prognosis And Treatment, Giuseppe Sconocchia, Giulia Lanzilli, Valeriana Cesarini, Domenico A Silvestris, Katayoun Rezvani, Roberto Arriga, Sara Caratelli, Ken Chen, Jinzhuang Dou, Carlo Cenciarelli, Gabriele Toietta, Silvia Baldari, Tommaso Sconocchia, Francesca De Paolis, Anna Aureli, Giandomenica Iezzi, Maria Irno Consalvo, Francesco Buccisano, Maria I Del Principe, Luca Maurillo, Adriano Venditti, Alessio Ottaviani, Giulio C Spagnoli

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The FcγRII (CD32) ligands are IgFc fragments and pentraxins. The existence of additional ligands is unknown. We engineered T cells with human chimeric receptors resulting from the fusion between CD32 extracellular portion and transmembrane CD8α linked to CD28/ζ chain intracellular moiety (CD32-CR). Transduced T cells recognized three breast cancer (BC) and one colon cancer cell line among 15 tested in the absence of targeting antibodies. Sensitive BC cell conjugation with CD32-CR T cells induced CD32 polarization and down-regulation, CD107a release, mutual elimination, and proinflammatory cytokine production unaffected by human IgGs but enhanced by cetuximab. CD32-CR T cells protected immunodeficient mice …

Small Molecule Targeting Nav17 Via Inhibition Of The Crmp2-Ubc9 Interaction Reduces Pain In Chronic Constriction Injury (Cci) Rats, Jiahe Li, Harrison J Stratton, Sabina A Lorca, Peter M Grace, Rajesh Khanna

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The voltage-gated sodium channel isoform NaV1.7 is a critical player in the transmission of nociceptive information. This channel has been heavily implicated in human genetic pain disorders and is a validated pain target. However, targeting this channel directly has failed, and an indirect approach - disruption of interactions with accessory protein partners - has emerged as a viable alternative strategy. We recently reported that a small-molecule inhibitor of CRMP2 SUMOylation, compound

Pet/Mr Imaging Of A Lung Metastasis Model Of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma With (2s,4r)-4-[18f]Fluoroglutamine, Alyssa C Pollard, Vincenzo Paolillo, Bhasker Radaram, Sarah Qureshy, Li Li, Tapati Maity, Lei Wang, Md Nasir Uddin, Christopher G Wood, Jose A Karam, Mark D Pagel, David Piwnica-Worms, Steven W Millward, Natalie Wall Fowlkes, William Norton, Brian J Engel, Federica Pisaneschi, Niki M Zacharias

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Metabolic reprogramming plays an important role in the tumorigenesis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Currently, positron emission tomography (PET) reporters are not used clinically to visualize altered glutamine metabolism in ccRCC, which greatly hinders detection, staging, and real-time therapeutic assessment. We sought to determine if (2S,4R)-4-[18F]fluoroglutamine ([18F]FGln) could be used to interrogate altered glutamine metabolism in ccRCC lesions in the lung.

Procedures: We generated a novel ccRCC lung lesion model using the ccRCC cell line UMRC3 stably transfected with GFP and luciferase constructs. This cell line was used for characterization of [18F]FGln uptake and retention by transport …

Mdm2 Antagonist Improves Therapeutic Activity Of Azacitidine In Myelodysplastic Syndromes And Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia, Yue Wei, Hong Zheng, Pamela Pennington Lockyer, Faezeh Darbaniyan, Ziyi Li, Rashmi Kanagal-Shamanna, Kelly A Soltysiak, Hui Yang, Irene Ganan-Gomez, Guillermo Montalban-Bravo, Kelly S Chien, Kim-Anh Do, Naval Daver, Guillermo Garcia-Manero

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Failure of hypomethylation agent (HMA) treatments is an important issue in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Recent studies indicated that function of wildtype TP53 positively impacts outcome of HMA treatments. We investigated the combination of the HMA azacitidine (AZA) with DS-3032b and DS-5272, novel antagonists of the TP53 negative regulator MDM2, in cellular and animal models of MDS and CMML. In TP53 wildtype myeloid cell line, combinational effects of DS-3032b or DS-5272 with AZA were observed. In Tet2-knockout mouse model of MDS and CMML, DS-5272 and AZA combination ameliorated disease-like phenotype. RNA-Seq analysis in mouse bone …

Targeting The Mtor Pathway For The Prevention Of Er-Negative Breast Cancer, Abhijit Mazumdar, William M Tahaney, Jamal L Hill, Yun Zhang, Sumankalai Ramachandran, Jitesh Kawedia, Jing Qian, Alejandro Contreras, Michelle I Savage, Lana A Vornik, Shizuko Sei, Altaf Mohammed, Powel H Brown

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Our results show that everolimus delays mammary tumor formation in multiple mouse models, suggesting that mTOR inhibitors will be useful for the prevention of ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer in humans. See related Spotlight, p. 787.

Genome Protection By Dna Polymerase Θ, Richard D Wood, Sylvie Doublié

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

DNA polymerase θ (Pol θ) is a DNA repair enzyme widely conserved in animals and plants. Pol θ uses short DNA sequence homologies to initiate repair of double-strand breaks by theta-mediated end joining. The DNA polymerase domain of Pol θ is at the C terminus and is connected to an N-terminal DNA helicase-like domain by a central linker. Pol θ is crucial for maintenance of damaged genomes during development, protects DNA against extensive deletions, and limits loss of heterozygosity. The cost of using Pol θ for genome protection is that a few nucleotides are usually deleted or added at the …

Hdac2 In Primary Sensory Neurons Constitutively Restrains Chronic Pain By Repressing Α2Δ-1 Expression And Associated Nmda Receptor Activity, Jixiang Zhang, Shao-Rui Chen, Meng-Hua Zhou, Daozhong Jin, Hong Chen, Li Wang, Ronald A Depinho, Hui-Lin Pan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

α2δ-1 (encoded by the Cacna2d1 gene) is a newly discovered NMDA receptor-interacting protein and is the therapeutic target of gabapentinoids (e.g., gabapentin and pregabalin) frequently used for treating patients with neuropathic pain. Nerve injury causes sustained α2δ-1 upregulation in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), which promotes NMDA receptor synaptic trafficking and activation in the spinal dorsal horn, a hallmark of chronic neuropathic pain. However, little is known about how nerve injury initiates and maintains the high expression level of α2δ-1 to sustain chronic pain. Here, we show that nerve injury caused histone hyperacetylation and diminished enrichment of histone deacetylase-2 (HDAC2), …

Hippo-Yap Signaling Maintains Sinoatrial Node Homeostasis, Mingjie Zheng, Rich G Li, Jia Song, Xiaolei Zhao, Li Tang, Shannon Erhardt, Wen Chen, Bao H Nguyen, Xiao Li, Min Li, Jianxin Wang, Sylvia M Evans, Vincent M Christoffels, Na Li, Jun Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The sinoatrial node (SAN) functions as the pacemaker of the heart, initiating rhythmic heartbeats. Despite its importance, the SAN is one of the most poorly understood cardiac entities because of its small size and complex composition and function. The Hippo signaling pathway is a molecular signaling pathway fundamental to heart development and regeneration. Although abnormalities of the Hippo pathway are associated with cardiac arrhythmias in human patients, the role of this pathway in the SAN is unknown.

METHODS: We investigated key regulators of the Hippo pathway in SAN pacemaker cells by conditionally inactivating the Hippo signaling kinases

RESULTS: We …

Inactivation Of Lats1/2 Drives Luminal-Basal Plasticity To Initiate Basal-Like Mammary Carcinomas, Joseph G Kern, Andrew M Tilston-Lunel, Anthony Federico, Boting Ning, Amy Mueller, Grace B Peppler, Eleni Stampouloglou, Nan Cheng, Randy L Johnson, Marc E Lenburg, Jennifer E Beane, Stefano Monti, Xaralabos Varelas

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Basal-like breast cancers, an aggressive breast cancer subtype that has poor treatment options, are thought to arise from luminal mammary epithelial cells that undergo basal plasticity through poorly understood mechanisms. Using genetic mouse models and ex vivo primary organoid cultures, we show that conditional co-deletion of the LATS1 and LATS2 kinases, key effectors of Hippo pathway signaling, in mature mammary luminal epithelial cells promotes the development of Krt14 and Sox9-expressing basal-like carcinomas that metastasize over time. Genetic co-deletion experiments revealed that phenotypes resulting from the loss of LATS1/2 activity are dependent on the transcriptional regulators YAP/TAZ. Gene expression analyses of …

Oxphos Promotes Apoptotic Resistance And Cellular Persistence In Th17 Cells In The Periphery And Tumor Microenvironment, Hanna S Hong, Nneka E Mbah, Mengrou Shan, Kristen Loesel, Lin Lin, Peter Sajjakulnukit, Luis O Correa, Anthony Andren, Jason Lin, Atsushi Hayashi, Brian Magnuson, Judy Chen, Zhaoheng Li, Yuying Xie, Li Zhang, Daniel R Goldstein, Shannon A Carty, Yu Leo Lei, Anthony W Opipari, Rafael J Argüello, Ilona Kryczek, Nobuhiko Kamada, Weiping Zou, Luigi Franchi, Costas A Lyssiotis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

T cell proliferation and cytokine production are bioenergetically and biosynthetically costly. The inability to meet these metabolic demands results in altered differentiation, accompanied by impaired effector function, and attrition of the immune response. Interleukin-17-producing CD4 T cells (TH17s) are mediators of host defense, autoimmunity, and antitumor immunity in the setting of adoptive T cell therapy. TH17s are long-lived cells that require mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) for effector function in vivo. Considering that TH17s polarized under standardized culture conditions are predominately glycolytic, little is known about how OXPHOS regulates TH17 processes, such as their ability to persist and thus contribute to …

Notch Missense Mutations In Drosophila Reveal Functions Of Specific Egf-Like Repeats In Notch Folding, Trafficking, And Signaling, Hilman Nurmahdi, Mao Hasegawa, Elzava Yuslimatin Mujizah, Takeshi Sasamura, Mikiko Inaki, Shinya Yamamoto, Tomoko Yamakawa, Kenji Matsuno

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Notch signaling plays various roles in cell-fate specification through direct cell–cell interactions. Notch receptors are evolutionarily conserved transmembrane proteins with multiple epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeats. Drosophila Notch has 36 EGF-like repeats, and while some play a role in Notch signaling, the specific functions of most remain unclear. To investigate the role of each EGF-like repeat, we used 19 previously identified missense mutations of Notch with unique amino acid substitutions in various EGF-like repeats and a transmembrane domain; 17 of these were identified through a single genetic screen. We assessed these mutants’ phenotypes in the nervous system and hindgut during …

Coating Formulation Change Leads To Inferior Performance Of Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets In Papua New Guinea, Nakei Bubun, Evodia Anetul, Melanie Koinari, Timothy W Freeman, Stephan Karl

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) play a key role in reducing malaria transmission in endemic countries. In a previous study, the authors demonstrated a substantial decrease in the bioefficacy of LLINs for malaria prevention delivered to Papua New Guinea (PNG) between 2013 and 2019. This coincided with a rise in malaria cases in the country. The present study was aimed at determining the underlying cause of the reduced bioefficacy observed in these LLINs. The main hypothesis was that a change in the coating formulation of the respective LLIN product was responsible, and had led to significantly altered product properties and …

Chronic Exposure To Carbon Black Ultrafine Particles Reprograms Macrophage Metabolism And Accelerates Lung Cancer, Cheng-Yen Chang, Ran You, Dominique Armstrong, Ashwini Bandi, Yi-Ting Cheng, Philip M Burkhardt, Luis Becerra-Dominguez, Matthew C Madison, Hui-Ying Tung, Zhimin Zeng, Yifan Wu, Lizhen Song, Patricia E Phillips, Paul Porter, John M Knight, Nagireddy Putluri, Xiaoyi Yuan, Daniela C Marcano, Emily A Mchugh, James M Tour, Andre Catic, Laure Maneix, Bryan M Burt, Hyun-Sung Lee, David B Corry, Farrah Kheradmand

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic exposure to airborne carbon black ultrafine (nCB) particles generated from incomplete combustion of organic matter drives IL-17A-dependent emphysema. However, whether and how they alter the immune responses to lung cancer remains unknown. Here, we show that exposure to nCB particles increased PD-L1+ PD-L2+ CD206+ antigen-presenting cells (APCs), exhausted T cells, and Treg cells. Lung macrophages that harbored nCB particles showed selective mitochondrial structure damage and decreased oxidative respiration. Lung macrophages sustained the HIF1α axis that increased glycolysis and lactate production, culminating in an immunosuppressive microenvironment in multiple mouse models of non-small cell lung cancers. Adoptive transfer of lung APCs …

Environmental Drivers Of The First Major Animal Extinction Across The Ediacaran White Sea-Nama Transition, Scott D Evans, Chenyi Tu, Adriana Rizzo, Rachel L Surprenant, Phillip C Boan, Heather Mccandless, Nathan Marshall, Shuhai Xiao, Mary L Droser

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Ediacara Biota-the oldest communities of complex, macroscopic fossils-consists of three temporally distinct assemblages: the Avalon (ca. 575-560 Ma), White Sea (ca. 560-550 Ma), and Nama (ca. 550-539 Ma). Generic diversity varies among assemblages, with a notable decline at the transition from White Sea to Nama. Preservation and sampling biases, biotic replacement, and environmental perturbation have been proposed as potential mechanisms for this drop in diversity. Here, we compile a global database of the Ediacara Biota, specifically targeting taphonomic and paleoecological characters, to test these hypotheses. Major ecological shifts in feeding mode, life habit, and tiering level accompany an increase …

Diet-Derived Metabolites And Mucus Link The Gut Microbiome To Fever After Cytotoxic Cancer Treatment, Zaker I Schwabkey, Diana H Wiesnoski, Chia-Chi Chang, Wen-Bin Tsai, Dung Pham, Saira S Ahmed, Tomo Hayase, Miriam R Ortega Turrubiates, Rawan K El-Himri, Christopher A Sanchez, Eiko Hayase, Annette C Frenk Oquendo, Takahiko Miyama, Taylor M Halsey, Brooke E Heckel, Alexandria N Brown, Yimei Jin, Mathilde Raybaud, Rishika Prasad, Ivonne Flores, Lauren Mcdaniel, Valerie Chapa, Philip L Lorenzi, Marc O Warmoes, Lin Tan, Alton G Swennes, Stephanie Fowler, Margaret Conner, Kevin Mchugh, Tyler Graf, Vanessa B Jensen, Christine B Peterson, Kim-Anh Do, Liangliang Zhang, Yushu Shi, Yinghong Wang, Jessica R Galloway-Pena, Pablo C Okhuysen, Carrie R Daniel-Macdougall, Yusuke Shono, Marina Burgos Da Silva, Jonathan U Peled, Marcel R M Van Den Brink, Nadim Ajami, Jennifer A Wargo, Pavan Reddy, Raphael H Valdivia, Lauren Davey, Gabriela Rondon, Samer A Srour, Rohtesh S Mehta, Amin M Alousi, Elizabeth J Shpall, Richard E Champlin, Samuel A Shelburne, Jeffrey J Molldrem, Mohamed A Jamal, Jennifer L Karmouch, Robert R Jenq

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Not all patients with cancer and severe neutropenia develop fever, and the fecal microbiome may play a role. In a single-center study of patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant (n = 119), the fecal microbiome was characterized at onset of severe neutropenia. A total of 63 patients (53%) developed a subsequent fever, and their fecal microbiome displayed increased relative abundances of Akkermansia muciniphila, a species of mucin-degrading bacteria (P = 0.006, corrected for multiple comparisons). Two therapies that induce neutropenia, irradiation and melphalan, similarly expanded A. muciniphila and additionally thinned the colonic mucus layer in mice. Caloric restriction …

Transposon Mutagenesis Reveals Rbms3 Silencing As A Promoter Of Malignant Progression Of Brafv600e-Driven Lung Tumorigenesis, Aria Vaishnavi, Joseph Juan, Maebh Jacob, Christopher Stehn, Eric E Gardner, Michael T Scherzer, Sophia Schuman, J Edward Van Veen, Brandon Murphy, Christopher S Hackett, Adam J Dupuy, Steven A Chmura, Louise Van Der Weyden, Justin Y Newberg, Annie Liu, Karen Mann, Alistair G Rust, William A Weiss, Conan G Kinsey, David J Adams, Allie Grossmann, Michael B Mann, Martin Mcmahon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mutationally activated BRAF is detected in approximately 7% of human lung adenocarcinomas, with BRAFT1799A serving as a predictive biomarker for treatment of patients with FDA-approved inhibitors of BRAFV600E oncoprotein signaling. In genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models, expression of BRAFV600E in the lung epithelium initiates growth of benign lung tumors that, without additional genetic alterations, rarely progress to malignant lung adenocarcinoma. To identify genes that cooperate with BRAFV600E for malignant progression, we used Sleeping Beauty-mediated transposon mutagenesis, which dramatically accelerated the emergence of lethal lung cancers. Among the genes identified was Rbms3, which encodes an RNA-binding protein previously implicated as a …

Preclinical Evaluation Of Combination Nemtabrutinib And Venetoclax In Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Elizabeth M Muhowski, Janani Ravikrishnan, Britten Gordon, Lianbo Yu, Shrilekha Misra, Brandi Walker, Sudharshan Eathiraj, Deepa Sampath, Kerry A Rogers, John C Byrd, Jennifer A Woyach

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Inhibitors of B cell receptor (BCR) signaling such as the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors are effective therapeutics for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The first-in-class covalent BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, produces durable responses in most CLL patients; however, complete responses are only observed in a minority of patients. B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2), an anti-apoptotic protein that contributes to CLL cell survival, has also been investigated as a therapeutic target. The BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax is effective in patients with CLL and can produce undetectable minimal residual disease, allowing discontinuation of therapy. In combination, ibrutinib and venetoclax have shown preclinical synergy and …

Tumor-Intrinsic Sirpa Promotes Sensitivity To Checkpoint Inhibition Immunotherapy In Melanoma, Zhicheng Zhou, Mei-Ju May Chen, Yikai Luo, Kamalika Mojumdar, Xin Peng, Hu Chen, Shweta V Kumar, Rehan Akbani, Yiling Lu, Han Liang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Checkpoint inhibition immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, but many patients show resistance. Here we perform integrative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses on emerging immuno-oncology targets across multiple clinical cohorts of melanoma under anti-PD-1 treatment, on both bulk and single-cell levels. We reveal a surprising role of tumor-intrinsic SIRPA in enhancing antitumor immunity, in contrast to its well-established role as a major inhibitory immune modulator in macrophages. The loss of SIRPA expression is a marker of melanoma dedifferentiation, a key phenotype linked to immunotherapy efficacy. Inhibition of SIRPA in melanoma cells abrogates tumor killing by activated CD8+ T cells in a co-culture …

Pancreatic Tumor Microenvironmental Acidosis And Hypoxia Transform Gold Nanorods Into Cell-Penetrant Particles For Potent Radiosensitization, Pradipta Ranjan Rauta, Yuri Mackeyev, Keith Sanders, Joseph B K Kim, Valeria V Gonzalez, Yasmin Zahra, Muhammad A Shohayeb, Belal Abousaida, Geraldine V Vijay, Okan Tezcan, Paul Derry, Anton V Liopo, Eugene R Zubarev, Rickey Carter, Pankaj Singh, Sunil Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Coating nanoparticles with stealth epilayers increases circulation time by evading opsonization, macrophage phagocytosis, and reticuloendothelial sequestration. However, this also reduces internalization by cancer cells upon reaching the tumor. We designed gold nanorods (GNRs) with an epilayer that retains stealth properties in circulation but transforms spontaneously in the acidotic tumor microenvironment to a cell-penetrating particle. We used a customized stoichiometric ratio of l-glutamic acid and l-lysine within an amphiphilic polymer of poly(l-glutamic acid-co-l-lysine), or P(Glu-co-Lys), to effect this transformation in acidotic environments. P(Glu-co-Lys)-GNRs were internalized by cancer cells to facilitate potent in vitro radiosensitization. When administered intravenously in mice, they accumulate …

Omics Analyses Of A Somatic Trp53r245w/+ Breast Cancer Model Identify Cooperating Driver Events Activating Pi3k/Akt/Mtor Signaling, Xiaojie Yu, Yun Zhang, Shunbin Xiong, Joy M Mcdaniel, Chang Sun, Gilda P Chau, Jovanka Gencel-Augusto, Dhruv Chachad, Rhiannon L Morrissey, Xiayu Rao, Jing Wang, Guillermina Lozano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alterations of the tumor suppressor

Blockade Of Fgf2/Fgfr2 Partially Overcomes Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Mediated Progression Of T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Chen Tian, Yueyang Li, Lina Wang, Junqi Si, Yaxin Zheng, Junnan Kang, Yafei Wang, M James You, Guoguang Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The development of acute lymphoblastic leuakemia (ALL) is partly attributed to the effects of bone marrow (BM) microenvironment, especially mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which interact bilaterally with leukaemia cells, leading to ALL progression. In order to find MSCs-based microenvironment targeted therapeutic strategies, Notch1-induced T-cell ALL (T-ALL) mice models were used and dynamic alterations of BM-MSCs with increased cell viability during T-ALL development was observed. In T-ALL mice derived stroma-based condition, leukaemia cells showed significantly elevated growth capacity indicating that MSCs participated in leukaemic niche formation. RNA sequence results revealed that T-ALL derived MSCs secreted fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), which …

Hormonal Therapies Up-Regulate Manf And Overcome Female Susceptibility To Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis, Yaohua Zhang, Chengcao Sun, Yajuan Li, Juan Qin, Kaushik Amancherla, Ying Jing, Qingsong Hu, Ke Liang, Zhao Zhang, Youqiong Ye, Lisa A Huang, Tina K Nguyen, Sergey D Egranov, Zilong Zhao, Andrew Wu, Yutao Xi, Jun Yao, Mien-Chie Hung, George A Calin, Jie Cheng, Bora Lim, Lorenz H Lehmann, Joe-Elie Salem, Douglas B Johnson, Michael A Curran, Dihua Yu, Leng Han, Radbod Darabi, Liuqing Yang, Javid J Moslehi, Chunru Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been increasingly used in combination for cancer treatment but are associated with myocarditis. Here, we report that tumor-bearing mice exhibited response to treatment with combinatorial anti-programmed cell death 1 and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 antibodies but also presented with cardiovascular toxicities observed clinically with ICI therapy, including myocarditis and arrhythmia. Female mice were preferentially affected with myocarditis compared to male mice, consistent with a previously described genetic model of ICI myocarditis and emerging clinical data. Mechanistically, myocardial tissue from ICI-treated mice, the genetic mouse model, and human heart tissue from affected patients with ICI myocarditis …

Broad-Acting Therapeutic Effects Of Mir-29b-Chitosan On Hypertension And Diabetic Complications, David M Jensen, Peng Han, Lingegowda S Mangala, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, Anil K Sood, Jing Liu, Alison J Kriegel, Kristie Usa, Michael E Widlansky, Mingyu Liang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

MicroRNA miR-29 promotes endothelial function in human arterioles in part by targeting LYPLA1 and increasing nitric oxide production. In addition, miR-29 is a master inhibitor of extracellular matrix gene expression, which may attenuate fibrosis but could also weaken tissue structure. The goal of this study was to test whether miR-29 could be developed as an effective, broad-acting, and safe therapeutic. Substantial accumulation of miR-29b and effective knockdown of Lypla1 in several mouse tissues were achieved using a chitosan-packaged, chemically modified miR-29b mimic (miR-29b-CH-NP) injected systemically at 200 μg/kg body weight. miR-29b-CH-NP, injected once every 3 days, significantly attenuated angiotensin II-induced …

Cholinergic Receptor-Wnt Pathway Controls Immune Activation By Sensing Intestinal Dysfunction, Jie Ren, Yu Sang, Alejandro Aballay

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alterations in the intestinal physiology caused by pathogen colonization result in immune activation. To provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the control of immune activation by changes in intestinal homeostasis, we conducted a forward genetic screen for suppressors of immune activation by intestinal distension in Caenorhabditis elegans. Our results indicate that C. elegans ACC-4, a member of a family of acetylcholine receptors, is required in immune activation by defects in the defecation motor program or by pathogen infection. ACC-4 acts postsynaptically in non-cholinergic RIM neurons to regulate several immune genes and a Wnt-mediated host immune response. These findings uncover a …

Bile Acids Regulate The Epithelial Na+ Channel In Native Tissues Through Direct Binding At Multiple Sites, Xue-Ping Wang, Viktor Tomilin, Andrew J Nickerson, Runze Tian, Merve Ertem, Abagail Mckernan, Xiaoguang Lei, Oleh Pochynyuk, Ossama B Kashlan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Bile acids, originally known to emulsify dietary lipids, are now established signalling molecules that regulate physiological processes. Signalling targets several proteins that include the ion channels involved in regulating intestinal motility and bile viscosity. Studies show that bile acids regulate the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) in cultured cell models and heterologous expression systems. ENaC plays both local and systemic roles in regulating extracellular fluids. Here we investigated whether bile acids regulate ENaC expressed in native tissues. We found that taurocholic acid and taurohyodeoxycholic acid regulated ENaC in both the distal nephron and distal colon. We also tested the hypothesis that …

Is Loss Of P53 A Driver Of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Progression?, Rhiannon L Morrissey, Alastair M Thompson, Guillermina Lozano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-obligate precursor of invasive carcinoma. Multiple studies have shown that DCIS lesions typically possess a driver mutation associated with cancer development. Mutation in the TP53 tumour suppressor gene is present in 15-30% of pure DCIS lesions and in ~30% of invasive breast cancers. Mutations in TP53 are significantly associated with high-grade DCIS, the most likely form of DCIS to progress to invasive carcinoma. In this review, we summarise published evidence on the prevalence of mutant TP53 in DCIS (including all DCIS subtypes), discuss the availability of mouse models for the study of DCIS …

An Optimized Bioassay For Screening Combined Anticoronaviral Compounds For Efficacy Against Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus With Pharmacokinetic Analyses Of Gs-441524, Remdesivir, And Molnupiravir In Cats, Sarah Cook, Luke Wittenburg, Victoria C Yan, Jacob H Theil, Diego Castillo, Krystle L Reagan, Sonyia Williams, Cong-Dat Pham, Chun Li, Florian L Muller, Brian G Murphy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a fatal disease of cats that currently lacks licensed and affordable vaccines or antiviral therapeutics. The disease has a spectrum of clinical presentations including an effusive ("wet") form and non-effusive ("dry") form, both of which may be complicated by neurologic or ocular involvement. The feline coronavirus (FCoV) biotype, termed feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), is the etiologic agent of FIP. The objective of this study was to determine and compare the in vitro antiviral efficacies of the viral protease inhibitors GC376 and nirmatrelvir and the nucleoside analogs remdesivir (RDV), GS-441524, molnupiravir (MPV; EIDD-2801), and β-D-N