Medical Specialties Commons^™

Glial Cell Adhesion Molecule (Glialcam) Determines Proliferative Versus Invasive Cell States In Glioblastoma, Arpan De, John M Lattier, John E Morales, Jack R Kelly, Xiaofeng Zheng, Zhihua Chen, Sumod Sebastian, Zahra Nassiri Toosi, Jason T Huse, Frederick F Lang, Joseph H Mccarty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The malignant brain cancer glioblastoma (GBM) contains groups of highly invasive cells that drive tumor progression as well as recurrence after surgery and chemotherapy. The molecular mechanisms that enable these GBM cells to exit the primary mass and disperse throughout the brain remain largely unknown. Here we report using human tumor specimens and primary spheroids from male and female patients that glial cell adhesion molecule (GlialCAM), which has normal roles in brain astrocytes and is mutated in the developmental brain disorder megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC), is differentially expressed in subpopulations of GBM cells. High levels of GlialCAM promote …

Antibody-Directed Evolution Reveals A Mechanism For Enhanced Neutralization At The Hiv-1 Fusion Peptide Site, Bailey B Banach, Sergei Pletnev, Adam S Olia, Kai Xu, Baoshan Zhang, Reda Rawi, Tatsiana Bylund, Nicole A Doria-Rose, Thuy Duong Nguyen, Ahmed S Fahad, Myungjin Lee, Bob C Lin, Tracy Liu, Mark K Louder, Bharat Madan, Krisha Mckee, Sijy O'Dell, Mallika Sastry, Arne Schön, Natalie Bui, Chen-Hsiang Shen, Jacy R Wolfe, Gwo-Yu Chuang, John R Mascola, Peter D Kwong, Brandon J Dekosky

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The HIV-1 fusion peptide (FP) represents a promising vaccine target, but global FP sequence diversity among circulating strains has limited anti-FP antibodies to ~60% neutralization breadth. Here we evolve the FP-targeting antibody VRC34.01 in vitro to enhance FP-neutralization using site saturation mutagenesis and yeast display. Successive rounds of directed evolution by iterative selection of antibodies for binding to resistant HIV-1 strains establish a variant, VRC34.01_mm28, as a best-in-class antibody with 10-fold enhanced potency compared to the template antibody and ~80% breadth on a cross-clade 208-strain neutralization panel. Structural analyses demonstrate that the improved paratope expands the FP binding groove to …

Silencing Of Genes By Promoter Hypermethylation Shapes Tumor Microenvironment And Resistance To Immunotherapy In Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinomas, Xiaofan Lu, Yann-Alexandre Vano, Xiaoping Su, Alexandra Helleux, Véronique Lindner, Roger Mouawad, Jean-Philippe Spano, Morgan Rouprêt, Eva Compérat, Virginie Verkarre, Cheng-Ming Sun, Mostefa Bennamoun, Hervé Lang, Philippe Barthelemy, Wenxuan Cheng, Li Xu, Irwin Davidson, Fangrong Yan, Wolf Hervé Fridman, Catherine Sautes-Fridman, Stéphane Oudard, Gabriel G Malouf

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors varies in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), with notable primary resistance among patients. Here, we integrate epigenetic (DNA methylation) and transcriptome data to identify a ccRCC subtype characterized by cancer-specific promoter hypermethylation and epigenetic silencing of Polycomb targets. We develop and validate an index of methylation-based epigenetic silencing (iMES) that predicts primary resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) in the BIONIKK trial. High iMES is associated with VEGF pathway silencing, endothelial cell depletion, immune activation/suppression, EZH2 activation, BAP1/SETD2 deficiency, and resistance to ICI. Combination therapy with hypomethylating agents or tyrosine kinase inhibitors may benefit …

New Insights Into Yap/Taz-Tead-Mediated Gene Regulation And Biological Processes In Cancer, Yang Zhao, Marisela Sheldon, Yutong Sun, Li Ma

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Hippo pathway is conserved across species. Key mammalian Hippo pathway kinases, including MST1/2 and LATS1/2, inhibit cellular growth by inactivating the TEAD coactivators, YAP, and TAZ. Extensive research has illuminated the roles of Hippo signaling in cancer, development, and regeneration. Notably, dysregulation of Hippo pathway components not only contributes to tumor growth and metastasis, but also renders tumors resistant to therapies. This review delves into recent research on YAP/TAZ-TEAD-mediated gene regulation and biological processes in cancer. We focus on several key areas: newly identified molecular patterns of YAP/TAZ activation, emerging mechanisms that contribute to metastasis and cancer therapy resistance, …

Widespread Brca1/2-Independent Homologous Recombination Defects Are Caused By Alterations In Rna-Binding Proteins, Daniel J Mcgrail, Yang Li, Roger S Smith, Bin Feng, Hui Dai, Limei Hu, Briana Dennehey, Sharad Awasthi, Marc L Mendillo, Anil K Sood, Gordon B Mills, Shiaw-Yih Lin, S Stephen Yi, Nidhi Sahni

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Defects in homologous recombination DNA repair (HRD) both predispose to cancer development and produce therapeutic vulnerabilities, making it critical to define the spectrum of genetic events that cause HRD. However, we found that mutations in BRCA1/2 and other canonical HR genes only identified 10%-20% of tumors that display genomic evidence of HRD. Using a networks-based approach, we discovered that over half of putative genes causing HRD originated outside of canonical DNA damage response genes, with a particular enrichment for RNA-binding protein (RBP)-encoding genes. These putative drivers of HRD were experimentally validated, cross-validated in an independent cohort, and enriched in cancer-associated …

A Network Pharmacology And Molecular-Docking-Based Approach To Identify The Probable Targets Of Short-Chain Fatty-Acid-Producing Microbial Metabolites Against Kidney Cancer And Inflammation, Md Rezaul Karim, Md Niaj Morshed, Safia Iqbal, Shahnawaz Mohammad, Ramya Mathiyalagan, Deok Chun Yang, Yeon Ju Kim, Joon Hyun Song, Dong Uk Yang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

(1) Background: A large and diverse microbial population exists in the human intestinal tract, which supports gut homeostasis and the health of the host. Short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-secreting microbes also generate several metabolites with favorable regulatory effects on various malignancies and immunological inflammations. The involvement of intestinal SCFAs in kidney diseases, such as various kidney malignancies and inflammations, has emerged as a fascinating area of study in recent years. However, the mechanisms of SCFAs and other metabolites produced by SCFA-producing bacteria against kidney cancer and inflammation have not yet been investigated. (2) Methods: We considered 177 different SCFA-producing microbial species …

Prediagnostic Selenium Status, Selenoprotein Gene Variants And Association With Breast Cancer Risk In A European Cohort Study, David J Hughes, Lutz Schomburg, Mazda Jenab, Carine Biessy, Catherine Méplan, Aurelie Moskal, Qian Sun, Kamil Demircan, Veronika Fedirko, Elisabete Weiderpass, Maryam Mukhtar, Anja Olsen, Anne Tjønneland, Kim Overvad, Matthias Schulze, Therese Haugdahl Nøst, Guri Skeie, Karina Standahl Olsen, Fulvio Ricceri, Sara Grioni, Domenico Palli, Giovanna Masala, Rosario Tumino, Fabrizio Pasanisi, Pilar Amiano, Sandra M Colorado Yohar, Antonio Agudo, Maria-Jose Sánchez, Eva Ardanaz, Malin Sund, Anne Andersson, Aurora Perez-Cornago, Ruth Travis, Alicia K Heath, Laure Dossus

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Selenium (Se) may help prevent breast cancer (BC) development. Owing to limited observational evidence, we investigated whether prediagnostic Se status and/or variants in the selenoprotein genes are associated with BC risk in a large European cohort. Se status was assessed by plasma measures of Se and its major circulating proteins, selenoprotein P (SELENOP) and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3), in matched BC case-control pairs (2208 for SELENOP; 1785 for GPX3 and Se) nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, n = 452) in 55 selenoprotein and Se metabolic pathway genes and an additional …

Molecular Basis Of Retinal Remodeling In A Zebrafish Model Of Retinitis Pigmentosa, Abirami Santhanam, Eyad Shihabeddin, Haichao Wei, Jiaqian Wu, John O'Brien

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A hallmark of inherited retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is progressive structural and functional remodeling of the remaining retinal cells as photoreceptors degenerate. Extensive remodeling of the retina stands as a barrier for the successful implementation of strategies to restore vision. To understand the molecular basis of remodeling, we performed analyses of single-cell transcriptome data from adult zebrafish retina of wild type AB strain (WT) and a P23H mutant rhodopsin transgenic model of RP with continuous degeneration and regeneration. Retinas from both female and male fish were pooled to generate each library, combining data from both sexes. …

Efficacy Of Futibatinib, An Irreversible Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitor, In Fgfr-Altered Breast Cancer, Turcin Saridogan, Argun Akcakanat, Ming Zhao, Kurt W Evans, Erkan Yuca, Stephen Scott, Bryce P Kirby, Xiaofeng Zheng, Min Jin Ha, Huiqin Chen, Patrick K S Ng, Timothy P Diperi, Gordon B Mills, Jordi Rodon Ahnert, Senthil Damodaran, Funda Meric-Bernstam

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Several alterations in fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) genes have been found in breast cancer; however, they have not been well characterized as therapeutic targets. Futibatinib (TAS-120; Taiho) is a novel, selective, pan-FGFR inhibitor that inhibits FGFR1-4 at nanomolar concentrations. We sought to determine futibatinib's efficacy in breast cancer models. Nine breast cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) with various FGFR1-4 alterations and expression levels were treated with futibatinib. Antitumor efficacy was evaluated by change in tumor volume and time to tumor doubling. Alterations indicating sensitization to futibatinib in vivo were further characterized in vitro. FGFR gene expression between patient tumors and …

The Transcription Factor Irf4 Determines The Anti-Tumor Immunity Of Cd8+ T Cells, Hui Yan, Yulin Dai, Xiaolong Zhang, Hedong Zhang, Xiang Xiao, Jinfei Fu, Dawei Zou, Anze Yu, Tao Jiang, Xian C Li, Zhongming Zhao, Wenhao Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Understanding the factors that regulate T cell infiltration and functional states in solid tumors is crucial for advancing cancer immunotherapies. Here, we discovered that the expression of interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) was a critical T cell intrinsic requirement for effective anti-tumor immunity. Mice with T-cell-specific ablation of IRF4 showed significantly reduced T cell tumor infiltration and function, resulting in accelerated growth of subcutaneous syngeneic tumors and allowing the growth of allogeneic tumors. Additionally, engineered overexpression of IRF4 in anti-tumor CD8+ T cells that were adoptively transferred significantly promoted their tumor infiltration and transition from a naive/memory-like cell state into …

Dynamics Of Cwd Prion Detection In Feces And Blood From Naturally Infected White-Tailed Deer, Francisca Bravo-Risi, Paulina Soto, Rebeca Benavente, Tracy A Nichols, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting cervids. Confirmatory testing of CWD is currently performed postmortem in obex and lymphoid tissues. Extensive evidence demonstrates the presence of infectious prions in feces of CWD-infected deer using in vitro prion-amplification techniques and bioassays. In experimental conditions, this has been achieved as soon as 6-month post-inoculation, suggesting this sample type is a candidate for antemortem diagnosis. In the present study, we optimized the detection of CWD-prions in fecal samples from naturally infected, pre-clinical white-tailed deer by comparing protocols aiming to concentrate CWD-prions with direct spiking of the sample into the PMCA …

Revisiting The Use Of Normal Saline For Peritoneal Washing In Ovarian Cancer, Hironari Akasaka, Honami Naora

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The omentum is the predominant site of ovarian cancer metastasis, but it is difficult to remove the omentum in its entirety. There is a critical need for effective approaches that minimize the risk of colonization of preserved omental tissues by occult cancer cells. Normal saline (0.9% sodium chloride) is commonly used to wash the peritoneal cavity during ovarian cancer surgery. The omentum has a prodigious ability to absorb fluid in the peritoneal cavity, but the impact of normal saline on the omentum is poorly understood. In this review article, we discuss why normal saline is not a biocompatible solution, drawing …

Reduced Grey Matter Volume In Adolescents With Conduct Disorder: A Region-Of-Interest Analysis Using Multivariate Generalized Linear Modeling, Ru Zhang, R James R Blair, Karina S Blair, Matthew Dobbertin, Jaimie Elowsky, Johannah Bashford-Largo, Ahria J Dominguez, Melissa Hatch, Sahil Bajaj

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Conduct disorder (CD) involves a group of behavioral and emotional problems that usually begins during childhood or adolescence. Structural brain alterations have been observed in CD, including the amygdala, insula, ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and fusiform gyrus. The current study developed a multivariate generalized linear model (GLM) to differentiate adolescents with CD from typically developing (TD) adolescents in terms of grey matter volume (GMV).

Methods: The whole-brain structural MRI data were collected from 96 adolescents with CD (mean age = [Formula: see text] years; mean IQ = [Formula: see text]; 63 males) and 90 TD …

Rapid, High Throughput, Automated Detection Of Sars-Cov-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Against Wuhan-Wt, Delta And Omicron Ba1, Ba2 Spike Trimers, Narayanaiah Cheedarla, Hans P Verkerke, Sindhu Potlapalli, Kaleb Benjamin Mclendon, Anamika Patel, Filipp Frank, William Henry O'Sick, Suneethamma Cheedarla, Tyler Jon Baugh, Gregory L Damhorst, Huixia Wu, Daniel Graciaa, Fuad Hudaib, David N Alter, Janetta Bryksin, Eric A Ortlund, Jeanette Guarner, Sara Auld, Sarita Shah, Wilbur Lam, Dawn Mattoon, Joseph M Johnson, David H Wilson, Madhav V Dhodapkar, Sean R Stowell, Andrew S Neish, John D Roback

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traditional cellular and live-virus methods for detection of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are labor- and time-intensive, and thus not suited for routine use in the clinical lab to predict vaccine efficacy and natural immune protection. Here, we report the development and validation of a rapid, high throughput method for measuring SARS-CoV-2 nAbs against native-like trimeric spike proteins. This assay uses a blockade of human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE-2) binding (BoAb) approach in an automated digital immunoassay on the Quanterix HD-X platform. BoAb assays using Wuhan-WT (vaccine strain), delta (B.1.167.2), omicron BA1 and BA2 variant viral strains showed strong correlation …

Pmca Screening Of Retropharyngeal Lymph Nodes In White-Tailed Deer And Comparisons With Elisa And Ihc, Rebeca Benavente, J Hunter Reed, Mitch Lockwood, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting cervids. CWD diagnosis is conducted through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in retropharyngeal lymph nodes. Unfortunately, these techniques have limited sensitivity against the biomarker (CWD-prions). Two in vitro prion amplification techniques, real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) and protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), have shown promise in detecting CWD-prions in tissues and bodily fluids. Recent studies have demonstrated that RT-QuIC yields similar results compared to ELISA and IHC. Here, we analyzed 1003 retropharyngeal lymph nodes (RPLNs) from Texas white-tailed deer. PMCA detected CWD at a higher rate compared to ELISA/IHC, identified …

Cytomulate: Accurate And Efficient Simulation Of Cytof Data, Yuqiu Yang, Kaiwen Wang, Zeyu Lu, Tao Wang, Xinlei Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Recently, many analysis tools have been devised to offer insights into data generated via cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF). However, objective evaluations of these methods remain absent as most evaluations are conducted against real data where the ground truth is generally unknown. In this paper, we develop Cytomulate, a reproducible and accurate simulation algorithm of CyTOF data, which could serve as a foundation for future method development and evaluation. We demonstrate that Cytomulate can capture various characteristics of CyTOF data and is superior in learning overall data distributions than single-cell RNA-seq-oriented methods such as scDesign2, Splatter, and generative models like LAMBDA.

Galectin-3 Cooperates With Cd47 To Suppress Phagocytosis And T-Cell Immunity In Gastric Cancer Peritoneal Metastases, Yibo Fan, Shumei Song, Yuan Li, Shilpa S Dhar, Jiankang Jin, Katsuhiro Yoshimura, Xiaodan Yao, Ruiping Wang, Ailing W Scott, Melissa Pool Pizzi, Jingjing Wu, Lang Ma, George A Calin, Samir Hanash, Linghua Wang, Michael Curran, Jaffer A Ajani

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

UNLABELLED: The peritoneal cavity is a common site of gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) metastasis. Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is resistant to current therapies and confers poor prognosis, highlighting the need to identify new therapeutic targets. CD47 conveys a "don't eat me" signal to myeloid cells upon binding its receptor signal regulatory protein alpha (SIRPα), which helps tumor cells circumvent macrophage phagocytosis and evade innate immune responses. Previous studies demonstrated that the blockade of CD47 alone results in limited clinical benefits, suggesting that other target(s) might need to be inhibited simultaneously with CD47 to elicit a strong antitumor response. Here, we found that …

Baseline Extracellular Vesicle Mirna-30c And Autophagic Ctcs Predict Chemoradiotherapy Resistance And Outcomes In Patients With Lung Cancer, Diego De Miguel-Perez, Francisco Gabriel Ortega, Rosario Guerrero Tejada, Antonio Martínez-Única, Christine B Peterson, Alessandro Russo, Muthukumar Gunasekaran, Andres F Cardona, Victor Amezcua, Jose Antonio Lorente, Jose Expósito Hernández, Christian Rolfo, Maria Jose Serrano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) is the mainstay of treatment for patients diagnosed with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). One significant challenge in the effectiveness of this therapy is the potential development of resistance mechanisms, where autophagy up-regulation has been proposed as a key contributing factor. However, there is a lack of reliable biomarkers to predict outcomes on these patients. Interestingly, for addressing this gap, extracellular vesicles (EVs) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have emerged as potential sources of such biomarkers. In this study, we investigated EV-associated miRNAs and presence of autophagic CTCs in prospectively collected serial samples from 38 …

Dissociable Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease-Related Cognitive Dysfunction And Aging On Functional Brain Network Segregation, Ziwei Zhang, Micaela Y Chan, Liang Han, Claudia A Carreno, Ezra Winter-Nelson, Gagan S Wig

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with changes in large-scale functional brain network organization. Individuals with AD exhibit less segregated resting-state brain networks compared with individuals without dementia. However, declines in brain network segregation are also evident as adult individuals grow older. Determining whether these observations reflect unique or overlapping alterations on the functional connectome of the brain is essential for understanding the impact of AD on network organization and incorporating measures of functional brain network organization toward AD characterization. Relationships between AD dementia severity and participant's age on resting-state brain system segregation were examined in 326 cognitively healthy and 275 …

Novel Clinical Trial Designs With Dose Optimization To Improve Long-Term Outcomes, Peter F Thall, Yong Zang, Andrew G Chapple, Ying Yuan, Ruitao Lin, David Marin, Pavlos Msaouel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Conventional designs for choosing a dose for a new therapy may select doses that are unsafe or ineffective and fail to optimize progression-free survival time, overall survival time, or response/remission duration. We explain and illustrate limitations of conventional dose-finding designs and make four recommendations to address these problems. When feasible, a dose-finding design should account for long-term outcomes, include screening rules that drop unsafe or ineffective doses, enroll an adequate sample size, and randomize patients among doses. As illustrations, we review three designs that include one or more of these features. The first illustration is a trial that randomized patients …

Phase 1 Study Of Vibecotamab Identifies An Optimized Dose For Treatment Of Relapsed/Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Farhad Ravandi, Asad Bashey, James Foran, Wendy Stock, Raya Mawad, Nicholas Short, Musa Yilmaz, Hagop Kantarjian, Olatoyosi Odenike, Anand Patel, Raman Garcha, William Barrett Ainsworth, Raphael Clynes, Jitendra Kanodia, Ying Ding, Huajiang Li, Steve Kye, Alice Mims

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive malignancy with unmet medical need, lacks immunotherapeutic options. CD123, the cellular receptor for interleukin-3, expressed in AML is an attractive target for tumor-specific therapy. Vibecotamab (XmAb14045), a humanized bispecific antibody, monovalently binds both CD3 and CD123 to recruit cytotoxic T cells to kill CD123+ tumor cells. This phase 1 study's primary objectives were safety and tolerability and identification of a maximum tolerated dose/recommended dose for use as monotherapy in patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Identification of a recommended phase 2 vibecotamab dose comprised 3 step-up doses (Week 1), which were noted to reduce cytokine response …

Dhodh: A Promising Target In The Treatment Of T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Amy N Sexauer, Gabriela Alexe, Karin Gustafsson, Elizabeth Zanetakos, Jelena Milosevic, Mary Ayres, Varsha Gandhi, Yana Pikman, Kimberly Stegmaier, David B Sykes

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) have a poor prognosis with few therapeutic options. With the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets, we used data from the Dependency Map project to identify dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) as one of the top metabolic dependencies in T-ALL. DHODH catalyzes the fourth step of de novo pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis. Small molecule inhibition of DHODH rapidly leads to the depletion of intracellular pyrimidine pools and forces cells to rely on extracellular salvage. In the absence of sufficient salvage, this intracellular nucleotide starvation results in the inhibition of DNA and RNA synthesis, …

The Landscape Of Alterations From 1407 Ultra-Rare Sarcomas From The Aacr Genie Database: Clinical Implications, Ryan A Denu, Justin T Moyers, Mohamed A Gouda, Anthony P Conley, Alexander J Lazar, Vivek Subbiah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Ultra-rare sarcomas (URS) comprise a group of orphan diseases with an incidence of ≤1/1,000,000 people per year. We aimed to assess clinically actionable genomic alterations in URS.

Experimental design: Data were extracted from the GENIE database using cBioPortal. OncoKB was used to assess for clinical actionability of mutations. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) was inferred from clinical sequencing data.

Results: Soft tissue (ST) URS made up 23.5% of ST sarcoma cases, and bone URS made up 16.5% of bone sarcoma cases. The most commonly mutated gene in all four groups was TP53. The most common fusions involved EWSR1. The most …

A Phase 1 Study Of Prophylactic Anakinra To Mitigate Icans In Patients With Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Paolo Strati, Andrew Jallouk, Qing Deng, Xubin Li, Lei Feng, Ryan Sun, Sherry Adkins, Swapna Johncy, Taylor Cain, Raphael E Steiner, Sairah Ahmed, Dai Chihara, Luis E Fayad, Swaminathan P Iyer, Sandra Horowitz, Loretta J Nastoupil, Ranjit Nair, Ahmed Hassan, Taher E Daoud, Misha Hawkins, Maria A Rodriguez, Elizabeth J Shpall, Jeremy L Ramdial, Partow Kebriaei, David S Hong, Jason R Westin, Sattva S Neelapu, Michael R Green

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Gasdermin D Permeabilization Of Mitochondrial Inner And Outer Membranes Accelerates And Enhances Pyroptosis, Rui Miao, Cong Jiang, Winston Y Chang, Haiwei Zhang, Jinsu An, Felicia Ho, Pengcheng Chen, Han Zhang, Caroline Junqueira, Dulguun Amgalan, Felix G Liang, Junbing Zhang, Charles L Evavold, Iva Hafner-Bratkovič, Zhibin Zhang, Pietro Fontana, Shiyu Xia, Markus Waldeck-Weiermair, Youdong Pan, Thomas Michel, Liron Bar-Peled, Hao Wu, Jonathan C Kagan, Richard N Kitsis, Peng Zhang, Xing Liu, Judy Lieberman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Gasdermin D (GSDMD)-activated inflammatory cell death (pyroptosis) causes mitochondrial damage, but its underlying mechanism and functional consequences are largely unknown. Here, we show that the N-terminal pore-forming GSDMD fragment (GSDMD-NT) rapidly damaged both inner and outer mitochondrial membranes (OMMs) leading to reduced mitochondrial numbers, mitophagy, ROS, loss of transmembrane potential, attenuated oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), and release of mitochondrial proteins and DNA from the matrix and intermembrane space. Mitochondrial damage occurred as soon as GSDMD was cleaved prior to plasma membrane damage. Mitochondrial damage was independent of the B-cell lymphoma 2 family and depended on GSDMD-NT binding to cardiolipin. Canonical and …

Cigarette Smoke Exposure Accelerates Aml Progression In Flt3-Itd Models, Mary Figueroa, Huaxian Ma, Mansour Alfayez, Daniel Enrique Morales-Mantilla, Fei Wang, Yue Lu, Marcos R Estecio, Katherine Y King, Eugenie Kleinerman, Seyed Javad Moghaddam, Naval Daver, Michael Andreeff, Marina Konopleva, Courtney Dinardo, Joya Chandra

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Beyond Bacteria: How The Intratumor Mycobiome Modulates Lung Adenocarcinoma Progression, Zahraa Rahal, Humam Kadara

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Increasing evidence suggests that tumors harbor diverse microbiomes, adding complexity to the tumor microenvironment. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Liu et al. highlight the role of the intratumor mycobiome, specifically Aspergillus sydowii, in promoting lung adenocarcinoma progression. A. sydowii enhances the recruitment and activation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells via IL-1β signaling driven by the β-glucan-mediated Dectin-1/CARD9 pathway.

A Single-Cell Atlas Of Cd19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells, Xubin Li, Jared Henderson, Max J Gordon, Irtiza Sheikh, Loretta J Nastoupil, Jason Westin, Christopher Flowers, Sairah Ahmed, Linghua Wang, Sattva S Neelapu, Paolo Strati, Qing Deng, Michael R Green

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Li et al. present a resource of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the infusion products of relapsed or refractory large B cell lymphoma (rrLBCL) patients treated with standard-of-care axicabtagene ciloleucel and identify features that are significantly different between products from responders and non-responders at 3-month followup by PET/CT, an important landmark for long-term outcomes.

Tumor-Resident Lactobacillus Iners Confer Chemoradiation Resistance Through Lactate-Induced Metabolic Rewiring, Lauren E Colbert, Molly B El Alam, Rui Wang, Tatiana Karpinets, David Lo, Erica J Lynn, Timothy A Harris, Jacob H Elnaggar, Kyoko Yoshida-Court, Katarina Tomasic, Julianna K Bronk, Julie Sammouri, Ananta V Yanamandra, Adilene V Olvera, Lily G Carlin, Travis Sims, Andrea Y Delgado Medrano, Tatiana Cisneros Napravnik, Madison O'Hara, Daniel Lin, Chike O Abana, Hannah X Li, Patricia J Eifel, Anuja Jhingran, Melissa Joyner, Lilie Lin, Lois M Ramondetta, Andrew M Futreal, Kathleen M Schmeler, Geena Mathew, Stephanie Dorta-Estremera, Jianhua Zhang, Xiaogang Wu, Nadim J Ajami, Matthew Wong, Cullen Taniguchi, Joseph F Petrosino, K Jagannadha Sastry, Pablo C Okhuysen, Sara A Martinez, Lin Tan, Iqbal Mahmud, Philip L Lorenzi, Jennifer A Wargo, Ann H Klopp

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Tumor microbiota can produce active metabolites that affect cancer and immune cell signaling, metabolism, and proliferation. Here, we explore tumor and gut microbiome features that affect chemoradiation response in patients with cervical cancer using a combined approach of deep microbiome sequencing, targeted bacterial culture, and in vitro assays. We identify that an obligate L-lactate-producing lactic acid bacterium found in tumors, Lactobacillus iners, is associated with decreased survival in patients, induces chemotherapy and radiation resistance in cervical cancer cells, and leads to metabolic rewiring, or alterations in multiple metabolic pathways, in tumors. Genomically similar L-lactate-producing lactic acid bacteria commensal to other …

Microplastics In Different Tissues Of A Commonly Consumed Fish, Mohammad Belal Hossain, Farjana Haque Pingki, Md Abdus Samad Azad, As-Ad Ujjaman Nur, Partho Banik, Bilal Ahamad Paray, Takaomi Arai, Jimmy Yu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microplastics (MPs) ingestion by fish signifies a worldwide threat to human health but limited research has examined their existence within the consumable portions (muscle) of fish. Thus, this study was undertaken to unveil the prevalence, characterization, and contamination extent of MPs across various body tissues, including the muscle of the king mackerel (S. guttatus) from the lower Meghna estuary in Bangladesh-a pioneering investigation in this region. In our analysis, we identified a total of 487 MPs, with an average abundance of 48.7 ± 20.3 MPs/individual. These MPs were distributed across different tissues, with respective concentrations of 0.84 ± …