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<title>bioRxiv Channel: Case Western Reserve University</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org</link>
<description>
This feed contains articles for bioRxiv Channel "Case Western Reserve University"
</description>

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<prism:publicationName>bioRxiv</prism:publicationName>
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<title>bioRxiv</title>
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<link>https://biorxiv.org</link>
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<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/020479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Are Genetic Interactions Influencing Gene Expression Evidence for Biological Epistasis or Statistical Artifacts? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/020479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The importance of epistasis - or statistical interactions between genetic variants - to the development of complex disease in humans has long been controversial. Genome-wide association studies of statistical interactions influencing human traits have recently become computationally feasible and have identified many putative interactions. However, several factors that are difficult to address confound the statistical models used to detect interactions and make it unclear whether statistical interactions are evidence for true molecular epistasis. In this study, we investigate whether there is evidence for epistasis regulating gene expression after accounting for technical, statistical, and biological confounding factors that affect interaction studies. We identified 1,119 (FDR=5%) interactions within cis-regulatory regions that regulate gene expression in human lymphoblastoid cell lines, a tightly controlled, largely genetically determined phenotype. Approximately half of these interactions replicated in an independent dataset (363 of 803 tested). We then performed an exhaustive analysis of both known and novel confounders, including ceiling/floor effects, missing genotype combinations, haplotype effects, single variants tagged through linkage disequilibrium, and population stratification. Every replicated interaction could be explained by at least one of these confounders, and replication in independent datasets did not protect against this issue. Assuming the confounding factors provide a more parsimonious explanation for each interaction, we find it unlikely that cis-regulatory interactions contribute strongly to human gene expression. As this calls into question the relevance of interactions for other human phenotypes, the analytic framework used here will be useful for protecting future studies of epistasis against confounding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alexandra Fish</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John A. Capra</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>William S Bush</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2015-06-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/020479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Are Genetic Interactions Influencing Gene Expression Evidence for Biological Epistasis or Statistical Artifacts?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2015-06-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/027235v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In silico assessment of primers for eDNA studies using PrimerTree and application to characterize the biodiversity surrounding the Cuyahoga River 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/027235v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) enables the detection of species of interest from water and soil samples, typically using species-specific PCR. Here, we describe a method to characterize the biodiversity of a given environment by amplifying eDNA using primer pairs targeting a wide range of taxa and high-throughput sequencing for species identification. We tested this approach on 91 water samples of 40 mL collected along the Cuyahoga River (Ohio, USA). We amplified eDNA using 12 primer pairs targeting mammals, fish, amphibians, birds, bryophytes, arthropods, copepods, plants and several microorganism taxa and sequenced all PCR products simultaneously by high-throughput sequencing. Overall, we identified DNA sequences from 15 species of fish, 17 species of mammals, 8 species of birds, 15 species of arthropods, one turtle and one salamander. Interestingly, in addition to aquatic and semiaquatic animals, we identified DNA from terrestrial species that live near the Cuyahoga River. We also identified DNA from one Asian carp species invasive to the Great Lakes but that had not been previously reported in the Cuyahoga River. Our study shows that analysis of eDNA extracted from small water samples using wide-range PCR amplification combined with high-throughput sequencing can provide a broad perspective on biological diversity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Matthew Cannon</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James Hester</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amanda Shalkhauser</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ernest R Chan</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyle Logue</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott T Small</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>David Serre</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2015-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/027235</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In silico assessment of primers for eDNA studies using PrimerTree and application to characterize the biodiversity surrounding the Cuyahoga River]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2015-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/029777v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
QPot: An R Package for Stochastic Differential Equation Quasi-Potential Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/029777v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
QPot (pronounced [Formula]) is an R package for analyzing two-dimensional systems of stochastic differential equations. It provides users with a wide range of tools to simulate, analyze, and visualize the dynamics of these systems. One of QPots key features is the computation of the quasi-potential, an important tool for studying stochastic systems. Quasi-potentials are particularly useful for comparing the relative stabilities of equilibria in systems with alternative stable states. This paper describes QPots primary functions, and explains how quasi-potentials can yield insights about the dynamics of stochastic systems. Three worked examples guide users through the application of QPots functions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Christopher M. Moore</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christopher R. Stieha</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ben C. Nolting</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maria K. Cameron</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karen C. Abbott</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2015-10-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/029777</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[QPot: An R Package for Stochastic Differential Equation Quasi-Potential Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2015-10-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/030296v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reconstitution of CO2 regulation of SLAC1 anion channel and function of CO2-permeable PIP2;1 aquaporin as carbonic anhydrase 4 interactor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/030296v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Daily dark periods cause an increase in the leaf CO2 concentration (Ci) and the continuing atmospheric [CO2] rise also increases Ci. Elevated Ci causes closing of stomatal pores thus regulating gas exchange of plants. The molecular signaling mechanisms leading to CO2-induced stomatal closure are only partially understood. Here we demonstrate that high intracellular [Formula] enhances currents mediated by the guard cell S-type anion channel SLAC1 when co-expressing either of the protein kinases OST1, CPK6 or CPK23 in Xenopus oocytes. Split-ubiquitin screening identified the PIP2;1 aquaporin as an interactor of the {beta}CA4 carbonic anhydrase, which was confirmed in split luciferase, bimolecular fluorescence complementation and co-immunoprecipitation experiments. PIP2;1 exhibited CO2 permeability. Co-expression of {beta}CA4 and PIP2;1 with OST1-SLAC1 or CPK6/23-SLAC1 enabled extracellular CO2 enhancement of SLAC1 anion channel activity. An inactive PIP2;1 point mutation was identified which abrogated water and CO2 permeability and extracellular CO2 regulation of SLAC1 activity in Xenopus oocytes. These findings identify the CO2-permeable PIP2;1 aquaporin as key interactor of carbonic anhydrases, show functional reconstitution of extracellular CO2 signaling to ion channel regulation and implicate SLAC1 as a bicarbonate-responsive protein in CO2 regulation of S-type anion channels.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cun Wang</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honghong Hu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue Qin</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brian Zeise</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Danyun Xu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wouter-Jan Rappel</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walter F Boron</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Julian I Schroeder</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2015-11-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/030296</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reconstitution of CO2 regulation of SLAC1 anion channel and function of CO2-permeable PIP2;1 aquaporin as carbonic anhydrase 4 interactor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2015-11-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/049064v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Discrete step sizes of molecular motors lead to bimodal non-Gaussian velocity distributions under force 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/049064v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fluctuations in the physical properties of biological machines are inextricably linked to their functions. Distributions of run-lengths and velocities of processive molecular motors, like kinesin-1, are accessible through single molecule techniques, yet there is lack a rigorous theoretical model for these probabilities up to now. We derive exact analytic results for a kinetic model to predict the resistive force (F) dependent velocity (P(v)) and run-length (P(n)) distribution functions of generic finitely processive molecular motors that take forward and backward steps on a track. Our theory quantitatively explains the zero force kinesin-1 data for both P(n) and P(v) using the detachment rate as the only parameter, thus allowing us to obtain the variations of these quantities under load. At non-zero F, P(v) is non-Gaussian, and is bimodal with peaks at positive and negative values of v. The prediction that P(v) is bimodal is a consequence of the discrete step-size of kinesin-1, and remains even when the step-size distribution is taken into account. Although the predictions are based on analyses of kinesin-1 data, our results are general and should hold for any processive motor, which walks on a track by taking discrete steps.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huong Vu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaon Chakrabarti</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michael Hinczewski</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dave Thirumalai</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/049064</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Discrete step sizes of molecular motors lead to bimodal non-Gaussian velocity distributions under force]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/049502v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Noise Control In Gene Regulatory Networks With Negative Feedback 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/049502v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genes and proteins regulate cellular functions through complex circuits of biochemical reactions. Fluctuations in the components of these regulatory networks result in noise that invariably corrupts the signal, possibly compromising function. Here, we create a practical formalism based on ideas introduced by Wiener and Kolmogorov (WK) for filtering noise in engineered communications systems to quantitatively assess the extent to which noise can be controlled in biological processes involving negative feedback. Application of the theory, which reproduces the previously proven scaling of the lower bound for noise suppression in terms of the number of signaling events, shows that a tetracycline repressor-based negative-regulatory gene circuit behaves as a WK filter. For the class of Hill-like nonlinear regulatory functions, this type of filter provides the optimal reduction in noise. Our theoretical approach can be readily combined with experimental measurements of response functions in a wide variety of genetic circuits, to elucidate the general principles by which biological networks minimize noise.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Michael Hinczewski</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dave Thirumalai</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/049502</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Noise Control In Gene Regulatory Networks With Negative Feedback]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/070920v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein Collapse is Encoded in the Folded State Architecture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/070920v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Folded states of single domain globular proteins, the workhorses in cells, are compact with high packing density. It is known that the radius of gyration, Rg, of both the folded and unfolded (created by adding denaturants) states increase as N{nu} where N is the number of amino acids in the protein. The values of the celebrated Flory exponent{nu} are, respectively, [Formula], and {approx} 0.6 in the folded and unfolded states, which coincide with those found in homopolymers in poor and good solvents, respectively. However, the extent of compaction of the unfolded state of a protein under low denaturant concentration, conditions favoring the formation of the folded state, is unknown. This problem which goes to the heart of how proteins fold, with implications for the evolution of foldable sequences, is unsolved. We develop a theory based on polymer physics concepts that uses the contact map of proteins as input to quantitatively assess collapsibility of proteins. The model, which includes only two-body excluded volume interactions and attractive interactions reflecting the contact map, has only expanded and compact states. Surprisingly, we find that although protein collapsibility is universal, the propensity to be compact depends on the protein architecture. Application of the theory to over two thousand proteins shows that the extent of collapsibility depends not only on N but also on the contact map reflecting the native fold structure. A major prediction of the theory is that {beta}-sheet proteins are far more collapsible than structures dominated by -helices. The theory and the accompanying simulations, validating the theoretical predictions, fully resolve the apparent controversy between conclusions reached using different experimental probes assessing the extent of compaction of a couple proteins. As a by product, we show that the theory correctly predicts the scaling of the collapse temperature of homopolymers as a function of the number of monomers. By calculating the criterion for collapsibility as a function of protein length we provide quantitative insights into the reasons why single domain proteins are small and the physical reasons for the origin of multi-domain proteins. We also show that non-coding RNA molecules, whose collapsibility is similar to proteins with {beta}-sheet structures, must undergo collapse prior to folding, adding support to "Compactness Selection Hypothesis" proposed in the context of RNA compaction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Himadri S Samanta</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pavel Zhuravlev</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michael Hinczewski</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naoto Hori</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaon Chakrabarti</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dave Thirumalai</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/070920</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein Collapse is Encoded in the Folded State Architecture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/079806v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis is dependent on neuronal receptor PTPσ 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/079806v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Due to limited understanding of disease mechanisms and the lack of molecular targets, translational research for Alzheimer disease has not been fruitful hitherto. Here we report findings that indicate neuronal receptor phosphatase PTP{sigma} as a potential therapeutic target for this dementia. In two TgAPP mouse models, a spectrum of Alzheimer-related pathologies, including aged-induced progression of {beta}-amyloidosis, Tau aggregation, neuroinflammation, synaptic loss, as well as behavioral deficits, all show unambiguous dependency on PTP{sigma}. APP amyloidogenic metabolites diminish upon PTP{sigma} genetic depletion or pharmacological inhibition. Binding to APP in the brain, PTP{sigma} regulates APP proteolytic metabolism via its phosphatase activity, likely through downstream signaling that modulates APP membrane localization and affinity to the {beta}-secretase, in a specific manner that does not broadly affect {beta}- and {gamma}-secretase processing of other major substrates. Together, these findings unveil a gatekeeping role of PTP{sigma} upstream in Alzheimer-like pathogenic pathway.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuanzheng Gu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaoling Shu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Angela Corona</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kui Xu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen F Yi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shannon Chen</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Man Luo</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michel Tremblay</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gary E Landreth</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Randy Nelson</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jerry Silver</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yingjie Shen</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/079806</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis is dependent on neuronal receptor PTPσ]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/082792v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide association analyses of sleep disturbance traits identify new loci and highlight shared genetics with neuropsychiatric and metabolic traits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/082792v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chronic sleep disturbances, associated with cardio-metabolic diseases, psychiatric disorders and all-cause mortality1,2, affect 25-30% of adults worldwide3. While environmental factors contribute importantly to self-reported habitual sleep duration and disruption, these traits are heritable4-9, and gene identification should improve our understanding of sleep function, mechanisms linking sleep to disease, and development of novel therapies. We report single and multi-trait genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) of self-reported sleep duration, insomnia symptoms including difficulty initiating and/or maintaining sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness in the UK Biobank (n=112,586), with discovery of loci for insomnia symptoms (near MEIS1, TMEM132E, CYCL1, TGFBI in females and WDR27 in males), excessive daytime sleepiness (near AR/OPHN1) and a composite sleep trait (near INADL and HCRTR2), as well as replication of a locus for sleep duration (at PAX-8). Genetic correlation was observed between longer sleep duration and schizophrenia (rG=0.29, p=1.90x10-13) and between increased excessive daytime sleepiness and increased adiposity traits (BMI rG=0.20, p=3.12x10-09; waist circumference rG=0.20, p=2.12x10-07).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lane, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vlasac, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bechtold, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowden, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emsley, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Little, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luik, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loudon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheer, F. A. J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Purcell, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyle, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawlor, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redline, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rutter, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxena, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-10-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/082792</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide association analyses of sleep disturbance traits identify new loci and highlight shared genetics with neuropsychiatric and metabolic traits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-10-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/100610v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Long-term sustained malaria control leads to inbreeding and fragmentation of Plasmodium vivax populations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/100610v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax is resistant to malaria control strategies maintaining high genetic diversity even when transmission is low. To investigate whether declining P. vivax transmission leads to increasing P. vivax population structure that would facilitate elimination, we genotyped samples from a wide range of transmission intensities and spatial scales in the Southwest Pacific, including two time points at one site (Tetere, Solomon Islands) during intensified control. Analysis of 887 P. vivax microsatellite haplotypes from hyperendemic Papua New Guinea (PNG, n = 443), meso-hyperendemic Solomon Islands (n= 420), and hypoendemic Vanuatu (n=24) revealed increasing population structure and multilocus linkage disequilibrium and a modest decline in diversity as transmission decreases over space and time. In Solomon Islands, which has had sustained control efforts for 20 years, and Vanuatu, which has experienced sustained low transmission for many years, significant population structure was observed at different spatial scales. We conclude that control efforts will eventually impact P. vivax population structure and with sustained pressure, populations may eventually fragment into a limited number of clustered foci that could be targeted for elimination.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Waltmann, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koepfli, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tessier, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karl, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darcy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wini, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, G. L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnadas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jannison, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karunajeewa, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyd, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittaker, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahlo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/100610</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Long-term sustained malaria control leads to inbreeding and fragmentation of Plasmodium vivax populations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/108175v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Population dynamics of mutualism and intraspecific density dependence:how θ-logistic-like density dependence affects mutualistic positive feedback 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/108175v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutualism describes the biological phenomenon where two or more species are reciprocally beneficial, regardless of their ecological intimacy or evolutionary history. Classic theory shows that mutualistic benefit must be relatively weak, or else it overpowers the stabilizing influence of intraspecific competition and leads to unrealistic, unbounded population growth. Interestingly, the conclusion that strong positive interactions lead to runaway population growth is strongly grounded in the behavior of a single model. This model [-] the Lotka-Volterra competition model with a sign change to generate mutualism rather than competition between species [-] assumes logistic growth of each species plus a linear interaction term to represent the mutualism. While it is commonly held that the linear interaction term is to blame for the models unrealistic behavior, we show here that a linear mutualism added to a{theta} -logistic model of population growth can prevent unbounded growth. We find that when density dependence is decelerating, the benefit of mutualism at equilibrium is greater than when density dependence is accelerating. Although there is a greater benefit, however, decelerating density dependence tends to destabilize populations whereas accelerating density dependence is always stable. We interpret these findings tentatively, but with promise for the understanding of the population ecology of mutualism by generating several predictions relating growth rates of mutualist populations and the strength of mutualistic interaction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moore, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catella, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/108175</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Population dynamics of mutualism and intraspecific density dependence:how θ-logistic-like density dependence affects mutualistic positive feedback]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/109652v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive Analysis of Constraint on the Spatial Distribution of Missense Variants in Human Protein Structures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/109652v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The spatial distribution of genetic variation within proteins is shaped by evolutionary constraint and thus can provide insights into the functional importance of protein regions and the potential pathogenicity of protein alterations. Here, we comprehensively evaluate the 3D spatial patterns of constraint on human germline and somatic variation in 4,568 solved protein structures. Different classes of coding variants have significantly different spatial distributions. Neutral missense variants exhibit a range of 3D constraint patterns, with a general trend of spatial dispersion driven by constraint on core residues. In contrast, germline and somatic disease-causing variants are significantly more likely to be clustered in protein structure space. We demonstrate that this difference in the spatial distributions of disease-associated and benign germline variants provides a signature for accurately classifying variants of unknown significance (VUS) that is complementary to current approaches for VUS classification. We further illustrate the clinical utility of our approach by classifying new mutations identified from patients with familial idiopathic pneumonia (FIP) that segregate with disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sivley, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kropski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheehan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cogan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blackwell, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meiler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capra, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/109652</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive Analysis of Constraint on the Spatial Distribution of Missense Variants in Human Protein Structures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/110957v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A common haplotype lowers SPI1 (PU.1) expression in myeloid cells and delays age at onset for Alzheimer’s disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/110957v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this study we used age at onset of Alzheimers disease (AD), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers, and cis-expression quantitative trait loci (cis-eQTL) datasets to identify candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying AD GWAS loci. In a genome-wide survival analysis of 40,255 samples, eight of the previously reported AD risk loci are significantly (P < 5x10-8) or suggestively (P < 1x10-5) associated with age at onset-defined survival (AAOS) and a further fourteen novel loci reached suggestive significance. Using stratified LD score regression we demonstrated a significant enrichment of AD heritability in hematopoietic cells of the myeloid and B-lymphoid lineage. We then investigated the impact of these 22 AAOS-associated variants on CSF biomarkers and gene expression in cells of the myeloid lineage. In particular, the minor allele of rs1057233 (G), within the previously reported CELF1 AD risk locus, shows association with higher age at onset of AD (P=8.40x10-6), higher CSF levels of A{beta}42 (P=1.2x10-4), and lower expression of SPI1 in monocytes (P=1.50x10-105) and macrophages (P=6.41x10-87). SPI1 encodes PU.1, a transcription factor critical for myeloid cell development and function. AD heritability is enriched within the SPI1 cistromes of monocytes and macrophages, implicating a myeloid PU.1 target gene network in the etiology of AD. Finally, experimentally altered PU.1 levels are correlated with phagocytic activity of BV2 mouse microglial cells and specific changes in the expression of multiple myeloid-expressed genes, including the mouse orthologs of AD-associated genes, APOE, CLU/APOJ, CD33, MS4A4A/MS4A6A, and TYROBP. Our results collectively suggest that lower SPI1 expression reduces AD risk by modulating myeloid cell gene expression and function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, K.-l.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcora, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pimenova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Narzo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapoor, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertelsen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fairfax, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Czajkowski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chouraki, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grenier-Boley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellenguez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deming, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKenzie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raj, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Renton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budde, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzpatrick, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeStefano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikram, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del-Aguila, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ibanez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sims, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Escott-Price, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayeux, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrer, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambert, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Duijn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>L</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/110957</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A common haplotype lowers SPI1 (PU.1) expression in myeloid cells and delays age at onset for Alzheimer’s disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120485v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The mismatch in distributions of vertebrates and the plants that they disperse 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120485v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Little is known about how mutualistic interactions affect the distribution of species richness on broad geographic scales. It has been predicted that the richness of species involved in obligate mutualisms should be positively associated across their range. Whereas, if mutualisms are facilitative, the distribution of mutualists should be correlated with other factors. This study is the first study to compare the co-distribution of mutualist species in general and seed dispersal mutualisms specifically. We used geographic distributions of plant and animal mutualists to investigate the co-distribution and patterns of seed dispersal mutualisms. We found the mutualism between dispersers and plants does not account for the distribution of either group. In fact, there is a mismatch of richness between plants and the animals that disperse their seeds. Environmental factors are better predictors of both animal distribution and seed dispersal mutualisms across North America.nnStatement of authorshipJD, CM, and SV conceived the original project idea. Plant data were compiled and analyzed by CM and SV, and JD compiled animal and environmental data. JD standardized and formatted all geographical data, and JD and CM performed all statistical analyses. JD wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors contributed significantly to the revisions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dittel, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vander Wall, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/120485</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The mismatch in distributions of vertebrates and the plants that they disperse]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120543v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
De novo BK channel mutation causes epilepsy by regulating voltage-dependent, but not calcium-dependent, activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120543v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases. Here we report the first de novo mutation in the BK channel (p.N995S) that causes epilepsy in two independent families. The p.N995S mutant channel showed a markedly increased macroscopic potassium current mediated by increases in both channel open probability and channel open dwell time. Mutation p.N995S affects the voltage-activation pathway of BK channel, but does not affect the calcium sensitivity. Paxilline blocks potassium currents from both WT and mutant BK channels. We also identified two variants of unknown significance, p.E656A and p.N1159S in epilepsy patients. However, they do not affect BK channel functions, therefore, are unlikely to be a cause of disease. These results expand the BK channelopathy to a more common disease of epilepsy, suggest that the BK channel is a drug target for treatment of epilepsy, and highlight the importance of functional studies in the era of precision medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willemsen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poschmann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oundjian, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snoeijen-Schouwenaars, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamsteeg, E.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/120543</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[De novo BK channel mutation causes epilepsy by regulating voltage-dependent, but not calcium-dependent, activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/123695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial Structure Of Synchronized Inhibition In The Olfactory Bulb 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/123695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Olfactory sensory input is detected by receptor neurons in the nose which then send information to the olfactory bulb, the first brain region for processing olfactory information. Within the olfactory bulb, many local circuit interneurons, including axonless granule cells, function to facilitate fine odor discrimination. How interneurons interact with principal cells to affect bulbar processing is not known though the mechanism is likely to be different than in sensory cortical regions since the olfactory bulb lacks an obvious topographical organization; neighboring glomerular columns, representing inputs from different receptor neuron subtypes, typically have different odor tuning. Determining the spatial scale over which interneurons such as granule cells can affect principal cells is a critical step towards understanding how the olfactory bulb operates. We addressed this question by assaying inhibitory synchrony using intracellular recordings from pairs of principal cells with different inter-somatic spacing. We find that in acute rat olfactory bulb slices, inhibitory synchrony is evident in the spontaneous synaptic input in mitral cells separated up to 300 m. At all inter-somatic spacing assayed, inhibitory synchrony was dependent on fast Na+ channels, suggesting that action potentials in granule cells function to coordinate GABA release at relatively distant dendrodendritic synapses formed throughout the the dendritic arbor. Our results suggest that individual granule cells are able to influence relatively large groups of mitral and tufted cells belonging to clusters of at least 15 glomerular modules, providing a potential mechanism to integrate signals reflecting a wide variety of odorants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arnson, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strowbridge, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/123695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial Structure Of Synchronized Inhibition In The Olfactory Bulb]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/125062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Burst Activation Of Dopamine Neurons Produces Prolonged Post-Burst Availability Of Actively Released Dopamine 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/125062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Both phasic and tonic modes of neurotransmission are implicated in critical functions assigned to dopamine. In learning, for example, sub-second phasic responses of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons to salient events serve as teaching signals, but learning is also interrupted by dopamine antagonists administered minutes after training. Our findings bridge the multiple timescales of dopamine neurotransmission by demonstrating that burst stimulation of VTA dopamine neurons produces a prolonged post-burst increase (> 20 min) of extracellular dopamine in nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. This elevation is not due to spillover from the stimulation surge but depends on impulse flow-mediated dopamine release. We identified Rho-mediated internalization of dopamine transporter as a mechanism responsible for prolonged availability of actively released dopamine. These results demonstrate that phasic and tonic dopamine neurotransmission can be a continuum and may explain why both modes of signaling are critical for motivational and cognitive functions associated with dopamine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lohani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martig, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Underhill, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeFrancesco, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rinaman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moghaddam, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/125062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Burst Activation Of Dopamine Neurons Produces Prolonged Post-Burst Availability Of Actively Released Dopamine]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/130112v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Optimal Information Transfer In Enzymatic Networks: A Field Theoretic Formulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/130112v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Signaling in enzymatic networks is typically triggered by environmental fluctuations, resulting in a series of stochastic chemical reactions, leading to corruption of the signal by noise. For example, information flow is initiated by binding of extracellular ligands to receptors, which is transmitted through a cascade involving kinase-phosphatase stochastic chemical reactions. For a class of such networks, we develop a general field-theoretic approach in order to calculate the error in signal transmission as a function of an appropriate control variable. Application of the theory to a simple push-pull network, a module in the kinase-phosphatase cascade, recovers the exact results for error in signal transmission previously obtained using umbral calculus (Phys. Rev. X., 4, 041017 (2014)). We illustrate the generality of the theory by studying the minimal errors in noise reduction in a reaction cascade with two connected push-pull modules. Such a cascade behaves as an effective three-species network with a pseudo intermediate. In this case, optimal information transfer, resulting in the smallest square of the error between the input and output, occurs with a time delay, which is given by the inverse of the decay rate of the pseudo intermediate. Surprisingly, in these examples the minimum error computed using simulations that take non-linearities and discrete nature of molecules into account coincides with the predictions of a linear theory. In contrast, there are substantial deviations between simulations and predictions of the linear theory in error in signal propagation in an enzymatic push-pull network for a certain range of parameters. Inclusion of second order perturbative corrections shows that differences between simulations and theoretical predictions are minimized. Our study establishes that a field theoretic formulation of stochastic biological signaling offers a systematic way to understand error propagation in networks of arbitrary complexity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Samanta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thirumalai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/130112</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Optimal Information Transfer In Enzymatic Networks: A Field Theoretic Formulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/132175v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Widespread Inter-Chromosomal Epistasis Regulates Glucose Homeostasis And Gene Expression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/132175v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The relative contributions of additive versus non-additive interactions in the regulation of complex traits remains controversial. This may be in part because large-scale epistasis has traditionally been difficult to detect in complex, multi-cellular organisms. We hypothesized that it would be easier to detect interactions using mouse chromosome substitution strains that simultaneously incorporate allelic variation in many genes on a controlled genetic background. Analyzing metabolic traits and gene expression levels in the offspring of a series of crosses between mouse chromosome substitution strains demonstrated that inter-chromosomal epistasis was a dominant feature of these complex traits. Epistasis typically accounted for a larger proportion of the heritable effects than those due solely to additive effects. These epistatic interactions typically resulted in trait values returning to the levels of the parental CSS host strain. Due to the large epistatic effects, analyses that did not account for interactions consistently underestimated the true effect sizes due to allelic variation or failed to detect the loci controlling trait variation. These studies demonstrate that epistatic interactions are a common feature of complex traits and thus identifying these interactions is key to understanding their genetic regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-05-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/132175</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Widespread Inter-Chromosomal Epistasis Regulates Glucose Homeostasis And Gene Expression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-05-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/140202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ccr4 And Pop2 Control Poly(A) Tail Length In Saccharomyces cerevisiae 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/140202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Messenger RNA degradation is an important aspect of post-transcriptional gene regulation and shortening the poly(A) tail is suggested to be the rate-limiting step in mRNA degradation. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Ccr4-Not complex is the major deadenylase and contains two subunits with exoribonuclease domains, Ccr4 and Pop2. Although the role of Ccr4 and Pop2 in deadenylation has previously been studied using individual reporter mRNAs, their activity has not been studied transcriptome-wide. Here, we describe END-seq, a method to accurately measure poly(A) tail lengths of individual mRNAs transcriptome-wide, and have used this assay to examine the impact of deleting or mutating CCR4 and POP2 on steady state poly(A) tail length. We found that Ccr4 and Pop2 have differential effects on the poly(A) tail lengths of individual mRNAs. Additionally, though Pop2 has previously been reported to have exonuclease activity, mutations that render it catalytically inactive have no effect on steady-state poly(A) tail lengths. Furthermore, mutations that disrupt the interaction between Ccr4 and Pop2 result in longer poly(A) tails. We also observe an inverse correlation between codon optimality and poly(A) tail length - transcripts containing predominantly optimal codons display fewer changes in poly(A) tail length upon deletion of Ccr4 or Pop2 than those containing less optimal codons. Together, these results indicate that Pop2 modulates poly(A) tail length, at least partially, via its association with Ccr4 and that Pop2 improves the function of Ccr4 in regulating poly(A) tail length. These data provide important insights into poly(A) tail length dynamics in yeast and demonstrate that END-seq is an efficient and accurate method to study poly(A) tail length.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Balagopal, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolisetty, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al Husaini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graveley, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-05-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/140202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ccr4 And Pop2 Control Poly(A) Tail Length In Saccharomyces cerevisiae]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-05-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/143933v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Multiple Sclerosis Genomic Map: Role of peripheral immune cells and resident microglia in susceptibility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/143933v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractWe assembled and analyzed genetic data of 47,351 multiple sclerosis (MS) subjects and 68,284 control subjects and establish a reference map of the genetic architecture of MS that includes 200 autosomal susceptibility variants outside the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), one chromosome X variant, and 32 independent associations within the extended MHC. We used an ensemble of methods to prioritize up to 551 potentially associated MS susceptibility genes, that implicate multiple innate and adaptive pathways distributed across the cellular components of the immune system. Using expression profiles from purified human microglia, we do find enrichment for MS genes in these brain - resident immune cells. Thus, while MS is most likely initially triggered by perturbation of peripheral immune responses the functional responses of microglia and other brain cells are also altered and may have a role in targeting an autoimmune process to the central nervous system.nnOne Sentence SummaryWe report a detailed genetic and genomic map of multiple sclerosis, and describe the role of putatively affected genes in the peripheral immune system and brain resident microglia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>- International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consorti,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patsopoulos, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baranzini, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santaniello, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoostari, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotsapas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beecham, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Replogle, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vlachos, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCabe, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pers, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandes, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keenan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cimpean, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winn, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panteliadis, I.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robbins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andlauer, T. F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarzycki, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubois, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bach Sondergaard, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sellebjerg, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soelberg Sorensen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ullum, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wegner Thoerner, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saarela, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cournu-Rebeix, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damotte, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fontaine, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guillot-Noel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathrop, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vukusik, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berthele, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biberacher, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>B</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/143933</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Multiple Sclerosis Genomic Map: Role of peripheral immune cells and resident microglia in susceptibility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/155416v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Positively Selected Enhancer Elements Endow Tumor Cells with MetastaticCompetence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/155416v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metastasis results from a complex set of traits acquired by tumor cells, distinct from those necessary for tumorigenesis. Here, we investigate the contribution of enhancer elements to the metastatic phenotype of osteosarcoma. Through epigenomic profiling, we identify substantial differences in enhancer activity between primary and metastatic tumors in human patients as well as nearisogenic pairs of high and low lung-metastatic osteosarcoma cells. We term these regions Metastatic Variant Enhancer Loci (Met-VELs). We demonstrate that these Met-VELs drive coordinated waves of gene expression during metastatic colonization of the lung. Met-VELs cluster non-randomly, indicating that activity of these enhancers and their associated gene targets are positively selected. As evidence of this causal association, osteosarcoma lung metastasis is inhibited by global interruptions of Met-VEL-associated gene expression via pharmacologic BET inhibition, by knockdown of AP-1 transcription factors that occupy Met-VELs, and by knockdown or functional inhibition of individual genes activated by Met-VELs, such as F3. We further show that genetic deletion of a single Met-VEL at the F3 locus blocks metastatic cell outgrowth in the lung. These findings indicate that Met-VELs and the genes they regulate play a functional role in metastasis and may be suitable targets for anti-metastatic therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Morrow, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayles, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Funnell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saiakhova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lizardo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapteijn, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mendoza, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gambarotti, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Righi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiFeo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meltzer, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Picci, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Versteeg, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stamatoyannopoulos, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khanna, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/155416</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Positively Selected Enhancer Elements Endow Tumor Cells with MetastaticCompetence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/155887v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CD55 regulates self-renewal and cisplatin resistance in endometrioid tumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/155887v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Effective targeting of cancer stem cells (CSCs) requires neutralization of self-renewal and chemoresistance, however these phenotypes are often regulated by distinct molecular mechanisms. Here we report the ability to target both of these phenotypes via CD55, an intrinsic cell surface complement inhibitor, which was identified in a comparative analysis between CSCs and non-CSCs in endometrioid cancer models. In this context, CD55 functions in a complement-independent manner and required lipid raft localization for CSC maintenance and cisplatin resistance. CD55 regulated self-renewal and core pluripotency genes via ROR2/JNK signaling and in parallel cisplatin resistance via LCK signaling, which induced DNA repair genes. Targeting LCK signaling via saracatinib, an inhibitor currently undergoing clinical evaluation, sensitized chemoresistant cells to cisplatin. Collectively, our findings identify CD55 as a unique signaling node that drives self-renewal and therapeutic resistance via a bifurcating signaling axis and provide an opportunity to target both signaling pathways in endometrioid tumors.nnSUMMARYCD55 is a membrane complement regulatory protein that attenuates complement-mediated cytotoxicity. Saygin et al. elucidate a new role for CD55 as a signaling hub for cancer stem cell self-renewal and cisplatin resistance pathways in endometrioid tumors and open a new line of research into chemotherapeutic-refractory cancers.nnAbbreviations
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Saygin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiechert, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, V. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alluru, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thiagarajan, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hale, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chumakova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarrar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parker, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindner, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagaraj, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiFeo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdul-Karim, F. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michener, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rose, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeBernardo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahdi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCrae, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reizes, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/155887</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CD55 regulates self-renewal and cisplatin resistance in endometrioid tumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/156075v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modulation of Ether-a-go-go related gene (ERG) current governs intrinsic persistent activity in rodent neocortical pyramidal cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/156075v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While cholinergic receptor activation has long been known to dramatically enhance the excitability of cortical neurons, the cellular mechanisms responsible for this effect are not well understood. We used intracellular recordings in rat neocortical brain slices to assess the ionic mechanisms supporting persistent firing modes triggered by depolarizing stimuli following cholinergic receptor activation. We found multiple lines of evidence suggesting that a component of the underlying hyperexcitability associated with persistent firing reflects a reduction in the standing (leak) K+ current mediated by Ether-a-go-go-Related Gene (ERG) channels. Three chemically diverse ERG channel blockers (terfenadine, ErgToxin-1, and E-4031) abolished persistent firing and the underlying increase in input resistance in deep pyramidal cells in temporal and prefrontal association neocortex. Calcium accumulation during triggering stimuli appear to attenuate ERG currents, leading to membrane potential depolarization and increased input resistance, two critical elements generating persistent firing. Our results also suggest that ERG current normally governs cortical neuron responses to depolarizing stimuli by opposing prolonged discharges and by enhancing the post-stimulus repolarization. The broad expression of ERG channels and the ability of ERG blocks to abolish persistent firing evoked by both synaptic and intracellular step stimuli suggests modulation of ERG channels may underlie many forms of persistent activity observed in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cui, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strowbridge, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/156075</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modulation of Ether-a-go-go related gene (ERG) current governs intrinsic persistent activity in rodent neocortical pyramidal cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/156646v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct epigenetic shift in a subset of Glioma CpG island methylator phenotype (G-CIMP) during tumor recurrence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/156646v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Histomorphology and current grading schemes are unable to predict glioma relapse and malignant tumor progression. We reported that the IDH-mutant associated Glioma-CpG Island Methylator Phenotype (G-CIMP) can be further divided into two clinically distinct subtypes independent of histopathological grading (G-CIMP-high and -low) with evidence of correlation with tumor progression. Here we performed a comprehensive epigenomic analysis of 74 longitudinally collected glioma samples (grade II-IV) to understand malignant recurrence from G-CIMP-high to G-CIMP-low. G-CIMP-low recurrence appeared in 12% of all gliomas and resemble IDH-wildtype primary glioblastoma. G-CIMP-low recurrence can be characterized by distinct epigenetic changes at candidate functional tissue enhancers with AP-1/SOX binding elements, stem cell-like epigenomic phenotype, and genomic instability. Finally, we defined a set of candidate biomarker signatures that predict recurrence of G-CIMP-low with clinically relevance on patient outcomes. Our study provides opportunity for refined clinical trial designs and therapeutic targets that limit progression to more aggressive G-CIMP-low phenotype.nnHIGHLIGHTSO_LIIndolent G-CIMP-high progresses to aggressive G-CIMP-low phenotypenC_LIO_LIIncidence of G-CIMP-low recurrent tumors are 3 times greater than G-CIMP-low primarynC_LIO_LIG-CIMP-low recurrent tumors share epigenomic features with IDH-wildtype primary GBMnC_LIO_LIPredictive biomarkers of G-CIMP-low progression at primary diagnosisnC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de Souza, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabedot, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malta, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stetson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morozova, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sokolov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laird, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiznerowicz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iavarone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>deCarvalho, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanborn, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonald, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedman, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirapelli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poisson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikkelsen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlotti, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalkanis, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zenklusen, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salama, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noushmehr, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/156646</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct epigenetic shift in a subset of Glioma CpG island methylator phenotype (G-CIMP) during tumor recurrence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/157362v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Recapitulating bone development for tissue regeneration through engineered mesenchymal condensations and mechanical cues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/157362v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Large bone defects cannot heal without intervention and have high complication rates even with the best treatments available. In contrast, bone fractures naturally healing with high success rates by recapitulating the process of bone development through endochondral ossification.1 Endochondral tissue engineering may represent a promising paradigm, but large bone defects are unable to naturally form a callus. We engineered mesenchymal condensations featuring local morphogen presentation (TGF-{beta}1) to mimic the cellular organization and lineage progression of the early limb bud. As mechanical forces are 2,3 critical for proper endochondral ossification during bone morphogenesis2,3 and fracture healing, we hypothesized that mechanical cues would be important for endochondral regeneration.4,5 Here, using fixation plates that modulate ambulatory load transfer through dynamic tuning of axial compliance, we found that in vivo mechanical loading was necessary to restore bone function to large bone defects through endochondral ossification. Endochondral regeneration produced zonal cartilage and primary spongiosa mimetic of the native growth plate. Live human chondrocytes contributed to endochondral regeneration in vivo, while cell devitalization prior to condensation transplantation abrogated bone formation. Mechanical loading induced regeneration comparable to high-dose BMP-2 delivery, but without heterotopic bone formation and with order-of-magnitude greater mechanosensitivity.6-8 In vitro, mechanical loading promoted chondrogenesis, and upregulated pericellular collagen 6 deposition and angiogenic gene expression. Consistently, in vivo mechanical loading regulated cartilage formation and neovascular invasion dependent on load timing. Together, this study represents the first demonstration of the effects of mechanical loading on transplanted cell-mediated bone defect regeneration, and provides a new template for recapitulating developmental programs for tissue engineering.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McDermott, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mason, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pearson, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawahare, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grinstaff, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerckel, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/157362</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Recapitulating bone development for tissue regeneration through engineered mesenchymal condensations and mechanical cues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/172742v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The RNA-binding site of poliovirus 3C protein doubles as a phosphoinositide-binding domain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/172742v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Some viruses use phosphatidylinositol phosphate (PIP) to mark membranes used for genome replication or virion assembly. PIP-binding motifs of cellular proteins do not exist in viral proteins. Molecular-docking simulations revealed a putative site of PIP binding to poliovirus (PV) 3C protein that was validated using NMR spectroscopy. The PIP-binding site was located on a highly dynamic -helix that also functions in RNA binding. Broad PIP-binding activity was observed in solution using a fluorescence polarization assay or in the context of a lipid bilayer using an on-chip, fluorescence assay. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations of the 3C protein-membrane interface revealed PIP clustering and perhaps PIP-dependent conformations. PIP clustering was mediated by interaction with residues that interact with the RNA phosphodiester backbone. We conclude that 3C binding to membranes will be determined by PIP abundance. We suggest that the duality of function observed for 3C may extend to RNA-binding proteins of other viruses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shengjuler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, Y. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moustafa, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gohara, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cremer, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boehr, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-08-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/172742</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The RNA-binding site of poliovirus 3C protein doubles as a phosphoinositide-binding domain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-08-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/177881v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SPIN1 promotes tumorigenesis by blocking the uL18-MDM2-p53 pathway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/177881v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ribosomal proteins (RPs) play important roles in modulating the MDM2-p53 pathway. However, less is known about the upstream regulators of the RPs. Here we identify SPIN1 (Spindlin 1) as a novel binding partner of human RPL5/uL18 that is important for this pathway. SPIN1 ablation activates p53, suppresses cell growth, reduces clonogenic ability, and induces apoptosis of cancer cells by sequestering uL18 in the nucleolus, preventing it from interacting with MDM2, and thereby alleviating uL18-mediated inhibition of MDM2 ubiquitin ligase activity towards p53. SPIN1 deficiency increases ribosome-free uL18 and uL5 (human RPL11), which are required for SPIN1 depletion-induced p53 activation. Analysis of cancer genomic databases suggests that SPIN1 is highly expressed in several human cancers, and its overexpression is positively correlated with poor prognosis in cancer patients. Altogether, our findings reveal that the oncogenic property of SPIN1 is highly attributed to its negative regulation of uL18, leading to p53 inactivation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, J.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plummer, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, S. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/177881</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SPIN1 promotes tumorigenesis by blocking the uL18-MDM2-p53 pathway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/181347v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A "Tug of War" maintains a dynamic protein-membrane complex: MD simulations of C-Raf RBD-CRD bound to K-Ras4B at an anionic membrane 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/181347v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Association of Raf kinase with activated Ras triggers downstream signaling cascades, towards regulating transcription in the cells nucleus. Dysregulation of Ras: Raf signaling stimulates cancers. We investigate the C-Raf RBD and CRD regions when bound to oncogenic K-Ras4B at the membrane. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the membrane plays an integral role in regulating the configurational ensemble of the complex. Remarkably, the complex samples a few states dynamically, reflecting a competition between C-Raf CRD and K-Ras4B- membrane interactions. This competition arises because the interaction between the RBD and K-Ras is strong and the linker between the RBD and CRD is short. This study reveals a mechanism that maintains a modest binding for the overall complex at the membrane to facilitate fast signaling processes. It is likely a common mechanism for other multi-protein, if not multidomain proteins at membranes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LI, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-08-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/181347</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A "Tug of War" maintains a dynamic protein-membrane complex: MD simulations of C-Raf RBD-CRD bound to K-Ras4B at an anionic membrane]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-08-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/181503v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of Intracellular Lipolysis Promotes Cancer Cell Adaptation to Hypoxia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/181503v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor tissues are chronically exposed to hypoxia owing to aberrant vascularity. Lipid droplet (LD) accumulation is a hallmark of hypoxic cancer cells, yet how LDs form and function during hypoxia remains poorly understood. Herein, we report that in various cancer cells upon oxygen deprivation, HIF-1 activation down-modulates LD catabolism mediated by adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), the key enzyme for intracellular lipolysis. Proteomics and functional analyses identified hypoxia-inducible gene 2 (HIG2), a HIF-1 target, as a new inhibitor of ATGL. Knockout of HIG2 enhanced LD breakdown and fatty acid (FA) oxidation, leading to increased ROS production and apoptosis in hypoxic cancer cells as well as impaired growth of tumor xenografts. All of these effects were reversed by co-ablation of ATGL. Thus, by inhibiting ATGL, HIG2 acts downstream of HIF-1 to sequester FAs in LDs away from the mitochondrial pathways for oxidation and ROS generation, thereby sustaining cancer cell survival in hypoxia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saarinen, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitosugi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ho, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/181503</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of Intracellular Lipolysis Promotes Cancer Cell Adaptation to Hypoxia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/185892v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Collateral sensitivity is contingent on the repeatability of evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/185892v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibiotic resistance represents a growing health crisis that necessitates the immediate discovery of novel treatment strategies. One such strategy is the identification of collateral sensitivities, wherein evolution under a first drug induces susceptibility to a second. Here, we report that sequential drug regimens derived from in vitro evolution experiments may have overstated therapeutic benefit, predicting a collaterally sensitive response where cross resistance ultimately occurs. We quantify the likelihood of this phenomenon by use of a mathematical model parametrised with combinatorially complete fitness landscapes for Escherichia coli. Through experimental evolution we then verify that a second drug can indeed stochastically exhibit either increased susceptibility or increased resistance when following a first. Genetic divergence is confirmed as the driver of this differential response through targeted and whole genome sequencing. Taken together, these results highlight that the success of evolutionarily-informed therapies is predicated on a rigorous probabilistic understanding of the contingencies that arise during the evolution of drug resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nichol, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rutter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeavons, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/185892</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Collateral sensitivity is contingent on the repeatability of evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/191718v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A simplified electronic circuit for combined single-cell stimulation and recording using loose cell-attached electrodes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/191718v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While tight-seal patch clamp recordings have found wide use in neuroscience and in other fields, the requirement to replace the glass pipette after every attempted recording represents an impediment to high throughput studies such as searching for monosynaptically connected pairs of neurons. Loose cell-attached recording was introduced in 2000 to circumvent this problem since it enabled combined recording and stimulation of visually-identified neurons without necessitating a tight (gigaohm) seal. Since the stimulus voltages required to evoke action potentials through low resistance seals are beyond the capacity of most commercial amplifiers, Barbour and Isope introduced a variation of classic patch clamp amplifier circuit that is able to deliver stimulus voltages that are effective in triggering action potentials under the loose cell-attached patch clamp configuration. The present report presents the design and operation of a simpler amplifier that contains only two integrated circuits and is able to effectively stimulate and record action potentials in mitral cells in rodent olfactory bulb slices. The addition of an accessory analog gating circuit enables manual control of the stimulus voltage with pulse timing controlled by a digital output from a computer. This system may be useful in studies that require surveying many potential pairs of neurons for synaptic connections and for sampling and manipulating single-cell activity in in vivo electrophysiology experiments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Strowbridge, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pressler, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/191718</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A simplified electronic circuit for combined single-cell stimulation and recording using loose cell-attached electrodes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/193771v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhancers mapping uncovers phenotypic heterogeneity and evolution in patients with luminal breast cancer. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/193771v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The degree of intrinsic and interpatient phenotypic heterogeneity and its role in tumour evolution is poorly understood. Phenotypic divergence can be achieved via the inheritance of alternative transcriptional programs1,2. Cell-type specific transcription is maintained through the activation of epigenetically-defined regulatory regions including promoters and enhancers1,3,4. In this work, we annotated the epigenome of 47 primary and metastatic oestrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer specimens from clinical samples, and developed strategies to deduce phenotypic heterogeneity from the regulatory landscape, identifying key regulatory elements commonly shared across patients. Highly shared regions contain a unique set of regulatory information including the motif for the transcription factor YY1. In vitro work shows that YY1 is essential for ER transcriptional activity and defines the critical subset of functional ER binding sites driving tumor growth in most luminal patients. YY1 also control the expression of genes that mediate resistance to endocrine treatment. Finally, we show that H3K27ac levels at active enhancer elements can be used as a surrogate of intra-tumor phenotypic heterogeneity, and to track expansion and contraction of phenotypic subpopulations throughout breast cancer progression. Tracking YY1 and SLC9A3R1 positive clones in primary and metastatic lesions, we show that endocrine therapies drive the expansion of phenotypic clones originally underrepresented at diagnosis. Collectively, our data show that epigenetic mechanisms significantly contribute to phenotypic heterogeneity and evolution in systemically treated breast cancer patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patten, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corleone, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gyorffy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erdos, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saiakhova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goddard, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vingiani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shousha, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pongor, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadjiminas, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiavon, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmieri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coombes, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pruneri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magnani, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/193771</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhancers mapping uncovers phenotypic heterogeneity and evolution in patients with luminal breast cancer.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/198010v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting cancer outcomes from histology and genomics using convolutional networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/198010v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer histology reflects underlying molecular processes and disease progression, and contains rich phenotypic information that is predictive of patient outcomes. In this study, we demonstrate a computational approach for learning patient outcomes from digital pathology images using deep learning to combine the power of adaptive machine learning algorithms with traditional survival models. We illustrate how this approach can integrate information from both histology images and genomic biomarkers to predict time-to-event patient outcomes, and demonstrate performance surpassing the current clinical paradigm for predicting the survival of patients diagnosed with glioma. We also provide techniques to visualize the tissue patterns learned by these deep learning survival models, and establish a framework for addressing intratumoral heterogeneity and training data deficits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mobadersany, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yousefi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amgad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gutman, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velazquez Vega, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brat, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, L. A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/198010</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting cancer outcomes from histology and genomics using convolutional networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.16.878215v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Therapeutic Targeting of 15-PGDH in Murine Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.16.878215v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease characterized by interstitial remodeling and pulmonary dysfunction. The etiology of IPF is not completely understood but involves pathologic inflammation and subsequent failure to resolve fibrosis in response to epithelial injury. Therapeutic strategies for IPF are limited to anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory agents, which are only partially effective. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) disrupts TGF{beta} signaling and suppresses myofibroblast differentiation, however practical strategies to raise tissue PGE2 during IPF have been limited. We previously described the discovery of a small molecule, (+)SW033291, that binds with high affinity to the PGE2-degrading enzyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) and increases PGE2 levels. Here we evaluated pulmonary 15-PGDH expression and activity and tested whether pharmacologic 15-PGDH inhibition (PGDHi) is protective in a mouse model of bleomycin-induced IPF. Long-term PGDHi was well-tolerated, reduced the severity of pulmonary fibrotic lesions and extracellular matrix remodeling, and improved pulmonary function in bleomycin-treated mice. Moreover, PGDHi attenuated both acute inflammation and weight loss, and decreased mortality. Endothelial cells and macrophages are likely targets as these cell types highly expressed 15-PGDH. In conclusion, PGDHi ameliorates inflammatory pathology and fibrosis in murine IPF, and may have clinical utility to treat human disease.

Article summaryIn IPF, lung epithelial injury leads to local inflammation and fibrosis, which impairs pulmonary function. Inhibition of 15-PGDH using a well-tolerated small molecule attenuates inflammation and prevents pulmonary fibrosis and dysfunction in a mouse model of bleomycin-induced IPF.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witkin, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jogasuria, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raffay, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.16.878215</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Therapeutic Targeting of 15-PGDH in Murine Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.16.878348v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Global analysis reveals complex demographic responses of mammals to climate change 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.16.878348v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Approximately 25 % of mammals are threatened globally with extinction, a risk that is amplified under climate change1. Persistence under climate change is determined by the combined effects of climatic factors on multiple demographic rates (survival, development, reproduction), and hence, on population dynamics2. Thus, to quantify which species and places on Earth are most vulnerable to climate-driven extinction, a global understanding of how demographic rates respond to climate is needed3. We synthesise information on such responses in terrestrial mammals, where extensive demographic data are available4. Given the importance of assessing the full spectrum of responses, we focus on studies that quantitatively link climate to multiple demographic rates. We identify 106 such studies, corresponding to 86 mammal species. We reveal a strong mismatch between the locations of demographic studies and the regions and taxa currently recognised as most vulnerable to climate change5,6. Moreover, we show that the effects of climate change on mammals will operate via complex demographic mechanisms: a vast majority of mammal populations display projected increases in some demographic rates but declines in others. Assessments of population viability under climate change therefore need to account for multiple demographic responses. We advocate to prioritise coordinated actions to assess mammal demography holistically for effective conservation worldwide.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Paniw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Archer, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roemer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Compagnoni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Che-Castaldo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mooney, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Childs, D. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozgul, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, O. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burns, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckerman, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patwary, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez-Gassen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knight, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salguero-Gomez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.16.878348</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Global analysis reveals complex demographic responses of mammals to climate change]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.20.885327v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with sub-micron sized contrast agents detects insulitis and beta-cell mass decline in mouse models of type 1 diabetes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.20.885327v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by the infiltration of autoreactive T-cells into the islet of Langerhans, and depletion of insulin-secreting {beta}-cells. This immune cell infiltration (insulitis) first occurs during an asymptomatic phase of T1D that can take place many years prior to clinical diagnosis. Methods to diagnose insulitis and changes in {beta}-cell mass during this asymptomatic phase are limited, thus precluding early therapeutic intervention. While therapeutic treatments can delay T1D progression, treatment efficacy is limited and widely varying, and a method to track this efficacy is also lacking. During T1D progression, the islet microvasculature increases permeability as a result of insulitis, in both mouse models of T1D and humans with T1D. This increased permeability can allow nanoparticles, such as contrast agents for diagnostic imaging, to access the islet microenvironment. Contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) uses shell-stabilized gas bubbles to provide high acoustic backscatter in vasculature and tissue and is clinically approved. A novel, sub-micron sized  nanobubble (NB) ultrasound contrast agent has been developed and shown to extravasate and accumulate in tumors, where microvascular permeability is high. To test whether CEUS can be used to measure increased islet microvasculature permeability and indicate the asymptomatic phase of T1D, we applied CEUS measurements with NBs in pre-clinical T1D models. NOD mice and mice receiving an adoptive-transfer of diabetogenic splenocytes showed accumulation of NBs specifically within the pancreatic islets, and only in the presence of insulitis. This accumulation was measured by both ultrasound contrast and histological analysis, and accumulation only occurred for sub-micron sized bubbles. Importantly, accumulation was detected as early as 4w in NOD mice. Thus, CEUS with sub-micron sized NB contrast agent may provide a predicative marker for disease progression early in asymptomatic T1D, as well as monitoring of disease prevention or reversal.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papazian, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Passman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pham, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benninger, R. K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.20.885327</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with sub-micron sized contrast agents detects insulitis and beta-cell mass decline in mouse models of type 1 diabetes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.23.887612v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prostatic osteopontin expression is associated with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.23.887612v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMale lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) occur in more than half of men above 50 years of age. LUTS were traditionally attributed to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and therefore the clinical terminology often use LUTS and BPH interchangeably. More recently, LUTS were also linked to fibrogenic and inflammatory processes. We tested whether osteopontin (OPN), a pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic molecule, is increased in symptomatic BPH. We also tested whether prostate epithelial and stromal cells secrete OPN in response to pro-inflammatory stimuli and identified downstream targets of OPN in prostate stromal cells.

MethodsImmunohistochemistry was performed on prostate sections obtained from the transition zone (TZ) of patients who underwent surgery (Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate) to relieve LUTS i.e. surgical BPH (S-BPH) or patients who underwent radical prostatectomy to remove low-grade prostate cancer (incidental BPH, I-BPH). Images of stained tissue sections were captured with a Nuance Multispectral Imaging system and histoscore, as a measure of OPN staining intensity, was determined with inForm software. OPN protein abundance was determined by Western blot. The ability of prostate cells to secrete osteopontin in response to IL-1{beta} and TGF-{beta}1 was determined in stromal (BHPrS-1) and epithelial (NHPrE-1 and BHPrE-1) cells by ELISA. qPCR was used to measure gene expression changes in these cells in response to OPN.

ResultsOPN immunostaining (p=0.0107) and protein levels were more abundant in S-BPH than I-BPH. Staining was distributed across all cell types with highest levels in epithelial cells. Multiple OPN protein variants were identified in immortalized prostate stromal and epithelial cells. TGF-{beta}1 stimulated OPN secretion by NHPrE-1 cells and both IL-1{beta} and TGF-{beta}1 stimulated OPN secretion by BHPrS-1 cells. Interestingly, recombinant OPN increased the mRNA expression of CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL8, PTGS2 and IL6 in BHPrS-1, but not in epithelial cell lines.

ConclusionsOPN is more abundant in prostates of men with S-BPH compared to men with I-BPH. OPN secretion is stimulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, and OPN acts directly on stromal cells to drive the synthesis of pro-inflammatory mRNAs. Pharmacological manipulation of prostatic OPN may have the potential to reduce LUTS by inhibiting both inflammatory and fibrotic pathways.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Popovics, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awadallah, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohrt, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Case, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricke, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez-Solano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vezina, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matusik, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricke, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.23.887612</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prostatic osteopontin expression is associated with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.24.885020v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NFIA regulates granule recruitment and exocytosis in the adult pancreas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.24.885020v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
After food ingestion, pancreatic cells secrete zymogen and hormone-containing granules to precisely control digestion and blood glucose levels. Identifying regulators of this process is paramount to combatting multiple pancreatic diseases. Here we show that pancreatic deletion of the transcription factor nuclear factor IA (NFIA) leads to hyperglycemia, hypoinsulinemia, and hypolipidemia. Surprisingly, insulin and digestive enzymes are produced in the absence of NFIA, however, they are not secreted properly and instead accumulate inside pancreatic cells. In NFIA-deficient mice we saw a reduction of insulin granules in the ready releasable pool and the first-phase insulin response was impaired. We found that NFIA binds to and activates Rab39b, a Rab GTPase critical for exocytosis. Re-expression of Rab39b in NFIA knockout islets restored glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. In sum, the NFIA-Rab39b axis regulates pancreatic physiology through granule recruitment and docking, linking NFIA to a new process with potential effects in diabetes, pancreatitis, and lipid disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scavuzzo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chmielowiec, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teaw, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waksmunski, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duraine, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camunas-Soler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quake, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacDonald, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borowiak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.24.885020</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NFIA regulates granule recruitment and exocytosis in the adult pancreas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.31.876946v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human Tau Isoform Aggregation and Selective Detection of Misfolded Tau from Post-Mortem Alzheimer's Disease Brains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.31.876946v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tau aggregates are present in a large number of neurodegenerative diseases known as "tauopathies", including Alzheimers disease (AD). As there are six human tau isoforms in brain tissues and both 3R and 4R isoforms have been observed in the neuronal inclusions, we tested whether tau isoforms behave differently in aggregation. We discovered that all six tau isoforms are capable of forming PHF-tau like filaments and the 3R tau isoforms aggregate significantly faster than their 4R counterparts. We further mapped key segments of tau isoforms that contribute to their aggregation kinetics, where it was determined that microtubule binding domains R2 and R3 were the major contributors to tau aggregation. To evaluate the feasibility of using the six recombinant tau isoforms as substrates to amplify misfolded tau, we demonstrated that full-length human tau isoforms can seed and detect misfolded tau from the post-mortem AD brain tissues with high specificity by an ultrasensitive technology termed real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC). Mass spectrometric analysis of PHF-tau samples extracted from AD brains identified peptides corresponding to all major forms of human brain tau isoforms along with a consensus hyperphosphorylated peptide near the C-terminus. Together, our findings not only reveal new aggregation kinetic properties of human tau isoforms, support the development of methods to quantitatively measure misfolded human tau isoforms in AD brains, but also uncover the capability of full-length human tau isoforms as substrates for "prion-like" tau seeding by RT-QuIC assays that may be used for new biomarker development for AD and other tauopathy diagnosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dougharty, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcus, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderson, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siedlak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helm, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.31.876946</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human Tau Isoform Aggregation and Selective Detection of Misfolded Tau from Post-Mortem Alzheimer's Disease Brains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.06.896100v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Myosin X interaction with KIF13B, a crucial pathway for Netrin-1-induced axonal development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.06.896100v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Myosin X (Myo X) transports cargos to the tip of filopodia for cell adhesion, migration, and neuronal axon guidance. Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) is one of Myo X cargos essential for Netrin-1-regulated axon pathfinding. Myo Xs function in axon development in vivo and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we provide evidence for Myo Xs function in Netrin-1-DCC regulated axon development in mouse neocortex. Knocking-out (KO) or knocking-down (KD) Myo X in embryonic cortical neurons impairs axon initiation and contralateral branching/targeting. Similar axon deficits are detected in Netrin-1-KO or DCC-KD cortical neurons. Myo X interacts with KIF13B (a kinesin family motor protein), which is induced by Netrin-1. Netrin-1 promotes anterograde transportation of Myo X into axons in KIF13B dependent manner. KIF13B-KD cortical neurons exhibit similar axon deficits. These results suggest Myo X-KIF13B as a critical pathway for Netrin-1 promoted axon initiation and branching/targeting.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, Y.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, J.-X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mei, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, Y.-Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, W.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.06.896100</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Myosin X interaction with KIF13B, a crucial pathway for Netrin-1-induced axonal development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.07.894535v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TCF-1 regulates the stem-like memory potential of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells in elite controllers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.07.894535v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although many HIV cure strategies seek to expand HIV-specific CD8+ T cells to control the virus, all are likely to fail if cellular exhaustion is not prevented. A loss in stem-like memory properties (i.e., the ability to proliferate and generate secondary effector cells) is a key feature of exhaustion; little is known, however, about how these properties are regulated in human virus-specific CD8+ T cells. We found that virus-specific CD8+ T cells from humans and non-human primates naturally controlling HIV/SIV infection express more of the transcription factor, TCF-1, than non-controllers. HIV-specific CD8+ T cell TCF-1 expression correlated with memory marker expression and proliferative capacity and declined with antigenic stimulation. CRISPR-Cas9 editing of TCF-1 in human primary T cells demonstrated a direct role in regulating expansion capacity. Collectively, these data suggest that TCF-1 controls the stem-like memory properties of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells and provides a rationale for enhancing this pathway in T cell-based therapeutic strategies for HIV.

One Sentence SummaryTCF-1 is highly expressed in HIV-specific CD8+ T cells from elite controllers and directly regulates human CD8+ T cell expansion capacity in response to T cell receptor stimulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rutishauser, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deguit, C. D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hiatt, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blaeschke, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Starke, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mudd, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smullin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matus-Nicodemos, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoh, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krone, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hecht, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pilcher, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koup, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douek, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenchley, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pillai, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deeks, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCune, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.07.894535</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TCF-1 regulates the stem-like memory potential of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells in elite controllers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.08.899476v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Investigating the impact of combination phage and antibiotic therapy: a modeling study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.08.899476v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global health today. The spread of AMR, along with the lack of new drug classes in the antibiotic pipeline, has resulted in a renewed interest in phage therapy, which is the use of bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacterial infections. This therapy, which was successfully used to treat a variety of infections in the early twentieth century, had been largely dismissed due to the discovery of easy to use antibiotics. However, the continuing emergence of antibiotic resistance has motivated new interest in the use of phage therapy to treat bacterial infections. Though various models have been developed to address the AMR-related issues, there are very few studies that consider the effect of phage-antibiotic combination therapy. Moreover, some of biological details such as the effect of the immune system on phage have been neglected. To address these limitations, we utilized a mathematical model to examine the role of the immune response in concert with phage-antibiotic combination therapy compounded with the effects of the immune system on the phages being used for treatment. We explore the effect of phage-antibiotic combination therapy by adjusting the phage and antibiotics dose or altering the timing. The model results show that it is important to consider the host immune system in the model and that frequency and dose of treatment are important considerations for the effectiveness of treatment. Our study can lead to development of optimal antibiotic use and further reduce the health risks of the human-animal-plant-ecosystem interface caused by AMR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Banuelos, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulbudak, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horn, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nandi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.08.899476</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Investigating the impact of combination phage and antibiotic therapy: a modeling study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.12.903393v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Calcium-independent astrocytic lipid release modulates neuronal activity through Kv channels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.12.903393v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
An accumulating amount of data suggests that Ca2+-dependent gliotransmitter release plays a key role in the modulation of neuronal networks. Here, we tested the hypothesis that in response to agonist exposure, astrocytes release lipid modulators through activation of Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2 (iPLA2) activity. We found that cultured rat astrocytes treated with selective ATP and glutamatergic agonists released arachidonic acid (AA) and/or its derivatives, including the endogenous cannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol (2AG) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Surprisingly, the buffering of cytosolic Ca2+ resulted in a sharp increase in agonist-induced lipid release by astrocytes. In addition, the astrocytic release of PGE2 increased miniature excitatory postsynaptic potentials (mEPSPs) by inhibiting the opening of neuronal Kv channels in brain slices. This study provides the first evidence showing that a Ca2+-independent pathway regulates the release of PGE2 from astrocytes and further demonstrates the functional role of astrocytic lipid release in the modulation of synaptic activity.

SIGNIFICANCEUntil now, most studies that implicate astrocytes in the modulation of synaptic activity have focused on Ca2+-dependent release of traditional gliotransmitters such as D-serine, ATP, and glutamate. Mobilization of intracellular stores of Ca2+ occurs within a matter of seconds, but this novel Ca2+-independent lipid pathway in astrocytes could occur on a faster time scale and thus play a role in the rapid signaling processes involved in synaptic potentiation, attention, and neurovascular coupling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradshaw, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jablonska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pena, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xavier, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandler-Militello, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bekar, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.12.903393</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Calcium-independent astrocytic lipid release modulates neuronal activity through Kv channels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.15.907246v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sources of Off-Target Effects of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Using the Helical Clinical Lead in Domestic Pigs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.15.907246v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Clinical data suggest that efficacious vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is limited by side effects such as cough and dyspnea that have stimulation thresholds lower than those for therapeutic outcomes. VNS side effects are putatively caused by activation of nearby muscles within the neck, via direct muscle activation or activation of nerve fibers innervating those muscles. Our goal was to determine the thresholds at which various VNS-evoked effects occur in the domestic pig--an animal model with vagus anatomy similar to human--using the bipolar helical lead deployed clinically. Intrafascicular electrodes were placed within the vagus nerve to record electroneurographic (ENG) responses, and needle electrodes were placed in the vagal-innervated neck muscles to record electromyographic (EMG) responses. Contraction of the cricoarytenoid muscle occurred at low amplitudes ([~]0.3 mA) and resulted from activation of motor nerve fibers in the cervical vagus trunk within the electrode cuff which bifurcate into the recurrent laryngeal branch of the vagus. At higher amplitudes ([~]1.4 mA), contraction of the cricoarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles was generated by current leakage outside the cuff to activate motor nerve fibers running within the nearby superior laryngeal branch of the vagus. Activation of these muscles generated artifacts in the ENG recordings that may be mistaken for compound action potentials representing slowly conducting A{delta}-, B-, and C-fibers. Our data resolve conflicting reports of the stimulation amplitudes required for C-fiber activation in large animal studies (>10 mA) and human studies (<250 {micro}A). After removing muscle-generated artifacts, ENG signals with post-stimulus latencies consistent with A{delta}- and B-fibers occurred in only a small subset of animals, and these signals had similar thresholds to those that caused bradycardia. By identifying specific neuroanatomical pathways that cause off-target effects and characterizing the stimulation dose-response curves for on- and off-target effects, we hope to guide interpretation and optimization of clinical VNS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nicolai, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConico, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gosink, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baumgart, I. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelot, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grill, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gustafson, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.15.907246</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sources of Off-Target Effects of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Using the Helical Clinical Lead in Domestic Pigs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.16.909564v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cyclodextrin polymer coatings resist protein fouling, mammalian cell adhesion, and bacterial attachment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.16.909564v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Undesired attachment of proteins, cells/bacteria, and organisms on material surfaces is problematic in industrial and health care settings. In this study, polymer coatings are synthesized from subunits of cyclodextrin, an additive/excipient found in food/pharmaceutical formulations. These unique polymers, which have been applied mainly towards sustained drug delivery applications, are evaluated in this study for their ability to mitigate non-specific protein adsorption, mammalian cell (NIH/3T3) adhesion, and bacterial cell (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli) attachment. Effects of cyclodextrin polymer composition, particularly incorporation of nonpolar crosslinks, on material properties and passive anti-biofouling performance are investigated. Results suggest that lightly-crosslinked cyclodextrin polymers possess excellent passive resistance to protein, cell, and bacterial attachment, likely due to the hydrophilic and electrically neutral surface properties of these coatings. At the same time, anti-biofouling performance decreased with increasing crosslink ratios, possibly a reflection of decreased polymer mobility, increased rigidity, and increased hydrophobic character. Cyclodextrin-based materials may be broadly useful as coatings in industrial or medical applications where biofouling-resistant and/or drug-delivering surfaces are required.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Learn, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.16.909564</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cyclodextrin polymer coatings resist protein fouling, mammalian cell adhesion, and bacterial attachment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.19.912006v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational estimates of mechanical constraints on cell migration through extracellular matrix 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.19.912006v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell migration through a three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrix (ECM) underlies important physiological phenomena and is based on a variety of mechanical strategies depending on the cell type and the properties of the ECM. By using computer simulations, we investigate two such migration mechanisms -  push-pull (forming a finger-like protrusion, adhering to an ECM node, and pulling the cell body forward) and  rear-squeezing (pushing the cell body through the ECM by contracting the cell cortex and ECM at the cell rear). We present a computational model that accounts for both elastic deformation and forces of the ECM, an active cell cortex and nucleus, and for hydrodynamic forces and flow of the extracellular fluid, cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. We find that relations between three mechanical parameters - the cortexs contractile force, nuclear elasticity and ECM rigidity - determine the effectiveness of cell migration through the dense ECM. The cell can migrate persistently even if its cortical contraction cannot deform a near-rigid ECM, but then the contraction of the cortex has to be able to sufficiently deform the nucleus. The cell can also migrate even if it fails to deform a stiff nucleus, but then it has to be able to sufficiently deform the ECM. Simulation results show that nuclear stiffness limits the cell migration more than the ECM rigidity. Simulations of the rear-squeezing mechanism of motility results in more robust migration with larger cell displacements than those with the push-pull mechanism over a range of parameter values.

Author summaryComputational simulations of models representing two different mechanisms of 3D cell migration in an extracellular matrix are presented. One mechanism represents a mesenchymal mode, characterized by finger-like actin protrusions, while the second mode is more amoeboid in that rear contraction of the cortex propels the cell forward. In both mechanisms, the cell generates a thin actin protrusion on the cortex that attaches to an ECM node. The cell is then either pulled (mesenchymal) or pushed (amoeboid) forward. Results show both mechanisms result in successful migration over a range of simulated parameter values as long as the contractile tension of the cortex exceeds either the nuclear stiffness or ECM stiffness, but not necessarily both. However, the distance traveled by the amoeboid migration mode is more robust to changes in parameter values, and is larger than in simulations of the mesenchymal mode. Additionally cells experience a favorable fluid pressure gradient when migrating in the amoeboid mode, and an adverse fluid pressure gradient in the mesenchymal mode.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maxian, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mogilner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strychalski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.19.912006</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational estimates of mechanical constraints on cell migration through extracellular matrix]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.21.913806v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Drosophila model of oral peptide therapeutics for adult intestinal stem cell tumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.21.913806v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The proto-oncogene YAP /Yki, a transcription co-factor of the Hippo pathway, has been linked to many cancers. YAP interacts with DNA-binding TEAD/Sd proteins to regulate expression of its transcriptional targets. Disruption of YAP-TEAD therefore offers a potential therapeutic strategy. The mammalian Vestigial Like (VGLL) protein, specifically its TONDU domain, has been shown to competitively inhibit YAP-TEAD interaction and a TONDU peptide can suppress YAP-induced cancer. As TONDU could potentially be developed into a therapeutic peptide for multiple cancers, we evaluated its efficacy in Yki-driven adult Intestinal Stem Cell (ISC) tumors in Drosophila. We show that oral uptake of the TONDU peptide is highly effective at inhibiting Yki-driven gut tumors by suppressing YAP-TEAD interaction. Comparative proteomics of early and late stage Yki-driven ISC tumors revealed enrichment of a number of proteins, including members of the integrin signaling pathway, such as Talin, Vinculin and Paxillin. These, in turn displayed a decrease in their levels in TONDU-peptide treated tumors. Further, we show that Sd binds to the regulatory region of integrin-coding gene, mew, which codes for PS1, a key integrin of the ISCs. In support to a possible role of integrins in Yki-driven ISC tumors, we show that genetic downregulation of mew arrests Yki-driven ISC proliferation, reminiscent of the effects of TONDU peptide. Altogether, our findings present a novel platform for screening therapeutic peptides and provide insights into tumor suppression mechanisms.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTDiscovering novel strategies to inhibit oncogene activity is a priority in cancer biology. As signaling pathways are widely conserved between mammals and Drosophila, these questions can be effectively addressed in this model organism. Here, we show that progression of Drosophila Intestinal Stem Cell (ISC) tumors induced by gain of an oncogenic form of the transcription co-factor Yki can be suppressed by feeding a peptide corresponding to the conserved TONDU domain of Vestigial (Vg), which blocks binding of Yki to the Sd transcription factor. Further, we show that down regulation of the integrin signaling pathway is causally linked to TONDU-peptide-mediated ISC tumor suppression. Our findings reveal that Drosophila can be successfully used to screen peptides for their therapeutic applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bajpai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmad, Q. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong-Wen Tang, H.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manzar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakur, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ateeq, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perrimon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.21.913806</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Drosophila model of oral peptide therapeutics for adult intestinal stem cell tumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.926907v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Effect of Kinship in Re-identification Attacks Against Genomic Data Sharing Beacons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.926907v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Motivation Big data era in genomics promises a breakthrough in medicine, but sharing data in a private manner limits the pace of field. Widely accepted “genomic data-sharing beacon” protocol provides a standardized and secure interface for querying the genomic datasets. The data is only shared if the desired information (e.g., a certain variant) exists in the dataset. Various studies showed that beacons are vulnerable to re-identification (or membership inference) attacks. As beacons are generally associated with sensitive phenotype information, re-identification creates a significant risk for the participants. Unfortunately, proposed countermeasures against such attacks have failed to be effective, as they do not consider the utility of beacon protocol.Results In this study, for the first time, we analyze the mitigation effect of the kinship relationships among beacon participants against re-identification attacks. We argue that having multiple family members in a beacon can garble the information for attacks since a substantial number of variants are shared among kinrelated people. Using family genomes from HapMap and synthetically-generated datasets, we show that having one of the parents of a victim in the beacon causes (i) significant decrease in the power of attacks and (ii) substantial increase in the number of queries needed to confirm an individual’s beacon membership. We also show how the protection effect attenuates when more distant relatives, such as grandparents are included alongside the victim. Furthermore, we quantify the utility loss due adding relatives and show that it is smaller compared to flipping based techniques.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aysen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayday, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cicek, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.30.926907</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Effect of Kinship in Re-identification Attacks Against Genomic Data Sharing Beacons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927822v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A large cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies 69 novel risk loci for primary open-angle glaucoma and includes a genetic link with Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927822v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We conducted a large multi-ethnic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) on a total of 34,179 cases vs 349,321 controls, and identified 127 independent risk loci, almost doubling the number of known loci for POAG. The majority of loci have broadly consistent effect across European, Asian and African ancestries. We identify a link, both genome-wide and at specific loci, between POAG and Alzheimers disease. Gene expression data and bioinformatic functional analyses provide further support for the functional relevance of the POAG risk genes. Several drug compounds target these risk genes and may be potential candidates for developing novel POAG treatments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gharahkhani, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jorgenson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hysi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khawaja, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pendergrass, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ong, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hewitt, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segre, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Igo, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choquet, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qassim, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Josyula, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooke Bailey, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonnemaijer, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iglesias, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siggs, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitart, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thiadens, A. A. H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karjalainen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uebe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melles, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nair, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luben, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simcoe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amersinghe, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cree, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohn, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poplawski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, C.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vithana, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>NEIGHBORHOOD consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ANZRAG consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biobank Japan project,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>FinnGen study,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>GIGA s</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.30.927822</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A large cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies 69 novel risk loci for primary open-angle glaucoma and includes a genetic link with Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.01.929356v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineering Selective Molecular Tethers to Enhance Suboptimal Drug Properties 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.01.929356v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small-molecule drugs are utilized in a wide variety of clinical applications, however, many of these drugs suffer from one or more suboptimal property that can hinder its delivery or cellular action in vivo, or even shelf an otherwise biologically tolerable drug. While high-throughput screening provides a method to discover drugs with altered chemical properties, directly engineering small-molecule bioconjugates provides an opportunity to specifically modulate drug properties rather than sifting through large drug libraries with seemingly  random drug properties. Herein, we propose that selectively "tethering" a drug molecule to an additional group with favorable properties will improve the drug conjugates overall properties, such as solubility. Specifically, we outlined the site-specific chemical conjugation of rapamycin (RAP) to an additional "high-affinity" group to increase the overall affinity the drug has for cyclodextrin-based polymers (pCD). By doing so, we found that RAPs affinity for pCD and RAPs window of delivery from pCD microparticles was tripled without sacrificing RAPs cellular action. This synthesis method was applied to the concept of "affinity" for pCD, but other prosthetic groups can be used in a similar manner to modify other drug properties. This study displays potential for increasing drug delivery windows of small-molecule drugs in pCD systems for chronic drug therapies and introduces the idea of altering drug properties to tune polymer-drug interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dogan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.01.929356</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineering Selective Molecular Tethers to Enhance Suboptimal Drug Properties]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.03.930891v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Impact of immediate cryopreservation on the establishment of patient derived xenografts from head and neck cancer patients. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.03.930891v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundPatient-derived xenografts established from human cancers are important tools for investigating novel anti-cancer therapies. Establishing PDXs requires a significant investment and many PDXs may be used infrequently due to their similarity to existing models, their growth rate, or the lack of relevant mutations. We performed this study to determine whether we could efficiently establish PDXs after cryopreservation to allow molecular profiling to be completed prior to implanting the human cancer.

MethodsFresh tumor was split with half used to establish a PDX immediately and half cryopreserved for later implantation. Resulting tumors were assessed histologically and tumors established from fresh or cryopreserved tissues compared as to the growth rate, extent of tumor necrosis, mitotic activity, keratinization, and grade. All PDXs were subjected to short tandem repeat testing to confirm identity and assess similarity between methods.

ResultsTumor growth was seen in 70% of implanted cases. No growth in either condition was seen in 30% of tumors. One developed a SCC from the immediate implant but a lymphoproliferative mass without SCC from the cryopreserved specimen. No difference in growth rate was seen. No difference between histologic parameters was seen between the two approaches.

ConclusionsFresh human cancer tissue can be immediately cryopreserved and later thawed and implanted to establish PDXs. This resource saving approach allows for tumor profiling prior to implantation into animals thus maximizing the probability that the tumor will be utilized for future research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longhurst, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kimple, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.03.930891</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impact of immediate cryopreservation on the establishment of patient derived xenografts from head and neck cancer patients.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.11.943936v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identifying states of collateral sensitivity during the evolution of therapeutic resistance in Ewings sarcoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.11.943936v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Advances in the treatment of Ewings sarcoma (EWS) are desperately needed, particularly in the case of metastatic disease. A deeper understanding of collateral sensitivity, where the evolution of therapeutic resistance to one drug aligns with sensitivity to another drug, may improve our ability to effectively target this disease. For the first time in a solid tumor, we produced a temporal collateral sensitivity map that demonstrates the evolution of collateral sensitivity and resistance in EWS. We found that the evolution of collateral resistance was predictable with some drugs, but had significant variation in response to other drugs. Using this map of temporal collateral sensitivity in EWS, we can see that the path towards collateral sensitivity is not always repeatable, nor is there always a clear trajectory towards resistance or sensitivity. Identifying transcriptomic changes that accompany these states of transient collateral sensitivity could improve treatment planning for EWS patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scarborough, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McClure, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessnick, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitomi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.11.943936</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identifying states of collateral sensitivity during the evolution of therapeutic resistance in Ewings sarcoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.14.950097v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MCT2 Overexpression Rescues Metabolic Vulnerability and Protects Retinal Ganglion Cells in Two Models of Glaucoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.14.950097v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Improving cellular access to energy substrates is one strategy to overcome observed declines in energy production and utilization in the aged and pathologic central nervous system. Monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs), the movers of lactate, pyruvate, and ketone bodies into or out of a cell, are significantly decreased in the DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma. In order to confirm MCT decreases are disease-associated, we decreased MCT2 in the retinas of MCT2fl/+ mice using an injection of AAV2-cre, observing significant decline in ATP production and visual evoked potential. Restoring MCT2 levels in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) via intraocular injection of AAV2-GFP-MCT2 in two models of glaucoma, the DBA/2J (D2), and a magnetic bead model of ocular hypertension (OHT), preserved RGCs and their function. Viral-mediated overexpression of MCT2 increased RGC density and axon number, reduced energy imbalance, and increased mitochondrial function as measured by cytochrome c oxidase and succinate dehydrogenase activity in both models of glaucoma. Ocular hypertensive mice injected with AAV2:MCT2 had significantly greater P1 amplitude as measured by pattern electroretinogram than mice with OHT alone. These findings indicate overexpression of MCT2 improves energy homeostasis in the glaucomatous visual system, suggesting that expanding energy input options for cells is a viable option to combat neurodegeneration.

HighlightsO_LILoss of MCT2 in retina compromises visual function and ATP production in optic nerve
C_LIO_LIMCT2 overexpression preserves RGC soma and axon number in two glaucoma models
C_LIO_LIMCT2 overexpression improves energy homeostasis in optic nerve
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harun-Or-Rashid, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pappenhagen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zubricky, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coughlin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jassim, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inman, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.14.950097</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MCT2 Overexpression Rescues Metabolic Vulnerability and Protects Retinal Ganglion Cells in Two Models of Glaucoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.17.952606v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput discovery of trafficking-deficient variants in the cardiac potassium channel KCNH2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.17.952606v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundKCHN2 encodes the KV11.1 potassium channel responsible for IKr, a major repolarization current during the cardiomyocyte action potential. Variants in KCNH2 that decrease IKr can cause Type 2 Long QT syndrome, usually due to mistrafficking to the cell surface. Accurately discriminating between variants with normal and abnormal trafficking would help clinicians identify and treat individuals at risk of a major cardiac event. The volume of reported non-synonymous KCNH2 variants preclude the use of conventional electrophysiologic methods for functional study.

ObjectiveTo report a high-throughput, multiplexed screening method for KCNH2 genetic variants capable of measuring the cell surface abundance of hundreds of missense variants in KCNH2.

MethodsWe develop a method to quantitate KCNH2 variant trafficking on a pilot region of 11 residues in the S5 helix, and generate trafficking scores for 220/231 missense variants in this region.

ResultsFor 5/5 variants, high-throughput trafficking scores validated when tested in single variant flow cytometry and confocal microscopy experiments. We additionally compare our results with planar patch electrophysiology and find that loss-of-trafficking variants do not produce IKr, but that some variants which traffic normally may still be functionally compromised.

ConclusionsHere, we describe a new method for detecting trafficking-deficient variants in KCNH2 in a multiplexed assay. This new method accurately generates trafficking data for variants in KCNH2 and can be readily extended to all residues in Kv11.1 and to other cell surface proteins.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONSHundreds of KCNH2 variants have been observed to date, and thousands more will be found as clinical and population sequencing efforts become increasingly widespread. The major mechanism of KV11.1 loss of function is misfolding and failure to traffic to the cell surface. Deep mutational scanning of KCNH2 trafficking is a scalable, high-throughput method that can help identify new loss of function variants and decipher the large number of KCNH2 variants being found in the population.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kozek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glazer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ng, C.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blackwell, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egly, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanags, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blair, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knollmann, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vandenberg, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roden, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kroncke, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.17.952606</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput discovery of trafficking-deficient variants in the cardiac potassium channel KCNH2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.19.954552v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets drive glioblastoma growth in a sex-specific manner 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.19.954552v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) that block anti-tumor immunity are elevated in glioblastoma (GBM) patients. However, the distinct contribution of monocytic (mMDSC) versus granulocytic (gMDSC) subsets has yet to be determined. We observed that mMDSCs were enriched in the male tumor microenvironment, while gMDSCs were elevated in the circulation of female GBM models. Depletion of peripheral gMDSCs extended the survival only in female mice. Using gene expression signatures coupled with network medicine analysis, we demonstrated in pre-clinical models that mMDSCs could be targeted with anti-proliferative agents in males, whereas gMDSC function in females could be inhibited by IL-1{beta} blockade. Analysis of patient data confirmed that proliferating mMDSCs were the predominant population in male tumors, and that a high gMDSC/IL-1{beta} gene signature correlated with poor prognosis of female patients. These findings demonstrate that MDSC subsets differentially drive immune suppression in a sex-specific manner and can be leveraged for therapeutic intervention in GBM.

Statement of SignificanceSexual dimorphism at the level of MDSC subset prevalence, localization and gene expression profile comprises a therapeutic opportunity. Our results indicate that chemotherapy can be used to target mMDSC in males, while IL-1 pathway inhibitors can provide benefit to females through blockade of gMDSC function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vail, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roversi, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alban, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorensen, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otvos, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horbinski, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristensen, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khalil, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.19.954552</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets drive glioblastoma growth in a sex-specific manner]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.19.954651v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genetic Variants and Functional Pathways Associated with Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.19.954651v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Approximately 30% of older adults exhibit the neuropathologic features of Alzheimers disease (AD) without signs of cognitive impairment. Yet, little is known about the genetic factors that allow these potentially resilient individuals to remain cognitively normal in the face of substantial neuropathology. We performed a large, genome-wide association study (GWAS) of two previously validated metrics of cognitive resilience quantified using a latent variable modeling approach and representing better-than-predicted cognitive performance for a given level of neuropathology. Data were harmonized across 5,108 participants from a clinical trial of AD and three longitudinal cohort studies of cognitive aging. All analyses were run across all participants and repeated restricting the sample to individuals with normal cognition to identify variants at the earliest stages of disease. As expected, all resilience metrics were genetically correlated with cognitive performance and education attainment traits (p-values<2.5x10-20), and we observed novel correlations with neuropsychiatric conditions (p-values<7.9x10-4). Notably, neither resilience metric was genetically correlated with clinical AD (p-values>0.42) nor associated with APOE (p-values>0.13). In single variant analyses, we observed a genome-wide significant locus among participants with normal cognition on chromosome 18 upstream of ATP8B1 (index SNP rs2571244, MAF=0.08, p=2.3x10-8). The top variant at this locus (rs2571244) was significantly associated with methylation in prefrontal cortex tissue at multiple CpG sites, including one just upstream of ATPB81 (cg19596477; p=2x10-13). Overall, this comprehensive genetic analysis of resilience implicates a putative role of vascular risk, metabolism, and mental health in protection from the cognitive consequences of neuropathology, while also providing evidence for a novel resilience gene along the bile acid metabolism pathway.

Furthermore, the genetic architecture of resilience appears to be distinct from that of clinical AD, suggesting that a shift in focus to molecular contributors to resilience may identify novel pathways for therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dumitrescu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahoney, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engelman, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fardo, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trittschuh, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaczorowski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez Saucedo, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widaman, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckley, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Properzi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mormina, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hedden, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nho, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrews, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tommet, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadad, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanders, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruderfer, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gifford, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cambronero, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghavan, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vardarajan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>A4 Study Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farre</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.19.954651</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genetic Variants and Functional Pathways Associated with Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.24.963454v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SR-B1 uptake of HDL promotes prostate cancer proliferation and tumor progression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.24.963454v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism, in part, is facilitated by scavenger receptor class B, type 1 (SR-B1) that mediates its uptake into cells. SR-B1 is upregulated in prostate cancer tissue. Here, we report that knockout (KO) of SR-B1 via CRISPR/Cas9 editing led to reduced HDL uptake into prostate cancer cells, and reduced their proliferation in response to HDL. In vivo studies using syngeneic SR-B1 wildtype (SR-B1+/+) and SR-B1 KO (SR-B1-/-) prostate cancer cells in WT and apolipoprotein-AI KO (apoA1-KO) C57BL/6J mice showed that WT hosts, containing higher levels of total and HDL-cholesterol, grew larger tumors than apoA1-KO hosts with lower levels of total and HDL-cholesterol. Furthermore, SR-B1-/- prostate cancer cells formed smaller tumors in WT hosts, than SR-B1+/+ cells in same host model. Tumor volume data was overall similar to survival data. We conclude that tumoral SR-B1 KO reduced HDL-mediated increases in prostate cancer cell proliferation and disease progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Traughber, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Opoku, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Major, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorkowski, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardaway, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulshan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharifi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.24.963454</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SR-B1 uptake of HDL promotes prostate cancer proliferation and tumor progression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.27.968156v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome wide-association study identifies novel loci in the Primary Open-Angle African American Glaucoma Genetics (POAAGG) study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.27.968156v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, disproportionately affects African Americans. Large-scale POAG genetic studies have focused on individuals of European and Asian ancestry, limiting our understanding of disease biology. Here we report genetic analysis of the largest-ever deeply phenotyped African American population (n=5950), identifying a novel POAG-associated SNP on chromosome 11 near the TRIM66 gene (rs112369934). POAG trait association also implicated SNPs in genes involved in trabecular meshwork homeostasis and retinal ganglion cell maintenance. These new loci deepen our understanding of the pathophysiology of POAG in African Americans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gudiseva, H. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verma, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chavali, V. R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salowe, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merriam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowman, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>mchugh, c. p.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zody, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pistilli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khachatryan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ebenezer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Windell, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, Q. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Addis, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lehman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller-Ellis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sankar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varma, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, G.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ritchie, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Brien, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.27.968156</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome wide-association study identifies novel loci in the Primary Open-Angle African American Glaucoma Genetics (POAAGG) study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.983817v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increased APOEϵ4 expression is associated with reactive A1 astrocytes and the difference in Alzheimer Disease risk from diverse ancestral backgrounds 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.983817v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
APOE{varepsilon}4 African local genomic ancestry (LA) confers less risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) relative to European LA (LA) carriers. Single nucleus RNA sequencing from AD-APOE{varepsilon}4/4 frontal cortex found European LA carriers have a 1.45-fold greater APOE{varepsilon}4 expression (p< 1.8 E10-313) and are associated with a unique A1 reactive astrocyte cluster. This suggests a potential mechanism for the increased risk for AD seen in European LA carriers of APOE{varepsilon}4.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bussies, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitehead, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton-Nelson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beecham, G. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nuytemans, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, O. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorfsman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bigio, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mesulam, M.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weintraub, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geula, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-McGrath, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalgard, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.09.983817</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increased APOEϵ4 expression is associated with reactive A1 astrocytes and the difference in Alzheimer Disease risk from diverse ancestral backgrounds]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.10.981167v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Small Molecule Targeting IRES Domain Inhibits Enterovirus 71 Replication via an Allosteric Mechanism that Stabilizes a Ternary Complex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.10.981167v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We herein report an RNA-targeting antiviral small molecule that reduces replication of the human enterovirus 71 (EV71) via stabilization of an inhibitory small molecule-RNA-protein ternary complex. The EV71 virus poses serious threats to human health, particularly in regions of Southeast Asia, and no FDA approved drugs or vaccines are available. We first screened an RNA-biased small molecule library using a peptide-displacement assay to identify ligands for the stem loop II structure of the EV71 internal ribosomal entry site, which was previously shown to impact viral translation and replication. One ligand, DMA-135, decreased viral translation and replication in cell-based studies in a dose-dependent manner with no significant toxicity. Structural, biophysical, and biochemical characterization support an allosteric mechanism in which DMA-135 induces a conformational change in the RNA structure that stabilizes a ternary complex with the AUF1 protein that then represses translation. This mechanism was further supported by pull-down experiments in cell culture. These detailed studies establish enterovirus RNA structures as promising drug targets while revealing an approach and mechanism of action that should be broadly applicable to functional RNA targeting.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Davila-Calderon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patwardhan, N. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiu, L.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sugarman, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penutmutchu, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, M.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hargrove, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolbert, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.10.981167</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Small Molecule Targeting IRES Domain Inhibits Enterovirus 71 Replication via an Allosteric Mechanism that Stabilizes a Ternary Complex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.22.002469v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Patterns of 'Analytical Irreproducibility' in Multimodal Diseases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.22.002469v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multimodal diseases are those in which affected individuals can be divided into subtypes (or  data modes); for instance,  mild vs.  severe, based on (unknown) modifiers of disease severity. Studies have shown that despite the inclusion of a large number of subjects, the causal role of the microbiome in human diseases remains uncertain. The role of the microbiome in multimodal diseases has been studied in animals; however, findings are often deemed irreproducible, or unreasonably biased, with pathogenic roles in 95% of reports. As a solution to repeatability, investigators have been told to seek funds to increase the number of human-microbiome donors (N) to increase the reproducibility of animal studies (doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.025). Herein, through simulations, we illustrate that increasing N will not uniformly/universally enable the identification of consistent statistical differences (patterns of analytical irreproducibility), due to random sampling from a population with ample variability in disease and the presence of  disease data subtypes (or modes). We also found that studies do not use cluster statistics when needed (97.4%, 37/38, 95%CI=86.5,99.5), and that scientists who increased N, concurrently reduced the number of mice/donor (y=-0.21x, R2=0.24; and vice versa), indicating that statistically, scientists replace the disease variance in mice by the variance of human disease. Instead of assuming that increasing N will solve reproducibility and identify clinically-predictive findings on causality, we propose the visualization of data distribution using kernel-density-violin plots (rarely used in rodent studies; 0%, 0/38, 95%CI=6.9e-18,9.1) to identify  disease data subtypes to self-correct, guide and promote the personalized investigation of disease subtype mechanisms.

HighlightsO_LIMultimodal diseases are those in which affected individuals can be divided into subtypes (or  data modes); for instance,  mild vs.  severe, based on (unknown) modifiers of disease severity.
C_LIO_LIThe role of the microbiome in multimodal diseases has been studied in animals; however, findings are often deemed irreproducible, or unreasonably biased, with pathogenic roles in 95% of reports.
C_LIO_LIAs a solution to repeatably, investigators have been told to seek funds to increase the number of human-microbiome donors (N) to increase the reproducibility of animal studies.
C_LIO_LIHerein, we illustrate that although increasing N could help identify statistical effects (patterns of analytical irreproducibility), clinically-relevant information will not always be identified.
C_LIO_LIDepending on which diseases need to be compared,  random sampling alone leads to reproducible  patterns of analytical irreproducibility in multimodal disease simulations.
C_LIO_LIInstead of solely increasing N, we illustrate how disease multimodality could be understood, visualized and used to guide the study of diseases by selecting and focusing on  disease modes.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Basson, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Palacios, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.22.002469</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Patterns of 'Analytical Irreproducibility' in Multimodal Diseases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.27.011825v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of genes required for enzalutamide resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer cells in vitro 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.27.011825v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Castration-resistant prostate cancer can be treated with the anti-androgen enzalutamide, but responses and duration of response are variable. To identify genes that support enzalutamide resistance, we performed a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) screen in the bone-homing, castration-resistant prostate cancer cell line, C4-2B. We identified eleven genes (TFAP2C, CAD, SPDEF, EIF6, GABRG2, CDC37, PSMD12, COL5A2, AR, MAP3K11, and ACAT1), whose loss resulted in decreased cell survival in response to enzalutamide. To validate our screen, we performed transient knockdowns in C4-2B and 22Rv1 cells and evaluated cell survival in response to enzalutamide. Through these studies, we validated three genes (ACAT1, MAP3K11, and PSMD12) as supporters of enzalutamide resistance in vitro. Although ACAT1 expression is lower in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer samples versus primary prostate cancer samples, knockdown of ACAT1 was sufficient to reduce cell survival in C4-2B and 22Rv1 cells. MAP3K11 expression increases with Gleason grade, and the highest expression is observed in metastatic castration-resistant disease. Knockdown of MAP3K11 reduced cell survival and pharmacologic inhibition of MAP3K11 with CEP-1347 in combination with enzalutamide resulted in a dramatic increase in cell death. This was associated with decreased phosphorylation of AR-Serine650, which is required for maximal AR activation. Finally, while PSMD12 expression did not change during disease progression, knockdown of PSMD12 resulted in decreased AR and AR splice variant expression, likely contributing to the C4-2B and 22Rv1 decrease in cell survival. Our study has therefore identified at least three new supporters of enzalutamide resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer cells in vitro.

Financial supportThe authors would like to acknowledge funding from the Joe C. Davis Foundation (to RJM), the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR, to YY, PEC, and RJM). The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program, Award Number 5UL1TR002243. The content of this manuscript solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. We would also like to acknowledge the Case Research Institute, a joint venture between University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, start-up funds (to MMG), and the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program (T32 GM 008056 to SEK).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kohrt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awadallah, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Case, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nanda, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matusik, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.27.011825</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of genes required for enzalutamide resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer cells in vitro]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.016154v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-resolution Structures of multiple 5-HT3AR-setron complexes reveal a novel mechanism of competitive inhibition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.30.016154v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Serotonin receptors (5-HT3AR) play a crucial role in regulating gut movement, and are the principal target of setrons, a class of high-affinity competitive antagonists, used in the management of nausea and vomiting associated with radiation and chemotherapies. Structural insights into setron-binding poses and their inhibitory mechanisms are just beginning to emerge. Here, we present high-resolution cryo-EM structures of full-length 5-HT3AR in complex with palonosetron, ondansetron, and alosetron. Each structure reveals a distinct interaction fingerprint between the setron and binding-pocket residues that may underlie their diverse affinities. In addition, setrons elicit varying degrees of conformational change throughout the channel that, quite surprisingly, lie along the channel activation pathway, suggesting a novel mechanism of competitive inhibition. Molecular dynamic simulations were used to assess binding-poses and the drug-target interaction dynamics. Together, this study provides a molecular basis for setron binding affinities and their inhibitory effects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Basak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramsey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibbs, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapoor, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filizola, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakrapani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.30.016154</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-resolution Structures of multiple 5-HT3AR-setron complexes reveal a novel mechanism of competitive inhibition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.31.018846v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SLX4IP-mediated telomere maintenance is essential for androgen receptor-independent castration-resistant prostate cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.31.018846v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In advanced prostate cancer, resistance to androgen deprivation therapy is achieved through numerous mechanisms, including loss of the androgen receptor (AR) allowing for AR-independent growth. Therapeutic options are limited for AR-independent castration-resistant prostate cancer, and defining mechanisms critical for its survival is of utmost importance for targeting this lethal disease. Our studies have focused on defining the telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) required for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cell survival. TMMs are responsible for telomere elongation to instill replicative immortality and prevent senescence, with the two TMM pathways available being telomerase and alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). Here, we show that AR-independent CRPC exhibits ALT hallmarks and limited telomerase expression and activity, whereas AR-dependent models use telomerase for telomere maintenance. AR-independent CRPC exhibited elevated levels of SLX4IP, a protein implicated in TMM switching. SLX4IP overexpression in AR-dependent CRPC C4-2B cells promoted ALT hallmarks in vitro. SLX4IP knockdown in AR-independent CRPC cells (DU145 and PC-3) led to the loss of ALT hallmarks, dramatic telomere shortening, induction of senescence, and reduced tumor volume. Using an in vitro model of CRPC progression, induction of neuroendocrine differentiation in AR-dependent CRPC cells promoted ALT hallmarks in an SLX4IP-dependent manner. Lack of sufficient SLX4IP expression prevented ALT hallmarks rendering a TMM deficient environment, thus inducing senescence. This study demonstrates a unique reliance of AR-independent CRPC on SLX4IP-mediated ALT. Furthermore, ALT hallmark inhibition via SLX4IP induces senescence, thereby abolishing the replicative immortality of AR-independent CRPC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangosh, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awadallah, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.31.018846</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SLX4IP-mediated telomere maintenance is essential for androgen receptor-independent castration-resistant prostate cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.020958v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ecology and molecular targets of hypermutation in the global microbiome. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.020958v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Changes in the sequence of an organisms genome, i.e. mutations, are the raw material of evolution1. The frequency and location of mutations can be constrained by specific molecular mechanisms, such as Diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs)2-4. DGRs introduce mutations in specific target genes, and were characterized from several cultivated bacteria and bacteriophages2. Whilst a larger diversity of DGR loci has been identified in genomic data from environmental samples, i.e. metagenomes, the ecological role of these DGRs and their associated evolutionary drivers remain poorly understood5-7. Here we built and analyzed an extensive dataset of >30,000 metagenome-derived DGRs, and determine that DGRs have a single evolutionary origin and a universal bias towards adenine mutations. We further identified six major lineages of DGRs, each associated with a specific ecological niche defined as a genome type, i.e. whether the DGR is encoded on a viral or cellular genome, a limited set of taxa and environments, and a distinct type of target. Finally, we leverage read mapping and metagenomic time series to demonstrate that DGRs are consistently and broadly active, and responsible for >10% of all amino acid changes in some organisms at a conservative estimate. Overall, these results highlight the strong constraints under which DGRs diversify and expand, and elucidate several distinct roles these elements play in natural communities and in shaping microbial community structure and function in our environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Roux, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, B. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bagby, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Attwood, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cavicchioli, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chistoserdova, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hallam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hess, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Malley, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rich, V. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saleska, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eloe-Fadrosh, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.01.020958</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ecology and molecular targets of hypermutation in the global microbiome.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.03.003632v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Non-Canonical Targets of HIF1a Drive Cell-Type-Specific Dysfunction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.03.003632v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
All mammalian cells sense and respond to insufficient oxygen, or hypoxia, through the activity of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), an evolutionarily conserved family of transcriptional regulators that promote oxygen-independent energy metabolism and angiogenesis. While HIF activation is transiently protective for all cells, prolonged HIF activity drives distinct pathological responses in different tissues. How HIF achieves this pleiotropic effect is largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that non-canonical targets of HIF1a impair the function of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) to generate oligodendrocytes. Beyond the canonical gene targets shared between all cell types, HIF1a also bound to and activated a unique set of targets in OPCs including Ascl2 and Dlx3. Each of these targets, when ectopically expressed, was sufficient to block oligodendrocyte development through suppression of the key oligodendrocyte regulator Sox10. Chemical screening revealed that inhibition of MEK/ERK signaling overcame the HIF1a-mediated block in oligodendrocyte generation by restoring Sox10 expression without impacting canonical HIF1a activity. Collectively this work defines the mechanism by which chronic HIF1a suppresses oligodendrocyte formation. More broadly, we establish that cell-type-specific HIF1a targets, independent of the canonical hypoxia response, perturb cell function and drive disease in chronic hypoxia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Allan, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morton, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scavuzzo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gevorgyan, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clayton, B. L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.03.003632</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Non-Canonical Targets of HIF1a Drive Cell-Type-Specific Dysfunction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028688v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nonmedical Masks in Public for Respiratory Pandemics: Droplet Retention by two-layer Textile Barrier Fully Protects Germ-free Mice from Bacteria in Droplets 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028688v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Due to the shortage of masks during the pandemic, we recently demonstrated that household textiles are effective environmental droplet barriers (EDBs) with identical droplet retention potential as medical masks. To further promote the implementation of a universal community droplet reduction solution based on a synchronized encouragement/enforcement of mask utilization by the public based on widely available textiles (mask fabrication without the need for sewing machines), here we conducted a study using germ-free mice to determine to what extent textiles were effective in vivo. Using a bacterial-suspension spray simulation model of droplet ejection (mimicking a sneeze), we quantified the extent by which 100% cotton textile prevented the contamination of germ-free animals on the other side of the textile-barrier (simulating a properly worn mask). Of relevance, all mice protected with textiles remained germ-free after two sprays (inoculation dose: >600 bacterial droplet units per 56.75cm2) compared to the contamination of mice not protected by a textile (0/12 vs 6/6, Fishers exact, p<0.0001). In a second phase of the experiment with 12 germ-free mice exposed again to 10-fold more droplets remained germ-free, while 100% of mice at 180cm became colonized with a single spray (0/8 vs 4/4, Fisher exact, p=0.002). Collectively, barriers protected all mice (even with low-density textiles, heavy vs. light fabric, T-test, p=0.0028) when using textile-EDB to cover the cages (0/20 vs 10/10, Fisher exact, p<0.0001). This study demonstrated, in vivo, that widely available household textiles are 100% effective at preventing contamination of the environment and the exposed animals by microbe-carrying droplets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Palacios, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.06.028688</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nonmedical Masks in Public for Respiratory Pandemics: Droplet Retention by two-layer Textile Barrier Fully Protects Germ-free Mice from Bacteria in Droplets]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.07.030312v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of 15-PGDH Protects Mice from Immune-mediated Bone Marrow Failure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.07.030312v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aplastic anemia (AA) is a human immune mediated bone-marrow failure syndrome that is treated by stem cell transplantation for patients who have a matched related donor or immunosuppressive therapy (IST) for those who do not. Responses to IST are variable, with patients still at risk for prolonged neutropenia, transfusion-dependence, immune suppression, and severe opportunistic infections. Therefore, additional therapies to accelerate hematologic recovery in patients receiving front line IST are needed. We have shown that inhibiting 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) with the small molecule SW033291 (PGDHi) increases bone marrow (BM) prostaglandin E2 levels, expands hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) numbers, and accelerates hematologic reconstitution following murine BM transplantation. We now report that in a murine model of immune-mediated BM failure, PGDHi therapy mitigated cytopenias, increased BM HSC and progenitor cells, and significantly extended survival compared to vehicle-treated mice. PGDHi protection was not immune-mediated, as serum IFN{gamma} levels and BM CD8+ T lymphocyte frequencies were not impacted. Moreover, dual administration of PGDHi plus low dose IST enhanced total white blood cell, neutrophil and platelet recovery, achieving responses similar to maximal dose IST at lesser toxicity. Together these data demonstrate that PGDHi can complement IST to accelerate hematologic recovery and reduce morbidity in severe AA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otegbeye, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jogasuria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerson, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.07.030312</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of 15-PGDH Protects Mice from Immune-mediated Bone Marrow Failure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.10.034637v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Revealing heritability missed by single locus analyses by examining epistasis in mouse chromosome substitution strains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.10.034637v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The genetic contribution of additive versus non-additive (epistatic) effects in the regulation of complex traits is unclear. While genome-wide association studies typically ignore gene-gene interactions, in part because of the lack of statistical power for detecting them, mouse chromosome substitution strains (CSSs) represent an alternate and powerful model for detecting epistasis given their limited allelic variation. Therefore, we utilized CSSs to identify and map both additive and epistatic loci that regulate a range of hematologic- and metabolism-related traits, as well as hepatic gene expression. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified using a CSS-based backcross strategy involving the segregation of variants on the A/J-derived substituted chromosomes 4 and 6 on an otherwise C57BL/6J genetic background. In the liver transcriptomes of offspring from this cross, we identified and mapped additive QTLs regulating the hepatic expression of 768 genes, and epistatic QTL pairs for 519 genes. Similarly, we identified additive QTLs for fat pad weight, platelets, and the percentage of granulocytes in blood, as well as epistatic QTL pairs controlling the percentage of lymphocytes in blood and red cell distribution width. The variance attributed to the epistatic QTL pairs was approximately equal to that of the additive QTLs; however, the SNPs in the epistatic QTL pairs that accounted for the largest variances were undetected in our single locus association analyses. These findings highlight the need to account for epistasis in association studies, and more broadly demonstrate the importance of identifying genetic interactions to understand the complete genetic architecture of complex traits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miller, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartlett, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.10.034637</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Revealing heritability missed by single locus analyses by examining epistasis in mouse chromosome substitution strains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.040485v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integration of IL-2 and IL-4 Signals Coordinates Divergent Regulatory T cell Responses and Drives Therapeutic Efficacy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.040485v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cells exist within complex milieus of communicating factors, such as cytokines, that combine to generate context-specific responses, yet nearly all knowledge about the function of each cytokine and the signaling propagated downstream of their recognition is based upon the response to individual cytokines. Here, we found that regulatory T cells (Tregs) integrate concurrent signaling initiated by IL-2 and IL-4 to generate a response divergent from the sum of the two pathways in isolation. IL-4 stimulation of STAT6 phosphorylation was blocked by IL-2, while IL-2 and IL-4 synergized to enhance STAT5 phosphorylation, IL-10 production, and the selective proliferation of IL-10-producing Tregs, leading to increased inhibition of conventional T cell activation and the reversal of asthma and multiple sclerosis in mice. These data define a mechanism of combinatorial cytokine signaling and lay the foundation upon which to better understand the origins of cytokine pleiotropy while informing improved the clinical use of cytokines.

Impact StatementSimultaneous cytokine signaling results in unexpected transcription factor changes that fuel a cellular response divergent from the sum of each cytokine alone.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.14.040485</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integration of IL-2 and IL-4 Signals Coordinates Divergent Regulatory T cell Responses and Drives Therapeutic Efficacy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.045302v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Broad Host Range of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted by Comparative and Structural Analysis of ACE2 in Vertebrates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.045302v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). The main receptor of SARS-CoV-2, angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is now undergoing extensive scrutiny to understand the routes of transmission and sensitivity in different species. Here, we utilized a unique dataset of 410 vertebrates, including 252 mammals, to study cross-species conservation of ACE2 and its likelihood to function as a SARS-CoV-2 receptor. We designed a five-category ranking score based on the conservation properties of 25 amino acids important for the binding between receptor and virus, classifying all species from very high to very low. Only mammals fell into the medium to very high categories, and only catarrhine primates in the very high category, suggesting that they are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We employed a protein structural analysis to qualitatively assess whether amino acid changes at variable residues would be likely to disrupt ACE2/SARS-CoV-2 binding, and found the number of predicted unfavorable changes significantly correlated with the binding score. Extending this analysis to human population data, we found only rare (<0.1%) variants in 10/25 binding sites. In addition, we observed evidence of positive selection in ACE2 in multiple species, including bats. Utilized appropriately, our results may lead to the identification of intermediate host species for SARS-CoV-2, justify the selection of animal models of COVID-19, and assist the conservation of animals both in native habitats and in human care.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Damas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keough, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Painter, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Persky, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corbo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hiller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koepfli, K.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfenning, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genereux, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swofford, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pollard, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryder, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nweeia, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindblad-Toh, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teeling, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karlsson, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewin, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.16.045302</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Broad Host Range of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted by Comparative and Structural Analysis of ACE2 in Vertebrates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.20.051045v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cadherin-6 mediates thrombosis in vivo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.20.051045v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background Platelet adhesion is the critical process mediating stable thrombus formation. Previous reports of cadherin-6 on human platelets have demonstrated its role in platelet aggregation and thrombus formation.Objectives We aimed to further characterize the importance of cadherin-6 in thrombosis in vivo.Methods Cadherin-6 platelet expression was evaluated by western blotting, flow cytometry and immunoprecipitation. Thrombosis was evaluated using the FeCl3 and Rose Bengal carotid artery models in C57Bl6 mice treated with anti-cadherin-6 or IgG and wild-type or Cdh6-/- mice. Platelet function was compared in wild type and Cdh6-/- mice using tail-clip assays and aggregometry.Results Human platelet expression of cadherin-6 was confirmed at ~3,000 copies per platelet. Cdh6-/- mice or those treated with anti-Cadherin-6 antibody showed an increased time to occlusion in both thrombosis models. Cadherin-6 was not expressed on mouse platelets, and there were no differences in tail bleeding times or platelet aggregation in wild-type versus Cdh6-/- mice.Conclusions Cadherin-6 plays an essential role in thrombosis in vivo. However, cadherin-6 is not expressed on murine platelets. These data are in contrast to human platelets, which express a functional cadherin-6/catenin complex. The essential, platelet-independent role for cadherin-6 in hemostasis may allow it to be an effective and safe therapeutic target.EssentialsCadherin-6 function in thrombus formation was investigated in vivo using two murine models of thrombosis.Blocking or deleting cadherin-6 significantly delayed time to occlusionHuman platelets express cadherin-6, but murine platelets do not.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bouck, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Fuente, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zunica, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mumaw, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.20.051045</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cadherin-6 mediates thrombosis in vivo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.23.043653v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pleiotropy-guided transcriptome imputation from normal and tumor tissues identifies new candidate susceptibility genes for breast and ovarian cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.23.043653v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Familial, genome-wide association (GWAS), and sequencing studies and genetic correlation analyses have progressively unraveled the shared or pleiotropic germline genetics of breast and ovarian cancer. In this study, we aimed to leverage this shared germline genetics to improve the power of transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) to identify candidate breast cancer and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes. We built gene expression prediction models using the PrediXcan method in 681 breast and 295 ovarian tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas and 211 breast and 99 ovarian normal tissue samples from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project and integrated these with GWAS meta-analysis data from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (122,977 cases/105,974 controls) and the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (22,406 cases/40,941 controls). The integration was achieved through novel application of a pleiotropy-guided conditional/conjunction false discovery rate approach for the first time in the setting of a TWAS. This identified 14 new candidate breast cancer susceptibility genes spanning 11 genomic regions and 8 new candidate ovarian cancer susceptibility genes spanning 5 genomic regions at conjunction FDR < 0.05 that were > 1 Mb away from known breast and/or ovarian cancer susceptibility loci. We also identified 38 candidate breast cancer susceptibility genes and 17 candidate ovarian cancer susceptibility genes at conjunction FDR < 0.05 at known breast and/or ovarian susceptibility loci. Overlaying candidate causal risk variants identified by GWAS fine mapping onto expression prediction models for genes at known loci suggested that the association for 55% of these genes was driven by the underlying GWAS signal.

SignificanceThe 22 new genes identified by our cross-cancer analysis represent promising candidates that further elucidate the role of the transcriptome in mediating germline breast and ovarian cancer risk.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Considine, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyrer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plummer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dezem, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbeira, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajagopal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenow, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bodelon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang-Claude, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chenevix-Trench, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>deFazio, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doerk, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ekici, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewing, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fountzilas, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goode, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heitz, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillemanns, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogdall, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogdall, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huzarski, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jensen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karlan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khusnutdinova, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiemeney, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kjaer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klapdor, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kobel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liebrich, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>May, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsson, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Permuth, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterlongo, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radice, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramus, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riggan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saloustros, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szafron, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vierkant, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winha</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.23.043653</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pleiotropy-guided transcriptome imputation from normal and tumor tissues identifies new candidate susceptibility genes for breast and ovarian cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.25.061234v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting Thymidine Phosphorylase with Tipiracil Hydrochloride is a Safe and Effective Antithrombotic Therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.25.061234v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RationaleMost of the current anti-platelet drugs inhibit platelet function permanently and have systemic side effects, including thrombocytopenia and hemorrhage. We previously found that thymidine phosphorylase (TYMP), a platelet cytoplasmic protein, facilitates multiple agonist induced platelet activation and enhances thrombosis. A specific TYMP inhibitor, namely, tipiracil hydrochloride (TPI), has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical use as an auxiliary drug making it possible to be repositioned as an anti-platelet medicine.

ObjectiveWe aimed to test the hypothesis that TPI is a novel and safe anti-platelet drug by examining its role in platelet activation and thrombosis using both in vitro and in vivo studies.

Methods and ResultsBy co-expression of TYMP and Lyn or Lyn-SH3 domain tagged with glutathione S-transferase, we showed the direct evidence that TYMP binds to the SH3 domain in its partners. TYMP haplodeficiency is sufficient to inhibit thrombosis in vivo regardless of gender. TPI treatment rapidly inhibited collagen- and ADP-induced platelet aggregation, which copied the phenotype of TYMP deficient platelets. Under both normal and hyperlipidemic conditions, treating wild type (WT) mice with TPI via intraperitoneal injection, intravenous injection, or gavage feeding dramatically inhibited thrombosis without inducing significant bleeding. Even administered above the effective dose, TPI has a lower bleeding side effect compared to aspirin and clopidogrel. Most importantly, intravenously delivery of TPI alone or combined with tissue plasminogen activator dramatically inhibited the growth of developing thrombi. Dual administration of very low dose of aspirin and TPI also dramatically inhibited thrombosis without disturbing hemostasis.

ConclusionThis pharmacological study demonstrated that TYMP participates in multiple signaling pathways in platelet and plays a mechanistic role in regulating platelet activation and thrombosis. TPI, a specific TYMP inhibitor, would be a novel safe anti-platelet and anti-thrombosis medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zulfiker, A. H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belcher, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sen Gupta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.25.061234</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting Thymidine Phosphorylase with Tipiracil Hydrochloride is a Safe and Effective Antithrombotic Therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.062802v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Robust Inference of Kinase Activity using Functional Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.062802v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mass spectrometry enables high-throughput screening of phospho-proteins across a broad range of biological contexts. When complemented by computational algorithms, phospho-proteomic data allows the inference of kinase activity, facilitating the identification of dysregulated kinases in various diseases including cancer, Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease. To enhance the reliability of kinase activity inference, we present a network-based framework, RoKAI, that integrates various sources of functional information to capture coordinated changes in signaling. Through computational experiments, we show that phosphorylation of sites in the functional neighborhood of a kinase are significantly predictive of its activity. The incorporation of this knowledge in RoKAI consistently enhances the accuracy of kinase activity inference methods while making them more robust to missing annotations and quantifications. This enables the identification of understudied kinases and will likely lead to the development of novel kinase inhibitors for targeted therapy of many diseases. RoKAI is available as web-based tool at http://rokai.io.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlatzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cicek, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.01.062802</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Robust Inference of Kinase Activity using Functional Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.073148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Co-Phosphorylation Networks Reveal Subtype-Specific Signaling Modules in Breast Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.073148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationProtein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous mechanism of post-translational modification that plays a central role in cellular signaling. Phosphorylation is particularly important in the context of cancer, as down-regulation of tumor suppressors and up-regulation of oncogenes by the dysregulation of associated kinase and phosphatase networks are shown to have key roles in tumor growth and progression. Despite recent advances that enable large-scale monitoring of protein phosphorylation, these data are not fully incorporated into such computational tasks as phenotyping and subtyping of cancers.

ResultsWe develop a network-based algorithm, CoPPNO_SCPLOWETC_SCPLOW, to enable unsupervised subtyping of cancers using phosphorylation data. For this purpose, we integrate prior knowledge on evolutionary, structural, and functional association of phosphosites, kinase-substrate associations, and protein-protein interactions with the correlation of phosphorylation of phosphosites across different tumor samples (a.k.a co-phosphorylation) to construct a context-specific weighted network of phosphosites. We then mine these networks to identify subnetworks with correlated phosphorylation patterns. We apply the proposed framework to two mass-spectrometry based phosphorylation datasets for breast cancer, and observe that (i) the phosphorylation pattern of the identified subnetworks are highly correlated with clinically identified subtypes, and (ii) the identified subnetworks are highly reproducible across datasets that are derived from different studies. Our results show that integration of quantitative phosphorylation data with network frameworks can provide mechanistic insights into the differences between the signaling mechanisms that drive breast cancer subtypes. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the identified subnetworks suggests that phosphorylation can provide robust classification of disease response and markers.

Availability and implementationCoPPNO_SCPLOWETC_SCPLOW is available at http://compbio.case.edu/coppnet/
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.04.073148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Co-Phosphorylation Networks Reveal Subtype-Specific Signaling Modules in Breast Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.11.089102v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The kinetic landscape of an RNA binding protein in cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.11.089102v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gene expression in higher eukaryotic cells orchestrates interactions between thousands of RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and tens of thousands of RNAs 1. The kinetics by which RBPs bind to and dissociate from their RNA sites are critical for the coordination of cellular RNA-protein interactions 2. However, these kinetics were experimentally inaccessible in cells. Here we show that time-resolved RNA-protein crosslinking with a pulsed femtosecond UV laser, followed by immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing allows the determination of binding and dissociation kinetics of the RBP Dazl for thousands of individual RNA binding sites in cells. This kinetic crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (KIN-CLIP) approach reveals that Dazl resides at individual binding sites only seconds or shorter, while the sites remain Dazl-free markedly longer. The data further indicate that Dazl binds to many RNAs in clusters of multiple proximal sites. The impact of Dazl on mRNA levels and ribosome association correlates with the cumulative probability of Dazl binding in these clusters. Integrating kinetic data with mRNA features quantitatively connects Dazl-RNA binding to Dazl function. Our results show how previously inaccessible, kinetic parameters for RNA-protein interactions in cells can be measured and how these data quantitatively link RBP-RNA binding to cellular RBP function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sharma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zagore, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brister, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crespo-Hernández, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jankowsky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.11.089102</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The kinetic landscape of an RNA binding protein in cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.089706v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human follicular CD4 T cell function is defined by specific molecular, positional and TCR dynamic signatures. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.089706v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The orchestrated interaction between follicular helper CD4 T cells (TFH) and germinal center (GC) B cells is crucial for optimal humoral immunity. However, the regulatory mechanisms behind spatial distribution and function of TFH is not well understood. Here, we studied human TFH cells and found that transitioning to a CD57hi TFH status was associated with distinct positioning in the GC, phenotype, transcriptional signatures, function and downregulation of their T-cell receptor (TCR). Single cell TCR clonotype analysis indicated a unidirectional transition towards the CD57hi TFH status, which was marked with drastic changes in the nature of immunological synapse formation where peripheral microclusters become dominant. Lack of central supra molecular activation cluster (cSMAC) formation in TFH synapse was associated with enhanced ubiquitination/proteasome activity in these cells. Our data reveal significant aspects of the tissue organization and heterogeneity of follicular adaptive immunity and suggest that CD57hi TFH cells are endowed with distinctive programming and spatial positioning for optimal GC B cell help.

One Sentence Summaryhuman TFH cell heterogeneity
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Padhan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moysi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chassiakos, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghneim, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papaioannou, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fabozzi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ambrozak, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poultsidi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ioannou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fenwik, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darko, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douek, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantaleo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koup, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrovas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.12.089706</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human follicular CD4 T cell function is defined by specific molecular, positional and TCR dynamic signatures.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091900v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Naturally acquired blocking human monoclonal antibodies to Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte binding protein 2b 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091900v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plasmodium vivax preferentially invades reticulocytes and recognition of these cells is mediated by P. vivax Reticulocyte Binding Protein 2b (PvRBP2b) binding to human Transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) and Transferrin (Tf). Longitudinal cohort studies in Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Brazil show that PvRBP2b antibodies are correlated with protection against P. vivax infection and disease. Here, we isolated and characterized anti-PvRBP2b human monoclonal antibodies from two individuals in Cambodia with natural P. vivax infection. These antibodies bind with high affinities and map to different regions of PvRBP2b. Several human antibodies blocked PvRBP2b binding to reticulocytes and inhibited complex formation with human TfR1-Tf. We describe different structural mechanisms for functional inhibition, including either steric hindrance with TfR1-Tf or the reticulocyte membrane. These results show that naturally acquired human antibodies against PvRBP2b can inhibit its function which is important for P. vivax invasion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chan, L.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gandhirajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carias, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dietrich, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vadas, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Visentin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franca, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menant, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soldati-Favre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tham, W.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.12.091900</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Naturally acquired blocking human monoclonal antibodies to Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte binding protein 2b]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.093344v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An autoregulatory switch in sex-specific phf7 transcription causes loss of sexual identity and tumors in the Drosophila female germline 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.093344v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maintenance of germ cell sexual identity is essential for reproduction. Entry into the spermatogenesis or oogenesis pathway requires that the appropriate gene network is activated and the antagonist network is silenced. For example, in Drosophila female germ cells, forced expression of the testis-specific PHD finger protein 7 (PHF7) disrupts oogenesis leading to either an agametic or germ cell tumor phenotype. Here we show that PHF7 expressing ovarian germ cells inappropriately express hundreds of genes, many of which are male germline genes. We find that the majority of genes under PHF7 control in female germ cells are not under PHF7 control in male germ cells, suggesting that PHF7 is acting in a tissue-specific manner. Remarkably, transcriptional reprogramming includes a positive autoregulatory feedback mechanism in which ectopic PHF7 overcomes its own transcriptional repression through promoter switching. Furthermore, we find that tumorigenic capacity is dependent on the dosage of phf7. This study reveals that high levels of ectopic PHF7 in female germ cells leads to a loss of sexual identity and promotion of a regulatory circuit beneficial for tumor initiation and progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smolko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shapiro-Kulnane, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salz, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.13.093344</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An autoregulatory switch in sex-specific phf7 transcription causes loss of sexual identity and tumors in the Drosophila female germline]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.14.096826v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Barrett's esophagus is the precursor of all esophageal adenocarcinomas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.14.096826v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveBarretts esophagus (BE) is a known precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) but current clinical data have not been consolidated to address whether BE is the origin of all incident EAC, which would reinforce evidence for BE screening efforts. We aimed to answer whether all expected prevalent BE, diagnosed and undiagnosed, could account for all incident EACs in the US cancer registry data.

DesignWe used a multi-scale computational model of EAC that includes the evolutionary process from normal esophagus through BE in individuals from the US population. The model was previously calibrated to fit SEER cancer incidence curves. Here we also utilized age- and sex-specific US census data for numbers at-risk. The primary outcome for model validation was the expected number of EAC cases for a given calendar year. Secondary outcomes included the comparisons of resulting model-predicted prevalence of BE and BE-to-EAC progression to the observed prevalence and progression rates.

ResultsThe model estimated the total number of EAC cases in 2010 was 9,970 (95% CI 9,140 - 11,980), which recapitulates all EAC cases from population data. The model simultaneously predicted 8-9% BE prevalence in high-risk males age 45-55, and 0.1-0.2% non-dysplastic BE-to-EAC annual progression in males, consistent with clinical studies.

ConclusionThere are no additional EAC cases that plausibly arise in the US population outside the BE pathway. Effective screening of high-risk patients could capture the majority of population destined for EAC progression and decrease mortality through early detection and curative removal of small (pre)cancers during surveillance.

Summary BoxWhat is already known about this subject?

O_LIBarretts esophagus (BE) patients have a 40 to 50-fold higher risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) than the general population yet many remain undiagnosed.
C_LIO_LIIdentified BE patients receiving surveillance can have early cancers discovered endoscopically, which decreases the high overall EAC-associated mortality.
C_LIO_LICurrently around 90% of patients who develop EAC were never part of a BE surveillance program, and those BE patients on surveillance have a low annual progression rate of 0.1 - 0.3% to develop EAC.
C_LI

What are the new findings?O_LIBy applying a model that incorporates the evolution from normal cells to BE to EAC in patients, we found that the numbers add up - the expected number of EAC cases in the US population are explained by the published rates of BE described above.
C_LIO_LIWe cohesively examined the published estimates to determine that all EAC likely arises from both identified BE and occult, undiagnosed BE in the population.
C_LI

How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future?O_LIBased on current best estimates, our findings suggest there is no public health need to seek cases of a non-BE alternative pathway to EAC.
C_LIO_LIIncreasing efforts for effective, sensitive screening and surveillance of the true BE population will decrease EAC mortality in the coming years.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Curtius, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubenstein, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inadomi, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.14.096826</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Barrett's esophagus is the precursor of all esophageal adenocarcinomas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.29.123505v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-sleep interactions identify novel loci for blood pressure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.29.123505v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long and short sleep duration are associated with elevated blood pressure (BP), possibly through effects on molecular pathways that influence neuroendocrine and vascular systems. To gain new insights into the genetic basis of sleep-related BP variation, we performed genome-wide gene by short or long sleep duration interaction analyses on four BP traits (systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure) across five ancestry groups using 1 degree of freedom (1df) interaction and 2df joint tests. Primary multi-ancestry analyses in 62,969 individuals in stage 1 identified 3 novel loci that were replicated in an additional 59,296 individuals in stage 2, including rs7955964 (FIGNL2/ANKRD33) showing significant 1df interactions with long sleep duration and rs73493041 (SNORA26/C9orf170) and rs10406644 (KCTD15/LSM14A) showing significant 1df interactions with short sleep duration (Pint < 5x10-8). Secondary ancestry-specific two-stage analyses and combined stage 1 and 2 analyses additionally identified 23 novel loci that need external replication, including 3 and 5 loci showing significant 1df interactions with long and short sleep duration, respectively (Pint < 5x10-8). Multiple genes mapped to our 26 novel loci have known functions in sleep-wake regulation, nervous and cardiometabolic systems. We also identified new gene by long sleep interactions near five known BP loci ([&le;]1Mb) including NME7, FAM208A, MKLN1, CEP164, and RGL3/ELAVL3 (Pint < 5x10-8). This study indicates that sleep and primary mechanisms regulating BP may interact to elevate BP level, suggesting novel insights into sleep-related BP regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noordam, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cade, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwander, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkler, T. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sung, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bentley, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manning, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aschard, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilpelainen, T. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilkov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horimoto, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richard, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartz, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vojinovic, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nierenberg, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chitrala, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rankinen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musani, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franceschini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rauramaa, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alver, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zee, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Most, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolte, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munroe, P. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmer, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhnel, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hall, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyytikainen, L.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connell, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eiriksdottir, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Launer, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Vries, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arking, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.29.123505</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-sleep interactions identify novel loci for blood pressure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.126755v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The neural representation of force across grasp types in motor cortex of humans with tetraplegia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.126755v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) have the potential to restore hand grasping and object interaction to individuals with tetraplegia. Optimal grasping and object interaction require simultaneous production of both force and grasp outputs. However, since overlapping neural populations are modulated by both parameters, grasp type could affect how well forces are decoded from motor cortex in a closed-loop force iBCI. Therefore, this work quantified the neural representation and offline decoding performance of discrete hand grasps and force levels in two participants with tetraplegia. Participants attempted to produce three discrete forces (light, medium, hard) using up to five hand grasp configurations. A two-way Welch ANOVA was implemented on multiunit neural features to assess their modulation to force and grasp. Demixed principal component analysis was used to assess for population-level tuning to force and grasp and to predict these parameters from neural activity. Three major findings emerged from this work: 1) Force information was neurally represented and could be decoded across multiple hand grasps (and, in one participant, across attempted elbow extension as well); 2) Grasp type affected force representation within multi-unit neural features and offline force classification accuracy; and 3) Grasp was classified more accurately and had greater population-level representation than force. These findings suggest that force and grasp have both independent and interacting representations within cortex, and that incorporating force control into real-time iBCI systems is feasible across multiple hand grasps if the decoder also accounts for grasp type.

Significance StatementIntracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) have emerged as a promising technology to potentially restore hand grasping and object interaction in people with tetraplegia. This study is among the first to quantify the degree to which hand grasp affects force-related - or kinetic - neural activity and decoding performance in individuals with tetraplegia. The study results enhance our overall understanding of how the brain encodes kinetic parameters across varying kinematic behaviors -- and in particular, the degree to which these parameters have independent versus interacting neural representations. Such investigations are a critical first step to incorporating force control into human-operated iBCI systems, which would move the technology towards restoring more functional and naturalistic tasks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rastogi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willett, F. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abreu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crowder, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Memberg, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vargas-Irwin, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walter, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rezaii, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stavisky, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hochberg, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shenoy, K. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderson, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirsch, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajiboye, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.01.126755</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The neural representation of force across grasp types in motor cortex of humans with tetraplegia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.127662v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Complement factor C4a does not activate protease activated receptor 1 (PAR1) or PAR4 on human platelets. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.127662v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundProtease activated receptor 1 (PAR1) and PAR4 are key thrombin signal mediators for human platelet activation and aggregation in response to vascular injury. They are primarily activated by thrombin cleavage of the N-terminus to expose a tethered ligand. In addition to the canonical activation by thrombin, a growing panel of proteases can also elicit PAR1- or PAR4-mediate signal transduction. Recently, complement factor C4a was reported as the first endogenous agonist for both PAR1 and PAR4. Further, it is the first endogenous non-tethered ligand that activates PAR1 and PAR4. These studies were conducted with human microvascular cells; the impact of C4a on platelet PARs is unknown.

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to interrogate PAR1 and PAR4 activation by C4a on human platelets.

MethodsPlatelet rich plasma (PRP) were isolated from healthy donors. PRP was stimulated with C4a and the platelet aggregation was measured. HEK293 Flp-In T-rex cells were used to further test if C4a stimulation can initiate PAR1- or PAR4-mediated Gq signaling, which was measured by intracellular calcium mobilization.

ResultsC4a failed to elicit platelet aggregation via PAR1- or PAR4-mediated manner. In addition, no PAR1- or PAR4-mediated calcium mobilization was observed upon C4a stimulation on HEK293 cells.

ConclusionsComplement factor C4a does not activate PAR1 or PAR4 on human platelets. These data show that PAR1 and PAR4 activation by C4a on microvascular cells likely requires a cofactor, which re-enforces the concept of cell-type specific regulation of protease signaling.

EssentialsO_LIC4a is an agonist for both PAR1 and PAR4 on human microvascular cells.
C_LIO_LIWe sought to determine if C4a activates human platelets through PAR1 or PAR4.
C_LIO_LIC4a does not activate PAR1 and PAR4 on human platelets.
C_LIO_LIThis re-enforces the concept of cell-type specific regulation of PAR signaling.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Fuente, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.01.127662</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Complement factor C4a does not activate protease activated receptor 1 (PAR1) or PAR4 on human platelets.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.127944v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multifactorial and closed head impact traumatic brain injuries cause distinct tactile hypersensitivity profiles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.127944v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chronic complications of traumatic brain injury (TBI) represent one of the greatest financial burdens and sources of suffering in society today. A substantial number of these patients suffer from post-traumatic headache (PTH), which is typically associated with tactile allodynia. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has been under-studied, in large part due to the lack of well-characterized laboratory animal models. We have addressed this gap in the field by characterizing the tactile sensory profile of two non-penetrating models of PTH. We show that multifactorial TBI, consisting of aspects of impact, acceleration/deceleration, and blast wave exposure, produces long term tactile hypersensitivity and central sensitization, phenotypes reminiscent of PTH in patients, in both cephalic and extracephalic regions. By contrast, closed head injury induces only transient cephalic tactile hypersensitivity, with no extracephalic consequences. Both models show more severe phenotype with repetitive daily injury for three days, compared to either one or three successive injuries in a single day, providing new insight into patterns of injury that may place patients at greater risk of developing PTH. Importantly, even after recovery from transient cephalic tactile hypersensitivity, mice subjected to closed head injury had persistent hypersensitivity to established migraine triggers, including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and sodium nitroprusside, a nitric oxide donor. Our results offer new tools for studying PTH, as well as preclinical support for a pathophysiologic role of CGRP in this condition.

SummaryTwo models of post-traumatic headache after traumatic brain injury provide novel laboratory tools and insights in relative risks of injury and therapeutic opportunities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wattiez, A.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castonguay, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaul, O. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waite, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reis, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rea, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sowers, L. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cintron-Perez, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vazquez-Rosa, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russo, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.01.127944</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multifactorial and closed head impact traumatic brain injuries cause distinct tactile hypersensitivity profiles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.130062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development and Characterization of Patient-Derived Xenografts from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Brain Metastases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.130062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to establish and characterize a direct-from patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastases.

MethodsSurgically obtained tissue was implanted subcutaneously and as orthotopic intracranial implants into immunodeficient mice. Histology and DNA loci were compared between original tumor and subsequent PDX passages. Tumors underwent RNA and DNA sequencing and relevant therapeutic targets were identified. Tumor growth rates were assessed following treatment with radiation, MEK inhibitor selumetinib, or MET inhibitor savolitinib. Cell lines were established.

ResultsNine NSCLC brain metastases PDXs were established. Morphologically, strong retention of cytoarchitectural features was observed between original patient tumor and subcutaneous and intracranial tumors. Short tandem repeat analysis demonstrated strong concordance between patient tumors and subsequent PDX passages. Transcriptome and mutation analysis revealed high correlation between matched patient and PDX samples. Significant growth inhibition occurred with radiation, with selumetinib in tumors harboring KRAS G12C mutations and with savolitinib in a tumor with MET exon 14 skipping mutation. The combination of radiation and savolitinib resulted in significant tumor growth delay compared to radiation or savolitinib alone our MET exon 14 skipping mutation PDX. Early passage cell strains showed high consistency between patient and PDX tumors.

ConclusionWe have established a robust human xenograft model system for investigating NSCLC brain metastases. These PDXs and cell lines show strong phenotypic and molecular correlation with the original patient tumors and provide a valuable resource for testing preclinical therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baschnagel, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaushik, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ong, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buehler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kimple, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.02.130062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development and Characterization of Patient-Derived Xenografts from Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Brain Metastases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.148924v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Density Dependent Resource Budget Model for Alternate Bearing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.148924v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alternate bearing, seen in many types of plants, is the variable yield with a strongly biennial pattern. In this paper, we introduce a new model for alternate bearing behavior. Similar to the well-known Resource Budget Model, our model is based on the balance between photosynthesis (carbon accumulation) and reproduction processes. We consider two novel features with our model, 1) the existence of a finite capacity in the trees resource reservoir and 2) the possibility of having low (but non-zero) yield when the trees energy level is low. We achieve the former using a density dependent resource accumulation function, and the latter by removing the concept of the well-defined threshold used in the Resource Budget Model. At the level of an individual tree, our model has a stable two-cycle solution, which is suitable to model plants in which the alternate bearing behavior is pronounced. We incorporate environmental stochasticity by adding two uncorrelated noise terms to the parameters of the model associated with the carbon accumulation and reproduction processes. Furthermore, we examine the models behavior on a system of two coupled trees with direct coupling. Unlike the coupled Resource Budget Model, for which the only stable solution is the out-of-phase solution, our model with diffusive coupling has stable in-phase period-2 solutions. This suggests that our model might serve to explain spatial synchrony on a larger scale.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Esmaeili, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hastings, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reddy Nareddy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.15.148924</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Density Dependent Resource Budget Model for Alternate Bearing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.152231v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure of a dominant negative mutant reveals a stalled intermediate in anthrax protective antigen pore maturation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.152231v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anthrax is a severe bacterial infection caused by Bacillus anthracis, which produces a tripartite toxin that includes protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF). A series of dominant-negative mutations have been previously identified that prevent the heptameric PA prepore from forming the pH-induced, membrane spanning beta-barrel pore that is required for translocation of EF and LF to the cytoplasm of the infected cell. Here we show that the dominant negative D425A mutation stalls the formation of the pore at a reversible intermediate maturation state, which exhibits many of the structural aspects of the pore but fails to form the phi({phi})-clamp and beta-barrel structure needed for full pore maturation. Overall, this structure reveals that {phi}-clamp and beta-barrel pore formation are later steps in the pathway to pore formation, thereby providing a regulatory mechanism to prevent premature translocation of EF and LF.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scott, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehzabeen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Day, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battaile, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>G. Bann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.15.152231</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure of a dominant negative mutant reveals a stalled intermediate in anthrax protective antigen pore maturation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.16.146803v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combining genome-wide studies of breast, prostate, ovarian and endometrial cancers maps cross-cancer susceptibility loci and identifies new genetic associations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.16.146803v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We report a meta-analysis of breast, prostate, ovarian, and endometrial cancer genome-wide association data (effective sample size: 237,483 cases/317,006 controls). This identified 465 independent lead variants (P<5x10-8) across 192 genomic regions. Four lead variants were >1Mb from previously identified risk loci for the four cancers and an additional 23 lead variant-cancer associations were novel for one of the cancers. Bayesian models supported pleiotropic effects involving at least two cancers at 222/465 lead variants in 118/192 regions. Gene-level association analysis identified 13 shared susceptibility genes (P<2.6x10-6) in 13 regions not previously implicated in any of the four cancers and not uncovered by our variant-level meta-analysis. Several lead variants had opposite effects across cancers, including a cluster of such variants in the TP53 pathway. Fifty-four lead variants were associated with blood cell traits and suggested genetic overlaps with clonal hematopoiesis. Our study highlights the remarkable pervasiveness of pleiotropy across hormone-related cancers, further illuminating their shared genetic and mechanistic origins at variant- and gene-level resolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kar, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindstroem, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawrenson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Mara, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glubb, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyrer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schildkraut, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang-Claude, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsulimani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beeghly-Fadiel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bjorge, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bodelon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brauch, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burghaus, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campa, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carney, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daly, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>du Bois, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ekici, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewing, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fasching, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flanagan, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gawelko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giles, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heitz, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hildebrandt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillemanns, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, R.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imaz, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irmejs, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jakubowska, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jensen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannisto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karlan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khusnutdinova, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiemeney, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kjaer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klapdor, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleiblo</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.16.146803</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combining genome-wide studies of breast, prostate, ovarian and endometrial cancers maps cross-cancer susceptibility loci and identifies new genetic associations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.160135v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Short-lived plants have stronger demographic responses to climate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.160135v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To mitigate and adapt to climate change, there is an urgent need to synthesize the state of our knowledge on plant responses to climate. The availability of open-access data, combined with our understanding of plant physiology and life history theory provide opportunities to examine quantitative generalizations regarding which biomes and species are most responsive to climate drivers. Here, we synthesized time series of structured population models from 165 populations from 62 plants around the globe to link plant population growth rates to precipitation and temperature drivers. We expected: (1) more pronounced demographic responses to precipitation than temperature, especially in arid biomes; (2) a higher climate sensitivity in short-lived rather than long-lived species; and (3) a stronger response to climate by species that reproduce more frequently. We found that precipitation anomalies have a nearly three-fold larger effect on{lambda} than temperature. Precipitation has substantially more pronounced effects in more arid sites, but large noise makes this relationship non-significant. Species with shorter generation time have much stronger absolute responses to climate anomalies, while the degree of iteroparity does not correlate with population responses to climate. We conclude that key species-level traits can predict plant population responses to climate, and discuss the relevance of this generalization for conservation planning and evolutionary theory.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Compagnoni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Childs, D. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harpole, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paniw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burns, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Che-Castaldo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rueger, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunstler, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Archer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, O. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salguero-Gomez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knight, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.18.160135</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Short-lived plants have stronger demographic responses to climate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.01.181545v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrating deep learning with microfluidics for biophysical classification of sickle red blood cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.01.181545v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sickle cell disease (SCD), a group of inherited blood disorders with significant morbidity and early mortality, affects a sizeable global demographic largely of African and Indian descent. It is manifested in a mutated form of hemoglobin that distorts the red blood cells into a characteristic sickle shape with altered biophysical properties. Sickle red blood cells (sRBCs) show heightened adhesive interactions with inflamed endothelium, triggering obstruction of blood vessels and painful vaso-occlusive crisis events. Numerous studies have reported microfluidic-assay-based disease monitoring tools which rely on quantifying adhesion characteristics of adhered sRBCs from high resolution channel images. The current workflow for analyzing images from these assays relies on manual cell counting and detailed morphological characterization by a specially trained worker, which is time and labor intensive. Moreover manual counts by different individuals are prone to artifacts due to user bias. We present here a standardized and reproducible image analysis workflow designed to tackle these issues, using a two part deep neural network architecture that works in tandem for automatic, fast and reliable segmentation and classification into subtypes of adhered cell images. Our training utilized an exhaustive data set of images generated by the SCD BioChip, a microfluidic assay which injects clinical whole blood samples into protein-functionalized microchannels, mimicking physiological conditions in the microvasculature. The automated image analysis performs robustly in comparison to human classification: accuracies were similar to or better than those of the trained personnel, while the overall analysis time was improved by two orders of magnitude.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Praljak, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goreke, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurkan, U. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.01.181545</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrating deep learning with microfluidics for biophysical classification of sickle red blood cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.01.182840v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detection of complex genetic architecture using two-locus population differentiation: modeling epistasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.01.182840v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent advances in genetics have increased our understanding of epistasis as important in the genetics of complex phenotypes. However, current analytical methods often cannot detect epistasis, given the multiple testing burden. To address this, we extended our previous method, Evolutionary Triangulation (ET), that uses differences among populations in both disease prevalence and allele frequencies to filter SNPs from association studies to generate novel interaction models. We show that two-locus ET identified several co-evolving gene pairs, where both genes associate with the same disease, and that the number of such pairs is significantly greater than expected by chance. Traits found by two-locus ET included those related to pigmentation and schizophrenia. We then applied two-locus ET to the analysis of preterm birth (PTB) genetics. Using ET to filter SNPs at loci identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), we showed that ET derived PTB two-locus models are novel and were not seen when only the index SNPs were used to generate epistatic models. One gene pair, ADCY5 and KCNAB1 5’, was identified as significantly interacting in a model of gestational age (p as low as 3 × 10−3). Notably, the same ET SNPs in these genes showed significant interactions in three of four cohorts analyzed. The robustness of this gene pair and others, demonstrated that the ET method can be used without prior biological hypotheses based on SNP function to select variants for epistasis testing that could not be identified otherwise. Two-locus ET clearly increased the ability to identify epistasis in complex traits.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartlett, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muglia, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.01.182840</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detection of complex genetic architecture using two-locus population differentiation: modeling epistasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184952v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling of collaterally sensitive drug cycles, and optimization of the drug effect in the spirit of adaptive therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184952v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In previous work, we focused on the optimal therapeutic strategy with a pair of drugs which are collaterally sensitive to each other, that is, a situation in which evolution of resistance to one drug induces sensitivity to the other, and vice versa. [1] Here, we have extended this exploration to the optimal strategy with a collaterally sensitive drug sequence of an arbitrary length, N([&ge;] 2). To explore this, we have developed a dynamical model of sequential drug therapies with N drugs. In this model, tumor cells are classified as one of N subpopulations represented as {Ri|i = 1,2,..., N}. Each subpopulation, Ri, is resistant to  Drug i and each subpopulation, Ri-1 (or RN, if i = 1), is sensitive to it, so that Ri increases under  Drug i as it is resistant to it, and after drug-switching, decreases under  Drug i + 1 as it is sensitive to that drug(s).

Similar to our previous work examining optimal therapy with two drugs, we found that there is an initial period of time in which the tumor is  shaped into a specific makeup of each subpopulation, at which time all the drugs are equally effective [Formula]. After this shaping period, all the drugs are quickly switched with duration relative to their efficacy in order to maintain each subpopulation, consistent with the ideas underlying adaptive therapy. [2, 3]

Additionally, we have developed methodologies to administer the optimal regimen under clinical or experimental situations in which no drug parameters and limited information of trackable populations data (all the subpopulations or only total population) are known. The therapy simulation based on these methodologies showed consistency with the theoretical effect of optimal therapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yoon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.184952</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling of collaterally sensitive drug cycles, and optimization of the drug effect in the spirit of adaptive therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184978v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vascular dimorphism ensured by regulated proteoglycan dynamics favors rapid umbilical artery closure at birth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184978v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The umbilical artery lumen occludes rapidly at birth, preventing blood loss, whereas the umbilical vein remains patent, providing the newborn with a placental infusion. Here, we identify differential arterial-venous proteoglycan dynamics as a determinant of these contrasting vascular responses. We show that the umbilical artery, unlike the vein, has an inner layer enriched in the hydrated proteoglycan aggrecan, external to which lie contraction-primed smooth muscle cells (SMC). At birth, SMC contraction drives inner layer buckling and centripetal displacement to occlude the arterial lumen, a mechanism elicited by biomechanical and computational analysis. Vascular dimorphism arises from spatially regulated proteoglycan expression and breakdown in umbilical vessels. Mice lacking aggrecan or the metalloprotease ADAMTS1, which degrades proteoglycans, demonstrated their opposing roles in umbilical cord arterial-venous dimorphism and contrasting effects on SMC differentiation. Umbilical vessel dimorphism is conserved in mammals, suggesting that their differential proteoglycan dynamics were a positive selection step in mammalian evolution.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nandadasa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szafron, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pathak, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murtada, S.-I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craft, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Norvik, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caterson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Domowicz, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran-Lundmark, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veigl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedwick, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philipson, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Humphrey, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apte, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.184978</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vascular dimorphism ensured by regulated proteoglycan dynamics favors rapid umbilical artery closure at birth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187906v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Astroglial Calcium Signaling Encodes Sleep Need in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187906v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sleep is under homeostatic control, whereby increasing wakefulness generates sleep need and triggers sleep drive. However, the molecular and cellular pathways by which sleep need is encoded are poorly understood. In addition, the mechanisms underlying both how and when sleep need is transformed to sleep drive are unknown. Here, using ex vivo and in vivo imaging, we show in Drosophila that astroglial Ca2+ signaling increases with sleep need. We demonstrate that this signaling is dependent on a specific L-type Ca2+ channel and is required for homeostatic sleep rebound. Thermogenetically increasing Ca2+ in astrocytes induces persistent sleep behavior, and we exploit this phenotype to conduct a genetic screen for genes required for the homeostatic regulation of sleep. From this large-scale screen, we identify TyrRII, a monoaminergic receptor required in astrocytes for sleep homeostasis. TyrRII levels rise following sleep deprivation in a Ca2+-dependent manner, promoting further increases in astrocytic Ca2+ and resulting in a positive-feedback loop. These data suggest that TyrRII acts as a gate to enable the transformation of sleep need to sleep drive at the appropriate time. Moreover, our findings suggest that astrocytes then transmit this sleep need to the R5 sleep drive circuit, by upregulation and release of the interleukin-1 analog Spatzle. These findings define astroglial Ca2+ signaling mechanisms encoding sleep need and reveal dynamic properties of the sleep homeostatic control system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blum, I. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keles, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baz, E.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Issa, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ho, M. C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.04.187906</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Astroglial Calcium Signaling Encodes Sleep Need in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187997v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tau conformers in FTLD-MAPT undergo liquid-liquid phase separation and perturb the nuclear envelope 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187997v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent studies show that a single MAPT gene mutation can promote alternative tau misfolding pathways engendering divergent forms of frontotemporal dementia and that under conditions of molecular crowding, the repertoire of tau forms can include liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). We show here that following pathogenic seeding, tau condenses on the nuclear envelope (NE) and disrupts nuclear-cytoplasmic transport (NCT). Interestingly, NE fluorescent tau signals and small fluorescent inclusions behaved as demixed liquid droplets in living cells. Thioflavin S-positive intracellular aggregates were prevalent in tau-derived inclusions with a size bigger than 3 m2, indicating that a threshold of critical mass in the liquid state condensation may drive liquid-solid phase transitions. Our findings indicate that tau undergoing LLPS is more toxic amongst a spectrum of alternative conformers; LLPS droplets on the NE that disrupt NCT serve to trigger cell death and can act as nurseries for fibrillar structures abundantly detected in end-stage disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kang, S.-G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Z. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daude, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNamara, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wohlgemuth, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mok, S.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westaway, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.04.187997</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tau conformers in FTLD-MAPT undergo liquid-liquid phase separation and perturb the nuclear envelope]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.194126v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial odor discrimination in hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (L.) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.194126v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Flying insects track turbulent odor plumes to find mates, food and egg-laying sites. To maintain contact with the plume, insects are thought to adapt their flight control according to the distribution of odor in the plume using the timing of odor onsets and intervals between odor encounters. Although timing cues are important, few studies have addressed whether insects are capable of deriving spatial information about odor distribution from bilateral comparisons between their antennae in flight. The proboscis extension reflex (PER) associative learning protocol, originally developed to study odor learning in honeybees, was modified to show hawkmoths, Manduca sexta, can discriminate between odor stimuli arriving on either antenna. We show moths discriminated the odor arrival side with an accuracy of >70%. The information about spatial distribution of odor stimuli is thus available to moths searching for odor sources, opening the possibility that they use both spatial and temporal odor information.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>P. Kalyanasundaram</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>M. A. Willis</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.08.194126</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial odor discrimination in hawkmoth, Manduca sexta (L.)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.194373v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A role for protease activated receptor type 3 (PAR3) in nociception demonstrated through development of a novel peptide agonist 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.08.194373v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ABSTRACTThe protease activated receptor (PAR) family is a group of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) activated by proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain. PARs are expressed in a variety of cell types with crucial roles in hemostasis, immune responses, inflammation, and pain. PAR3 is the least researched of the four PARs, with little known about its expression and function. We sought to better understand its potential function in the peripheral sensory nervous system. Mouse single-cell RNA sequencing data demonstrates that PAR3 is widely expressed in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Co-expression of PAR3 mRNA with other PARs was identified in various DRG neuron subpopulations, consistent with its proposed role as a coreceptor of other PARs. We developed a lipid tethered PAR3 agonist, C660, that selectively activates PAR3 by eliciting a Ca2+ response in DRG and trigeminal (TG) neurons. In vivo, C660 induces mechanical hypersensitivity and facial grimacing in WT but not PAR3-/- mice. We characterized other nociceptive phenotypes in PAR3-/- mice and found a loss of hyperalgesic priming in response to IL-6, carrageenan, and a PAR2 agonist, suggesting that PAR3 contributes to long-lasting nociceptor plasticity in some contexts. To examine a potential role of PAR3 in regulating activity of other PARs in sensory neurons, we administered PAR1, PAR2, and PAR4 agonists and assessed mechanical and affective pain behaviors in WT and PAR3-/- mice. We observed that the nociceptive effects of PAR1 agonists were potentiated in the absence of PAR3. Our findings suggest a complex role of PAR3 in the physiology and plasticity of nociceptors.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Juliet Mwirigi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moeno Kume</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shayne N Hassler</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayesha Ahmad</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pradipta R. Ray</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Changyu Jiang</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexander Chamessian</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakleh Mseeh</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breya P Ludwig</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benjamin D. Rivera</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marvin T Nieman</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas Van de Ven</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ru-Rong Ji</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregory Dussor</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott Boitano</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Josef Vagner</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theodore J Price</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.08.194373</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A role for protease activated receptor type 3 (PAR3) in nociception demonstrated through development of a novel peptide agonist]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205070v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205070v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ras dimerization is critical for Raf activation, yet Ras alone does not dimerize. Here we show that the Ras binding domain of Raf (Raf-RBD) induces robust Ras dimerization at low surface densities on supported lipid bilayers and, to a lesser extent, in solution as observed by size exclusion chromatography and confirmed by SAXS. Community network analysis based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show robust allosteric connections linking the two Raf-RBD D113 residues, located in the Galectin scaffold protein binding site of each Raf-RBD molecule and 85 [A] apart on opposite ends of the dimer complex. Our results suggest that Raf-RBD binding and Ras dimerization are concerted events that lead to a high-affinity signaling complex at the membrane that we propose is an essential unit in the macromolecular assembly of higher order Ras/Raf/Galectin complexes important for signaling through the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Packer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parker, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guterres, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hossain, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donnelly, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groves, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.15.205070</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.16.205856v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A three-dimensional musculoskeletal model of the dog 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.16.205856v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dogs are an interesting object of investigation because of the wide range of body size, body mass, and physique. In the last several years, the number of clinical and biomechanical studies on dog locomotion has increased. However, the relationship between body structure and joint load during locomotion, as well as between joint load and degenerative diseases of the locomotor system (e.g. dysplasia), are not sufficiently understood. In vivo measurements/records of joint forces and loads or deep/small muscles are complex, invasive, and sometimes ethically questionable. The use of detailed musculoskeletal models may help in filling that knowledge gap. We describe here the methods we used to create a detailed musculoskeletal model with 84 degrees of freedom and 134 muscles. Our model has three key-features: Three-dimensionality, scalability, and modularity. We tested the validity of the model by identifying forelimb muscle synergies of a beagle at walk. We used inverse dynamics and static optimization to estimate muscle activations based on experimental data. We identified three muscle synergy groups by using hierarchical clustering. Predicted activation patterns exhibited good agreement with experimental data for most of the forelimb muscles. We expect that our model will speed up the analysis of how body size, physique, agility, and disease influence joint neuronal control and loading in dog locomotion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stark, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischer, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinn, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrada, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.16.205856</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A three-dimensional musculoskeletal model of the dog]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209296v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamical Ising model of spatially-coupled ecological oscillators 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209296v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long-range synchrony from short-range interactions is a familiar pattern in biological and physical systems, many of which share a common set of "universal" properties at the point of synchronization. Common biological systems of coupled oscillators have been shown to be members of the Ising universality class, meaning that the very simple Ising model replicates certain spatial statistics of these systems at stationarity. This observation is useful because it reveals which aspects of spatial pattern arise independently of the details governing local dynamics, resulting in both deeper understanding of and a simpler baseline model for biological synchrony. However, in many situations a systems dynamics are of greater interest than their static spatial properties. Here, we ask whether a dynamical Ising model can replicate universal and non-universal features of ecological systems, using noisy coupled metapopulation models with two-cycle dynamics as a case study. The standard Ising model makes unrealistic dynamical predictions, but the Ising model with memory corrects this by using an additional parameter to reflect the tendency for local dynamics to maintain their phase of oscillation. By fitting the two parameters of the Ising model with memory to simulated ecological dynamics, we assess the correspondence between the Ising and ecological models in several of their features (location of the critical boundary in parameter space between synchronous and asynchronous dynamics, probability of local phase changes, and ability to predict future dynamics). We find that the Ising model with memory is reasonably good at representing these properties of ecological metapopulations. The correspondence between these models creates the potential for the simple and well-known Ising class of models to become a valuable tool for understanding complex biological systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nareddy, V. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esmaeili, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hastings, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.17.209296</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamical Ising model of spatially-coupled ecological oscillators]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.29.222828v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biallelic mutation of CLRN2 causes non-syndromic hearing loss in humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.29.222828v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Deafness, the most frequent sensory deficit in humans, is extremely heterogenous with hundreds of genes probably involved. Clinical and genetic analyses of an extended consanguineous family with pre-lingual, moderate-to-profound autosomal recessive sensorineural hearing loss, allowed us to identify CLRN2, encoding a tetraspan protein as a new deafness gene. Homozygosity mapping followed by exome sequencing identified a 15.2 Mb locus on chromosome 4p15.32p15.1 containing a missense pathogenic variant in CLRN2 (c.494C>A, NM_001079827.2) segregating with the disease. Using in vitro RNA splicing analysis, we show that the CLRN2 c.494C>A mutation leads to two events: 1) the substitution of a highly conserved threonine (uncharged amino acid) to lysine (charged amino acid) at position 165, p.(Thr165Lys), and 2) aberrant splicing, with the retention of intron 2 resulting in a stop codon after 26 additional amino acids, p.(Gly146Lysfs*26). Expression studies and phenotyping of newly produced zebrafish and mouse models deficient for clarin 2 further confirm that clarin 2, expressed in the inner ear hair cells, is essential for normal organization and maintenance of the auditory hair bundles, and for hearing function. Together, our findings identify CLRN2 as a new deafness gene, which will impact future diagnosis and treatment for deaf patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vona, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazaheri, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, S.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunbar, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maroofian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azaiez, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Booth, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitry, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varshney, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alagramam, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shariati, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedaghat, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houlden, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>VijayKumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R. J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haaf, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El-Amraoui, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowl, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varshney, G. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galehdari, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.29.222828</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biallelic mutation of CLRN2 causes non-syndromic hearing loss in humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.232629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Antibiofilm activity of Fmoc-phenylalanine against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial biofilms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.232629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundBiofilm associated infections are the major contributor of mortality, morbidity and financial burden in patients with bacterial infection. Molecules with surfactant behaviour are known to show significant antibiofilm effect against these infections. Thus, newly discovered antibacterial Fmoc-phenylalanine (Fmoc-F) and other Fmoc-amino acids (Fmoc-AA) with surfactant properties, could have potential antibiofilm properties.

ObjectivesTo evaluate and characterise the antibiofilm activity of Fmoc-F and some Fmoc-AA against various clinically relevant bacteria.

MethodsBiofilm inhibition and eradication was evaluated by crystal violet staining procedure along with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Attenuated Total Reflection - Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Biochemical assays and Congo red staining were employed to investigate mechanism of antibiofilm action.

ResultsWe showed that Fmoc-F not only inhibits the biofilm formation in S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, but also eradicates the already formed biofilms over the surface. Further, Fmoc-F coated glass surface resists S. aureus and P. aeruginosa biofilm formation and attachment, when biofilm is grown over the surface. The mechanistic investigation suggests that Fmoc-F reduces the ECM components such as proteins carbohydrates and eDNA in the biofilm and affect its stability via direct interactions with ECM components and/ or indirectly through reducing bacterial cell population. Finally, we showed that Fmoc-F treatment in combination with other antibiotics such as vancomycin and ampicillin synergistically inhibit biofilm formation.

ConclusionsOverall, the study demonstrates the potential application of Fmoc-F and other Fmoc-AA molecules individually as well as in combination as antibiofilm agents and antibiofilm coating material for treating biofilm associated infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gahane, A. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghosh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakur, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.03.232629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Antibiofilm activity of Fmoc-phenylalanine against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial biofilms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.04.236950v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Plasmodium falciparum increases its investment in gametocytes in the wet season in asymptomatic individuals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.04.236950v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In many regions, malaria transmission is seasonal, but it is not well understood whether P. falciparum modulates its investment in transmission in response to seasonal vector abundance. In two sites in western Kenya (Chulaimbo and Homa Bay), we sampled 1116 asymptomatic individuals in the wet season, when vectors are abundant, and 1743 in the dry season. We screened for P. falciparum by qPCR, and gametocytes by pfs25 RT-qPCR. Parasite prevalence in Chulaimbo and Homa Bay was 27.1% and 9.4% in the dry season, and 48.2% and 7.8% in the wet season respectively. Mean parasite densities did not differ between seasons (P=0.562). A contrasting pattern of gametocyte carriage was observed. In the wet season, fewer infections harbored gametocytes (22.3% vs. 33.8%, P=0.009), but densities were 3-fold higher (P<0.001). Thus, in the wet season, among gametocyte positive individuals, higher proportion of all parasites were gametocytes, reflecting an increased investment in transmission.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aduma, C. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogolla, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atieli, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondigo, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Githeko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dent, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koepfli, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.04.236950</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Plasmodium falciparum increases its investment in gametocytes in the wet season in asymptomatic individuals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.10.243980v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A comparison of non-magnetic and magnetic beads for measuring IgG antibodies against P. vivax antigens in a multiplexed bead-based assay using Luminex(R) technology (Bio-Plex(R)200 or MAGPIX(R)) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.10.243980v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiplexed bead-based assays that use Luminex xMAP(R) technology have become popular for measuring antibodies against proteins of interest in many fields, including malaria and more recently SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. There are currently two formats that are widely used: non-magnetic beads or magnetic beads. Data is lacking regarding the comparability of results obtained using these two types of beads, and for assays run on different instruments. Whilst non-magnetic beads can only be run on flow-based instruments (such as the Luminex(R) 100/200 or Bio-Plex(R) 200), magnetic beads can be run on both these and the newer MAGPIX(R) instruments. In this study we utilized a panel of purified recombinant Plasmodium vivax proteins and samples from malaria-endemic areas to measure P. vivax-specific IgG responses using different combinations of beads and instruments. We directly compared: i) non-magnetic versus magnetic beads run on a Bio-Plex(R) 200, ii) magnetic beads run on the Bio-Plex(R) 200 versus MAGPIX(R) and iii) non-magnetic beads run on a Bio-Plex(R) 200 versus magnetic beads run on the MAGPIX(R). We also performed an external validation of our optimized assay. We observed that IgG antibody responses, measured against our panel of P. vivax proteins, were strongly correlated in all three of our comparisons, however higher amounts of protein were required for coupling to magnetic beads. Our external validation indicated that results generated in different laboratories using the same coupled beads are also highly comparable, particularly if a reference standard curve is used.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mazhari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewster, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fong, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bourke, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takashima, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsuboi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tham, W.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harbers, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chitnis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Healer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ome-Kaius, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sattabongkot, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longley, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.10.243980</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A comparison of non-magnetic and magnetic beads for measuring IgG antibodies against P. vivax antigens in a multiplexed bead-based assay using Luminex(R) technology (Bio-Plex(R)200 or MAGPIX(R))]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.10.244558v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteome-scale Analysis of Vertebrate Protein Thermoadaptation Modulated by Dynamic Allostery And Protein Solvation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.10.244558v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite differences in behaviors and living conditions, vertebrate organisms share the great majority of proteins, often with subtle differences in amino acid sequence. Here, we present a simple way to analyze the difference in amino acid occurrence by comparing highly homologous proteins on a sub-proteome level between several vertebrate model organisms. Specifically, we use this method to identify a pattern of amino acid conservation as well as a shift in amino acid occurrence between homeotherms (warm-blooded species) and poikilotherms (cold-blooded species). Importantly, this general analysis and a specific example further establish a correlation, if not likely connection between the thermoadaptation of protein sequences and two of their physical features: a possible change in their protein dynamics and, even more strongly, in their solvation. For poikilotherms, such as frog and fish, the lower body temperature is expected to increase the association of proteins due to a decrease in protein internal dynamics. In order to prevent overly-sticky protein association at low temperatures, the use of amino acids suggests that poikilotherms enhance the solvation of their proteins by favoring polar groups on their proteins surface. This feature appears to dominate over possible changes in dynamics. The results suggest that a general trend for amino acid choice is part of the mechanism for thermoadaptation of vertebrate organisms at the molecular level.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LI, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.10.244558</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteome-scale Analysis of Vertebrate Protein Thermoadaptation Modulated by Dynamic Allostery And Protein Solvation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.11.236372v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The identity of human tissue-emigrant CD8+ T cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.11.236372v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lymphocyte migration is essential for human adaptive immune surveillance. However, our current understanding of this process is rudimentary, because most human studies to date have been restricted to immunological analyses of blood and various tissues. To address this issue, we used an integrated approach to characterize tissue-emigrant immune cells in thoracic duct lymph (TDL). In humans and non-human primates, lymphocytes were by far the most abundant immune lineage population in efferent lymph, and a vast majority of these lymphocytes were T cells. Cytolytic CD8+ T cell subsets were clonotypically discrete and selectively confined to the intravascular circulation, persisting for months after inhibition of S1P-dependent tissue egress by FTY-720. In contrast, non-cytolytic CD8+ T cell subsets with stem-like epigenetic and transcriptional signatures predominated in tissues and TDL. Collectively, these data provide an atlas of the migratory immune system and define the nature of tissue-emigrant CD8+ T cells that recirculate via TDL.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Buggert, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vella, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekine, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez-Potti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maldini, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manne, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darko, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ransier, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuri-Cervantes, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sada Japp, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bukh Brody, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivarsson, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hertwig, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antel, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okoye, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Picker, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vahedi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sparrelid, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Llewellyn-Lacey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gostick, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bjorkstrom, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bar-Or, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dori, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naji, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canaday, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laufer, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wells, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frank, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douek, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wherry, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Itkin, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Betts, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.11.236372</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The identity of human tissue-emigrant CD8+ T cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.21.251025v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In a nutshell, a reciprocal transplant experiment reveals local adaptation and fitness trade-offs in response to urban evolution in an acorn-dwelling ant 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.21.251025v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Urban-driven evolution is widely evident, but whether these changes confer fitness benefits and thus represent cases of adaptive urban evolution is less clear. We performed a multi-year field reciprocal transplant experiment of acorn-dwelling ants across urban and rural environments. Fitness trade-offs via survival were consistent with local adaptation: we found a survival advantage of the  home treatments compared to the  away treatments. Seasonal bias in survival was consistent with evolutionary patterns of gains and losses in thermal tolerance traits across the urbanization gradient, such that rural ants in the urban environment were more vulnerable in the summer, putatively due to low heat tolerance and urban ants in the rural environment were more vulnerable in winter, putatively due to an evolved loss of cold tolerance. The results for fitness via fecundity were more complex. Fecundity differences were present in the rural environment, but not the urban environment, and could reflect mismatched cues for the seasonal production of reproductives. To broadly contextualize our results, we performed a multi-species meta-analysis of urban adaptive evolution studies and found general support for local adaptation. The rural adaptation signal was stronger than for urban adaptation, consistent with the relative differences in time for adaptation to occur.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Martin, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chick, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garvin, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diamond, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.21.251025</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In a nutshell, a reciprocal transplant experiment reveals local adaptation and fitness trade-offs in response to urban evolution in an acorn-dwelling ant]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.21.261727v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike is the key target of neutralizing antibody in human polyclonal sera. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.21.261727v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Natural infection of SARS-CoV-2 in humans leads to the development of a strong neutralizing antibody response, however the immunodominant targets of the polyclonal neutralizing antibody response are still unknown. Here, we functionally define the role SARS-CoV-2 spike plays as a target of the human neutralizing antibody response. In this study, we identify the spike protein subunits that contain antigenic determinants and examine the neutralization capacity of polyclonal sera from a cohort of patients that tested qRT-PCR-positive for SARS-CoV-2. Using an ELISA format, we assessed binding of human sera to spike subunit 1 (S1), spike subunit 2 (S2) and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike. To functionally identify the key target of neutralizing antibody, we depleted sera of subunit-specific antibodies to determine the contribution of these individual subunits to the antigen-specific neutralizing antibody response. We show that epitopes within RBD are the target of a majority of the neutralizing antibodies in the human polyclonal antibody response. These data provide critical information for vaccine development and development of sensitive and specific serological testing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Steffen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hassert, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geerling, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimberg, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Espino, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantoja, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Climent, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoft, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sariol, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brien, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.21.261727</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike is the key target of neutralizing antibody in human polyclonal sera.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.263822v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Frequency shapes the quality of tactile percepts evoked through electrical stimulation of the nerves 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.263822v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWTouch is critical for our ability to manipulate objects, as evidenced by the deficits incurred when touch is absent. To restore the sense of touch via electrical stimulation of the peripheral nerves requires that we understand how the parameters of stimulation shape the evoked sensation. To this end, we investigated the sensory consequences of changing the frequency of pulse trains (PF) delivered to the peripheral nerves of humans chronically implanted with multi-channel nerve cuff electrodes. We found that increases in PF led to systematic increases in perceived frequency, up to about 50 Hz, at which point further changes in PF had little to no impact on sensory quality. Above this transition frequency, ratings of perceived frequency levelled off, the ability to discriminate changes in PF was abolished, and verbal descriptors selected to characterize the sensation changed abruptly. We conclude that the quality of electrically evoked tactile sensations can be shaped by imposing temporal patterns on a fixed neural population, but this temporal patterning can only be resolved up to about 50 Hz. These findings highlight the importance of spike timing in shaping the quality of a sensation and will contribute to the development of encoding strategies for conveying touch feedback through bionic hands and feet.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Graczyk, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christie, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyler, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bensmaia, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.24.263822</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Frequency shapes the quality of tactile percepts evoked through electrical stimulation of the nerves]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.28.265066v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role of channels in the oxygen permeability of red blood cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.28.265066v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many have believed that oxygen (O2) crosses red blood cell (RBC) membranes by dissolving in lipids that offer no resistance to diffusion. However, using stopped-flow (SF) analyses of hemoglobin (Hb) absorbance spectra during O2 off-loading from mouse RBCs, we now report that most O2 traverses membrane-protein channels. Two agents excluded from the RBC interior markedly slow O2 off-loading: p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate (pCMBS) reduces inferred membrane O2 permeability (PMembrane) by [~]82%, and 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS), by [~]56%. Because neither likely produces these effects via membrane lipids, we examined RBCs from mice genetically deficient in aquaporin-1 (AQP1), the Rh complex (i.e., rhesus proteins RhAG + mRh), or both. The double knockout (dKO) reduces PMembrane by [~]55%, and pCMBS+dKO, by [~]91%. Proteomic analyses of RBC membranes, flow cytometry, hematology, and mathematical simulations rule out explanations involving other membrane proteins, RBC geometry, or extracellular unconvected fluid (EUF). By identifying the first two O2 channels and pointing to the existence of other O2 channel(s), all of which could be subject to physiological regulation and pharmacological intervention, our work represents a paradigm shift for O2 handling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geyer, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salameh, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wass, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffmann, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyerson, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Occhipinti, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boron, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.28.265066</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role of channels in the oxygen permeability of red blood cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.28.273094v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pocket MUSE: an affordable, versatile and high performance fluorescence microscope using a smartphone 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.28.273094v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Smartphone microscopes can be effective tools for a broad range of imaging applications. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the first practical implementation of Microscopy with Ultraviolet Surface Excitation (MUSE) in a compact smartphone microscope called Pocket MUSE, resulting in a remarkably effective design. Fabricated with parts from consumer electronics that are readily available at low cost, the small optical module attaches directly over the rear lens in a smartphone and enables high quality multichannel fluorescence microscopy with submicron resolution over a 10X equivalent field of view. In addition to the novel optical configuration, Pocket MUSE is compatible with a series of simple, portable and user-friendly sample preparation strategies that can be directly implemented for various microscopy applications for point-of-care diagnostics, at-home health monitoring, plant biology, STEM education, environmental studies, etc.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rollins, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levenson, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fereidouni, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.28.273094</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pocket MUSE: an affordable, versatile and high performance fluorescence microscope using a smartphone]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.31.276444v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
INPP5D expression is associated with risk for Alzheimer's disease and induced by plaque-associated microglia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.31.276444v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAlzheimers disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, robust microgliosis, neuroinflammation, and neuronal loss. Genome-wide association studies recently highlighted a prominent role for microglia in late-onset AD (LOAD). Specifically, inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase (INPP5D), also known as SHIP1, is selectively expressed in brain microglia and has been reported to be associated with LOAD. Although INPP5D is likely a crucial player in AD pathophysiology, its role in disease onset and progression remains unclear.

MethodsWe performed differential gene expression analysis to investigate INPP5D expression in LOAD and its association with plaque density and microglial markers using transcriptomic (RNA-Seq) data from the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimers Disease (AMP-AD) cohort. We also performed quantitative real-time PCR, immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence assays to assess INPP5D expression in the 5xFAD amyloid mouse model.

ResultsDifferential gene expression analysis found that INPP5D expression was upregulated in LOAD and positively correlated with amyloid plaque density. In addition, in 5xFAD mice, Inpp5d expression increased as the disease progressed, and selectively in plaque-associated microglia. Increased Inpp5d expression levels in 5xFAD mice were abolished entirely by depleting microglia with the colony-stimulating factor receptor-1 antagonist PLX5622.

ConclusionsOur findings show that INPP5D expression increases as AD progresses, predominantly in plaque-associated microglia. Importantly, we provide the first evidence that increased INPP5D expression might be a risk factor in AD, highlighting INPP5D as a potential therapeutic target. Moreover, we have shown that the 5xFAD mouse model is appropriate for studying INPP5D in AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tsai, A. P.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, P. B.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moutinho, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casali, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamb, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landreth, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oblak, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nho, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.31.276444</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[INPP5D expression is associated with risk for Alzheimer's disease and induced by plaque-associated microglia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.04.283135v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Privacy-Preserving and Robust Watermarking on Sequential Genome Data using Belief Propagation and Local Differential Privacy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.04.283135v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationGenome data is a subject of study for both biology and computer science since the start of Human Genome Project in 1990. Since then, genome sequencing for medical and social purposes becomes more and more available and affordable. Genome data can be shared on public websites or with service providers. However, this sharing compromises the privacy of donors even under partial sharing conditions. We mainly focus on the liability aspect ensued by unauthorized sharing of these genome data. One of the techniques to address the liability issues in data sharing is watermarking mechanism.

ResultsTo detect malicious correspondents and service providers (SPs) -whose aim is to share genome data without individuals consent and undetected-, we propose a novel watermarking method on sequential genome data using belief propagation algorithm. In our method, we have two criteria to satisfy. (i) Embedding robust watermarks so that the malicious adversaries can not temper the watermark by modification and are identified with high probability (ii) Achieving{epsilon} -local differential privacy in all data sharings with SPs. For the preservation of system robustness against single SP and collusion attacks, we consider publicly available genomic information like Minor Allele Frequency, Linkage Disequilibrium, Phenotype Information and Familial Information. Our proposed scheme achieves 100% detection rate against the single SP attacks with only 3% watermark length. For the worst case scenario of collusion attacks (50% of SPs are malicious), 80% detection is achieved with 5% watermark length and 90% detection is achieved with 10% watermark length. For all cases,{epsilon} s impact on precision remained negligible and high privacy is ensured.

Availabilityhttps://github.com/acoksuz/PPRW_SGD_BPLDP

Contactabdullahcaglaroksuz@gmail.com
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oksuz, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayday, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gudukbay, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.04.283135</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Privacy-Preserving and Robust Watermarking on Sequential Genome Data using Belief Propagation and Local Differential Privacy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.298489v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Asprosin Neutralizing Antibodies as a Treatment for Metabolic Syndrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.298489v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recently, we discovered a new glucogenic and centrally-acting orexigenic hormone - asprosin. Asprosin is elevated in metabolic syndrome (MS) patients, and importantly, its genetic loss results in reduced appetite, leanness and robust insulin sensitivity, leading to protection from MS. Here we demonstrate that anti-asprosin monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are a dual-effect pharmacologic therapy that targets the two key pillars of MS - over-nutrition and the blood glucose burden. Anti-asprosin mAbs from three distinct species lowered appetite and body weight, and improved blood glucose in a dose-dependent and epitope-agnostic fashion in three independent MS mouse models, with an IC50 of [~]1.5 mg/kg. In addition, mAb treatment ameliorated MS associated dyslipidemia and hepatic dysfunction. The mAbs displayed half-life of over 3 days in vivo, with equilibrium dissociation-constants in picomolar to low nanomolar range. This evidence paves the way for further development towards an investigational new drug application and subsequent human trials for treatment of MS, a defining physical ailment of our time.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mishra, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerrschmid, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ku, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silva, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>An, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chopra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.15.298489</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Asprosin Neutralizing Antibodies as a Treatment for Metabolic Syndrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.300277v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Baricitinib treatment resolves lower airway inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.300277v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Effective therapeutics aimed at mitigating COVID-19 symptoms are urgently needed. SARS-CoV-2 induced hypercytokinemia and systemic inflammation are associated with disease severity. Baricitinib, a clinically approved JAK1/2 inhibitor with potent anti-inflammatory properties is currently being investigated in COVID-19 human clinical trials. Recent reports suggest that baricitinib may also have antiviral activity in limiting viral endocytosis. Here, we investigated the immunologic and virologic efficacy of baricitinib in a rhesus macaque model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Viral shedding measured from nasal and throat swabs, bronchoalveolar lavages and tissues was not reduced with baricitinib. Type I IFN antiviral responses and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses remained similar between the two groups. Importantly, however, animals treated with baricitinib showed reduced immune activation, decreased infiltration of neutrophils into the lung, reduced NETosis activity, and more limited lung pathology. Moreover, baricitinib treated animals had a rapid and remarkably potent suppression of alveolar macrophage derived production of cytokines and chemokines responsible for inflammation and neutrophil recruitment. These data support a beneficial role for, and elucidate the immunological mechanisms underlying, the use of baricitinib as a frontline treatment for severe inflammation induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoang, T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pino, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boddapati, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Viox, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Starke, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Upadhyay, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gumber, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busman-Sahay, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strongin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harper, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tharp, G. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pellegrini, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirejczyk, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zandi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horton, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beagle, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahar, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jean, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor-Stroud, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stammen, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delmas, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooney, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sayegh, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiskopf, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filev, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waggoner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piantadosi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kasturi, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Shakhshir, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ribeiro, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levit, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Estes, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderford, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schinazi, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosinger,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.16.300277</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Baricitinib treatment resolves lower airway inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.17.302422v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
15-PGDH Inhibition Activates the Splenic Niche to Promote Hematopoietic Regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.17.302422v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The splenic microenvironment regulates hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) function, particularly during demand-adapted hematopoiesis, however practical strategies to enhance splenic support of transplanted HSPCs have proven elusive. We have previously demonstrated that inhibiting 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), using the small molecule (+)SW033291 (PGDHi), increases bone marrow (BM) prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels, expands HSPC numbers, and accelerates hematologic reconstitution following BM transplantation (BMT) in mice. Here we demonstrate that the splenic microenvironment, specifically 15-PGDH high-expressing macrophages (M{Phi}s), megakaryocytes (MKs), and mast cells (MCs), regulates steady-state hematopoiesis and potentiates recovery after BMT. Notably, PGDHi-induced neutrophil, platelet, and HSPC recovery were highly attenuated in splenectomized mice. PGDHi induced non-pathologic splenic extramedullary hematopoiesis at steady-state, and pre-transplant PGDHi enhanced the homing of transplanted cells to the spleen. 15-PGDH enzymatic activity localized specifically to M{Phi}s, MK lineage cells, and MCs, identifying these cell types as likely coordinating the impact of PGDHi on splenic HSPCs. These findings suggest that 15-PGDH expression marks novel HSC niche cell types that regulate hematopoietic regeneration. Therefore, PGDHi provides a well-tolerated strategy to therapeutically target multiple HSC niches and to promote hematopoietic regeneration and improve clinical outcomes of BMT.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jogasuria, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antczak, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ready, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerson, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.17.302422</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[15-PGDH Inhibition Activates the Splenic Niche to Promote Hematopoietic Regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.17.302612v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
AlzGPS: A Genome-wide Positioning Systems Platform to Catalyze Multi-omics for Alzheimer's Therapeutic Discovery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.17.302612v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundOver15 million family members and caregivers have expended $220 billion for care of patients with AD and other dementias, and the attrition rate for AD clinical trials (2002-2012) is estimated at 99.6%. While recent DNA/RNA sequencing and other multi-omics technologies have advanced the understanding of the biology and pathophysiology of AD, no effective disease-modifying or preventive therapies, for AD have emerged in the past two decades. A new approach to integration of the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and human interactome in the drug discovery and development process is essential for this endeavor.

MethodsIn this study, we developed AlzGPS (Genome-wide Positioning Systems platform for Alzheimers Therapeutic Discovery, https://alzgps.lerner.ccf.org), a comprehensive systems biology tool to enable searching, visualizing, and analyzing multi-omics, various types of heterogeneous biological networks, and clinical databases for target identification and effective prevention and treatment of AD.

ResultsVia AlzGPS: (1) we curated more than 100 AD multi-omics data sets capturing DNA, RNA, protein, and small molecules profiles underlying AD pathogenesis (e.g., early vs. late stage and tau vs. amyloid endophenotype); (2) we constructed endophenotype disease modules by incorporating multi-omics findings and human protein-protein interactome networks; (3) we identified repurposable drugs from [~]3,000 FDA approved/investigational drugs for AD using state-of-the-art network proximity analyses; (4) we curated 300 literature references for highly repurposable drugs; (5) we included information from over 200 ongoing AD clinicals noting drug mechanisms and primary drug targets, and linking them to our integrated multi-omics view for targets and network analyses results for the drugs; (6) we implemented a highly interactive web-interface for database browsing and network visualization.

ConclusionsNetwork visualization enabled by the AlzGPS includes brain-specific neighborhood networks for genes-of-interest, endophenotype disease module networks for data sets-of-interest, and mechanism-of-action networks for drugs targeting disease modules. By virtue of combining systems pharmacology and network-based integrative analysis of multi-omics data, the AlzGPS offers actionable systems biology tools for accelerating therapeutic development in AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bekris, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leverenz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.17.302612</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[AlzGPS: A Genome-wide Positioning Systems Platform to Catalyze Multi-omics for Alzheimer's Therapeutic Discovery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.18.302588v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive characterization of protein-protein interaction network perturbations by human disease mutations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.18.302588v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Technological and computational advances in genomics and interactomics have made it possible to identify rapidly how disease mutations perturb interaction networks within human cells. In this study, we investigate at large-scale the effects of network perturbations caused by disease mutations within the human three-dimensional (3D), structurally-resolved macromolecular interactome. We show that disease-associated germline mutations are significantly enriched in sequences encoding protein-protein interfaces compared to mutations identified in healthy subjects from the 1000 Genomes and ExAC projects; these interface mutations correspond to protein-protein interaction (PPI)-perturbing alleles including p.Ser127Arg in PCSK9 at the PCSK9-LDLR interface. In addition, somatic missense mutations are significantly enriched in PPI interfaces compared to non-interfaces in 10,861 human exomes across 33 cancer subtypes/types from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Using a binomial statistical model, we computationally identified 470 PPIs harboring a statistically significant excess number of missense mutations at protein-protein interfaces (termed putative oncoPPIs) in pan-cancer analysis. We demonstrate that the oncoPPIs, including histone H4 complex in individual cancer types, are highly correlated with patient survival and drug resistance/sensitivity in human cancer cell lines and patient-derived xenografts. We experimentally validate the network effects of 13 oncoPPIs using a systematic binary interaction assay. We further showed that ALOX5 p.Met146Lys at the ALOX5-MAD1L1 interface and RXRA p.Ser427Phe at the RXRA-PPARG interface promote significant tumor cell growth using cell line-based functional assays, providing a functional proof-of-concept. In summary, if broadly applied, this human 3D interactome network analysis offers a powerful tool for prioritizing alleles with mutations altering PPIs that may contribute to the pathobiology of human diseases, and may offer disease-specific targets for genotype-informed therapeutic discovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castrillon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keri, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lightstone, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antman, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabadan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.18.302588</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive characterization of protein-protein interaction network perturbations by human disease mutations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.20.304964v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Altered lipid metabolism marks glioblastoma stem and non-stem cells in separate tumor niches 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.20.304964v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundGlioblastoma (GBM) is marked by cellular heterogeneity, including metabolic heterogeneity, that varies among cellular microenvironments in the same tumor. Altered cellular metabolism in cancer is well-established, but how lipid metabolism is altered to suit different microenvironmental conditions and cellular states within a tumor remains unexplored.

MethodsWe assessed GBM organoid models that mimic the transition zone between nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor pseudopalisading/perinecrotic tumor zones and performed spatial RNA-sequencing of cells to interrogate lipid metabolism. Using targeted lipidomic analysis, we assessed differences in acutely enriched cancer stem cells (CSCs) and non-CSCs from multiple patient-derived models to explore the link between the stem cell state and lipid metabolism.

ResultsSpatial analysis revealed a striking difference in lipid content between microenvironments, with lipid enrichment in the hypoxic organoid cores and the perinecrotic and pseudopalisading regions of primary patient tumors. This was accompanied by regionally restricted upregulation of hypoxia-inducible lipid droplet-associated (HILPDA) gene expression in organoid cores and in clinical GBM specimens, but not lower-grade brain tumors, that was specifically localized to pseudopalisading regions of patient tumors. CSCs have low lipid droplet accumulation compared to non-CSCs in organoid models and xenograft tumors, and prospectively sorted lipid-low GBM cells are functionally enriched for stem cell activity. Targeted lipidomic analysis revealed that CSCs had decreased levels of major classes of neutral lipids compared to non-CSCs but had significantly increased polyunsaturated fatty acid production due to high fatty acid desaturase (FADS1/2) expression.

ConclusionsOur data demonstrate that lipid metabolism is differentially altered across GBM microenvironments and cellular hierarchies, providing guidance for targeting of these altered lipid metabolic pathways.

Key pointsO_LIGBM cells in nutrient-poor tumor regions have increased accumulation of lipid droplets.
C_LIO_LICSCs have reduced lipid content compared to non-CSCs.
C_LIO_LIGBM CSCs and non-CSCs have disparate lipid metabolisms that may be uniquely targetable.
C_LI

Importance of the StudyMetabolic targeting has long been advocated as a therapy against many tumors including GBM, and it remains an outstanding question whether cancer stem cells (CSCs) have altered lipid metabolism. We demonstrated striking differences in lipid metabolism between diverse cell populations from the same patient. These spatially and phenotypically distinct lipid phenotypes occur clinically in the majority of patients and can be recapitulated in laboratory models. Lipidomic analysis of multiple patient-derived models shows a significant shift in lipid metabolism between GBM CSCs and non-CSCs, suggesting that lipid levels may not be simply a product of the microenvironment but also may be a reflection of cellular state. Our results suggest that therapeutic targeting of GBM lipid metabolism must consider multiple separate tumor cell populations to be effective, and we provide a methodologic framework for studying these metabolically diverse cellular populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shakya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gromovsky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hale, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prager, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wallace, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penalva, L. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanova, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristensen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubert, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.20.304964</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Altered lipid metabolism marks glioblastoma stem and non-stem cells in separate tumor niches]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.308056v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbial metabolites of flavanols in urine are associated with enhanced anti-proliferative activity in bladder cancer cells in vitro 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.308056v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dietary flavanols and their metabolites are excreted primarily via the urine, suggesting uroepithelial cells as a site of activity due to lengthy exposure to high concentrations of these compounds. Flavanols are metabolized by the gut microbiota to numerous bioavailable metabolites. The observed effects of flavanols, including cancer chemoprevention, may be due in part to the activities of microbial metabolites. Most in vitro mechanistic work in this area relies on a limited pool of commercially available or synthesized flavanol microbial metabolites, and little work has been done in the area of bladder cancer. The impact of physiologically relevant mixtures of native flavanols and their metabolites generated in vivo remains unknown. Rats were fed various flavanols after which 48 h urine samples, approximating the total bioavailable metabolome, were collected. Urine samples were profiled by UPLC-MS/MS, and their anti-proliferative activities were assayed in vitro in four bladder cancer cell models. Significant interindividual variability was observed for chemical profiles and anti-proliferative activities. Concentrations of microbial metabolites (valerolactones, phenylalkyl acids and hippuric acids) were positively associated with reduced bladder cancer cell proliferation in vitro, while native flavanols were poorly correlated with activity. These results suggest that microbial metabolites may be the primary compounds responsible for chemoprevention in uroepithelial cell following flavanol consumption. Furthermore, this highlights the potential for exploiting knowledge about individual genetics, microbiome profiles, flavonoid metabolism profiles, tumor characteristics, etc. to design personalized dietary interventions for cancer prevention and/or adjuvant therapy to reduce bladder cancer incidence and improve outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Griffin, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohrt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kay, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neilson, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.22.308056</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbial metabolites of flavanols in urine are associated with enhanced anti-proliferative activity in bladder cancer cells in vitro]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.23.310466v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multimodal single-cell/nucleus RNA-sequencing data analysis uncovers molecular networks between disease-associated microglia and astrocytes with implications for drug repurposing in Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.23.310466v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Systematic identification of molecular networks in disease relevant immune cells of the nervous system is critical for elucidating the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimers disease (AD). Two key immune cell types, disease-associated microglia (DAM) and disease-associated astrocytes (DAA), are biologically involved in AD pathobiology. Therefore, uncovering molecular determinants of DAM and DAA will enhance our understanding of AD biology, potentially identifying novel therapeutic targets for AD treatment. Here, we present an integrative, network-based methodology to uncover conserved molecular networks between DAM and DAA. Specifically, we leverage single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing data from both AD transgenic mouse models and AD patient brains, drug-target networks, metabolite-enzyme associations, and the human protein-protein interactome, along with large-scale patient data validation from the MarketScan Medicare Supplemental Database. We find that common and unique molecular network regulators between DAM (i.e, PAK1, MAPK14, and SYK) and DAA (i.e., NFKB1, FOS, and JUN) are significantly enriched by multiple neuro-inflammatory pathways and well-known genetic variants (i.e., BIN1) from genome-wide association studies. Further network analysis reveal shared immune pathways between DAM and DAA, including Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, Th17 cell differentiation, and chemokine signaling. Furthermore, integrative metabolite-enzyme network analyses imply that fatty acids (i.e., elaidic acid) and amino acids (i.e., glutamate, serine, and phenylalanine) may trigger molecular alterations between DAM and DAA. Finally, we prioritize repurposed drug candidates for potential treatment of AD by agents that specifically reverse dysregulated gene expression of DAM or DAA, including an antithrombotic anticoagulant triflusal, a beta2-adrenergic receptor agonist salbutamol, and the steroid medications (fluticasone and mometasone). Individuals taking fluticasone (an approved anti-inflammatory and inhaled corticosteroid) displayed a significantly decreased incidence of AD (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.858, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.829-0.888, P < 0.0001) in retrospective case-control validation. Furthermore, propensity score matching cohort studies also confirmed an association of mometasone with reduced incidence of AD in comparison to fluticasone (HR =0.921, 95% CI 0.862-0.984, P < 0.0001).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bekris, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiang, C.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leverenz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.23.310466</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multimodal single-cell/nucleus RNA-sequencing data analysis uncovers molecular networks between disease-associated microglia and astrocytes with implications for drug repurposing in Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.06.322883v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A mouse model of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome has impaired fear memory, which is rescued by lithium treatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.06.322883v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Primary cilia are microtubule-based organelles present on most cells that regulate many physiological processes, ranging from maintaining energy homeostasis to renal function. However, the role of these structures in the regulation of behavior remains unknown. To study the role of cilia in behavior, we employ mouse models of the human ciliopathy, Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS). Here, we demonstrate that BBS mice have significant impairments in context fear conditioning, a form of associative learning. Moreover, we show that postnatal deletion of BBS gene function, as well as congenital deletion, specifically in the forebrain, impairs context fear conditioning. Analyses indicated that these behavioral impairments are not the result of impaired hippocampal long-term potentiation. However, our results indicate that these behavioral impairments are linked to impaired hippocampal neurogenesis. Two-week treatment with lithium chloride partially restores the proliferation of hippocampal neurons which leads to a rescue of context fear conditioning. Overall, our results identify a novel role of cilia genes in hippocampal neurogenesis and long-term context fear conditioning.

Author summaryThe primary cilium is a microtubule-based membranous projection on the cell that is involved in multiple physiological functions. Patients who have cilia dysfunction commonly have intellectual disability. However, it is not known how cilia affect learning and memory. Studying mouse models of a cilia-based intellectual disability can provide insight into learning and memory. One such cilia-based intellectual disability is Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS), which is caused by homozygous and compound heterozygous mutations of BBS genes. We found that a mouse model of BBS (Bbs1M390R/M390R mice) has learning and memory defects. In addition, we found that other mouse models of BBS have similar learning and memory defects. These BBS mouse models have difficulty associating an environment with an aversive stimulus, a task designed to test context fear memory. This type of memory involves the hippocampus. We found that Bbs1M390R/M390R mice have decreased cell production in the hippocampus. Treating Bbs1M390R/M390R mice with a compound (lithium) that increases cell production in the hippocampus improved the learning and memory deficits. Our results demonstrate a potential role for cilia in learning and memory, and indicate that lithium is a potential treatment, requiring further study, for the intellectual disability phenotype of BBS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pak, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carter, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Searby, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taugher, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cychosz, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genova, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreira, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevens, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wemmie, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheffield, V. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.06.322883</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A mouse model of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome has impaired fear memory, which is rescued by lithium treatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.06.327700v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The price of a bit: energetic costs and the evolution of cellular signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.06.327700v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent experiments have uncovered a fundamental information scale for cellular signaling networks: the correlation between input and output concentrations of molecules in a signaling pathway corresponds to at most 1-3 bits of mutual information. Our understanding of the physical constraints and evolutionary pressures that determine this scale remains incomplete. By focusing on a basic element of signaling pathways, the kinase-phosphatase enzymatic push-pull loop, we highlight the pivotal role played by energy resources available for signaling and their expenditure: the chemical potential energy of ATP hydrolysis, and the rate of ATP consumption. Scanning a broad range of reaction parameters based on enzymatic databases, we find that ATP chemical potentials in modern organisms are just above the threshold necessary to achieve empirical mutual information values. We also derive an analytical relation for the minimum ATP consumption required to maintain a certain signal fidelity across a range of input frequencies, where we quantify fidelity either through instantaneous or time-delayed mutual information. Attempting to increase signal fidelity beyond a few bits lowers the bandwidth, the maximum characteristic signal frequency that the network can handle at a given energy cost. The observed information scale thus represents a balancing act between fidelity and the ability to process fast-changing environmental signals. Our analytical relation defines a performance limit for kinase-phosphatase networks, and we find evidence that a component of the yeast osmotic shock pathway may be close to the optimality line. By quantifying the evolutionary pressures that operate on these networks, we argue that this is not a coincidence: natural selection on energy expenditures is capable of pushing signaling systems toward optimality, particularly in unicellular organisms. Our theoretical framework is directly verifiable using existing experimental techniques, and predicts that more examples of such optimality should exist in nature.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuznets-Speck, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broderick, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.06.327700</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The price of a bit: energetic costs and the evolution of cellular signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.13.337303v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Elucidating the viral and host factors enabling the cross-species transmission of primate lentiviruses from simians to humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.13.337303v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The HIV-1 epidemic originated from a cross-species transmission of a primate lentivirus from chimpanzees to humans near the turn of the 18th century. Simian immunodeficiency viruses have been jumping between old world monkeys in West/Central Africa for thousands of years. So why did HIV-1 only emerge in the past century? This study examined the replicative fitness, transmission, restriction, and cytopathogenicity of 26 primate lentiviruses. Pairwise competitions of these primate lentiviruses revealed that SIVcpz had the highest replicative fitness in human or chimpanzee peripheral blood mononuclear cells, even higher fitness than HIV-1 group M strains responsible for 37 million infections worldwide. In contrast the "HIV-2 lineage" (SIVsmm, SIVmac, SIVagm, and HIV-2) had the lowest replicative fitness. SIVcpz strains were less inhibited by human restriction factors than the "HIV-2 lineage" strains, a restriction that was inversely correlated with replicative fitness. SIVcpz from the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes (Ptt) was slightly more fit in human cells than the strains from Pt schweinfurthii (Pts). However, unlike all other primate lentiviruses (including the HIV-2 lineage), SIVcpz was nonpathogenic in human tonsillar tissue and did not deplete CD4+ T-cells, consistent with the slow or nonpathogenic disease observed in chimpanzees. Despite the close phylogenetic relationship between SIVcpz_Ptt and HIV-1, this epidemic was either caused by cross species transmission of a rare, undiscovered SIVcpz strain of higher virulence or higher virulence differentially evolved among HIV-1 subtypes during the human epidemic.

Author summaryInvasion of wild animal habitats by humans can have devastating consequences for the human population as evident by the HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 epidemics. With SARS-CoV-2, a recent zoonotic jump, likely from bats, will help to identify a coronavirus progenitor. In contrast, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) jumped into humans over 100 years ago from a possibly extinct sub-species of chimpanzees and/or extinct lineage of SIV. We examined replicative fitness and pathogenesis of 26 different primate lentiviruses in human and chimpanzee primary lymphoid cells from blood and within tonsils. SIV from a specific chimpanzee species and lowland gorillas were the most capable of infecting and replicating in human and chimp lymphoid cells but they did not result in the pathogenesis related to disease in humans. In contrast, SIV from other old world monkeys were pathogenic but could not replicate efficiently in human cells. We propose the main HIV-1 is derived from a distinct jump of a very rare SIV strain in chimps leading to AIDS pandemic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tebit, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nickel, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibson, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carpenter, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hathaway, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bain, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reyes-Rodriguez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonogo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canaday, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonald, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arts, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.13.337303</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Elucidating the viral and host factors enabling the cross-species transmission of primate lentiviruses from simians to humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.19.346064v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Septate junction proteins are required for egg elongation and border cell migration during oogenesis in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.19.346064v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein components of the invertebrate occluding junction - known as the septate junction (SJ) - are required for morphogenetic developmental events during embryogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. In order to determine whether SJ proteins are similarly required for morphogenesis during other developmental stages, we investigated the localization and requirement of four representative SJ proteins during oogenesis: Contactin, Macroglobulin complement-related, Neurexin IV, and Coracle. A number of morphogenetic processes occur during oogenesis, including egg elongation, formation of dorsal appendages, and border cell migration. We found that all four SJ proteins are expressed in egg chambers throughout oogenesis, with the highest and most sustained levels in the follicular epithelium (FE). In the FE, SJ proteins localize along the lateral membrane during early and mid-oogenesis, but become enriched in an apical-lateral domain (the presumptive SJ) by stage 10b. SJ protein relocalization requires the expression of other SJ proteins, as well as rab5 and rab11 in a manner similar to SJ biogenesis in the embryo. Knocking down the expression of these SJ proteins in follicle cells throughout oogenesis results in egg elongation defects and abnormal dorsal appendages. Similarly, reducing the expression of SJ genes in the border cell cluster results in border cell migration defects. Together, these results demonstrate an essential requirement for SJ genes in morphogenesis during oogenesis, and suggests that SJ proteins may have conserved functions in epithelial morphogenesis across developmental stages.

Article SummarySeptate junction (SJ) proteins are essential for forming an occluding junction in epithelial tissues of Drosophila melanogaster, and also for morphogenetic events that occur prior to the formation of the junction during embryogenesis. Here we show that SJ proteins are expressed in the follicular epithelium of egg chambers during oogenesis and are required for morphogenetic events including egg elongation, dorsal appendages formation, and border cell migration. Additionally, the formation of SJs during oogenesis is similar to that in embryonic epithelia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alhadyian, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoaib, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.19.346064</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Septate junction proteins are required for egg elongation and border cell migration during oogenesis in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.22.351122v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
LPA/PKD-1 signaling promotes development of arteriolar niche that supports self-renewal of breast cancer stem cells and stemness 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.22.351122v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) are essential for cancer growth, metastasis and recurrence. However, the regulatory mechanisms of self-renewal and interactions with the vascular niche within tumor microenvironment are currently under investigation. Here, we demonstrate that BCSCs are enriched within arteriolar niche within the tumor microenvironment of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) BC and bi-directionally interact with arteriolar endothelial cells (ECs). Mechanistically, this interaction is driven by the LPA/PKD-1 signaling pathway, which promotes arteriolar differentiation and self-renewal. Furthermore, this pathway directly promotes stemness features. These findings suggest that targeting LPA/PKD-1 signaling may disrupt the arteriolar niche within the tumor microenvironment and concomitantly eradicate BCSCs, thereby attenuating BC progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guenter, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beck, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hattaway, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hurst, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krontiras, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverstein, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.22.351122</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[LPA/PKD-1 signaling promotes development of arteriolar niche that supports self-renewal of breast cancer stem cells and stemness]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.28.358200v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultrastructural view of astrocyte-astrocyte and astrocyte-synapse contacts within the hippocampus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.28.358200v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Astrocytes branch out and make contact at their interfaces. However, the ultrastructural interactions of astrocytes and astrocytes with their surroundings, including the spatial-location selectivity of astrocyte-synapse contacts, remain unknown. Here, the branching architecture of three neighboring astrocytes, their contact interfaces, and their surrounding neurites and synapses have been traced and 3D reconstructed using serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM). Our reconstructions reveal extensive reflexive, loop-like processes that serve as scaffolds to neurites and give rise to spongiform astrocytic morphology. At the astrocyte-astrocyte interface, a cluster of process-process contacts were identified, which biophysically explains the existence of low inter-astrocytic electrical resistance. Additionally, we found that synapses uniformly made contact with the entire astrocyte, from soma to terminal processes, and can be ensheathed by two neighboring astrocytes. Lastly, in contrast to densely packed vesicles at the synaptic boutons, vesicle-like structures were scant within astrocytes. Together, these ultrastructural details should expand our understanding of functional astrocyte-astrocyte and astrocyte-neuron interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kiyoshi, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aten, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arzola, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patterson, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guiher, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philip, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camacho, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mediratta, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kidd, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Terman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.28.358200</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultrastructural view of astrocyte-astrocyte and astrocyte-synapse contacts within the hippocampus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.30.361170v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gene-by-environment interactions in agricultural pest management: population effects on diet-Bt interactions in a caterpillar 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.30.361170v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Given that plant nutrient content is both spatially and temporally dynamic (Lenhart et al., 2015; Deans et al., 2016, 2018), insect herbivores are exposed to an incredible amount of nutritional variability. This variability can constrain insects to feeding on sub-optimal resources, but it can also provide an opportunity for insects to regulate their intake of specific nutrients to obtain an optimal balance. Nutrient regulation has implications for pest control strategies in agricultural systems, as the nutritional state of pest species may impact their susceptibility to insecticides. Deans et al. (2017) showed that diet macronutrient balance has significant effects on the susceptibility of Helicoverpa zea larvae to Cry1Ac, an endotoxin expressed in transgenic Bt crops. This was demonstrated using a highly inbred laboratory strain of H. zea, limiting the applicability of these results to field populations that encompass greater genetic diversity. In this study, we assessed the impact of field-relevant macronutrient variability on the efficacy of two Bt endotoxins, Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac, using three field populations collected from different geographic regions. This was done to further understand the impact of nutritional variability on Bt susceptibility and also to determine the relevance of these effects in the field. While we saw limited differences in Cry susceptibility across populations, dietary effects were highly variable. Across populations there were distinct population-level differences in the interactions between Cry concentration and diet, the type of Cry toxin impacted by diet, and the treatment diet that produced optimal survival and performance. These results show that nutrition can have strong impacts on Bt susceptibility but also that these impacts are strongly affected by genetic background in H. zea. To accurately assess Bt susceptibility in the field, including resistance monitoring, bioassay methods should incorporate the appropriate nutritional parameters and be as localized as possible.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Deans, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sword, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Behmer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkness, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pusztai-Carey, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchison, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.30.361170</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gene-by-environment interactions in agricultural pest management: population effects on diet-Bt interactions in a caterpillar]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.01.364216v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dermal EZH2 simultaneously orchestrates Wnt/β-catenin signaling dependent dermal differentiation and retinoic acid signaling dependent epidermal proliferation during murine skin development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.01.364216v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Skin development and patterning is dependent on factors that regulate the stepwise differentiation of dermal fibroblasts concomitant with dermal-epidermal reciprocal signaling, two processes that are poorly understood. Here we show that dermal EZH2, the methyltransferase enzyme of the epigenetic Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2), is a new coordinator of both these processes. Dermal EZH2 activity is present during dermal fibroblast differentiation and is required for spatially restricting Wnt/{beta}-catenin signaling to reinforce dermal fibroblast cell fate. Later in development, dermal EZH2 regulates the differentiation to reticular dermal fibroblasts and initiation of secondary hair follicles. Embryos lacking dermal Ezh2 have elevated epidermal proliferation and differentiation that can be rescued by small molecule inhibition of retinoic acid (RA) signaling. Together, our study reveals that dermal EZH2 acts as a rheostat to control the levels of Wnt/{beta}-catenin and RA signaling to impact fibroblast differentiation cell autonomously and epidermal keratinocyte development non-cell autonomously, respectively.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>THULABANDU, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nehila, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.01.364216</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dermal EZH2 simultaneously orchestrates Wnt/β-catenin signaling dependent dermal differentiation and retinoic acid signaling dependent epidermal proliferation during murine skin development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.03.367201v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lymphocyte-Specific Biomarkers Associated with Preterm Birth and Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.03.367201v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many premature babies who are born with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) go on to develop Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) and later Post-Prematurity Respiratory Disease (PRD) at one year corrected age, characterized by persistent or recurrent lower respiratory tract symptoms frequently related to inflammation and viral infection. Transcriptomic profiles were generated from sorted peripheral blood CD8+ T cells of preterm and full-term infants enrolled with consent in the NHLBI Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program (PROP) at the University of Rochester and the University at Buffalo. We identified outcome-related gene expression patterns following standard methods to identify markers for oxygen utilization and BPD as outcomes in extremely premature infants. We further identified predictor gene sets for BPD based on transcriptomic data adjusted for gestational age at birth (GAB).

RNA-Seq analysis was completed for CD8+ T cells from 145 subjects. Among the subjects with highest risk for BPD (born at <29 weeks gestational age (GA); n=72), 501 genes were associated with oxygen utilization. In the same set of subjects, 571 genes were differentially expressed in subjects with a diagnosis of BPD and 105 genes were different in BPD subjects as defined by physiologic challenge. A set of 92 genes could predict BPD with a moderately high degree of accuracy. We consistently observed dysregulation of NRF2, HIPPO and CD40-associated pathways in BPD. Using gene expression data from both premature and full-term subjects (n=116), we identified a 28 gene set that predicted the PRD status with a moderately high level of accuracy.

Transcriptomic data from sort-purified peripheral blood CD8+ T cells from 145 preterm and full-term infants identified sets of molecular markers associated with independent development of BPD in extremely premature infants at high risk for the disease and of PRD among the preterm and full-term subjects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mereness, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baran, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Misra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynolds, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pryhuber, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mariani, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.03.367201</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lymphocyte-Specific Biomarkers Associated with Preterm Birth and Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.10.374900v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting Drug Interactions to Unassociated Biomedical Implants Using Machine Learning Techniques and Model Polymers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.10.374900v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Affinity based drug delivery mechanisms increase efficacy and minimalize off target effects when compared to non-specific methods due to the localization of drugs within target areas. While this is beneficial for targeted delivery, introduction of foreign polymeric medical devices into the body provide a potential area of localization due to high affinity between administered drugs and polymers. Previous attempts at creating models to predict affinity between small molecule drugs and polymers require a specific model be trained for each individual polymer failing to incorporate input features of both the polymer (host) and small molecule drug (guest). Within, we propose a universal model built using a neural network and quantitative structure activity relationships to predict the binding energy between guest and host molecules using input features. The trained model returned a correlation value, R2, of 0.9806 and 0.9958 between predicted and experimental binding affinity for the training and validation sets, respectively. This correlates to a mean absolute error of 0.951 kJ/mol and 0.771 kJ/mol for the training and validation sets, respectively. While limited to the current polymers used to train the model, the dataset can be expanded, and models retrained for further applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kerner, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.10.374900</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting Drug Interactions to Unassociated Biomedical Implants Using Machine Learning Techniques and Model Polymers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.378174v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Non-Invasive Plasma Glycomic and Metabolic Biomarkers of Post-treatment Control of HIV 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.378174v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Non-invasive biomarkers that predict HIV remission after antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption are urgently needed. Such biomarkers can improve the safety of analytic treatment interruption (ATI) and provide mechanistic insights into the pathways involved in post-ART HIV control. We identified plasma glycomic and metabolic signatures of time-to-viral-rebound and probability-of-viral-rebound using samples from two independent cohorts. These samples include a large number of post-treatment controllers, a rare population demonstrating sustained virologic suppression after ART-cessation. The signatures remained significant after adjusting for key demographic and clinical confounders. We also confirmed a mechanistic link between biomarkers and HIV latency reactivation and myeloid inflammation in vitro. Finally, machine learning algorithms selected sets of biomarkers that predict time-to-viral-rebound with 74-76% capacity and probability-of-viral-rebound with 97.5% capacity. In summary, we fill a major gap in HIV cure research by identifying non-invasive biomarkers, with potential functional significance, that predict duration and probability of viral remission after treatment interruption.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Giron, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmer, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmanouil, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damra, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnston, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mounzer, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kostman, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tebas, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landay, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montaner, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobson, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdel-Mohsen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.11.378174</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Non-Invasive Plasma Glycomic and Metabolic Biomarkers of Post-treatment Control of HIV]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.14.382655v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proximity Measures as Graph Convolution Matrices for Link Prediction in Biological Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.14.382655v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationLink prediction is an important and well-studied problem in computational biology, with a broad range of applications including disease gene prioritization, drug-disease associations, and drug response in cancer. The general principle in link prediction is to use the topological characteristics and the attributes-if available- of the nodes in the network to predict new links that are likely to emerge/disappear. Recently, graph representation learning methods, which aim to learn a low-dimensional representation of topological characteristics and the attributes of the nodes, have drawn increasing attention to solve the link prediction problem via learnt low-dimensional features. Most prominently, Graph Convolution Network (GCN)-based network embedding methods have demonstrated great promise in link prediction due to their ability of capturing non-linear information of the network. To date, GCN-based network embedding algorithms utilize a Laplacian matrix in their convolution layers as the convolution matrix and the effect of the convolution matrix on algorithm performance has not been comprehensively characterized in the context of link prediction in biomedical networks. On the other hand, for a variety of biomedical link prediction tasks, traditional node similarity measures such as Common Neighbor, Ademic-Adar, and other have shown promising results, and hence there is a need to systematically evaluate the node similarity measures as convolution matrices in terms of their usability and potential to further the state-of-the-art.

ResultsWe select 8 representative node similarity measures as convolution matrices within the single-layered GCN graph embedding method and conduct a systematic comparison on 3 important biomedical link prediction tasks: drug-disease association (DDA) prediction, drug-drug interaction (DDI) prediction, protein-protein interaction (PPI) prediction. Our experimental results demonstrate that the node similarity-based convolution matrices significantly improves GCN-based embedding algorithms and deserve more attention in the future biomedical link prediction

AvailabilityOur method is implemented as a python library and is available at githublink

Contactmustafa.coskun@agu.edu.tr

Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coskun, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.14.382655</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proximity Measures as Graph Convolution Matrices for Link Prediction in Biological Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.380048v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic landscapes of canine splenic angiosarcoma (hemangiosarcoma) contain extensive heterogeneity within and between patients 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.380048v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer genomic heterogeneity presents significant challenges for understanding oncogenic processes and for cancers clinical management. Variation in driver mutation frequency between patients with the same tumor type as well as within individual patients cancers can limit the power of mutations to serve as diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers. We have characterized genomic heterogeneity between and within patients in canine splenic hemangiosarcoma (HSA), a common naturally occurring cancer in pet dogs that is similar to human angiosarcoma (AS). HSA is a clinically, physiologically, and genomically complex canine cancer that may serve as a valuable model for understanding the origin and clinical impact of cancer heterogeneity. We conducted a prospective collection of 52 splenic masses from 44 dogs (28 HSA, 15 benign masses, and 1 stromal sarcoma) presenting to emergency care with hemoperitoneum secondary to a ruptured splenic mass. Multi-platform genomic analysis included matched tumor/normal cancer gene panel and exome sequencing. We found candidate somatic cancer driver mutations in 14/28 (50%) HSAs. Among recurrent candidate driver mutations, TP53 was most commonly mutated (29%) followed by PIK3CA (14%), AKT1 (11%), and CDKN2AIP (11%). We also identified significant intratumoral genomic heterogeneity, consistent with a branched evolution model, through multi-region exome sequencing of three distinct tumor regions from selected primary splenic tumors. These data provide new perspective on the genomic landscape and comparative value of understanding HSA in pet dogs, particularly as a naturally occurring cancer bearing intratumoral heterogeneity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehrhart, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zismann, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cawley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halperin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Briones, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richter, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivaprakasam, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perdigones, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contente-Cuomo, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Facista, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trent, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murtaza, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khanna, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hendricks, W. P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.15.380048</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic landscapes of canine splenic angiosarcoma (hemangiosarcoma) contain extensive heterogeneity within and between patients]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.17.387514v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic analyses of high-grade neuroendocrine gynecological malignancies reveal a unique mutational landscape and therapeutic vulnerabilities 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.17.387514v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of gynecologic origin (NEC-GYN) is a highly aggressive cancer affecting young women. The clinical management of NEC-GYN is often extrapolated from their counterpart, small cell carcinoma of the lung (SCLC), but, unfortunately, they have limited effect. In our NEC-GYN cohort, median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 1 and 12 months, respectively, indicating their highly lethal nature. Our comprehensive genomic analyses unveiled that NEC-GYN harbors a higher mutational burden with distinct mutational landscapes from SCLC. We identified 14 cancer driver genes (FDR <0.01) including the most frequently altered KMT2C (100%), KNL1 (100%), NCOR2 (100%), and CCDC6 (93%) genes. Transcriptomic analyses identified several novel gene fusions in NEC-GYN. Furthermore, NEC-GYN exhibited a highly immunosuppressive state and uniquely belonged to the YAP1 high molecular subtype that promotes multidrug resistance. Our study suggests an urgent need to reevaluate the therapeutic options and targets for NEC-GYN.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mahdi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joehlin-Price, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dowlati, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.17.387514</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic analyses of high-grade neuroendocrine gynecological malignancies reveal a unique mutational landscape and therapeutic vulnerabilities]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.19.390633v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cancer cells are sensitive to wild-type IDH1 inhibition under nutrient limitation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.19.390633v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic cancer cells alter their metabolism to survive cancer-associated stress (1-4). For example, cancer cells must adapt to steep nutrient gradients that characterize the natural tumor microenvironment (TME) (5-7). In the absence of adaptive strategies, harsh metabolic conditions promote the generation of free radicals (8) and impair energy production in tumor cells. Towards this end, wild-type isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) activity is a metabolic requirement for cancer cells living in a harsh metabolic milieu. The cytosolic enzyme interconverts isocitrate and alpha-ketoglutarate, and uses NADP(H) as a cofactor. We show that under low nutrient conditions, the enzymatic reaction favors oxidative decarboxylation to yield NADPH and alpha-ketoglutarate. Metabolic studies showed that the IDH1 products directly support antioxidant defense and mitochondrial function in stressed cancer cells. Genetic IDH1 suppression reduced growth of pancreatic cancer cells in vitro under low nutrient conditions and in mouse models of pancreatic cancer. Surprisingly, allosteric inhibitors of mutant IDH1 proved to be potent wild-type IDH1 inhibitors under conditions specific to the TME, highlighting a natural therapeutic window. The presence of low magnesium enhanced allosteric inhibition by the drug, and ambient low glucose levels enhanced cancer cells dependence on wild-type IDH1. Thus, intrinsic TME conditions sensitized wild-type IDH1 to FDA-approved AG-120 (ivosidenib), and revealed the drug to be a potent single-agent therapeutic in cell culture and diverse in vivo cancer models. This work identified a potentially new repertoire of safe cancer therapies, including a clinically available compound, for the treatment of multiple wild-type IDH1 cancers (e.g., pancreatic).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prendergast, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cassel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammed, F. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dukleska, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khokhar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajhassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothermel, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Browers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Getts, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunengraber, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salvino, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brody, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.19.390633</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cancer cells are sensitive to wild-type IDH1 inhibition under nutrient limitation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.27.400952v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DNA polymerase theta suppresses mitotic crossing over 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.27.400952v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Polymerase theta-mediated end joining (TMEJ) is a chromosome break repair pathway that is able to rescue the lethality associated with the loss of proteins involved in early steps in homologous recombination (e.g., BRCA1/2). This is due to the ability of polymerase theta (Pol {theta}) to use resected, 3 single stranded DNA tails to repair chromosome breaks. These resected DNA tails are also the starting substrate for homologous recombination. However, it remains unknown if TMEJ can compensate for the loss of proteins involved in more downstream steps during homologous recombination. Here we expand the number of homologous recombination proteins synthetic lethal with Pol {theta} to the Holliday junction resolvases SLX4 and GEN1. SLX4 and GEN1 are required for viability in the absence of Pol {theta} in Drosophila melanogaster, and lack of all three proteins results in very high levels of apoptosis. We observe that flies deficient in Pol {theta} and SLX4 are extremely sensitive to DNA damaging agents, and mammalian cells require either Pol {theta} or SLX4 to survive. Our results suggest that TMEJ and Holliday junction formation/resolution share a common DNA substrate, likely a homologous recombination intermediate, that when left unrepaired leads to cell death. One major consequence of Holliday junction resolution by SLX4 and GEN1 is cancer-causing loss of heterozygosity due to mitotic crossing over. We measured mitotic crossovers in flies after a Cas9-induced chromosome break, and observed that this mutagenic form of repair is increased in the absence of Pol {theta}. This demonstrates that TMEJ can function upstream of the Holiday junction resolvases to protect cells from loss of heterozygosity. Our work argues that Pol {theta} can thus compensate for the loss of the Holliday junction resolvases by utilizing homologous recombination intermediates, suppressing mitotic crossing over and preserving the genomic stability of cells.

Author summaryChromosome breaks are a common threat to the stability of DNA. Mutations in genes involved in the early steps of homologous recombination (BRCA1 and BRCA2), a mostly error-free chromosome break repair pathway, lead to hereditary breast cancer. Cells lacking BRCA1 and BRCA2 rely on DNA polymerase theta, a key protein for a more error-prone pathway, for survival. Using fruit flies and mammalian cells, we have shown that mutations in genes involved in later steps of homologous recombination (SLX4 and GEN1) also make cells reliant on polymerase theta. Moreover, we have shown that polymerase theta acts upstream of a type of homologous recombination that is error-prone and depends on SLX4 and GEN1. This form of homologous recombination, termed Holliday junction resolution, creates mitotic crossovers, which can lead to loss of heterozygosity and cancer. Our results expand the cellular contexts that make cells depend on polymerase theta for survival, and the substrates that this protein can use to repair chromosome breaks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carvajal-Garcia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crown, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramsden, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekelsky, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.27.400952</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DNA polymerase theta suppresses mitotic crossing over]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.409094v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MACE2K: A Text-Mining Tool to Extract Literature-based Evidence for Variant Interpretation using Machine Learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.409094v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Interpretation of a given variants pathogenicity is one of the most profound challenges to realizing the promise of genomic medicine. A large amount of information about associations between variants and diseases used by curators and researchers for interpreting variant pathogenicity is buried in biomedical literature. The development of text-mining tools that can extract relevant information from the literature will speed up and assist the variant interpretation curation process. In this work, we present a text-mining tool, MACE2k that extracts evidence sentences containing associations between variants and diseases from full-length PMC Open Access articles. We use different machine learning models (classical and deep learning) to identify evidence sentences with variant-disease associations. Evaluation shows promising results with the best F1-score of 82.9% and AUC-ROC of 73.9%. Classical ML models had a better recall (96.6% for Random Forest) compared to deep learning models. The deep learning model, Convolutional Neural Network had the best precision (75.6%), which is essential for any curation task.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gupta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miglani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saiyed, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikwuemesi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNulty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thaxton, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.03.409094</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MACE2K: A Text-Mining Tool to Extract Literature-based Evidence for Variant Interpretation using Machine Learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.410621v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Leveraging Affinity Interactions to Prolong Drug Delivery of Protein Therapeutics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.410621v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While peptide and protein therapeutics have made tremendous advances in clinical treatments over the past few decades, they have been largely hindered by their ability to be effectively delivered to patients. While bolus parenteral injections have become standard clinical practice, they are insufficient to treat diseases that require sustained, local release of therapeutics. Cyclodextrin-based polymers (pCD) have been utilized as a platform to extend the local delivery of small-molecule hydrophobic drugs by leveraging hydrophobic-driven thermodynamic interactions between pCD and payload to extend its release, which has seen success both in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we proposed the novel synthesis of protein-polymer conjugates that are capped with a "high affinity" adamantane. Using bovine serum albumin as a model protein, and anti-interleukin 10 monoclonal antibodies as a functional example, we outline the synthesis of novel protein-polymer conjugates that, when coupled with cyclodextrin delivery platforms, can maintain a sustained release of up to 65 days without largely sacrificing protein structure/function which has significant clinical applications in local antibody-based treatments for immune diseases, cancers, and diabetes.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=134 SRC="FIGDIR/small/410621v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dogan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dabkowski, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.03.410621</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Leveraging Affinity Interactions to Prolong Drug Delivery of Protein Therapeutics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.05.409821v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amilorides inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro by targeting RNA structures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.05.409821v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the likelihood of future coronavirus pandemics, has rendered our understanding of coronavirus biology more essential than ever. Small molecule chemical probes offer to both reveal novel aspects of virus replication and to serve as leads for antiviral therapeutic development. The RNA-biased amiloride scaffold was recently tuned to target a viral RNA structure critical for translation in enterovirus 71, ultimately uncovering a novel mechanism to modulate positive-sense RNA viral translation and replication. Analysis of CoV RNA genomes reveal many conserved RNA structures in the 5-UTR and proximal region critical for viral translation and replication, including several containing bulge-like secondary structures suitable for small molecule targeting. Following phylogenetic conservation analysis of this region, we screened an amiloride-based small molecule library against a less virulent human coronavirus, OC43, to identify lead ligands. Amilorides inhibited OC43 replication as seen in viral plaque assays. Select amilorides also potently inhibited replication competent SARS-CoV-2 as evident in the decreased levels of cell free virions in cell culture supernatants of treated cells. Reporter screens confirmed the importance of RNA structures in the 5-end of the viral genome for small molecule activity. Finally, NMR chemical shift perturbation studies of the first six stem loops of the 5-end revealed specific amiloride interactions with stem loops 4, 5a, and 6, all of which contain bulge like structures and were predicted to be strongly bound by the lead amilorides in retrospective docking studies. Taken together, the use of multiple orthogonal approaches allowed us to identify the first small molecules aimed at targeting RNA structures within the 5-UTR and proximal region of the CoV genome. These molecules will serve as chemical probes to further understand CoV RNA biology and can pave the way for the development of specific CoV RNA-targeted antivirals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zafferani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davila-Calderon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan-Chiu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shema Mugisha, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yesselman, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gifford, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tai, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutluay, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, M.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolbert, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hargrove, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.05.409821</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amilorides inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro by targeting RNA structures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.09.416776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Heartbeats entrain breathing via baroreceptor-mediated modulation of expiratory activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.09.416776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cardio-ventilatory coupling refers to a heartbeat (HB) occurring at a preferred latency before the onset of the next breath. We hypothesized that the pressure pulse generated by a HB activates baroreceptors that modulates brainstem expiratory neuronal activity and delays the initiation of inspiration. In supine male subjects, we recorded ventilation, electrocardiogram, and blood pressure during 20-min epochs of baseline, slow-deep breathing, and recovery. In in situ rodent preparations, we recorded brainstem activity in response to pulses of perfusion pressure. We applied a well-established respiratory network model to interpret these data. In humans, the latency between HBs and onset of inspiration was consistent across different breathing patterns. In in situ preparations, a transient pressure pulse during expiration activated a subpopulation of expiratory neurons normally active during post-inspiration; thus, delaying the next inspiration. In the model, baroreceptor input to post-inspiratory neurons accounted for the effect. These studies are consistent with baroreflex activation modulating respiration through a pauci-synaptic circuit from baroreceptors to onset of inspiration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barnett, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baekey, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paton, J. F. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dick, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wehrwein, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molkov, Y. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.09.416776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Heartbeats entrain breathing via baroreceptor-mediated modulation of expiratory activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.09.418442v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The biophysical basis of protein domain compatibility in ion channels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.09.418442v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding the biophysical mechanisms that govern the combination of protein domains into viable proteins is essential for advancing synthetic biology and biomedical engineering. Here, we use massively parallel genotype/phenotype assays to determine cell surface expression of over 300,000 variants of the inward rectifier K+ channel Kir2.1 recombined with hundreds of protein motifs. We use machine learning to derive a quantitative biophysical model and practical rules for domain recombination. Insertional fitness depends on nonlinear interactions between the biophysical properties of inserted motifs and the recipient protein, which adds a new dimension to the rational design of fusion proteins. Insertion maps reveal a generalizable hierarchical organization of Kir2.1 and several other ion channels that balances stability needed for folding and dynamics required for function.

SummaryMassively parallel assays reveal interactions between donor domains and recipient proteins govern domain compatibility
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coyote-Maestas, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nedrud, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carnevale, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myers, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.09.418442</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The biophysical basis of protein domain compatibility in ion channels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.11.419952v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Uncovering complementary sets of variants for the prediction of quantitative phenotypes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.11.419952v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationGenome-wide association studies show that variants in individual genomic loci alone are not sufficient to explain the heritability of complex, quantitative phenotypes. Many computational methods have been developed to address this issue by considering subsets of loci that can collectively predict the phenotype. This problem can be considered a challenging instance of feature selection in which the number of dimensions (loci that are screened) is much larger than the number of samples. While currently available methods can achieve decent phenotype prediction performance, they either do not scale to large datasets or have parameters that require extensive tuning.

ResultsWe propose a fast and simple algorithm, Macarons, to select a small, complementary subset of variants by avoiding redundant pairs that are in linkage disequilibrium. Our method features two interpretable parameters that control the time/performance trade-off without requiring parameter tuning. In our computational experiments, we show that Macarons consistently achieves similar or better prediction performance than state-of-the-art selection methods while having a simpler premise and being at least 2 orders of magnitude faster. Overall, Macarons can seamlessly scale to the human genome with ~107 variants in a matter of minutes while taking the dependencies between the variants into account.

ConclusionMacarons can offer a reasonable trade-off between phenotype predictivity, runtime and the complementarity of the selected subsets. The framework we present can be generalized to other high-dimensional feature selection problems within and beyond biomedical applications.

AvailabilityMacarons is implemented in Matlab and the source code is available at: https://github.com/serhan-yilmaz/macarons
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fakhouri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cicek, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tastan, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.11.419952</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Uncovering complementary sets of variants for the prediction of quantitative phenotypes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422616v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Circadian rhythms in bipolar disorder patient-derived neurons predict lithium response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422616v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder with genetic risk factors defined by recurrent episodes of mania/hypomania, depression and circadian rhythm abnormalities. While lithium is an effective drug for BD, 30-40% of patients fail to respond adequately to treatment. Previous work has demonstrated that lithium affects the expression of "clock genes" and that lithium responders (Li-R) can be distinguished from non-responders (Li-NR) by differences in circadian rhythms. However, rhythm abnormalities in BD have not been evaluated in neurons and it is unknown if neuronal rhythms differ between Li-R and Li-NR. We used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to culture neuronal precursor cells (NPC) and glutamatergic neurons from BD patients and controls. We identified strong circadian rhythms in Per2-luc expression in NPCs and neurons from controls and Li-R. NPC rhythms in Li-R had a shorter circadian period. Li-NR rhythms were low-amplitude and profoundly weakened. In NPCs and neurons, expression of PER2 was higher in both BD groups compared to controls. In neurons, PER2 protein expression was higher in BD than controls, especially in Li-NR samples. In single cells, NPC and neuron rhythms in both BD groups were desynchronized compared to controls. Lithium lengthened period in Li-R and control neurons but failed to alter rhythms in Li-NR. In contrast, temperature entrainment increased amplitude across all groups, and partly restored rhythms in Li-NR neurons. We conclude that neuronal circadian rhythm abnormalities are present in BD and most pronounced in Li-NR. Rhythm deficits in BD may be partly reversible through stimulation of entrainment pathways.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mishra, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakhla, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vandenburgh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berrettini, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brennand, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calabrese, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coryell, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frye, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gage, F. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gershon, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McInnis, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nievergelt, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nurnberger, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shilling, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oedegaard, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zandi, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The Pharmacogenomics of Bipolar Disorder Study,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelsoe, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Welsh, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarthy, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.14.422616</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Circadian rhythms in bipolar disorder patient-derived neurons predict lithium response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422659v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiple Temporal and Semantic Processes During Verbal Fluency Tasks in English-Russian Bilinguals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422659v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Category fluency test (CFT) performance is sensitive to cognitive processes of executive control and memory storage and access, and widely used to measure cognitive performance especially in early Alzheimers Disease. Analytical variables have included the number of items named, and various methods to identify and quantify clusters of semantically related words and cluster switches. Also encoded in the response sequence are temporal patterns as shown by "bursts" of responses and pauses between items, that have not been received attention in determining cluster characteristics.

We studied a group of 51 adult Russian-English bilinguals and compared CFT responses based on two clustering methodologies: the semantic-based method (SEM) and a novel method based on the time interval between words (TEMP) with 8 different intercall time thresholds from 0.25 sec-15 sec. Each participant performed the task in both languages. Total number of words and cluster count was greater in Russian than English for both scoring methods, but cluster size did not differ between languages. We also studied stochastic modeling characteristics based on detrending of the "exponential exhaustion" effect seen with CFT, with most notable that total recall capacity (N{infty}) was greater in Russian than English (P<.05). Multiple demographic variables, and recent and lifetime usage of each language, affected both cognitive performance as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA; given in English only). Differential performance is driven by differences in demographics, more words stored in memory, and semantic and timing recall strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lerner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crough, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lenio, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woyczynski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lissemore, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.14.422659</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiple Temporal and Semantic Processes During Verbal Fluency Tasks in English-Russian Bilinguals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422689v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cryo-EM structure of amyloid fibrils formed by the entire low complexity domain of TDP-43 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.14.422689v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and several other neurodegenerative diseases are associated with brain deposits of TDP-43 aggregates. Cryo-EM structure of amyloid formed from the entire TDP-43 low complexity domain reveals single protofilament fibrils containing a large (138-residue), tightly packed core with structural features that differ from those previously found for fibrils formed from short protein fragments. The atomic model provides insight into potential structural perturbations caused by phosphorylation and disease-related mutations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babinchak, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surewicz, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.14.422689</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cryo-EM structure of amyloid fibrils formed by the entire low complexity domain of TDP-43]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.15.422949v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbiome and Metabolome driven differentiation of TGF-β producing Tregs leads to Senescence and HIV latency 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.15.422949v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Current therapeutic interventions to eradicate latent HIV ("reservoir") and restore immune function in ART-treated HIV infection have yet to show efficacy. To explore mechanisms of HIV persistence, we apply an integrated systems biology approach and identify a distinct group of individuals with poor CD4 T-cell reconstitution (Immunologic non-responders, "INRs") and high frequencies of cells with inducible HIV. Contrary to the prevailing notion that immune activation drives HIV persistence and immune dysfunction, peripheral blood leukocytes from these subjects have enhanced expression of a network of genes regulated by cellular senescence driving transcription factors (TFs) FOXO3, SMAD2 and IRF3. In these subjects, increased frequencies of regulatory T cells and expression of the TGF-{beta} signaling cascade are complimented by the downregulation of cell cycle, metabolic and pro-inflammatory pathways. Lactobacillaceae family and metabolites (members of the butyrate family - i.e. -ketobutyrate) were correlated with Treg frequencies in "Senescent-INRs" ex vivo, triggered the differentiation of TGF-{beta} producing Tregs and promoted HIV latency establishment in vitro. These cascades, downstream of PD-1/TGF-{beta}, prevent memory T cell differentiation and are associated with an increase in frequencies of cells with inducible HIV ex vivo. Our findings identify cellular senescence responses that can be targeted by PD-1 or TGF-{beta} specific interventions that have shown safety and efficacy in cancer, and may prove to be crucial for HIV eradication.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghneim, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ribeiro, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fourati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahlers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulpa, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brehm, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arumugam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darko, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shive, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cristescu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loboda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balderas, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, I.-m.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamarre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douek, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hazuda, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lederman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deeks, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.15.422949</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbiome and Metabolome driven differentiation of TGF-β producing Tregs leads to Senescence and HIV latency]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.17.423341v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real time, field-deployable whole genome sequencing of malaria parasites using nanopore technology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.17.423341v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Malaria parasite genomes have been generated predominantly using short read sequencing technology which can be slow, requires advanced laboratory training and does not adequately interrogate complex genomic regions that harbour important malaria virulence determinants. The portable Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION platform generates long reads in real time and may overcome these limitations. We present compelling evidence that Nanopore sequencing delivers valuable additional information for malaria parasites with comparable data fidelity for single nucleotide variant (SNV) calls, compared to standard Illumina whole genome sequencing. We demonstrate this through sequencing of pure Plasmodium falciparum DNA, mock infections and natural isolates. Nanopore has low error rates for haploid SNV genotyping and identifies structural variants (SVs) not detected with short reads. Nanopore genomes are directly comparable to publically available genomes and produce high quality end to end chromosome assemblies. Nanopore sequencing will expedite genomic surveillance of malaria and provide new insights into parasite genome biology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Razook, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilchhrist, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Utama, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lautu-Gumal, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fola, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menard, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahlo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.17.423341</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real time, field-deployable whole genome sequencing of malaria parasites using nanopore technology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423477v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A higher burden of multiple sclerosis genetic risk confers an earlier onset 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423477v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative, autoimmune disease characterized by inrreversible neurological disability. The age at onset of multiple sclerosis is an objective and influential predictor of the evolution of multiple sclerosis independent of disease duration. Little is known about the mechanisms contributing to variation in onset age of multiple sclerosis, though HLA-DRB1*15:01, the predominant risk variant, confers an earlier onset. Here we present an age at onset genome-wide association analysis for 9.2 million variants, including gene-based and pathway enrichment analyses, for 3,495 cases who were non-Latinx white with onset [&ge;]18 years. We investigated whether a higher burden of multiple sclerosis risk variants conferred an earlier age at onset for combinations of HLA-DRB1*15:01 alleles and quintiles of a genetic risk score for 200 risk variants that reside outside the major histocompatibility complex. The study population had a mean age at onset of 32 years, 29% was male, and 46% were HLA-DRB1*15:01 carriers. HLA-DRB1*15:01 carriers were on average one year younger at onset than non-carriers (p<0.001); a similar effect was observed for a 10-risk-allele increase in the genetic risk score (p<1x10-8). Those in the highest genetic risk score quintile (n=717) were on average 2.5 years younger at onset than those in the lowest quintile (n=698; p=1.2x10-7). For those with the greatest genetic risk burden (highest genetic risk score quintile with two HLA-DRB1*15:01 alleles) were on average five years younger at onset (p=0.002) than those with the lowest genetic risk burden (lowest genetic risk score quintile with no HLA-DRB1*15:01 alleles). There was an apparent inverse relationship between the genetic multiple sclerosis risk burden and age at onset of multiple sclerosis (p<5x10-8). We did not observe any individual variants reaching genome-wide significance in the genome-wide association analysis of age at onset. The most significantly associated independent genic loci (p<5x10-6) were located within HLA-DQB1, COL21A1, LINC01484, UBR3, and CSMD1. At the gene-level, the most significant associations (p<5x10-5) were for SSB, TRAFD1, HECTD2, MMP8, NAA25 and UBR3. There was an enrichment of genes involved in adaptive and innate immunity, specifically genes in the complement pathway, and genes involved in synapses and collagen biosynthesis. In summary, we demonstrated a significant gradient between elevated genetic risk burden and an earlier onset of multiple sclerosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Misicka, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brugger, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beales, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loomis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bronson, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Briggs, F. B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.18.423477</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A higher burden of multiple sclerosis genetic risk confers an earlier onset]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.19.423596v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Low force unfolding of a single-domain protein by parallel pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.19.423596v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Deviations from linearity in the dependence of the logarithm of protein unfolding rates, log ku(f), as a function of mechanical force, f, measurable in single molecule experiments, can arise for many reasons. In particular, upward curvature in log ku(f) as a function of f implies that the underlying energy landscape must be multidimensional with the possibility that unfolding ensues by parallel pathways. Here, simulations using the SOP-SC model of a wild type {beta}-sandwich protein and several mutants, with immunoglobulin folds, show upward curvature in the unfolding kinetics. There are substantial changes in the structures of the transition state ensembles as force is increased, signaling a switch in the unfolding pathways. Our results, when combined with previous theoretical and experimental studies, show that parallel unfolding of structurally unrelated single domain proteins can be determined from the dependence of log ku(f) as a function of force (or log ku[C] where [C] is the denaturant concentration).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhuravlev, P. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thirumalai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.19.423596</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Low force unfolding of a single-domain protein by parallel pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.22.424017v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
15-PGDH as a Negative Regulator of Age-Related Organ Fitness 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.22.424017v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Emerging evidence implicates the eicosanoid molecule prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in conferring a regenerative phenotype to multiple organ systems following tissue injury. As aging is in part characterized by loss of tissue stem cells regenerative capacity, we tested the hypothesis that the prostaglandin-degrading enzyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) contributes to the diminished organ fitness of aged mice. Here we demonstrate that genetic loss of 15-PGDH (Hpgd) confers a protective effect on aging of murine hematopoietic and gastrointestinal (GI) tissues. Aged mice lacking 15-PGDH display increased hematopoietic output as assessed by peripheral blood cell counts, bone marrow and splenic stem cell compartments, and accelerated post-transplantation recovery compared to their WT counterparts. Loss of Hpgd expression also resulted in enhanced GI fitness and reduced local inflammation in response to colitis. Together these results suggest that 15-PGDH negatively regulates aged tissue regeneration, and that 15-PGDH inhibition may be a viable therapeutic strategy to ameliorate age-associated loss of organ fitness.

ARTICLE SUMMARY15-PGDH as a Driver of Age-Related Tissue Dysfunction
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ho, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadiono, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jogasuria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broncano, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kasturi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerson, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.22.424017</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[15-PGDH as a Negative Regulator of Age-Related Organ Fitness]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.23.424020v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-Modal Biomarkers of Cerebral Edema in Low Resolution MRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.23.424020v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A central challenge of medical imaging studies is to extract biomarkers that characterize disease pathology or outcomes. Modern automated approaches have found tremendous success in high-resolution, high-quality magnetic resonance images (MRI). These methods, however, may not translate to low resolution images acquired on MRI scanners with lower magnetic field strength. In low-resource settings where low-field scanners are more common and there is a shortage of radiologists to manually interpret MRI scans, it is critical to develop automated methods that can augment or replace manual interpretation, while accommodating reduced image quality. We present a fully automated framework for translating radiological diagnostic criteria into image-based biomarkers, inspired by a project in which children with cerebral malaria were imaged using low-field 0.35 Tesla MRI. We integrate multi-atlas label fusion, which leverages high-resolution images from another sample as prior spatial information, with parametric Gaussian hidden Markov models based on image intensities, to create a robust method for determining ventricular cerebrospinal fluid volume. We also propose normalized image intensity and texture measurements to determine the loss of gray-to-white matter tissue differentiation and sulcal effacement. These integrated biomarkers have excellent classification performance for determining severe brain swelling due to cerebral malaria.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goyal, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dworkin, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kampondeni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biondo-Savin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juvvadi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghavan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicholas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chetcuti, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satterthwaite, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yushkevich, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davatzikos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erus, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Postels, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Small, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinohara, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.23.424020</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-Modal Biomarkers of Cerebral Edema in Low Resolution MRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.24.424256v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vivo visualization of pig vagus nerve 'vagotopy' using ultrasound 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.24.424256v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundPlacement of the clinical vagus nerve stimulating cuff is a standard surgical procedure based on anatomical landmarks, with limited patient specificity in terms of fascicular organization or vagal anatomy. As such, the therapeutic effects are generally limited by unwanted side effects of neck muscle contractions, demonstrated by previous studies to result from stimulation of 1) motor fibers near the cuff in the superior laryngeal and 2) motor fibers within the cuff projecting to the recurrent laryngeal.

ObjectiveThe use of patient-specific visualization of vagus nerve fascicular organization could better inform clinical cuff placement and improve clinical outcomes.

MethodsThe viability of ultrasound, with the transducer in the surgical pocket, to visualize vagus nerve fascicular organization (i.e. vagotopy) was characterized in a pig model. Ultrasound images were matched to post-mortem histology to confirm the utility of ultrasound in identifying fascicular organization.

ResultsHigh-resolution ultrasound accurately depicted the vagotopy of the pig vagus nerve intra-operatively, as confirmed via histology. The stereotypical pseudo-unipolar cell body aggregation at the nodose ganglion was identifiable, and these sensory afferent fascicular bundles were traced down the length of the vagus nerve. Additionally, the superior and recurrent laryngeal nerves were identified via ultrasound.

ConclusionsIntraoperative visualization of vagotopy and surrounding nerves using ultrasound is a novel approach to optimize stimulating cuff placement, avoid unwanted activation of motor nerve fibers implicated in off-target effects, and seed patient-specific models of vagal fiber activation to improve patient outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kasole, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skubal, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolai, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelot, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grill, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Upadhye, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolluru, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suminski, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.24.424256</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vivo visualization of pig vagus nerve 'vagotopy' using ultrasound]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.26.424447v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computationally-efficient spatiotemporal correlation analysis super-resolves anomalous diffusion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.26.424447v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anomalous diffusion dynamics in confined nanoenvironments govern the macroscale properties and interactions of many biophysical and material systems. Currently, it is difficult to quantitatively link the nanoscale structure of porous media to anomalous diffusion within them. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (fcsSOFI) has been shown to extract nanoscale structure and Brownian diffusion dynamics within gels, liquid crystals, and polymers, but has limitations which hinder its wider application to more diverse, biophysically-relevant datasets. Here, we parallelize the least-squares curve fitting step on a GPU improving computation times by up to a factor of 40, implement anomalous diffusion and two-component Brownian diffusion models, and make fcsSOFI more accessible by packaging it in a user-friendly GUI. We apply fcsSOFI to simulations of the protein fibrinogen diffusing in polyacrylamide of varying matrix densities and super-resolve locations where slower, anomalous diffusion occurs within smaller, confined pores. The improvements to fcsSOFI in speed, scope, and usability will allow for the wider adoption of super-resolution correlation analysis to diverse research topics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yoshida, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmid, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calabrase, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.26.424447</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computationally-efficient spatiotemporal correlation analysis super-resolves anomalous diffusion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.29.424644v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Defective NETs Clearance contributes to sustained FXII Activation in COVID-19-associated Pulmonary Thrombo-Inflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.29.424644v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundCoagulopathy and inflammation are hallmarks of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and are associated with increased mortality. Clinical and experimental data have revealed a role for neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in COVID-19 disease. The mechanisms that drive thrombo-inflammation in COVID-19 are poorly understood.

MethodsWe performed proteomic analysis and immunostaining of postmortem lung tissues from COVID-19 patients and patients with other lung pathologies. We further compared coagulation factor XII (FXII) and DNase activities in plasma samples from COVID-19 patients and healthy control donors and determined NET-induced Factor XIII (FXII) activation using a chromogenic substrate assay.

FindingsFXII expression and activity were increased in the lung parenchyma, within the pulmonary vasculature and in fibrin-rich alveolar spaces of postmortem lung tissues from COVID-19 patients. In agreement with this, plasma FXII activation (FXIIa) was increased in samples from COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, FXIIa colocalized with NETs in COVID-19 lung tissue indicating that NETs accumulation leads to FXII contact activation in COVID-19. We further showed that an accumulation of NETs is partially due to impaired NET clearance by extracellular DNases as DNase substitution improved NET dissolution and reduced FXII activation in vitro.

InterpretationCollectively, our study supports that the NETs/FXII axis contributes to the pathogenic chain of procoagulant and proinflammatory responses in COVID-19. Targeting both, NETs and FXIIa, could provide a strategy to mitigate COVID-19-induced thrombo-inflammation.

FundingThis study was supported by the European Union (840189), the Werner Otto Medical Foundation Hamburg (8/95) and the German Research Foundation (FR4239/1-1, A11/SFB877, B08/SFB841 and P06/KFO306).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Frye, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Englert, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rangaswamy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deppermann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sperhake, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krisp, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schreier, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konrath, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pula, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mailer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlueter, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pueschel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panousis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stavrou, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Renne, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.29.424644</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Defective NETs Clearance contributes to sustained FXII Activation in COVID-19-associated Pulmonary Thrombo-Inflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.30.424810v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Glycolysis downregulation is a hallmark of HIV-1 latency and sensitizes infected cells to oxidative stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.30.424810v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
HIV-1 infects lymphoid and myeloid cells, which can harbor a latent proviral reservoir responsible for maintaining lifelong infection. Glycolytic metabolism has been identified as a determinant of susceptibility to HIV-1 infection, but its role in the development and maintenance of HIV-1 latency has not been elucidated. By combining transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic analysis, we here show that transition to latent HIV-1 infection downregulates glycolysis, while viral reactivation by conventional stimuli reverts this effect. Decreased glycolytic output in latently infected cells is associated with downregulation of NAD+/NADH. Consequently, infected cells rely on the parallel pentose phosphate pathway and its main product, the antioxidant NADPH, fueling antioxidant pathways maintaining HIV-1 latency. Of note, blocking NADPH downstream effectors, thioredoxin and glutathione, favors HIV-1 reactivation from latency in lymphoid and myeloid cellular models. This provides a "shock and kill effect" decreasing proviral DNA in cells from people-living-with-HIV/AIDS. Overall, our data show that downmodulation of glycolysis is a metabolic signature of HIV-1 latency that can be exploited to target latently infected cells with eradication strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shytaj, I. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Procopio, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tarek, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlon-Andres, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munshi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forcato, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leskov, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucic, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruz, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bicciato, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padilla-Parra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusic, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez-Carbonell, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savarino, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.30.424810</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Glycolysis downregulation is a hallmark of HIV-1 latency and sensitizes infected cells to oxidative stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.30.424904v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allosteric communication in Class A β-lactamases occurs via Cooperative Coupling of Loop Dynamics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.30.424904v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Allosteric effects control protein (e.g. enzyme) activity in ways that are not fully understood. Better understanding of allosteric effects, and tools to identify them, would offer promising alternative strategies to inhibitor development. Through a combination of equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we identify allosteric effects and communication pathways from two distant ligand binding sites to important active site structural elements that control enzymatic activity in two prototypical class A {beta}-lactamases, TEM-1 and KPC-2. Both of these enzymes are important determinants of antibiotic resistance in widespread bacterial pathogens. The simulations show that the allosteric sites are connected to the active site in both enzymes, (e.g. affecting the conformation of the {Omega}-loop) highlighting how allosteric inhibitors may exert their effects. Nonequilibrium simulations reveal pathways of communication operating over distances of 30 [A] or more. In these identified signaling pathways, the propagation of the signal occurs through cooperative coupling of loop dynamics. Notably, 50% or more clinically relevant amino acid substitutions in each enzyme map onto the identified signal transduction pathways. This suggests that clinically important variation may affect, or be driven by, differences in allosteric behavior, providing a mechanism by which amino acid substitutions may affect the relationship between spectrum of activity, catalytic turnover and potential allosteric behavior in this clinically important enzyme family. Simulations of the type presented here will help in identifying and analyzing such differences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Galdadas, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, A. S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olehnovics, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mack, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mojica, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tooke, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gervasio, F. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spencer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulholland, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haider, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.30.424904</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allosteric communication in Class A β-lactamases occurs via Cooperative Coupling of Loop Dynamics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.06.425627v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuropilin-1 Assists SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Stimulating the Separation of Spike Protein Domains S1 and S2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.06.425627v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cell surface receptor Neuropilin-1 (Nrp1) was recently identified as a host factor for SARS-CoV-2 entry. As the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 is cleaved into the S1 and the S2 domain by furin protease, Nrp1 binds to the newly created C-terminal RRAR amino acid sequence of the S1 domain. In this study, we model the association of a Nrp1 (a2-b1-b2) protein with the Spike protein computationally and analyze the topological constraints in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein for binding with Nrp1 and ACE2. Importantly, we study the exit mechanism of S2 from the S1 domain with the assistance of ACE2 as well as Nrp1 by molecular dynamics pulling simulations. In the presence of Nrp1, by binding the S1 more strongly to the host membrane, there is a high probability of S2 being pulled out, rather than S1 being stretched. Thus, Nrp1 binding could stimulate the exit of S2 from the S1 domain, which will likely increase virus infectivity as the liberated S2 domain mediates the fusion of virus and host membranes. Understanding of such a Nrp1-assisted viral infection opens the gate for the generation of protein-protein inhibitors, such as antibodies, which could attenuate the infection mechanism and protect certain cells in a future combination therapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.06.425627</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuropilin-1 Assists SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Stimulating the Separation of Spike Protein Domains S1 and S2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.07.425621v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular dynamics simulations and functional studies reveal that hBD-2 binds SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD and blocks viral entry into ACE2 expressing cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.07.425621v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
New approaches to complement vaccination are needed to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and stop COVID-19 related deaths and long-term medical complications. Human beta defensin 2 (hBD-2) is a naturally occurring epithelial cell derived host defense peptide that has antiviral properties. Our comprehensive in-silico studies demonstrate that hBD-2 binds the site on the CoV-2-RBD that docks with the ACE2 receptor. Biophysical and biochemical assays confirm that hBD-2 indeed binds to the CoV-2-receptor binding domain (RBD) (KD [~] 300 nM), preventing it from binding to ACE2 expressing cells. Importantly, hBD-2 shows specificity by blocking CoV-2/spike pseudoviral infection, but not VSV-G mediated infection, of ACE2 expressing human cells with an IC50 of 2.4{+/-} 0.1 M. These promising findings offer opportunities to develop hBD-2 and/or its derivatives and mimetics to safely and effectively use as novel agents to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghosh, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basavarajappa, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller-Greven, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penfield, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramakrishnan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weinberg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.07.425621</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular dynamics simulations and functional studies reveal that hBD-2 binds SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD and blocks viral entry into ACE2 expressing cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.11.426199v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sustained IL-15 response signature predicts RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.11.426199v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) challenge of rhesus macaques (RMs) vaccinated with Rhesus Cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) vectors expressing SIV proteins (RhCMV/SIV) results in a binary outcome: stringent control and subsequent clearance of highly pathogenic SIV in ~55% of vaccinated RMs with no protection in the remaining 45%. Although previous work suggests that unconventionally restricted, SIV-specific, effector-memory (EM)-biased CD8+ T cell responses are necessary for efficacy, the magnitude of these responses does not predict efficacy, and the basis of protection vs. non-protection in RhCMV/SIV vector-vaccinated RMs has not been elucidated. Here, we report that RhCMV/SIV vector administration strikingly alters the whole blood transcriptome of vaccinated RMs, with the sustained induction of specific immune-related pathways, including non-canonical T cell receptor (TCR), toll-lie receptor (TLR), inflammasome/cell death, and interleukin-15 (IL-15) signaling, significantly predicting protection. The IL-15 gene expression signature was further evaluated in an independent RM IL-15 treatment cohort, revealing that in whole blood the response to IL-15 is inclusive of innate and adaptive immune gene expression networks that link with RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy. We also show that this IL-15 response signature similarly tracks with vaccine protection in an independent RhCMV/SIV vaccination/SIV challenge RM validation cohort. Thus, the RhCMV/SIV vaccine imparts a coordinated and persistent induction of innate and adaptive immune pathways featuring IL-15, a known regulator of CD8+ T cell function, that enable vaccine-elicited CD8+ T cells to mediate protection against highly pathogenic SIV challenge.

Author SummarySIV insert-expressing vaccine vectors based on strain 68-1 RhCMV elicit robust, highly effector-memory-biased T cell responses that are associated with an unprecedented level of SIV control after challenge (replication arrest leading to clearance) in slightly over half of vaccinated monkeys. Since efficacy is not predicted by standard measures of immunogenicity, we used functional genomics analysis of RhCMV/SIV vaccinated monkeys with known challenge outcomes to identify immune correlates of protection. We found that arrest of viral replication after challenge significantly correlates with a vaccine-induced response to IL-15 that includes modulation of T cell, inflammation, TLR signaling, and cell death programming. These data suggest that RhCMV/SIV efficacy is not based on chance, but rather, results from a coordinated and sustained vaccine-mediated induction of innate and adaptive immune pathways featuring IL-15, a known regulator of CD8+ effector-memory T cell function, that enable vaccine-elicited CD8+ T cells to mediate efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barrenäs, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Driscoll, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golez, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urion, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitmore, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newhouse, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrow, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Randall, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Selseth, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ford, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilbride, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Randall, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ainslie, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oswald, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoemaker, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fast, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosche, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Axthelm, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fukazawa, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pavlakis, G. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Felber, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fourati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lifson, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Komorowski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosmider, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edlefsen, P. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Picker, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gale, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.11.426199</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sustained IL-15 response signature predicts RhCMV/SIV vaccine efficacy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.11.426250v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dissecting lipid contents in the distinct regions of native retinal rod disk membranes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.11.426250v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Photoreceptors rely on distinct membrane compartments to support their specialized function. Unlike protein localization, identification of critical differences in membrane content has not yet been expanded to lipids, due to the difficulty of isolating domain-specific samples. We have overcome this by using SMA to co-immunopurify membrane proteins and their native lipids from two regions of photoreceptor ROS disks. Each samples copurified lipids were subjected to untargeted lipidomic and fatty acid analysis. Extensive differences between center (rhodopsin) and rim (ABCA4 and PRPH2/ROM1) samples included a lower PC to PE ratio and increased LC- and VLC-PUFAs in the center relative to the rim region, which were enriched in shorter, saturated FAs. The comparatively few differences between the two rim samples likely reflect specific protein-lipid interactions. High-resolution profiling of the ROS disk lipid composition provides a model for future studies of other complex cellular structures, and gives new insights into how intricate membrane structure and protein activity are balanced within the ROS.

SUMMARYSander et al. have parsed the lipid composition of native-source photoreceptor disks and find large differences in fatty acid unsaturation and chain length between the center and rim regions. They selectively copurify membrane proteins and lipids from each region in SMALPs using nanobodies and antibodies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sander, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sears, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kahremany, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pardon, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steyaert, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saghatelian, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skowronska-Krawczyk, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiser, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palczewski, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.11.426250</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dissecting lipid contents in the distinct regions of native retinal rod disk membranes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.19.427356v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NF-kB c-Rel is dispensable for the development but is required for the cytotoxic function of NK cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.19.427356v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Natural Killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes critical to the innate immune system. We found that germline deficiency of NF-kB c-Rel results in a marked decrease in cytotoxic function of NK cells, both in vitro and in vivo, with no significant differences in the stages of NK cell development. We found that c-Rel binds to the promoters of perforin and granzyme B, two key proteins required for NK cytotoxicity, and controls their transactivation. We generated a NK cell specific c-Rel conditional knockout to study NK cell intrinsic role of c-Rel and found that both global and conditional c-Rel deficiency leads to decreased perforin and granzyme B expression and thereby cytotoxic function. We also confirmed the role of c-Rel in perforin and granzyme B expression in human NK cells. c-Rel reconstitution rescued perforin and granzyme B expressions in c-Rel deficient NK cells and restored their cytotoxic function. Our results show a previously unknown role of c-Rel in transcriptional regulation of perforin and granzyme B expressions and control of NK cell cytotoxic function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vicioso, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramakrishnan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.19.427356</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NF-kB c-Rel is dispensable for the development but is required for the cytotoxic function of NK cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.21.427497v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adipocyte lipolysis abrogates skin fibrosis in a Wnt/DPP4-dependent manner 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.21.427497v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tissue fibrosis in many organs results from altered and excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) protein deposition 1. Concomitant with ECM expansion, resident lipid-filled cells including mature adipocytes are lost in human and mouse fibrosis2-5, yet the mechanisms that drive mature adipocyte lipid loss and their contribution to tissue fibrosis are unknown. Here, we identify an early, fibro-protective role of mature adipocyte lipolysis driven by Wnt signaling during fibrosis onset. Using chemical and genetic mouse models of skin fibrosis, we show that fibrotic stimuli induce and maintain lipolysis in mature dermal adipocytes. Loss of the lipolytic rate-limiting enzyme adipocyte triglyceride lipase (ATGL)6,7 in murine dermal adipocytes exacerbates bleomycin-induced fibrosis development. Adipocyte lipolysis is stimulated in the early stages of Wnt signaling-induced skin fibrosis and by Wnt agonists in vitro. Furthermore, deletion or inhibition of the Wnt target gene, CD26/Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) prevented Wnt-induced lipolysis and skin fibrosis in mice. Notably, DPP4 expression correlates with skin fibrosis severity in human patients. Thus, we propose that adipocyte-derived fatty acids and the Wnt-DPP4 axis act as essential regulators of ECM homeostasis within tissues and provide a therapeutic avenue to manipulate fibrosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jussila, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caves, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steele, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamburg-Shields, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lydon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lafyatis, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajagopalan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horsley, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.21.427497</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adipocyte lipolysis abrogates skin fibrosis in a Wnt/DPP4-dependent manner]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428152v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The urea cycle is transcriptionally controlled by hypoxia-inducible factors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428152v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Here, we demonstrate transcriptional regulation of urea cycle genes CPS1 and ARG1 by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) and demonstrate a hepatic HIF dependent increase in urea cycle activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benos, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grenell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanna, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannekanti, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anand-Apte, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunengraber, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sears, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.25.428152</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The urea cycle is transcriptionally controlled by hypoxia-inducible factors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.04.429857v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cryo-EM Structure of Bacterioferritin Nanocages Provides Insight into the Bio-mineralization of Ferritins 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.04.429857v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Iron is an essential element involved in various metabolic processes. The ferritin family of proteins forms nanocage assembly and are involved in iron oxidation, storage and mineralization. Although several structures of human ferritin and bacterioferritin subunits have been resolved, there is still no complete structure that shows both the trapped Fe-biomineral cluster along with the nanocage. Furthermore, whereas the mechanism of iron trafficking has been explained using various approaches, an atomic-level description of the pathway and the biomineralization that occurs inside the cavity are lacking. Here, we report three cryo-EM structures of different states of the Streptomyces coelicolor bacterioferritin nanocage (i.e., apo, holo) at 3.4 [A] to 4.6 [A] resolution and the subunit crystal structure at 2.6 [A] resolution. The holo forms show different stages of Fe-biomineral accumulation inside the nanocage and suggest the possibility of a different Fe biomineral accumulation process. The cryo-EM map shows connections between the Fe-biomineral cluster and residues such as Thr157 and Lys42 from the protein shell, which are involved in iron transport. Mutation and truncation of the bacterioferritin residues involved in these connections can significantly reduce iron binding as compared with wild type bacterioferritin. Moreover, S. coelicolor bacterioferritin binds to various DNA fragments, similar to Dps (DNA-binding protein from starved cells) proteins. Collectively, our results represent a prototype for the ferritin nanocage, revealing insight into its biomineralization and the potential channel for ferritin-associated iron trafficking.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jobichen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying Chong, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rattinam, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandey, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ngoc, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Angayarkanni, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivaraman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.04.429857</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cryo-EM Structure of Bacterioferritin Nanocages Provides Insight into the Bio-mineralization of Ferritins]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.14.431014v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure of an infectious mammalian prion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.14.431014v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Classical mammalian prions are assemblies of prion protein molecules that are extraordinarily transmissible, with a microgram of protein containing up to 108 lethal doses of infectivity1,2. Unlike most other pathologic and amyloidogenic proteins, prions typically contain glycolipid anchors 3 and abundant asparagine-linked glycans4-6. The infectious nature, complexity, and biophysical properties of prions have complicated structural analyses and stymied any prior elucidation of 3D conformation at the polypeptide backbone level7. Here we have determined the structure of the core of a fully infectious, brain-derived prion by cryo-electron microscopy with [~]3.1 [A] resolution. The purified prions are amyloid fibrils comprised of monomers assembled with parallel in-register intermolecular beta sheets and connecting chains. Residues [~]95-227 of each monomer provide one rung of the ordered fibril core, with the glycans and glycolipid anchor projecting from the lateral surfaces of the fibril. The fibril ends, where prion growth occurs, are formed by single monomers in an extended serpentine combination of {beta}- arches, a Greek key, and loops that presumably template the refolding of incoming monomers. Our results describe an atomic model to underpin detailed molecular hypotheses of how pathologic prion proteins can propagate as infectious agents, and how such propagation and associated pathogenesis might be impeded.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kraus, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughson, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Artikis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Race, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caughey, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.14.431014</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure of an infectious mammalian prion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431268v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Variability in scRNA-Seq analysis is mitigated by regularized or supervised approaches 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431268v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcriptional dynamics of evolutionary processes through time are highly complex and require single-cell resolution datasets. This is especially important in cancer during the evolution of resistance, where stochasticity can lead to selection for divergent transcriptional mechanisms. Statistical methods developed to address various questions in single-cell datasets are prone to variability and require careful adjustments of multiple parameter space. To assess the impact of this variation, we utilized commonly used single-cell RNA-Seq analysis tools in a combinatorial fashion to evaluate how repeatable the results are when different methods are combined. In the context of clustering and trajectory estimation, we benchmark the combinatorial space and highlight ares and methods that are sensitive to parameter changes. We have observed that utilizing temporal information in a supervised framework or regularization in latent modeling reduces variability leading to improved overlap when different parameters/methods are used. We hope that future studies can benefit from the results presented here as use of scRNA-Seq analysis tools as out of the box is becoming a standard approach in cancer research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.15.431268</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Variability in scRNA-Seq analysis is mitigated by regularized or supervised approaches]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431361v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The role of Dectin-1 signaling in altering tumor immune microenvironment in the context of aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.431361v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
An increased accumulation of immune-dysfunction-associated CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) is observed in aging oral mucosa during infection. Here we studied the function of Tregs during oral cancer development in aging mucosa. First, we found heightened proportions of Tregs and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) accumulating in mouse and human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues. Using the mouse 4-Nitroquinoline 1-oxide(4-NQO) oral carcinogenesis model, we found that tongues of aged mice displayed increased propensity for epithelial cell dysplasia, hyperplasia, and accelerated OSCC development, which coincided with significantly increased abundance of IL-1{beta}, Tregs, and MDSC in tongues. Partial depletion of Tregs reduced tumor burden. Moreover, fungal abundance and dectin-1 signaling were elevated in aged mice suggesting a potential role for dectin-1 in modulating immune environment and tumor development. Confirming this tenet, dectin-1 deficient mice showed diminished IL-1{beta}, reduced infiltration of Tregs and MDSC in the tongues, as well as slower progression and reduced severity of tumor burden. Taken together, these data identify an important role of dectin-1 signaling in establishing the intra-tumoral immunosuppressive milieu and promoting OSCC tumorigenesis in the context of aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pandiyan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.15.431361</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The role of Dectin-1 signaling in altering tumor immune microenvironment in the context of aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.18.431813v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resolving the Interactions Between Class 3 Semaphorin Receptors in Live Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.18.431813v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The plexin/neuropilin/semaphorin family of proteins is involved with tissue patterning in the developing embryo. These proteins play roles in cell migration and adhesion, but are also important in disease, including cancer angiogenesis and metastasis. While some structures of the soluble domains of these proteins have been determined, the conformations of full-length receptor complexes are just beginning to be studied, especially within the context of the cell plasma membrane. Pulsed-interleaved excitation fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (PIE-FCCS) allows direct insight to the formation of protein-protein interactions in the membrane of live cells. Here we investigated the homodimerization of neuropilin-1, Plexin A2, Plexin A4, and Plexin D1. Consistent with previous studies, we found that neuropilin-1, Plexin A2 and Plexin A4 are dimers in the absence of exogenous ligand. Plexin D1, on the other hand, was monomeric under similar conditions, which had not been previously reported. We also found that Plexin A2 and A4 assemble into a heteromeric complex. Stimulation with Semaphorin 3A or Semaphorin 3C ligand neither disrupts nor enhances the dimerization of the receptors when they are expressed alone, suggesting that activation involves a conformational change rather than a shift in the monomer-dimer equilibrium. However, upon stimulation with Semaphorin 3C, Plexin D1 and neuropilin-1 form a heteromeric complex, while Semaphorin 3A does not induce a stable complex with these receptors. This analysis of interactions by PIE-FCCS provides a complementary approach to the existing structural and biochemical data that will aid in the development of new therapeutic strategies to target these receptors during disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Christie, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tracy, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.18.431813</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resolving the Interactions Between Class 3 Semaphorin Receptors in Live Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.26.432955v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
IL-10 driven memory T cell survival and Tfh differentiation promote HIV persistence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.26.432955v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mechanisms regulating HIV persistence are complex and not well understood. Increased IL-10 levels were positively associated with HIV reservoir in blood and lymph nodes (LN) of treated HIV aviremic individuals. In LNs, B cells, regulatory T cells, follicular T helper cells (Tfh), monocytes and macrophages contributed to the frequencies of IL10+ cells. Cells with HIV DNA in LNs were in close proximity to IL-10+ cells and/or had the active form of STAT3, the transcription downstream of IL-10. Gene signatures and proteins associated to cell survival, Co-inhibitory receptors expression, maintenance of memory T cells, immune metabolism and Tfh frequencies were all modulated by IL-10 and associated with HIV reservoir persistence. In vitro, STAT3 knockout or neutralization of IL-10, reverted all the aforementioned pathways and resulted in 10-fold decay in HIV reservoir. Collectively, these results provide strong evidence for a pivotal role of IL-10 in HIV persistence, and a potential therapeutic strategy for HIV cure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pereira Ribeiro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aid, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dupuy, F. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ngai Chan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hultquist, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deleage, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moysi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulpa, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tamilselvan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomalka, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nekorchuk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busman-Sahay, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bordi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simoneau, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goulet, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marconi, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Routy, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balderas, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Micci, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>J Howell, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>H Barouch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krogan, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrovas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paiardini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deeks, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Estes, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gorman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>J Hazuda, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.26.432955</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[IL-10 driven memory T cell survival and Tfh differentiation promote HIV persistence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.28.433290v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Infusion of CCR5 Gene-Edited T Cells Allows Immune Reconstitution, HIV Reservoir Decay, and Long-Term Virological Control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.28.433290v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) fails to fully restore immune function and is not curative. A single infusion of CCR5 gene-edited autologous CD4+ T cells (SB-728-T) led to sustained increases in CD4+ T cell counts, improved T cell homeostasis, and reduced the estimated size of the HIV reservoir. These outcomes were associated with the expansion and long-term persistence of a novel CCR5 gene-edited CD4+ T memory stem cell (CD45RAintROint TSCM) subset that can replenish the pool of more differentiated memory cells. We showed that novel CD45RAintROint TSCM cells are transcriptionally distinct from the previously described CD45RA+ TSCM and are minimally differentiated cells uncommitted to a specific Th-lineage. Subsequently, we showed in an independent trial that infusion of the SB-728-T cell product resulted in partial control of viral replication upon cessation of ART which was correlated with the frequencies of CCR5 gene-edited TSCM and their TEM progeny. Interestingly, one participant that remained off ART to this date demonstrated long-term maintenance of CCR5 gene-edited cells and increased frequency of polyfunctional HIV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, contributing to low levels of viral load 5 years post-infusion. Consequently, the generation of HIV protected memory CD4+ T cells by CCR5 disruption can contribute toward novel interventions aimed at achieving a sustained ART-free viral remission of HIV disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zeidan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fromentin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fourati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghneim, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benne, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canderan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Procopio, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balderas, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monette, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lalezari, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heffernan, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabbagh, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chomont, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ando, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deeks, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.28.433290</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Infusion of CCR5 Gene-Edited T Cells Allows Immune Reconstitution, HIV Reservoir Decay, and Long-Term Virological Control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434592v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Potent neutralizing nanobodies resist convergent circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 by targeting novel and conserved epitopes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.09.434592v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is an urgent need to develop effective interventions resistant to the evolving variants of SARS-CoV-2. Nanobodies (Nbs) are stable and cost-effective agents that can be delivered by novel aerosolization route to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections efficiently. However, it remains unknown if they possess broadly neutralizing activities against the prevalent circulating strains. We found that potent neutralizing Nbs are highly resistant to the convergent variants of concern that evade a large panel of neutralizing antibodies (Abs) and significantly reduce the activities of convalescent or vaccine-elicited sera. Subsequent determination of 9 high-resolution structures involving 6 potent neutralizing Nbs by cryoelectron microscopy reveals conserved and novel epitopes on virus spike inaccessible to Abs. Systematic structural comparison of neutralizing Abs and Nbs provides critical insights into how Nbs uniquely target the spike to achieve high-affinity and broadly neutralizing activity against the evolving virus. Our study will inform the rational design of novel pan-coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belford, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huet, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conway, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.09.434592</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Potent neutralizing nanobodies resist convergent circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 by targeting novel and conserved epitopes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.13.435273v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PD-1 dependent expansion of Amphregulin+FOXP3+ cells is associated with oral immune dysfunction in HIV patients on therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.13.435273v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Residual systemic inflammation and mucosal immune dysfunction persist in people living with HIV (PLWH) despite treatment with combined anti-retroviral therapy (cART), but the underlying immune mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we report an altered immune landscape involving upregulation of TLR- and inflammasome signaling, localized CD4+ T cell hyperactivation, and counterintuitively, an enrichment of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the oral mucosa of HIV+ patients on therapy. Using human oral tonsil cultures, we found that HIV infection causes an increase in a unique population of FOXP3+ cells expressing PD-1, IFN-{gamma}, Amphiregulin (AREG), and IL-10. These cells persisted even in the presence of the anti-retroviral drug and underwent further expansion driven by TLR-2 ligands and IL-1{beta}. IL-1{beta} also promoted PD-1 upregulation in AKT1 dependent manner. PD-1 stabilized FOXP3 and AREG expression in these cells through a mechanism requiring the activation of Asparaginyl Endopeptidase (AEP). Importantly, these FOXP3+ cells were incapable of suppressing CD4+ T cells in vitro. Concurrently, HIV+ patients harbored higher levels of PD-1, IFN-{gamma}, Amphiregulin (AREG), and IL-10 expressing FOXP3+ cells, which strongly correlated with CD4+ T cell hyperactivation, suggesting an absence of CD4+ T cell regulation in the oral mucosa. Taken together, this study provides insights into a novel mechanism of FOXP3+ cell dysregulation and reveals a critical link in the positive feedback loop of oral mucosal immune activation events in HIV+ patients on therapy.

One Sentence SummaryHIV-induced immune dysfunction in lymphoid and mucosal tissues
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pandiyan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.13.435273</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PD-1 dependent expansion of Amphregulin+FOXP3+ cells is associated with oral immune dysfunction in HIV patients on therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435423v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network medicine links SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 infection to brain microvascular injury and neuroinflammation in dementia-like cognitive impairment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435423v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDementia-like cognitive impairment is an increasingly reported complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the underlying mechanisms responsible for this complication remain unclear. A better understanding of causative processes by which COVID-19 may lead to cognitive impairment is essential for developing preventive interventions.

MethodsIn this study, we conducted a network-based, multimodal genomics comparison of COVID-19 and neurologic complications. We constructed the SARS-CoV-2 virus-host interactome from protein-protein interaction assay and CRISPR-Cas9 based genetic assay results, and compared network-based relationships therein with those of known neurological manifestations using network proximity measures. We also investigated the transcriptomic profiles (including single-cell/nuclei RNA-sequencing) of Alzheimers disease (AD) marker genes from patients infected with COVID-19, as well as the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in the brains of AD patients not infected with SARS-CoV-2.

ResultsWe found significant network-based relationships between COVID-19 and neuroinflammation and brain microvascular injury pathways and processes which are implicated in AD. We also detected aberrant expression of AD biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood of patients with COVID-19. While transcriptomic analyses showed relatively low expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in human brain, neuroinflammatory changes were pronounced. In addition, single-nucleus transcriptomic analyses showed that expression of SARS-CoV-2 host factors (BSG and FURIN) and antiviral defense genes (LY6E, IFITM2, IFITM3, and IFNAR1) was significantly elevated in brain endothelial cells of AD patients and healthy controls relative to neurons and other cell types, suggesting a possible role for brain microvascular injury in COVID-19-mediated cognitive impairment. Notably, individuals with the AD risk allele APOE E4/E4 displayed reduced levels of antiviral defense genes compared to APOE E3/E3 individuals.

ConclusionOur results suggest significant mechanistic overlap between AD and COVID-19, strongly centered on neuroinflammation and microvascular injury. These results help improve our understanding of COVID-19-associated neurological manifestations and provide guidance for future development of preventive or treatment interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leverenz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kallianpur, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jehi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.15.435423</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network medicine links SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 infection to brain microvascular injury and neuroinflammation in dementia-like cognitive impairment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amotosalen is a bacterial multidrug efflux pump substrate potentially affecting its pathogen inactivation activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pathogen inactivation is a strategy to improve the safety of transfusion products. The Cerus Intercept technology makes use of a psoralen compound called amotosalen in combination with UVA light to inactivate bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Psoralens have structural similarity to bacterial multidrug-efflux pump substrates. As these efflux pumps are often overexpressed in multidrug-resistant pathogens and with recent reported outbreaks of transfusion-associated sepsis with Acinetobacter, we tested whether contemporary drug-resistant pathogens might show resistance to amotosalen and other psoralens based on multidrug efflux mechanisms through microbiological, biophysical and molecular modeling analysis. The main efflux systems in Enterobacterales and Acinetobacter baumannii, tripartite RND (resistance-nodulation-cell division) systems which span the inner and outer membranes of Gram-negative pathogens and expel antibiotics from the bacterial cytoplasm into the extracellular space, were specifically examined. We found that amotosalen was an efflux substrate for the TolC-dependent RND efflux pumps in E. coli and the AdeABC efflux pump from Acinetobacter baumannii, and that minimal inhibitory concentrations for contemporary bacterial isolates in vitro approached and exceeded the concentration of amotosalen used in the approved platelet and plasma inactivation procedures. These findings suggest that otherwise safe and effective inactivation methods should be further studied to exclude possible gaps in their ability to inactivate contemporary, multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens.

ImportancePathogen inactivation is a strategy to enhance the safety of transfused blood products. We identify the compound, amotosalen, widely used for pathogen inactivation, as a bacterial multidrug efflux substrate. Specifically, experiments suggest that amotosalen is pumped out of bacteria by the major TolC-dependent RND efflux pumps in E. coli and the AdeABC efflux pump in Acinetobacter baumannii. Such efflux pumps are often overexpressed in multidrug-resistant pathogens. Importantly, the minimal inhibitory concentrations for contemporary multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia spp., and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates approached or exceeded the amotosalen concentration used in approved platelet and plasma inactivation procedures, potentially as a result of efflux pump activity. Although there are important differences in methodology between our experiments and blood product pathogen inactivation, these findings suggest that otherwise safe and effective inactivation methods should be further studied to exclude possible gaps in their ability to inactivate contemporary, multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Green, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zulauf, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Truelson, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiaraviglio, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ware, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flegel, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haspel, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirby, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.15.435562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amotosalen is a bacterial multidrug efflux pump substrate potentially affecting its pathogen inactivation activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435683v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Towards the NMR solution Structure and the Dynamics of the C-terminal Region of APOL1 and its G1, G2 Variants with a Membrane Mimetic 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435683v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Secreted apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) is well known as an innate immune factor, protecting against African trypanosomiasis. The intracellular form has multiple functions, including regulating autophagy, intracellular vesicle trafficking, and ion channel activity. The APOL1 protein (G0) has two common variants (denoted G1 and G2) in the C-terminal region and are associated with a high risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and progression to end-stage kidney disease. Our previous studies using molecular modeling suggested that APOL1 G1 and G2 stabilize an autoinhibited state of the C-terminus, leading to impaired intracellular interactions with SNARE proteins. To characterize the structural consequence of kidney disease-associated APOL1 variants further, we assigned the C-terminal region proteins using 1H, 13C, 15N multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra in solution in the presence of membrane mimetic dodecylphosphocholine micelles. We then derived models for the three-dimensional structure of APOL1-G0, and -G1 and -G2 variant C-terminal regions using the chemical shifts of the main chain nuclei followed by NMR relaxation measurements. The data suggest that changes in the three-dimensional structure of APOL1 C-terminal region induced by kidney disease-associated variants, not least the alteration of key sidechains and their interactions, could disrupt membrane association and the yet to be characterized protein-protein interactions including its binding partners, such as SNARE proteins. Such interactions could underlie the intracellular mechanisms that mediate the pathogenesis of CKD. In the future, one may try to reverse such structural and dynamics changes in the protein by designing agents that may bind and then mitigate APOL1 variant-associated CKD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedor, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.16.435683</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Towards the NMR solution Structure and the Dynamics of the C-terminal Region of APOL1 and its G1, G2 Variants with a Membrane Mimetic]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.25.437077v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of stochasticity on the length and behaviour of ecological transients 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.25.437077v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is a growing recognition that ecological systems can spend extended periods of time far away from an asymptotic state, and that ecological understanding will therefore require a deeper appreciation for how long ecological transients arise. Recent work has defined classes of deterministic mechanisms that can lead to long transients. Given the ubiquity of stochasticity in ecological systems, a similar systematic treatment of transients that includes the influence of stochasticity is important. Stochasticity can of course promote the appearance of transient dynamics by preventing systems from settling permanently near their asymptotic state, but stochasticity also interacts with deterministic features to create qualitatively new dynamics. As such, stochasticity may shorten, extend, or fundamentally change a systems transient dynamics. Here, we describe a general framework that is developing for understanding the range of possible outcomes when random processes impact the dynamics of ecological systems over realistic time scales. We emphasize that we can understand the ways in which stochasticity can either extend or reduce the lifetime of transients by studying the interactions between the stochastic and deterministic processes present, and we summarize both the current state of knowledge and avenues for future advances.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hastings, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuddington, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Francis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morozov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrovskii, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeeman, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.25.437077</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of stochasticity on the length and behaviour of ecological transients]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.437229v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Systematic Profiling of Temperature- and Retinal-Sensitive Rhodopsin Variants by Deep Mutational Scanning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.437229v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Membrane protein variants with diminished conformational stability often exhibit enhanced cellular expression at reduced growth temperatures. The expression of "temperature-sensitive" variants is also typically sensitive to corrector molecules that bind and stabilize the native conformation. In this work, we employ deep mutational scanning to compare the effects of reduced growth temperature and an investigational corrector (9-cis-retinal) on the plasma membrane expression of 700 rhodopsin variants in HEK293T cells. We find that the change in expression at reduced growth temperatures is correlated with the response to retinal among variants bearing mutations within a hydrophobic transmembrane domain (TM2). The most sensitive variants within this helix appear to disrupt a network of hydrogen bonds that stabilizes a native helical kink. By comparison, mutants that alter a polar transmembrane domain (TM7) exhibit weaker responses to temperature and retinal that are poorly correlated. Statistical analyses suggest this insensitivity primarily arises from an abundance of mutations that enhance its membrane integration, stabilize its native conformation, and/ or perturb the retinal binding pocket. Finally, we show that the characteristics of purified temperature- and retinal-sensitive variants suggest that the proteostatic effects of retinal may be manifested during translation and cotranslational folding. Together, our findings elucidate various factors that mediate the sensitivity of genetic variants to temperature and to small molecule correctors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McKee, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuntz, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roushar, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meiler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrzebska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlebach, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.26.437229</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Systematic Profiling of Temperature- and Retinal-Sensitive Rhodopsin Variants by Deep Mutational Scanning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.438151v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Polymer additives to personal protective equipment can inactivate pathogens 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.01.438151v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Face masks have been proven to be medicines best public health tool for preventing transmission of airborne pathogens. However, in situations with continuous exposure, lower quality and "do-it-yourself" face masks cannot provide adequate protection against pathogens, especially when mishandled. In addition, the use of multiple face masks each day places a strain on personal protective equipment (PPE) supply and is not environmentally sustainable. Therefore, there is a significant clinical and commercial need for a reusable, pathogen-inactivating face mask. Herein, we propose adding quaternary poly(dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate), q(PDMAHDM), abbreviated to q(PDM), to existing fabric networks to generate "contact-killing" face masks - effectively turning cotton, polypropylene, and polyester into pathogen resistant materials. It was found that q(PDM)-integrated face masks were able to inactivate both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in liquid culture and aerosolized droplets. Furthermore, q(PDM) was electrospun into homogeneous polymer fibers, which makes the polymer practical for low-cost, scaled-up production.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=120 SRC="FIGDIR/small/438151v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dogan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dabkowski, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.01.438151</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Polymer additives to personal protective equipment can inactivate pathogens]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.08.439029v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Conformational clamping by a membrane ligand activates the EphA2 receptor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.08.439029v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The EphA2 receptor is a promising drug target for cancer treatment, since EphA2 activation can inhibit metastasis and tumor progression. It has been recently described that the TYPE7 peptide activates EphA2 using a novel mechanism that involves binding to the single transmembrane domain of the receptor. TYPE7 is a conditional transmembrane (TM) ligand, which only inserts into membranes at neutral pH in the presence of the TM region of EphA2. However, how membrane interactions can activate EphA2 is not known. We systematically altered the sequence of TYPE7 to identify the binding motif used to activate EphA2. With the resulting six peptides, we performed biophysical and cell migration assays that identified a new potent peptide variant. We also performed a mutational screen that determined the helical interface that mediates dimerization of the TM domain of EphA2 in cells. These results, together with molecular dynamic simulations, allowed to elucidate the molecular mechanism that TYPE7 uses to activate EphA2, where the membrane peptide acts as a molecular clamp that wraps around the TM dimer of the receptor. We propose that this binding mode stabilizes the active conformation of EphA2. Our data, additionally, provide clues into the properties that TM ligands need to have in order to achieve activation of membrane receptors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Westerfield, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alves, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grau, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maxwell, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuster, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Souza, P. C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mingarro, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrera, F. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.08.439029</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Conformational clamping by a membrane ligand activates the EphA2 receptor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.439330v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell Surface Multimeric Assemblies Regulate Canonical and Noncanonical EphA2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.439330v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase mediates ligand-induced canonical signaling associated with tumor suppression and ligand-independent noncanonical signaling implicated in tumor progression. Using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in live cells, we find that unliganded EphA2 receptors pre-assemble into multimers, which is mediated by two symmetric and one asymmetric interfaces in the ectodomain. Upon ligand binding, EphA2 receptors are further assemble into large clusters that also requires the three interfaces. Functionally, disrupting either the symmetric or asymmetric contacts individually blocks the autorecycling of the EphA2 apo receptor. However, only symmetric contact disruption promotes noncanonical signaling and inhibits ligand-induced catalytic activation and endocytosis, which are associated with increased cell migration in vitro and reduced survival in a syngeneic murine glioblastoma model. Our results reveal the pivotal role of EphA2 assembly in dictating canonical vs. noncanonical signaling, and identify the precise molecular interfaces that mediate the formation of the EphA2 signaling clusters.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingerak, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herting, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ge, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toth, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuizon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sossey-Alaoui, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Himanen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hambardzumyan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikolov, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.11.439330</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell Surface Multimeric Assemblies Regulate Canonical and Noncanonical EphA2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.441148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Wnt-dependent activation of ERK mediates repression of chondrocyte fate during calvarial development. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.441148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Wnt signaling regulates cell fate decisions in diverse contexts during development, and loss of Wnt signaling in the cranial mesenchyme results in a robust and binary cell fate switch from cranial bone to ectopic cartilage. The Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and Wnt signaling pathways are activated during calvarial osteoblast cell fate selection. Here, we test the hypothesis that ERK signaling is a mediator of Wnt-dependent cell fate decisions in the cranial mesenchyme. First, we show that loss of Erk1/2 in the cranial mesenchyme results in a diminished domain of osteoblast marker expression and increased expression of cartilage fate markers and ectopic cartilage formation in the frontal bone primordia. Second, we show that mesenchyme Wnt/{beta}-catenin signaling and Wntless are required for ERK activation in calvarial osteoblasts. Third, we demonstrate that Wnt and ERK signaling pathways function together to repress Sox9 expression in mouse cranial mesenchyme. Our results demonstrate a link between the Wnt and ERK signaling pathways in regulating lineage selection in a subset of calvarial cells and provide new insights into Wnt-dependent cell fate decisions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ibarra, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.23.441148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wnt-dependent activation of ERK mediates repression of chondrocyte fate during calvarial development.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.441162v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Redefining the PTEN Promoter: Identification of Two Upstream Transcription Start Regions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.23.441162v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Germline mutation of PTEN is causally observed in Cowden syndrome (CS) and is one of the most common genetic causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the majority of individuals who present with CS-like clinical features are found to be PTEN-mutation negative. Reassessment of PTEN promoter regulation may help explain abnormal PTEN dosage, as only the minimal promoter and coding regions are currently included in diagnostic PTEN mutation analysis. We reanalyzed the architecture of the PTEN promoter using next-generation sequencing datasets. Specifically, run-on sequencing assays identified two additional TSRs at -2052 and -1907 basepairs from the start of PTEN, thus redefining the PTEN promoter and extending the PTEN 5UTR. The upstream TSRs described are active in cancer cell lines and human cancer and normal tissue. Further, these TSRs can produce novel PTEN transcripts due to the introduction of new splice sites. Evaluation of transcription factor binding specific to the upstream TSRs shows overrepresentation of TFs involved in inflammatory processes. Together, these data suggest that potentially clinically relevant promoter variants upstream of the known promoter may be overlooked in indivduals considered PTEN germline mutation-negative and may also explain lack of PTEN expression in sporadic neoplasias without PTEN somatic structural defects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grencewicz, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romigh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thacker, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luse, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.23.441162</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Redefining the PTEN Promoter: Identification of Two Upstream Transcription Start Regions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441326v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sequential single cell transcriptional and protein marker profiling reveals TIGIT as a marker of CD19 CAR-T cell dysfunction in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441326v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T cell) therapy is known to produce durable remissions in the treatment of CD19+ relapsed/refractory B cell malignancies. Nonetheless, a significant portion of patients receiving the therapy experience poor outcomes in the acute response for unknown reasons. Given the decreased expansion and persistence of CD8 CAR-T cells in poor outcome groups, this failure may be attributed to CAR-T cell dysfunction. However, a comparison of the post-infusion transcriptional profiles and phenotypes between CAR-T cells of poor and favorable response groups has not been performed. Here, we employed single cell RNA sequencing and protein surface marker profiling of serial CAR-T cell blood samples from patients with CD19+ relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) to reveal CAR-T cell evolution, identify biomarkers of response, and test for evidence of exhaustion in CAR-T cells of poor responders. At the transcriptional and protein levels, we note the evolution of a majority of CAR-T cells toward a non-proliferative and highly-differentiated state. In poor outcome patients, we observed a more marked enrichment of an exhaustion profile as compared to favorable outcome patients. Lastly, we identified the checkpoint receptor TIGIT (T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains) as a novel prognostic biomarker and potential driver of CAR-T cell exhaustion. Altogether, we provide evidence of CAR-T cell dysfunction marked by TIGIT expression driving poor response in NHL patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jackson, Z. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schauner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dropulic, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caimi, P. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Lima, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reese, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.26.441326</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sequential single cell transcriptional and protein marker profiling reveals TIGIT as a marker of CD19 CAR-T cell dysfunction in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441433v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biogenesis of P-TEFb in CD4+ T cells to reverse HIV latency is mediated by protein kinase C (PKC)-independent signaling pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441433v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The switch between HIV latency and productive transcription is regulated by an auto-feedback mechanism initiated by the viral trans-activator Tat, which functions to recruit the host transcription elongation factor P-TEFb to proviral HIV. A heterodimeric complex of CDK9 and one of three cyclin T subunits, P-TEFb is expressed at vanishingly low levels in resting memory CD4+ T cells and cellular mechanisms controlling its availability are central to regulation of the emergence of HIV from latency. Using a well-characterized primary T-cell model of HIV latency alongside healthy donor memory CD4+ T cells, we characterized specific T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathways that regulate the generation of transcriptionally active P-TEFb, defined as the coordinate expression of cyclin T1 and phospho-Ser175 CDK9. Protein kinase C (PKC) agonists, such as ingenol and prostratin, stimulated active P-TEFb expression and reactivated latent HIV with minimal cytotoxicity, even in the absence of intracellular calcium mobilization with an ionophore. Unexpectedly, inhibition-based experiments demonstrated that PKC agonists and TCR-mobilized diacylglycerol signal through MAP kinases ERK1/2 rather than through PKC to effect the reactivation of both P-TEFb and latent HIV. Single-cell and bulk RNA-seq analyses revealed that of the four known isoforms of the Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor RasGRP, RasGRP1 is by far the predominantly expressed diacylglycerol-dependent isoform in CD4+ T cells. RasGRP1 should therefore mediate the activation of ERK1/2 via Ras-Raf signaling upon TCR co-stimulation or PKC agonist challenge. Combined inhibition of the PI3K-mTORC2-AKT-mTORC1 pathway and the ERK1/2 activator MEK prior to TCR co-stimulation abrogated active P-TEFb expression and substantially suppressed latent HIV reactivation. Therefore, contrary to prevailing models, the coordinate reactivation of P-TEFb and latent HIV in primary T cells following either TCR co-stimulation or PKC agonist challenge is independent of PKC but rather involves two complementary signaling arms of the TCR cascade, namely, RasGRP1-Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK1/2 and PI3K-mTORC2-AKT-mTORC1.

Author SummaryDissecting the cellular pathways through which HIV emerges from latency is a key step in the development of therapeutically viable approaches for latency reversal and eventual clearance of persistent HIV in infected individuals. The essential host transcription elongation factor P-TEFb, a heterodimer of CDK9 kinase and a regulatory cyclin T subunit, is a critical mediator of the trans-activation of latent HIV. Availability of P-TEFb for proviral transcription is highly limited due to a posttranscriptional restriction in cyclin T1 expression and dephosphorylation of CDK9 on its activation loop. Using a well-characterized primary T-cell model of HIV latency alongside healthy donor memory CD4+ T cells, we have now defined the signaling pathways that are essential for the generation of transcriptionally active P-TEFb and, consequently, proviral reactivation. Crucial among these findings is the demonstration that protein kinase C (PKC) agonists signal through off-target activation of RasGRP1-Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK1/2 to effect the reactivation of both P-TEFb and proviral HIV. Understanding these pathways should lead to the discovery of novel highly selective activators of P-TEFb to improve the efficiency of HIV reactivation in the memory T-cell population of virally suppressed individuals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mbonye, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leskov, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valadkhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.26.441433</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biogenesis of P-TEFb in CD4+ T cells to reverse HIV latency is mediated by protein kinase C (PKC)-independent signaling pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.27.441690v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Liver Endothelium Microenvironment Promotes HER3-mediated Cell Survival in KRAS Wild-type and Mutant Colorectal Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.27.441690v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We previously showed that liver endothelial cells (ECs) secreted soluble factors in a paracrine fashion and activated human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3, also known as ERBB3) for promoting colorectal cancer (CRC) growth and chemoresistance. However, RAS proteins play a critical role in receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathways, and KRAS mutations mediate CRC resistance to therapies targeting EGFR, another HER protein. Therefore, the role of KRAS mutation status in EC-induced HER3 activation and CRC survival was investigated as it has therapeutic implications. We used CRC cell lines and patient-derived xenografts harboring KRAS wild-type or mutant genes and demonstrated that liver EC-secreted factors promoted HER3-mediated CRC cell growth independent of KRAS mutation status. Also, blocking HER3 in CRC cells by siRNAs or a HER3 antibody seribantumab blocked EC-induced CRC survival. Our findings highlight the potential of utilizing HER3 targeted therapies for treating patients with mCRC independent of RAS mutational status.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellis, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.27.441690</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Liver Endothelium Microenvironment Promotes HER3-mediated Cell Survival in KRAS Wild-type and Mutant Colorectal Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441927v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of BCG vaccination on donor unrestricted T cells in humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441927v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antigen classes other than proteins can be presented to T cells by near-monomorphic antigen-presenting molecules such as CD1, MR1, and butyrophilin 3A1. We sought to define the roles of donor unrestricted T (DURT) cells, including MR1-reactive MAIT cells, CD1b-reactive glucose monomycolate (GMM)-specific T cells, CD1d-reactive NKT cells, and {gamma}{delta} T cells, in vaccination against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We characterized DURT cells following primary bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination in infants or BCG-revaccination in adults. BCG (re)vaccination did not modulate peripheral blood frequencies, T cell activation or memory profiles of MAIT cells, CD1b-restricted GMM-specific and germline-encoded mycolyl-reactive (GEM) cells or CD1d- restricted NKT cells. By contrast, BCG vaccination was associated with increased frequencies of {gamma}{delta} T cells as well as a novel subset of IFN-{gamma}-expressing CD4+ T cells with a CD26+CD161+TRAV1-2- phenotype in infants. More studies are required to understand the full potential of DURT cells in new TB vaccine strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gela, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadley, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanekom, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoft, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joosten, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ottenhoff, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suliman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moody, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewinsohn, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatherill, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seshadri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemes, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scriba, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.29.441927</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of BCG vaccination on donor unrestricted T cells in humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.442054v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Simple degradable cyclodextrin polyester with chelator-based crosslinker for stent-based drug delivery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.442054v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cyclodextrins are a class of molecules which inclusion complexes with small hydrophobic drugs, and has historically been used to improve solubility and bioavailability of labile drugs in pharmaceutical applications. More recently, polymerized cyclodextrin has been applied in various applications as implantable drug delivery depots and as medical device coatings (e.g. polymeric hernia meshes) due to their ability to sustain and control drug delivery as well as prevent biofouling. Cyclodextrin polymers as coatings for metal medical devices, like screws or stents, is less explored; due to the high mechanical property mismatch between polymers and metals, a polymer coating is liable to delaminate easily, especially during device deformation. Novel methods for facilitating attachment to metal substrates have been explored, but coating longevity is still an issue, and these methods typically require the use of multiple reagents and complex methods. We report here the development and characterization of a cyclodextrin polymer with a chelator-based crosslinker with respect to appearance, chemistry, drug release profiles, erosion, pH-dependence. We found that increasing the crosslinking ratio (crosslinker:cyclodextrin) slowed down degradation and decreased drug loading as well. Drug release of the anti-restenotic drug sirolimus proceeded for over 4 weeks. The ability of the polymer to stably coat metal stents was verified, and the coating procedure is a simple, single step protocol.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Young, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lord, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkhart, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kozawa, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.29.442054</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Simple degradable cyclodextrin polyester with chelator-based crosslinker for stent-based drug delivery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442486v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Longitudinal analysis of diffuse glioma reveals cell state dynamics at recurrence associated with changes in genetics and the microenvironment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442486v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To interrogate the factors driving therapy resistance in diffuse glioma, we collected and analyzed RNA and/or DNA sequencing data from temporally separated tumor pairs of 292 adult patients with IDH-wild-type or IDH-mutant glioma. Tumors recurred in distinct manners that were dependent on IDH mutation status and attributable to changes in histological feature composition, somatic alterations, and microenvironment interactions. Hypermutation and acquired CDKN2A deletions associated with an increase in proliferating stem-like malignant cells at recurrence in both glioma subtypes, reflecting active tumor growth. IDH-wild-type tumors were more invasive at recurrence, and their malignant cells exhibited increased expression of neuronal signaling programs that reflected a possible role for neuronal interactions in promoting glioma progression. Mesenchymal transition was associated with the presence of a specific myeloid cell state defined by unique ligand-receptor interactions with malignant cells. Collectively, our results uncover recurrence-associated changes that could be targetable to shape disease progression following initial diagnosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Varn, F. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wade, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malta, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabedot, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barthel, F. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Datta, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Angelo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gan, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garofano, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huse, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khasraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kocakavuk, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Migliozzi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ormond, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paek, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Meir, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walenkamp, A. M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watts, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesseling, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stead, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poisson, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noushmehr, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iavarone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verhaak, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The GLASS Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.03.442486</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Longitudinal analysis of diffuse glioma reveals cell state dynamics at recurrence associated with changes in genetics and the microenvironment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.06.443041v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Notch-Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Degradation Governs Thymocyte β-Selection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.06.443041v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Signals from the pre-T cell receptor and Notch coordinately instruct {beta}-selection of CD4-CD8- double negative (DN) thymocytes to generate {beta} T cells in the thymus. However, how these signals ensure a high-fidelity proteome and safeguard the clonal diversification of the pre- selection TCR repertoire given the considerable translational activity imposed by {beta}-selection is largely unknown. Here, we identify the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) machinery as a critical proteostasis checkpoint during {beta}-selection. Expression of the SEL1L-HRD1 complex, the most conserved branch of ERAD, is directly regulated by the transcriptional activity of the Notch intracellular domain. Deletion of Sel1l impaired DN3 to DN4 thymocyte transition and severely impaired {beta} T cell development. Mechanistically, Sel1l deficiency induced unresolved ER stress that triggered thymocyte apoptosis through the PERK pathway. Accordingly, genetically inactivating PERK rescued T cell development from Sel1l- deficient thymocytes. Our study reveals a critical developmental signal controlled proteostasis mechanism that enforces T cell development to ensure a healthy adaptive immunity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umphred-Wilson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barton, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lv, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adoro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.06.443041</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Notch-Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Degradation Governs Thymocyte β-Selection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.08.443271v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Knowledge production and translation of science between Academia and Industry: assessing the impact of R&D in India 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.08.443271v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
India is at the 3rd position worldwide in terms of publication of scientific literature. However, in terms of productivity, it has been consistently failing to transform the research knowledge into industrial output. This study compares India with the leading countries to understand its lacuna in terms of R&D policy and outputs. Although scientific publications are regarded as the output of basic research, patent applications serve as a better indicator of the applied research. This paper assesses the important determinants for patent filings of a nation. It also focuses on the role of academia and industry collaboration in R&D and the productivity of a nation. We found that the higher the GERD (total Gross Domestic Expenditure of R&D) and the R&D personnel in a nation, the higher the patent filings of the nation. Moreover, we show that academia-industrial collaboration plays a key role in transforming basic research into real-world applications, as we illustrate the governments role in making necessary policies to make the collaboration successful. This paper highlights the significance of investing in R&D to improve the productivity of a nation, as also the need to design policies to strengthen the applied research environment by fostering solution-centric collaborations between academia and industry.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rao, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenu, N. D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arakeri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nayar, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amaral Mendes, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.08.443271</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Knowledge production and translation of science between Academia and Industry: assessing the impact of R&D in India]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.443511v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intracellular Vesicle Entrapment of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agents Targeted to PSMA Promotes Prolonged Enhancement and Stability In Vivo and In Vitro 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.11.443511v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Previous work has shown that active targeting of nanobubble (NB) ultrasound contrast agents to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) significantly prolongs ultrasound signal enhancement in PSMA-expressing prostate cancer. However, the specific mechanism behind this effect is not well understood. Furthermore, prior studies were carried out using clinical ultrasound scanners in a single imaging plane. Because tumor heterogeneity can have a drastic effect on bubble kinetics and resulting contrast enhancement, a single region of interest in one imaging plane over time may not fully represent the contrast dynamics of the entire tumor. Accordingly, in the current work, we used high-frequency dynamic parametric contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCE-US) imaging to gain a detailed understanding of NB kinetics in prostate tumors in mice. Specifically, we examined the differences in enhancement between the tumor periphery and tumor core in the same imaging plane. We also quantified intact nanobubble retention in the entire tumor volume. To better understand the mechanism behind prolonged tumor enhancement, intracellular retention and the acoustic activity of PSMA-NB were evaluated in cell culture. DCE-US US data suggest that both tumor wash-in and retention of PSMA-NB are delayed due to biomarker interaction and binding. The longer retention of PSMA-NB signal in tumor core supported target-driven bubble extravasation. In vitro studies demonstrated a higher level of internalization and prolonged-acoustic activity of internalized PSMA-NB. GC/MS analysis confirmed gas persistence in the cells after PSMA-NB internalization. The active-targeting of NB results in cellular internalization via receptor-mediated endocytosis, and the location with intracellular vesicles (late-stage endosomes/lysosomes) significantly prolongs gas retention within the cells. These features can enable background-free diagnostic imaging of the target cells/tissues, as well as highly focused ultrasound-modulated therapeutic interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perera, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nittayacharn, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramamurthy, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peiris, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basilion, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.11.443511</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intracellular Vesicle Entrapment of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agents Targeted to PSMA Promotes Prolonged Enhancement and Stability In Vivo and In Vitro]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.13.444044v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The EphB2-MYC Axis is a Major Determinant of Barrett's Pathobiology and a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Esophageal Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.13.444044v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), a highly aggressive cancer with limited therapeutic options, often arises in the backdrop of a molecularly-complex esophageal metaplasia disorder, Barretts Esophagus (BE). Using transcriptomics and systems biology analyses of treatment-naive malignant/pre-malignant biopsy tissues, we found Eph receptor B2 (EphB2) tyrosine kinase signaling to be frequently hyperactivated during early stages of EAC development, and across the BE-EAC continuum. Functional studies revealed EphB2 to be an upstream post-translational regulator of c-MYC activity and as a key molecular dependency in BE/EAC. Single-cell transcriptomics in a porcine esophageal 3D spheroid model showed enhanced EphB2 and MYC activity to be significantly associated with BE-like cell fate. shRNA-based knockdown of EphB2 or small molecule inhibitors of MEK, that modulate MYC protein stability, proved effective in suppressing EAC tumor growth in vivo. These findings point to EphB2-MYC axis as an early promoter of EAC and a novel therapeutic vulnerability in this increasingly-prevalent esophageal malignancy.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEWe identify EphB2 signaling as a potential master regulator and early promoter of esophageal adenocarcinoma, and the proto-oncogene MYC as a key downstream effector of EphB2 function. Targeting the EphB2-MYC axis could be a promising therapeutic strategy for these often refractory and lethal EAC tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Venkitachalam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravillah, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katabathula, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Udhayakumar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Uribe, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogue, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kresak, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaFramboise, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willis, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garman, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blum, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.13.444044</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The EphB2-MYC Axis is a Major Determinant of Barrett's Pathobiology and a Therapeutic Vulnerability in Esophageal Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.444257v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
β-lactamase remodeling and evolution of collateral resistance in hypermutator Pseudomonas aeruginosa upon long-term antibiotic therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.444257v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibiotic resistance development has been studied using approaches that range from laboratory experimental evolution, surveillance and epidemiology, to clinical isolate sequencing. However, evolutionary trajectories depend on the environment in which selection takes place, compelling to address evolutionary analyses in antibiotic-treated patients, to embrace the whole inherent environmental complexities as well as their dynamics over time. Herein, we address the complexity of the bacterial adaptive response to changing antibiotic selective pressures by studying the long-term in-patient evolution of a broad diversity of {beta}-lactam resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clones. By using mutational and ultra-deep amplicon sequencing, we analyzed multiple generations of a P. aeruginosa hypermutator strain persisting for more than 26 years of chronic infection in the airways of a cystic fibrosis (CF) patient. We identified the accumulation of multiple alterations targeting the chromosomally encoded class C {beta}-lactamase (blaPDC), providing structural and functional protein changes that resulted in a continuous enhancement of its catalytic efficiency and high level of cephalosporin resistance. This evolution was linked to the persistent treatment with ceftazidime, which we demonstrate selected for variants with robust catalytic activity against this expanded-spectrum cephalosporin. Surprisingly, "a gain of function" of collateral resistance towards ceftolozane, a more recently introduced cephalosporin that was not prescribed to this patient, was also observed and the biochemical basis of this cross-resistance phenomenon was elucidated. This work unveils the diversity of evolutionary trajectories driven by bacteria in the natural CF environmental setting, towards a multidrug resistant phenotype after years of antibiotic treatment against a formidable pathogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Colque, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomatis, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albarracin Orio, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dotta, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hedemann, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hickman, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer Madsen, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feliziani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moyano, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansen, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vila, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smania, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.14.444257</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[β-lactamase remodeling and evolution of collateral resistance in hypermutator Pseudomonas aeruginosa upon long-term antibiotic therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.444273v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Interplay between meropenem and human serum albumin on expression of carbapenem resistance genes and natural competence in Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.444273v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii A118, a mostly susceptible strain, and AB5075, carbapenem-resistant, were cultured in L broth or L broth with different supplements: 3.5% human serum albumin (HSA), human serum (HS), meropenem, or meropenem plus 3.5% HSA. Natural transformation levels were enhanced in A. baumannii A118 and AB5075 cultured in medium supplemented with 3.5 % HSA. Addition of meropenem plus 3.5% HSA caused synergistic enhancement of natural transformation in A. baumannii A118. Medium containing 3.5% HSA or meropenem enhanced the expression levels of the competence and type IV pilus associated genes. The combination meropenem plus 3.5% HSA produced a synergistic augmentation in the expression levels of many of these genes. The addition of HS, which has a high content of HSA, was also an inducer of these genes. Cultures in medium supplemented with HS or 3.5% HSA also affected resistance genes, which were expressed at higher or lower levels depending on the modification required to enhance resistance. The inducing or repressing activity of these modulators also occurred in three more carbapenem-resistant strains tested. An exception was the A. baumannii AMA16 blaNDM-1 gene, which was repressed in the presence of 3.5% HSA. In conclusion, HSA produces an enhancement of natural transformation and a modification in expression levels of competence genes and antibiotic resistance. Furthermore, when HSA is combined with carbapenems, which may produce stronger cellular stress, the A. baumannii responds increasing the levels of expression of genes involved in natural competence. This process may favor the acquisition of foreign DNA and accelerate evolution.

ImportanceAcinetobacter baumannii causes a variety of nosocomial- and community-infections that are usually resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents. As new strains acquire more resistance genes, these infections become harder to treat, and mortality can reach up to 39%. The high genomic plasticity exhibited by A. baumannii must be the consequence of numerous mechanisms that include acquiring foreign DNA and recombination. Here, we describe the ability of A. baumannii to induce competence genes when exposed to environments that resemble those found in the human body during untreated infection or after administration of carbapenems. In this latter scenario expression of genes related to resistance also modify their expression levels such that resistance is increased. The contributions of this article are two-pronged. First, when A. baumannii is exposed to substances present during infection, it responds, augmenting the ability to capture DNA and accelerate evolution. Second, in those conditions, the bacterium also modifies the expression of resistance genes to increase its resistance levels. In summary, recognition of substances that are naturally (HSA) or artificially (treatment with carbapenems) induces A. baumannii to defend, enhancing resistance and increasing the chances of acquiring new resistance mechanisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pimentel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tuttobene, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subils, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nishimura, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Traglia, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papp-Wallace, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolmasky, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.14.444273</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Interplay between meropenem and human serum albumin on expression of carbapenem resistance genes and natural competence in Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.15.444305v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Caveolin-3 Null Mutation in Family with Barretts Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.15.444305v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveBarretts esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma demonstrate familial aggregation. The goal was to identify a segregating genetic variant in an large family and subsequently localize esophageal gene expression.

MethodsWhole exome sequencing of genomic DNA from affected members of a large family with Barretts esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma was analyzed to identify rare coding variants in genes segregating with disease. Histopathological assessment of archived formalin fixed esophageal human and porcine tissues to localize expression of identified genes in esophagus.

ResultsA segregating nonsense mutation in the gene Caveolin-3 (CAV3) was identified. Esophageal CAV3 localized to myoepithelial cells around esophageal submucosal glands. Histologic examination of a formalin fixed paraffin embedded esophagectomy specimen from an individual carrying the CAV3 null mutation revealed submucosal glands demonstrating atypical acinar metaplasia with absence of myoepithelial cells and no CAV3+ cells.

ConclusionsSubmucosal glands contribute to healing of injured squamous esophagus. We theorize the truncating nonsense CAV3 mutation disrupts normal squamous healing and the organization of submucosal glands, making affected family members susceptible to the proliferation and development of metaplastic columnar Barretts esophagus.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Garman, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Furstenberg, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Falk, G. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willis, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.15.444305</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Caveolin-3 Null Mutation in Family with Barretts Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.444905v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TLR2 on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells promotes late control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.19.444905v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although a role for TLR2 on T cells has been indicated in prior studies, in vivo stimulation of TLR2 on T cells by Mtb and its impact on Mtb infection has not been tested. Furthermore, it is not known if the enhanced susceptibility to Mtb of Tlr2 gene knockout (ko) mice is due to its role in macrophages, on T cells or both. To address TLR2 on T cells, we generated Tlr2fl/flxCd4cre/cre mice, which lack expression of TLR2 on both CD4 and CD8 T cells, to study the in vivo role of TLR2 on T cells after aerosol infection with virulent Mtb. Deletion of TLR2 in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells reduces their ability to be co-stimulated by TLR2 ligands for cytokine production. These include both pro-(IFN-{gamma}, TNF-) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10). Deletion of TLR2 in T cells did not affect early control but did result in decreased late control of Mtb in the lungs of infected mice. This suggests that T cell co-stimulation by mycobacterial TLR2 ligands in vivo is important for control of infection during the chronic phase of Mtb infection in the lung.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reba, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onwuzulike, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagy, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parker, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umphred-Wilson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harding, C. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>E. Rojas, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.19.444905</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TLR2 on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells promotes late control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.445193v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adaptation to chronic ER stress enforces pancreatic β-cell plasticity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.445193v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic {beta}-cells undergo high levels of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress due to their role in insulin secretion. Hence, they require sustainable and efficient adaptive stress responses to cope with the stress. Whether duration and episodes of chronic ER stress directly compromises {beta}-cell identity is largely unknown. We show that under reversible, chronic ER stress, {beta}-cells undergo a distinct transcriptional and translational reprogramming. During reprogramming, expression of master regulators of {beta}-cell function and identity and proinsulin processing is impaired. Upon recovery from stress, {beta}-cells regain their identity, highlighting a high-degree of adaptive {beta}-cell plasticity. Remarkably, when stress episodes exceed a certain threshold, {beta}-cell identity is gradually lost. Single cell RNA-seq analysis of islets from type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients, identifies the severe deregulation of the chronic stress-adaptation program, and reveals novel biomarkers for progression of T1D. Our results suggest {beta}-cell adaptive exhaustion ({beta}EAR) is a significant component of the pathogenesis of T1D.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, B.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alzahrani, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bracey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haataja, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaffer, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laframboise, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arvan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathews, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerling, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaestner, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirosh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.24.445193</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adaptation to chronic ER stress enforces pancreatic β-cell plasticity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.27.445969v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ancestral diversity improves discovery and fine-mapping of genetic loci for anthropometric traits - the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.27.445969v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hispanic/Latinos have been underrepresented in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for anthropometric traits despite notable anthropometric variability with ancestry proportions, and a high burden of growth stunting and overweight/obesity in Hispanic/Latino populations. This address this knowledge gap, we analyzed densely-imputed genetic data in a sample of Hispanic/Latino adults, to identify and fine-map common genetic variants associated with body mass index (BMI), height, and BMI-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio (WHRadjBMI). We conducted a GWAS of 18 studies/consortia as part of the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry (HISLA) Consortium (Stage 1, n=59,769) and validated our findings in 9 additional studies (HISLA Stage 2, n=9,336). We conducted a trans-ethnic GWAS with summary statistics from HISLA Stage 1 and existing consortia of European and African ancestries. In our HISLA Stage 1+2 analyses, we discovered one novel BMI locus, as well two novel BMI signals and another novel height signal, each within established anthropometric loci. In our trans-ethnic meta- analysis, we identified three additional novel BMI loci, one novel height locus, and one novel WHRadjBMI locus. We also identified three secondary signals for BMI, 28 for height, and two for WHRadjBMI. We replicated >60 established anthropometric loci in Hispanic/Latino populations at genome-wide significance--representing up to 30% of previously-reported index SNP anthropometric associations. Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of the three ancestries showed a small-to-moderate impact of uncorrected population stratification on the resulting effect size estimates. Our novel findings demonstrate that future studies may also benefit from leveraging differences in linkage disequilibrium patterns to discover novel loci and additional signals with less residual population stratification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fernandez-Rhodes, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graff, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchanan, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Justice, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Highland, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adhikari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allred, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Below, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradfield, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glover, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lilly, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrestha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pulit, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horimoto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krieger, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guindo-Martinez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Preuss, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smit, R. A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres-Mejia, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acuna-Alonzo, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bedoya, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bortolini, M.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canizales-Quinteros, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Jose, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poletti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothhammer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hakonarson, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adler, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Igo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyengar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicholas, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.27.445969</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ancestral diversity improves discovery and fine-mapping of genetic loci for anthropometric traits - the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.05.447170v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exogenous extracellular matrix proteins decrease cardiac fibroblast activation in stiffening microenvironment through CAPG 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.05.447170v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Controlling fibrosis is an essential part of regenerating the post-ischemic heart. In the post-ischemic heart, fibroblasts differentiate to myofibroblasts that produce collagen-rich matrix to physically stabilize the infarct area. Infarct models in adult mice result in permanent scarring unlike newborn animals which fully regenerate. Decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) hydrogels derived from early-aged hearts have been shown to be a transplantable therapy that preserves heart function and stimulates cardiomyocyte proliferation and vascularization. In this study, we investigate the anti-fibrotic effects of injectable dECM hydrogels in a cardiac explant model in the context of age-associated tissue compliance. Treatments with adult and fetal dECM hydrogels were tested for molecular effects on cardiac fibroblast activation and fibrosis. Altered sensitivity of fibroblasts to the mechanosignaling of the remodeling microenvironment was evaluated by manipulating the native extracellular matrix in explants and also with elastomeric substrates in the presence of dECM hydrogels. The injectable fetal dECM hydrogel treatment decreases fibroblast activation and contractility and lowers the stiffness-mediated increases in fibroblast activation observed in stiffened explants. The anti-fibrotic effect of dECM hydrogel is most observable at highest stiffness. Experiments with primary cells on elastomeric substrates with dECM treatment support this phenomenon. Transcriptome analysis indicated that dECM hydrogels affect cytoskeleton related signaling including Macrophage capping protein (CAPG) and Leupaxin (LPXN). CAPG was down-regulated by the fetal dECM hydrogel. LPXN expression was decreased by stiffening the explants; however, this effect was reversed by dECM hydrogel treatment. Pharmacological disruption of cytoskeleton polymerization lowered fibroblast activation and CAPG levels. Knocking down CAPG expression with siRNA inhibited fibroblast activation and collagen deposition. Collectively, fibroblast activation is dependent on cooperative action of extracellular molecular signals and mechanosignaling by cytoskeletal integrity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierre, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senapati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, P. S.- H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senyo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.05.447170</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exogenous extracellular matrix proteins decrease cardiac fibroblast activation in stiffening microenvironment through CAPG]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.13.448250v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A PMMA bone cement composite that functions as a drug-refillable depot for localized, multi-window chemotherapeutic treatment of bone cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.13.448250v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Standard chemotherapy for primary and secondary bone tumors typically involves systemic administration of chemotherapeutic drugs, such as doxorubicin (DOX). However, non-targeted delivery increases dose requirements, and results in off-target toxicity and suboptimal chemotherapeutic efficacy. When chemotherapy is ineffective, substantial resection of tissue and/or total amputation become necessary - a debilitating outcome for any patient. In this work, we developed a proof-of-concept, non-biodegradable, mechanically robust, and refillable composite system for chemotherapeutic (i.e. DOX) delivery comprised of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement and insoluble polymeric {gamma}-cyclodextrin ({gamma}-CD) microparticles. The porosity and compressive strength of DOX-filled PMMA composites were characterized. DOX filling capacity, elution kinetics, cytotoxicity against primary osteosarcoma and lung cancer cells, and refilling capacity of composites were evaluated. PMMA composites containing up to 15wt% {gamma}-CD microparticles provided consistent, therapeutically-relevant release of DOX with ~100% of the initial DOX released after 100 days. Over the same period, only ~6% of DOX was liberated from PMMA with free DOX. Following prolonged curing, PMMA composites with up to 15wt% {gamma}-CD surpassed compressive strength requirements outlined by international standards for acrylic bone cements. Compared to DOX-filled PMMA, DOX-filled PMMA/{gamma}-CD composites provided long-term release with decreased burst effect, correlating to long-term cytotoxicity against cancer cells. Refillable properties demonstrated by the PMMA composite system may find utility for treating local recurrences, limiting chemoresistance, and altering drug combinations to provide customized treatment regimens. Overall, findings suggest that PMMA composites have the potential to serve as a platform for the delivery of combinatorial chemotherapeutics to treat bone tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cyphert, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanagasegar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Learn, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.13.448250</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A PMMA bone cement composite that functions as a drug-refillable depot for localized, multi-window chemotherapeutic treatment of bone cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.13.448255v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Counterdiabatic control of biophysical processes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.13.448255v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The biochemical reaction networks that regulate living systems are all stochastic to varying degrees. The resulting randomness affects biological outcomes at multiple scales, from the functional states of single proteins in a cell to the evolutionary trajectory of whole populations. Controlling how the distribution of these outcomes changes over time--via external interventions like time-varying concentrations of chemical species--is a complex challenge. In this work, we show how counterdiabatic (CD) driving, first developed to control quantum systems, provides a versatile tool for steering biological processes. We develop a practical graph-theoretic framework for CD driving in discrete-state continuous-time Markov networks. Though CD driving is limited to target trajectories that are instantaneous stationary states, we show how to generalize the approach to allow for non-stationary targets and local control--where only a subset of system states are targeted. The latter is particularly useful for biological implementations where there may be only a small number of available external control knobs, insufficient for global control. We derive simple graphical criteria for when local versus global control is possible. Finally, we illustrate the formalism with global control of a genetic regulatory switch and local control in chaperone-assisted protein folding. The derived control protocols in the chaperone system closely resemble natural control strategies seen in experimental measurements of heat shock response in yeast and E. coli.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ilker, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Güngör, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuznets-Speck, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deffner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.13.448255</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Counterdiabatic control of biophysical processes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.15.447736v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Convergence of case-specific epigenetic alterations identify a confluence of genetic vulnerabilities tied to opioid dependence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.15.447736v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Opioid dependence is a highly heterogeneous disease driven by a variety of genetic and environmental risk factors which have yet to be fully elucidated. We interrogated the effects of opioid dependence on the brain using ChIP-seq to quantify patterns of H3K27 acetylation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortical neurons isolated from 51 opioid-overdose cases and 51 accidental death controls. Among opioid cases, we observed global hypoacetylation and identified 388 putative enhancers consistently depleted for H3K27ac. Machine learning on H3K27ac patterns predicts case-control status with high accuracy. We focus on case-specific regulatory alterations, revealing 81,399 hypoacetylation events, uncovering vast inter-patient heterogeneity. We developed a strategy to decode this heterogeneity based on convergence analysis, which leveraged promoter-capture Hi-C to identify five genes over-burdened by alterations in their regulatory network or "plexus": ASTN2, KCNMA1, DUSP4, GABBR2, ENOX1. These convergent loci are enriched for opioid use disorder risk genes and heritability for generalized anxiety, number of sexual partners, and years of education. Overall, our multi-pronged approach uncovers neurobiological aspects of opioid dependence and captures genetic and environmental factors perpetuating the opioid epidemic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Corradin, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sallari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoang, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassim, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ben Hutta, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuoto, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quach, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovrenert, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hays, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iskhakova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cates, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hancock, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mash, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, E. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akbarian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.15.447736</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Convergence of case-specific epigenetic alterations identify a confluence of genetic vulnerabilities tied to opioid dependence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.448736v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cheater suppression and spite through quorum sensing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.448736v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The evolutionary consequences of quorum sensing in regulating bacterial cooperation are not fully understood. In this study, we reveal unexpected consequences of regulating public good production through quorum sensing on bacterial population dynamics, showing that quorum sensing can be a collectively harmful alternative to unregulated production. We analyze a birth-death model of bacterial population dynamics accounting for public good production and the presence of non-producing cheaters. Our model demonstrates that when demographic noise is a factor, the consequences of controlling public good production according to quorum sensing depend on the cost of public good production and the presence of non-public fitness benefits. When public good production is inexpensive, quorum sensing is a destructive alternative to unconditional production, in terms of the mean population extinction time. When costs are higher, quorum sensing becomes a constructive strategy for the producing strain, both stabilizing cooperation and decreasing the risk of population extinction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moffett, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckford, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.16.448736</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cheater suppression and spite through quorum sensing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.448986v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Disturbed retinoid metabolism upon loss of rlbp1a impairs cone function and leads to subretinal lipid deposits and photoreceptor degeneration in the zebrafish retina 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.448986v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The RLBP1 gene encodes the 36 kDa cellular retinaldehyde binding protein, CRALBP, a soluble retinoid carrier, in the visual cycle of the eyes. Mutations in RLBP1 are associated with recessively inherited clinical phenotypes, including Bothnia dystrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, retinitis punctata albescens, fundus albipunctatus, and Newfoundland rod-cone dystrophy. However, the etiology of these retinal disorders is not well understood. Here, we generated homologous zebrafish models to bridge this knowledge gap. Duplication of the rlbp1 gene in zebrafish and cell-specific expression of the paralogs rlbp1a in the retinal pigment epithelium and rlbp1b in Muller glial cells allowed us to create intrinsically cell type-specific knockout fish lines. Using rlbp1a and rlbp1b single and double mutants, we investigated the pathological effects on visual function. Our analyses revealed that rlbp1a was essential for cone photoreceptor function and chromophore metabolism in the fish eyes. rlbp1a mutant fish displayed reduced chromophore levels and attenuated cone photoreceptor responses to light stimuli. They accumulated 11-cis and all-trans-retinyl esters which displayed as enlarged lipid droplets in the RPE reminiscent of the subretinal yellow-white lesions in patients with RLBP1 mutations. During aging, these fish developed retinal thinning and cone and rod photoreceptor dystrophy. In contrast, rlbp1b mutants did not display impaired vision. The double mutant essentially replicated the phenotype of the rlbp1a single mutant. Together, our study showed that the rlbp1a zebrafish mutant recapitulated many features of human blinding diseases caused by RLBP1 mutations and provided novel insights into the pathways for chromophore regeneration of cone photoreceptors.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=82 SRC="FIGDIR/small/448986v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@bd3de5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2a9420org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@162e7f0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@697ee6_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schlegel, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramkumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Lintig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neuhauss, S. C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.18.448986</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Disturbed retinoid metabolism upon loss of rlbp1a impairs cone function and leads to subretinal lipid deposits and photoreceptor degeneration in the zebrafish retina]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.449031v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detecting global influence of transcription factor interactions on gene expression in lymphoblastoid cells using neural network models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.449031v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundTranscription factor(TF) interactions are known to regulate target gene(TG) expression in eukaryotes via TF regulatory modules(TRMs). Such interactions can be formed due to co-localizing TFs binding proximally to each other in the DNA sequence or over long distances between distally binding TFs via chromatin looping. While the former type of interaction has been characterized extensively, long distance TF interactions are still largely understudied. Furthermore, most prior approaches have focused on characterizing physical TF interactions without accounting for their effects on TG expression regulation. Understanding TRM based TG expression regulation could aid in understanding diseases caused by disruptions to these mechanisms. In this paper, we present a novel neural network based TRM detection approach that consists of using multi-omics TF based regulatory mechanism information to generate features for building non-linear multilayer perceptron TG expression prediction models in the GM12878 immortalized lymphoblastoid cells.

ResultsWe estimated main effects of 149 individual TFs and interaction effects of 48 distinct combinations of TFs forming TRMs based on their influence on TG expression. We identified several well-known and discovered multiple previously uncharacterized TF interactions within our detected set of TRMs. We further characterized the pairwise TRMs using long distance chromatin looping and motif co-occurrence data. We found that nearly all the TFs constituting TRMs detected by our approach interacted via chromatin looping, and that these TFs further interacted with promoters to influence TG expression through one of four possible regulatory configurations.

ConclusionHere, we have provided a framework for detecting TRMs using neural network models containing multi-omics TF based regulatory features. We have also described these TRMs based on their regulatory potential along with presenting evidence for the possibility of TF interactions forming the TRMs occurring via chromatin looping.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.18.449031</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detecting global influence of transcription factor interactions on gene expression in lymphoblastoid cells using neural network models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.07.449660v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Defining the Immune Responses for SARS-CoV-2-Human Macrophage Interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.07.449660v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Host innate immune response follows severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and it is the driver of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) amongst other inflammatory end-organ morbidities. Such life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is heralded by virus-induced activation of mononuclear phagocytes (MPs; monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells). MPs play substantial roles in aberrant immune secretory activities affecting profound systemic inflammation and end organ malfunctions. All follow an abortive viral infection. To elucidate SARS-CoV-2-MP interactions we investigated transcriptomic and proteomic profiles of human monocyte-derived macrophages. While expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, paralleled monocyte-macrophage differentiation it failed to affect productive viral infection. In contrast, simple macrophage viral exposure led to robust pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine expression but attenuated type I interferon (IFN) activity. Both paralleled dysregulation of innate immune signaling pathways specifically those linked to IFN. We conclude that the SARS-CoV-2-infected host mounts a robust innate immune response characterized by a pro-inflammatory storm heralding consequent end-organ tissue damage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mostafa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeapuri, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machhi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shahjin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jingjing, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandey, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acharya, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrareddy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mosley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gendelman, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.07.449660</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Defining the Immune Responses for SARS-CoV-2-Human Macrophage Interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452054v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-nucleus sequencing reveals enriched expression of genetic risk factors sensitises Motor Neurons to degeneration in ALS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.12.452054v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterised by a progressive loss of motor function. The eponymous spinal sclerosis observed at autopsy is the result of the degeneration of extratelencephalic neurons, Betz cells (ETNs, Cortico-Spinal Motor Neuron). It remains unclear why this neuronal subtype is selectively affected. To understand the unique molecular properties that sensitise these cells to ALS, we performed RNA sequencing of 79,169 single nuclei from cortices of patients and controls. In unaffected individuals, we found that expression of ALS risk genes was significantly enriched in THY1+-ETNs and not in other cell types. In patients, these genetic risk factors, as well as genes involved in protein homeostasis and stress responses, were significantly induced in a wide collection of ETNs, but not in neurons with more superficial identities. Examination of oligodendroglial and microglial nuclei revealed patient-specific changes that were at least in part a response to alterations in neurons: downregulation of myelinating genes in oligodendrocytes and upregulation of a reactive state connected to endo-lysosomal pathways in microglia. Our findings suggest that the selective vulnerability of extratelencephalic neurons is partly connected to their intrinsic molecular properties sensitising them to genetics and mechanisms of degeneration.

Graphical abstract and working model

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=138 SRC="FIGDIR/small/452054v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@11237fdorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@119f3ceorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d56c69org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c087e1_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG Our study highlights cell type specific changes in premotor/motor cortex of sporadic ALS patients. Specifically, we identify upregulation of synaptic molecules in excitatory neurons of upper cortical layers, interestingly correlating to hyperexcitability phenotypes seen in patients. Moreover, excitatory neurons of the deeper layers of the cortex, that project to the spinal cord and are most affected by the disease, show higher levels of cellular stresses than other neuronal types. Correspondently, oligodendrocytes transition from a highly myelinating state to a more neuronally engaged state, probably to counteract stressed phenotypes seen in excitatory neurons. At the same time, microglia show a reactive state with specific upregulation of endo-lysosomal pathways.

C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Limone, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mordes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Couto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pietilainen, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burberry, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghosh, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bortolin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobos, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Therrien, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevens, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kadiu, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarroll, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.12.452054</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-nucleus sequencing reveals enriched expression of genetic risk factors sensitises Motor Neurons to degeneration in ALS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.451912v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Burkholderia cenocepacia type VI secretion system effector TecA is a virulence factor during lung infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.451912v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Burkholderia cenocepacia (Bc) is a member of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), a group of bacteria with members responsible for causing lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The most severe outcome of Bcc infection in CF patients is cepacia syndrome, a disease characterized by necrotizing pneumonia with bacteremia and sepsis. Bc is strongly associated with cepacia syndrome making it one of the most virulent members of the Bcc. Mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of Bc in lung infections and cepacia syndrome remain to be uncovered. Bc is primarily an intracellular pathogen, and encodes the type VI secretion system (T6SS) anti-host effector TecA, which is translocated into host cells. TecA is a deamidase that inactivates multiple Rho GTPases, including RhoA. Inactivation of RhoA by TecA triggers assembly of the pyrin inflammasome, leading to secretion of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1{beta} from macrophages. Previous work with the Bc clinical isolate J2315 showed that TecA increases immunopathology during acute lung infection in C57BL/6 mice and suggested that this effector acts as a virulence factor by triggering assembly of the pyrin inflammasome. Here, we extend these results using a second Bc clinical isolate, AU1054, to demonstrate that TecA exacerbates weight loss and lethality during lung infection in C57BL/6 mice and CF mice. Unexpectedly, pyrin was dispensable for TecA virulence activity in both mouse infection models. Our findings establish that TecA is a Bc virulence factor that exacerbates lung inflammation, weight loss, and lethality in a mouse lung infection model.

ImportanceBc is often considered the most virulent species in the Bcc because of its close association with cepacia syndrome in addition to its capacity to cause chronic lung infections in CF patients (Loutet and Valvano 2010). Prior to this study virulence factors of Bc important for causing lethal disease had not been identified in a CF animal model of lung infection. Results of this study describe a CF mouse model and its use in demonstrating that the T6SS effector TecA of Bc exacerbates inflammatory cell recruitment and weight loss and is required for lethality and thus acts as a key virulence factor during lung infection. This model will be important in further studies to better understand TecAs role as a virulence factor and in investigating ways to prevent or treat Bc infections in CF patients. Additionally, TecA may be the founding member of a family of virulence factors in opportunistic pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Loeven, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perault, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotter, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hodges, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartzman, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hampton, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bliska, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.13.451912</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Burkholderia cenocepacia type VI secretion system effector TecA is a virulence factor during lung infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.15.452575v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cellular signaling beyond the Wiener-Kolmogorov limit 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.15.452575v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurate propagation of signals through stochastic biochemical networks involves significant expenditure of cellular resources. The same is true for regulatory mechanisms that suppress fluctuations in biomolecular populations. Wiener-Kolmogorov (WK) optimal noise filter theory, originally developed for engineering problems, has recently emerged as a valuable tool to estimate the maximum performance achievable in such biological systems for a given metabolic cost. However, WK theory has one assumption that potentially limits its applicability: it relies on a linear, continuum description of the reaction dynamics. Despite this, up to now no explicit test of the theory in nonlinear signaling systems with discrete molecular populations has ever seen performance beyond the WK bound. Here we report the first direct evidence the bound being broken. To accomplish this, we develop a theoretical framework for multi-level signaling cascades, including the possibility of feedback interactions between input and output. In the absence of feedback, we introduce an analytical approach that allows us to calculate exact moments of the stationary distribution for a nonlinear system. With feedback, we rely on numerical solutions of the systems master equation. The results show WK violations in two common network motifs: a two-level signaling cascade and a negative feedback loop. However the magnitude of the violation is biologically negligible, particularly in the parameter regime where signaling is most effective. The results demonstrate that while WK theory does not provide strict bounds, its predictions for performance limits are excellent approximations, even for nonlinear systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weisenberger, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hathcock, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.15.452575</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cellular signaling beyond the Wiener-Kolmogorov limit]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.20.452995v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ASXL3 controls cortical neuron fate specification through extrinsic self-renewal pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.20.452995v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During corticogenesis, transcription plasticity is fundamental to the restriction of neural progenitor cell (NPC) multipotency and production of cortical neuron heterogeneity. Human and mouse genetic studies have highlighted the role of Polycomb transcriptional regulation in this process. ASXL3, which encodes a component of the Polycomb repressive deubiquitination (PR-DUB) complex, has been identified as a high confidence autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk gene. Genetic inactivation of Asxl3, in a mouse model that carries a clinically relevant ASXL3 frameshift (Asxl3fs) variant, disrupts lateral expansion of NPCs and delays cortical neuron differentiation. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis implicates Notch signaling, which alters the composition of excitatory neurons and fidelity of cortical layer deposition. Our data provides a new link between extrinsic signaling cues and intrinsic epigenetic regulation that together control the timing of cell fate programs. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis revealed dysregulation of other known ASD risk genes indicating that a convergent developmental pathway is affected. Collectively our work provides important insights about developmental mechanisms that contribute to ASD neuropathology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McGrath, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salvi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Girgla, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KC, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsan, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moccia, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bielas, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.20.452995</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ASXL3 controls cortical neuron fate specification through extrinsic self-renewal pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.26.453809v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regulatory start-stop elements in 5' untranslated regions pervasively modulate translation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.26.453809v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sequence elements within the 5 untranslated region (UTR) of eukaryotic genes, e.g. upstream open reading frames (uORFs), control translation of eukaryotic genes. We describe an element consisting of a start codon immediately followed by a stop codon which is distinct from uORFs in the lack of an elongation step. Start-stops have been described for specific cases, but their widespread impact has been overlooked. Start-stop elements occur in the 5UTR of 1, 417 human genes and are more often occupied with a ribosome than canonical uORFs or control sequences. Start-stops efficiently halt ribosomes without evidence for accelerated RNA turnover, therefore acting as a barrier for the scanning of the small ribosomal subunit and repressing downstream translation. Our results suggest a model by which the ribosome undergoes repeated cycles of termination and partial ribosomal recycling, during which the large subunit detaches, but the 40S subunit with the Met-tRNAiMet remains associated with the mRNA to be rejoined by the 60S subunit. Start-stop elements occur in many transcription factors and signaling genes, and affect cellular fate via different routes. We investigate the start-stop element in several genes, i.e. MORF4L1, SLC39A1, and PSPC1, and in more detail in ATF4.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rendleman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammad, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pressler, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maity, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hronova, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrmannova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allgoewer, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sultanov, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinckley, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szkop, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Topisirovic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larsson, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valasek, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.26.453809</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regulatory start-stop elements in 5' untranslated regions pervasively modulate translation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.30.454350v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using attentive gated neural networks to quantify the impact of non-coding variants on transcription factor binding affinity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.30.454350v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A large proportion of non-coding variants are present within binding sites of transcription factors(TFs), which play a significant role in gene regulation. Thus, deriving the impact of non-coding variants on TF binding is the first step towards unravelling their regulatory roles within their associated disease traits. Most of the modern algorithms used for this purpose are based on convolutional neural network(CNN) architectures. However, these models are incapable of capturing the positional effect of different sub-sequences within the TF binding sites on the binding affinity. In this paper, we utilize the attentive gated neural network(AGNet) architecture to build a set of TF-AGNet models for predicting in vivo TF binding intensities in the GM12878 lymphoblastoid cells. These models have novel layers capable of deriving the impact of relative positions of different DNA sub-sequences, within a binding site, on TF binding affinity, and of extracting the most relevant prediction features. We show that the TF-AGNet models are able to outperform conventional CNNs for predicting continuous values of TF binding affinity. We also train additional TF-AGNet models for 20 TFs using data from 4 other cell-lines to assess the generalizability of their prediction accuracy. Lastly, we show that the TF-AGNet based models more accurately classify non-coding variants that significantly affect TF binding compared to models based on 7 variant annotation tools. This accuracy can be leveraged to derive gene regulatory roles of millions of non-coding variants across the genome to further examine their mechanistic associations with complex disease traits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bai, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.30.454350</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using attentive gated neural networks to quantify the impact of non-coding variants on transcription factor binding affinity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.01.454665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide protein-DNA interaction site mapping using a double strand DNA-specific cytosine deaminase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.01.454665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
DNA-protein interactions (DPIs) are central to such fundamental cellular processes as transcription and chromosome maintenance and organization. The spatiotemporal dynamics of these interactions dictate their functional consequences; therefore, there is great interest in facile methods for defining the sites of DPI within cells. Here, we present a general method for mapping DPI sites in vivo using the double stranded DNA-specific cytosine deaminase toxin DddA. Our approach, which we term DddA-sequencing (3D-seq), entails generating a translational fusion of DddA to a DNA binding protein of interest, inactivating uracil DNA glycosylase, modulating DddA activity via its natural inhibitor protein, and DNA sequencing for genome-wide DPI detection. We successfully applied this method to three Pseudomonas aeruginosa transcription factors that represent divergent protein families and bind variable numbers of chromosomal locations. 3D-seq offers several advantages over existing technologies including ease of implementation and the possibility to measure DPIs at single-cell resolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gallagher, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velazquez, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterson, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charity, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radey, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gebhardt, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Moraes, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penewit, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrade, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaFramboise, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salipante, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Lorenzo, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiggins, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dove, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mougous, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.01.454665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide protein-DNA interaction site mapping using a double strand DNA-specific cytosine deaminase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.02.454353v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of the H3K27 demethylase UTX enhances the epigenetic silencing of HIV proviruses and induces HIV-1 DNA hypermethylation but fails to permanently block HIV reactivation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.02.454353v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
One strategy for a functional cure of HIV-1 is "block and lock", which seeks to permanently suppress the rebound of quiescent HIV-1 by epigenetic silencing. For the HIV LTR, both histone 3 lysine 27 tri-methylation (H3K27me3) and DNA methylation are associated with viral suppression, while H3K4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) is correlated with viral expression. However, H3K27me3 is readily reversed upon activation of T-cells through the T-cell receptor. To suppress latent HIV-1 in a stable fashion, we depleted the expression or inhibited the activity of UTX/KDM6A, the major H3K27 demethylase, and investigated its impact on latent HIV-1 reactivation in T cells. Inhibition of UTX dramatically enhanced H3K27me3 levels at the HIV LTR and were associated with increased DNA methylation. In latently infected cells from patients, GSK-J4, which is a potent dual inhibitor of the H3K27me3/me2-demethylases JMJD3/KDM6B and UTX/KDM6A, effectively suppressed the reactivation of latent HIV-1 and induced DNA methylation at specific sites in the 5LTR of latent HIV-1 by the enhanced recruitment of DNMT3A to HIV-1. Nonetheless, suppression of HIV-1 through epigenetic silencing required the continued treatment with GSK-J4 and was rapidly reversed after removal of the drug. Thus, epigenetic silencing by itself appears to be insufficient to permanently silence HIV-1 proviral transcription.

Author SummaryThe "block and lock" strategy for a functional HIV-1 cure is based on the premise that permanent inactivation of the HIV-1 can be achieved by epigenetic silencing of the proviral DNA. For cellular genes, long-term silencing is achieved during cell differentiation by the induction of specific epigenetic modifications involving histone and DNA methylation. During HIV-1 silencing, histone methylation and DNA methylation are observed, but both sets of modifications can be reversed upon activation of T-cells through the T-cell receptor or potent latency reversing agents. In an attempt to enhance silencing of HIV-1 transcription, we used an inhibitor of H3K27 demethylases to increase H3K27 methylation. This in turn led to enhanced DNA methylation of HIV-1. Unfortunately, although the treatment effectively silenced HIV-1 and prevented viral reactivation, the silencing effects were short-lived and quickly reversed after removal of the drug.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dobrowolski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.02.454353</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of the H3K27 demethylase UTX enhances the epigenetic silencing of HIV proviruses and induces HIV-1 DNA hypermethylation but fails to permanently block HIV reactivation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An Association Test of the Spatial Distribution of Rare Missense Variants within Protein Structures Improves Statistical Power of Sequencing Studies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over 90% of variants are rare, and 50% of them are singletons in the Alzheimers Disease Sequencing Project Whole Exome Sequencing (ADSP WES) data. However, either single variant tests or unit-based tests are limited in the statistical power to detect the association between rare variants and phenotypes. To best utilize rare variants and investigate their biological effect, we exam their association with phenotypes in the context of protein. We developed a protein structure-based approach, POKEMON (Protein Optimized Kernel Evaluation of Missense Nucleotides), which evaluates rare missense variants based on their spatial distribution on the protein rather than allele frequency. The hypothesis behind this is that the three-dimensional spatial distribution of variants within a protein structure provides functional context and improves the power of association tests. POKEMON identified four candidate genes from the ADSP WES data, namely two known Alzheimers disease (AD) genes (TREM2 and SORL) and two novel genes (DUSP18 and CSF1R). For known AD genes, the signal from the spatial cluster is stable even if we exclude known AD risk variants, indicating the presence of additional low frequency risk variants within these genes. DUSP18 has a cluster of variants primarily shared by case subjects around the ligand-binding domain, and this cluster is further validated in a replication dataset with a larger sample size. POKEMON is an open-source tool available at https://github.com/bushlab-genomics/POKEMON.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capra, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheeler, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton-Nelson, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrell, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leung, Y. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunkle, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vardarajan, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schellenberg, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayeux, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrer, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crawford, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.09.455695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An Association Test of the Spatial Distribution of Rare Missense Variants within Protein Structures Improves Statistical Power of Sequencing Studies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.10.455830v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cryo-EM structure of disease-related prion fibrils provides insights into seeding barriers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.10.455830v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
One of the least understood aspects of prion diseases is the structure of infectious prion protein aggregates. Here we report a high-resolution cryo-EM structure of amyloid fibrils formed by human prion protein with Y145Stop mutation that is associated with a familial prion disease. This structural insight allows us not only to explain previous biochemical findings, but also provides direct support for the conformational adaptability model of prion transmissibility barriers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaroniec, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surewicz, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.10.455830</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cryo-EM structure of disease-related prion fibrils provides insights into seeding barriers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.12.456117v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Carbon Fiber Electrodes for Intracellular Recording and Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.12.456117v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To understand neural circuit dynamics, it is critical to manipulate and record from many neurons, ideally at the single neuron level. Traditional recording methods, such as glass microelectrodes, can only control a small number of neurons. More recently, devices with high electrode density have been developed, but few of them can be used for intracellular recording or stimulation in intact nervous systems, rather than on neuronal cultures. Carbon fiber electrodes (CFEs) are 8 micron-diameter electrodes that can be organized into arrays with pitches as low as 80 {micro}m. They have been shown to have good signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and are capable of stable extracellular recording during both acute and chronic implantation in vivo in neural tissue such as rat motor cortex. Given the small fiber size, it is possible that they could be used in arrays for intracellular stimulation. We tested this using the large identified and electrically compact neurons of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica. The cell bodies of neurons in Aplysia range in size from 30 to over 250 {micro}m. We compared the efficacy of CFEs to glass microelectrodes by impaling the same neurons cell body with both electrodes and connecting them to a DC coupled amplifier. We observed that intracellular waveforms were essentially identical, but the amplitude and SNR in the CFE were lower than in the glass microelectrode. CFE arrays could record from 3 to 8 neurons simultaneously for many hours, and many of these recordings were intracellular as shown by recording from the same neuron using a glass microelectrode. Stimulating through CFEs coated with platinum-iridium had stable impedances over many hours. CFEs not within neurons could record local extracellular activity. Despite the lower SNR, the CFEs could record synaptic potentials. Thus, the stability for multi-channel recording and the ability to stimulate and record intracellularly make CFEs a powerful new technology for studying neural circuit dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fritzinger, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richie, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>della Valle, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiland, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chestek, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.12.456117</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Carbon Fiber Electrodes for Intracellular Recording and Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.15.456403v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Polymer microparticles prolong delivery of the 15-PGDH inhibitor SW033291 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.15.456403v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As the prevalence of age-related fibrotic diseases continues to increase, novel antifibrotic therapies are emerging to address clinical needs. However, many novel therapeutics for managing chronic fibrosis are small-molecule drugs that require frequent dosing to attain effective concentrations. While bolus parenteral administrations have become standard clinical practice, an extended delivery platform would achieve steady state concentrations over a longer time period with fewer administrations. This study lays the foundation for the development of a sustained release platform for the delivery of (+)SW033291, a potent, small-molecule inhibitor of the 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) enzyme, which has previously demonstrated efficacy in a murine model of pulmonary fibrosis. Herein, we leverage fine-tuned cyclodextrin microparticles - specifically {beta}-CD microparticles ({beta}-CD MPs) - to extend the delivery of 15-PGDH inhibitor, (+)SW033291, to over one week.

Graphical Abstract

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dogan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohner, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilgore, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.15.456403</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Polymer microparticles prolong delivery of the 15-PGDH inhibitor SW033291]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456448v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Constructing Functional Networks of Phosphorylation Sites Using Co-Phosphorylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456448v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous regulatory mechanism that plays a central role in cellular signaling. According to recent estimates, up to 70% of human proteins can be phosphorylated. Therefore, characterization of phosphorylation dynamics is critical for understanding a broad range of biological and biochemical processes. Technologies based on mass spectrometry are rapidly advancing to meet the needs for high-throughput screening of phosphorylation. These technologies enable untargeted quantification of thousands of phosphorylation sites in a given sample. Many labs are already utilizing these technologies to comprehensively characterize signaling landscapes by examining perturbations with drugs and knockdown approaches, or by assessing diverse phenotypes in cancers, neuro-degerenational diseases, infectious diseases, and normal development. Here, we comprehensively investigate the concept of "co-phosphorylation", defined as the correlated phosphorylation of a pair of phosphosites across various biological states. We integrate nine publicly available phospho-proteomics datasets for various diseases (including breast cancer, ovarian cancer and Alzhemiers disease) and utilize functional data related to sequence, evolutionary histories, kinase annotations, and pathway annotations to investigate the functional relevance of co-phosphorylation. Our results across a broad range of studies consistently show that functionally associated sites tend to exhibit significant positive or negative co-phosphorylation. Specifically, we show that co-phosphorylation can be used to predict with high precision the sites that are on the same pathway or that are targeted by the same kinase. Overall, these results establish co-phosphorylation as a useful resource for analyzing phospho-proteins in a network context, which can help extend our knowledge on cellular signaling and its dysregulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.16.456448</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Constructing Functional Networks of Phosphorylation Sites Using Co-Phosphorylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stimulation of the Dorsal Root Ganglion using an Injectrode 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThe goal of this work was to compare afferent fiber recruitment by dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation using an injectable polymer electrode (Injectrode(R)) and a more traditional cylindrical metal electrode.

ApproachWe exposed the L6 and L7 DRG in four cats via a partial laminectomy or burr hole. We stimulated the DRG using an Injectrode or a stainless steel electrode using biphasic pulses at three different pulse widths (80, 150, 300 s) and pulse amplitudes spanning the range used for clinical DRG stimulation. We recorded antidromic evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) in the sciatic, tibial, and common peroneal nerves using nerve cuffs. We calculated the conduction velocity of the ECAPs and determined the charge-thresholds and recruitment rates for ECAPs from A, A{beta}, and A{delta} fibers. We also performed electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements for both electrode types.

Main ResultsThe ECAP thresholds for the Injectrode did not differ from the stainless steel electrode across all primary afferents (A, A{beta}, A{delta}) and pulse widths; charge-thresholds increased with wider pulse widths. Thresholds for generating ECAPs from A{beta} fibers were 100.0 {+/-} 32.3 nC using the stainless steel electrode, and 90.9 {+/-} 42.9 nC using the Injectrode. The ECAP thresholds from the Injectrode were consistent over several hours of stimulation. The rate of recruitment was similar between the Injectrodes and stainless steel electrode and decreased with wider pulse widths.

SignificanceThe Injectrode can effectively excite primary afferents when used for DRG stimulation within the range of parameters used for clinical DRG stimulation. The Injectrode can be implanted through minimally invasive techniques while achieving similar neural activation to conventional electrodes, making it an excellent candidate for future DRG stimulation and neuroprosthetic applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dalrymple, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ting, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bose, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieuwoudt, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lempka, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franke, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.16.456553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stimulation of the Dorsal Root Ganglion using an Injectrode]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.23.457375v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Converging evidence for differential regulatory control of APOEε4 on African versus European haplotypes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.23.457375v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
INTRODUCTIONThe difference in APOE{varepsilon}4 risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) between different populations is associated with APOE{varepsilon}4 local ancestry (LA). We examined LA SNPs with significant frequency differences between African and European/Japanese APOE{varepsilon}4 haplotypes for areas of differential regulation.

METHODSWe performed two enhancer Massively Parallel Reporter Assay (MPRA) approaches, supplemented with single fragment reporter assays. We utilized Capture C analyses to support interactions with the APOE promoter.

RESULTSThe TOMM40 intron 2 and 3 region showed increased enhancer activity in the European/Japanese versus African LA haplotypes in astrocytes and microglia. This region overlaps with APOE promoter interactions as assessed by Capture C analysis. Single variant analyses pinpoints rs2075650/rs157581, and rs59007384 as functionally different on these haplotypes.

DISCUSSIONBoth differential regulatory function and Capture C data support an intronic region in TOMM40 as contributing to the differential APOE expression between African and European/Japanese LA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nuytemans, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LipkinVasquez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Booven, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oron, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hofmann, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rolati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Serje, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Argenziano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grant, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chesi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.23.457375</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Converging evidence for differential regulatory control of APOEε4 on African versus European haplotypes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.31.458406v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
IL1B loss is associated with increased AR activity in castration-resistant prostate cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.31.458406v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Castration-resistant prostate cancer represents a continuum of phenotypes, including tumors with high levels of androgen receptor (AR) expression and activity and those which do not express AR and rely on alternative pathways for survival. The process by which AR-positive prostate cancer cells and tumors lose AR expression and acquire neuroendocrine features is referred to as neuroendocrine differentiation. Numerous therapies and exposures have been demonstrated to induce neuroendocrine differentiation in vitro, including the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin 1 beta (IL-1{beta}), encoded by the gene IL1B. The purpose of our studies was to determine the relationship between the expression and activity of AR in relationship to IL-1{beta} and IL1B in prostate cancer. We performed analysis of de-identified human clinical data and generated prostate cancer cell lines with overexpression or knockout of IL1B. In primary prostate cancer, higher expression of IL1B predicts longer time to biochemical recurrence. In metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, IL1B expression is decreased and inversely correlates with AR and AR-target gene expression and AR activity, while positively correlating with the neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) score and neuroendocrine marker gene expression. In vitro, we report that AR-positive castration-resistant prostate cancer cells (C4-2B, 22Rv1) secrete IL-1{beta}, and knockout of IL1B in these cells results in increased AR activity, in the presence and absence of dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Importantly, knockout of IL1B prevented AR attrition during androgen-deprivation. Taken together, our studies demonstrate that loss of IL1B in AR-positive castration-resistant prostate cancer cells can increase and maintain AR activity in the absence of androgens, suggesting another potential mechanism of high AR activity in castration-resistant prostate cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Awadallah, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nanda, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohrt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.31.458406</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[IL1B loss is associated with increased AR activity in castration-resistant prostate cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.458565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Horizontal mitochondrial transfer from the microenvironment increases glioblastoma tumorigenicity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.458565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While dynamic microenvironmental interactions drive tumor growth and therapeutic resistance, the underlying direct cell-cell communication mechanisms remain poorly understood. We identified horizontal mitochondrial transfer as a mechanism that enhances tumorigenesis in glioblastoma. This transfer occurs primarily from brain-resident cells, including astrocytes, and can be appreciated in vitro and in vivo through intercellular connections between GBM cells and non-malignant host cells. The acquisition of astrocyte mitochondria drives an overall enhancement of mitochondrial membrane potential and metabolic capacity, while increasing glioblastoma cell self-renewal and tumor-initiating capacity. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that mitochondrial transfer augments the tumorigenic capacity of glioblastoma cells and reveals a previously unknown cell-cell communication mechanism that drives tumor growth.

One-Sentence SummaryMitochondrial transfer from astrocytes to glioblastoma alters metabolic profile and enhances the tumor-initiation capacity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williford, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deshpande, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seder, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hjelmeland, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.01.458565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Horizontal mitochondrial transfer from the microenvironment increases glioblastoma tumorigenicity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.03.458896v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SYS-Mut: Decoding the Functional Significance of Rare Somatic Mutations in Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.03.458896v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Current tailored-therapy efforts in cancer are largely focused on a small number of highly recurrently-mutated driver genes but therapeutic targeting of these oncogenes remains challenging. On the other hand, the vast number of genes mutated infrequently across cancers have received less attention, in part, due to a lack of understanding of their biologic significance. Here we present SYS-Mut, a systems biology platform that can robustly infer the biologic consequences of somatic mutations by integrating routine multi-omic profiles in primary tumors. We established the accuracy of SYS-Mut by recapitulating the functional impact of known driver genes in PanCancer datasets. Subsequent application of SYS-Mut on low-frequency gene mutations in Head and Neck Cancers (HNSC), followed by molecular and pharmacogenetic validation, revealed the lipidogenic network as a novel therapeutic vulnerability in aggressive HNSC. SYS-Mut is thus a robust scalable framework that enables discovery of new targetable avenues in cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khalighi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaFramboise, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.03.458896</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SYS-Mut: Decoding the Functional Significance of Rare Somatic Mutations in Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.03.458906v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Movement-Dependent Electrical Stimulation for Volitional Strengthening of Cortical Connections in Behaving Monkeys 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.03.458906v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Correlated activity of neurons can lead to long-term strengthening or weakening of the connections between them. In addition, the behavioral context, imparted by execution of physical movements or the presence of a reward, can modulate the plasticity induced by Hebbian mechanisms. In the present study, we have combined behavior and induced neuronal correlations to strengthen connections in the motor cortex of adult behaving monkeys. Correlated activity was induced using an electrical-conditioning protocol in which stimuli gated by voluntary movements were used to produce co-activation of neurons at motor-cortical sites involved in those movements. Delivery of movement-dependent stimulation resulted in small increases in the strength of associated cortical connections immediately after conditioning. Remarkably, when paired with further repetition of the movements that gated the conditioning stimuli, there were substantially larger gains in the strength of cortical connections, that occurred in a use-dependent manner, without delivery of additional conditioning stimulation. In the absence of such movements, little change was observed in the strength of motor-cortical connections. Performance of the motor behavior in the absence of conditioning also did not produce any changes in connectivity. Our results show that combining movement-gated stimulation with further natural use of the "conditioned" pathways after stimulation ends can produce use-dependent strengthening of connections in adult primates, highlighting an important role for behavior in cortical plasticity. Our data also provide strong support for combining movement-gated stimulation with use-dependent physical rehabilitation for strengthening connections weakened by a stroke or spinal-cord injury.

Significance StatementWe describe an electrical-conditioning protocol in adult behaving monkeys in which stimuli gated by voluntary movements were used to strengthen connections between motor-cortical neurons involved in those movements. Movement-gated stimulation created a plastic landscape in which repetition of the movements that gated conditioning stimuli produced strengthening of cortical connections, in a use-dependent manner, long after stimulation had ended, a finding that is both novel and unique. In the absence of such behavior, little change was observed in the strength of connections. Similarly, movements alone did not produce any changes in connectivity. Our data highlight a critical role for behavior in plasticity and provide strong support for combining movement-gated stimulation with use-dependent rehabilitation for strengthening connections weakened by injury or disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moorjani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walvekar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fetz, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perlmutter, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.03.458906</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Movement-Dependent Electrical Stimulation for Volitional Strengthening of Cortical Connections in Behaving Monkeys]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.04.458996v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Organization and engagement of a prefrontal-olfactory network during olfactory selective attention 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.04.458996v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sensory perception is profoundly shaped by attention. Attending to an odor strongly regulates if and how a smell is perceived - yet the brain systems involved in this process are unknown. Here we report integration of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a collection of brain regions integral to attention, with the olfactory system in the context of selective attention to odors. First, we used tracing methods to establish the tubular striatum (TuS, also known as the olfactory tubercle) as the primary olfactory region to receive direct mPFC input in rats. Next, we recorded local field potentials from the olfactory bulb (OB), mPFC, and TuS while rats completed an olfactory selective attention task. Gamma power and coupling of gamma oscillations with theta phase were consistently high as rats flexibly switched their attention to odors. Beta and theta synchrony between mPFC and olfactory regions were elevated as rats switched their attention to odors. Finally, we found that sniffing was consistent despite shifting attentional demands, suggesting that the mPFC-OB theta coherence is independent of changes in active sampling. Together, these findings begin to define an olfactory attention network wherein mPFC activity, as well as that within olfactory regions, are coordinated in manners based upon attentional states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cansler, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>in 't Zandt, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlson, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, W. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.04.458996</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Organization and engagement of a prefrontal-olfactory network during olfactory selective attention]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.10.459840v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting Transmembrane (TM) Domain Dimer Structures using Martini 3 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.10.459840v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Determination of the structure and dynamics of transmembrane (TM) regions of single-transmembrane receptors is key to understanding their mechanism of signal transduction across the plasma membrane. Although many studies have been performed on isolated soluble extra- and intracellular receptor domains in aqueous solutions, limited knowledge exists on the lipid embedded TM domain. In this study, we examine the assembly of configurations of receptor TM region dimers using the Martini 3 force field for coarse-grain (CG) molecular dynamics simulations. This recently published version of Martini has new bead types and sizes, which allows more accurate predictions of molecular interactions compared to the previous versions. At first glance our results with Martini 3 simulations show only a reasonable agreement with ab initio predictions using PREDDIMER (for TM domains only), AlphaFold2 Multimer and with available NMR derived structures for TM helix dimers. Specifically, 6 of 11 CG TM structures are similar to the NMR structures (within < 3.5 [A] mainchain RMSD) compared to 10 of 11 and 9 of 11 using PREDDIMER and Alphafold, respectively (7 structures of the latter are within 1.5 [A]) Surprisingly, AlphaFold2 predictions are more comparable with NMR structures when the database of 2001 (mainly composed of soluble proteins) instead of 2020 PDB structures are used. While there are some differences in the conditions used, the CG simulations primarily reveal that alternate configurations of the TM dimers that are sampled, which readily interconvert with a predominant population. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the signalling mechanism of TM receptors are discussed, including opportunities for the development of new pharmaceuticals, some of which are peptide based.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Souza, P. C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.10.459840</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting Transmembrane (TM) Domain Dimer Structures using Martini 3]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461208v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bioactive Hydrogel Microcapsules for Guiding Stem Cell Fate Decisions by Release and Reloading of Growth Factors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461208v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) hold considerable promise as a source of adult cells for treatment of diseases ranging from diabetes to liver failure. Some of the challenges that limit the clinical/translational impact of hPSCs are high cost and difficulty in scaling-up of existing differentiation protocols. In this paper, we sought to address these challenges through the development of bioactive microcapsules. A co-axial flow focusing microfluidic device was used to encapsulate hPSCs in microcapsules comprised of an aqueous core and a hydrogel shell. Importantly, the shell contained heparin moieties for growth factor (GF) binding and release. The aqueous core enabled rapid aggregation of hPSCs into 3D spheroids while the bioactive hydrogel shell was used to load inductive cues driving pluripotency maintenance and endodermal differentiation. Specifically, we demonstrated that one-time 1h long loading of pluripotency signals, fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-{beta}1, into bioactive microcapsules was sufficient to induce and maintain pluripotency of hPSCs over the course of 5 days at levels similar to or better than a standard protocol with soluble GFs. Furthermore, stem cell-carrying microcapsules that previously contained pluripotency signals could be reloaded with an endodermal cue, Nodal, resulting in higher levels of endodermal markers compared to stem cells differentiated in a standard protocol. Overall, bioactive heparin-containing core-shell microcapsules decreased GF usage five-fold while improving stem cell phenotype and are well suited for 3D cultivation of hPSCs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Revzin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gwon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Suarez, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slama, M. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stybayeva, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterson, Q. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.21.461208</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bioactive Hydrogel Microcapsules for Guiding Stem Cell Fate Decisions by Release and Reloading of Growth Factors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461323v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in US hospitals: diversification of circulating lineages and antimicrobial resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461323v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) are a major cause of healthcare-associated infections. CRAb are typically multidrug-resistant and infection is difficult to treat. Despite the urgent threat that CRAb pose, few systematic studies of CRAb clinical and molecular epidemiology have been conducted. The Study Network of Acinetobacter as a Carbapenem-Resistant Pathogen (SNAP) is designed to investigate the clinical characteristics and contemporary population structure of CRAb circulating in US hospital systems using whole genome sequencing (WGS). Analysis of the initial 120 SNAP patients from four US centers revealed that CRAb remain a significant threat to hospitalized patients, affecting the most vulnerable patients and resulting in 24% all-cause 30-day mortality. The majority of currently circulating isolates belonged to ST2Pas, a part of Clonal Complex 2 (CC2), which is the dominant drug-resistant lineage in the United States and Europe. We identified three distinct sub-lineages within CC2, which differed in their antibiotic resistance phenotypes and geographic distribution. Most concerning, colistin resistance (38%) and cefiderocol (10%) resistance were common within CC2 sub-lineage C (CC2C), where the majority of isolates belonged to ST2Pas/ST281Ox. Additionally, we identified a newly emergent lineage, ST499Pas that was the most common non-CC2 lineage in our study and had a more favorable drug susceptibility profile compared to CC2. Our findings suggest a shift within the CRAb population in the US during the past 10 years, and emphasize the importance of real-time surveillance and molecular epidemiology in studying CRAb dissemination and clinical impact.

ImportanceCarbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) constitute a major threat to public health. To elucidate the molecular and clinical epidemiology of CRAb in the US, clinical CRAb isolates were collected along with data on patient characteristics and outcomes and bacterial isolates underwent whole genome sequencing and antibiotic susceptibility phenotyping. Key findings included emergence of new sub-lineages within the globally predominant clonal complex (CC) 2, increased colistin and cefiderocol resistance within one of the CC2 sub-lineages, and the emergence of ST499Pas as a previously unrecognized CRAb lineage in US hospitals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iovleva, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mustapha, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Komarow, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luterbach, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cober, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richter, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rydell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arias, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salata, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satlin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Duin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, V. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Tyne, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.21.461323</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in US hospitals: diversification of circulating lineages and antimicrobial resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.24.461687v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age of diabetes onset in the mutant proinsulin syndrome correlates with mutational impairment of protein foldability and stability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.24.461687v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Diverse heterozygous mutations in the human insulin gene cause a monogenic diabetes mellitus (DM) syndrome due to toxic misfolding of the variant proinsulin. Whereas mutations that add or remove cysteines (thereby leading to an odd number of thiol groups) generally lead to neonatal-onset DM, non-Cys-related mutations can be associated with a broad range of ages of onset. Here, we compare two mutations at a conserved position in the central B-chain -helix: one neonatal in DM onset (ValB18[-&gt;]Gly) and the other with onset delayed until adolescence (AlaB18). The substitutions were introduced within a 49-residue single-chain insulin precursor optimized for folding efficiency (Zaykov, A., et al. ACS Chem. Biol. 9, 683-91 (2014)). Although mutations are each unfavorable, GlyB18 (a) more markedly perturbs DesDi folding efficiency in vitro than does AlaB18 and (b) more severely induces endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in cell-based studies of the respective proinsulin variants. In corresponding two-chain hormone analogs, GlyB18 more markedly perturbs structure, function and thermodynamic stability than does AlaB18. Indeed, the GlyB18-insulin analog forms a molten globule with attenuated -helix content whereas the AlaA18 analog retains a nativelike cooperative structure with reduced free energy of unfolding ({Delta}{Delta}Gu 1.2({+/-}0.2) kcal/mole relative to ValB18 parent). We propose that mutations at B18 variably impede nascent pairing of CysB19 and CysA20 to an extent correlated with perturbed core packing once native disulfide pairing is achieved. Differences in age of disease onset (neonatal or adolescent) reflect relative biophysical perturbations (severe or mild) of an obligatory on-pathway protein folding intermediate.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dhayalan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarosinski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poordian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, N. F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arvan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ismail-Beigi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.24.461687</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age of diabetes onset in the mutant proinsulin syndrome correlates with mutational impairment of protein foldability and stability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.25.461825v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A neural network-based method for exhaustive cell label assignment using single cell RNA-seq data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.25.461825v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The fast-advancing single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technology enables researchers to study the transcriptome of heterogeneous tissues at a single cell level. The initial important step of analyzing scRNA-seq data is usually to accurately annotate cells. The traditional approach of annotating cell types based on unsupervised clustering and marker genes is time-consuming and laborious. Taking advantage of the numerous existing scRNA-seq databases, many supervised label assignment methods have been developed. One feature that many label assignment methods shares is to label cells with low confidence as "unassigned." These unassigned cells can be the result of assignment difficulties due to highly similar cell types or caused by the presence of unknown cell types. However, when unknown cell types are not expected, existing methods still label a considerable number of cells as unassigned, which is not desirable. In this work, we develop a neural network-based cell annotation method called NeuCA (Neural network-based Cell Annotation) for scRNA-seq data obtained from well-studied tissues. NeuCA can utilize the hierarchical structure information of the cell types to improve the annotation accuracy, which is especially helpful when data contain closely correlated cell types. We show that NeuCA can achieve more accurate cell annotation results compared with existing methods. Additionally, the applications on eight real datasets show that NeuCA has stable performance for intra- and inter-study annotation, as well as cross-condition annotation. NeuCA is freely available as an R/Bioconductor package at https://bioconductor.org/packages/NeuCA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.25.461825</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A neural network-based method for exhaustive cell label assignment using single cell RNA-seq data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.27.461995v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct cell adhesion signature defines glioblastoma myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.27.461995v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Increased myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) frequency is associated with worse outcomes and poor therapeutic response in glioblastoma (GBM). Monocytic (m) MDSCs represent the predominant subset in the GBM microenvironment. However, the molecular basis of mMDSC enrichment in the tumor microenvironment compared to granulocytic (g) MDSCs has yet to be determined. Here, we report that mMDSCs and gMDSCs display differences in their tumoraccelerating ability, with mMDSCs driving tumor growth in GBM models. Epigenetic assessments indicate enhanced gene accessibility for cell adhesion programs in mMDSCs and higher cellsurface integrin expression in mouse and human mMDSCs. Integrin {beta}1 blockage abrogated the tumor-promoting phenotype of mMDSCs and altered the immune profile in the tumor microenvironment. These findings suggest that integrin {beta}1 expression underlies the enrichment of mMDSCs in tumors and represents a putative immunotherapy target to attenuate myeloid cell-driven immune suppression in GBM.

SummaryMyeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) drive glioblastoma growth; however, the function of specific MDSCs subsets is unclear. Bayik et al. demonstrate that adhesion programs are enhanced in monocytic MDSCs and responsible for their GBM-promoting function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovrenert, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kay, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammadi, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veglia, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.27.461995</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct cell adhesion signature defines glioblastoma myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.29.462482v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Augmented Transcutaneous Stimulation Using an Injectable Electrode 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.29.462482v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Minimally invasive neuromodulation technologies seek to marry the neural selectivity of implantable devices with the low-cost and non-invasive nature of transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES). The Injectrode(R) is a needle-delivered electrode that is injected onto neural structures under image guidance. Power is then transcutaneously delivered to the Injectrode using surface electrodes. The Injectrode serves as a low-impedance conduit to guide current to the deep on-target nerve, reducing activation thresholds by an order of magnitude compared to using only surface stimulation electrodes. To minimize off-target recruitment of cutaneous fibers, the energy transfer efficiency from the surface electrodes to the Injectrode must be optimized.

TES energy is transferred to the Injectrode through both capacitive and resistive mechanisms. Electrostatic finite element models generally used in TES research consider only the resistive means of energy transfer by defining tissue conductivities. Here, we present an electroquasistatic model, taking into consideration both the conductivity and permittivity of tissue, to understand transcutaneous power delivery to the Injectrode. The model was validated with measurements taken from (n=4) swine cadavers. We used the validated model to investigate system and anatomic parameters that influence the coupling efficiency of the Injectrode energy delivery system. Our work suggests the relevance of electroquasistatic models to account for capacitive charge transfer mechanisms when studying TES, particularly when high-frequency voltage components are present, such as those used for voltage-controlled pulses and sinusoidal nerve blocks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Verma, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mudge, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franke, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalrymple, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lempka, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.29.462482</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Augmented Transcutaneous Stimulation Using an Injectable Electrode]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.03.462590v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gut Microbiome Signatures Linked to HIV-1 Reservoir Size and Viremia Control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.03.462590v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe potential role of the gut microbiome as a predictor of immune-mediated HIV-1 control in the absence of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is still unknown. In the BCN02 clinical trial, which combined the MVA.HIVconsv immunogen with the latency-reversing agent romidepsin in early-ART treated HIV-1 infected individuals, 23% (3/13) of participants showed sustained low-levels of plasma viremia during 32 weeks of a monitored ART pause (MAP). Here, we present a multi-omics analysis to identify compositional and functional gut microbiome patterns associated with HIV-1 control in the BCN02 trial.

ResultsViremic controllers during the MAP (controllers) exhibited higher Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio and lower microbial gene richness before vaccination and throughout the study intervention when compared to non-controllers. Longitudinal assessment indicated that the gut microbiome of controllers was enriched in pro-inflammatory bacteria and depleted in butyrate-producing bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Functional profiling also showed that metabolic pathways, including methanogenesis and carbohydrate biosynthesis, were significantly decreased in controllers. Fecal metaproteome analyses confirmed that baseline functional differences were mainly driven by Clostridiales. Participants with high baseline Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio had increased pre-existing immune activation-related transcripts. The Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio as well as host immune-activation signatures inversely correlated with HIV-1 reservoir size.

ConclusionsThis proof-of-concept study suggests the Bacteroidales/Clostridiales ratio as a novel gut microbiome signature associated with HIV-1 reservoir size and immune-mediated viral control after ART interruption.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Borgognone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noguera-Julian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oriol, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noël-Romas, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruiz-Riol, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guillen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parera, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casadella, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duran, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puertas, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catala-Moll, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Leon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knodel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birse, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manzardo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miro, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clotet, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Picado, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molto, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mothe, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgener, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brander, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paredes, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.03.462590</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gut Microbiome Signatures Linked to HIV-1 Reservoir Size and Viremia Control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.07.463234v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput Activity Assay for Screening Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 Mac1 Macrodomain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.07.463234v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Macrodomains are a class of conserved ADP-ribosylhydrolases expressed by viruses of pandemic concern, including coronaviruses and alphaviruses. Viral macrodomains are critical for replication and virus-induced pathogenesis; therefore, these enzymes are a promising target for antiviral therapy. However, no potent or selective viral macrodomain inhibitors currently exist, in part due to the lack of a high-throughput assay for this class of enzymes. Here, we developed a high-throughput ADP-ribosylhydrolase assay using the SARS-CoV-2 macrodomain Mac1. We performed a pilot screen which identified dasatinib and dihydralazine as ADP-ribosylhydrolase inhibitors. Importantly, dasatinib does not inhibit MacroD2, the closest Mac1 homolog in humans. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of identifying selective inhibitors based on ADP-ribosylhydrolase activity, paving the way for screening large compound libraries to identify improved macrodomain inhibitors and explore their potential as antiviral therapies for SARS-CoV-2 and future viral threats.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dasovich, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McPherson, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayabalan, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busa, V. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, S.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redinger, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsukamoto, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slusher, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leung, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.07.463234</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput Activity Assay for Screening Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 Mac1 Macrodomain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.463782v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Terminal selectors organize postmitotic chromatin accessibility for acquisition of serotonergic identity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.463782v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maturation of transcriptomes encoding unique neuronal identities requires selective accessibility of transcription factors to cis-regulatory sequences in nucleosome- embedded postmitotic chromatin. Yet the mechanisms controlling postmitotic neuronal chromatin accessibility are poorly understood. We used ATAC-seq, ChIPmentation, and single-cell analyses to show that heterogeneous chromatin landscapes are established early and reveal the regulatory programs driving subtype identities of Pet1-lineage neurons that generate serotonin (5-HT) neurons. Distal enhancer accessibility is highly dynamic as Pet1 neurons mature, suggesting the existence of regulatory factors that reorganize postmitotic neuronal chromatin. We find that Pet1 and Lmx1b control chromatin accessibility to select Pet1-lineage specific enhancers for 5-HT neurotransmission and synaptogenesis. Additionally, these factors are required to maintain chromatin accessibility during early maturation suggesting that postmitotic neuronal open chromatin is unstable and requires continuous regulatory input. Together our findings reveal postmitotic transcription factors that reorganize accessible chromatin for neuron specialization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spencer, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deneris, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.13.463782</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Terminal selectors organize postmitotic chromatin accessibility for acquisition of serotonergic identity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.19.464977v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vitro experiments and kinetic models of pollen hydration show that MSL8 is not a simple tension-gated osmoregulator 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.19.464977v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pollen, a neighbor-less cell that contains the male gametes, undergoes multiple mechanical challenges during plant sexual reproduction, including desiccation and rehydration. It was previously showed that the pollen-specific mechanosensitive ion channel MscS-Like (MSL)8 is essential for pollen survival during hydration and proposed that it functions as a tension-gated osmoregulator. Here we test this hypothesis with a combination of mathematical modeling and laboratory experiments. Time-lapse imaging revealed that wild-type pollen grains swell and then stabilize in volume rapidly during hydration. msl8 mutant pollen grains, however, continue to expand and eventually burst. We found that a mathematical model wherein MSL8 acts as a simple tension-gated osmoregulator does not replicate this behavior. A better fit was obtained from variations of the model wherein MSL8 inactivation is independent of its membrane tension gating threshold or MSL8 strengthens the cell wall without osmotic regulation. Experimental and computational testing of several perturbations, including hydration in an osmolyte-rich solution, hyper-desiccation of the grains, and MSL8-YFP overexpression, indicated that the Cell Wall Strengthening Model best simulated experimental responses. Finally, expression of a non-conducting MSL8 variant did not complement the msl8 overexpansion phenotype. These data indicate that, contrary to our hypothesis and to known MS ion channel function in single-cell systems, MSL8 does not act as a simple membrane tension-gated osmoregulator. Instead, they support a model wherein ion flux through MSL8 is required to alter pollen cell wall properties. These results demonstrate the utility of pollen as a cellular-scale model system and illustrate how mathematical models can correct intuitive hypotheses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miller, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strychalski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nickaeen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlsson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haswell, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.19.464977</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vitro experiments and kinetic models of pollen hydration show that MSL8 is not a simple tension-gated osmoregulator]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chemical inhibition of pathological reactive astrocytes promotes neural protection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Disease, injury, and aging induce reactive astrocyte states with pathological functions1-4. In neurodegenerative diseases, inflammatory reactive astrocytes are abundant and contribute to progressive cell loss. Modulating the state or function of these reactive astrocytes thereby represents an attractive therapeutic goal5,6. Leveraging a cellular phenotypic screening platform, we show that chemical inhibitors of HDAC3 effectively block pathological astrocyte reactivity. Inhibition of HDAC3 reduces molecular and functional features of reactive astrocytes in vitro including inflammatory gene expression, cytokine secretion, and antigen presentation. Transcriptional and chromatin mapping studies show that HDAC3 inhibition mediates a switch between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory states, which disarms the pathological functions of reactive astrocytes. Systemic administration of a blood-brain barrier penetrant chemical inhibitor of HDAC3, RGFP966, blocks reactive astrocyte formation and promotes axonal protection in vivo. Collectively, these results establish a platform for discovering chemical modulators of reactive astrocyte states, inform the mechanisms controlling astrocyte reactivity, and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of modulating astrocyte reactivity for neurodegenerative diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Clayton, B. L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristell, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allan, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garrison, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maeno-Hikichi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sturno, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shick, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.03.467083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chemical inhibition of pathological reactive astrocytes promotes neural protection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.05.467392v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiplex Embedding of Biological Networks Using Topological Similarity of Different Layers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.05.467392v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Network embedding techniques, which provide low dimensional representations of the nodes in a network, have been commonly applied to many machine learning problems in computational biology. In most of these applications, multiple networks (e.g., different types of interactions/associations or semantically identical networks that come from different sources) are available. Multiplex network embedding aims to derive strength from these data sources by integrating multiple networks with a common set of nodes. Existing approaches to this problem treat all layers of the multiplex network equally while performing integration, ignoring the differences in the topology and sparsity patterns of different networks. Here, we formulate an optimization problem that accounts for inner-network smoothness, intra-network smoothness, and topological similarity of networks to compute diffusion states for each network. To quantify the topological similarity of pairs of networks, we use Gromov-Wasserteins discrepancy. Finally, we integrate the resulting diffusion states and apply dimensionality reduction (singular value decomposition after log-transformation) to compute node embeddings. Our experimental results in the context of drug repositioning and drug-target prediction show that the embeddings computed by the resulting algorithm, HO_SCPLOWATTUSHAC_SCPLOW, consistently improve predictive accuracy over algorithms that do not take into account the topological similarity of different networks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coskun, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.05.467392</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiplex Embedding of Biological Networks Using Topological Similarity of Different Layers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.09.467343v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fascicles split or merge every ~560 microns within the human cervical vagus nerve 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.09.467343v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is FDA approved for stroke rehabilitation, epilepsy, and depression; however, the vagus functional anatomy underlying the implant is poorly understood. We used microCT to quantify fascicular structure and neuroanatomy within human cervical vagus nerves. Fascicles split or merged every ~560 m (17.8 {+/-} 6.1 events/cm). The high degree of fascicular splitting and merging in humans may explain the clinical heterogeneity in patient responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Upadhye, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolluru, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Druschel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al Lababidi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menendez, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buyukcelik, O. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tatsuoka, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grill, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelot, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gustafson, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.09.467343</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fascicles split or merge every ~560 microns within the human cervical vagus nerve]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.465186v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Abolishing the prelamin A ZMPSTE24 cleavage site leads to progeroid phenotypes with near-normal longevity in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.465186v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Prelamin A is a farnesylated precursor of lamin A, a nuclear lamina protein. Accumulation of the farnesylated prelamin A variant progerin, with an internal deletion including its processing site, causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Loss of function mutations in ZMPSTE24, which encodes the prelamin A processing enzyme, lead to accumulation of full-length farnesylated prelamin A and cause related progeroid disorders. Some data suggest that prelamin A also accumulates with physiological aging. Zmpste24-/- mice die young, at ~20 weeks. Because ZMPSTE24 has functions in addition to prelamin A processing, we generated a mouse model to examine effects solely due to the presence of permanently farnesylated prelamin A. These mice have an L648R amino acid substitution in prelamin A that blocks ZMPSTE24-catalyzed processing to lamin A. The LmnaL648R/L648R mice express only prelamin and no mature protein. Notably, nearly all survive to 65-70 weeks, with approximately 40% of male and 75% of female LmnaL648R/L648R mice having near-normal lifespans of 90 weeks (almost 2 years). Starting at ~10 weeks of age, LmnaL648R/L648R mice of both sexes have lower body masses and body fat than controls. By ~20-30 weeks of age, they exhibit detectable cranial, mandibular and dental defects similar to those observed in Zmpste24-/- mice, and have decreased vertebral bone density compared to age- and sex-matched controls. Cultured embryonic fibroblasts from LmnaL648R/L648R mice have aberrant nuclear morphology that is reversible by treatment with a protein farnesyltransferase inhibitor. These novel mice provide a robust model to study the effects of farnesylated prelamin A during physiological aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shiladardi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Odinammadu, K. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maruyama, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damoci, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spear, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michaelis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Worman, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.11.465186</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Abolishing the prelamin A ZMPSTE24 cleavage site leads to progeroid phenotypes with near-normal longevity in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.16.468784v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Nerve Growth Factor IB-like Receptor Nurr1 (NR4A2) recruits CoREST transcription repressor complexes to silence HIV following proviral reactivation in microglial cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.16.468784v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infection of microglial cells in the brain leads to chronic neuroinflammation, which is antecedent to the development of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) in the majority of patients. Productively HIV infected microglia release multiple neurotoxins including proinflammatory cytokines and HIV proteins such as envelope glycoprotein (gp120) and transactivator of transcription (Tat). However, powerful counteracting silencing mechanisms in microglial cells result in the rapid shutdown of HIV expression to limit neuronal damage. Here we investigated whether the Nerve Growth Factor IB-like nuclear receptor Nurr1 (NR4A2), which is a repressor of inflammation in the brain, acts to directly restrict HIV expression. HIV silencing was substantially enhanced by Nurr1 agonists in both immortalized human microglial cells (h{micro}glia) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived human microglial cells (iMG). Overexpression of Nurr1 led to viral suppression, whereas by contrast, knock down (KD) of endogenous Nurr1 blocked HIV silencing. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays showed that Nurr1 mediates recruitment of the CoREST/HDAC1/G9a/EZH2 transcription repressor complex to HIV promoter resulting in epigenetic silencing of active HIV. Transcriptomic studies demonstrated that in addition to repressing HIV transcription, Nurr1 also downregulated numerous cellular genes involved in inflammation, cell cycle, and metabolism, thus promoting HIV latency and microglial homoeostasis. Thus, Nurr1 plays a pivotal role in modulating the cycles of proviral reactivation by cytokines and potentiating the proviral transcriptional shutdown. These data highlight the therapeutic potential of Nurr1 agonists for inducing HIV silencing and microglial homeostasis and amelioration of the neuroinflammation associated with HAND.

AUTHOR SUMMARYHIV enters the brain almost immediately after infection where it infects perivascular macrophages, microglia and, to a less extent, astrocytes. In previous work using an immortalized human microglial cell model, we observed that integrated HIV constantly underwent cycles of reactivation and subsequent silencing. In the present study, we found that the Nurr1 nuclear receptor is a key mediator of HIV silencing. The functional activation of Nurr1 by specific agonists, or the over expression of Nurr1, resulted in rapid silencing of activated HIV in microglial cells. Global gene expression analysis confirmed that Nurr1 not only repressed HIV expression but also regulated numerous genes involved in microglial homeostasis and inflammation. Thus, Nurr1 is pivotal for HIV silencing and repression of inflammation in the brain and is a promising therapeutic target for treatment of HAND.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ye, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez-Carbonell, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valadkhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leskov, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Mesa, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sreeram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.16.468784</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Nerve Growth Factor IB-like Receptor Nurr1 (NR4A2) recruits CoREST transcription repressor complexes to silence HIV following proviral reactivation in microglial cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.18.469189v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Algorithmic Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification for Hodgkin-Huxley Neuron Models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.18.469189v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Experimental data-based parameter search for Hodgkin-Huxley-style (HH) neuron models is a major challenge for neuroscientists and neuroengineers. Current search strategies are often computationally expensive, are slow to converge, have difficulty handling nonlinearities or multimodalities in the objective function, or require good initial parameter guesses. Most important, many existing approaches lack quantification of uncertainties in parameter estimates even though such uncertainties are of immense biological significance. We propose a novel method for parameter inference and uncertainty quantification in a Bayesian framework using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. This approach incorporates prior knowledge about model parameters (as probability distributions) and aims to map the prior to a posterior distribution of parameters informed by both the model and the data. Furthermore, using the adaptive parallel tempering strategy for MCMC, we tackle the highly nonlinear, noisy, and multimodal loss function, which depends on the HH neuron model. We tested the robustness of our approach using the voltage trace data generated from a 9-parameter HH model using five levels of injected currents (0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 nA). Each test consisted of running the ground truth with its respective currents to estimate the model parameters. To simulate the condition for fitting a frequency-current (F-I) curve, we also introduced an aggregate objective that runs MCMC against all five levels simultaneously. We found that MCMC was able to produce many solutions with acceptable loss values (e.g., for 0.0 nA, 889 solutions were within 0.5% of the best solution and 1,595 solutions within 1% of the best solution). Thus, an adaptive parallel tempering MCMC search provides a "landscape" of the possible parameter sets with acceptable loss values in a tractable manner. Our approach is able to obtain an intelligently sampled global view of the solution distributions within a search range in a single computation. Additionally, the advantage of uncertainty quantification allows for exploration of further solution spaces, which can serve to better inform future experiments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinha, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velasco, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Idumah, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powers, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heckman, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chardon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.18.469189</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Algorithmic Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification for Hodgkin-Huxley Neuron Models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.23.469671v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inferring kinetic rate constants from single-molecule FRET trajectories - a blind benchmark of kinetic analysis tools 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.23.469671v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Single-molecule FRET (smFRET) is a versatile technique to study the dynamics and function of biomolecules since it makes nanoscale movements detectable as fluorescence signals. The powerful ability to infer quantitative kinetic information from smFRET data is, however, complicated by experimental limitations. Diverse analysis tools have been developed to overcome these hurdles but a systematic comparison is lacking. Here, we report the results of a blind benchmark study assessing eleven analysis tools used to infer kinetic rate constants from smFRET trajectories. We tested them against simulated and experimental data containing the most prominent difficulties encountered in analyzing smFRET experiments: different noise levels, varied model complexity, non-equilibrium dynamics, and kinetic heterogeneity. Our results highlight the current strengths and limitations in inferring kinetic information from smFRET trajectories. In addition, we formulate concrete recommendations and identify key targets for future developments, aimed to advance our understanding of biomolecular dynamics through quantitative experiment-derived models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Götz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barth, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bohr, S. S.- R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Börner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cordes, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erie, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gebhardt, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadzic, M. C. A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton, G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzakis, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hugel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamb, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Lannoy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunukara, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Ridder, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanabria, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schimpf, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seidel, C. A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigel, R. K. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sletfjerding, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomsen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vollmar, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanninger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weninger, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmid, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.23.469671</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inferring kinetic rate constants from single-molecule FRET trajectories - a blind benchmark of kinetic analysis tools]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.07.470215v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A multi-layer functional genomic analysis to understand noncoding genetic variation in lipids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.07.470215v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major challenge of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is to translate phenotypic associations into biological insights. Here, we integrate a large GWAS on blood lipids involving 1.6 million individuals from five ancestries with a wide array of functional genomic datasets to discover regulatory mechanisms underlying lipid associations. We first prioritize lipid-associated genes with expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) colocalizations, and then add chromatin interaction data to narrow the search for functional genes. Polygenic enrichment analysis across 697 annotations from a host of tissues and cell types confirms the central role of the liver in lipid levels, and highlights the selective enrichment of adipose-specific chromatin marks in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. Overlapping transcription factor (TF) binding sites with lipid-associated loci identifies TFs relevant in lipid biology. In addition, we present an integrative framework to prioritize causal variants at GWAS loci, producing a comprehensive list of candidate causal genes and variants with multiple layers of functional evidence. Two prioritized genes, CREBRF and RRBP1, show convergent evidence across functional datasets supporting their roles in lipid biology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramdas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Judd, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanoni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surakka, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clarke, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chesi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wells, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatti, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vedantam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkler, T. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Locke, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marouli, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zajac, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, K.-H. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ntalla, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hui, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klarin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hilliard, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thorleifsson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helgadottir, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gudbjartsson, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holm, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olafsson, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akiyama, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sakaue, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Terao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanai, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brumpton, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rasheed, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Havulinna, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veturi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pacheco, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenthal, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingren, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kullo, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narita, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takayama,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.07.470215</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A multi-layer functional genomic analysis to understand noncoding genetic variation in lipids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.22.473889v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ureter single-cell and spatial mapping reveal cell types, architecture, and signaling networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.22.473889v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tissue engineering offers a promising treatment strategy for ureteral strictures, but its success requires an in-depth understanding of the architecture, cellular heterogeneity, and signaling pathways underlying tissue regeneration. Here we define and spatially map cell populations within the human ureter using single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial gene expression, and immunofluorescence approaches. We focused on the stromal and urothelial cell populations to enumerate distinct cell types composing the human ureter and inferred potential cell-cell communication networks underpinning the bi-directional crosstalk between these compartments. Furthermore, we analyzed and experimentally validated the importance of Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway in adult stem cell maintenance. The SHH-expressing basal cells supported organoid generation in vitro and accurately predicted the differentiation trajectory from basal stem cells to terminally differentiated umbrella cells. Our results highlight essential processes involved in adult ureter tissue homeostasis and provide a blueprint for guiding ureter tissue engineering.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ting, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fink, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sona, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desprez, P.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eltemamy, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wee, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolkov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Min, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haber, G.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wessely, O. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.22.473889</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ureter single-cell and spatial mapping reveal cell types, architecture, and signaling networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.22.473909v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure of anchorless RML prion reveals motif variation between strains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.22.473909v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Little is known about the structural basis of prion strains. Here we provide a high (3.0 [A]) resolution cryo-electron microscopy-based structure of brain-derived fibrils of the mouse anchorless RML scrapie strain which, like the recently determined hamster 263K strain, has a parallel in-register {beta}-sheet-based core. However, detailed comparisons reveal that variations in shared structural motifs provide a basis for prion strain determination.

One-sentence summaryCryo-electron microscopy reveals a near-atomic structure of an infectious, brain-derived murine prion fibril and strain differences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Standke, H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Artikis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughson, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manca, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, O. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baron, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caughey, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraus, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.22.473909</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure of anchorless RML prion reveals motif variation between strains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.23.474020v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Two distinct binding modes provide the RNA binding protein RbFox with extraordinary sequence specificity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.23.474020v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The specificity of RNA-binding proteins for their target sequences varies considerably. Yet, it is not understood how certain proteins achieve markedly higher sequence specificity than most others. Here we show that the RNA Recognition Motif of RbFox accomplishes extraordinary sequence specificity by employing functionally and structurally distinct binding modes. Affinity measurements of RbFox for all binding site variants reveal the existence of two different binding modes. The first exclusively binds the cognate and a closely related RNA variant with high affinity. The second mode accommodates all other RNAs with greatly reduced affinity, thereby imposing large thermodynamic penalties on even near-cognate sequences. NMR studies indicate marked structural differences between the two binding modes, including large conformational rearrangements distant from the RNA binding site. Distinct binding modes by a single RNA binding module explain extraordinary sequence selectivity and reveal an unknown layer of functional diversity, cross talk and regulation for RNA-protein interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ye, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varani, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jankowsky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.23.474020</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Two distinct binding modes provide the RNA binding protein RbFox with extraordinary sequence specificity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.25.474149v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expanded ACE2 dependencies of diverse SARS-like coronavirus receptor binding domains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.25.474149v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viral spillover from animal reservoirs can trigger public health crises and cripple the world economy. Knowing which viruses are primed for zoonotic transmission can focus surveillance efforts and mitigation strategies for future pandemics. Successful engagement of receptor protein orthologs is necessary during cross-species transmission. The clade 1 sarbecoviruses including SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 enter cells via engagement of ACE2, while the receptor for clade 2 and clade 3 remains largely uncharacterized. We developed a mixed cell pseudotyped virus infection assay to determine whether various clade 2 and 3 sarbecovirus spike proteins can enter HEK 293T cells expressing human or Rhinolophus horseshoe bat ACE2 proteins. The receptor binding domains from BtKY72 and Khosta-2 used human ACE2 for entry, while BtKY72 and Khosta-1 exhibited widespread use of diverse rhinolophid ACE2s. A lysine at ACE2 position 31 appeared to be a major determinant of the inability of these RBDs to use a certain ACE2 sequence. The ACE2 protein from R. alcyone engaged all known clade 3 and clade 1 receptor binding domains. We observed little use of Rhinolophus ACE2 orthologs by the clade 2 viruses, supporting the likely use of a separate, unknown receptor. Our results suggest that clade 3 sarbecoviruses from Africa and Europe use Rhinolophus ACE2 for entry, and their spike proteins appear primed to contribute to zoonosis under the right conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Roelle, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pham, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruchez, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.25.474149</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expanded ACE2 dependencies of diverse SARS-like coronavirus receptor binding domains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.26.474192v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Super-immunity by broadly protective nanobodies to sarbecoviruses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.26.474192v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vaccine boosters and infection can facilitate the development of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with improved potency and breadth. Here, we observed super-immunity in a camelid extensively immunized with the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD). We rapidly isolated a large repertoire of specific ultrahigh-affinity nanobodies that bind strongly to all known sarbecovirus clades using integrative proteomics. These pan-sarbecovirus nanobodies (psNbs) are highly effective against SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 variants including the Omicron, with the best median neutralization potency at single-digit ng/ml. Structural determinations of 13 psNbs with the SARS-CoV-2 spike or RBD revealed five epitope classes, providing insights into the mechanisms and evolution of their broad activities. The highly evolved psNbs target small, flat, and flexible epitopes that contain over 75% of conserved RBD surface residues. Their potencies are strongly and negatively correlated with the distance of the epitopes to the receptor binding sites. A highly potent, inhalable and bispecific psNb (PiN-31) was developed. Our findings inform on the development of broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics.

One sentence summarySuccessive immunization of SARS-CoV-2 RBD in a camelid enhanced the development of super-immunity and isolation and systematic characterization of a large repertoire of ultrahigh-affinity pan-sarbecovirus single-chain VHH antibodies to understand the evolution of this potent and broad immune response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nambulli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tubiana, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duprex, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneidman-Duhovny, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.26.474192</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Super-immunity by broadly protective nanobodies to sarbecoviruses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.31.474637v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission is essential to maintain cristae morphology and bioenergetics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.31.474637v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondria and peroxisomes are both dynamic signaling organelles that constantly undergo fission. While mitochondrial fission is known to coordinate cellular metabolism, proliferation, and apoptosis, the physiological relevance of peroxisome dynamics and the implications for cell fate are not fully understood. DRP1 (dynamin-related protein 1) is an essential GTPase that executes both mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission. Patients with de novo heterozygous missense mutations in the gene that encodes DRP1, DNM1L (Dynamin 1 Like), present with encephalopathy due to defective mitochondrial and peroxisomal fission (EMPF1). EMPF1 is a devastating neurodevelopmental disease with no effective treatment. To interrogate the mechanisms by which DRP1 mutations cause cellular dysfunction, we used human-derived fibroblasts from patients with mutations in DRP1 who present with EMPF1. As expected, patient cells display elongated mitochondrial morphology and lack of fission. Patient cells display a lower coupling efficiency of the electron transport chain, increased proton leak, and upregulation of glycolysis. In addition to these metabolic abnormalities, mitochondrial hyperfusion results in aberrant cristae structure and hyperpolarized mitochondrial membrane potential, both of which are tightly linked to the changes in metabolism. Peroxisome structure is also severely elongated in patient cells and results in a potential functional compensation of fatty acid oxidation. Understanding the mechanism by which DRP1 mutations cause these metabolic changes will give insight into the role of mitochondrial dynamics in cristae maintenance and the metabolic capacity of the cell, as well as the disease mechanism underlying EMPF1.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Robertson, G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riffle, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beasley, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garza-Lopez, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vue, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gama, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.31.474637</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission is essential to maintain cristae morphology and bioenergetics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.10.475598v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Noise source importance in linear stochastic models of biological systems that grow, shrink, wander, or persist 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.10.475598v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While noise is an important factor in biology, biological processes often involve multiple noise sources, whose relative importance can be unclear. Here we develop tools that quantify the importance of noise sources in a network based on their contributions to variability in a quantity of interest. We generalize the edge importance measures proposed by Schmidt and Thomas [1] for first-order reaction networks whose steady-state variance is a linear combination of variance produced by each directed edge. We show that the same additive property extends to a general family of stochastic processes subject to a set of linearity assumptions, whether in discrete or continuous state or time. Our analysis applies to both expanding and contracting populations, as well as populations obeying a martingale ("wandering") at long times. We show that the original Schmidt-Thomas edge importance measure is a special case of our more general measure, and is recovered when the model satisfies a conservation constraint ("persists"). In the growing and wandering cases we show that the choice of observables (measurements) used to monitor the process does not influence which noise sources are important at long times. In contrast, in the shrinking or persisting case, which noise sources are important depends on what is measured. We also generalize our measures to admit models with affine moment update equations, which admit additional limiting scenarios, and arise naturally after linearization. We illustrate our results using examples from cell biology and ecology: (i) a model for the dynamics of the inositol trisphospate receptor, (ii) a model for an endangered population of white-tailed eagles, and (iii) a model for wood frog dispersal.

Author summaryBiological processes are frequently subject to an ensemble of independent noise sources. Noise sources produce fluctuations that propagate through the system, driving fluctuations in quantities of interest such as population size or ion channel configuration. We introduce a measure that quantifies how much variability each noise source contributes to any given quantity of interest. Using these methods, we identify which binding events contribute significantly to fluctuations in the state of a molecular signalling channel, which life history events contribute the most variability to an eagle population before and after a successful conservation effort rescued the population from the brink of extinction, and which dispersal events, at what times, matter most to variability in the recolonization of a series of ponds by wood frogs after a drought.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Strang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffmyer, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rollins, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.10.475598</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Noise source importance in linear stochastic models of biological systems that grow, shrink, wander, or persist]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhancement of RecET-mediated in vivo linear DNA assembly by a xonA mutation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Assembly of intact, replicating plasmids from linear DNA fragments introduced into bacterial cells, i.e. in vivo cloning, is a facile genetic engineering technology that avoids many of the problems associated with standard in vitro cloning. Here we report characterization of various parameters of in vivo linear DNA assembly mediated by either the RecET recombination system or the bacteriophage {lambda} Red recombination system. As previously observed, RecET is superior to Red for this reaction when the terminal homology is 50 bases. Deletion of the E. coli xonA gene, encoding Exonuclease I, a 3[-&gt;]5 single-strand DNA exonuclease, substantially improves the efficiency of in vivo linear DNA assembly for both systems. Deletion of ExoI function allowed robust RecET assembly of six DNA segments to create a functional plasmid. The linear DNAs are joined accurately with very few errors. This discovery provides a significant improvement to previously reported in vivo linear DNA assembly technologies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sawitzke, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costantino, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomason, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Court, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.13.476211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhancement of RecET-mediated in vivo linear DNA assembly by a xonA mutation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.17.476350v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Encoding sensing functions into material interface for a rationally engineered integrated electrochemical liquid biopsy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.17.476350v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Limited healthcare capacity highlights the needs of integrated and simple sensing systems for personalized health monitoring. However, only a limited set of sensors can be employed for point-of-care applications, emphasizing the lack of a generalizable engineering strategy for sensor construction. Here, we report a de novo rational engineering strategy for the construction of an integrated electrochemical liquid biopsy (ELB) platform capable of direct profiling cancer exosomes from blood. Using a bottom-up approach for sensor design, a series of critical sensing functions is considered and encoded into the material interface by programming the electrode material with different chemical and structure features. We present that the rationally engineered electrochemical liquid biopsy platform is able to achieve one-step sensor fabrication, target isolation, non-fouling and high-sensitivity sensing, direct signal transduction and multiplexed detection. Integrating the multiplexed sensing with principal component analysis, we demonstrate the capability of the programmed sensing system on differentiating cancerous groups from healthy controls by analyzing clinical samples from lung cancer patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.-c.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.17.476350</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Encoding sensing functions into material interface for a rationally engineered integrated electrochemical liquid biopsy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477233v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PopB-PcrV Interactions are Essential for Pore Formation in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type III Secretion System Translocon 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477233v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The type III secretion system (T3SS) is a syringe-like virulence factor which delivers bacterial proteins directly into the cytoplasm of host cells. An essential component of the system is the translocon, which creates a pore in the host cell membrane through which proteins are injected. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the translocation pore is formed by proteins PopB and PopD and attaches to the T3SS needle via the needle tip protein PcrV. The pore is multimeric, but the exact stoichiometry and structure of the pore are unknown. We took a genetic approach to map contact points within the system by taking advantage of the fact that the translocator proteins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the related Aeromonas hydrophila T3SS are incompatible and cannot be freely exchanged. We created chimeric versions of P. aeruginosa PopB and A. hydrophila AopB to intentionally disrupt and restore protein-protein interactions. We identified a chimeric B-translocator that specifically breaks an interaction with the needle tip protein and interferes with the formation of the translocation pore. Breaking the interaction did not disrupt membrane insertion, arguing that the needle tip protein chaperones formation of the translocation pore.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kundracik, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trichka, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz Aponte, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.21.477233</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PopB-PcrV Interactions are Essential for Pore Formation in the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type III Secretion System Translocon]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.25.477787v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Divergent Golgi Trafficking Limits B cell-Mediated IgG Sialylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.25.477787v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The degree of 2,6-linked sialylation on IgG glycans is associated with a variety of inflammatory conditions and is thought to drive IgG anti-inflammatory activity. Previous findings revealed that ablation of {beta}-galactoside 2,6-sialyltransferase 1 (ST6Gal1) in B cells failed to alter IgG sialylation in vivo, yet resulted in the loss of B cell surface 2,6 sialylation, suggesting divergent pathways for IgG and cell surface glycoprotein glycosylation and trafficking. Employing both B cell hybridomas and ex vivo murine B cells, we discovered that IgG was poorly sialylated by ST6Gal1 and highly core fucosylated by 1,6-fucosyltransferase 8 (Fut8) in cell culture. In contrast, IgG-producing cells showed the opposite pattern by flow cytometry, with high cell surface 2,6 sialylation and low 1,6 fucosylation. Paired studies further revealed that ex vivo B cell-produced IgG carried significantly less sialylation compared to IgG isolated from the plasma of matched animals, providing evidence that sialylation increases after release in vivo. Finally, confocal analyses demonstrated that IgG poorly localized to subcellular compartments rich in sialylation and ST6Gal1, and strongly to regions rich in fucosylation and Fut8. These findings support a model in which IgG subcellular trafficking diverges from the canonical secretory pathway by promoting Fut8-mediated core fucosylation and limiting exposure to and modification by ST6Gal1, providing a mechanism for why B cell-expressed ST6Gal1 is dispensable for IgG sialylation in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Glendenning, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynero, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.25.477787</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Divergent Golgi Trafficking Limits B cell-Mediated IgG Sialylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.25.477795v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The RNA helicase DDX39B activates FOXP3 RNA splicing to control T regulatory cell fate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.25.477795v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genes associated with increased susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) have been identified, but their functions are incompletely understood. One of these genes codes for the RNA helicase DExD/H-Box Polypeptide 39B (DDX39B), which shows genetic and functional epistasis with interleukin-7 receptor- gene (IL7R) in MS-risk. Based on evolutionary and functional arguments we postulated that DDX39B enhances immune tolerance decreasing MS risk. Consistent with such a role we show that DDX39B controls the expression of many MS susceptibility genes and important immune-related genes. Among these we identified ForkheadBox P3 (FOXP3), which codes for the master transcriptional factor in CD4+/CD25+ T regulatory cells. DDX39B knockdown led to loss of immune-regulatory and gain of immune-effector expression signatures. Splicing of FOXP3 introns, which belong to a previously unrecognized subclass of introns with C-rich polypyrimidine tracts, was exquisitely sensitive to DDX39B levels. Given the importance of FOXP3 in autoimmunity, this work cements DDX39B as an important guardian of immune tolerance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hirano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galarza-Munoz, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schott, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagasawa, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antonia, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widen, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Briggs, F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregory, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ko, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fagg, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradrick, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Blanco, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.25.477795</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The RNA helicase DDX39B activates FOXP3 RNA splicing to control T regulatory cell fate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.478679v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Plasma ST6Gal1 is Dispensable for IgG Sialylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.478679v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The glycosylation of IgG has attracted increased attention due to the impact of N-glycan modifications at N297 on IgG function, acting primarily through modulation of Fc domain conformation and Fc{gamma} receptor binding affinities and signaling. However, the mechanisms regulating IgG glycosylation and especially 2,6-sialylation of its N-glycan remain poorly understood. We observed previously that IgG is normally sialylated in mice with B cells lacking the sialyltransferase ST6Gal1. This supported the hypothesis that IgG may be sialylated outside of B cells, perhaps through the action of hepatocyte-released plasma ST6Gal1. Here we demonstrate that this model is incorrect. Animals lacking hepatocyte expressed ST6Gal1 retain normal IgG 2,6-sialylation, despite the lack of detectable ST6Gal1 in plasma. Moreover, we confirmed that B cells were not a redundant source of IgG sialylation. Thus, while 2,6-sialylation is lacking in IgG from mice with germline ablation of ST6Gal1, IgG 2,6-sialylation is normal in mice lacking ST6Gal1 in either hepatocytes or B cells. These results indicate that IgG 2,6-sialylation arises after release from a B cell, but is not dependent on plasma-localized ST6Gal1 activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oswald, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lehoux, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glendenning, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.01.478679</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Plasma ST6Gal1 is Dispensable for IgG Sialylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.03.479012v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inactivating Mast Cell Function Promotes Steady-State and Regenerative Hematopoiesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.03.479012v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are essential for generating all blood cell types and maintaining immune function and oxygen transport. This requires tight regulation of self-renewal, differentiation, and quiescence, driven by intrinsic and extrinsic signals. While the influence of many HSC progeny on HSC decisions are recognized, the role of mast cells (MCs) remain understudied. MCs are known for their immunomodulatory functions through the secretion of factors such as histamine and could offer new insights into HSC regulation. In this study, we describe a novel role for MC-derived histamine in modulating HSC behavior. We observed that genetically MC-deficient "SASH" mice exhibit increased hematopoietic output and bone marrow (BM) HSCs, characterized by an enhanced quiescent signature that increases resistance to myeloablative chemotherapy. The SASH microenvironment also contained increased frequencies of HSC-supportive cell types and expression of genes conducive to HSC maintenance, which together accelerated HSC engraftment when wild-type BM was transplanted into SASH recipients. Moreover, we found lower serum histamine levels in SASH mice, and that the enhanced hematopoietic phenotype observed in these mice could be reversed by administering exogenous histamine. Subsequent experiments with FDA-approved antihistamines in wild-type mice revealed that cetirizine, an H1R inverse agonist, notably increased HSC frequency in the BM. Overall, our findings implicate MCs are negative regulators of HSC function. This lays the groundwork for future studies to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and explore the therapeutic potential of modulating histamine signaling to promote hematopoiesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campanelli, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cordova, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broncano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerson, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.03.479012</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inactivating Mast Cell Function Promotes Steady-State and Regenerative Hematopoiesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.11.480110v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization of the Interaction of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agents with Human Blood Components 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.11.480110v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanoscale ultrasound contrast agents, or nanobubbles, are being explored in preclinical applications ranging from vascular and cardiac imaging to targeted drug delivery in cancer. These sub-micron particles are approximately 10x smaller than clinically available microbubbles. This allows them to effectively traverse compromised physiological barriers and circulate for extended periods of time. While various aspects of nanobubble behavior have been previously examined, their behavior in human whole blood has not yet been explored. Accordingly, herein we examined, for the first time, the short and long-term effects of blood components on nanobubble acoustic response. We observed differences in the kinetics of backscatter from nanobubble suspensions in whole blood compared to bubbles in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), plasma, or red blood cell solutions (RBCs). Specifically, after introducing nanobubbles to fresh human whole blood, signal enhancement gradually increased by 22.8 {+/-} 13.1% throughout our experiment, with peak intensity reached within 145 seconds. In contrast, nanobubbles in PBS had a stable signal with negligible change in intensity (-1.7 {+/-} 3.2%) over 8 minutes. Under the same conditions, microbubbles made with the same lipid formulation showed a -56.8 {+/-} 6.1% decrease in enhancement. Subsequent confocal, fluorescent, and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed attachment of the nanobubbles to the surface of RBCs, suggesting that direct interactions, or hitchhiking, of nanobubbles on RBCs in the presence of plasma may be a possible mechanism for the observed effects. This phenomenon could be key to extending nanobubble circulation time and has broad implications in drug delivery, where RBC interaction with nanoparticles could be exploited to improve delivery efficiency.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cooley, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wegierak, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sen Gupta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolios, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.11.480110</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization of the Interaction of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agents with Human Blood Components]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.24.481899v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shifting mutational constraints in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain during viral evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.24.481899v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SARS-CoV-2 has evolved variants with substitutions in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) that impact its affinity for ACE2 receptor and recognition by antibodies. These substitutions could also shape future evolution by modulating the effects of mutations at other sites--a phenomenon called epistasis. To investigate this possibility, we performed deep mutational scans to measure the effects on ACE2 binding of all single amino-acid mutations in the Wuhan-Hu-1, Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Eta variant RBDs. Some substitutions, most prominently N501Y, cause epistatic shifts in the effects of mutations at other sites, thereby shaping subsequent evolutionary change. These epistatic shifts occur despite high conservation of the overall RBD structure. Our data shed light on RBD sequence-function relationships and facilitate interpretation of ongoing SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Starr, T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greaney, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hannon, W. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hauser, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dillen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferri, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghez Farrell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadonaite, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCallum, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corti, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veesler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snell, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.24.481899</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shifting mutational constraints in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain during viral evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.01.482516v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular Basis for Variations in the Sensitivity of Pathogenic Rhodopsin Variants to 9-cis-Retinal 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.01.482516v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over 100 mutations in the rhodopsin gene have been linked to a spectrum of retinopathies that include retinitis pigmentosa and congenital stationary night blindness. Though most of these variants exhibit a loss of function, the molecular defects caused by these underlying mutations vary considerably. In this work, we utilize deep mutational scanning to quantitatively compare the plasma membrane expression of 123 known pathogenic rhodopsin variants in the presence and absence of the stabilizing cofactor 9-cis-retinal. We identify 69 retinopathy variants, including 20 previously uncharacterized variants, that exhibit diminished plasma membrane expression in HEK293T cells. 67 of these apparent class II variants exhibit a measurable increase in expression in the presence of 9-cis-retinal. However, the magnitude of the response to this molecule varies considerably across this spectrum of mutations. Evaluation of the observed shifts in relation to thermodynamic estimates for the coupling between binding and folding suggests underlying differences in stability constrains the magnitude of their response to retinal. Nevertheless, estimates from computational modeling suggest many of the least sensitive variants also directly compromise binding. Finally, we evaluate the functional properties of three previous uncharacterized, retinal-sensitive variants ({Delta}N73, S131P, and R135G) and show that two retain residual function in vitro. Together, our results provide a comprehensive experimental characterization of the proteostatic properties of retinopathy variants and their response to retinal.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Roushar, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKee, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuntz, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penn, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chamness, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Most, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meiler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrzebska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlebach, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.01.482516</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular Basis for Variations in the Sensitivity of Pathogenic Rhodopsin Variants to 9-cis-Retinal]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.03.482920v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane Complex Promotes Proteostasis of GABAA Receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.03.482920v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The endoplasmic reticulum membrane complex (EMC) plays a critical role in the biogenesis of tail-anchored and a subset of multi-pass membrane proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum. However, due to the nearly exclusive expression of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels in the central nervous system, the role of the EMC in their biogenesis is not well understood. In this study, we demonstrated that the EMC positively regulates the surface trafficking and thus function of endogenous {gamma}-aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptors, the primary inhibitory ion channels in the mammalian brain. Further, among ten EMC subunits, EMC3 and EMC6 have the most prominent effects, indicating a subunit-specific contribution. EMC3 and EMC6 show endogenous interactions with major neuroreceptors, which depends on their transmembrane domains. Overexpression of EMC3 and EMC6 is sufficient to restore the function of epilepsy-associated GABAA receptor variants, suggesting that operating EMC has the potential to ameliorate neurological diseases associated with protein conformational defects.

In briefThe multi-subunit EMC serves as an insertase for a subset of membrane proteins and enables their biogenesis in the endoplasmic reticulum. However, the subunit-specific effect of the EMC on multi-pass neuroreceptors is not well understood. Whittsette et al. demonstrate that EMC3 and EMC6 interact with GABAA receptors and positively regulate their trafficking and function.

HighlightsO_LIEMC3 and EMC6 positively regulate the function of endogenous GABAA receptors.
C_LIO_LIThe EMC interacts with major endogenous neuroreceptors.
C_LIO_LIThe interaction between EMC and GABAA receptors depends on the EMC transmembrane domains.
C_LIO_LIOverexpressing the EMC is sufficient to restore the function of pathogenic GABAA receptor variants.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Whittsette, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.03.482920</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Endoplasmic Reticulum Membrane Complex Promotes Proteostasis of GABAA Receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.483060v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Conserved Pib2 regions have distinct roles in TORC1 regulation at the vacuole 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.483060v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
TORC1 is a critical controller of cell growth in eukaryotes. In yeast, the presence of nutrients is signaled to TORC1 by several upstream regulatory sensors that together coordinate TORC1 activity. TORC1 localizes to both vacuolar and endosomal membranes, where differential signaling occurs. This localization is mimicked by Pib2, a key upstream TORC1 regulator that is essential for TORC1 reactivation after nutrient starvation or pharmacological inhibition. Pib2 has both positive and negative effects on TORC1 activity, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we pinpoint the Pib2 inhibitory function on TORC1 to residues within short, conserved N-terminal regions. We also show that Pib2 C-terminal regions, helical region E and tail, are essential for TORC1 reactivation. Further, the Pib2 FYVE domain is essential for vacuolar localization, however, it is surprisingly unnecessary for recovery from rapamycin exposure. Using chimeric Pib2 targeting constructs, we show that endosomal localization is not necessary for TORC1 reactivation and cell growth after rapamycin treatment. Thus, a comprehensive molecular dissection of Pib2 demonstrates that each of its conserved regions differentially contribute to Pib2 regulation of TORC1 activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Troutman, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varlakhanova, N. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tornabene, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramachandran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ford, M. G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.04.483060</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Conserved Pib2 regions have distinct roles in TORC1 regulation at the vacuole]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.06.483204v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Newly synthesized mRNA escapes translational repression during the acute phase of the mammalian unfolded protein response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.06.483204v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress, caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, elicits a homeostatic mechanism known as the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). The UPR reprograms gene expression to promote adaptation to chronic ER stress. The UPR comprises an acute phase involving inhibition of bulk protein synthesis and a chronic phase of transcriptional induction coupled with the partial recovery of protein synthesis. However, the role of transcriptional regulation in the acute phase of the UPR is not well understood. Here we analyzed the fate of newly synthesized mRNA encoding the protective and homeostatic transcription factor X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) during this acute phase. We have previously shown that global translational repression induced by the acute UPR was characterized by decreased translation and increased stability of XBP1 mRNA. We demonstrate here that this stabilization is independent of new transcription. In contrast, we show XBP1 mRNA newly synthesized during the acute phase accumulates with long poly(A) tails and escapes translational repression. Inhibition of nascent RNA polyadenylation during the acute phase decreased cell survival with no effect in unstressed cells. Furthermore, during the chronic phase of the UPR, levels of XBP1 mRNA with long poly(A) tails decreased in a manner consistent with co-translational deadenylation. Finally, additional pro-survival, transcriptionally-induced mRNAs show similar regulation, supporting the broad significance of the pre-steady state UPR in translational control during ER stress. We conclude that the biphasic regulation of poly(A) tail length during the UPR represents a previously unrecognized pro-survival mechanism of mammalian gene regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alzahrani, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zagore, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.06.483204</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Newly synthesized mRNA escapes translational repression during the acute phase of the mammalian unfolded protein response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.08.481108v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular profiling of XPO1 inhibitor and gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel combination in cellular and LSL-Kras G12D/+; Trp53 fl/+; Pdx1-Cre (KPC) pancreatic cancer model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.08.481108v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The majority of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients experience disease progression while on treatment with gemcitabine and nab-Paclitaxel (GemPac) treatment indicating the need for more effective combinations for this recalcitrant disease.

Earlier we showed that nuclear exporter protein exportin 1 (XPO1) is a valid therapeutic target in PDAC and the selective inhibitor of nuclear export (SINE) selinexor (Sel), synergistically enhances the efficacy of GemPac in pancreatic cancer cells, spheroids, patient derived tumors and had promising activity in a phase I study in patients with PDAC. Here we investigated the mechanisms of synergy by molecular profiling of Sel or Sel-GemPac treated PDAC cells, in vitro and by utilizing genetically modified LSL-Kras G12D/+; Trp53 fl/+; Pdx1-Cre (KPC) mouse model.

In KPC model, Sel given with GemPac at a sub-MTD dose enhanced the survival compared to controls (p < 0.05). Molecular analysis of residual KPC tumors showed re-organization of tumor stromal architecture, suppression of proliferation and nuclear retention of tumor suppressors. Single cell nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) revealed significant loss of cellular clusters in the Sel-GemPac treated mice including CD44 stem cell population. RNA-seq, Gene Ontology (GO) and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) analysis showed inhibition of several tumor promoting molecules.

Prioritized RNA-seq identified molecules were validated in in vitro or in the PDAC patient samples through siRNA mediated silencing, quantitative gene expression, cytotoxicity assays and confirmed their role in observed synergy. Sel or Sel-GemPac caused broad penetration in PDAC supporting signaling networks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Uddin, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aboukameel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sexton, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bannoura, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dyson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Hallak, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mzannar, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohamed, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landesman, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beydoun, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammad, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shields, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azmi, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.08.481108</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular profiling of XPO1 inhibitor and gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel combination in cellular and LSL-Kras G12D/+; Trp53 fl/+; Pdx1-Cre (KPC) pancreatic cancer model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.08.483512v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantitative interactome proteomics identifies proteostasis network for GABAA receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.08.483512v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter-gated ion channels in the mammalian central nervous system, inhibit neuronal firing to preserve balanced neuronal activity. Maintenance of GABAA receptor protein homeostasis (proteostasis) in the cell utilizing its interacting proteins is essential for the function of GABAA receptors. However, how the proteostasis network orchestrates GABAA receptor biogenesis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is not well understood. To address this question systematically, we employed a proteomics-based approach to identify the interactomes of GABAA receptors by carrying out a quantitative immunoprecipitation-tandem mass spectrometry (IP-MS/MS) analysis utilizing stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC). To enhance the coverage and reliability of the identified proteins, we performed comparative proteomics by using both wild type 1 subunit and a misfolding-prone 1 subunit carrying the A322D variant as the bait proteins. The wild type 1 interactome contains 125 proteins, the 1(A322D) interactome contains 105 proteins, and 54 proteins overlap within two interactomes. Bioinformatics analysis identified potential GABAA receptor proteostasis network components, including chaperones, folding enzymes, trafficking factors, and degradation factors. Further, their potential involvement is modelled in the cellular folding, degradation and trafficking pathways for GABAA receptors. In addition, we verified endogenous interactions between 1 subunit and their selected interactors by carrying out co-immunoprecipitation assay in mouse brain homogenates. This study paves the way for understanding the molecular mechanisms as well as fine-tuning of GABAA receptor proteostasis to ameliorate related neurological diseases such as epilepsy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di, X.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.08.483512</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantitative interactome proteomics identifies proteostasis network for GABAA receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.14.484334v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
R-BIND 2.0: An Updated Database of Bioactive RNA-Targeting Small Molecules and Associated RNA Secondary Structures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.14.484334v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Discoveries of RNA roles in cellular physiology and pathology are raising the need for new tools that modulate the structure and function of these biomolecules, and small molecules are proving useful. In 2017, we curated the RNA-targeted BIoactive ligaNd Database (R-BIND) and discovered distinguishing physicochemical properties of RNA-targeting ligands, leading us to propose the existence of an "RNA-privileged" chemical space. Biennial updates of the database and the establishment of a website platform (rbind.chem.duke.edu) have provided new insights and tools to design small molecules based on the analyzed physicochemical and spatial properties. In this report and R-BIND 2.0 update, we refined the curation approach and ligand classification system as well as conducted analyses of RNA structure elements for the first time to identify new targeting strategies. Specifically, we curated and analyzed RNA target structural motifs to determine properties of small molecules that may confer selectivity for distinct RNA secondary and tertiary structures. Additionally, we collected sequences of target structures and incorporated an RNA Structure Search algorithm into the website that outputs small molecules targeting similar motifs without a priori secondary structure knowledge. Cheminformatic analyses revealed that, despite the 50% increase in small molecule library size, the distinguishing properties of R-BIND ligands remained significantly different to that of proteins and are therefore still relevant to RNA-targeted probe discovery. Combined, we expect these novel insights and website features to enable rational design of RNA-targeted ligands and to serve as a resource and inspiration for a variety of scientists interested in RNA targeting.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Donlic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiu, L.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wicks, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umuhire Juru, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassam, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laudeman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanaba, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sugarman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolbert, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hargrove, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.14.484334</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[R-BIND 2.0: An Updated Database of Bioactive RNA-Targeting Small Molecules and Associated RNA Secondary Structures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.21.485180v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Conventional polymers may unintentionally refill in vivo with unassociated drugs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.21.485180v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Polymers used as drug delivery devices are ultimately limited by how much drug they can hold; with the device failing if the drug is depleted before the disease is cured. Our lab discovered a means to use thermodynamic driving forces to refill certain classes of polymer after implantation, for additional drug delivery windows. These same, refillable polymers can be used as additives, to provide refilling capacity to classical, non-refillable polymers such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). In this paper, we investigated the refilling capacity of another conventional polymer: poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) or PLGA. We explored both unmodified PLGA implants as well as implants supplemented with polymerized cyclodextrin (pCD) in microparticle form, previously shown to add refillability to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) implants which were otherwise not refillable. Assessments of in situ forming PLGA implants with and without pCD additives were made, including drug loading capacity in a liquid medium, drug refilling through a tissue-mimicking gel medium, and refilling in ex vivo and in vivo conditions. Implant cross-sections were imaged via fluorescence microscopy. Drug release from refilled implants, polymer swelling, degradation, phase inversion characteristics were assessed, and drug/monomer computational simulation studies were performed. While generally, the incorporation of cyclodextrin into implants led to significant increases in the amount of refilled drug; unexpectedly, PLGA implants with no incorporated pCD also showed refilling capability. Moreover, in two out of three in vivo conditions in rats, PLGA alone showed the potential to refill with comparable, if not greater, amounts of drug than PLGA with pCD incorporated. This contrasts predictions, since PLGA has no specifically designed affinity structure, like pCD does. We theorize that the mechanism for PLGAs refilling depends on nano-patterning of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecular domains, giving rise to its affinity-like behavior. The fact that PLGA implants can be refilled with unassociated drugs, gives rise to concerns about the fate of all implants made of poly alpha-hydroxy esters, and likely other polymers as well, and will likely lead to new directions of study such as of unintended polymer / drug interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Young, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.21.485180</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Conventional polymers may unintentionally refill in vivo with unassociated drugs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.25.485382v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiplexed microfluidic chip for cell co-culture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.25.485382v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Paracrine signaling is challenging to study in vitro, as conventional culture tools dilute soluble factors and offer little to no spatiotemporal control over signaling. Microfluidic chips offer potential to address both of these issues. However, few solutions offer both control over onset and duration of cell-cell communication, and high throughput. We have developed a microfluidic chip designed to culture cells in adjacent chambers, separated by valves to selectively allow or prevent exchange of paracrine signals. The chip features 16 fluidic inputs and 128 individuallyaddressable chambers arranged in 32 sets of 4 chambers. Media can be continuously perfused or delivered by diffusion, which we model under different culture conditions to ensure normal cell viability. Immunocytochemistry assays can be performed in the chip, which we modeled and fine-tuned to reduce total assay time to 1h. Finally, we validate the use of the chip for co-culture studies by showing that HEK293Ta cells respond to signals secreted by RAW 264.7 immune cells in adjacent chambers, only when the valve between the chambers is opened.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Watson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ansari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miranda, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Somoza, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senyo, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.25.485382</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiplexed microfluidic chip for cell co-culture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.31.486615v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Helical remodeling augments 5-lipoxygenase activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.31.486615v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The synthesis of pro-inflammatory leukotrienes implicated in asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atherosclerosis is initiated by the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX). The crystal structure of human Stable-5-LOX revealed a conformation where the catalytic iron was inaccessible to bulk solvent as two aromatic residues on a conserved helix-2 (H2) plugged the substrate access portal. Here, we present a new conformation of 5-LOX where H2 adopts an elongated conformation equivalent to that described in other animal lipoxygenase structures. The sigmoidal kinetic behavior of 5-LOX, which is indicative of positive cooperativity, is consistent with a substrate-induced conformational change that shifts the ensemble of enzyme populations to favor the catalytically competent state. Strategic point mutations along H2 designed to unlock the closed conformation and elongate H2 resulted in improved kinetic parameters, altered limited-proteolysis data, and a drastic reduction in the length of the lag phase yielding the most active 5-LOX enzyme to date. Structural predictions by AlphaFold2 of these variants statistically favor an elongated H2 and reinforce a model in which improved kinetic parameters correlate with a more readily adopted, open conformation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gallegos, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathes, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guevara, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neau, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newcomer, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilbert, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.31.486615</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Helical remodeling augments 5-lipoxygenase activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.01.486735v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Actin turnover required for adhesion-independent bleb migration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.01.486735v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell migration is critical for many vital processes, such as wound healing, as well as harmful processes, like cancer metastasis. Experiments have highlighted the diversity in migration strategies employed by cells in physiologically relevant environments. In 3D fibrous matrices and confinement between two surfaces, some cells migrate using round membrane protrusions, called blebs. In bleb-based migration, the role of substrate adhesion is thought to be minimal, and it remains unclear if a cell can migrate without any adhesion complexes. We present a 2D computational fluid-structure model of a cell using cycles of bleb expansion and retraction in a channel with several geometries. The cell model consists of a plasma membrane, an underlying actin cortex, and viscous cytoplasm. Cellular structures are immersed in viscous fluid which permeates them, and the fluid equations are solved using the method of regularized Stokeslets. Simulations show that the cell cannot effectively migrate when the actin cortex is modeled as a purely elastic material. We find that cells do migrate in rigid channels if actin turnover is included with a viscoelastic description for the cortex. Our study highlights the non-trivial relationship between cell rheology and its external environment during migration with cytoplasmic streaming.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strychalski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.01.486735</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Actin turnover required for adhesion-independent bleb migration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.487228v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chromenone derivatives as novel pharmacological chaperones for retinitis pigmentosa-linked rod opsin mutants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.487228v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The correct expression of folded, functional rhodopsin (Rho) is critical for visual perception. However, this seven-transmembrane helical G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) is prone to mutations with pathological consequences of retinal degeneration in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) due to Rho misfolding. Pharmacological chaperones that stabilize the inherited Rho variants by assisting their folding and membrane targeting could slow the progression of RP. In this study, we employed virtual screening of synthetic compounds with natural product scaffold in conjunction with in vitro and in vivo evaluations to discover a novel chromenone-containing small molecule with favorable pharmacological properties that stabilizes rod opsin. This compound reversibly binds to unliganded bovine rod opsin with an EC50 value comparable to the 9-cis-retinal chromophore analog and partially rescued membrane trafficking of multiple RP-related rod opsin variants in vitro. Importantly, this novel ligand of rod opsin was effective in vivo in murine models, protecting photoreceptors from deterioration caused either by bright light or genetic insult. Together, our current study suggests potential broad therapeutic implications of the new chromenone-containing non-retinoid small molecule against retinal diseases associated with photoreceptor degeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKee, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roushar, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penn, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlebach, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrzebska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.05.487228</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chromenone derivatives as novel pharmacological chaperones for retinitis pigmentosa-linked rod opsin mutants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.07.487503v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neutrophil IL-1β secretion induced by ExoS expressing Pseudomonas aeruginosa is dependent on NLRP3 and Gasdermin D 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.07.487503v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Macrophages infected with Gram-negative bacteria expressing Type III secretion system (T3SS) activate the NLRC4 inflammasome, resulting in Gasdermin D (GSDMD)-mediated IL-1{beta} secretion and pyroptosis. Here we examined inflammasome signaling in neutrophils infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 that expresses the T3SS effectors ExoS and ExoT. IL-1{beta} secretion by neutrophils required the T3SS needle and translocon proteins and GSDMD. In macrophages, PAO1 and mutants lacking ExoS and ExoT ({Delta}exoST) stimulated NLRC4 for IL-1{beta} secretion. While IL-1{beta} release from{Delta} exoST infected neutrophils was also NLRC4-dependent, this was redirected to NLRP3-dependence by PAO1 infection via the ADP ribosyl transferase activity of ExoS. Genetic and pharmacologic approaches revealed that NLRP3, but not NLRC4, was essential for bacterial killing and limiting disease severity in a murine model of P. aeruginosa corneal infection. This reveals a novel role for ExoS ADPRT in regulating inflammasome subtype usage by neutrophils versus macrophages and an unexpected role for NLRP3 in P. aeruginosa keratitis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Minns, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lima, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liboro, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbondante, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubyak, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pearlman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.07.487503</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neutrophil IL-1β secretion induced by ExoS expressing Pseudomonas aeruginosa is dependent on NLRP3 and Gasdermin D]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488717v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
COVID-19 Infection and Transmission Includes Complex Sequence Diversity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488717v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing has played an important role in documenting the emergence of polymorphisms in the viral genome and its continuing evolution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we present data from over 360 patients to characterize the complex sequence diversity of individual infections identified during multiple variant surges (e.g., Alpha and Delta; requiring [&ge;] 80% genome coverage and [&ge;]100X read depth). Across our survey, we observed significantly increasing SARS-CoV-2 sequence diversity during the pandemic and frequent occurrence of multiple biallelic sequence polymorphisms in all infections. This sequence polymorphism shows that SARS-CoV-2 infections are heterogeneous mixtures. Convention for reporting microbial pathogens guides investigators to report a majority consensus sequence. In our study, we found that this approach would under-report at least 79% of the observed sequence variation. As we find that this sequence heterogeneity is efficiently transmitted from donors to recipients, our findings illustrate that infection complexity must be monitored and reported more completely to understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission dynamics involving both immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients. Many of the nucleotide changes that would not be reported in a majority consensus sequence have now been observed as lineage defining SNPs in Omicron BA.1 and/or BA.2 variants. This suggests that minority alleles in earlier SARS-CoV-2 infections may play an important role in the continuing evolution of new variants of concern.

AUTHOR SUMMARYEvolution of the virus causing COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has been associated with significant transmission surges. With evolution of SARS-CoV-2, evidence has accumulated regarding increased transmissibility of lineages, varying severity of illness, evasion of vaccines and diagnostic tests. Continuous tracking of SARS-CoV-2 lineage evolution distills very large and complex viral sequence data sets down to consensus sequences that report the majority nucleotide at each of over 29,000 positions in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. We observe that this eliminates considerable sequence variation and leads to a significant underestimation of SARS-CoV-2 infection diversity and transmission complexity. Additionally, concentration on the majority consensus sequence diverts attention from genetic variation that may contribute significantly to the continuing evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chan, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Linger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovach, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres-Teran, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wertz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donskey, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmerman, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.18.488717</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[COVID-19 Infection and Transmission Includes Complex Sequence Diversity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.22.489231v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prediction of Kinase-Substrate Associations Using The Functional Landscape of Kinases and Phosphorylation Sites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.22.489231v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationProtein phosphorylation is a key post-translational modification that plays a central role in many cellular processes. With recent advances in biotechnology, thousands of phosphorylated sites can be identified and quantified in a given sample, enabling proteome-wide screening of cellular signaling. However, the kinase(s) that phosphorylate most (> 90%) of the identified phosphorylation sites are unknown. Knowledge of kinase-substrate associations is also mostly limited to a small number of well-studied kinases, with 20% of known kinases accounting for the phosphorylation of 87% of currently annotated sites. The scarcity of available annotations calls for the development of computational algorithms for more comprehensive and reliable prediction of kinase-substrate associations.

ResultsTo broadly utilize available structural, functional, evolutionary, and contextual information in predicting kinase-substrate associations, we develop a network-based machine learning framework. Our framework integrates a multitude of data sources to characterize the landscape of functional relationships and associations among phosphosites and kinases. To construct a phosphosite-phosphosite association network, we use sequence similarity, shared biological pathways, co-evolution, co-occurrence, and co-phosphorylation of phosphosites across different biological states. To construct a kinase-kinase association network, we integrate protein-protein interactions, shared biological pathways, and membership in common kinase families. We use node embeddings computed from these heterogeneous networks to train machine learning models for predicting kinase-substrate associations. Our systematic computational experiments using the PhosphositePLUS database shows that the resulting algorithm, NetKSA, outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms and resources, including KinomeXplorer and LinkPhinder, in reliably predicting KSAs. By stratifying the ranking of kinases, NetKSA also enables annotation of phosphosites that are targeted by relatively less-studied kinases. Finally, we observe that the performance of NetKSA is robust to the choice of network embedding algorithms, while each type of network contributes valuable information that is complementary to the information provided by other networks.

ConclusionRepresentation of available functional information on kinases and phosphorylation sites, along with integrative machine learning algorithms, has the potential to significantly enhance our knowledge on kinase-substrate associations.

AvailabilityThe code and data are available at compbio.case.edu/NetKSA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blasco Tavares Pereira Lopes, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.22.489231</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prediction of Kinase-Substrate Associations Using The Functional Landscape of Kinases and Phosphorylation Sites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489592v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spleen voltammetry assesses in real time norepinephrine release elicited by autonomic stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.26.489592v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe noradrenergic innervation of the spleen is implicated in the autonomic control of inflammation and has been the target of neurostimulation therapies for inflammatory diseases. However, there is no real-time marker of its successful activation, which hinders the optimization of anti- inflammatory neurostimulation therapies and mechanistic studies in anti-inflammatory neural circuits.

MethodsIn mice, we performed fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in the spleen during intravascular injections of norepinephrine (NE), or during stimulation of the vagus, splanchnic, or splenic nerves. We defined the stimulus-elicited charge generated at the oxidation potential for NE ([~]0.8 V) as the "NE voltammetry signal" and quantified the dependence of the signal on NE or nerve stimulation dose. We correlated the NE voltammetry signal in response to splenic nerve stimulation (SpNS) with the latters anti-inflammatory effect in a model of lipopolysaccharide- (LPS) induced endotoxemia, quantified as suppression of TNF release.

ResultsWe found that the NE voltammetry signal is proportional to injected amount and estimated peak NE concentration, with 0.3 M detection threshold. In response to SpNS, the signal increases within seconds, returns to baseline minutes later and is blocked by interventions that deplete NE or inhibit NE release. The signal is elicited by efferent, but not afferent, electrical or optogenetic vagus nerve stimulation, and by splanchnic nerve stimulation. The magnitude of the signal during SpNS is inversely correlated with subsequent TNF suppression in endotoxemia and explains 40% of the variance in TNF measurements.

ConclusionFSCV in the spleen provides a marker for real-time monitoring of anti-inflammatory activation of the splenic innervation during autonomic stimulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mughrabi, I. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerber, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayaprakash, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Abed, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zanos, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.26.489592</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spleen voltammetry assesses in real time norepinephrine release elicited by autonomic stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.27.489713v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ATP6AP2-to-MMP14, a key pathway for osteoblast to osteocyte transition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.27.489713v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Osteocytes, derived from osteoblast (OB)-lineage, occupy lacunae within bone matrix and exhibit unique morphology with dendrite-like projections to form an inter-connected network. Such a network is essential for osteocytes to monitor and orchestrate bone homeostasis. Thus, it is of considerable interest to investigate how osteocytes are formed and how they built the network. Here we provide evidence for ATP6AP2, an accessory subunit of V-ATPase, in OB-lineage cells to be critical for OB-to-osteocyte transition, and osteocyte distribution, maturation, and morphogenesis. Mice (ATP6AP2Ocn-Cre) that selectively deplete ATP6AP2 in OB-lineage cells results in altered osteocyte distribution and morphology, impaired osteocyte maturation and dendrite-like processes, increased osteocyte cell death and cortical woven bone formation. Further mechanistic studies identify MMP14 (matrix metalloproteinase-14) as a critical downstream of ATP6AP2 for osteocyte differentiation. ATP6AP2 interacts with MMP14 and promotes MMP14 surface distribution largely in immature- or osteoid-osteocytes, where this pathway regulates bone matrix remodeling and osteocyte differentiation. Expression of MMP14 into ATP6AP2 knock out OB-lineage cells in the mouse cortical bone could diminish the deficits in osteocyte maturation, dendrite-like process formation, and survival. These results thus demonstrate an un-recognized function of ATP6AP2 in promoting OB-to-osteocyte transition and uncover a pathway from ATP6AP2-to-MMP14 in osteocyte differentiation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xiong, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, H.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PAN, J.-X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mei, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, W.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.27.489713</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ATP6AP2-to-MMP14, a key pathway for osteoblast to osteocyte transition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.490090v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increased glucose availability sensitizes pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.490090v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic cancer (Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma; PDAC) is highly resistant to chemotherapy. Effective alternative therapies have yet to emerge, leaving chemotherapy as the best available systematic treatment. The discovery of safe and available adjuncts that improve chemotherapeutic efficacy would potentially improve survival outcomes. We show that a hyperglycemic state enhances the efficacy of conventional single- and multi-agent chemotherapies against PDAC. Molecular analyses of tumors exposed to relatively high glucose levels revealed that a key metabolic pathway, glutathione biosynthesis, is diminished and underlies chemo-sensitization by enhancing oxidative injury to cancer cells. Inhibition of this pathway under normal conditions phenocopied a hyperglycemic state by enhancing chemotherapeutic efficacy in mouse PDAC, while rescuing the pathway under high glucose abrogated the anti-tumor effects observed with chemotherapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajihassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Titomihelakis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feczko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goudarzi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, G.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tatsuoka, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salvino, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunengraber, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyssiotis, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brody, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.29.490090</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increased glucose availability sensitizes pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.490105v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HIV-1 Rev-RRE Functional Activity in Primary Isolates is Highly Dependent on Minimal Context-Dependent Changes in Rev 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.490105v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During HIV infection, intron-containing viral mRNAs have to be exported efficiently from the host cell nucleus to the cytoplasm in order to complete the replication cycle. To overcome cellular restrictions to export incompletely spliced transcripts, HIV encodes a protein, Rev, that is constitutively expressed from a completely spliced transcript. Rev is then imported into the nucleus where it binds to an RNA structure on intron-containing viral mRNAs called the Rev Response Element (RRE). Bound Rev multimerizes and recruits cellular factors that permit the nuclear export of the resulting ribonucleoprotein complex. Primary HIV isolates display substantial variation in the functional activity of the Rev-RRE axis, which may permit viral adaptation to differing immune environments. We describe two subtype G primary isolates with disparate Rev activity. Rev activity was correlated with in vitro fitness of replication-competent viral constructs. Amino acid differences within the oligomerziation domain, but not within the arginine-rich motif or nuclear export signal, determined the different levels of Rev activity. Two specific amino acid substitutions were demonstrated to be able to alter the low-activity Rev to a high-activity phenotype. However, introducing the original amino acids from the the low activity Rev into high activity Rev in this position did not result in significant alterations in activity, highlighting the importance of the broader sequence context for functional activity. These results demonstrate that studies of Rev and RRE activity variation, which may have broader implications for HIV transmission and pathogenesis, should include sequences from primary isolates, as findings using only laboratory-adapted strains cannot be generalized.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dzhivhuho, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holsey, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Farrell, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rekosh, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammmarskjold, M.-L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, P. E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.29.490105</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HIV-1 Rev-RRE Functional Activity in Primary Isolates is Highly Dependent on Minimal Context-Dependent Changes in Rev]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.491405v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inferring Density-Dependent Population Dynamics Mechanisms through Rate Disambiguation for Logistic Birth-Death Processes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.491405v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Density dependence is important in the ecology and evolution of microbial and cancer cells. Typically, we can only measure net growth rates, but the underlying density-dependent mechanisms that give rise to the observed dynamics can manifest in birth processes, death processes, or both. Therefore, we utilize the mean and variance of cell number fluctuations to separately identify birth and death rates from time series that follow stochastic birth-death processes with logistic growth. Our method provides a novel perspective on stochastic parameter identifiability, which we validate by analyzing the accuracy in terms of the discretization bin size. We apply our method to the scenario where a homogeneous cell population goes through three stages: (1) grows naturally to its carrying capacity, (2) is treated with a drug that reduces its carrying capacity, and (3) overcomes the drug effect to restore its original carrying capacity. In each stage, we disambiguate whether it happens through the birth process, death process, or some combination of the two, which contributes to understanding drug resistance mechanisms. In the case of limited data sets, we provide an alternative method based on maximum likelihood and solve a constrained nonlinear optimization problem to identify the most likely density dependence parameter for a given cell number time series. Our methods can be applied to other biological systems at different scales to disambiguate density-dependent mechanisms underlying the same net growth rate.

Mathematics Subject Classifications60J27 {middle dot} 92D25 {middle dot} 62M10 {middle dot} 60J25
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huynh, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.10.491405</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inferring Density-Dependent Population Dynamics Mechanisms through Rate Disambiguation for Logistic Birth-Death Processes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.13.491880v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Wild-type IDH1 inhibition enhances chemotherapy response in melanoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.13.491880v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Malignant melanoma is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States. Despite recent and well-described progress in melanoma treatment, advanced disease still carries a poor prognosis for many patients and chemotherapy has been appropriately abandoned as a front-line option. Wild-type isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (wtIDH1) has recently been implicated as a metabolic dependency in cancer. The enzyme is protective to cancer cells under metabolic stress, including oxidative damage by conventional chemotherapy and nutrient limitation characteristic of the tumor microenvironment. Specifically, the cytosolic enzyme generates NADPH to maintain redox homeostasis. IDH1 also supports mitochondrial function through anaplerosis of its reaction product, -ketoglutarate. We show that melanoma patients express higher levels of the wtIDH1 enzyme compared to normal skin tissue, and elevated wtIDH1 expression portends poor patient survival. Knockdown of IDH1 by RNA interference inhibited cell proliferation and migration under low nutrient levels. Suppression of IDH1 expression in melanoma also decreased NADPH and glutathione levels, resulting in increased reactive oxygen species. An FDA-approved inhibitor of mutant IDH1, ivosidenib (AG-120), exhibited potent anti-wtIDH1 properties under low magnesium and nutrient levels, reflective of the tumor microenvironment in natura. Similarly, findings were replicated in murine models of melanoma. Further, wtIDH1 inhibition was synergistic to conventional anti-melanoma chemotherapy in pre-clinical models. This work points to a novel and readily available combination treatment strategy for patients with advanced and refractory melanoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajihassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asara, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothermel, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.13.491880</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wild-type IDH1 inhibition enhances chemotherapy response in melanoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.13.491898v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kidney collecting duct cells make vasopressin in response to NaCl induced hypertonicity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.13.491898v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vasopressin has traditionally been thought to be produced by the neurohypophyseal system and then released into the circulation where it regulates water homeostasis. The syndrome of inappropriate secretion of anti-diuretic hormone (vasopressin) raised the question if vasopressin could be produced outside of the brain and whether the kidney could be a source of vasopressin. We found that mouse and human kidneys expressed vasopressin mRNA. Using an antibody that detects the pre-pro-vasopressin, we found that immunoreactive pre-pro-vasopressin protein is found in mouse and human kidneys. Moreover, we found that murine collecting duct cells make biologically active vasopressin which increases in response to NaCl mediated hypertonicity, and that water restriction increases the abundance of kidney-derived vasopressin mRNA and protein expression in mouse kidneys. Thus, we provide evidence of biologically active production of kidney-derived vasopressin in kidney tubular epithelial cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arroyo, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Terker, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuchowski, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watts, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bock, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapp, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gould, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammock, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zent, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.-Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhave, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.13.491898</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kidney collecting duct cells make vasopressin in response to NaCl induced hypertonicity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.17.492350v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Variational and phase response analysis for limit cycles with hard boundaries, with applications to neuromechanical control problems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.17.492350v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Motor systems show an overall robustness, but because they are highly nonlinear, understanding how they achieve robustness is difficult. In many rhythmic systems, robustness against perturbations involves response of both the shape and the timing of the trajectory. This makes the study of robustness even more challenging.

To understand how a motor system produces robust behaviors in a variable environment, we consider a neuromechanical model of motor patterns in the feeding apparatus of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica (Shaw et al., 2015; Lyttle et al., 2017). We established in (Wang et al., 2021) the tools for studying combined shape and timing responses of limit cycle systems under sustained perturbations and here apply them to study robustness of the neuromechanical model against increased mechanical load during swallowing. Interestingly, we discover that nonlinear biomechanical properties confer resilience by immediately increasing resistance to applied loads. In contrast, the effect of changed sensory feedback signal is significantly delayed by the firing rates hard boundary properties. Our analysis suggests that sensory feedback contributes to robustness in swallowing primarily by shifting the timing of neural activation involved in the power stroke of the motor cycle (retraction). This effect enables the system to generate stronger retractor muscle forces to compensate for the increased load, and hence achieve strong robustness.

The approaches that we are applying to understanding a neuromechanical model in Aplysia, and the results that we have obtained, are likely to provide insights into the function of other motor systems that encounter changing mechanical loads and hard boundaries, both due to mechanical and neuronal firing properties.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.17.492350</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Variational and phase response analysis for limit cycles with hard boundaries, with applications to neuromechanical control problems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.19.492632v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7)-Driven Lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI) Acylation in Adipocytes Contributes to Systemic Glucose Homeostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.19.492632v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming increasingly common and is a leading cause of end stage liver diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The rise in NAFLD closely parallels the global epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and there is a clear interrelationship between abnormal lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, and NAFLD progression. Several genetic loci have been identified as contributors to NAFLD progression, all of which are consistently linked to abnormal lipid metabolic processes in the liver. The common loss-of-function variant rs641738 (C>T) near the gene encoding Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7) is associated with increased susceptibility to NAFLD as well as the entire spectrum of NAFLD progression. The MBOAT7 gene encodes a lipid metabolic enzyme that is capable of esterifying polyunsaturated fatty acyl-CoAs to LPI substrates to generate phosphatidylinositol (PI) lipids. We previously showed that antisense oligonucleotide (ASO)-mediated knockdown of Mboat7 in mice promoted high fat diet-induced hepatic steatosis, hyperinsulinemia, and systemic insulin resistance (Helsley et al., 2019). Thereafter, other groups showed that hepatocyte-specific genetic deletion of Mboat7 promoted striking fatty liver and NAFLD progression but does not alter insulin sensitivity, suggesting the potential for cell autonomous roles. Here, we show that MBOAT7 function in adipocytes contributes to diet-induced metabolic disturbances including hyperinsulinemia and systemic insulin resistance. The expression of Mboat7 in white adipose tissue closely correlates with diet-induced obesity across a panel of [~]100 inbred strains of mice fed a high fat/high sucrose diet. Moreover, adipocyte-specific genetic deletion of Mboat7 is sufficient to promote hyperinsulinemia, systemic insulin resistance, and mild fatty liver. Unlike in the liver, where Mboat7 plays a relatively minor role in maintaining arachidonic acid (AA)-containing PI pools, Mboat7 is the major source of AA-containing PI pools in adipose tissue. Our data demonstrate that MBOAT7 is a critical regulator of adipose tissue PI homeostasis, and adipocyte MBOAT7-driven PI biosynthesis is closely linked to hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance in mice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Massey, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadharajan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horak, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohe, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allende, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.19.492632</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7)-Driven Lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI) Acylation in Adipocytes Contributes to Systemic Glucose Homeostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.19.492726v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatially selective stimulation of the pig vagus nerve to modulate target effect versus side effect 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.19.492726v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Electrical stimulation of the cervical vagus nerve using implanted electrodes (VNS) is FDA-approved for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, treatment-resistant depression, and most recently, chronic ischemic stroke rehabilitation. However, VNS is critically limited by the unwanted stimulation of nearby neck muscles - a result of non-specific stimulation activating motor nerve fibers within the vagus. Prior studies suggested that precise placement of small epineural electrodes can modify VNS therapeutic effects, such as cardiac responses. However, it remains unclear if placement can alter the balance between intended effect and limiting side effect.

We used an FDA investigational device exemption approved six-contact epineural cuff to deliver VNS in pigs and quantified how epineural electrode location impacts on- and off-target VNS activation. Detailed post-mortem histology was conducted to understand how the underlying neuroanatomy impacts observed functional responses. Here we report the discovery and characterization of clear neuroanatomy-dependent differences in threshold and saturation for responses related to both effect (change in heart rate) and side effect (neck muscle contractions). The histological and electrophysiological data were used to develop and validate subject-specific computation models of VNS, creating a well-grounded quantitative framework to optimize electrode location-specific activation of nerve fibers governing intended effect versus unwanted side effect.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blanz, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musselman, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolai, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verner, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Begnaud, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suminski, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grill, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelot, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.19.492726</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatially selective stimulation of the pig vagus nerve to modulate target effect versus side effect]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.20.492847v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Surveying non-visual arrestins reveals allosteric interactions between functional sites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.20.492847v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1.Arrestins are important scaffolding proteins that are expressed in all vertebrate animals. They regulate cell signaling events upon binding to active G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) and trigger endocytosis of active GPCRs. While many of the functional sites on arrestins have been characterized, the question of how these sites interact is unanswered. We used anisotropic network modelling (ANM) together with our covariance compliment techniques to survey all of the available structures of the non-visual arrestins to map how structural changes and protein-binding affect their structural dynamics. We found that activation and clathrin binding have a marked effect on arrestin dynamics, and that these dynamics changes are localized to a small number of distant functional sites. These sites include -helix 1, the lariat loop, nuclear localization domain, and the C-domain {beta}-sheets on the C-loop side. Our techniques suggest that clathrin binding and/or GPCR activation of arrestin perturb the dynamics of these sites independent of structural changes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Seckler, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grossfield, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.20.492847</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Surveying non-visual arrestins reveals allosteric interactions between functional sites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.25.492883v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sickle red blood cell derived extracellular vesicles activate endothelial cells and enhance sickle red cell adhesion mediated by von Willebrand factor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.25.492883v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endothelial activation and sickle red blood cell (RBC) adhesion are central to the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease (SCD). Quantitatively, RBC-derived extracellular vesicles, REVs, are more abundant from SS RBCs compared with healthy RBCs (AA RBCs). Sickle RBC-derived REVs (SS REVs) are known to promote endothelial cell (EC) activation through cell signaling and transcriptional regulation at longer terms. However, the SS REV-mediated short term non transcriptional response of EC is unclear. Here, we examined the impact of SS REVs on acute microvascular EC activation and RBC adhesion at 2 hours. Compared with AA REVs, SS REVs promoted human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMEC) activation indicated by increased von Willebrand Factor (vWF) expression. Under microfluidic conditions, we found abnormal SS RBC adhesion to HPMECs exposed to SS REVs. This enhanced SS RBC adhesion was reduced by vWF cleaving protease ADAMTS13 to a level similar to HPMECs treated with AA REVs. Consistent with these observations, studies in SS mice with implanted dorsal skin-fold chambers found hemin-induced stasis was inhibited by ADAMTS13. The adhesion induced by SS REVs was variable, and was higher with SS RBCs from patients with increased markers of hemolysis (LDH and reticulocyte count) or a concomitant clinical diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis. Our results emphasize the critical contribution made by REVs to the pathophysiology of SCD by triggering acute microvascular EC activation and abnormal RBC adhesion. These findings may help to better understand acute pathophysiological mechanism of SCD and thereby the development of new treatment strategies using vWF as a potential target.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>An, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Man, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kucukal, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wulftange, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goreke, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bode, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nayak, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vercellotti, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belcher, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Little, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurkan, U. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.25.492883</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sickle red blood cell derived extracellular vesicles activate endothelial cells and enhance sickle red cell adhesion mediated by von Willebrand factor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494241v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Opto-MASS: a high-throughput engineering platform for genetically encoded fluorescentsensors enabling all optical in vivo detection of monoamines and neuropeptides 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494241v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fluorescent sensor proteins are instrumental for detecting biological signals in vivo with high temporal accuracy and cell-type specificity. However, engineering sensors with physiological ligand sensitivity and selectivity is difficult because they need to be optimized through individual mutagenesis in vitro to assess their performance. The vast mutational landscape proteins constitute an obstacle that slows down sensor development. This is particularly true for sensors that require mammalian host systems to be screened. Here, we developed a novel high-throughput engineering platform that functionally tests thousands of variants simultaneously in mammalian cells and thus allows the screening of large variant numbers. We showcase the capabilities of our platform, called Optogenetic Microwell Array Screening System (Opto-MASS), by engineering novel monoamine and neuropeptide in vivo capable sensors with distinct physiological roles at high-throughput.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rappleye, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon-Fennel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castro, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matarasso, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zamorano, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wait, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siebart, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muster, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stuber, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruchas, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berndt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.01.494241</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Opto-MASS: a high-throughput engineering platform for genetically encoded fluorescentsensors enabling all optical in vivo detection of monoamines and neuropeptides]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.07.495062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Linking physiology to ecosystem function: how vulnerable are different functional groups to climate change? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.07.495062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
O_LIThe resilience of ecosystem function under global climate change is governed by individual species vulnerabilities and the functional groups they contribute to (e.g. decomposition, primary production, pollination, primary, secondary and tertiary consumption). Yet it remains unclear whether species that contribute to different functional groups, which underpin ecosystem function, differ in their vulnerability to climate change.
C_LIO_LIIt is important to examine if functional group vulnerability differs across space (e.g. tropical vs temperate latitudes) to determine if some regions will be more vulnerable to loss of ecosystem function than others, and to examine whether localized effects of particular community compositions override global patterns of functional group vulnerability.
C_LIO_LIWe used existing upper thermal limit data across a range of terrestrial species (N = 1,743) to calculate species warming margins (degrees distance between a species upper thermal limit and the maximum environmental temperature they inhabit), as a metric of climate change vulnerability, to determine whether species that comprise different functional groups exhibit differential vulnerability to climate change, and if vulnerability trends change across geographic space.
C_LIO_LIWe found that primary producers had the broadest warming margins across the globe ( = 21.85 {degrees}C) and that tertiary consumers had the narrowest warming margins ( = 4.37 {degrees}C), where vulnerability tended to increase with trophic level.
C_LIO_LISpecies that contribute towards primary production were more vulnerable in low-latitude than mid-latitude regions, but warming margins across all other functional groups did not differ across regions when evolutionary history was considered. However, when evolutionary history was excluded from the analyses (as closely related species often play similar functional roles within ecosystems demonstrating true variation in functional group warming margins) we found that pollinators are more vulnerable in mid-latitude regions and that primary producers are more vulnerable in low-latitude environments.
C_LIO_LIThis study provides a critical first step in linking individual species vulnerabilities with whole ecosystem responses to climate change.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>da Silva, C. R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beaman, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Youngblood, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kellermann, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diamond, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.07.495062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Linking physiology to ecosystem function: how vulnerable are different functional groups to climate change?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.08.495415v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detecting sources of immune activation and viral rebound in HIV infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.08.495415v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) generally suppresses HIV replication to undetectable levels in peripheral blood, but immune activation associated with increased morbidity and mortality is sustained during ART, and infection rebounds when treatment is interrupted. To identify drivers of immune activation and potential sources of viral rebound, we modified RNAscope in situ hybridization to visualize HIV-virus producing cells as a standard to compare the following assays of potential sources of immune activation and virus rebound following treatment interruption: 1) EDITS (envelope detection by induced transcription-based sequencing) assay; 2) HIV-Flow; and 3) Flow-FISH assays that can scan tissues and cell suspensions to detect rare cells expressing env mRNA, gag mRNA/Gag protein and p24 respectively; and 4) an ultrasensitive immunoassay that detects p24 in cell/tissue lysates at subfemtomolar levels. We show that the sensitivity of these assays is sufficient to detect a rare HIV-producing/env mRNA+/p24+ cell in a million uninfected cells. These high-throughput technologies thus provide contemporary tools to detect and characterize rare cells producing virus and viral antigens as potential sources of immune activation and viral rebound.

ImportanceAnti-retroviral therapy (ART) has greatly improved the quality and length of life for people living with HIV, but immune activation does not normalize during ART, and persistent immune activation has been linked to increased morbidity and mortality. We report a comparison of assays of two potential sources of immune activation during ART: rare cells producing HIV virus or the virus major viral protein, p24, benchmarked on a cell model of active and latent infections and a method to visualize HIV-producing cells. We show that assays of HIV Envelope mRNA (EDITS assay) and gag mRNA and p24 (Flow-FISH, HIV-Flow and ultrasensitive p24 immunoassay) detect HIV-producing cells and p24 at sensitivities of one infected cell in a million uninfected cells, thus providing validated tools to explore sources of immune activation during ART in the lymphoid and other tissue reservoirs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wietgrefe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marques, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanders, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummins, N. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Badley, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dobrowolski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pagliuzza, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chomont, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sannier, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dube, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufmann, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howell, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reilly, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herschhorn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schacker, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haase, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.08.495415</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detecting sources of immune activation and viral rebound in HIV infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.495657v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Small molecule mediated stabilization of PP2A modulates the Homologous Recombination pathway and potentiates DNA damage-induced cell death 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.495657v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-Grade Serous Carcinoma (HGSC) is the most common and lethal ovarian cancer subtype. PARP-inhibitors (PARPi) have become the mainstay of HGSC targeted therapy, given that these tumors are driven by a high degree of genomic instability and Homologous Recombination (HR) defects. Nonetheless, only [~]30% of patients initially respond to treatment, ultimately relapsing with resistant disease. Thus, despite recent advances in drug development and increased understanding of genetic alterations driving HGSC progression, mortality has not declined, highlighting the need for novel therapies. Using a Small Molecule Activator of Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) (SMAP-061), we investigated the mechanism by which PP2A stabilization induces apoptosis in Patient-Derived HGSC cells and Xenograft (PDX) models alone or in combination with PARPi. We uncovered that PP2A genes essential for transformation (B56,B56{gamma} and PR72) and basal phosphatase activity (PP2A-A and -C) are heterozygously lost in the majority of HGSC. Moreover, loss of these PP2A genes correlates with worse overall patient survival. We show that SMAP-061 stabilization of PP2A inhibits the HR output by targeting RAD51, leading to chronic accumulation of DNA damage and ultimately apoptosis. Furthermore, combination of SMAP-061 and PARPi leads to enhanced apoptosis in both HR-proficient and -deficient cells and in patient-derived xenograft models. Our studies identify PP2A as novel regulator of HR and introduces PP2A activators as a potential treatment for HGSC tumors. Our studies further emphasize the potential of PP2A modulators to overcome PARPi insensitivity, given that targeting RAD51 has presented benefits in overcoming PARPi-resistance driven by BRCA1/2 mutation reversions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Avelar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carvette, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puleo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colina, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sobeck, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gandhi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dziubinski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waggoner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zanotti, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Resnick, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skala, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narla, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiFeo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.10.495657</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Small molecule mediated stabilization of PP2A modulates the Homologous Recombination pathway and potentiates DNA damage-induced cell death]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.495696v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fitness seascapes facilitate the prediction of therapy resistance under time-varying selection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.10.495696v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) modeling of host-pathogen interactions has enhanced our understanding of drug resistance. However, how combinations of drug resistance mutations impact dose-response curves remains underappreciated in PK-PD studies. The fitness seascape model addresses this by extending the fitness landscape model to map genotypes to dose-response functions, enabling the study of evolution under fluctuating drug concentrations. Here, we present an empirical fitness seascape in E. coli harboring all combinations of four drug resistance mutations. Incorporating these data into PK-PD simulations of antibiotic treatment, we find that higher mutation supply increases the probability of resistance, and early adherence to the drug regimen is critical. In vitro studies further support the finding that the second dose in a drug regimen is important for preventing resistance. This work represents the first application of an empirical fitness seascape in computational PK-PD studies, revealing novel insights into drug resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>King, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelesko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owen, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dolson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.10.495696</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fitness seascapes facilitate the prediction of therapy resistance under time-varying selection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.495897v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex-specific niche signaling contributes to sexual dimorphism following stem cell transplantation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.495897v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation (HST) is a curative treatment for many hematopoietic cancers and bone marrow (BM) disorders but is currently limited by numerous complications including a lengthy recovery period, prolonged neutropenia resulting in severe infections and bleeding, and a high incidence of graft vs. host disease (GVHD). While clinical studies have demonstrated that sex mismatch, notably male recipients with female donor cells, results in increased risk of GVHD (likely due to male recipient minor histocompatibility antigens targeted by donor female T-cells 1), increased non-relapse mortality, and decreased overall survival, the mechanisms underlying sex-determinants on hematopoiesis and post-transplant recovery are not clear. In this manuscript we have identified: 1) unique expression of hematopoietic niche factors in the BM and spleens of male and female mice, 2) altered kinetics of hematopoietic reconstitution following transplantation when male vs. female BM is used as the donor cell source, 3) a sex-specific role for the recipient niche in promoting post HST recovery, and 4) a dose-dependent role for exogenous sex hormones in maintaining hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Taken together, these data demonstrate that sex-specific cellular and molecular signaling occurs during hematopoietic regeneration. Further identifying novel sex-dependent determinants of regeneration following transplantation will not only enhance understanding of steady state versus regeneration hematopoiesis but may also reveal unique (and potentially sex-specific) therapeutic targets to accelerate hematologic recovery.

Key PointsO_LIMale and female mice display altered kinetics of regeneration following HST due to unique niche factors in hematopoietic compartments.
C_LIO_LIExogenous steroid sex hormones uniquely regulate the pool of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and may impact transplantation outcomes.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cordova, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christo, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campanelli, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broncano, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.13.495897</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex-specific niche signaling contributes to sexual dimorphism following stem cell transplantation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.495939v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MicroRNA-27a is essential for bone remodeling by modulating p62-mediated osteoclast signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.13.495939v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The ability to simultaneously modulate a set of genes for lineage-specific development has made microRNA an ideal master regulator for organogenesis. However, most microRNA deletions do not exhibit obvious phenotypic defects possibly due to functional redundancy. MicroRNAs are known to regulate skeletal lineages as the loss of their maturation enzyme Dicer impairs bone remodeling processes. Therefore, it is important to identify specific microRNA essential for bone homeostasis. We report the loss of miR-27a causing severe osteoporosis in mice. MiR-27a affects osteoclast-mediated bone resorption but not osteoblast-mediated bone formation during skeletal remodeling. Gene profiling and bioinformatics further identify the specific targets of miR-27a in osteoclast cells. MiR-27a exerts its effects on osteoclast differentiation through modulation of Squstm1/p62 whose mutations have been linked to Pagets disease of bone. Our findings reveal a new miR-27a-p62 axis necessary and sufficient to mediate osteoclast differentiation and highlight a therapeutic implication for osteoporosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hsu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maruyama, E. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maruyama, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.13.495939</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MicroRNA-27a is essential for bone remodeling by modulating p62-mediated osteoclast signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.15.496349v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Brain-Controlled Electrical Stimulation Restores Continuous Finger Function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.15.496349v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Brain-machine interfaces have shown promise in extracting upper extremity movement intention from the thoughts of nonhuman primates and people with tetraplegia. Attempts to restore a users own hand and arm function have employed functional electrical stimulation (FES), but most work has restored discrete grasps. Little is known about how well FES can control continuous finger movements. Here, we use a low-power brain-controlled functional electrical stimulation (BCFES) system to restore continuous volitional control of finger positions to a monkey with a temporarily paralyzed hand. In a one-dimensional, continuous, finger-related target acquisition task, the monkey improved his success rate to 83% (1.5s median acquisition time) when using the BCFES system during temporary paralysis from 8.8% (9.5s median acquisition, equivalent to chance) when attempting to use his temporarily paralyzed hand. With two monkeys under general anesthesia, we found FES alone could control the monkeys fingers to rapidly reach targets in a median 1.1s but caused oscillation about the target. Finally, when attempting to perform a virtual two-finger continuous target acquisition task in brain-control mode following temporary hand paralysis, we found performance could be completely recovered by executing recalibrated feedback-intention training one time following temporary paralysis. These results suggest that BCFES can restore continuous finger function during temporary paralysis using existing low-power technologies and brain-control may not be the limiting performance factor in a BCFES neuroprosthesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nason-Tomaszewski, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mender, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambrecht, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilgore, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiravuri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganesh Kumar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kung, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willsey, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chestek, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patil, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.15.496349</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Brain-Controlled Electrical Stimulation Restores Continuous Finger Function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.20.496903v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Probing the biophysical constraints of SARS-CoV-2 spike N-terminal domain using deep mutational scanning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.20.496903v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Increasing the expression level of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein has been critical for COVID-19 vaccine development. While previous efforts largely focused on engineering the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and the S2 subunit, the N-terminal domain (NTD) has been long overlooked due to the limited understanding of its biophysical constraints. In this study, the effects of thousands of NTD single mutations on S protein expression were quantified by deep mutational scanning. Our results revealed that in terms of S protein expression, the mutational tolerability of NTD residues was inversely correlated with their proximity to the RBD and S2. We also identified NTD mutations at the interdomain interface that increased S protein expression without altering its antigenicity. Overall, this study not only advances the understanding of the biophysical constraints of the NTD, but also provides invaluable insights into S-based immunogen design.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ouyang, W. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, T. J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kieffer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrabi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.20.496903</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Probing the biophysical constraints of SARS-CoV-2 spike N-terminal domain using deep mutational scanning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.21.497032v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhancers of human and rodent oligodendrocyte formation predominantly induce cholesterol precursor accumulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.21.497032v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regeneration of myelin in the CNS is being pursued as a potential therapeutic approach for multiple sclerosis. Several labs have reported small molecules that promote oligodendrocyte formation and remyelination in vivo. Recently, we reported that many such molecules function by inhibiting a narrow window of enzymes in the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. Here we describe a new high-throughput screen of 1,836 bioactive molecules and a thorough re-analysis of more than 60 molecules previously-identified as promoting oligodendrocyte formation from human, rat, or mouse oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). These studies highlight that an overwhelming fraction of validated screening hits, including several molecules being evaluated clinically for remyelination, inhibit cholesterol pathway enzymes like EBP. To rationalize these findings, we suggest a model that relies on the high druggability of sterol-metabolizing enzymes and the ability of cationic amphiphiles to mimic the transition state of EBP. These studies further establish cholesterol pathway inhibition as a dominant mechanism among screening hits that enhance human, rat, or mouse oligodendrocyte formation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sax, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hershman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubler, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allimuthu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elitt, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.21.497032</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhancers of human and rodent oligodendrocyte formation predominantly induce cholesterol precursor accumulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.24.497507v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Liver Endothelium Microenvironment Promotes HER3-mediated Cell Growth in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.24.497507v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
[~]90% metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) occurs in the liver, and the 5-year survival rate for patients with mPDAC is only at 3%. We previously reported that liver endothelial cells (ECs) secreted soluble factors to promote colorectal cancer cell survival in a paracrine fashion. However, the effects of liver ECs on mPDAC have not been elucidated. In this study, we used primary ECs from non-neoplastic liver tissues. We treated PDAC cells with conditioned medium (CM) from liver ECs, with CM from PDAC as controls, and determined that liver EC-secreted factors increased PDAC cell growth. Using an unbiased receptor tyrosine kinase array, we identified human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3, also known as ErbB3) as a key mediator in EC-induced growth in PDAC cells that have HER3 expression (HER3 +ve). We found that EC-secreted neuregulins activated the HER3-AKT signaling axis, and that depleting neuregulins from EC CM or blocking HER3 with an antibody, seribantumab, attenuated EC-induced proliferation in HER3 +ve PDAC cells, but not in cells without HER3 expression. Furthermore, we determined that EC CM increased PDAC xenograft growth in vivo, and that seribantumab blocked EC-induced growth in xenografts with HER3 expression. These findings elucidated a paracrine role of liver ECs in promoting PDAC cell growth, and identified the HER3-AKT axis as a key mediator in EC-induced functions in PDAC cells with HER3 expression.

Implicationsover 70% mPDAC express HER3. This study suggests the potential of using HER3-targeted therapies for treating patients with HER3 +ve mPDAC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brody, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.24.497507</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Liver Endothelium Microenvironment Promotes HER3-mediated Cell Growth in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.06.498810v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Diet prevents the expansion of segmented filamentous bacteria and ileo-colonic inflammation in a model of Crohn's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.06.498810v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Crohns disease (CD) is associated with changes in the microbiota, and murine models of CD-like ileo-colonic inflammation depend on the presence of microbial triggers. Increased abundance of unknown Clostridiales and the microscopic detection of filamentous structures close to the epithelium of Tnf {Delta}ARE mice pointed towards segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), a commensal well-known to induce the maturation of Th17 cell-derived immune responses that is highly implicated in the pathogenesis of IBD. We show that the abundance of SFB strongly correlates with the severity of CD-like ileal inflammation in Tnf {Delta}ARE and SAMP/Yit mice. SFB mono-colonization of germ-free Tnf {Delta}ARE mice confirmed the causal link and resulted in severe ileo-colonic inflammation, characterized by elevated tissue levels of Tnf and Il-17, neutrophil infiltration and loss of Paneth and goblet cell function. Co-colonization of SFB in human-microbiota associated Tnf {Delta}ARE mice confirmed that SFB presence is indispensable for disease development. Screening of 412 ileal and colonic mucosal biopsies from IBD patients using previously published and newly designed human SFB-specific primer sets showed no presence of SFB in human tissue samples. Simulating the protective effect of exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) by feeding SFB mono-colonized Tnf {Delta}ARE mice EEN-like purified diet antagonized SFB colonization and prevented disease development in Tnf {Delta}ARE mice, clearly demonstrating the important role of diet in modulating this IBD-related but murine pathobiont.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Metwaly, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jovic, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waldschmitt, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khaloian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heimes, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haecker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammoudi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Bourhis, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayorgas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siebert, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basic, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwerd, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panes, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bleich, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeissig, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schnupf, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haller, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.06.498810</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Diet prevents the expansion of segmented filamentous bacteria and ileo-colonic inflammation in a model of Crohn's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.13.499924v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-cell CD8+ dynamics in PLWH uncover the depletion of TIGIT+ memory HIV-1-specific cells during long-term ART 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.13.499924v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The co-expression of inhibitory receptors (IRs) is a hallmark of CD8+ T-cell exhaustion (Tex) in people living with HIV-1 (PLWH). Understanding alterations of IRs expression in PLWH on long-term antiretroviral treatment (ART) remains elusive but is critical to overcoming CD8+ Tex and designing novel HIV-1 cure immunotherapies. To address this, we combine high-dimensional supervised and unsupervised analysis of IRs concomitant with functional markers across the CD8+ T-cell landscape on 24 PLWH over a decade on ART. We define irreversible alterations of IRs co-expression patterns in CD8+ T cells not mitigated by ART and identify negative associations between the frequency of TIGIT+ and TIGIT+TIM-3+ and CD4+ T-cell levels. Moreover, changes in total, SEB-activated, and HIV-1-specific CD8+ T-cells delineate a complex reshaping of memory and effector-like cellular clusters on ART. Indeed, we identify a selective reduction of HIV-1 specific-CD8+ T-cell memory-like clusters sharing TIGIT expression and low CD107a that can be recovered by mAb TIGIT blockade independently of IFN{gamma} and IL-2. Collectively, these data characterize with unprecedented detail the patterns of IRs expression and functions across the CD8+ T-cell landscape and indicate the potential of TIGIT as a target for Tex precision immunotherapies in PLWH at all ART stages.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blanch-Lombarte, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ouchi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez-Moyano, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carabelli, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marin, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penya, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelletier, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalmau, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santos, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clotet, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prado, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.13.499924</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-cell CD8+ dynamics in PLWH uncover the depletion of TIGIT+ memory HIV-1-specific cells during long-term ART]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.25.501420v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stabilization of a Protein by a Single Halogen-Based Aromatic Amplifier 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.25.501420v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The utility of halogenation in protein design is investigated by a combination of quantitative atomistic simulations and experiment. The approach is applied to insulin, a small, therapeutically relevant domain amenable to simulation and semi-synthesis. In a singly halogenated aromatic ring, the simulations predicted regiospecific inductive effects to modulate multiple surrounding electrostatic (weakly polar) interactions, thereby amplifying changes in thermodynamic stability. In accordance with the simulations, stabilization of insulin is demonstrated by single halogen atoms at the ortho position of an invariant phenylalanine (2-F-PheB24, 2-Cl-PheB24 and 2-Br-PheB24; {Delta}{Delta}Gu = -0.5 to -1.0 kcal/mol) located at the edge of a protein crevice. Corresponding meta and para substitutions have negligible effects. The ortho-modified insulin analogs exhibit enhanced resistance to fibrillation above room temperature and retain biological activity in mammalian cells and in a rat model of diabetes mellitus. Consequently, halogen-based stabilization of insulin and other therapeutic proteins may provide a biophysical strategy to circumvent the requirement for a distribution "cold chain" in the developing world and enhance the shelf life of pharmaceutical formulations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hage, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhayalan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittaker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carr, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittaker, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ismail-Beigi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meuwly, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.25.501420</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stabilization of a Protein by a Single Halogen-Based Aromatic Amplifier]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.27.501733v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BRAFV600E expression in thyrocytes causes recruitment of immunosuppressive STABILIN-1 macrophages 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.27.501733v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most frequent histological subtype of thyroid cancers (TC), and BRAFV600E genetic alteration is found in 60% of this endocrine cancer. This oncogene is associated with poor prognosis, resistance to radioiodine therapy and tumor progression. Histological follow-up by anatomo-pathologists reveals that 2/3 of surgically-removed thyroids do not present malignant lesions. Continued fundamental research into the molecular mechanisms of TC downstream of BRAFV600E remains thus central to better understand the clinical behavior of these tumors.

To study PTC, we used a mouse model in which expression of BRAFV600E is specifically switched on in thyrocytes by doxycycline administration. Upon daily intraperitoneal doxycycline injection, thyroid tissue rapidly acquired histological features mimicking human PTC. Transcriptomic analysis revealed major changes in immune signaling pathways upon BRAFV600E induction. Multiplex immunofluorescence confirmed the abundant recruitment of macrophages, among which a population of LYVE-1+/CD206+/STABILIN-1+ was dramatically increased. By genetically inactivating the gene coding for the scavenger receptor STABILIN-1, we showed an increase of CD8+ T cells in this in situ BRAFV600E dependent TC. Finally, we demonstrated the presence of CD206+/STABILIN-1+ macrophages in human thyroid pathologies. Altogether, we revealed the recruitment of immunosuppressive STABILIN-1 macrophages a PTC mouse model and the relevance of these observations in human thyroid tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Spourquet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delcorte, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lemoine, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dauguet, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loriot, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achouri, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hollmen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jalkanen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huaux, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Meerbeeck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knauf, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fagin, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dessy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mourad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henriet, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyteca, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marbaix, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierreux, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.27.501733</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BRAFV600E expression in thyrocytes causes recruitment of immunosuppressive STABILIN-1 macrophages]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.30.502136v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Surgical techniques and tips for a reliable murine model of primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.30.502136v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
For patients with pancreatic cancer, survival rates lag behind other common cancers. This is in part due to the relative resistance to conventional chemotherapeutics and novel immune- or targeted-therapies. Ongoing research efforts are needed to identify and validate effective therapies. It is the unfortunate reality that a significant proportion of pre-clinical success does not translate into improved patient outcomes, likely due to a multitude of factors. In the current research landscape, flank xenograft models are commonly utilized to study pancreatic cancer, as this technique is fast, fairly non-invasive, and reliable. However, this model is not anatomically or physiologically accurate, does not impact other intra-abdominal organs, and experiments are often ended based on tumor size rather than systemic illness. Orthotopic injections of cancer cells directly into the pancreas for study of localized disease or into the spleen for study of hepatic metastases can be performed via a quick, reliable, minimally invasive surgical procedure with minimal morbidity and mortality. Existing methodologic reports are often sparse. Thus, there are significant knowledge and technical gaps for researchers attempting these techniques for the first time. In the current report, details of orthotopic pancreatic injections and splenic injections for metastatic disease are provided. Details of commonly encountered operative issues and mistakes are presented with suggestions to improve performance are described. A summary of expected outcomes is also provided herein.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajihassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katayama, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loftus, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.30.502136</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Surgical techniques and tips for a reliable murine model of primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.01.502398v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Recovery of forearm and fine digit function after chronic spinal cord injury by simultaneous blockade of inhibitory matrix CSPG production and the receptor PTPσ. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.01.502398v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spinal cord injuries, for which there are limited effective clinical treatments, result in enduring paralysis and hypoesthesia due, in part, to the inhibitory microenvironment that develops and limits regeneration/sprouting, especially during chronic stages. Recently, we discovered that targeted enzymatic modulation of the potently inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSPG) component of the extracellular and perineuronal net (PNN) matrix via Chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) can rapidly restore robust respiratory function to the previously paralyzed hemi-diaphragm after remarkably long times post-injury (up to 1.5 years) following a cervical level 2 lateral hemi-transection. Importantly, ChABC treatment at cervical level 4 in this chronic model also elicited rapid, albeit modest, improvements in upper arm function. In the present study, we sought to further optimize and elucidate the capacity for nerve sprouting and/or regeneration to restore gross as well as fine motor control of the forearm and digits at lengthy chronic stages post injury. However, instead of using ChABC, we utilized a novel and more clinically relevant systemic, non-invasive combinatorial treatment strategy designed to both reduce and overcome inhibitory CSPGs simultaneously and spatially extensively. Following a three-month upper cervical spinal hemi-lesion using adult female Sprague Dawley rats, we show that the combined treatment has a profound effect on functional recovery of the chronically paralyzed forelimb and paw, specifically during walking as well as precision movements of the digits. Our exciting pre-clinical findings will begin to enhance our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying functionally beneficial regenerative events occurring at chronic injury stages for clinically relevant translational benefits.

Significance statementOvercoming the persistent axon inhibitory environment following a functionally debilitating incomplete spinal cord lesion has long proven to be an elusive dilemma, especially months to years after the initial spinal injury. Current therapeutic and rehabilitative techniques for patients suffering from chronic cervical spinal insults minimally, if at all, address this structural hindrance and support limited return of crucial behaviors such as voluntary use of the arms and hands. Our investigation into the behavioral and anatomical consequences of systemically perturbing the high-affinity binding interaction between the receptor PTP{sigma} and the extracellular chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans highlight an underlying barrier to the restoration of forelimb/paw walking and eating behavior 12-weeks after a cervical spinal hemi-transection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Milton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwok, J. C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McClellan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warren, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.01.502398</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Recovery of forearm and fine digit function after chronic spinal cord injury by simultaneous blockade of inhibitory matrix CSPG production and the receptor PTPσ.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502511v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Coordinated cadherin functions sculpt respiratory motor circuit connectivity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502511v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Breathing, and the motor circuits that control it, are essential for life. At the core of respiratory circuits are Dbx1-derived interneurons, which generate the rhythm and pattern of breathing, and phrenic motor neurons (MNs), which provide the final motor output that drives diaphragm muscle contractions during inspiration. Despite their critical function, the principles that dictate how respiratory circuits assemble are unknown. Here we show that coordinated activity of a type I cadherin (N-cadherin) and type II cadherins (Cadherin-6, -9, and -10) is required in both MNs and Dbx1-derived neurons to generate robust respiratory motor output. Both MN- and Dbx1-specific cadherin inactivation during a critical developmental window results in perinatal lethality due to respiratory failure and a striking reduction in phrenic MN bursting activity. This combinatorial cadherin code is required to establish phrenic MN cell body and dendritic topography; surprisingly, however, cell body position appears to be dispensable for the targeting of phrenic MNs by descending respiratory inputs. Our findings demonstrate that type I and type II cadherins function cooperatively throughout the respiratory circuit to generate a robust breathing output and reveal novel strategies that drive the assembly of motor circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vagnozzi, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brozost, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KC, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindsay, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zampieri, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landmesser, L. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philippidou, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.02.502511</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Coordinated cadherin functions sculpt respiratory motor circuit connectivity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.15.502524v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Translation Initiation Factor Homolog, eif4e1c, Regulates Cardiomyocyte Metabolism and Proliferation During Heart Regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.15.502524v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The eIF4E family of translation initiation factors bind 5 methylated caps and act as the limiting-step for mRNA translation. The canonical eIF4E1A is required for cell viability, yet other related eIF4E families exist and are utilized in specific contexts or tissues. Here, we describe a family called Eif4e1c for which we find roles during heart development and regeneration in zebrafish. The Eif4e1c family is present in all aquatic vertebrates but is lost in all terrestrial species. A core group of amino acids shared over 500 million years of evolution forms an interface along the protein surface, suggesting Eif4e1c functions in a novel pathway. Deletion of eif4e1c in zebrafish caused growth deficits and impaired survival in juveniles. Mutants surviving to adulthood had fewer cardiomyocytes and reduced proliferative responses to cardiac injury. Ribosome profiling of mutant hearts demonstrated changes in translation efficiency of mRNA for genes known to regulate cardiomyocyte proliferation. Although eif4e1c is broadly expressed, its disruption had most notable impact on the heart and at juvenile stages. Our findings reveal context-dependent requirements for translation initiation regulators during heart regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lubbertozzi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jahan, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tedeschi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jankowsky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carstens, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poss, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.15.502524</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Translation Initiation Factor Homolog, eif4e1c, Regulates Cardiomyocyte Metabolism and Proliferation During Heart Regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.17.503211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex-specific T cell exhaustion drives differential immune responses in glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.17.503211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sex differences in glioblastoma (GBM) incidence and outcome are well recognized, and emerging evidence suggests that these extend to genetic/epigenetic and cellular differences, including immune responses. However, the mechanisms driving immunological sex differences are not fully understood. Using GBM models, we demonstrate that T cells play a critical role in driving GBM sex differences. Male mice exhibited accelerated tumor growth, with decreased T cell infiltration and increased T cell exhaustion. Furthermore, a higher frequency of progenitor exhausted T cells was found in males, with improved responsiveness to anti-PD1 treatment. Bone marrow chimera and adoptive transfer models indicated that T cell-mediated tumor control was predominantly regulated in a cell-intrinsic manner, which was further corroborated by in vitro exhaustion assays. Moreover, increased T cell exhaustion was observed in male GBM patients. These findings demonstrate sex-specific pre-determined behavior of T cells is critical in inducing sex differences in GBM progression and immunotherapy response.

Statement of significanceImmunotherapies in GBM patients have been unsuccessful due to a variety of factors including the highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in GBM. This study demonstrates that sex-specific T cell behaviors are predominantly intrinsically regulated, further suggesting sex-specific approaches can be leveraged to potentially improve therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy in GBM.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicosia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kish, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okada, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valujskikh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fairchild, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.17.503211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex-specific T cell exhaustion drives differential immune responses in glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505701v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Boolean modeling of mechanosensitive Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition and its reversal 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505701v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The significance of biophysical modulators of the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is demonstrated by experiments that document full EMT on stiff, nano-patterned substrates in the absence of biochemical induction. Yet, current models focus on biochemical triggers of EMT without addressing its mechanosensitive nature. Here we built a Boolean model of EMT triggered by mechanosensing - mitogen crosstalk. Our model reproduces epithelial, hybrid E/M and mesenchymal phenotypes, the role of autocrine TGF{beta} signaling in maintaining mesenchymal cells in the absence of external drivers, inhibition of proliferation by TGF{beta}, and its apoptotic effects on soft ECM. We offer testable predictions on the density-dependence of partial EMT, its molecular drivers, and the conflict between mitosis and hybrid E/M stability. Our model opens the door to modeling the effects of the biomechanical environment on cancer cell stemness linked to the hybrid E/M state, as well as the mutually inhibitory crosstalk between EMT and senescence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatnagar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guberman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zonfa, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravasz Regan, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505701</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Boolean modeling of mechanosensitive Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition and its reversal]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505713v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies contribute more to SARS-CoV-2 neutralization when target cells express high levels of ACE2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505713v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neutralization assays are experimental surrogates for the effectiveness of infection- or vaccine-elicited polyclonal antibodies and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2. However, the measured neutralization can depend on details of the experimental assay. Here we systematically assess how ACE2 expression in target cells affects neutralization by antibodies to different spike epitopes in lentivirus pseudovirus neutralization assays. For high ACE2-expressing target cells, receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies account for nearly all neutralizing activity in polyclonal human sera. But for lower ACE2-expressing target cells, antibodies targeting regions outside the RBD make a larger (although still modest) contribution to serum neutralization. These serum-level results are mirrored for monoclonal antibodies: N-terminal domain (NTD) antibodies and RBD antibodies that do not compete for ACE2 binding incompletely neutralize on high ACE2-expressing target cells, but completely neutralize on cells with lower ACE2 expression. Our results show that ACE2 expression level in the target cells is an important experimental variable, and that high ACE2 expression emphasizes the role of a subset of RBD-directed antibodies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farrell, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadonaite, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greaney, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eguia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Francko, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logue, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carreno, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chu, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505713</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies contribute more to SARS-CoV-2 neutralization when target cells express high levels of ACE2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.04.506543v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Safeguarding Drosophila female germ cell identity depends on an H3K9me3 mini domain guided by a ZAD zinc finger protein 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.04.506543v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
H3K9me3-based gene silencing is a conserved strategy for securing cell fate, but the mechanisms controlling lineage-specific installation of this epigenetic mark remain unclear. In Drosophila, H3K9 methylation plays an essential role in securing female germ cell fate by silencing lineage inappropriate phf7 transcription. Thus, phf7 regulation in the female germline provides a powerful system to dissect the molecular mechanism underlying H3K9me3 deposition onto protein coding genes. Here we used genetic studies to identify the essential cis-regulatory elements, finding that the sequences required for H3K9me3 deposition are conserved across Drosophila species. Transposable elements are also silenced by an H3K9me3-mediated mechanism. But our finding that phf7 regulation does not require the dedicated piRNA pathway components, piwi, aub, rhino, panx, and nxf2, indicates that the mechanisms of H3K9me3 recruitment are distinct. Lastly, we discovered that an uncharacterized member of the zinc finger associated domain (ZAD) containing C2H2 zinc finger protein family, IDENTITY CRISIS (IDC; CG4936), is necessary for H3K9me3 deposition onto phf7. Loss of idc in germ cells interferes with phf7 transcriptional regulation and H3K9me3 deposition, resulting in ectopic PHF7 protein expression. IDCs role is likely to be direct, as it localizes to a conserved domain within the phf7 gene. Collectively, our findings support a model in which IDC guides sequence-specific establishment of an H3K9me3 mini domain, thereby preventing accidental female-to-male programming.

Author SummaryTissue development and function relies on cells remembering their identity. A cells identity is defined by the genes it expresses and those it does not. Recent work has shown that genes can be silenced by trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me3) marked chromatin, and that H3K9me3-mediated gene silencing is a vital strategy for securing cell fate. But there is very little information about how the machinery responsible for H3K9 methylation finds its target genes. Here we explore this issue using the Drosophila female germline where a mini domain of repressive H3K9me3 chromatin secures female germ cell fate by silencing phf7, a gene normally expressed in male germ cells. Transposable elements are also silenced by H3K9me3 mini domains, but we find that the proteins involved in this process are not required for phf7 silencing. Instead, we find that silencing requires a previously uncharacterized protein, we have named IDENTITY CRISIS. Our work provides evidence that IDENTITY CRISIS directs the H3K9 methylation machinery to build a mini domain at the phf7 locus. Our results shed new light into how cells safeguard their identity by silencing cell type inappropriate genes, and more specifically how these genes are identified by the silencing machinery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shapiro-Kulnane, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salz, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.04.506543</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Safeguarding Drosophila female germ cell identity depends on an H3K9me3 mini domain guided by a ZAD zinc finger protein]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.05.503899v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G drives cancer mutagenesis and clonal evolution in bladder cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.05.503899v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutagenic processes leave distinct signatures in cancer genomes. The mutational signatures attributed to APOBEC3 cytidine deaminases are pervasive in human cancers. However, data linking individual APOBEC3 proteins to cancer mutagenesis in vivo are limited. Here, we show that transgenic expression of human APOBEC3G promotes mutagenesis, genomic instability, and kataegis, leading to shorter survival in a murine bladder cancer model. Acting as mutagenic fuel, APOBEC3G increases the clonal diversity of bladder cancers, driving divergent cancer evolution. We characterize the single base substitution signature induced by APOBEC3G in vivo, showing the induction of a mutational signature different from that caused by APOBEC3A and APOBEC3B. Analysis of thousands of human cancers reveals the contribution of APOBEC3G to the mutational profiles of multiple cancer types, including bladder cancer. Our findings define the role of APOBEC3G in cancer mutagenesis and clonal heterogeneity. These results potentially inform future therapeutic efforts that restrict tumor evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newhall, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khani, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barlow, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhinder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uppal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Recapet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sboner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elemento, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chelico, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faltas, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.05.503899</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G drives cancer mutagenesis and clonal evolution in bladder cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.05.506592v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reduction of the HIV-1 reservoir in T cells from persons with HIV-1 on suppressive antiretroviral therapy using expanded natural killer cells ex vivo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.05.506592v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Treatment with latency-reversing agents (LRAs) alone has been ineffective in reducing HIV-1 reservoirs in persons with HIV-1 (PWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART), due to inefficiencies in reservoir reactivation and adaptive immune responses. However, NK cells that are activated with cytokines may be able to target HIV-1 reservoirs more efficiently. To study the therapeutic potential of NK cells, we expanded blood NK cells from multiple donors ex vivo into CD56brightCD16+ "eNK" cells using artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPCs) expressing membrane-bound IL21. eNK cells express multiple activating receptors and are highly cytotoxic against specific target cells. eNK cells can also kill HIV-infected CD4 T cells via antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) using broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 Env gp120/gp41. Importantly, eNK cells from PWH on ART efficiently killed autologous HIV-1+ T cells reactivated by a combination of vorinostat (SAHA) and IL-15 or an IL-15 superagonist (N-803), as detected by declines in proviral load, inducible HIV-1 mRNA, and virus release. Adoptive immunotherapy with eNK cells is therefore a promising approach to reduce the latent HIV-1 reservoir in PWH when combined with LRA treatment.

Author SummarySuccessful antiretroviral therapy (ART) eliminates progression to AIDS by reducing HIV to nearly indetectable levels by routine clinical measurements of blood samples. However, more sensitive DNA and RNA measurements show that most persons on ART retain a reservoir of long lived latently infected cells, which remain undetected by the immune system while no HIV is being produced. In nearly all cases, ART interruption results in a rebound of HIV production and spread, requiring an immediate return to ART. Currently the goal of HIV eradication is to achieve a "functional cure", where HIV reservoirs are reduced to the point where ART can be interrupted indefinitely, and low levels of infected cells remaining can be controlled by the immune system. Our eradication strategy combines HIV latency-reversing agents (LRAs), ex vivo expansion of natural killer (NK) cells, and enhancement of specificity and killing of infected cells with broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. In this study, we have demonstrated that NK cells from person living with HIV can be isolated and expanded ex vivo into "eNK" cells that kill HIV-infected cells without killing uninfected cells, especially when broadly neutralizing antibodies are present, and can significantly reduce HIV reservoirs after LRA treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Checkley Luttge, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LUTTGE, B. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dobrowolski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMahon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haidar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sobolewski, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Enick, P. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cyktor, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mellors, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.05.506592</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reduction of the HIV-1 reservoir in T cells from persons with HIV-1 on suppressive antiretroviral therapy using expanded natural killer cells ex vivo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506502v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanisms of mRNA processing defects in inherited THOC6 intellectual disability syndrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506502v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
THOC6 is the genetic basis of autosomal recessive THOC6 Intellectual Disability Syndrome (TIDS). THOC6 facilitates the formation of the Transcription Export complex (TREX) tetramer, composed of four THO monomers. The TREX tetramer supports mammalian mRNA processing that is distinct from yeast TREX dimer functions. Human and mouse TIDS model systems allow novel THOC6-dependent TREX tetramer functions to be investigated. Biallelic loss-of-function (LOF) THOC6 variants do not influence the expression and localization of TREX members in human cells, but our data suggests reduced binding affinity of ALYREF. Impairment of TREX nuclear export functions were not detected in cells with biallelic THOC6 LOF. Instead, mRNA mis-splicing was observed in human and mouse neural tissue, revealing novel insights into THOC6-mediated TREX coordination of mRNA processing. We demonstrate that THOC6 is required for regulation of key signaling pathways in human corticogenesis that dictate the transition from proliferative to neurogenic divisions that may inform TIDS neuropathology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Werren, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaForce, G. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perillo, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berger, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baris, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfennig, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Munnik, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfundt, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hebbar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez-Heredia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karakoc-Aydiner, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dmytrus, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krolo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corning, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prijoles, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Louie, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lebel, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le, T.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Girish, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boztug, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bielas, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaffer, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.06.506502</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanisms of mRNA processing defects in inherited THOC6 intellectual disability syndrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.19.508587v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cryo-EM of prion strains from the same genotype of host identifies conformational determinants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.19.508587v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Prion strains in a given type of mammalian host are distinguished by differences in clinical presentation, neuropathological lesions, survival time, and characteristics of the infecting prion protein (PrP) assemblies. Near-atomic structures of prions from two host species with different PrP sequences have been determined but comparisons of distinct prion strains of the same amino acid sequence are needed to identify purely conformational determinants of prion strain characteristics. Here we report a 3.2 [A] resolution cryogenic electron microscopy-based structure of the 22L prion strain purified from the brains of mice engineered to express only PrP lacking glycophosphatidylinositol anchors (a22L). Comparison of this near-atomic structure to our recently determined structure of the aRML strain propagated in the same inbred mouse reveals that these two mouse prion strains have distinct conformational templates for growth via incorporation of PrP molecules of the same sequence. Both a22L and aRML are assembled as stacks of PrP molecules forming parallel in-register intermolecular {beta}-sheets and intervening loops, with single monomers spanning the ordered fibril core. Each monomer shares an N-terminal steric zipper, three major {beta}-arches, and an overall V-shape, but the details of these and other conformational features differ markedly. Thus, variations in shared conformational motifs within a parallel in-register {beta}-stack fibril architecture provide a structural basis for prion strain differentiation within a single host genotype.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alam, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Artikis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughson, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Race, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baune, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baron, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraus, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caughey, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.19.508587</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cryo-EM of prion strains from the same genotype of host identifies conformational determinants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.20.508718v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Peroxisome biogenesis initiated by protein phase separation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.20.508718v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Peroxisomes are organelles that perform beta-oxidation of fatty acids and amino acids. Both rare and prevalent diseases are caused by their disfunction1. Among disease-causing mutant genes are those required for protein transport into the peroxisome. The peroxisomal protein import machinery, also shared with chloroplasts, is unique in transporting folded and large, up to 10 nm in diameter, protein complexes into peroxisomes2 and current models postulate a large pore formed by transmembrane proteins3. To date, however, no pore structure has been observed. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the minimum transport machinery includes membrane proteins Pex13 and Pex14 and cargo protein-binding transport receptor, Pex5. Here we show that Pex13 undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) with Pex5-cargo. Intrinsically disordered regions (IDR) in Pex13 and Pex5 resemble those found in nuclear pore complex (NPC) proteins. Cargo transport into peroxisomes depends on the number but not patterns of aromatic residues in these IDRs, consistent with their roles as  stickers in associative polymer models of LLPS4,5. Finally, imaging Fluorescence Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy (iFCCS) shows that the transport of cargo correlates with transient focusing of GFP-Pex13/14 on the peroxisome membrane. Pex13 and Pex14 form foci in distinct time-frames, suggesting that they may form channels at different saturating concentrations of Pex5-cargo. Our results suggest a model in which LLPS of Pex5-cargo with Pex13/14 results in transient protein transport channels.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ravindran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bacellar, I. O. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castellanos-Girouard, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michnick, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.20.508718</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Peroxisome biogenesis initiated by protein phase separation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.20.508759v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive characterization of multi-omic landscapes between gut-microbiota metabolites and the G-protein-coupled receptors in Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.20.508759v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accumulating evidence suggests that gut-microbiota metabolites contribute to human disease pathophysiology, yet the host receptors that sense these metabolites are largely unknown. Here, we developed a systems pharmacogenomics framework that integrates machine learning (ML), AlphaFold2-derived structural pharmacology, and multi-omics to identify disease-relevant metabolites derived from gut-microbiota with non-olfactory G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRome). Specifically, we evaluated 1.68 million metabolite-protein pairs connecting 408 human GPCRs and 516 gut metabolites using an Extra Trees algorithm-improved structural pharmacology strategy. Using genetics-derived Mendelian randomization and multi-omics (including transcriptomic and proteomic) analyses, we identified likely causal GPCR targets (C3AR, FPR1, GALR1 and TAS2R60) in Alzheimers disease (AD). Using three-dimensional structural fingerprint analysis of the metabolite-GPCR complexome, we identified over 60% of the allosteric pockets of orphan GPCR models for gut metabolites in the GPCRome, including AD-related orphan GPCRs (GPR27, GPR34, and GPR84). We additionally identified the potential targets (e.g., C3AR) of two AD-related metabolites (3-hydroxybutyric acid and Indole-3-pyruvic acid) and four metabolites from AD-related bacterium Eubacterium rectale, and also showed that tridecylic acid is a candidate ligand for orphan GPR84 in AD. In summary, this study presents a systems pharmacogenomics approach that serves to uncover the GPCR molecular targets of gut microbiota in AD and likely many other human diseases if broadly applied.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bykova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leverenz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nussinov, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caldwell, J. Z. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.20.508759</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive characterization of multi-omic landscapes between gut-microbiota metabolites and the G-protein-coupled receptors in Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.21.508743v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allelic Transcription Factor binding shape transcriptional kinetics in human cell lines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.21.508743v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gene expression from bulk RNA-seq studies is an average measurement between two chromosomes and across cell populations. Both allelic and cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene expression results from promoter bursting patterns that repeatedly alternate between an activated and inactivated state. Increased cell-to-cell heterogeneity in gene expression has been associated with aging and stem cell pluripotency. However, studies of bursting kinetics and their molecular mechanism are relatively limited in human cells compared to other species due to laborious single-molecule experiments. Here, we systematically investigate the regulatory effect of genetic variants and transcription factor (TF) binding on transcriptional kinetics at the single chromosome level with GM12878. We found that the transcription initiation rate and burst frequency correlate most with eQTL effect sizes among transcriptional kinetics, which suggests that eQTLs affect average gene expression mainly through altering burst kinetics. We further found that [~]90% of the variance of burst frequency can be explained by TF occupancy in phase with the core promoter. We identified and replicated several examples where eQTL or GWAS catalog loci perturb TF binding affinity and are consequently associated with the change of burst kinetics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.21.508743</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allelic Transcription Factor binding shape transcriptional kinetics in human cell lines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.22.508749v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Haptoglobin (HP) Structural Variant Alters the Effect of APOE Alleles on Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.22.508749v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundHaptoglobin (HP) is an antioxidant of apolipoprotein E (APOE), and previous reports have shown HP binds with APOE and amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) to aid its clearance. A common structural variant of the HP gene distinguishes it into two alleles: HP1 and HP2.

MethodsHP genotypes were imputed in 29 cohorts from the Alzheimers Disease (AD) Genetics Consortium (N=22,651). Associations between the HP polymorphism and AD risk and age of onset through APOE interactions were investigated using regression models.

ResultsThe HP polymorphism significantly impacts AD risk and age at onset in European-descent individuals (and in meta-analysis with African Americans) by modifying both the protective effect of APOE{varepsilon}2 and the detrimental effect of APOE{varepsilon}4, especially for APOE{varepsilon}4 carriers.

DiscussionThe effect modification of APOE by HP suggests adjustment and/or stratification by HP genotype is warranted when APOE risk is considered. Our findings also provided directions for further investigations on potential mechanisms behind this association.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bai, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dumitrescu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohman, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton-Nelson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kallianpur, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vardarajan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beecham, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Below, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schellenberg, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayeux, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrer, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.22.508749</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Haptoglobin (HP) Structural Variant Alters the Effect of APOE Alleles on Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509341v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput identification of prefusion-stabilizing mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509341v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Designing prefusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike is critical for the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. All COVID-19 vaccines in the US encode spike with K986P/V987P mutations to stabilize its prefusion conformation. However, contemporary methods on engineering prefusion-stabilized spike immunogens involve tedious experimental work and heavily rely on structural information. Here, we established a systematic and unbiased method of identifying mutations that concomitantly improve expression and stabilize the prefusion conformation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. Our method integrated a fluorescence-based fusion assay, mammalian cell display technology, and deep mutational scanning. As a proof-of-concept, this method was applied to a region in the S2 domain that includes the first heptad repeat and central helix. Our results revealed that besides K986P and V987P, several mutations simultaneously improved expression and significantly lowered the fusogenicity of the spike. As prefusion stabilization is a common challenge for viral immunogen design, this work will help accelerate vaccine development against different viruses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tan, T. J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ouyang, W. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrabi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kieffer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.24.509341</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput identification of prefusion-stabilizing mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.26.509603v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrated Model of the Vertebrate Augmin Complex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.26.509603v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurate segregation of chromosomes is required to maintain genome integrity during cell division. This feat is accomplished by the microtubule-based spindle. To build a spindle rapidly and with high fidelity, cells take advantage of branching microtubule nucleation, which exponentially amplifies microtubules during cell division. Branching microtubule nucleation relies on the hetero-octameric augmin complex, but understanding how augmin promotes branching has been hindered by a lack of structural information about the complex. Here, we report an integrated model of vertebrate augmin, combining cryo-electron microscopy, advanced protein structural prediction, and the visualization of fused bulky tags via negative stain electron microscopy. This strategy allowed us to identify the location and orientation of each subunit within the structure. Evolutionary analysis of augmins structure reveals that it is highly conserved across diverse eukaryotes, and that augmin contains a previously-unidentified microtubule binding site. Moreover, we identify homology with the kinetochore-localized NDC80 complex. This new model of the augmin complex provides insight towards the mechanism and evolution of branching microtubule nucleation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Travis, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahon, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rale, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraus, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petry, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.26.509603</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrated Model of the Vertebrate Augmin Complex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.27.509618v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Specific connectivity optimizes learning in thalamocortical loops 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.27.509618v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1Cortico-thalamo-cortical loops have a central role in cognition and motor control, but precisely how thalamus contributes to these processes is unclear. Recent studies showing evidence of plasticity in thalamocortical synapses indicate a role for thalamus in shaping cortical dynamics - and thus behavior - through learning. Since corticothalamic projections compress cortical activity into a lower-dimensional thalamic activity space, we hypothesized that the computational role of thalamus would depend critically on the structure of corticothalamic connectivity. To test this, we identified the optimal corticothalamic structure that promotes biologically plausible learning in thalamocortical synapses. We found that corticothalamic structures specialized to carry an efference copy of the cortical output benefit motor control, while corticothalamic connections that communicate the directions of highest variance in cortical activity are optimal for working memory tasks. We analyzed neural recordings from mice performing grasping and delayed discrimination, and found corticothalamic interactions consistent with these predictions. These results suggest that thalamus orchestrates cortical dynamics in a functionally precise manner through structured connectivity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lakshminarasimhan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sauerbrei, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hantman, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Litwin-Kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Escola, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.27.509618</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Specific connectivity optimizes learning in thalamocortical loops]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.28.509932v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Omnigenic epistasis regulates complex trait heritability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.28.509932v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A better understanding of genetic architecture will help translate genetic data into improved precision-based medicine and clinical care. Towards this end, we explored the use of sex-stratified analyses for several traits in the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel (HMDP) and UK Biobank to better determine trait polygenicity and identify contributing loci. This was accomplished by comparing the direction of allelic effects in males and females in sex-stratified analyses under the hypothesis that loci that are not associated with a trait should have equal chances of trending in the same direction of effect. Instead, we found that even for most alleles that do not meet nominal levels of statistical significance, the direction of effect in the two sexes was highly concordant. Results were consistent with hundreds of loci regulating each mouse trait and thousands of loci regulating each human trait, including traits for which no statistically significant loci were identified using conventional approaches. We also found evidence of likely spurious widespread epistasis. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the importance of stratifying by sex to discover novel associating loci, suggest a new method for identifying biologically rather than statistically significant associations, and caution that widespread marginal effects can lead to phantom epistasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miller, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crawford, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.28.509932</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Omnigenic epistasis regulates complex trait heritability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.509061v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Asynchronous haltere input impairs wing and gaze control in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.509061v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Halteres are multifunctional mechanosensory organs unique to the true flies (Diptera). A set of reduced hindwings, the halteres beat at the same frequency as the lift-generating forewings and sense inertial forces via mechanosensory campaniform sensilla. Though haltere ablation makes stable flight impossible, the specific role of wing-synchronous input has not been established. Using small iron filings attached to the halteres of tethered flies and an alternating electromagnetic field, we experimentally decoupled the wings and halteres of flying Drosophila and observed the resulting changes in wingbeat amplitude and head orientation. We find that asynchronous haltere input results in fast amplitude changes in the wing ("wing hitches"), but does not appreciably move the head. In multi-modal experiments, we find that wing and gaze optomotor responses are disrupted differently by asynchronous input. These effects of wing-asynchronous haltere input suggest that specific sensory information is necessary for maintaining wing amplitude stability and adaptive gaze control.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rauscher, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fox, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.29.509061</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Asynchronous haltere input impairs wing and gaze control in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510184v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbiota-dependent histone butyrylation in the mammalian intestine 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510184v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Posttranslational modifications (PTMs) on histone proteins are a key source of regulation on chromatin through impacting genome organization and important cellular processes, including gene expression. These PTMs often arise from small metabolites and are thus impacted by cellular metabolism and environmental cues. One such class of metabolically regulated PTMs are histone acylations, which include histone acetylation, along with butyrylation, crotonylation, and propionylation. We asked whether histone acylations of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) are regulated through the availability of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are generated by the commensal microbiota in the intestinal lumen. We identified IECs from the cecum and distal mouse intestine as sites of high levels of histone acylations, including histone butyrylation and propionylation. We identified specific sites of butyrylation and propionylation on lysine 9 and 27 on histone H3. We demonstrate that these acylations are regulated by the microbiota, whereas histone butyrylation is additionally regulated by the metabolite tributyrin. Furthermore, we identify tributyrin-regulated gene programs that correlate with histone butyrylation and demonstrate that histone butyrylation (H3K27bu) is associated with active gene regulatory elements and levels of gene expression. Together, our observations demonstrate a physiological setting in which previously uncharacterized histone acylations are dynamically regulated and associated with gene expression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gates, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reis, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lund, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leboeuf, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeem, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mucida, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allis, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.29.510184</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbiota-dependent histone butyrylation in the mammalian intestine]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.04.510858v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Serotonergic Modulation of Spinal Circuitry Restores Motor Function after Chronic Spinal Cord Injury 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.04.510858v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Electrical stimulation of the nervous system has been employed to enhance the recovery of motor function produced by use-dependent rehabilitation, which is the current gold standard of treatment, following spinal cord injury. However, the therapeutic effects almost always rely on the sustained activation of muscles or neurons, making the benefits largely contingent on continued delivery of stimulation. In the present study, we describe a neuromodulatory intervention that combined intraspinal delivery of serotonergic agonists with use-dependent rehabilitation to restore motor function after a chronic moderate-to-severe cervical contusion in rats that produces impairments in upper-limb movements and dexterity. We show that targeted delivery of quipazine, a broad-spectrum serotonergic agonist, caudal to the lesion increased the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation, leading to substantially improved motor-recovery outcomes in severely-injured, but not moderately-injured, animals. Delivery of quipazine significantly augmented recovery of skilled reach and grasp movements after a severe injury, but moderately-injured animals received no additional benefit from quipazine over physical rehabilitation alone. This difference was perhaps due to a greater loss of serotonin after a severe injury and a resulting environment in which exogenously-applied serotonin can improve circuit function. Our experiments highlight an important role for serotonin in restoration of motor function that is dependent on the severity of the spinal cord injury. They also allude to a potential role for residual serotonin as a biomarker of injury severity. Remarkably, quipazine-mediated behavioral improvements persisted for weeks after termination of neuromodulator delivery, signaling repair of severely-damaged adult spinal circuitry that drives lasting motor recovery.

Significance StatementWe describe a neuromodulatory intervention that combined intraspinal delivery of serotonergic agonists with use-dependent physical rehabilitation, which is the current standard of treatment, to promote motor recovery after a chronic moderate-to-severe spinal-contusion injury. Our results show that targeted delivery of serotonergic agonists caudal to the lesion increased the effectiveness of use-dependent rehabilitation, leading to substantially improved motor-recovery outcomes in severely-injured, but not moderately-injured, animals. Notably, therapeutic gains persisted for weeks after termination of neuromodulator delivery--a finding that is both unique and clinically relevant--signaling plasticity induction and repair in chronically-damaged adult spinal circuitry. Our experiments provide important insights into serotonergic modulation of spinal circuitry and highlight a potential role for residual serotonin as a neurochemical biomarker of injury severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Walvekar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chadwick, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burch, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perlmutter, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moorjani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.04.510858</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Serotonergic Modulation of Spinal Circuitry Restores Motor Function after Chronic Spinal Cord Injury]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.05.511018v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterizing Aerosol Generating Procedures with Background Oriented Schlieren 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.05.511018v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The potential for characterizing aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) using background oriented schlieren (BOS) flow visualization was investigated in two clinical situations. A human-scale BOS system was used on a manikin simulating jet ventilation and extubation. A novel approach to representation of the BOS images using line integral convolution allows direct evaluation of both magnitude and direction of the refractive index gradient field. Plumes issuing from the manikins mouth were clearly visualized and characterized in both experiments, and it is recommended that BOS be adapted into a clinical tool for risk evaluation in clinical environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Howard, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alrefaie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mejia, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ugbeye, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.05.511018</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterizing Aerosol Generating Procedures with Background Oriented Schlieren]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.07.511281v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A general theory for the dynamics of social populations: Within-group density dependence and between-group processes. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.07.511281v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite the importance of population structures throughout ecology, relatively little theoretical attention has been paid to understanding the implications of social groups for population dynamics. The dynamics of socially structured populations differ substantially from those of unstructured or metapopulation-structured populations, because social groups themselves may split, fuse, and compete. These "between-group processes" have been suggested to be important drivers of the dynamics of socially-structured populations, but no general theoretical framework exists that can handle various density-dependent between-group processes within a single model. Here, we develop a general framework for the dynamics of socially-structured populations that considers births, deaths, migration, group extinction, fissions, fusions, and between-group competition within a single model. Both logistic growth and an Allee effect are considered for within-group density dependence. We show that the effect of various between-group processes is mediated by their influence on the stable distribution of group sizes, with the ultimate impact on the population determined by the interaction between the altered group size distribution and within-group density dependence. The group level is important to the dynamics of the entire population, since it drives extinction risk, impacts population growth rates, and leads to the emergence of population-level density dependence (even if birth and death rates depend only on group size and not population size). We conclude with a series of case studies that illustrate different ways that age, sex, and class structure impact the dynamics of social populations. In sum, our results make clear the importance of within-group density dependence, between-group dynamics, and the interactions between them for the population dynamics of social species and provide a general, flexible framework for modeling social populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lerch, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.07.511281</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A general theory for the dynamics of social populations: Within-group density dependence and between-group processes.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.508946v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
kimma: flexible linear mixed effects modeling with kinship for RNA-seq data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.10.508946v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We introduce kimma (Kinship In Mixed Model Analysis), an open-source R package for flexible linear mixed effects modeling of RNA-seq including covariates, weights, random effects, covariance matrices, and fit metrics. In simulated datasets, kimma detects differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with similar specificity, sensitivity, and computational time as limma unpaired and dream paired models. Unlike other software, kimma supports covariance matrices as well as fit metrics like AIC. Utilizing genetic kinship covariance, kimma revealed that kinship impacts model fit and DEG detection in a related cohort. Thus, kimma equals or outcompetes current DEG pipelines in sensitivity, computational time, and model complexity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dill-McFarland, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Batchu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segnitz, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Janczyk, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawn, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altman, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.10.508946</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[kimma: flexible linear mixed effects modeling with kinship for RNA-seq data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511653v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Data Descriptor: Human whole exome genotype data for Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511653v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bigger sample size can help to identify new genetic variants contributing to an increased risk of developing Alzheimers disease. However, the heterogeneity of the whole-exome sequencing (WES) data generation methods presents a challenge to a joint analysis. Here we present a bioinformatics strategy for joint calling 20,504 WES samples collected across nine studies and sequenced using ten different capture kits in fourteen sequencing centers in the Alzheimers Disease Sequencing Project. gVCFs of samples were joint-called by the Genome Center for Alzheimers Disease into a single VCF, containing only positions within the union of capture kits. The VCF was then processed using specific strategies to account for the batch effects arising from the use of different capture kits from different studies.

We identified 8.2 million autosomal variants. 96.82% of the variants are high-quality, and are located in 28,579 Ensembl transcripts. 41% of the variants are intronic and 15% are missense variants. 1.8% of the variants are with CADD>30.

Our new strategy for processing these diversely generated WES samples has shown to generate high-quality data. The improved ability to combine data sequenced in different batches benefits the whole genomics research community. The WES data are accessible to the scientific community via https://dss.niagads.org/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leung, Y. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chou, Y.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valladares, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheeler, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangadharan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantwell, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicaretta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seshadri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brkanac, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruchaga, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayeux, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuzma, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, W.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeStefano, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schellenberg, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.11.511653</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Data Descriptor: Human whole exome genotype data for Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enriching Biomedical Knowledge for Low-resource Language Through Translation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biomedical data and benchmarks are highly valuable yet very limited in low-resource languages other than English such as Vietnamese. In this paper, we make use of a state-of-theart translation model in English-Vietnamese to translate and produce both pretrained as well as supervised data in the biomedical domains. Thanks to such large-scale translation, we introduce ViPubmedT5, a pretrained Encoder-Decoder Transformer model trained on 20 million translated abstracts from the high-quality public PubMed corpus. ViPubMedT5 demonstrates state-of-the-art results on two different biomedical benchmarks in summarization and acronym disambiguation. Further, we release ViMedNLI a new NLP task in Vietnamese translated from MedNLI using the recently public En-vi translation model and carefully refined by human experts, with evaluations of existing methods against ViPubmedT5.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Phan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chau, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trinh, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.11.511776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enriching Biomedical Knowledge for Low-resource Language Through Translation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511825v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MR1-restricted T cell clonotypes are associated with 'resistance' to M.tuberculosis infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511825v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
T cells are required for a protective immune response against the human adapted pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb). We recently described a cohort of Ugandan household contacts of tuberculosis cases that appear to  resist M.tb infection (RSTRs) and showed that these individuals harbor IFN-{gamma} independent T cell responses to M.tb-specific peptide antigens. However, T cells also recognize non-protein antigens via antigen presenting systems that are independent of genetic background, leading to their designation as donor-unrestricted T (DURT) cells. We used combinatorial tetramer staining and multi-parameter flow cytometry to comprehensively characterize the association between DURTs and  resistance to M.tb infection. We did not observe a difference in peripheral blood frequencies of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, germline encoded mycolyl-reactive (GEM) T cells, or {gamma}{delta} T cells between RSTRs and matched controls with latent M.tb infection (LTBIs). However, we did observe a 1.65-fold increase in frequency of circulating MR1-restricted T (MR1T) cells among RSTRs in comparison with LTBI (p=0.03). Multi-modal single cell RNA-sequencing of 18,251 MR1T cells sorted from a subset of donors revealed 5150 clonotypes that expressed a common transcriptional program, the majority of which were private. Deep sequencing of the TCR- repertoire revealed several DURT clonotypes that were expanded among RSTRs, including at least two MR1T clonotypes. Taken together, our data reveal unexpected donor-specific diversity in the TCR repertoire of human MR1T cells as well as associations between MR1 clonotypes and  resistance to M.tb infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cross, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Layton, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aguilar, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawn, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradley, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newell, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seshadri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.12.511825</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MR1-restricted T cell clonotypes are associated with 'resistance' to M.tuberculosis infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511987v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development of novel cytoprotective small compounds inhibiting mitochondria-dependent apoptosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511987v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We identified cyto-protective small molecules (CSMs) by a cell-based high-throughput screening of Bax inhibitors. Through a medicinal chemistry program, M109S was developed, which is orally bioactive and penetrates the blood-brain/retina barriers. M109S protected retinal cells in the mouse models of Stargardt disease and macular degeneration. M109S directly interacted with Bax and inhibited the conformational change and mitochondrial translocation of Bax. M109S inhibited ABT-737-induced apoptosis both in Bax-only and Bak-only MEFs. M109S also inhibited apoptosis induced by staurosporine (mouse embryonic fibroblasts), etoposide (Neuro2a cells), and obatoclax (ARPE19 cells). M109S is a novel small molecule protecting cells from mitochondria-dependent apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. M109S has the potential to become a new research tool for studying cell death mechanisms and to develop therapeutics targeting mitochondria-dependent cell death pathway. (128words)
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Matsuyama, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuyama, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fedorov, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott-McKean, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller-Greven, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrzebska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenlee, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.12.511987</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development of novel cytoprotective small compounds inhibiting mitochondria-dependent apoptosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.13.511953v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Are under-studied proteins under-represented? How to fairly evaluate link prediction algorithms in network biology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.13.511953v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
For biomedical applications, new link prediction algorithms are continuously being developed and these algorithms are typically evaluated computationally, using test sets generated by sampling the edges uniformly at random. However, as we demonstrate, this evaluation approach introduces a bias towards "rich nodes", i.e., those with higher degrees in the network. More concerningly, this bias persists even when different network snapshots are used for evaluation, as recommended in the machine learning community. This creates a cycle in research where newly developed algorithms generate more knowledge on well-studied biological entities while under-studied entities are commonly overlooked. To overcome this issue, we propose a weighted validation setting specifically focusing on under-studied entities and present AWARE strategies to facilitate bias-aware training and evaluation of link prediction algorithms. These strategies can help researchers gain better insights from computational evaluations and promote the development of new algorithms focusing on novel findings and under-studied proteins.

TeaserSystematically characterizes and mitigates bias toward well-studied proteins in the evaluation pipeline for machine learning.

Code and data availabilityAll materials (code and data) to reproduce the analyses and figures in the paper is available in figshare (doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.21330429). The code for the evaluation framework implementing the proposed strategies is available at github{dagger}. We provide a web tool{ddagger} to assess the bias in benchmarking data and to generate bias-adjusted test sets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yorgancioglu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.13.511953</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Are under-studied proteins under-represented? How to fairly evaluate link prediction algorithms in network biology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.18.512407v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Searching across-cohort relatives via encrypted genotype regression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.18.512407v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Explicitly sharing individual level data in genomics studies has many merits comparing to sharing summary statistics, including more strict QCs, common statistical analyses, relative identification and improved statistical power in GWAS, but it is hampered by privacy or ethical constraints. In this study, we developed encG-reg, a regression approach that can detect relatives of various degrees based on encrypted genomic data, which is immune of ethical constraints. The encryption properties of encG-reg are based on the random matrix theory by masking the original genotypic matrix without sacrificing precision of individual-level genotype data. We established a connection between the dimension of a random matrix, which masked genotype matrices, and the required precision of a study for encrypted genotype data. encG-reg has false positive and false negative rates equivalent to sharing original individual level data, and is computationally efficient when searching relatives. We split the UK Biobank into their respective centers, and then encrypted the genotype data. We observed that the relatives estimated using encG-reg was equivalently accurate with the estimation by KING, which is a widely used software but requires original genotype data. In a more complex application, we launched a finely devised multi-center collaboration across 5 research institutes in China, covering 9 cohorts of 54,092 GWAS samples. encG-reg again identified true relatives existing across the cohorts with even different ethnic backgrounds and genotypic qualities. Our study clearly demonstrates that encrypted genomic data can be used for data sharing without loss of information or data sharing barrier.

Author SummaryEstimating pairwise genetic relatedness within a single cohort is straightforward. However, in practice, related samples are often distributed across different cohorts, making it challenging to estimate inter-cohort relatedness. In this study, we propose a method called encrypted genotype regression (encG-reg), which provides an unbiased estimation of inter-cohort relatedness using encrypted genotypes. The genotype matrix of each cohort is masked by a random matrix, which acts similarly to a private key in a cryptographic scheme. This masking process produces encrypted genotypes, which are a projection of the original genotype matrix. We derive the expectation and particularly the sampling variance for encG-reg, the latter involves eighth-order moments calculation. encG-reg allows us to accurately identify relatedness across cohorts, even for large-scale biobank data. To demonstrate the efficacy of encG-reg, we verified it in a multi-ethnicity UK Biobank dataset comprising 485,158 samples. For this case, we successfully tracked down to the 1st-degree relatedness (such as full sibs and parent-offspring). Furthermore, we used encG-reg in a collaboration involving 9 Chinese cohorts, encompassing a total of 54,092 samples from 5 genomic centers. It is worth noting that if the number of effective markers is sufficient encG-reg has the potential to detect even more distant degrees of relatedness beyond what we demonstrated.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Q.-X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.-y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khederzadeh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, H.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, G.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.18.512407</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Searching across-cohort relatives via encrypted genotype regression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.21.513251v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The NQR pathway regulates the immunomodulatory function of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.21.513251v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gut microbiome and intestinal immune system are engaged in a dynamic interplay that provides myriad benefits to host health. However, the microbiome can also elicit damaging inflammatory responses, and thus establishing harmonious immune-microbiome interactions is essential to maintain homeostasis. Gut microbes actively coordinate the induction of anti-inflammatory responses that establish these mutualistic interactions. Despite this, the microbial pathways that govern this dialogue remain poorly understood. We investigated the mechanisms through which the gut symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron exerts its immunomodulatory functions. Our data reveal that B. thetaiotaomicron stimulates production of the cytokine IL-10 via secreted factors that are packaged into outer membrane vesicles, in a TLR2 and MyD88 dependent manner. Using a transposon mutagenesis based screen, we identified a key role for the B. thetaiotaomicron encoded NQR complex, which regenerates NAD+ during respiration, in this process. Finally, we found that disruption of NQR reduces the capacity of B. thetaiotaomicron to induce IL-10 by impairing biogenesis of outer membrane vesicles. These data identify a microbial pathway with a previously unappreciated role in gut microbe mediated immunomodulation that may be targeted to manipulate the capacity of the microbiome to shape host immunity.

Key pointsThe B. theta NQR complex coordinates OMV-driven TLR2-dependent IL-10 expression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Engelhart, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glowacki, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harding, C. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martens, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahern, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.21.513251</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The NQR pathway regulates the immunomodulatory function of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.24.513629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hsp47 Promotes Biogenesis of Multi-subunit Neuroreceptors in the Endoplasmic Reticulum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.24.513629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein homeostasis (proteostasis) deficiency is an important contributing factor to neurodegenerative, neurological, and metabolic diseases. However, how the proteostasis network orchestrates the folding and assembly of multi-subunit membrane proteins is not well understood. Previous proteomics studies identified Hsp47 (Gene: SERPINH1), a heat shock protein in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen, as the most enriched interacting chaperone for gamma-aminobutyric type A (GABAA) receptors. Here, we show that Hsp47 enhances neuronal GABAA receptor functional surface expression, acting after Binding immunoglobulin Protein (BiP) to preferentially bind the folded conformation of GABAA receptors. Therefore, Hsp47 promotes the subunit-subunit interaction, the receptor assembly process, and the anterograde trafficking of GABAA receptors. These Hsp47 properties are also extended to other Cys-loop receptors, including nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Therefore, in addition to its known function as a collagen chaperone, this work establishes that Hsp47 also plays a critical and general role in the maturation of multi-subunit neuroreceptors.

HighlightsO_LIHsp47 positively regulates the functional surface expression of endogenous GABAA receptors.
C_LIO_LIHsp47 acts after BiP and preferentially binds the folded conformation of GABAA receptors.
C_LIO_LIHsp47 promotes the subunit-subunit assembly of GABAA receptors.
C_LIO_LIHsp47 plays a critical and general role in the maturation of multi-subunit neuroreceptors.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di, X.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, D.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nashmi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderson, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.24.513629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hsp47 Promotes Biogenesis of Multi-subunit Neuroreceptors in the Endoplasmic Reticulum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.25.513716v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gating interactions steer loop conformational changes in the active site of the L1 metallo-β-lactamase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.25.513716v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
{beta}-lactam antibiotics are the most important and widely used antibacterial agents across the world. However, the widespread dissemination of {beta}-lactamases among pathogenic bacteria limits the efficacy of {beta}-lactam antibiotics. This has created a major public health crisis. The use of {beta}-lactamase inhibitors has proven useful in restoring the activity of {beta}-lactam antibiotics, yet, effective clinically approved inhibitors against class B metallo-{beta}-lactamases (MBLs) are not available. L1, a class B3 enzyme expressed by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, is a significant contributor to the {beta}-lactam resistance displayed by this opportunistic pathogen. Structurally, L1 is a tetramer with two elongated loops, 3-{beta}7 and {beta}12-5, present around the active site of each monomer. Residues in these two loops influence substrate/inhibitor binding. To study how the conformational changes of the elongated loops affect the active site in each monomer, enhanced sampling molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed, Markov State Models (MSM) were built, and convolutional variational autoencoder (CVAE)-based deep learning was applied. The key identified residues (D150a, H151, P225, Y227, R236) were mutated and the activity of the generated L1 variants was evaluated in cell-based experiments. The results demonstrate that there are extremely significant gating interactions between 3-{beta}7 and {beta}12-5 loops. Taken together, the gating interactions with the conformational changes of the key residues play an important role in the structural remodeling of the active site. These observations offer insights into the potential for novel drug development exploiting these gating interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mojica, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samanta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhowmik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vila, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haider, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.25.513716</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gating interactions steer loop conformational changes in the active site of the L1 metallo-β-lactamase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.30.514409v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TRPA1 activation in non-sensory supporting cells contributes to regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.30.514409v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
TRPA1 channels are expressed in nociceptive neurons, where they detect noxious stimuli, and in the mammalian cochlea, where their function is unknown. Here we show that TRPA1 activation in the supporting non-sensory Hensens cells causes prolonged Ca2+ responses, which propagate across the organ of Corti and cause long-lasting contractions of pillar and Deiters cells. Caged Ca2+ experiments demonstrated that, similar to Deiters cells, pillar cells also possess Ca2+-dependent contractile machinery. TRPA1 channels are activated by endogenous products of oxidative stress and by extracellular ATP. Since both these stimuli are present in vivo after acoustic trauma, TRPA1 activation after noise may affect cochlear sensitivity through supporting cell contractions. Consistently, TRPA1 deficiency results in larger but less prolonged noise-induced temporary shift of hearing thresholds, accompanied by permanent changes of latency and shape of the auditory brainstem responses. We conclude that TRPA1 contributes to the regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Velez-Ortega, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edelmann, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres-Gallego, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marinkova, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nowacki, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinha, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frolenkov, G. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.30.514409</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TRPA1 activation in non-sensory supporting cells contributes to regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514582v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allosteric inhibition of the epidermal growth factor receptor through disruption of transmembrane interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514582v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) commonly targeted for inhibition by anti-cancer therapeutics. Current therapeutics target EGFRs kinase domain or extracellular region. However, these types of inhibitors are not specific for tumors over healthy tissue and therefore cause undesirable side effects. Our lab has recently developed a new strategy to regulate RTK activity by designing a peptide that specifically binds to the transmembrane (TM) region of the RTK to allosterically modify kinase activity. These peptides are acidity-responsive, allowing them to preferentially target acidic environments like tumors. We have applied this strategy to EGFR and created the PET1 peptide. We observed that PET1 behaves as a pH-responsive peptide that modulates the configuration of the EGFR TM through a direct interaction. Our data indicated that PET1 inhibits EGFR-mediated cell migration. Finally, we investigated the mechanism of inhibition through molecular dynamics simulations, which showed that PET1 sits between the two EGFR TM helices; this molecular mechanism was additionally supported by AlphaFold-Multimer predictions. We propose that the PET1-induced disruption of native TM interactions disturbs the conformation of the kinase domain in such a way that it inhibits EGFRs ability to send migratory cell signals. This study is a proof-of-concept that acidity-responsive membrane peptide ligands can be generally applied to RTKs. In addition, PET1 constitutes a viable approach to therapeutically target the TM of EGFR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rybak, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pyron, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pitts, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guleryuz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrera, F. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.31.514582</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allosteric inhibition of the epidermal growth factor receptor through disruption of transmembrane interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.03.515111v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Size-Dependent Transport of Cerebrospinal Fluid Tracers in Mouse Brain Observed by Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.03.515111v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent studies have suggested the glymphatic system as a key mechanism of waste removal in the brain. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) using intracisternally administered contrast agents is a promising tool for assessing glymphatic function in the whole brain. In this study, we evaluated the transport kinetics and distribution of three MRI contrast agents with vastly different molecular sizes in mice. Our results demonstrate that oxygen-17 enriched water (H217O), which has direct access to parenchymal tissues via aquaporin-4 water channels, exhibited significantly faster and more extensive transport compared to the two gadolinium-based contrast agents (Gd-DTPA and GadoSpin). Time-lagged correlation and clustering analyses also revealed different transport pathways for Gd-DTPA and H217O. Furthermore, there were significant differences in transport kinetics of the three contrast agents to the lateral ventricles, reflecting the differences in forces that drive solute transport in the brain. These findings suggest the size-dependent transport pathways and kinetics of intracisternal contrast agents and the potential of DCE-MRI for assessing multiple aspects of solute transport in the glymphatic system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolluru, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flask, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.03.515111</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Size-Dependent Transport of Cerebrospinal Fluid Tracers in Mouse Brain Observed by Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.09.515852v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Heterozygous Inversion Breakpoints Suppress Meiotic Crossovers by Altering Recombination Repair Outcomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.09.515852v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Heterozygous chromosome inversions suppress meiotic crossover (CO) formation within an inversion, potentially because they lead to gross chromosome rearrangements that produce inviable gametes. Interestingly, COs are also severely reduced in regions nearby but outside of inversion breakpoints even though COs in these regions do not result in rearrangements. Our mechanistic understanding of why COs are suppressed outside of inversion breakpoints is limited by a lack of data on the frequency of noncrossover gene conversions (NCOGCs) in these regions. To address this critical gap, we mapped the location and frequency of rare CO and NCOGC events that occurred outside of the dl-49 chrX inversion in D. melanogaster. We created full-sibling wildtype and inversion stocks and recovered COs and NCOGCs in the syntenic regions of both stocks, allowing us to directly compare rates and distributions of recombination events. We show that COs are completely suppressed within 500 kb of inversion breakpoints, are severely reduced within 2 Mb of an inversion breakpoint, and increase above wildtype levels 2-4 Mb from the breakpoint. We find that NCOGCs occur evenly throughout the chromosome and, importantly, occur at wildtype levels near inversion breakpoints. We propose a model in which COs are suppressed by inversion breakpoints in a distance-dependent manner through mechanisms that influence DNA double-strand break repair outcome but not double-strand break location or frequency. We suggest that subtle changes in the synaptonemal complex and chromosome pairing might lead to unstable interhomolog interactions during recombination that permits NCOGC formation but not CO formation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berent, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadjipanteli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galey, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crown, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.09.515852</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Heterozygous Inversion Breakpoints Suppress Meiotic Crossovers by Altering Recombination Repair Outcomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.11.516137v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling multiphage-bacteria kinetics to predict phage therapy potency and longevity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.11.516137v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent cause of life-threatening opportunistic infections in the critically ill and immunocompromised. Its treatment is challenging due to the increasing prevalence of resistance to most conventional antibiotics. Although numerous alternative therapies are currently under investigation, bacteriophage (phage) cocktail therapy appears poised for long-term success. Here, we investigate potency and longevity of individual Pseudomonas phages in cocktail to determine viral co-factors that promote optimal treatment efficacy. We combined in vitro and in silico models to predict sixty-eight treatment permutations with three phages that adsorb symmetrically and asymmetrically when administered singly, double simultaneously, or double sequentially. We showed that simultaneously administering two asymmetrically binding phages with high cell lysis efficiencies improved cocktail potency. Use of a higher-potency cocktail, along with a reduction in the net probability of independent gene mutations was associated with prolonged bacterial suppression. Nevertheless, in vitro we almost always observed evolution of multiphage resistance. Simulations also predict that when combining phages with polar potencies, susceptible host cells are monopolized by the more efficiently replicating phage. Thus, further perpetuating the growth demise of the weaker phage in cocktail. Our mathematical model was used to explore and predict changes in phage and bacterial populations that were difficult to measure experimentally. This framework has many inferential and exploratory uses for clinical investigation such as identifying the most sensitive parameters for phage selection and exploring different treatment regimens. Collectively, our findings attempt to dissect the mechanisms of phage cocktails combating P. aeruginosa infections and highlight the viral co-factors necessary for treatment efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luong, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banuelos, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sue, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horn, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roach, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.11.516137</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling multiphage-bacteria kinetics to predict phage therapy potency and longevity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.12.515898v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Catch bonds in sickle cell disease: shear-enhanced adhesion of red blood cells to laminin 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.12.515898v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Could the phenomenon of catch bonding--force-strengthened cellular adhesion--play a role in sickle cell disease, where abnormal red blood cell (RBC) adhesion obstructs blood flow? Here we investigate the dynamics of sickle RBCs adhering to a surface functionalized with the protein laminin (a component of the extracellular matrix around blood vessels) under physiologically relevant micro-scale flow. First, using total internal reflectance microscopy we characterize the spatial fluctuations of the RBC membrane above the laminin surface before detachment. The complex dynamics we observe suggest the possibility of catch bonding, where the mean detachment time of the cell from the surface initially increases to a maximum and then decreases as a function of shear force. We next conduct a series of shear-induced detachment experiments on blood samples from 25 sickle cell disease patients, quantifying the number and duration of adhered cells under both sudden force jumps and linear force ramps. The experiments reveal that a subset of patients does indeed exhibit catch bonding. By fitting the data to a theoretical model of the bond dynamics, we can extract the mean bond lifetime versus force for each patient. The results show a striking heterogeneity among patients, both in terms of the qualitative behavior (whether or not there is catch bonding) and in the magnitudes of the lifetimes. Patients with large bond lifetimes at physiological forces are more likely to have certain adverse clinical features, like a diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension and intracardiac shunts. By introducing an in vitro platform for fully characterizing RBC-laminin adhesion dynamics, our approach could contribute to the development of patient-specific anti-adhesive therapies for sickle cell disease. The experimental setup is also easily generalizable to studying adhesion dynamics in other cell types, for example leukocytes or cancer cells, and can incorporate disease-relevant environmental conditions like oxygen deprivation.

SIGNIFICANCEAbnormal red blood cell adhesion to the walls of blood vessels is a central feature of sickle cell disease. We study this adhesion by experimentally measuring how long on average red blood cells adhere to a protein-covered surface, and how the strength of the cell-protein bond depends on the force resulting from the surrounding fluid flow. The results vary widely from patient to patient, with some cases showing an unusual regime where the mean bond strength increases with force. We connect these measurements to clinical aspects of the disease, which may aid in the design of individualized therapies in the future.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Goreke, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dominguez-Medina, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Man, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bode, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>An, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Little, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wirth, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurkan, U. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.12.515898</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Catch bonds in sickle cell disease: shear-enhanced adhesion of red blood cells to laminin]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.14.516433v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Somatic Loss of the Y Chromosome and Alzheimer's Disease Risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.14.516433v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mosaic loss of the Y chromosome (LOY) is a somatic, age-related event that has been previously associated with a variety of diseases of aging. A prior study of European cohorts demonstrated an association between LOY and Alzheimers Disease and more recent molecular studies have shown that LOY can also occur within microglia, suggesting a potential functional role in AD pathogenesis. In this study, we further validate the association between LOY and AD via prospective analyses of 1,447 males, and perform Mendelian Randomization analysis on 10,013 males across 26 US cohorts. Significant results from these analyses provide further evidence for a role of LOY in the development of Alzheimers Disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Palmer, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheeler, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smeiszek, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forsberg, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cukier, H. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.14.516433</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Somatic Loss of the Y Chromosome and Alzheimer's Disease Risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.15.516317v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Autism-specific PTEN p.I135L mutation and an autism genetic background combine to dysregulate cortical neurogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.15.516317v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alterations in cortical neurogenesis are implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The contribution of genetic backgrounds, in additional to ASD risk genes, on cortical neurogenesis remain understudied. Here, using isogenic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and cortical organoid models, we report that a heterozygous PTEN p.I135L mutation found in an ASD patient with macrocephaly activates PI3K/AKT and dysregulates cortical neurogenesis in an ASD genetic background-dependent fashion. Transcriptome analysis at both bulk and single cell level revealed PTEN p.I135L mutation and ASD genetic background affected genes involved in neurogenesis, neural development and synapse signaling. We also found that this PTEN p.I135L mutation led to overproduction of NPC subtypes as well as neuronal subtypes including both deep and upper layer neurons in its ASD background, but not when introduced into a control genetic background. These findings provide experimental evidence that both a PTEN p.I135L mutation and ASD genetic background contribute to cellular features consistent with ASD associated with macrocephaly.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bury, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eum, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.15.516317</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Autism-specific PTEN p.I135L mutation and an autism genetic background combine to dysregulate cortical neurogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.15.516627v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Temporal chromatin accessibility changes define transcriptional states essential for osteosarcoma metastasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.15.516627v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The metastasis-invasion cascade describes the series of steps required for a cancer cell to successfully spread from its primary tumor and ultimately grow within a secondary organ. Despite metastasis being a dynamic, multistep process, most omics studies to date have focused on comparing primary tumors to the metastatic deposits that define end-stage disease. This static approach means we lack information about the genomic and epigenomic changes that occur during the majority of tumor progression. One particularly understudied phase of tumor progression is metastatic colonization, during which cells must adapt to the new microenvironment of the secondary organ. Through temporal profiling of chromatin accessibility and gene expression in vivo, we identify dynamic changes in the epigenome that occur as osteosarcoma tumors form and grow within the lung microenvironment. Furthermore, we show through paired in vivo and in vitro CRISPR drop-out screens and pharmacological validation that the upstream transcription factors represent a class of metastasis-specific dependency genes. While current models depict lung colonization as a discrete step within the metastatic cascade, our study shows it is a defined trajectory through multiple epigenetic states, revealing new therapeutic opportunities undetectable with standard approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pontius, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faber, Z. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peacock, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayles, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovrenert, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.15.516627</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Temporal chromatin accessibility changes define transcriptional states essential for osteosarcoma metastasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.17.516981v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cellular Maturation of Oligodendrocytes is Governed by Transient Gene Melting 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.17.516981v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) provide an unlimited source for generating somatic cell types. However, generating fully mature cells constitutes a bottleneck for realizing their full potential in research and medicine. Here, we report a transcriptional mechanism that governs the timing of cellular maturation in post-mitotic oligodendrocytes. During differentiation of PSCs to oligodendrocytes, the transcription factor SOX6 redistributes from nearly all super enhancers in proliferating oligodendrocyte progenitor cells to cluster across specific gene bodies in immature oligodendrocytes. These sites exhibit  gene melting, a process of extensive chromatin decondensation and transcription, which abruptly turns off upon maturation. Suppression of SOX6 deactivates these immaturity loci, resulting in rapid transition to mature myelinating oligodendrocytes. Cells harboring this immature oligodendrocyte SOX6 gene signature are specifically enriched in multiple sclerosis patient brains, suggestive that failed maturation may contribute to limited myelin regeneration in disease. Collectively, our finding that maturation rate is controlled by transient transcriptional clusters may inform approaches to accelerate the generation and regeneration of mature cell types.

HIGHLIGHTSO_LITranscription factors (TFs) can act as gatekeepers of post-mitotic cellular maturation
C_LIO_LIIn oligodendrocytes, clustering of SOX6 controls the immaturity program through transient gene melting
C_LIO_LISuppressing SOX6 deactivates immaturity genes and unlocks oligodendrocyte maturation
C_LIO_LISOX6 immaturity signature is enriched in oligodendrocytes in multiple sclerosis patients
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Allan, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morton, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scavuzzo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elitt, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clayton, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vrabic, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsen, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Factor, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henninger, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.17.516981</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cellular Maturation of Oligodendrocytes is Governed by Transient Gene Melting]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.18.517035v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Design and validation of an exposure system for efficient inter-animal SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in Syrian hamsters 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.18.517035v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SARS-CoV-2 is a highly transmissible respiratory pathogen whose main transmission route is airborne. Development of an animal model and exposure system that recapitulates airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is integral for understanding the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spread in individuals and populations. Here we designed, built, and characterized a hamster transmission caging and exposure system that allows for efficient SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission from an infected index animal to naive recipients under unidirectional airflow, without contribution from fomite or direct contact transmission. To validate our system, we assessed a 1:1 or 1:4 ratio of infected index to naive recipient hamsters and compared their virological and clinical measurements after eight hours of airborne exposure. Airborne exposure concentrations and pulmonary deposited dose of SARS-CoV-2 in index and naive hamsters, respectively, were similar in both groups. Daily nasal viral RNA levels, and terminal (day 5) lung viral RNA and infectious virus, and fecal viral RNA levels were statistically similar among 1:1 and 1:4 naive animals. However, virological measurements in the 1:4 naive animals were more variable than the 1:1 naive animals, likely due to hamster piling behavior creating uneven SARS-CoV-2 exposure during the grouped 1:4 airborne exposure. This resulted in slight, but not statistically significant, changes in daily body weights between the 1:1 and 1:4 naive groups. Our report describes a multi-chamber caging and exposure system that allowed for efficient SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in single and grouped hamsters. This system can be used to better define airborne transmission dynamics and test transmission-blocking therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2.

ImportanceThe main route of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is airborne. However, there are few experimental systems that can assess airborne transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in vivo. Here, we designed, built, and characterized a hamster transmission caging and exposure system that allows for efficient SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in Syrian hamsters, without contributions from fomite or direct contact transmission. We successfully measured SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in aerosols and demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted efficiently at either a 1:1 or 1:4 infected index to naive recipient hamster ratio. This is meaningful as a 1:4 infected index to naive hamster ratio would allow for simultaneous comparisons of various interventions in naive animals to determine their susceptibility of infection by aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Our SARS-CoV-2 exposure system allows for testing viral airborne transmission dynamics and transmission-blocking therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kuehl, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dearing, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Werts, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irshad, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tucker, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langel, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.18.517035</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Design and validation of an exposure system for efficient inter-animal SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in Syrian hamsters]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.21.517417v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
gtexture: Haralick texture analysis for graphs and its application to biological networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.21.517417v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThe calculation of texture features, such as those derived by Haralick et al., has been traditionally limited to 2D-imaging data. We present the novel derivation of an extension to these texture features that can be applied to graphs and networks and set out to illustrate the potential of these metrics for use in cancer informatics.

ApproachWe extend the pixel-based calculation of texture and generate analogous novel metrics for graphs and networks. The graph structures in question must have ordered or continuous node weights/attributes. To demonstrate the utility of these metrics in cancer biology, we demonstrate these metrics can distinguish different fitness landscapes, gene co-expression and regulatory networks, and protein interaction networks with both simulated and publicly available experimental gene expression data.

Main ResultsWe demonstrate that texture features are informative of graph structure and analyse their sensitivity to discretization parameters and node label noise. We demonstrate that graph texture varies across multiple network types including fitness landscapes and large protein interaction networks with experimental expression data. We show the ability of these texture metrics, calculated on specific protein interaction subnetworks, to classify cell line expression by lineage, generating classifiers with 82% and 89% accuracy.

SignificanceGraph texture features are a novel second order graph metric that can distinguish cancer types and topologies of evolutionary landscapes. It appears that no similar metrics currently exist and thus we open up the potential derivation of more metrics for the classification and analysis of network-structured data. This may be particularly useful in the complex setting of cancer, where large graph and network structures underlie the omics data generated. Network-based data underlies drug discovery, drug response prediction and single-cell dynamics and thus these metrics provide an additional tool in tackling these problems in cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barker-Clarke, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.21.517417</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[gtexture: Haralick texture analysis for graphs and its application to biological networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.518409v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput Approaches to Uncover Synergistic Drug Combinations in Leukemia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.29.518409v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We report a comprehensive drug synergy study in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In this work, we investigate 11 cell lines spanning both MLL-rearranged and non-rearranged subtypes. The work comprises a resource for the community, with many synergistic drug combinations that could not have been predicted a priori, and open source code for automation and analyses. We base our definitions of drug synergy on the Chou-Talalay method, which is useful for visualizations of synergy experiments in isobolograms, and median-effects plots, among other representations. Our key findings include drug synergies affecting the chromatin state, specifically in the context of regulation of the modification state of histone H3 lysine-27. We report open source high throughput methodology such that multidimensional drug screening can be accomplished with equipment that is accessible to most laboratories. This study will enable preclinical investigation of new drug combinations in a lethal blood cancer, with data analysis and automation workflows freely available to the community.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=90 SRC="FIGDIR/small/518409v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e85ef9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b3369eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c6d705org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14ec6b2_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chory, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceribelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michalowska, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beck, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klumpp-Thomas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKnight, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Itkin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Divakaran, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanton, B. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.29.518409</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput Approaches to Uncover Synergistic Drug Combinations in Leukemia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.519175v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fractions strategy differences in those born extremely preterm 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.519175v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionTo investigate the effects of different strategies and cognitive load we explored brain hemodynamic responses associated with the use of different strategies to solve subtraction of fractions. We focused on those born extremely preterm (EPT; <28 weeks gestation) as they are known to have cognitive challenges and struggle with mathematics. We also included a group of full-term (FT) peers for comparison.

MethodsFunctional MRI was acquired while the participants mentally solved fraction equations using either a strategy based on improper or mixed fractions. Different fraction item types were given, which affected respective required cognitive loads per strategy. Diffusion and T1-weighted structural images were also acquired.

ResultsThe EPT and FT groups differed in terms of task-related hemodynamic responses. Functional group differences were greatest when strategies were applied to item types that result in high cognitive load. Other findings showed reduced white and grey matter volume and reduced white matter connectivity in widespread areas in the EPT group compared to the FT group.

ConclusionThe understanding of function and structure presented here may help inform pedagogical practices by allowing for tailoring of mathematical education through identifying suitable strategy adoption that depends on item type, to circumvent weaknesses in cognitive skills.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carr, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babinchak, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Istrate, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martyn-Dow, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fondran, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wein, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, S. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birnbaum, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gross, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minich, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stern, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nosarti, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tatsuoka, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.06.519175</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fractions strategy differences in those born extremely preterm]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.519298v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hypo-responsiveness of human alveolar macrophages to IFN-γ is not due to attenuated STAT1 signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.519298v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alveolar macrophages (AM) perform a primary defense mechanism in the lung through phagocytosis of inhaled particles and microorganisms. AM are known to be relatively immunosuppressive consistent with the aim to limit alveolar inflammation and maintain effective gas exchange in the face of these constant challenges. How AM respond to T cell derived cytokine signals, which are critical to the defense against inhaled pathogens, is less well understood. For example, successful containment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in lung macrophages is highly dependent on IFN-{gamma} secreted by Th-1 lymphocytes, however, the proteomic IFN-{gamma} response profile in AM remains mostly unknown. In this study, we measured IFN-{gamma} induced protein abundance changes in human AM and autologous blood monocytes (MN). AM cells were activated by IFN-{gamma} stimulation resulting in STAT1 phosphorylation and production of MIG/CXCL9 chemokine. However, the global proteomic response to IFN-{gamma} in AM was dramatically limited in comparison to that of MN (9 AM vs 89 MN differentially abundant proteins). AM hypo-responsiveness was not explained by reduced JAK-STAT1 signaling nor increased SOCS1 expression. These findings suggest that AM have a tightly regulated response to IFN-{gamma} which may prevent excessive pulmonary inflammation but may also provide a niche for the initial survival and growth of Mtb and other intracellular pathogens in the lung.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Thiel, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lundberg, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlatzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvela, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckloff, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bebek, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.07.519298</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hypo-responsiveness of human alveolar macrophages to IFN-γ is not due to attenuated STAT1 signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.14.519647v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcriptional Responses of Cancer Cells to Heat Shock-Inducing Stimuli Involve Amplification of Robust HSF1 Binding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.14.519647v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Responses of cells to signals are increasingly discovered to involve the binding of sequence-specific transcription factors outside of known target genes. We wanted to determine to what extent the genome-wide binding and function of a transcription factor are shaped by the cell type versus the stimulus. To do so, we induced the Heat Shock Response pathway in two distant cell lines with two different stimuli and related the binding of its master regulator HSF1 to nascent RNA and chromatin accessibility. We show that HSF1 binding patterns robustly retain their identity under different magnitudes of activation so that common HSF1 binding is globally associated with stimulus-specific transcription outcomes. HSF1-induced increase in DNA accessibility was modest in scale but occurred predominantly at remote genomic sites. Apart from regulating transcription at existing elements including promoters and enhancers, responses to heat shock may directly engage inactive chromatin.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghosh Dastidar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Kumar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauckner, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parrello, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vlasenok, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyagi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koney-Kwaku Koney, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nechaev, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.14.519647</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcriptional Responses of Cancer Cells to Heat Shock-Inducing Stimuli Involve Amplification of Robust HSF1 Binding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.18.520943v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanical regulation of retinal vascular inflammation and degeneration in diabetic retinopathy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.18.520943v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vascular inflammation is known to cause degeneration of retinal vessels in early diabetic retinopathy (DR). Past studies investigating these diabetes-induced vascular abnormalities have focused primarily on the role of molecular or biochemical cues. Here we show that retinal vascular inflammation and degeneration in DR are also mechanically regulated by retinal vascular stiffening that is caused by overexpression of collagen-crosslinking enzyme lysyl oxidase (LOX) in retinal vessels. Treatment of diabetic mice with LOX inhibitor BAPN prevented the increase in retinal vascular stiffness, vascular ICAM-1 overexpression, and leukostasis. Consistent with these anti-inflammatory effects, BAPN treatment of diabetic mice blocked the upregulation of proapoptotic caspase-3 in retinal vessels, which concomitantly reduced retinal vascular degeneration and the diabetes-induced loss of contrast sensitivity in these mice. Finally, we show that increasing substrate stiffness alone increases the adhesiveness and neutrophil elastase-induced death of cultured retinal endothelial cells. By uncovering a link between LOX-dependent vascular stiffening and the development of retinal vascular and functional defects in diabetes, these findings offer unique insights into DR pathogenesis that has important translational potential.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chandrakumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santiago Tierno, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessieur, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiser, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kern, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghosh, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.18.520943</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanical regulation of retinal vascular inflammation and degeneration in diabetic retinopathy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521428v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Decorrelation Time Mapping as an Analysis Tool for Nanobubble-Based Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521428v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanobubbles (NBs) are nanoscale ([~]100-500 nm diameter) ultrasound (US) contrast agents that enable new robust applications of contrast enhanced US and US-mediated therapy. Due to their sub-micron size, high particle density, and highly deformable shell, NBs exhibit unique properties. In pathological states of heightened vascular permeability, such as in tumours, NBs can extravasate, enabling extravascular applications not currently possible with clinically available microbubbles ([~]1000-10,000 nm diameter). This ability can be explored to develop imaging biomarkers to improve tumour detection. There is a need for an imaging method that can rapidly and effectively separate intravascular versus extravascular NB signal when imaged using nonlinear dynamic contrast enhanced US. Herein, we demonstrated the use of decorrelation time (DT) mapping to achieve this goal. Two in vitro models were used to explore the roles of NB velocity and diffusion on DTs. Mice bearing prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expressing flank tumours (n = 7) were injected with bubble agents to evaluate the in vivo potential of this technique. The DT was calculated at each pixel of nonlinear contrast videos to produce DT maps. Across all models, long DT correlated with slowly moving or entrapped NBs while short DT correlated with flowing NBs. DT maps were sensitive to NBs in tumour tissue with high average DT in tumour regions ([~]10 s) compared to surrounding normal tissue ([~]1 s). Molecular NB targeting to PSMA extended DT (17 s) compared to non-targeted NBs (12 s), demonstrating sensitivity to NB adherence dynamics. Overall, DT mapping of in vivo NB dynamics produced detailed information of tumour tissue and showed potential for quantifying extravascular NB kinetics. This new NB-contrast enhanced US-based biomarker can be useful in molecular ultrasound imaging, with improved sensitivity and specificity of target tissue detection and potential for use as a predictor of vascular permeability and the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect in tumours.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wegierak, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooley, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wultange, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurkan, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolios, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.21.521428</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Decorrelation Time Mapping as an Analysis Tool for Nanobubble-Based Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.29.520610v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MOPD I patient-derived cerebral organoids model microcephaly showing premature neurogenesis due to disrupted mitotic spindle orientation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.29.520610v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in the single-copy RNU4ATAC gene, which encodes U4atac snRNA of the minor spliceosome are linked to the developmental disorder microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type I (MOPD I). Partial loss-of-function mutations of U4atac snRNA lead to a poor prognosis, with less than three year survival. The most prominent characteristic of MOPD I is disrupted central nervous system development resulting in severe microcephaly and lissencephaly.

In this study, we used self-organizing 3D cerebral organoids from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to investigate defective cellular events that disturb the laminar organization of the cortex and influence brain topology. We analyzed organoids from iPSCs homozygous for the partial loss-of-function U4atac snRNA 51G>A mutation and compared them to isogenic organoids obtained from iPSCs expressing wild-type U4atac snRNA, using immunostaining and 10X Genomics single-cell RNA sequencing. In our MOPD I organoids, we observed: a) reduced proliferation accompanied by premature neurogenesis depleting the neuro-progenitor pool due to an increased frequency of horizontal cell divisions in the ventricular zone; b) reduced numbers of intermediate progenitor and outer radial glial cells in the outer sub-ventricular zone; and c) defective radial neuronal migration, which is critical for cortical expansion in humans. Our findings therefore provide insight into MOPD I cellular pathogenesis and underline the value of these cerebral organoids as model systems for human neurodevelopmental disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daniels, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pirozzi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez-Gonzalez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padgett, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.29.520610</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MOPD I patient-derived cerebral organoids model microcephaly showing premature neurogenesis due to disrupted mitotic spindle orientation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.09.523031v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Loss of PTPMT1 limits mitochondrial utilization of carbohydrates and leads to muscle atrophy and heart failure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.09.523031v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While mitochondria in different tissues have distinct preferences for energy sources, they are flexible in utilizing competing substrates for metabolism according to physiological and nutritional circumstances. However, the regulatory mechanisms and significance of metabolic flexibility are not completely understood. Here we report that the deletion of PTPMT1, a mitochondria-based phosphatase, critically alters mitochondrial fuel selection - the utilization of pyruvate, a key mitochondrial substrate derived from glucose (the major simple carbohydrate), is inhibited, whereas the fatty acid utilization is enhanced. PTPMT1 knockout does not impact the development of the skeletal muscle or heart. However, the metabolic inflexibility ultimately leads to muscular atrophy, heart failure, and sudden death. Mechanistic analyses reveal that the prolonged substrate shift from carbohydrates to lipids causes oxidative stress and mitochondrial destruction, which in turn results in marked accumulation of lipids and profound damage in the knockout muscle cells and cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, PTPMT1 deletion from the liver or adipose tissue does not generate any local or systemic defects. These findings suggest that PTPMT1 plays an important role in maintaining mitochondrial flexibility and that their balanced utilization of carbohydrates and lipids is essential for both the skeletal muscle and the heart despite the two tissues having different preferred energy sources.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zheng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brotto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prosdocimo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reddy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puchowicz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weitzmann, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qu, C.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.09.523031</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Loss of PTPMT1 limits mitochondrial utilization of carbohydrates and leads to muscle atrophy and heart failure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523480v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MRBEE: A novel bias-corrected multivariable Mendelian Randomization method 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523480v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mendelian randomization (MR) is an instrumental variable approach used to infer causal relationships between exposures and outcomes and can apply to summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Since GWAS summary statistics are subject to estimation errors, most existing MR approaches suffer from measurement error bias, whose scale and direction are influenced by weak instrumental variables and GWAS sample overlap, respectively. We introduce MRBEE (MR using Bias-corrected Estimating Equation), a novel multivariable MR method capable of simultaneously removing measurement error bias and identifying horizontal pleiotropy. In simulations, we showed that MRBEE is capable of effectively removing measurement error bias in the presence of weak instrumental variables and sample overlap. In two independent real data analyses, we discovered that the causal effect of BMI on coronary artery disease risk is entirely mediated by blood pressure, and that existing MR methods may underestimate the causal effect of cannabis use disorder on schizophrenia risk compared to MRBEE. MRBEE possesses significant potential for advancing genetic research by providing a valuable tool to study causality between multiple risk factors and disease outcomes, particularly as a large number of GWAS summary statistics become publicly available.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lorincz-Comi, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.10.523480</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MRBEE: A novel bias-corrected multivariable Mendelian Randomization method]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523765v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reinforcement Learning informs optimal treatmentstrategies to limit antibiotic resistance. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523765v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antimicrobial resistance was estimated to be associated with 4.95 million deaths worldwide in 2019. It is possible to frame the antimicrobial resistance problem as a feedback-control problem. If we could optimize this feedback-control problem and translate our findings to the clinic, we could slow, prevent or reverse the development of high-level drug resistance. Prior work on this topic has relied on systems where the exact dynamics and parameters were known a priori. In this study, we extend this work using a reinforcement learning (RL) approach capable of learning effective drug cycling policies in a system defined by empirically measured fitness landscapes. Crucially, we show that is possible to learn effective drug cycling policies despite the problems of noisy, limited, or delayed measurement. Given access to a panel of 15 {beta} -lactam antibiotics with which to treat the simulated E. coli population, we demonstrate that RL agents outperform two naive treatment paradigms at minimizing the population fitness over time. We also show that RL agents approach the performance of the optimal drug cycling policy. Even when stochastic noise is introduced to the measurements of population fitness, we show that RL agents are capable of maintaining evolving populations at lower growth rates compared to controls. We further tested our approach in arbitrary fitness landscapes of up to 1024 genotypes. We show that minimization of population fitness using drug cycles is not limited by increasing genome size. Our work represents a proof-of-concept for using AI to control complex evolutionary processes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.12.523765</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reinforcement Learning informs optimal treatmentstrategies to limit antibiotic resistance.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.13.523871v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A standard protocol to report discrete stage-structured demographic information 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.13.523871v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
O_LIStage-based demographic methods, such as matrix population models (MPMs), are powerful tools used to address a broad range of fundamental questions in ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation science. Accordingly, MPMs now exist for over 3,000 species worldwide. These data are being digitised as an ongoing process and periodically released into two large open-access online repositories: the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database and the COMADRE Animal Matrix Database. During the last decade, data archiving and curation of COMPADRE and COMADRE, and subsequent comparative research, have revealed pronounced variation in how MPMs are parameterized and reported.
C_LIO_LIHere, we summarise current issues related to the parameterisation and reporting of MPMs that arise most frequently and outline how they affect MPM construction, analysis, and interpretation. To quantify variation in how MPMs are reported, we present results from a survey identifying key aspects of MPMs that are frequently unreported in manuscripts. We then screen COMPADRE and COMADRE to quantify how often key pieces of information are omitted from manuscripts using MPMs.
C_LIO_LIOver 80% of surveyed researchers (n=60) state a clear benefit to adopting more standardised methodologies for reporting MPMs. Furthermore, over 85% of the 300 MPMs assessed from COMPADRE and COMADRE omitted one or more elements that are key to their accurate interpretation. Based on these insights, we identify fundamental issues that can arise from MPM construction and communication and provide suggestions to improve clarity, reproducibility, and future research utilising MPMs and their required metadata. To fortify reproducibility and empower researchers to take full advantage of their demographic data, we introduce a standardized protocol to present MPMs in publications. This standard is linked to www.compadre-db.org, so that authors wishing to archive their MPMs can do so prior to submission of publications, following examples from other open-access repositories such as DRYAD, Figshare, and Zenodo.
C_LIO_LICombining and standardising MPMs parameterized from populations around the globe and across the tree of life opens up powerful research opportunities in evolutionary biology, ecology, and conservation research. However, this potential can only be fully realised by adopting standardised methods to ensure reproducibility.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gascoigne, S. J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rolph, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sankey, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nidadavolu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stell Picman, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philpott, M. E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salam, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fenollosa, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jun Lee, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McLean, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hetti Achchige Perera, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spacey, O. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kajin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vinton, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Archer, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burns, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buss, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caswell, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Che-Castaldo, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Childs, D. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capdevila, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Compagnoni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crone, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ezard, T. H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hodgson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knight, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, O. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jongejans, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonald, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tenhumberg, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyre, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramula, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stott, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tremblay, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaupel, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salguero-Gomez, R</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.13.523871</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A standard protocol to report discrete stage-structured demographic information]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.16.524278v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Apical expansion of calvarial osteoblasts and suture patency is dependent on graded fibronectin cues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.16.524278v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The skull roof, or calvaria, is comprised of interlocking plates of bone. Premature suture fusion (craniosynostosis, CS) or persistent fontanelles are common defects in calvarial development. Although some of the genetic causes of these disorders are known, we lack an understanding of the instructions directing the growth and migration of progenitors of these bones, which may affect the suture patency. Here, we identify graded expression of Fibronectin (FN1) protein in the mouse embryonic cranial mesenchyme (CM) that precedes the apical expansion of calvarial osteoblasts. Syndromic forms of CS exhibit dysregulated FN1 expression, and we find FN1 expression is altered in a mouse CS model as well. Conditional deletion of Fn1 in CM causes diminished frontal bone expansion by altering cell polarity and shape. To address how osteoprogenitors interact with the observed FN1 prepattern, we conditionally ablate Wasl/N-Wasp to disrupt F-actin junctions in migrating cells, impacting lamellipodia and cell-matrix interaction. Neural crest-targeted deletion of Wasl results in a diminished actin network and reduced expansion of frontal bone primordia similar to conditional Fn1 mutants. Interestingly, defective calvaria formation in both the Fn1 and Wasl mutants occurs without a significant change in proliferation, survival, or osteogenesis. Finally, we find that CM-restricted Fn1 deletion leads to premature fusion of coronal sutures. These data support a model of FN1 as a directional substrate for calvarial osteoblast migration that may be a common mechanism underlying many cranial disorders of disparate genetic etiologies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molteni, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregory, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lanza, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polsani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wyetzner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawkins, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holmes, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopyan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.16.524278</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Apical expansion of calvarial osteoblasts and suture patency is dependent on graded fibronectin cues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.18.524559v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Catenin signaling controls phrenic motor neuron development and function during a narrow temporal window 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.18.524559v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Phrenic Motor Column (PMC) neurons are a specialized subset of motor neurons (MNs) that provide the only motor innervation to the diaphragm muscle and are therefore essential for survival. Despite their critical role, the mechanisms that control phrenic MN development and function are not well understood. Here, we show that catenin-mediated cadherin adhesive function is required for multiple aspects of phrenic MN development. Deletion of {beta}- and{gamma} -catenin from MN progenitors results in perinatal lethality and a severe reduction in phrenic MN bursting activity. In the absence of catenin signaling, phrenic MN topography is eroded, MN clustering is lost and phrenic axons and dendrites fail to grow appropriately. Despite the essential requirement for catenins in early phrenic MN development, they appear to be dispensable for phrenic MN maintenance, as catenin deletion from postmitotic MNs does not impact phrenic MN topography or function. Our data reveal a fundamental role for catenins in PMC development and suggest that distinct mechanisms are likely to control PMC maintenance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vagnozzi, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez de Boer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zampieri, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landmesser, L. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philippidou, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.18.524559</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Catenin signaling controls phrenic motor neuron development and function during a narrow temporal window]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.05.527136v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) activation lowers intraocular pressure by halting its mechanosensing function in the trabecular meshwork 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.05.527136v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Trabecular meshwork (TM) cells are highly contractile and mechanosensitive to aid in maintaining intraocular pressure (IOP) homeostasis. Lipids are attributed to modulating TM contractility with poor mechanistic understanding. In this study using human TM cells, we identify the mechanosensing role of the transcription factors sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) involved in lipogenesis. By constitutively activating SREBPs and pharmacologically inactivating SREBPs, we have mechanistically deciphered the attributes of SREBPs in regulating the contractile properties of TM. The pharmacological inhibition of SREBPs by fatostatin and molecular inactivation of SREBPs ex vivo and in vivo respectively results in significant IOP lowering. As a proof of concept, fatostatin significantly decreased the SREBPs responsive genes and enzymes involved in lipogenic pathways as well as the levels of the phospholipid, cholesterol, and triglyceride. Further, we show that fatostatin mitigated actin polymerization machinery and stabilization, and decreased ECM synthesis and secretion. We thus postulate that lowering lipogenesis in the TM outflow pathway can hold the key to lowering IOP by modifying the TM biomechanics.

SynopsisIn this study, we show the role of lipogenic transcription factors sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) in the regulation of intraocular pressure (IOP). (Synopsis Figure - Created using Biorender.com) O_LISREBPs are involved in the sensing of changes in mechanical stress on the trabecular meshwork (TM). SREBPs aid in transducing the mechanical signals to induce actin polymerization and filopodia/lamellipodia formation.
C_LIO_LISREBPs inactivation lowered genes and enzymes involved in lipogenesis and modified lipid levels in TM.
C_LIO_LISREBPs activity is a critical regulator of ECM engagement to the matrix sites.
C_LIO_LIInactivation of SCAP-SREBP pathway lowered IOP via actin relaxation and decreasing ECM production and deposition in TM outflow pathway signifying a novel relationship between SREBP activation status and achieving IOP homeostasis.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soundararajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabinowitz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaiswal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborne, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pattabiraman, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.05.527136</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) activation lowers intraocular pressure by halting its mechanosensing function in the trabecular meshwork]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528042v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pervasive environmental chemicals impair oligodendrocyte development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528042v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Exposure to environmental chemicals can impair neurodevelopment1-4. Oligodendrocytes that wrap around axons to boost neurotransmission may be particularly vulnerable to chemical toxicity as they develop throughout fetal development and into adulthood5,6. However, few environmental chemicals have been assessed for potential risks to oligodendrocyte development. Here, we utilized a high-throughput developmental screen and human cortical brain organoids, which revealed environmental chemicals in two classes that disrupt oligodendrocyte development through distinct mechanisms. Quaternary compounds, ubiquitous in disinfecting agents, hair conditioners, and fabric softeners, were potently and selectively cytotoxic to developing oligodendrocytes through activation of the integrated stress response. Organophosphate flame retardants, commonly found in household items such as furniture and electronics, were non-cytotoxic but prematurely arrested oligodendrocyte maturation. Chemicals from each class impaired human oligodendrocyte development in a 3D organoid model of prenatal cortical development. In analysis of epidemiological data from the CDCs National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes were associated with childhood exposure to the top organophosphate flame retardant identified by our oligodendrocyte toxicity platform. Collectively, our work identifies toxicological vulnerabilities specific to oligodendrocyte development and highlights common household chemicals with high exposure risk to children that warrant deeper scrutiny for their impact on human health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cohn, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clayton, B. L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yacoub, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Federov, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul-Friedman, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shafer, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.10.528042</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pervasive environmental chemicals impair oligodendrocyte development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.11.528093v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TRAF4 is crucial for the propagation of ST2+ memory Th2 cells in IL-33-mediated type 2 airway inflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.11.528093v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF)-associated factor 4 (TRAF4) is an important regulator of type 2 responses in the airway; however, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Herein, we generated T cell-specific TRAF4-deficient (CD4cre-Traf4fl/fl) mice and investigated the role of TRAF4 in interleukin (IL)-33 receptor (ST2, suppression of tumorigenicity 2)-expressing memory Th2 cells (ST2+ mTh2) in IL-33-mediated type 2 airway inflammation. We found that in vitro polarized TRAF4-deficient (CD4cre-Traf4fl/fl) ST2+ mTh2 cells exhibited decreased IL-33-induced proliferation as compared with TRAF4-sufficient (Traf4fl/fl) cells. Moreover, CD4cre-Traf4fl/fl mice showed less ST2+ mTh2 cell proliferation and eosinophilic infiltration in the lungs than Traf4fl/fl mice in the preclinical models of IL-33-mediated type 2 airway inflammation. Mechanistically, we discovered that TRAF4 was required for the activation of AKT/mTOR and ERK1/2 signaling pathways as well as the expression of transcription factor Myc and nutrient transporters (Slc2a1, Slc7a1, and Slc7a5), signature genes involved in T cell growth and proliferation, in ST2+ mTh2 cells stimulated by IL-33. Taken together, the current study reveals a previously unappreciated role of TRAF4 in ST2+ mTh2 cells in IL-33-mediated type 2 pulmonary inflammation, opening up avenues for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=161 SRC="FIGDIR/small/528093v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xiao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bulek, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller-Little, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.11.528093</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TRAF4 is crucial for the propagation of ST2+ memory Th2 cells in IL-33-mediated type 2 airway inflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.18.529070v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
LRG1 is a novel ligand of HER3 and promotes metastatic colorectal cancer growth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.18.529070v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapy failure for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) remains an overarching challenge in the clinic. We find that liver endothelial cells secrete soluble factor(s) to promote mCRC growth in vitro and in vivo. We identify LRG1 in ECs secretome, which promotes growth in tumor cells through binding and activation of HER3. Pharmacological blocking of the LRG1/HER3 axis using LRG1 antibody 15C4 completely attenuated LRG1-induced HER3 activation and in vitro and in vivo growth of the tumor. Moreover, LRG1-/- mice with CRC allografts in the liver had 2 times longer overall survival than tumor-bearing LRG1+/+ mice. Lastly, unbiased -omics analysis and target-specific inhibitors identified eIF4-protein synthesis is significantly activated by the LRG1/HER3/RSK1/2 axis. This work reveals a paracrine mechanism of mCRC growth in liver microenvironment and highlighted the potential of blocking LRG1-HER3 and involved downstream pathways for treating patients with mCRC.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.18.529070</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[LRG1 is a novel ligand of HER3 and promotes metastatic colorectal cancer growth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.19.526140v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-strand mismatch and damage patterns revealed by single-molecule DNA sequencing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.19.526140v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations accumulate in the genome of every cell of the body throughout life, causing cancer and other genetic diseases1-4. Almost all of these mosaic mutations begin as nucleotide mismatches or damage in only one of the two strands of the DNA prior to becoming double-strand mutations if unrepaired or misrepaired5. However, current DNA sequencing technologies cannot resolve these initial single-strand events. Here, we developed a single-molecule, long-read sequencing method that achieves single-molecule fidelity for single-base substitutions when present in either one or both strands of the DNA. It also detects single-strand cytosine deamination events, a common type of DNA damage. We profiled 110 samples from diverse tissues, including from individuals with cancer-predisposition syndromes, and define the first single-strand mismatch and damage signatures. We find correspondences between these single-strand signatures and known double-strand mutational signatures, which resolves the identity of the initiating lesions. Tumors deficient in both mismatch repair and replicative polymerase proofreading show distinct single-strand mismatch patterns compared to samples deficient in only polymerase proofreading. In the mitochondrial genome, our findings support a mutagenic mechanism occurring primarily during replication. Since the double-strand DNA mutations interrogated by prior studies are only the endpoint of the mutation process, our approach to detect the initiating single-strand events at single-molecule resolution will enable new studies of how mutations arise in a variety of contexts, especially in cancer and aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costa, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandler, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lassen, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gronska-Peski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwing, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, Z. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenkjaer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Picciotto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianchi, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stengs, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edwards, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loh, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Truong, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brand, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pastinen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skytte, A.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabori, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoag, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evrony, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.19.526140</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-strand mismatch and damage patterns revealed by single-molecule DNA sequencing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529064v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enterovirus Evolution Reveals the Mechanism of an RNA-Targeted Antiviral and Determinants of Viral Replication 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529064v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Selective pressures on positive-strand RNA viruses provide opportunities to establish target site specificity and mechanisms of action of antivirals. Here, Enterovirus-A71 revertant viruses with resistant mutations in the SLII IRES domain (SLIIresist) were selected at low doses of the antiviral DMA-135. The EV-A71 revertant viruses were resistant to DMA-135 at concentrations that robustly inhibit replication of wild-type virus. EV-A71 IRES structures harboring the suppressor mutations induced efficient expression of reporter Luciferase mRNA in the presence of non-cytotoxic doses of DMA-135 whereas DMA-135 dose-dependently inhibited Luciferase expression from the wild-type IRES element. NMR studies indicate that the resistant mutations change the structure of SLII at the bulge loop binding site of DMA-135 and at part of an extended surface recognized by host RNA-binding protein AUF1. Comparisons of biophysical analysis of complexes formed between AUF1, DMA-135, or either SLII or SLIIresist show that DMA-135 stabilizes a ternary complex with AUF1-SLII but not AUF1-SLIIresist. Further studies demonstrate that the hnRNP A1 protein retains binding affinity for SLIIresist, illustrating that DMA-135 inhibition and viral resistance do not perturb the SLII-hnRNP A1 arm of the regulatory axis. Taken together, this work demonstrates how viral evolution under selective pressures of small molecules can elucidate RNA binding site specificity, mechanisms of action, and provide additional insights into the viral pathways inhibited by the antiviral DMA-135.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Davila-Calderon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, M.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penumutchu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malcolm, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hargrove, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolbert, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.20.529064</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enterovirus Evolution Reveals the Mechanism of an RNA-Targeted Antiviral and Determinants of Viral Replication]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531440v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial and Amplitude Dynamics of Neurostimulation: Insights from the Acute Intrahippocampal Kainate Seizure Mouse Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531440v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveNeurostimulation is an emerging treatment for patients with medically refractory epilepsy, which is used to suppress, prevent, and terminate seizure activity. Unfortunately, after implantation and despite best clinical practice, most patients continue to have persistent seizures even after years of empirical optimization. The objective of this study is to determine optimal spatial and amplitude properties of neurostimulation in inhibiting epileptiform activity in an acute hippocampal seizure model.

MethodsWe performed high-throughput testing of high-frequency focal brain stimulation in the acute intrahippocampal kainic acid mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. We evaluated combinations of six anatomic targets and three stimulus amplitudes.

ResultsWe found that the spike-suppressive effects of high-frequency neurostimulation are highly dependent on the stimulation amplitude and location, with higher amplitude stimulation being significantly more effective. Epileptiform spiking activity was significantly reduced with ipsilateral 250 A stimulation of the CA1 and CA3 hippocampal regions with 21.5% and 22.2% reductions, respectively. In contrast, we found that spiking frequency and amplitude significantly increased with stimulation of the ventral hippocampal commissure. We further found spatial differences with broader effects from CA1 versus CA3 stimulation.

SignificanceThese findings demonstrate that the effects of therapeutic neurostimulation in an acute hippocampal seizure model are highly dependent on the location of stimulation and stimulus amplitude. We provide a platform to optimize the anti-seizure effects of neurostimulation, and demonstrate that an exploration of the large electrical parameter and location space can improve current modalities for treating epilepsy.

Key PointsO_LIEvaluated spatial and temporal parameters of neurostimulation in a mouse model of acute seizures
C_LIO_LIBrief bursts of high-frequency (100 Hz) stimulation effectively interrupted epileptiform activity.
C_LIO_LIThe suppressive effect was highly dependent on stimulation amplitude and was maximal at the ipsilateral CA1 and CA3 regions.
C_LIO_LIPro-excitatory effects were identified with high-amplitude high-frequency stimulation at the ventral hippocampal commissure and contralateral CA1.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Foutz, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rensing, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durand, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.07.531440</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial and Amplitude Dynamics of Neurostimulation: Insights from the Acute Intrahippocampal Kainate Seizure Mouse Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531522v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spinal Cord Stimulation using time-dynamic pulses achieves faster and longer reversal of allodynia compared to tonic pulses in a rat model of neuropathic pain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531522v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) utilizing time-dynamic pulses (TDPs) is an emergent field of neuromodulation that continuously and automatically modulates pulse parameters. We previously demonstrated that TDPs delivered for 60 min at sub-paresthesia amplitudes significantly reversed allodynia in a rat model of neuropathic pain. Because we observed these anti-allodynic effects persisted post-cessation, we investigated the extended temporal dynamics of SCS-induced analgesia. We hypothesized that TDPs achieve a longer duration of analgesia than tonic stimulation. Both TDPs and tonic stimulation reversed PWT to near pre-chronificiation levels within 30 minutes. Most TDPs exhibited significantly slower ramp-up slope (analgesia  wash-in rates) compared to tonic stimulation (amplitude modulation: 0.16{+/-}0.03 min-1, pulse width modulation: 0.18{+/-}0.05 min-1, stochastic modulation: 0.17{+/-}0.04 min-1, tonic: 0.31{+/-}0.06 min-1). All TDPs showed slower wind-down slopes (analgesia  wash-out rates) compared to tonic (-0.29{+/-}0.07 min-1), with pulse width modulation (-0.11{+/-}0.02 min-1) reaching significance. Extending SCS from 60 to 90 minutes revealed all TDPs maintain analgesic efficacy longer than tonic stimulation, which decreased significantly at both 75 and 90 minutes (from 13.8{+/-}0.5 g to 12.3{+/-}0.9 g and to 11.0{+/-}0.5 g, respectively). Although TDPs and tonic stimulation comparably mitigated allodynia, TDPs generally exhibited slower temporal dynamics, suggesting longer-lasting analgesic effects and potentially different mechanisms of action.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Edhi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeong, K.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rogness, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esteller, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saab, C. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.07.531522</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spinal Cord Stimulation using time-dynamic pulses achieves faster and longer reversal of allodynia compared to tonic pulses in a rat model of neuropathic pain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531526v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Crosstalkr: An open-source R package to facilitatedrug target identification. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531526v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In the last few decades, interest in graph-based analysis of biological networks has grown substantially. Protein-protein interaction networks are one of the most common biological networks, and represent the molecular relationships between every known protein and every other known protein. Integration of these interactomic data into bioinformatic pipelines may increase the translational potential of discoveries made through analysis of multi-omic datasets. Crosstalkr provides a unified toolkit for drug target and disease subnetwork identification, two of the most common uses of protein protein interaction networks. First, crosstalkr enables users to download and leverage high-quality protein-protein interaction networks from online repositories. Users can then filter these large networks into manageable subnetworks using a variety of methods. For example, network filtration can be done using random walks with restarts, starting at the user-provided seed proteins. Affinity scores from a given random walk with restarts are compared to a bootstrapped null distribution to assess statistical significance. Random walks are implemented using sparse matrix multiplication to facilitate fast execution. Next, users can perform in-silico repression experiments to assess the relative importance of nodes in their network. At this step, users can supply protein or gene expression data to make node rankings more meaningful. The default behavior evaluates the human interactome. However, users can evaluate more than 1000 non-human protein-protein interaction networks as a result of integration with StringDB. It is a free, open-source R package designed to allow users to integrate functional analysis using the protein-protein interaction network into existing bioinformatic pipelines. A beta version of crosstalkr available on CRAN (https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/crosstalkr/index.html).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.07.531526</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Crosstalkr: An open-source R package to facilitatedrug target identification.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531647v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Naturally acquired and Vaccine-induced Human Monoclonal Antibodies to Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein Inhibit Invasion of Plasmodium knowlesi (PvDBPOR) Transgenic Parasites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.07.531647v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) expressed on erythrocytes is central to Plasmodium vivax (Pv) invasion of reticulocytes. Pv expresses a Duffy binding protein (PvDBP) on merozoites, a DARC ligand, and their protein-protein interaction is central to vivax blood stage malaria. Here we compared the functional activity of humAbs derived from naturally exposed and vaccinated individuals for the first time using easily cultured P. knowlesi (Pk) that had been genetically modified to replace its endogenous PkDBP orthologue with PvDBP to create a transgenic parasite, PkPvDBPOR. This transgenic parasite requires DARC to invade human erythrocytes but is not reticulocyte restricted. Using this model, we evaluated the invasion inhibition potential of 12 humAbs (9 naturally acquired; 3 vaccine-induced) targeting PvDBP individually and in combinations using growth inhibition assays (GIAs). The PvDBP-specific humAbs demonstrated 70-100% inhibition of PkPvDBPOR invasion with the IC50 values ranging from 51 to 338 g/mL for the 9 naturally acquired (NA) humAbs and 33 to 99 g/ml for the 3 vaccine-induced (VI) humAbs. To evaluate antagonistic, additive, or synergistic effects, six pairwise combinations were performed using select humAbs. Of these combinations tested, one NA/NA (099100/094083) combination demonstrated relatively strong additive inhibition between 10-100 g/mL; all combinations of NA and VI humAbs showed additive inhibition at concentrations below 25 g/mL and antagonism at higher concentrations. None of the humAb combinations showed synergy. This PkPvDBPOR model system enables efficient assessment of NA and VI humAbs individually and in combination.

IMPORTANCEGiven the importance of Duffy blood group antigen and P. vivax Duffy binding protein (PvDBP) interaction leading to blood stage vivax malaria, development of vaccines or therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies (humAbs) targeting PvDBP are key strategies for treating and controlling Pv. The P. knowlesi-based PkPvDBPOR transgenic model system enables efficient assessment of NA and VI humAbs individually and in combination. As such, this model could prioritize specific humAb combinations ahead of clinical trials of these reagents.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Watson, Q. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carias, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malachin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redinger, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bardelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Draper, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmerman, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.07.531647</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Naturally acquired and Vaccine-induced Human Monoclonal Antibodies to Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein Inhibit Invasion of Plasmodium knowlesi (PvDBPOR) Transgenic Parasites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.09.531574v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.09.531574v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Evolutionary constraint and acceleration are powerful, cell-type agnostic measures of functional importance. Previous studies in mammals were limited by species number and reliance on human-referenced alignments. We explore the evolution of placental mammals, including humans, through reference-free whole-genome alignment of 240 species and protein-coding alignments for 428 species. We estimate 10.7% of the human genome is evolutionarily constrained. We resolve constraint to single nucleotides, pinpointing functional positions, and refine and expand by over seven-fold the catalog of ultraconserved elements. Overall, 48.5% of constrained bases are as yet unannotated, suggesting yet-to-be-discovered functional importance. Using species-level phenotypes and an updated phylogeny, we associate coding and regulatory variation with olfaction and hibernation. Focusing on biodiversity conservation, we identify genomic metrics that predict species at risk of extinction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Christmas, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaplow, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genereux, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, M. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, P. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hindle, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrews, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breit, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diekhans, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanter, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foley, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keough, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirilenko, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kowalczyk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawless, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lind, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meadows, J. R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreira, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redlich, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swofford, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valenzuela, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wallerman, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatesy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimshaw, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kozyrev, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawler, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marinescu, V. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrill, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osmanski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulat, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.09.531574</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.09.531899v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fitness seascapes promote genetic heterogeneity through spatiotemporally distinct mutant selection windows 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.09.531899v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutant selection windows (MSWs), the range of drug concentrations that select for drug-resistant mutants, have long been used as a model for predicting drug resistance and designing optimal dosing strategies in infectious disease. The canonical MSW model offers comparisons between two subtypes at a time: drug-sensitive and drug-resistant. In contrast, the fitness landscape model with N alleles, which maps genotype to fitness, allows comparisons between N genotypes simultaneously, but does not encode continuous drug response data. In clinical settings, there may be a wide range of drug concentrations selecting for a variety of genotypes. Therefore, there is a need for a more robust model of the pathogen response to therapy to predict resistance and design new therapeutic approaches. Fitness seascapes, which model genotype-by-environment interactions, permit multiple MSW comparisons simultaneously by encoding genotype-specific dose-response data. By comparing dose-response curves, one can visualize the range of drug concentrations where one genotype is selected over another. In this work, we show how N-allele fitness seascapes allow for N *2N-1 unique MSW comparisons. In spatial drug diffusion models, we demonstrate how fitness seascapes reveal spatially heterogeneous MSWs, extending the MSW model to more accurately reflect the selection fo drug resistant genotypes. Furthermore, we find that the spatial structure of MSWs shapes the evolution of drug resistance in an agent-based model. Our work highlights the importance and utility of considering dose-dependent fitness seascapes in evolutionary medicine.

Author SummaryDrug resistance in infectious disease and cancer is a major driver of mortality. While undergoing treatment, the population of cells in a tumor or infection may evolve the ability to grow despite the use of previously effective drugs. Researchers hypothesize that the spatial organization of these disease populations may contribute to drug resistance. In this work, we analyze how spatial gradients of drug concentration impact the evolution of drug resistance. We consider a decades-old model called the mutant selection window (MSW), which describes the drug concentration range that selects for drug-resistant cells. We show how extending this model with continuous dose-response data, which describes how different types of cells respond to drug, improves the ability of MSWs to predict evolution. This work helps us understand how the spatial organization of cells, such as the organization of blood vessels within a tumor, may promote drug resistance. In the future, we may use these methods to optimize drug dosing to prevent resistance or leverage known vulnerabilities of drug-resistant cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>King, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierce, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.09.531899</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fitness seascapes promote genetic heterogeneity through spatiotemporally distinct mutant selection windows]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.13.531394v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Live-trapping of rodents in urban green spaces across Los Angeles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.13.531394v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Urban green spaces have the potential to function as multi-benefit spaces, for both human enjoyment and sustaining native wildlife populations. In our study, we trapped for small nocturnal mammals across a series of Los Angeles green spaces. Our results show that native rodents are only present in habitats that support native vegetation; in particular we highlight the native rodent biodiversity on Sage Hill, a coastal sage scrub remnant on the UCLA campus. Other urban parks that are composed of non-native grasses and non-native shrubbery yielded only invasive species of rodents, including Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and House Mice (Mus musculus). Our study points to the ability of renovated green space in Los Angeles to support native fauna. In addition, our study demonstrates some of the difficulties in doing trapping studies in heavily urbanized environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Friscia, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maloney, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molina-Echavarria, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nugen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Punjabi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tweedt, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lynch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.13.531394</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Live-trapping of rodents in urban green spaces across Los Angeles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.15.532871v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Masking, maintenance and mimicry: the interplay of cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic effects in evolutionary games 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.15.532871v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding how populations evolve requires accounting for both intrinsic fitness, defined by genotype and environment, and ecological interactions that emerge in mixed communities. While evolutionary experiments typically assess fitness in isolation, such monoculture measures may misrepresent dynamics in realistic, interacting populations. Here, we present a game-theoretic framework that explicitly separates intrinsic and ecological contributions to fitness, allowing us to map how ecological interactions can mask, mirror, maintain, or mimic selection driven by genetic differences. We derive analytical conditions for these regimes using deterministic replicator dynamics and validate them in stochastic Wright-Fisher models with mutation and drift. Applying our model to published microbial and cancer co-culture data, we show that real systems span both intrinsic-dominant and ecology-dominant regimes, with ecological effects sometimes reversing or neutralizing intrinsic fitness advantages. These results expose a critical blind spot in experimental design and interpretation, emphasizing the need to account for ecological interactions when inferring evolutionary dynamics and designing therapeutic strategies.

Conflict of Interest StatementThe authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barker-Clarke, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tadele, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>scott, j.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.15.532871</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Masking, maintenance and mimicry: the interplay of cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic effects in evolutionary games]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.532621v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Draft genome assembly of the ancient tetraploid orphan legume marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) with PacBio HiFi data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.532621v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tylosema esculentum (marama bean), an underutilized orphan legume, has long been considered to have the potential to be domesticated as a crop to improve local food security due to the nutrient-rich seeds. As a plant species that grows naturally in the deserts of southern Africa, marama also serves as a good model for studying plant adaptation to extreme environments. In this study, HMW leaf DNA samples were prepared to generate 21.6 Gb PacBio HiFi data, which was assembled into to a raw tetraploid genome assembly of 1.24 Gb using Canu and into a partially phased assembly of 564.8 Mb by Hifiasm. The N50 values were 1.28 Mb and 2.75 Mb, respectively, and the BUSCO completeness were all above 99%. Repeats were found to account for 27.35% of the genome. The k-mer analysis indicated that marama was likely to be an autotetraploid plant with an estimated haplotype genome size of only 277 Mb. The current assembly was aligned with the genome of Bauhinia variegata, the closest species to marama whose genome has been sequenced, with an overall alignment rate of only 20.36% indicating a significant divergence between the two. This is the first high-quality genome assembly of marama bean, albeit unphased and still fragmented. However, some of the long contigs, which can be close to half the chromosome length, can serve as good references for studying the genes underlying the traits of interest. This will greatly facilitate the molecular breeding of the bean.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cullis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.16.532621</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Draft genome assembly of the ancient tetraploid orphan legume marama bean (Tylosema esculentum) with PacBio HiFi data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.532885v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Standardizing and applying a mating-based whole-genome simulation approach reveals caution in using chromosome-level PCA and kinship estimates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.532885v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This paper presents a new and efficient method for simulating pseudo-genotype data using the standardized protocol of SLiM, which offers a flexible alternative to traditional methods that rely on large genetic datasets. These datasets can be time-consuming to obtain, especially when institutional review board (IRB) review is involved, making simulation an attractive alternative. While HapGen v2 is the most popular genotype simulator, we found that SLiM has the potential for more customizable simulation to meet multiple needs.

To validate our new method, we compared its performance among parallel simulations varying multiple parameters. Our results showed that SLiM is capable of simulating samples up to 333 times the input size, with a low rate of simulated samples that are 2nd or closer relatives (REV), making it a promising alternative to HapGen. We also applied our whole-genome simulation approach to sensitivity analyses of chromosome-level principal component analysis (PCA) and kinship estimation. Our findings revealed important insights into the sensitivity of PCA and kinship estimation, highlighting the unequal distribution of population structure across chromosomes and ancestries. Furthermore, our study provides experimental support for avoiding chromosome-level quality control statistics.

Overall, our standardized protocol of SLiM offers a flexible new way to produce pseudo-genotype data, and our findings provide valuable insights that can advance research in the field. By demonstrating the potential of SLiM for more customizable simulations and highlighting the importance of considering the distribution of population structure across chromosomes and ancestries, our research has significant implications for the study of genetics and genomics.

Author SummaryIn this publication, we introduce a novel approach to genotype simulation using a mating-based strategy in SLiM. Our approach mimics mitosis computationally and stands out as the only one available as of December 2022 that can maintain cross-chromosome associations during whole-genome level simulation, with no competitors in sight. Additionally, our approach is applicable to regional or chromosomal genotype simulation. When compared to the current gold-standard chromosome-level simulator, HapGen, our approach exhibits superior performance when generating large sample sizes (>13,000). We provide an application example that uses whole-genome simulation to underscore the importance of whole-genome quality control (QC) statistics, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and kinship estimates, compared to the chromosome-level ones. Results of the application indicate instability and bias in the chromosome-level QC statistics. Overall, our approach represents a valuable tool for genetics research that can assist in the evaluation and validation of genetic analyses, and people should avoid chromosome-level QC statistics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cui, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumacher, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.16.532885</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Standardizing and applying a mating-based whole-genome simulation approach reveals caution in using chromosome-level PCA and kinship estimates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.533001v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Frequency-dependent ecological interactions increase the prevalence and shape the distribution of pre-existing drug resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.16.533001v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The evolution of resistance remains one of the primary challenges for modern medicine from infectious diseases to cancers. Many of these resistance-conferring mutations often carry a substantial fitness cost in the absence of treatment. As a result, we would expect these mutants to undergo purifying selection and be rapidly driven to extinction. Nevertheless, pre-existing resistance is frequently observed from drug-resistant malaria to targeted cancer therapies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and melanoma. Solutions to this apparent paradox have taken several forms from spatial rescue to simple mutation supply arguments. Recently, in an evolved resistant NSCLC cell line, we found that frequency-dependent ecological interactions between ancestor and resistant mutant ameliorate the cost of resistance in the absence of treatment. Here, we hypothesize that frequency-dependent ecological interactions in general play a major role in the prevalence of pre-existing resistance. We combine numerical simulations with robust analytical approximations to provide a rigorous mathematical framework for studying the effects of frequency-dependent ecological interactions on the evolutionary dynamics of pre-existing resistance. First, we find that ecological interactions significantly expand the parameter regime under which we expect to observe pre-existing resistance. Next, even when positive ecological interactions between mutants and ancestors are rare, these resistant clones provide the primary mode of evolved resistance because even weak positive interaction leads to significantly longer extinction times. We then find that even in the case where mutation supply alone is sufficient to predict pre-existing resistance, frequency-dependent ecological forces still contribute a strong evolutionary pressure that selects for increasingly positive ecological effects (negative frequency-dependent selection). Finally, we genetically engineer several of the most common clinically observed resistance mechanisms to targeted therapies in NSCLC, a treatment notorious for pre-existing resistance. We find that each engineered mutant displays a positive ecological interaction with their ancestor. As a whole, these results suggest that frequency-dependent ecological effects can play a crucial role in shaping the evolutionary dynamics of pre-existing resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tadele, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McFarland, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.16.533001</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Frequency-dependent ecological interactions increase the prevalence and shape the distribution of pre-existing drug resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.24.534062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intra-Host Mutation Rate of Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection During the Initial Pandemic Wave 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.24.534062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundOur understanding of SARS-CoV-2 evolution and mutation rate is limited. The rate of SARS-CoV-2 evolution is minimized through a proofreading function encoded by NSP-14 and may be affected by patient comorbidity. Current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 mutational rate is through population based analysis while intra-host mutation rate remains poorly studied.

MethodsViral genome analysis was performed between paired samples and mutations quantified at allele frequencies (AF) [&ge;]0.25, [&ge;]0.5 and [&ge;]0.75. Mutation rate was determined employing F81 and JC69 evolution models and compared between isolates with ({Delta}NSP-14) and without (wtNSP-14) non-synonymous mutations in NSP-14 and by patient comorbidity.

ResultsForty paired samples with median interval of 13 days [IQR 8.5-20] were analyzed. The estimated mutation rate by F81 modeling was 93.6 (95%CI:90.8-96.4], 40.7 (95%CI:38.9-42.6) and 34.7 (95%CI:33.0-36.4) substitutions/genome/year at AF [&ge;]0.25, [&ge;]0.5, [&ge;]0.75 respectively. Mutation rate in {Delta}NSP-14 were significantly elevated at AF>0.25 vs wtNSP-14. Patients with immune comorbidities had higher mutation rate at all allele frequencies.

DiscussionIntra-host SARS-CoV-2 mutation rates are substantially higher than those reported through population analysis. Virus strains with altered NSP-14 have accelerated mutation rate at low AF. Immunosuppressed patients have elevated mutation rate at all AF. Understanding intra-host virus evolution will aid in current and future pandemic modeling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>El Haddad, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adhikari, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhoads, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Worley, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esper, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.24.534062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intra-Host Mutation Rate of Acute SARS-CoV-2 Infection During the Initial Pandemic Wave]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.27.534440v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comparative Analysis of Tylosema esculentum Mitochondrial DNA Revealed Two Distinct Genome Structures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.27.534440v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tylosema esculentum (marama bean), an underutilized legume with edible and nutritious seeds, has the potential to improve local food security in southern Africa. This study investigated the diversity of marama mitogenomes by mapping sequencing data from 84 individuals to the previously published reference mitogenome. Two distinct germplasms were found, and a new mitogenome structure containing three circular molecules and one long linear chromosome was identified, with a unique 2,108 bp fragment and primers were designed on that for marama mitogenome typing. This structural variation increases copy number of certain genes, including nad9, rrns and rrn5. The two mitogenomes also differed at 230 loci, with only one nonsynonymous substitution in matR. The evolutionary analysis suggested that the divergence of marama mitogenomes may be related to soil moisture level. Heteroplasmy in the marama mitogenome was concentrated at specific loci, including 127,684 bp to 127,686 bp on chromosome LS1 (OK638188), and may be crucial in the evolution. Additionally, the mitogenomes of marama contained a cpDNA insertion of over 9 kb with numerous polymorphisms, resulting in the loss of function of the genes on that segment. This comprehensive analysis of marama mitogenome diversity may provide valuable insight for future improvement of the bean.

HighlightThe analysis of 84 marama mitogenomes revealed two germplasms and the structural variation affects certain gene copy numbers. Soil moisture levels may have played important roles in the mitogenome divergence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cullis, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.27.534440</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comparative Analysis of Tylosema esculentum Mitochondrial DNA Revealed Two Distinct Genome Structures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.28.534633v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bioenergetic costs and the evolution of noise regulation by microRNAs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.28.534633v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Noise control, together with other regulatory functions facilitated by microRNAs (miRNAs), is believed to have played important roles in the evolution of multicellular eukaryotic organisms. miRNAs can dampen protein fluctuations via enhanced degradation of mRNAs, but this requires compensation by increased mRNA transcription to maintain the same expression levels. The overall mechanism is metabolically expensive, leading to questions about how it might have evolved in the first place. We develop a stochastic model of miRNA noise regulation, coupled with a detailed analysis of the associated metabolic costs. Additionally we calculate binding free energies for a range of miRNA seeds, the short sequences which govern target recognition. We argue that natural selection may have fine-tuned the Michaelis-Menten constant KM describing miRNA-mRNA affinity, and show supporting evidence from analysis of experimental data. KM is constrained by seed length, and optimal noise control (minimum protein variance at a given energy cost) is achievable for seeds of 6-7 nucleotides in length, the most commonly observed types. Moreover, at optimality the degree of noise reduction approaches the theoretical bound set by the Wiener-Kolmogorov linear filter. The results illustrate how selective pressure toward energy efficiency has potentially shaped a crucial regulatory pathway in eukaryotes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ilker, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.28.534633</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bioenergetic costs and the evolution of noise regulation by microRNAs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534596v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting wild-type IDH1 enhances chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534596v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most aggressive types of cancer, with a five-year overall survival rate of 11% among all-comers. Current systemic therapeutic options are limited to cytotoxic chemotherapies which have limited clinical efficacy and are often associated with development of drug resistance. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas showed that wild-type isocitrate dehydrogenase (wtIDH1) is overexpressed in pancreatic tumors. In this study, we focus on the potential roles of wtIDH1 in pancreatic cancer chemoresistance. We found that treatment of pancreatic cancer cells with chemotherapy induced expression of wtIDH1, and this serves as a key resistance factor. The enzyme is protective to cancer cells under chemotherapy-induced oxidative stress by producing NADPH and alpha-ketoglutarate to maintain redox balance and mitochondrial function. An FDA-approved mutant IDH1 inhibitor, ivosidenib (AG-120), is actually a potent wtDH1 inhibitor under a nutrient-deprived microenvironment, reflective of the pancreatic cancer microenvironment. Suppression of wtIDH1 impairs redox balance, results in increased ROS levels, and enhances chemotherapy induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer vis ROS damage in vitro. In vivo experiments further revealed that inhibiting wtIDH1 enhances chemotherapy anti-tumor effects in patient-derived xenografts and murine models of pancreatic cancer. Pharmacologic wtIDH1 inhibition with ivosidenib represents an attractive option for combination therapies with cytotoxic chemotherapy for patients with pancreatic cancer. Based on these data, we have initiated phase Ib trial combining ivosidenib and multi-agent chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer (NCT05209074).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajihassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothermel, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.29.534596</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting wild-type IDH1 enhances chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.01.535233v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adapting the endoplasmic reticulum proteostasis rescues epilepsy-associated NMDA receptor variants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.01.535233v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The GRIN genes encoding N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) subunits are remarkably intolerant to variation. Many pathogenic NMDAR variants result in their protein misfolding, inefficient assembly, reduced surface expression, and impaired functionality at the plasma membrane, causing neurological disorders including epilepsy and intellectual disability. Here, we concentrate on the proteostasis maintenance of NMDARs containing epilepsy-associated variations in the GluN2A (or NR2A) subunit, including M705V and A727T. We showed that these two variants are targeted to the proteasome for degradation and have reduced functional surface expression. We demonstrated that the application of BIX, a known small molecule activator of an HSP70 family chaperone BiP (Binding immunoglobulin Protein) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), significantly increases total and surface protein levels, and thus the function of the M705V and A727T variants in HEK293T cells. Mechanistic studies revealed that BIX promotes folding, inhibits degradation, and enhances anterograde trafficking of the M705V variant by modest activation of the IRE1 pathway of the unfolded protein response. Our results showed that adapting the ER proteostasis network restores the folding, trafficking, and function of pathogenic NMDAR variants, representing a potential treatment for neurological disorders resulting from NMDAR dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benske, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paton, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paton, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.01.535233</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adapting the endoplasmic reticulum proteostasis rescues epilepsy-associated NMDA receptor variants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.03.534985v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ALDH2 dysfunction accelerates ESCC pathogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.03.534985v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The alcohol metabolite acetaldehyde is a potent human carcinogen. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is the primary enzyme that detoxifies acetaldehyde in the mitochondria. Acetaldehyde accumulates and causes genotoxic stress in cells expressing the dysfunctional ALDH2E487K mutant protein linked to ALDH2*2, the single nucleotide polymorphism highly prevalent amongst East Asians. Chronic alcohol users with heterozygous ALDH2*2 display an increased risk for the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and other alcohol-related cancers. However, how ALDH2 influences ESCC pathobiology is incompletely understood. Herein, we characterize how ESCC and preneoplastic cells respond to alcohol exposure using cell lines, three dimensional organoids, and xenograft models. We find that alcohol exposure results in increased organoid formation and tumor growth concurrent with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), increased DNA damage, and the enrichment of putative cancer stem cells (CSCs) characterized by high CD44 expression. Pharmacological activation of ALDH2 function by Alda-1 inhibits this phenotype, indicating that acetaldehyde is the primary driver of these changes. ALDH2 dysfunction also affects response to a commonly used chemotherapy for the treatment of ESCC. We find that Aldh2 dysfunction facilitated enrichment of CSCs following cisplatin-induced cell death and oxidative stress in murine organoids. Together, these data provide evidence that alcohol exposure, results in more aggressive tumors through enrichment of CSCs, which is augmented by ALDH2 dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Flashner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shimonosono, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuura, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ohashi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein-Szanto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diehl, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakagawa, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.03.534985</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ALDH2 dysfunction accelerates ESCC pathogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.10.536233v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational ranking-assisted identification of Plexin-B2 in homotypic and heterotypic clustering of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer metastasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.10.536233v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metastasis is the cause of over 90% of all deaths associated with breast cancer, yet the strategies to predict cancer spreading based on primary tumor profiles and therefore prevent metastasis are egregiously limited. As rare precursor cells to metastasis, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in multicellular clusters in the blood are 20-50 times more likely to produce viable metastasis than single CTCs. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying various CTC clusters, such as homotypic tumor cell clusters and heterotypic tumor-immune cell clusters, are yet to be fully elucidated. Combining machine learning-assisted computational ranking with experimental demonstration to assess cell adhesion candidates, we identified a transmembrane protein Plexin- B2 (PB2) as a new therapeutic target that drives the formation of both homotypic and heterotypic CTC clusters. High PB2 expression in human primary tumors predicts an unfavorable distant metastasis-free survival and is enriched in CTC clusters compared to single CTCs in advanced breast cancers. Loss of PB2 reduces formation of homotypic tumor cell clusters as well as heterotypic tumor-myeloid cell clusters in triple-negative breast cancer. Interactions between PB2 and its ligand Sema4C on tumor cells promote homotypic cluster formation, and PB2 binding with Sema4A on myeloid cells (monocytes) drives heterotypic CTC cluster formation, suggesting that metastasizing tumor cells hijack the PB2/Sema family axis to promote lung metastasis in breast cancer. Additionally, using a global proteomic analysis, we identified novel downstream effectors of the PB2 pathway associated with cancer stemness, cell cycling, and tumor cell clustering in breast cancer. Thus, PB2 is a novel therapeutic target for preventing new metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schuster, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dashzeveg, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golam, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramos, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taftaf, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El-Shennawy, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scholten, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adorno-Cruz, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reduzzi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siziopikou, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plantanias, L. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gradishar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cristofanilli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, C.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitata, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spahija, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.10.536233</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational ranking-assisted identification of Plexin-B2 in homotypic and heterotypic clustering of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer metastasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.12.536558v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FGF-21 Conducts a Liver-Brain-Kidney Axis to Promote Renal Cell Carcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.12.536558v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metabolic homeostasis is one of the most exquisitely tuned systems in mammalian physiology. Metabolic homeostasis requires multiple redundant systems to cooperate to maintain blood glucose concentrations in a narrow range, despite a multitude of physiological and pathophysiological pressures. Cancer is one of the canonical pathophysiological settings in which metabolism plays a key role. In this study, we utilized REnal Gluconeogenesis Analytical Leads (REGAL), a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry-based stable isotope tracer method that we developed to show that in conditions of metabolic stress, the fasting hepatokine fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21)1, 2 coordinates a liver-brain-kidney axis to promote renal gluconeogenesis. FGF-21 promotes renal gluconeogenesis by enhancing {beta}2 adrenergic receptor (Adrb2)-driven, adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL)-mediated intrarenal lipolysis. Further, we show that this liver-brain-kidney axis promotes gluconeogenesis in the renal parenchyma in mice and humans with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This increased gluconeogenesis is, in turn, associated with accelerated RCC progression. We identify Adrb2 blockade as a new class of therapy for RCC in mice, with confirmatory data in human patients. In summary, these data reveal a new metabolic function of FGF-21 in driving renal gluconeogenesis, and demonstrate that inhibition of renal gluconeogenesis by FGF-21 antagonism deserves attention as a new therapeutic approach to RCC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadak, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halberstam, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perry, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braun, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adeniran, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perry, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.12.536558</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FGF-21 Conducts a Liver-Brain-Kidney Axis to Promote Renal Cell Carcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.18.537383v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pharmacological chaperones restore proteostasis of epilepsy-associated GABAA receptor variants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.18.537383v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent advances in genetic diagnosis identified variants in genes encoding GABAA receptors as causative for genetic epilepsy. Here, we selected eight disease-associated variants in the 1 subunit of GABAA receptors causing mild to severe clinical phenotypes and showed that they are loss of function, mainly by reducing the folding and surface trafficking of the 1 protein. Furthermore, we sought client protein-specific pharmacological chaperones to restore the function of pathogenic receptors. Applications of positive allosteric modulators, including Hispidulin and TP003, increase the functional surface expression of the 1 variants. Mechanism of action study demonstrated that they enhance the folding and assembly and reduce the degradation of GABAA variants without activating the unfolded protein response in HEK293T cells and human iPSC-derived neurons. Since these compounds cross the blood-brain barrier, such a pharmacological chaperoning strategy holds great promise to treat genetic epilepsy in a GABAA receptor-specific manner.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seibert, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, L. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaffer, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.18.537383</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pharmacological chaperones restore proteostasis of epilepsy-associated GABAA receptor variants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.19.536507v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
COVID-19 and silent hypoxemia in a minimal closed-loop model of the respiratory rhythm generator 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.19.536507v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Silent hypoxemia, or  happy hypoxia, is a puzzling phenomenon in which patients who have contracted COVID-19 exhibit very low oxygen saturation (SaO2 < 80%) but do not experience discomfort in breathing. The mechanism by which this blunted response to hypoxia occurs is unknown. We have previously shown that a computational model (Diekman et al., 2017, J. Neurophysiol) of the respiratory neural network can be used to test hypotheses focused on changes in chemosensory inputs to the central pattern generator (CPG). We hypothesize that altered chemosensory function at the level of the carotid bodies and/or the nucleus tractus solitarii are responsible for the blunted response to hypoxia. Here, we use our model to explore this hypothesis by altering the properties of the gain function representing oxygen sensing inputs to the CPG. We then vary other parameters in the model and show that oxygen carrying capacity is the most salient factor for producing silent hypoxemia. We call for clinicians to measure hematocrit as a clinical index of altered physiology in response to COVID-19 infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Diekman, C. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.19.536507</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[COVID-19 and silent hypoxemia in a minimal closed-loop model of the respiratory rhythm generator]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.24.538195v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tension sensing by FAK governs nuclear mechanotransduction, endothelial transcriptome and fate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.24.538195v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vascular endothelium forms a restrictive barrier to defend the underlying tissue against uncontrolled influx of circulating protein and immune cells. Mechanisms that mediate the transition from restrictive to leaky endothelium, a hallmark of tissue injury exemplified by acute lung injury (ALI), remain elusive. Using endothelial cell (EC)-Fak-/-mice, we show that FAK sensing and transmission of mechanical tension to the EC nucleus governs cell fate. In FAK- deleted EC, increased EC tension induced by Rho kinase caused tyrosine phosphorylation of nuclear envelope protein, emerin at Y74/Y95, and its localization in a nuclear cap. Activated emerin stimulated DNMT3a activity and methylation of the KLF2 promoter, impairing the restrictive EC transcriptome, including S1PR1. Inhibiting emerin phosphorylation or DNMT3a activity enabled KLF2 transcription of S1PR1, rescuing the restrictive EC phenotype in EC-Fak-/- lungs. Thus, FAK sensing of tension transmission to the nucleus is crucial for maintaining a restrictive EC fate and lung homeostasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akhter, M. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yazbeck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tauseef, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anwar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hossen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Datta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vellingiri, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lenzini, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.24.538195</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tension sensing by FAK governs nuclear mechanotransduction, endothelial transcriptome and fate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.04.537848v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Behavioral Paradigm for the Evaluation of Stimulation-Evoked Somatosensory Perception Thresholds in Rats 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.04.537848v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of the somatosensory cortex via penetrating microelectrode arrays (MEAs) can evoke cutaneous and proprioceptive sensations for restoration of perception in individuals with spinal cord injuries. However, ICMS current amplitudes needed to evoke these sensory percepts tend to change over time following implantation. Animal models have been used to investigate the mechanisms by which these changes occur and aid in the development of new engineering strategies to mitigate such changes. Non-human primates are commonly the animal of choice for investigating ICMS, but ethical concerns exist regarding their use. Rodents are a preferred animal model due to their availability, affordability, and ease of handling, but there are limited choices of behavioral tasks for investigating ICMS. In this study, we investigated the application of an innovative behavioral go/no-go paradigm capable of estimating ICMS-evoked sensory perception thresholds in freely moving rats. We divided animals into two groups, one receiving ICMS and a control group receiving auditory tones. Then, we trained the animals to nose-poke - a well-established behavioral task for rats - following either a suprathreshold ICMS current-controlled pulse train or frequency-controlled auditory tone. Animals received a sugar pellet reward when nose-poking correctly. When nose-poking incorrectly, animals received a mild air puff. After animals became proficient in this task, as defined by accuracy, precision, and other performance metrics, they continued to the next phase for perception threshold detection, where we varied the ICMS amplitude using a modified staircase method. Finally, we used non-linear regression to estimate perception thresholds.

Results indicated that our behavioral protocol could estimate ICMS perception thresholds based on [~]95% accuracy of rat nose-poke responses to the conditioned stimulus. This behavioral paradigm provides a robust methodology for evaluating stimulation-evoked somatosensory percepts in rats comparable to the evaluation of auditory percepts. In future studies, this validated methodology can be used to study the performance of novel MEA device technologies on ICMS-evoked perception threshold stability using freely moving rats or to investigate information processing principles in neural circuits related to sensory perception discrimination.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capadona, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cogan, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pancrazio, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engineer, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez-Reynoso, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.04.537848</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Behavioral Paradigm for the Evaluation of Stimulation-Evoked Somatosensory Perception Thresholds in Rats]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.17.541189v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oncogenic reactivation of young L1s is a hallmark of colon cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.17.541189v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transposable elements become increasingly active in both cancerous and aging cells, driven by loss of DNA methylation as cells divide. Here we leverage the epigenomes of colon cancers with matched adjacent tissue, in addition to non-cancerous normals and cell line models, to assess the role of transposable elements as drivers or passengers in cancer development. Using the baseline of activity from normal and adjacent tissue, we show that the youngest subfamilies of the LINE1 (L1) family exhibit a degree of activity and recurrence across patients that goes beyond what is expected from hypomethylation and cell division, suggesting an additional mechanism of oncogenic reactivation. We characterize this mechanism and find that the loss of the tumor suppressor PLZF drives young L1 reactivation in a cell-division-independent manner. PLZF de-repression exposes abundant motifs for tumor core factors in the L1 5UTR. Active young L1s act as oncogenic enhancers, interacting with oncogenes via gained chromatin loops. We uncover oncogenic L1 reactivation as a hallmark of colon cancer, where young L1s activate universally in our cohort at high levels of recurrence, act as enhancers to oncogenes, and become wired into the core regulatory circuitry of colon cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Neu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faber, Z. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovrenert, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pontius, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalady, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peters, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sallari, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.17.541189</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oncogenic reactivation of young L1s is a hallmark of colon cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.541829v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate inflammation in an experimental model of Crohn's disease via the mesentery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.541829v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveMesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are novel therapeutics for treatment of Crohns disease. However, their mechanism of action is unclear, especially in disease-relevant chronic models of inflammation. Thus, we used SAMP-1/YitFc, a chronic and spontaneous murine model of small intestinal inflammation, to study the therapeutic effect and mechanism of human bone marrow-derived MSCs (hMSC).

DesignhMSC immunosuppressive potential was evaluated through in vitro mixed lymphocyte reaction, ELISA, macrophage co-culture, and RT-qPCR. Therapeutic efficacy and mechanism in SAMP were studied by stereomicroscopy, histopathology, MRI radiomics, flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, small animal imaging, and single-cell RNA sequencing (Sc-RNAseq).

ResultshMSC dose-dependently inhibited naive T lymphocyte proliferation in MLR via PGE2 secretion and reprogrammed macrophages to an anti-inflammatory phenotype. hMSC promoted mucosal healing and immunologic response early after administration in SAMP model of chronic small intestinal inflammation when live hMSCs are present (until day 9) and resulted in complete response characterized by mucosal, histological, immunologic, and radiological healing by day 28 when no live hMSCs are present. hMSC mediate their effect via modulation of T cells and macrophages in the mesentery and mesenteric lymph nodes (mLN). Sc-RNAseq confirmed the anti-inflammatory phenotype of macrophages and identified macrophage efferocytosis of apoptotic hMSCs as a mechanism of action that explains their long-term efficacy.

ConclusionhMSCs result in healing and tissue regeneration in a chronic model of small intestinal inflammation. Despite being short-lived, exert long-term effects via macrophage reprogramming to an anti-inflammatory phenotype.

Data Transparency StatementSingle-cell RNA transcriptome datasets are deposited in an online open access repository  Figshare (DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21453936.v1)
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dave, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Somoza, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Viswanath, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mina, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chirra, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obmann, V. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahabeleshwar, G. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menghini, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolta, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soto, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osme, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khuat, L. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caplan, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.22.541829</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate inflammation in an experimental model of Crohn's disease via the mesentery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.541848v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Structural Role of N170 in Substrate-assisted Deacylation in KPC-2 β-Lactamase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.22.541848v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The amino acid substitutions in Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 2 (KPC-2) that have arisen in the clinic are observed to lead to the development of resistance to ceftazidime-avibactam, a preferred treatment for KPC bearing Gram-negative bacteria. Specific substitutions in the omega loop (R164-D179) results in changes in the structure and function of the enzyme, leading to alterations in substrate specificity, decreased stability, and more recently observed, increased resistance to ceftazidime/avibactam. Using accelerated rare-event sampling well-tempered metadynamics simulations, we explored in detail the structural role of R164 and D179 variants that are described to confer ceftazidime/avibactam resistance. The buried conformation of D179 substitutions produce a pronounced structural disorder in the omega loop - more than R164 mutants, where the crystallographic omega loop structure remains mostly intact. Our findings also reveal that the conformation of N170 plays an underappreciated role impacting drug binding and restricting deacylation. The results further support the hypothesis that KPC-2 D179 variants employ substrate-assisted catalysis for ceftazidime hydrolysis, involving the ring amine of the aminothiazole group to promote deacylation and catalytic turnover. Moreover, the shift in the WT conformation of N170 contributes to reduced deacylation and altered spectrum of enzymatic activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Parwana, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bethel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hujer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haider, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.22.541848</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Structural Role of N170 in Substrate-assisted Deacylation in KPC-2 β-Lactamase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541821v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhanced Annotation of CD45RA to Distinguish T cell Subsets in Single Cell RNA-seq via Machine Learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541821v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
T cell heterogeneity presents a challenge for accurate cell identification, understanding their inherent plasticity, and characterizing their critical role in adaptive immunity. Immunologists have traditionally employed techniques such as flow cytometry to identify T cell subtypes based on a well-established set of surface protein markers. With the advent of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), researchers can now investigate the gene expression profiles of these surface proteins at the single-cell level. The insights gleaned from these profiles offer valuable clues and a deeper understanding of cell identity. However, CD45RA, the isoform of CD45 which distinguish between naive/central memory T cells and effector memory/effector memory cells re-expressing CD45RA T cells, cannot be well profiled by scRNA-seq due to the difficulty in mapping short reads to genes. In order to facilitate cell type annotation in T cell scRNA-seq analysis, we employed machine learning and trained a CD45RA+/- classifier on single-cell mRNA count data annotated with known CD45RA antibody levels provided by cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes sequencing (CITE-seq) data. Among all algorithms we tested, the trained support vector machine (SVM) with a radial basis function (RBF) kernel with optimized hyperparameters achieved a 99.96% accuracy on an unseen dataset. The multilayer Perceptron (MLP) classifier, the second most predictive method overall, also achieved a decent accuracy of 99.74%. Our simple yet robust machine learning approach provides a valid inference on the CD45RA level, assisting the cell identity annotation and further exploring the heterogeneity within human T cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.23.541821</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhanced Annotation of CD45RA to Distinguish T cell Subsets in Single Cell RNA-seq via Machine Learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541940v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detailed Survey of an in-vitro Intestinal Epithelium Model by Single-Cell Transcriptomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541940v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gut plays a critical role in maintaining human health by facilitating the absorption of nutrients, regulating metabolism, and interacting with the immune system and gut microbiota. The co-culture of two human colorectal cancer cell lines, Caco-2 and HT29, on Transwell is commonly used as an in vitro gut mimic in studies of intestinal absorption pharmacokinetics, gut mechanics, and gut-microbe interplay given the similar morphology, expression of transporters and enzymes, and barrier function. However, to sufficiently evaluate the translatability of insights from such a system to human physiological contexts, a detailed survey of cell type heterogeneity in the system and a holistic comparison with human physiology are needed to be conducted rather than by the presence of a few well-studied proteins. Single-cell RNA sequencing provides high-resolution expression profiles of cells in the co-culture, enabling the heterogeneity to be characterized and the similarity to human epithelial cells to be evaluated. Transcriptional profiles of 16019 genes in 13784 cells were acquired and compared to human epithelial cells (GSE185224). We identified the intestinal stem cell-, transit amplifying-, enterocyte-, goblet cell-, and enteroendocrine-like cells together with differentiating HT29 cells in the system based on the expression of canonical markers in healthy adult human epithelial cells. The epithelium-like co-culture was fetal intestine-like, with less variety of gene expression compared to the human gut. Transporters for major types of substance (lipid, amino acid, ion, water, etc.) were found transcribed in the majority of the enterocytes-like cells in the system. However, some of the well-studied transporters such as FATP4 and GLUT2 were absent. Toll-like receptors were not highly expressed in the sample, yet the treatment of lipopolysaccharide still caused a mild change in trans-epithelial electrical resistance and gene expression, possibly by the interaction with CD14, the co-receptor for TLRs. Overall, the Caco-2/HT29 co-culture is a cost-effective epithelium model for drug permeability testing or mechanical simulation, but its phenotypic discrepancy with the real epithelium is not negligible. As a result, its response to biological factors might not provide transferrable knowledge to the study of human gut physiology, especially the innate immune aspect.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munoz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jena, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.23.541940</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detailed Survey of an in-vitro Intestinal Epithelium Model by Single-Cell Transcriptomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541952v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A single cell transcriptomic fingerprint of stressed premature, imbalanced differentiation of embryonic stem cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.23.541952v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cultured naive pluripotent ESC differentiate into first lineage, XEN or second lineage, formative pluripotency. Hyperosmotic stress (sorbitol), like retinoic acid, decreases naive pluripotency and increases XEN in two ESC lines, as reported by bulk and scRNAseq, analyzed by UMAP. Sorbitol overrides pluripotency in two ESC lines as reported by bulk and scRNAseq, analyzed by UMAP. UMAP analyzed the effects of 5 stimuli - three stressed (200-300mM sorbitol with leukemia inhibitory factor +LIF) and two unstressed (+LIF, normal stemness-NS and -LIF, normal differentiation-ND). Sorbitol and RA decrease naive pluripotency and increase subpopulations of 2-cell embryo-like and XEN sub-lineages; primitive, parietal, and visceral endoderm (VE). Between the naive pluripotency and primitive endoderm clusters is a stress-induced cluster with transient intermediate cells with higher LIF receptor signaling, with increased Stat3, Klf4, and Tbx3 expression. Sorbitol, like RA, also suppresses formative pluripotency, increasing lineage imbalance. Although bulk RNAseq and gene ontology group analyses suggest that stress induces head organizer and placental markers, scRNAseq reveals few cells. But VE and placental markers/cells were in adjacent clusters, like recent reports. UMAPs show that dose-dependent stress overrides stemness to force premature lineage imbalance. Hyperosmotic stress induces lineage imbalance, and other toxicological stresses, like drugs with RA, may cause lineage imbalance, resulting in miscarriages or birth defects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ruden, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marben, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awonuga, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruden, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puscheck, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rappolee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.23.541952</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A single cell transcriptomic fingerprint of stressed premature, imbalanced differentiation of embryonic stem cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.543175v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How NINJ1 mediates plasma membrane rupture and why NINJ2 cannot 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.543175v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
NINJ1 is a recently identified active executioner of plasma membrane rupture (PMR), a process previously thought to be a passive osmotic lysis event in lytic cell death. NINJ2 is a close paralog of NINJ1 but it failed to mediate PMR. By cryoEM, we found that both NINJ1 and NINJ2 were able to assemble into linear filament that binds strongly to lipids on one side but is water-soluble on the other side. The more-or-less straight NINJ1 filament was able to wrap around a membrane bleb and solubilize it from the plasma membrane to induce PMR; however, the intrinsically curved NINJ2 filament failed to do so, explaining its incapability of mediating PMR. We further demonstrated that binding to cholesterol at the inner leaflet of the lipid bilayer was responsible for the curving of the NINJ2 filament, while strong lipid binding at the outer leaflet was contributing to NINJ1s capability of mediating PMR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubyak, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.31.543175</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How NINJ1 mediates plasma membrane rupture and why NINJ2 cannot]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543472v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The basis of antigenic operon fragmentation in Bacteroidota and commensalism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543472v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The causes for variability of pro-inflammatory surface antigens that affect gut commensal/opportunistic dualism within the phylum Bacteroidota remain unclear (1, 2). Using the classical lipopolysaccharide/O-antigen  rfb operon in Enterobacteriaceae as a surface antigen model (5-gene-cluster rfbABCDX), and a recent rfbA-typing strategy for strain classification (3), we characterized the architecture/conservancy of the entire rfb operon in Bacteroidota. Analyzing complete genomes, we discovered that most Bacteroidota have the rfb operon fragmented into non-random gene-singlets and/or doublets/triplets, termed  minioperons. To reflect global operon integrity, duplication, and fragmentation principles, we propose a five-category (infra/supernumerary) cataloguing system and a Global Operon Profiling System for bacteria. Mechanistically, genomic sequence analyses revealed that operon fragmentation is driven by intra-operon insertions of predominantly Bacteroides-DNA (thetaiotaomicron/fragilis) and likely natural selection in specific micro-niches. Bacteroides-insertions, also detected in other antigenic operons (fimbriae), but not in operons deemed essential (ribosomal), could explain why Bacteroidota have fewer KEGG-pathways despite large genomes (4). DNA insertions overrepresenting DNA-exchange-avid species, impact functional metagenomics by inflating gene-based pathway inference and overestimating  extra-species abundance. Using bacteria from inflammatory gut-wall cavernous micro-tracts (CavFT) in Crohns Disease (5), we illustrate that bacteria with supernumerary-fragmented operons cannot produce O-antigen, and that commensal/CavFT Bacteroidota stimulate macrophages with lower potency than Enterobacteriaceae, and do not induce peritonitis in mice. The impact of  foreign-DNA insertions on pro-inflammatory operons, metagenomics, and commensalism offers potential for novel diagnostics and therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bank, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grubb, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCourt, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burberry, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Palacios, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.02.543472</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The basis of antigenic operon fragmentation in Bacteroidota and commensalism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.06.543877v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting genetically regulated gene expression on the X chromosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.06.543877v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe X chromosome is often omitted in disease association studies despite containing thousands of genes which may provide insight into well-known sex differences in the risk of Alzheimers Disease.

ObjectiveTo model the expression of X chromosome genes and evaluate their impact on Alzheimers Disease risk in a sex-stratified manner.

MethodsUsing elastic net, we evaluated multiple modeling strategies in a set of 175 whole blood samples and 126 brain cortex samples, with whole genome sequencing and RNA-seq data. SNPs (MAF>0.05) within the cis-regulatory window were used to train tissue-specific models of each gene. We apply the best models in both tissues to sex-stratified summary statistics from a meta-analysis of Alzheimers disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) studies to identify AD-related genes on the X chromosome.

ResultsAcross different model parameters, sample sex, and tissue types, we modeled the expression of 217 genes (95 genes in blood and 135 genes in brain cortex). The average model R2 was 0.12 (range from 0.03 to 0.34). We also compared sex-stratified and sex-combined models on the X chromosome. We further investigated genes that escaped X chromosome inactivation (XCI) to determine if their genetic regulation patterns were distinct. We found ten genes associated with AD at p < 0.05, with only ARMCX6 in female brain cortex (p = 0.008) nearing the significance threshold after adjusting for multiple testing ( = 0.002).

ConclusionsWe optimized the expression prediction of X chromosome genes, applied these models to sex-stratified AD GWAS summary statistics, and identified one putative AD risk gene, ARMCX6.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Below, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunkle, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.06.543877</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting genetically regulated gene expression on the X chromosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.07.544052v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enteric glial hub cells coordinate intestinal motility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.07.544052v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enteric glia are the predominant cell type in the enteric nervous system yet their identities and roles in gastrointestinal function are not well classified. Using our optimized single nucleus RNA-sequencing method, we identified distinct molecular classes of enteric glia and defined their morphological and spatial diversity. Our findings revealed a functionally specialized biosensor subtype of enteric glia that we call "hub cells." Deletion of the mechanosensory ion channel PIEZO2 from adult enteric glial hub cells, but not other subtypes of enteric glia, led to defects in intestinal motility and gastric emptying in mice. These results provide insight into the multifaceted functions of different enteric glial cell subtypes in gut health and emphasize that therapies targeting enteric glia could advance the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scavuzzo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Letai, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maeno-Hikichi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wulftange, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, I. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rameshbabu, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shick, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohn, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allan, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.07.544052</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enteric glial hub cells coordinate intestinal motility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.09.544295v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural basis of CMKLR1 signaling induced by chemerin9 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.09.544295v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1), also known as chemerin receptor 23 (ChemR23) or chemerin receptor 1, is a chemoattractant G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that responds to the adipokine chemerin and is highly expressed in innate immune cells, including macrophages and neutrophils. The signaling pathways of CMKLR1 can lead to both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects depending on the ligands and physiological contexts. To understand the molecular mechanisms of CMKLR1 signaling, we determined a high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of the CMKLR1-Gi signaling complex with chemerin9, a nanopeptide agonist derived from chemerin, which induced complex phenotypic changes of macrophages in our assays. The cryo-EM structure, together with molecular dynamics simulations and mutagenesis studies, revealed the molecular basis of CMKLR1 signaling by elucidating the interactions at the ligand-binding pocket and the agonist-induced conformational changes. Our results are expected to facilitate the development of small molecule CMKLR1 agonists that mimic the action of chemerin9 to promote the resolution of inflammation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ambrosius, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Czerniak, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beck-Sickinger, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.09.544295</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural basis of CMKLR1 signaling induced by chemerin9]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.15.545133v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Platelet-Localized ST6Gal1 Does Not Impact IgG Sialylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.15.545133v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The IgG antibody class forms an important basis of the humoral immune response, conferring reciprocal protection from both pathogens and autoimmunity. IgG function is determined by the IgG subclass, as defined by the heavy chain, as well as the glycan composition at N297, the conserved site of N-glycosylation within the Fc domain. For example, lack of core fucose promotes increased antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, whereas 2,6-linked sialylation by the enzyme ST6Gal1 helps to drive immune quiescence. Despite the immunological significance of these carbohydrates, little is known about how IgG glycan composition is regulated. We previously reported that mice with ST6Gal1-deficient B cells have unaltered IgG sialylation. Likewise, ST6Gal1 released into the plasma by hepatocytes does not significantly impact overall IgG sialylation. Since IgG and ST6Gal1 have independently been shown to exist in platelet granules, it was possible that platelet granules could serve as a B cell-extrinsic site for IgG sialylation. To address this hypothesis, we used a platelet factor 4 (Pf4)-Cre mouse to delete ST6Gal1 in megakaryocytes and platelets alone or in combination with an albumin-Cre mouse to also remove it from hepatocytes and the plasma. The resulting mouse strains were viable and had no overt pathological phenotype. We also found that despite targeted ablation of ST6Gal1, no change in IgG sialylation was apparent. Together with our prior findings, we can conclude that in mice, neither B cells, the plasma, nor platelets have a substantial role in homeostatic IgG sialylation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Glendenning, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kukan, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whiteheart, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.15.545133</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Platelet-Localized ST6Gal1 Does Not Impact IgG Sialylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.15.545149v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FLOWERING LOCUS C drives delayed flowering in Arabidopsis grown and selected at elevated CO2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.15.545149v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
O_LIAltered flowering time at elevated [CO2] is well documented, although mechanisms are not well understood. An Arabidopsis genotype previously selected for high fitness at elevated [CO2] (SG) showed delayed flowering and larger size at flowering when grown at elevated (700 ppm) versus current (380 ppm) [CO2]. This response was correlated with prolonged expression of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), a vernalization-responsive floral repressor gene.
C_LIO_LITo determine if FLC directly delays flowering at elevated [CO2] in SG, we used vernalization (extended cold) to downregulate FLC expression. We hypothesized that vernalization would eliminate delayed flowering at elevated [CO2] through the direct reduction of FLC expression, eliminating differences in flowering time between current and elevated [CO2].
C_LIO_LIWe found that with downregulation of FLC expression via vernalization, SG plants grown at elevated [CO2] no longer delayed flowering compared to current [CO2]. Thus, vernalization returned the earlier flowering phenotype, counteracting effects of elevated [CO2] on flowering.
C_LIO_LIThis study indicates that elevated [CO2] can delay flowering directly through FLC, and downregulation of FLC under elevated [CO2] reverses this effect. Moreover, this study demonstrates that increasing [CO2] may potentially drive major changes in development through FLC.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Henderson-Carter, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kinmonth-Schultz, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hileman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.15.545149</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FLOWERING LOCUS C drives delayed flowering in Arabidopsis grown and selected at elevated CO2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.17.545314v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuronal lineage tracing from progenitors in human cortical organoids reveals novel mechanisms of human neuronal production, diversity, and disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.17.545314v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The contribution of progenitor subtypes to generate the billions of neurons during human cortical neurogenesis is not well understood. We developed the Cortical ORganoid Lineage Tracing (COR-LT) system for human cortical organoids. Differential fluorescent reporter activation in distinct progenitor cells leads to permanent reporter expression, enabling the progenitor cell lineage of neurons to be determined. Surprisingly, nearly all neurons produced in cortical organoids were generated indirectly from intermediate progenitor cells. Additionally, neurons of different progenitor lineages were transcriptionally distinct. Isogenic lines made from an autistic individual with and without a likely pathogenic variant in the CTNNB1 gene demonstrated that the variant substantially altered the proportion of neurons derived from specific progenitor cell lineages, as well as the lineage-specific transcriptional profiles of these neurons, suggesting a pathogenic mechanism for this mutation. These results suggest individual progenitor subtypes play unique roles in generating the diverse neurons of the human cerebral cortex.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=194 SRC="FIGDIR/small/545314v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@da0038org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@44997dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b90ff2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c5dbcd_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG O_FLOATNOGraphic AbstractC_FLOATNO C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bury, L. A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.17.545314</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuronal lineage tracing from progenitors in human cortical organoids reveals novel mechanisms of human neuronal production, diversity, and disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.19.545528v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuronal Ndst1 depletion accelerates prion protein clearance and slows neurodegeneration in prion infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.19.545528v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Select prion diseases are characterized by widespread cerebral plaque-like deposits of amyloid fibrils enriched in heparan sulfate (HS), a major extracellular matrix component. HS facilitates fibril formation in vitro, yet how HS impacts fibrillar plaque growth within the brain is unclear. Here we found that prion-bound HS chains are highly sulfated, and that the sulfation is essential for HS accelerating prion conversion in vitro. Using conditional knockout mice to deplete the HS sulfation enzyme, Ndst1 (N-deacetylase, N-sulfotransferase), from neurons or astrocytes, we investigated how reducing HS sulfation impacts survival and prion aggregate distribution during a prion infection. Neuronal Ndst1-depleted mice survived longer and showed fewer and smaller parenchymal plaques, shorter fibrils, and increased vascular amyloid, consistent with enhanced aggregate transit toward perivascular drainage channels. The prolonged survival was strain-dependent, affecting mice infected with extracellular, plaque-forming, but not membrane bound, prion strains. Live PET imaging revealed rapid clearance of prion protein monomers into the CSF in mice expressing unsulfated HS, further suggesting that HS sulfate groups hinder transit of extracellular prion monomers. Our results directly show how a host cofactor slows the spread of prion protein through the extracellular space and identify an enzyme target to facilitate aggregate clearance.

Author summaryPrions cause a rapidly progressive neurologic disease and death with no curative treatment available. Prion aggregates accumulate exponentially in the brain in affected individuals triggering neuronal loss and neuroinflammation. Yet the additional molecules that facilitate aggregation are largely unknown, and their identification may lead to new therapeutic targets. We have found that prions in the brain preferentially bind to a highly sulfated endogenous polysaccharide, known as heparan sulfate (HS). Here we use genetically modified mice that express poorly sulfated neuron-derived HS, and infect mice with different prions strains. We find that the mice infected with a plaque-forming prion strain show a prolonged survival and fewer plaques compared to the controls. We also found that the prion protein was efficiently transported in the interstitial fluid in mice having poorly sulfated HS, suggesting that the prion protein is more readily cleared from the brain. Our study provides insight into how HS retains prion aggregates in the brain to accelerate disease and indicates the specific HS biosynthetic enzymes to target for enhancing protein clearance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aguilar Calvo, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandoval, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barback, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orru, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Standke, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dwyer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pizzo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bapat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soldau, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogawa, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nilsson, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>kraus, a.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>caughey, b.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iliff, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vera, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigurdson, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.19.545528</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuronal Ndst1 depletion accelerates prion protein clearance and slows neurodegeneration in prion infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.19.545630v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oligosaccharide production and signaling correlate with delayed flowering in an Arabidopsis genotype grown and selected in high 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.19.545630v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Since industrialization began, atmospheric CO2 ([CO2]) has increased from 270 to 415 ppm and is projected to reach 800-1000 ppm this century. Some Arabidopsis ecotypes delayed flowering in elevated [CO2] relative to current [CO2], while others showed no change or accelerations. To predict genotype-specific flowering behaviors, we must understand the mechanisms driving flowering response to rising [CO2]. [CO2] changes alter photosynthesis and carbohydrates in C3 plants. Plants sense carbohydrate levels and exogenous carbohydrate application influences flowering time and flowering transcript levels. We asked how organismal changes in carbohydrates and transcription correlate with changes in flowering time under elevated [CO2]. We used a genotype (SG) of Arabidopsis that was selected for high fitness at elevated [CO2] (700 ppm). SG delays flowering under elevated [CO2] (700 ppm) relative to current [CO2] (400 ppm). We compared SG to a closely related control genotype (CG) that shows no [CO2]- induced flowering change. We compared metabolomic and transcriptomic profiles in these genotypes at current and elevated [CO2] to assess correlations with flowering in these conditions. While both genotypes altered carbohydrates in response to elevated [CO2], SG had higher levels of sucrose than CG and showed a stronger increase in glucose and fructose in elevated [CO2]. Both genotypes demonstrated transcriptional changes, with CG increasing genes related to fructose 1,6-bisphosphate breakdown, amino acid synthesis, and secondary metabolites; and SG decreasing genes related to starch and sugar metabolism, but increasing genes involved in oligosaccharide production and sugar modifications. Genes associated with flowering regulation within the photoperiod, vernalization, and meristem identity pathways were altered in these genotypes. Elevated [CO2] may act through carbohydrate changes to influence transcription in both genotypes and delayed flowering in SG. Changes in the oligosaccharide pool may contribute to delayed flowering in SG. This work extends the literature exploring genotypic-specific flowering responses to elevated [CO2].
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kinmonth-Schultz, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bingol, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markillie, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, H. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicora, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.19.545630</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oligosaccharide production and signaling correlate with delayed flowering in an Arabidopsis genotype grown and selected in high]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.20.544360v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prothrombin Knockdown Protects Podocytes and Reduces Proteinuria in Glomerular Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.20.544360v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a leading cause of death, and its progression is driven by glomerular podocyte injury and loss, manifesting as proteinuria. Proteinuria includes urinary loss of coagulation zymogens, cofactors, and inhibitors. Importantly, both CKD and proteinuria significantly increase the risk of thromboembolic disease. Prior studies demonstrated that anticoagulants reduced proteinuria in rats and that thrombin injured cultured podocytes. Herein we aimed to directly determine the influence of circulating prothrombin on glomerular pathobiology. We hypothesized that (pro)thrombin drives podocytopathy, podocytopenia, and proteinuria. Glomerular proteinuria was induced with puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN) in Wistar rats. Circulating prothrombin was either knocked down using a rat-specific antisense oligonucleotide or elevated by serial intravenous infusions of prothrombin protein, which are previously established methods to model hypo- (LoPT) and hyper-prothrombinemia (HiPT), respectively. After 10 days (peak proteinuria in this model) plasma prothrombin levels were determined, kidneys were examined for (pro)thrombin co-localization to podocytes, histology, and electron microscopy. Podocytopathy and podocytopenia were determined and proteinuria, and plasma albumin were measured. LoPT significantly reduced prothrombin colocalization to podocytes, podocytopathy, and proteinuria with improved plasma albumin. In contrast, HiPT significantly increased podocytopathy and proteinuria. Podocytopenia was significantly reduced in LoPT vs. HiPT rats. In summary, prothrombin knockdown ameliorated PAN-induced glomerular disease whereas hyper-prothrombinemia exacerbated disease. Thus, (pro)thrombin antagonism may be a viable strategy to simultaneously provide thromboprophylaxis and prevent podocytopathy-mediated CKD progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Waller, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolfgang, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelghani, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevenson, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muralidharan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkie, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smoyer, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kerlin, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.20.544360</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prothrombin Knockdown Protects Podocytes and Reduces Proteinuria in Glomerular Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.22.546081v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural Basis for Regulated Assembly of the Mitochondrial Fission GTPase Drp1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.22.546081v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondrial fission is crucial for distributing cellular energy throughout cells and for isolating damaged regions of the organelle that are targeted for degradation. This multistep process is initiated by the enhanced recruitment and oligomerization of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) at the surface of mitochondria. As such, Drp1 is essential for inducing mitochondrial division in mammalian cells, and homologous proteins are found in all eukaryotes. De novo missense mutations in the Drp1 gene, DNM1L, are associated with severe neurodevelopmental diseases in patients, and no effective treatments are available. As a member of the dynamin superfamily of proteins (DSPs), controlled Drp1 self-assembly into large helical polymers stimulates its GTPase activity to promote membrane constriction. Still, little is known about the regulatory mechanisms that determine when and where Drp1 self-assembles, and proper mitochondrial dynamics requires correct spatial and temporal assembly of the fission machinery. Here we present a cryo-EM structure of a full-length, native Drp1 dimer in an auto-inhibited state. This dimer reveals two key conformational rearrangements that must be unlocked through intermolecular interactions to achieve the assembly competent state previously observed in crystal and filament structures. Specifically, the G domain is closed against the stalk domain and occludes intermolecular interactions necessary for self-assembly beyond a dimer. Similarly, adjacent stalks in the dimer form a more continuous interface that further occludes conserved intermolecular contact sites. This structural insight provides a novel mechanism for regulated self-assembly of the mitochondrial fission machinery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rochon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roethler, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckley, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramachandran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stoll, M. S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.22.546081</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural Basis for Regulated Assembly of the Mitochondrial Fission GTPase Drp1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.545425v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tessellation Of Artificial Touch Via Microstimulation Of Human Somatosensory Cortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.545425v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
When we interact with objects, we rely on signals from the hand that convey information about the object and our interaction with it. A basic feature of these interactions, the locations of contacts between the hand and object, is often only available via the sense of touch. Information about locations of contact between a brain-controlled bionic hand and an object can be signaled via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of somatosensory cortex (S1), which evokes touch sensations that are localized to a specific patch of skin. To provide intuitive location information, tactile sensors on the robotic hand drive ICMS through electrodes that evoke sensations at skin locations matching sensor locations. This approach requires that ICMS-evoked sensations be focal, stable, and distributed over the hand. To systematically investigate the localization of ICMS-evoked sensations, we analyzed the projected fields (PFs) of ICMS-evoked sensations - their location and spatial extent - from reports obtained over multiple years from three participants implanted with microelectrode arrays in S1. First, we found that PFs vary widely in their size across electrodes, are highly stable within electrode, are distributed over large swaths of each participants hand, and increase in size as the amplitude or frequency of ICMS increases. Second, while PF locations match the locations of the receptive fields (RFs) of the neurons near the stimulating electrode, PFs tend to be subsumed by the corresponding RFs. Third, multi-channel stimulation gives rise to a PF that reflects the conjunction of the PFs of the component channels. By stimulating through electrodes with largely overlapping PFs, then, we can evoke a sensation that is experienced primarily at the intersection of the component PFs. To assess the functional consequence of this phenomenon, we implemented multi-channel ICMS-based feedback in a bionic hand and demonstrated that the resulting sensations are more localizable than are those evoked via single-channel ICMS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Greenspon, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shelchkova, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valle, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hobbs, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berger-Wolf, E. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchison, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogruoz, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jordan, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verbarschott, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callier, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sobinov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okorokova, E. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prasad, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Martinez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warnke, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boninger, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajiboye, B. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graczyk, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collinger, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatsopoulos, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaunt, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bensmaia, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.23.545425</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tessellation Of Artificial Touch Via Microstimulation Of Human Somatosensory Cortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.29.547071v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stochastic Model of Alzheimer's Disease Progression Using Two-State Markov Chains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.29.547071v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In 2016, Hao and Friedman developed a deterministic model of Alzheimers disease progression using a system of partial differential equations. This model describes the general behavior of the disease, however, it does not incorporate the molecular and cellular stochasticity intrinsic to the underlying disease processes. Here we extend the Hao and Friedman model by modeling each event in disease progression as a stochastic Markov process. This model identifies stochasticity in disease progression, as well as changes to the mean dynamics of key agents. We find that the pace of neuron death increases whereas the production of the two key measures of progression, Tau and Amyloid beta proteins, decelerates when stochasticity is incorporated into the model. These results suggest that the non-constant reactions and time-steps have a significant effect on the overall progression of the disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Parks, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.29.547071</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stochastic Model of Alzheimer's Disease Progression Using Two-State Markov Chains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.30.547255v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
IgG sialylation occurs via the FcRn-mediated recycling pathway in endothelial cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.30.547255v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IgG is a key mediator of immune responses throughout the human body, and the structure of the conserved glycan on the Fc region has been identified as a key inflammatory switch regulating its downstream effects. In particular, the absence of terminal sialic acid has been shown to increase the affinity of IgG for activating Fc receptors, cascading the inflammatory response in a variety of diseases and conditions. Previously, we have shown that IgG sialylation is mediated by B cell-extrinsic processes. Here, we show that the FcRn-mediated recycling pathway within endothelial cells is a critical modulator of IgG sialylation. Building a deeper understanding of how IgG sialylation is regulated will drive the development of novel therapeutics which dynamically tune IgG functionality in vivo.

One-Sentence SummaryEndothelial cells remodel IgG glycans within the FcRn-mediated recycling pathway.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Glendenning, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynero, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kukan, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.30.547255</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[IgG sialylation occurs via the FcRn-mediated recycling pathway in endothelial cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.12.548609v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stem-loop induced ribosome queuing in the uORF2/ATF4 overlap fine-tunes stress-induced human ATF4 translational control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.12.548609v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ATF4 is a master transcriptional regulator of the integrated stress response leading cells towards adaptation or death. ATF4s induction under stress was thought to be mostly due to delayed translation reinitiation, where the reinitiation-permissive uORF1 plays a key role. Accumulating evidence challenging this mechanism as the sole source of ATF4 translation control prompted us to investigate additional regulatory routes. We identified a highly conserved stem-loop in the uORF2/ATF4 overlap, immediately preceded by a near-cognate CUG, which introduces another layer of regulation in the form of ribosome queuing. These elements explain how the inhibitory uORF2 can be translated under stress, confirming prior observations, but contradicting the original regulatory model. We also identified two highly conserved, potentially modified adenines performing antagonistic roles. Finally, we demonstrate that the canonical ATF4 translation start site is substantially leaky-scanned. Thus, ATF4s translational control is more complex than originally described underpinning its key role in diverse biological processes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smirnova, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hronova, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunisova, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammad, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrackova, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halada, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rendelman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coufal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrmannova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beznoskova, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jendruchova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valasek, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.12.548609</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stem-loop induced ribosome queuing in the uORF2/ATF4 overlap fine-tunes stress-induced human ATF4 translational control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.548966v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phosphorylation modulates estrogen receptor disorder by altering long-range hydrophobic interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.14.548966v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein intrinsic disorder is coupled to a range of biological phenomena, from gene regulation to cancer progression. Phosphorylation of the estrogen receptor (ER) at Ser118 through its disordered N-terminal domain (NTD) activates its transcriptional function, but it is challenging to rationalize how this modification regulates ER activity. Using biophysical approaches of small-angle X-ray scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we demonstrate that Ser118 phosphorylation triggers long-range conformational changes in ER-NTD, particularly between two hydrophobic clusters of residual structures. Alanine substitution of hydrophobic amino acids near Ser118 produces similar conformational alterations and rescues impaired ER activity caused by a phosphorylation-deficient mutant. These findings establish a direct link between phosphorylation-induced conformational changes and the activation function of this disordered protein as a promising avenue to block ER transcriptional activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Du, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.14.548966</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phosphorylation modulates estrogen receptor disorder by altering long-range hydrophobic interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.19.549761v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Self-assembling Gn head ferritin nanoparticle vaccine provides full protection from lethal challenge of Dabie Bandavirus in aged ferrets 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.19.549761v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dabie Bandavirus (DBV), previously known as Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) Virus, induces a characteristic thrombocytopenia with a mortality rate ranging from 12% to as high as 30%. The sero-prevalence of DBV in healthy people is not significantly different among age groups, but clinically diagnosed SFTS patients are older than [~]50 years, suggesting that age is the critical risk factor for SFTS morbidity and mortality. Accordingly, our immune-competent ferret model demonstrates an age (>4 years old)-dependent DBV infection and pathogenesis that fully recapitulates human clinical manifestation. To protect the aged population from DBV-induced SFTS, vaccine should carry robust immunogenicity with high safety profile. Previous studies have shown that glycoproteins Gn/Gc are the most effective antigens for inducing both neutralizing antibody (NAb)- and T cell-mediated immunity and, thereby, protection. Here, we report the development of a protein subunit vaccine with 24-mer self-assembling ferritin (FT) nanoparticle to present DBV Gn head region (GnH) for enhanced immunogenicity. Anion exchange chromatography and size exclusion chromatography readily purified the GnH-FT nanoparticles to homogeneity with structural integrity. Mice immunized with GnH-FT nanoparticles induced robust NAb response and T-cell immunity against DBV Gn. Furthermore, aged ferrets immunized with GnH-FT nanoparticles were fully protected from DBV challenge without SFTS symptoms such as body weight loss, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, and fatality. This study demonstrates that DBV GnH-FT nanoparticles provide an efficient vaccine efficacy in mouse and aged ferret models and should be an outstanding vaccine candidate targeted for the aged population against fatal DBV infection.

ImportanceDabie Bandavirus (DBV) is an emerging tick-borne virus that causes Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) in infected patients. Human SFTS symptoms progress from fever, fatigue, and muscle pain to the depletion of white blood cells and platelets with fatality rates up to 30%. The recent spread of its vector tick to over 20 states in the United States increases the potential for outbreaks of the SFTS beyond the East Asia. Thus, the development of vaccine to control this rapidly emerging virus is a high priority.

In this study, we applied self-assembling ferritin (FT) nanoparticle to enhance the immunogenicity of viral Gn head domain as a vaccine target. Mice immunized with the GnH-FT nanoparticle vaccine induced potent antibody responses and cellular immunity. Immunized aged-ferrets were fully protected from the lethal challenge of DBV. Our study describes the GnH-FT nanoparticle vaccine candidate that provides protective immunity against the emerging DBV infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jung, J. U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, S.-D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, C.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwak, M.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cha, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, S.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.19.549761</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Self-assembling Gn head ferritin nanoparticle vaccine provides full protection from lethal challenge of Dabie Bandavirus in aged ferrets]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.21.550040v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification and Characterization of Calcium Binding Protein, Spermatid Associated 1 (CABS1) in Selected Human Tissues and Fluids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.21.550040v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Calcium binding protein, spermatid associated 1 (CABS1) is a protein most widely studied in spermatogenesis. However, mRNA for CABS1 has been found in numerous tissues, albeit with little information about the protein. Previously, we identified CABS1 mRNA and protein in human salivary glands and provided evidence that in humans CABS1 contains a heptapeptide near its carboxyl terminus that has anti-inflammatory activities. Moreover, levels of an immunoreactive form of CABS1 were elevated in psychological stress. To more fully characterize human CABS1 we developed additional polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to different sections of the protein and used these antibodies to characterize CABS1 in an overexpression cell lysate, human salivary glands, saliva, serum and testes using western blot, immunohistochemistry and bioinformatics approaches exploiting the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. CABS1 appears to have multiple molecular weight forms, consistent with its recognition as a structurally disordered protein, a protein with structural plasticity. Interestingly, in human testes, its cellular distribution differs from that in rodents and pigs, and includes Leydig cells, primary spermatogonia, Sertoli cells and developing spermatocytes and spermatids, Geodata suggests that CABS1 is much more widely distributed than previously recognized, including in the urogenital, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, as well as in the nervous system, immune system and other tissues. Much remains to be learned about this intriguing protein.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reyes-Serratos, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santos, J. R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puttagunta, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watanabe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonshor, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Befus, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcet-Palacios, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.21.550040</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification and Characterization of Calcium Binding Protein, Spermatid Associated 1 (CABS1) in Selected Human Tissues and Fluids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.550787v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Blood pressure pulsations modulate olfactory bulb neuronal activity via mechanosensitive ion channels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.550787v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractThe transmission of heartbeat through the cerebral vascular system is known to cause intracranial pressure pulsations. Here we describe that arterial pressure pulsations within the brain can directly modulate central neuronal activity. In a semi-intact rat brain preparation, pressure pulsations elicit correlated local field oscillations in the olfactory bulb (OB) that are sensitive to hypoxia and block of mechanosensitive channels. We find that mitral cell spiking activity is in part synchronized to these oscillations. Indeed, in awake animals the firing of a subset of OB neurons is entrained to heartbeat within [~] 20 ms. Several lines of evidence indicate the expression of a mechanosensitive ion channel within the mitral cell membranes, most likely Piezo2, implementing a pressure pulsation transduction pathway and thus baroreception within the OB. We propose that this intrinsic interoceptive mechanism modulates OB neuronal activity e.g. during arousal and also could influence brain activity on a wider scale.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jammal, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bitzenhofer, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanganu-Opatz, I. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutschmann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egger, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.27.550787</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Blood pressure pulsations modulate olfactory bulb neuronal activity via mechanosensitive ion channels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.550903v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The mRNACalc web server accounts for the hypochromicity of modified nucleosides and enables the accurate quantification of nucleoside-modified mRNA. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.27.550903v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nucleoside-modified mRNA technologies necessarily incorporate N1-methylpseudouridine into the mRNA molecules to prevent over-stimulation of cytoplasmic RNA sensors. Despite this modification, mRNA concentrations remain mostly determined through measurement of UV absorbance at 260 nm wavelength (A260). Herein, we report that the N1-methylpseudouridine absorbs approximately 40% less UV light at 260 nm than uridine, and its incorporation into mRNAs leads to the under-estimation of nucleoside-modified mRNA concentrations, with 5-15% error, in a mRNA sequence dependent manner. We therefore examined the RNA quantification methods and developed the mRNACalc web server. It accounts for the molar absorption coefficient of modified nucleotides at 260 nm wavelength, the RNA composition of the mRNA, and the A260 of the mRNA sample to enable accurate quantification of nucleoside-modified mRNAs. The webserver is freely available at https://www.mrnacalc.com.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=151 SRC="FIGDIR/small/550903v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (34K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a9e310org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@7a67aforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2d28f9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@dcffd5_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Finol, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krul, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoehn, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crespo-Hernandez, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.27.550903</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The mRNACalc web server accounts for the hypochromicity of modified nucleosides and enables the accurate quantification of nucleoside-modified mRNA.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.31.551397v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Local climate change velocities explain multidirectional range shifts in a North American butterfly assemblage 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.31.551397v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Species are often expected to shift their distributions poleward to evade warming climates. However, from 18 years of fixed transect monitoring data on 88 species of butterfly in the midwestern United States, we show that butterflies are shifting their centroids in all directions, except towards the region that is warming the fastest (southeast). Butterflies shifted their centroids at a mean rate of 4.87 km yr-1. The rate of centroid shift was significantly associated with local climate change velocity (temperature and precipitation), but not with mean climate change velocity throughout the species ranges. Surprisingly, the centroid shift was also unrelated to species traits expected to mediate the shift response including thermal niche breadth (range of climates butterflies experience throughout their distribution) and wingspan (often used as metric for dispersal capability). Contrasting with a number of previous studies, we observed relatively high phylogenetic signal in the rate and direction species shifted their centroids, suggesting that evolutionary history helps to explain multidirectional range shift responses and that some groups of species will be better able to shift their ranges than others. This research shows important signatures of multidirectional range shifts (latitudinal and longitudinal) and uniquely shows that local climate change velocities are more important in driving range shifts than the mean climate change velocity throughout a species entire range.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>da Silva, C. R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diamond, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.31.551397</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Local climate change velocities explain multidirectional range shifts in a North American butterfly assemblage]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.01.551553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Patient iPSC models reveal glia-intrinsic phenotypes in multiple sclerosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.01.551553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system, typically resulting in significant neurological disability that worsens over time. While considerable progress has been made in defining the immune systems role in MS pathophysiology, the contribution of intrinsic CNS-cell dysfunction remains unclear. Here, we generated the largest reported collection of iPSC lines from people with MS spanning diverse clinical subtypes and differentiated them into glia-enriched cultures. Using single-cell transcriptomic profiling, we observed several distinguishing characteristics of MS cultures pointing to glia-intrinsic disease mechanisms. We found that iPSC-derived cultures from people with primary progressive MS contained fewer oligodendrocytes. Moreover, iPSC-oligodendrocyte lineage cells and astrocytes from people with MS showed increased expression of immune and inflammatory genes that match those of glial cells from MS postmortem brains. Thus, iPSC-derived MS models provide a unique platform for dissecting glial contributions to disease phenotypes independent of the peripheral immune system and identify potential glia-specific targets for therapeutic intervention.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Clayton, B. L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbar, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sapar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rusielewicz, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalpana, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Migliori, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paull, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moroziewicz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sand, I. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casaccia, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fossati, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.01.551553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Patient iPSC models reveal glia-intrinsic phenotypes in multiple sclerosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.07.552334v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Benchmarking combined informatics approaches for virus discovery: Caution is needed when combining in silico identification methods 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.07.552334v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe identification of viruses from environmental metagenomic samples using informatics tools has offered critical insights in microbiome studies. However, it remains difficult for researchers to know for their specific study which tool(s) and settings are best suited to maximize capture of viruses while minimizing false positives. Studies are increasingly combining multiple tool outputs attempting to recover more viruses, but no combined approach has been benchmarked for accuracy. Here, we benchmarked 63 viral identification  rulesets against mock metagenomes composed of publicly available viral, bacterial, archaeal, fungal, and protist sequences. These rulesets are based on combinations of four single-tool rules and two multi-tool tuning rules. We applied these rulesets to various aquatic metagenomes and filtering strategies to evaluate the impact of habitat and viral enrichment on individual and combined tool performance. We provide a packaged pipeline for researchers that want to replicate our process.

ResultsWe found that combining rules increased viral recall, but at the expense of increased false positives. Six of the 63 combinations tested had equivalent accuracies to the highest one (MCC=0.77, padj [&ge;] 0.05). All of the six high accuracy rulesets included VirSorter2, five included our "tuning removal" rule, and no high performing rulesets used more than four of our six rules. DeepVirFinder, VIBRANT, and VirSorter were each found once in these high accuracy rulesets, but never in combination with each other. Our validation suggests that the MCC plateau at 0.77 is caused by inaccurate labeling of the data that viral identification tools rely on for training and validation. In the aquatic metagenomes, our "highest MCC" ruleset identified a higher proportion of viral sequences in the virus-enriched samples (44-46%) than the non-enriched, cellular metagenomes (7-19%).

ConclusionWhile improved algorithms may lead to more accurate viral identification tools, this should be done in tandem with curating accurately labeled viral gene and sequence databases. For most applications, we recommend the use of the ruleset that uses VirSorter2 and our empirically derived tuning removal rule. By providing a rigorous overview of the behavior of in silico viral identification strategies, our findings guide the use of existing viral identification tools and offer a blueprint for feature engineering of new tools that will lead to higher-confidence viral discovery in microbiome studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hegarty, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riddell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bastien, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langenfeld, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindback, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saini, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wing, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duhaime, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.07.552334</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Benchmarking combined informatics approaches for virus discovery: Caution is needed when combining in silico identification methods]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.15.553056v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exploring Temporal and Sex-Linked Dysregulation in Alzheimer's Disease Phospho-Proteome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.15.553056v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This study aims to characterize dysregulation of phosphorylation for the 5XFAD mouse model of Alzheimers disease (AD). Employing global phosphoproteome measurements, we analyze temporal (3, 6, 9 months) and sex-dependent effects on mouse hippocampus tissue to unveil molecular signatures associated with AD initiation and progression. Our results indicate 1.9 to 4.4 times higher phosphorylation prevalence compared to protein expression across all time points, with approximately 4.5 times greater prevalence in females compared to males at 3 and 9 months. Moreover, our findings reveal consistent phosphorylation of known AD biomarkers APOE and GFAP in 5XFAD mice, alongside novel candidates BIG3, CLCN6 and STX7, suggesting their potential as biomarkers for AD pathology. In addition, we identify PDK1 as a significantly dysregulated kinase at 9 months in females, and the regulation of gap junction activity as a key pathway associated with Alzheimers disease across all time points. AD-Xplorer, the interactive browser of our dataset, enables exploration of AD-related changes in phosphorylation, protein expression, kinase activities, and pathways. AD-Xplorer aids in biomarker discovery and therapeutic target identification, emphasizing temporal and sex-specific nature of significant phosphoproteomic signatures. Available at: https://yilmazs.shinyapps.io/ADXplorer

HighlightsO_LIPhosphorylation-level dysregulation surpasses protein expression
C_LIO_LIHigher phospho-dysregulation in females, starting as early as 3-month time point
C_LIO_LINovel candidates BIG3, CLCN6, and STX7 exhibit consistent phospho-dysregulation
C_LIO_LIDeveloped AD-Xplorer: Online tool to explore Alzheimers disease phospho-proteome
C_LI

In BriefThis study investigates dysregulation of phospho-proteome in an Alzheimers disease (AD) mouse model, identifying consistent phosphorylation of established AD biomarkers APOE and GFAP, along with novel candidate biomarkers BIG3, CLCN6, and STX7. In addition, the study observes significant PDK1 dysregulation at 9 months, particularly in females. AD-Xplorer, our interactive tool for exploring temporal and sex-linked phosphorylation changes, protein expression, kinase activities, and pathway enrichment, empowers researchers to gain deeper insights into AD mechanisms and uncover novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopes, F. B. T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlatzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.15.553056</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exploring Temporal and Sex-Linked Dysregulation in Alzheimer's Disease Phospho-Proteome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.17.553668v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting CD19-positive lymphomas with the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) loncastuximab tesirine: preclinical evidence as single agent and as combinatorial approach 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.17.553668v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeAntibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent one of the most successful therapeutic approaches introduced in clinical practice in the last years. Loncastuximab tesirine (ADCT-402) is a CD19 targeting ADC, in which the antibody is conjugated through a protease cleavable dipeptide linker to a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer warhead (SG3199). Based on the results of a phase 2 study, loncastuximab tesirine was recently approved for adult patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma.

Experimental DesignWe assessed the activity of loncastuximab tesirine in in vitro and in vivo models of lymphomas, correlated its activity with CD19 expression levels and identified combination partners providing synergy with loncastuximab tesirine.

ResultsLoncastuximab tesirine was tested across 60 lymphoma cell lines. Loncastuximab tesirine has strong cytotoxic activity in B-cell lymphoma cell lines and the in vitro activity is correlated with CD19 expression level and with intrinsic sensitivity of cell lines to the ADCs warhead.

Loncastuximab tesirine was more potent than other anti-CD19 ADCs (coltuximab ravtansine, huB4-DGN462), albeit the pattern of activity across cell lines was correlated. Loncastuximab tesirine activity also largely correlated with cell line sensitivity to R-CHOP.

Combinatorial in vitro and in vivo experiments identified the benefit of adding loncastuximab tesirine to other agents, especially BCL2 and PI3K inhibitors.

ConclusionsOur data support the further development of loncastuximab tesirine as single agent and in combination for patients affected by mature B-cell neoplasms. The results also highlight the importance of CD19 expression, and the existence of lymphoma populations characterized by resistance to multiple therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tarantelli, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munz, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spriano, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruscaggin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cascione, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaudio, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arribas, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjappa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golino, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scalise, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zucca, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stathis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Berkel, P. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caimi, P. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zammarchi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertoni, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.17.553668</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting CD19-positive lymphomas with the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) loncastuximab tesirine: preclinical evidence as single agent and as combinatorial approach]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.20.553924v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural basis for the ligand recognition and signaling of free fatty acid receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.20.553924v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Free fatty acid receptors 1-4 (FFA1-4) are class A G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). FFA1-3 share substantial sequence similarity whereas FFA4 is unrelated. Despite this FFA1 and FFA4 are activated by the same range of long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) whilst FFA2 and FFA3 are instead activated by short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) generated by the intestinal microbiota. Each of FFA1, 2 and 4 are promising targets for novel drug development in metabolic and inflammatory conditions. To gain insights into the basis of ligand interactions with, and molecular mechanisms underlying activation of, FFAs by LCFAs and SCFAs, we determined the active structures of FFA1 and FFA4 bound to the polyunsaturated LCFA docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), FFA4 bound to the synthetic agonist TUG-891, as well as SCFA butyrate-bound FFA2, each complexed with an engineered heterotrimeric Gq protein (miniGq), by cryo-electron microscopy. Together with computational simulations and mutagenesis studies, we elucidated the similarities and differences in the binding modes of fatty acid ligands with varying chain lengths to their respective GPCRs. Our findings unveil distinct mechanisms of receptor activation and G protein coupling. We anticipate that these outcomes will facilitate structure-based drug development and underpin future research to understand allosteric modulation and biased signaling of this group of GPCRs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guseinov, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tikhonova, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milligan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.20.553924</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural basis for the ligand recognition and signaling of free fatty acid receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.22.553639v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Making Proteomics Accessible: RokaiXplorer for interactive analysis of phospho-proteomic data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.22.553639v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this work, we present RokaiXplorer, an intuitive web tool designed to address the scarcity of user-friendly solutions for proteomics and phospho-proteomics data analysis and visualization. RokaiXplorer streamlines data processing, analysis, and visualization through an interactive online interface, making it accessible to researchers without specialized training in proteomics or data science. With its comprehensive suite of modules, RokaiXplorer facilitates the analysis of phosphosites, proteins, kinases, and gene ontology terms. The tool offers functionalities such as data normalization, statistical testing, enrichment analysis, subgroup analysis, report generator, and multiple visualizations, including volcano plots, bar plots, heatmaps, tables, and interactive networks. Additionally, RokaiXplorer allows researchers to effortlessly deploy their own data browsers, fostering the sharing of research data and findings interactively. By providing simplicity, efficiency, and multi-level data analysis within a single application, it is poised to become a valuable resource for the scientific community working with phospho-proteomic data. Access RokaiXplorer at: http://explorer.rokai.io
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yılmaz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopes, F. B. T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlatzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyutürk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.22.553639</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Making Proteomics Accessible: RokaiXplorer for interactive analysis of phospho-proteomic data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.22.554238v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reprogramming of breast tumor-associated macrophages with modulation of arginine metabolism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.22.554238v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
HER2+ breast tumors have abundant immune-suppressive cells, including M2-type tumor associated macrophages (TAMs). While TAMs consist of the immune-stimulatory M1-type and immune-suppressive M2-type, M1/M2-TAM ratio is reduced in immune-suppressive tumors, contributing to their immunotherapy refractoriness. M1 vs. M2-TAM formation depends on differential arginine metabolism, where M1-TAMs convert arginine to nitric oxide (NO) and M2- TAMs convert arginine to polyamines (PAs). We hypothesize that such distinct arginine metabolism in M1- vs M2-TAMs is attributed to different availability of BH4 (NO synthase cofactor) and that its replenishment would reprogram M2-TAMs to M1-TAMs. Recently, we reported that sepiapterin (SEP), the endogenous BH4 precursor, elevates the expression of M1- TAM markers within HER2+ tumors. Here, we show that SEP restores BH4 levels in M2-TAMs, which then redirects arginine metabolism to NO synthesis and converts M2-TAMs to M1-TAMs. The reprogrammed TAMs exhibit full-fledged capabilities of antigen presentation and induction of effector T cells to trigger immunogenic cell death of HER2+ cancer cells. This study substantiates the utility of SEP in metabolic shift of HER2+ breast tumor microenvironment as a novel immunotherapeutic strategy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fernando, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furuta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.22.554238</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reprogramming of breast tumor-associated macrophages with modulation of arginine metabolism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.23.554547v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protection of β2GPI Deficient Mice from Thrombosis Reflects a Defect in PAR3-facilitated Platelet Activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.23.554547v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAntibodies to {beta}2-glycoprotein I ({beta}2GPI) cause thrombosis in antiphospholipid syndrome, however the role of {beta}2GPI itself in regulation of coagulation pathways in vivo is not well understood.

MethodsWe developed {beta}2GPI-deficient mice (Apoh-/-) by deleting exon 2 and 3 of Apoh using CRISPR/Cas9 and compared the propensity of wild-type (WT) and Apoh-/-mice to develop thrombosis using rose bengal and FeCl3-induced carotid thrombosis, laser-induced cremaster arteriolar injury, and inferior vena cava (IVC) stasis models. We also compared tail bleeding times and assessed platelet activation in WT and Apoh-/- mice in the absence and presence of exogenous {beta}2GPI.

ResultsCompared to WT littermates, Apoh-/- mice demonstrated a prolonged time to occlusion of the carotid artery after exposure to rose bengal or FeCl3, and reduced platelet and fibrin accumulation in cremasteric arterioles after laser injury. Similarly, significantly smaller thrombi were retrieved from the IVC of Apoh-/-mice 48 hours after IVC occlusion. The activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and prothrombin time, as well as aPTT reagent- and tissue factor-induced thrombin generation times using plasma from Apoh-/- and WT mice revealed no differences. However, we observed significant prolongation of tail bleeding in Apoh-/- mice, and reduced P-selectin expression and binding of fibrinogen to the activated 2b{beta}3 integrin on platelets from these mice after stimulation with low thrombin concentrations; these changes were reversed by exogenous {beta}2GPI. An antibody to PAR3 blocked thrombin-induced activation of WT, but not Apoh-/- platelets, as well as the ability of {beta}2GPI to restore the activation response of Apoh-/- platelets to thrombin. {beta}2GPI deficiency did not affect platelet activation by a PAR4-activator peptide, or ADP.

ConclusionsIn mice, {beta}2GPI may mediate procoagulant activity by enhancing the ability of PAR3 to present thrombin to PAR4, promoting platelet activation at low thrombin concentrations.

Key PointsO_LI{beta}2GPI deficient mice are protected from experimental arterial, venous, and microvascular thrombosis.
C_LIO_LI{beta}2GPI deficient mice display prolonged tail bleeding times and reduced PAR3-facilitated platelet activation by low concentrations of thrombin.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alluri, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godwin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forbes, G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merkulova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vijay, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palihati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kundu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shim, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmaier, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holinstat, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCrae, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.23.554547</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protection of β2GPI Deficient Mice from Thrombosis Reflects a Defect in PAR3-facilitated Platelet Activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.30.553559v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Large-scale annotated dataset for cochlear hair cell detection and classification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.30.553559v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Our sense of hearing is mediated by cochlear hair cells, localized within the sensory epithelium called the organ of Corti. There are two types of hair cells in the cochlea, which are organized in one row of inner hair cells and three rows of outer hair cells. Each cochlea contains a few thousands of hair cells, and their survival is essential for our perception of sound because they are terminally differentiated and do not regenerate after insult. It is often desirable in hearing research to quantify the number of hair cells within cochlear samples, in both pathological conditions, and in response to treatment. However, the sheer number of cells along the cochlea makes manual quantification impractical. Machine learning can be used to overcome this challenge by automating the quantification process but requires a vast and diverse dataset for effective training. In this study, we present a large collection of annotated cochlear hair-cell datasets, labeled with commonly used hair-cell markers and imaged using various fluorescence microscopy techniques. The collection includes samples from mouse, human, pig and guinea pig cochlear tissue, from normal conditions and following in-vivo and in-vitro ototoxic drug application. The dataset includes over 90,000 hair cells, all of which have been manually identified and annotated as one of two cell types: inner hair cells and outer hair cells. This dataset is the result of a collaborative effort from multiple laboratories and has been carefully curated to represent a variety of imaging techniques. With suggested usage parameters and a well-described annotation procedure, this collection can facilitate the development of generalizable cochlear hair cell detection models or serve as a starting point for fine-tuning models for other analysis tasks. By providing this dataset, we aim to supply other groups within the hearing research community with the opportunity to develop their own tools with which to analyze cochlear imaging data more fully, accurately, and with greater ease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Buswinka, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenberg, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simikyan, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osgood, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nitta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayashi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liberman, L. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yildiz, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarysta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Renauld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thapa, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bordiga, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMurtry, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Llamas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitcher, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez-Porras, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Behnammanesh, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bird, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ballesteros, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velez-Ortega, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edge, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deans, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gnedeva, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrestha, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manor, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricci, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tarchini, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basch, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyan, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landegger, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rutherford, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liberman, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walters, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kros, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cunningham, L</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.30.553559</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Large-scale annotated dataset for cochlear hair cell detection and classification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.31.555710v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dysregulation of γδ intraepithelial lymphocytes precedes Crohn's disease-like ileitis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.31.555710v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intraepithelial lymphocytes expressing the {gamma}{delta} T cell receptor ({gamma}{delta} IELs) provide immunosurveillance of the intestinal barrier. Interestingly, {gamma}{delta} IEL number is reduced in patients with active Crohns disease (CD). Here, we report an underappreciated role for {gamma}{delta} IELs in maintaining mucosal tolerance during the onset and progression of CD-like ileitis using the TNF{Delta}ARE/+ mouse model. Decreased epithelial HNF4G/BTNL expression is followed by a loss of ileal {gamma}{delta} IELs and impaired barrier surveillance prior to the histological onset of disease. A reduction of immunoregulatory CD39+ {gamma}{delta} IELs coincides with the influx of immature, peripheral CD39- {gamma}{delta} T cells into the epithelium leading to an expansion of induced IELs, while an earlier depletion of {gamma}{delta} IELs correlates with accelerated onset of ileal inflammation. Our findings identify multiple layers of {gamma}{delta} IEL dysregulation prior to ileitis development indicating that the loss of tissue-resident immunoregulatory {gamma}{delta} IELs may contribute to the initiation of ileal CD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golovchenko, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fong, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bucar, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidmar, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frey, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prinz, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pizarro, T. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kollias, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edelblum, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.31.555710</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dysregulation of γδ intraepithelial lymphocytes precedes Crohn's disease-like ileitis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.01.555196v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Efficient ultrasound-mediated drug delivery to orthotopic liver tumors: Direct comparison of doxorubicin-loaded nanobubbles and microbubbles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.01.555196v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Liver metastasis is a major obstacle in treating aggressive cancers, and current therapeutic options often prove insufficient. To overcome these challenges, there has been growing interest in ultrasound-mediated drug delivery using lipid-shelled microbubbles (MBs) and nanobubbles (NBs) as promising strategies for enhancing drug delivery to tumors. Our previous work demonstrated the potential of Doxorubicin-loaded C3F8 NBs (hDox-NB, 280 {+/-} 123 nm) in improving cancer treatment in vitro using low-frequency ultrasound. In this study, we investigated the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of sonicated hDox-NBs in orthotopic rat liver tumors. We compared their delivery and therapeutic efficiency with size-isolated MBs (hDox-MB, 1104 {+/-} 373 nm). Results showed a similar accumulation of hDox in tumors treated with hDox-MBs and unfocused therapeutic ultrasound (hDox-MB+TUS) and hDox-NB+TUS. However, significantly increased apoptotic cell death in the tumor and fewer off-target apoptotic cells in the normal liver were found upon the treatment with hDox-NB+TUS. The tumor-to-liver apoptotic ratio was elevated 9.4-fold following treatment with hDox-NB+TUS compared to hDox-MB+TUS, suggesting that the therapeutic efficacy and specificity are significantly increased when using hDox-NB+TUS. These findings highlight the potential of this approach as a viable treatment modality for liver tumors. By elucidating the behavior of drug-loaded bubbles in vivo, we aim to contribute to developing more effective liver cancer treatments that could ultimately improve patient outcomes and decrease off-target side effects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nittayacharn, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooley, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berg, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Counil, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sojahrood, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berndl, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golczak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolios, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.01.555196</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Efficient ultrasound-mediated drug delivery to orthotopic liver tumors: Direct comparison of doxorubicin-loaded nanobubbles and microbubbles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/211565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A heterochromatin domain forms gradually at a new telomere and is highly dynamic at stable telomeres 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/211565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Heterochromatin domains play important roles in chromosome biology, organismal development and aging. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and metazoans, heterochromatin is marked by histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation. While factors required for heterochromatin have been identified, the dynamics of heterochromatin formation are poorly understood. Telomeres convert adjacent chromatin into heterochromatin. To form a new heterochromatic region in S. pombe, an inducible DNA double-strand break (DSB) was engineered next to 48 bp of telomere repeats in euchromatin, which caused formation of new telomere and gradual spreading of heterochromatin. However, spreading was highly dynamic even after the telomere had reached its stable length. The system also revealed the presence of repeats located at the boundaries of euchromatin and heterochromatin that are oriented to allow the efficient healing of a euchromatic DSB to cap the chromosome end with a new telomere. Telomere formation in S. pombe therefore reveals novel aspects of heterochromatin dynamics and the presence of failsafe mechanisms to repair subtelomeric breaks, with implications for similar processes in metazoan genomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eisenstatt, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Audry, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cornelius, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaughnessy, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berkner, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Runge, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/211565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A heterochromatin domain forms gradually at a new telomere and is highly dynamic at stable telomeres]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/212605v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic Locus Modulating Corneal Thickness in the Mouse Identifies POU6F2 as a Potential Risk of Developing Glaucoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/212605v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Purpose: Central corneal thickness (CCT) is one of the most heritable ocular traits and it is also a phenotypic risk factor for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). The present study uses the BXD Recombinant Inbred (RI) strains to identify novel quantitative trait loci (QTLs) modulating CCT in the mouse with the potential of identifying a molecular link between CCT and risk of developing POAG.nnMethods: The BXD RI strain set was used to define mammalian genomic loci modulating CCT, with a total of 818 corneas measured from 61 BXD RI strains (between 60-100 days of age). The mice were anesthetized and the eyes were positioned in front of the lens of the Phoenix Micron IV Image-Guided OCT system or the Bioptigen OCT system. CCT data for each strain was averaged and used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) modulating this phenotype using the bioinformatics tools on GeneNetwork (www.genenetwork.org). The candidate genes and genomic loci identified in the mouse were then directly compared with the summary data from a human primary open-angle glaucoma (POGA) genome wide association study (NEIGHBORHOOD) to determine if any genomic elements modulating mouse CCT are also risk factors for POAG.nnResults: This analysis revealed one significant QTL on Chr 13 and a suggestive QTL on Chr 7. The significant locus on Chr 13 (13 to 19 Mb) was examined further to define candidate genes modulating this eye phenotype. For the Chr 13 QTL in the mouse, only one gene in the region (Pou6f2) contained nonsynonymous SNPs. Of these five nonsynonymous SNPs in Pou6f2, two resulted in changes in the amino acid proline which could result in altered secondary structure affecting protein function. The 7 Mb region under the mouse Chr 13 peak distributes over 2 chromosomes in the human: Chr 1 and Chr 7. These genomic loci were examined in the NEIGHBORHOOD database to determine if they are potential risk factors for human glaucoma identified using meta-data from human GWAS. The top 50 hits all resided within one gene (POU6F2), with the highest significance level of p = 10-6 for SNP rs76319873. POU6F2 is found in retinal ganglion cells and in corneal limbal stem cells. To test the effect of POU6F2 on CCT we examined the corneas of a Pou6f2-null mice and the corneas were thinner than those of wild-type littermates. In addition, these POU6F2 RGCs die early in the DBA/2J model of glaucoma than most RGCs.nnConclusions: Using a mouse genetic reference panel, we identified a transcription factor, Pou6f2, that modulates CCT in the mouse. POU6F2 is also found in a subset of retinal ganglion cells and these RGCs are sensitive to injury.nnAuthors SummaryGlaucoma is a complex group of diseases with several known causal mutations and many known risk factors. One well-known risk factor for developing primary open angle glaucoma is the thickness of the central cornea. The present study leverages a unique blend of systems biology methods using BXD recombinant inbred mice and genome-wide association studies from humans to define a putative molecular link between a phenotypic risk factor (central corneal thickness) and glaucoma. We identified a transcription factor, POU6F2, that is found in the developing retinal ganglion cells and cornea. POU6F2 is also present in a subpopulation of retinal ganglion cells and in stem cells of the cornea. Functional studies reveal that POU6F2 is associated the central corneal thickness and with susceptibility of retinal ganglion cells to injury.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>King, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Struebing, F. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koch, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gharahkhan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacGregor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allingham, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hauser, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiggs, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/212605</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic Locus Modulating Corneal Thickness in the Mouse Identifies POU6F2 as a Potential Risk of Developing Glaucoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/212753v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic Loci Modulating Retinal Ganglion Cell Death Following Elevated IOP in the Mouse 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/212753v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The present study was designed to identify genomic loci modulating the susceptibility of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) to elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in the BXD recombinant inbred mouse strain set. IOP was elevated by injecting magnetic microspheres into the anterior chamber and blocking the trabecular meshwork using a handheld magnet to impede drainage. The IOP was then measured over the next 21 days. Only animals with IOP greater than 25 mmHg for two consecutive days or an IOP above 30 mmHg on a single day after microsphere-injection were used in this study. On day 21, mice were sacrificed and the optic nerve was processed for histology. Axons were counted for both the injected and the control eye in 49 BXD strains, totaling 181 normal counts and 191 counts associated with elevated IOP. The axon loss for each strain was calculated and the data were entered into genenetwork.org. The average number of normal axons in the optic nerve across all strains was 54,788 {+/-} 16% (SD), which dropped to 49,545 {+/-} 20% in animals with artificially elevated IOP. Interval mapping demonstrated a relatively similar genome-wide map for both conditions with a suggestive Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) on proximal Chromosome 3. When the relative axon loss was used to generate a genome-wide interval map, we identified one significant QTL (p<0.05) on Chromosome 18 between 53.6 and 57 Mb. Within this region, the best candidate gene for modulating axon loss was Aldh7a1. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated ALDH7A1 expression in mouse RGCs. ALDH7A1 variants were not significantly associated with glaucoma in the NEIGHBORHOOD GWAS dataset, but this enzyme was identified as part of the butanoate pathway previously associated with glaucoma risk. Our results suggest that genomic background influences susceptibility to RGC degeneration and death in an inducible glaucoma model.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Struebing, F. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>NEIGHBORHOOD Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiggs, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/212753</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic Loci Modulating Retinal Ganglion Cell Death Following Elevated IOP in the Mouse]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/218297v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Robustness of early warning signals for catastrophic and non-catastrophic transitions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/218297v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Early warning signals (EWS) are statistical indicators that a rapid regime shift may be forthcoming. Their development has given ecologists hope of predicting rapid regime shifts before they occur. Accurate predictions, however, rely on the signals being appropriate to the system in question. Most of the EWS commonly applied in ecology have been studied in the context of one specific type of regime shift (the type brought on by a saddle-node bifurcation, at which one stable equilibrium point collides with an unstable equilibrium and disappears) under one particular perturbation scheme (temporally uncorrelated noise that perturbs the net population growth rate in a density independent way). Whether and when these EWS can be applied to other ecological situations remains relatively unknown, and certainly underappreciated. We study a range of models with different types of dynamical transitions (including rapid regime shifts) and several perturbation schemes (density-dependent uncorrelated or temporally-correlated noise) and test the ability of EWS to warn of an approaching transition. We also test the sensitivity of our results to the amount of available pre-transition data and various decisions that must be made in the analysis (i.e. the rolling window size and smoothing bandwidth used to compute the EWS). We find that EWS generally work well to signal an impending saddle-node bifurcation, regardless of the autocorrelation or intensity of the noise. However, EWS do not reliably appear as expected for other types of transition. EWS were often very sensitive to the length of the pre-transition time series analyzed, and usually less sensitive to other decisions. We conclude that the EWS perform well for saddle-node bifurcation in a range of noise environments, but different methods should be used to predict other types of regime shifts. As a consequence, knowledge of the mechanism behind a possible regime shift is needed before EWS can be used to predict it.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dutta, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/218297</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Robustness of early warning signals for catastrophic and non-catastrophic transitions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/223081v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detecting past and ongoing natural selection among ethnically Tibetan women at high altitude in Nepal 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/223081v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adaptive evolution in humans has rarely been characterized for its whole set of components, i.e. selective pressure, adaptive phenotype, beneficial alleles and realized fitness differential. We combined approaches for detecting selective sweeps and polygenic adaptations and for mapping the genetic bases of physiological and fertility phenotypes in approximately 1000 indigenous ethnically Tibetan women from Nepal, adapted to high altitude. We performed genome-wide association analysis and tests for polygenic adaptations which showed evidence of positive selection for alleles associated with more pregnancies and live births and evidence of negative selection for those associated with higher offspring mortality. Lower hemoglobin level did not show clear evidence for polygenic adaptation, despite its strong association with an EPAS1 haplotype carrying selective sweep signals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jeong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witonsky, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basnyat, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neupane, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beall, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Childs, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craig, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novembre, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Rienzo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/223081</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detecting past and ongoing natural selection among ethnically Tibetan women at high altitude in Nepal]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/224634v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
VarExp: Estimating variance explained by Genome-Wide GxE summary statistics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/224634v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many genomic analyses, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or genome-wide screening for Gene-Environment (GxE) interactions have been performed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of human traits and diseases. When the analyzed outcome is quantitative, the overall contribution of identified genetic variants to the outcome is often expressed as the percentage of phenotypic variance explained. In practice, this is commonly estimated using individual genotype data. However, using individual-level data faces practical and ethical challenges when the GWAS results are derived in large consortia through meta-analysis of results from multiple cohorts. In this work, we present a R package, "VarExp", that allows for the estimation of the percentage of phenotypic variance explained by variants of interest using summary statistics only. Our package allows for a range of models to be evaluated, including marginal genetic effects, GxE interaction effects, and main genetic and interaction effects jointly. Its implementation integrates all recent methodological developments on the topic and does not need external data to be uploaded by users.nnThe R source code, tutorial and associated example are available at https://gitlab.pasteur.fr/statistical-genetics/VarExp.git.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laville, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bentley, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prive, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gauderman, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkler, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Province, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aschard, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>CHARGE Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/224634</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[VarExp: Estimating variance explained by Genome-Wide GxE summary statistics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/229112v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex-specific genome-wide association study in glioma identifies new risk locus at 3p21.31 in females, and finds sex-differences in risk at 8q24.21 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/229112v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Incidence of glioma is approximately 50% higher in males. Previous analyses have examined exposures related to sex hormones in women as potential protective factors for these tumors, with inconsistent results. Previous glioma genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have not stratified by sex. Potential sex-specific genetic effects were assessed in autosomal SNPs and sex chromosome variants for all glioma, GBM and non-GBM patients using data from four previous glioma GWAS. Datasets were analyzed using sex-stratified logistic regression models and combined using meta-analysis. There were 4,831 male cases, 5,216 male controls, 3,206 female cases and 5,470 female controls. A significant association was detected at rs11979158 (7p11.2) in males only. Association at rs55705857 (8q24.21) was stronger in females than in males. A large region on 3p21.31 was identified with significant association in females only. The identified differences in effect of risk variants do not fully explain the observed incidence difference in glioma by sex.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ostrom, Q. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kinnersley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wrensch, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckel-Passow, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiencke, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCoy, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amos, C. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernstein, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Claus, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Il'yasova, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lachance, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merrell, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadetzki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schildkraut, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shete, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berens, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersson, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajaraman, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chanock, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Linet, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeager, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houlston, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bondy, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/229112</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex-specific genome-wide association study in glioma identifies new risk locus at 3p21.31 in females, and finds sex-differences in risk at 8q24.21]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235291v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A cortical pathway modulates sensory input into the olfactory striatum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235291v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sensory cortices process stimuli in manners essential for perception. The piriform  primary olfactory cortex (PCX) extends dense association fibers into the ventral striatums olfactory tubercle (OT), yet the function of this cortico-striatal pathway is unknown. We optically stimulated channelrhodopsin-transduced PCX glutamatergic neurons or their association fibers while recording OT neural activity in mice performing an olfactory task. Activation of PCX neurons or their association fibers within the OT controlled the firing of some OT neurons and bidirectionally modulated odor coding dependent upon the neurons intrinsic odor responsivity. Further, patch clamp recordings and retroviral tracing from D1 and D2 dopamine receptor-expressing OT medium spiny neurons revealed this input can be monosynaptic and that both cell types receive most of their input from a specific spatial zone localized within the ventro-caudal PCX. These results demonstrate that the PCX functionally accesses the direct and indirect pathways of the basal ganglia within the OT.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>White, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattarai, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moberly, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>in 't Zandt, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuccillo, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/235291</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A cortical pathway modulates sensory input into the olfactory striatum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235408v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex-specific gene and pathway modeling of inherited glioma risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235408v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 25 risk variants for glioma, which explain ~30% of heritable risk. Most glioma histologies occur with significantly higher incidence in males. A sex-stratified analysis ide7ntified sex-specific glioma risk variants, and further analyses using gene- and pathway-based approaches may further elucidate risk variation by sex.nnMethodsResults from the Glioma International Case-Control Study were used as a testing set, and results from three GWAS were combined via meta-analysis and used as a validation set. Using summary statistics for autosomal SNPs found to be nominally significant (p<0.01) in a previous meta-analysis and X chromosome SNPs with nominally significant association (p<0.01), three algorithms (Pascal, BimBam, and GATES) were used to generate gene-scores, and Pascal was used to generate pathway scores. Results were considered significant when p<3.3x10-6 in [2/3] algorithms.nnResults25 genes within five regions and 19 genes within six regions reached the set significance threshold in at least 2/3 algorithms in males and females, respectively. EGFR and RTEL1-TNFRSF6B were significantly associated with all glioma and glioblastoma in males only, and a female-specific association in TERT, all of which remained nominally significant after conditioning on known risk loci. There were nominal associations with the Telomeres, Telomerase, Cellular Aging, and Immortality pathway in both males and females.nnConclusionsThese results suggest that there may be biologically relevant significant differences by sex in genetic risk for glioma. Additional gene- and pathway-based analyses may further elucidate the biological processes through which this risk is conferred.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ostrom, Q. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berens, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Speyer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wrensch, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckel-Passow, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiencke, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCoy, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amos, C. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernstein, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Claus, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Il'yasova, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lachance, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merrell, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadetzki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schildkraut, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shete, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houlston, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersson, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajaraman, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chanock, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Linet, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeager, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bondy, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/235408</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex-specific gene and pathway modeling of inherited glioma risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/236331v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Selective attention controls olfaction in rodents 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/236331v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Critical animal behaviors, especially among rodents, are guided by odors in remarkably well-coordinated manners. While many extramodal sensory cues compete for cognitive resources in these ecological contexts, that rodents can engage in such odor-guided behaviors suggests that they selectively attend to odors. We developed a behavioral paradigm to reveal that rats are indeed capable of selectively attending to odors in the presence of competing extramodal stimuli and found that this selective attention facilitates accurate odor-guided decisions. Further, we uncovered that attention to odors adaptively sharpens their representation among neurons in a brain region considered integral for odor-driven behaviors. Thus, selective attention contributes to olfaction by enhancing the coding of odors in a manner analogous to that observed among other sensory systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carlson, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gadziola, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dauster, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/236331</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Selective attention controls olfaction in rodents]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/238980v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The PTPRT pseudo-phosphatase domain is a denitrase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/238980v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein tyrosine nitration occurs under both physiological and pathological conditions1. However, enzymes that remove this protein modification have not yet been identified. Here we report that the pseudo-phosphatase domain of protein tyrosine receptor T (PTPRT) is a denitrase that removes nitro-groups from tyrosine residues in paxillin. PTPRT normally functions as a tumor suppressor and is frequently mutated in a variety of human cancers including colorectal cancer2,3. We demonstrate that some of the tumor-derived mutations located in the pseudophosphatase domain impair the denitrase activity. Moreover, PTPRT mutant mice that inactivate the denitrase activity are susceptible to carcinogen-induced colon tumor formation. This study uncovers a novel enzymatic activity that is involved in tumor suppression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mieyal, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewing, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conlon, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/238980</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The PTPRT pseudo-phosphatase domain is a denitrase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241489v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of PR interval identifies 47 novel loci associated with atrial and atrioventricular electrical activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241489v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Electrocardiographic PR interval measures atrial and atrioventricular depolarization and conduction, and abnormal PR interval is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation and heart block. We performed a genome-wide association study in over 92,000 individuals of European descent and identified 44 loci associated with PR interval (34 novel). Examination of the 44 loci revealed known and novel biological processes involved in cardiac atrial electrical activity, and genes in these loci were highly over-represented in several cardiac disease processes. Nearly half of the 61 independent index variants in the 44 loci were associated with atrial or blood transcript expression levels, or were in high linkage disequilibrium with one or more missense variants. Cardiac regulatory regions of the genome as measured by cardiac DNA hypersensitivity sites were enriched for variants associated with PR interval, compared to non-cardiac regulatory regions. Joint analyses combining PR interval with heart rate, QRS interval, and atrial fibrillation identified additional new pleiotropic loci. The majority of associations discovered in European-descent populations were also present in African-American populations. Meta-analysis examining over 105,000 individuals of African and European descent identified additional novel PR loci. These additional analyses identified another 13 novel loci. Together, these findings underscore the power of GWAS to extend knowledge of the molecular underpinnings of clinical processes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>van Setten, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brody, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jamshidi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swenson, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Butler, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del Greco, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibson, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gudbjartsson, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kerr, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krijthe, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyytikainen, L.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller-Nurasyid, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolte, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padmanabhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ritchie, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robino, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanaka, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teumer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trompet, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ulivi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verweij, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnar, D. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asselbergs, F. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bader, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blankenberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerwinkle, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradford, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckley, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crawford, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>den Hoed, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denny, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dominiczak, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehret,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/241489</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide association meta-analysis of PR interval identifies 47 novel loci associated with atrial and atrioventricular electrical activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241810v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pattern, Pathways and Dynamics of EphA2 SAM and SHIP2 SAM Heterodimer Association Revealed by All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241810v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Native protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are the cornerstone for understanding the structure, dynamics and mechanisms of function of protein complexes. In this study, we investigate the association of the SAM domains of the EphA2 receptor and SHIP2 enzyme by performing a combined total of 48 s all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. While the native SAM heterodimer is only predicted at a low rate of 6.7% with the original CHARMM36 force field, the yield is increased to 16.7% and to 18.3% by scaling the vdW solute-solvent interactions (better fitting the solvation free energy of amino acid side chain analogues) and by an increase of vdW radius of guanidinium interactions, and thus a dramatic reduction of electrostatic interaction between Arg and Glu/Asn in CHARMM36m, respectively. These modifications effectively improve the overly sticky association of proteins, such as ubiquitin, using the original potential function. By analyzing the 25 native SAM complexes formed in the simulations, we find that their formation involves a pre-orientation guided by electrostatic interaction, consistent with an electrostatic steering mechanism. The complex could then transform to the native protein interaction surfaces directly from a well pre-orientated position ({Delta}interface-RMSD < 5[A]). In other cases, modest (< 90{degrees}) orientational and/or translational adjustments are needed (5 [A] <{Delta}i-RMSD <10 [A]) to the native complex. Although the tendency for non-native complexes to dissociate has nearly doubled with the modified potential functions, a re-association to the correct complex structure is still rare. Instead a most non-native complexes are undergoing configurational changes/surface searching, which do not lead to native structures on a timescale of 250 ns. These observations provide a rich picture on mechanisms of protein-protein complex formation, and suggest that computational predictions of native complex protein-protein interactions could be improved further.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LI, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/241810</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pattern, Pathways and Dynamics of EphA2 SAM and SHIP2 SAM Heterodimer Association Revealed by All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/243758v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Environmental and evolutionary drivers of the modular gene regulatory network underlying phenotypic plasticity for stress resistance in the nematode Caenorhabditis remanei 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/243758v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In response to changing environmental conditions, organisms can acclimate through phenotypic plasticity or adapt by evolving mechanisms to cope with novel stressors. Changes in gene expression, whether dynamic or evolved, are an important way in which environmental responses are mediated; however, much is still unknown about how the molecular networks underlying plastic phenotypes evolve. Here, we compare transcriptional responses to acute heat stress among four populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis remanei--one selected to withstand heat stress, one selected under oxidative stress, an unselected control, and the ancestral population. We used a weighted gene coexpression network analysis within these lines to identify transcriptional modules, which are sets of genes that respond similarly to stress via plastic responses, evolutionary responses, or both. The transcriptional response to acute heat stress is dominated by a plastic response that is shared in the ancestor and all evolved populations. However, we also identified several modules that respond to artificial selection by (1) changing the baseline level of expression, (2) altering the magnitude of the plastic response, or (3) a combination of the two. Our findings reveal that while it is possible to perturb the nature of the transcriptional response network with short bouts of intense selection, the overall structure of transcriptional plasticity is dominated by inherent, ancestral regulatory systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sikkink, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynolds, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ituarte, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cresko, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/243758</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Environmental and evolutionary drivers of the modular gene regulatory network underlying phenotypic plasticity for stress resistance in the nematode Caenorhabditis remanei]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/244905v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuron-specific cTag-CLIP reveals cell-specific diversity of functional RNA regulation in the brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/244905v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate genetic diversity, but the degree to which they do so in individual cell-types in vivo is unknown. We employed NOVA2 cTag-CLIP to generate functional RBP-RNA maps from single neuronal populations in the mouse brain. Combining cell-type specific data from Nova2-cTag and Nova2 conditional knock-out mice revealed differential NOVA2 regulatory actions (e.g. alternative splicing) on the same transcripts in different neurons, including in cerebellar Purkinje cells, where NOVA2 acts as an essential factor for proper motor coordination and synapse formation. This also led to the discovery of a mechanism by which NOVA2 action leads to different outcomes in different cells on the same transcripts: NOVA2 is able to regulate retained introns, which subsequently serve as scaffolds for another trans-acting splicing factor, PTBP2. Our results describe differential roles and mechanisms by which RBPs mediate RNA diversity in different neurons and consequent functional outcomes within the brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Saito, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zucker-Scharff, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fak, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tajima, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darnell, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/244905</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuron-specific cTag-CLIP reveals cell-specific diversity of functional RNA regulation in the brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/245688v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Easy Hi-C: A simple efficient protocol for 3D genome mapping in small cell populations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/245688v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite the growing interest in studying the mammalian genome organization, it is still challenging to map the DNA contacts genome-wide. Here we present easy Hi-C (eHi-C), a highly efficient method for unbiased mapping of 3D genome architecture. The eHi-C protocol only involves a series of enzymatic reactions and maximizes the recovery of DNA products from proximity ligation. We show that eHi-C can be performed with 0.1 million cells and yields high quality libraries comparable to Hi-C.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/245688</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Easy Hi-C: A simple efficient protocol for 3D genome mapping in small cell populations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/247288v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineering of a Polydisperse Small Heat-Shock Protein Reveals Conserved Motifs of Oligomer Plasticity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/247288v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small heat-shock proteins (sHSP) are molecular chaperones that bind and sequester partially and globally unfolded states of their client proteins. Of paramount importance to their physiological roles is the assembly into large oligomers, which for mammalian sHSP are polydisperse and undergo subunit exchange. The flexibility and dynamic nature of these oligomers mediates functional regulation by phosphorylation and underpins the deleterious effects of disease-linked mutations. Previously, we discovered that the archaeal Hsp16.5, which natively forms ordered and symmetric 24-subunit oligomers, can be engineered to transition to an ordered and symmetric 48-subunit oligomer by insertion of a peptide from human HspB1 (Hsp27) at the junction of the N-terminal and -crystallin domains. Here, we carried out a detailed analysis of the determinants of Hsp16.5 oligomeric plasticity by altering the sequence and length of the inserted peptide. Utilizing light scattering, blue native gel electrophoresis, native mass spectrometry and electron microscopy, we uncovered the existence of an array of oligomeric states (30 to 38 subunits) that can be populated as a consequence of different insertions. These oligomers are intermediate states on the assembly pathway of the 48-subunit oligomer as two of the variants can concurrently form 24-subunit or 30-38 subunit polydisperse oligomers. Polydisperse Hsp16.5 oligomers displayed higher affinity to a model client protein consistent with a general mechanism for recognition and binding that involves increased access of the hydrophobic N-terminal region. Our findings, which integrate structural and functional analyses from evolutionarily-distant sHSP, support a model wherein the modular architecture of these proteins encodes motifs of oligomer polydispersity, dissociation and expansion to achieve functional diversity and regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mishra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandler, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Claxton, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koteiche, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, P. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benesch, J. L. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mchaourab, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/247288</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineering of a Polydisperse Small Heat-Shock Protein Reveals Conserved Motifs of Oligomer Plasticity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/251009v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CoPhosK: A Method for Comprehensive Kinase Substrate Annotation Using Co-phosphorylation Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/251009v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We present CoPhosK to predict kinase-substrate associations for phosphopeptide substrates detected by mass spectrometry (MS). The tool utilizes a Naive Bayes framework with priors of known kinase-substrate associations (KSAs) to generate its predictions. Through the mining of MS data for the collective dynamic signatures of the kinases substrates revealed by correlation analysis of phosphopeptide intensity data, the tool infers KSAs in the data for the considerable body of substrates lacking such annotations. We benchmarked the tool against existing approaches for predicting KSAs that rely on static information (e.g. sequences, structures and interactions) using publically available MS data, including breast, colon, and ovarian cancer models. The benchmarking reveals that co-phosphorylation analysis can significantly improve prediction performance when static information is available (about 35% of sites) while providing reliable predictions for the remainder, thus tripling the KSAs available from the experimental MS data providing a to comprehensive and reliable characterization of the landscape of kinase-substrate interactions well beyond current limitations.

Author SummaryKinases play an important role in cellular regulation and have emerged as an important class of drug targets for many diseases, particularly cancers. Comprehensive identification of the links between kinases and their substrates enhances our ability to understand the underlying mechanism of diseases and signalling networks to drive drug discovery. Most of the current computational methods for prediction of kinase-substrate associations use static information such as sequence motifs and physical interactions to generate predictions. However, phosphorylation is a dynamic process and these static predictions may overlook unique features of cellular context, where kinases may be rewired. In this manuscript, we propose a computational method, CoPhosK, which uses the mass spectrometry based phosphoproteomics data to predict the kinase for all identified phosphosites in the experiment. We show that our approach complements and extends existing approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ayati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiredja, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlatzer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maxwell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/251009</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CoPhosK: A Method for Comprehensive Kinase Substrate Annotation Using Co-phosphorylation Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/259473v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
H3K9 methylation maintains female identity in Drosophila germ cells through repression of the spermatogenesis program 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/259473v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The preservation of germ cell sexual identity is essential for gametogenesis. Here we show that H3K9me3-mediated gene silencing is integral to female fate maintenance in Drosophila germ cells. Germ cell-specific loss of the H3K9me3 pathway members, the trimethyltransferase SETDB1, its binding partner WDE, and the H3K9 binding protein HP1a, cause the inappropriate expression of testis genes. SETDB1 is required for H3K9me3 accumulation on a select subset of the silenced testis genes. Interestingly, these SETDB1-dependent H3K9me3 domains are highly localized and do not spread into neighboring loci. Regional deposition is especially striking at the phf7 locus, a key regulator of male germ cell sexual fate. phf7 is primarily regulated by alternative promoter usage and transcription start site (TSS) selection. We find H3K9me3 accumulation is restricted to the silenced testis-specific TSS region in ovaries. Furthermore, its recruitment to phf7 and repression of the testis-specific transcript is dependent on the female sex determination gene Sxl. These findings demonstrate that female identity is secured by a pathway in which Sxl is the upstream female-specific regulator, SETDB1 is the required chromatin writer and phf7 is one of the critical SETDB1 target genes. This function of SETDB1 is unrelated to its canonical role in piRNA biogenesis and silencing of transposable elements. Collectively our findings support a novel model in which female fate is preserved by deposition of H3K9me3 repressive marks on key spermatogenesis genes and suggest that this strategy for securing cell fate may be widespread.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smolko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shapiro-Kulnane, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salz, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/259473</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[H3K9 methylation maintains female identity in Drosophila germ cells through repression of the spermatogenesis program]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/273292v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dazl regulates germ cell survival through a network of polyA proximal mRNA interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/273292v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The RNA binding protein Dazl is essential for gametogenesis, but its direct in vivo functions, RNA targets, and the molecular basis for germ cell loss in DAZL null mice are unknown. Here, we mapped transcriptome-wide Dazl-RNA interactions in vivo, revealing Dazl binding to thousands of mRNAs via polyA-proximal 3UTR interactions. In parallel, fluorescence activated cell sorting and RNA-Seq identified mRNAs sensitive to Dazl deletion in male germ cells. Despite binding a broad set of mRNAs, integrative analyses indicate that Dazl post-transcriptionally controls only a subset of its mRNA targets, namely those corresponding to a network of genes critical for germ cell proliferation and survival. Additionally, we provide evidence that polyA sequences have key roles in specifying Dazl-RNA interactions across the transcriptome. Altogether, our results reveal a mechanism for Dazl-RNA binding, and illustrate that Dazl functions as a master regulator of a post-transcriptional mRNA program essential for germ cell survival.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zagore, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hannigan, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weyn-Vanhentenryck, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/273292</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dazl regulates germ cell survival through a network of polyA proximal mRNA interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300004v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
egtplot: A Python Package for 3-Strategy Evolutionary Games 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300004v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1. Introduction 1. Introduction 2. Function Arguments 3. Illustrative Examples 4. Parameter Sweeps 5. Animations References Evolutionary game theory is a reformulation of classical game theory wherein the players of the game are members of a population. These members do not choose a strategy, but instead are born with their strategy ingrained--they cannot change strategy during the game. In biological terms, the strategies might represent discrete species or genotypes, hawks and doves being a classic example. Payoffs the players gain or lose based on their interactions with other players increase or decrease their fitness, thereby influencing the number or proportion of members playing that strategy in the next generation. As such, the populations of strategies can wax and wane as they outcompete or are outcompete ...
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mirzaev, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williamson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/300004</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[egtplot: A Python Package for 3-Strategy Evolutionary Games]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300145v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In Vitro and In Vivo activity of a novel catheter lock solution against bacterial and fungal biofilms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300145v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are increasingly recognized to be associated with intralumenal microbial biofilms, and effective measures for the prevention and treatment of BSI remain lacking. This report evaluates a new commercially developed antimicrobial catheter lock solution (ACL) containing trimethoprim (5 mg/ml) and ethanol (25%) and CA-EDTA 3% for activity against bacterial and fungal biofilms using in vitro and in vivo (rabbit) catheter biofilm models. Biofilms were formed with bacterial (seven different species including vancomycin-resistant enterococcus, VRE) or fungal (C. albicans) species on catheter materials. Biofilm formation was evaluated by quantitative culture (colony forming units, CFUs) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Treatment with ACL inhibited growth of adhesion phase biofilms in vitro after 60 min (VRE) or 15 min (all others), while mature biofilms were eradicated after exposure for 2 or 4 h, compared to control. Similar results were observed for drug-resistant bacteria. In the catheterized rabbit model, when compared against heparinized saline control, ACL lock therapy significantly reduced the catheter bacterial (3.49 {+/-} 0.75 vs. 0.03 {+/-} 0.06 log CFU/catheter, respectively; P = 0.001) and fungal burden (2.48 {+/-} 1.60 vs. 0.55 {+/-} 1.19 log CFU/catheter segment, respectively; P = 0.012). SEM also demonstrated eradication of bacterial and fungal biofilms in vivo on catheters exposed to ACL, while vigorous biofilms were observed on untreated control catheters. Our results demonstrate that ACL was efficacious against both adhesion phase and mature biofilms formed by bacteria and fungi in vitro as well as in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chandra, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isham, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiSciullo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Appelt, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghannoum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/300145</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In Vitro and In Vivo activity of a novel catheter lock solution against bacterial and fungal biofilms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300467v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Translation elongation and mRNA stability are coupled through the ribosomal A-site 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/300467v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation plays a critical role in regulating transcript levels in eukaryotic cells. Previous work by us and others has shown that codon identity exerts a powerful influence on mRNA stability. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, studies using a handful of reporter mRNAs show that optimal codons increase translation elongation rate, which in turn increase mRNA stability. However, a direct link between elongation rate and mRNA stability has not been established across the entire yeast transcriptome. In addition, there is evidence from work in higher eukaryotes that amino acid identity influences mRNA stability, raising the question as to whether the impact of translation elongation on mRNA decay is at the level of tRNA decoding, amino acid incorporation, or some combination of each. To address these questions, we performed ribosome profiling of wildtype yeast. In good agreement with other studies, our data showed faster codon-specific elongation over optimal codons and faster transcript-level elongation correlating with transcript optimality. At both the codon-level and transcript-level, faster elongation correlated with increased mRNA stability. These findings were reinforced by showing increased translation efficiency and kinetics for a panel of 11 HIS3 reporter mRNAs of increasing codon optimality. While we did observe that elongation measured by ribosome profiling is composed of both amino acid identity and synonymous codon effects, further analyses of these data establish that A-site tRNA decoding rather than other steps of translation elongation is driving mRNA decay in yeast.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hanson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alhusaini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/300467</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Translation elongation and mRNA stability are coupled through the ribosomal A-site]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/301457v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Community origins and regional differences in plasmid-mediated fluoroquinolone resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections in children 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/301457v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundFluoroquinolones (FQs) are uncommonly prescribed in children, yet pediatric multidrug-resistant (MDR)-Enterobacteriaceae (Ent) infections often reveal FQ resistance (FQR). We sought to define the molecular epidemiology of FQR and MDR-Ent in children.nnMethodsA case-control analysis of children with MDR-Ent infections at 3 Chicago hospitals was performed. Cases were children with third-generation-cephalosporin-resistant (3GCR) and/or carbapenem-resistant (CR)-Ent infections. PCR and DNA analysis assessed bla and plasmid-mediated FQR (PMFQR) genes. Controls were children with 3GC and carbapenem susceptible-Ent infections matched by age, source and hospital. We assessed clinical-epidemiologic predictors of PMFQR Ent infection.nnResultsOf 169 3GCR and/or CR Ent isolates from children (median age 4.8 years), 85 were FQR; 56 (66%) contained PMFQR genes. The predominant organism was E. coli and most common bla gene bla CTX-M-1 group. In FQR isolates, PMFQR gene mutations included aac61b-cr, oqxA/B, qepA, and qnrA/B/D/S in 83%, 15%, 13% and 11% of isolates, respectively. FQR E. coli was often associated with phylogroup B2, ST43/ST131. On multivariable analysis, PMFQR Ent infections occurred mostly in outpatients (OR 33.1) of non-black-white-Hispanic race (OR 6.5). Residents of Southwest Chicago were >5 times more likely to have PMFQR-Ent infections than those in the reference region, while residence in Central Chicago was associated with a 97% decreased risk. Other demographic, comorbidity, invasive-device, antibiotic use, or healthcare differences were not found.nnConclusionsThe strong association of infection with MDROs showing FQR with patient residence rather than with traditional risk factors suggests that the community environment is a major contributor to spread of these pathogens in children.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Logan, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medernach, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rispens, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hujer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Domitrovic, T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudin, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qureshi, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konda, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayden, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weinstein, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/301457</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Community origins and regional differences in plasmid-mediated fluoroquinolone resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections in children]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/303180v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cdc23/Mcm10 Primase Generates the Lagging Strand-Specific Ribonucleotide Imprint in Fission Yeast 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/303180v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The developmental asymmetry of fission yeast daughter cells derives from inheriting "older Watson" versus "older Crick" DNA strand from the parental cell, strands that are complementary but not identical with each other. A novel DNA strand-specific "imprint", installed during DNA replication at the mating-type locus (mat1), imparts competence for cell type inter-conversion to one of the two chromosome replicas. The biochemical nature of the imprint and the mechanism of its installation are still not understood. The catalytic subunit of DNA Polymerase  (Pol) has been implicated in the imprinting process. Based on its known biochemical function, Pol might install the mat1 imprint during lagging strand synthesis. The nature of the imprint is not clear: it is either a nick or a ribonucleotide insertion. Our investigations do not support a role of Pol in nicking through putative endonuclease domains but confirm its role in installing an alkali-labile moiety as the imprint. A detailed genetic and molecular analysis reveals a direct role of the Cdc23/Mcm10 primase activity in installing the imprint in cooperation with Pol and Swi1.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bisht, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Upadhyay, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kushwaha, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nanda, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klar, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/303180</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cdc23/Mcm10 Primase Generates the Lagging Strand-Specific Ribonucleotide Imprint in Fission Yeast]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/306761v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unraveling the mechanism of the cadherin-catenin-actin catch bond 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/306761v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The adherens junctions between epithelial cells involve a protein complex formed by E-cadherin, {beta}-catenin, -catenin and F-actin. The stability of this complex was a puzzle for many years, since in vitro studies could reconstitute various stable subsets of the individual proteins, but never the entirety. The missing ingredient turned out to be mechanical tension: a recent experiment that applied physiological forces to the complex with an optical tweezer dramatically increased its lifetime, a phenomenon known as catch bonding. However, in the absence of a crystal structure for the full complex, the microscopic details of the catch bond mechanism remain mysterious. Building on structural clues that point to -catenin as the force transducer, we present a quantitative theoretical model for how the catch bond arises, fully accounting for the experimental lifetime distributions. The model allows us to predict the energetic changes induced by tension at the interface between -catenin and F-actin. It also identifies a significant energy barrier due to a network of salt bridges between two conformational states of {beta}-catenin. By stabilizing one of these states, this barrier could play a role in how the complex responds to additional in vivo binding partners like vinculin. Since significant conformational energy barriers are a common feature of other adhesion systems that exhibit catch bonds, our model can be adapted into a general theoretical framework for integrating structure and function in a variety of force-regulated protein complexes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Adhikari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moran, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weddle, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/306761</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unraveling the mechanism of the cadherin-catenin-actin catch bond]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/309120v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oscillatory cortical forces promote three dimensional cell intercalations that shape the mandibular arch 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/309120v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiple vertebrate embryonic structures such as organ primordia are composed of a volume of confluent cells. Although mechanisms that shape tissue sheets are increasingly understood, those which shape a volume of cells remain obscure. Here we show 3D mesenchymal cell intercalations, rather than cell divisions and biophysical tissue properties, are essential to shape the mandibular arch of the mouse embryo. Using a genetically encoded vinculin tension sensor, we show that cortical force oscillations promote these intercalations. Genetic loss and gain of function approaches show that Wnt5a functions as a spatial cue to coordinate cell polarity with cytoskeletal oscillation. YAP/TAZ and PIEZO1 serve as downstream effectors of Wnt5a-mediated actomyosin bias and cytosolic calcium transients, respectively, to ensure appropriate tissue form during growth. Our data support oriented 3D cell neighbour exchange as a conserved mechanism driving volumetric morphogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lau, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitley, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valencia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fenelon, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasiliao, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spring, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karuana, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henkelman, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ho, H.-Y. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goyal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopyan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/309120</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oscillatory cortical forces promote three dimensional cell intercalations that shape the mandibular arch]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/309807v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Global immune fingerprinting in glioblastoma reveals immune-suppression signatures associated with prognosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/309807v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Abstract/SummaryGlioblastoma (GBM) remains uniformly lethal, and, despite a large accumulation of immune cells in the microenvironment, there is limited anti-tumor immune response, even with newly developed immune checkpoint therapies. To overcome these challenges and enhance the efficacy of immunotherapies, a comprehensive understanding of the immune system in GBM and changes during disease progression is required. Here, we integrated multi-parameter flow cytometry and mass cytometry time of flight (CyTOF) analysis of patient blood to determine changes in the immune system among tumor types and over disease progression. Utilizing multi-parameter flow cytometry analysis in a cohort of over 250 patients with brain tumors ranging from benign to malignant primary and metastatic, we found that GBM patients had a significant elevation in myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in blood, but not immunosuppressive T regulatory cells. We validated these findings in GBM patient tissue and found that increased numbers of MDSCs in recurrent GBM portended poor prognosis. CyTOF analysis of peripheral blood from a cohort of newly diagnosed GBM patients revealed that reduction in MDSC frequency over time is accompanied by a concomitant increase in dendritic cells and natural killer cells. This reduced MDSC profile was present in GBM patients with extended survival and was similar to that of low-grade glioma (LGG) patients. Our findings provide a rationale for developing strategies to target MDSCs, which are elevated in GBM patients and predict poor prognosis, either by directly targeting or by shifting the immune profile to induce differentiation toward the immune profile of LGGs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alban, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarado, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorensen, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volovetz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serbinowski, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearn-Hubert, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maksim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hale, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onzi, G. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wathen, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivoyevitch, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kornblum, H. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristensen, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/309807</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Global immune fingerprinting in glioblastoma reveals immune-suppression signatures associated with prognosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/311696v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A crowdsourced analysis to identify ab initio molecular signatures predictive of susceptibility to viral infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/311696v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Respiratory viruses are highly infectious; however, the variation of individuals physiologic responses to viral exposure is poorly understood. Most studies examining molecular predictors of response focus on late stage predictors, typically near the time of peak symptoms. To determine whether pre- or early post-exposure factors could predict response, we conducted a community-based analysis to identify predictors of resilience or susceptibility to several respiratory viruses (H1N1, H3N2, Rhinovirus, and RSV) using peripheral blood gene expression profiles collected from healthy subjects prior to viral exposure, as well as up to 24 hours following exposure. This analysis revealed that it is possible to construct models predictive of symptoms using profiles even prior to viral exposure. Analysis of predictive gene features revealed little overlap among models; however, in aggregate, these genes were enriched for common pathways. Heme Metabolism, the most significantly enriched pathway, was associated with higher risk of developing symptoms following viral exposure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fourati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahmoudian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkhart, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henao, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aydin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeung, K. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahsen, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Almugbel, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jahandideh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nordling, T. E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shiga, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanescu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogel, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The Respiratory Viral DREAM Challenge Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandey, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McClain, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ginsburg, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elo, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsalik, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangravite, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sieberts, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/311696</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A crowdsourced analysis to identify ab initio molecular signatures predictive of susceptibility to viral infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/318857v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quality Control and Integration of Genotypes from Two Calling Pipelines for Whole Genome Sequence Data in the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/318857v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Alzheimers Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 584 subjects from 111 multiplex families at three sequencing centers. Genotype calling of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and insertion-deletion variants (indels) was performed centrally using GATK-HaplotypeCaller and Atlas V2. The ADSP Quality Control (QC) Working Group applied QC protocols to project-level variant call format files (VCFs) from each pipeline, and developed and implemented a novel protocol, termed "consensus calling," to combine genotype calls from both pipelines into a single high-quality set. QC was applied to autosomal bi-allelic SNVs and indels, and included pipeline-recommended QC filters, variant-level QC, and sample-level QC. Low-quality variants or genotypes were excluded, and sample outliers were noted. Quality was assessed by examining Mendelian inconsistencies (MIs) among 67 parent-offspring pairs, and MIs were used to establish additional genotype-specific filters for GATK calls. After QC, 578 subjects remained. Pipeline-specific QC excluded ~12.0% of GATK and 14.5% of Atlas SNVs. Between pipelines, ~91% of SNV genotypes across all QCed variants were concordant; 4.23% and 4.56% of genotypes were exclusive to Atlas or GATK, respectively; the remaining ~0.01% of discordant genotypes were excluded. For indels, variant-level QC excluded ~36.8% of GATK and 35.3% of Atlas indels. Between pipelines, ~55.6% of indel genotypes were concordant; while 10.3% and 28.3% were exclusive to Atlas or GATK, respectively; and ~0.29% of discordant genotypes were. The final WGS consensus dataset contains 27,896,774 SNVs and 3,133,926 indels and is publicly available.nnAbbreviationsAD, Alzheimers disease; QC, Quality Control; LSSAC, Large-Scale Sequencing and Analysis Center; Broad, Broad Institute Genomics Service; Baylor, Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center; WashU, Washington University-St. Louis McDonnell Genome Institute; WGS, whole genome sequencing; WES, whole exome sequencing; indel, insertion-deletion variants; VCF, variant control format; MI, Mendelian inconsistency; MC, Mendelian consistency; GWAS, genome-wide association study; VR, referent allele read depth; DP, overall read depth; MS, mapping score; GQ, genotype quality score; Ti/Tv, Transition/Transversion; CS, concordance code
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vardarajan, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lancour, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Butkiewicz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunkle, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malamon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amin, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton-Nelson, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Lee, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koboldt, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nato, A. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sohi, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuzma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cupples, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Duijn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seshadri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schellenberg, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerwinkle, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bis, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dupuis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salerno, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wijsman, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeStefano, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/318857</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quality Control and Integration of Genotypes from Two Calling Pipelines for Whole Genome Sequence Data in the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/324210v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
K-Ras G-domain binding with signaling lipid phosphoinositides: PIP2 association, orientation, function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/324210v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ras genes are potent drivers of human cancers, with mutated K-Ras4B being the most abundant isoform. Targeted inhibition of oncogenic gene products is considered the holy grail of present-day cancer therapy, and recent discoveries of small molecule inhibitors for K-Ras4B greatly benefited from a deeper understanding of the protein structure and dynamics of the GTPase. Since interactions with biological membranes are key for Ras function, the details of Ras - lipid interactions have become a major focus of study, especially since it is becoming clear that such interactions not only involve the Ras C-terminus for lipid anchoring, but also the G-protein domain. Here we investigated the interaction between K-Ras4B with the signaling lipid phosphatidyl inositol (4,5) phosphate (PIP2) using NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations, complemented by biophysical and cell biology assays. We discovered that the {beta}2 and {beta}3 strands as well as helices 4 and 5 of the GTPase G-domain bind to PIP2, and that these secondary structural elements employ specific residues for these interactions. These likely occur in two orientation states of the protein relative to the membrane. Importantly, we found that some of these residues, which are known to be oncogenic when mutated (D47K, D92N, K104M and D126N), are critical for K-Ras-mediated transformation of fibroblast cells, while not substantially affecting basal and assisted nucleotide hydrolysis and exchange. We further showed that mutation K104M can indeed abolish localization of mutant K-Ras to the plasma membrane. These findings suggest that specific G-domain residues play an important, previously-unknown role in regulating Ras function by mediating interactions with membrane PIP2 lipids. Thus, a detailed description of the novel K-Ras-PIP2 binding surfaces is likely to inform the future design of therapeutic reagents.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/324210</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[K-Ras G-domain binding with signaling lipid phosphoinositides: PIP2 association, orientation, function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/332205v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metastable contacts and structural disorder in the estrogen receptor transactivation domain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/332205v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The N-terminal transactivation domain (NTD) of estrogen receptor alpha, a well-known member of the family of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), mediates the receptors transactivation function to regulate gene expression. However, an accurate molecular dissection of NTDs structure-function relationships remains elusive. Here, using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), circular dichroism, and hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry, we show that NTD adopts a mostly disordered, unexpectedly compact conformation that undergoes structural expansion upon chemical denaturation. By combining SAXS, hydroxyl radical protein footprinting and computational modeling, we derive the ensemble-structures of the NTD and determine its ensemble-contact map that reveals metastable regional and long-range contacts, including interactions between residues I33 and S118. We show that mutation at S118, a known phosphorylation site, promotes conformational changes and increases coactivator binding. We further demonstrate via fluorine-19 (19F) NMR that mutations near residue I33 alter 19F chemical shifts at residue S118, confirming the proposed I33-S118 contact in the ensemble of structural disorder. These findings extend our understanding of IDPs structure-function relationship, and how specific metastable contacts mediate critical functions of disordered proteins.nnHighlightsO_LIA compact disorder is observed for the N-terminal domain (NTD) of estrogen receptornC_LIO_LIMulti-technique modeling elucidates the NTD ensemble structuresnC_LIO_LIEnsemble-based contact map reveals metastable contacts between I33 and S118nC_LIO_LI19F-NMR data validate the proposed I33-S118 contact in the IDPnC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiselar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsien, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surewicz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/332205</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metastable contacts and structural disorder in the estrogen receptor transactivation domain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/358440v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling the growth of organisms validates a general relation between metabolic costs and natural selection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/358440v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metabolism and evolution are closely connected: if a mutation incurs extra energetic costs for an organism, there is a baseline selective disadvantage that may or may not be compensated for by other adaptive effects. A long-standing, but to date unproven, hypothesis is that this disadvantage is equal to the fractional cost relative to the total resting metabolic expenditure. This hypothesis has found a recent resurgence as a powerful tool for quantitatively understanding the strength of selection among different classes of organisms. Our work explores the validity of the hypothesis from first principles through a generalized metabolic growth model, versions of which have been successful in describing organismal growth from single cells to higher animals. We build a mathematical framework to calculate how perturbations in maintenance and synthesis costs translate into contributions to the selection coefficient, a measure of relative fitness. This allows us to show that the hypothesis is an approximation to the actual baseline selection coefficient. Moreover we can directly derive the correct prefactor in its functional form, as well as analytical bounds on the accuracy of the hypothesis for any given realization of the model. We illustrate our general framework using a special case of the growth model, which we show provides a quantitative description of overall metabolic synthesis and maintenance expenditures in data collected from a wide array of unicellular organisms (both prokaryotes and eukaryotes). In all these cases we demonstrate that the hypothesis is an excellent approximation, allowing estimates of baseline selection coefficients to within 15% of their actual values. Even in a broader biological parameter range, covering growth data from multicellular organisms, the hypothesis continues to work well, always within an order of magnitude of the correct result. Our work thus justifies its use as a versatile tool, setting the stage for its wider deployment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ilker, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/358440</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling the growth of organisms validates a general relation between metabolic costs and natural selection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/364885v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Non-adhesive alginate hydrogels support growth of pluripotent stem cell-derived intestinal organoids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/364885v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human intestinal organoids (HIOs) represent a powerful system to study human development and are promising candidates for clinical translation as drug-screening tools or engineered tissue. Experimental control and clinical use of HIOs is limited by growth in expensive and poorly defined tumor-cell-derived extracellular matrices, prompting investigation of synthetic ECM-mimetics for HIO culture. Since HIOs possess an inner epithelium and outer mesenchyme, we hypothesized that adhesive cues provided by the matrix may be dispensable for HIO culture. Here, we demonstrate that alginate, a minimally supportive hydrogel with no inherent cell adhesion properties, supports HIO growth in vitro and leads to HIO epithelial differentiation that is virtually indistinguishable from Matrigel-grown HIOs. Additionally, alginate-grown HIOs mature to a similar degree as Matrigel-grown HIOs when transplanted in vivo, both resembling human fetal intestine. This work demonstrates that purely mechanical support from a simple-to-use and inexpensive hydrogel is sufficient to promote HIO survival and development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Capeling, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Czerwinski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, Y.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagy, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juliar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sundaram, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takayama, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helmrath, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Putnam, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spence, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/364885</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Non-adhesive alginate hydrogels support growth of pluripotent stem cell-derived intestinal organoids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/368720v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Occidiofungin, an actin binding antifungal with in vivo efficacy in a vulvovaginal candidiasis infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/368720v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Current antifungal treatment options are plagued with rapidly increasing occurrence of resistance, high degree of toxicity and a limited spectrum of activity. The need to develop a novel antifungal with a unique target, wider spectrum of activity, and reduced toxicity to the host, is urgent. We have identified and characterized one such compound named occidiofungin that is produced by the soil bacterium Burkholderia contaminans MS14. This study identifies the primary cellular target of the antifungal, which was determined to be actin. Actin binding metabolites are generally characterized by their ability to inhibit polymerization or depolymerization of actin filaments, which presumably accounts for their severe toxicity. Occidiofungin, instead, has a subtler effect on actin dynamics that triggers apoptotic cell death. We were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the antifungal in treating a vulvovaginal yeast infection in a murine model. This discovery puts occidiofungin in a unique class of actin-binding antifungal compounds with minimal reported toxicity to the host. The results of this study are important for the development of a novel class of antifungals that could fill the existing gap in treatment options for fungal infections.nnAuthor summaryWidespread resistance to antifungal compounds currently in use has been alarming. Identification and development of a new class of antifungals with a novel cellular target is desperately needed. This study describes the assays carried out to determine the molecular target and evaluate efficacy of one such novel antifungal compound called occidiofungin. Occidiofungin modified with a functional alkyne group enabled affinity purification assays and localization studies in yeast. These studies led to the identification of the actin binding property of occidiofungin. Actin-binding by secondary metabolites often exhibit severe host toxicity, but this does not appear to be the case for occidiofungin. We have previously been able to administer occidiofungin to mice at concentrations in the range of 5 mg/kg without any serious complications. We were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the antifungal in treating a vaginal fungal infection in a murine model. The results outlined in this manuscript establish that occidiofungin is an efficacious compound with a novel molecular target, putting it in a completely new class of antifungals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ravichandran, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geng, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hull, K. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, S.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albee, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nutter, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghannoum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lockless, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/368720</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Occidiofungin, an actin binding antifungal with in vivo efficacy in a vulvovaginal candidiasis infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/374272v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Static stability predicts the continuum of interleg coordination patterns in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/374272v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During walking, insects must coordinate the movements of their six legs for efficient locomotion. This interleg coordination is speed-dependent; fast walking in insects is associated with tripod coordination patterns, while slow walking is associated with more variable, tetrapod-like patterns. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive explanation as to why these speed-dependent shifts in interleg coordination should occur in insects. Tripod coordination would be sufficient at low walking speeds. The fact that insects use a different interleg coordination pattern at lower speeds suggests that it is more optimal or advantageous at these speeds. Furthermore, previous studies focused on discrete tripod and tetrapod coordination patterns. Experimental data, however, suggest that changes observed in interleg coordination are part of a speed-dependent spectrum. Here, we explore these issues in relation to static stability as an important aspect of interleg coordination in Drosophila. We created a model that uses basic experimentally measured parameters in fruit flies to find the interleg phase relationships that maximize stability for a given walking speed. Based on this measure, the model predicted a continuum of interleg coordination patterns spanning the complete range of walking speeds. Furthermore, for low walking speeds the model predicted tetrapod-like patterns to be most stable, while at high walking speeds tripod coordination emerged as most optimal. Finally, we validated the basic assumption of a continuum of interleg coordination patterns in a large set of experimental data from walking fruit flies and compared these data with the model-based predictions.nnSummary statementA simple stability-based modelling approach can explain why walking insects use different leg coordination patterns in a speed-dependent way.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Szczecinski, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bockemuhl, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chockley, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buschges, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/374272</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Static stability predicts the continuum of interleg coordination patterns in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/381699v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantifying the effects of head movement on magnetic resonance spectroscopy estimates of gamma-aminobutyric acid 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/381699v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There has been keen interest in measuring in vivo GABA. However, GABA signal is low and typically measured using techniques vulnerable to the confounding effects of in-scanner head movement. This issue is particularly problematic for clinical studies since it may lead to Type I or II error in testing for group differences. While solutions to mitigate the effects of movement have been proposed, fundamental and largely unexamined issues are the nature and scale of this effect. We developed a method to quantify and characterize head movement during GABA spectroscopy and found that two parameters of movement, displacement and instantaneous movement, were inversely correlated with and accounted for 12.1% and 20.2% variance of GABA estimates respectively. We conclude that head movement can significantly affect GABA measurements and the application of methods to account for movement may improve of GABA measurement accuracy and the detection of true group differences in clinical studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cui, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maddock, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buonocore, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/381699</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantifying the effects of head movement on magnetic resonance spectroscopy estimates of gamma-aminobutyric acid]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/383562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The role of sodium channels in sudden unexpected death in pediatrics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/383562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sudden Unexpected Death in Pediatrics (SUDP) is a tragic condition with hypothesized multifactorial etiology. While there is recent evidence implicating genes related to cardiac arrhythmia and epilepsy as genetic risk factors contributing to some cases of SUDP, the underlying mechanisms of SUDP remain under active investigation. SUDP encompasses Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC), affecting children under and over 1 year of age, respectively. The presence of developmental hippocampal malformations in many children with SIDS and SUDC suggests that a subset of patients may share epilepsy-related mechanisms with Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy Patients (SUDEP). Pathogenic variants in both epilepsy- and arrhythmia-related sodium channel genes have recently been identified in patients with SIDS, SUDC, and SUDEP.nnWe performed a candidate gene analysis for genes encoding sodium channel subunits in whole exome sequencing (WES) data from 73 SUDP patients. After a thorough literature review, we mapped all reported SUDP-associated sodium channel variants alongside variants from the population on a structural protein model to evaluate whether patient variants clustered in important protein domains compared to controls.nnIn our cohort, 13 variants met criteria for pathogenicity or potential pathogenicity. While SCN1A, SCN1B, and SCN5A have established disease associations, we also considered variants in the paralogs SCN3A, SCN4A and SCN9A. Overall, the patient-associated variants clustered at conserved amino acid sites across the sodium channel gene family that do not tolerate variation in these genes.nnThis study provides a molecular overview of sodium channel variants present in cases with SUDP and reveals key amino acid sites that do not tolerate variation across the SCN paralog family. Further research will lead to an improved understanding of the contribution of sodium channels to SUDP, with a goal of one day implementing prevention strategies to avoid untimely deaths in at-risk children.nnAuthor SummaryThe sudden unexplained death of an infant or a child is a tragic event, which is likely caused by the complex interaction of multiple factors. Besides environmental factors, genes related to epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmia have been identified as risk factors. The sodium channel family encompasses genes, related to both cardiac arrhythmia as well as epilepsy, whose proteins share structural homology. We evaluated sodium channel gene variants in our cohort, examined all known variants in sodium genes in SUDP patients from the literature, and mapped patient variants alongside variants from the population on a 3D protein model. The patient variants clustered at conserved amino acid sites with low rates of variation in the general population, not only in the particular gene involved but also in the gene family. This study illustrates that sodium channel variants contribute to the complex phenotype of sudden death in pediatrics, suggesting complex mechanisms of neurologic and/or cardiac dysfunction contributing to death.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rochtus, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holm, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brownstein, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez-Palma, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lal, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poduri, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/383562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The role of sodium channels in sudden unexpected death in pediatrics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/392266v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrative analyses of multi-tissue Hi-C and eQTL data demonstrate close spatial proximity between eQTLs and their target genes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/392266v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gene regulation is important for cells and tissues to function. At the genomic level, it has been studied from two aspects, the identification of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) and identification of long-range chromatin interactions. It is important to understand their relationship, such as whether eQTLs regulate their target genes through physical chromatin interaction. Although previous studies have suggested enrichment of eQTLs in regions with a high chromatin interaction frequency, it is unclear whether this relationship is consistent across different tissues and cell lines and whether there would be any tissue-specific patterns. Here, we performed integrative analyses of eQTL and high-throughput chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) data from 11 human primary tissue types and 2 human cell lines. We found that chromatin interaction frequency is positively correlated with the number of genes having eQTLs, and eQTLs and their target genes are more likely to fall in the same topologically associating domains than that expected from randomly generated control datasets. These results are consistent across all tissues and cell lines we evaluated. Moreover, in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, spleen, hippocampus, pancreas and aorta, tissue-specific eQTLs are enriched in tissue-specific frequently interacting regions. These results reveal a more detailed picture of the complicated relationship between different mechanisms of gene regulation.nnAuthor summaryWhole-genome gene regulation has been studied in tissues and cell lines from multiple perspectives, including identification of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) and identification of long-range chromatin interactions. These two complementary approaches focus on different aspects of gene regulation, one being statistical across individuals while the other being physical within a sample. Integrating results from these two approaches will help us understand their relationships, such as whether eQTLs regulate their target genes through physical chromatin interaction. We performed comprehensive analyses using data from multiple human tissues and cell lines, and showed that chromatin interaction frequency is positively associated with eQTL results in all evaluated tissues and cell lines. The observed relationships also displayed tissue-specific pattern in some tissues. Our results revealed a more detailed picture of the complicated relationship between the different mechanisms of gene regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/392266</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrative analyses of multi-tissue Hi-C and eQTL data demonstrate close spatial proximity between eQTLs and their target genes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/401406v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age of onset in genetic prion disease and the design of preventive clinical trials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/401406v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regulatory agencies worldwide have adopted programs to facilitate drug development for diseases where the traditional approach of a randomized trial with a clinical endpoint is expected to be prohibitively lengthy or difficult. Here we provide quantitative evidence that this criterion is met for the prevention of genetic prion disease. We assemble age of onset or death data from N=1,094 individuals with high penetrance mutations in the prion protein gene (PRNP), generate survival and hazard curves, and estimate statistical power for clinical trials. We show that, due to dramatic and unexplained variability in age of onset, randomized preventive trials would require hundreds or thousands of at-risk individuals in order to be statistically powered for an endpoint of clinical onset, posing prohibitive cost and delay and likely exceeding the number of individuals available for such trials. Instead, the characterization of biomarkers suitable to serve as surrogate endpoints will be essential for the prevention of genetic prion disease. Biomarker-based trials may require post-marketing studies to confirm clinical benefit. Parameters such as longer trial duration, increased enrollment, and the use of historical controls in a post-marketing study could provide opportunities for subsequent determination of clinical benefit.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Minikel, E. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vallabh, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orseth, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandel, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haik, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laplanche, J.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zerr, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parchi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capellari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kenny, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fong, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takada, L. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ponto, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hermann, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knipper, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stehmann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitamoto, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ae, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamaguchi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanjo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsukamoto, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mizusawa, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiesa, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roiter, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Pedro-Cuesta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calero, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geschwind, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yamada, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakamura, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mead, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/401406</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age of onset in genetic prion disease and the design of preventive clinical trials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/411264v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mismatch-repair signature mutations activate gene enhancers across colorectal cancer epigenomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/411264v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Commonly-mutated genes have been found for many cancers, but less is known about mutations in cis-regulatory elements. We leverage gains in tumor-specific enhancer activity, coupled with allele-biased mutation detection from H3K27ac ChIP-seq data, to pinpoint potential enhancer-activating mutations in colorectal cancer (CRC). Analysis of a genetically-diverse cohort of CRC specimens revealed that microsatellite instable (MSI) samples have a high indel rate within active enhancers. Enhancers with indels show evidence of positive selection, increased target gene expression, and a subset is highly recurrent. The indels affect short homopolymer tracts of A/T and increase affinity for FOX transcription factors. We further demonstrate that signature mismatch-repair (MMR) mutations activate enhancers using a xenograft tumor metastasis model, where mutations are induced naturally via CRISPR/Cas9 inactivation of MLH1 prior to tumor cell injection. Our results suggest that MMR signature mutations activate or augment enhancers in CRC tumor epigenomes to provide a selective advantage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hung, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saiakhova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faber, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayles, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ojo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pontius, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morton, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalady, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/411264</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mismatch-repair signature mutations activate gene enhancers across colorectal cancer epigenomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/411728v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Imaging breast cancer using a dual-ligand nanochain particle 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/411728v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanoparticles often only exploit the upregulation of a receptor on cancer cells to enhance intratumoral deposition of therapeutic and imaging agents. However, a single targeting moiety assumes that a tumor is homogenous and static. Tumoral microenvironments are both heterogenous and dynamic, often displaying variable spatial and temporal expression of targetable receptors throughout disease progression. Here, we evaluated the in vivo performance of an iron oxide nanoparticle in terms of targeting and imaging of orthotropic mouse models of aggressive breast tumors. The nanoparticle, a multi-component nanochain, was comprised of 3-5 iron oxide nanoparticles chemically linked in a linear chain. The nanoparticles surface was decorated with two types of ligands each targeting two different upregulated biomarkers on the tumor endothelium, P-selectin and fibronectin. The nanochain exhibited improved tumor deposition not only through vascular targeting but also through its elongated structure. A single-ligand nanochain exhibited a [~]2.5-fold higher intratumoral deposition than a spherical nanoparticle variant. Furthermore, the dual-ligand nanochain exhibited higher consistency in generating detectable MR signals compared to a single-ligand nanochain. Using a 7T MRI, the dual-ligand nanochains exhibited highly detectable MR signal within 3h after injection in two different animal models of breast cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Covarrubias, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rahmy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorkowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erokwu, B. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flask, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peiris, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiemann, W. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karathanasis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/411728</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Imaging breast cancer using a dual-ligand nanochain particle]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/413476v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Critical role of miR-10b in BRafV600E dependent anchorage independent growth and invasion of melanoma cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/413476v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent high-throughput-sequencing of cancer genomes has identified oncogenic mutations in the BRaf genetic locus as one of the critical events in melanomagenesis. BRaf encodes a serine/threonine kinase that regulates the MAPK/ERK kinase (MEK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) protein kinase cascade. In normal cells, the activity of BRaf is tightly regulated and is required for cell growth and survival. BRaf gain-of-function mutations in melanoma frequently lead to unrestrained growth, enhanced cell invasion and increased viability of cancer cells. Although it is clear that the invasive phenotypes of BRaf mutated melanoma cells are stringently dependent on BRaf-MEK-ERK activation, the downstream effector targets that are required for oncogenic BRaf-mediated melanomagenesis are not well defined. miRNAs have regulatory functions towards the expression of genes that are important in carcinogenesis. We observed that miR-10b expression correlates with the presence of the oncogenic BRaf (BRafV600E) mutation in melanoma cells. While expression of miR-10b enhances anchorage-independent growth of BRaf wild-type melanoma cells, miR-10b silencing decreases BRafV600E cancer cell invasion in vitro. Importantly, the expression of miR-10b is required for BRafV600E-mediated anchorage-independent growth and invasion of melanoma cells in vitro. Taken together our results suggest that miR-10b is an important mediator of oncogenic BRafV600E activity in melanoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Datar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalpana, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Serna, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trumbly, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeung, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/413476</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Critical role of miR-10b in BRafV600E dependent anchorage independent growth and invasion of melanoma cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/421248v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human Migration and the Spread of the Nematode Parasite Wuchereria bancrofti 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/421248v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human disease lymphatic filariasis causes the debilitating effects of elephantiasis and hydrocele. Lymphatic filariasis currently affects the lives of 90 million people in 52 countries. There are three nematodes that cause lymphatic filariasis, Brugia malayi, B. timori, and Wuchereria bancrofti, but 90% of all cases of lymphatic filariasis are caused solely by W. bancrofti. Here we use population genomics to identify the geographic origin of W. bancrofti and reconstruct its spread. Previous genomic sequencing efforts have suffered from difficulties in obtaining Wb DNA. We used selective whole genome amplification to enrich W. bancrofti DNA from infected blood samples and were able to analyze 47 whole genomes of W. bancrofti from endemic locations in Haiti, Mali, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea. Our results are consistent with a Southeast Asia or East Asia origin for W. bancrofti spread around the globe by infecting migrating populations of humans. Austronesians probably introduced W. ban-crofti to Madagascar where later migrations moved it to continental Africa. From Africa, W. bancrofti spread to the New World during the transatlantic slave trade. The greater genetic diversity of W. bancrofti populations from Haiti are also consistent with genetic admixture from multiple source populations. Genome scans for locally adapted haplotypes identified genes associated with human immune suppression and insecticide sensitivity. Locally adapted haplotypes may provide a foundation to understand the distribution of W. bancrofti compared to that of other filarial nematodes and how populations may differ in response to eradication efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Small, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Labbe, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coulibaly, Y. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nutman, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmerman, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/421248</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human Migration and the Spread of the Nematode Parasite Wuchereria bancrofti]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/445007v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human IFNε: Spaciotemporal expression, hormone regulation and innate immunity in the female reproductive tract 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/445007v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Interferon epsilon (IFN{varepsilon}) plays an important role in regulating protective immunity in the female reproductive tract in mouse models; but the expression and regulation of this IFN{varepsilon} in the human FRT had not yet been characterised. Here we show that IFN{varepsilon} is selectively and highly expressed in the human FRT, a unique characteristic among the many types of IFN. IFN{varepsilon} has distinct expression patterns in upper compared with lower FRT where it is predominantly expressed in the basal layers of the stratified squamous epithelia. We demonstrate direct regulation of IFN{varepsilon} expression is suppressed by progesterone consistent with its inverse correlation with progesterone receptor expression, but only in the endometrium where its expression therefore fluctuates throughout the menstrual cycle. We show that IFN{varepsilon} regulates immunoregulatory IFN regulated genes (IRGs) in FRT epithelial cells. The characterisation of huIFN{varepsilon} expression in both the upper and the lower FRT epithelia and its protective properties make this IFN well placed to be an important player in mediating hormonal control of FRT immune response and susceptibility to FRT infection.nnSummaryBourke et al. characterise the novel type I interferon epsilon (IFN{varepsilon}), as the only IFN constitutively expressed throughout the human female reproductive tract (FRT), where it is hormonally regulated and modules IFN dependent FRT immunity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bourke, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achilles, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S. U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cumming, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papageorgio, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakore, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangan, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mesiano, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hertzog, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/445007</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human IFNε: Spaciotemporal expression, hormone regulation and innate immunity in the female reproductive tract]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/450973v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Imaging Oxysterols in Mouse Brain by On-Tissue Derivatisation-Robotic Liquid Micro-Extraction Surface Analysis-Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/450973v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dysregulated cholesterol metabolism is implicated in a number of neurological disorders. Many sterols, including cholesterol and its precursors and metabolites, are biologically active and important for proper brain function. However, spatial cholesterol metabolism in brain and the resulting sterol distributions are poorly defined. To better understand cholesterol metabolism in situ across the complex functional regions of brain, we have developed on-tissue enzyme-assisted derivatisation in combination with micro-liquid-extraction for surface analysis and liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry to image sterols in tissue slices (10 {micro}m) of mouse brain. The method provides sterolomic analysis at 400 {micro}m spot diameter with a limit of quantification of 0.01 ng/mm2. It overcomes the limitations of previous mass spectrometry imaging techniques in analysis of low abundance and difficult to ionise sterol molecules, allowing isomer differentiation and structure identification. Here we demonstrate the spatial distribution and quantification of multiple sterols involved in cholesterol metabolic pathways in wild type and cholesterol 24S-hydroxylase knock-out mouse brain. The technology described provides a powerful tool for future studies of spatial cholesterol metabolism in healthy and diseased tissues.nnSignificanceThe brain is a remarkably complex organ and cholesterol homeostasis underpins brain function. It is known that cholesterol is not evenly distributed across different brain regions, however, the precise map of cholesterol metabolism in the brain remains unclear. If cholesterol metabolism is to be correlated with brain function it is essential to generate such a map. Here we describe an advanced mass spectrometry imaging platform to reveal spatial cholesterol metabolism in situ at 400 {micro}m resolution on 10 {micro}m tissue slices from mouse brain. We mapped, not only cholesterol, but also other biologically active sterols arising from cholesterol turnover in both wild type and mice lacking cholesterol 24-hydroxylase (Cyp46a1), the major cholesterol metabolising enzyme.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yutuc, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Angelini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baumert, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mast, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pikuleva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clench, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howell, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/450973</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Imaging Oxysterols in Mouse Brain by On-Tissue Derivatisation-Robotic Liquid Micro-Extraction Surface Analysis-Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/453480v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shared heritability and functional enrichment across six solid cancers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/453480v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quantifying the genetic correlation between cancers can provide important insights into the mechanisms driving cancer etiology. Using genome-wide association study summary statistics across six cancer types based on a total of 296,215 cases and 301,319 controls of European ancestry, we estimate the pair-wise genetic correlations between breast, colorectal, head/neck, lung, ovary and prostate cancer, and between cancers and 38 other diseases. We observed statistically significant genetic correlations between lung and head/neck cancer (rg=0.57, p=4.6x10-8), breast and ovarian cancer (rg=0.24, p=7x10-5), breast and lung cancer (rg=0.18, p=1.5x10-6) and breast and colorectal cancer (rg=0.15, p=1.1x10-4). We also found that multiple cancers are genetically correlated with non-cancer traits including smoking, psychiatric diseases and metabolic characteristics. Functional enrichment analysis revealed a significant excess contribution of conserved and regulatory regions to cancer heritability. Our comprehensive analysis of cross-cancer heritability suggests that solid tumors arising across tissues share in part a common germline genetic basis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jiang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finucane, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumacher, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmit, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyrer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michailidou, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lesseur, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuchenbaecker, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dennis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conti, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casey, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaude, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huyghe, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albanes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aldrich, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrew, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrulis, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton-Culver, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antoniou, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antonenkova, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aronson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arun, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandera, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barkardottir, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Batra, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckmann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benitez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benlloch, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berchuck, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berndt, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bickeboller, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bien, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blomqvist, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boccia, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bogdanova, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bojesen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolla, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brauch, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brook, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunet, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunnstrom</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/453480</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shared heritability and functional enrichment across six solid cancers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454561v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide association analysis of excessive daytime sleepiness identifies 42 loci that suggest phenotypic subgroups 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454561v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) affects 10-20% of the population and is associated with substantial functional deficits. We identified 42 loci for self-reported EDS in GWAS of 452,071 individuals from the UK Biobank, with enrichment for genes expressed in brain tissues and in neuronal transmission pathways. We confirmed the aggregate effect of a genetic risk score of 42 SNPs on EDS in independent Scandinavian cohorts and on other sleep disorders (restless leg syndrome, insomnia) and sleep traits (duration, chronotype, accelerometer-derived sleep efficiency and daytime naps or inactivity). Strong genetic correlations were also seen with obesity, coronary heart disease, psychiatric diseases, cognitive traits and reproductive ageing. EDS variants clustered into two predominant composite phenotypes - sleep propensity and sleep fragmentation - with the former showing stronger evidence for enriched expression in central nervous system tissues, suggesting two unique mechanistic pathways. Mendelian randomization analysis indicated that higher BMI is causally associated with EDS risk, but EDS does not appear to causally influence BMI.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lane, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dashti, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ollila, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Hees, V. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brumpton, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winsvold, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kantojarvi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cade, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sofer, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bechtold, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowden, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emsley, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyle, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Little, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loudon, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheer, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Purcell, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richmond, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spiegelhalder, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyrrell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristiansson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sulkava, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paunio, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hveem, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nielsen, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willer, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zwart, J.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strand, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frayling, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawlor, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rutter, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weedon, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redline, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxena, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/454561</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide association analysis of excessive daytime sleepiness identifies 42 loci that suggest phenotypic subgroups]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/458562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Largest genome-wide association study for PTSD identifies genetic risk loci in European and African ancestries and implicates novel biological pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/458562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and debilitating disorder. The risk of PTSD following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We have collected a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls. We first demonstrate significant genetic correlations across 60 PTSD cohorts to evaluate the comparability of these phenotypically heterogeneous studies. In this largest GWAS meta-analysis of PTSD to date we identify a total of 6 genome-wide significant loci, 4 in European and 2 in African-ancestry analyses. Follow-up analyses incorporated local ancestry and sex-specific effects, and functional studies. Along with other novel genes, a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) and a Parkinsons Disease gene, PARK2, were associated with PTSD. Consistent with previous reports, SNP-based heritability estimates for PTSD range between 10-20%. Despite a significant shared liability between PTSD and major depressive disorder, we show evidence that some of our loci may be specific to PTSD. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation contributing to the biology of differential risk for PTSD and the necessity of expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nievergelt, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maihofer, A. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klengel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atkinson, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, J. R. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalvie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duncan, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logue, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Provost, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratanatharathorn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aiello, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Almli, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amstadter, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersen, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreassen, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arbisi, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashley-Koch, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Austin, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avdibegovic, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babic, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baekvad-Hansen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckham, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bierut, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bisson, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boks, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolger, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borglum, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brashear, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bustamante, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bybjerg-Grauholm, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calabres</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/458562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Largest genome-wide association study for PTSD identifies genetic risk loci in European and African ancestries and implicates novel biological pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/465286v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Efficient GFP-labeling and analysis of spermatogenic cells using the IRG transgene and flow cytometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/465286v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spermatogenesis is a highly ordered developmental program that produces haploid male germ cells. The study of male germ cell development in the mouse has provided unique perspectives into the molecular mechanisms that control cell development and differentiation in mammals, including tissue-specific gene regulatory programs. An intrinsic challenge in spermatogenesis research is the heterogeneity of germ and somatic cell types present in the testis. Techniques to separate and isolate distinct mouse spermatogenic cell types have great potential to shed light on molecular mechanisms controlling mammalian cell development, while also providing new insights into cellular events important for human reproductive health. Here, we detail a versatile strategy that combines Cre-lox technology to fluorescently label germ cells, with flow cytometry to discriminate and isolate germ cells in different stages of development for cellular and molecular analyses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zagore, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akesson, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/465286</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Efficient GFP-labeling and analysis of spermatogenic cells using the IRG transgene and flow cytometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/473363v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age but not disease progression defines CD4+ and CD8+ T stem cell memory levels in human retroviral infections: contrasting effects of HTLV-1 and HIV-1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/473363v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundHuman CD4+ and CD8+ stem cell memory T cells (TSCM) represent a minor fraction of circulating lymphocytes characterized by stemness and long-term in vivo persistence. CD4+ TSCM are preferentially infected and constitute a reservoir for HIV-1, whereas CD8+ TSCM appear to play a protective role. However, little is known about CD4+ and CD8+ TSCM in the only other human pathogenic retroviral infection, human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). HTLV-1 is the etiological agent of both Adult T-cell Leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraperesis (HAM/TSP), a neuroinflammatory disorder. In ATL, CD4+ TSCM cells were identified as the hierarchical leukemic stem cell, but data in HAM/TSP are lacking. Age is a major risk factor for both ATL and HAM/TSP, as both diseases generally manifest several decades after infection. Therefore, we explored a possible link between TSCM, age and disease status in human retroviral infections in a cross-sectional study, using multiparametric flow cytometry.nnResultsWe found that CD4+ or CD8+ TSCM levels (quantified as CD3+CD45RA+CD45RO- CD27+CCR7+Fashi) do not differ between healthy controls and untreated HTLV-1 infected individuals with and without neuroinflammatory disorder. However, we found both TSCM as well as CD8+ TSCM significantly accumulated with age, resulting in a >400% increase in elderly HTLV-1 infected individuals (>60 years). A significant correlation between age and TSCM signature genes was validated at the transcriptome level in an independent cohort. CD8+ but not CD4+ TSCM were significantly decreased in untreated HIV-1 infection. Unexpectedly, CD8+ TSCM recovery upon successful antiretroviral treatment was essentially complete (92.2{+/-}11.0%) in younger (<45 years) individuals, but significantly lower (37.3{+/-}6.1%) in older (>45 years) individuals (p=0.0003).nnConclusionIn HTLV-1 infection, an age-dependent accumulation of CD4+ and CD8+ TSCM points towards a possible protective role of CD8 TSCM in the elderly against leukemic but not neuroinflammatory disease. HIV-1-infected individuals lose their ability to restore CD8+ TSCM levels upon successful antiretroviral therapy at later age (>45 years), which might eventually lead to immunological failure and decreased vaccine efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Menezes, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira Ribeiro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dierckx, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roederer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>SenGupta, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nixon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Weyenbergh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/473363</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age but not disease progression defines CD4+ and CD8+ T stem cell memory levels in human retroviral infections: contrasting effects of HTLV-1 and HIV-1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/481168v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development and validation of serological markers for detecting recent exposure to  Plasmodium vivax infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/481168v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In order to accelerate towards malaria elimination, improved targeting of limited resources is essential. A major gap in our elimination toolkit for Plasmodium vivax malaria is the identification of individuals carrying arrested liver stages, called hypnozoites. These clinically silent but frequently relapsing hypnozoites are key to P. vivax persistence. Whilst hypnozoites cannot be directly detected, individuals who have had recent exposure to P. vivax and have not been treated are likely to harbor these parasites. By measuring IgG antibody responses to over 300 P. vivax proteins, a panel of serological markers capable of detecting exposure to P. vivax infections in the prior 9-month period was identified and validated. Using antibody responses to 8 P. vivax proteins, 80% sensitivity and specificity for detecting recent infections were achieved in three independent studies conducted in Thailand, Brazil and the Solomon Islands. As these individuals have a high likelihood of harboring hypnozoites, the suite of these 8 antibody responses can serve as biomarkers for the identification of individuals who should be targeted for treatment with liver-stage drugs such as primaquine and tafenoquine in mass drug administration programs aimed at controlling and eliminating P. vivax malaria.nnOne Sentence SummaryThe manuscript describes identification and validation of a novel panel of P. vivax proteins that can be used to detect recent exposure to P. vivax infections within the prior 9 months.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Longley, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takashima, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewster, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morita, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harbers, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuura, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li-Wai-Suen, C. S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tham, W.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Healer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chitnis, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguitragool, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monteiro, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Proietti, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doolan, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, X. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lacerda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sattabongkot, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsuboi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/481168</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development and validation of serological markers for detecting recent exposure to  Plasmodium vivax infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488411v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mutations In PIK3C2A Cause Syndromic Short Stature, Skeletal Abnormalities, and Cataracts Associated With Ciliary Dysfunction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488411v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PIK3C2A is a class II member of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) family that catalyzes the phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol (PI) into PI(3)P and the phosphorylation of PI(4)P into PI(3,4)P2. We identified homozygous loss-of-function mutations in PIK3C2A in children from three independent consanguineous families with short stature, coarse facial features, cataracts with secondary glaucoma, multiple skeletal abnormalities, neurological manifestations, among other findings. Cellular studies of patient-derived fibroblasts found that they lacked PIK3C2A protein, had impaired cilia formation and function, and demonstrated reduced proliferative capacity. Collectively, the genetic and molecular data implicate mutations in PIK3C2A in a new Mendelian disorder of PI metabolism, thereby shedding light on the critical role of a class II PI3K in growth, vision, skeletal formation and neurological development. This discovery expands what is known about disorders of PI metabolism and helps unravel the role of PIK3C2A and class II PI3Ks in health and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tiosano, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baris Feldman, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitzert, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schueler, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulluni, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiesener, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergua, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mory, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Copeland, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gleeson, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rump, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Meer, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sival, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haucke, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kriwinsky, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knaup, K. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hauer, N. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hirsch, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roepman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfundt, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thiel, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiesener, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aslanyan, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/488411</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mutations In PIK3C2A Cause Syndromic Short Stature, Skeletal Abnormalities, and Cataracts Associated With Ciliary Dysfunction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488676v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Codon usage and amino acid identity are major determinants of mRNA stability in humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488676v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
mRNA degradation is a critical, yet poorly understood, aspect of gene expression. Previous studies demonstrate that codon content acts as a major determinant of mRNA stability in model organisms. In humans, the importance of open reading frame (ORF)-mediated regulation remains unclear. Here, we globally analyzed mRNA stability for both endogenous and human ORFeome collection mRNAs in human cells. Consistent with previous studies, we observed that synonymous codon usage impacts human mRNA decay. Unexpectedly, amino acid identity also acts as a driver of translation-dependent decay, meaning that primary protein sequence dictates overall mRNA levels and, consequently, protein abundance. Both codon usage and amino acid identity affect translational elongation rate to varying degrees in distinct organisms, with the net result being sensed by mRNA degradation machinery. In humans, interplay between ORF- and UTR-mediated control of mRNA stability may be critical to offset this fundamental relationship between protein sequence and mRNA abundance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Forrest, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narula, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arango, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oberdoerffer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rissland, O. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/488676</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Codon usage and amino acid identity are major determinants of mRNA stability in humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/494633v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bone-Inspired Microarchitectured Materials with Enhanced Fatigue Life 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/494633v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microarchitectured materials achieve superior mechanical properties through geometry rather than composition 1-4. Although lightweight, high-porosity microarchitectured materials can have high stiffness and strength, stress concentrations within the microstructure can cause flaw intolerance under cyclic loading 5,6, limiting fatigue life. However, it is not known how microarchitecture contributes to fatigue life. Naturally occurring materials can display exceptional mechanical performance and are useful models for the design of microarchitectured materials 7,8. Cancellous bone is a naturally occurring microarchitectured material that often survives decades of habitual cyclic loading without failure. Here we show that resistance to fatigue failure in cancellous bone is sensitive to the proportion of material oriented transverse to applied loads - a 30% increase in density caused by thickening transversely oriented struts increases fatigue life by 10-100 times. This finding is surprising in that transversely oriented struts have negligible effects on axial stiffness, strength and energy absorption. The effects of transversely oriented material on fatigue life are also present in synthetic lattice microstructures. In both cancellous bone and synthetic microarchitectures, the fatigue life can be predicted using the applied cyclic stress after adjustment for apparent stiffness and the proportion of the microstructure oriented transverse to applied loading. In the design of microarchitectured materials, stiffness, strength and energy absorption is often enhanced by aligning the microstructure in a preferred direction. Our findings show that introduction of such anisotropy, by reducing the amount of material oriented transverse to loading, comes at the cost of reduced fatigue life. Fatigue failure of durable devices and components generates substantial economic costs associated with repair and replacement. As advancements in additive manufacturing expand the use of microarchitectured materials to reusable devices including aerospace applications, it is increasingly necessary to balance the need for fatigue life with those of strength and density.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Torres, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trikanad, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aubin, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambers, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luna, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rimnac, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zavattieri, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/494633</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bone-Inspired Microarchitectured Materials with Enhanced Fatigue Life]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/497461v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PTBP2-dependent alternative splicing regulates protein transport and mitochondria morphology in post-meiotic germ cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/497461v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The RNA binding protein PTBP2 (polypyrimidine tract binding protein 2) is a key regulator of tissue-specific alternative RNA splicing. In the testis, PTBP2 is expressed in meiotic and post-meiotic germ cells (spermatocytes and spermatids, respectively). In these cells, PTBP2 is required for proper alternative mRNA splicing for over 200 genes, disproportionately affecting genes encoding proteins involved in protein trafficking via transport vesicles. In this study, we used electron microscopy to test the hypothesis that protein trafficking is impaired in the absence of PTBP2, and to further investigate why spermatogenesis abruptly ceases in PTBP2-deficienct spermatids. Ultrastructural analysis shows that protein trafficking in spermatids is aberrant in the absence of PTBP2. Unexpectedly, we also found that mitochondria morphology and number are significantly altered in PTBP2-deficient spermatids, consistent with increased mitochondria fission. Furthermore, we show that genes with key roles in mitochondria dynamics and function are post-transcriptionally regulated by PTBP2 and in different stages of spermatogenesis. Collectively, the data provide ultrastructural evidence that alternative splicing regulation by PTBP2 during spermatogenesis is critical for proper regulation of protein trafficking and mitochondria morphology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hannigan, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fujioka, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brett-Morris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/497461</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PTBP2-dependent alternative splicing regulates protein transport and mitochondria morphology in post-meiotic germ cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/505487v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural ensemble dynamics in dorsal motor cortex during speech in people with paralysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/505487v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Speaking is a sensorimotor behavior whose neural basis is difficult to study at the resolution of single neurons due to the scarcity of human intracortical measurements and the lack of animal models. We recorded from electrode arrays in the  hand knob area of motor cortex in people with tetraplegia. Neurons in this area, which have not previously been implicated in speech, modulated during speaking and during non-speaking movement of the tongue, lips, and jaw. This challenges whether the conventional model of a  motor homunculus division by major body regions extends to the single-neuron scale. Spoken words and syllables could be decoded from single trials, demonstrating the potential utility of intracortical recordings for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to restore speech. Two neural population dynamics features previously reported for arm movements were also present during speaking: a large initial condition-invariant signal, followed by rotatory dynamics. This suggests that common neural dynamical motifs may underlie movement of arm and speech articulators.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stavisky, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willett, F. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rezaii, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Memberg, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirsch, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hochberg, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajiboye, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shenoy, K. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderson, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/505487</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural ensemble dynamics in dorsal motor cortex during speech in people with paralysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/508192v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Therapeutic suppression of proteolipid protein rescues Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/508192v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in proteolipid protein 1 (PLP1) result in failure of myelination and severe neurological dysfunction in the X-linked pediatric leukodystrophy Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD). The majority of PLP1 variants, including supernumerary copies and various point mutations, lead to early mortality. However, PLP1-null patients and mice display comparatively mild phenotypes, suggesting that reduction of aberrant PLP1 expression might provide a therapeutic strategy across PMD genotypes. Here we show, CRISPR-Cas9 mediated germline knockdown of Plp1 in the severe jimpy (Plp1jp) point mutation mouse model of PMD rescued myelinating oligodendrocytes, nerve conduction velocity, motor function, and lifespan to wild-type levels, thereby validating PLP1 suppression as a therapeutic approach. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of Plp1 suppression in postnatal PMD mice, we tested antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) that stably decrease mouse Plp1 mRNA and protein in vivo. Administration of a single intraventricular dose of Plp1-targeted ASOs to postnatal jimpy mice increased myelination, improved motor behavior, and extended lifespan through an 8-month endpoint. Collectively, these results support the development of PLP1 suppression as a disease-modifying therapy for most PMD patients. More broadly, we demonstrate that RNA therapeutics can be delivered to oligodendrocytes in vivo to modulate neurological function and lifespan, opening a new treatment modality for myelin disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Elitt, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbar, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shick, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powers, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maeno-Hikitchi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allan, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nawash, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nevin, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsen, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitomi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LePage, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conlon, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rigo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesar, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/508192</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Therapeutic suppression of proteolipid protein rescues Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/508481v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Duffy Antigen Expression in Erythroid Bone Marrow Precursor Cells of Genotypically Duffy Negative Individuals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/508481v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gene encoding the Duffy blood group protein (Fy, CD234; additional designations Duffy Antigen Receptor of Chemokines [DARC] and Atypical Chemokine Receptor 1 [ACKR1]) is characterized by a SNP in a GATA-1 transcription factor binding site associated with the erythrocyte silent (ES) phenotype. FYES homozygous people are viewed to be highly resistant to blood stage infection with Plasmodium vivax. Increasingly, however, studies are reporting P. vivax infections in Fy-negative individuals across malarious African countries where FYES approaches genetic fixation. This suggests that P. vivax has evolved a Fy-independent RBC invasion pathway, or that the GATA-1 SNP does not abolish Fy expression. Here, we tested the second hypothesis through binding studies to erythroid lineage cells using recombinant P. vivax Duffy binding protein, the parasites invasion ligand and Fy6-specific antibodies. We first observed variable Fy expression on circulating RBCs, irrespective of FY genotype; FYES RBCs were periodically Fy-positive. Furthermore, during the in vitro erythroid differentiation of CD34+ cells and on ex vivo bone marrow samples, we observed Fy expression on erythroid precursor cells from FYES people. Finally, the Fy6-specific nanobody, CA111 was used to capture Fy from the surface of FYES RBCs. Our findings reveal that the GATA-1 SNP does not fully abolish Fy expression and provide insight on potential susceptibility of Fy-negative people to vivax malaria.nnSignificanceDuffy blood group negativity results from a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the gene promoter, and reaches genetic fixation in many African ethnicities. Because the Duffy protein (Fy) is an important contact point during Plasmodium vivax human red blood cell invasion, Fy-negativity is considered to confer resistance to P. vivax malaria. With recent studies in African countries reporting P. vivax infection in Fy-negative people, we studied Fy expression across erythroid development. Here we report that the FY promoter SNP does not abolish Fy protein expression in erythroid progenitors developing in the bone marrow. These results further emphasizes the importance of reticulocytes as targets for P. vivax blood stage infection and propose a mechanism for P. vivax infections in Fy-negative people.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dechavanne, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dechavanne, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metral, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roeper, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fong, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carias, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salinas, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghosh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolia, N. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woost, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobberger, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamain, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmerman, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/508481</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Duffy Antigen Expression in Erythroid Bone Marrow Precursor Cells of Genotypically Duffy Negative Individuals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511402v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reconciling the potentially irreconcilable? Genotypic and phenotypic amoxicillin-clavulanate resistance in  Escherichia coli 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/511402v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanate, a widely used beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combination antibiotic, is rising globally, yet susceptibility testing remains challenging. To test whether whole-genome sequencing (WGS) could provide a more reliable assessment of susceptibility than traditional methods, we predicted resistance from WGS for 976 E. coli bloodstream infection isolates from Oxfordshire, UK, comparing against phenotypes from the BD Phoenix (calibrated against EUCAST guidelines). 339/976 (35%) isolates were amoxicillin-clavulanate resistant. Predictions based solely on beta-lactamase presence/absence performed poorly (sensitivity 23% (78/339)) but improved when genetic features associated with penicillinase hyper-production (e.g. promoter mutations, copy number estimates) were considered (sensitivity 82% (277/339); p<0.0001). Most discrepancies occurred in isolates with peri-breakpoint MICs. We investigated two potential causes; the phenotypic reference and the binary resistant/susceptible classification. We performed reference standard, replicated phenotyping in a random stratified subsample of 261/976 (27%) isolates using agar dilution, following both EUCAST and CLSI guidelines, which use different clavulanate concentrations. As well as disagreeing with each other, neither agar dilution phenotype aligned perfectly with genetic features. A random-effects model investigating associations between genetic features and MICs showed that some genetic features had small, variable and additive effects, resulting in variable resistance classification. Using model fixed-effects to predict MICs for the non-agar dilution isolates, predicted MICs were in essential agreement ({+/-}1 doubling dilution) with observed (BD Phoenix) MICs for 691/715 (97%) isolates. This suggests amoxicillin-clavulanate resistance in E. coli is quantitative, rather than qualitative, explaining the poorly reproducible binary (resistant/susceptible) phenotypes and suboptimal concordance between different phenotypic methods and with WGS-based predictions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Davies, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stoesser, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheppard, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abuoun, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaughan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, H. T. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeffery, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellington, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ekelund, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathers, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodford, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crook, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peto, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anjum, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/511402</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reconciling the potentially irreconcilable? Genotypic and phenotypic amoxicillin-clavulanate resistance in  Escherichia coli]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/520411v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Discovery of a redox-thiol switch regulating cellular energy metabolism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/520411v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Previously, we reported that increased synthesis of the gas hydrogen sulfide (H2S) during the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) induced proteome-wide cysteine-sulfhydration with the predominant modified pathway being enzymes of cellular energy metabolism (Gao, et al. 2015). Using pancreatic beta cells and quantitative proteomics in this study, we identified a Redox Thiol Switch from S-glutathionylation to S-sulfhydration and we named it, RTSGS. About half of the identified proteins are involved in energy metabolism, and one novel target was the mitochondrial phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 2 (PCK2) whose catalytic Cys306was targeted by both modifications. The enzymatic activity of PCK2 was inhibited by S-glutathionylation, and this inhibition was largely reversed by S-sulfhydration. S-sulfhydration also reversed the S-glutathionylation-mediated inhibition of glucose flux, indicating a broad metabolic significance. We propose that a Redox Thiol Switch from S-glutathionylation to S-sulfhydration is a key mechanism to fine tune cellular energy metabolism in response to different levels of oxidative stress.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gao, X.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parisien, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mcleod, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bederman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krokowski, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chirieleison, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diatchenko, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yee, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoppel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kibbey, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holyoak, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arvan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/520411</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Discovery of a redox-thiol switch regulating cellular energy metabolism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/530758v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Novel Insights into Malaria Vector Surveillance in Madagascar Using a Quadrant Enabled Screen Trap (QUEST) and Bloodmeal Detection Assay for Regional Transmission (BLOODART) 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/530758v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe Madagascar National Strategic Plan for Malaria Control 2018 (NSP) outlines malaria control pre-elimination strategies that include detailed goals for mosquito control. Primary surveillance protocols and mosquito control interventions focus on indoor vectors of malaria, while many potential vectors feed and rest outdoors. Here we describe the application of novel tools that advance our understanding of diversity, host choice, and Plasmodium infection in the Anopheline mosquitoes of the Western Highland Fringe of Madagascar.

Methodology/Principal FindingsWe employed a novel outdoor trap, the QUadrant Enabled Screen Trap (QUEST), in conjunction with the recently developed multiplex BLOOdmeal Detection Assay for Regional Transmission (BLOODART). We captured a total of 1252 female Anopheles mosquitoes (10 species), all of which were subjected to BLOODART analysis. QUEST collection captured a heterogenous distribution of mosquito density, diversity, host choice, and Plasmodium infection. Concordance between Anopheles morphology and BLOODART species identifications ranged from 93-99%. Mosquito feeding behavior in this collection frequently exhibited multiple blood meal hosts (single host = 53.6%, two hosts = 42.1%, three hosts = 4.3%). The overall percentage of human positive bloodmeals increased between the December 2017 and the April 2018 timepoints (27% to 44%). Plasmodium positivity was found primarily in vectors considered to be of secondary importance, with an overall prevalence of 6%.

Conclusions/SignificanceThe QUEST was an efficient tool for sampling Anopheline mosquitoes. Vectors considered to be of secondary importance were commonly found with Plasmodium DNA in their abdomens, indicating a need to account for these species in routine surveillance efforts. Mosquitoes exhibited multiple blood feeding behavior within a gonotrophic cycle, with predominantly non-human hosts in the bloodmeal. Taken together, this complex feeding behavior could enhance the role of multiple Anopheline species in malaria transmission, possibly tempered by zoophilic feeding tendencies.

Author SummaryMalaria continues to be a significant threat to public health in Madagascar. Elimination of this disease is impeded by numerous factors, such as vector surveillance that does little to account for the potential role of secondary malaria vectors, which rest and feed outdoors. In this study, we designed a novel, low cost QUadrant Enabled Screen Trap (QUEST) to address the lack of traps for outdoor mosquitoes. We used this in conjunction with our novel BLOOdmeal Detection Assay for Regional Transmission (BLOODART) to assess mosquito feeding behavior in the Western Highland Fringe of Madagascar. Our analysis revealed significant variability in mosquito density, diversity, host choice, and Plasmodium infection across traps placed within and between two nearby villages at two timepoints; indicating a strong, small-scale spatial component to disease transmission that warrants further investigation. Many of the mosquitoes in this sample (46.4%) fed on two or three host species, indicating complex feeding behaviors that could influence malaria transmission. Further, Plasmodium DNA was detected in the abdomens of numerous vectors of supposed secondary importance, indicating a neglected parasite reservoir and an increased need to account for these species in routine surveillance efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tedrow, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rakotomanga, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nepomichene, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratovonjato, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratsimbasoa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Svenson, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmerman, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/530758</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Novel Insights into Malaria Vector Surveillance in Madagascar Using a Quadrant Enabled Screen Trap (QUEST) and Bloodmeal Detection Assay for Regional Transmission (BLOODART)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/531160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MmpL3 is a lipid transporter that binds trehalose monomycolate and phosphatidylethanolamine 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/531160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cell envelope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is notable for the abundance of mycolic acids (MAs), which are essential to mycobacterial viability, and other species-specific lipids. The mycobacterial cell envelope is extremely hydrophobic, contributes to virulence and antibiotic resistance. Yet, exactly how fatty acids and lipidic elements are transported across the cell envelope for cell wall biosynthesis is unclear. Mycobacterial membrane protein Large 3 (MmpL3) is essential and required for transport of trehalose monomycolates (TMMs), precursors of MA containing trehalose dimycolates (TDM) and mycolyl arabinogalactan peptidoglycan (mAGP), but the exact function of MmpL3 remains elusive. Here, we report a high-resolution crystal structure of M. smegmatis MmpL3, revealing a monomeric molecule that is structurally distinct from all known bacterial membrane proteins. A previously unknown MmpL3 ligand, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), was discovered inside this transporter. We also show, via native mass spectrometry, that MmpL3 specifically binds both TMM and PE, but not TDM, in the micromolar range. These observations provide insight into the function of MmpL3 and suggest a possible role for this protein in shuttling a variety of lipids to strengthen the mycobacterial cell wall.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Su, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klenotic, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolla, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Purdy, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/531160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MmpL3 is a lipid transporter that binds trehalose monomycolate and phosphatidylethanolamine]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/533950v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effectiveness of a mobile antiretroviral pharmacy and HIV care intervention on the continuum of HIV care in rural Uganda 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/533950v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionAdherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is critical in order to achieve viral suppression, one of three UNAIDS targets set for achievement before 2020. One of the main barriers to adherence is the long distance between patient residences and healthcare facilities. We designed an intervention, Mobile Antiretroviral Therapy and HIV care (MAP-HC) in rural southwestern Uganda aimed to reduce travel distance and hypothesized that MAP-HC would improve ART adherence and rates of viral load suppression.

MethodsThe study was conducted at two sites, Kitagata and Itojo Hospitals, and these are public health facilities located in rural southwestern Uganda. Patients who lived >5km from the hospital were provided the option to participate. For each hospital, we identified 4 health centres in the catchment area to serve as site for the mobile pharmacy. Each site was visited once a month to provide ART refills, adherence counseling and treatment of other illnesses. We measured patient waiting time, adherence and viral load suppression before and after the intervention.

ResultsWe conducted baseline assessment among 292 patients at the two hospitals. The mean waiting time at Kitagata Hospital changed from 4.48 hours before the intervention but increased to 4.76 hours after the intervention (p=0.13). The proportion of patients who missed an ART dose in the last 30 days dropped from 20% at baseline to 8.5% at 12 months after the intervention (p=0.009). The proportion of patients with detectable viral load from 19.9% to 7.4% after the intervention (p=0.001).

ConclusionsOur study has showed that a mobile pharmacy intervention in rural Uganda is feasible and resulted in improvement in adherence and viral load suppression. Although it did not reduce patient waiting time at the clinic, we recommend a scale-up of this intervention in rural areas where patients face challenges of transportation to the clinic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bajunirwe, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayebazibwe, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulogo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGrath, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaawa-Mafigiri, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mugyenyi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sethi, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/533950</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effectiveness of a mobile antiretroviral pharmacy and HIV care intervention on the continuum of HIV care in rural Uganda]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/538223v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GIT2 is dispensable for normal learning and memory function due to a predominant brain GIT2 splice variant that evades GIT/PIX complexes. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/538223v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
G protein-coupled receptor kinase-interacting protein 2 (GIT2) and GIT1 are highly similar, sharing the same domain structure and many binding partners. The most important GIT partners are the p21-activated protein kinase-interacting exchange factor (PIX) proteins, since through homomeric and heteromeric interactions, GIT and PIX proteins form oligomeric GIT/PIX complexes. Oligomeric GIT/PIX complexes function both as regulators of small GTP-binding proteins and as scaffolds for signalling molecules, including p21-activated protein kinases (PAKs). Deficits in learning and memory have been demonstrated in GIT1 knockout mice, and it has been assumed that GIT2 also would affect learning and memory. Unexpectedly, we find that GIT2-deficient mice respond normally in multiple tests of learning and memory, and have normal hippocampal long-term potentiation. Further, we find no evidence that GIT2 regulates ADHD-like phenotypes. To investigate why GIT2 and GIT1 differ so markedly in the brain, we identified the major isoform of GIT2 in the brain as a previously uncharacterized splice variant, GIT2({Delta}BCE). This variant cannot dimerize or form oligomeric complexes with PIX proteins, and is thus incapable of regulating PAK in synapses, compared to oligomeric GIT1/PIX complexes. Because localized activation of PAK in synapses is required for structural plasticity underlying cognitive performance, loss of monomeric GIT2({Delta}BCE) in the brain does not influence these responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Toth, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martyn, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bastrikova, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguiz, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmalzigaug, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dudek, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wetsel, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Premont, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/538223</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GIT2 is dispensable for normal learning and memory function due to a predominant brain GIT2 splice variant that evades GIT/PIX complexes.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/539676v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Competition and immune selection of multi-strain Plasmodium falciparum malaria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/539676v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SetupMalaria Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) species contains multiple strains with different immunogenic profiles, and expressed phenotypes. These strains circulate in host populations via mosquito transmission, and interact (compete, cooperate) on two levels: within - host (via cross-reactive immunity), and in host populations. Both factors, host immunity and transmission environment, play important part in evolution and selection.

Conventional population-based models of malaria have limited capacity to accommodate parasite-immune dynamics within-host and strain diversity. Here we developed an in-host model for multi-strain malaria based on its genetic (immunogenic) makeup, which accounts for essential parasite-immune biology. The model allows efficient simulations of mixed-strain infections in individual hosts and in host ensembles over multiple transmission cycles. We use it to explore evolutionary implications (competition, selection) of malaria quasi-species, driven by host immunity and transmission intensity.

ResultsThe key  selectable trait within-host is strain transmissibility (TP), which measures cumulative odds of mosquito infection by a given strain over infection history. Here we adopt it to explore evolutionary implications of parasite-immune interactions on different time scales and transmission environments. Specifically, we explore (i) primary strain selection in naive host ensembles based on TP-fitness; (ii) evolution and selection of mixed multi-strain systems over multiple transmission cycles.

On level (i) different strain mixtures competed in multiple hosts, to identify  most fit (highly transmissible) types. A key observation of (i) was fitness-cost of in-host competition, i.e. statistical TP-loss determined by multiplicity of infection (number of competing strains), and strain genotype (immunogenic profile). The most-fit strains maintained their high TP-values regardless of competing environment.

We selected them for step (ii), to explore long-term evolution over multiple transmission cycles. Our analysis revealed peculiar features of evolution: success within-host (step (i)) did not guarantee strain survival over multiple cycles. Indeed, the latter was strongly associated with cooperative behavior, i.e. co-existence of a given strain in suitable mixtures, in multiple hosts over many generations. We examined the resulting population structure of evolving strains, in terms of their immune cross-reactivity. Overall, our results were consistent with predictions of strain theory [1-4], [5, 6]. Strain theory predicts that cross-reacting parasite strains in host population should organize themselves into  non-overlapping (immunogenically disjunct) clusters. In our case, no strict  immune separation arises, but cross-reactivity is lost over multiple cycles, and surviving clusters are  nearly disjunct. Such weakly overlapping clusters (cooperating cliques) persisted over long (evolutionary) periods. Specifically, each clique was found to possess a core node -highly cooperative persistent strain, carrying a subordinate (transient) cluster.

Our results shed new light on relative importance of competitive vs. cooperative behavior, and multi-level organization of genetically structured parasite system. They could have implications for malaria control and vaccine design.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gurarie, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/539676</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Competition and immune selection of multi-strain Plasmodium falciparum malaria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/540542v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Facilitating Replication and Reproducibility in Team Science: the 'projects' R Package 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/540542v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The contemporary scientific community places a growing emphasis on the reproducibility of research. The projects R package is a free, open-source endeavor created in the interest of facilitating reproducible research workflows. It adds to existing software tools for reproducible research and introduces several practical features that are helpful for scientists and their collaborative research teams. For each individual project, it supplies an intuitive framework for storing raw and cleaned study data sets, and provides script templates for protocol creation, data cleaning, data analysis and manuscript development. Internal databases of project and author information are generated and displayed, and manuscript title pages containing author lists and their affiliations are automatically generated from the internal database. File management tools allow teams to organize multiple projects. When used on a shared file system, multiple researchers can harmoniously contribute to the same project in a less punctuated manner, reducing the frequency of misunderstandings and the need for status updates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krieger, N. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perzynski, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalton, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Northeast Ohio Cohort for Atherosclerotic Risk Estimation (NEOCARE) investigative team,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/540542</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Facilitating Replication and Reproducibility in Team Science: the 'projects' R Package]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/547737v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deep proteomic analysis of Dnmt1 mutant/hypomorphic colorectal cancer cells reveals dys-regulation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and subcellular re-localization of Beta-Catenin 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/547737v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDNA methyltransferase I is the primary eukaryotic DNA methyltransferase engaged in maintenance of CpG DNA methylation patterns across the genome. Alteration of CpG methylation patterns and levels is a frequent and significant occurrence across many cancers, and targeted inhibition of Dnmt1 has become an approach of choice for select malignancies. There has been significant interest both in the methyltransferase activity as well as methylation-independent functions of Dnmt1. A previously generated hypomorphic allele of Dnmt1 in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells has become an important tool for understanding Dnmt1 function and how CpG methylation patterns are modulated across the genome. Colorectal cancer cells with the Dnmt1 hypomorphic allele carry a homozygous deletion of exons 3 to 5 of Dnmt1, resulting in greatly reduced Dnmt1 protein expression whilst still exhibiting a limited functional activity and methyltransferase ability. Although this cell model of reduced Dnmt1 levels and function have been used to study the downstream effects on the epigenome and transcriptome, the broader effects of the Dnmt1 hypomorph on the proteome and wider cell signalling are largely unknown.

ResultsIn this study, we used quantitative proteomic analysis of nuclear-enriched samples of HCT116 Dnmt1 hypomorph cells to identify signalling pathways and processes dysregulated in the hypomorph cells as compared to wild-type HCT116 cells. Unexpectedly, we observed a clear signature of increased expression of Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal (EMT) in Dnmt1 hypomorph cells. We also observed reduced expression and sub-cellular re-localization of Beta-Catenin in Dnmt1 hypomorph cells. Expression of wild-type Dnmt1 in hypomorph cells or knock-down of wild-type Dnmt1 did not recapitulate or rescue the observed protein profiles in Dnmt1 hypomorph cells suggesting that hypomorphic Dnmt1 causes changes not solely attributable

ConclusionsIn summary we present the first comprehensive proteomic analysis of the widely studied Dnmt1 hypomorph colorectal cancer cells and identify redistribution of Dnmt1 and its interaction partner Beta-Catenin as well as the dysregulation of EMT related processes and signalling pathways related to the development of a cancer stem cell phenotype.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bowler, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith-Vidal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lester, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bell, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Divecha, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skipp, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewing, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/547737</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deep proteomic analysis of Dnmt1 mutant/hypomorphic colorectal cancer cells reveals dys-regulation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and subcellular re-localization of Beta-Catenin]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/554600v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Malignant liver cancers have distinct myeloid-derived suppressor cell signatures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/554600v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are immunosuppressive cells that are increased in patients with numerous malignancies including viral-derived hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we report an elevation of MDSC in other hepatobiliary malignancies including non-viral HCC, neuroendocrine tumors (NET), colorectal carcinoma with liver metastases (CRLM), but not cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Investigation of myeloid cell infiltration in HCC, NET and intrahepatic CCA tumors further established that the frequency of antigen-presenting cells was limited compared to benign lesions suggesting that primary and metastatic hepatobiliary cancers have distinct peripheral and tumoral myeloid signatures. Bioinformatics analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas demonstrated that a high MDSC score in HCC patients predicted poor disease outcome. Mechanistic studies indicated that the oncometabolite D-2-hydroxyglutarate resulting from isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 mutation could be a limiting factor of MDSC accumulation in CCA patients. Given our observation that MDSCs are increased in non-CCA malignant liver cancers, they may comprise suitable targets for effective immunotherapy approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serbinowski, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roversi, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acevedo-Moreno, L.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lanigan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orujov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allende, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aucejo, F. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/554600</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Malignant liver cancers have distinct myeloid-derived suppressor cell signatures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/559393v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-ancestry analysis of gene-sleep interactions in 126,926 individuals identifies multiple novel blood lipid loci that contribute to our understanding of sleep-associated adverse blood lipid profile 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/559393v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Both short and long sleep are associated with an adverse lipid profile, likely through different biological pathways. To provide new insights in the biology of sleep-associated adverse lipid profile, we conducted multi-ancestry genome-wide sleep-SNP interaction analyses on three lipid traits (HDL-c, LDL-c and triglycerides). In the total study sample (discovery + replication) of 126,926 individuals from 5 different ancestry groups, when considering either long or short total sleep time interactions in joint analyses, we identified 49 novel lipid loci, and 10 additional novel lipid loci in a restricted sample of European-ancestry cohorts. In addition, we identified new gene-sleep interactions for known lipid loci such as LPL and PCSK9. The novel gene-sleep interactions had a modest explained variance in lipid levels: most notable, gene-short-sleep interactions explained 4.25% of the variance in triglyceride concentration. Collectively, these findings contribute to our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in sleep-associated adverse lipid profiles.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Noordam, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bos, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkler, T. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bentley, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilpeläinen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Vries, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sung, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwander, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cabe, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manning, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aschard, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franceschini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musani, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richard, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vojinovic, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aslibekyan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartz, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de las Fuentes, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feitosa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horimoto, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilkov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kho, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraja, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mook-Kanamori, D. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rankinen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tajuddin, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Spek, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marten, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laville, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alver, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evangelou, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graff, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kühnel, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyytikäinen, L.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marques-Vidal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>No</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/559393</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-ancestry analysis of gene-sleep interactions in 126,926 individuals identifies multiple novel blood lipid loci that contribute to our understanding of sleep-associated adverse blood lipid profile]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/561837v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combinatorial morphogenetic and mechanical cues to mimic bone development for defect repair 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/561837v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endochondral ossification during long bone development and natural fracture healing initiates by mesenchymal cell condensation and is directed by local morphogen signals and mechanical cues. Here, we aimed to mimic these developmental conditions for regeneration of large bone defects. We hypothesized that engineered human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) condensations with in situ presentation of transforming growth factor-{beta}1 (TGF-{beta}1) and/or bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) from encapsulated microparticles would promote endochondral regeneration of critical-sized rat femoral bone defects in a manner dependent on the in vivo mechanical environment. Mesenchymal condensations induced bone formation dependent on morphogen presentation, with dual BMP-2 + TGF-{beta}1 fully restoring mechanical bone function by week 12. In vivo ambulatory mechanical loading, initiated at week 4 by delayed unlocking of compliant fixation plates, significantly enhanced the bone formation rate in the four weeks after load initiation in the dual morphogen group. In vitro, local presentation of either BMP-2 alone or BMP-2 + TGF-{beta}1 initiated endochondral lineage commitment of mesenchymal condensations, inducing both chondrogenic and osteogenic gene expression through SMAD3 and SMAD5 signaling. In vivo, however, endochondral cartilage formation was evident only in the BMP-2 + TGF-{beta}1 group and was enhanced by mechanical loading. The degree of bone formation was comparable to BMP-2 soaked on collagen but without the ectopic bone formation that limits the clinical efficacy of BMP-2/collagen. In contrast, mechanical loading had no effect on autograft-mediated repair. Together, this study demonstrates a biomimetic template for recapitulating developmental morphogenic and mechanical cues in vivo for tissue engineering.

One Sentence SummaryMimicking aspects of the cellular, biochemical, and mechanical environment during early limb development, chondrogenically-primed human mesenchymal stem cell condensations promoted functional healing of critical-sized femoral defects via endochondral ossification, and healing rate and extent was a function of the in vivo mechanical environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Herberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDermott, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dang, P. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alt, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawahare, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varghai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMillan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dikina, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umemori, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerckel, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/561837</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combinatorial morphogenetic and mechanical cues to mimic bone development for defect repair]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/565945v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational Design of Myristoylated Cell Penetrating Peptides Targeting Oncogenic K-Ras.G12D at the Effector Binding Membrane Interface 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/565945v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A number of small inhibitors have been developed in the recent years to target the cancer driving protein, K-Ras. In this study we propose and design a novel way of targeting oncogenic K-Ras4B.G12D with myristoylated cell penetrating peptides which become membrane anchored and lock the protein into an inactive state. In all atom molecular dynamics simulations such peptides associate with K-Ras4B exclusively at the effector binding region, which, in turn, expected to hinder the binding of down-stream effector proteins (e.g. C-Raf). The myristoylated R9 (Arg9) peptide strongly locks K-Ras4B.G12D into orientations that are unfavorable for effector binding. After breaking the cyclic structure and myristoylation, a cell penetrating peptide cyclorasin 9A5, which was designed for targeting the Ras: Raf interface, is also found to be effective in targeting the Ras: membrane interface. The myristoylated peptides likely have high cell permeability due to their mixed cationic/hydrophobic character at the N-terminus, while simultaneously the subsequent multiple charges help to maintain a strong association of the peptide with the K-Ras4B.G12D effector binding lobe. Targeting protein-membrane interfaces is starting to attract attention very recently, thanks to our understanding of the signaling mechanism of an increased number of peripheral membrane proteins. The strategy used in this study has potential applications in the design of drugs against K-Ras4B driven cancers. It also provides insights into the general principles of targeting protein-membrane interfaces.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/565945</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational Design of Myristoylated Cell Penetrating Peptides Targeting Oncogenic K-Ras.G12D at the Effector Binding Membrane Interface]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/569822v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ciliary Genes arl13b, ahi1 and cc2d2a Differentially Modify Expression of Visual Acuity Phenotypes but do not Enhance Retinal Degeneration due to Mutation of cep290 in Zebrafish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/569822v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in the gene Centrosomal Protein 290 kDa (CEP290) result in multiple ciliopathies ranging from the neonatal lethal disorder Meckel-Gruber Syndrome to multi-systemic disorders such as Joubert Syndrome and Bardet-Biedl Syndrome to nonsyndromic diseases like Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) and retinitis pigmentosa. Results from model organisms and human genetics studies, have suggest that mutations in genes encoding protein components of the transition zone (TZ) and other cilia-associated proteins can function as genetic modifiers and be a source for CEP290 pleiotropy. We investigated the zebrafish cep290fh297/fh297 mutant, which encodes a nonsense mutation (p.Q1217*). This mutant is viable as adults, exhibits scoliosis, and undergoes a slow, progressive cone degeneration. The cep290fh297/fh297 mutants showed partial mislocalization of the transmembrane protein rhodopsin but not of the prenylated proteins rhodopsin kinase (GRK1) or the rod transducin subunit GNB1. Surprisingly, photoreceptor degeneration did not trigger proliferation of Muller glia, but proliferation of rod progenitors in the outer nuclear layer was significantly increased. To determine if heterozygous mutations in other cilia genes could exacerbate retinal degeneration, we bred cep290fh297/fh297 mutants to arl13b, ahi1, and cc2d2a mutant zebrafish lines. While cep290fh297/fh297 mutants lacking a single allele of these genes did not exhibit accelerated photoreceptor degeneration, loss of one alleles of arl13b or ahi1 reduced visual performance in optokinetic response assays at 5 days post fertilization. Our results indicate that the cep290fh297/fh297 mutant is a useful model to study the role of genetic modifiers on photoreceptor degeneration in zebrafish and to explore how progressive photoreceptor degeneration influences regeneration in adult zebrafish.nnNonstandard abbreviations
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perkins, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessieur, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nivar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piccillo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fogerty, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rozic, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/569822</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ciliary Genes arl13b, ahi1 and cc2d2a Differentially Modify Expression of Visual Acuity Phenotypes but do not Enhance Retinal Degeneration due to Mutation of cep290 in Zebrafish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/571521v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolution, not transgenerational plasticity, explains the divergence of acorn ant thermal tolerance across an urban-rural temperature cline 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/571521v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Disentangling the mechanisms of phenotypic shifts in response to environmental change is critical, and although studies increasingly disentangle phenotypic plasticity from evolutionary change, few explore the potential role for transgenerational plasticity in this context. Here, we evaluate the potential role that transgenerational plasticity plays in phenotypic divergence of acorn ants in response to urbanization. F2 generation worker ants (offspring of lab-born queens) exhibited similar divergence among urban and rural populations as F1 generation worker ants (offspring of field-born queens) indicating that evolutionary differentiation rather than transgenerational plasticity was responsible for shifts towards higher heat tolerance and diminished cold tolerance in urban acorn ants. Hybrid matings between urban and rural populations provided further insight into the genetic architecture of thermal adaptation. Heat tolerance of hybrids more resembled the urban-urban pure type, whereas cold tolerance of hybrids more resembled the rural-rural pure type. As a consequence, thermal tolerance traits in this system appear to be influenced by dominance rather than being purely additive traits, and heat and cold tolerance might be determined by separate genes. Though transgenerational plasticity does not explain divergence of acorn ant thermal tolerance, its role in divergence of other traits and across other urbanization gradients merits further study.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Martin, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chick, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diamond, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/571521</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolution, not transgenerational plasticity, explains the divergence of acorn ant thermal tolerance across an urban-rural temperature cline]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/578690v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kindlin-3 Mutation in Mesenchymal Stem Cells Results in Enhanced Chondrogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/578690v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identifying patient mutations driving skeletal development disorders has driven our understanding of bone development. Integrin adhesion deficiency disease is caused by a Kindlin-3 (fermitin family member 3) mutation and its inactivation results in bleeding disorders and osteopenia. In this study, we uncover a role for Kindlin-3 in the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) down the chondrogenic lineage. Kindlin-3 expression increased with chondrogenic differentiation similar to RUNX2. BMSCs isolated from a Kindlin-3 deficient patient expressed chondrocyte markers including SOX9 under basal conditions, which were further enhanced with chondrogenic differentiation. Rescue of integrin activation by a constitutively activated {beta}3 integrin construct increased adhesion to multiple extracellular matrices and reduced SOX9 expression to basal levels. Growth plates from mice expressing a mutated Kindlin-3 with the integrin binding site ablated demonstrated alterations in chondrocyte maturation similar to that seen with the human Kindlin-3 deficient BMSCs. These findings suggest that Kindlin-3 expression mirrors RUNX2 during chondrogenesis.nnSUMMARYThis study by Kerr et al. describes a new role for Kindlin-3 in controlling early chondrocyte differentiation from mesenchymal stem cells and later hypertrophic differentiation of chondrocytes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kerr, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jinnah, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willey, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lennon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caplan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byzova, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/578690</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kindlin-3 Mutation in Mesenchymal Stem Cells Results in Enhanced Chondrogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/583062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ITGA2 is a target of miR-206 promoting cancer stemness and lung metastasis through enhanced ACLY and CCND1 expression in triple negative breast cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/583062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accumulating evidence demonstrates that cancer stemness is essential for both tumor development and progression, regulated by multi-layer factors at genetic, epigenetic and micro-environmental levels. However, how to target stemness-driven plasticity and eliminate metastasis remains one of the biggest challenges in the clinic. We aim to identify novel molecular mechanisms underlying stemness of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) which frequently metastasizes to the visceral organs but lacks targeted therapies. Following our previous discovery of miR-206 as an epigenetic suppressor of tumorigenesis and metastasis, we now report that the integrin receptor CD49b-encoding ITGA2 is an oncogenic target of miR-206 in TNBC. ITGA2 knockdown abolished cancer stemness (mammosphere formation, pluripotency marker expression, and FAK phosphorylation), inhibited cell cycling, compromised migration and invasion, and thereby decreasing lung metastasis of TNBC. RNA sequencing analyses of breast cancer cells revealed that ITGA2 knockdown inhibits gene expression essential for both classical integrin-regulated pathways (cell cycle, wounding response, protein kinase, etc) and newly identified pathways such as lipid metabolism. Notably, ACLY-encoded ATP citrate lyase is one of the top targets in CD49b-regulated lipid metabolism and CCND1-encoded Cyclin D1 represents regulation of cell cycle and many other pathways. ACLY, known to catalyze the formation of cytosolic acetyl-CoA for fatty acid biosynthesis, is indispensable for cancer stemness. Overexpression of CCND1 rescues the phenotype of ITGA2 knockdown-induced cell cycle arrest. High expression levels of the ITGA2/ACLY/CCND1 axis are correlated with an unfavorable relapse-free survival of patients with high grade breast cancer, in both basal-like and other subtypes. This study identifies ITGA2 as a potential therapeutic target of TNBC stemness and metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Adorno-Cruz, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wray, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keri, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/583062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ITGA2 is a target of miR-206 promoting cancer stemness and lung metastasis through enhanced ACLY and CCND1 expression in triple negative breast cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/584995v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Truly Injectable Neural Stimulation Electrode Made From an In-Body Curing Polymer/Metal Composite 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/584995v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Implanted neural stimulation and recording devices hold vast potential to treat a variety of neurological conditions, but the invasiveness, complexity, and cost of the implantation procedure greatly reduce access to an otherwise promising therapeutic approach. To address this need, we have developed a novel electrode that begins as an uncured, flowable pre-polymer that can be injected around a neuroanatomical target to minimize surgical manipulation. Referred to as the Injectrode, the electrode conforms to target structures forming an electrically conductive interface which is orders of magnitude less stiff than conventional neuromodulation electrodes. To validate the Injectrode, we performed detailed electrochemical and microscopy characterization of its material properties and validated the feasibility of using it to electrically stimulate the nervous system in rats and swine. The silicone-metal-particle composite performed very similarly to pure wire of the same metal (silver) in all measures, including exhibiting a favorable cathodic charge storage capacity (CSCC) and charge injection limits compared to the clinical LivaNova stimulation electrode and silver wire electrodes. By virtue of being simpler than traditional electrode designs, less invasive, and more cost-effective, the Injectrode has the potential to increase the adoption of neuromodulation therapies for existing and new indications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baumgart, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolai, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gosink, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asp, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polaconda, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malerick, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brodnick, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConico, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanger, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aho, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suminski, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lujan, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franke, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/584995</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Truly Injectable Neural Stimulation Electrode Made From an In-Body Curing Polymer/Metal Composite]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589507v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phospho-tuning immunity through Denisovan, modern human, and mouse TNFAIP3 gene variants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589507v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Resisting or tolerating microbes are alternative strategies to survive infection, but little is known about the evolutionary mechanisms controlling this balance. Here, genomic analyses of anatomically modern humans, extinct Denisovan hominins, and mice revealed a series of missense variants in the immune response inhibitor A20 (encoded by TNFAIP3), substituting non-catalytic residues of the ubiquitin protease domain to diminish I{kappa}B-dependent phosphorylation and activation of A20. Two A20 variants with partial phosphorylation deficits appeared beneficial: one originating in Denisovans and introgressed in modern humans throughout Oceania, and another in a mouse strain resistant to Coxsackievirus. By contrast, a variant with 95% loss of phosphorylation caused spontaneous inflammatory disease in humans and mice. Analysis of the partial phosphorylation variant in mice revealed diminished tolerance of bacterial lipopolysaccharide or to poxvirus inoculation as trade-offs for enhanced immunity.nnOne Sentence SummaryModern and ancient variants reveal a genetically tunable element for balancing immunity and microbial tolerance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zammit, N. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siggs, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horikawa, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daley, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langley, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cultrone, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malle, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walters, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villanueva, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warren, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cowley, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gayevskiy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinger, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loetsch, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brink, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zahra, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaudhri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karupiah, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittle, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roots, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertram, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yamada, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeelall, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Enders, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clifton, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mabbitt, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenne, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lanier, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiltshire, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spitzer, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolan, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmitz, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aderem, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Porebski, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckle, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ziegler, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craig, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/589507</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phospho-tuning immunity through Denisovan, modern human, and mouse TNFAIP3 gene variants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/591487v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Domain-specific quantification of prion protein in cerebrospinal fluid by targeted mass spectrometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/591487v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapies currently in preclinical development for prion disease seek to lower prion protein (PrP) expression in the brain. Trials of such therapies are likely to rely on quantification of PrP in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a pharmacodynamic biomarker and possibly as a trial endpoint. Studies using PrP ELISA kits have reproducibly shown that CSF PrP is lowered in the symptomatic phase of disease, a potential confounder for reading out the effect of PrP-lowering drugs in symptomatic patients. To date it has been unclear whether the reduced abundance of PrP in CSF results from its incorporation into plaques, retention in intracellular compartments, downregulation as a function of the disease process, or other factors. Because misfolding or proteolytic cleavage could potentially render PrP invisible to ELISA even if its concentration were constant or increasing in disease, we sought to establish an orthogonal method for CSF PrP quantification. We developed a targeted mass spectrometry method based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) of nine PrP tryptic peptides quantified relative to known concentrations of isotopically labeled standards. Analytical validation experiments showed process replicate coefficients of variation below 15%, good dilution linearity and recovery, and suitable performance for both CSF and brain homogenate and across humans as well as preclinical species of interest. In N=55 CSF samples from individuals referred to prion surveillance centers with rapidly progressive dementia, all six human PrP peptides, spanning the N- and C-terminal domains of PrP, were uniformly reduced in prion disease cases compared to individuals with non-prion diagnoses. This confirms the findings from ELISA studies, demonstrating that lowered CSF PrP concentration in prion disease is a genuine result of the disease process and not merely an artifact of ELISA-based measurement. We provide a targeted mass spectrometry-based method suitable for preclinical and clinical quantification of CSF PrP as a tool for drug development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Minikel, E. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhn, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cocco, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vallabh, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartigan, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reidenbach, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarthy, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Keefe, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Llorens, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zerr, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capellari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parchi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schreiber, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carr, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/591487</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Domain-specific quantification of prion protein in cerebrospinal fluid by targeted mass spectrometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/598557v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
APOL1-G0 protects podocytes in a mouse model of HIV-associated nephropathy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/598557v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAfrican polymorphisms in the gene for Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) confer a survival advantage against lethal trypanosomiasis but also an increased risk for several chronic kidney diseases (CKD) including HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN). APOL1 is expressed in renal cells, however, the pathogenic events that lead to renal cell damage and kidney disease are not fully understood.nnMethodsThe podocyte function of APOL1-G0 versus APOL1-G2 in the setting of a known disease stressor was assessed using transgenic mouse models. Survival, renal pathology and function, and podocyte density were assessed in an intercross of a mouse model of HIVAN (Tg26) with two mouse models that express either APOL1-G0 or APOL1-G2 in podocytes.nnResultsMice that expressed HIV genes developed heavy proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis, and had significant losses in podocyte numbers and reductions in podocyte densities. Mice that co-expressed APOL1-G0 and HIV had preserved podocyte numbers and densities, with fewer morphologic manifestations typical of HIVAN pathology. Podocyte losses and pathology in mice co-expressing APOL1-G2 and HIV were not significantly different from mice expressing only HIV. Podocyte hypertrophy, a known compensatory event to stress, was increased in the mice co-expressing HIV and APOL1-G0, but absent in the mice co-expressing HIV and APOL1-G2. Mortality and renal function tests were not significantly different between groups.nnConclusionsAPOL1-G0 expressed in podocytes may have a protective function against podocyte loss or injury when exposed to an environmental stressor. This function appears to be absent with APOL1-G2 expression, suggesting APOL1-G2 is a loss-of-function variant.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bruggeman, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drawz, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barisoni, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Toole, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedor, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/598557</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[APOL1-G0 protects podocytes in a mouse model of HIV-associated nephropathy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/611525v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Living cell-only bioink and photocurable supporting medium for printing and generation of engineered tissues with complex geometries 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/611525v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Scaffold-free engineering of three-dimensional (3D) tissue has focused on building sophisticated structures to achieve functional constructs. Although the development of advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing has brought remarkable capabilities to the field of tissue engineering, technology to create and culture individual cell only-based high-resolution tissues, without an intervening biomaterial scaffold to maintain construct shape and architecture, has been unachievable to date. In this report, we introduce a cell printing platform which addresses the aforementioned challenge and permits 3D printing and long-term culture of a living cell-only bioink lacking a biomaterial carrier for functional tissue formation. A biodegradable and photocrosslinkable microgel supporting bath serves initially as a fluid, allowing free movement of the printing nozzle for high-resolution cell extrusion, while also presenting solid-like properties to sustain the structure of the printed constructs. The printed human stem cells, which are the only component of the bioink, couple together via transmembrane adhesion proteins and differentiate down tissue-specific lineages while being cultured in a further photocrosslinked supporting bath to form bone and cartilage tissue with precisely controlled structure. Collectively, this system, which is applicable to general 3D printing strategies, is paradigm shifting for printing of scaffold-free individual cells, cellular condensations and organoids, and may have far reaching impact in the fields of regenerative medicine, drug screening, and developmental biology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jeon, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/611525</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Living cell-only bioink and photocurable supporting medium for printing and generation of engineered tissues with complex geometries]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/617902v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A neural system for encoding odor-reward associations which influences approach behaviors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/617902v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Learning strengthens the strong emotional and behavioral responses odors are well known for eliciting. Presumably subserving this, several brain regions display experience-dependent plasticity during odor learning, yet the specific cellular systems involved and the actual influence of these systems on odor-directed behavior are less understood. Here we investigated the transformation of odor information throughout the association of odors with rewards and also sought to link those neural systems with displays of reinforcement-based task engagement. First, we investigated the representation of odor-reward associations within two areas recipient of dense olfactory bulb input, the posterior piriform cortex (pPCX) and olfactory tubercle (OT), using simultaneous multi-site electrophysiological recordings from mice engaged in a reward-based olfactory learning task. As expected, neurons in both regions represented conditioned odors and did so with similar information content, yet both the proportion of neurons recruited by conditioned rewarded odors and the magnitudes and durations of their responses were greater in the OT. Using fiber photometry, we found that OT D1-type dopamine receptor expressing neurons flexibly represent odors based upon reward associations. In both the recordings and imaging, statistically meaningful changes in activity occurred soon after odor onset. Finally, using optogenetics we show that OT D1-receptor expressing neurons strongly influence behavior to promote task engagement. Together our results contribute to a model whereby OT D1 neurons support odor-guided motivated behaviors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gadziola, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stetzik, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milton, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arakawa, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/617902</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A neural system for encoding odor-reward associations which influences approach behaviors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/620658v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Updated Database and Evolutionary Dynamics of U12-Type Introns 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/620658v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During nuclear maturation of most eukaryotic pre-messenger RNAs and long non-coding RNAs, introns are removed through the process of RNA splicing. Different classes of introns are excised by the U2-type or the U12-type spliceosomes, large complexes of small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles and associated proteins. We created intronIC, a program for assigning intron class to all introns in a given genome, and used it on 24 eukaryotic genomes to create the Intron Annotation and Orthology Database (IAOD). We then used the data in the IAOD to revisit several hypotheses concerning the evolution of the two classes of spliceosomal introns, finding support for the class conversion model explaining the low abundance of U12-type introns in modern genomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moyer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larue, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hershberger, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roy, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padgett, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/620658</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Updated Database and Evolutionary Dynamics of U12-Type Introns]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/623918v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
APOL1 is not expressed in proximal tubules and is not filtered 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/623918v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The kidney expression pattern of APOL1 was examined using both protein and mRNA in situ methods on APOL1 bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mice, with and without proteinuria. APOL1 was detected in podocytes and endothelial cells of the kidney, but was not expressed in tubular epithelia, nor was plasma APOL1 protein filtered and reabsorbed by the proximal tubule. APOL1 expression in podocytes and endothelia should remain the focus for mechanistic studies of APOL1-mediated pathogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blessing, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoek, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedor, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Toole, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruggeman, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/623918</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[APOL1 is not expressed in proximal tubules and is not filtered]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/633578v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bubble Trouble: Conquering Microbubble Limitations in Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging by Nature-Inspired Ultrastable Echogenic Nanobubbles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/633578v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Advancement of ultrasound molecular imaging applications requires not only a reduction in size of the ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) but also a significant improvement in the in vivo stability of the shell-stabilized gas bubble. The transition from first generation to second generation UCAs was marked by an advancement in stability as air was replaced by a hydrophobic gas, such as perfluoropropane and sulfur hexafluoride. Further improvement can be realized by focusing on how well the UCAs shell can retain the encapsulated gas under extreme mechanical deformations. Here we report the next generation of UCAs for which we engineered the shell structure to impart much better stability under repeated prolonged oscillation due to ultrasound, and large changes in shear and turbulence as it circulates within the body. By adapting an architecture with two layers of contrasting elastic properties similar to bacterial cell envelopes, our ultrastable nanobubbles (NBs) withstand continuous in vitro exposure to ultrasound with minimal signal decay and have a significant delay on the onset of in vivo signal decay in kidney, liver, and tumor. Development of ultrastable NBs can potentially expand the role of ultrasound in molecular imaging, theranostics, and drug delivery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de Leon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeganathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishbein, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jafari Sojahrood, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emerson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolios, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/633578</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bubble Trouble: Conquering Microbubble Limitations in Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging by Nature-Inspired Ultrastable Echogenic Nanobubbles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/634444v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real Time Ultrasound Molecular Imaging of Prostate Cancer with PSMA-targeted Nanobubbles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/634444v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with microbubbles has shown promise in detection of prostate cancer (PCa), but sensitivity and specificity of detection remain challenging. Targeted nanoscale contrast agents with improved capability to accumulate in tumors may result in prolonged signal enhancement and improved detection of PCa with ultrasound. Here we report on a new nanobubble contrast agent that specifically targets prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) overexpressed in most prostate tumors. The PSMA-targeted bubbles (PSMA-NB) were utilized to simultaneously image dual flank PCa tumors (PSMA-positive PC3pip and PSMA-negative PC3flu) to examine whether the biomarker can be successfully detected and imaged using this probe in a mouse model. Results demonstrate that active targeting of NBs to PSMA rapidly and selectively enhances tumor accumulation and is critical for tumor retention of the contrast agent. Importantly, these processes could be visualized and quantified, in real time, with standard clinical ultrasound. Such demonstration of the immense yet underutilized potential of ultrasound in the area of molecular imaging can open the door to future opportunities for improving sensitivity and specificity of cancer detection using parametric NB-enhanced ultrasound imaging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perera, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Leon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramamurthy, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peiris, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basilion, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/634444</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real Time Ultrasound Molecular Imaging of Prostate Cancer with PSMA-targeted Nanobubbles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/637744v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Do available protein 3D structures reflect human genetic and functional diversity? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/637744v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genomic databases are substantially biased towards European ancestry populations, and this bias contributes to health disparities. Here, we quantify how well 66,971 experimentally characterized human protein 3D structures represent the diversity of protein sequences observed across the 1000 Genomes Project. More than 85% of available structures do not match a sequence observed in at least one individual, and on average structures match the sequence of 74% of individuals. Nearly 23% of human structures do not match any observed sequences; however, after masking engineered/known mutations, this decreases to ~4%. African ancestry sequences are modestly, but significantly, less likely to be represented by structures (73.5% vs. 74.0%). These differences are mainly driven by the greater genetic diversity of African populations. We identify thousands of variants unrepresented in available structures that influence protein structure and function. Thus, the use of a single structure as representative of "the wild type" protein will often bias results against many individuals. The diversity of protein sequence and structure must be considered to enable accurate, reproducible, and generalizable conclusions from structural analyses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sliwoski, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivley, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanders, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meiler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capra, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/637744</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Do available protein 3D structures reflect human genetic and functional diversity?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/640532v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection in HIV patients: potential role of HIV-associated extracellular vesicles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/640532v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causal agent for Kaposi sarcoma (KS), the most common malignancy in people living with HIV/AIDS. The oral cavity is a major route for KSHV infection and transmission. However, how KSHV breaches the oral epithelial barrier for spreading to the body is not clear. Here we show that extracellular vesicles (EVs) purified from saliva of HIV-positive individuals and secreted by HIV-1-infected T cells promote KSHV infectivity in both monolayer and 3-dimensional models of immortalized and primary human oral epithelial cells, establishing the latency of the virus. The HIV trans-activation response (TAR) element RNA in HIV-associated EVs contributes to the infectivity of KSHV through the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Cetuximab, a monoclonal neutralizing antibody to EGFR, blocks HIV-associated EV-enhanced KSHV infection. Our findings reveal that saliva containing HIV-associated EVs is a risk factor for enhancement of KSHV infection and that inhibition of EGFR serves as a novel strategy for controlling KSHV infection and transmission in the oral cavity.nnAuthor summaryKaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a causal agent for Kaposi sarcoma (KS), the most common malignancy in HIV/AIDS patients. Oral transmission through saliva is considered the most common route for spreading of the virus among HIV/AIDS patients. However, the role of HIV-specific components in co-transfection of KSHV is unclear. We demonstrate that extracellular vesicles (EV) purified from saliva of HIV patients and secreted by HIV-infected T cells promote KSHV infectivity in immortalized and primary oral epithelial cells. HIV-associated EVs promote KSHV infection depends on the HIV trans-activation element (TAR) RNA and EGFR of oral epithelial cells, both can be targeted for reducing KSHV infection. These results reveal that HIV-EVs is a risk factor for KSHV co-infection in the HIV-infected population.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinthal, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/640532</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection in HIV patients: potential role of HIV-associated extracellular vesicles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/640664v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The calcium channel subunit α2δ-3 organizes synapses via a novel activity-dependent, autocrine BMP signaling pathway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/640664v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synapses are highly specialized for neurotransmitter signaling, yet activity-dependent growth factor release also plays critical roles at synapses. While efficient neurotransmitter signaling is known to rely on precise apposition of release sites and neurotransmitter receptors, molecular mechanisms enabling high-fidelity growth factor signaling within the synaptic microenvironment remain obscure. Here we show that the auxiliary calcium channel subunit 2{delta}-3 promotes the function of a novel activity-dependent autocrine BMP signaling pathway at the Drosophila NMJ. 2{delta} proteins have conserved synaptogenic activity, although how they execute this function has remained elusive. We find that 2{delta}-3 provides an extracellular scaffold for autocrine BMP signaling, suggesting a new mechanistic framework for understanding 2{delta}s conserved role in synapse organization. We further establish a transcriptional requirement for activity-dependent, autocrine BMP signaling in determining synapse density, structure, and function. We propose that activity-dependent, autocrine signals provide neurons with continuous feedback on their activity state and are thus well poised to modulate synapse structure and function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoover, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gratz, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrmann, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perry-Richardson, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderzalm, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor-Giles, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broihier, H. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/640664</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The calcium channel subunit α2δ-3 organizes synapses via a novel activity-dependent, autocrine BMP signaling pathway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/652966v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Whole-Genome Association Analyses of Sleep-disordered Breathing Phenotypes in the NHLBI TOPMed Program 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/652966v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a common disorder associated with significant morbidity. Through the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program we report the first whole-genome sequence analysis of SDB. We identified 4 rare gene-based associations with SDB traits in 7,988 individuals of diverse ancestry and 4 replicated common variant associations with inclusion of additional samples (n=13,257). We identified a multi-ethnic set-based rare-variant association (p = 3.48 x 10-8) on chromosome X with ARMCX3. Transcription factor binding site enrichment identified associations with genes implicated with respiratory and craniofacial traits. Results highlighted associations in genes that modulate lung development, inflammation, respiratory rhythmogenesis and HIF1A-mediated hypoxic response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cade, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sofer, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gharib, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gottlieb, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lane, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mei, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Purcell, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxena, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanis, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillman, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmer, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tranah, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abecasis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerwinkle, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Correa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cupples, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaplan, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nickerson, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>North, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Psaty, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rotter, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rich, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tracy, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vasan, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redline, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>TOPMed Sleep Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/652966</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Whole-Genome Association Analyses of Sleep-disordered Breathing Phenotypes in the NHLBI TOPMed Program]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/670638v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DeepKinZero: Zero-Shot Learning for Predicting Kinase-Phosphosite Associations Involving Understudied Kinases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/670638v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein phosphorylation is a key regulator of protein function in signal transduction pathways. Kinases are the enzymes that catalyze the phosphorylation of other proteins in a target specific manner. The dysregulation of phosphorylation is associated with many diseases including cancer. Although the advances in phosphoproteomics enable the identification of phosphosites at the proteome level, most of the phosphoproteome is still in the dark: more than 95% of the reported human phosphosites have no known kinases. Determining which kinase is responsible for phosphorylating a site remains an experimental challenge. Existing computational methods require several examples of known targets of a kinase to make accurate kinase specific predictions, yet for a large body of kinases, only a few or no target sites are reported. We present DeepKinZero, the first zero-shot learning approach to predict the kinase acting on a phosphosite for kinases with no known phosphosite information. DeepKinZero transfers knowledge from kinases with many known target phosphosites to those kinases with no known sites through a zero-shot learning model. The kinase specific positional amino acid preferences are learned using a bidirectional recurrent neural network. We show that DeepKinZero achieves significant improvement in accuracy for kinases with no known phosphosites in comparison to the baseline model and other methods available. By expanding our knowledge on understudied kinases, DeepKinZero can help to chart the phosphoproteome atlas.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Deznabi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arabaci, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tastan, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/670638</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DeepKinZero: Zero-Shot Learning for Predicting Kinase-Phosphosite Associations Involving Understudied Kinases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/674549v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Class of antiretroviral drugs and anemia risk in the current treatment era 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/674549v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
OBJECTIVESAnemia is common among people living with HIV (PLWH) and has been associated with certain, often older, antiretroviral medications. Information on current antiretroviral therapy (ART) and anemia is limited. The objectives were to compare associations between anemia incidence or hemoglobin change with core ART classes in the current ART era.nnDESIGNRetrospective cohort study.nnSETTINGU.S.-based prospective clinical cohort of PLWH aged 18 and above receiving care at 8 sites between 1/2010-3/2018.nnPARTICIPANTS16,505 PLWH were included in this study.nnMAIN OUTCOME MEASURESAnemia risk and hemoglobin change were measured for person-time on a protease inhibitor (PI) or an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI), relative to a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) reference. We also examined PLWH on multiple core classes. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were conducted to measure associations between time-updated ART classes and incident anemia or severe anemia. Linear mixed effects models were used to examine relationships between ART classes and hemoglobin change.nnRESULTSDuring a median of 4.9 years of follow-up, 1,040 developed anemia and 488 developed severe anemia during. Compared to NNRTI use, INSTI-based regimens were associated with an increased risk of anemia (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94-1.47) and severe anemia (aHR1.55 95%CI 1.11-2.17), and a decrease in hemoglobin level. Time on multiple core classes was also associated with increased anemia risk (aHR 1.30, 95%CI 1.06-1.60) and severe anemia risk (aHR 1.35, 95%CI 0.99-1.85), while no associations were found for PI use.nnCONCLUSIONThese findings suggest INSTI use may increase the risk of anemia. If confirmed, screening for anemia development in users of INSTIs may be beneficial. Further research into underlying mechanisms is warranted.nnStrengths and limitations of this studyO_LIThis study utilized a large and geographically diverse population of PLWH in care across the U.S.nC_LIO_LIThis study leveraged comprehensive clinical data, including information on diagnoses, medication use, laboratory test results, demographic information, and medical history.nC_LIO_LIThis study investigated associations between specific types of ART core regimens and anemia risk.nC_LIO_LIThis observational study is subject to residual confounding.nC_LIO_LIThis study focused on anemia assessed from hemoglobin lab values taken at regular medical care visits without excluding participants with conditions strongly associated with hemoglobin level through non-traditional HIV mechanisms.nC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harding, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitney, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nance, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crane, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkholder, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathews, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eron, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volberding, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayer, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saag, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitahata, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heckbert, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delaney, J. A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/674549</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Class of antiretroviral drugs and anemia risk in the current treatment era]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/678169v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Drosophila Aop imposes a delay on E(spl)-mediated repression of Ato during R8 specification. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/678169v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drosophila retinal patterning requires the expression of Atonal (Ato) through coordinated regulation of 5 and 3 enhancer modules. ato-3 directs initial expression of Ato which then directs autoregulation via 5-ato. Notch (N) signaling also regulates 5-ato, first enhancing Ato expression and later repressing Ato by inducing E(spl) bHLHs. N signaling balances these opposing functions by directing its obligate nuclear transcription factor, Suppressor of Hairless (Su(H)), only in repressing 5-ato. In this study, we reveal a novel and more nuanced role for Su(H) in its regulation of 5-ato. During retinal patterning, Su(H) is required for the expression Anterior open (Aop), which, in turn, promotes 5-ato activity. We demonstrate that Aop is induced early in retinal patterning via N pathway activity, wherein Aop is required cell-autonomously for robust Ato expression during photoreceptor specification. In aop mutants, expression from both ato enhancers is perturbed, suggesting that Aop promotes the Ato autoregulation through maintenance of ato-3 activity. Clonal analysis indicates that Aop indirectly opposes E(spl)-mediated repression of Ato. In the absence of both Aop and E(spl), Ato expression is restored and the founding ommatidial photoreceptors, R8s, are specified. These findings suggest that N signaling, through a potentially conserved relationship with Aop, imposes a delay on ato repression, thus permitting autoregulation and retinogenesis.nnAuthor SummaryThe eye of the fruit fly has served as a paradigm to understand tissue patterning. Complex intercellular signaling networks cooperate during retinal development to allow cells to become specialized visual-system precursor neurons at a specific time and place. These neurons are precisely spaced within the developing retina and later recruit other cells to form the repeated units that comprise insect eyes. The exact placement of each precursor cell precipitates from the precise regulation of the atonal gene, which is first expressed in a cluster of (10-20) cells before becoming restricted to only one cell from each cluster. The Notch signaling pathway is required for both aspects of atonal regulation, first permitting up-regulation within each cluster, and then the subsequent down-regulation to a single cell. However, the connection between these two modes of Notch signaling had remained unclear. In this report, we have identified that the anterior open gene is required to impose a delay on the restrictive mode of Notch signaling, permitting the initial up-regulation of atonal to occur freely. In flies mutant for anterior open, atonal bypasses its own up-regulation and proceeds directly to its singled-out pattern but with significantly diminished robustness than occurs normally.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Majot, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jozwick, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishop, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bidwai, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/678169</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Drosophila Aop imposes a delay on E(spl)-mediated repression of Ato during R8 specification.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684472v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nuclear factor I/B increases in prostate cancer to support androgen receptor activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684472v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMost prostate cancers express androgen receptor (AR), and our previous studies have focused on identifying transcription factors that modify AR function. We have shown that nuclear factor I/B (NFIB) regulates AR activity in androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells in vitro. However, the status of NFIB in prostate cancer was unknown.

MethodsWe immunostained a tissue microarray including normal, hyperplastic, prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, primary prostatic adenocarcinoma, and castration-resistant prostate cancer tissue samples for NFIB, AR, and synaptophysin, a marker of neuroendocrine differentiation. We interrogated publically available data sets in cBioPortal to correlate NFIB expression and AR and neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPCa) activity scores. We analyzed prostate cancer cell lines for NFIB expression via Western blotting and used nuclear and cytoplasmic fractionation to assess where NFIB is localized. We performed coimmunoprecipitation studies to determine if NFIB and AR interact.

ResultsNFIB increased in the nucleus and cytoplasm of prostate cancer samples versus matched normal controls, independent of Gleason score. Similarly, cytoplasmic AR and synaptophysin increased in primary prostate cancer. We observed strong NFIB staining in primary small cell prostate cancer. The ratio of cytoplasmic-to-nuclear NFIB staining was predictive of earlier biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer, once adjusted for tumor margin status. Cytoplasmic AR was an independent predictor of biochemical recurrence. There was no statistically significant difference between NFIB and synaptophysin expression in primary and castration-resistant prostate cancer, but cytoplasmic AR expression was increased in castrationresistant samples. In primary prostate cancer, nuclear NFIB expression correlated with cytoplasmic NFIB and nuclear AR, while cytoplasmic NFIB correlated with synaptophysin, and nuclear and cytoplasmic AR. In castration-resistant prostate cancer samples, NFIB expression correlated positively with an AR activity score, and negatively with the NEPCa score. In prostate cancer cell lines, NFIB exists in several isoforms. We observed NFIB predominantly in the nuclear fraction of prostate cancer cells with increased cytoplasmic expression seen in castration-resistant cell lines. We observed an interaction between AR and NFIB through coimmunoprecipitation experiments.

ConclusionWe have described the expression pattern of NFIB in primary and castrationresistant prostate cancer and its positive correlation with AR. We have also demonstrated AR interacts with NFIB.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nanda, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awadallah, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohrt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popovics, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cates, J. M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mirosevich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giannico, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowska, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/684472</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nuclear factor I/B increases in prostate cancer to support androgen receptor activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/687541v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deficiency in Bhlhe40 impairs resistance to H. polygyrus bakeri and reveals novel Csf2rb-dependent regulation of anti-helminth immunity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/687541v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cytokines GM-CSF and IL-5 are thought to possess largely divergent functions despite a shared dependence on the common beta ({beta}C) chain to initiate signaling. Although IL-5 is part of the core type 2 cytokine signature and is required for protection against some helminths, it is dispensable for immunity to others, such as Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (H. polygyrus). Whether this is due to compensatory mechanisms is unclear. The transcription factor Bhlhe40 has been shown to control GM-CSF production and is proposed to be a novel regulator of T helper type 2 cells. We have found that Bhlhe40 is required in T cells for a protective memory response to secondary H. polygyrus infection. H. polygyrus rechallenge elicited dramatic Bhlhe40-dependent changes in gene and cytokine expression by lamina propria CD4+ T cells and in vitro-polarized TH2 cells, including induction of GM-CSF and maximal production of type 2 cytokines including IL-5. {beta}C chain-deficient, but not GM-CSF-deficient, mice rechallenged with H. polygyrus had severely impaired protective immunity. Our results demonstrate that Bhlhe40 is an essential regulator of TH2 cell immunity during helminth infection and reveal unexpected redundancy of {beta}C chain-dependent cytokines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jarjour, N. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradstreet, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwarzkopf, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cook, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, C.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S. C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taneja, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stappenbeck, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Dyken, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urban, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edelson, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/687541</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deficiency in Bhlhe40 impairs resistance to H. polygyrus bakeri and reveals novel Csf2rb-dependent regulation of anti-helminth immunity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/689752v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Causal associations between potentially modifiable risk factors and the Alzheimer’s phenome: A Mendelian randomization study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/689752v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveTo evaluate the causal association of 22 previously reported risk factors for Alzheimers disease (AD) on the "AD phenome": AD, AD age of onset (AAOS), hippocampal volume, cortical surface area and thickness, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of A{beta}42, tau, and ptau181, and the neuropathological burden of neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and vascular brain injury (VBI).

MethodsPolygenic risk scores (PRS) for the 22 risk factors were computed in 26,431 AD cases/controls and the association with AD was evaluated using logistic regression. Two-sample Mendelian randomization was used to evaluate the causal effect of risk factors on the AD phenome.

ResultsPRS for increased education and diastolic blood pressure were associated with reduced risk for AD. PRS for increased total cholesterol and moderate-vigorous physical activity were associated with an increased risk of AD. MR indicated that only Education was causally associated with reduced risk of AD, delayed AAOS, and increased cortical surface area and thickness. Total-and LDL-cholesterol levels were causally associated with increased neuritic plaque burden, while diastolic blood pressure and pulse pressure are causally associated with increased risk of VBI. Furthermore, total cholesterol was associated with decreased hippocampal volume; smoking initiation and BMI with decreased cortical thickness; and sleep duration with increased cortical thickness.

InterpretationOur comprehensive examination of the genetic evidence for the causal roles of previously reported risk factors in AD using PRS and MR, supports a causal role for education, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking, and BMI with the AD phenome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Andrews, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcora, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goate, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/689752</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Causal associations between potentially modifiable risk factors and the Alzheimer’s phenome: A Mendelian randomization study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/690297v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tumor cell phenotype and heterogeneity differences in IDH1 mutant vs wild-type gliomas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/690297v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glioma is recognized to be a highly heterogeneous CNS malignancy, whose diverse cellular composition and cellular interactions have not been well characterized. To gain new clinical- and biological-insights into the genetically-bifurcated IDH1 mutant (mt) vs wildtype (wt) forms of glioma, we integrated multiplexed immunofluorescence single cell data for 43 protein markers across cancer hallmarks, in addition to cell spatial metrics, genomic sequencing and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantitative features. Molecular and spatial heterogeneity scores for angiogenesis and cell invasion differ between IDHmt and wt gliomas irrespective of prior treatment and tumor grade; these differences also persisted in the MR imaging features of peritumoral edema and contrast enhancement volumes. Longer overall survival for IDH1mt glioma patients may reflect generalized altered cellular, molecular, spatial heterogeneity which manifest in discernable radiological manifestations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Berens, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sood, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graf, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiefer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byron, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halperin, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nasser, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adkins, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuyugan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Devine, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostrom, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Couce, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolansky, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonough, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schyberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinn, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sloan, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prados, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelson, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rusu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zavodszky, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ginty, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/690297</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tumor cell phenotype and heterogeneity differences in IDH1 mutant vs wild-type gliomas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/697581v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Temporal changes in genetic admixture are linked to heterozygosity and health diagnoses in humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/697581v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reproduction between individuals from different ancestral populations creates genetically admixed offspring. Admixture can have positive and negative impacts on individual health, feeding back to population health. Historical and forced migrations, and recent mobility, have brought formerly disparate populations of humans together. Here we sought to better understand how temporal changes in genetic admixture influence levels of heterozygosity and health outcomes. We evaluated variation in ancestry over 100 birth years in 35,842 individuals from a genetic database linked to health records in a population in the Southeastern United States. Analysis of 2,678 ancestrally informative markers revealed increased admixture and heterozygosity for all clinically-defined race groups since 1990. Most groups also exhibited increasing long-range linkage disequilibrium over time. A phenome-wide association study of clinical outcomes detected protective associations with female reproductive disorders and increased risk for diseases with links to autoimmunity dysfunction. These mixed effects have important ramifications for human health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mautz, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hellwege, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denny, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roden, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGregor, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velez Edwards, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edwards, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/697581</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Temporal changes in genetic admixture are linked to heterozygosity and health diagnoses in humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/701961v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis increases expression of type I/III interferon-stimulated factors in the gastrointestinal tract but not in the blood 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/701961v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and emtricitabine (FTC) are used for HIV treatment and prevention. Previously, we found that topical rectal tenofovir gel caused immunological changes in the mucosa. Here we assessed the effect of oral TDF/FTC in three HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis trials, two with gastrointestinal and one with cervicovaginal biopsies. TDF/FTC induced type I/III interferon-related (IFN I/III) genes in the gastrointestinal tract, but not blood, with strong correlations between the two independent rectal biopsy groups (Spearman r=0.91) and between the rectum and duodenum (r=0.81). Gene set testing also indicated stimulation of type I/III pathways in the ectocervix, as well as of cellular proliferation in the duodenum. mRNA sequencing, digital droplet PCR, proteomics, and immunofluorescence staining confirmed IFN I/III pathway stimulation in the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, oral TDF/FTC stimulates an IFN-I/III signature throughout the gut, which could increase antiviral efficacy but also cause chronic immune activation in HIV prevention and treatment settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hughes, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levy, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calienes, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stekler, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandey, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vojtech, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berard, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birse, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noel-Romas, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golden, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cartwright, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collier, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevens, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Curlin, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holtz, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mugo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irungu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katabira, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muwonge, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lama, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baeten, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgener, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingappa, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McElrath, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackelprang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGowan, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cranston, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hladik, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/701961</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oral tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis increases expression of type I/III interferon-stimulated factors in the gastrointestinal tract but not in the blood]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/709238v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TWO-SIGMA: a novel TWO-component SInGle cell Model-based Association method for single-cell RNA-seq data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/709238v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this paper, we develop TWO-SIGMA, a TWO-component SInGle cell Model-based Association method for differential expression (DE) analyses in single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data. The first component models the probability of "drop-out" with a mixed-effects logistic regression model and the second component models the (conditional) mean expression with a mixed-effects negative binomial regression model. TWO-SIGMA is extremely flexible in that it: (i) does not require a log-transformation of the outcome, (ii) allows for overdispersed and zero-inflated counts, (iii) accommodates a correlation structure between cells from the same biological sample via random effect terms, (iv) can analyze unbalanced designs (in which the number of cells does not need to be identical for all samples), (v) can control for additional sample-level and cell-level covariates including batch effects, (vi) provides interpretable effect size estimates, and (vii) enables general tests of DE beyond two-group comparisons. To our knowledge, TWO-SIGMA is the only method for analyzing scRNA-seq data that can simultaneously accomplish each of these features. Simulations studies show that TWO-SIGMA outperforms alternative regression-based approaches in both type-I error control and power enhancement when the data contains even moderate within-sample correlation. A real data analysis using pancreas islet single-cells exhibits the flexibility of TWO-SIGMA and demonstrates that incorrectly failing to include random effect terms can have dramatic impacts on scientific conclusions. TWO-SIGMA is implemented in the R package twosigma available at https://github.com/edvanburen/twosigma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Van Buren, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/709238</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TWO-SIGMA: a novel TWO-component SInGle cell Model-based Association method for single-cell RNA-seq data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/711911v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vaccine-induced ICOS+CD38+ cTfh are sensitive biosensors of age-related changes in inflammatory pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/711911v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Humoral immune responses are dysregulated with aging but details remain incompletely understood. In particular, little is known about the effects of aging on T follicular helper (Tfh) CD4 cells, the subset that provides critical help to B cells for effective humoral immunity. We previously demonstrated that influenza vaccination increases a circulating Tfh (cTfh) subset that expresses ICOS and CD38, contains influenza-specific memory cells, and is correlated with antibody responses. To directly study the effects of aging on the cTfh response, we performed transcriptional profiling and cellular analysis before and after influenza vaccination in young and elderly adults. Several key differences in cTfh responses were revealed in the elderly. First, whole blood transcriptional profiling defined cross-validated genesets of youth versus aging and these genesets were, compared to other T cells, preferentially enriched in ICOS+CD38+ cTfh from young and elderly subjects, respectively, following vaccination. Second, vaccine-induced ICOS+CD38+ cTfh from the elderly were enriched for transcriptional signatures of inflammation including TNF-NFkB pathway activation. Indeed, we reveal a paradoxical positive effect of TNF signaling on Tfh providing help to B cells linked to survival circuits that may explain detrimental effects of TNF blockade on vaccine responses. Finally, vaccine-induced ICOS+CD38+ cTfh displayed strong enrichment for signatures of underlying age-associated biological changes. Thus, these data reveal key biological changes in cTfh during aging and also demonstrate the sensitivity of vaccine-induced cTfh to underlying changes in host physiology. This latter observation suggests that vaccine-induced cTfh could function as sensitive biosensors of underlying inflammatory and/or overall immune health.nnOne sentence summaryTranscriptional profiling of vaccine-induced circulating T follicular helper cell responding to influenza vaccination reveals age-associated effects on Tfh such as alterations in TNF-NFkB signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Herati, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silva, L. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vella, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muselman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alanio, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bengsch, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurupati, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manne, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kossenkov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canaday, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doyle, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ertl, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmader, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wherry, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/711911</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vaccine-induced ICOS+CD38+ cTfh are sensitive biosensors of age-related changes in inflammatory pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/717314v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic Influences on Self-Reported Childhood Maltreatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/717314v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent and serves as a risk factor for mental and physical disorders. Self-reported childhood maltreatment appears heritable, but the specific genetic influences on this phenotype are largely unknown. The aims of this study were to 1) identify genetic variation associated with reported childhood maltreatment, 2) calculate the relevant SNP-based heritability estimates, and 3) quantify the genetic overlap of reported childhood maltreatment with mental and physical health-related phenotypes. Genome-wide association analysis for childhood maltreatment was undertaken, using a discovery sample from the UK Biobank (UKBB) (n=124,000) and a replication sample from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium-posttraumatic stress disorder working group (PGC-PTSD) (n=26,290). Heritability estimations for childhood maltreatment and genetic correlations with mental/physical health traits were calculated using linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSR). Two genome-wide significant loci associated with childhood maltreatment, located on chromosomes 3p13 (rs142346759, beta=0.015, p=4.35x10-8, FOXP1) and 7q31.1 (rs10262462, beta=-0.016, p=3.24x10-8, FOXP2), were identified in the discovery dataset but were not replicated in the PGC-PTSD sample. SNP-based heritability for childhood maltreatment was estimated to be [~]6%. Childhood maltreatment was most significantly genetically correlated with depressive symptoms (rg=0.70, p=4.65x10-40). This is the first large-scale genetic study to identify specific variants associated with self-reported childhood maltreatment. FOXP genes could influence traits such as depression and thereby be relevant to childhood maltreatment. Alternatively, these variants may be associated with a greater likelihood of reporting maltreatment. A clearer understanding of the genetic relationships of childhood maltreatment, including particular abuse subtypes, with various psychiatric disorders, may ultimately be useful in in developing targeted treatment and prevention strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dalvie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maihofer, A. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brick, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duncan, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guffanti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harnal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liberzon, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nugent, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Provost, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ressler, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amstadter, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Austin, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolger, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calabrese, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delahanty, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrer, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feeny, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flory, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forbes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galea, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gautam, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gelernter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammamieh, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jett, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Junglen, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufman, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kessler, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kranzler, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lebois, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marmar, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mavissakalian, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McFarlane, A</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/717314</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic Influences on Self-Reported Childhood Maltreatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/723825v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assessment of Polygenic Architecture and Risk Prediction based on Common Variants Across Fourteen Cancers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/723825v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We analyzed summary-level data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of European ancestry across fourteen cancer sites to estimate the number of common susceptibility variants (polygenicity) contributing to risk, as well as the distribution of their associated effect sizes. All cancers evaluated showed polygenicity, involving at a minimum thousands of independent susceptibility variants. For some malignancies, particularly chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL) and testicular cancer, there are a larger proportion of variants with larger effect sizes than those for other cancers. In contrast, most variants for lung and breast cancers have very small associated effect sizes. For different cancer sites, we estimate a wide range of GWAS sample sizes, required to explain 80% of GWAS heritability, varying from 60,000 cases for CLL to over 1,000,000 cases for lung cancer. The maximum relative risk achievable for subjects at the 99th risk percentile of underlying polygenic risk scores, compared to average risk, ranges from 12 for testicular to 2.5 for ovarian cancer. We show that polygenic risk scores have substantial potential for risk stratification for relatively common cancers such as breast, prostate and colon, but limited potential for other cancer sites because of modest heritability and lower disease incidence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilcox, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choudhury, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Easton, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milne, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hall, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michailidou, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dennis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang-Claude, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gharahkhani, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whiteman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, P. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmeister, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peters, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gruber, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casey, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmit, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Mara, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spurdle, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomlinson, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vivo, I. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landi, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iles, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Demenais, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacGregor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishop, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bondy, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houlston, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiencke, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kinnersley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wrensch, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/723825</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assessment of Polygenic Architecture and Risk Prediction based on Common Variants Across Fourteen Cancers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/727172v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using QSAR for predictions in drug delivery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/727172v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drug delivery research is an inherently empirical process, however high-throughput approaches could take advantage of understanding drug/material interactions such as from electrostatic, hydrophobic, or other non-covalent interactions between therapeutic molecules and a drug delivery polymer. Cyclodextrin polymers have been investigated for drug delivery specifically due to their capacity to exploit this affinity interaction to change the rate of drug release. Testing drug candidates; however, for affinity is time-consuming, making computational predictions more effective. One option, molecular "docking" programs, provide predictions of affinity, but lack reliability, as their accuracy with cyclodextrin remains unverified experimentally. Alternatively, quantitative structure-activity relationship models (QSARs), which analyze statistical relationships between molecular properties, appear more promising. Previously constructed QSARs for cyclodextrin are not publicly available, necessitating an openly accessible model. Around 600 experimental affinities between cyclodextrin and guest molecules were cleaned and imported from published research. The software PaDEL-Descriptor calculated over 1000 chemical descriptors for each molecule, which were then analyzed in R to create several QSARs with different statistical methods. These QSARs proved highly time efficient, calculating in minutes what docking programs would take hours to accomplish. Additionally, on test sets, QSARs reached R2 values of around 0.7-0.8. The speed, accuracy, and accessibility of these QSARs improve evaluation of individual drugs and facilitate screening of large datasets for potential candidates in cyclodextrin affinity-based delivery systems. An app was built to rapidly access model predictions for end users using the "shiny" library in R. To demonstrate the usability for drug release planning, the QSAR predictions were coupled with a mechanistic model of diffusion within the app. Integrating new modules should provide an accessible approach to use other cheminformatic tools in the field of drug delivery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rivera-Delgado, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/727172</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using QSAR for predictions in drug delivery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/729434v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A low-cost, open source, self-contained bacterial EVolutionary biorEactor (EVE) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/729434v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The morbidostat automatically adjusts antibiotic concentration as a bacterial population evolves resistance. Although this device has advanced our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological processes that drive antibiotic resistance, no low-cost and open-source systems are available for educators. Here, we present the EVolutionary biorEactor (EVE), an accessible alternative to other morbidostats for use in low-resource classrooms that requires minimal engineering and programming experience. We first compare our system to others, emphasizing how it differs in design and cost. We then describe how we validated the EVE by evolving replicate Escherichia coli populations under chloramphenicol challenge and comparing our results to those in the published literature. Lastly, we detail how high school students used the EVE to learn about bacterial growth and antibiotic resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gopalakrishnan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McClure, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelesko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williamson, D. F. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ecker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nichol, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/729434</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A low-cost, open source, self-contained bacterial EVolutionary biorEactor (EVE)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/737106v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Haplotype genetic score analysis in 10,734 mother/infant pairs reveals complex maternal and fetal genetic effects underlying the associations between maternal phenotypes, birth outcomes and adult phenotypes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/737106v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many maternal traits are associated with a neonates gestational duration, birth weight and birth length. These birth outcomes are subsequently associated with late onset health conditions. Based on 10,734 mother/infant duos of European ancestry, we constructed haplotype genetic scores to dissect the maternal and fetal genetic effects underlying these observed associations. We showed that maternal height and fetal growth jointly affect the duration of gestation - maternal height positively influences the gestational duration, while faster fetal growth reduces gestational duration. Fetal growth is influenced by both maternal and fetal effects and can reciprocally influence maternal phenotypes: tall maternal stature and higher blood glucose causally increase birth size; in the fetus, the height and metabolic risk increasing alleles can lead to increased and decreased birth size respectively; birth weight-raising alleles in fetus may reduce gestational duration and increase maternal blood pressure. These maternal and fetal genetic effects can largely explain the observed associations between the studied maternal phenotypes and birth outcomes as well as the life-course associations between these birth outcomes and adult phenotypes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bacelis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navais, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juodakis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouse, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hallman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teramo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melbye, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feenstra, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freathy, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davey-Smith, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawlor, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murray, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobsson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muglia, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/737106</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Haplotype genetic score analysis in 10,734 mother/infant pairs reveals complex maternal and fetal genetic effects underlying the associations between maternal phenotypes, birth outcomes and adult phenotypes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/743500v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extradomain-B Fibronectin is a molecular marker of invasive breast cancer cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/743500v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Breast tumor heterogeneity is a major impediment to oncotherapy. Tumor cells undergo rapid clonal evolution, thereby acquiring significant growth and invasive advantages. The absence of specific markers of these high-risk tumors precludes efficient therapeutic and diagnostic management of breast cancer. Given the critical function of tumor microenvironment in the oncogenic circuitry, we sought to determine the role of the extracellular matrix oncoprotein, extradomain-B fibronectin (EDB-FN), as a molecular marker of aggressive cancers. High-risk invasive cell lines generated from relatively less invasive MCF7 and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells by long-term TGF-{beta} treatment and chemoresistance demonstrated hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal phenotype, enhanced motility, and significantly elevated EDB-FN levels in 2D- and 3D-cultures. To determine if EDB-FN could serve as a therapy-predictive marker, the invasive cell lines were treated with MK2206-HCl, a pan-AKT inhibitor. Phospho-AKT depletion reduced EMT and invasion of the populations, with a concomitant decrease in EDB-FN expression, partly through the phosphoAKT-SRp55 pathway, demonstrating that EDB-FN expression is strongly associated with high-risk breast cancer. EDB-FN is a promising molecular marker for accurate detection, differential diagnosis, and non-invasive therapeutic surveillance of aggressive breast cancer.nnSummary StatementDynamic changes in invasive properties of breast cancer cells directly influence extradomain-B fibronectin levels, suggesting its potential role as a molecular marker for active surveillance and therapeutic monitoring of breast cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lu, Z.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaidya, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/743500</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extradomain-B Fibronectin is a molecular marker of invasive breast cancer cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/744540v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Robust Hi-C chromatin loop maps in human neurogenesis and brain tissues at high-resolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/744540v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genome-wide mapping of chromatin interactions at high resolution remains experimentally and computationally challenging. Here we used a low-input "easy Hi-C" (eHi-C) protocol to map the 3D genome architecture in neurogenesis and brain tissues, and also developed an improved Hi-C bias-correction pipeline (HiCorr) enabling better identification of enhancer loops or aggregates at sub-TAD level. We compared ultra-deep 3D genome maps from 10 human tissue- or cell types, with a focus on stem cells and neural development. We found several large loci in skin-derived human iPSC lines showing recurrent 3D compartmental memory of somatic heterochromatin. Chromatin loop interactions, but not genome compartments, are hallmarks of neural differentiation. Interestingly, we observed many cell type- or differentiation-specific enhancer aggregates spanning large neighborhoods, supporting a phase-separation mechanism that stabilizes enhancer contacts during development. Finally, we demonstrated that chromatin loop outperforms eQTL in explaining neurological GWAS results, revealing a unique value of high-resolution 3D genome maps in elucidating the disease etiology.nnHighlightsO_LILow input "easy Hi-C" protocol compatible with 50-100K cellsnC_LIO_LIImproved Hi-C bias correction allows direct observation and accurate identification of sub-TAD chromatin loops and enhancer aggregatesnC_LIO_LIRecurrent architectural memory of somatic heterochromatin at compartment level in skin-derived hiPSCsnC_LIO_LIChromatin loop, but not genome compartment, marks neural differentiationnC_LIO_LIChromatin loop outperforms eQTL in defining brain GWAS target genesnC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LU, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giusti-Rodriguez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riki Kawaguchi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scacheri, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, P. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ming, G.-l.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/744540</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Robust Hi-C chromatin loop maps in human neurogenesis and brain tissues at high-resolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/761445v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
JAM-A functions as a female microglial tumor suppressor in glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/761445v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glioblastoma (GBM) remains refractory to treatment. In addition to its cellular and molecular heterogeneity, epidemiological studies indicate the presence of additional complexity associated with biological sex. GBM is more prevalent and aggressive in male compared to female patients, suggesting the existence of sex-specific growth, invasion, and therapeutic resistance mechanisms. While sex-specific molecular mechanisms have been reported at a tumor cell-intrinsic level, sex-specific differences in the tumor microenvironment have not been investigated. Using transgenic mouse models, we demonstrate that deficiency of junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) in female mice enhances microglia activation, GBM cell proliferation, and tumor growth. Mechanistically, JAM-A suppresses anti-inflammatory/pro-tumorigenic gene activation via interferon-activated gene 202b (Ifi202b) and found in inflammatory zone (Fizz1) in female microglia. Our findings suggest that cell adhesion mechanisms function to suppress pathogenic microglial activation in the female tumor microenvironment, which highlights an emerging role for sex differences in the GBM microenvironment and suggests that sex differences extend beyond previously reported tumor cell intrinsic differences.nnSummaryTuraga et al. demonstrate that female microglia drive a more aggressive glioblastoma phenotype in the context of JAM-A deficiency. These findings highlight a sex-specific role for JAM-A and represent the first evidence of sexual dimorphism in the glioblastoma microenvironment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Turaga, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paouri, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borjini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naik, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keri, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berens, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davalos, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/761445</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[JAM-A functions as a female microglial tumor suppressor in glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/762484v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Physical activity and risks of breast and colorectal cancer: A Mendelian randomization analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/762484v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Physical activity has been associated with lower risks of breast and colorectal cancer in epidemiological studies; however, it is unknown if these associations are causal or confounded. In two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses, using summary genetic data from the UK Biobank and GWA consortia, we found that a one standard deviation increment in average acceleration was associated with lower risks of breast cancer (odds ratio [OR]: 0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.42 to 0.84, P-value=0.003) and colorectal cancer (OR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.53 to 0.82, P-value=2*E-4). We found similar magnitude inverse associations by breast cancer subtype and by colorectal cancer anatomical site. Our results support a potentially causal relationship between higher physical activity levels and lower risks of breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Based on these data, the promotion of physical activity is probably an effective strategy in the primary prevention of these commonly diagnosed cancers.nnDisclaimerWhere authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Papadimitriou, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dimou, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsilidis, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banbury, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazmi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albanes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aleksandrova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berndt, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishop, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchanan, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bueno-de-Mesquita, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, P. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castellvi-Bel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang-Claude, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellingjord-Dale, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Figueiredo, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallinger, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giles, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giovannucci, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gruber, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gsur, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hampe, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hampel, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harlid, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmeister, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopper, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huerta, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huyghe, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keku, T. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhn, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>La Vecchia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Marchand, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/762484</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Physical activity and risks of breast and colorectal cancer: A Mendelian randomization analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/769448v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Interaction between host genes and M. tuberculosis lineage can affect tuberculosis severity: evidence for co-evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/769448v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genetic studies of both the human host and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) demonstrate independent association with tuberculosis (TB) risk. However, neither explains a large portion of disease risk or severity. Based on studies in other infectious diseases and animal models of TB, we hypothesized that the genomes of the two interact to modulate risk of developing active TB or increasing the severity of disease, when present. We examined this hypothesis in our TB household contact study in Kampala, Uganda, in which there were 3 MTB lineages of which L4-Ugandan (L4.6) is the most recent. TB severity, measured using the Bandim TBscore, was modeled as a function of host SNP genotype, MTB lineage, and their interaction, within two independent cohorts of TB cases, N=113 and 122. No association was found between lineage and severity, but association between multiple polymorphisms in IL12B and TBscore was replicated in two independent cohorts (most significant rs3212227, combined p=0.0006), supporting previous associations of IL12B with TB susceptibility. We also observed significant interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in SLC11A1 and the L4-Ugandan lineage in both cohorts (rs17235409, meta p=0.0002). Interestingly, the presence of the L4-Uganda lineage in the presence of the ancestral human allele associated with more severe disease. These findings demonstrate that IL12B is associated with severity of TB in addition to susceptibility, and that the association between TB severity and human genetics can be due to an interaction between genes in the two species, providing evidence of host-pathogen coevolution in TB.nnAUTHOR SUMMARYSusceptibility to tuberculosis (TB) is affected by genetic variation in both the human host and the causative bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, prior studies of the genetics of each species have not explained a large part of TB risk. The possibility exists that risk can be better estimated from patterns of variation in two species as a unit, such that some combinations provide increased risk, or in the presence of TB, increased disease severity. We hypothesized that alleles in the two species that have co-existed for long periods are more likely to reduce disease severity so as to promote prolonged co-occurrence. We tested this by studying TB severity in two patient cohorts from Uganda for which paired MTB-human DNA were available. We examined severity, as measured by the Bandim TBscore, and assessed whether there was an interaction between MTB lineage and SNPs in the host with this metric. Our results indicate that the most recent TB lineage (L4.6/Uganda) when found together with an ancestral allele in SLC11A1 resulted in more severe disease. This finding is consistent with the conclusion that MTB and human have coevolved to modulate TB severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McHenry, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartlett, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Igo, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wampande, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bencheck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fluegge, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hall, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gagneux, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tishkoff, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wejse, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sirugo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joloba, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/769448</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Interaction between host genes and M. tuberculosis lineage can affect tuberculosis severity: evidence for co-evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/773887v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deep Mutational Scan of a cardiac sodium channel voltage sensor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/773887v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Variants in ion channel genes have classically been studied in low-throughput by patch clamping. Deep Mutational Scanning (DMS) is a complementary approach that can simultaneously assess function of thousands of variants. We have developed and validated a method to perform a DMS of variants in SCN5A, which encodes the major voltage-gated sodium channel in the heart. We created a library of nearly all possible variants in a 36 base region of SCN5A in the S4 voltage sensor of domain IV and stably integrated the library into HEK293T cells. In preliminary experiments, challenge with three drugs (veratridine, brevetoxin, and ouabain) could discriminate wildtype channels from gain and loss of function pathogenic variants. High-throughput sequencing of the pre- and post-drug challenge pools was used to count the prevalence of each variant and identify variants with abnormal function. The DMS scores identified 40 putative gain of function and 33 putative loss of function variants. For 8/9 variants, patch clamping data was consistent with the scores. These experiments demonstrate the accuracy of a high-throughput in vitro scan of SCN5A variant function, which can be used to identify deleterious variants in SCN5A and other ion channel genes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Glazer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kroncke, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wada, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shields, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salem, J.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roden, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/773887</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deep Mutational Scan of a cardiac sodium channel voltage sensor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/778043v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Understanding artificial mouse-microbiome heterogeneity and six actionable themes to increase study power 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/778043v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The negative effects of data clustering due to (intra-class/spatial) correlations are well-known in statistics to interfere with interpretation and study power. Therefore, it is unclear why housing many laboratory mice ([&ge;]4), instead of one-or-two per cage, with the improper use/reporting of clustered-data statistics, abound in the literature. Among other sources of  artificial confounding, including cyclical oscillations of the  cage microbiome, we quantified the heterogeneity of modern husbandry practices/perceptions. The objective was to identify actionable themes to re-launch emerging protocols and intuitive statistical strategies to increase study power. Amenable for interventions,  cost-vs-science discordance was a major aspect explaining heterogeneity and the reluctance to change. Combined, four sources of information (scoping-reviews, professional-surveys, expert-opinion, and  implementability-score-statistics) indicate that a six-actionable-theme framework could minimize  artificial heterogeneity. With a  Housing Density Cost Simulator in Excel and fully annotated statistical examples, this framework could reignite the use of  study power to monitor the success/reproducibility of mouse-microbiome studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Basson, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaSalla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulpins, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moen, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sundrud, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyoshi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilic, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Palacios, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/778043</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Understanding artificial mouse-microbiome heterogeneity and six actionable themes to increase study power]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/785386v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Scaffold-free human mesenchymal stem cell construct geometry regulates long bone regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/785386v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Scaffold-based bone tissue engineering approaches frequently induce repair processes dissimilar to normal developmental programs. In contrast, biomimetic strategies aim to recapitulate aspects of development through cellular self-organization, morphogenetic pathway activation, and mechanical cues. This may improve regenerative outcome in large long bone defects that cannot heal on their own; however, no study to date has investigated the role of scaffold-free construct geometry, in this case tubes mimicking long bone diaphyses, on bone regeneration. We hypothesized that microparticle-mediated in situ presentation of transforming growth factor-{beta}1 (TGF-{beta}1) and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) to engineered human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) tubes induces the endochondral cascade, and that TGF-{beta}1 + BMP-2-presenting hMSC tubes facilitate enhanced endochondral healing of critical-sized femoral segmental defects under delayed in vivo mechanical loading conditions compared to loosely-packed hMSC sheets. Here, localized morphogen presentation imparted early chondrogenic lineage priming, and stimulated robust endochondral differentiation of hMSC tubes in vitro. In an ectopic environment, hMSC tubes formed a cartilage template that was actively remodeled into trabecular bone through endochondral ossification without lengthy predifferentiation. Similarly, hMSC tubes stimulated in vivo cartilage and bone formation and more robust healing in femoral defects compared to hMSC sheets. New bone was formed through endochondral ossification in both groups; however, only hMSC tubes induced regenerate tissue partially resembling normal growth plate architecture. Together, this study demonstrates the interaction between mesenchymal cell condensation geometry, bioavailability of multiple morphogens, and defined in vivo mechanical environment to recapitulate developmental programs for biomimetic bone tissue engineering.nnSignificance StatementEngineered bone constructs must be capable of withstanding and adapting to harsh conditions in a defect site upon implantation, and can be designed to facilitate repair processes that resemble normal developmental programs. Self-assembled tubular human mesenchymal stem cell constructs were engineered to resemble the geometry of long bone diaphyses. By mimicking the cellular, biochemical, and mechanical environment of the endochondral ossification process during embryonic development, successful healing of large femoral segmental defects upon implantation was achieved and the extent was construct geometry dependent. Importantly, results were obtained without a supporting scaffold or lengthy predifferentiation of the tubular constructs. This indicates that adult stem/progenitor cells retain features of embryonic mesenchyme, and supports the concept of developmental engineering for bone regeneration approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Herberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varghai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alt, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dang, P. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dikina, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boerckel, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rolle, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/785386</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Scaffold-free human mesenchymal stem cell construct geometry regulates long bone regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/786970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role of Proinsulin Self-Association in Mutant INS gene-induced Diabetes of Youth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/786970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Abnormal interactions between misfolded mutant and wild-type (WT) proinsulin in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) drive the molecular pathogenesis of Mutant-INS-gene induced Diabetes of Youth (MIDY). How these abnormal interactions are initiated remains unknown. Normally, proinsulin-WT dimerizes in the ER. Here, we suggest that the normal proinsulin-proinsulin contact surface, involving the B-chain, contributes to dominant-negative effects of misfolded MIDY mutants. Specifically, we find that proinsulin Tyr-B16, which is a key residue in normal proinsulin dimerization, helps confer dominant-negative behavior of MIDY mutant proinsulin-C(A7)Y. Substitutions of Tyr-B16 with ether Ala, Asp, or Pro in proinsulin-C(A7)Y each decrease the abnormal interactions between the MIDY mutant and proinsulin-WT, rescuing proinsulin-WT export, limiting ER stress, and increasing insulin production in {beta}-cells and human islets. This study reveals the first evidence indicating that noncovalent proinsulin-proinsulin contact initiates dominant-negative behavior of misfolded proinsulin, pointing to a novel therapeutic target to enhance bystander proinsulin export for increased insulin production.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arvan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haataja, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mir, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madley, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larkin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anjum, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhayalan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rege, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wickramasinghe, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Itkin-Ansari, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufman, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostrov, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/786970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role of Proinsulin Self-Association in Mutant INS gene-induced Diabetes of Youth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/788695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanisms of activation and desensitization of full-length glycine receptor in membranes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/788695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glycinergic synapses play a central role in motor control and pain processing in the central nervous system. Glycine receptors (GlyR) are key players in mediating fast inhibitory neurotransmission at these synapses. While previous high-resolution structural studies have provided insights into the molecular architecture of GlyR, several mechanistic questions pertaining to channel function are still unknown. Here, we present Cryo-EM structures of the full-length GlyR protein reconstituted into lipid nanodiscs that are captured in the unliganded (closed) and glycine-bound (open and desensitized) conformations. A comparison of the three states reveals global conformational changes underlying GlyR channel gating. The functional state assignments were validated by molecular dynamics simulations of the structures incorporated in a lipid bilayer. Observed permeation events are in agreement with the anion selectivity of the channel and the reported single-channel conductance of GlyR. These studies establish the structural basis for gating, selectivity, and single-channel conductance of GlyR in a physiological environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gicheru, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayer, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sansom, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakrapani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/788695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanisms of activation and desensitization of full-length glycine receptor in membranes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/794321v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bioinformatic analysis of brain-specific miRNAs for identification of candidate traumatic brain injury blood biomarkers. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/794321v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDetection of brain-specific miRNAs in the peripheral blood could serve as a surrogate marker of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Here, we systematically identified brain-enriched miRNAs, and tested their utility for use as TBI biomarkers in the acute phase of care.

MethodsPublically-available microarray data generated from 31 postmortem human tissues was used to rank 1,364 miRNAs in terms of their degree of brain-specific expression. Levels of the top five ranked miRNAs were then prospectively measured in serum samples collected from 10 TBI patients at hospital admission, as well as from 10 controls.

ResultsThe top five miRNAs identified in our analysis (miR-137, miR-219a-5p, miR-128-3p, miR-124-3p, and miR-138-5p) exhibited 31 to 74-fold higher expression in brain relative to other tissues. Furthermore, their levels were elevated in serum from TBI patients compared to controls, and were collectively able to discriminate between groups with 90% sensitivity and 80% specificity. Subsequent informatic pathway analysis revealed that their target transcripts were significantly enriched for components of signaling pathways which are active in peripheral organs such as the heart.

ConclusionsThe five candidate miRNAs identified in this study have promise as blood biomarkers of TBI, and could also be molecular contributors to systemic physiologic changes commonly observed post-injury.

A FINAL PEER REVIEWED VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN BRAIN INJURY AT THE FOLLOWING DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2020.1764102

There are some notable differences between the analysis presented in this preprint and our final peer-reviewed article. There was a single tissue sample originating from spinal cord that we had classified as a non-brain tissue in our original analysis outlined in this preprint. Because the composition of spinal cord and brain are highly similar in terms of gene expression, classifying this sample as a non-brain tissue dramatically reduced the levels of brain enrichment observed in the analysis. Because brain and spinal cord are molecularly highly similar, but technically distinct anatomical structures, we simply decided to exclude this sample from our final analysis published in Brain Injury to avoid confounds. The top 5 miRNAs identified in our original analysis still fell within the top 7 of this final analysis. In addition, the final analysis identified two additional miRNAs which could be candidate biomarkers based on levels of brain enrichment.

The final article published in Brain Injury also reports an additional confirmatory tissue specificity analysis performed in a second independent dataset, as well as additional analysis examining the brain specificity of several notable previously proposed miRNA TBI biomarkers, which is not described in this preprint.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smothers, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkelman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connell, G. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/794321</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bioinformatic analysis of brain-specific miRNAs for identification of candidate traumatic brain injury blood biomarkers.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/794867v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clonal interference patterns shift during range expansion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/794867v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Increasingly, predicting and even controlling evolutionary processes is a sought after goal in fields ranging from agriculture, artificial intelligence, astrobiology, oncology, and infectious diseases. However, our ability to predict evolution and plan such interventions in real populations is limited in part by our understanding of how spatial structure modulates evolutionary dynamics. Among current clinical assays applied to predict drug response in infectious diseases, for instance, many do not explicitly consider spatial structure and its influence on phenotypic heterogeneity, despite it being an inextricable characteristic of real populations. As spatially structured populations are subject to increased interference of beneficial mutants compared to their well-mixed counter-parts, among other effects, this population heterogeneity and structure may non-trivially impact drug response. In spatially-structured populations, the extent of this mutant interference is density dependent and thus varies with relative position within a meta-population in a manner modulated by mutant frequency, selection strength, migration speed, and habitat length, among other factors. In this study, we examine beneficial mutant fixation dynamics along the front of an asexual population expanding its range. We observe that multiple distinct evolutionary regimes of beneficial mutant origin-fixation dynamics are maintained at characteristic length scales along the front of the population expansion. Using an agent-based simulation of range expansion with mutation and selection in one dimension, we measure these length scales across a range of population sizes, selection strengths, and mutation rates. Furthermore, using simple scaling arguments to adapt theory from well-mixed populations, we find that the length scale at the tip of the front within which  local mutant fixation occurs in a successive mode decreases with increasing mutation rate, as well as population size in a manner predicted by our derived analytic expression. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our findings to real cellular populations, arguing that this conserved region of successive mutant fixation dynamics at the wave tip can be exploited by emerging evolutionary control strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/794867</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clonal interference patterns shift during range expansion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/796748v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Plexin-Bs enhance their GAP activity with a novel activation switchloop 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/796748v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plexins receive guidance cues from semaphorin ligands and transmit their signal through the plasma membrane. This family of proteins is unique amongst single-pass transmembrane receptors as their intracellular regions interact directly with several small GTPases, which regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and cell adhesion. Here, we characterize the GTPase Activating Protein (GAP) function of Plexin-B1 and find that a cooperative GAP activity towards the substrate GTPase, Rap1b, is associated with the N-terminal Juxtamembrane region of Plexin-B1. Importantly, we unveil an activation mechanism of Plexin-B1 by identifying a novel functional loop which partially blocks Rap1b entry to the plexin GAP domain. Consistent with the concept of allokairy developed for other systems, Plexin-B activity is increased by an apparent substrate mediated cooperative effect. Simulations and mutagenesis suggest the repositioned JM conformation is stabilized by the new activation switch loop when the active site is occupied, giving rise to faster enzymatic turnover and cooperative behavior. The biological implications, essentially of a threshold behavior for cell migration are discussed.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LI, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greven, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tamagnone, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/796748</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Plexin-Bs enhance their GAP activity with a novel activation switchloop]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/802801v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Affinity-based polymers provide long-term immunotherapeutic drug delivery across particle size ranges optimal for macrophage targeting 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/802801v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long term drug delivery to specific arms of the immune system can be technically challenging to provide limited off-target toxicity as well as prolonged delivery and specific cellular targeting given the limits of current drug delivery systems. In this work, we demonstrate the robustness of a cyclodextrin (CD) polymer platform that can extend immunomodulatory drug delivery via affinity interactions to promote long-term, sustained release at multiple size scales. The parameter space of synthesis variables (pre-incubation and stirring speed) and post-synthesis grinding effects on resulting particle diameter were characterized. We demonstrate that polymerized CD forms exhibit size-independent release profiles of the small molecule drug lenalidomide (LND) and can provide similar drug delivery profiles as macro-scale CD polymer disks. CD polymer microparticles and nanoparticles demonstrated no significant cytotoxicity as compared to the base CD macromonomer when co-incubated with fibroblasts. Uptake of ground CD nanoparticles was significantly higher following incubation with RAW 264.7 macrophages in culture over originally synthesized, larger CD microparticles. Thus, the affinity/structure properties afforded by polymerized CD allow particle size to be modified to affect cellular uptake profiles independently of drug release rate for applications in cell-targeted drug delivery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rohner, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Purdue, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/802801</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Affinity-based polymers provide long-term immunotherapeutic drug delivery across particle size ranges optimal for macrophage targeting]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/804427v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expression and purification of Protease Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4) and analysis with histidine hydrogen deuterium exchange. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/804427v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protease activated receptors (PARs) are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are activated by proteolyis of the N-terminus, which exposes a tethered ligand that interacts with the receptor. Numerous studies have focused on the signaling pathways mediated by PARs. However, the structural basis for initiation of these pathways is unknown. Here, we describe a strategy for the expression and purification of PAR4. This is the first PAR family member to be isolated without stabilizing modifications for biophysical studies. We monitored PAR4 activation with histidine-hydrogen deuterium exchange (His-HDX). PAR4 has 9 histidines that are spaced throughout the protein allowing a global view of solvent accessible and non-accessible regions. Peptides containing each of the 9 His residues were used to determine the t1/2 for each His residue in apo or thrombin activated PAR4. The thrombin cleaved PAR4 had a 2-fold increase (p > 0.01) in t1/2 values observed for four histidine residues (His180, His229, His240, and His380) demonstrating that these regions have decreased solvent accessibility upon thrombin treatment. In agreement, thrombin cleaved PAR4 also was resistant to thermolysin digestion. In contrast, activation with the PAR4 agonist peptide was digested at the same rate as apo PAR4. Further analysis showed the C-terminus is protected in thrombin activated PAR4 compared to uncleaved or agonist peptide treated PAR4. The studies described here are the first to examine the tethered ligand activation mechanism for a PAR family member using biophysically and shed light on the overall conformational changes that follow activation of PARs by a protease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de le Fuente, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/804427</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expression and purification of Protease Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4) and analysis with histidine hydrogen deuterium exchange.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/804815v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dillenia indica fruit extract has Glucose and Cholesterol Lowering effects 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/804815v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDillenia indica (D. indica) can suppress carbohydrates hydrolysis by inhibiting -amylase and -glucosidase. However, there is a lack of understanding of its therapeutic potential as an antidiabetic and anti-hyperlipidemic agent.

Methods and findingsType 2 diabetes (T2D) was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of Streptozotocin (STZ; 90mg/kg) and hyperlipidemia by feeding with 1% cholesterol, 5% coconut oil and 5% cow fat diet. Administration of D. indica extracts in water for four weeks triggered a significant (p[&le;]0.05) reduction in fasting serum glucose (FSG) levels with concomitant improvement in serum insulin levels. Both the water- and ethanol-extract of D. indica treated groups showed significant (p[&le;]0.01) reduction in total cholesterol levels by 25% and 19%, respectively. HDL-cholesterol was also augmented (by 14%) in ethanol-extract treated group. Liver glycogen content was higher in the water-extract treated group. Histopathological examination revealed that there was no tubular epithelial cell degeneration or necrosis in the renal tissues or hepatocyte degeneration and sinusoidal dilation in liver tissues in animals that received the water-extract. On the other hand, consumption of D. indica extract with 1% cholesterol, 5% coconut oil diet or with a 5% cow fat diet for 14 days significantly reduced serum cholesterol levels in group-lll (60[-&gt;]45 mg/dl; p[&ge;]0.05) and -IV (85[-&gt;]66 mg/dl; p[&ge;]0.05) hypercholesterolemic model rats. D. indica fruit extract also reduced serum TG levels (Group-III: 87[-&gt;]65 mg/dl; Group-IV: 40[-&gt;]90 mg/dl; p[&ge;]0.05). Interestingly, treatment with D. indica prevented a reduction in serum HDL levels in those hypercholesterolemic model rats. Serum LDL levels were significantly lower in group-III (47[-&gt;]39 mg/dl; p[&ge;]0.05) and group-IV (57[-&gt;]44 mg/dl; p[&ge;]0.05) hypercholesterolemic model rats after D. indica treatment.

ConclusionD. indica fruit ameliorates FSG, insulin secretion, glycogen synthesis, and serum lipid profile. Therefore, D. indica fruit can be a potential therapeutic agent for diabetic and hyperlipidemia.

Graphical AbstractExtract of D. indica in water reduces FSG, serum insulin levels, and ameliorates the serum lipid profile in diabetic model rats without any adverse effects on kidney and liver tissues.

Extract of D. indica in ethanol significantly reduces serum cholesterol, TG, LDL with no reduction in HDL levels in hyper-lipidemic model rats.

HighlightsO_LID. indica fruit extracts diminished fasting serum glucose (FSG) levels in STZ-induced type 2 diabetic model rats
C_LIO_LID. indica fruit extracts boosted insulin secretion
C_LIO_LID. indica fruit extracts showed no toxic effects on the kidney and the liver functions
C_LIO_LIExtract in water was more effective in reducing FSG levels than extract in ethanol
C_LIO_LIChronic consumption of 1% cholesterol, 5% coconut oil and 5% cow fat diet was sufficient to make the rat hypercholesterolemic
C_LIO_LID. indica fruit extract has the potential to reduce serum cholesterol, TG, LDL with prevention in reduction in serum HDL levels.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>KHAN, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhowmik, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhaman, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gan, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rokeya, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/804815</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dillenia indica fruit extract has Glucose and Cholesterol Lowering effects]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/817320v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Monitoring Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax using microsatellite markers indicates limited changes in population structure after substantial transmission decline in Papua New Guinea 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/817320v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Monitoring the genetic structure of malaria parasite populations has been proposed as a novel and sensitive approach to quantify the impact of malaria control and elimination efforts. Here we describe the first population genetic analysis of sympatric Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) and Plasmodium vivax (Pv) populations following nationwide distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLIN) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Parasite isolates from serial cross-sectional studies pre-(2005-6) and post-LLIN (2010-2014) were genotyped using microsatellite markers. Despite parasite prevalence declining substantially in these communities (East Sepik: Pf=54.9-8.5%, Pv=35.7-5.6%, Madang: Pf=38.0-9.0%, Pv: 31.8-19.7%), genetically diverse and intermixing parasite populations remained. P. falciparum diversity declined modestly post-LLIN relative to pre-LLIN (East Sepik: Rs = 7.1-6.4, He = 0.77-0.71; Madang: Rs= 8.2-6.1, He = 0.79-0.71). Unexpectedly, population structure present in pre-LLIN populations was lost post-LLIN, suggesting that more frequent human movement between provinces may have contributed to higher gene flow between provinces. P. vivax prevalence initially declined but increased again in one province, yet diversity remained high throughout the study period (East Sepik: Rs=11.4-9.3, He=0.83-0.80; Madang: Rs=12.2-14.5, He=0.85-0.88). Although genetic differentiation values increased between provinces over time, no significant population structure was observed at any time point. For both species, the emergence of clonal transmission and significant multilocus linkage disequilibrium (mLD) due to increased focal inbreeding post-LLIN was a strong indicator of impact on the parasite population using these markers. After eight years of intensive malaria control in PNG and substantial prevalence decline the impact on parasite population diversity and structure detectable by microsatellite genotyping was limited.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kattenberg, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Razook, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jennison, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lautu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fola, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ome-Kaius, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnadas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siba, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Felger, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/817320</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Monitoring Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax using microsatellite markers indicates limited changes in population structure after substantial transmission decline in Papua New Guinea]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/821652v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic and functional gene studies suggest a key role of beta-carotene oxygenase 1 like (bco1l) gene in salmon flesh color. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/821652v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Red coloration of muscle tissue (flesh) is a unique trait in several salmonid genera, including Atlantic salmon. The color results from dietary carotenoids deposited in the flesh, whereas the color intensity is affected both by diet and genetic components. Herein we report on a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genetic variation underlying this trait. Two SNPs on ssa26 showed strong associations to the flesh color in salmon. Two genes known to be involved in carotenoid metabolism were located in this QTL-region: beta-carotene oxygenase 1 (bco1) and beta-carotene oxygenase 1 like (bco1l). To determine whether flesh color variation is caused by one, or both, of these genes, several functional studies were carried out including mRNA and protein expression in fish with red and pale flesh color. The catalytic abilities of these two genes were also tested with different carotenoids. Our results suggest bco1l to be the most likely gene to explain the flesh color variation observed in this population.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Helgeland, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sodeland, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zoric, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torgersen, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grammes, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Lintig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kjoglum, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lien, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vage, D. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/821652</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic and functional gene studies suggest a key role of beta-carotene oxygenase 1 like (bco1l) gene in salmon flesh color.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/832402v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combination antibiotic delivery in PMMA provides sustained broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and allows for post-implantation refilling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/832402v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibiotics are commonly added to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by surgeons to locally treat infections such as in bone cement for joint replacement surgeries, but also as implantable antimicrobial "beads". However, this strategy is of limited value in high risk patients where infections can be recurrent or chronic and otherwise hard to treat. Also when only one drug is incorporated and applied toward poly-microbial infections (multiple bacterial species), there is a high risk that bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance. To combat these limitations, we developed a combination-antibiotic PMMA composite system comprised of rifampicin-filled {beta}-cyclodextrin ({beta}-CD) microparticles added into PMMA filled with a second drug. Different formulations were evaluated through Zone-of-Inhibition, drug activity, antibiotic release and re-filling, as well as mechanical studies. Our combination-antibiotic PMMA composite system achieved up to an eight-fold increase in duration of antimicrobial activity in comparison to clinically used antibiotic-filled PMMA. Inclusion of CD microparticles also allowed for refilling of additional antibiotics after simulated implantation, resulting in additional windows of therapeutic efficacy. Mechanical testing showed that our tested formulations did have a small, but significant decrease in mechanical properties when compared to unmodified controls. While further studies are needed to determine whether the tested formulations are still suitable for load-bearing applications (e.g. bone cement), our composites are certainly amenable for a variety of non-load bearing applications (e.g. antimicrobial "beads" and temporary spacer in two-stage arthroscopic revisions).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cyphert, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, C.-y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marques, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Learn, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/832402</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combination antibiotic delivery in PMMA provides sustained broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and allows for post-implantation refilling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/842260v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nonthermal plasma treatment of polymers modulates biological fouling but can cause material embrittlement 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/842260v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plasma-based treatment is a prevalent strategy to alter biological response and enhance biomaterial coating quality at the surfaces of biomedical devices and implants, especially polymeric materials. Plasma, an ionized gas, is often thought to have negligible effects on the bulk properties of prosthetic substrates given that it alters the surface chemistry on only the outermost few nanometers of material. However, no studies to date have systematically explored the effects of plasma exposure on both the surface and bulk properties of a biomaterial. This work examines the time-dependent effects of a nonthermal plasma on the surface and bulk properties of polymeric implants, specifically polypropylene surgical meshes and sutures. Findings suggest that plasma exposure improved resistance to fibrinogen adsorption and Escherichia coli attachment, and promoted mammalian fibroblast attachment, although increased duration of exposure resulted in a state of diminishing returns. At the same time, it was observed that plasma exposure can be detrimental to the material properties of individual filaments (i.e. sutures), as well as the structural characteristics of knitted meshes, with longer exposures resulting in further embrittlement and larger changes in anisotropic qualities. Though there are few guidelines regarding appropriate mechanical properties of surgical textiles, the results from this investigation imply that there are ultimate exposure limits for plasma-based treatments of polymeric implant materials when structural properties must be preserved, and that the effects of a plasma on a given biomaterial should be examined carefully before translation to a clinical scenario.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Learn, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/842260</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nonthermal plasma treatment of polymers modulates biological fouling but can cause material embrittlement]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/843763v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
STRESS-INDUCED GENETIC CHANGE IN FLAX REVEALS GENOME VARIATION MECHANISM 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/843763v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Inherited genetic change can happen in flax (Linum usitatissimum) due to environmental stress. The change can result in different phenotypes in flax progeny. The genetic changes can be induced during one generation and can result in stable genotypes in the next generation. Also the genetic changes are precise and repeatable that homozygous individuals show the same genome reorganization at specific sites in their progeny. Therefore, the genetic re-arrangements are not the result of a random process but a preference for a particular DNA structure, which indicates that possible new genes or functional fragments are formed during this process. The genomes of different varieties of flax are compared to explain the detail of the rapid but intentional genomic changes and regions of variation identified by whole genome comparisons. Possible mechanisms and the potential causes of these rearrangements bring a new light to modern plant genome studies and molecular evolution research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/843763</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[STRESS-INDUCED GENETIC CHANGE IN FLAX REVEALS GENOME VARIATION MECHANISM]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/850073v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FtsW exhibits distinct processive movements driven by either septal cell wall synthesis or FtsZ treadmilling in E. coli 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/850073v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During bacterial cell division, synthesis of new septal peptidoglycan (sPG) is crucial for successful cytokinesis and cell pole morphogenesis. FtsW, a SEDS (Shape, Elongation, Division and Sporulation) family protein and an indispensable component of the cell division machinery in all walled bacterial species, was recently identified in vitro as a new monofunctional peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase (PGTase). FtsW and its cognate monofunctional transpeptidase (TPase) class B penicillin binding protein (PBP3 or FtsI in E. coli) may constitute the essential, bifunctional sPG synthase specific for new sPG synthesis. Despite its importance, the septal PGTase activity of FtsW has not been documented in vivo. How its activity is spatiotemporally regulated in vivo has also remained unknown. Here we investigated the septal PGTase activity and dynamics of FtsW in E. coli cells using a combination of single-molecule imaging and genetic manipulations. We show that FtsW exhibits robust activity to incorporate an N-acetylmuramic acid analog at septa in the absence of other known PGTases, confirming FtsW as the essential septum-specific PGTase in vivo. Notably, we identified two populations of processive moving FtsW molecules at septa. A fast-moving population is driven by the treadmilling dynamics of FtsZ and independent of sPG synthesis. A slow-moving population is driven by active sPG synthesis and independent of FtsZs treadmilling dynamics. We further identified that FtsN, a potential sPG synthesis activator, plays an important role in promoting the slow-moving, sPG synthesis-dependent population. Our results support a two-track model, in which inactive sPG synthase molecules follow the fast treadmilling "Z-track" to be distributed along the septum; FtsN promotes their release from the "Z-track" to become active in sPG synthesis on the slow "sPG-track". This model explains how the spatial information is integrated into the regulation of sPG synthesis activity and suggests a new mechanistic framework for the spatiotemporal coordination of bacterial cell wall constriction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McQuillen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyv, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips-Mason, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De La Cruz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCausland, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeMeester, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimes, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Boer, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/850073</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FtsW exhibits distinct processive movements driven by either septal cell wall synthesis or FtsZ treadmilling in E. coli]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/854695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network potential identifies therapeutic miRNA cocktails in Ewings Sarcoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/854695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MicroRNA (miRNA)-based therapies are an emerging class of targeted therapeutics with many potential applications. Ewing Sarcoma patients could benefit dramatically from personalized miRNA therapy due to inter-patient heterogeneity and a lack of druggable (to this point) targets. However, because of the broad effects miRNAs may have on different cells and tissues, trials of miRNA therapies have struggled due to severe toxicity and unanticipated immune response. In order to overcome this hurdle, a network science-based approach is well-equipped to evaluate and identify miRNA candidates and combinations of candidates for the repression of key oncogenic targets while avoiding repression of essential housekeeping genes. We first characterized 6 Ewing sarcoma cell lines using mRNA sequencing. We then estimated a measure of tumor state, which we term network potential, based on both the mRNA gene expression and the underlying protein-protein interaction network in the tumor. Next, we ranked mRNA targets based on their contribution to network potential. We then identified miRNAs and combinations of miRNAs that preferentially act to repress mRNA targets with the greatest influence on network potential. Our analysis identified TRIM25, APP, ELAV1, RNF4, and HNRNPL as ideal mRNA targets for Ewing sarcoma therapy. Using predicted miRNA-mRNA target mappings, we identified miR-3613-3p, let-7a-3p, miR-300, miR-424-5p, and let-7b-3p as candidate optimal miRNAs for preferential repression of these targets. Ultimately, our work, as exemplified in the case of Ewing sarcoma, describes a novel pipeline by which personalized miRNA cocktails can be designed to maximally perturb gene networks contributing to cancer progression.

Author SummaryPrecision medicine in cancer aims to find the right treatment, for the right patient, at the right time. Substantial variation between patient tumors, even of the same disease site, has limited the application of precision medicine in the clinic. In this study, we present novel computational tools for the identification of targets for cancer therapy using widely available sequencing data. We used a network-science based approach that leveraged multiple types of omic data to identify functionally relevant disease targets. Further, we developed algorithms to identify potential miRNA-based therapies that inhibit these predicted disease targets. We applied this pipeline to a novel Ewing Sarcoma transcriptomics data-set as well as publicly available patient data from the St. Jude Cloud. We identified a number of promising therapeutic targets for this rare disease, including EWSR1, the proposed driver of Ewing Sarcoma development. These novel data and methods will provide researchers with new tools for the development of precision medicine treatments in a variety of cancer systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pishas, K. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williamson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarborough, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessnick, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/854695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network potential identifies therapeutic miRNA cocktails in Ewings Sarcoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/854810v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Ccr4-Not complex monitors the translating ribosome for codon optimality 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/854810v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Control of mRNA decay rate is intimately connected to translation elongation but the spatial coordination of these events is poorly understood. The Ccr4-Not complex initiates mRNA decay through deadenylation and activation of decapping. Using a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, ribosome profiling and mRNA stability assays we show recruitment of Ccr4-Not to the ribosome via specific interaction of the Not5 subunit with the ribosomal E-site. This interaction only occurs when the ribosome lacks accommodated A-site tRNA, indicative of low codon optimality. Loss of Not5 results in the inability of the mRNA degradation machinery to sense codon optimality. Our analysis elucidates a physical link between the Ccr4-Not complex and the ribosome providing mechanistic insight into the coupling of decoding efficiency with mRNA stability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Buschauer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alhusaini, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sugiyama, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikeuchi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuki, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilmozzi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berninghausen, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inada, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckmann, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/854810</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Ccr4-Not complex monitors the translating ribosome for codon optimality]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/856989v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional Vagotopy in the Cervical Vagus Nerve of the Domestic Pig: Implications for Vagus Nerve Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/856989v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Given current clinical interest in vagus nerve stimulation, there are surprisingly few studies characterizing the anatomy of the vagus nerve in large animal models as it pertains to on-and off-target engagement of local fibers. We sought to address this gap by evaluating vagal anatomy in the domestic pig, whose vagus nerve organization and size approximates the human cervical vagus nerve. We provide data on key features across the cervical vagus nerve including diameter, number and diameter of fascicles, and distance of fascicles from the epineural surface where stimulating electrodes are placed. We also characterized the relative locations of the superior and recurrent laryngeal branches of the vagus nerve that have been implicated in therapy limiting side effects with common electrode placement. We identified key variants across the cohort that may be important for vagus nerve stimulation with respect to changing sympathetic/parasympathetic tone, such as cross-connections to the sympathetic trunk. We discovered that cell bodies of pseudo-unipolar cells aggregate together to form a very distinct grouping within the nodose ganglion. This distinct grouping gives rise to a larger number of smaller fascicles as one moves caudally down the cervical vagus nerve. This often leads to a distinct bimodal organization, or  vagotopy that may be advantageous to exploit in design of electrodes/stimulation paradigms. Finally, we placed our data in context of historic and recent histology spanning mouse, rat, canine, pig, non-human primate and human models, thus providing a comprehensive resource to understand similarities and differences across species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dingle, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConico, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolai, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelot, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grill, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gustafson, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poore, S. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Populin, L. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suminski, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/856989</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional Vagotopy in the Cervical Vagus Nerve of the Domestic Pig: Implications for Vagus Nerve Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/860171v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting cancer origins with a DNA methylation-based deep neural network model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/860171v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer origin determination combined with site-specific treatment of metastatic cancer patients is critical to improve patient outcomes. Existing pathology and gene expression-based techniques often have limited performance. In this study, we developed a deep neural network (DNN)-based classifier for cancer origin prediction using DNA methylation data of 7,339 patients of 18 different cancer origins from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). This DNN model was evaluated using four strategies: (1) when evaluated by 10-fold cross-validation, it achieved an overall specificity of 99.72% (95% CI 99.69%-99.75%) and sensitivity of 92.59% (95% CI 91.87%-93.30%); (2) when tested on hold-out testing data of 1,468 patients, the model had an overall specificity of 99.83% and sensitivity of 95.95%; (3) when tested on 143 metastasized cancer patients (12 cancer origins), the model achieved an overall specificity of 99.47% and sensitivity of 95.95%; and (4) when tested on an independent dataset of 581 samples (10 cancer origins), the model achieved overall specificity of 99.91% and sensitivity of 93.43%. Compared to existing pathology and gene expression-based techniques, the DNA methylation-based DNN classifier showed higher performance and had the unique advantage of easy implementation in clinical settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zheng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/860171</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting cancer origins with a DNA methylation-based deep neural network model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/867143v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Controlling the speed and trajectory of evolution with counterdiabatic driving 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/867143v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The pace and unpredictability of evolution are critically relevant in a variety of modern challenges: combating drug resistance in pathogens and cancer, understanding how species respond to environmental perturbations like climate change, and developing artificial selection approaches for agriculture. Great progress has been made in quantitative modeling of evolution using fitness landscapes, allowing a degree of prediction for future evolutionary histories. Yet fine-grained control of the speed and the distributions of these trajectories remains elusive. We propose an approach to achieve this using ideas originally developed in a completely different context - counterdiabatic driving to control the behavior of quantum states for applications like quantum computing and manipulating ultra-cold atoms. Implementing these ideas for the first time in a biological context, we show how a set of external control parameters (i.e. varying drug concentrations / types, temperature, nutrients) can guide the probability distribution of genotypes in a population along a specified path and time interval. This level of control, allowing empirical optimization of evolutionary speed and trajectories, has myriad potential applications, from enhancing adaptive therapies for diseases, to the development of thermotolerant crops in preparation for climate change, to accelerating bioengineering methods built on evolutionary models, like directed evolution of biomolecules.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dolson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelesko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Güngör, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuznets-Speck, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deffner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilker, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/867143</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Controlling the speed and trajectory of evolution with counterdiabatic driving]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868885v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using nonthermal plasma treatment to improve quality and durability of hydrophilic coatings on hydrophobic polymer surfaces 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868885v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Low surface energy substrates, which include many polymers in medicine/industry, present challenges toward achieving uniform, adherent, durable coatings, thus limiting intended coating function. Examples include hydrophobic polymers such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, and polydimethylsiloxane. These inert materials are used in various biomedical implants due to favorable bulk properties despite perhaps unfavorable surface properties. The capability to coat such materials holds great value as the surface heavily influences biological response and implant function in vivo. Likewise, paint/ink coatings are often necessary on these same plastics, as their final appearance can be critical for automotive, packaging, and consumer products. Substrate exposure to nonthermal plasma was explored here as a means to improve quality of coatings, specifically cyclodextrin-based polyurethanes previously explored for biomedical applications such as controlled drug delivery and anti-biofouling, upon otherwise incompatible polypropylene substrates. Plasma treatment was found to increase wettability and oxygen content on substrate surfaces. These plasma-induced surface alterations were associated with enhanced coating uniformity, and improved coating/substrate adherence - determined to derive partly from interfacial covalent bond formation. Findings demonstrate the utility of plasma-based surface activation as a strategy to improve coating quality on polymeric substrates, and reveal insights regarding mechanisms by which plasma improves polymer coating adherence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Learn, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/868885</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using nonthermal plasma treatment to improve quality and durability of hydrophilic coatings on hydrophobic polymer surfaces]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/118083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SQANTI: extensive characterization of long read transcript sequences for quality control in full-length transcriptome identification and quantification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/118083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-throughput sequencing of full-length transcripts using long reads has paved the way for the discovery of thousands of novel transcripts, even in very well annotated organisms as mice and humans. Nonetheless, there is a need for studies and tools that characterize these novel isoforms. Here we present SQANTI, an automated pipeline for the classification of long-read transcripts that computes 47 descriptors that can be used to assess the quality of the data and of the preprocessing pipelines. We applied SQANTI to a neuronal mouse transcriptome using PacBio long reads and illustrate how the tool is effective in readily describing the composition of and characterizing the full-length transcriptome. We perform extensive evaluation of ToFU PacBio transcripts by PCR to reveal that an important number of the novel transcripts are technical artifacts of the sequencing approach, and that SQANTI quality descriptors can be used to engineer a filtering strategy to remove them. Most novel transcripts in this curated transcriptome are novel combinations of existing splice sites, result more frequently in novel ORFs than novel UTRs and are enriched in both general metabolic and neural specific functions. We show that these new transcripts have a major impact in the correct quantification of transcript levels by state-of-the-art short-read based quantification algorithms. By comparing our iso-transcriptome with public proteomics databases we find that alternative isoforms are elusive to proteogenomics detection and are variable in protein changes with respect to the principal isoform of their genes. SQANTI allows the user to maximize the analytical outcome of long read technologies by providing the tools to deliver quality-evaluated and curated full-length transcriptomes. SQANTI is available at https://bitbucket.org/ConesaLab/sqanti.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tardaguila, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Fuente, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marti, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>del Risco, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferrell, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mellado, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macchietto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verheggen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edelmann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ezkurdia, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vazquez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tress, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mortazavi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martens, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Navarro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conesa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/118083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SQANTI: extensive characterization of long read transcript sequences for quality control in full-length transcriptome identification and quantification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/140970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Membrane Deformation Induced By The Amphiphilic Helices Of Epsin, Sar1p And Arf1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/140970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The N-terminal amphiphilic helices of proteins Epsin, Sar1p and Arf1 play a critical role in initiating membrane deformation. We present here the study of the interactions of these amphiphilic helices with the lipid membranes by combining the all-atom and coarse-grained simulations. In the all-atom simulations, we find that the amphiphilic helices of Epsin and Sar1p have a shallower insertion depth into the membrane compared to the amphiphilic helix of Arf1, but remarkably, the amphiphilic helices of Epsin and Sar1p induce higher asymmetry in the lipid packing between the two monolayers of the membrane. The insertion depth of amphiphilic helix into the membrane is determined not only by the overall hydrophobicity but also by the specific distribution of polar and non-polar residues along the helix. To directly compare their ability of deforming the membrane, we further apply coarse-grained simulations to investigate the membranes deformation under the insertion of multiple helices. Importantly, it is found that the amphiphilic helices of Epsin and Sar1p generate a larger membrane curvature than that of Arf1, in accord with the experimental results qualitatively. These findings enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanism of the protein-driven membrane remodeling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, H.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/140970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Membrane Deformation Induced By The Amphiphilic Helices Of Epsin, Sar1p And Arf1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.19.882555v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Glioblastoma myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets express differential macrophage migration inhibitory factor receptor profiles that can be targeted to reduce immune suppression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.19.882555v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The application of tumor immunotherapy to glioblastoma (GBM) is limited by an unprecedented degree of immune suppression due to factors that include high numbers of immune suppressive myeloid cells, the blood brain barrier, and T cell sequestration to the bone marrow. We previously identified an increase in immune suppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in GBM patients, which correlated with poor prognosis and was dependent on macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). Here we examine the MIF signaling axis in detail in murine MDSC models, GBM-educated MDSCs and human GBM. We found that the monocytic subset of MDSCs (M-MDSCs), expressed high levels of the MIF cognate receptor CD74 and was localized in the tumor microenvironment. In contrast, granulocytic MDSCs (G-MDSCs) expressed high levels of the MIF non-cognate receptor CXCR2 and showed minimal accumulation in the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, targeting M-MDSCs with ibudilast, a brain penetrant MIF-CD74 interaction inhibitor, reduced MDSC function and enhanced CD8 T cell activity in the tumor microenvironment. These findings demonstrate the MDSC subsets differentially express MIF receptors and may be leveraged for specific MDSC targeting.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alban, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otvos, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabljenovic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia-shiun, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roversi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Momin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammadi, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peereboom, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsuda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yun, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bucala, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.19.882555</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Glioblastoma myeloid-derived suppressor cell subsets express differential macrophage migration inhibitory factor receptor profiles that can be targeted to reduce immune suppression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.09.900050v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Melanopsin Carboxy-terminus Phosphorylation Plasticity and Bulk Negative Charge, not Strict Site Specificity, Achieves Phototransduction Deactivation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.09.900050v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Melanopsin is a visual pigment expressed in a small subset of ganglion cells in the mammalian retina known as intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) and is implicated in regulating non-image forming functions such as circadian photoentrainment and pupil constriction and contrast sensitivity in image formation. Mouse melanopsins Carboxy-terminus (C-terminus) possesses 38 serine and threonine residues, which can potentially serve as phosphorylation sites for a G-protein Receptor Kinase (GRK) and be involved in the deactivation of signal transduction. Previous studies suggest that S388, T389, S391, S392, S394, S395 on the proximal region of the C-terminus of mouse melanopsin are necessary for melanopsin deactivation. We expressed a series of mouse melanopsin C-terminal mutants in HEK293 cells and using calcium imaging, and we found that the necessary cluster of six serine and threonine residues, while being critical, are insufficient for proper melanopsin deactivation. Interestingly, the additional six serine and threonine residues adjacent to the required six sites, in either proximal or distal direction, are capable of restoring wild-type deactivation of melanopsin. These findings suggest an element of plasticity in the molecular basis of melanopsin phosphorylation and deactivation. In addition, C-terminal chimeric mutants and molecular modeling studies support the idea that the initial steps of deactivation and {beta}-arrestin binding are centered around these critical phosphorylation sites (S388-S395). This degree of functional versatility could help explain the diverse ipRGC light responses as well as non-image and image forming behaviors, even though all six sub types of ipRGCs express the same melanopsin gene OPN4.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Valdez-Lobez, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortiz, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palczewski, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.09.900050</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Melanopsin Carboxy-terminus Phosphorylation Plasticity and Bulk Negative Charge, not Strict Site Specificity, Achieves Phototransduction Deactivation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.19.911149v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Compartmentalization of enhanced biomolecular interactions for high-throughput drug screening in test tubes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.19.911149v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Modification-dependent and -independent biomolecular interactions (BIs), including protein-protein, protein-DNA/RNA and protein-lipid, play crucial roles in all cellular processes. Dysregulation of BIs or malfunction of the associated enzymes results in various diseases, thus they are attractive targets for therapies. High-throughput screening (HTS) can greatly facilitate the discovery of drugs for these targets. Here we describe a HTS drug discovery method, called compartmentalization of enhanced biomolecular interactions in test tubes (CEBIT). CEBIT uses selective recruitment of biomolecules into phase separated compartments harboring their cognate binding partners as readouts. CEBIT were tailored to detect various BIs and associated modifying enzymes. Using CEBIT-based HTS assays, we successfully identified known inhibitors of the p53/MDM2 interaction and of SUV39H1 from a compound library. CEBIT is simple and versatile, and is likely to become a powerful tool for drug discovery and basic biomedical research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.19.911149</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Compartmentalization of enhanced biomolecular interactions for high-throughput drug screening in test tubes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.10.942458v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7) is a Key Regulator of Glycolysis in Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.10.942458v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThe most common and deadliest urological cancer is clear cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC). ccRCC is characterized by striking reorganization of both carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. It was recently demonstrated that lipid remodeling enzyme Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7) that generates phosphatidylinositol (PI) is important for the ccRCC progression. However, whether MBOAT7-driven PI remodeling is associated with other metabolic alterations commonly found in ccRCC is poorly understood.

MethodsMBOAT7 deficient ccRCC cell lines were generated by genome editing, and were characterized by a general reduction in glycolytic capactiy. Using targeted metabolomics approach in Caki-1 cells, we measured the glycolytic intermediates and the relative expression of key glycolytic enzymes. We also measured basal respiration and maximal respiration with MBOAT7 deficiency in the presence of glucose. Lastly, in vivo xenograft studies were performed with parental and MBOAT7 deficient cells.

ResultsMBOAT7 deficiency was associated with a reduction in glycolytic gene expression and protein abundance. In parallel, we found that glycolytic intermediates similarly decreased which may contribute to a reduction in glycolysis. MBOAT7 deficiency reduces basal respiration and maximal respiration. Similarly, we see maximum glycolytic capacity also reduced with MBOAT7 loss of function. Finally, the in vivo xenograft demonstrated MBOAT7 knockout significantly increased overall survival and reduced glycolytic HK2 protein abundance in vivo.

ConclusionsOur work highlights MBOAT7 as a key regulator of glycolysis in ccRCC. Our data provides additional evidence that suggests MBOAT7 as a novel target to regulate tumor growth in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Neumann, C. K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Massey, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orabi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.10.942458</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Membrane-Bound O-Acyltransferase 7 (MBOAT7) is a Key Regulator of Glycolysis in Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.14.992198v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Learning to Control the Brain through Adaptive Closed-Loop Patterned Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.14.992198v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Stimulation of neural activity is an important scientific and clinical tool, causally testing hypotheses and treating neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. However, current stimulation approaches cannot flexibly control the pattern of activity in populations of neurons. To address this, we developed an adaptive, closed-loop stimulation (ACLS) system that uses patterned, multi-site electrical stimulation to control the pattern of activity in a population of neurons. Importantly, ACLS is a learning system; it monitors the response to stimulation and iteratively updates the stimulation pattern to produce a specific neural response. In silico and in vivo experiments showed ACLS quickly learns to produce specific patterns of neural activity ([~]15 minutes) and was robust to noise and drift in neural responses. In visual cortex of awake mice, ACLS learned electrical stimulation patterns that produced responses similar to the natural response evoked by visual stimuli. Similar to how repetition of a visual stimulus causes an adaptation in the neural response, the response to electrical stimulation was adapted when it was preceded by the associated visual stimulus. Altogether, our results show ACLS can learn, in real-time, to generate specific patterns of neural activity, providing a framework for using closed-loop learning to control neural activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tafazoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacDowell, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Che, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Letai, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steinhardt, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buschman, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.14.992198</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Learning to Control the Brain through Adaptive Closed-Loop Patterned Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.20.000588v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Motor neurons involved in fine motor control are labeled by tracing Atoh1-lineage neurons in the spinal cord 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.20.000588v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Motor neurons (MNs) innervating the digit muscles of the intrinsic hand and foot (IH and IF) control fine motor movements. Previous studies suggest that the IH and IF MN pools have a unique developmental history in comparison to limb MN pools. Consistent with having this unique development, we find that the IH and IF MN pools are labeled postnatally using a CRE knock-in mouse line of Atoh1, a developmentally expressed basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, while limb-innervating MN pools are not. Approximately 60% of the IH and IF MN pools are labeled and are a mixture of alpha and gamma-MNs. In addition, because Atoh1 is known developmentally to specify many cerebellar-projecting neurons, we tested the hypothesis that IH and IF MNs can send axon collaterals to the cerebellum as a mechanism of corollary discharge. Using intersectional genetic, viral labeling, and retrograde labeling strategies, we were unable to provide evidence in support of this idea. As a secondary finding of our viral labeling experiments, we report here that injection of both AAV and Lentiviruses in the periphery can cross the blood-brain barrier to infect Purkinje cells within the central nervous system. Altogether, though, we find that labeling of the IH and IF motor neurons using the Atoh1 CRE knock-in mouse suggests that IH and IF MNs have a unique developmental history and that this mouse strain might be a useful tool to target these specific sets of neurons allowing for functional studies of fine motor control.

Significance StatementMotor neurons (MNs) of the intrinsic hand and foot (IH and IF) are labeled postnatally using a CRE knock-in mouse line of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor Atoh1 indicating a unique developmental history. We tested whether IH and IF MNs send axon collaterals rostrally to the cerebellum as a mechanism of direct corollary discharge from MNs, but the question remains unresolved. As a resource for the community, we report that injection of both AAV and Lentiviruses in the periphery can cross the blood-brain barrier and infect Purkinje cells within the central nervous system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ogujiofor, O. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pop, I. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Espinosa, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durodoye, R. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Viacheslavov, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvis, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landy, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishell, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machold, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.20.000588</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Motor neurons involved in fine motor control are labeled by tracing Atoh1-lineage neurons in the spinal cord]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.026187v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amantadine disrupts lysosomal gene expression; potential therapy for COVID19 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.026187v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SARS-coronavirus 2 is the causal agent of the COVID-19 outbreak. SARS-Cov-2 entry into a cell is dependent upon binding of the viral spike (S) protein to cellular receptor and on cleavage of the spike protein by the host cell proteases such as Cathepsin L and Cathepsin B. CTSL/B are crucial elements of lysosomal pathway and both enzymes are almost exclusively located in the lysosomes.CTSL disruption offers potential for CoVID-19 therapies. The mechanisms of disruption include: decreasing expression of CTSL, direct inhibition of CTSL activity and affecting the conditions of CTSL environment (increase pH in lysosomes).

We have conducted a high throughput drug screen gene expression analysis to identify compounds that would downregulate the expression of CTSL/CTSB. One of the top significant results shown to downregulate the expression of the CTSL gene is Amantadine. Amantadine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1968 as a prophylactic agent for influenza and later for Parkinsons disease. It is available as a generic drug..

Amantadine in addition to downregulating CTSL appears to further disrupt lysosomal pathway, hence interfering with the capacity of the virus to replicate. It acts as a lysosomotropic agent altering the CTSL functional environment. We hypothesize that Amantadine could decrease the viral load in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients and as such it may serve as a potent therapeutic decreasing the replication and infectivity of the virus likely leading to better clinical outcomes. Clinical studies will be needed to examine the therapeutic utility of amantadine in COVID-19 infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smieszek, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Przychodzen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polymeropoulos, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.05.026187</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amantadine disrupts lysosomal gene expression; potential therapy for COVID19]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.10.087312v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiplexed measurement of variant abundance and activity reveals VKOR topology, active site and human variant impact 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.10.087312v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR) drives the vitamin K cycle, activating vitamin K-dependent blood clotting factors. VKOR is also the target of the widely used anticoagulant drug, warfarin Despite VKORs pivotal role in coagulation, its structure and active site remain poorly understood. In addition, VKOR variants can cause vitamin K-dependent clotting factor deficiency 2 or alter warfarin response. Here, we used multiplexed, sequencing-based assays to measure the effects of 2,695 VKOR missense variants on abundance and 697 variants on activity in cultured human cells. The large-scale functional data, along with an evolutionary coupling analysis, supports a four transmembrane domain topology, with variants in transmembrane domains exhibiting strongly deleterious effects on abundance and activity. Functionally constrained regions of the protein define the active site, and we find that, of four conserved cysteines putatively critical for function, only three are absolutely required. Finally, 25% of human VKOR missense variants show reduced abundance or activity, possibly conferring warfarin sensitivity or causing disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chiasson, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rollins, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stephany, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sitko, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verby, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeSloover, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marks, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rettie, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.10.087312</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiplexed measurement of variant abundance and activity reveals VKOR topology, active site and human variant impact]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.130930v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular Basis of Far-red Sensing in Cyanobacteriochrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.130930v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cyanobacteriochromes are small, panchromatic photoreceptors in the phytochrome superfamily that regulate diverse light-mediated adaptive processes in cyanobacteria. The molecular basis of far-red (FR) light perception by cyanobacteriochromes is currently unknown. Here we report the crystal structure of a far-red-sensing cyanobacteriochrome from Anabaena cylindrica PCC 7122, which exhibits a reversible far-red/orange photocycle. The 2.7 [A] structure of its FR-absorbing dark state, determined by room temperature serial crystallography and cryo-crystallography, reveals an all-Z,syn configuration of its bound linear tetrapyrrole (bilin) chromophore that is less extended than the bilin chromophores of all known phytochromes. Based on structural comparisons with other bilin-binding proteins and extensive spectral analyses on mutants, we identify key protein-chromophore interactions that enable far-red sensing in bilin-binding proteins. We propose that FR-CBCRs employ two distinct tuning mechanisms, which work together to produce a large batho-chromatic shift. Findings of this work have important implications for development and improvement of photoproteins with far-red absorption and fluorescence.

Significance StatementPhytochromes are well known far-red-light sensors found in plants that trigger adaptive responses to facilitate competition for light capture with neighboring plants. Red- and far-red-sensing are critical to cyanobacteria living in the far-red-enriched shade of plants. Here we report the crystal structure of a far-red-sensing cyanobacteriochrome, a distant cyanobacterial relative of phytochrome. These studies shed insight into the poorly understood molecular basis of far-red-sensing by phytobilin-based photoreceptors. Owing to the deep tissue penetration of far-red light, far-red-sensing photoreceptors offer promising protein scaffolds for developing gene-based photoswitches, optoacoustic contrast agents and fluorescent probes for in situ imaging and optogenetic applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bandara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rockwell, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lagarias, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.02.130930</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular Basis of Far-red Sensing in Cyanobacteriochrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184226v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Title: Acetylcholine regulates pulmonary inflammation and facilitates the transition from active immunity to tissue repair during respiratory viral infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184226v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ABSTRACTInflammatory control is critical to recovery from respiratory viral infection. Acetylcholine (ACh) secreted from non-neuronal sources, including lymphocytes, plays an important, albeit underappreciated, role in regulating immune-mediated inflammation. This study was designed to explore the role of ACh in acute viral infection and recovery. Using the murine model of influenza A, cholinergic status in the lungs and airway was examined over the course of infection and recovery. The results showed that airway ACh remained constant through the early stage of infection and increased during the peak of the acquired immune response. As the concentration of ACh increased, cholinergic lymphocytes appeared in the airway and lungs. Cholinergic capacity was found primarily in CD4 T cells, but also in B cells and CD8 T cells. The cholinergic CD4+ T cells bound to influenza-specific tetramers at the same frequency as their conventional (i.e., non-cholinergic) counterparts. In addition, they were retained in the lungs throughout the recovery phase and could still be detected in the resident memory regions of the lung up to two months after infection. Histologically, cholinergic lymphocytes were found in direct physical contact with activated macrophages throughout the lung. When ACh production was inhibited, mice exhibited increased tissue inflammation, altered lung architecture, and delayed recovery. Together, these findings point to a previously unrecognized role for ACh in the transition from active immunity to recovery and pulmonary repair following respiratory viral infection.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Horkowitz, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrera, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thoman, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatfield, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborn, K. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feuer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, U. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.184226</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Title: Acetylcholine regulates pulmonary inflammation and facilitates the transition from active immunity to tissue repair during respiratory viral infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.194936v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clinical characteristics and primary management of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2015 and 2019 at the Uganda Cancer Institute 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.194936v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men in Uganda, with over 2086 incident cases in 2018. This study’s objective was to report the clinical characteristics and primary management of men diagnosed with prostate cancer at the Uganda Cancer Institute from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2019.Methods Records from all men diagnosed with Prostate cancer at the Uganda Cancer Institute from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2019 were reviewed. Clinical characteristics and primary treatment were recorded. Risk categorization was done using the European Society for Medical Oncology prostate cancer risk group classification.Results total of 874 medical records for men diagnosed with prostate cancer was retrieved. The median age was 70 years (interquartile range 64–77). In this study, 501 (57.32%) patients had localized disease. Among patients with localized disease, 2 (0.23%) were classified as low-risk, 5 (0.53%) as intermediate-risk, and 494 (56.52%) as high-risk. Three hundred seventy-three (373) patients had metastatic disease at diagnosis. Among patients with distant metastases, the most common site of metastases was bone 143 (16.36%), followed by spinal cord 54 (6.18%), abdomen 22 (2.52%), and lungs 14 (1.60%). Regarding the primary treatment options majority of the patients were on chemotherapy 384(43.94%) followed by hormonal therapy 336 (38.44%) and radiotherapy 127 (14.53%).Conclusion The majority of the patients diagnosed with prostate cancer at the Uganda Cancer Institute presented with advanced disease. The primary treatments were mostly chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and radiotherapy. There is a need to improve prostate cancer screening in regional health care facilities and the communities to enhance early detection and management of prostate cancer.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Paul Katongole</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obondo J. Sande</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulumba Yusuf</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moses Joloba</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steven J Reynolds</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nixon Niyonzima</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.09.194936</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clinical characteristics and primary management of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2015 and 2019 at the Uganda Cancer Institute]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.28.224923v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The PopN gate-keeper complex acts on the ATPase PscN to regulate the T3SS secretion switch from early to middle substrates in Pseudomonas aeruginosa 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.28.224923v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterium of which the main virulence factor is the Type III Secretion System. The ATPase of this machinery, PscN (SctN), is thought to be localized at the base of the secretion apparatus and to participate in the recognition, chaperone dissociation and unfolding of exported T3SS proteins. In this work, a protein-protein interaction ELISA revealed the interaction of PscN with a wide range of exported T3SS proteins including the needle, translocator, gate-keeper and effector. These interactions were further confirmed by Microscale Thermophoresis that also indicated a preferential interaction of PscN with secreted proteins or protein-chaperone complex rather than with chaperones alone, in line with the release of the chaperones in the bacterial cytoplasm after the dissociation from their exported proteins. Moreover, we suggest a new role of the gate-keeper complex and the ATPase in the regulation of early substrates recognition by the T3SS. This finding sheds a new light on the mechanism of secretion switching from early to middle substrates in P. aeruginosa.

HighlightsO_LIT3SS substrates are secreted sequentially but information on the switches are missing
C_LIO_LIInteraction of the T3SS ATPase with secreted proteins were investigated by different approaches
C_LIO_LIMicroscale Thermophoresis revealed a lower affinity for chaperones alone compared to complexes
C_LIO_LIThe Gate-keeper complex binds to the ATPase and increases its affinity for the needle complex
C_LIO_LIA new role of the Gate-keeper complex is proposed, directly acting on the T3SS ATPase
C_LI



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=103 SRC="FIGDIR/small/224923v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (15K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e6803corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ed155aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14faf6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1685ec8_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ngo, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perdu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jneid, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ragno, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novion Ducassou, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraut, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coute, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stopford, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Attree, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faudry, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.28.224923</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The PopN gate-keeper complex acts on the ATPase PscN to regulate the T3SS secretion switch from early to middle substrates in Pseudomonas aeruginosa]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.12.248443v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Preclinical modeling of surgery and steroid therapy for glioblastoma reveals changes in immunophenotype that are associated with tumor growth and outcome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.12.248443v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy have created a greater appreciation of potential anti-tumoral impacts by the immune system; however, individual patient responses have been variable. While immunotherapy is often given after standard-of-care treatment, the effects of initial interventions on the ability of the immune system to mount a response are not well understood and this may contribute to the variable response. For glioblastoma (GBM), initial disease management includes surgical resection, perioperative high-dose steroid therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment. While new discoveries regarding the impact of chemotherapy and radiation on immune response have been made and translated to clinical trial design, the impact of surgical resection and steroids on the anti-tumor immune response has yet to be determined. Further, it is now accepted that steroid usage needs to be closely evaluated in the context of GBM and immunotherapy trials. To better model the clinical scenario in GBM, we developed a mouse model that integrates tumor resection and steroid treatment to understand how these therapies affect local and systemic immune responses. Using this model, we observed a systemic reduction in lymphocytes associated with surgical resection and identified a correlation between increased tumor volume and decreased circulating lymphocytes, a relationship that was obviated by dexamethasone treatment. Furthermore, we investigated the possibility of there being similar relationships in a cohort of patients with GBM and found that prior to steroid treatment, circulating lymphocytes inversely correlated with tumor volume. Lastly, correlating GBM patient data and outcomes demonstrated that peripherally circulating lymphocyte content varies with progression-free and overall survival, independent of tumor volume, steroid use, or tumor molecular profiles. These results highlight the systemic immunosuppressive effects that initial therapies can have on patients. Such effects should be considered when designing current and future immunotherapy clinical trials and underscore the importance of circulating lymphocytes as a possible correlate of GBM disease progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Otvos, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alban, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivoyevitch, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabljenovic, a.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Androjna, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammadi, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnett, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fecci, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.12.248443</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Preclinical modeling of surgery and steroid therapy for glioblastoma reveals changes in immunophenotype that are associated with tumor growth and outcome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.10.286252v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Supraphysiological testosterone induces ferroptosis and activates NF-kappaB mediated immune pathways in prostate cancer through nucleophagy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.10.286252v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The discovery that androgens play an important role in the progression of prostate cancer (PCa) has led to the development of androgen deprivation therapy as a first line of treatment against PCa. However, paradoxical growth inhibition has been observed, both experimentally and clinically, in a subset of PCa upon administration of supraphysiological levels of testosterone (SupraT). Here we report that SupraT activates cytoplasmic nucleic acid sensors and induces growth inhibition of SupraT-sensitive PCa cells. This is initiated by induction of two parallel autophagy-mediated processes, namely, ferritinophagy and nucleophagy. Consequently, autophagosomal DNA activates nucleic acid sensors that converge on NF-kappaB to drive immune signaling pathways. Chemokines and cytokines secreted by the tumor cells in response to SupraT results in increased migration of cytotoxic immune cells to tumor beds of animal xenografts and patient tumors. Collectively, our findings indicate that SupraT may inhibit a subset of PCa by activating nucleic acid sensors and downstream immune signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mendonca, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owoyemi, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyapati, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanacharoen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coffey, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Topiwala, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozbek, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiens, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brennen, W. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isaacs, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Marzo, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antonarakis, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pienta, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pardoll, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carducci, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denmeade, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kachhap, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.10.286252</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Supraphysiological testosterone induces ferroptosis and activates NF-kappaB mediated immune pathways in prostate cancer through nucleophagy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.18.303966v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dose dependent evolutionary game dynamics modulate competitive release in cancer therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.18.303966v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapeutic strategies for tumor control have traditionally assumed that maximizing reduction in tumor volume correlates with clinical efficacy. Unfortunately, this rapid decrease in tumor burden is almost invariably followed by the emergence of therapeutic resistance. Evolutionary based treatment strategies attempt to delay resistance via judicious treatments that maintain a significant treatable subpopulation. While these strategies have shown promise in recent clinical trials, they often rely on biological conjecture and intuition to derive parameters. In this study we experimentally measure the frequency-dependent interactions between a gefitinib resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) population and its sensitive ancestor via the evolutionary game assay. We show that cost of resistance is insufficient to accurately predict competitive exclusion and that frequency-dependent growth rate measurements are required. In addition, we show that frequency-dependent growth rate changes may ultimately result in a safe harbor for resistant populations to safely accumulate, even those with significant cost of resistance. Using frequency-dependent growth rate data we then show that gefitinib treatment results in competitive exclusion of the ancestor, while absence of treatment results in a likely, but not guaranteed exclusion of the resistant strain. Finally, using our empirically derived growth rates to constrain simulations, we demonstrate that incorporating ecological growth effects can dramatically change the predicted time to sensitive strain extinction. In addition, we show that higher drug concentrations may not lead to the optimal reduction in tumor burden. Taken together, these results highlight the potential importance of frequency-dependent growth rate data for understanding competing populations, both in the laboratory and the clinic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farrokhian, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellsworth, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitomi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaznatcheev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusyk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.18.303966</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dose dependent evolutionary game dynamics modulate competitive release in cancer therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.09.333641v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A selectable, plasmid-based system to generate CRISPR/Cas9 gene edited and knock-in mosquito cell lines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.09.333641v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aedes (Ae.) aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes transmit arthropod-borne diseases around the globe, causing ~700,000 deaths each year. Genetic mutants are valuable tools to interrogate both fundamental vector biology and mosquito host factors important for viral infection. However, very few genetic mutants have been described in mosquitoes in comparison to model organisms. The relative ease of applying CRISPR/Cas9 based gene editing has transformed genome engineering and has rapidly increased the number of available gene mutants in mosquitoes. Yet, in vivo studies may not be practical for screening large sets of mutants or possible for laboratories that lack insectaries. Thus, it would be useful to adapt CRISPR/Cas9 systems to common mosquito cell lines. In this study, we generated and characterized a mosquito optimized, plasmid based CRISPR/Cas9 system for use in U4.4 (Ae. albopictus) and Aag2 (Ae. aegypti) cell lines. We demonstrated highly efficient editing of the AGO1 locus and isolated knock-down AGO1 cell lines. Further, we used homology-directed repair to establish knock-in Aag2 cell lines with a 3xFLAG-tag at the N-terminus of endogenous AGO1. These experimentally verified plasmids are versatile, cost-effective, and efficiently edit immune competent mosquito cell lines that are widely used in arbovirus studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rozen-Gagnon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novack, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.09.333641</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A selectable, plasmid-based system to generate CRISPR/Cas9 gene edited and knock-in mosquito cell lines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.09.334128v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TMEM41B is a pan-flavivirus host factor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.09.334128v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Flaviviruses pose a constant threat to human health. These RNA viruses are transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes and ticks and regularly cause outbreaks. To identify host factors required for flavivirus infection we performed full-genome loss of function CRISPR-Cas9 screens. Based on these results we focused our efforts on characterizing the roles that TMEM41B and VMP1 play in the virus replication cycle. Our mechanistic studies on TMEM41B revealed that all members of the Flaviviridae family that we tested require TMEM41B. We tested 12 additional virus families and found that SARS-CoV-2 of the Coronaviridae also required TMEM41B for infection. Remarkably, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) present at nearly twenty percent in East Asian populations reduce flavivirus infection. Based on our mechanistic studies we hypothesize that TMEM41B is recruited to flavivirus RNA replication complexes to facilitate membrane curvature, which creates a protected environment for viral genome replication.

HIGHLIGHTSTMEM41B and VMP1 are required for both autophagy and flavivirus infection, however, autophagy is not required for flavivirus infection.

TMEM41B associates with viral proteins and likely facilitates membrane remodeling to establish viral RNA replication complexes.

TMEM41B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) present at nearly twenty percent in East Asian populations reduce flavivirus infection.

TMEM41B-deficient cells display an exaggerated innate immune response upon high multiplicity flavivirus infection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, H.- H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rozen-Gagnon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miles, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuster, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Razooky, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudin, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacDonald, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMullan, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poirier, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.09.334128</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TMEM41B is a pan-flavivirus host factor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.10.334375v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adaptive translational pausing is a hallmark of the cellular response to severe environmental stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.10.334375v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mammalian cells have to adapt to environmental challenges that range from mild to severe stress. While the cellular response to mild stress has been widely studied, how cells respond to severe stress remains unclear. We show here that under severe stress conditions, cells induce a transient hibernation-like mechanism that anticipates recovery. We demonstrate that this Adaptive Pausing Response (APR) is a coordinated cellular response that limits ATP supply and consumption though mitochondrial fragmentation and widespread pausing of mRNA translation. This pausing is accomplished by ribosome stalling at translation initiation codons, which keeps mRNAs poised to resume translation upon recovery from severe stress. We further show that recovery from severe stress involves adaptive ISR (Integrated Stress Response) signaling that in turn permits cell cycle progression, resumption of growth, and reversal of mitochondria fragmentation. Our findings indicate that cells can respond to severe stress through the APR, a mechanism that preserves vital elements of cellular function under harsh environmental conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jobava, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, B.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krokowski, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chukwurah, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zagore, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merrick, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jankowsky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Topisirovic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licatalosi, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, S.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.10.334375</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adaptive translational pausing is a hallmark of the cellular response to severe environmental stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.16.343103v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Diverse Changes in Microglia Morphology and Axonal Pathology Over One Year after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Pigs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.16.343103v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over 2.8 million people experience mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States each year, which may lead to long-term neurological dysfunction. The mechanical forces that occur due to TBI propagate through the brain to produce diffuse axonal injury (DAI) and trigger secondary neuroinflammatory cascades. The cascades may persist from acute to chronic time points after injury, altering the homeostasis of the brain. However, the relationship between the hallmark axonal pathology of diffuse TBI and potential changes in glial cell activation or morphology have not been established in a clinically relevant large animal model at chronic time points. In this study, we assessed tissue from pigs subjected to rapid head rotation in the coronal plane to generate mild TBI. Neuropathological assessments for axonal pathology, microglial morphological changes, and astrocyte reactivity were conducted in specimens out to 1 year post injury. We detected an increase in overall amyloid precursor protein pathology, as well as periventricular white matter and fimbria/fornix pathology after a single mild TBI. We did not detect changes in corpus callosum integrity or astrocyte reactivity. However, detailed microglial skeletal analysis revealed changes in morphology, most notably increases in the number of microglial branches, junctions, and endpoints. These subtle changes were most evident in periventricular white matter and certain hippocampal subfields, and were observed out to 1 year post injury in some cases. These ongoing morphological alterations suggest persistent change in neuroimmune homeostasis. Additional studies are needed to characterize the underlying molecular and neurophysiological alterations, as well as potential contributions to neurological deficits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grovola, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paleologos, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wofford, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Browne, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolf, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cullen, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duda, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.16.343103</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Diverse Changes in Microglia Morphology and Axonal Pathology Over One Year after Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Pigs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.29.360628v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Novel Surgical Method for Continuous Intra-Portal Infusion of Gut Microbial Metabolites in Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.29.360628v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gut microbial-derived metabolites have been shown to play key roles in human physiology and disease. However, establishing mechanistic links between gut microbial metabolites and disease pathogenesis in animal models presents many challenges. The major route of absorption for microbe-derived small molecules is venous drainage via the portal vein to the liver. In the event of extensive liver first pass- or presystemic hepatic metabolism, the route of administration of these metabolites becomes critical. Here we describe a novel portal vein cannulation technique using a subcutaneously implanted osmotic pump to achieve continuous portal vein infusion in mice. First, the microbial metabolite trimethylamine (TMA) was administered over 4 weeks and compared to a vehicle control. Using a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), an increase in peripheral plasma levels of TMA and its host liver-derived co-metabolite trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) were observed in a sexually-dimorphic manner. Next, 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (4-HPAA), a structurally distinct microbial metabolite that undergoes extensive hepatic first pass metabolism, was administered intraportally to examine effects on hepatic gene expression. As expected, there was no difference in peripheral plasma 4-HPAA levels yet liver tissue demonstrated higher levels of 4-HPAA when compared to the control group. More importantly, significant changes were observed in hepatic gene expression using an unbiased RNA sequencing approach. Collectively, this work describes a novel method for administering gut microbe-derived metabolites via the portal vein, mimicking their physiologic delivery in vivo.

ImportanceRecent efforts have underscored the importance of the gut microbial community as a meta-endocrine organ impacting host physiology through systemic delivery of gut-microbial metabolites [Brown and Hazen, 2015]. Microbial metabolites are first delivered to the liver via the portal vein following venous drainage of the gastrointestinal tract. This route of absorption is often crucial by allowing the liver to biotransfrom these molecules prior to entering the peripheral circulation. Microbial metabolites are frequently studied in animal models by incorporation into diet or drinking water. This method falls short as inconsistent oral intake, inconsistent gastrointestinal absorption, and further modification of the metabolite by gut microbes yield imprecise levels of drug delivery. In efforts to overcome this, the physiological impact of microbial metabolites is often studied by intermittent exogenous administration of a metabolite in a non-physiologically relevant manner such as intravenous injection, intraperitoneal injection, or subcutaneous administration, all placing a relatively large proportion of the metabolite directly into the peripheral circulation. Although these approaches can effectively raise circulating metabolites levels in some cases, they do not mimic the natural delivery of gut microbial-derived small molecules through the portal circulation to the liver. Here we describe a novel surgical method to continuously deliver precise amounts of gut microbial metabolites intraportally to better recapitulate the natural systemic delivery route of microbial metabolites to the liver. This model will improve the interrogation of gut microbial metabolites and their associations to disease by providing an unmatched level of resolution when manipulating the portal blood metabolome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Orabi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborn, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aucejo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choucair, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeLucia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Claesen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.29.360628</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Novel Surgical Method for Continuous Intra-Portal Infusion of Gut Microbial Metabolites in Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.05.369280v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Fast Lysine Cross-linker DOPA Enables Mass Spectrometry Analyses of Protein Unfolding and Weak Protein-protein Interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.05.369280v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chemical cross-linking of proteins coupled with mass spectrometry analysis (CXMS) has become a widely used method for protein structure analysis. Central to this technology are chemical cross-linkers. The most popular cross-linkers are N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) esters, which react with protein amino groups relatively slowly over 10 minutes or more while in competition with the hydrolysis reaction of NHS esters. To improve the speed of cross-linking, we developed a new class of amine-selective and non-hydrolyzable di-ortho-phthalaldehyde (DOPA) cross-linkers. DOPA can cross-link proteins in 10 seconds under near physiological conditions, which is 60 times faster than the NHS ester cross-linker DSS. DOPA also works at low pH, low temperature, or in the presence of high concentrations of denaturants such as 8 M urea or 6 M guanidine hydrochloride. Further, DOPA-mediated pulse cross-linking captured the dynamic conformational changes associated with RNase A unfolding. Lastly, DOPA outperformed DSS at capturing weak but specific protein-protein interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, Y.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.-Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, M.-Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.05.369280</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Fast Lysine Cross-linker DOPA Enables Mass Spectrometry Analyses of Protein Unfolding and Weak Protein-protein Interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.08.371179v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Augmenting Flexibility: Mutual Inhibition Between Inhibitory Neurons Expands Functional Diversity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.08.371179v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rapid, flexible response to an ever-changing environment is critical for an organisms survival. Recently, multicellular recordings have shown that this rapid, flexible switching between activity patterns is present in neural microcircuits. However, the underlying neural mechanism is not clear. Strikingly, we show in a neural circuit model that mutually inhibitory connections are crucial for rapid and flexible switching between distinct functions without synaptic plasticity. Here, we develop a theoretical framework to explain how inhibitory recurrent circuits give rise to this flexibility and show that mutual inhibition doubles the number of cusp bifurcations in small neural circuits. As a concrete example, we study a commonly observed class of functional motifs we call Coupled Recurrent Inhibitory and Recurrent Excitatory Loops (CRIRELs). These CRIRELs have the advantage of being both multifunctional and controllable, performing a plethora of unique functions. Finally, we demonstrate how mutual inhibition maximizes storage capacity for larger networks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lo, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.08.371179</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Augmenting Flexibility: Mutual Inhibition Between Inhibitory Neurons Expands Functional Diversity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.13.381947v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Nuclear Pore Complex consists of two independent scaffolds 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.13.381947v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Macromolecular transport between the nucleus and cytoplasm is mediated through Nuclear Pore Complexes (NPCs), which are built from multiple copies of roughly 34 distinct proteins, called nucleoporins1-3. Models of the NPC depict it as a composite of several sub-domains that have been named the outer rings, inner ring, cytoplasmic fibrils and nuclear basket. While the NPC has been extensively studied, the roles of individual nucleoporins within NPCs and their functional interactions remain poorly understood. Here, we applied a rapid degron system to systematically investigate how individual nucleoporins contribute toward NPC architecture. We find that acute depletion of outer ring components (NUP96 or NUP107) disperses the outer ring and cytoplasmic fibrils without disassembly of inner ring members. Conversely, rapid degradation of the inner ring complex component NUP188 disrupts the inner ring without dislodging outer ring members. We also found that depletion of NUP93 destabilized all NPC domains, indicating that it has a unique role as a lynchpin of NPC structure. Our data highlight the modular nature of NPC organization, suggesting that the outer and inner ring complexes do not extensively rely on each other for structural stability after NPC assembly is complete. This dynamic assessment provides new insights regarding the remarkable structural independence of domains within the NPC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Regmi, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufhold, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fichtman, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aksenova, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turcotte, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnaoutov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dasso, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.13.381947</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Nuclear Pore Complex consists of two independent scaffolds]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.04.411546v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gut Microbe-Targeted Choline Trimethylamine Lyase Inhibition Improves Obesity Via Rewiring of Host Circadian Rhythms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.04.411546v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Obesity has repeatedly been linked to reorganization of the gut microbiome, yet to this point obesity therapeutics have been targeted exclusively toward the human host. Here we show that gut microbe-targeted inhibition of the trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) pathway protects mice against the metabolic disturbances associated with diet-induced obesity (DIO) or leptin deficiency (ob/ob). Small molecule inhibition of the gut microbial enzyme choline TMA-lyase (CutC) does not reduce food intake, but is instead associated with beneficial remodeling of the gut microbiome, improvement in glucose tolerance, and enhanced energy expenditure. We also show that CutC inhibition is associated with reorganization of host circadian control of both phosphatidylcholine and energy metabolism. This study underscores the relationship between microbe and host metabolism, and provides evidence that gut microbe-derived trimethylamine (TMA) is a key regulator of the host circadian clock. This work also demonstrates that gut microbe-targeted enzyme inhibitors have untapped potential as anti-obesity therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schugar, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gliniak, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helsley, R. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burrows, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finney, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gromovsky, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMillan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buffa, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehrabian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goudarzi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mak, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keshavarzian, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Garcia, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hazen, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.04.411546</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gut Microbe-Targeted Choline Trimethylamine Lyase Inhibition Improves Obesity Via Rewiring of Host Circadian Rhythms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.15.422974v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Putative Pseudolysogeny-Dependent Phage Gene Implicated in the Superinfection Resistance of Cutibacterium acnes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.15.422974v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundBacteriophage therapy is a promising option to minimize the risk of treatment-associated antibiotic resistance in Cutibacterium acnes. A novel phage (Aquarius) was isolated and analyzed to explore characteristics of C. acnes phages that may confer lysis-evasion properties.

Materials and MethodsPhage superinfection resistance assays were performed with a range of C. acnes phages, which were assayed for pseudolysogeny via phage release assays and episome PCR. Bioinformatics and qRT-PCR were used to identify candidate genes related to observed phenotypes.

ResultsAssay findings indicated that infected C. acnes strains were broadly resistant to superinfection and were capable of forming stable pseudolysogens. A conserved Ltp family-like gene contained protein signatures which may be contributing to phage-mediated superinfection resistance in a pseudolysogeny-dependent manner.

ConclusionsC. acnes bacteria are capable of harboring phage pseudolysogens, and this phenomenon may result in superinfection resistance, necessitating consideration in targeting optimization of C. acnes phage-based therapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wottrich, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mendonca, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safarpour, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marinelli, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Modlin, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moberg Parker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.15.422974</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Putative Pseudolysogeny-Dependent Phage Gene Implicated in the Superinfection Resistance of Cutibacterium acnes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.12.426381v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Male sex and age biases viral burden, viral shedding, and type 1 and 2 interferon responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection in ferrets 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.12.426381v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) hospitalizations and deaths disportionally affect males and the elderly. Here we investigated the impact of male sex and age by infecting adult male, aged male, and adult female ferrets with SARS-CoV-2. Aged male ferrets had a decrease in temperature which was accompanied by prolonged viral replication with increased pathology in the upper respiratory tract after infection. Transcriptome analysis of the nasal turbinates and lungs indicated that female ferrets had significant increases in interferon response genes (OASL, MX1, ISG15, etc.) on day 2 post infection which was delayed in aged males. In addition, genes associated with taste and smell such as RTP1, CHGA, and CHGA1 at later time points were upregulated in males but not in females. These results provide insight into COVID-19 and suggests that older males may play a role in viral transmission due to decreased antiviral responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Francis, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNeil, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rioux, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ge, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pechous, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kindrachuk, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lew, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerdts, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Falzarano, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelvin, A. A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.12.426381</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Male sex and age biases viral burden, viral shedding, and type 1 and 2 interferon responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection in ferrets]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.16.426957v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting primary and metastatic uveal melanoma with a G protein inhibitor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.16.426957v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common intraocular tumor in adults. Nearly half of UM patients develop metastatic disease and often succumb within months because effective therapy is lacking. A novel therapeutic approach has been suggested by the discovery that UM cell lines driven by mutant constitutively active Gq or G11 can be targeted by FR900359 (FR) or YM-254890, which are bioavailable, selective inhibitors of the Gq/11/14 subfamily of heterotrimeric G proteins. Here, we have addressed the therapeutic potential of FR for UM. We found that FR inhibited all oncogenic Gq/11 mutants reported in UM. FR arrested growth of all Gq/11-driven UM cell lines tested, but induced apoptosis only in a few. Similarly, FR inhibited growth of, but did not efficiently kill, UM tumor cells from biopsies of primary or metastatic tumors. FR evoked melanocytic redifferentiation of UM tumor cells with low (class 1), but not high (class 2), metastatic potential. FR administered systemically below its LD50 strongly inhibited growth of PDX-derived class 1 and class 2 UM tumors in mouse xenograft models, and reduced blood pressure transiently. FR did not regress xenografted UM tumors, or significantly affect heart rate, liver function, hematopoiesis, or behavior. These results indicated the existence of a therapeutic window in which FR can be explored for treating UM, and potentially other diseases caused by constitutively active Gq/11.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Onken, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makepeace, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaltenbronn, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez-Aya, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weilbaecher, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piggott, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuede, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dixon, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osei-Owusu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blumer, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.16.426957</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting primary and metastatic uveal melanoma with a G protein inhibitor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.426385v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microenvironment Impacts the Molecular Architecture and Interactivity of Resident Cells in Marmoset Brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.426385v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The microenvironments of the brain consist of specialized cell types that together influence physiological functions in health and pathological outcomes in disease. Despite apparent differences in the density of neurons and oligodendrocytes in various milieus, such as gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM), the extent of structural and functional heterogeneity of other resident cells remains unclear. We profiled RNA in ~500,000 nuclei from 19 tissue types across the central nervous system of the healthy adult common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) and mapped 87 identified subclusters (including neurons, glia, and vasculature) spatially onto a 3D MRI atlas. We performed cross-species comparison, explored regulatory pathways, surveyed cellular determinants of neurological disorders, and modeled regional intercellular communication. We found spatially segregated microglia, oligodendrocyte lineage cells, and astrocytes in WM and GM. WM-glia are diverse, are enriched with genes involved in stimulus response and biomolecule modification, and interact with other resident cells more extensively than their GM counterparts. GM-glia preserve the expression of developmental morphogens into adulthood and share 6 differentially enriched transcription factors that restrict the transcriptome complexity. Our work in marmoset, an experimentally tractable animal model with >5 times more WM volume and complexity than mouse, identifies novel WM-glia subtypes and their contributions to different neurological disorders. A companion Callithrix jacchus Primate Cell Atlas (CjPCA) is available through an online portal https://cjpca.ninds.nih.gov to facilitate data exploration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawaguchi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geschwind, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reich, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.25.426385</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microenvironment Impacts the Molecular Architecture and Interactivity of Resident Cells in Marmoset Brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428162v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
L-WNK1 is required for BK channel activation in intercalated cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428162v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BK channels expressed in intercalated cells (ICs) in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN) mediate flow-induced K+ secretion. In the ASDN of mice and rabbits, IC BK channel expression and activity increase with a high K+ diet. In cell culture, the long isoform of the kinase WNK1 (L-WNK1) increases BK channel expression and activity. Apical L-WNK1 expression is selectively enhanced in ICs in the ASDN of rabbits on a high K+ diet, suggesting that L-WNK1 contributes to BK channel regulation by dietary K+. We examined the role of IC L-WNK1 expression in enhancing BK channel activity in response to a high K+ diet. Mice with an IC-selective deletion of L-WNK1 (IC-L-WNK1-KO) and littermate control mice were placed on a high K+ (5% K+ as KCl) diet for at least 10 days. IC-L-WNK1-KO mice exhibited higher blood K+ concentrations ([K+]) than controls. BK channel-dependent whole-cell currents in ICs from cortical collecting ducts of high K+ fed IC-L-WNK1-KO mice were reduced compared to controls. Six-hour urinary K+ excretion in response a saline load was similar in IC-L-WNK1-KO mice and controls. The observations that IC-L-WNK1-KO mice have higher blood [K+] and reduced IC BK channel currents are consistent with impaired urinary K+ secretion, and suggest that IC L-WNK1 has a role in the renal adaptation to a high K+ diet.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ray, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrisoza, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Bataineh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marciszyn, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nkashama, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winfrey, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flores, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>wang, c.-l.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanya, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleyman, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satlin, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.26.428162</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[L-WNK1 is required for BK channel activation in intercalated cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.28.428743v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development of spike receptor-binding domain nanoparticle as a vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infection in ferrets 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.28.428743v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a causative agent of COVID-19 pandemic, enters host cells via the interaction of its Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD) of Spike protein with host Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2). Therefore, RBD is a promising vaccine target to induce protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we report the development of RBD protein-based vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 using self-assembling H. pylori-bullfrog ferritin nanoparticles as an antigen delivery. RBD-ferritin protein purified from mammalian cells efficiently assembled into 24-mer nanoparticles. 16-20 months-old ferrets were vaccinated with RBD-ferritin nanoparticles (RBD-nanoparticles) by intramuscular or intranasal inoculation. All vaccinated ferrets with RBD-nanoparticles produced potent neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Strikingly, vaccinated ferrets demonstrated efficient protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge, showing no fever, body weight loss and clinical symptoms. Furthermore, vaccinated ferrets showed rapid clearance of infectious viruses in nasal washes and lungs as well as viral RNA in respiratory organs. This study demonstrates the Spike RBD-nanoparticle as an effective protein vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y.-I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, K.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seo, H. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casel, M. A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jang, S.-G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, C.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, J. U.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.28.428743</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development of spike receptor-binding domain nanoparticle as a vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 infection in ferrets]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.19.432017v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular basis for Ras suppressor-1 recruitment to focal adhesions and stabilization of consensus adhesome complex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.19.432017v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ras suppressor-1 (Rsu-1) is a leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing protein that is crucial for regulating fundamental cell adhesion processes and tumor development. Rsu-1 interacts with a zinc-finger type multi LIM domain-containing adaptor protein PINCH-1 involved in the integrin-mediated consensus adhesome but not with highly homologous isoform PINCH-2. However, the structural basis for such specific interaction and regulatory mechanism remains unclear. Here, we determined the crystal structures of Rsu-1 and its complex with the PINCH-1 LIM4-5 domains. Rsu-1 displays an arc-shaped solenoid architecture with eight LRRs shielded by the N- and C-terminal capping modules. We show that a large conserved concave surface of the Rsu-1 LRR domain recognizes the PINCH-1 LIM5 domain, and that the C-terminal non-LIM region of PINCH-2 but not PINCH-1 sterically disfavors the Rsu-1 binding. We further show that Rsu-1 can be assembled, via PINCH-1-binding, into a tight hetero-pentamer complex comprising Rsu-1, PINCH-1, ILK, Parvin, and Kindlin-2 that constitute a major consensus integrin adhesome crucial for focal adhesion assembly. Consistently, our mutagenesis and cell biological data consolidate the significance of the Rsu-1/PINCH-1 interaction in focal adhesion assembly and cell spreading. Our results provide a crucial molecular insight into Rsu-1-mediated cell adhesion with implication on how it may regulate tumorigenic growth.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fukuda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.19.432017</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular basis for Ras suppressor-1 recruitment to focal adhesions and stabilization of consensus adhesome complex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.12.435046v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kidney-Specific WNK1 Amplifies NCC Responsiveness to Potassium Imbalance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.12.435046v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To maintain potassium homeostasis, the kidneys distal convoluted tubule (DCT) converts small changes in blood [K+] into robust effects on salt reabsorption. This process requires NaCl cotransporter (NCC) activation by WNK kinases. During hypokalemia, the Kidney-Specific WNK1 isoform (KS-WNK1) scaffolds the DCT-expressed WNK signaling pathway within biomolecular condensates of unknown function termed WNK bodies. Here, we show that KS-WNK1 amplifies the dynamic range of NCC activity in response to potassium imbalance, in part via WNK bodies. Targeted condensate disruption traps the WNK pathway, causing renal salt-wasting that is more pronounced in females. In humans, WNK bodies accumulate as plasma potassium falls below 4.0mmol/L, suggesting avid condensate-mediated salt reabsorption even when [K+] is low-normal. These data identify WNK bodies as signal amplifiers that mediate tubular potassium responsiveness, nephron sexual dimorphism, and blood pressure salt-sensitivity. Our results illustrate how condensate specialization can optimize a mammalian physiologic stress response that impacts human health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Boyd-Shiwarski, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beacham, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shiwarski, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knoell, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nkashama, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Querry, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marciszyn, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, C.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stocker, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanya, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.12.435046</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kidney-Specific WNK1 Amplifies NCC Responsiveness to Potassium Imbalance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.30.437737v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Osteoblast-Specific Wnt Secretion is Required for Skeletal Homeostasis and Loading-Induced Bone Formation in Adult Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.30.437737v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Wnt signaling is critical to many aspects of skeletal regulation, but the importance of Wnt ligands in adult bone homeostasis and the anabolic response to mechanical loading is not well documented. We inhibited Wnt ligand secretion in adult (5-mo) mice using a systemic (drug) and a bone-targeted (genetic) approach, and subjected them to axial tibial loading to induce lamellar bone formation. Mice treated with the porcupine inhibitor WNT974 exhibited a decrease in bone formation in non-loaded limbs as well as a 54% decline in the periosteal bone formation response to tibial loading. Similarly, within 1-2 weeks of Wls deletion in osteoblasts (Osx-CreERT2;WlsF/F mice), skeletal homeostasis was altered with decreased bone formation and increased resorption, and the anabolic response to loading was reduced 65% compared to control (WlsF/F). These findings establish a requirement for Wnt ligand secretion by osteoblasts for adult bone homeostasis and the anabolic response to mechanical loading.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lawson, L. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brodt, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Migotsky, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chermside-Scabbo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palaniappan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silva, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.30.437737</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Osteoblast-Specific Wnt Secretion is Required for Skeletal Homeostasis and Loading-Induced Bone Formation in Adult Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.28.441787v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distortion Discovery: A Framework to Model, Spot and Explain Tumor Heterogeneity and Mitigate its Negative Impact on Cancer Risk Assessment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.28.441787v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In a complex system of inter-genome interactions, false negatives remain an overwhelming problem when using omics data for disease risk prediction. This is especially clear when dealing with complex diseases like cancer in which the infiltration of stromal and immune cells into the tumor tissue can affect the degree of its tumor purity and hence its cancer signal. Previous work was done to estimate the degree of cancer purity in a tissue. In this work, we introduce a data and biomarker selection independent, information theoretic, approach to tackle this problem. We model distortion as a source of false negatives and introduce a mechanism to detect and remove its impact on the accuracy of disease risk prediction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Elmansy, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.28.441787</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distortion Discovery: A Framework to Model, Spot and Explain Tumor Heterogeneity and Mitigate its Negative Impact on Cancer Risk Assessment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.01.454697v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Scalable Clustering with Supervised Linkage Methods 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.01.454697v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Data clustering plays a significant role in biomedical sciences, particularly in single-cell data analysis. Researchers use clustering algorithms to group individual cells into populations that can be evaluated across different levels of disease progression, drug response, and other clinical statuses. In many cases, multiple sets of clusters must be generated to assess varying levels of cluster specificity. For example, there are many subtypes of leukocytes (e.g. T cells), whose individual preponderance and phenotype must be assessed for statistical/functional significance. In this report, we introduce a novel hierarchical density clustering algorithm (HAL-x) that uses supervised linkage methods to build a cluster hierarchy on raw single-cell data. With this new approach, HAL-x can quickly predict multiple sets of labels for immense datasets, achieving a considerable improvement in computational efficiency on large datasets compared to existing methods. We also show that cell clusters generated by HAL-x yield near-perfect F1-scores when classifying different clinical statuses based on single-cell profiles. Our hierarchical density clustering algorithm achieves high accuracy in single cell classification in a scalable, tunable and rapid manner. We make HAL-x publicly available at: https://pypi.org/project/hal-x/
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anibal, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Day, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahadiroglu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Neill, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peltekian, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaplan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altan-Bonnet, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.01.454697</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Scalable Clustering with Supervised Linkage Methods]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455754v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineering site-selective incorporation of fluorine into natural product analogs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455754v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While bioactive compounds are commonly derived both by human design as well as from living organisms, man-made and natural products typically display very different structural characteristics. As such, a longstanding goal in the discovery of new molecular function is to develop approaches to incorporate the advantageous elements of both groups of molecules, thereby expanding the molecular space accessible for this purpose. In this work, we report the engineering a fluorine-selective enzyme that can complement mutated acyltransferase (AT) domains of a modular polyketide synthase, which are the main determinants of the identity and location of substituents on polyketides, to produce different fluorinated regioisomers of the erythromycin precursor in vitro. We further show that by engineering cell uptake of fluorinated building blocks, we can control fluorine selectivity in vivo to produce selectively fluorinated polyketides using engineered E. coli. These results demonstrate that it is possible to introduce fluorine, a key synthetic design element for drug development, selectively into the scaffold of a complex natural product and produce these analogs by microbial fermentation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sirirungruang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ad, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Privalsky, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramesh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sax, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baidoo, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khosla, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.09.455754</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineering site-selective incorporation of fluorine into natural product analogs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.10.455815v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Repair of Noise-Induced Damage to Stereocilia F-actin Cores is Facilitated by XIRP2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.10.455815v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Prolonged exposure to loud noise has been shown to affect inner ear sensory hair cells in a variety of deleterious manners, including damaging the stereocilia core. The damaged sites can be visualized as "gaps" in phalloidin staining of F-actin, and the enrichment of monomeric actin at these sites, along with an actin nucleator and crosslinker, suggests that localized remodeling occurs to repair the broken filaments. Herein we show that gaps in mouse auditory hair cells are largely repaired within one week of traumatic noise exposure through the incorporation of newly synthesized actin. Additionally, we report that XIRP2 is required for the repair process and facilitates the enrichment of monomeric{gamma} -actin at gaps through its LIM domain-containing C-terminus. Our study describes a novel process by which hair cells can recover from sub-lethal hair bundle damage and which may contribute to recovery from temporary hearing threshold shifts and the prevention of age-related hearing loss.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wagner, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Im, J.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakahata, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imbery, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noy, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Archer, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hashisaki, G. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avraham, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.10.455815</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Repair of Noise-Induced Damage to Stereocilia F-actin Cores is Facilitated by XIRP2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.08.458161v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intercellular crosstalk regulating ARRB2/RARRES1 is involved in transition from fibrosis to cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.08.458161v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Progressive fibrogenesis in chronic liver injury is often associated with cancer development. Beta-arrestin-2 (ARRB2) is a regulator of the profibrotic Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AGTR1). The role of ARRB2 in liver fibrosis and in the transition from fibrosis to cancer is not fully understood and was investigated in this study.

This study demonstrates that upregulation of the retinoic acid receptor responder 1 (RARRES1) in HSC mediated by ARRB2 leads to fibrosis. This process is driven by exosomal ARRB2 transfer to HSC, major fibrosis contributors, from injured hepatocytes, which highly express ARRB2. By contrast, downregulation of RARRES1 in hepatocytes induces malignant transformation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. Consequently, Arrb2-deficient mice show higher number and size of liver tumors than wild-type mice in a hepatocellular carcinoma model with fibrosis. The identified relationship between ARRB2 and RARRES1 was observed in at least two species, including human cells and tissues in fibrosis and HCC and has a predictive value for survival in cancer patients. This study describes the discovery of a novel molecular pathway mediating the transition from fibrosis to cancer offering potential diagnostics and therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schierwagen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dietrich, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heinzen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uschner, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortiz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyc, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hieber, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraus, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Premont, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gruenewald, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poisson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratou, P.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kristiansen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gracia-Sancho, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poglitsch, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig-Portugall, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walther, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trautwein, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdullah, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muench, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Welsch, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeuzem, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreau, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helllerbrand, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rombouts, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kastenmueller, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diehl, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trebicka, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.08.458161</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intercellular crosstalk regulating ARRB2/RARRES1 is involved in transition from fibrosis to cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461299v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chicken Auditory Supporting Cells Express Interferon Response Genes during Regeneration towards Nascent Sensory Hair Cells In Vivo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.21.461299v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The avian hearing organ is the basilar papilla that, in sharp contrast to the mammalian cochlea, can regenerate sensory hair cells and thereby recover from complete deafness within weeks. The mechanisms that trigger, sustain, and terminate the regenerative response in vivo are largely unknown. Here, we profile the changes in gene expression in the chicken basilar papilla after aminoglycoside antibiotic-induced hair cell loss using RNA-sequencing. The most prominent changes in gene expression were linked to the upregulation of interferon response genes which occurred in supporting cells, confirmed by single-cell RNA-sequencing and in situ hybridization. We determined that the JAK/STAT signaling pathway is essential for the interferon gene response in supporting cells, set in motion by hair cell loss. Four days after ototoxic damage, we identified newly regenerated, nascent auditory hair cells that express genes linked to termination of the interferon response. These cells are incipient modified neurons that represent a population of hair cells en route towards obtaining their location-specific and fully functional cell identity. The robust, transient expression of immune-related genes in supporting cells suggests a potential functional involvement of JAK/STAT signaling and interferon in sensory hair cell regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Janesick, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheibinger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benkafadar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heller, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.21.461299</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chicken Auditory Supporting Cells Express Interferon Response Genes during Regeneration towards Nascent Sensory Hair Cells In Vivo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.08.463623v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vpr shapes the proviral landscape and polyclonal HIV-1 reactivation patterns in cultured cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.08.463623v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell culture models suggest that the HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) is dispensable for latency establishment. However, whether Vpr affects the persistent proviral landscape and responsiveness to latency reversing agents (LRAs) is unclear. Here, integration site landscape, clonal dynamics, and latency reversal effects of Vpr were studied by comparing barcoded vpr+ and vpr- populations arising after infection of Jurkat cells in vitro. The results showed that individual integrant clones differed in fractions of LTR-active daughter cells: some clones gave rise to few to no LTR-active cells while for others almost all daughter cells were LTR-active. Integrant clones with at least 60% LTR-active cells (high LTR-active clones) contained proviruses positioned closer to preexisting enhancers (H3K27ac) and promoters (H3K4me3) than clones with <30% LTR-active cells (low LTR-active clones). Comparing vpr+ and vpr- populations revealed that the vpr+ population was depleted of high LTR-active clones. Complementing vpr-defective proviruses by transduction with vpr 16 days after infection led to rapid loss of high LTR-active clones, indicating that the effect of Vpr on proviral populations occurs post-integration. Comparing vpr+ and vpr- integration sites revealed that predominant vpr+ proviruses were farther from enhancers and promoters. Correspondingly, distances to these marks among previously reported intact HIV proviruses in ART-suppressed patients were more similar to those in the vpr+ pool than to vpr- integrants. To compare latency reactivation agent (LRA) responsiveness, the LRAs prostratin and JQ1 were applied separately or in combination. vpr+ and vpr- population-wide trends were similar, but combination treatment reduced virion release in a subset of vpr- clones relative to when JQ1 was applied separately, an effect not observed in vpr+ pools. Together, these observations highlight the importance of Vpr to proviral population dynamics, integration site landscapes, and responsiveness to latency reversing agents.

One Sentence Summary

Expression properties and responsiveness to latency reactivation agents of individual HIV-1 proviral clones within polyclonal populations are masked by dominant clones and influenced by proviral proximity to certain epigenetic marks and by Vpr, a viral factor not previously known to affect latency and reactivation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Atindaana, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emery, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burnett, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pitcher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kidd, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Telesnitsky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.08.463623</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vpr shapes the proviral landscape and polyclonal HIV-1 reactivation patterns in cultured cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.02.466923v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cholesterol and sphingomyelin are critical for Fcγ receptor-mediated phagocytosis of Cryptococcus neoformans by macrophages 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.02.466923v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening meningoencephalitis in lymphopenic patients. Pulmonary macrophages comprise the first line of host defense upon inhalation of fungal spores, whereby macrophages either aid in clearance or serve as a niche for its dissemination. Given that macrophages play a key role in the outcome of a cryptococcal infection, it is crucial to understand factors that mediate phagocytosis of C. neoformans. Since lipid rafts (high order plasma membrane domains enriched in cholesterol and sphingomyelin) have been implicated in facilitating phagocytosis, we evaluated whether these ordered domains govern macrophages ability to phagocytose C. neoformans. We found that cholesterol or sphingomyelin depletion resulted in significantly deficient IgG-mediated phagocytosis of the fungus. Moreover, repletion of macrophage cells with a raft-promoting sterol (7-dehydrocholesterol) rescued this phagocytic deficiency while a raft-inhibiting sterol (coprostanol) significantly decreased IgG-mediated phagocytosis of C. neoformans. Using a photoswitchable sphingomyelin (AzoSM), we observed that the raft-promoting conformation (trans-AzoSM) resulted in efficient phagocytosis whereas raft-inhibiting conformation (cis-AzoSM) significantly blunted phagocytosis in a reversible manner. We observed that the effect on phagocytosis may be mediated by facilitating Fc{gamma} receptor (Fc{gamma}R) function, whereby IgG immune complexes cross-link to Fc{gamma}RIII, resulting in tyrosine phosphorylation of FcR {gamma}-subunit (FcR{gamma}), an important accessory protein in the Fc{gamma}R signaling cascade. Correspondingly, cholesterol or sphingomyelin depletion resulted in decreased FcR{gamma} phosphorylation. Repletion with 7-dehydrocholesterol restored phosphorylation, whereas repletion with coprostanol showed FcR{gamma} phosphorylation comparable to unstimulated cells. Together, these data suggest that lipid rafts are critical for facilitating Fc{gamma}RIII-mediated phagocytosis of C. neoformans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bryan, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>You, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morstein, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trauner, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira de Sa, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Normile, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farnoud, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>London, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del Poeta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.02.466923</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cholesterol and sphingomyelin are critical for Fcγ receptor-mediated phagocytosis of Cryptococcus neoformans by macrophages]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.471158v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Loss of Zfp335 triggers cGAS/STING-dependent apoptosis of post-β selection pre-T cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.471158v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Production of a diverse peripheral T cell compartment requires massive expansion of the bone marrow progenitors that seed the thymus. There are two main phases of expansion during T cell development, following T lineage commitment at the DN2 stage and following successful rearrangement and selection for functional TCR{beta} chains in DN3 thymocytes, which promotes development of DN4 cells to the DP stage. Signals driving expansion of DN2 thymocytes are well studied, however, factors regulating the proliferation and survival of DN4 cells remain poorly understood. Here, we uncover an unexpected link between the transcription factor Zfp335 and control of cGAS/STING-dependent cell death in post-{beta}-selection DN4 thymocytes. Zfp335 controls survival by sustaining expression of Ankle2, which suppresses cGAS/STING-dependent cell death. Together, this study identifies Zfp335 as a key transcription factor controlling the survival of proliferating post-{beta}-selection thymocytes and demonstrates a key role for the cGAS/STING pathway driving apoptosis of developing T cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ratiu, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harnois, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiPalma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wellford, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contreras, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiest, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.03.471158</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Loss of Zfp335 triggers cGAS/STING-dependent apoptosis of post-β selection pre-T cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.21.473663v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SerpinB3 drives cancer stem cell survival in glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.21.473663v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite therapeutic interventions for glioblastoma (GBM), cancer stem cells (CSCs) drive recurrence. The precise mechanisms underlying CSC therapeutic resistance, namely inhibition of cell death, are unclear. We built on previous observations that the high cell surface expression of junctional adhesion molecule-A drives CSC maintenance and identified downstream signaling networks, including the cysteine protease inhibitor SerpinB3. Using genetic depletion approaches, we found that SerpinB3 is necessary for CSC maintenance, survival, and tumor growth, as well as CSC pathway activation. The knockdown of SerpinB3 also increased apoptosis and susceptibility to radiation therapy. Mechanistically, SerpinB3 was essential to buffer cathepsin L-mediated cell death, which was enhanced with radiation. Finally, we found that SerpinB3 knockdown dramatically increased the efficacy of radiation in pre-clinical models. Taken together, our findings identify a novel GBM CSC-specific survival mechanism involving a previously uninvestigated cysteine protease inhibitor, SerpinB3, and provide a potential target to improve the efficacy of standard-of-care GBM therapies against therapeutically resistant CSCs.

SummaryLauko et al. demonstrate a functional role for SerpinB3, which is elevated in glioblastoma cancer stem cells and protects against lysosomal-mediated cell death. SerpinB3 can be targeted to increase the efficacy of radiation in glioblastoma pre-clinical models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volovetz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turaga, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Midha, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCortney, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steffens, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naik, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horbinski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.21.473663</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SerpinB3 drives cancer stem cell survival in glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.30.474571v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
VRK1 is a Paralog Synthetic Lethal Target in VRK2-methylated Glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.30.474571v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synthetic lethality -- a genetic interaction that results in cell death when two genetic deficiencies co-occur but not when either deficiency occurs alone -- can be co-opted for cancer therapeutics. A pair of paralog genes is among the most straightforward synthetic lethal interaction by virtue of their redundant functions. Here we demonstrate a paralog-based synthetic lethality by targeting Vaccinia-Related Kinase 1 (VRK1) in Vaccinia-Related Kinase 2 (VRK2)-methylated glioblastoma (GBM). VRK2 is silenced by promoter methylation in approximately two-thirds of GBM, an aggressive cancer with few available targeted therapies. Genetic knockdown of VRK1 in VRK2-null or VRK2-methylated cells results in decreased activity of the downstream substrate Barrier to Autointegration Factor (BAF), a regulator of post-mitotic nuclear envelope formation. VRK1 knockdown, and thus reduced BAF activity, causes nuclear lobulation, blebbing and micronucleation, which subsequently results in G2/M arrest and DNA damage. The VRK1-VRK2 synthetic lethal interaction is dependent on VRK1 kinase activity and is rescued by ectopic VRK2 expression. Knockdown of VRK1 leads to robust tumor growth inhibition in VRK2-methylated GBM xenografts. These results indicate that inhibiting VRK1 kinase activity could be a viable therapeutic strategy in VRK2-methylated GBM.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shields, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meier, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dam Ferdinez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engel, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajdari, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, S.-c.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tjin Tham Sjin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilker, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmanuel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.30.474571</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[VRK1 is a Paralog Synthetic Lethal Target in VRK2-methylated Glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477242v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An in vitro neurogenetics platform for precision disease modeling in the mouse 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.21.477242v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The power and scope of disease modeling can be markedly enhanced through the incorporation of broad genetic diversity. In the the mouse, the introduction of pathogenic mutations into a single inbred strain sometimes fails to mimic human disease. We describe a cross-species precision disease modeling platform that exploits mouse genetic diversity to bridge cell-based modeling with whole organism analysis. We developed a universal protocol that permitted robust and reproducible neural differentiation of genetically diverse human and mouse pluripotent stem cell lines, then carried out a proof of concept study of the neurodevelopmental gene DYRK1A. The results in vitro reliably predicted the effects of genetic background on DYRK1A loss of function phenotypes and identified optimal mouse strains for in vivo disease modeling. Transcriptomic comparison of responsive and unresponsive strains identified novel molecular pathways conferring sensitivity or resilience to DYRK1A loss, and highlighted differential mRNA isoform usage as an important genetic determinant of response This cross-species strategy will be an powerful tool in the functional analysis of candidate disease variants identified through human genetic studies.

Teaser: Genetically diverse mouse embryonic stem cells provide a rapid approach to precision modeling of human disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>CORTES, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ESCUDERO, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MITRA, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KORGAN, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>EDWARDS, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'CONNELL, K. M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinholdt, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PERA, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.21.477242</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An in vitro neurogenetics platform for precision disease modeling in the mouse]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.08.479597v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate enhances type I interferon anti-viral responses through activation of non-canonical NOD2 signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.08.479597v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Type I interferon production and the expression of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) are key components of an innate immune response to many microbial pathogens. Dysregulation of this response can result in uncontrolled infection, inflammation, and autoimmune disease. Understanding the molecular mechanisms shaping the strength of type I interferon signaling may provide critical insights into infection control strategies and autoimmune disease therapies. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2) is an intracellular pattern recognition receptor that acts as both a bacterial sensor protein and a mediator of antiviral responses. Antibacterial functions of NOD2 are enhanced by treatment with the small molecule inhibitor of pyrimidine biosynthesis N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate (PALA), though how this might function in the host antiviral response remains unknown. Therefore, we tested the ability of PALA to enhance NOD2-dependent antiviral responses. Alone, PALA treatment of macrophages was not sufficient to induce interferon {beta} (IFN{beta}) production or ISG expression. Instead, PALA synergized with IFN{beta} stimulation to enhance expression and activation of interferon-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) and induce the upregulation of a subset of ISGs in co-treated cells. Furthermore, PALA treatment of epithelial cells resulted in impaired viral replication of the herpesvirus, human cytomegalovirus. Induction of the PALA-enhanced antiviral response required activation of non-canonical NOD2 signaling mediated by mitochondrial antiviral-signaling protein (MAVS) and interferon response factor 1 (IRF1), rather than the classical receptor-interacting serine/threonine protein kinase 2 (RIP2) pathway or other IRFs previously reported to mediate NOD2 antiviral responses. These findings highlight pyrimidine metabolism enzymes as controllers of antimicrobial responses and suggest novel mechanisms for the modulation of type I interferon responses and antiviral activity.

Significance StatementUnderstanding the molecular mechanisms shaping the strength of type I interferon signaling may provide critical insights to improve infection control strategies and autoimmune disease therapies. This work demonstrates that the pyrimidine synthesis inhibitor N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate synergizes with type I interferon to enhance antiviral responses through activation of a non-canonical NOD2 signaling pathway. These findings highlight pyrimidine metabolism enzymes as controllers of antimicrobial responses and suggest novel mechanisms for the modulation of type I interferon responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ponti, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zangara, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonald, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.08.479597</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate enhances type I interferon anti-viral responses through activation of non-canonical NOD2 signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.23.481674v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CD81 partners with CD44 in promoting exosome biogenesis, tumor cluster formation, and lung metastasis in triple negative breast cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.23.481674v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor-initiating cells with reprogramming plasticity are thought to be essential for cancer development and metastatic regeneration in many cancers; however, the molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. This study reports that CD81, a tetraspanin protein marker of small extracellular vesicles (exosomes), functions as a binding partner of CD44 and facilitates self-renewal of tumor initiating cells. Using machine learning-assisted protein structure modeling, co-immunoprecipitation, and mutagenesis approaches, we further demonstrate that CD81 interacts with CD44 on the cellular membrane through their extracellular regions. In-depth global and phosphoproteomic analyses of clustering tumor cells unveils endocytosis-related signature pathways of proteins and phosphorylation patterns regulated by CD81 and CD44 specifically or shared between two. Notably, CRISPR Cas9-mediated depletion of either CD44 or CD81 results in loss of both proteins in cancer cell-secreted exosomes, a state which abolishes exosome-induced self-renewal of recipient cells for mammosphere formation. CD81 is expressed in >80% of human circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and specifically enriched in clustered CTCs along with CD44 isolated from breast cancer patients. Mimicking the phenotypes of CD44 deficiency, loss of CD81 also inhibits tumor cluster aggregation, tumorigenesis, and lung metastasis of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), supporting the clinical significance of CD81 in association with patient outcomes. Our study highlights the novel role of CD81 and its partnership with CD44 in cancer exosomes, self-renewal, CTC clustering, and metastasis initiation of TNBC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramos, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, C.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dashzeveg, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taftaf, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El-Shennawy, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gritsenko, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adorno-Cruz, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuster, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scholten, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wray, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schipma, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tokars, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cristofanilli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.23.481674</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CD81 partners with CD44 in promoting exosome biogenesis, tumor cluster formation, and lung metastasis in triple negative breast cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.07.483365v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The MIF SNP rs755622 is a germline determinant of tumor immune activation in Glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.07.483365v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While immunotherapies have shown durable responses for multiple tumors, their efficacy remains limited in some advanced cancers, including glioblastoma. This may be due to differences in the immune landscape, as the glioblastoma microenvironment strongly favors immunosuppressive myeloid cells, which are linked to an elevation in immune-suppressive cytokines, including macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). We now find that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs755622 in the MIF promoter associates with increased leukocyte infiltration in glioblastoma. Furthermore, we identified lactotransferrin expression as being associated with the rs755622 SNP, which could also be used as a biomarker for immune infiltrated tumors. These findings provide the first example in glioblastoma of a germline SNP that underlies differences in the immune microenvironment and identifies high lactotransferrin as a potential factor promoting immune activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alban, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otvos, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zalavadia, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makarav, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Troike, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabljenovic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lauko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, C. K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roversi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waite, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cioffi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patil, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCortney, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steffens, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horbinski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-sloan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelbaum, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bucala, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahluwalia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.07.483365</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The MIF SNP rs755622 is a germline determinant of tumor immune activation in Glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.31.485699v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chemokine Receptor 1 and its associated immune pathway are downregulated in SF3B1MT blood and non-blood cancers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.31.485699v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutation of the essential splicing factor SF3B1 is primarily associated with hematological cancers but also occurs in solid tumors. We edited the most common mutation, K700E, into human embryonic stem (ES) cells to determine the effects of this mutation alone in an undifferentiated/non-cancer background. Unexpectedly, >20% of the significantly upregulated genes in the SF3B1K700E ES lines have immune functions. Thus, SF3B1 may have an additional role in proper expression of immune genes in appropriate cell types. In striking contrast, we found that published RNA-seq data from SF3B1 blood (MDS, CLL, AML) and non-blood (BRCA, UVM) cancers exhibited the opposite, downregulation of a multitude of immune pathways with 7 of the pathways shared among all 5 of the SF3B1 cancers. One of these pathways, "leukocyte migration", is the 1st reported pathway shared among all splicing factor cancers, including the 5 SF3B1 cancers and MDS associated with U2AF1, SRSF2 and ZRSR2. Importantly, we identified CCR1, which is in the leukocyte migration pathway as the only shared downregulated gene in the 5 SF3B1 cancers and in U2AF1MT MDS. We conclude that downregulation of CCR1 and its associated immune pathway may play a key role in pathogenesis of these splicing factor cancers and are thus potential therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dastpak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paraggio, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leonard, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chi, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nassar, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rowe, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohn, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marion, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daley, G. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.31.485699</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chemokine Receptor 1 and its associated immune pathway are downregulated in SF3B1MT blood and non-blood cancers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.16.488508v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural and Dynamic Effects of PTEN C-terminal Tail Phosphorylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.16.488508v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) tumor suppressor gene encodes a tightly regulated dual-specificity phosphatase that serves as the master regulator of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. The carboxy-terminal tail (CTT) is key to regulation and harbors multiple phosphorylation sites (Ser/Thr residues 380-385). CTT phosphorylation suppresses the phosphatase activity by inducing a stable, closed conformation. However, little is known about the mechanisms of phosphorylation-induced CTT-deactivation dynamics. Using explicit solvent microsecond molecular dynamics simulations, we show that CTT phosphorylation leads to a partially collapsed conformation, which alters the secondary structure of PTEN and induces long-range conformational rearrangements that encompass the active site. The active site rearrangements prevent localization of PTEN to the membrane, precluding lipid phosphatase activity. Notably, we have identified phosphorylation-induced allosteric coupling between the interdomain region and a hydrophobic site neighboring the active site in the phosphatase domain. Collectively, the results provide a mechanistic understanding of CTT phosphorylation dynamics and reveal potential druggable allosteric sites in a previously believed clinically undruggable protein.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krieger, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thacker, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.16.488508</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural and Dynamic Effects of PTEN C-terminal Tail Phosphorylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.19.488816v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An intranasal stringent response vaccine targeting dendritic cells as a novel adjunctive therapy against tuberculosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.19.488816v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lengthy tuberculosis (TB) treatment is required to address the ability of a subpopulation of persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to remain in a non-replicating, antibiotic-tolerant state characterized by metabolic remodeling, including induction of the RelMtb-mediated stringent response. We developed a novel therapeutic DNA vaccine construct involving fusion of the relMtb gene with the immature dendritic cell-targeting gene encoding chemokine MIP-3/CCL20. To augment mucosal immune responses, intranasal delivery was also evaluated. We found that the intramuscular MIP-3/relMtb (fusion) vaccine potentiates isoniazid activity more than a similar DNA vaccine expressing relMtb alone in a chronic TB mouse model (absolute reduction of Mtb burden: 0.63 log10 colony-forming units, P=0.0001), inducing pronounced Mtb-protective immune signatures. The intranasal fusion vaccine, an approach combining relMtb fusion to MIP-3 and intranasal delivery, demonstrated the greatest therapeutic effect compared to each approach alone, as evidenced by robust Th1 and Th17 responses systemically and locally and the greatest mycobactericidal activity when combined with isoniazid (absolute reduction of Mtb burden: 1.13 log10, P<0.0001, when compared to the intramuscular vaccine targeting relMtb alone). This DNA vaccination strategy may be a promising adjunctive approach combined with standard therapy to shorten curative TB treatment, and also serve as proof-of-concept for treating other chronic infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Karanika, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neupane, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KARANTANOS, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castillo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quijada, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comstock, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandhu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hui, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayeh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tasneen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krug, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Danchik, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schill, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markham, R. t.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karakousis, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.19.488816</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An intranasal stringent response vaccine targeting dendritic cells as a novel adjunctive therapy against tuberculosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.488844v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolutionarily conserved effects of Notch signaling drive intestinal graft-versus-host disease in mice and non-human primates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.23.488844v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Notch signaling promotes T-cell pathogenicity and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) in mice, with a dominant role for the Delta-like ligand DLL4. To assess if Notchs effects are evolutionarily conserved and identify key mechanisms, we studied antibody-mediated DLL4 blockade in a non-human primate model similar to human allo-HCT. Short-term DLL4 blockade improved post-transplant survival with striking, durable protection from gastrointestinal GVHD, out of proportion to other disease sites. Unlike prior immunosuppressive strategies, anti-DLL4 interfered with a T-cell transcriptional program associated with intestinal infiltration. In cross-species investigations, Notch inhibition decreased surface abundance of the gut-homing integrin a4b7 in conventional T-cells via b1 competition for a4 binding, while preserving a4b7 in regulatory T-cells. Thereby, DLL4/Notch blockade decreased effector T-cell infiltration into the gut, with increased regulatory to conventional T-cell ratios early after allo-HCT. Our results identify a conserved, biologically unique and targetable role of DLL4/Notch signaling in GVHD.

One Sentence SummaryNotch signaling promotes pathogenic effector T cell infiltration of the intestine during acute graft-versus-host disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tkachev, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderbeck, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perkey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furlan, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGuckin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez Atria, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerdemann, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rui, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lane, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colonna, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burbach, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shimizu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panoskaltsis-Mortari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carpenter, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhnert, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thurston, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blazar, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kean, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maillard, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.23.488844</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolutionarily conserved effects of Notch signaling drive intestinal graft-versus-host disease in mice and non-human primates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.14.491678v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exogenous DNA upregulates DUOX2 expression and function in human pancreatic cancer cells by activating the cGAS-STING signaling pathway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.14.491678v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pro-inflammatory cytokines upregulate the expression of the H2O2-producing NADPH oxidase dual oxidase 2 (DUOX2) which, when elevated, adversely affects survival from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Because the cGAS-STING pathway is known to initiate pro-inflammatory cytokine expression following uptake of exogenous DNA, we examined whether activation of cGAS-STING could play a role in the generation of reactive oxygen species by PDAC cells. Here, we found that a variety of exogenous DNA species markedly increased the production of cGAMP, the phosphorylation of TBK1 and IRF3, and the translocation of phosphorylated IRF3 into the nucleus, leading to a significant, IRF3-dependent enhancement of DUOX2 expression, and a significant flux of H2O2 in PDAC cells. However, unlike the canonical cGAS-STING pathway, DNA-related DUOX2 upregulation was not mediated by NF-{kappa}B; and although exogenous IFN-{beta} significantly increased Stat1/2-associated DUOX2 expression, intracellular IFN-{beta} signaling that followed cGAMP or DNA exposure did not itself increase DUOX2 levels. Finally, DUOX2 upregulation subsequent to cGAS-STING activation was accompanied by the enhanced, normoxic expression of HIF-1 as well as DNA double strand cleavage, suggesting that cGAS-STING signaling may support the development of an oxidative, pro-angiogenic microenvironment that could contribute to the inflammation-related genetic instability of pancreatic cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konate, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antony, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meitzler, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dahan, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juhasz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diebold, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roy, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doroshow, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.14.491678</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exogenous DNA upregulates DUOX2 expression and function in human pancreatic cancer cells by activating the cGAS-STING signaling pathway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.28.492382v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amyloid-β seeding effects are dependent on the presence of knock-in genes in the AppNL-G-F mice. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.28.492382v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) is characterized by the prion-like propagation of amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}). However, the role of A{beta} in cognitive impairment is still unclear. To determine the causal role of A{beta} in AD, we intracerebrally seeded the entorhinal cortex of two-month-old AppNL-G-F mouse model with an A{beta} peptide derived from patients who died from rapidly progressing AD. When the mice were three and six months of age, or one- and four-months following seeding, respectively, spatial learning and memory were tested using the Morris water task. Immunohistochemical labeling showed seeding with the A{beta} seed increased plaque size one month following seeding, but reduced plaque counts four months following injection compared to the control seeded mice. A significant increase in microgliosis was found. However, we found no correlation between pathology and spatial performance. The results of the present study show that seeding human tissue with or without A{beta} alters learning and memory ability, A{beta} plaque deposition, plaque size, and microgliosis in the AppNL-G-F knock-in model, and these effects are dependent on the presence of a humanized App gene and the presence of A{beta} in the seed. But these pathological changes were not initially causal in memory impairment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lacoursiere, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westaway, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohajerani, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sutherland, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.28.492382</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amyloid-β seeding effects are dependent on the presence of knock-in genes in the AppNL-G-F mice.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.08.499233v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Micropatterned Organoids Enable Modeling of the Earliest Stages of Human Cardiac Vascularization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.08.499233v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although model organisms have provided insight into the earliest stages of cardiac vascularization, we know very little about this process in humans. Here we show that spatially micropatterned human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) enable in vitro modeling of this process, corresponding to the first three weeks of in vivo human development. Using four hPSC fluorescent reporter lines, we create cardiac vascular organoids (cVOs) by identifying conditions that simultaneously give rise to spatially organized and branched vascular networks within endocardial, myocardial, and epicardial cells. Using single-cell transcriptomics, we show that the cellular composition of cVOs resembles that of a 6.5 post-conception week (PCW) human heart. We find that NOTCH and BMP pathways are upregulated in cVOs, and their inhibition disrupts vascularization. Finally, using the same vascular-inducing factors to create cVOs, we produce hepatic vascular organoids (hVOs). This suggests there is a conserved developmental program for creating vasculature within different organ systems.

Graphic Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=159 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/499233v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abilez, O. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyall, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhoi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuge, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wo, H. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aldana, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obal, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peltz, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarins, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.08.499233</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Micropatterned Organoids Enable Modeling of the Earliest Stages of Human Cardiac Vascularization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.08.499345v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluating limitations of quantitative metagenomics with synthetic dsDNA and ssDNA standards 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.08.499345v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quantitative metagenomic methods are maturing but continue to lack clearly-defined analytical limits. Here, we developed a computational tool, QuantMeta, to determine the absolute abundance of targets in metagenomes spiked with synthetic DNA standards. The tool establishes (1) entropy-based detection thresholds to confidently determine the presence of targets, and (2) an approach to identify and correct read mapping or assembly errors and thus improve the quantification accuracy. Together this allows for an approach to confidently quantify absolute abundance of targets, be they microbial populations, genes, contigs, or metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs). We applied the approach to quantify single- and double-stranded DNA viruses in wastewater viral metagenomes, including pathogens and bacteriophages. Concentrations of total DNA viruses in wastewater influent and effluent were greater than 108 copies/mL using QuantMeta. Human-associated DNA viruses were detected and quantifiable with QuantMeta thresholds, including polyomavirus, papillomavirus, and crAss-like phages, at concentrations similar to previous reports that utilized quantitative PCR-based assays. Our results highlight the higher detection thresholds of quantitative metagenomics ([~]500 copies/L) as compared to PCR-based quantification ([~]10 copies/L) despite a sequencing depth of 200 million reads per sample. The QuantMeta approach, applicable to both viral and cellular metagenomes, advances quantitative metagenomics by improving the accuracy of measured target absolute abundances.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Langenfeld, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hegarty, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidaurri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crossette, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duhaime, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wigginton, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.08.499345</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluating limitations of quantitative metagenomics with synthetic dsDNA and ssDNA standards]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.25.501461v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Strain dropouts reveal interactions that govern the metabolic output of the gut microbiome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.25.501461v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gut microbiome is complex, raising questions about the role of individual strains in the community. Here, we address this question by focusing on a functional unit within the community, the metabolic niche that controls bile acid 7-dehydroxylation. By constructing variants of a complex defined community in which we drop out strains that occupy this niche, we explore how interactions within and between niches shape community-level metabolism. Omitting both members of the niche, Clostridium scindens (Cs) and Clostridium hylemonae (Ch), eliminates secondary bile acid production and reshapes the community in a highly specific manner: eight strains go up or down in relative abundance by >100-fold, while the remaining strains are largely unaffected. In single-strain dropout communities (i.e., a strain swap within the niche), Cs and Ch reach the same relative abundance and dehydroxylate bile acids to a similar extent. However, the effect on strains in other niches differs markedly: Clostridium sporogenes increases >1000-fold in the {Delta}Cs but not {Delta}Ch dropout, reshaping the pool of microbiome-derived phenylalanine metabolites. Thus, strains that are functionally redundant within a niche can have widely varying impacts outside the niche, and a strain swap can ripple through the community in an unpredictable manner, resulting in a large impact on an unrelated community-level phenotype. Mice colonized by the {Delta}Cs{Delta}Ch community show decreased liver steatosis relative to those colonized by the {Delta}Ch community, demonstrating that a single strain from the microbiome can have a substantive impact on host physiology. Our work opens the door to the mechanistic studies of the role of an individual strain on community ecology and host physiology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborn, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weakley, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Massey, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkateshwari, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horak, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allende, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajjar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dimas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagashima, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Higginbottom, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischbach, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.25.501461</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Strain dropouts reveal interactions that govern the metabolic output of the gut microbiome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.11.503688v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cellular, Molecular, and Enzymatic Signatures ofThrombi are Vascular Bed-Dependent 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.11.503688v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe contribution of arterial and venous thrombi to vascular remodeling is unclear. While catheter-extraction of thrombus in cerebrovascular accident (CVA) is time-sensitive, similar urgency is rare in managing venous thromboembolism (VTE).

ObjectivesOur goal was to determine molecular cellular signatures of thrombus extracted by catheter from various vascular beds to gain insight into vascular remodeling.

MethodsTwenty-five patients underwent catheter-directed thrombectomy (CDT), 13 for acute CVA, 8 for pulmonary embolism (PE), and 4 for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Protein and RNA extracted from thrombus was evaluated by immunoblotting and sequencing, respectively. Thrombus-derived enzymes for which substrate is present in the blood vessel wall were examined for enzymatic activity.

ResultsTime from symptom onset to thrombus extraction was 7.7 {+/-} 1.9 hours for CVA and 109 {+/-} 55 hours for VTE. Protein concentration, white blood cell and red blood cell content were all greater in venous compared with arterial thrombus while platelet content was similar. Both venous and arterial thrombus contained multiple Matrix Metalloproteinase (MMP) isoforms. MMP9 specific activity was greater in venous than in arterial thrombus (57 {+/-} 6 ng/mL.g protein-1 vs. 24 {+/-} 8 ng/mL.g protein-1, P=0.0051).

ConclusionsArterial and venous thrombus have dissimilar phenotypes, each with biologically-active enzymes known to remodel blood vessels, and enzymatic activity proportional to the white blood cell content which increases with thrombus age. These data suggest a mechanistically-important role for early CDT to avoid the consequences of irreversible vascular remodeling.

Condensed AbstractEmergent extraction of acute thrombus from arterial vascular beds restores limb and end-organ perfusion and is widely-accepted to be the standard of care. Extraction of thrombus from venous vascular beds, however, is rarely considered urgent, even though many patients subsequently develop debilitating symptoms. By capitalizing on privileged thrombus extracted from multiple vascular beds, we gained mechanistic insight regarding the cellular composition and cell-derived enzymes secreted from thrombus that may remodel the vessel wall. This study shows thrombi are biologically-active entities, continuously recruiting circulating cells that secrete enzymes both proportional to thrombus age and the time of patient presentation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bender, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aggarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mix, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godwin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guntupalli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nanjundappa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tefera, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddadin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhandari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tong, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baldwin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faurchild, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumick, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.11.503688</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cellular, Molecular, and Enzymatic Signatures ofThrombi are Vascular Bed-Dependent]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504854v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Myeloid-cell-specific role of Gasdermin D in promoting lung cancer progression in mice. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504854v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The activities of the NLRP3 and AIM2 inflammasomes and Gasdermin D (GsdmD), the final executor of inflammasome activity, are implicated in lung cancer pathophysiology but its not clear if their contributions promote or retard lung cancer progression. GsdmD plays a role in release of interleukin-1beta (IL-1 {beta}), and the CANTOS trial and recent studies have highlighted a crucial role of IL-1{beta} in promoting lung cancer. Expression of GsdmD was shown to be upregulated in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue, but its contribution to in vivo lung cancer metastasis is not known. Using a metastatic Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC) cell model, we show that GsdmD knockout (GsdmD-/-) mice form significantly fewer cancer foci in lung, and exhibit markedly decreased lung cancer metastasis. Furthermore, GsdmD-/- mice show a significant ~ 50% increase in median survival rate vs. isogenic WT C57BL6J mice. The cleaved forms of GsdmD and IL-1 {beta} were detected in lung tumor tissue, indicating inflammasome activity in lung tumor microenvironment (TME). Increased migration and growth of LLC cells was observed upon exposure to the conditioned media derived from inflammasome-induced wild type, but not the GsdmD-/-, macrophages. Exposure of human A549 lung cancer cells to the conditioned media derived from inflammasome-induced THP-1 macrophages also resulted in increased cell migration. Using bone marrow transplantation, we show the myeloid-specific contribution of GsdmD in lung cancer metastasis. Taken together, our data show that inflammasome activation in macrophages promotes lung cancer growth and migration, and GsdmD plays a myeloid-specific role in lung cancer progression in mice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Traughber, c.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>deshpande, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>neupane, k.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMullen, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swaidani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Opoku, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muppals, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagy, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulshan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.22.504854</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Myeloid-cell-specific role of Gasdermin D in promoting lung cancer progression in mice.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.24.505159v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A genome-wide atlas of recurrent repeat expansions in human cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.24.505159v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Expansion of a single repetitive DNA sequence, termed a tandem repeat (TR), is known to cause more than 50 diseases. However, repeat expansions are often not explored beyond neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. In some cancers, mutations accumulate in short tracts of TRs (STRs), a phenomenon termed microsatellite instability (MSI); however larger repeat expansions have not been systematically analyzed in cancer. Here, we identified TR expansions in 2,622 cancer genomes, spanning 29 cancer types. In 7 cancer types, we found 160 recurrent repeat expansions (rREs); most of these (155/160) were subtype specific. We found that rREs were non-uniformly distributed in the genome with an enrichment near candidate cis-regulatory elements, suggesting a role in gene regulation. One rRE located near a regulatory element in the first intron of UGT2B7 was detected in 34% of renal cell carcinoma samples and was validated by long-read DNA sequencing. Moreover, targeting cells harboring this rRE with a rationally designed, sequence-specific DNA binder led to a dose-dependent decrease in cell proliferation. Overall, our results demonstrate that rREs are an important but unexplored source of genetic variation in human cancers, and we provide a comprehensive catalog for further study.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Erwin, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gursoy, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Abri, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suriyaprakash, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dolzhenko, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoerner, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vadlakonda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vadlakonda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Kraut, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brannon, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sumano, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirtikar, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erwin, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metzner, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuen, R. K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leppert, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eberle, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerstein, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.24.505159</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A genome-wide atlas of recurrent repeat expansions in human cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.509206v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A pan-variant mRNA-LNP T cell vaccine protects HLA transgenic mice from mortality after infection with SARS-CoV-2 Beta 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.509206v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Clinically licensed COVID-19 vaccines ameliorate viral infection by inducing vaccinee production of neutralizing antibodies that bind to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein to inhibit viral cellular entry (Walsh et al., 2020; Baden et al., 2021), however the clinical effectiveness of these vaccines is transitory as viral variants arise that escape antibody neutralization (Tregoning et al., 2021; Willett et al., 2022). Vaccines that solely rely upon a T cell response to combat viral infection could be transformational because they can be based on highly conserved short peptide epitopes that hold the potential for pan-variant immunity, but a mRNA-LNP T cell vaccine has not been shown to be sufficient for effective antiviral prophylaxis. Here we show that a mRNA-LNP vaccine based on highly conserved short peptide epitopes activates a CD8+ and CD4+ T cell response that prevents mortality in HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mice infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant of concern (B.1.351). In mice vaccinated with the T cell vaccine, 24% of the nucleated cells in lung were CD8+ T cells on day 7 post infection. This was 5.5 times more CD8+ T cell infiltration of the lungs in response to infection compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty(R) vaccine. Between days 2 and 7 post infection, the number of CD8+ T cells in the lung increased in mice vaccinated with the T cell vaccine and decreased in mice vaccinated with Comirnaty(R). The T cell vaccine did not produce neutralizing antibodies, and thus our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 viral infection can be controlled by a T cell response alone. Our results suggest that further study is merited for pan-variant T cell vaccines, and that T cell vaccines may be relevant for individuals that cannot produce neutralizing antibodies or to help mitigate Long COVID.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carter, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, P. J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, B.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKay, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dimitrakakis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tat, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saenkham-Huntsinger, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaseke, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaiha, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tam, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tseng, C.-T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gifford, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.23.509206</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A pan-variant mRNA-LNP T cell vaccine protects HLA transgenic mice from mortality after infection with SARS-CoV-2 Beta]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509320v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Novel Biosensor Identifies Ruxolitinib as a Potent and Cardioprotective CaMKII Inhibitor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509320v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) hyperactivity causes heart injury and arrhythmias--two major sources of mortality worldwide. Despite proven benefits of CaMKII inhibition in numerous preclinical models of heart disease, translation of CaMKII antagonists into humans has been stymied by low potency, toxicity, and an enduring concern for adverse effects on cognition due to an established role of CaMKII in learning and memory. To address these challenges, we asked if any clinically approved drugs, developed for other purposes, were potent CaMKII inhibitors. For this, we engineered a novel fluorescent biosensor, CaMKAR (CaMKII Activity Reporter), which features superior sensitivity, kinetics, and tractability for high throughput screening. Using this tool, we carried a drug repurposing screen (4,475 compounds in clinical use) in human cells expressing autonomously active CaMKII. This yielded five previously unrecognized CaMKII inhibitors with clinically relevant potency: ruxolitinib, baricitinib, silmitasertib, crenolanib, and abemaciclib. Standout among these, ruxolitinib, an orally bioavailable and U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication, inhibited CaMKII in cultured cardiomyocytes and in mice at concentrations equivalent to human doses. 10-minute treatment in mice was sufficient to prevent atrial fibrillation-- the most common clinical arrhythmia. At cardioprotective doses, ruxolitinib-treated mice behaved normally in established cognitive assays. Our results suggest that human CaMKII inhibition is feasible and safe, and support prompt clinical investigation of ruxolitinib for cardiac indications.

One Sentence SummaryWe developed a CaMKII biosensor suitable for high throughput screening and identified ruxolitinib as a CaMKII inhibitor capable of rescuing cardiac arrhythmia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reyes Gaido, O. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Granger, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nkashama, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mesubi, O. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schole, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Terrillion, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luczak, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.24.509320</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Novel Biosensor Identifies Ruxolitinib as a Potent and Cardioprotective CaMKII Inhibitor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.26.513935v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A deficiency screen of the 3rd chromosome for dominant modifiers of the Drosophila ER integral membrane protein, Jagunal 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.26.513935v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mechanism surrounding chromosome inheritance during cell division has been well documented, however, organelle inheritance during mitosis is less understood. Recently, the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) has been shown to reorganize during mitosis, dividing asymmetrically in proneuronal cells prior to cell fate selection, indicating a programmed mechanism of inheritance. ER asymmetric partitioning in proneural cells relies on the highly conserved ER integral membrane protein, Jagunal (Jagn). Knockdown of Jagn in the compound Drosophila eye displays a pleotropic rough eye phenotype in 48% of the progeny. To identify genes involved in Jagn dependent ER partitioning pathway, we performed a dominant modifier screen of the 3rd chromosome for enhancers and suppressors of this Jagn RNAi-induced rough eye phenotype. We screened through 181 deficiency lines covering the 3L and 3R chromosomes and identified 12 suppressors and 10 enhancers of the Jagn RNAi phenotype. Based on the functions of the genes covered by the deficiencies, we identified genes that displayed a suppression or enhancement of the Jagn RNAi phenotype. These include Division Abnormally Delayed (Dally), an heparan sulfate proteoglycan, the {gamma}-secretase subunit Presenilin, and the ER resident protein Sec63. Based on our understanding of the function of these targets, there is a connection between Jagn and the Notch signaling pathway. Further studies will elucidate the role of Jagn and identified interactors within the mechanisms of ER partitioning during mitosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ascencio, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Cruz, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abuel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarado, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arriaga, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conrad, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eichelberger, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galvan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gundy, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inojoza, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lugar, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marania, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mendsaikhan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nand, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodrigues, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shabazz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tam, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valenciano, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayzelden, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eritano, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riggs, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.26.513935</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A deficiency screen of the 3rd chromosome for dominant modifiers of the Drosophila ER integral membrane protein, Jagunal]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.27.514114v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ancestry-related differences in chromatin accessibility and gene expression of APOE4 are associated with Alzheimer disease risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.27.514114v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundEuropean local ancestry (ELA) surrounding APOE4 is associated with a higher risk for Alzheimer Disease (AD) compared to African local ancestry (ALA). We previously demonstrated significantly higher APOE4 expression in ELA vs ALA in the frontal cortex of APOE4/4 AD patients. Differences in chromatin accessibility could contribute to these differences in APOE4 expression.

MethodsWe performed single nuclei Assays for Transposase Accessible Chromatin sequencing (snATAC-seq) and single nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) from frozen frontal cortex of six ALA and six ELA AD patients, all homozygous for local ancestry and APOE4.

ResultsWe demonstrated that APOE4, including its promoter area, has greater chromatin accessibility in ELA vs ALA astrocytes. This increased accessibility in ELA astrocytes extended genome wide. Genes with increased accessibility and expression in ELA in astrocytes were enriched for synaptic function, cholesterol processing and astrocyte reactivity.

ConclusionOur results suggest that increased chromatin accessibility of APOE4 in astrocyte with the ELA contributes to the observed elevated APOE4 expression, corresponding to the increased AD risk in ELA vs ALA APOE4/4 carriers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muniz Moreno, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitehead, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton-Nelson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nuytemans, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalgard, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flanagan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weintraub, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geula, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuck, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.27.514114</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ancestry-related differences in chromatin accessibility and gene expression of APOE4 are associated with Alzheimer disease risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514355v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Axon guidance pathways modulate neurotoxicity of ALS-associated UBQLN2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514355v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in the ubiquitin (Ub) chaperone Ubiquilin 2 (UBQLN2) cause X-linked forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) through unknown mechanisms. Here we show that aggregation-prone, ALS-associated mutants of UBQLN2 (UBQLN2ALS) trigger heat stress-dependent neurodegeneration in Drosophila. A genetic modifier screen implicated endolysosomal and axon guidance genes, including the netrin receptor, Unc-5, as key modulators of UBQLN2 toxicity. Reduced gene dosage of Unc-5 or its coreceptor Dcc/frazzled diminished neurodegenerative phenotypes, including motor dysfunction, neuromuscular junction defects, and shortened lifespan, in flies expressing UBQLN2ALS alleles. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) harboring UBQLN2ALS knockin mutations exhibited lysosomal defects while inducible motor neurons (iMNs) expressing UBQLN2ALS alleles exhibited cytosolic UBQLN2 inclusions, reduced neurite complexity, and growth cone defects that were partially reversed by silencing of UNC5B and DCC. The combined findings suggest that altered growth cone dynamics are a conserved pathomechanism in UBQLN2-associated ALS/FTD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nichols, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramesh, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuerbis, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scalf, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandey, U. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tibbetts, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.31.514355</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Axon guidance pathways modulate neurotoxicity of ALS-associated UBQLN2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.01.514652v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Impaired HIV-specific T-cell responses in HIV and S. mansoni coinfected Ugandans. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.01.514652v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fishing communities surrounding Lake Victoria in Uganda show an HIV-1 prevalence of 28% and incidence rates of 5%. More than 50% of the fishermen on the shores of Lake Victoria are infected with S. mansoni. Fishermen are more likely to die of AIDS related illness than farmers in the Lake Victoria region.

Using polychromatic flow cytometry and mesoscale discovery platform, HIV specific and non-specific responses were measured and compared within individuals when HIV and S. mansoni coinfected and after the S. mansoni was cleared.

Sixty-two unique clusters of cells in the UMAP space were identified after stimulations with GAG PTE POOL-1 and GAG PTE POOL-2 independently. However, the frequency of only three clusters is significantly higher after S. mansoni clearance. In addition, S. mansoni infection is associated with higher IL-9 and IL-10 and lower IL-15 in HIV and S. mansoni coinfected individuals. IL-9 concentration at enrolment visit predicts CD4 decline.

S. mansoni infection negatively affects HIV specific and non-specific immune responses in HIV and S. mansoni coinfected individuals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Obuku, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rukundo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Odong, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auma, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serwanga, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nkangi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakitto, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joloba, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantaleo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaleebu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.01.514652</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impaired HIV-specific T-cell responses in HIV and S. mansoni coinfected Ugandans.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.09.515866v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rescue of neuropsychiatric phenotypes in a mouse model of 16p11.2 duplication syndrome by genetic correction of an epilepsy network hub 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.09.515866v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neuropsychiatric disorders (NPDs) share genetic etiology and are frequently co-morbid with epilepsy, but the biological basis of this shared risk remains poorly understood. The 16p11.2 microduplication (16p11.2dup/+) is a highly pleiotropic copy number variant (CNV) conferring risk for multiple NPDs including autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and intellectual disability, and is associated with a high prevalence of seizures. We used a mouse model of the 16p11.2 duplication (16p11.2dup/+) to uncover molecular and circuit properties associated with this broad phenotypic spectrum, and examined genes within the locus capable of phenotype reversal. Quantitative proteomics of cortical membranes revealed alterations to synaptic protein networks and products of diverse NPD risk genes in 16p11.2dup/+ mice. Network analysis identified an epilepsy-associated protein subnetwork, which was dysregulated in 16p11.2dup/+ mice and proteomic datasets from human NPDs. We investigated circuit properties in 16p11.2dup/+ mice and found they exhibited hypersynchronous activity and enhanced network glutamate release, which increased susceptibility to seizures. We hypothesized that a regulator of the synaptic and epilepsy-associated protein network could have an important impact on pathophysiology. Human brain co-expression and interactome analysis revealed PRRT2 as a major hub in the dysregulated epilepsy subnetwork. Remarkably, restoring Prrt2 copy number to wild-type levels rescued aberrant circuit properties, seizure susceptibility and social interaction deficits in 16p11.2dup/+ mice. We show that proteomics and network biology can identify important disease hubs in multigenic CNVs, and reveal molecular and circuit phenotypes which may be relevant to the complex symptomatology of 16p11.2 duplication carriers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Forrest, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dos Santos, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piguel, N. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bagchi, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawkins, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dionisio, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simkin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin-de-Saavedra, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horan, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LeDoux, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kearney, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penzes, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.09.515866</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rescue of neuropsychiatric phenotypes in a mouse model of 16p11.2 duplication syndrome by genetic correction of an epilepsy network hub]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.24.517565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An international scholastic network to generate LexA enhancer-trap lines for Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.24.517565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Conditional gene regulation in Drosophila through binary expression systems like the LexA-LexAop system provides a superb tool for investigating gene and tissue function. To increase the availability of defined LexA enhancer trap insertions, we present molecular, genetic and tissue expression studies of 301 novel Stan-X LexA enhancer traps derived from mobilization of the index SX4 line. This includes insertions into distinct loci on the X, II and III chromosomes that were not previously associated with enhancer traps or targeted LexA constructs, an insertion into ptc, and eleven insertions into natural transposons. A subset of enhancer traps was expressed in CNS neurons known to produce and secrete insulin, an essential regulator of growth, development and metabolism. Fly lines described here were generated and characterized through studies by students and teachers in an international network of genetics classes at public, independent high schools, and universities serving a diversity of students, including those underrepresented in science. Thus, a unique partnership between secondary schools and university-based programs has produced and characterized novel resources in Drosophila, establishing instructional paradigms devoted to unscripted experimental science.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulick, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>English, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakada, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mastroianni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feigenbaum, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolentino, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pace, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiPrima, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syed, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Govindarajan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abukhadra, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bacon, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckerle, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloomfield, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esi Donkor, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garberg, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrington, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noori, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parsons, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oravitan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molina, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richmond, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reddi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shugrue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coviello, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Unver, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Indelicarto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Islamovic, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIlroy, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, Z</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.24.517565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An international scholastic network to generate LexA enhancer-trap lines for Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521539v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The RNA-binding protein Adad1 is necessary for germ cell maintenance and meiosis in zebrafish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521539v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The double stranded RNA binding protein Adad1 (adenosine deaminase domain containing 1) is a member of the adenosine deaminase acting on RNAs (Adar) protein family with germ cell-specific expression. In mice, Adad1 is necessary for sperm differentiation, however its function outside of mammals has not been investigated. Here, through an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) based forward genetic screen, we identified an adad1 mutant zebrafish line that develop as sterile males. Further histological examination revealed complete lack of germ cells in adult mutant fish, however germ cells populated the gonad, proliferated, and entered meiosis in larval and juvenile fish. Although meiosis was initiated in adad1 mutant testes, the spermatocytes failed to progress beyond the zygotene stage. Thus, Adad1 is essential for meiosis and germline maintenance in zebrafish. We tested if spermatogonial stem cells were affected using a label retaining cell (LRC) assay and found that the mutant testes had fewer LRCs compared to wild-type siblings, suggesting that failure to maintain the spermatogonial stem cells resulted in germ cell loss by adulthood. To identify potential molecular processes regulated by Adad1, we sequenced bulk mRNA from mutants and wild-type testes and found mis-regulation of genes involved in RNA stability and modification, pointing to a potential broader role in post-transcriptional regulation. Our findings suggest that Adad1 is an RNA regulatory protein required for fertility through regulation of spermatogonial stem cell maintenance in zebrafish.

Author SummaryInfertility is a serious problem for millions of couples who wish to have children. Globally more than 10% of couples suffer from infertility due to genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. Among these about 50% of cases occur due to genetic factors such as aneuploidy and genetic mutations affecting development of the gametes (i.e. sperm and eggs). Although many genes are known to be involved in germ cell development, genetic causes of infertility are still largely unexplained. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate genes involved in reproductive processes. In this study, we report that the adad1 gene is essential for germ cell maintenance and fertility in zebrafish. Our analysis of zebrafish adad1 mutants demonstrates that it is required for maintenance of the germline stem cells and for completion of meiosis. This is in contrast to mouse Adad1, which functions later in gamete development to regulate differentiation of haploid sperm. Our work on zebrafish adad1 has uncovered previously unknown roles of adad1 function in germline stem cell maintenance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Islam, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henke, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siegfried, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.21.521539</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The RNA-binding protein Adad1 is necessary for germ cell maintenance and meiosis in zebrafish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523453v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization and Applications of Evoked Responses During Epidural Electrical Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523453v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) of the spinal cord has been FDA approved and used therapeutically for decades. However, there is still not a clear understanding of the local neural substrates and consequently the mechanism of action responsible for the therapeutic effects. Epidural spinal recordings (ESR) are collected from the electrodes placed in the epidural space. ESR contains multi-modality signal components such as the evoked neural response (due to tonic or BurstDR waveforms), evoked muscle response, stimulation artifact, and cardiac response. The tonic stimulation evoked compound action potential (ECAP) is one of the components in ESR and has been proposed recently to measure local neural activation during EES. Here, we first review and investigate the referencing strategies, as they apply to ECAP component in ESR in the domestic swine animal model. We then examine how ECAP component can be used to sense lead migration, an adverse outcome following lead placement that can reduce therapeutic efficacy. Lastly, we show and isolate concurrent activation of local back and leg muscles during EES, demonstrating that the ESR obtained from the recording contacts contain both ECAP and EMG components. These findings may further guide the implementation of recording and reference contacts in an implantable EES system and provide preliminary evidence for the utility of ECAP component in ESR to detect lead migration. We expect these results to facilitate future development of EES methodology and implementation of use of different components in ESR to improve EES therapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Verma, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romanauski, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lujan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blanz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lempka, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nishiyama, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavrov, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.10.523453</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization and Applications of Evoked Responses During Epidural Electrical Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.05.535706v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural Plasticity of GABAergic Pallidothalamic Terminals in MPTP-treated Parkinsonian Monkeys: A 3D Electron Microscopic Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.05.535706v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The globus pallidus pars interna (GPi) is a major source of GABAergic inhibition upon the motor thalamus. GPi neurons are endowed with properties that allow them to fire at a high rate and maintain a tonic inhibitory influence upon thalamocortical neurons. In parkinsonism, the firing rate of GPi neurons is further increased and their firing pattern switches from a tonic to a bursty mode, two pathophysiological changes associated with increased GABAergic pallidothalamic activity. At the thalamic level, GPi terminals display ultrastructural features (large diameter, multiple synapses, large number of mitochondria) that allow them to maintain tonic synaptic inhibition at high firing rate upon thalamocortical neurons in the parvocellular ventral anterior nucleus (VApc) and the centromedian nucleus (CM), the two main GPi-recipient motor thalamic nuclei in nonhuman primates. To determine if changes of GPi neurons activity are associated with neuroplastic reorganization of GPi terminals and their synapses, we used a Single Block Facing/Scanning Electron Microscopy (SBF/SEM), high resolution 3D electron microscopic approach to compare the morphometry of GPi terminals between 2 control and 2 MPTP-treated parkinsonian monkeys. Our findings demonstrate that pallidothalamic terminals in VApc and CM undergo major ultrastructural changes in parkinsonian monkeys: (1) increased terminal volume in both nuclei, (2) increased surface area of synapses in both nuclei, (3) increased number of synapses/GPi terminals in the CM, but not VApc, (4) increased total volume of mitochondria/terminals in both nuclei but not in the number of mitochondria. In contrast, the ultrastructure of putative GABAergic terminals from the reticular thalamic nucleus was not affected in both the VApc and CM of parkinsonian monkeys. Our findings also show striking morphological differences in terminal volume, number/area of synapses and volume/number of mitochondria between GPi terminals in VApc and CM of control monkeys. In conclusion, results of this study demonstrate that GABAergic pallidothalamic terminals are endowed with a high level of structural plasticity that may contribute to the development and maintenance of the abnormal increase in pallidal GABAergic outflow to the thalamus in the parkinsonian state. Furthermore, the evidence for ultrastructural differences between GPi terminals in VApc and CM suggests that Morphologically distinct pallidothalamic terminals underlie specific physiological properties of pallidal inputs to VApc and CM in normal and diseased states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Masilamoni, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swain, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pare, J.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villalba, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.05.535706</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural Plasticity of GABAergic Pallidothalamic Terminals in MPTP-treated Parkinsonian Monkeys: A 3D Electron Microscopic Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.10.536285v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How individual P. aeruginosa cells with diverse stator distributions collectively form a heterogeneous macroscopic swarming population 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.10.536285v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Swarming is a macroscopic phenomenon in which surface bacteria organize into a motile population. The flagellar motor that drives swarming in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is powered by stators MotAB and MotCD. Deletion of the MotCD stator eliminates swarming, whereas deletion of the MotAB stator enhances swarming. Interestingly, we measured a strongly asymmetric stator availability in the WT strain, with MotAB stators produced [~]40-fold more than MotCD stators. However, recruitment of MotCD stators in free swimming cells requires higher liquid viscosities, while MotAB stators are readily recruited at low viscosities. Importantly, we find that cells with MotCD stators are [~]10x more likely to have an active motor compared to cells without, so wild-type, WT, populations are intrinsically heterogeneous and not reducible to MotAB-dominant or MotCD-dominant behavior. The spectrum of motility intermittency can either cooperatively shut down or promote flagellum motility in WT populations. In P. aeruginosa, transition from a static solid-like biofilm to a dynamic liquid-like swarm is not achieved at a single critical value of flagellum torque or stator fraction but is collectively controlled by diverse combinations of flagellum activities and motor intermittencies via dynamic stator recruitment. Experimental and computational results indicate that the initiation or arrest of flagellum-driven swarming motility does not occur from individual fitness or motility performance but rather related to concepts from the  jamming transition in active granular matter.

ImportanceAfter extensive study, it is now known that there exist multifactorial influences on swarming motility in P. aeruginosa, but it is not clear precisely why stator selection in the flagellum motor is so important or how this process is collectively initiated or arrested. Here, we show that for P. aeruginosa PA14, MotAB stators are produced [~]40-fold more than MotCD stators, but recruitment of MotCD over MotAB stators requires higher liquid viscosities. Moreover, we find the unanticipated result that the two motor configurations have significantly different motor intermittencies, the fraction of flagellum-active cells in a population on average, with MotCD active [~]10x more often than MotAB. What emerges from this complex landscape of stator recruitment and resultant motor output is an intrinsically heterogeneous population of motile cells. We show how consequences of stator recruitment led to swarming motility, and how they potentially relate to surface sensing circuitry.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de Anda, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuchma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boromand, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contreras, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medeiros Pereira, V. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogan, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Hern, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Toole, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, G. C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.10.536285</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How individual P. aeruginosa cells with diverse stator distributions collectively form a heterogeneous macroscopic swarming population]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.11.536461v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
LOCC: a novel visualization and scoring of cutoffs for continuous variables 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.11.536461v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThere is a need for new methods to select and analyze cutoffs employed to define genes that are most prognostic significant and impactful. We designed LOCC (Luos Optimization Categorization Curve), a novel tool to visualize and score continuous variables for a dichotomous outcome.

MethodsTo demonstrate LOCC with real world data, we analyzed TCGA hepatocellular carcinoma gene expression and patient data using LOCC. We compared LOCC visualization to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for prognostic modeling to showcase its utility in understanding predictors in various TCGA datasets.

ResultsAnalysis of E2F1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma using LOCC demonstrated appropriate cutoff selection and validation. In addition, we compared LOCC visualization and scoring to ROC curves and c-statistics, demonstrating that LOCC better described predictors. Analysis of a previously published gene signature showed large differences in LOCC scoring, and removing the lowest scoring genes did not affect prognostic modeling of the gene signature demonstrating LOCC scoring could distinguish which predictors were most critical.

ConclusionOverall, LOCC is a novel visualization tool for understanding and selecting cutoffs, particularly for gene expression analysis in cancer. The LOCC score can be used to rank genes for prognostic potential and is more suitable than ROC curves for prognostic modeling.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=95 SRC="FIGDIR/small/536461v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (17K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1712bc2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@efd579org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a8236borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ad78ea_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Letterio, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.11.536461</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[LOCC: a novel visualization and scoring of cutoffs for continuous variables]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.15.537008v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The initiation and maintenance of CHH methylation and its effects on gene expression are unique in maize 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.15.537008v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Trans-chromosomal interactions resulting in changes in DNA methylation during hybridization have been observed in several plant species. However, very little is known about the causes or consequences of these interactions. Here, we compared DNA methylomes of F1 hybrids that are mutant for a small RNA biogenesis gene, Mop1 (mediator of paramutation1) with that of their parents, wild type siblings, and backcrossed progeny in maize. Our data show that hybridization triggers global changes in both trans-chromosomal methylation (TCM) and trans-chromosomal demethylation (TCdM), most of which involved changes in CHH methylation. In more than 60% of these TCM differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in which small RNAs are available, no significant changes in the quantity of small RNAs were observed. Methylation at the CHH TCM DMRs was largely lost in the mop1 mutant, although the effects of this mutant varied depending on the location of the CHH DMRs. Interestingly, an increase in CHH at TCM DMRs was associated with enhanced expression of a subset of highly expressed genes and suppressed expression of a small number of lowly expressed genes. Examination of the methylation levels in backcrossed plants demonstrates that TCM and TCdM can be maintained in the subsequent generation, but that TCdM is more stable than TCM. Surprisingly, although increased CHH methylation in F1 plants did require Mop1, initiation of the changes in the epigenetic state of TCM DMRs did not require a functional copy of this gene, suggesting that initiation of these changes is not dependent on RNA-directed DNA methylation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lisch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.15.537008</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The initiation and maintenance of CHH methylation and its effects on gene expression are unique in maize]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.20.537691v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A core Nrf2 gene set defined through comprehensive transcriptomic analysis predicts drug resistance and poor multi-cancer prognosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.20.537691v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The NRF2-KEAP1 pathway plays an important role in the cellular response to oxidative stress but may also contribute to metabolic changes and drug resistance in cancer. We investigated the activation of NRF2 in human cancers and fibroblast cells through KEAP1 inhibition and cancer associated KEAP1/NRF2 mutations. We define a core set of 14 upregulated NRF2 target genes from seven RNA-Sequencing databases that we generated and analyzed, which we validated this gene set through analyses of published databases and gene sets. An NRF2 activity score based on expression of these core target genes correlates with resistance to drugs such as PX-12 and necrosulfonamide but not to paclitaxel or bardoxolone methyl. We validated these findings and also found NRF2 activation led to radioresistance in cancer cell lines. Finally, our NRF2 score is prognostic for cancer survival and validated in additional independent cohorts for novel cancers types not associated with NRF2-KEAP1 mutations. These analyses define a core NRF2 gene set that is robust, versatile, and useful as a NRF2 biomarker and for predicting drug resistance and cancer prognosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alridge, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rieger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soliman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahdi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Letterio, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.20.537691</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A core Nrf2 gene set defined through comprehensive transcriptomic analysis predicts drug resistance and poor multi-cancer prognosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.542391v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
OPERANT REFLEX CONDITIONING SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT REVEALS EFFECTS OF FEEDBACK PARAMETERS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.542391v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Operant conditioning of neural activation has been researched for decades in humans and animals. Many theories suggest two parallel learning processes, implicit and explicit. The degree to which feedback affects these processes individually remains to be fully understood and may contribute to a large percentage of non-learners. Our goal is to determine the explicit decision-making processes in response to feedback representing an operant conditioning environment. We developed a simulated operant conditioning environment based on a feedback model of spinal reflex excitability, one of the simplest forms of neural operant conditioning. We isolated the perception of the feedback signal from self-regulation of an explicit unskilled visuomotor task, enabling us to quantitatively examine feedback strategy. Our hypothesis was that feedback type, signal quality and success threshold affect operant conditioning performance and operant strategy. Healthy individuals (N = 41) were instructed to play a web application game using keyboard inputs to rotate a virtual knob representative of an operant strategy. The goal was to align the knob with a hidden target. Participants were asked to "down-condition" the amplitude of the virtual feedback signal, which was achieved by placing the knob as close as possible to the hidden target. We varied feedback type (knowledge of performance, knowledge of results), success threshold (easy, moderate, difficult), and biological variability (low, high) in a factorial design. Parameters were extracted from real operant conditioning data. Our main outcomes were the feedback signal amplitude (performance) and the mean change in dial position (operant strategy). We observed that performance was modulated by variability, while operant strategy was modulated by feedback type. These results show complex relations between fundamental feedback parameters and provide the principles for optimizing neural operant conditioning for non-responders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oblak, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manella, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sulzer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.26.542391</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[OPERANT REFLEX CONDITIONING SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT REVEALS EFFECTS OF FEEDBACK PARAMETERS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.543068v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dicarboxylic acid supplementation protects from acute kidney injury via stimulation of renal peroxisomal activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.31.543068v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionLysine succinylation is a post-translational modification associated with the control of several diseases, including acute kidney injury (AKI). It is suggested that hypersuccinylation favors peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation (FAO) instead of mitochondrial. In addition, the medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) dodecanedioic acid (DC12) and octanedioic acid (DC8), upon FAO, generate succinyl-CoA, resulting in hypersuccinylation. DC8 is convenient, inexpensive, easily administered, and efficient. We believe this study could be translated in the future to clinical settings, which would highly benefit patients at high risk of AKI.

Methods and ResultsTo test the protective roles of MCFAs during AKI, mice were fed with control, 10% DC12, or 10% DC8 diet, then, subjected to either ischemic-AKI, or cisplatin-AKI models. Supplementation was provided until sacrifice. Biochemical, histologic, genetic, and proteomic analysis were performed, the latter involving a lysine-succinylome-based analysis. Both DC8 and DC12 prevented the rise of AKI markers in mice that underwent renal injury. However, DC8 was even more protective against AKI than DC12. Finally, succinylome analysis evidenced that the kidneys of DC8-fed mice showed an extensive succinylation of peroxisomal activity-related proteins, and a decline in mitochondrial FAO, in comparison to control-fed mice.

ConclusionDC8 supplementation drives renal protein hypersuccinylation, promoting a shift from mitochondrial to peroxisomal FAO, and protecting against AKI.

Significance StatementLysine succinylation of proteins is shown to control several diseases, including acute kidney injury (AKI). Here we show that mice supplemented with the medium-chain fatty acid octanedioic acid successfully presented a high level of succinylation and were protected from both ischemia-reperfusion- and cisplatin-induced AKI. Moreover, our study demonstrates that peroxisomal activity was increased while mitochondrial activity was preserved, suggesting that the metabolism of diet-obtained medium-chain fatty acids by peroxisomes is renoprotective.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barbosa, A. C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfister, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiba, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bons, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rose, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burton, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Broin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivakama, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uhlean, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schilling, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goetzman, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sims-Lucas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.31.543068</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dicarboxylic acid supplementation protects from acute kidney injury via stimulation of renal peroxisomal activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.16.545305v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Specification and survival of post-metamorphic branchiomeric neurons in the hindbrain of a non-vertebrate chordate. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.16.545305v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tunicates are the sister group to the vertebrates, yet most species have a life cycle split between swimming larva and sedentary adult phases. During metamorphosis, larval neurons are largely replaced by adult-specific ones. Yet the regulatory mechanisms underlying this neural replacement remain largely unknown. Using tissue-specific CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis in the tunicate Ciona, we show that orthologs of conserved hindbrain and branchiomeric neuron regulatory factors Pax2/5/8 and Phox2 are required to specify the "Neck", a compartment of cells set aside in the larva to give rise to cranial motor neuron-like neurons in the adult. Using bulk and single-cell RNAseq analyses, we also characterize the transcriptome of the Neck downstream of Pax2/5/8. Surprisingly, we find that Neck-derived adult ciliomotor neurons begin to differentiate in the larva, contrary to the long-held assumption that the adult nervous system is formed only after settlement and the death of larval neurons during metamorphosis. Finally, we show that manipulating FGF signaling during the larval phase alters the patterning of the Neck and its derivatives. Suppression of FGF converts Neck cells into larval neurons that fail to survive metamorphosis, while prolonged FGF signaling promotes an adult neural stem cell-like fate instead.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gigante, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piekarz, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurgis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Razy-Krajka, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popsuj, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohana Sundaram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolfi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.16.545305</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Specification and survival of post-metamorphic branchiomeric neurons in the hindbrain of a non-vertebrate chordate.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.02.547361v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Glycoprotein VI is Critical for the Detection and Progression of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.02.547361v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A common feature in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is the formation of a nonocclusive intraluminal thrombus (ILT) in regions of aortic dilation. Platelets are known to maintain hemostasis and propagate thrombosis through several redundant activation mechanisms, yet the role of platelet activation in the pathogenesis of AAA associated ILT is still poorly understood. Thus, we sought to investigate how platelet activation impacts the pathogenesis of AAA. Using RNA-sequencing, we identify that the platelet-associated transcripts are significantly enriched in the ILT compared to the adjacent aneurysm wall and healthy control aortas. We found that the platelet specific receptor glycoprotein VI (GPVI) is among the top enriched genes in AAA ILT and is increased on the platelet surface of AAA patients. Examination of a specific indicator of platelet activity, soluble GPVI (sGPVI), in two independent AAA patient cohorts is highly predictive of a AAA diagnosis and associates more strongly with aneurysm growth rate when compared to D-dimer in humans. Finally, intervention with the anti-GPVI antibody (J) in mice with established aneurysms blunted the progression of AAA in two independent mouse models. In conclusion, we show that levels of sGPVI in humans can predict a diagnosis of AAA and AAA growth rate, which may be critical in the identification of high-risk patients. We also identify GPVI as a novel platelet-specific AAA therapeutic target, with minimal risk of adverse bleeding complications, where none currently exist.

KEY POINTSO_LISoluble glycoprotein VI, which is a platelet-derived blood biomarker, predicts a diagnosis of AAA, with high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing patients with fast from slow-growing AAA.
C_LIO_LIBlockade of glycoprotein VI in mice with established aneurysms reduces AAA progression and mortality, indicating therapeutic potential.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Benson, T. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pike, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spuzzillo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hicks, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pham, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mix, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunner, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wadding-Lee, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conrad, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russell, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jennings, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coughlin, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aggarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyden, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mani, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bjorck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanhainen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhandari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lipworth, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson-Cohen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caputo, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edwards, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tranter, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardiner, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackman, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owens, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.02.547361</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Glycoprotein VI is Critical for the Detection and Progression of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.549970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Liquid channels within B. subtilis biofilms allow the escape of trapped clones and population rescue 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.549970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Phenotypic heterogeneity is one of the hallmarks of the biofilm lifestyle, where even isogenic populations give rise to spatially organized and phenotypically distinct subpopulations. One such pattern is generated by the ability of several biofilm-forming bacteria to switch between a flagellated and a matrix producing state. Here, using Bacillus subtilis as a model system, we investigate the role of this switch during biofilm development on a solid-air interface.

By comparing the matrix-flagella spatio-temporal patterns in wild-type biofilms with mixtures of flagella- and matrix-null mutants biofilms, we find that pattern formation does not require a phenotypic switch that enables individual cells to respond to the local environment, but can be explained by a completely stochastic switch coupled to a phenotype-dependent fitness landscape that selects phenotypes at the population level. Integration of experiments and physical models shows that the coexistence between flagellated and matrix-producing cells provides the population with enhanced resilience to environmental changes, by enabling cells to manipulate and harness the local morphological and transport properties within the biofilm. Our results not only reveal a new evolutionary advantage of phenotypic plasticity in biofilms, but also illustrate how the biology and ecology of these populations are intrinsically tied to their physical properties.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knight, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruiz Pestana, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fusco, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.20.549970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Liquid channels within B. subtilis biofilms allow the escape of trapped clones and population rescue]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.01.551488v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
XRN1 deletion induces PKR-dependent cell lethality in interferon-activated cancer cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.01.551488v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Emerging data suggest that induction of viral mimicry responses through activation of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensors in cancer cells is a promising therapeutic strategy. One approach to induce viral mimicry is to target molecular regulators of dsRNA sensing pathways. Here, we show that the exoribonuclease XRN1 is a negative regulator of the dsRNA sensor protein kinase R (PKR) in cancer cells with high interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression. XRN1 deletion causes PKR activation and consequent cancer cell lethality. Disruption of interferon signaling with the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib can decrease cellular PKR levels and rescue sensitivity to XRN1 deletion. Conversely, interferon-{beta} stimulation can increase PKR levels and induce sensitivity to XRN1 inactivation. Lastly, XRN1 deletion causes accumulation of endogenous complementary sense/anti-sense RNAs, which may represent candidate PKR ligands. Our data demonstrate how XRN1 regulates PKR and nominate XRN1 as a potential therapeutic target in cancer cells with an activated interferon cell state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zou, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishbein, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cherniack, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyerson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.01.551488</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[XRN1 deletion induces PKR-dependent cell lethality in interferon-activated cancer cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.14.553236v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TLR2 Regulates Hair Follicle Cycle and Regeneration via BMP Signaling. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.14.553236v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The etiology of hair loss remains enigmatic, and current remedies remain inadequate. Transcriptome analysis of aging hair follicles uncovered changes in immune pathways, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Our findings demonstrate that the maintenance of hair follicle homeostasis and the regeneration capacity after damage depends on TLR2 in hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs). In healthy hair follicles, TLR2 is expressed in a cycle-dependent manner and governs HFSCs activation by countering inhibitory BMP signaling. Hair follicles in aging and obesity exhibit a decrease in both TLR2 and its endogenous ligand carboxyethylpyrrole (CEP), a metabolite of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Administration of CEP stimulates hair regeneration through a TLR2-dependent mechanism. These results establish a novel connection between TLR2-mediated innate immunity and HFSC activation, which is pivotal to hair follicle health and the prevention of hair loss and provide new avenues for therapeutic intervention.

SummaryHair follicle stem cells TLR2 is required for hair homeostasis and regeneration. While TLR2 stimulation by endogenous ligand promotes hair growth, reduction in TLR2 and its ligand in aging and obesity may diminish hair growth.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xiong, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhevlakova, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>West, X. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murtazina, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molokotina, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Podrez, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byzova, T. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.14.553236</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TLR2 Regulates Hair Follicle Cycle and Regeneration via BMP Signaling.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.554868v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural and functional vascular dysfunction within brain metastases is linked to pembrolizumab inefficacy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.25.554868v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Structurally and functionally aberrant vasculature is a hallmark of tumor angiogenesis and treatment resistance. Given the synergistic link between aberrant tumor vasculature and immunosuppression, we analyzed perfusion MRI for 44 patients with brain metastases (BM) undergoing treatment with pembrolizumab. To date, vascular-immune communication, or the relationship between immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) efficacy and vascular architecture, has not been well-characterized in human imaging studies. We found that ICI-responsive BM possessed a structurally balanced vascular makeup, which was linked to improved vascular efficiency and an immune-stimulatory microenvironment. In contrast, ICI-resistant BM were characterized by a lack of immune cell infiltration and a highly aberrant vasculature dominated by large-caliber vessels. Peri-tumor region analysis revealed early functional changes predictive of ICI resistance before radiographic evidence on conventional MRI. This study was one of the largest functional imaging studies for BM and establishes a foundation for functional studies that illuminate the mechanisms linking patterns of vascular architecture with immunosuppression, as targeting these aspects of cancer biology may serve as the basis for future combination treatments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lou, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giobbie-Hurder, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gidwani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoebel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cleveland, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bridge, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bearce, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuster-Garcia, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, N. U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Overmoyer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wen, P. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nayak, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dietrich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eichler, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heist, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krop, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawrence, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ligibel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolaney, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayer, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winer, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perrino, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Summers, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oh, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shih, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cahill, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yen, Y.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalpathy-Cramer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Lage, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brastianos, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emblem, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerstner, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.25.554868</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural and functional vascular dysfunction within brain metastases is linked to pembrolizumab inefficacy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/211151v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dark selection for JAK/STAT-inhibitor resistance in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/211151v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acquired therapy resistance to cancer treatment is a common and serious clinical problem. The classic U-shape model for the emergence of resistance supposes that: (1) treatment changes the selective pressure on the treatment-naive tumour; (2) this shifting pressure creates a proliferative or survival difference between sensitive cancer cells and either an existing or de novo mutant; (3) the resistant cells then out-compete the sensitive cells and - if further interventions (like drug holidays or new drugs or dosage changes) are not pursued - take over the tumour: returning it to a state dangerous to the patient. The emergence of ruxolitinib resistance in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) seems to challenge the classic model: we see the global properties of resistance, but not the drastic change in clonal architecture expected with the selection bottleneck. To study this, we explore three population-level models as alternatives to the classic model of resistance. These three effective models are designed in such a way that they are distinguishable based on limited experimental data on the time-progression of resistance in CMML. We also propose a candidate reductive implementation of the proximal cause of resistance to ground these effective theories. With these reductive implementations in mind, we also explore the impact of oxygen diffusion and spatial structure more generally on the dynamics of CMML in the bone marrow concluding that, even small fluctuations in oxygen availability can seriously impact the efficacy of ruxolitinib. Finally, we look at the ability of spatially distributed cytokine signaling feedback loops to produce a relapse in symptoms similar to what we observe in the clinic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kaznatcheev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimes, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vander Velde, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannataro, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baratchart, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myroshnychenko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor-King, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padron, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusyk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basanta, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-10-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/211151</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dark selection for JAK/STAT-inhibitor resistance in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-10-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232744v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clinically Important sex differences in GBM biology revealed by analysis of male and female imaging, transcriptome and survival data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232744v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sex differences in the incidence and outcome of human disease are broadly recognized but in most cases not adequately understood to enable sex-specific approaches to treatment. Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common malignant brain tumor, provides a case in point. Despite well-established differences in incidence, and emerging indications of differences in outcome, there are few insights that distinguish male and female GBM at the molecular level, or allow specific targeting of these biological differences. Here, using a quantitative imaging-based measure of response, we found that temozolomide chemotherapy is more effective in female compared to male GBM patients. We then applied a novel computational algorithm to linked GBM transcriptome and outcome data, and identified novel sex-specific molecular subtypes of GBM in which cell cycle and integrin signaling were identified as the critical determinants of survival for male and female patients, respectively. The clinical utility of cell cycle and integrin signaling pathway signatures was further established through correlations between gene expression and in vitro chemotherapy sensitivity in a panel of male and female patient-derived GBM cell lines. Together these results suggest that greater precision in GBM molecular subtyping can be achieved through sex-specific analyses, and that improved outcome for all patients might be accomplished via tailoring treatment to sex differences in molecular mechanisms.nnOne Sentence SummaryMale and female glioblastoma are biologically distinct and maximal chances for cure may require sex-specific approaches to treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warrington, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrasco, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singleton, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berens, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnholtz-Sloan, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/232744</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clinically Important sex differences in GBM biology revealed by analysis of male and female imaging, transcriptome and survival data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/251389v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How Do Telomeres Block Checkpoint Activation? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/251389v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genome instability is a potentially lethal event for a eukaryotic cell, and a mutational force for genetic diseases such as cancer. DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can drive genome instability and are sensed by the DNA damage checkpoint, a defined set of evolutionarily-conserved proteins that bind the DSB to signal a pause or arrest of the cell cycle1 and recruit proteins to repair the DNA lesion2,3. Telomeres, the physical ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes, are specialized DSBs that suppress DNA damage checkpoint activation by an unknown mechanism(s), even though telomeres are bound by many of the DNA damage checkpoint proteins that signal cell cycle arrest4. Carneiro et al. (Nature 467: 228-232) addressed this question using Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells that lack Taz1, the protein that binds to double-stranded telomere repeats5. Te ...
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Runge, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Audry, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eisenstatt, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanders, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berkner, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/251389</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How Do Telomeres Block Checkpoint Activation?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/294629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Meta-analysis of genetic association with diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease identifies novel risk loci and implicates Abeta, Tau, immunity and lipid processing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/294629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Late-onset Alzheimers disease (LOAD, onset age > 60 years) is the most prevalent dementia in the elderly1, and risk is partially driven by genetics2. Many of the loci responsible for this genetic risk were identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS)3-8. To identify additional LOAD risk loci, the we performed the largest GWAS to date (89,769 individuals), analyzing both common and rare variants. We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify four new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, and ADAMTS1). Pathway analysis of these data implicates the immune system and lipid metabolism, and for the first time tau binding proteins and APP metabolism. These findings show that genetic variants affecting APP and A{beta} processing are not only associated with early-onset autosomal dominant AD but also with LOAD. Analysis of AD risk genes and pathways show enrichment for rare variants (P = 1.32 x 10-7) indicating that additional rare variants remain to be identified.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kunkle, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grenier-Boley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sims, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bis, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boland, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vronskaya, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Lee, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amlie-Wolf, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellenguez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frizatti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chouraki, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>European Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (EADI),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium (CHARGE),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genetic and Environmental Risk in Alzheimer's Disease Consortium (GERAD/PERADES),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hakonarson, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munger, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrer, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Broeckhoven, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donovan, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Destefano, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/294629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Meta-analysis of genetic association with diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease identifies novel risk loci and implicates Abeta, Tau, immunity and lipid processing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/295063v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prion protein quantification in cerebrospinal fluid as a tool for prion disease drug development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/295063v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reduction of native prion protein (PrP) levels in the brain is an attractive and genetically validated strategy for the treatment or prevention of human prion diseases. However, clinical development of any PrP-reducing therapeutic will require an appropriate pharmacodynamic biomarker: a practical and robust method for quantifying PrP, and reliably demonstrating its reduction, in the central nervous system (CNS) of a living patient. Here we evaluate the potential of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based quantification of human PrP in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to serve as a biomarker for PrP-reducing therapeutics. We show that CSF PrP is highly sensitive to plastic adsorption during handling and storage, but its loss can be minimized by addition of detergent. We find that blood contamination does not affect CSF PrP levels, and that CSF PrP and hemoglobin are uncorrelated, together suggesting that CSF PrP is CNS-derived, supporting its relevance for monitoring the tissue of interest and in keeping with high PrP abundance in brain relative to blood. In a cohort with controlled sample handling, CSF PrP exhibits good within-subject test-retest reliability (mean coefficient of variation 13% in samples collected 8-11 weeks apart), a sufficiently stable baseline to allow therapeutically meaningful reductions in brain PrP to be readily detected in CSF. Together, these findings supply a method for monitoring the effect of a PrP-reducing drug in the CNS, enabling the development of prion disease therapeutics with this mechanism of action.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vallabh, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nobuhara, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Llorens, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zerr, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parchi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capellari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhn, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klickstein, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nery, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swoboda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schreiber, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geschwind, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zetterberg, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minikel, E. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/295063</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prion protein quantification in cerebrospinal fluid as a tool for prion disease drug development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/299206v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Marginal Effects of Systemic CCR5 Blockade with Maraviroc on Oral Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission to Infant Macaques 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/299206v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Current approaches do not eliminate all HIV-1 maternal-to-infant transmissions (MTIT); new prevention paradigms might help avert new infections. We administered Maraviroc (MVC) to rhesus macaques (RMs) to block CCR5-mediated entry, followed by repeated oral exposure of a CCR5-dependent clone of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)mac251 (SIVmac766). MVC significantly blocked the CCR5 coreceptor in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and tissue cells. All control animals and 60% of MVC-treated infant RMs became infected by the 6th challenge, with no significant difference between the number of exposures (p=0.15). At the time of viral exposures, MVC plasma and tissue (including tonsil) concentrations were within the range seen in humans receiving MVC as a therapeutic. Both treated and control RMs were infected with only a single transmitted/founder variant, consistent with the dose of virus typical of HIV-1 infection. The uninfected RMs expressed the lowest levels of CCR5 on the CD4+ T cells. Ramp-up viremia was significantly delayed (p=0.05) in the MVC-treated RMs, yet peak and postpeak viral loads were similar in treated and control RMs. In conclusion, in spite of apparent effective CCR5 blockade in infant RMs, MVC had marginal impact on acquisition and only a minimal impact on post infection delay of viremia following oral SIV infection. Newly developed, more effective CCR5 blockers may have a more dramatic impact on oral SIV transmission than MVC.nnImportanceWe have previously suggested that the very low levels of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) maternal-to-infant transmissions (MTIT) in African nonhuman primates that are natural hosts of SIVs are due to a low availability of target cells (CCR5+ CD4+ T cells) in the oral mucosa of the infants, rather than maternal and milk factors. To confirm this new MTIT paradigm, we performed a proof of concept study, in which we therapeutically blocked CCR5 with maraviroc (MVC) and orally exposed MVC treated and naive infant rhesus macaques to SIV. MVC had only a marginal effect on oral SIV transmission. However, the observation that the infant RMs that remained uninfected at the completion of the study, after 6 repeated viral challenges, had the lowest CCR5 expression on the CD4+ T cells prior to the MVC treatment, appear to confirm our hypothesis, also suggesting that the partial effect of MVC is due to a limited efficacy of the drug. Newly, more effective CCR5 inhibitors may have a better effect in preventing SIV and HIV transmission.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brocca-Cofano, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wetzel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cottrell, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Policicchio, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raehtz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunsmore, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haret-Richter, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musaitif, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keele, B. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kashuba, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandrea, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apetrei, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/299206</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Marginal Effects of Systemic CCR5 Blockade with Maraviroc on Oral Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission to Infant Macaques]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/338798v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural insights on TRPV5 gating by endogenous modulators 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/338798v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
TRPV5 is a transient receptor potential channel involved in calcium reabsorption. Here we investigate the interaction of two endogenous modulators with TRPV5. Both phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) and calmodulin (CaM) have been shown to directly bind to TRPV5 and activate or inactivate the channel, respectively. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we determined TRPV5 structures in the presence of dioctanoyl PI(4,5)P2 and CaM. The PI(4,5)P2 structure revealed a novel binding site between the N-linker, S4-S5 linker and S6 helix of TRPV5. These interactions with PI(4,5)P2 induce conformational rearrangements in the lower gate, opening the channel. The CaM structure revealed two TRPV5 C-terminal peptides anchoring a single CaM molecule and that calcium inhibition is mediated through a cation-{pi} interaction between Lys116 on the C-lobe of calcium-activated CaM and Trp583 at the intracellular gate of TRPV5. Overall, this investigation provides insight into the endogenous modulation of TRPV5, which has the potential to guide drug discovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hughes, T. E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pumroy, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fluck, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huynh, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samanta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molugu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moiseenkova-Bell, V. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/338798</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural insights on TRPV5 gating by endogenous modulators]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/347526v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct roles and requirements for Ras pathway signaling in visceral versus somatic muscle founder specification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/347526v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pleiotropic signaling pathways must somehow engender specific cellular responses. In the Drosophila mesoderm, Ras pathway signaling specifies muscle founder cells from among the broader population of myoblasts. For somatic muscles, this is an inductive process mediated by the ETS-domain downstream Ras effectors Pointed and Aop (Yan). We demonstrate here that for the circular visceral muscles, despite superficial similarities, a significantly different specification mechanism is at work. Not only is visceral founder cell specification not dependent on Pointed or Aop, but Ras pathway signaling in its entirety can be bypassed. Our results show that de-repression, not activation, is the predominant role of Ras signaling in the visceral mesoderm and that accordingly, Ras signaling is not required in the absence of repression. The key repressor acts downstream of the transcription factor Lameduck and is likely a member of the ETS transcription factor family. Our findings fit with a growing body of data that point to a complex interplay between the Ras pathway, ETS transcription factors, and enhancer binding as a critical mechanism for determining unique responses to Ras signaling.nnSUMMARYA fundamentally different mechanism is shown for how Ras signaling governs cell fate specification in the Drosophila somatic versus visceral mesoderms, providing insight into how signaling specificity is achieved.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadowski, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deustchman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halfon, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/347526</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct roles and requirements for Ras pathway signaling in visceral versus somatic muscle founder specification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/416016v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of CTX-M-9 Group Producing Enterobacteriaceae infections in children 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/416016v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe pandemic of extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing-Enterobacteriaceae (Ent) is strongly linked to the dissemination of CTX-M-type-ESBL-Ent. We sought to define the epidemiology of infections in children due to an emerging resistance type, CTX-M-9-group-producing-Ent (CTX-M-9-grp-Ent).nnMethodsA multi-centered case-control analysis of Chicago children with CTX-M-9-grp-Ent infections was performed. Cases were defined as children possessing extended-spectrum-cephalosporin-resistant (ESC-R) infections. PCR and DNA analysis assessed beta-lactamase (bla) genes, multi-locus sequence types (MLST) and phylogenetic grouping of E. coli. Controls were children with ESC-susceptible (ESC-S)-Ent infections matched 3:1 by age, source, and hospital. The clinical-epidemiologic predictors of CTX-M-9-grp-Ent infection were assessed.nnResultsOf 356 ESC-R-Ent isolates from children (median age 4.1 years), CTX-M-9-group was the solely detected bla gene in 44(12.4%). The predominant species was E. coli (91%) of virulent phylogroups D(60%) and B2(40%). MLST revealed multiple strain types. On multivariable analysis, CTX-M-9-grp-Ent occurred more often in E. coli (OR 7.0), children of non-black-white-Hispanic race (OR 6.5), and outpatients (OR 4.5) which was a very unexpected finding for infections due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Residents of South Chicago were 6.7 times more likely to have CTX-M-9-grp-Ent infections than those in the reference region (West), while residence in Northwestern Chicago was associated with an 81% decreased risk. Other demographic, comorbidity, invasive-device, and antibiotic use differences were not found.nnConclusionsCTX-M-9-grp-Ent infection is strikingly associated with patient residence and is occurring in children without traditional in-patient exposure risk factors. This suggests that among children, the community environment may be a key contributor in the spread of these resistant pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Logan, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medernach, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Domitrovic, T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rispens, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hujer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qureshi, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudin, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weinstein, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/416016</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of CTX-M-9 Group Producing Enterobacteriaceae infections in children]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/420562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
lncDIFF: a novel distribution-free method for differential expression analysis of long non-coding RNA 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/420562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationLong non-coding RNA expression data has been increasingly used in finding diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancer studies. Existing differential analysis tools for RNA sequencing does not effectively accommodate low abundant genes, as commonly observed in lncRNA. We propose a novel and robust statistical method lncDIFF to detect differential expressed (DE) genes without assuming the true density on normalized counts.nnResultslncDIFF adopts the generalized linear model with zero-inflated exponential quasi likelihood to estimate group effect on normalized counts, and employs the likelihood ratio test to detect differential expressed genes. The proposed method and tool is suitable for data processed with standard RNA-Seq preprocessing and normalization pipelines. Simulation results illustrate that lncDIFF detects DE genes with more power and lower false discovery rate regardless of the data pattern. The analysis on a head and neck squamous cell carcinomas study also confirms that lncDIFF has better sensitivity in identifying novel lncRNA genes with relatively large fold change and prognostic value.nnAvailability and ImplementationlncDIFF is an R package available at https://github.com/qianli10000/lncDIFF.nnSupplementary InformationSupplementary Data are available at Bioinformatics online.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaudhary, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slebos, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/420562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[lncDIFF: a novel distribution-free method for differential expression analysis of long non-coding RNA]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/423665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of nucleotide synthesis mediates replicative senescence of human mammary epithelial cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/423665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cellular senescence is a mechanism by which cells permanently withdraw from the cell cycle in response to stresses including telomere shortening, DNA damage, or oncogenic signaling. Senescent cells contribute to both age-related degeneration and hyperplastic pathologies, including cancer. In culture, normal human epithelial cells enter senescence after a limited number of cell divisions, known as replicative senescence. Here, to investigate how metabolic pathways regulate replicative senescence, we used LC-MS-based metabolomics to analyze senescent primary human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs). We did not observe significant changes in glucose uptake or lactate secretion in senescent HMECs. However, analysis of intracellular metabolite pool sizes indicated that senescent cells exhibit depletion of metabolites from nucleotide synthesis pathways. Furthermore, stable isotope tracing with 13C-labeled glucose or glutamine revealed a dramatic blockage of flux of these two metabolites into nucleotide synthesis pathways in senescent HMECs. To test whether cellular immortalization would reverse these observations, we expressed telomerase in HMECs. In addition to preventing senescence, telomerase expression maintained metabolic flux from glucose into nucleotide synthesis pathways. Finally, we investigated whether inhibition of nucleotide synthesis in proliferating HMECs is sufficient to induce senescence. In proliferating HMECs, both pharmacological and genetic inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase regulatory subunit M2 (RRM2), a rate-limiting enzyme in dNTP synthesis, induced premature senescence with concomitantly decreased metabolic flux from glucose into nucleotide synthesis. Taken together, our results suggest that nucleotide synthesis inhibition plays a causative role in the establishment of replicative senescence in HMECs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Delfarah, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parrish, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/423665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of nucleotide synthesis mediates replicative senescence of human mammary epithelial cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454447v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolutionary exploitation of PD-L1 expression in hormone receptor positive breast cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454447v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Based on clinical data from hormone positive breast cancer patients, we determined that there is a potential tradeoff between reducing tumor burden and altering metastatic potential when administering combination therapy of aromatase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors. While hormone-deprivation therapies serve to reduce tumor size in the neoadjuvant setting pre-surgery, they may induce tumors to change expression patterns towards a metastatic phenotype. We used mathematical modeling to explore how the timing of the therapies affects tumor burden and metastatic potential with an eye toward developing a dynamic prognostic score and reducing both tumor size and risk of metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>West, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harmon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williamson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashcroft, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maestrini, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ardaseva, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bravo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luddy, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robertson-Tessi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/454447</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolutionary exploitation of PD-L1 expression in hormone receptor positive breast cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/458430v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiscale causal network models of Alzheimer’s disease identify VGF as a key regulator of disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/458430v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Though discovered over 100 years ago, the molecular foundation of sporadic Alzheimers disease (AD) remains elusive. To elucidate its complex nature, we constructed multiscale causal network models on a large human AD multi-omics dataset, integrating clinical features of AD, DNA variation, and gene and protein expression into probabilistic causal models that enabled detection and prioritization of high-confidence key drivers of AD, including the top predicted key driver VGF. Overexpression of neuropeptide precursor VGF in 5xFAD mice partially rescued beta-amyloid-mediated memory impairment and neuropathology. Molecular validation of network predictions downstream of VGF was achieved, with significant enrichment for homologous genes identified as differentially expressed in 5xFAD brains overexpressing VGF versus controls. Our findings support a causal and/or protective role for VGF in AD pathogenesis and progression.nnOne sentence summaryVGF protects against Alzheimers disease
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Beckmann, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, W.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohain, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Audrain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comella, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hariharan, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belbin, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levey, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyfried, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dammer, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lah, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haure-Mirande, J.-V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shackleton, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charney, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kenny, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haroutunian, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsel, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gandy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehrlich, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salton, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schadt, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/458430</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiscale causal network models of Alzheimer’s disease identify VGF as a key regulator of disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/504837v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resistance to ALK targeting therapies as a gradual Darwinian adaptation to inhibitor specific selective pressures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/504837v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite high initial efficacy, therapies that target oncogenic kinases eventually fail in advanced, metastatic cancers. This failure in initially responsive tumors is the direct result of the evolution of drug resistance under therapy-imposed selective pressures. In contrast to the massive body of experimental research on the molecular mechanisms of resistance, understanding of its evolutionary origins and dynamics remains fragmented. Using a combination of experimental studies and mathematical modeling, we sought to dissect the evolution of resistance to different clinical ALK inhibitors in an experimental model of ALK positive NSCLC. We found that resistance can originate from heterogeneous, weakly resistant, sub-populations with variable sensitivity to different ALK inhibitors. Instead of the commonly assumed stochastic single hit (epi) mutational transition, or drug-induced reprogramming, we found evidence of a hybrid scenario, of gradual, multifactorial development through acquisition of multiple cooperating genetic and epigenetic adaptive changes, amplified by selection. Additionally, we found that intermediate resistance phenotypes might present unique, temporally restricted collateral sensitivities, absent in therapy naive or fully resistant cells, suggesting new opportunities for therapeutic interference.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vander Velde, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusyk, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balynska, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peral, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myroshnychenko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poleszhuk, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mian, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abazeed, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haura, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusyk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/504837</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resistance to ALK targeting therapies as a gradual Darwinian adaptation to inhibitor specific selective pressures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/521880v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular mechanism of TRPV2 channel modulation by cannabidiol 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/521880v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 (TRPV2) plays a critical role in neuronal development, cardiac function, immunity, and cancer. Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychotropic therapeutically active ingredient of Cannabis sativa, is a potent activator of TRPV2 and also modulates other transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. Here, we determined structures of the full-length TRPV2 channel in a CBD-bound state in detergent and in PI(4,5)P2 enriched nanodiscs by cryo-electron microscopy. CBD interacts with TRPV2 through a hydrophobic pocket located between S5 and S6 helices of adjacent subunits, which differs from known ligand and lipid binding sites in other TRP channels. Comparison between apo- and two CBD-bound TRPV2 structures reveals that the S4-S5 linker plays a critical role in channel gating upon CBD binding. The TRPV2 "vanilloid" pocket, which is critical for ligand-dependent gating in other TRPV channels, stays unoccupied by annular lipids, PI(4,5)P2, or CBD. Together these results provide a foundation to further understand TRPV channel gating properties and their divergent physiological functions and to accelerate structure-based drug design.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pumroy, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samanta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, T. E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yudin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huynh, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohacs, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moiseenkova-Bell, V. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/521880</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular mechanism of TRPV2 channel modulation by cannabidiol]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/550640v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
\"Self-inactivating\" rabies viruses are just first-generation, ΔG rabies viruses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/550640v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Monosynaptic tracing using rabies virus is an important technique in neuroscience, allowing brain- wide labeling of neurons directly presynaptic to a targeted neuronal population. A 2017 article reported development of a noncytotoxic version - a major advance - based on attenuating the rabies virus by addition of a destabilization domain to the C-terminus of a viral protein. However, this modification did not appear to hinder the ability of the virus to spread between neurons. We analyzed two viruses provided by the authors and show here that both were mutants that had lost the intended modification, explaining the papers paradoxical results. We then made a virus that actually did have the intended modification in at least the majority of virions and found that it did not spread efficiently under the conditions described in the original paper, namely, without an exogenous protease being expressed in order to remove the destabilization domain. We found that it did spread when the protease was supplied, although this also appeared to result in the deaths of most source cells by three weeks postinjection. We conclude that the new approach is not robust but that it could become a viable technique given further optimization and validation.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTRabies virus, which spreads between synaptically-connected neurons, has been one of the primary tools used by neuroscientists to reveal the organization of the brain. A new modification to rabies virus was recently reported to allow the mapping of connected neurons without adverse effects on the cells health, unlike earlier versions. Here we show that the conclusions of that study were probably incorrect and based on having used viruses that had lost the intended modification because of mutations. We also show that a rabies virus that does retain the intended modification does not spread efficiently between neurons under the conditions reported previously; however, it does spread between neurons under different conditions, suggesting that the approach may be successful if refined further.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Matsuyama, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavin, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lea, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pruner, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dam Ferdinez, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wickersham, I. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/550640</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[\"Self-inactivating\" rabies viruses are just first-generation, ΔG rabies viruses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/581868v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stag1 and Stag2 regulate cell fate decisions in hematopoiesis through non-redundant topological control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/581868v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcriptional regulators, including the cohesin complex member STAG2, are recurrently mutated in cancer. The role of STAG2 in gene regulation, hematopoiesis, and tumor suppression remains unresolved. We show Stag2 deletion in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) results in altered hematopoietic function, increased self-renewal, and impaired differentiation. ChIP-sequencing revealed that while Stag2 and Stag1 can bind the same loci, a component of Stag2 binding sites are unoccupied by Stag1 even in Stag2-deficient HSPCs. While concurrent loss of Stag2 and Stag1 abrogated hematopoiesis, Stag2 loss alone decreased chromatin accessibility and transcription of lineage-specification genes, including Ebf1 and Pax5, leading to blunted HSPC commitment to the B-cell lineage. Our data illustrate a role for Stag2 in transformation and transcriptional dysregulation distinct from its shared role with Stag1 in chromosomal segregation.nnOne Sentence SummaryStag1 rescues topologically associated domains in the absence of Stag2, but cannot restore chromatin architecture required for hematopoietic lineage commitment
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Viny, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowman, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavallee, V.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redlich, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durham, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navitski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braunstein, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azizi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witkin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baslan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ott, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pe'er, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dekker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koche, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/581868</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stag1 and Stag2 regulate cell fate decisions in hematopoiesis through non-redundant topological control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/621185v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adaptive substitutions underlying cardiac glycoside insensitivity in insects exhibit epistasis in vivo. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/621185v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Predicting how species will respond to selection pressures requires understanding the factors that constrain their evolution. We use genome engineering of Drosophila to investigate constraints on the repeated evolution of unrelated herbivorous insects to toxic cardiac glycosides, which primarily occurs via a small subset of possible functionally-relevant substitutions to Na+,K+-ATPase. Surprisingly, we find that frequently observed adaptive substitutions at two sites, 111 and 122, are lethal when homozygous and adult heterozygotes exhibit dominant neural dysfunction. We identify a phylogenetically correlated substitution, A119S, that partially ameliorates the deleterious effects of substitutions at 111 and 122. Despite contributing little to cardiac glycoside-insensitivity in vitro, A119S, like substitutions at 111 and 122, substantially increases adult survivorship upon cardiac glycoside exposure. Our results demonstrate the importance of epistasis in constraining adaptive paths. Moreover, by revealing distinct effects of substitutions in vitro and in vivo, our results underscore the importance of evaluating the fitness of adaptive substitutions and their interactions in whole organisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Taverner, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barile, Z. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becky, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinharanda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roland, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talsma, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petschenka, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palladino, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andolfatto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/621185</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adaptive substitutions underlying cardiac glycoside insensitivity in insects exhibit epistasis in vivo.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/680058v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection boosts B cell responses to unrelated pathogens 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/680058v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antigens from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), have been shown to stimulate human B cell responses to unrelated recall antigens in vitro. However, it is not known whether natural M.tb infection or whether vaccination with the related species, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, has a similar effect. This study investigated the effects of M.tb infection and BCG vaccination on B cell responses to heterologous pathogen recall antigens. Antibodies against several bacterial and viral pathogens were quantified by ELISA in 68 uninfected controls, 62 individuals with latent TB infection (LTBI) and 107 active pulmonary TB (APTB) cases, and 24 recently BCG-vaccinated adolescents and naive controls. Antibody avidity was investigated using surface plasmon resonance and B cell ELISPOT assays were used to measure plasmablast and memory B cell responses (MBC) in APTB cases and healthy donor controls. APTB was associated with higher levels of antibodies to tetanus toxoid (TT), diphtheria toxoid, respiratory syncytial virus, measles virus and Kaposis sarcoma herpesvirus, compared to uninfected controls. Vaccination with BCG did not alter levels of antibodies against heterologous pathogens. TT-specific antibody avidity was increased in APTB and the ratio of TT-specific plasmablasts to MBCs in the APTB cases was 7:1. M.tb infection boosts serological memory to heterologous pathogens in human subjects and this process may be driven by polyclonal activation of memory B cells.nnSignificanceMycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) has potent immunostimulatory properties and has been used in adjuvant preparations to improve vaccine responses in animals. This study shows that natural M.tb infection in humans is associated with increased antibody and B cell recall responses to heterologous pathogens. This data suggests a potential role for M.tb antigens in immunotherapies designed to maintain antibody immunity to diverse infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kimuda, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andia-Biraro, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebina, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egesa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalwoga, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ssentalo Bagaya, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elliott, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raynes, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cose, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/680058</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection boosts B cell responses to unrelated pathogens]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/751958v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
LIS1 determines cleavage plane positioning by regulating actomyosin-mediated cell membrane contractility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/751958v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Heterozygous loss of human PAFAH1B1 (coding for LIS1) results in the disruption of neurogenesis and neuronal migration via dysregulation of microtubule (MT) stability and dynein motor function/localization that alters mitotic spindle orientation, chromosomal segregation, and nuclear migration. Recently, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models revealed an important role for LIS1 in controlling the length of terminal cell divisions of outer radial glial (oRG) progenitors, suggesting cellular functions of LIS1 in regulating neural progenitor cell (NPC) daughter cell separation. Here we examined the late mitotic stages NPCs in vivo and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) in vitro from Lis1-deficient mutants. Lis1-deficient neocortical NPCs and MEFs similarly exhibited cleavage plane displacement with mislocalization of furrow-associated markers, associated with actomyosin dysfunction and cell membrane hyper-contractility. Thus, it suggests LIS1 acts as a key molecular link connecting MTs/dynein and actomyosin, ensuring that cell membrane contractility is tightly controlled to execute proper daughter cell separation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moon, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hippenmeyer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/751958</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[LIS1 determines cleavage plane positioning by regulating actomyosin-mediated cell membrane contractility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/759092v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
B cell Compartmentalisation in Blood and Cerebrospinal Fluid of HIV- Infected Ugandans with Cryptococcal Meningitis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/759092v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundActivated B cells modulate infection by differentiating into pathogen-specific antibody-producing effector plasmablasts/plasma cells, memory cells and immune regulatory B cells. In this context, the B cell phenotypes that infiltrate the central nervous system during HIV and cryptococcal meningitis co-infection are ill defined.nnMethodsWe characterized clinical parameters, mortality and B cell phenotypes in blood and CSF by flow cytometry in HIV-infected adults with cryptococcal (n=31), and non-cryptococcal meningitis (n=12), and heathy control subjects with neither infection (n=10).nnResultsActivation of circulating B cells (CD21low) was significantly higher in blood of subjects with HIV infection compared with healthy controls, and greater yet in matched CSF B cells (p<0.001). Among B cell subsets, elevated frequencies of memory and plasmablasts/plasma cells most clearly distinguished the CSF from blood compartments. With cryptococcal meningitis, lower frequencies of expression of the regulatory protein PD-1 on plasmablasts/plasma cells in blood (median 7%) at presentation was associated with significantly decreased 28-day survival (29% (4/14 subjects)), whereas higher PD-1 expression (median 46%) characterized subjects with higher survival (88% (14/16 subjects)).nnConclusionWith HIV infection, B cell differentiation and regulatory markers are discrete elements of the circulating and CSF compartments with clinical implications for cryptococcal disease outcome, potentially due to their effects on the fungus and other local immune cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Okurut, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meya, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olobo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bohjanen, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bwanga, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eller, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boulware, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huppler Hullsiek, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pratap, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manabe, Y. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Janoff, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jallow, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/759092</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[B cell Compartmentalisation in Blood and Cerebrospinal Fluid of HIV- Infected Ugandans with Cryptococcal Meningitis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/761312v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DAF-16 and SMK-1 contribute to innate immunity during adulthood in Caenorhabditis elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/761312v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging is accompanied by a progressive decline in immune function termed "immunosenescence". Deficient surveillance coupled with the impaired function of immune cells compromises host defense in older animals. The dynamic activity of regulatory modules that control immunity appears to underlie age-dependent modifications to the immune system. In the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans levels of the PMK-1 p38 MAP kinase diminish over time, reducing the expression of immune effectors that clear bacterial pathogens. Along with the PMK-1 pathway, innate immunity in C. elegans is regulated by the insulin signaling pathway. Here we asked whether DAF-16, a Forkhead box (FOXO) transcription factor whose activity is inhibited by insulin signaling, plays a role in host defense later in life. While in younger worms DAF-16 remains in an inactive state unless stimulated by environmental insults, we found that even in the absence of acute stress the transcriptional activity of DAF-16 increases in an age-dependent manner. Beginning in the reproductive phase of adulthood, DAF-16 upregulates a subset of its transcriptional targets, including genes required to kill ingested microbes. Accordingly, DAF-16 has little to no role in larval immunity, but functions specifically during adulthood to confer resistance to bacterial pathogens. We found that DAF-16-mediated immunity in adults requires SMK-1, a regulatory subunit of the PP4 protein phosphatase complex. Our data suggest that as the function of one branch of the innate immune system of C. elegans (PMK-1) declines over time, DAF-16-mediated immunity ramps up to become the predominant means of protecting adults from infection, thus reconfiguring immunity later in life.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McHugh, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koumis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlaubitz-Garcia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Youngman, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/761312</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DAF-16 and SMK-1 contribute to innate immunity during adulthood in Caenorhabditis elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/807735v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Brain to Spine Interface for Transferring Artificial Sensory Information 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/807735v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lack of sensory feedback is a major obstacle in the rapid absorption of prosthetic devices by the brain. While electrical stimulation of cortical and subcortical structures provides unique means to deliver sensory information to higher brain structures, these approaches require highly invasive surgery and are dependent on accurate targeting of brain structures. Here, we propose a semi-invasive method, Dorsal Column Stimulation (DCS) as a tool for transferring sensory information to the brain. Using this new approach, we show that rats can learn to discriminate artificial sensations generated by DCS and that DCS-induced learning results in corticostriatal plasticity. We also demonstrate a proof of concept brain-to-spine interface (BTSI), whereby tactile and artificial sensory information are decoded from the brain of an "encoder" rat, transformed into DCS pulses, and delivered to the spinal cord of a second "decoder" rat while the latter performs an analog-to-digital conversion during a tactile discrimination task. These results suggest that DCS can be used as an effective sensory channel to transmit prosthetic information to the brain or between brains, and could be developed as a novel platform for delivering tactile and proprioceptive feedback in clinical applications of brain-machine interfaces.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yadav, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolelis, M. A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/807735</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Brain to Spine Interface for Transferring Artificial Sensory Information]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/844100v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A synthetic approach reveals a highly sensitive maize auxin response circuit 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/844100v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Auxin plays a key role across all land plants in growth and developmental processes. Although auxin signaling function has diverged and expanded, differences in the molecular functions of signaling components have largely been characterized in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we used the Auxin Response Circuit recapitulated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ARCSc) system to functionally annotate maize auxin signaling components, focusing on genes expressed during development of ear and tassel inflorescences. All 16 maize Auxin (Aux)/Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA) repressor proteins are degraded in response to auxin, with rates that depended on both receptor and repressor identity. When fused to the maize TOPLESS (TPL) homolog RAMOSA1 ENHANCER LOCUS2 (REL2), maize Aux/IAAs were able to repress AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR (ARF) transcriptional activity. A complete auxin response circuit comprised of all maize components, including ZmAFB2/3 b1 maize AUXIN SIGNALING F-BOX (AFB) receptor, was found to be fully functional. The ZmAFB2/3 b1 auxin receptor was found to be more sensitive to hormone than AtAFB2 and allowed for rapid circuit activation upon auxin addition. These results validate the conserved role of predicted auxin response genes in maize, as well as provide evidence that a synthetic approach can facilitate broader comparative studies across the wide range of species with sequenced genomes.

A synthetic maize auxin response circuit is recapitulated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, revealing a highly sensitive auxin signaling network with functional homology to the Arabidopsis circuit.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramos Baez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckley, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallavotti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemhauser, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/844100</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A synthetic approach reveals a highly sensitive maize auxin response circuit]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/865683v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Determination of secretory granule maturation times in pancreatic islet beta-cells by serial block face scanning electron microscopy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/865683v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
It is shown how serial block-face electron microscopy (SBEM) of insulin-secreting beta cells in wild-type mouse pancreatic islets of Langerhans can be used to determine maturation times of secretory granules. Although SBEM captures the beta cell structure at a snapshot in time, the observed ultrastructure can be considered representative of a dynamic equilibrium state of the cells since the pancreatic islets are maintained in culture in approximate homeostasis. It is found that 7.2{+/-}1.2% ({+/-}st. dev.) of the beta cell volume is composed of secretory granule dense-cores exhibiting angular shapes surrounded by wide (typically {gtrsim}100 nm) electron-lucent halos. These organelles are identified as mature granules that store insulin for regulated release through the plasma membrane, with a release time of 96{+/-}12 hours, as previously obtained from pulsed 35S-radiolabeling of cysteine and methionine. Analysis of beta cell 3D volumes reveals a subpopulation of secretory organelles without electron-lucent halos, identified as immature secretory granules. Another subpopulation of secretory granules is found with thin (typically [lsim]30 nm) electron-lucent halos, which are attributed to immature granules that are transforming from proinsulin to insulin by action of prohormone convertases. From the volume ratio of proinsulin in the immature granules to insulin in the mature granules, we estimate that the newly formed immature granules remain in morphologically-defined immature states for an average time of 135{+/-}14 minutes, and the immature transforming granules for an average time of 130{+/-}17 minutes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McBride, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Notkins, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aronova, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leapman, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/865683</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Determination of secretory granule maturation times in pancreatic islet beta-cells by serial block face scanning electron microscopy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556724v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Seeding Activity of Skin Misfolded Tau as a Novel Biomarker for Tauopathies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556724v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tauopathies are a group of age-related neurodegenerative diseases with a molecular hallmark of the prion-like propagation and accumulation of pathologically phosphorylated tau protein in the brain. They include Alzheimers disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and Picks disease (PiD). Currently, in the peripheral tissues and body fluids there are no reliable diagnostic biomarkers available that are able to directly reflect the capability of propagation and spreading of the misfolded tau aggregates. Here, we revealed significantly increased amounts of phosphorylated tau in the skin of AD patients compared to those in other tauopathies and normal controls. Moreover, the seed-amplification assay (SAA) by the ultrasensitive real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) displayed that the prion-like seeding activity of pathological tau in the skin of cadavers with neuropathologically confirmed tauopathies including AD, PSP, CBD, PiD was dramatically higher than that in normal controls, yielding 75-80% sensitivity and 95-100% specificity, respectively, depending on different tau substrates used. The increased tau-seeding activity was also observed in biopsy skin samples from living AD and PSP patients. Moreover, analysis of the end products of skin-tau SAA confirmed that the increased seeding activity is accompanied with formation of tau aggregates that are of different physicochemical properties determined by the different tau-substrates used. Our study provides proof-of-concept that the skin tau-SAA can differentiate tauopathies from normal controls, suggesting that the seeding activity of the skin misfolded tau can serve as an accurate diagnostic biomarker of tauopathies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerasimenko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilliland, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, Z. S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunzler, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donadio, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liguori, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.556724</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Seeding Activity of Skin Misfolded Tau as a Novel Biomarker for Tauopathies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556714v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reduced S-nitrosylation of TGFβ1 elevates its binding affinity towards the receptor and promotes fibrogenic signaling in the breast 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556714v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transforming Growth Factor {beta} (TGF{beta}) is a pleiotropic cytokine closely linked to tumors. TGF{beta} is often elevated in precancerous breast lesions in association with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), indicating its contribution to precancerous progression. We previously reported that basal nitric oxide (NO) levels declined along with breast cancer progression. We then pharmacologically inhibited NO production in healthy mammary glands of wild-type mice and found that this induced precancerous progression accompanied by desmoplasia and upregulation of TGF{beta} activity. In the present study, we tested our hypothesis that NO directly S-nitrosylates (forms an NO-adduct at a cysteine residue) TGF{beta} to inhibit the activity, whereas the reduction of NO denitrosylates TGF{beta} and de-represses the activity. We introduced mutations to three C-terminal cysteines of TGF{beta}1 which were predicted to be S-nitrosylated. We found that these mutations indeed impaired S-nitrosylation of TGF{beta}1 and shifted the binding affinity towards the receptor from the latent complex. Furthermore, in silico structural analyses predicted that these S-nitrosylation-defective mutations strengthen the dimerization of mature protein, whereas S-nitrosylation-mimetic mutations weaken the dimerization. Such differences in dimerization dynamics of TGF{beta}1 by denitrosylation/S-nitrosylation likely account for the shift of the binding affinities towards the receptor vs. latent complex. Our findings, for the first time, unravel a novel mode of TGF{beta} regulation based on S-nitrosylation or denitrosylation of the protein.

Significance statementTransforming Growth Factor {beta} (TGF{beta}) is a widely studied cytokine associated with tumors. Because of its pleiotropic functions and dichotomous roles in tumorigenesis, the development of therapeutics targeted to TGF{beta} for cancer treatment has been challenging. In the present study, we report that TGF{beta} is indeed S-nitrosylated at specific sites for repressing its functions, whereas it is denitrosylated to derepress its activity. Such covalent modification-based regulation of TGF{beta} activity could potentially be utilized to design a new type of inhibitor or activator of the protein.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Letson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furuta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.556714</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reduced S-nitrosylation of TGFβ1 elevates its binding affinity towards the receptor and promotes fibrogenic signaling in the breast]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556703v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Contrasting Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination vs. Infection on Antibody and TCR Repertoires 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556703v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibodies and helper T cells play important roles in SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. We sequenced B- and T-cell receptor repertoires (BCR/TCR) from the blood of 251 infectees, vaccinees, and controls to investigate whether features of these repertoires could predict subjects SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titer (NAbs), as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We sequenced recombined immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IGH), TCR{beta} (TRB), and TCR{delta} (TRD) genes in parallel from all subjects, including select B- and T-cell subsets in most cases, with a focus on their hypervariable CDR3 regions, and correlated this AIRRseq data with demographics and clinical findings from subjects electronic health records. We found that age affected NAb levels in vaccinees but not infectees. Intriguingly, we found that vaccination and infection have an effect on non-productively recombined IGHs, suggesting an effect that precedes clonal selection. We found that repertoires binding capacity to known SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ TRBs performs as well as the best hand-tuned approximate or "fuzzy" matching at predicting a protective level of NAbs, while also being more robust to repertoire sample size and not requiring hand-tuning. The overall conclusion from this large, unbiased, clinically well annotated dataset is that B- and T-cell adaptive responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination are surprising, subtle, and diffuse. We discuss methodological and statistical challenges faced in attempting to define and quantify such strong-but-diffuse repertoire signatures and present tools and strategies for addressing these challenges.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Braun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contreras, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yasuda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ditelberg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callahan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazzoni, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirmaier, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mirebrahim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asgharian, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Telman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collier, A.-R. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barouch, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riedel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubelt, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnaout, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.08.556703</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Contrasting Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination vs. Infection on Antibody and TCR Repertoires]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556896v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
magpie: a power evaluation method for differential RNA methylation analysis in N6-methyladenosine sequencing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.08.556896v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationRecently, novel biotechnologies to quantify RNA modifications became an increasingly popular choice for researchers who study epitran-scriptome. When studying RNA methylations such as N6-methyladenosine (m6A), researchers need to make several decisions in its experimental design, especially the sample size and a proper statistical power. Due to the complexity and high-throughput nature of m6A sequencing measurements, methods for power calculation and study design are still currently unavailable.

ResultsWe propose a statistical power assessment tool, magpie, for power calculation and experimental design for epitranscriptome studies using m6A sequencing data. Our simulation-based power assessment tool will borrow information from real pilot data, and inspect various influential factors including sample size, sequencing depth, effect size, and basal expression ranges. We integrate two modules in magpie: (i) a flexible and realistic simulator module to synthesize m6A sequencing data based on real data; and (ii) a power assessment module to examine a set of comprehensive evaluation metrics.

AvailabilityThe proposed power assessment tool magpie is publicly available as a R/Bioconductor package at: https://bioconductor.org/packages/magpie/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guo, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.08.556896</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[magpie: a power evaluation method for differential RNA methylation analysis in N6-methyladenosine sequencing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557301v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HIV co-infection is associated with reduced Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmissibility in sub-Saharan Africa 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557301v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Persons living with HIV are known to be at increased risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) disease upon infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). However, it has remained unclear how HIV co-infection affects subsequent Mtb transmission from these patients. Here, we customized a Bayesian phylodynamic framework to estimate the effects of HIV co-infection on the Mtb transmission dynamics from sequence data. We applied our model to four Mtb genomic datasets collected in sub-Saharan African countries with a generalized HIV epidemic. Our results confirm that HIV co-infection is a strong risk factor for developing active TB. Additionally, we demonstrate that HIV co-infection is associated with a reduced effective reproductive number for TB. Stratifying the population by CD4+ T-cell count yielded similar results, suggesting that, in this context, CD4+ T-cell count is not a better predictor of Mtb transmissibility than HIV infection status. Together, our genome-based analyses complement observational household studies, and firmly establish the negative association between HIV co-infection and Mtb transmissibility.

Author summaryMany sub-Saharan African countries have seen a considerable rise in TB incidence since the introduction of HIV, suggesting a strong interaction between HIV and TB epidemics. HIV infection is recognized as an important risk factor for developing TB, but the contribution of HIV-infected TB patients to further Mtb transmission is poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed four sets of Mtb genomic sequences collected in different countries, including sequences from HIV-negative and HIV-positive TB patients. We applied a phylodynamic model to these sequences, aimed at inferring transmission dynamics within and between different host populations. While our findings support that HIV is a strong risk factor for TB, we show that HIV-positive TB patients generate a significantly lower number of secondary TB cases than HIV-negative patients. This suggests that HIV-positive patients often act as sinks in Mtb transmission chains, while HIV-negative patients are a major source of transmission.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Windels, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wampande, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joloba, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goig, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hella, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borrell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gagneux, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brites, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stadler, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.12.557301</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HIV co-infection is associated with reduced Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmissibility in sub-Saharan Africa]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.13.555594v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultrasound-Mediated Drug-free Theranostics for Treatment of Prostate Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.13.555594v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RationaleLipid-shelled nanobubbles (NBs) can be visualized and activated using noninvasive ultrasound (US) stimulation, leading to significant bioeffects. We have previously shown that active targeting of NBs to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) overexpressed in prostate cancer (PCa) enhances the cellular internalization and prolongs retention of NBs with persistent acoustic activity ([~]hrs.). In this work, we hypothesized that tumor-accumulated PSMA-NBs combined with low frequency therapeutic US (TUS) will lead to selective damage and induce a therapeutic effect in PSMA-expressing tumors compared to PSMA-negative tumors.

MethodsPSMA-targeted NBs were formulated by following our previously established protocol. Cellular internalization of fluorescent PSMA-NBs was evaluated by confocal imaging using late endosome/lysosome staining pre- and post-TUS application. Two animal models were used to assess the technique. Mice with dual tumors (PSMA expressing and PSMA negative) received PSMA-NB injection via the tail vein followed by TUS 1 hr. post injection (termed, targeted NB therapy or TNT). Twenty-four hours after treatment mice were euthanized and tumor cell apoptosis evaluated via TUNEL staining. Mice with single tumors (either PSMA + or -) were used for survival studies. Tumor size was measured for 80 days after four consecutive TNT treatments (every 3 days). To test the approach in a larger model, immunosuppressed rabbits with orthotopic human PSMA expressing tumors received PSMA-NB injection via the tail vein followed by TUS 30 min after injection. Tumor progression was assessed via US imaging and at the end point apoptosis was measured via TUNEL staining.

ResultsIn vitro TNT studies using confocal microscopy showed that the internalized NBs and cellular compartments were disrupted after the TUS application, yet treated cells remained intact and viable. In vivo, PSMA-expressing tumors in mice receiving TNT treatment demonstrated a significantly greater extent of apoptosis (78.45 {+/-} 9.3%, p < 0.01) compared to the other groups. TNT treatment significantly inhibited the PSMA (+) tumor growth and overall survival significantly improved (median survival time increase by 103%, p < 0.001). A significant reduction in tumor progression compared to untreated control was also seen in the rabbit model in intraprostatic (90%) and in extraprostatic lesions (94%) (p = 0.069 and 0.003, respectively).

ConclusionWe demonstrate for the first time the effect of PSMA-targeted nanobubble intracellular cavitation on cancer cell viability and tumor progression in two animal models. Data demonstrate that the targeted nanobubble therapy (TNT) approach relies primarily on mechanical disruption of intracellular vesicles and the resulting bioeffects appear to be more specific to target cancer cells expressing the PSMA receptor. The effect, while not lethal in vitro, resulted in significant tumor apoptosis in vivo in both a mouse and a rabbit model of PCa. While the mechanism of action of these effects is yet unclear, it is likely related to a locally-induced immune response, opening the door to future investigations in this area.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perera, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berg, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nittayacharn, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basilion, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.13.555594</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultrasound-Mediated Drug-free Theranostics for Treatment of Prostate Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.556975v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
simmr: An open-source tool to perform simulations in Mendelian Randomization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.556975v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mendelian Randomization (MR) has become a popular tool for inferring causality of risk factors on disease. There are currently over 45 different methods available to perform MR, reflecting this extremely active research area. It would be desirable to have a standard simulation environment to objectively evaluate the existing and future methods. We present simmr, an open-source software for performing simulations to evaluate the performance of MR methods in a range of scenarios encountered in practice. Researchers can directly modify the simmr source code so that the research community may arrive at a widely accepted frame-work for researchers to evaluate the performance of different MR methods.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lorincz-Comi, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.11.556975</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[simmr: An open-source tool to perform simulations in Mendelian Randomization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557256v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Magnetically Powered Microwheel Thrombolysis of Occlusive Thrombi in Zebrafish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557256v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is the only FDA approved treatment for ischemic stroke but carries significant risks, including major hemorrhage. Additional options are needed, especially in small vessel thrombi which account for [~]25% of ischemic strokes. We have previously shown that tPA-functionalized colloidal microparticles can be assembled into microwheels ({micro}wheels) and manipulated under the control of applied magnetic fields to enable rapid thrombolysis of fibrin gels in microfluidic models of thrombosis. Providing a living microfluidic analog, transparent zebrafish larvae have a highly conserved coagulation cascade that enables studies of hemostasis and thrombosis in the context of intact vasculature, clotting factors, and blood cells. Here we show that tPA-functionalized {micro}wheels can perform rapid and targeted recanalization in vivo. This effect requires both tPA and {micro}wheels, as minimal to no recanalization is achieved with tPA alone, {micro}wheels alone, or tPA-functionalized microparticles in the absence of a magnetic field. We evaluated tPA-{micro}wheels in CRISPR-generated plasminogen (plg) heterozygous and homozygous mutants and confirmed that tPA-{micro}wheels are dose-dependent on plasminogen for lysis. We have found that magnetically powered {micro}wheels as a targeted tPA delivery system are dramatically more efficient at plasmin-mediated thrombolysis than systemic delivery in vivo. Further development of this system in fish and mammalian models could enable a less invasive strategy for alleviating ischemia that is safer than directed thrombectomy or systemic infusion of tPA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pontius, M. H. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ku, C.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osmond, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Disharoon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marr, D. W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neeves, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shavit, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.11.557256</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Magnetically Powered Microwheel Thrombolysis of Occlusive Thrombi in Zebrafish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557446v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Developmental priming of cancer susceptibility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.12.557446v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
DNA mutations are necessary drivers of cancer, yet only a small subset of mutated cells go on to cause the disease. To date, the mechanisms that determine which rare subset of cells transform and initiate tumorigenesis remain unclear. Here, we take advantage of a unique model of intrinsic developmental heterogeneity (Trim28+/D9) and demonstrate that stochastic early life epigenetic variation can trigger distinct cancer-susceptibility  states in adulthood. We show that these developmentally primed states are characterized by differential methylation patterns at typically silenced heterochromatin, and that these epigenetic signatures are detectable as early as 10 days of age. The differentially methylated loci are enriched for genes with known oncogenic potential. These same genes are frequently mutated in human cancers, and their dysregulation correlates with poor prognosis. These results provide proof-of-concept that intrinsic developmental heterogeneity can prime individual, life-long cancer risk.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Panzeri, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fagnocchi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apostle, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tompkins, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolfrum, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madaj, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hostetter, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaefer, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergsma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drougard, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dror, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PERMUTE,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schramek, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Triche, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pospisilik, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.12.557446</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Developmental priming of cancer susceptibility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.15.558014v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exponentially decreasing exposure of antigen generates anti-inflammatory T-cell responses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.15.558014v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic debilitating disease characterized by auto-immune reaction towards self-antigen such as collagen type II. In this study, we investigated the impact of exponentially decreasing levels of antigen exposure on pro-inflammatory T cell responses in the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model. Using a controlled delivery experimental approach, we manipulated the collagen type II (CII) antigen concentration presented to the immune system. We observed that exponentially decreasing levels of antigen generated reduced pro-inflammatory T cell responses in secondary lymphoid organs in mice suffering from RA. Specifically, untreated mice exhibited robust pro-inflammatory T cell activation and increased paw inflammation, whereas, mice exposed to exponentially decreasing concentrations of CII demonstrated significantly reduced pro-inflammatory T cell responses, exhibited lower levels of paw inflammation, and decreased arthritis scores in right rear paw. The data also demonstrate that the decreasing antigen levels promoted the induction of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which play a crucial role in maintaining immune tolerance and suppressing excessive inflammatory responses. Our findings highlight the importance of antigen concentration in modulating pro-inflammatory T cell responses in the CIA model. These results provide valuable insights into the potential therapeutic strategies that target antigen presentation to regulate immune responses and mitigate inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Further investigations are warranted to elucidate the specific mechanisms underlying the antigen concentration-dependent modulation of T cell responses and to explore the translational potential of this approach for the development of novel therapeutic interventions in autoimmune disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Esrafili, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kupfer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thumsi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>JAGGARAPU, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suresh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talitckii, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khodaei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swaminathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mantri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peet, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acharya, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.15.558014</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exponentially decreasing exposure of antigen generates anti-inflammatory T-cell responses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.20.558466v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bacterial Efflux Pump Modulators Prevent Bacterial Growth in Macrophages and Under Broth Conditions that Mimic the Host Environment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.20.558466v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
New approaches for combatting microbial infections are needed. One strategy for disrupting pathogenesis involves developing compounds that interfere with bacterial virulence. A critical molecular determinant of virulence for Gram-negative bacteria are efflux pumps of the resistance-nodulation-division (RND) family, which includes AcrAB-TolC. We previously identified small molecules that bind AcrB, inhibit AcrAB-TolC, and do not appear to damage membranes. These efflux pump modulators (EPMs) were discovered in an in-cell screening platform called SAFIRE (Screen for Anti-infectives using Fluorescence microscopy of IntracellulaR Enterobacteriaceae). SAFIRE identifies compounds that disrupt the growth of a Gram-negative human pathogen, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in macrophages. We used medicinal chemistry to iteratively design [~]200 EPM35 analogs and test them for activity in SAFIRE, generating compounds with nanomolar potency. Analogs were demonstrated to bind AcrB in a substrate binding pocket by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Despite having amphipathic structures, the EPM analogs do not disrupt membrane voltage, as monitored by FtsZ localization to the cell septum. The EPM analogs had little effect on bacterial growth in standard Mueller Hinton Broth. However, under broth conditions that mimic the micro-environment of the macrophage phagosome, acrAB is required for growth, the EPM analogs are bacteriostatic, and increase the potency of antibiotics. These data suggest that under macrophage-like conditions the EPM analogs prevent the export of a toxic bacterial metabolite(s) through AcrAB-TolC. Thus, compounds that bind AcrB could disrupt infection by specifically interfering with the export of bacterial toxic metabolites, host defense factors, and/or antibiotics.

IMPORTANCEBacterial efflux pumps are critical for resistance to antibiotics and for virulence. We previously identified small molecules that inhibit efflux pumps (efflux pump modulators, EPMs) and prevent pathogen replication in host cells. Here we used medicinal chemistry to increase the activity of the EPMs against pathogens in cells into the nanomolar range. We show by cryo-electron microscopy that these EPMs bind an efflux pump subunit. In broth culture, the EPMs increase the potency (activity), but not the efficacy (maximum effect), of antibiotics. We also found that bacterial exposure to the EPMs appear to enable the accumulation of a toxic metabolite that would otherwise be exported by efflux pumps. Thus, inhibitors of bacterial efflux pumps could interfere with infection not only by potentiating antibiotics, but also by allowing toxic waste products to accumulate within bacteria, providing an explanation for why efflux pumps are needed for virulence in the absence of antibiotics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Allgood, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crooks, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Betterton, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbachyn, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detweiler, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.20.558466</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bacterial Efflux Pump Modulators Prevent Bacterial Growth in Macrophages and Under Broth Conditions that Mimic the Host Environment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.20.558675v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational modeling of dorsal root ganglion stimulation using an Injectrode 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.20.558675v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveMinimally invasive neuromodulation therapies like the Injectrode, which is composed of a tightly wound polymer-coated platinum/iridium microcoil, offer a low-risk approach for administering electrical stimulation to the dorsal root ganglion (DRG). This flexible electrode is aimed to conform to the DRG. The stimulation occurs through a transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) patch, which subsequently transmits the stimulation to the Injectrode via a subcutaneous metal collector. However, effectiveness of stimulation relies on the specific geometrical configurations of the Injectrode-collector-patch system. Hence, there is a need to investigate which design parameters influence the activation of targeted neural structures.

ApproachWe employed a hybrid computational modeling approach to analyze the impact of the Injectrode system design parameters on charge delivery and the neural response to stimulation. We constructed multiple finite element method models of DRG stimulation and multi-compartment models of DRG neurons. We simulated the neural responses using parameters based on prior acute preclinical experiments. Additionally, we developed multiple human-scale computational models of DRG stimulation to investigate how design parameters like Injectrode size and orientation influenced neural activation thresholds.

Main resultsOur findings were in accordance with acute experimental measurements and indicated that the Injectrode system predominantly engages large-diameter afferents (A{beta}-fibers). These activation thresholds were contingent upon the surface area of the Injectrode. As the charge density decreased due to increasing surface area, there was a corresponding expansion in the stimulation amplitude range before triggering any pain-related mechanoreceptor (A{delta}-fibers) activity.

SignificanceThe Injectrode demonstrates potential as a viable technology for minimally invasive stimulation of the DRG. Our findings indicate that utilizing a larger surface area Injectrode enhances the therapeutic margin, effectively distinguishing the desired A{beta} activation from the undesired A{delta}-fiber activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhowmick, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verma, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franke, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieuwoudt, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lempka, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.20.558675</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational modeling of dorsal root ganglion stimulation using an Injectrode]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.25.559370v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tenofovir Activation is Diminished in the Brain and Liver of Creatine Kinase Brain-Type Knockout Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.25.559370v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tenofovir (TFV) is a nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor prescribed for the treatment and prevention of human immunodeficiency virus infection, and the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Here, we demonstrate that creatine kinase brain-type (CKB) can form tenofovir-diphosphate (TFV-DP), the pharmacologically active metabolite, in vitro, and identify nine missense mutations (C74S, R96P, S128R, R132H, R172P, R236Q, C283S, R292Q, and H296R) that diminish this activity. Additional characterization of these mutations reveal that five (R96P, R132H, R236Q, C283S, and R292Q) have ATP dephosphorylation catalytic efficiencies less than 20% of wild-type (WT), and seven (C74S, R96P, R132H, R172P, R236Q, C283S, and H296P) induce thermal instabilities. To determine the extent CKB contributes to TFV activation in vivo, we generated a CKB knockout mouse strain, Ckbtm1Nnb. Using an in vitro assay, we show that brain lysates of Ckbtm1Nnb male and female mice form 70.5% and 77.4% less TFV-DP than wild-type brain lysates of the same sex, respectively. Additionally, we observe that Ckbtm1Nnb male mice treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate for 14 days exhibit a 22.8% reduction in TFV activation in liver compared to wild-type male mice. Lastly, we utilize mass spectrometry-based proteomics to elucidate the impact of the knockout on the abundance of nucleotide and small molecule kinases in the brain and liver, adding to our understanding of how loss of CKB may be impacting tenofovir activation in these tissues. Together, our data suggest that disruptions in CKB may lower levels of active drug in brain and liver.

ABSTRACT GRAPHIC

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=100 SRC="FIGDIR/small/559370v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Eberhard, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mosher, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bumpus, N. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orsburn, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.25.559370</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tenofovir Activation is Diminished in the Brain and Liver of Creatine Kinase Brain-Type Knockout Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.26.559521v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synchronized long-read genome, methylome, epigenome, and transcriptome for resolving a Mendelian condition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.26.559521v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Resolving the molecular basis of a Mendelian condition (MC) remains challenging owing to the diverse mechanisms by which genetic variants cause disease. To address this, we developed a synchronized long-read genome, methylome, epigenome, and transcriptome sequencing approach, which enables accurate single-nucleotide, insertion-deletion, and structural variant calling and diploid de novo genome assembly, and permits the simultaneous elucidation of haplotype-resolved CpG methylation, chromatin accessibility, and full-length transcript information in a single long-read sequencing run. Application of this approach to an Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) participant with a chromosome X;13 balanced translocation of uncertain significance revealed that this translocation disrupted the functioning of four separate genes (NBEA, PDK3, MAB21L1, and RB1) previously associated with single-gene MCs. Notably, the function of each gene was disrupted via a distinct mechanism that required integration of the four  omes to resolve. These included nonsense-mediated decay, fusion transcript formation, enhancer adoption, transcriptional readthrough silencing, and inappropriate X chromosome inactivation of autosomal genes. Overall, this highlights the utility of synchronized long-read multi-omic profiling for mechanistically resolving complex phenotypes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vollger, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Korlach, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eldred, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Underwood, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munson, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.-H. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ranchalis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blue, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwarze, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saunders, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenger, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allworth, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chanprasert, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerden, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glass, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horike-Pyne, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leppig, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McLaughlin, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogawa, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenthal, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheppeard, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherman, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strohbehn, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuen, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reh, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byers, P. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bamshad, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hisama, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvik, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sancak, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dipple, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stergachis, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.26.559521</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synchronized long-read genome, methylome, epigenome, and transcriptome for resolving a Mendelian condition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559757v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evidence of antigenic drift in the fusion machinery core of SARS-CoV-2 spike 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559757v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antigenic drift of SARS-CoV-2 is typically defined by mutations in the N-terminal domain and receptor binding domain of spike protein. In contrast, whether antigenic drift occurs in the S2 domain remains largely elusive. Here, we perform a deep mutational scanning experiment to identify S2 mutations that affect binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike to three S2 apex public antibodies. Our results indicate that spatially diverse mutations, including D950N and Q954H, which are observed in Delta and Omicron variants, respectively, weaken the binding of spike to these antibodies. Although S2 apex antibodies are known to be non-neutralizing, we show that they confer partial protection in vivo. We further demonstrate that such in vivo protection activity is diminished by the natural mutation D950N. Overall, this study indicates that the S2 domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike can undergo antigenic drift, which represents a potential challenge for the development of more universal coronavirus vaccines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tan, T. J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Odle, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perlman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, L.-Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.27.559757</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evidence of antigenic drift in the fusion machinery core of SARS-CoV-2 spike]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559579v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
imply: improving cell-type deconvolution accuracy using personalized reference profiles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559579v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Real-world clinical samples are often admixtures of signal mosaics from multiple pure cell types. Using computational tools, bulk transcriptomics can be deconvoluted to solve for the abundance of constituent cell types. However, existing deconvolution methods are conditioned on the assumption that the whole study population is served by a single reference panel, which ignores person-to-person heterogeneity. Here we present imply, a novel algorithm to deconvolute cell type proportions using personalized reference panels. imply can borrow information across repeatedly measured samples for each subject, and obtain precise cell type proportion estimations. Simulation studies demonstrate reduced bias in cell type abundance estimation compared with existing methods. Real data analyses on large longitudinal consortia show more realistic deconvolution results that align with biological facts. Our results suggest that disparities in cell type proportions are associated with several disease phenotypes in type 1 diabetes and Parkin-sons disease. Our proposed tool imply is available through the R/Bioconductor package ISLET at https://bioconductor.org/packages/ISLET/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meng, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumacher, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krischer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.27.559579</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[imply: improving cell-type deconvolution accuracy using personalized reference profiles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560517v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-fly assemblies fill major phylogenomic gaps across the Drosophilidae Tree of Life 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560517v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long-read sequencing is driving rapid progress in genome assembly across all major groups of life, including species of the family Drosophilidae, a longtime model system for genetics, genomics, and evolution. We previously developed a cost-effective hybrid Oxford Nanopore (ONT) long-read and Illumina short-read sequencing approach and used it to assemble 101 drosophilid genomes from laboratory cultures, greatly increasing the number of genome assemblies for this taxonomic group. The next major challenge is to address the laboratory culture bias in taxon sampling by sequencing genomes of species that cannot easily be reared in the lab. Here, we build upon our previous methods to perform amplification-free ONT sequencing of single wild flies obtained either directly from the field or from ethanol-preserved specimens in museum collections, greatly improving the representation of lesser studied drosophilid taxa in whole-genome data. Using Illumina Novaseq X Plus and ONT P2 sequencers with R10.4.1 chemistry, we set a new benchmark for inexpensive hybrid genome assembly at US $150 per genome while assembling genomes from as little as 35 ng of genomic DNA from a single fly. We present 183 new genome assemblies for 179 species as a resource for drosophilid systematics, phylogenetics, and comparative genomics. Of these genomes, 62 are from pooled lab strains and 121 from single adult flies. Despite the sample limitations of working with small insects, most single-fly diploid assemblies are comparable in contiguity (>1Mb contig N50), completeness (>98% complete dipteran BUSCOs), and accuracy (>QV40 genome-wide with ONT R10.4.1) to assemblies from inbred lines. We present a well-resolved multi-locus phylogeny for 360 drosophilid and 4 outgroup species encompassing all publicly available (as of August 2023) genomes for this group. Finally, we present a Progressive Cactus whole-genome, reference-free alignment built from a subset of 298 suitably high-quality drosophilid genomes. The new assemblies and alignment, along with updated laboratory protocols and computational pipelines, are released as an open resource and as a tool for studying evolution at the scale of an entire insect family.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, B. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gellert, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Church, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suvorov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barmina, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beskid, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comeault, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crown, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diamond, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorus, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fujichika, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hemker, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hrcek, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kankare, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katoh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magnacca, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsunaga, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medeiros, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pitnick, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simoni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steenwinkel, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiffer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syed, Z. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takahashi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, K. H.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yokoyama, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eisen, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kopp, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matute, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obbard, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Grady, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toda, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Werner, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrov, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.02.560517</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-fly assemblies fill major phylogenomic gaps across the Drosophilidae Tree of Life]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.05.561050v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The SAM Domain of EphA2 Inhibits Ligand-Independent Clustering and Activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.05.561050v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Eph receptors are the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). They play a role in the pathogenesis of various diseases including cancer, atherosclerosis, fibrosis, infectious diseases, diseases of the central nervous system and age-related cataract. EphA2 has attracted much attention over the years owing to its dysregulation in many diseases. Previous studies have revealed the unique molecular organizations of Eph receptors, and particularly EphA2, into large clusters of receptor-ligand complexes. One unique feature of Eph receptors is a C-terminal sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain, which has been proposed to alter dimerization and kinase activity in EphA2. However, the precise role of the SAM domain in regulating the function and oligomerization state of EphA2 has not been reported. Here we apply a time-resolve fluorescence spectroscopy, PIE-FCCS, to characterize the oligomerization state of EphA2 in live cells and determine the role of the SAM domain. We deleted the SAM domain in the context of full length EphA2 and an intracellular domain (ICD) construct to assess the effect of the SAM domain on oligomerization state, kinase activity, and cellular behavior. Overall, we find that the SAM domain inhibits ligand-independent clustering and kinase activity in both full-length EphA2 and the isolated ICD construct at the cell membrane. These results are consistent with the autoinhibitory features of the C-terminal tail of EGFR and may help resolve the allosteric regulation of other RTKs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingerak, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrestha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.05.561050</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The SAM Domain of EphA2 Inhibits Ligand-Independent Clustering and Activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.06.560776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury disrupts state-dependent functional cortical connectivity in a mouse model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.06.560776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death in young people and can cause cognitive and motor dysfunction and disruptions in functional connectivity between brain regions. In human TBI patients and rodent models of TBI, functional connectivity is decreased after injury. Recovery of connectivity after TBI is associated with improved cognition and memory, suggesting an important link between connectivity and functional outcome. We examined widespread alterations in functional connectivity following TBI using simultaneous widefield mesoscale GCaMP7c calcium imaging and electrocorticography (ECoG) in mice injured using the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model of TBI. Combining CCI with widefield cortical imaging provides us with unprecedented access to characterize network connectivity changes throughout the entire injured cortex over time. Our data demonstrate that CCI profoundly disrupts functional connectivity immediately after injury, followed by partial recovery over 3 weeks. Examining discrete periods of locomotion and stillness reveals that CCI alters functional connectivity and reduces theta power only during periods of behavioral stillness. Together, these findings demonstrate that TBI causes dynamic, behavioral state-dependent changes in functional connectivity and ECoG activity across the cortex.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bottom-Tanzer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corella, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolanos, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinones, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heiney, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shtrahman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whalen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oren, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Higley, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardin, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noubary, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armbruster, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulla, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.06.560776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Traumatic brain injury disrupts state-dependent functional cortical connectivity in a mouse model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.08.561435v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Motion Blur Microscopy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.08.561435v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Imaging and characterizing the dynamics of cellular adhesion in blood samples is of fundamental importance in understanding biological function. In vitro microscopy methods are widely used for this task, but typically require diluting the blood with a buffer to allow for transmission of light. However whole blood provides crucial mechanical and chemical signaling cues that influence adhesion dynamics, which means that conventional approaches lack the full physiological complexity of living microvasculature. We propose to overcome this challenge by a new in vitro imaging method which we call motion blur microscopy (MBM). By decreasing the source light intensity and increasing the integration time during imaging, flowing cells are blurred, allowing us to identify adhered cells. Combined with an automated analysis using machine learning, we can for the first time reliably image cell interactions in microfluidic channels during whole blood flow. MBM provides a low cost, easy to implement alternative to intravital microscopy, the in vivo approach for studying how the whole blood environment shapes adhesion dynamics. We demonstrate the methods reproducibility and accuracy in two example systems where understanding cell interactions, adhesion, and motility is crucial--sickle red blood cells adhering to laminin, and CAR-T cells adhering to E-selectin. We illustrate the wide range of data types that can be extracted from this approach, including distributions of cell size and eccentricity, adhesion durations, trajectories and velocities of adhered cells moving on a functionalized surface, as well as correlations among these different features at the single cell level. In all cases MBM allows for rapid collection and processing of large data sets, ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of individual adhesion events. The method is generalizable to study adhesion mechanisms in a variety of diseases, including cancer, blood disorders, thrombosis, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, as well as providing rich datasets for theoretical modeling of adhesion dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Goreke, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzales, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shipley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Man, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wulftange, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>An, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gurkan, U. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.08.561435</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Motion Blur Microscopy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.20.563367v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Do bed bugs transmit human viruses, or do humans transmit bed bug viruses? A worldwide survey of the bed bug RNA virosphere 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.20.563367v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bed bugs (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) are a globally distributed hematophagous pest that routinely feed on humans. Unlike many blood-sucking arthropods, they have never been linked to disease transmission in a natural setting, and despite interest in their role as disease vectors, little is known about the viruses that bed bugs naturally harbor. Here, we present a global-scale survey of the bed bug RNA virosphere. We sequenced the metatranscriptomes of 22 individual bed bugs (Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus) from 8 locations around the world. We detected sequences from two known bed bug viruses (Shuangao bedbug virus 1 and Shuangao bedbug virus 2) which extends their geographical range and the host range of Shuangao bedbug virus 1 to Cimex lectularius. We identified three novel bed bug virus sequences from a tenui-like virus (Bunyavirales), a toti-like virus (Ghabrivirales), and a luteo-like virus (Tolivirales).

Interestingly, some of the bed bug viruses branch near to insect-transmitted plant-infecting viruses, opening questions regarding the evolution of plant virus infection. When we analyzed the putative viral sequences by their hosts collection location, we found unexpected patterns of geographical diversity that may reflect humans role in bed bug dispersal. Additionally, we investigated the effect that Wolbachia, the primary bed bug endosymbiont, may have on viral abundance and found that Wolbachia infection neither promotes nor inhibits viral infection. Finally, our results provide no evidence that bed bugs transmit any known human pathogenic viruses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Walt, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheele, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pietri, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, F. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.20.563367</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Do bed bugs transmit human viruses, or do humans transmit bed bug viruses? A worldwide survey of the bed bug RNA virosphere]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563939v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular regulation of PPARγ/RXRα signaling by the novel cofactor ZFP407 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563939v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cofactors interacting with PPAR{gamma} can regulate adipogenesis and adipocyte metabolism by modulating the transcriptional activity and selectivity of PPAR{gamma} signaling. ZFP407 was previously demonstrated to regulate PPAR{gamma} target genes such as GLUT4, and its overexpression improved glucose homeostasis in mice. Here, using a series of molecular assays, including protein-interaction studies, mutagenesis, and ChIP-seq, ZFP407 was found to interact with the PPAR{gamma}/RXR protein complex in the nucleus of adipocytes. Consistent with this observation, ZFP407 DNA binding sites significantly overlapped with PPAR{gamma} sites, with more than half of ZFP407 binding sites overlapping with PPAR{gamma} DNA binding sites. Transcription factor binding motifs enriched in these overlapping sites included GFY-Staf, ELF1, ETS, ELK1, and ELK4, which regulate key functions within adipocytes. Site-directed mutagenesis of frequent PPAR{gamma} phosphorylation or SUMOylation sites did not prevent its regulation by ZFP407, while mutagenesis of ZFP407 regions necessary for RXR and PPAR{gamma} binding abrogated any impact of ZFP407 on PPAR{gamma} activity. These data suggest that ZFP407 controls the activity of PPAR{gamma}, but does so independently of post-translational modifications, likely by direct binding, establishing ZFP407 as a newly identified PPAR{gamma} cofactor. In addition, ZFP407 was also found to bind to DNA in regions that did not overlap with PPAR{gamma}. These DNA binding sites were more significantly enriched for the transcription factor binding motifs of GFY and ZNF143, which may contribute to the non-PPAR{gamma} dependent functions of ZFP407 in adipocytes and other cell types.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ockunzzi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charrier, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghanta, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.25.563939</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular regulation of PPARγ/RXRα signaling by the novel cofactor ZFP407]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.563984v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mapping RNA-Protein Interactions with Subcellular Resolution Using Colocalization CLIP 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.563984v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are essential for RNA metabolism and profoundly impact health and disease. The subcellular organization of RBP interaction networks with target RNAs remains largely unexplored. Here, we develop colocalization CLIP, a method that combines CrossLinking and ImmunoPrecipitation (CLIP) with proximity labeling, to explore in-depth the subcellular RNA interactions of the well-studied RNA-binding protein HuR. Using this method, we uncover HuRs dynamic and location-specific interactions with RNA, revealing alterations in sequence preferences and interactions in the nucleus, cytosol, or stress granule compartments. We uncover HuRs unique binding preferences within stress granules during arsenite stress, illuminating intricate interactions that conventional methodologies cannot capture. Overall, coCLIP provides a powerful method for revealing RBP:RNA interactions based on localization and lays the foundation for an advanced understanding of RBP models that incorporate subcellular location as a critical determinant of their functions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rozen-Gagnon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luna, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.563984</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mapping RNA-Protein Interactions with Subcellular Resolution Using Colocalization CLIP]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564164v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Toxoplasma gondii O-glycosyltransferase that modulates bradyzoite cyst wall rigidity is structurally and functionally distinct from host homologues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564164v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Infection with the Apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii can be life-threatening in immunocompromised hosts. Transmission frequently occurs through the oral ingestion of T. gondii bradyzoite cysts, which transition to tachyzoites, disseminate, and then form cysts containing bradyzoites in the central nervous system, resulting in latent infection. There are currently no effective treatments to cure latent infection. Bradyzoites are encapsulated by a cyst wall that is critical for immune evasion, survival, and transmission. Cyst wall rigidity is influenced by the O-glycosylation of the mucin domain of the cyst wall protein CST1 by mucin-type O-glycosyltransferases (GalNAc-Ts). Here, we report the first structures of a protozoan GalNAc-T, T.gondii-GalNAc-T3 in the apo state and in complex with glycopeptide substrates. The structures reveal features that are strictly conserved in Apicomplexan homologues of T.gondii-GalNAc-T3, including a unique 2nd metal binding site that is coupled to substrate binding and enzymatic activity in vitro and cyst wall O-glycosylation in T. gondii. Additional structural features illustrate the divergence of GalNAc-Ts from parasite to host and highlight multiple druggable sites in T.gondii-GalNAc-T3 and its homologues in Apicomplexa that are responsible for a wide range of parasitic diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kumar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomita, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerken, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ballard, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samara, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.564164</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Toxoplasma gondii O-glycosyltransferase that modulates bradyzoite cyst wall rigidity is structurally and functionally distinct from host homologues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564082v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling the dynamics of actin and myosin during bleb stabilization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564082v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The actin cortex is very dynamic during migration of eukaryotes. In cells that use blebs as leading-edge protrusions, the cortex reforms beneath the cell membrane (bleb cortex) and completely disassembles at the site of bleb initiation. Remnants of the actin cortex at the site of bleb nucleation are referred to as the actin scar. We refer to the combined process of cortex reformation along with the degradation of the actin scar during bleb-based cell migration as bleb stabilization. The molecular factors that regulate the dynamic reorganization of the cortex are not fully understood. Myosin motor protein activity has been shown to be necessary for blebbing, with its major role associated with pressure generation to drive bleb expansion. Here, we examine the role of myosin in regulating cortex dynamics during bleb stabilization. Analysis of microscopy data from protein localization experiments in Dictyostelium discoideum cells reveals a rapid formation of the blebs cortex with a delay in myosin accumulation. In the degrading actin scar, myosin is observed to accumulate before active degradation of the cortex begins. Through a combination of mathematical modeling and data fitting, we identify that myosin helps regulate the equilibrium concentration of actin in the bleb cortex during its reformation by increasing its dissasembly rate. Our modeling and analysis also suggests that cortex degradation is driven primarily by an exponential decrease in actin assembly rate rather than increased myosin activity. We attribute the decrease in actin assembly to the separation of the cell membrane from the cortex after bleb nucleation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Asante-Asamani, E. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalton, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brazill, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strychalski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.564082</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling the dynamics of actin and myosin during bleb stabilization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.03.565292v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrated longitudinal multi-omics study identifies immune programs associated with COVID-19 severity and mortality in 1152 hospitalized participants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.03.565292v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients exhibit diverse clinical outcomes, with some individuals diverging over time even though their initial disease severity appears similar. A systematic evaluation of molecular and cellular profiles over the full disease course can link immune programs and their coordination with progression heterogeneity. In this study, we carried out deep immunophenotyping and conducted longitudinal multi-omics modeling integrating ten distinct assays on a total of 1,152 IMPACC participants and identified several immune cascades that were significant drivers of differential clinical outcomes. Increasing disease severity was driven by a temporal pattern that began with the early upregulation of immunosuppressive metabolites and then elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, signatures of coagulation, NETosis, and T-cell functional dysregulation. A second immune cascade, predictive of 28-day mortality among critically ill patients, was characterized by reduced total plasma immunoglobulins and B cells, as well as dysregulated IFN responsiveness. We demonstrated that the balance disruption between IFN-stimulated genes and IFN inhibitors is a crucial biomarker of COVID-19 mortality, potentially contributing to the failure of viral clearance in patients with fatal illness. Our longitudinal multi-omics profiling study revealed novel temporal coordination across diverse omics that potentially explain disease progression, providing insights that inform the targeted development of therapies for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, especially those critically ill.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gygi, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maguire, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinde, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konstorum, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shannon, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayavelu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>IMPACC Network,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraft, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McComsey, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metcalf, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozonoff, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esserman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cairns, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouphael, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosinger, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim-Schulze, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krammer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakel, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckalbar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maecker, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langelier, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altman, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montgomery, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levy, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melamed, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pulendran, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arce, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smolen, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fragiadakis, G. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Augustine, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehrlich, L. I. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fourati, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pete</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.03.565292</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrated longitudinal multi-omics study identifies immune programs associated with COVID-19 severity and mortality in 1152 hospitalized participants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.06.565869v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An output-null signature of inertial load in motor cortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.06.565869v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Coordinated movement requires the nervous system to continuously compensate for changes in mechanical load across different contexts. For voluntary movements like reaching, the motor cortex is a critical hub that generates commands to move the limbs and counteract loads. How does cortex contribute to load compensation when rhythmic movements are clocked by a spinal pattern generator? Here, we address this question by manipulating the mass of the forelimb in unrestrained mice during locomotion. While load produces changes in motor output that are robust to inactivation of motor cortex, it also induces a profound shift in cortical dynamics, which is minimally affected by cerebellar perturbation and significantly larger than the response in the spinal motoneuron population. This latent representation may enable motor cortex to generate appropriate commands when a voluntary movement must be integrated with an ongoing, spinally-generated rhythm.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kirk, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hope, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sober, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sauerbrei, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.06.565869</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An output-null signature of inertial load in motor cortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.13.566842v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
UNSEG: unsupervised segmentation of cells and their nuclei in complex tissue samples 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.13.566842v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiplexed imaging technologies have made it possible to interrogate complex tumor microenvironments at sub-cellular resolution within their native spatial context. However, proper quantification of this complexity requires the ability to easily and accurately segment cells into their sub-cellular compartments. Within the supervised learning paradigm, deep learning based segmentation methods demonstrating human level performance have emerged. However, limited work has been done in developing such generalist methods within the label-free unsupervised context. Here we present an unsupervised segmentation (UNSEG) method that achieves deep learning level performance without requiring any training data. UNSEG leverages a Bayesian-like framework and the specificity of nucleus and cell membrane markers to construct an a posteriori probability estimate of each pixel belonging to the nucleus, cell membrane, or background. It uses this estimate to segment each cell into its nuclear and cell-membrane compartments. We show that UNSEG is more internally consistent and better at generalizing to the complexity of tissue morphology than current deep learning methods. This allows UNSEG to unambiguously identify the cytoplasmic compartment of a cell, which we employ to demonstrate its use in an exemplar biological scenario. Within the UNSEG framework, we also introduce a new perturbed watershed algorithm capable of stably and automatically segmenting a cluster of cell nuclei into individual cell nuclei that increases the accuracy of classical watershed. Perturbed watershed can also be used as a standalone algorithm that researchers can incorporate within their supervised or unsupervised learning approaches to extend classical watershed, particularly in the multiplexed imaging context. Finally, as part of developing UNSEG, we have generated a high-quality annotated gastrointestinal tissue (GIT) dataset, which we anticipate will be useful for the broader research community. We demonstrate the efficacy of UNSEG on the GIT dataset, publicly available datasets, and on a range of practical scenarios. In these contexts, we also discuss the possibility of bias inherent in quantification of segmentation accuracy based on F1 score. Segmentation, despite its long antecedents, remains a challenging problem, particularly in the context of tissue samples. UNSEG, an easy-to-use algorithm, provides an unsupervised approach to overcome this bottleneck, and as we discuss, can help improve deep learning based segmentation methods by providing a bridge between unsupervised and supervised learning paradigms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kochetov, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bell, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shalaby, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raphael, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leibowitz, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schoedel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brand, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brand, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diergaarde, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schoen, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singhi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uttam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.13.566842</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[UNSEG: unsupervised segmentation of cells and their nuclei in complex tissue samples]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.14.567048v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tumor cell-derived spermidine promotes a pro-tumorigenic immune microenvironment in glioblastoma via CD8+ T cell inhibition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.14.567048v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The glioblastoma microenvironment is enriched in immunosuppressive factors that potently interfere with the function of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Cancer cells can directly impact the immune system, but the mechanisms driving these interactions are not completely clear. Here we demonstrate that the polyamine metabolite spermidine is elevated in the glioblastoma tumor microenvironment. Exogenous administration of spermidine drives tumor aggressiveness in an immune-dependent manner in pre-clinical mouse models via reduction of CD8+ T cell frequency and phenotype. Knockdown of ornithine decarboxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in spermidine synthesis, did not impact cancer cell growth in vitro but did result in extended survival. Furthermore, glioblastoma patients with a more favorable outcome had a significant reduction in spermidine compared to patients with a poor prognosis. Our results demonstrate that spermidine functions as a cancer cell-derived metabolite that drives tumor progression by reducing CD8+T cell number and function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kay, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beilis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dayal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesley, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volovetz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGraw, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freytag, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narayana, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freytag, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Best, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittle, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reizes, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hazen, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.14.567048</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tumor cell-derived spermidine promotes a pro-tumorigenic immune microenvironment in glioblastoma via CD8+ T cell inhibition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.14.567135v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pathogenicity Prediction of GABAA Receptor Missense Variants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.14.567135v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Variants in the genes encoding the subunits of gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors are associated with epilepsy. To date, over 1000 clinical variants have been identified in these genes. However, the majority of these variants lack functional studies and their clinical significance is uncertain although accumulating evidence indicates that proteostasis deficiency is the major disease-causing mechanism for GABAA receptor variants. Here, we apply two state-of-the-art modeling tools, namely AlphaMissense, which uses an artificial intelligence-based approach based on AlphaFold structures, and Rhapsody, which integrates sequence evolution and known structure-based data, to predict the pathogenicity of saturating missense variants in genes that encode the major subunits of GABAA receptors in the central nervous system, including GABRA1, GABRB2, GABRB3, and GABRG2. Our results demonstrate that the predicted pathogenicity correlates well between AlphaMissense and Rhapsody although AlphaMissense tends to generate higher pathogenic probability. Furthermore, almost all annotated pathogenic variants in the ClinVar clinical database are successfully identified from the prediction, whereas uncertain variants from ClinVar partially due to the lack of experimental data are differentiated into different pathogenicity groups. The pathogenicity prediction of GABAA receptor missense variants provides a resource to the community as well as guidance for future experimental and clinical investigations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vu, G. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.14.567135</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pathogenicity Prediction of GABAA Receptor Missense Variants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567595v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Differential responses of primary neuron-secreted MCP-1 and IL-9 to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease-associated metabolites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567595v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is implicated as a risk factor for Alzheimers disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. In this work, we investigated neuroinflammatory responses of primary neurons to potentially circulating, blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeable metabolites associated with AD, T2D, or both. We identified nine metabolites associated with protective or detrimental properties of AD and T2D in literature (lauric acid, asparagine, fructose, arachidonic acid, aminoadipic acid, sorbitol, retinol, tryptophan, niacinamide) and stimulated primary mouse neuron cultures with each metabolite before quantifying cytokine secretion via Luminex. We employed unsupervised clustering, inferential statistics, and partial least squares discriminant analysis to identify relationships between cytokine concentration and disease-associations of metabolites. We identified MCP-1, a cytokine associated with monocyte recruitment, as differentially abundant between neurons stimulated by metabolites associated with protective and detrimental properties of AD and T2D. We also identified IL-9, a cytokine that promotes mast cell growth, to be differentially associated with T2D. Indeed, cytokines, such as MCP-1 and IL-9, released from neurons in response to BBB-permeable metabolites associated with T2D may contribute to AD development by downstream effects of neuroinflammation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ball, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhn, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleeman, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Proctor, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.17.567595</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Differential responses of primary neuron-secreted MCP-1 and IL-9 to type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease-associated metabolites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.567575v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody treatment followed by vaccination shifts human memory B cell epitope recognition suggesting antibody feedback 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.567575v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapeutic anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been extensively studied in humans, but the impact on immune memory of mAb treatment during an ongoing immune response has remained unclear. Here, we evaluated the effect of infusion of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain (RBD) mAb bamlanivimab on memory B cells (MBCs) in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. Bamlanivimab treatment skewed the repertoire of memory B cells targeting Spike towards non-RBD epitopes. Furthermore, the relative affinity of RBD memory B cells was weaker in mAb-treated individuals compared to placebo-treated individuals over time. Subsequently, after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, memory B cell differences persisted and mapped to a specific defect in recognition of the class II RBD site, the same RBD epitope recognized by bamlanivimab. These findings indicate a substantial role of antibody feedback in regulating human memory B cell responses, both to infection and vaccination. These data indicate that mAb administration can promote alterations in the epitopes recognized by the B cell repertoire, and the single administration of mAb can continue to determine the fate of B cells in response to additional antigen exposures months later.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTEvaluating the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies during SARS-CoV-2 infection requires a comprehensive understanding of their impact on B cell responses at the cellular level and how these responses are shaped after vaccination. We report for the first time the effect of bamlanivimab on SARS-CoV-2 specific human memory B cells of COVID-19 infected humans receiving, or not, mRNA immunization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coelho, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parikh, U. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heaps, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sieg, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greninger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ritz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moser, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eron, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Currier, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klekotka, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wohl, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daar, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chew, K. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crotty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines: 2/A5401 (ACTIV-2/A5401) Study Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.21.567575</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody treatment followed by vaccination shifts human memory B cell epitope recognition suggesting antibody feedback]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.30.569373v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The evolution of diverse antimicrobial responses in vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus and its therapeutic implications 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.30.569373v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is typically treated empirically with vancomycin, with therapy later tailored based on susceptibility results. However, these tests occur before vancomycin exposure and do not account for adaptation during empiric treatment that can alter S. aureus susceptibility to first-line drugs. To investigate these collateral drug responses, we experimentally evolved 18 methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) populations under increasing vancomycin concentrations until they achieved intermediate resistance. Genomic sequencing revealed two distinct adaptive pathways characterized by mutations in the WalKR regulon, affecting cell wall metabolism, or rpsU, impacting translational stress responses. These pathways correlated with divergent collateral sensitivity profiles to first-line antibiotics. By developing a Collateral Response Score (CRS), we quantified the probability and magnitude of these responses, demonstrating that evolutionary dynamics critically influence resistance outcomes. Our findings suggest a probabilistic approach to antimicrobial therapy, advocating for rapid genomic diagnostics alongside susceptibility testing to better anticipate and respond to evolutionary changes.

SignificanceAntibiotic treatment can influence bacterial evolution, altering the effectiveness of subsequent therapies by inducing collateral resistance or sensitivity. This study reveals that evolution toward vancomycin-intermediate resistance in the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus proceeds through at least two distinct evolutionary pathways: one characterized by alterations in cell wall metabolism and another by changes in global stress response. These adaptive trajectories result in contrasting collateral sensitivities to first-line antibiotics. By introducing the Collateral Response Score, we assess the uncertainty in these outcomes, providing a probabilistic framework to evaluate how past antibiotic exposure shapes future treatment responses. Further validation studies are needed; however, we believe that improved forecasting of pathogen evolution can enhance antibiotic stewardship, inform therapeutic decisions, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Crozier, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Card, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.30.569373</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The evolution of diverse antimicrobial responses in vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus and its therapeutic implications]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.01.569075v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mouse Model of the Protease Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4) Pro310Leu Variant has Reduced Platelet Reactivity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.01.569075v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundProtease activated receptor 4 (PAR4) mediates thrombin signaling on platelets and other cells. Our recent structural studies demonstrated a single nucleotide polymorphism in extracellular loop 3 (ECL3), PAR4-P310L (rs2227376) leads to a hypo-reactive receptor.

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to determine how the hypo-reactive PAR4 variant in ECL3 impacts platelet function in vivo using a novel knock-in mouse model (PAR4-322L).

MethodsA point mutation was introduced into the PAR4 gene, F2rl3, via CRISPR/Cas9 to create PAR4-P322L, the mouse homolog to human PAR4-P310L. Platelet response to PAR4 activation peptide (AYPGKF), thrombin, ADP, and convulxin was monitored by IIb{beta}3 integrin activation and P-selectin translocation using flow cytometry or platelet aggregation. In vivo responses were determined by the tail bleeding assay and the ferric chloride-induced carotid artery injury model.

ResultsPAR4-P/L and PAR4-L/L platelets had a reduced response to AYPGKF and thrombin measured by P-selectin translocation or IIb{beta}3 activation. The response to ADP and convulxin was unchanged among genotypes. In addition, both PAR4-P/L and PAR4-L/L platelets showed a reduced response to thrombin in aggregation studies. There was an increase in the tail bleeding time for PAR4-L/L mice. The PAR4-P/L and PAR4-L/L mice both showed an extended time to arterial thrombosis.

ConclusionsPAR4-322L significantly reduced platelet responsiveness to AYPGKF and thrombin, which is in agreement with our previous structural and cell signaling studies. In addition, PAR4-322L had prolonged arterial thrombosis time. Our mouse model provides a foundation to further evaluate the role of PAR4 in other pathophysiological contexts.

EssentialsO_LIA mouse model was created to represent the PAR4-P310L sequence variant.
C_LIO_LIPAR4-P322L leads to reduced platelet reactivity in response to PAR4-activation peptide and thrombin, while the ADP and GPVI signaling pathways were unaffected.
C_LIO_LIThe PAR4-P322L mutation decreases time to occlusion in a mouse model of arterial thrombosis.
C_LIO_LIThe PAR4-P322L mouse model provides a foundation to further explore the role of PAR4 in hemostasis and thrombosis.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knauss, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Fuente, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conlon, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LePage, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Renna, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKenzie, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.01.569075</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mouse Model of the Protease Activated Receptor 4 (PAR4) Pro310Leu Variant has Reduced Platelet Reactivity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570300v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mesenchymal Wnts are required for morphogenetic movements of calvarial osteoblasts during apical expansion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570300v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Apical expansion of calvarial osteoblast progenitors from the cranial mesenchyme (CM) above the eye is integral for calvarial growth and enclosure of the brain. The cellular behaviors and signals underlying the morphogenetic process of calvarial expansion are unknown. During apical expansion, we found that mouse calvarial primordia have consistent cellular proliferation, density, and survival with complex tissue scale deformations, raising the possibility that morphogenetic movements underlie expansion. Time lapse light sheet imaging of mouse embryos revealed that calvarial progenitors intercalate in 3D to converge supraorbital arch mesenchyme mediolaterally and extend it apically. In contrast, progenitors located further apically exhibited protrusive and crawling activity. CM cells express non-canonical Wnt/Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) core components and calvarial osteoblasts are bidirectionally polarized. We found non-canonical ligand, Wnt5a-/- mutants have less dynamic cell rearrangements, protrusive activity, and a flattened head shape. Loss of cranial mesenchyme-restricted Wntless (CM-Wls), a gene required for secretion of all Wnt ligands, led to diminished apical expansion of OSX+ calvarial osteoblasts in the frontal bone primordia in a non-cell autonomous manner without perturbing proliferation or survival. Calvarial osteoblast polarization, progressive cell elongation and enrichment for actin cytoskeleton protein along the baso-apical axis were dependent on CM-Wnts. Thus, CM-Wnts regulate cellular behaviors during calvarial morphogenesis and provide tissue level cues for efficient apical expansion of calvarial osteoblasts. These findings also offer potential insights into the etiologies of calvarial dysplasias.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Polsani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yung, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phung-Rojas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ibarra, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopyan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.05.570300</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mesenchymal Wnts are required for morphogenetic movements of calvarial osteoblasts during apical expansion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.15.571879v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synergistic Effects of Sulopenem in Combination with Cefuroxime or Durlobactam against Mycobacterium abscessus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.15.571879v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) affects patients with immunosuppression, Cystic Fibrosis (CF), or underlying structural lung diseases. Additionally, Mab poses clinical challenges due to its resistance to multiple antibiotics. Herein, we investigated the synergistic effect of dual {beta}-lactams [sulopenem and cefuroxime (CXM)] or the combination of sulopenem and CXM with a {beta}-lactamase inhibitors [BLI; avibactam (AVI) or durlobactam (DUR)]. The sulopenem-CXM combination yielded low minimum inhibitory concentration MIC values for 54 clinical Mab isolates and ATCC19977 (MIC50 and MIC90 [&le;] 0.25 g/mL). Similar synergistic effects were observed in time-kill studies conducted at concentrations achievable in clinical settings. Sulopenem-CXM outperformed monotherapy, yielding [~]1.5 Log10 CFU/mL reduction during 10 days. Addition of BLIs enhanced this antibacterial effect, resulting in additional reduction of CFUs ([~]3 Log10 for sulopenem-CXM and AVI and [~]4 Log10 for sulopenem-DUR). Exploration of the potential mechanisms of the synergy focused on their interactions with L,D-transpeptidases (LDTs; LDTMab1-LDTMab4), Penicillin-Binding-Protein B (PBP-B), and D,D-Carboxypeptidase (DDC). Acyl complexes identified via mass spectrometry analysis, demonstrated the binding of sulopenem with LdtMab2-LdtMab4, DDC, and PBP B, and CXM with LdtMab2 and PBP-B. Molecular docking suggested formation of a covalent adduct between sulopenem and LdtMab2 after the nucleophilic attack of the cysteine residue at the {beta}-lactam carbonyl carbon, leading to the cleavage of the {beta}-lactam ring, and the establishment of a thioester bond linking the LdtMab2 with sulopenem. In conclusion, we demonstrated the biochemical basis of the synergy of sulopenem-CXM with or without BLI. These findings potentially broaden selection of oral therapeutic agents to combat Mab.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dousa, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurz, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plummer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nantongo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bethel, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taracila, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kreiswith, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daley, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Remy, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holland, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.15.571879</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synergistic Effects of Sulopenem in Combination with Cefuroxime or Durlobactam against Mycobacterium abscessus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.15.571939v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome organization in double-stranded DNA viruses observed by cryoET 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.15.571939v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses package their genetic material into protein cages with diameters usually a few hundred times smaller than the length of their genome. Compressing the relatively stiff and highly negatively charged dsDNA into a small volume is energetically costly and mechanistically enigmatic. Multiple models of dsDNA packaging have been proposed based on various experimental evidence and simulation methods, but direct observation of any viral genome organization is lacking. Here, using cryoET and an improved data processing scheme that utilizes information from the encaging protein shell, we present 3D views of dsDNA genome inside individual viral particles at resolution that densities of neighboring DNA duplexes are readily separable. These cryoET observations reveal a "rod-and-coil" fold of the dsDNA that is conserved among herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) with a spherical capsid, bacteriophage T4 with a prolate capsid, and bacteriophage T7 with a proteinaceous core inside the capsid. Finally, inspired by the genome arrangement in partially packaged T4 particles, we propose a mechanism for the genome packaging process in dsDNA viruses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.15.571939</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome organization in double-stranded DNA viruses observed by cryoET]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.14.575584v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deciphering the co-evolutionary dynamics of L2 β-lactamases via Deep learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.14.575584v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
L2 {beta}-lactamases, a serine-based class A {beta}-lactamases expressed by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia plays a pivotal role in antimicrobial resistance. However, limited studies have been conducted on these important enzymes. To understand the co-evolutionary dynamics of L2 {beta}-lactamase, innovative computational methodologies, including adaptive sampling molecular dynamics simulations, and deep learning methods (convolutional variational autoencoders and BindSiteS-CNN) explored conformational changes and correlations within the L2 {beta}-lactamase family together with other representative class A enzymes including SME-1 and KPC-2. This work also investigated the potential role of hydrophobic nodes and binding site residues in facilitating the functional mechanisms. The convergence of analytical approaches utilized in this effort yielded comprehensive insights into the dynamic behaviour of the {beta}-lactamases, specifically from an evolutionary standpoint. In addition, this analysis presents a promising approach for understanding how the class A {beta}-lactamases evolve in response to environmental pressure and establishes a theoretical foundation for forthcoming endeavours in drug development aimed at combating antimicrobial resistance.

SynopsisDeep learning is used to reveal the dynamic co-evolutionary patterns of L2 {beta}-lactamases.

O_LIAnalysis of hydrophobic nodes and binding site residues provides a detailed understanding of both local and global dynamic evolution, which explain the functional divergences.
C_LIO_LIThe employment of two distinct deep learning models, the Convolutional Variational Autoencoder (CVAE) and BindSiteS-CNN, facilitates the investigation of conformational shifts, thereby depicting the dynamic evolution of L2 {beta}-lactamases.
C_LIO_LIThe effectiveness of CVAE and BindSiteS-CNN in dynamic classification is corroborated with selected features.
C_LI



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=96 SRC="FIGDIR/small/575584v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (33K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1db15forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@168043eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1eebb96org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5d8019_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, A. W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mojica, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hujer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haider, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.14.575584</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deciphering the co-evolutionary dynamics of L2 β-lactamases via Deep learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.07.579333v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Temporal Dynamics of Cyanobacterial Bloom Community Composition and Toxin Production from Urban Lakes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.07.579333v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
With a long evolutionary history and a need to adapt to a changing environment, cyanobacteria in freshwater systems use specialized metabolites for communication, defense, and physiological processes. However, the role that these metabolites play in differentiating species, maintaining microbial communities, and generating niche persistence and expansion is poorly understood. Furthermore, many cyanobacterial specialized metabolites and toxins present significant human health concerns due to their liver toxicity and their potential impact to drinking water. Gaps in knowledge exist with respect to changes in species diversity and toxin production during a cyanobacterial bloom (cyanoHAB) event; addressing these gaps will improve understanding of impacts to public and ecological health. In the current project, we utilized a multi-omics strategy (DNA metabarcoding and metabolomics) to determine the cyanobacterial community composition, toxin profile, and the specialized metabolite pool at three freshwater lakes in Providence, RI during summer-fall cyanoHABs. Species diversity decreased at all study sites over the course of the bloom event, and toxin production reached a maximum at the midpoint of the event. Additionally, LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking identified new toxin congeners. This work provokes intriguing questions with respect to the use of allelopathy by organisms in these systems and the presence of emerging toxic compounds that can impact public health.

SYNOPSISThis study reports on cyanobacterial community succession and toxin dynamics during cyanobacterial bloom events. Results show relationships and temporal dynamics that are relevant to public health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maurer, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oblie, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hefferan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slitt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.07.579333</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Temporal Dynamics of Cyanobacterial Bloom Community Composition and Toxin Production from Urban Lakes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.582839v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
LDL-Binding IL-10 Reduces Vascular Inflammation in Atherosclerotic Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.582839v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with the accumulation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in arterial walls. Higher levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in serum are correlated with reduced plaque burden. However, cytokine therapies have not translated well to the clinic, partially due to their rapid clearance and pleiotropic nature. Here, we engineered IL-10 to overcome these challenges by hitchhiking on LDL to atherosclerotic plaques. Specifically, we constructed fusion proteins in which one domain is IL-10 and the other is an antibody fragment (Fab) that binds to protein epitopes of LDL. In murine models of atherosclerosis, we show that systemically administered Fab-IL-10 constructs bind circulating LDL and traffic to atherosclerotic plaques. One such construct, 2D03-IL-10, significantly reduces aortic immune cell infiltration to levels comparable to healthy mice, whereas non-targeted IL-10 has no therapeutic effect. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that 2D03-IL-10 preferentially associates with foamy macrophages and reduces pro-inflammatory activation markers. This platform technology can be applied to a variety of therapeutics and shows promise as a potential targeted anti-inflammatory therapy in atherosclerosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Volpatti, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Norton de Matos, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borjas, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reda, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watkins, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solanki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubbell, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.04.582839</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[LDL-Binding IL-10 Reduces Vascular Inflammation in Atherosclerotic Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583402v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell-state dependent regulation of PPARγ signaling by ZBTB9 in adipocytes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583402v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adipocytes play a critical role in metabolic homeostasis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{gamma} (PPAR{gamma}) is a nuclear hormone receptor that is a master regulator of adipocyte differentiation and function. ZBTB9 was predicted to interact with PPAR{gamma} based on large-scale protein interaction experiments. In addition, GWAS studies in the type 2 diabetes (T2D) Knowledge Portal revealed associations between Zbtb9 and both BMI and T2D risk. Here we show that ZBTB9 positively regulates PPAR{gamma} activity in mature adipocytes. Surprisingly Zbtb9 knockdown (KD) also increased adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells and human preadipocytes. E2F activity was increased and E2F downstream target genes were upregulated in Zbtb9-KD preadipocytes. Accordingly, RB phosphorylation, which regulates E2F activity, was enhanced in Zbtb9-KD preadipocytes. Critically, an E2F1 inhibitor blocked the effects of Zbtb9 deficiency on adipogenic gene expression and lipid accumulation. Collectively, these results demonstrate that Zbtb9 inhibits adipogenesis as a negative regulator of Pparg expression via altered RB-E2F1 signaling. Our findings reveal complex cell-state dependent roles of ZBTB9 in adipocytes, identifying a new molecule that regulates adipogenesis and adipocyte biology as both a positive and negative regulator of PPAR{gamma} signaling depending on the cellular context, and thus may be important in the pathogenesis and treatment of obesity and T2D.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charrier, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Congrove, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchner, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.04.583402</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell-state dependent regulation of PPARγ signaling by ZBTB9 in adipocytes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583374v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sarm1 is not necessary for activation of neuron-intrinsic growth programs yet required for the Schwann cell repair response and peripheral nerve regeneration. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583374v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Upon peripheral nervous system (PNS) injury, severed axons undergo rapid SARM1-dependent Wallerian degeneration (WD). In mammals, the role of SARM1 in PNS regeneration, however, is unknown. Here we demonstrate that Sarm1 is not required for axotomy induced activation of neuron-intrinsic growth programs and axonal growth into a nerve crush site. However, in the distal nerve, Sarm1 is necessary for the timely induction of the Schwann cell (SC) repair response, nerve inflammation, myelin clearance, and regeneration of sensory and motor axons. In Sarm1-/- mice, regenerated fibers exhibit reduced axon caliber, defective nerve conduction, and recovery of motor function is delayed. The growth hostile environment of Sarm1-/- distal nerve tissue was demonstrated by grafting of Sarm1-/- nerve into WT recipients. SC lineage tracing in injured WT and Sarm1-/- mice revealed morphological differences. In the Sarm1-/- distal nerve, the appearance of p75NTR+, c-Jun+ SCs is significantly delayed. Ex vivo, p75NTR and c-Jun upregulation in Sarm1-/- nerves can be rescued by pharmacological inhibition of ErbB kinase. Together, our studies show that Sarm1 is not necessary for the activation of neuron intrinsic growth programs but in the distal nerve is required for the orchestration of cellular programs that underlie rapid axon extension.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schmitd, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hafner, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adib, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biscola, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williamson, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxman, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Athaiya, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilborn, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shumpert, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, X.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawaguchi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geschwind, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoke, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrager, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Havton, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalinski, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giger, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.04.583374</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sarm1 is not necessary for activation of neuron-intrinsic growth programs yet required for the Schwann cell repair response and peripheral nerve regeneration.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583390v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DR5 disulfide bonding as a sensor and effector of protein folding stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.04.583390v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
New agents are needed that selectively kill cancer cells without harming normal tissues. The TRAIL ligand and its receptors, DR5 and DR4, exhibit cancer-selective toxicity, but TRAIL analogs or agonistic antibodies targeting these receptors have not received FDA approval for cancer therapy. Small molecules for activating DR5 or DR4 independently of protein ligands may bypass some of the pharmacological limitations of these protein drugs. Previously described Disulfide bond Disrupting Agents (DDAs) activate DR5 by altering its disulfide bonding through inhibition of the Protein Disulfide Isomerases (PDIs) ERp44, AGR2, and PDIA1. Work presented here extends these findings by showing that disruption of single DR5 disulfide bonds causes high-level DR5 expression, disulfide-mediated clustering, and activation of Caspase 8-Caspase 3 mediated pro-apoptotic signaling. Recognition of the extracellular domain of DR5 by various antibodies is strongly influenced by the pattern of DR5 disulfide bonding, which has important implications for the use of agonistic DR5 antibodies for cancer therapy. Disulfide-defective DR5 mutants do not activate the ER stress response or stimulate autophagy, indicating that these DDA-mediated responses are separable from DR5 activation and pro-apoptotic signaling. Importantly, other ER stressors, including Thapsigargin and Tunicamycin also alter DR5 disulfide bonding in various cancer cell lines and in some instances, DR5 mis-disulfide bonding is potentiated by overriding the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) with inhibitors of the PERK kinase or the ISR inhibitor ISRIB. These observations indicate that the pattern of DR5 disulfide bonding functions as a sensor of ER stress and serves as an effector of proteotoxic stress by driving extrinsic apoptosis independently of extracellular ligands.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Law, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulloo, Z. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggleston, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takacs, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexandrow, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forsyth, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiang, C.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanumuri, S. R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guryanova, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirosh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castellano, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.04.583390</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DR5 disulfide bonding as a sensor and effector of protein folding stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.07.583934v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
To prosper, live long: understanding the sources of reproductive skew and extreme reproductive success in structured populations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.07.583934v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In many species, a few individuals produce most of the next generation. How much of this reproductive skew is driven by variation among individuals in fixed traits, how much by external factors, and how much by random chance? And what does it take to have truly exceptional lifetime reproductive output (LRO)? In the past, we and others have partitioned the variance of LRO as a proxy for reproductive skew. Here we explain how to partition LRO skewness itself into contributions from fixed trait variation; four forms of "demographic luck" (birth state, fecundity luck, survival trajectory luck, and growth trajectory luck); and two kinds of "environmental luck" (birth environment, and environment trajectory). Each of these is further partitioned into contributions at different ages. We also determine what we can infer about individuals with exceptional LRO. We find that reproductive skew is largely driven by random variation in lifespan, and exceptional LRO generally results from exceptional lifespan. Other kinds of luck frequently bring skewness down, rather than increasing it. In populations where fecundity varies greatly with environmental conditions, getting a good year at the right time can be an alternate route to exceptional LRO, so that LRO is less predictive of lifespan.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Snyder, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellner, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.07.583934</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[To prosper, live long: understanding the sources of reproductive skew and extreme reproductive success in structured populations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.08.584154v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A low-footprint, fluorescence-based bacterial time-kill assay for estimating dose-dependent cell death dynamics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.08.584154v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dose-response curves that describe the relationship between antibiotic dose and growth rate in bacteria are commonly measured with optical density (OD) based assays. While being simple and high-throughput, any dose-dependent cell death dynamics are obscured, as OD assays in batch culture can only quantify a positive net change in cells. Time-kill experiments can be used to quantify cell death rates, but current techniques are extremely resource-intensive and may be biased by residual drug carried over into the quantification assay. Here, we report a novel, fluorescence-based time-kill assay leveraging resazurin as a viable cell count indicator. Our method improves upon previous techniques by greatly reducing the material cost and being robust to residual drug carry-over. We demonstrate our technique by quantifying a dose-response curve in Escherichia coli subject to cefotaxime, revealing dose-dependent death rates. We also show that our method is robust to extracellular debris and cell aggregation. Dose-response curves quantified with our method may provide a more accurate description of pathogen response to therapy, paving the way for more accurate integrated pharmacodynamic-pharmacokinetic studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>King, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stacey, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.08.584154</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A low-footprint, fluorescence-based bacterial time-kill assay for estimating dose-dependent cell death dynamics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.09.584235v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Analysis of meiotic recombination in Drosophila simulans shows heterozygous inversions do not cause an interchromosomal effect 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.09.584235v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chromosome inversions are of unique importance in the evolution of genomes and species because when heterozygous with a standard arrangement chromosome, they suppress meiotic crossovers within the inversion. In Drosophila species, heterozygous inversions also cause the interchromosomal effect, whereby the presence of a heterozygous inversion induces a dramatic increase in crossover frequencies in the remainder of the genome within a single meiosis. To date, the interchromosomal effect has been studied exclusively in species that also have high frequencies of inversions in wild populations. We took advantage of a recently developed approach for generating inversions in Drosophila simulans, a species that does not have inversions in wild populations, to ask if there is an interchromosomal effect. We used the existing chromosome 3R balancer and generated a new chromosome 2L balancer to assay for the interchromosomal effect genetically and cytologically. We found no evidence of an interchromosomal effect in D. simulans. To gain insight into the underlying mechanistic reasons, we qualitatively analyzed the relationship between meiotic double-strand break formation and synaptonemal complex assembly. We find that the synaptonemal complex is assembled prior to double-strand break formation as in D. melanogaster; however, we show that the synaptonemal complex is assembled prior to localization of the oocyte determination factor Orb, whereas in D. melanogaster, synaptonemal complex formation does not begin until Orb is localized. Together, our data show heterozygous inversions in D. simulans do not induce an interchromosomal effect and that there are differences in the developmental programming of the early stages of meiosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Man, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vadlakonda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stern, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crown, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.09.584235</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Analysis of meiotic recombination in Drosophila simulans shows heterozygous inversions do not cause an interchromosomal effect]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.11.584443v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
miR-644a is a tumor cell-intrinsic mediator of sex bias in glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.11.584443v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundBiological sex is an important risk factor for glioblastoma (GBM), with males having a higher incidence and poorer prognosis. The mechanisms for this sex bias are thought to be both tumor intrinsic and tumor extrinsic. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), key post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, have been previously linked to sex differences in various cell types and diseases, but their role in the sex bias of GBM remains unknown.

MethodsWe leveraged previously published paired miRNA and mRNA sequencing of 39 GBM patients (22 male, 17 female) to identify sex-biased miRNAs. We further interrogated a separate single-cell RNA sequencing dataset of 110 GBM patients to examine whether differences in miRNA target gene expression were tumor cell intrinsic or tumor cell extrinsic. Results were validated in a panel of patient-derived cell models.

ResultsWe identified 10 sex-biased miRNAs (adjusted < 0.1), of which 3 were more highly expressed in males and 7 more highly expressed in females. Of these, miR-644a was higher in females, and increased expression of miR-644a target genes was significantly associated with decreased overall survival (HR 1.3, p = 0.02). Furthermore, analysis of an independent single-cell RNA sequencing dataset confirmed sex-specific expression of miR-644a target genes in tumor cells (p < 10-15). Among patient derived models, miR-644a was expressed a median of 4.8-fold higher in females compared to males.

ConclusionsOur findings implicate miR-644a as a candidate tumor cell-intrinsic regulator of sex-biased gene expression in GBM.

Key PointsO_LImiR-644a is more highly expressed in female GBM patients.
C_LIO_LILower miR-644a target gene expression is associated with improved overall survival.
C_LIO_LImiR-644a target genes are higher in male GBM cells but not in other cell types.
C_LI

Importance of the StudyMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and were previously linked to glioblastoma (GBM) growth and therapeutic resistance. miRNAs play a role in the sex bias of various cell types and diseases, but how miRNAs contribute to sex differences in GBM is not well elucidated. We show that 10 miRNAs are differentially expressed between males and females and identify miR-644a as more highly expressed in female GBM patients. Using single-cell RNA-seq data, we demonstrate that sex differences in miR-644a target gene expression are tumor cell-intrinsic. Likewise, decreased miR-644a target gene expression is associated with improved overall patient survival. Our findings reveal miR-644a as a novel sex-biased miRNA in GBM, and a possible target for sex-specific precision therapies with limited collateral damage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ponti, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajdari, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volovetz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kay, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.11.584443</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[miR-644a is a tumor cell-intrinsic mediator of sex bias in glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.13.583703v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Flies tune the sensitivity of their multifunctional gyroscope. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.13.583703v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Locomotion requires navigating unpredictable and complex environments, demanding both stability and maneuverability within short timeframes. This is particularly important for flying insects, and the true flies (Diptera) stand out among this group for their impressive flight capabilities. Flies aerial abilities are partially attributed to halteres, tiny club-shaped structures that evolved from the hindwings and play a crucial role in flight control. Halteres oscillate during flight, in antiphase with the wings, providing rhythmic input to the wing steering system via arrays of embedded mechanosensors called campaniform sensilla. These sensor arrays convey timing information to the wing steering muscles, but linking haltere sensor location to sensor activity and the functional organization of the wing steering system remains a central challenge. Here, we use in vivo calcium imaging during tethered flight to obtain population-level recordings of the haltere sensory afferents in specific fields of sensilla. We find that haltere feedback is continuously modulated by visual stimuli to stabilize flight. Additionally, this feedback is present during saccades and help flies actively maneuver. We also find that the halteres multifaceted role arises from the steering muscles of the haltere itself, regulating haltere stroke amplitude to modulate campaniform activity. Taken together, our results underscore the crucial role of biomechanics in regulating the dynamic range of sensors and provide insight into how the sensory and motor systems of flies coevolved.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=152 SRC="FIGDIR/small/583703v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Verbe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lea, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fox, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickerson, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.13.583703</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Flies tune the sensitivity of their multifunctional gyroscope.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.13.584858v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Toward generalizable phenotype prediction from single-cell morphology representations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.13.584858v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Functional cell processes (e.g., molecular signaling, response to environmental stimuli, mitosis, etc.) impact cell phenotypes, which scientists can easily and robustly measure with cell morphology. However, linking these morphology measurements with phenotypes remains challenging because biologically interpretable phenotypes require manually annotated labels. Automatic phenotype annotation from cell morphology would link biological processes with their phenotypic outcomes and deepen understanding of cell function. We propose that nuclear morphology can be a predictive marker for cell phenotypes that is generalizable across cell types. Nucleus morphology is commonly and easily accessible with microscopy, but annotating specific phenotypic information requires labels. Therefore, we reanalyzed a pre-labeled, publicly-available nucleus microscopy dataset from the MitoCheck consortium to predict single-cell phenotypes. We extracted single-cell morphology features using CellProfiler and DeepProfiler, which provide fast, robust, and generalizable data processing pipelines. We trained multinomial, multi-class elastic net logistic regression models to classify nuclei into one of 15 phenotypes such as  Anaphase,  Apoptosis, and  Binuclear. In a held-out test set, we observed an overall F1 score of 0.84, where individual phenotype scores ranged from 0.64 (indicating moderate performance) to 0.99 (indicating high performance). Notably, phenotypes such as  Elongated,  Metaphase, and  Apoptosis showed high performance. While CellProfiler and DeepProfiler morphology features were generally equally effective, combining feature spaces yielded the best results for 9 of the 15 phenotypes. However, leave-one-image-out (LOIO) cross-validation analysis showed a significant performance decline, indicating our model could not reliably predict phenotype in new single images. Poor performance, which we show was unrelated to factors like illumination correction or model selection, limits generalizability to new datasets and highlights the challenges of morphology to phenotype annotation. Nevertheless, we modified and applied our approach to the JUMP Cell Painting pilot data. Our modified approach improved dataset alignment and highlighted many perturbations that are known to be associated with specific phenotypes. We propose several strategies that could pave the way for more generalizable methods in single-cell phenotype prediction, which is a step toward morphology representation ontologies that would aid in cross-dataset interpretability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tomkinson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kern, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Way, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.13.584858</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Toward generalizable phenotype prediction from single-cell morphology representations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.21.586124v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A high-throughput zebrafish screen identifies novel candidate treatments for Kaposiform Lymphangiomatosis (KLA) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.21.586124v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Kaposiform Lymphangiomatosis (KLA) is a rare, aggressive, and incurable disease caused by a somatic activating NRAS mutation (p.Q61R) in lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs). The development of new therapeutic avenues is hampered by the lack of animal models faithfully replicating the clinical manifestations of KLA. Here, we established a novel zebrafish model of KLA by driving conditional expression of the human NRAS mutation in venous and lymphatic ECs. We find that mutant embryos recapitulated clinical features of KLA, including pericardial edema and a dilated thoracic duct, and that the phenotypes were reverted by Trametinib, a MEK inhibitor used for KLA treatment. We further leverage this model in combination with an AI-based high-throughput drug screening platform to search for small compounds selectively reverting the mutant phenotypes and identify Cabozantinib, an FDA-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and GSK690693, a competitive pan-Akt kinase inhibitor, as leading hits. Finally, we test these drugs in cultured cells derived from KLA patient and demonstrate their ability to normalize LEC sprouting and block NRAS downstream pathways, underscoring the potential of GSK690693 and Cabozantinib as potential KLA treatments. Overall, our novel zebrafish model provides a valuable tool for research into the etiology of KLA and for identifying new therapeutic avenues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bassi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jabali, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farag, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egozi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moshe, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leichner, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geva, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barzilai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avivi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otterstrom, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paran, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barr, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaniv, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.21.586124</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A high-throughput zebrafish screen identifies novel candidate treatments for Kaposiform Lymphangiomatosis (KLA)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.21.586202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pathological C-terminal phosphomimetic substitutions alter the mechanism of liquid-liquid phase separation of TDP-43 low complexity domain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.21.586202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
C-terminally phosphorylated TAR DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) marks the proteinaceous inclusions that characterize a number of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimers disease. TDP-43 phosphorylation at S403/S404, and especially at S409/S410, is in fact accepted as a biomarker of proteinopathy. These residues are located within the low complexity domain (LCD), which also drives the proteins liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). The impact of phosphorylation at these LCD sites on phase separation of the protein is a topic of great interest, as these post-translational modifications and LLPS are both implicated in proteinopathies. Here, we employed a combination of experimental and simulation-based approaches to explore this question on a phosphomimetic model of the TDP-43 LCD. Our turbidity and fluorescence microscopy data show that Ser-to-Asp substitutions at residues S403, S404, S409 and S410 alter the LLPS behavior of TDP-43 LCD. In particular, in contrast to the unmodified protein, the phosphomimetic variants display a biphasic dependence on salt concentration. Through coarse-grained modeling, we find that this biphasic salt dependence is derived from an altered mechanism of phase separation, in which LLPS-driving short-range intermolecular hydrophobic interactions are modulated by long-range attractive electrostatic interactions. Overall, this in vitro and in silico study provides a physiochemical foundation for understanding the impact of pathologically-relevant C-terminal phosphorylation on the LLPS of the TDP-43 in a more complex cellular environment.

Statement of SignificanceProteinaceous inclusions composed of phosphorylated, C-terminal TDP-43 fragments have long been recognized as hallmarks of several neurodegenerative diseases, in particular amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. A rapidly growing number of studies indicate that these proteinopathies may be closely related to liquid-liquid phased separation (LLPS) of TDP-43, but the impact of phosphorylation on TDP-43 LLPS remains largely unexplored. In this study we used a combination of experimental methods and coarse-grained simulations to ascertain, in mechanistic terms, how phosphorylation at pathologically-critical C-terminal sites impacts liquid-liquid phase separation of the low complexity domain of TDP-43. Our results broaden our understanding of the mechanisms driving pathogenic process in these neurodegenerative diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Haider, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shipley, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surewicz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surewicz, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.21.586202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pathological C-terminal phosphomimetic substitutions alter the mechanism of liquid-liquid phase separation of TDP-43 low complexity domain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.22.585885v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rodent Gut Bacteria Coexisting with an Insect Gut Virus in Parasitic Cysts: Metagenomic Evidence of Microbial Translocation and Co-adaptation in Spatially-Confined Niches 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.22.585885v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In medicine, parasitic cysts or cysticerci (fluid-filled cysts, larval stage of tapeworms) are believed to be sterile (no bacteria), and therein, the treatment of cysticerci infestations of deep extra-intestinal tissues (e.g., brain) relies almost exclusively on the use of antiparasitic medications, and rarely antibiotics. To date, however, it is unclear why common post-treatment complications include abscessation. This study quantified the microbial composition of parasitic cyst contents in a higher-order rodent host, using multi-kingdom shotgun metagenomics, to improve our understanding of gut microbial translocation and adaptation strategies in wild environments. Analysis was conducted on DNA from two hepatic parasitic cysts (Hydatigera (Taeenia) taeniaeformis) in an adult vole mouse (Microtus arvalis), and from feces, liver, and peritoneal fluid of three other vole family members living in a vegetable garden in Ohio, USA. Bacterial metagenomics revealed the presence of gut commensal/opportunistic species, including Parabacteroides distasonis, Klebsiella variicola, Enterococcus faecium, and Lactobacillus acidophilus, inhabiting the cysts. Parabacteroides distasonis and other species were also present outside the cyst in the peritoneal fluid. Remarkably, viral metagenomics revealed various murine viral species, but unexpectedly, it detected an insect-origin virus from the army moth (Pseudaletia/Mythimna unipuncta) known as Mythimna unipuncta granulovirus A (MyunGV-A) in both cysts, and in one fecal and one peritoneal sample from two different voles, indicating survival of the insect virus and adaption in voles. Metagenomics also revealed a significantly lower probability of fungal detection in the cysts compared to other samples (peritoneal fluid, p<0.05; and feces p<0.05), with single taxon detection in each cyst for Malassezia and Pseudophaeomoniella oleicola. The samples with a higher probability of fungi were the peritoneal fluid. In conclusion, commensal/pathobiont bacterial species can inhabit parasitic tapeworm cysts, which needs to be considered during therapeutic decisions of cysticerci or other chronic disease scenarios where immune privileged and spatially restricted ecosystems with limited nutrients and minimal presence of immune cells could facilitate microbial adaptation, such as within gut wall cavitating micropathologies in Crohns disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ammar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilic, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samiksha, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marsh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Palacios, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.22.585885</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rodent Gut Bacteria Coexisting with an Insect Gut Virus in Parasitic Cysts: Metagenomic Evidence of Microbial Translocation and Co-adaptation in Spatially-Confined Niches]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.24.586502v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Analysis Pipeline to Quantify Uterine Gland Structural Variations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.24.586502v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Technical advances in whole tissue imaging and clearing have allowed 3D reconstruction of exocrine uterine glands deep seated in the endometrium. However, there are limited gland structure analysis platforms to analyze these imaging data sets. Here we present a pipeline for segmenting and analyzing uterine gland shape. Using this segmentation methodology, we derive individual metrics to describe gland length, shape, and branching patterns. These metrics are applied to quantify gland behavior with respect to organization around the embryo and proximity of each individual unit to the uterine lumen. Using this image analysis pipeline we evaluate uterine glands at the peri-implantation time points of a mouse pregnancy. Our analysis reveals that upon embryo entry into the uterus glands show changes in length, tortuosity, and proximity to the uterine lumen while gland branch number stays the same. These shape changes aid in reorganization of the glands around the site of embryo implantation. We further apply our analysis pipeline to human and guinea pig uterine glands, extending feasibility to other mammalian species. This work serves as a resource for researchers to extract quantitative, reproducible morphological features from three-dimensional uterine gland images in order to reveal insights about functional and structural patterns.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alessio, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arora, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.24.586502</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Analysis Pipeline to Quantify Uterine Gland Structural Variations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.585546v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct Motor Map Characteristics for Biceps and Triceps Muscles in Persons with Chronic Tetraplegia: Implications for Arm Function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.585546v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Following spinal cord injury (SCI), intact neural resources undergo widespread reorganization within the brain. Animal models reveal motor cortical representations devoted to spared muscles above injury expand at the expense of territories occupied by weaker muscles. In this study, we investigated whether motor representations are similarly reorganized between a relatively spared biceps muscle and a weakened triceps muscle in persons with chronic tetraplegia following traumatic cervical SCI in association with upper limb motor function. Twenty-four adults with cervical SCI and 15 able-bodied participants underwent motor mapping using transcranial magnetic stimulation. We determined following map characteristics: area, amplitude (maximal motor evoked potential and volume), and center of gravity. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) and motor function (Capabilities of the Upper Extremity Test or CUE-T) were also assessed. Findings reveal that participants with SCI had hyper-excitable biceps maps than triceps, and hyper-excitable biceps maps also compared to biceps maps in able-bodied participants. Higher amplitude of biceps and triceps maps was associated with better motor function (higher CUE-T) and more distal injury (i.e., more spared segments) in persons with SCI. Amplitudes of biceps but not the triceps maps were associated with higher muscle MVCs. In conclusion, over-excitable biceps than triceps map in SCI may represent deafferentation plasticity. For the first time, we demonstrate how map reorganization of spared and weaker muscles in persons with chronic cervical SCI is associated with upper limb motor status. Use-dependent mechanisms may shift neural balance in favor of spared muscles, supporting potential use as response biomarkers in rehabilitation studies.

New & NoteworthyOur study reports evidence in humans with cervical SCI that motor representation for the relatively spared muscle becomes hyper-excitable compared to that for the weaker muscle to the extent that hyper-excitability is even higher compared to biceps maps in uninjured individuals. Use-dependent mechanisms likely favor such heightened excitability of spared maps. For the first time, we demonstrate clinical relevance of map excitability in humans with SCI, supporting potential use as a biomarker of recovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olaughlin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forrest, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arora, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemunaitis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cunningham, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirshblum, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pundik, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilgore, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bethoux, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henzel, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brihmat, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayram, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plow, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.27.585546</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct Motor Map Characteristics for Biceps and Triceps Muscles in Persons with Chronic Tetraplegia: Implications for Arm Function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.586949v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network medicine informed multi-omics integration identifies drug targets and repurposable medicines for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.586949v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, immensely complex neurodegenerative disease by lack of effective treatments. To date, the challenge to establishing effective treatment for ALS remains formidable, partly due to inadequate translation of existing human genetic findings into actionable ALS-specific pathobiology for subsequent therapeutic development. This study evaluates the feasibility of network medicine methodology via integrating human brain-specific multi-omics data to prioritize drug targets and repurposable treatments for ALS. Using human brain-specific genome-wide quantitative trait loci (x-QTLs) under a network-based deep learning framework, we identified 105 putative ALS-associated genes enriched in various known ALS pathobiological pathways, including regulation of T cell activation, monocyte differentiation, and lymphocyte proliferation. Specifically, we leveraged non-coding ALS loci effects from genome-wide associated studies (GWAS) on brain-specific expression quantitative trait loci (QTL) (eQTL), protein QTLs (pQTL), splicing QTL (sQTL), methylation QTL (meQTL), and histone acetylation QTL (haQTL). Applying network proximity analysis of predicted ALS-associated gene-coding targets and existing drug-target networks under the human protein-protein interactome (PPI) model, we identified a set of potential repurposable drugs (including Diazoxide, Gefitinib, Paliperidone, and Dimethyltryptamine) for ALS. Subsequent validation established preclinical and clinical evidence for top-prioritized repurposable drugs. In summary, we presented a network-based multi-omics framework to identify potential drug targets and repurposable treatments for ALS and other neurodegenerative disease if broadly applied.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trapp, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.27.586949</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network medicine informed multi-omics integration identifies drug targets and repurposable medicines for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.28.587307v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exhaustion profile on classical monocytes after LPS stimulation in patients with Crohn's disease. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.28.587307v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Crohns disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that induces diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, and even susceptibility to developing tumors. The immune system is pivotal in the gastrointestinal tract, promoting tolerance against commensal antigens and food. However, Crohns disease manifests by a breakdown in the mechanism of immune tolerance and the consequent development of exacerbated chronic inflammatory responses. The involvement of the immune system is pivotal in Crohns disease, with a wide range of immune cells being altered, which may include monocytes. Taking the lack of knowledge regarding monocytes in Crohns disease, we ought to elucidate the cytokine production and activation profile of monocyte subsets in the pathophysiology. We used multiparametric flow cytometry, quantified gene expression using qPCR, and made a correlation matrix regarding flow cytometry data and qPCR using a bioinformatic approach to examine monocyte status. The Corhns patients show a decrease in all subsets of monocytes.

In contrast, classical monocytes show an exhaustion profile with increased expression of CD38 and decreased production of IL-1{beta} after LPS stimulation in the patients group. These results indicate that monocyte subsets are differentially involved in the pathophysiology. These findings may suggest that monocytes favor disease chronicity and lack immune response resolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, L. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xavier, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nora, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangueira, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosseto, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aloia, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gil, J. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scavanini Neto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopes, F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carvalho, K. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.28.587307</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exhaustion profile on classical monocytes after LPS stimulation in patients with Crohn's disease.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.01.587586v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cross-correlation increases sampling in diffusion-based super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.01.587586v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Correlation signal processing of optical three-dimensional (x, y, t) data can produce super-resolution images. The second order cross-correlation function XC2 has been documented to produce super-resolution imaging with static and blinking emitters but not for diffusing emitters. Here, we both analytically and numerically demonstrate cross-correlation analysis for diffusing particles. We then expand our fluorescence correlation spectroscopy super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (fcsSOFI) analysis to use cross-correlation as a post-processing computational technique to extract both dynamic and structural information of particle diffusion in nanoscale structures simultaneously. We further show how this method increases sampling rates and reduces aliasing for spatial information in both simulated and experimental data. Our work demonstrates how fcsSOFI with cross-correlation can be a powerful signal-processing tool to resolve the nanoscale dynamics and structure in samples relevant to biological and soft materials.

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Antarasen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wellnitz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.01.587586</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cross-correlation increases sampling in diffusion-based super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587939v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CINner: modeling and simulation of chromosomal instability in cancer at single-cell resolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.03.587939v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer development is characterized by chromosomal instability, manifesting in frequent occurrences of different genomic alteration mechanisms ranging in extent and impact. Mathematical modeling can help evaluate the role of each mutational process during tumor progression, however existing frameworks can only capture certain aspects of chromosomal instability (CIN). We present CINner, a mathematical framework for modeling genomic diversity and selection during tumor evolution. The main advantage of CINner is its flexibility to incorporate many genomic events that directly impact cellular fitness, from driver gene mutations to copy number alterations (CNAs), including focal amplifications and deletions, missegregations and whole-genome duplication (WGD). We apply CINner to find chromosome-arm selection parameters that drive tumorigenesis in the absence of WGD in chromosomally stable cancer types. We found that the selection parameters predict WGD prevalence among different chromosomally unstable tumors, hinting that the selective advantage of WGD cells hinges on their tolerance for aneuploidy and escape from nullisomy. Direct application of CINner to model the WGD proportion and fraction of genome altered (FGA) further uncovers the increase in CNA probabilities associated with WGD in each cancer type. CINner can also be utilized to study chromosomally stable cancer types, by applying a selection model based on driver gene mutations and focal amplifications or deletions. Finally, we used CINner to analyze the impact of CNA probabilities, chromosome selection parameters, tumor growth dynamics and population size on cancer fitness and heterogeneity. We expect that CINner will provide a powerful modeling tool for the oncology community to quantify the impact of newly uncovered genomic alteration mechanisms on shaping tumor progression and adaptation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dinh, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vazquez-Garcia, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malhotra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mcpherson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavare, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.03.587939</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CINner: modeling and simulation of chromosomal instability in cancer at single-cell resolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.04.588123v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Structure of the Drp1 Lattice on Membrane 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.04.588123v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondrial health relies on the membrane fission mediated by dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1). Previous structural studies of Drp1 on remodeled membranes were hampered by heterogeneity, leaving a critical gap in the understanding of the mitochondrial fission mechanisms. Here we present a cryo-electron microscopy structure of full-length human Drp1 decorated on membrane tubules. Using the reconstruction of average subtracted tubular regions (RASTR) technique, we report that Drp1 forms a locally ordered lattice along the tubule without global helical symmetry. The filaments in the lattice are similar to dynamin rungs with conserved stalk interactions. Adjacent filaments are connected by GTPase domain interactions in a novel stacked conformation. We identified two states of the Drp1 lattice among the heterogenous dataset representing conformational changes around hinge 1. Additionally, we observed contact between Drp1 and membrane that can be assigned to the variable domain sequence. Together these structures revealed a putative mechanism by which Drp1 constricts mitochondria membranes in a stepwise, "ratchet" manner.

SUMMARYThis study provides new insights into the structure of Drp1 on lipid membranes. A locally ordered Drp1 lattice structure is solved and reveals intermolecular contacts and conformational rearrangements that suggest a mechanism for constriction of mitochondrial membranes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rochon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stagg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.04.588123</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Structure of the Drp1 Lattice on Membrane]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.14.589444v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A new leaf sensing organ in a predatory insect group, the praying mantises (Mantodea) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.14.589444v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Animals sensory systems enable them to navigate and interact with their environments. Adaptive specializations of these systems can generate novel structures or organs that support highly unique niche adaptations. We report the discovery of a novel sensory organ in a group of praying mantises (Insecta, Mantodea, Nanomantoidea), which have an unusual "leaf-planking" ecomorphic life strategy, laying against the undersides of broadleaf vegetation. Histology, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray computed tomography all support the novelty of this distinct morphology while electrophysiology reveals that the sensory organ, herein designated the gustifolium organ, detects plant volatiles. The location of the gustifolium organon the ventral thoracic surface of these mantises appears to facilitate the chemical detection of the leaves on which it resides. The gustifolium is a novel plant volatile-detecting sensory structure in an obligate predatory insect, directly linked to a newly-identified, highly-adapted life strategy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brannoch, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katzke, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Economo, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogawa, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narendra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Svenson, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.14.589444</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A new leaf sensing organ in a predatory insect group, the praying mantises (Mantodea)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.16.589801v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lipid Nanoparticle-Associated Inflammation is Triggered by Sensing of Endosomal Damage: Engineering Endosomal Escape without Side Effects 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.16.589801v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as the dominant platform for RNA delivery, based on their success in the COVID-19 vaccines and late-stage clinical studies in other indications. However, we and others have shown that LNPs induce severe inflammation, and massively aggravate pre-existing inflammation. Here, using structure-function screening of lipids and analyses of signaling pathways, we elucidate the mechanisms of LNP-associated inflammation and demonstrate solutions. We show that LNPs hallmark feature, endosomal escape, which is necessary for RNA expression, also directly triggers inflammation by causing endosomal membrane damage. Large, irreparable, endosomal holes are recognized by cytosolic proteins called galectins, which bind to sugars on the inner endosomal membrane and then regulate downstream inflammation. We find that inhibition of galectins abrogates LNP-associated inflammation, both in vitro and in vivo. We show that rapidly biodegradable ionizable lipids can preferentially create endosomal holes that are smaller in size and reparable by the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) pathway. Ionizable lipids producing such ESCRT-recruiting endosomal holes can produce high expression from cargo mRNA with minimal inflammation. Finally, we show that both routes to non-inflammatory LNPs, either galectin inhibition or ESCRT-recruiting ionizable lipids, are compatible with therapeutic mRNAs that ameliorate inflammation in disease models. LNPs without galectin inhibition or biodegradable ionizable lipids lead to severe exacerbation of inflammation in these models. In summary, endosomal escape induces endosomal membrane damage that can lead to inflammation. However, the inflammation can be controlled by inhibiting galectins (large hole detectors) or by using biodegradable lipids, which create smaller holes that are reparable by the ESCRT pathway. These strategies should lead to generally safer LNPs that can be used to treat inflammatory diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Omo-Lamai, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Essien, E.-o.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Majumder, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Espy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Channer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobin, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murali, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papp, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maheshwari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chase, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zamora, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arral, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcos-Contreras, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myerson, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunter, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsourkas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muzykantov, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brodsky, I. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitehead, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaskill, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Discher, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parhiz, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.16.589801</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lipid Nanoparticle-Associated Inflammation is Triggered by Sensing of Endosomal Damage: Engineering Endosomal Escape without Side Effects]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.589885v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
KIRA6 is an effective and versatile mast cell inhibitor of IgE-mediated activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.589885v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Incidents of IgE-mediated, mast cell (MC)-driven allergic diseases are constantly rising and there is an urgent need for the development of novel pharmacological MC stabilizers. Allergen/antigen (Ag)-triggered activation of MCs via crosslinking of the high-affinity receptor for IgE (Fc{varepsilon}RI) is regulated, amongst others, by the coordinated action of various cytosolic tyrosine kinases of the SRC family, e.g. LYN and FYN, which exert positive as well as negative functions. We report that KIRA6, an inhibitor developed for the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor IRE1, suppresses IgE-mediated pro-inflammatory MC activation by inhibiting both LYN and FYN. KIRA6 dose-dependently and effectively attenuates Ag-stimulated early signaling (e.g. substrate tyrosine phosphorylation, Ca2+ mobilization, and activation of MAPK pathways) as well as effector functions such as degranulation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production/secretion in murine bone marrow-derived MCs (BMMCs). Moreover, Ag-triggered bronchoconstriction in an ex vivo model of precision-cut lung slices (PCLS), and IgE-mediated stimulation of human MCs were repressed by KIRA6. To get in-depth inside into KIRA6 interaction with three MC-relevant tyrosine kinases, LYN, FYN, and KIT, and to elicit the potential of KIRA6 structure to serve as pharmacophore for the development of respective single-, dual-, or triple-specificity inhibitors, we modeled and evaluated the binding of KIRA6 on the three kinases by applying homology modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, as well as MM GBSA calculations. We found that KIRA6 has a high propensity to bind the inactive state of LYN, FYN, and KIT with comparable affinities. In conclusion, our data suggest the use of novel inhibitors based on the KIRA6 pharmacophore as effective MC stabilizers to improve treatment of pro-inflammatory diseases with MC involvement in need of effective pharmacological interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wilhelm, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wunderle, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boukeileh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gossen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Margreiter, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sakurov, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capellmann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwoerer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bronneberg, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arock, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schubert, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levi-Schaffer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirosh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huber, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.18.589885</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[KIRA6 is an effective and versatile mast cell inhibitor of IgE-mediated activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Droplet Hi-C for Fast and Scalable Profiling of Chromatin Architecture in Single Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Comprehensive analysis of chromatin architecture is crucial for understanding the gene regulatory programs during development and in disease pathogenesis, yet current methods often inadequately address the unique challenges presented by analysis of heterogeneous tissue samples. Here, we introduce Droplet Hi-C, which employs a commercial microfluidic device for high-throughput, single-cell chromatin conformation profiling in droplets. Using Droplet Hi-C, we mapped the chromatin architecture at single-cell resolution from the mouse cortex and analyzed gene regulatory programs in major cortical cell types. Additionally, we used this technique to detect copy number variation (CNV), structural variations (SVs) and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in cancer cells, revealing clonal dynamics and other oncogenic events during treatment. We further refined this technique to allow for joint profiling of chromatin architecture and transcriptome in single cells, facilitating a more comprehensive exploration of the links between chromatin architecture and gene expression in both normal tissues and tumors. Thus, Droplet Hi-C not only addresses critical gaps in chromatin analysis of heterogeneous tissues but also emerges as a versatile tool enhancing our understanding of gene regulation in health and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bejar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furnari, F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.18.590148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Droplet Hi-C for Fast and Scalable Profiling of Chromatin Architecture in Single Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.20.590385v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In situ cell condensation-based cartilage tissue engineering via immediately implantable high-density stem cell core and rapidly degradable shell microgels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.20.590385v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Formation of chondromimetic human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) condensations typically required in vitro culture in defined environments. In addition, extended in vitro culture in differentiation media over several weeks is usually necessary prior to implantation, which is costly, time consuming and delays clinical treatment. Here, this study reports on immediately implantable core/shell microgels with a high-density hMSC-laden core and rapidly degradable hydrogel shell. The hMSCs in the core formed cell condensates within 12 hours and the oxidized and methacrylated alginate (OMA) hydrogel shells were completely degraded within 3 days, enabling spontaneous and precipitous fusion of adjacent condensed aggregates. By delivering transforming growth factor-{beta}1 (TGF-{beta}1) within the core, the fused condensates were chondrogenically differentiated and formed cartilage microtissues. Importantly, these hMSC-laden core/shell microgels, fabricated without any in vitro culture, were subcutaneously implanted into mice and shown to form cartilage tissue via cellular condensations in the core after 3 weeks. This innovative approach to form cell condensations in situ without in vitro culture that can fuse together with each other and with host tissue and be matured into new tissue with incorporated bioactive signals, allows for immediate implantation and may be a platform strategy for cartilage regeneration and other tissue engineering applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeon, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alt, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.20.590385</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In situ cell condensation-based cartilage tissue engineering via immediately implantable high-density stem cell core and rapidly degradable shell microgels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.22.590509v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Re-examination of the taxonomic status of the Antarctic Pseudomonas syringae Lz4W isolate and proposal to rename it as a novel species Pseudomonas cryophila sp. nov. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.22.590509v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A taxonomic re-evaluation of the Antarctic psychrotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae Lz4W was performed in the light of its available genome sequence and due to a revision in the key phenotypic characteristics that are in conflict with the "syringae" group of Pseudomonads. A 16S rRNA gene sequence based phylogenetic analysis suggested that Lz4WT strain belongs to "fragi" cluster of Pseudomonas species, with closest similarity (99.72%) to the type strain P. deceptionensis M1T. However, in silico analysis of the Lz4W genome sequence using SpecI (species identification tools), ANI (average nucleotide identity), and GBDP (Genome Blast Distance phylogeny) methods suggest that Lz4WT strain cannot be delineated with any of the type strains of "fragi" cluster of species. Based on predictive low DNA-DNA hybridization value (<29.9%) and differences in phenotypic features with the related species we suggest that Lz4WT is a novel species under the Pseudomonas genus, and we propose that the strain be named as Pseudomonas cryophila sp. nov. The type strain is Lz4WT (=CFBP 8403T =KCTC 42933T =LMG 29591T =MTCC 673T).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ray, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandiyan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.22.590509</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Re-examination of the taxonomic status of the Antarctic Pseudomonas syringae Lz4W isolate and proposal to rename it as a novel species Pseudomonas cryophila sp. nov.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.01.592031v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metabolic immaturity of newborns and breast milk bile acids are the central determinants of heightened neonatal vulnerability to norovirus diarrhea 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.01.592031v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Noroviruses are the leading global cause of acute gastroenteritis, responsible for 685 million annual cases. While all age groups are susceptible to noroviruses, children are vulnerable to more severe infections than adults, underscored by 200 million pediatric cases and up to 200,000 deaths in children annually. Understanding the basis for the increased vulnerability of young hosts is critical to developing effective treatments. The pathogenic outcome of any enteric virus infection is governed by a complex interplay between the virus, intestinal microbiota, and host immune factors. A central mediator in these complex relationships are host- and microbiota-derived metabolites. Noroviruses bind a specific class of metabolites, bile acids, which are produced by the host and then modified by commensal bacterial enzymes. Paradoxically, bile acids can have both proviral and antiviral roles during norovirus infections. Considering these opposing effects, the microbiota-regulated balance of the bile acid pool may be a key determinant of the pathogenic outcome of a norovirus infection. The bile acid pool in newborns is unique due to immaturity of host metabolic pathways and developing gut microbiota, which could underlie the vulnerability of these hosts to severe norovirus infections. Supporting this concept, we demonstrate herein that microbiota and their bile acid metabolites protect from severe norovirus diarrhea whereas host-derived bile acids promote disease. Remarkably, we also report that maternal bile acid metabolism determines neonatal susceptibility to norovirus diarrhea during breastfeeding by delivering proviral bile acids to the newborn. Finally, directed targeting of maternal and neonatal bile acid metabolism can protect the neonatal host from norovirus disease. Altogether, these data support the conclusion that metabolic immaturity in newborns and ingestion of proviral maternal metabolites in breast milk are the central determinants of heightened neonatal vulnerability to norovirus disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peiper, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morales, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phophi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cross, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newsome, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jobin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langel, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker-Dreps, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, X.-D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helm, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bucardo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karst, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.01.592031</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metabolic immaturity of newborns and breast milk bile acids are the central determinants of heightened neonatal vulnerability to norovirus diarrhea]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.03.592409v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HER4 is a high affinity dimerization partner for all EGFR/HER/ErbB-family proteins 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.03.592409v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human epidermal growth factor receptors (HER) - also known as EGFR or ErbB receptors - are a subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) that play crucial roles in cell growth, division, and differentiation. HER4 (ErbB4) is the least studied member of this family, partly because its expression is lower in later stages of development. Recent work has suggested that HER4 can play a role in metastasis through cell migration and invasiveness; however, unlike EGFR and HER2, the precise role that HER4 plays in tumorigenesis is still unresolved. Early work on HER family proteins suggested that there are direct interactions between the four members, but to date, there has been no single study of all four receptors in the same cell line studied with the same biophysical method. Here, we quantitatively measure the degree of association between HER4 and the other HER-family proteins in live cells with a time-resolved fluorescence technique called pulsed interleaved excitation fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (PIE-FCCS). PIE-FCCS is sensitive to the oligomerization state of membrane proteins in live cells, while simultaneously measuring protein expression levels and diffusion coefficients. Our PIE-FCCS results demonstrate that HER4 interacts directly with all HER family members in the cell plasma membrane. The interaction between HER4 and other HER family members intensified in the presence of a HER4-specific ligand. Our work suggests that HER4 is a preferred dimerization partner for all HER family proteins, even in the absence of ligands.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.03.592409</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HER4 is a high affinity dimerization partner for all EGFR/HER/ErbB-family proteins]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.06.592835v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protocols for circulating neutrophil depletion in neonatal C57/Bl6 mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.06.592835v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Murine neonatal neutrophil depletion strategies have problems achieving deep neutrophil clearance and accurate residual neutrophil fraction detection. An isotype switch method can achieve profound neutrophil clearance using a combination of anti-Ly6G and anti-rat {kappa} Ig light chain antibodies in adult C57Bl/6 mice, proven by extra- and intracellular Ly6G detection by flow cytometry. We adapted this technique to neonatal mice, testing four neutrophil depletion strategies in the peripheral circulation, bone marrow, and spleen. Four protocols were tested: P3 Ly6G and P1-3 Ly6G (anti-Ly6G on postnatal days (P) 3 and 1-3 respectively), and P3 Dual and P1-3 Dual (anti-Ly6G and anti-rat {kappa} Ig light chain on P3 and P1-3 respectively). Intracellular and extracellular Ly6G presence was detected using flow cytometry. Isotype control antibodies were used as controls. P1-3 Dual protocol achieved significantly better neutrophil depletion than the P1-3 Ly6G or P3 Ly6G protocols (97% vs. 74% and 97% vs. 50%, respectively) in the peripheral circulation. The P3 Dual protocol alone was enough to achieve significantly better neutrophil clearance (93%) than any of the Ly6G alone protocols. The Ly6G alone protocols led to near-total elimination of extracellular Ly6G. However, there was a significant presence of intracellular Ly6G in the CD45+ cell population, evading detection by extracellular Ly6G antibody-based detection methods. P3 protocols perform better than P1-3 protocols for bone marrow and splenic neutrophil clearance. Thus, the P3 Dual protocol might be the most effective and ethical protocol to induce profound neutrophil depletion in neonatal mice, an alternative to daily anti-Ly6G injections.

Summary SentenceDual antibody-based neutrophil depletion effectively induces circulating neutrophil clearance in neonatal mice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satyavolu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nayak, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.06.592835</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protocols for circulating neutrophil depletion in neonatal C57/Bl6 mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.07.592424v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Collagen I is a critical organizer of scarring and CNS regeneration failure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.07.592424v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although axotomized neurons retain the ability to initiate the formation of growth cones and attempt to regenerate after spinal cord injury, the scar area formed as a result of the lesion in most adult mammals contains a variety of reactive cells that elaborate multiple extracellular matrix and enzyme components that are not suitable for regrowth1,2. Newly migrating axons in the vicinity of the scar utilize upregulated LAR family receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases, such as PTP{sigma}, to associate with extracellular chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CSPGs), which have been discovered to tightly entrap the regrowing axon tip and transform it into a dystrophic non-growing endball. The scar is comprised of two compartments, one in the lesion penumbra, the glial scar, composed of reactive microglia, astrocytes and OPCs; and the other in the lesion epicenter, the fibrotic scar, which is made up of fibroblasts, pericytes, endothelial cells and inflammatory cells. While the fibrotic scar is known to be strongly inhibitory, even more so than the glial scar, the molecular determinants that curtail axon elongation through the injury core are largely uncharacterized. Here, we show that one sole member of the entire family of collagens, collagen I, creates an especially potent inducer of endball formation and regeneration failure. The inhibitory signaling is mediated by mechanosensitive ion channels and RhoA activation. Staggered systemic administration of two blood-brain barrier permeable-FDA approved drugs, aspirin and pirfenidone, reduced fibroblast incursion into the complete lesion and dramatically decreased collagen I, as well as CSPG deposition which were accompanied by axonal growth and considerable functional recovery. The anatomical substrate for robust axonal regeneration was provided by laminin producing GFAP+ and NG2+ bridging cells that spanned the wound. Our results reveal a collagen I-mechanotransduction axis that regulates axonal regrowth in spinal cord injury and raise a promising strategy for rapid clinical application.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.07.592424</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Collagen I is a critical organizer of scarring and CNS regeneration failure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.07.592972v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clinicogenomic characterization of inflammatory breast cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.07.592972v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundInflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and poorly characterized type of breast cancer with an aggressive clinical presentation. The biological mechanisms driving the IBC phenotype are relatively undefined--partially due to a lack of comprehensive, large-scale genomic studies and limited clinical cohorts.

Patients and MethodsA retrospective analysis of 2457 patients with metastatic breast cancer who underwent targeted tumor-only DNA-sequencing was performed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Clinicopathologic, single nucleotide variant (SNV), copy number variant (CNV) and tumor mutational burden (TMB) comparisons were made between clinically confirmed IBC cases within a dedicated IBC center versus non-IBC cases.

ResultsClinicopathologic differences between IBC and non-IBC cases were consistent with prior reports--including IBC being associated with younger age at diagnosis, higher grade, and enrichment with hormone receptor (HR)-negative and HER2-positive tumors. The most frequent somatic alterations in IBC involved TP53 (72%), ERBB2 (32%), PIK3CA (24%), CCND1 (12%), MYC (9%), FGFR1 (8%) and GATA3 (8%). A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed a significant enrichment in TP53 SNVs in IBC; particularly in HER2-positive and HR-positive disease which was associated with worse outcomes. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) did not differ substantially between IBC and non-IBC cases and a pathway analysis revealed an enrichment in NOTCH pathway alterations in HER2-positive disease.

ConclusionTaken together, this study provides a comprehensive, clinically informed landscape of somatic alterations in a large cohort of patients with IBC. Our data support higher frequency of TP53 mutations and a potential enrichment in NOTCH pathway activation--but overall; a lack of major genomic differences. These results both reinforce the importance of TP53 alterations in IBC pathogenesis as well as their influence on clinical outcomes; but also suggest additional analyses beyond somatic DNA-level changes are warranted.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Priedigkeit, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shue, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirkner, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spurr, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Remolano, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strauss, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Files, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feeney, A.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grant, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammed-Abreu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garrido-Castro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sousa, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bychkovsky, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakhlis, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellon, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winer, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindeman, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sholl, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dillon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Overmoyer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolaney, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cherniack, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, N. U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lynce, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.07.592972</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clinicogenomic characterization of inflammatory breast cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.10.593445v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intracranial substrates of meditation-induced neuromodulation in amygdala and hippocampus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.10.593445v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Meditation is an accessible mental practice associated with emotional regulation and well-being. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a specific sub-type of meditative practice, involves focusing ones attention on thoughts of well-being for oneself and others. Meditation has been proven to be beneficial in a variety of settings, including therapeutical applications, but the neural activity underlying meditative practices and their positive effects are not well understood. In particular, its been difficult to understand the contribution of deep limbic structures given the difficulty of studying neural activity directly in the human brain. Here, we leverage a unique patient population, epilepsy patients chronically implanted with responsive neurostimulation device that allow chronic, invasive electrophysiology recording to investigate the physiological correlates of loving-kindness meditation in the amygdala and hippocampus of novice meditators. We find that LKM-associated changes in physiological activity specific to periodic, but not aperiodic, features of neural activity. LKM was associated with an increase in {gamma} (30-55 Hz) power and an alternation in the duration of {beta} (13-30 Hz) and {gamma} oscillatory bursts in both the amygdala and hippocampus, two regions associated with mood disorders. These findings reveals the nature of LKM-induced modulation of limbic activity in first-time meditators.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTWe leverage rare chronic, invasive electrophysiology recordings while participants engage in loving-kindness meditation to demonstrate that meditation induces neural changes in beta and {gamma} activity in the amygdala and hippocampus of novice meditators. These results build on previous findings in experienced meditators and reveal meditations potential for noninvasive neuromodulation of neural mechanisms associated with emotional regulation and mood disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maher, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tortolero, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummins, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nunez Martinez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schulman, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcuse, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waters, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayberg, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davidson, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saez, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panov, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.10.593445</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intracranial substrates of meditation-induced neuromodulation in amygdala and hippocampus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.594000v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial dysfunction heightens the integrated stress response to drive ALS pathogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.594000v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein-B (VAPB) is an ER membrane bound protein. VAPB P56S causes a dominant, familial form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), however, the mechanism through which this mutation causes motor neuron (MN) disease remains unknown. Using inducible wild type (WT) and VAPB P56S expressing iPSC-derived MNs we show that VAPB P56S, but not WT, protein decreased neuronal firing and mitochondrial-ER contact (MERC) with an associated age-dependent decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP); all typical characteristics of MN-disease. We further show that VAPB P56S expressing iPSC-derived MNs have enhanced age-dependent sensitivity to ER stress. We identified elevated expression of the master regulator of the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) marker ATF4 and decreased protein synthesis in the VAPB P56S iPSC-derived MNs. Chemical inhibition of ISR with the compound, ISRIB, rescued all MN disease phenotype in VAPB P56S MNs. Thus, our results not only support ISR inhibition as a potential therapeutic target for ALS patients, but also provides evidence to pathogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Landry, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costanzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neto, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zatz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaffer, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muotri, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miranda, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.13.594000</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial dysfunction heightens the integrated stress response to drive ALS pathogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.14.594173v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amyloid beta glycation leads to neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction and Alzheimers pathogenesis through VDAC1-dependent mtDNA efflux 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.14.594173v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glycation, the non-enzymatic attachment of reactive dicarbonyls to proteins, lipids, or nucleic acids, contributes to the formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). In Alzheimers disease (AD), amyloid-beta (A{beta}) undergoes post-translational glycation to produce glycated A{beta} (gA{beta}), yet its pathological role remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that gA{beta} promotes neuronal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) efflux via a VDAC1-dependent mechanism, activating the innate immune cGAS-STING pathway. Using aged AD mice and human AD brain samples, we observed cGAS-mtDNA binding and cGAS-STING activation in the neuronal cytoplasm. Knockdown of RAGE, cGAS, or STING, as well as pharmacological inhibition of VDAC1, protected APP mice from mitochondrial dysfunction and Alzheimers-like pathology. Neuron-specific cGAS knockdown confirmed its pivotal role in driving neuroinflammation and cognitive deficits. Treatment with ALT-711, an AGE cross-link breaker, alleviated gA{beta}-associated pathology. Furthermore, RAGE inhibition in APP knock-in mice suppressed innate immune activation and disease-associated gene expression, as revealed by spatially resolved transcriptomics. Collectively, our findings establish a mechanistic link between gA{beta} and innate immune activation, identifying VDAC1, the AGE-RAGE axis, and the cGAS-STING pathway as promising therapeutic targets in AD.

Significance StatementThis study reveals how a modified form of amyloid-beta disrupts mitochondrial function in neurons, triggering innate immunity and disease progression. We show that this modified amyloid-beta damages mitochondria, activating a specific immune response in the brain. By identifying the key molecules involved, we provide potential targets for new Alzheimers treatments aimed at preventing mitochondrial damage and cognitive decline. This research offers fresh insights into Alzheimers development and highlights new therapeutic pathways.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akhter, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akhter, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiff, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maffei, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DOUGLAS, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.14.594173</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amyloid beta glycation leads to neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction and Alzheimers pathogenesis through VDAC1-dependent mtDNA efflux]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.17.594739v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Epidural Spinal Cord Recordings (ESRs): Sources of Artifact in Stimulation Evoked Compound Action Potentials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.17.594739v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionEvoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) measured using epidural spinal recordings (ESRs) during epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) can help elucidate fundamental mechanisms for the treatment of pain, as well as inform closed-loop control of SCS. Previous studies have used ECAPs to characterize the neural response to various neuromodulation therapies and have demonstrated that ECAPs are highly prone to multiple sources of artifact, including post-stimulus pulse capacitive artifact, electromyography (EMG) bleed-through, and motion artifact resulting from disturbance of the electrode/tissue interface during normal behavior. However, a thorough characterization has yet to be performed for how these sources of artifact may contaminate recordings within the temporal window commonly used to determine activation of A-beta fibers in a large animal model.

MethodsWe characterized the sources of artifacts that can contaminate the recording of ECAPs in an epidural SCS swine model using the Abbott Octrode lead. Muscle paralytics were administered to block muscle activation preventing EMG from contaminating the recorded ECAPs. Concurrent EMG recordings of the longissimus, a long muscle of the back, were used to confirm a 2-4 millisecond (ms) latency source of EMG bleed-through that frequently contaminated the A-beta temporal window. Additionally, we obtained recordings approximately 5-10 minutes post-mortem after clear evoked A-beta and associated EMG responses ceased to characterize the representation of stimulation artifact across the array.

ResultsSpinal ECAP recordings can be contaminated by capacitive artifact, short latency EMG from nearby long muscles of the back, and motion artifact from multiple sources. In many cases, the capacitive artifact can appear nearly identical in duration and waveshape to evoked A-beta responses. These sources of EMG can have phase shifts across the electrode array, very similar to the phase shift anticipated by propagation of an evoked A-beta fiber response across the array. This short latency EMG is often evident at currents similar to those needed to activate A-beta fibers associated with the treatment of pain. Changes in cerebrospinal fluid between the cord and dura, and motion induced during breathing created a cyclic oscillation in all evoked components of the recorded ECAP signal.

ConclusionCareful controls must be implemented to accurately separate neural signal from the sources of artifact in spinal cord ECAPs. To address this, we suggest experimental procedures and associated reporting requirements necessary to disambiguate the underlying neural response from these confounds. These data are important to better understand the conceptual framework for recorded ESRs, with components such as ECAPs, EMG responses and artifacts, and have important implications for closed-loop control algorithms to account for transient motion such as postural changes and cough.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Deshmukh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Settell, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaLuzerne, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blanz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skubal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verma, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romanauski, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brucker-Hahn, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavrov, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suminski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lempka, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross Ellison, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.17.594739</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Epidural Spinal Cord Recordings (ESRs): Sources of Artifact in Stimulation Evoked Compound Action Potentials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.18.594806v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
epiTCR-KDA: Knowledge Distillation model on Dihedral Angles for TCR-peptide prediction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.18.594806v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationAntigen recognition by T-cell receptors (TCRs) triggers cascades of immune responses. Successful predictions of the TCR and antigen (as peptide) bindings therefore signify the advancements in immunotherapy. However, most of current TCR-peptide interaction predictors fail to predict unseen data. This limitation may be derived from the conventional usage of TCR and/or peptide sequences as input, which may not adequately reflect their structural characteristics. Therefore, incorporating the TCR and peptide structural information into the prediction model to improve the generalizability is necessary.

ResultsWe presented epiTCR-KDA as a new predictor of TCR-peptide binding that utilises structural information, specifically the dihedral angles between the residues of both the peptide and the TCR. This structural descriptor was integrated into a model constructed using knowledge distillation to enhance its generalizability. The epiTCR-KDA demonstrated competitive prediction performance, with an AUC of 0.99 for seen data and AUC of 0.86 for unseen data. Across multiple public datasets, epiTCR-KDA consistently outperformed other predictors, such as epiTCR, NetTCR, BERTrand, TEIM-Seq, TEINet, and ImRex, maintaining a median AUC of 0.9 (ranging from 0.82 to 0.91). Further analysis of epiTCR-KDA performance indicated that the cosine similarity of the dihedral angle vectors between the unseen testing data and training data is crucial for its stable performance. In conclusion, our epiTCR-KDA model, with its capacity to predict for unseen data, has brought us one step closer toward the development of a highly effective pipeline for affordable antigen-based immunotherapy.

Availability and implementationepiTCR-KDA is available on GitHub (https://github.com/ddiem-ri-4D/epiTCR-KDA)
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pham, M.-D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, C. T.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, T.-N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, H.-N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, M.-D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.18.594806</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[epiTCR-KDA: Knowledge Distillation model on Dihedral Angles for TCR-peptide prediction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.20.594997v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultra-stable insulin-glucagon fusion protein exploits an endogenous hepatic switch to mitigate hypoglycemic risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.20.594997v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The risk of hypoglycemia and its serious medical sequelae restrict insulin replacement therapy for diabetes mellitus. Such adverse clinical impact has motivated development of diverse glucose-responsive technologies, including algorithm-controlled insulin pumps linked to continuous glucose monitors ("closed-loop systems") and glucose-sensing ("smart") insulins. These technologies seek to optimize glycemic control while minimizing hypoglycemic risk. Here, we describe an alternative approach that exploits an endogenous glucose-dependent switch in hepatic physiology: preferential insulin signaling (under hyperglycemic conditions) versus preferential counter-regulatory glucagon signaling (during hypoglycemia). Motivated by prior reports of glucagon-insulin co-infusion, we designed and tested an ultra-stable glucagon-insulin fusion protein whose relative hormonal activities were calibrated by respective modifications; physical stability was concurrently augmented to facilitate formulation, enhance shelf life and expand access. An N-terminal glucagon moiety was stabilized by an -helix-compatible Lys13-Glu17 lactam bridge; A C-terminal insulin moiety was stabilized as a single chain with foreshortened C domain. Studies in vitro demonstrated (a) resistance to fibrillation on prolonged agitation at 37 {degrees}C and (b) dual hormonal signaling activities with appropriate balance. Glucodynamic responses were monitored in rats relative to control fusion proteins lacking one or the other hormonal activity, and continuous intravenous infusion emulated basal subcutaneous therapy. Whereas efficacy in mitigating hyperglycemia was unaffected by the glucagon moiety, the fusion protein enhanced endogenous glucose production under hypoglycemic conditions. Together, these findings provide proof of principle toward a basal glucose-responsive insulin biotechnology of striking simplicity. The fusion proteins augmented stability promises to circumvent the costly cold chain presently constraining global insulin access.

Significance StatementThe therapeutic goal of insulin replacement therapy in diabetes is normalization of blood-glucose concentration, which prevents or delays long-term complications. A critical barrier is posed by recurrent hypoglycemic events that results in short- and long-term morbidities. An innovative approach envisions co-injection of glucagon (a counter-regulatory hormone) to exploit a glycemia-dependent hepatic switch in relative hormone responsiveness. To provide an enabling technology, we describe an ultra-stable fusion protein containing insulin- and glucagon moieties. Proof of principle was obtained in rats. A single-chain insulin moiety provides glycemic control whereas a lactam-stabilized glucagon extension mitigates hypoglycemia. This dual-hormone fusion protein promises to provide a basal formulation with reduced risk of hypoglycemia. Resistance to fibrillation may circumvent the cold chain required for global access.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Varas, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarosinski, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tai, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herzog, R. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ismail-Beigi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cherrington, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.20.594997</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultra-stable insulin-glucagon fusion protein exploits an endogenous hepatic switch to mitigate hypoglycemic risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.01.596974v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An Unbiased Proteomic Platform for Activity-based Arginylation Profiling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.01.596974v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein arginylation is an essential posttranslational modification (PTM) catalyzed by arginyl-tRNA-protein transferase 1 (ATE1) in mammalian systems. Arginylation features a post-translational conjugation of an arginyl to a protein, making it extremely challenging to differentiate from translational arginine residues with the same mass in a protein sequence. Here we present a general ATE1-based arginylation profiling platform for the unbiased discovery of arginylation substrates and their precise modification sites. This method integrates isotopic arginine labeling into an ATE1 assay utilizing biological lysates (ex vivo) rather than live cells, thus eliminating translational bias derived from the ribosomal activity and enabling bona fide arginylation identification using isotopic features. The method has been successfully applied to an array of peptide, protein, cell, patient, and animal tissue samples using 20 {micro}g sample input, with 235 unique arginylation sites revealed from human proteomes. Representative sites were validated and followed up for their biological functions. The developed platform is globally applicable to the aforementioned sample types and therefore paves the way for functional studies of this difficult-to-characterize protein modification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gongora, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zahn, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palai, B. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Searfoss, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitorino, F. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dann, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mactaggart, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberg, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavine, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberg, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kashina, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.01.596974</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An Unbiased Proteomic Platform for Activity-based Arginylation Profiling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597138v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Time-division multiplexing (TDM) sequence removes bias in T2 estimation and relaxation-diffusion measurements 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597138v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeTo compare the performance of multi-echo (ME) and time-division multiplexing (TDM) sequences for accelerated relaxation-diffusion MRI (rdMRI) acquisition and to examine their reliability in estimating accurate rdMRI microstructure measures.

MethodThe ME, TDM, and the reference single-echo (SE) sequences with six echo times (TE) were implemented using Pulseq with single-band (SB-) and multi-band 2 (MB2-) acceleration factors. On a diffusion phantom, the image intensities of the three sequences were compared, and the differences were quantified using the normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE). For the in-vivo brain scan, besides the image intensity comparison and T2-estimates, different methods were used to assess sequence-related effects on microstructure estimation, including the relaxation diffusion imaging moment (REDIM) and the maximum-entropy relaxation diffusion distribution (MaxEnt-RDD).

ResultsTDM performance was similar to the gold standard SE acquisition, whereas ME showed greater biases (3-4x larger NRMSEs for phantom, 2x for in-vivo). T2 values obtained from TDM closely matched SE, whereas ME sequences underestimated the T2 relaxation time. TDM provided similar diffusion and relaxation parameters as SE using REDIM, whereas SB-ME exhibited a 60% larger bias in the <R2> map and on average 3.5x larger bias in the covariance between relaxation-diffusion coefficients.

ConclusionOur analysis demonstrates that TDM provides a more accurate estimation of relaxation-diffusion measurements while accelerating the acquisitions by a factor of 2 to 3.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gagoski, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaik, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westin, C.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilde, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bilgic, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grissom, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nielsen, J.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaitsev, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ning, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.03.597138</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Time-division multiplexing (TDM) sequence removes bias in T2 estimation and relaxation-diffusion measurements]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.09.597967v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metastasis-initiating osteosarcoma subpopulations establish paracrine interactions with both lung and tumor cells to create a metastatic niche 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.09.597967v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Osteosarcoma is an aggressive and deadly bone tumor, primarily afflicting children, adolescents, and young adults. Poor outcomes for osteosarcoma patients are intricately linked with the development of lung metastasis. While lung metastasis is responsible for nearly all deaths caused by osteosarcoma, identification of biologically defined, metastasis-targeting therapies remains elusive because the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern metastatic colonization of circulating tumor cells to the lung remains poorly understood. While thousands of tumor cells are released into circulation each day, very few can colonize the lung. Herein, using a combination of a novel organotypic metastasis in vitro model, single-cell RNA sequencing, human xenograft, and murine immunocompetent osteosarcoma models, we find that metastasis is initiated by a subpopulation of hypo-proliferative cells with the unique capacity to sustain production of metastasis promoting cytokines such as IL6 and CXCL8 in response to lung-epithelial derived IL1. Critically, genomic and pharmacologic disruption of IL1 signaling in osteosarcoma cells significantly reduces metastatic progression. Collectively, our study supports that tumor-stromal interactions are important for metastasis, and suggests that metastatic competency is driven, in part, by the tumor cells ability to respond to the metastatic niche. Our findings support that disruption of tumor-stromal signaling is a promising therapeutic approach to disrupt metastasis progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reinecke, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saraf, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinckley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gross, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Pommellette, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez Garcia, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannon, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vatelle, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dries, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.09.597967</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metastasis-initiating osteosarcoma subpopulations establish paracrine interactions with both lung and tumor cells to create a metastatic niche]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.11.596744v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An optimized and robust workflow for quantifying the canonical histone ubiquitination marks H2AK119ub and H2BK120ub by LC-MS/MS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.11.596744v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The eukaryotic genome is packaged around histone proteins, which are subject to a myriad of post-translational modifications. By controlling DNA accessibility and the recruitment of protein complexes that mediate chromatin-related processes, these modifications constitute a key mechanism of epigenetic regulation. Since mass spectrometry can easily distinguish between these different modifications, it has become an essential technique in deciphering the histone code. Although robust LC-MS/MS methods are available to analyze modifications on the histone N-terminal tails, routine methods for characterizing ubiquitin marks on histone C-terminal regions, especially H2AK119ub, are less robust. Here we report the development of a simple workflow for the detection and improved quantification of the canonical histone ubiquitination marks H2AK119ub and H2BK120ub. The method entails a fully tryptic digestion of acid-extracted histones followed by derivatization with heavy or light propionic anhydride. A pooled sample is then spiked into oppositely labeled single samples as a reference channel for relative quantification, and data is acquired using PRM-based nanoLC-MS/MS. We validated our approach with synthetic peptides as well as treatments known to modulate the levels of H2AK119ub and H2BK120ub. This new method complements existing histone workflows, largely focused on the lysine-rich N-terminal regions, by extending modification analysis to other sequence contexts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lopes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lund, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.11.596744</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An optimized and robust workflow for quantifying the canonical histone ubiquitination marks H2AK119ub and H2BK120ub by LC-MS/MS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600668v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuropathologically-directed profiling of PRNP somatic and germline variants in sporadic human prion disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600668v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the most common human prion disease, is associated with pathologic misfolding of the prion protein (PrP), encoded by the PRNP gene. Of human prion disease cases, [~]1% were transmitted by misfolded PrP, [~]15% are inherited, and [~]85% are sporadic (sCJD). While familial cases are inherited through germline mutations in PRNP, the cause of sCJD is unknown. Somatic mutations have been hypothesized as a cause of sCJD, and recent studies have revealed that somatic mutations accumulate in neurons during aging. To investigate the hypothesis that somatic mutations in PRNP may underlie sCJD, we performed deep DNA sequencing of PRNP in 205 sCJD cases and 170 age-matched non-disease controls. We included 5 cases of Heidenhain variant sporadic CJD (H-sCJD), where visual symptomatology and neuropathology implicate focal initiation of prion formation, and examined multiple regions across the brain including in the affected occipital cortex. We employed Multiple Independent Primer PCR Sequencing (MIPP-Seq) with a median depth of >5,000X across the PRNP coding region and analyzed for variants using MosaicHunter. An allele mixing experiment showed positive detection of variants in bulk DNA at a variant allele fraction (VAF) as low as 0.2%. We observed multiple polymorphic germline variants among individuals in our cohort. However, we did not identify bona fide somatic variants in sCJD, including across multiple affected regions in H-sCJD, nor in control individuals. Beyond our stringent variant-identification pipeline, we also analyzed VAFs from raw sequencing data, and observed no evidence of prion disease enrichment for the known germline pathogenic variants P102L, D178N, and E200K. The lack of PRNP pathogenic somatic mutations in H-sCJD or the broader cohort of sCJD suggests that clonal somatic mutations may not play a major role in sporadic prion disease. With H-sCJD representing a focal presentation of neurodegeneration, this serves as a test of the potential role of clonal somatic mutations in genes known to cause familial neurodegeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McDonough, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morillo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doan, R. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kenny, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foutz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Appleby, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walsh, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safar, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, A. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.25.600668</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuropathologically-directed profiling of PRNP somatic and germline variants in sporadic human prion disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.30.601434v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
IgM plays a prominent role in naturally acquired immunity against Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.30.601434v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The development of transmission-blocking vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum malaria could facilitate malaria elimination. However, limitations in the knowledge of the human immune responses against P. falciparum transmission stages, known as gametocytes, represent a critical roadblock to vaccine development. We evaluated human antibodies acquired through natural malaria exposure to whole gametocytes and recombinant antigens expressed by transmission stages, including the major transmission-blocking vaccine candidates Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 and other transmission stages, Pf38, Pf12 and Pf41. Among individuals residing in Kenya and Papua New Guinea, we found substantial antibody responses to whole gametocytes and to all recombinant transmission stage antigens with high levels of IgG, IgG subclasses and IgM. Complement fixation by antibodies to gametocytes is key for effective transmission-blocking activity. We found that purified IgM was substantially more potent than IgG at mediating complement fixation and activation. Higher antibody levels were generally observed in individuals positive for P. falciparum infection, including gametocyte positive individuals, and these antibodies generally increased with age. Our findings reveal that IgM is a prominent feature of antibody responses to gametocytes and that antibodies target multiple antigens. The further demonstration that IgM has high functional activity against gametocytes suggests IgM plays an important role in immunity to transmission stages. Our data provide new insights to inform the development of potent transmission-blocking vaccines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chan, J.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lisboa-Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dixon, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drew, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayakrishnan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larcher, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naghizadeh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Opi, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reiling, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theisen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chelimo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaius-Ome, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mantila, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dent, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beeson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.30.601434</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[IgM plays a prominent role in naturally acquired immunity against Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.01.601549v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Connexin 43 drives glioblastoma cancer stem cell phenotypes through a WNK lysine-deficient protein kinase 1-c-MYC signaling axis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.01.601549v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The coordination of cellular processes such as growth and survival relies on communication between cells through gap junctions. Gap junction intercellular communication is driven by connexin proteins, which also mediate protein-protein interactions and communication with the extracellular space via hemichannels. Despite their essential roles, connexin function in cancer is context dependent, with connexin 43 (Cx43) reported to both promote and suppress tumor growth in glioblastoma, the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Here, we detect expression of Cx43 in glioblastoma patient-derived cancer stem cells and demonstrate that Cx43 is essential for their survival and self-renewal. Mechanistically, depletion of Cx43 reduces c-MYC expression through reduced levels of the upstream mediator WNK lysine-deficient protein kinase 1 (WNK1). Depletion of WNK1 phenocopies Cx43 knockdown and reduces MYC expression and tumor growth. Together, these results define a novel signaling axis downstream of Cx43 that promotes tumor growth and cancer stem cell phenotypes in glioblastoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajdari, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobs, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kay, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubert, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.01.601549</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Connexin 43 drives glioblastoma cancer stem cell phenotypes through a WNK lysine-deficient protein kinase 1-c-MYC signaling axis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.10.602938v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BATF2 is a regulator of interferon-gamma signaling in astrocytes during neuroinflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.10.602938v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Astrocytic interferon (IFN){gamma} signaling is associated with a reduction in neuroinflammation. We have previously shown that the benefits of astrocytic IFN{gamma} arise from a variety of mechanisms; however, downstream effectors responsible for regulating this protection are unknown. We address this by identifying a specific transcription factor that may play a key role in modulating the consequences of IFN{gamma} signaling. RNA-sequencing of primary human astrocytes treated with IFN{gamma} revealed basic leucine zipper ATF-like transcription factor (BATF)2 as a highly expressed interferon-specific gene. Primarily studied in the periphery, BATF2 has been shown to exert both inflammatory and protective functions; however, its function in the central nervous system (CNS) is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that human spinal cord astrocytes upregulate BATF2 transcript and protein in an IFN{gamma}-specific manner. Additionally, we found that BATF2 prevents overexpression of interferon regulatory factor (IRF)1 and IRF1 targets such as Caspase-1, which are known downstream pro-inflammatory mediators. We also show that Batf2-/- mice exhibit exacerbated clinical disease severity in a murine model of CNS autoimmunity, characterized by an increase in both CNS immune cell infiltration and demyelination. Batf2-/- mice also exhibit increased astrocyte-specific expression of IRF1 and Caspase-1, suggesting an amplified interferon response in vivo. Further, we demonstrate that BATF2 is expressed primarily in astrocytes in MS lesions and that this expression is co-localized with IRF1. Collectively, our results further support a protective role for IFN{gamma} and implicate BATF2 as a key suppressor of overactive immune signaling in astrocytes during neuroinflammation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tinkey, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Habean, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.10.602938</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BATF2 is a regulator of interferon-gamma signaling in astrocytes during neuroinflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.10.602970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Determining potential immunomodulatory drug efficacy in sepsis using ELISpot 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.10.602970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeThis study evaluated the ability of ELISpot to identify immuno-modulatory drug therapies for their potential efficacy in patients with sepsis.

MethodsELISpot was performed using diluted whole blood from 61 septic patients and 48 healthy matched controls. Innate and adaptive immunity were evaluated by ex vivo stimulated production of TNF- and IFN-{gamma} respectively. Potential drug efficacy was determined by the drugs effects to increase or decrease the number of cytokine-producing cells and amount of cytokine produced per cell as determined by spot size and intensity. The corticosteroid dexamethasone was evaluated for its ability to down modulate TNF- and IFN-{gamma} production. The TLR7/8 agonist resiquimod (R848) and T-cell stimulants IL-7 and anti-PD-1 mAb were tested for their ability to enhance immune responses in sepsis.

ResultsSpontaneous production of TNF- and IFN-{gamma} varied among healthy subjects and septic patients. LPS or resiquimod stimulation increased total TNF- production in septic patients by 1,648% and 1,929% respectively. Conversely, dexamethasone diminished the responses to LPS or resiquimod by 71% and 61% respectively. IL-7, but not anti-PD-1 mAb markedly increased IFN-{gamma} production in both healthy subjects (127%) and septic patients (79%). Dexamethasone also reduced anti-CD3/CD28 mAb stimulated IFN-{gamma} production by 54%; while IL-7 ameliorated dexamethasone-induced suppression. IL-7 significantly enhanced lymphocyte function in over 90% of septic patients.

ConclusionELISpot can reveal host immune response patterns and the effects of drugs to selectively down- or up-regulate patient immunity. Furthermore, the ability of ELISpot to detect the effect of specific immuno-modulatory drugs to independently regulate the innate and adaptive host response could enable precision-based immune drug therapies in sepsis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Walton, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazer, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Remy, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davitt, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gould, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Badovinac, V. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brakenridge, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drewry, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loftus, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Efron, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moldawer, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caldwell, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hotchkiss, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.10.602970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Determining potential immunomodulatory drug efficacy in sepsis using ELISpot]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.16.603729v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Endomucin knockout leads to delayed retinal vascular development and reduced ocular pathological neovascularization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.16.603729v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endomucin (EMCN), an endothelial-specific glycocalyx component highly expressed in capillary and venous endothelium, plays a critical role in regulating VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) endocytosis and downstream VEGF signaling. Using the first global EMCN knockout mouse model, we investigated the effects of EMCN deficiency on retinal vascularization during development and pathological angiogenesis. We found relatively high expression of EMCN in choroidal capillaries and retinal vasculature. Emcn-/- mice exhibited delayed retinal vascularization at postnatal day 5, with fewer tip cells and reduced vessel density. Ultrastructural examination revealed disrupted and reduced fenestrations in choroidal capillary endothelium. In an oxygen-induced retinopathy model, while Emcn-/- mice showed no significant difference in avascular area compared to Emcn+/+ mice at postnatal day 12, there was a significant reduction in neovascular tufts in Emcn-/- mice at postnatal day 17. Similarly, in a laser-induced choroidal neovascularization model, Emcn-/- mice showed a significant reduction in vascular leakage and lesion size. These findings suggest that EMCN plays a critical role in both vascular development and pathological neovascularization, highlighting its potential as a target for anti-angiogenic therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cano, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lennikov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wild, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ng, E. Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Amore, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.16.603729</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Endomucin knockout leads to delayed retinal vascular development and reduced ocular pathological neovascularization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.18.604156v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Systematic Analysis of Human Colorectal Cancer scRNA-seq Revealed Limited Pro-tumoral IL-17 Production Potential in Gamma Delta T Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.18.604156v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gamma delta ({gamma}{delta}) T cells play a crucial role in anti-tumor immunity due to their cytotoxic properties. However, the role and extent of {gamma}{delta} T cells in production of pro-tumorigenic interleukin-17 (IL-17) within the tumor microenvironment (TME) of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains controversial. In this study, we re-analyzed nine published human CRC whole-tissue single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets, identifying 18,483 {gamma}{delta} T cells out of 951,785 total cells, in the neoplastic or adjacent normal tissue of 165 human CRC patients. Our results confirm that tumor-infiltrating {gamma}{delta} T cells exhibit high cytotoxicity-related transcription in both tumor and adjacent normal tissues, but critically, none of the {gamma}{delta} T cell clusters showed IL-17 production potential. We also identified various {gamma}{delta} T cell subsets, including Teff, TRM, Tpex, and Tex, and noted an increased expression of cytotoxic molecules in tumor-infiltrating {gamma}{delta} T cells compared to their normal area counterparts. Our work demonstrates that {gamma}{delta} T cells in CRC primarily function as cytotoxic effector cells rather than IL-17 producers, mitigating the concerns about their potential pro-tumorigenic roles in CRC, highlighting the importance of accurately characterizing these cells for cancer immunotherapy research and the unneglectable cross-species discrepancy between the mouse and human immune system in the study of cancer immunology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trapecar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.18.604156</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Systematic Analysis of Human Colorectal Cancer scRNA-seq Revealed Limited Pro-tumoral IL-17 Production Potential in Gamma Delta T Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.18.603996v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
γ-aminobutyric acid receptor B signaling drives glioblastoma in females in an immune-dependent manner 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.18.603996v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sex differences in immune responses impact cancer outcomes and treatment response, including in glioblastoma (GBM). However, host factors underlying sex specific immune-cancer interactions are poorly understood. Here, we identify the neurotransmitter {gamma}-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as a driver of GBM-promoting immune response in females. We demonstrated that GABA receptor B (GABBR) signaling enhances L-Arginine metabolism and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) expression in female granulocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (gMDSCs). GABBR agonist and GABA analog promoted GBM growth in females in an immune-dependent manner, while GABBR inhibition reduces gMDSC NOS2 production and extends survival only in females. Furthermore, female GBM patients have enriched GABA transcriptional signatures compared to males, and the use of GABA analogs in GBM patients is associated with worse short-term outcomes only in females. Collectively, these results highlight that GABA modulates anti-tumor immune response in a sex-specific manner, supporting future assessment of GABA pathway inhibitors as part of immunotherapy approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pathak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palasalava, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knott, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ciervo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pumar, O. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, H. K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Susic, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kay, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyssiotis, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceccarelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wahl, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.18.603996</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[γ-aminobutyric acid receptor B signaling drives glioblastoma in females in an immune-dependent manner]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.19.604377v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Ketogenic Diet Sensitizes Pancreatic Cancer to Inhibition of Glutamine Metabolism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.19.604377v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and while conventional chemotherapy remains the standard treatment, responses are poor. Safe and alternative therapeutic strategies are urgently needed1. A ketogenic diet has been shown to have anti-tumor effects across diverse cancer types but will unlikely have a significant effect alone. However, the diet shifts metabolism in tumors to create new vulnerabilities that can be targeted (1). Modulators of glutamine metabolism have shown promise in pre-clinical models but have failed to have a marked impact against cancer in the clinic. We show that a ketogenic diet increases TCA and glutamine-associated metabolites in murine pancreatic cancer models and under metabolic conditions that simulate a ketogenic diet in vitro. The metabolic shift leads to increased reliance on glutamine-mediated anaplerosis to compensate for low glucose abundance associated with a ketogenic diet. As a result, glutamine metabolism inhibitors, such as DON and CB839 in combination with a ketogenic diet had robust anti-cancer effects. These findings provide rationale to study the use of a ketogenic diet with glutamine targeted therapies in a clinical context.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=186 SRC="FIGDIR/small/604377v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (27K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ebeefforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@97e2ceorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ab45c3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1713540_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG Graphical Abstract Description: Mechanistic rationale for combining a ketogenic diet and glutamine metabolism inhibitors. The combination of low glucose from a ketogenic diet and pharmacologic glutamine inhibition impairs nutrient input to mitochondria, reducing cancer growth.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hajihassani, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarei, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roichman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loftus, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boutros, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hue, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naji, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyer, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tahhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallagher, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beegan, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakazzi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lebo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mudigonda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alibeckoff, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graor, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunengraber, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lund, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothermel, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabinowitz, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.19.604377</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Ketogenic Diet Sensitizes Pancreatic Cancer to Inhibition of Glutamine Metabolism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.23.604673v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genetic evolution of keratinocytes to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.23.604673v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We performed multi-omic profiling of epidermal keratinocytes, precancerous actinic keratoses, and squamous cell carcinomas to understand the molecular transitions during skin carcinogenesis. Single-cell mutational analyses of normal skin cells showed that most keratinocytes have remarkably low mutation burdens, despite decades of sun exposure, however keratinocytes with TP53 or NOTCH1 mutations had substantially higher mutation burdens. These observations suggest that wild-type keratinocytes (i.e. without pathogenic mutations) are able to withstand high dosages of cumulative UV radiation, but certain pathogenic mutations break these adaptive mechanisms, priming keratinocytes for transformation by increasing their mutation rate. Mutational profiling of squamous cell carcinomas adjacent to actinic keratoses revealed TERT promoter and CDKN2A mutations emerging in actinic keratoses, whereas additional mutations inactivating ARID2 and activating the MAPK-pathway delineated the transition to squamous cell carcinomas. Surprisingly, actinic keratoses were often not related to their neighboring squamous cell carcinoma, indicating that collisions of unrelated neoplasms are common in the skin. Spatial variation in gene expression patterns was common in both tumor and immune cells, with high expression of checkpoint molecules at the invasive front of tumors. In conclusion, this study catalogues the key events during the evolution of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tandukar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deivendran, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruz-Pacheco, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandari, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marty, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerami, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arron, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bastian, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shain, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.23.604673</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genetic evolution of keratinocytes to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.29.605563v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sepsis-induced NET formation requires MYD88 but is independent of GSDMD and PAD4 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.29.605563v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neutrophils are peripheral blood-circulating leukocytes that play a pivotal role in host defense against bacterial pathogens which upon activation, they release web-like chromatin structures called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).

Here, we analyzed and compared the importance of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MYD88), peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PAD4), and gasdermin D (GSDMD) for NET formation in vivo following sepsis and neutrophilia challenge. Injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/E. coli or the transgenic expression of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), each induced NET-mediated lethal vascular occlusions in mice with combined genetic deficiency in Dnase1 and Dnase1l3 (D1/D1l3-/-). In accordance with the signaling of toll-like receptors, Myd88/D1/D1l3-/- animals were protected from the formation of lethal intravascular NETs during septic conditions. However, this protection was not observed during neutrophilia. It was unexpected to find that both Gsdmd/D1/D1l3-/- and Pad4/D1/D1l3-/- mice were fully capable of forming NETs upon LPS/E.coli challenge. Sepsis equally triggered a similar inflammatory response in these mice characterized by formation of DNA-rich thrombi, vessel occlusions, and mortality from pulmonary embolism, compared to D1/D1l3-/- mice. Pharmacologic GSDMD inhibitors did not reduce PMA-stimulated NET formation in ex vivo models either. Similarly, neither Pad4 nor GSDMD deficiency affected intravascular occlusive NET formation upon neutrophilia challenge. The magnitude of NET production, multi-organ damage, and lethality were comparable to those observed in challenged control mice.

In conclusion, our data indicate that NET formation during experimental sepsis and neutrophilia is regulated by distinct stimulus-dependent pathways that may be independent of canonical PAD4 and GSDMD.

Key points- Sepsis triggers vaso-occlusive NET formation in Dnase1/Dnase1l3-deficient mice in a myeloid differentiation factor 88-dependent manner
- Peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 and gasdermin D are dispensable for NET formation in sepsis and neutrophilia models
- Myeloid differentiation factor 88, peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 and gasdermin D differ in their importance for NET formation in vivo
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Renne, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Englert, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rangaswamy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Divivier, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Göbel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hermans-Borgmeyer, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borgmeyer, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mowen, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beerens, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frye, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mailer, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gelderblom, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stavrou, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Preston, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuchs, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.29.605563</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sepsis-induced NET formation requires MYD88 but is independent of GSDMD and PAD4]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.12.607380v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A biofilm-tropic Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage uses the exopolysaccharide Psl as receptor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.12.607380v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacteria in nature can exist in multicellular communities called biofilms. Biofilms also form in the course of many infections. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections frequently involve biofilms, which contribute materially to the difficulty to treat these infections with antibiotic therapy. Many biofilm-related characteristics are controlled by the second messenger, cyclic-di-GMP, which is upregulated on surface contact. Among these factors is the exopolysaccharide Psl, which is a critically important component of the biofilm matrix. Here we describe the discovery of a P. aeruginosa bacteriophage, which we have called Clew-1, that directly binds to and uses Psl as a receptor. While this phage does not efficiently infect planktonically growing bacteria, it can disrupt P. aeruginosa biofilms and replicate in biofilm bacteria. We further demonstrate that the Clew-1 can reduce the bacterial burden in a mouse model of P. aeruginosa keratitis, which is characterized by the formation of a biofilm on the cornea. Due to its reliance on Psl for infection, Clew-1 does not actually form plaques on wild-type bacteria under standard in vitro conditions. This argues that our standard isolation procedures likely exclude bacteriophage that are adapted to using biofilm markers for infection. Importantly, the manner in which we isolated Clew-1 can be easily extended to other strains of P. aeruginosa and indeed other bacterial species, which will fuel the discovery of other biofilm-tropic bacteriophage and expand their therapeutic use.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Walton, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbodante, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dobruchowska, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallagher, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vallikat, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wozniak, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boons, G.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pearlman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.12.607380</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A biofilm-tropic Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage uses the exopolysaccharide Psl as receptor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.19.608663v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Abnormal activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron contributes to fructose-induced salt-sensitive hypertension 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.19.608663v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fructose high-salt (FHS) diets increase blood pressure (BP) in an angiotensin II (Ang II)-dependent manner. Ang II stimulates aldosterone release, which, by acting on the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), regulates Na+ reabsorption by the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron (ASDN). The MR can be transactivated by glucocorticoids, including those locally produced by 11{beta}-HSD1. The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) is a key transporter regulated by MRs. We hypothesized that fructose-induced salt-sensitive hypertension depends in part on abnormal activation of MRs in the ASDN with consequent increases in ENaC expression. We found that aldosterone-upregulated genes in mice ASDN, significantly overlapped with 74 genes upregulated by FHS in the rat kidney cortex (13/74; p[&le;]1x10-8), and that these 74 genes are prominently expressed in rat ASDN cells. Additionally, the average z-score expression of mice-aldosterone-upregulated genes is highly correlated with FHS compared to glucose high-salt (GHS) in the rat kidney cortex (Pearson correlation; r=0.66; p[&le;]0.005). There were no significant differences in plasma aldosterone concentrations between the FHS and GHS. However, 11{beta}-HSD1 transcripts were upregulated by FHS (log2FC=0.26, p[&le;]0.02). FHS increased BP by 23{+/-}6 mmHg compared to GHS, and blocking MRs with eplerenone prevented this increase. Additionally, inhibiting ENaC with amiloride significantly reduced BP in FHS from 148{+/-}6 to 134{+/-}5 mmHg (p[&le;]0.019). Compared to GHS, FHS increased total and cleaved ENaC protein by 89{+/-}14 % (p[&le;]0.03) and 47{+/-}16 % (p[&le;]0.01) respectively. FHS did not change {beta}- or {gamma}-subunit expression. These results suggest that fructose-induced salt-sensitive hypertension depends, in part, on abnormal Na+ retention by ENaC, resulting from the activation of MRs by glucocorticoids.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jadhav, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brostek, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forester, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garvin, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleyman, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Vicente, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.19.608663</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Abnormal activation of the mineralocorticoid receptor in the aldosterone-sensitive distal nephron contributes to fructose-induced salt-sensitive hypertension]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.22.609135v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Novel Combinatorial Approach Integrating Experimental and Computational Analysis of Antioxidant Activity: Evaluating Catechin and L-Ascorbic Acid in Serum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.22.609135v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, with oxidative stress playing a pivotal role in its progression. Free radicals produced via oxidative stress contribute to lipid peroxidation, leading to subsequent inflammatory responses, which then result in atherosclerosis. Antioxidants inhibit these harmful effects through their reducing ability, thereby preventing oxidative damage. In this study, we introduce a with computational models simulating hydrophilic and hydrophobic serum environments. We optimized the Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP) assay at a microscale level to evaluate the antioxidant activity of L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and catechin, a phytochemical found in green tea, in normal and hypertriglyceridemic serum. Hypertriglyceridemic serum, characterized by increased hydrophobic lipid content, provides a model to examine the impact of serum triglycerides on antioxidant activity. Additionally, we employed computational models using the Gaussian software to simulate the hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mechanism, calculating free energy changes and bond dissociation energy (BDE) to assess the antioxidant potency of the studied compounds in both hydrophilic and hydrophobic environments. The computational results align with the experimental finding offering a unique combinatorial approach to assess antioxidant activity in both normal and hypertriglyceridemic serum, with potential implications for clinical interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chandra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rasool, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chidi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rigaut, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soubra-Ghaoui, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.22.609135</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Novel Combinatorial Approach Integrating Experimental and Computational Analysis of Antioxidant Activity: Evaluating Catechin and L-Ascorbic Acid in Serum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.27.609955v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia with Pulmonary Hypertension Associates with Loss of Semaphorin Signaling and Functional Decrease in FOXF1 Expression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.27.609955v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lung injury in preterm infants leads to structural and functional respiratory deficits, with a risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) that in its most severe form is accompanied by pulmonary hypertension (PH). To examine cellular and molecular dynamics driving evolving BPD in humans, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing of preterm infant lungs in early stages of BPD and BPD+PH compared to term infants. Analysis of the endothelium revealed a unique aberrant capillary cell-state primarily in BPD+PH marked by ANKRD1 expression. Predictive signaling analysis identified deficits in the semaphorin guidance-cue signaling pathway and decreased expression of pro-angiogenic transcription factor FOXF1 within the alveolar parenchyma in neonatal lung samples with BPD/BPD+PH. Loss of semaphorin signaling was replicated in a murine BPD model and in humans with alveolar capillary dysplasia (ACDMPV), suggesting a mechanistic link between the developmental programs underlying BPD and ACDMPV and a critical role for semaphorin signaling in normal lung development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shirazi, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Negretti, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jetter, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharkey, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapp, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkins, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fortier, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mallapragada, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banovich, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, C. V. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frank, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kropski, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sucre, J. M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.27.609955</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia with Pulmonary Hypertension Associates with Loss of Semaphorin Signaling and Functional Decrease in FOXF1 Expression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610421v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid synthesis and screening of natively paired antibodies against influenza hemagglutinin stem via oPool+ display 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610421v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibody discovery is crucial for developing therapeutics and vaccines as well as understanding adaptive immunity. However, the lack of approaches to synthesize antibodies with defined sequences in a high-throughput manner represents a major bottleneck in antibody discovery. Here, we presented oPool+ display, a high-throughput cell-free platform that combined oligo pool synthesis and mRNA display to rapidly construct and characterize many natively paired antibodies in parallel. As a proof-of-concept, we applied oPool+ display to probe the binding specificity of >300 uncommon influenza hemagglutinin (HA) antibodies against 9 HA variants through 16 different screens. Over 5,000 binding tests were performed in 3-5 days with further scaling potential. Follow-up structural analysis of two HA stem antibodies revealed the previously unknown versatility of IGHD3-3 gene segment in recognizing the HA stem. Overall, this study established an experimental platform that not only accelerate antibody characterization, but also enable unbiased discovery of antibody molecular signatures.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ouyang, W. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lv, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lei, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pholcharee, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dailey, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gopal, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ardagh, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talmage, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610421</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid synthesis and screening of natively paired antibodies against influenza hemagglutinin stem via oPool+ display]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.07.611782v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deep mutational scanning of the human insulin receptor ectodomain to inform precision therapy for insulin resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.07.611782v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The insulin receptor (INSR) entrains tissue growth and metabolism to nutritional conditions. Complete loss of function in humans leads to extreme insulin resistance and infantile mortality, while loss of 80-90% function permits longevity of decades. Even low-level activation of severely compromised receptors, for example by anti-receptor monoclonal antibodies, thus offers the potential for decisive clinical benefit. A barrier to genetic diagnosis and translational research is the increasing identification of INSR variants of uncertain significance. We employed saturation mutagenesis coupled to multidimensional flow-based assays to stratify approximately 14,000 INSR extracellular domain missense variants by cell surface expression, insulin binding, and insulin- or monoclonal antibody-stimulated signaling. The resulting function scores correlate strongly with clinical syndromes, offer insights into dynamics of insulin binding, and reveal novel potential gain-of-function variants. This INSR sequence-function map has high biochemical, diagnostic and translational utility, aiding rapid identification of variants amenable to activation by non-canonical INSR agonists.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aslanzadeh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brierley, G. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cubuk, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vigouroux, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kudla, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semple, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.07.611782</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deep mutational scanning of the human insulin receptor ectodomain to inform precision therapy for insulin resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.06.611689v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A blended genome and exome sequencing method captures genetic variation in an unbiased, high-quality, and cost-effective manner 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.06.611689v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We deployed the Blended Genome Exome (BGE), a DNA library blending approach that generates low pass whole genome (1-4x mean depth) and deep whole exome (30-40x mean depth) data in a single sequencing run. This technology is cost-effective, empowers most genomic discoveries possible with deep whole genome sequencing, and provides an unbiased method to capture the diversity of common SNP variation across the globe. To evaluate this new technology at scale, we applied BGE to sequence >53,000 samples from the Populations Underrepresented in Mental Illness Associations Studies (PUMAS) Project, which included participants across African, African American, and Latin American populations. We evaluated the accuracy of BGE imputed genotypes against raw genotype calls from the Illumina Global Screening Array. All PUMAS cohorts had R2 concordance [&ge;]95% among SNPs with MAF[&ge;]1%, and never fell below [&ge;]90% R2 for SNPs with MAF<1%. Furthermore, concordance rates among local ancestries within two recently admixed cohorts were consistent among SNPs with MAF[&ge;]1%, with only minor deviations in SNPs with MAF<1%. We also benchmarked the discovery capacity of BGE to access protein-coding copy number variants (CNVs) against deep whole genome data, finding that deletions and duplications spanning at least 3 exons had a positive predicted value of [~]90%. Our results demonstrate BGE scalability and efficacy in capturing SNPs, indels, and CNVs in the human genome at 28% of the cost of deep whole-genome sequencing. BGE is poised to enhance access to genomic testing and empower genomic discoveries, particularly in underrepresented populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Boltz, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chu, B. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sealock, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Majara, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Service, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medland, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chapman, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubinacci, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeFelice, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimsby, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abebe, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alemayehu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashaba, F. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atkinson, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bigdeli, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradway, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brand, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chibnik, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fekadu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatzen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gelaye, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gichuru, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gildea, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubbard, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Injera, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joloba, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kachulis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalmbach, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamulegeya, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kigen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwobah, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyebuzibwa, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lennon, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lind, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopera-Maya, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.06.611689</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A blended genome and exome sequencing method captures genetic variation in an unbiased, high-quality, and cost-effective manner]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612728v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of glutaminase elicits senolysis in therapy-induced senescent melanoma cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612728v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cyclin D1-Cyclin-Dependent Kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) complex is crucial for the development of melanoma. We previously demonstrated that targeting CDK4/6 using small molecule inhibitors (CDK4/6i) suppresses BrafV600E melanoma growth in vitro and in vivo through induction of cellular senescence. Clinical trials investigating CDK4/6i in melanoma have not yielded successful outcomes, underscoring the necessity to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of CDK4/6i. Accumulated research has shown that while senescence initially suppresses cell proliferation, a prolonged state of senescence eventually leads to tumor relapse by altering the tumor microenvironment, suggesting that removal of those senescent cells (in a process referred to as senolysis) is of clinical necessity to facilitate clinical response. We demonstrate that glutaminase 1 (GLS1) expression is specifically upregulated in CDK4/6i-induced senescent BrafV600E melanoma cells. Upregulated GLS1 expression renders BrafV600E melanoma senescent cells vulnerable to GLS1 inhibitor (GLS1i). Furthermore, we demonstrate that this senolytic approach targeting upregulated GLS1 expression is applicable even though those cells developed resistance to the BrafV600E inhibitor vemurafenib, a frequently encountered substantial clinical challenge to treating patients. Thus, this novel senolytic approach may revolutionize current CDK4/6i mediated melanoma treatment if melanoma cells undergo senescence prior to developing resistance to CDK4/6i. Given that we demonstrate that a low dose of vemurafenib induced senescence, which renders BrafV600E melanoma cells susceptible to GLS1i and recent accumulated research shows many cancer cells undergo senescence in response to chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy, this senolytic therapy approach may prove applicable to a wide range of cancer types once senescence and GLS1 expression are induced.

Key pointsUpregulated GLS1 expression renders senescent BrafV600E melanoma cells induced by CDK4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i) or vemurafenib susceptible to GLS1 inhibitor (GLS1i) even with BrafV600E inhibitor resistance. This senolytic therapy combining CDK4/6i and GLS1i provides insights into potential novel therapeutic strategies for metastatic melanoma and may be applicable to various types of cancers providing alternative therapy options.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunetti, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honda, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoshida, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.12.612728</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of glutaminase elicits senolysis in therapy-induced senescent melanoma cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.613591v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Incorporating buccal mass planar mechanics and anatomical features improves neuromechanical modeling of Aplysia feeding behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.613591v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To understand how behaviors arise in animals, it is necessary to investigate both the neural circuits and the biomechanics of the periphery. A tractable model system for studying multifunctional control is the feeding apparatus of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica. Previous in silico and in roboto models have investigated how the nervous and muscular systems interact in this system. However, these models are still limited in their ability to match in vivo data both qualitatively and quantitatively. We introduce a new neuromechanical model of Aplysia feeding that combines a modified version of a previously developed neural model with a novel biomechanical model that better reflects the anatomy and kinematics of Aplysia feeding. The model was calibrated using a combination of previously measured biomechanical parameters and hand-tuning to behavioral data. Using this model, simulation feeding experiments were conducted, and the resulting behavioral metrics were compared to animal data. The model successfully produces three key behaviors seen in Aplysia and demonstrates a good quantitative agreement with biting and swallowing behaviors. Additional work is needed to match rejection behavior quantitatively and to reflect qualitative observations related to the relative contributions of two key muscles, the hinge and I3. Future improvements will focus on incorporating the effects of deformable 3D structures in the simulated buccal mass.

Author summaryAnimals need to produce a wide array of behaviors so that they can adapt to changes in their environment. To understand how behaviors are performed, we need to understand how the brain and the body work together in their environment. One tractable system in which to study this brain-body relationship is the feeding behavior of the sea slug Aplysia californica. Despite having a small fraction of the number of neurons that humans have, this animal can produce many behaviors, respond to a changing environment, and learn from previous experiences. We have create an improved computer model of the slugs mouthparts that simulates many of its key muscles and the forces they produce, together with a representation of the network of neurons that control them. With this model, we can recreate the feeding behaviors that we observe in the real animal, including biting, swallowing, and rejection, and use it to make quantitative predictions of how the animal will behave and respond to different stimuli. We found however that some aspects of the system were not well represented by simple 1-dimensional muscles, as has been done in most biomechanical models to date, but requires us to consider more complicated deformations of these soft bodies. Using this model as a tool, we aim to test hypotheses about brain-body interactions in the sea slug to better understand the behavior of small, slowly moving animals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bennington, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sukhnandan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kundu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rogers, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McManus, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sutton, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster-Wood, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.17.613591</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Incorporating buccal mass planar mechanics and anatomical features improves neuromechanical modeling of Aplysia feeding behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.20.614092v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Safeguarding Privacy in Genome Research: A Comprehensive Framework for Authors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.20.614092v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As genomic research continues to advance, sharing of genomic data and research outcomes has become increasingly important for fostering collaboration and accelerating scientific discovery. However, such data sharing must be balanced with the need to protect the privacy of individuals whose genetic information is being utilized. This paper presents a bidirectional framework for evaluating privacy risks associated with data shared (both in terms of summary statistics and research datasets) in genomic research papers, particularly focusing on re-identification risks such as membership inference attacks (MIA). The framework consists of a structured workflow that begins with a questionnaire designed to capture researchers (authors) self-reported data sharing practices and privacy protection measures. Responses are used to calculate the risk of re-identification for their study (paper) when compared with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) genomic data sharing policy. Any gaps in compliance help us to identify potential vulnerabilities and encourage the researchers to enhance their privacy measures before submitting their research for publication. The paper also demonstrates the application of this framework, using published genomic research as case study scenarios to emphasize the importance of implementing bidirectional frameworks to support trustworthy open science and genomic data sharing practices.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghasemian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerido, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayday, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.20.614092</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Safeguarding Privacy in Genome Research: A Comprehensive Framework for Authors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.22.614362v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Heterogeneous Kinetics of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agent and Angiogenic Signaling in Head and Neck Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.22.614362v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recently developed nanobubble ultrasound contrast agents are a promising tool for imaging and drug delivery in tumors. To better understand their unusual kinetics, we implemented a novel pixel clustering analysis, which provides unique information by accounting for spatial heterogeneity. By combining ultrasound results with proteomics of the imaged tumors, we show that this analysis is highly predictive of protein expression and that specific types of nanobubble time-intensity curve are associated with upregulation of different metabolic pathways. We applied this method to study the effects of two proteins, EphB4 and ephrinB2, which control tumor angiogenesis through bidirectional juxtacrine signaling, in mouse models of head and neck cancer. We show that ephrinB2 expression by endothelial cells and EphB4 expression by cancer cells have similar effects on tumor vasculature, despite sometimes opposite effects on tumor growth. This implicates a cancer-cell-intrinsic effect of EphB4 forward signaling and not angiogenesis in EphB4s action as a tumor suppressor.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Van Court, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ciccaglione, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neupert, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knitz, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maroney, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelazeem, K. N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saviola, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benninger, R. K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karam, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.22.614362</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Heterogeneous Kinetics of Nanobubble Ultrasound Contrast Agent and Angiogenic Signaling in Head and Neck Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.25.615079v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Skeletal Metastasis of Prostate Cancer Is Augmented by Activation of EphA2 Noncanonical Signaling and Ligand-Deficient Bone Microenvironment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.25.615079v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
EphA2, a member of Eph family receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), is overexpressed in multiple types of solid human tumors, particularly at the late stages. However, whether and how it drives specific malignant processes remain elusive. We report that EphA2 is elevated during prostate cancer (PCa) progression in multiple syngeneic murine models. Interestingly, human metastatic PCa specimens from two Rapid Autopsy Programs showed selective overexpression of EphA2 in metastasis to the bone, but not to the lymph nodes or viscera. Serine 897 phosphorylation that mediates the pro-oncogenic, noncanonical signaling by EphA2 was also upregulated in bone metastasis. Analysis of human datasets shows EphA2 overexpression is associated with skeletal but not visceral metastases. Ephrin-A1, a major cognate ligand for EphA2, is lost in PCa bone metastasis, which is correlated with poor prognosis. Further, the bone microenvironment is unique in expressing little of the five EFNA genes, providing permissive microenvironment for bone colonization. S897A mutation that ablates EphA2 noncanonical signaling, suppressed PCa development. Restoration of ephrin-A1 expression in PC-3, a model cell line for double negative prostate cancer derived from bone metastasis and devoid of ephrin-As, profoundly changed global tyrosine phosphorylation profiles, inhibited basal ERK and Src activities in vitro, and suppressed tumor development in the bone. Together these results demonstrate EphA2 overexpression and concomitant loss of ligands in PCa lead to activation of noncanonical signaling that is sustained in ephrin-A1-deficient skeletal milieu to promote bone metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingerak, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petty, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsieh, J.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stiles, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varambally, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chinnaiyan, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrissey, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.25.615079</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Skeletal Metastasis of Prostate Cancer Is Augmented by Activation of EphA2 Noncanonical Signaling and Ligand-Deficient Bone Microenvironment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.28.615561v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct neuroendocrine subtypes predict treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer prognosis and provide clues for personalized treatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.28.615561v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background and ObjectiveSecond-generation hormonal therapy inhibits castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), but the tumor eventually recurs as neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) and turns lethal. Differentiating lineage plasticity that contributed to distinct NEPC subtypes aids in advancing treatments, particularly the recent FDA-approved 177Lu-PSMA-617 radiopharmaceutical therapy.

MethodsWe integrated single-cell RNA sequencing data from fresh human CRPC cases. This comprehensive approach allowed us to identify distinct NEPC subpopulations and their respective lineage with high confidence.

Key Findings and LimitationsWe uncovered N-Myc and REST as key transcription factors driving distinct neuroendocrine subtypes among 5,797 neuroendocrine-like epithelial cells in CRPC: a REST-dependent subtype (NE I), an N-Myc-dependent subtype (NE II), and a combined N-Myc/REST subtype (NE I+II). These subtypes were validated using multiplex immunofluorescence staining. Trajectory analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing data, along with multi-omics time course analysis of publicly available transcriptomic data recapitulated N-Myc and REST lineages. Additionally, we observed PSMA loss in N-Myc lineage NEPC and identified STMN1 as a biomarker for PSMA-negative subtype. We validated the prognostic value of STMN1 using the TCGA dataset and 60 in-house CRPC tissues. Given that surgery is rarely performed in advanced CRPC, leading to limited sample availability, further validation in larger cohorts is needed.

Conclusions and Clinical ImplicationsAdeno-to-neuroendocrine lineage transition in prostate cancer leads to resistance to new therapies. The lethal NEPC phenotype should be revealed earlier in the disease course of patients with CRPC, providing crucial clues for personalized precision medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hong, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tze-Yun, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, C.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, T.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, P.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.28.615561</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct neuroendocrine subtypes predict treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer prognosis and provide clues for personalized treatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.28.615598v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex differences in colonic inflammation are driven by epithelial-specific expression of estrogen receptor alpha 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.28.615598v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background & AimsInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients exhibit altered expression of nuclear estrogen receptors alpha and beta (ER, ER{beta}) and G-protein coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1). We previously showed that deletion of ER protects against intestinal damage selectively in female mice; however, the mechanisms conferring sex-specific protection are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to compare ER- and ER{beta}-specific mechanisms contributing to intestinal epithelial function in males and females.

MethodsExpression of ER, ER{beta}, and GPER1 was evaluated in colonocytes from wild-type (WT) male and female mice. Intestinal epithelial cell (IEC)-specific ER and ER{beta} knockout mice were developed and challenged with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). Colonic organoids were used to identify estrogen-dependent and -independent effects on cellular growth, differentiation, and transcriptional regulation in WT, ER-KO, and ER{beta}-KO IECs.

ResultsColonic IECs showed significant expression of ER, ER{beta}, and GPER1 as well as Cyp19A1, which catalyzes production of 17{beta}-estradiol (estrogen). Female mice lacking ER specifically in colonic IECs showed protection from DSS-induced injury, whereas males showed increased pathology. Organoids derived from male ER-KO mice showed enhanced proliferation and decreased expression of key functional genes even without exogenous estrogen; however, colonoids derived from female ER-KO mice transcriptional analysis showed a protective gene signature. These findings reveal that deletion of ER differentially contributes to enhanced barrier function and resistance to inflammation in females, but to dysfunctional hyper-proliferation in males.

ConclusionsER signaling within IECs drives opposing sex-dependent effects on the development, regenerative capacity, and inflammatory susceptibility of the intestinal epithelium.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pereda, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kocinski, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broncano, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNeer, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymond, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ziats, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breau, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burclaff, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magness, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.28.615598</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex differences in colonic inflammation are driven by epithelial-specific expression of estrogen receptor alpha]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.01.614851v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex differences in the clinical manifestation of autosomal dominant frontotemporal dementia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.01.614851v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
INTRODUCTIONSex differences are apparent in neurodegenerative diseases, but have not been comprehensively characterized in frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

METHODSParticipants included 337 adults with autosomal dominant FTD enrolled in the ALLFTD Consortium. Clinical assessments and plasma were collected annually for up to six years. Linear mixed-effects models investigated how sex and disease stage associated with longitudinal trajectories of cognition, function, and neurofilament light chain (NfL).

RESULTSWhile sex differences were not apparent at asymptomatic stages, females showed more rapid declines across all outcomes in symptomatic stages compared to males. In asymptomatic participants, the association between baseline NfL and clinical trajectories was weaker in females versus males, a difference that attenuated in symptomatic participants.

DISCUSSIONIn genetic FTD, females show cognitive resilience in early disease stages followed by steeper clinical declines later in disease. Baseline NfL may be a less sensitive prognostic tool for clinical progression in females with FTD-causing mutations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Memel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staffaroni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilan-Gala, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia Castro, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kornak, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tartaglia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saloner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>VandeBunte, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paolillo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cadwallader, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gorno-Tempini, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apostolova, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graff-Radford, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Litvan, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayram, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pressman, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagawa, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackenzie, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darby, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Appleby, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrucelli, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gendron, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heuer, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forseberg, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rojas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boeve, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brushaber, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Domoto-Reilly, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghoshal, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lapid, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pascual, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramos, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramanan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rademakers, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rascovsky, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantelyat, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Masdeu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boxer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.01.614851</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex differences in the clinical manifestation of autosomal dominant frontotemporal dementia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.03.616429v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Novel murine model of human astrovirus infection reveals a cardiovascular tropism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.03.616429v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Astroviruses are a common cause of gastrointestinal disease in humans and have been recognized to cause fatal cases of encephalitis. A major barrier to the study of human-infecting astroviruses is the lack of an in vivo model, as previous attempts failed to identify a suitable host that supports viral replication. We describe a novel murine model of infection using astrovirus VA1/HMO-C (VA1), an astrovirus with high seroprevalence in humans that is a causative agent of encephalitis. VA1 RNA levels peak in heart tissue at day 7 post-inoculation. The cardiotropism was observed in multiple different murine genetic backgrounds evidenced by high VA1 RNA loads in heart tissue of A/J, C57BL/6, C3H/HeJ, Balb/c, and J:ARC mice. Infectious VA1 particles could be recovered from heart tissue 3 and 5 days post-inoculation. Intracellular viral capsid was present in tissue sections based on immunofluorescent staining and viral RNA was detected in cardiac myocytes, endocardium, and endothelial cells based on fluorescent in situ hybridization and confocal microscopy. Histologically, we identified inflammatory infiltrates consistent with myocarditis in some mice, with viral RNA co-localizing with the infiltrates. These foci contained CD3+ T cells and CD68+ macrophages. Viral RNA levels increased by > 10-fold in heart tissue or serum samples from Rag1 or Stat1 knockout mice, demonstrating the role of both adaptive and innate immunity in the response to VA1 infection. Based on the in vivo tropisms, we also tested cardiac-derived primary cells and determined that VA1 can replicate in human cardiac microvascular and coronary artery endothelial cells, suggesting a novel cardiovascular tropism in human cells. This novel in vivo model of a human-infecting astrovirus enables further characterization of viral pathogenesis and reveals a new cardiovascular tropism of astroviruses.

Author SummaryAstroviruses typically cause viral diarrhea in humans but can also cause serious infections of the brain. Previously, the methods available to study how these viruses lead to invasive infections were limited. Here, we describe the first system to study human-infecting astroviruses using mice. We demonstrate that mice are susceptible to astrovirus VA1, a strain that commonly infects humans and has been linked to fatal brain infections. The virus infected heart tissue and was associated with inflammation. When mice with impaired immune systems were infected with VA1, they were found to have higher amounts of virus in their hearts and blood. Linking back to human health, we also found that VA1 can infect cells derived from human blood vessels of the heart. This model will enable us to better understand how astroviruses cause disease and how the immune system responds to infection. Our findings also suggest that astroviruses could be linked to cardiovascular diseases, including in humans. In the future, we can develop interventions that will prevent and treat astrovirus infections in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Owen, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dudley, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feehley, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yokoyama, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Axelrod, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Janowski, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.03.616429</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Novel murine model of human astrovirus infection reveals a cardiovascular tropism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.06.616871v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuropeptide-dependent spike time precision and plasticity in circadian output neurons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.06.616871v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Circadian rhythms influence various physiological and behavioral processes such as sleep-wake cycles, hormone secretion, and metabolism. In Drosophila, an important set of circadian output neurons are called pars intercerebralis (PI) neurons, which receive input from specific clock neurons called DN1. These DN1 neurons can further be subdivided into functionally and anatomically distinctive anterior (DN1a) and posterior (DN1p) clusters. The neuropeptide diuretic hormones 31 (Dh31) and 44 (Dh44) are the insect neuropeptides known to activate PI neurons to control activity rhythms. However, the neurophysiological basis of how Dh31 and Dh44 affect circadian clock neural coding mechanisms underlying sleep in Drosophila is not well understood. Here, we identify Dh31/Dh44-dependent spike time precision and plasticity in PI neurons. We first find that a mixture of Dh31 and Dh44 enhanced the firing of PI neurons, compared to the application of Dh31 alone and Dh44 alone. We next find that the application of synthesized Dh31 and Dh44 affects membrane potential dynamics of PI neurons in the precise timing of the neuronal firing through their synergistic interaction, possibly mediated by calcium-activated potassium channel conductance. Further, we characterize that Dh31/Dh44 enhances postsynaptic potentials in PI neurons. Together, these results suggest multiplexed neuropeptide-dependent spike time precision and plasticity as circadian clock neural coding mechanisms underlying sleep in Drosophila.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chong, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopkins, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spera, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutson, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.06.616871</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuropeptide-dependent spike time precision and plasticity in circadian output neurons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.06.616879v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Method for Electrical Stimulus Artifact Removal Exploiting Neural Refractoriness: Validation by Contrasting Cathodic and Anodic Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.06.616879v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveTo present a novel method for removing stimulus transient that exploits the absolute refractory period of electrically excitable neural tissues.

BackgroundElectrical stimulation often generates significant signal artifacts that can obscure important physiological signals. Removal of the artifact and understanding latent information from these signals could provide objective measures of circuit engagement, potentially driving advancements in neuromodulation research and therapies.

MethodsWe conducted intracranial physiology studies on five consecutive patients with Parkinsons disease who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery as part of their routine care. Monopolar stimuli (either cathodic or anodic) were delivered in pairs through the DBS electrode across a range of inter-stimulus intervals. Recordings from adjacent unused electrode contacts used broadband sampling and precise synchronization to generate a robust template for the stimulus transient during the absolute refractory period. These templates of stimulus transient were then subtracted from recordings at different intervals to extract and analyze the residual neural potentials.

ResultsAfter artifact removal, the residual signals exhibited absolute and relative refractory periods with timing indicative of neural activity. Cathodic and anodic DBS pulses generated distinct patterns of local tissue activation, showing phase independence from the prior stimulus. The earliest detectable neural responses occurred at short peak latencies (ranging from 0.19 to 0.38 ms post-stimulus) and were completely or partially obscured by the stimulus artifact prior to removal. Cathodic stimuli produced stronger local tissue responses than anodic stimuli, aligning with clinical observations of lower activation thresholds for cathodic stimulation. However, cathodic and anodic pulses induced artifact patterns that were equivalent but opposite.

InterpretationThe proposed artifact removal technique enhances prior approaches by allowing direct measurement of local tissue responses without requirements for stimulus polarity reversal, template scaling, or specialized filters. This approach could be integrated into future neuromodulation systems to visualize stimulus-evoked neural potentials that would otherwise be obscured by stimulus artifacts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nakhmani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Block, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bentley, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holland, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brinkerhoff, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moffitt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.06.616879</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Method for Electrical Stimulus Artifact Removal Exploiting Neural Refractoriness: Validation by Contrasting Cathodic and Anodic Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.10.616351v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational Microbiome Pharmacology Analysis Elucidates the Anti-Cancer Potential of Vaginal Microbes and Metabolites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.10.616351v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The vaginal microbiomes role in risk, progression, and treatment of female cancers has been widely explored. Yet, there remains a need to develop methods to understand the interaction of microbiome factors with host cells and to characterize their potential therapeutic functions. To address this challenge, we developed a systems biology framework we term the Pharmacobiome for microbiome pharmacology analysis. The Pharmacobiome framework evaluates similarities between microbes and microbial byproducts and known drugs based on their impact on host transcriptomic cellular signatures. Here, we apply our framework to characterization of the Anti-Gynecologic Cancer Vaginal Pharmacobiome. Using published vaginal microbiome multi-omics data from the Partners PrEP clinical trial, we constructed vaginal epithelial gene signatures associated with each profiled vaginal microbe and metabolite. We compared these microbiome-associated host gene signatures to post-drug perturbation host gene signatures associated with 35 FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs from the Library of Integrated Network-based Cellular Signatures database to identify vaginal microbes and metabolites with high statistical and functional similarity to these drugs. We found that Lactobacilli and their metabolites can regulate host gene expression in ways similar to many anti-cancer drugs. Additionally, we experimentally tested our model prediction that taurine, a metabolite produced by L. crispatus, kills cancerous breast and endometrial cancer cells. Our study shows that the Pharmacobiome is a powerful framework for characterizing the anti-cancer therapeutic potential of vaginal microbiome factors with generalizability to other cancers, microbiomes, and diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lawore, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jena, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berard, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birse, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamont, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackelprang, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noel-Romas, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irungu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mugo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knodel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muwonge, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katabira, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levy, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calienes, F. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baeten, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celum, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hladik, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingappa, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgener, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, L. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.10.616351</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational Microbiome Pharmacology Analysis Elucidates the Anti-Cancer Potential of Vaginal Microbes and Metabolites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.14.617127v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mice with Reduced PAR4 Reactivity show Decreased Venous Thrombosis and Platelet Procoagulant Activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.14.617127v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundHypercoagulation and thrombin generation are major risk factors for venous thrombosis. Sustained thrombin signaling through PAR4 promotes platelet activation, phosphatidylserine exposure, and subsequent thrombin generation. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in PAR4 (rs2227376) changes proline to leucine extracellular loop 3 (P310L), which decreases PAR4 reactivity and is associated with a lower risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in a GWAS meta-analysis.

ObjectiveThe goal of this study is to determine the mechanism for the association of rs2227376 with reduced risk for VTE in using mice with a homologous mutation (PAR4-P322L).

MethodsVenous thrombosis was examined using our recently generated PAR4-P322L mice in the inferior vena cava stasis and stenosis models. Coagulation and clot stability was measured using rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM). Thrombin generating potential was measured in platelet-rich plasma. Phosphatidylserine surface expression and platelet-neutrophil aggregates were analyzed using flow cytometry.

ResultsPAR4P/L and PAR4L/L had reduced incidence and size of venous clots at 48 hours. PAR4P/L and PAR4L/L platelets had progressively decreased phosphatidylserine in response to thrombin and convulxin, which led to decreased thrombin generation and decreased PAR4-mediated platelet-neutrophil aggregation.

ConclusionsThe leucine allele in extracellular loop 3, PAR4-322L leads to fewer procoagulant platelets and decreased endogenous thrombin potential. This decreased ability to generate thrombin offers a mechanism for PAR4s role in VTE highlighting a key role for PAR4 signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Knauss, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guci, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luc, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Disharoon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, G. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sen Gupta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.14.617127</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mice with Reduced PAR4 Reactivity show Decreased Venous Thrombosis and Platelet Procoagulant Activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.15.618589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gut bacteria-derived succinate induces enteric nervous system regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.15.618589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enteric neurons control gut physiology by regulating peristalsis, nutrient absorption, and secretion1. Disruptions in microbial communities caused by antibiotics or enteric infections result in the loss of enteric neurons and long-term motility disorders2-5. However, the signals and underlying mechanisms of this microbiota-neuron communication are unknown. We studied the effects of microbiota on the recovery of the enteric nervous system after microbial dysbiosis caused by antibiotics. We found that both enteric neurons and glia are lost after antibiotic exposure, but recover when the pre-treatment microbiota is restored. Using murine gnotobiotic models and fecal metabolomics, we identified neurogenic bacterial species and their derived metabolite succinate as sufficient to rescue enteric neurons and glia. Unbiased single-nuclei RNA-seq analysis uncovered a novel neural precursor-like population marked by the expression of the neuronal gene Nav2. Genetic fate-mapping showed that Plp1+ enteric glia differentiate into neurons following antibiotic exposure. In contrast, Nav2+ neurons expand upon succinate treatment and indicate an alternative mode of neuronal regeneration under recovery conditions. Our findings highlight specific microbial species, metabolites, and the underlying cellular mechanisms involved in neuronal regeneration, with potential therapeutic implications for peripheral neuropathies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aydin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mamede, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardoso, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deere, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, V. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scavuzzo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donaldson, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, C.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mucida, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.15.618589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gut bacteria-derived succinate induces enteric nervous system regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.16.618588v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Methylation Clocks Do Not Predict Age or Alzheimer's Disease Risk Across Genetically Admixed Individuals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.16.618588v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epigenetic clocks that quantify rates of aging from DNA methylation patterns across the genome have emerged as a potential biomarker for risk of age-related diseases, like Alzheimers disease (AD), and environmental and social stressors. However, methylation clocks have not been validated in genetically diverse cohorts. Here we evaluate a set of methylation clocks in 621 AD patients and matched controls from African American, Hispanic, and white cohorts. The clocks are less accurate at predicting age in genetically admixed individuals, especially those with substantial African ancestry, than in the white cohort. The clocks also do not consistently identify age acceleration in admixed AD cases compared to controls. Methylation QTL (meQTL) commonly influence CpGs in clocks, and these meQTL have significantly higher frequencies in African genetic ancestries. Our results demonstrate that methylation clocks often fail to predict age and AD risk beyond their training populations and suggest avenues for improving their portability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cruz-Gonzalez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mews, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuccaro, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cornejo-Olivas, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feliciano-Astacio, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrd, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capra, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.16.618588</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Methylation Clocks Do Not Predict Age or Alzheimer's Disease Risk Across Genetically Admixed Individuals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.17.618979v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Plasmid transmission dynamics and evolution of partner quality in a natural population of Rhizobium leguminosarum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.17.618979v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many bacterial traits important to host-microbe symbiosis are determined by genes carried on extrachromosomal replicons such as plasmids, chromids, and integrative and conjugative elements. Multiple such replicons often coexist within a single cell and, due to horizontal mobility, have patterns of variation and evolutionary histories that are distinct from each other and from the bacterial chromosome. In nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium, genes carried on multiple plasmids make up almost 50% of the genome, are necessary for the formation of symbiosis, and underlie bacterial traits including host plant benefits. Thus the genomics and transmission of plasmids in Rhizobium underlie the ecology and evolution of this important model symbiont.

Here we leverage a natural population of clover-associated Rhizobium in which partner quality has declined in response to long-term nitrogen fertilization. We use 62 novel, reference-quality genomes to characterize 257 replicons in the plasmidome and study their genomics and transmission patterns. We find that, of the four most frequent plasmid types, two (types II & III) have more stable size, larger core genomes, and track the chromosomal phylogeny (display more vertical transmission), while others (types I & IV - the symbiosis plasmid, or pSym) vary substantially in size, shared gene content, and have phylogenies consistent with frequent horizontal transmission. We also find differentiation in pSym subtypes driven by long-term nitrogen fertilization. Our results highlight the variation in plasmid transmission dynamics within a single symbiont and implicate plasmid horizontal transmission in the evolution of partner quality.

IMPORTANCEUnderstanding how bacterial genes move through natural populations is critical for understanding how bacterial traits evolve. The nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum lives in symbiosis with plants and is a model for studying how gene transmission from one cell to another on mobile genetic elements called plasmids impacts the evolution of bacteria and plants. Here we characterize the genomes of a natural bacterial population, then use novel approaches to show that mechanisms of plasmid gene transmission varies across multiple plasmid types possessed by R. leguminosarum. We find that changes in plasmid genes are associated with the decline of symbiotic partner quality in strains isolated from environments undergoing long-term fertilization. Together, these results underscore the importance of plasmid evolution in shaping ecosystem processes like nitrogen cycling. Our study provides a framework for probing the plasmid dynamics within natural bacterial populations and how plasmid transmission affects genetic diversity and ecological interactions in bacteria.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vereau Gorbitz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwarz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMullen, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceron-Romero, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doyle, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lau, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitaker, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderpool, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heath, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.17.618979</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Plasmid transmission dynamics and evolution of partner quality in a natural population of Rhizobium leguminosarum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.24.619909v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
African origin haplotype protective for Alzheimer's disease in APOEϵ4 carriers: exploring potential mechanisms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.24.619909v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
APOE{varepsilon}4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimers disease (AD) with approximately 50% of AD patients carrying at least one APOE{varepsilon}4 allele. Our group identified a protective interaction between APOE{varepsilon}4 with the African-specific A allele of rs10423769, which reduces the AD risk effect of APOE{varepsilon}4 homozygotes by approximately 75%. The protective variant lies 2Mb from APOE in a region of segmental duplications (SD) of chromosome 19 containing a cluster of pregnancy specific beta-1 glycoprotein genes (PSGs) and a long non-coding RNA. Using both short and long read sequencing, we demonstrate that rs10423769_A allele lies within a unique single haplotype inside this region of segmental duplication. We identified the protective haplotype in all African ancestry populations studied, including both West and East Africans, suggesting the variant has an old origin. Long-read sequencing identified both structural and DNA methylation differences between the protective rs10423769_A allele and non-protective haplotypes. An expanded variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) containing multiple MEF2 family transcription factor binding motifs was found associated with the protective haplotype (p-value = 2.9e-10). These findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms of this African-origin protective variant for AD in APOE{varepsilon}4 carriers and supports the importance of including all ancestries in AD research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bertholim-Nasciben, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nuytemans, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Booven, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moura, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vontell, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McInerney, K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuccaro, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrd, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ADSP (Alzheimers Disease Sequencing Project),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.24.619909</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[African origin haplotype protective for Alzheimer's disease in APOEϵ4 carriers: exploring potential mechanisms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.28.620587v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Reinforcement Learning-based Approach for Dynamic Privacy Protection in Genomic Data Sharing Beacons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.28.620587v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The rise of genomic sequencing has led to significant privacy concerns due to the sensitive and identifiable nature of genomic data. The Beacon Project, initiated by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), was designed to enable privacy-preserving sharing of genomic information via an online querying system. However, studies have revealed that the protocol is vulnerable to membership inference attacks, which can expose the presence of individuals in sensitive datasets. Various countermeasures, such as noise addition and query restrictions, have been proposed but are limited by static implementation, leaving them prone to attackers that can adapt and change strategies. In this study, we present the first reinforcement learning (RL)-based approach for dynamic privacy protection of the beacon protocol. We employ a multi-player RL setting where we train (i) a "Generic-Beacon-Defender" agent who can adjust the honesty rate of its responses, against (ii) a "Generic-Beacon-Attacker" agent who can choose the order of the queries and ask random queries to make the beacon think it is a regular user. This is the first defense mechanism capable of adapting its strategy in real time based on user queries, distinguishing between legitimate users and potential attackers, and applying tailored policies accordingly. By doing so, this method enhances both privacy and utility, effectively countering sophisticated and evolving threats. The code and the models are available at github.com/ciceklab/beacon-defense-strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Poorghaffar Aghdam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukueian Tabrizi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayoz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayday, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sav, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cicek, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.28.620587</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Reinforcement Learning-based Approach for Dynamic Privacy Protection in Genomic Data Sharing Beacons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.621065v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functionally Important Residues from Graph Analysis of Coevolved Dynamic couplings 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.621065v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The relationship between protein dynamics and function is essential for understanding biological processes and developing effective therapeutics. Functional sites within proteins are critical for activities such as substrate binding, catalysis, and structural changes. Existing computational methods for the predictions of functional residues are trained on sequence, structural and experimental data, but they do not explicitly model the influence of evolution on protein dynamics. This overlooked contribution is essential as it is known that evolution can fine tune protein dynamics through compensatory mutations, either to improve the proteins performance or diversify its function while maintaining the same structural scaffold. To model this critical contribution, we introduce DyNoPy, a computational method that combines residue coevolution analysis with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, revealing hidden correlations between functional sites. DyNoPy constructs a graph model of residue-residue interactions, identifies communities of key residue groups and annotates critical sites based on their roles. By leveraging the concept of coevolved dynamical couplings--residue pairs with critical dynamical interactions that have been preserved during evolution--DyNoPy offers a powerful method for predicting and analysing protein evolution and dynamics. We demonstrate the effectiveness of DyNoPy on SHV-1 and PDC-3, chromosomally encoded {beta}-lactamases linked to antibiotic resistance, highlighting its potential to inform drug design and address pressing healthcare challenges.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dantu, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garnett, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandini, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haider, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.30.621065</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functionally Important Residues from Graph Analysis of Coevolved Dynamic couplings]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622420v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Axonal injury signaling is restrained by a spared synaptic branch 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.07.622420v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The intrinsic ability of injured neurons to degenerate and regenerate their axons facilitates nervous system repair, however this ability is not engaged in all neurons and injury locations. Here we investigate the regulation of a conserved axonal injury response pathway with respect to the location of damage in branched motoneuron axons in Drosophila larvae. The dileucine zipper kinase DLK, (also known as MAP3K12 in mammals and Wallenda (Wnd) in Drosophila), is a key regulator of diverse responses to axonal injury. In three different populations of motoneurons, we observed the same striking result that Wnd/DLK signaling becomes activated only in response to injuries that remove all synaptic terminals. Injuries that spare even a small part of a synaptic terminal fail to activate Wnd/DLK signaling, despite the presence of extensive axonal degeneration. The regulation of injury-induced Wnd/DLK signaling occurs independently of its previously known regulator, the Hiw/PHR ubiquitin ligase. We propose that Wnd/DLK signaling regulation is linked to the trafficking of a synapse-to-nucleus axonal cargo and that this mechanism enables neurons to respond to impairments in synaptic connectivity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smithson, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zang, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Junginger, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waller, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reilly-Jankowiak, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.07.622420</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Axonal injury signaling is restrained by a spared synaptic branch]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622020v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-omic latent variable data integration reveals multicellular structure pathways associated with resistance to tuberculin skin test (TST)/interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) conversion in Uganda 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622020v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding the mechanisms of early clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) may illuminate new therapeutic strategies for tuberculosis (TB). We previously found genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptomic signatures associated with resistance (resister, RSTR) to tuberculin skin test (TST)/interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) conversion among highly exposed TB contacts. We hypothesized that integration of these datasets with multi-omic latent factor methods would detect pathways differentiating RSTR patients from those with latent infection (LTBI) which were not differentiated by individual dataset analyses. We pre-filtered and scaled features with the largest change between LTBI and RSTR groups for 126 patients with data in at least two of five data modalities: single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), monocyte RNAseq (baseline and Mtb-stimulated conditions), and monocyte epigenetics (methylation and ATAC-seq). Using multiomic latent factor analysis (MOFA), we generated ten latent factors on the subset of 33 patients with all five datasets available, four of which were different between LTBI and RSTR (FDR < 0.1). Factor 4, which was the most integrated of the significant factors, showed the greatest difference between RSTR and LTBI groups (FDR < 0.001). Three additional latent factor data integration methods also distinguished the RSTR and LTBI groups and identified overlapping features with MOFA. Using pathway analysis and a cluster-based enrichment method, we identified biologic functions associated with latent factors and found that MOFA Factors 2-4 include functions related to cell-cell adhesion, cell shape, and development of multicellular structures. In summary, latent variable integration methods uncovered signatures associated with resistance to TST/IGRA conversion that were not detected within individual dataset analyses and included pathways associated with cellular interactions and multicellular structures.

Author SummaryTuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Previous research has identified some genetic and molecular patterns that are linked to resistance to TB in people who are highly exposed to the bacterium that causes the disease but do not develop an infection. We took genetic, epigenetic, and gene expression data from people who were not infected after exposure to TB within in their household and compared them with people who did develop a latent form of TB disease after similar exposure. We used a special method to analyze these datasets in an integrated way, rather than separately. This approach revealed four key factors that clearly distinguished between the resistant individuals and those with latent infection. One of these factors, in particular, showed a strong difference. We found that these factors were related to important biological processes such as how cells stick together, their shape, and how they form tissues. This method allowed us to see new patterns in the biological pathways linked to TB resistance that were not evident when looking at each type of data on its own.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cox, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dill-McFarland, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simmons, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawn, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.05.622020</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-omic latent variable data integration reveals multicellular structure pathways associated with resistance to tuberculin skin test (TST)/interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) conversion in Uganda]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622112v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How do body size and habitat fragmentation influence extinction in lizards? A long-term case study on artificial islands in the Brazilian Cerrado 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622112v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Habitat fragmentation is known to cause extinctions and species turnover, but the factors that allow some species to persist while others become locally extinct are not well understood. Landscape flooding following the construction of hydroelectric dams causes a particularly dramatic form of fragmentation disturbance, where former terrestrial habitats become aquatic and former hilltops become land-bridge islands. As such, reservoir land-bridge islands have become a successful model for accessing the impacts of fragmentation on biodiversity. We used the lizard community, to assess species sensitivity to habitat structural change during land-bridge island formation. We monitored the lizard community for 23 years before, during, and after the flooding of the Serra da Mesa Dam reservoir. Over the course of our study, the diversity of the lizard community on land-bridge islands and mainland sites along the shores of the newly formed reservoir declined from 19 to six species. We found that in Serra da Mesa islands, lizards with large body sizes (e.g., Teiidae and Tropiduridae) decreased in abundance along the flooding process, thereby increasing their extinction risk. In contrast, we found a high abundance of small-bodied lizards (Gekkonidae, Gymnophthalmidae, Scincidae, and Sphaerodactylidae) on Serra da Mesa islands. Richness on the islands declined dramatically, resulting in communities currently with one highly abundant species, Gymnodactylus amarali. For the sake of biodiversity conservation, island or fragment sizes must be considered for maintaining a reasonable number of species and our characterization of the local extinction patterns may provide relevant information to mitigate wildlife depletion due to habitat fragmentation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miranda, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandao, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.05.622112</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How do body size and habitat fragmentation influence extinction in lizards? A long-term case study on artificial islands in the Brazilian Cerrado]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.13.623500v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Basal cell of origin resolves neuroendocrine-tuft lineage plasticity in cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.13.623500v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Summary paragraphNeuroendocrine and tuft cells are rare, chemosensory epithelial lineages defined by expression of ASCL1 and POU2F3 transcription factors, respectively1,2. Neuroendocrine cancers, including small cell lung cancer (SCLC), frequently display tuft-like subsets, a feature linked to poor patient outcomes3-13. The mechanisms driving neuroendocrine-tuft tumour heterogeneity, and the origins of tuft-like cancers are unknown. Using multiple genetically-engineered animal models of SCLC, we demonstrate that a basal cell of origin (but not the accepted neuroendocrine origin) generates neuroendocrine-tuft-like tumours that highly recapitulate human SCLC. Single-cell clonal analyses of basal-derived SCLC further uncovers unexpected transcriptional states and lineage trajectories underlying neuroendocrine-tuft plasticity. Uniquely in basal cells, introduction of genetic alterations enriched in human tuft-like SCLC, including high MYC, PTEN loss, and ASCL1 suppression, cooperate to promote tuft-like tumours. Transcriptomics of 944 human SCLCs reveal a basal-like subset and a tuft-ionocyte-like state that altogether demonstrate remarkable conservation between cancer states and normal basal cell injury response mechanisms14-18. Together, these data suggest that the basal cell is a plausible origin for SCLC and other neuroendocrine-tuft cancers that can explain neuroendocrine-tuft heterogeneity--offering new insights for targeting lineage plasticity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ireland, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawgood, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbier, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas-Randolph, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyson, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuo, L. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witt, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Govindan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dowlati, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moser, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudin, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elliott, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliver, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.13.623500</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Basal cell of origin resolves neuroendocrine-tuft lineage plasticity in cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.15.620441v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cerebellar white matter development is regulated by fractalkine-dependent microglia phagocytosis of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.15.620441v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Complex neurodevelopmental disorders involve motor as well as cognitive dysfunction and these impairments are associated with both cerebral and cerebellar maturity. A network of connections between these two brain regions is proposed to underlie neurodevelopmental impairments. The cerebellar gray matter has a protracted developmental timeline compared to the cerebral cortex, however, making the association of these relay pathways unclear for neurodevelopmental disabilities. We show that a population of amoeboid microglia infiltrate the cerebellar white matter through the fourth ventricular zone during early postnatal development. This infiltration is synchronized with the emergence of amoeboid microglia in the ventricular zone of the lateral ventricles and appearance in cerebral white matter. Amoeboid microglia phagocytosed oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) in the cerebellar white matter during a restricted early postnatal time window before transitioning to a ramified morphology. Modulating fractalkine receptor signaling, shown to be involved in microglial pruning of synapses, significantly reduced microglial engulfment of OPCs resulting in increased numbers of OLs and altered myelin formation. Variants in the fractalkine receptor are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia and autism where myelin perturbations have been documented. Overall, these data support that white matter refinement by amoeboid microglia is coordinated in both cerebral and cerebellar development with important implications for altered circuit function in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

One sentence summaryMicroglia engulf oligodendrocyte progenitors in the developing cerebellum
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chappell, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shelestak, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irfan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shelestak, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemes-Baran, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mey, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeSilva, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.15.620441</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cerebellar white matter development is regulated by fractalkine-dependent microglia phagocytosis of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624514v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural correlates of kinematic features of passive finger movement revealed by univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624514v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Finger movements are associated with a relatively large neural representation. Passive finger movement - which involves refraining from actively performing or resisting movement - is a robust approach to investigate the neural representation of kinesthesia and proprioception in the brain. While some studies have characterized the neural correlates of passive finger movement, they have relied solely on mass univariate analysis, potentially affecting result sensitivity. Additionally, limited consideration has been given to stimulus duration, a factor closely tied to some kinematic features (amplitude and velocity), which recently proposed modeling approaches now take into account. Here, we reanalyzed previously published data using univariate and multivariate analysis to understand how kinesthesia is neurally encoded in neurotypical subjects in two separate experiments. Systematic passive stimulation of the fingers was provided using an MR-compatible robot while functional magnetic resonance imaging data was recorded. Our analyses consisted of univariate and multivariate approaches, conducted separately for each kinematic feature and adjusted for stimulus duration, regardless of whether brain activation scales with it. We provide a detailed mapping of brain areas related to amplitude, velocity, and direction of passive finger movement, including sensorimotor, subcortical, and cerebellar areas. In general, multivariate pattern analysis was more sensitive than the univariate approach in identifying brain regions associated with passive finger movement. Our univariate analysis demonstrated that activity in sensorimotor and subcortical areas was higher for larger amplitudes and slower velocities, which opposes to the original studys results, likely due to our treatment of stimulus duration as a confounder specified as a parametric modulator. A novel result, we also demonstrated that brain activity in sensorimotor areas was higher for extension compared to flexion of passive finger movement. In terms of kinematic features, a larger neural representation was found for amplitude and direction compared to velocity of passive finger movement. This indicates that kinesthesia and proprioception may be more reliant on displacement than kinematic aspects of passive finger movement. While univariate analyses are limited in addressing spatial heterogeneity and subject-level variability, our multivariate analyses showed increased sensitivity in identifying brain regions encoding passive movement. Our findings may extend the knowledge of how the brain encodes physical movements and may help design neurorehabilitation strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pamplona, G. S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sulzer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beldzik, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambercy, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ionta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gassert, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis-Peacock, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.20.624514</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural correlates of kinematic features of passive finger movement revealed by univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624784v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unraveling SARS-CoV-2 Host-Response Heterogeneity through Longitudinal Molecular Subtyping 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624784v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients exhibit diverse immune responses during acute infection, which are associated with a wide range of clinical outcomes. However, understanding these immune heterogeneities and their links to various clinical complications, especially long COVID, remains a challenge. In this study, we performed unsupervised subtyping of longitudinal multi-omics immunophenotyping in over 1,000 hospitalized patients, identifying two critical subtypes linked to mortality or mechanical ventilation with prolonged hospital stay and three severe subtypes associated with timely acute recovery. We confirmed that unresolved systemic inflammation and T-cell dysfunctions were hallmarks of increased severity and further distinguished patients with similar acute respiratory severity by their distinct immune profiles, which correlated with differences in demographic and clinical complications. Notably, one critical subtype (SubF) was uniquely characterized by early excessive inflammation, insufficient anticoagulation, and fatty acid dysregulation, alongside higher incidences of hematologic, cardiac, and renal complications, and an elevated risk of long COVID. Among the severe subtypes, significant differences in viral clearance and early antiviral responses were observed, with one subtype (SubC) showing strong early T-cell cytotoxicity but a poor humoral response, slower viral clearance, and greater risks of chronic organ dysfunction and long COVID. These findings provide crucial insights into the complex and context-dependent nature of COVID-19 immune responses, highlighting the importance of personalized therapeutic strategies to improve both acute and long-term outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nie, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maguire, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syphurs, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karoly, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lapp, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gygi, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayavelu, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>IMPACC Network,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corry, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kheradmand, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McComsey, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez-Sesma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simon, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metcalf, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agudelo Higuita, N. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Messer, W. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>David, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeau, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraft, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bime, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaenman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calfee, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atkinson, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brackenridge, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hafler, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rahman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hough, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geng, L. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozonoff, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakel, H. v.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim-Schulze, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krammer, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckalbar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosinger,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.22.624784</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unraveling SARS-CoV-2 Host-Response Heterogeneity through Longitudinal Molecular Subtyping]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.27.625729v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Elucidating the dynamics of Integrin αIIb3 from native platelet membranes by cryo-EM with build and retrieve method 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.27.625729v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Platelets fulfill their essential physiological roles sensing the extracellular environment through their membrane proteins. The native membrane environment provides essential regulatory cues that impact the protein structure and mechanism of action. Single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has transformed structural biology by allowing high-resolution structures of membrane proteins to be solved from homogeneous samples. Our recent breakthroughs in data processing now make it feasible to obtain atomic-level-resolution protein structures from crude preparations in their native environments by integrating cryo-EM with the "Build-and-Retrieve" (BaR) data processing methodology. We applied this iterative bottom-up methodology on resting human platelet membranes for an in-depth systems biology approach to uncover how lipids, metal binding, post-translational modifications, and co-factor associations in the native environment regulate platelet function at the molecular level. Here, we report using cryo-EM followed by the BaR method to solve the unmodified integrin IIb{beta}3 structure directly from resting human platelet membranes in its inactivated and intermediate states at 2.75[A] and 2.67[A], respectively. Further, we also solved a novel dimer conformation of IIb{beta}3 at 2.85[A] formed by two intermediate-states of IIb{beta}3. This may indicate a previously unknown self-regulatory mechanism of IIb{beta}3 in its native environment.

In conclusion, our data show the power of using cryo-EM with the BaR method to determine three distinct structures including a novel dimer directly from natural sources. This approach allows us to identify unrecognized regulation mechanisms for proteins without artifacts due to purification processes. These data have the potential to enrich our understanding of platelet signaling circuitry.

Key pointsO_LIWe report the first structural analysis of platelet membrane proteins extracted directly from human platelet membranes.
C_LIO_LIOur novel structural-omics approach allowed us to solve integrin IIb{beta}3 structures in two distinct states from resting human platelets.
C_LIO_LIRegulatory cues of integrin IIb{beta}3 were preserved from the native resource and revealed on the models with atomic resolutions.
C_LIO_LIThis study opens the potential to build the platelet membrane protein atlas to understand platelet physiology.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, C.-c.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.27.625729</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Elucidating the dynamics of Integrin αIIb3 from native platelet membranes by cryo-EM with build and retrieve method]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.28.625971v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GABRA1 frameshift variants impair GABAA receptor proteostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.28.625971v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR) is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter-gated ion channel in the central nervous system. Pathogenic variants in genes encoding GABAAR subunits can cause receptor dysfunction and lead to genetic epilepsy. Frameshift variants in these genes can result in a premature termination codon, producing truncated receptor subunit variants. However, the pathogenic molecular mechanism as well as functional implications of these frameshift variants remains inadequately characterized. This study focused on four clinical frameshift variants of the 1 subunit of GABAAR (encoded by the GABRA1 gene): K401fs (c.1200del), S326fs (c.975del), V290fs (c.869_888del), and F272fs (c.813del). These variants result in the loss of one to three transmembrane helices, whereas wild type 1 has four transmembrane helices. Therefore, these variants serve as valuable models to evaluate membrane protein biogenesis and proteostasis deficiencies of GABAARs. In HEK293T cells, all four frameshift variants exhibit significantly reduced trafficking to the cell surface, resulting in essentially non-functional ion channels. However, the severity of proteostasis deficiency varied among these four frameshift variants, presumably due to their specific transmembrane domain deletions. The variant 1subunits exhibited endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention and activated the unfolded protein response (UPR) to varying extents. Our findings revealed that these frameshift variants of GABRA1 utilize overlapping yet distinct molecular mechanisms to impair proteostasis, providing insights into the pathogenesis of GABAAR-associated epilepsy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, J.-Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.28.625971</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GABRA1 frameshift variants impair GABAA receptor proteostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626399v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell-Cell Fusion in NSCLC Confers a Fitness Benefit Under Drug Selection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626399v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell-cell fusion has been implicated in various physiological and pathological processes, including cancer progression. This study investigated the role of cell-cell fusion in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), focusing on its contribution to chemoresistance and tumor evolution. By co-culturing drug-sensitive and drug-resistant NSCLC cell lines, we observed spontaneous cell-cell fusion events, particularly under gefitinib selection. These fused cells exhibited enhanced fitness and a higher degree of chemoresistance compared to parental lines across a panel of 12 chemotherapeutic agents. Further analysis, including fluorescence imaging and cell cycle analysis, confirmed nuclear fusion and increased DNA content in the fused cells. Bulk RNA sequencing revealed genomic heterogeneity in fused cells, including enrichment of gene sets associated with cell cycle progression and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, both of which are hallmarks of cancer. These findings demonstrate that cell-cell fusion can act as a novel source of chemotherapeutic resistance and further promote aggressive phenotypes in NSCLC, highlighting the potential of fusion as a therapeutic target.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shultes, P. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tadele, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durmaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barker-Clarke, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinh, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alemu, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rayner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.02.626399</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell-Cell Fusion in NSCLC Confers a Fitness Benefit Under Drug Selection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.28.625934v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ST6GAL1-mediated sialyl linkage switching in tumor-associated macrophages drives cancer-promoting nanotubes carrying α2,6-sialylation in anti-inflammatory cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.28.625934v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) form functionally diverse populations of innate immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Pro- and anti-inflammatory TAMs are central to cancer progression by shaping inflammation and immune (im)balance, but it remains unknown if polarization-induced remodeling of the TAM glycocalyx critical for cellular communication occurs within the TME. Taking a systems glycobiology approach, we here firstly used cell surface-focused glycomics and lectin flow cytometry of ex vivo polarized monocyte-derived macrophages to demonstrate profound sialyl linkage switching of the surface N-glycome in pro-inflammatory (2,3-sialo-favored) and anti-inflammatory (2,6-sialo-dominant) macrophages. In contrast, no polarization-induced alterations in sialylation were observed in the surface O-glycome. ST6GAL1 that modifies N-glycans with 2,6-sialylation was elevated in anti-inflammatory compared to levels in pro-inflammatory macrophages providing a mechanistic basis for the sialyl linkage switching, which was supported by ST6GAL1 silencing. Interestingly, SNA-focused lectin cytochemistry of anti-inflammatory macrophages revealed dense networks of dynamic 2,6-sialylated protein-based nanotubules forming inter-connecting cellular structures that were absent in pro-inflammatory macrophages. Temporal ST6GAL1 silencing in anti-inflammatory macrophages caused nanotubule disintegration as evidenced by SNA and biotin fluorescence microscopy. Moreover, live cell recordings of anti-inflammatory macrophages cultured with and without colorectal cancer (CRC) cells showed reduced macrophage motility, attenuated inter-macrophage and macrophage-CRC cell interactions and diminished CRC cell proliferation upon ST6GAL1 disruption indicating functional roles of the 2,6-sialylated nanotubules. Finally, sialyl linkage switching was recapitulated in pro- and anti-inflammatory TAMs from tumor tissues of patients with advanced CRC. We report on the mechanistic basis for and functional consequences of glycocalyx remodeling accompanying TAM polarization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dipta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bansal, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sumer-Bayraktar, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chien, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ugonotti, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chau, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anugraham, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolarich, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirosh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawahara, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thaysen-Andersen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.28.625934</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ST6GAL1-mediated sialyl linkage switching in tumor-associated macrophages drives cancer-promoting nanotubes carrying α2,6-sialylation in anti-inflammatory cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.624972v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Two distinct durable human class-switched memory B cell populations are induced by vaccination and infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.624972v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Memory lymphocytes are durable cells that persist in the absence of antigen, but few human B cell subsets have been characterized in terms of durability. The relative durability of eight non-overlapping human B cell sub-populations covering 100% of all human class-switched B cells was interrogated. Only two long-lived B cell populations persisted in the relative absence of antigen. In addition to canonical germinal center-derived switched-memory B cells with an IgD-CD27+ CXCR5+ phenotype, a second, non-canonical, but distinct memory population of IgD-CD27- CXCR5+ DN1 B cells was also durable, exhibited a unique TP63-linked transcriptional and anti-apoptotic signature, had low levels of somatic hypermutation, but was more clonally expanded than canonical switched-memory B cells. DN1 B cells likely evolved to preserve immunological breadth and may represent the human counterparts of rodent extrafollicular memory B cells that, unlike canonical memory B cells, can enter germinal centers and facilitate B cell and antibody evolution.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=140 SRC="FIGDIR/small/624972v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@169c77forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a872f5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1360cforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@38d7ed_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perugino, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feldman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marbourg, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guy, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hui, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ingram, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liebaert, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaudhary, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob-Dolan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hauser, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mian, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nathan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaseke, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tano-Menka, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Getz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senjobe, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berrios, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ofoman, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manickas-Hill, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wesemann, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lemieux, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldberg, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nundel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moormann, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshak-Rothstein, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larocque, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryan, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iafrate, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lingwood, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaiha, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charles, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balazs, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandit, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naranbhai, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pillai, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.29.624972</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Two distinct durable human class-switched memory B cell populations are induced by vaccination and infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626331v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vaccines for immunological defense against traumatic brain injury 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626331v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and subsequent neurodegeneration is partially driven by chronic inflammation both locally and systemically. Yet, current clinical intervention strategies do not mitigate inflammation sequalae necessitating the development of innovative approaches to reduce inflammation and minimize deleterious effects of TBI. Herein, a subcutaneous formulation based on polymer of alpha-ketoglutarate (paKG) delivering glycolytic inhibitor PFK15 (PFKFB3 inhibitor, a rate limiting step in glycolysis), alpha-ketoglutarate (to fuel Krebs cycle) and peptide antigen from myelin proteolipid protein (PLP139-151) was utilized as the prophylactic immunosuppressive formulation in a mouse model of TBI. In vitro, the paKG(PFK15+PLP) vaccine formulation stimulated proliferation of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells and induced generation of T helper-2 cells. When given subcutaneously in the periphery to two weeks prior to mice sustaining a TBI, the active vaccine formulation increased frequency of immunosuppressive macrophages and dendritic cells in the periphery and the brain at day 7 post- TBI and by 28 days post-TBI enhanced PLP-specific immunosuppressive cells infiltrated the brain. While immunohistology measurements of neuroinflammation were not altered 28 days post-TBI, the vaccine formulation improved motor function and enhanced autophagy mediated genes in a spatial manner in the brain. Overall, these data suggest that the TBI vaccine formulation successfully induced an anti-inflammatory profile and decreased TBI-associated inflammation.

TeaserIn this study, a vaccine formulation was generated to develop central nervous specific immunosuppressive responses for TBI.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Acharya, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stabenfeldt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.02.626331</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vaccines for immunological defense against traumatic brain injury]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626631v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tokenvizz: GraphRAG-Inspired Tokenization Tool for Genomic Data Discovery and Visualization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626631v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SummaryOne of the primary challenges in biomedical research is the interpretation of complex genomic relationships and the prediction of functional interactions across the genome. Tokenvizz is a novel tool for genomic analysis that enhances data discovery and visualization by combining GraphRAG-inspired tokenization with graph-based modeling. In Tokenvizz, genomic sequences are represented as graphs, where sequence k-mers (tokens) serve as nodes and attention scores as edge weights, enabling researchers to visually interpret complex, non-linear relationships within DNA sequences. Through a web-based visualization interface, researchers can interactively explore these genomic relationships and extract biologically meaningful insights about regulatory patterns and functional elements. Applied to promoter-enhancer interaction prediction tasks, Tokenvizz outperformed traditional sequential models while providing interpretable insights into genomic features, demonstrating the advantage of graph-based representations for biological discovery.

Availability and ImplementationTokenvizz, along with its user guide, is freely accessible on GitHub at: https://github.com/ceragoguztuzun/tokenvizz.

ACM Reference FormatCera[g] O[g]uztuzun, Zhenxiang Gao, and Rong Xu. 2024. Tokenvizz: GraphRAG Inspired Tokenization Tool for Genomic Data Discovery and Visualization. In Proceedings of (Bioinformatics). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https://doi.org/XXXXXXX.XXXXXXX
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oguztuzun, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.03.626631</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tokenvizz: GraphRAG-Inspired Tokenization Tool for Genomic Data Discovery and Visualization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626612v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High KIR diversity in Uganda and Botswana children living with HIV 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626612v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are essential components of the innate immune system found on the surfaces of natural killer (NK) cells. The KIRs encoding genes are located on chromosome 19q13.4 and are genetically diverse across populations. KIRs are associated with various disease states including HIV progression, and are linked to transplantation rejection and reproductive success. However, there is limited knowledge on the diversity of KIRs from Uganda and Botswana HIV-infected paediatric cohorts, with high endemic HIV rates. We used next-generation sequencing technologies on 312 (246 Uganda, 66 Botswana) samples to generate KIR allele data and employed customised bioinformatics techniques for allelic, allotype and disease association analysis. We show that these sample sets from Botswana and Uganda have different KIRs of different diversities. In Uganda, we observed 147 vs 111 alleles in the Botswana cohort, which had a more than 1 % frequency. We also found significant deviation towards homozygosity for the KIR3DL2 gene for both rapid (RPs) and long-term non-progressors (LTNPs)in the Ugandan cohort. The frequency of the bw4-80I ligand was also significantly higher among the LTNPs than RPs (8.9 % Vs 2.0%, P-value: 0.032). In the Ugandan cohort, KIR2DS4*001 (OR: 0.671, 95 % CI: 0.481-0.937, FDR adjusted Pc=0.142) and KIR2DS4*006 (OR: 2.519, 95 % CI: 1.085-5.851, FDR adjusted Pc=0.142) were not associated with HIV disease progression after adjustment for multiple testing. Our study results provide additional knowledge of the genetic diversity of KIRs in African populations and provide evidence that will inform future immunogenetics studies concerning human disease susceptibility, evolution and host immune responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>John, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyobe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amujal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katagirya, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diphoko, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebetso, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mwesigwa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mboowa, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Retshabile, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mogomotsi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mlotshwa, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jjingo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>kateete, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joloba, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mardon, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanchard, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hollenbach, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.03.626612</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High KIR diversity in Uganda and Botswana children living with HIV]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.05.627056v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
UltimateSynth: MRI Physics for Pan-Contrast AI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.05.627056v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is commonly used in healthcare for its ability to generate diverse tissue contrasts without ionizing radiation. However, this flexibility complicates downstream analysis, as computational tools are often tailored to specific types of MRI and lack generalizability across the full spectrum of scans used in healthcare. Here, we introduce a versatile framework for the development and validation of AI models that can robustly process and analyze the full spectrum of scans achievable with MRI, enabling model deployment across scanner models, scan sequences, and age groups. Core to our framework is UltimateSynth, a technology that combines tissue physiology and MR physics in synthesizing realistic images across a comprehensive range of meaningful contrasts. This pan-contrast capability bolsters the AI development life cycle through efficient data labeling, generalizable model training, and thorough performance benchmarking. We showcase the effectiveness of UltimateSynth by training an off-the-shelf U-Net to generalize anatomical segmentation across any MR contrast. The U-Net yields highly robust tissue volume estimates, with variability under 4% across 150,000 unique-contrast images, 3.8% across 2,000+ low-field 0.3T scans, and 3.5% across 8,000+ images spanning the human lifespan from ages 0 to 100.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Adams, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huynh, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yap, P.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.05.627056</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[UltimateSynth: MRI Physics for Pan-Contrast AI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628754v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Personalizing chemotherapy drug selection using a novel transcriptomic chemogram 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628754v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gene expression signatures predictive of chemotherapeutic response have the potential to greatly extend the reach of precision medicine by allowing medical providers to plan treatment regimens on an individual basis for patients with and without actionable mutations. Most published gene signatures are only capable of predicting response for individual drugs, but currently, a majority of chemotherapy regimens utilize combinations of different agents. We propose a unified framework, called the chemogram, that uses predictive gene signatures to rank the relative predicted sensitivity of different drugs for individual tumor samples. Using this approach, providers could efficiently screen against many therapeutics to identify the drugs that would fit best into a patients treatment plan at any given time. This can be easily reassessed at any point in time if treatment efficacy begins to decline due to therapeutic resistance.

To demonstrate the utility of the chemogram, we first extract predictive gene signatures using a previously established method for extracting pan-cancer signatures inspired by convergent evolution. We derived 3 signatures for 3 commonly used cytotoxic drugs (cisplatin, gemcitabine, and 5-fluorouracil). We then used these signatures in our framework to predict and rank sensitivity among the drugs within individual cell lines. To assess the accuracy of our method, we compared the rank order of predicted response to the rank order of observed response (fraction of surviving cells at a standardized dose) against each of the 3 chemotherapies. Across a majority of cancer types, chemogram-generated predictions were consistently more accurate than randomized prediction rankings, as well as prediction rankings made by randomly generated gene signatures. In addition to the chemograms ability to rank relative sensitivity for any given tumor, this framework is easily scalable for any number of drugs for which a predictive signature exists. We repeated the process described above for 10 drugs and found that the accuracy of the predicted sensitivity rankings was maintained as the number of drugs in the chemograms screen increased.

Our proposed framework demonstrates the ability of transcriptomic signatures to not only predict chemotherapeutic response but correctly assign rankings of drug sensitivity on an individual basis. With further validation, the chemogram could be easily integrated in a clinical setting, as it only requires gene expression data, which is less expensive than an extensive drug screen and can be performed at scale.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin-Rahardja, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarborough, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.17.628754</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Personalizing chemotherapy drug selection using a novel transcriptomic chemogram]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629219v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PRLX-93936 and BMS-214662 are cytotoxic molecular glues that leverage TRIM21 to degrade nucleoporins 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629219v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although molecular glues have emerged as innovative tools within the field of chemically induced proximity, approaches for their discovery remain limited. Here we report a phenotypic screening approach in which small molecules whose cytotoxic mechanisms require ubiquitination show gain of viability following pharmacological inhibition of the E1 enzyme UAE. This approach revealed two previously clinically-evaluated cytotoxins of unknown mechanism, PRLX-93936 and BMS-214662, as molecular glues that directly target the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM21. These molecules induce TRIM21-mediated proteasomal degradation of multiple nucleoporin proteins, leading to inhibition of nuclear export and ultimately cell death. Loss of nucleoporins and nuclear export accounts for past observations in which BMS-214662 led to disrupted subcellular protein localization. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of these agents correlates strongly with TRIM21 expression, suggesting clinical re-evaluation of these agents in patients with TRIM21-high cancers. Additionally, relative to recently-reported TRIM21-targeting glues, these two scaffolds display high cellular potency, creating new opportunities for targeted protein degradation via the design of additional glues and  TRIMTACs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scemama de Gialluly, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayes, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldfarb, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farrar, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fedorov, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.18.629219</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PRLX-93936 and BMS-214662 are cytotoxic molecular glues that leverage TRIM21 to degrade nucleoporins]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629220v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regulation of epigenetics and chromosome structure by human ORC2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629220v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We report a multi-omics study in a human cell line with mutations in three subunits of Origin Recognition Complex (ORC). The ORC subunits bind to DNA independent of each other in addition to as part of a common six-subunit ORC. DNA-bound ORC2 compacts chromatin and attracts repressive histone marks to focal areas of the genome, but ORC2 also activates chromatin at many sites and protects the genes from repressive marks. The epigenetic changes regulate hundreds of genes, including some epigenetic regulators, adding an indirect mechanism by which ORC2 regulates epigenetics without local binding. DNA-bound ORC2 also prevents the acquisition of CTCF at focal sites in the genome to regulate chromatin loops and indirectly affect epigenetics. Thus, our study reveals the genes and ORC1 regions bound by individual ORC subunits and suggests their role as epigenetics and chromosome structure regulators, independent of the role of the six-subunit ORC in DNA replication.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Su, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shibata, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shibata, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.18.629220</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regulation of epigenetics and chromosome structure by human ORC2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.29.630702v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inverted topologies in sequential fitness landscapes enable evolutionary control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.29.630702v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adaptive populations rarely evolve in a static environment. Therefore, understanding and ultimately controlling the evolution of a population requires consideration of fluctuating selective pressures. The fitness landscape metaphor has long been used as a tool for representing the selective pressures a given environment imposes on a population. Much work has already been done to understand the dynamics of evolution on a single fitness landscape. More recently, evolution on fluctuating or sequentially applied landscapes has come to the fore of evolutionary biology. As more empirical landscapes are described, metrics for describing salient features of paired landscapes will have uses for understanding likely evolutionary dynamics. Currently, Pearson correlation coefficient and collateral sensitivity likelihoods are used to quantify topographical relatedness or dissimilarity of a pair of landscapes. Here, we introduce the edge flip fraction, a new metric for comparing landscapes, which quantifies changes in the directionality of evolution between pairs of fitness landscapes. We demonstrate that the edge flip fraction captures topographical differences in landscapes that traditional metrics may overlook which have important consequences for the trajectories of populations evolving on them. By applying this metric to both empirical and synthetic fitness landscapes, we show that it partially predicts the collateral sensitivity likelihoods and can inform the optimality of drug sequences. We show that optimal drug sequences that keep populations within lower fitness regions require shifts in evolutionary directions, which are quantified by the edge flip fraction. Edge flip fraction complements existing measures and may help researchers understand how populations evolve under changing environmental conditions, and could yield clues in the pursuit of evolutionary control.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stacy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weaver, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barker-Clarke, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.29.630702</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inverted topologies in sequential fitness landscapes enable evolutionary control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.06.631466v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rev-RRE activity modulates HIV-1 replication and latency reactivation: Implications for viral persistence and cure strategies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.06.631466v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The HIV-1 Rev-RRE regulatory axis plays a crucial role in viral replication by facilitating the nucleo-cytoplasmic export and expression of viral mRNAs with retained introns. In this study, we investigated the impact of variation in Rev-RRE functional activity on HIV-1 replication kinetics and reactivation from latency. Using a novel HIV-1 clone with an interchangeable Rev cassette, we engineered viruses with different Rev functional activities and demonstrated that higher Rev-RRE activity confers greater viral replication capacity while maintaining a constant level of Nef expression. In addition, a low Rev activity virus rapidly acquired a compensatory mutation in the RRE that significantly increased Rev-RRE activity and replication. In a latency model, proviruses with differing Rev-RRE activity levels varied in the efficiency of viral reactivation, affecting both initial viral release and subsequent replication kinetics. These results demonstrate that activity differences in the Rev-RRE axis among different viral isolates have important implications for HIV replication dynamics and persistence. Importantly, our findings indicate that bolstering Rev/RRE activity could be explored as part of latency reversal strategies in HIV cure efforts.

Author SummaryThe activity of the HIV-1 Rev-RRE axis is essential for viral replication and varies among primary viral isolates. However, the role of this for viral fitness, evolution, and persistence has not previously been investigated. Our results show that during in vitro replication, there is a selective fitness advantage for viruses with higher Rev-RRE activity and that HIV has the ability to fine tune this regulatory system with minimal sequence changes. Additionally, the maintenance of Nef expression in low Rev activity viruses suggests a potential mechanism for balancing immune evasion and replication capacity in different selection landscapes within a host. We also show that viruses with low Rev-RRE activity are more difficult to reverse from latency than viruses with higher Rev-RRE activity. Thus, differences in provirus Rev-RRE activity may be a barrier to developing effective latency reversal strategies. These findings provide new insights into the complex roles that the Rev/RRE axis plays in functionality, viral fitness, evolution, and persistence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dzhivhuho, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, P. E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honeycutt, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mesquita, F. d. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammarskjold, M.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rekosh, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.06.631466</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rev-RRE activity modulates HIV-1 replication and latency reactivation: Implications for viral persistence and cure strategies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.06.631163v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RhCMV Expands CCR5 Memory T Cells and promotes SIV reservoir seeding in the Gut Mucosa 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.06.631163v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a prevalent {beta}-herpesvirus that persists asymptomatically in immunocompetent hosts. In people with HIV-1 (PWH), CMV is associated with persistence of the HIV-1 reservoir and particular inflammatory related co-morbidities. The true causative role of CMV in HIV-associated pathologies remains unclear given that nearly all PWH are coinfected with CMV. In this study, we examined acute phase SIV dynamics in cohorts of rhesus macaques that were seropositive or -negative for rhesus CMV (RhCMV). We observed expansion of CCR5+ target CD4+ T cells in gut and lymph nodes (LN) that existed naturally in RhCMV-seropositive animals, the majority of which did not react to RhCMV lysate. These cells expressed high levels of the chemokine receptor CXCR3 and a ligand for this receptor, CXCL9, was systemically elevated in RhCMV-seropositive animals. RhCMV+ RMs also exhibited higher peak SIV viremia. CCR5 target memory CD4 T cells in the gut of RhCMV+ RMs were maintained during acute SIV and this was associated with greater seeding of SIV DNA in the intestine. Overall, our data suggests the ability of RhCMV to regulate chemotactic axes that direct lymphocyte trafficking and promote seeding of SIV in a diverse, polyclonal pool of memory CD4+ T cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perdios, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suresh Babu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mostrom, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allers, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doyle-Meyers, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fennessey, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keele, B. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaur, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freeman, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mudd, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.06.631163</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RhCMV Expands CCR5 Memory T Cells and promotes SIV reservoir seeding in the Gut Mucosa]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.07.631371v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitoxantrone inhibits and downregulates ERα through binding at the DBD-LBD interface 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.07.631371v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Targeting the estrogen receptor (ER or ER) through competitive antagonists, receptor downregulators, or estrogen synthesis inhibition remains the primary therapeutic strategy for luminal breast cancer. We have identified a novel mechanism of ER inhibition by targeting the critical interface between its DNA-binding domain (DBD) and ligand-binding domain (LBD). We demonstrate that mitoxantrone (MTO), a topoisomerase II inhibitor, binds at this previously unexplored DBD-LBD interface. Using comprehensive computational, biophysical, biochemical, and cellular analyses, we show that independent of its DNA damage response activity, MTO binding induces distinct conformational changes in ER, leading to its cytoplasmic redistribution and subsequent proteasomal degradation. Notably, MTO effectively inhibits clinically relevant ER mutations (Y537S and D538G) that confer resistance to current endocrine therapies, outperforming fulvestrant in both in vitro and in vivo assays. Our findings establish domain-domain interaction targeting as a viable therapeutic strategy for ER, with translational implications for other nuclear receptors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Artham, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yun, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber-Bonk, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pai, C.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keri, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonnell, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.07.631371</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitoxantrone inhibits and downregulates ERα through binding at the DBD-LBD interface]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.07.631553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cholesterol-Dependent Dimerization and Conformational Dynamics of EphA2 Receptors: Insights from Coarse-Grained and All-Atom Simulations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.07.631553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The EphA2 transmembrane receptor regulates cellular growth, differentiation, and motility, and its overexpression in various cancers makes it a potential biomarker for clinical cancer management. EphA2 signaling occurs through ligand-induced dimerization, where the transmembrane (TM) and juxtamembrane (JM) domains play crucial roles in stabilizing the dimer conformations and thereby facilitating signal transduction. Electrostatic interactions between basic JM residues and signaling lipids (PIP2 and PIP3) regulate phosphorylation while Cholesterols potential role in modulating EphA2 activation remains unclear. To investigate this, we modeled the TM-full JM peptide of EphA2 and employed coarse-grain and all-atom simulations to investigate its dimerization in cholesterol-rich and cholesterol-deficient membranes. Our findings reveal that cholesterol stabilizes specific TM dimers and TM-JM interactions with PIP2, highlighting the importance of membrane composition in EphA2 dimerization, oligomerization, and clustering. These insights enhance our understanding of lipid-mediated regulation of EphA2 and its implications in receptor signaling and cancer progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattarai, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.07.631553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cholesterol-Dependent Dimerization and Conformational Dynamics of EphA2 Receptors: Insights from Coarse-Grained and All-Atom Simulations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.09.632235v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Susceptibility of bovine respiratory and mammary epithelial cells to avian and mammalian derived clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.09.632235v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Zoonotic transmission of avian influenza viruses into mammals is relatively rare due to anatomical differences in the respiratory tract between species. Recently, clade 2.3.4.4b highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses were detected circulating in North American cattle. Sporadic transmission between cattle, humans, and other animals proximal to cattle or after consuming products from infected cattle has occurred, but thus far there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission. However, the virus has the potential to adapt to the mammalian respiratory tract with every transmission event that occurs, making it crucial to understand cellular and species tropism of the H5N1 2.3.4.4b viruses. We compared viral kinetics of clade 2.3.4.4b viruses isolated from birds and mammals in respiratory epithelial cells derived from cattle, human, swine, and ferret. We found that avian derived viruses could replicate in swine cells only, yet mammalian derived strains could replicate efficiently in all tracheal and nasal epithelial cells tested. Interestingly, only bovine mammary epithelial cells (MEC) and swine respiratory epithelial cells were permissive to both avian and mammalian derived strains, possibly due to increased sialic acid expression on bovine MEC compared to bovine tracheal epithelial cells (TEC). However, sialic acid expression differed between dairy and beef cows: TEC derived from a dairy cow had increased expression of 2,3 sialic acid receptors compared to TEC from a beef-dairy cow cross. This study highlights the ability of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 viruses derived from mammals but not wild birds to infect the respiratory epithelium of other mammalian hosts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meliopoulos, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cherry, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharp, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brigleb, P. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roubidoux, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Livingston, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ripperger, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gragg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dimitrov, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schultz-Cherry, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.09.632235</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Susceptibility of bovine respiratory and mammary epithelial cells to avian and mammalian derived clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.12.632651v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A GluN2B disease-associated variant promotes degradation of NMDA receptors via autophagy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.12.632651v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are essential for excitatory neurotransmission and their pathogenic variants can lead to proteostasis defects and thus neurological diseases. However, how the proteostasis network degrades pathogenic variants is not well understood. Here, we demonstrated that the R519Q GluN2B variant is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and fails to traffic to the surface to form functional NMDARs. Pharmacological and genetic inhibition of autophagy results in the accumulation of this variant, indicating that it is degraded by the autophagy-lysosomal proteolysis pathway. Since GluN2B has a cytosolic LIR motif, which can interact with cytosolic autophagy machinery, we demonstrated that disrupting this LIR motif impairs the autophagic clearance of this variant. Additionally, the R519Q variant is recognized by ER-phagy receptors, including CCPG1 and RTN3L. Our result provides the molecular mechanism for the degradation of NMDAR variants and identifies a pathway for targeted therapeutic intervention for neurological disorders with dysfunctional NMDARs.

SummaryNMDA receptors are essential for excitatory neurotransmission and their proteostasis defects lead to neurological diseases. Benske et al. report that pathogenic R519Q variants predispose GluN2B subunits to degradation and clearance by the autophagy-lysosomal pathway.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Benske, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palumbo, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.12.632651</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A GluN2B disease-associated variant promotes degradation of NMDA receptors via autophagy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.15.633097v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cytosolic transport of citrate protects nutrient-austere pancreatic cancer from ferroptosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.15.633097v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic cancer (PDAC) cells experience nutrient starvation in a poorly perfused tumor microenvironment. Metabolic dependencies that protect PDAC cells from detrimental oxidative stress in a nutrient-restricted niche represent as tumor-specific targets. While the role of mitochondria in supporting energy production and biosynthetic requirements of cells has been well investigated, their contribution to maintaining intracellular redox homeostasis when PDAC cells are exposed to nutrient deprivation is unknown. Our results demonstrate that cytosolic transport of citrate via SLC25A1 confers a survival advantage to PDAC cells by protecting them from ferroptosis, a well-established iron-dependent cell death mechanism, under nutrient-limited conditions. Employing selective SLC25A1 inhibitor or targeting mitochondrial OXPHOS dramatically reduced GPX4 expression and PDAC cell viability. Rescuing GPX4 expression with the products of both ACLY and ACO1-dependent pathways uncovered their critical role in conferring survival advantage under metabolic stress. Importantly, exogenous expression of GPX4 reversed redox imbalance and metabolic discordance resulting from the lack of SLC25A1 activity, indicating the requirement of citrate-induced GPX4 expression to support mitochondrial health and function. As observed with cultured cells under nutrient limitation, SLC25A1 function was revealed to be indispensable in pancreatic tumor microenvironment, and the reduced growth, due to the lack of SLC25A1 activity, was rescued with antioxidant NAC in preclinical models of PDAC. Lastly, SLC25A1 suppression was accompanied by elevated glutamine metabolism, and combination therapy with pharmacologic inhibitors of SLC25A1 and glutaminase inhibitor CB-839 dramatically suppressed tumor growth, highlighting this combinatorial approach as a potential therapeutic strategy in PDAC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kneebone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindaur, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cassel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graff, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abood, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Small, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tatsuoka, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sidoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salvino, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaziri-Gohar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.15.633097</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cytosolic transport of citrate protects nutrient-austere pancreatic cancer from ferroptosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.14.633081v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-cell digital twins identify drug targets and repurposable medicine in Alzheimers disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.14.633081v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) is a complex and poorly understood neurodegenerative disorder without sufficiently effective treatments. Novel approaches to identify FDA-approved drugs that may hold potential for mitigating symptoms of AD hold promise for addressing this problem. One such strategy is the use of digital twins (DTs), which are virtual representations of physical entities that facilitate therapeutic target identification by accurately characterizing disease heterogeneities in real time through continuous feedback and dynamic model updates. In this study, we developed a single-cell digital twin (scDT) framework using single-nuclei RNA-seq (1,197,032 nuclei) and ATAC-seq (740,875 nuclei) data from the middle temporal gyrus of 84 donors across 4 degrees of AD neuropathological change (ADNC). We observed differential gene expression for six major cell types intensified at severe ADNC. We also constructed cell type-specific transcription factor (TF)-target gene networks by leveraging peak-to-gene linkages and motif enrichment analyses. By integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci with cell type-specific cis-regulatory DNA elements (CREs), we identified 141 ADNC-associated genes. Using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and network proximity analysis, we identified 13 candidate repurposable drugs that were associated with these ADNC-associated genes. In summary, we constructed a single-cell digital twin (scDT) framework cell type-specific target identification and drug repurposing in AD and other complex diseases if broadly applied.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ren, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.14.633081</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-cell digital twins identify drug targets and repurposable medicine in Alzheimers disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634563v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamic activity of Erg promotes aging of the hematopoietic system 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634563v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hematopoiesis changes to adapt to the physiology of development and aging. Temporal changes in hematopoiesis parallel age-dependent incidences of blood diseases. Several heterochronic regulators of hematopoiesis have been identified, but how the master transcription factor (TF) circuitry of definitive hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) adapts over the lifespan is unknown. Here, we show that expression of the ETS family TF Erg is adult-biased, and that programmed upregulation of Erg expression during juvenile to adult aging is evolutionarily conserved and required for complete implementation of adult patterns of HSC self-renewal and myeloid, erythroid, and lymphoid differentiation. Erg deficiency maintains fetal transcriptional and epigenetic programs, and persistent juvenile phenotypes in Erg haploinsufficient mice are dependent on deregulation of the fetal-biased TF Hmga2. Finally, Erg haploinsufficiency in the adult results in fetal-like resistance to leukemogenesis. Overall, we identify a mechanism whereby HSC TF networks are rewired to specify stage-specific hematopoiesis, a finding directly relevant to age-biased blood diseases.

SUMMARYThe hematopoietic system undergoes a process of coordinated aging from the juvenile to adult states. Here, we find that expression of ETS family transcription factor Erg is temporally regulated. Impaired upregulation of Erg during the hematopoietic maturation results in persistence of juvenile phenotypes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sugden, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Badalamenti, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodrigues-Luiz, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>da Rocha, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>North, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rowe, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.23.634563</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamic activity of Erg promotes aging of the hematopoietic system]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634133v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Impact of infusion conditions and anesthesia on CSF tracer dynamics in mouse brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634133v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tracer imaging has been instrumental in mapping the brains solute transport pathways facilitated by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow. However, the impact of tracer infusion parameters on CSF flow remains incompletely understood. This study evaluated the influence of infusion location, rate, and anesthetic regimens on tracer transport using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI with Gd-DTPA as a CSF tracer. Infusion rate effects were assessed by administering Gd-DTPA into the cisterna magna (ICM) at two rates under isoflurane anesthesia. Anesthetic effects were evaluated by comparing transport patterns between isoflurane and ketamine/xylazine (K/X) anesthesia at the slower rate. Gd-DTPA transport was also examined after lateral ventricle (ICV) infusion, the primary site of CSF production. The results demonstrate that, besides anesthesia, both the location and rate of infusion substantially affected solute transport within the brain. ICV infusion led to rapid, extensive transport into deep brain regions, while slower ICM infusion resulted in more pronounced transport to dorsal brain regions. Cross-correlation and hierarchical clustering analyses of region-specific Gd-DTPA signal time courses revealed that ICM infusion facilitated transport along periarterial spaces, while ICV infusion favored transport across the ventricular-parenchymal interface. These findings underscore the importance of experimental conditions in influencing tracer kinetics and spatial distribution in the brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ni, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.21.634133</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impact of infusion conditions and anesthesia on CSF tracer dynamics in mouse brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.22.634239v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultra-deep sequencing of somatic mutations induced by a maize transposon 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.22.634239v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cells accumulate mutations throughout development, contributing to cancer, aging, and evolution. Quantitative data on the abundance of de novo mutations within plants or animals are limited, as new mutations are often rare within a tissue and fall below the limits of current sequencing depths and error rates. Here, we show that mutations induced by the maize Mutator (Mu) transposon can be reliably quantified down to a detection limit of 1 part in 16,000. We measured the abundance of millions of de novo Mu insertions across four tissue types. Within a tissue, the distribution of de novo Mu allele frequencies was highly reproducible between plants, showing that, despite the stochastic nature of mutation, repeated statistical patterns of mutation abundance emerge. In contrast, there were significant differences in the allele frequency distribution between tissues. At the extremes, root was dominated by a small number of highly abundant de novo insertions, while endosperm was characterized by thousands of insertions at low allele frequencies. Finally, we used the measured pollen allele frequencies to reinterpret a classic genetic experiment, showing that evidence for late Mu activity in pollen are better explained by cell division statistics. These results provide insight into the complexity of mutation accumulation in multicellular organisms and a system to interrogate the factors that shape mutation abundance.

SignificanceNew mutations provide the raw material for evolution and contribute to cancer, aging, and genetic diseases. It has been challenging to follow the origin and spread of new mutations because they can be exceptionally rare and difficult to detect. By focusing on a class of mutation that can be detected more readily - Mu transposon insertions - we followed the abundance of new mutations in multiple maize tissues. We find that the Mu has broad activity across tissues, but with significant tissue-specific differences in how abundant individual new mutations become. Most mutations were below the detection limit available for other classes of mutation. These results provide a glimpse into the complexity of mutation within multicellular organisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scherer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelms, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.22.634239</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultra-deep sequencing of somatic mutations induced by a maize transposon]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.24.634763v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lambda N as a model substrate for studying the mechanism of Escherichia coli ATP-dependent protease Lon as a regulatory enzyme. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.24.634763v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As an ATP-dependent protease, the quality control functions of Lon have been extensively studied and reviewed in the literature. By contrast, very little research has been conducted to investigate Lons physiological functions and its mechanism as a regulatory protease. In this manuscript, we provided a survey of literature and data to convey that the lambda N ({lambda}N) protein is a suitable Escherichia coli Lon (ELon) substrate for studying the role played by Lon in regulating an RNA transcription process. For proof of principle, we demonstrated that the minimal component of the RNA transcription complex containing RNA polymerase (RNAP) and the {sigma} factor can inhibit {lambda}N degradation by ELon through SDS-PAGE, and the carboxyl-terminal of {lambda}N is important for Lon competing with RNAP interaction. Using negative stain electron microscopy, we obtained structural evidence to show that {lambda}N lacking the carboxyl-terminal flanked by residues 99-107 interacted with ELon differently than full-length {lambda}N. Taken together, the activity and EM data provide a starting point for performing a physiological enzymology study on the contribution of ELon toward RNA transcription.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Castro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.24.634763</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lambda N as a model substrate for studying the mechanism of Escherichia coli ATP-dependent protease Lon as a regulatory enzyme.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634525v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive mutational characterization of the calcium-sensing STIM1 EF-hand reveals residues essential for structure and function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634525v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Calcium signaling is a fundamental molecular means of cellular regulation. Store operated calcium entry (SOCE) is a major intracellular signaling module, wherein calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum triggers transmembrane STIM1 proteins to conformationally shift and oligomerize to prompt calcium influx from the extracellular environment. STIM1 senses ER calcium concentrations with its canonical EF-hand domain, and missense variants can dysregulate SOCE and cause Tubular Aggregate Myopathy, Stormorken Syndrome or immunodeficiency. Few STIM1 EF-hand variants are characterized, obscuring how STIM1 sequence controls its function, and hampering clinical interpretation of STIM1 variants observed in patients.

We leveraged fitness costs caused by overexpression of STIM1 variants in cultured human cells to functionally characterize 706 of the 720 possible single amino acid variants of the STIM1 canonical EF-hand. The calcium-coordinating EF-hand residues exhibited varying mutational patterns. The trailing helix possessed a core of immutable residues, even depleting during library propagation in bacteria, implicating residues normally restraining STIM1 aggregation. The leading helix only exhibited toxicity in cells with endogenous STIM1, implicating a multimerization-dependent STIM1 regulatory module. No cytotoxic STIM1 variants were observed in healthy human populations. Some disease-associated variants had low scores, but most pathogenic variants were not overtly cytotoxic in our assay. We demonstrate that orthogonal measurements for STIM1 oligomerization, cytoplasmic calcium influx, and cellular stress complement the cytotoxicity phenotypes to enhance variant understanding. Collectively, these data reveal the complex molecular roles embedded in the STIM1 canonical EF-hand sequence for its function in promoting calcium signaling through SOCE.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kamath, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.23.634525</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive mutational characterization of the calcium-sensing STIM1 EF-hand reveals residues essential for structure and function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.28.635263v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Pseudomonas aeruginosa T3SS can contribute to traversal of an in situ epithelial multilayer independently of the T3SS needle 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.28.635263v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multilayered epithelia lining our tissue surfaces normally resist traversal by opportunistic bacteria. Previously, we developed a strategy to experimentally perturbate this resistance in situ in the corneas of mouse eyes and used it to show that traversal of a multilayered epithelium by Pseudomonas aeruginosa requires ExsA, the transcriptional activator of its type 3 secretion system (T3SS). Here, we developed a novel strategy for quantitively localizing individual traversing bacteria within the in situ multilayered corneal epithelium and explored contributions of T3SS components. The results showed that T3SS translocon and T3SS effector mutants had reduced epithelial traversal efficiency. Surprisingly, a {Delta}pscC mutant unable to assemble the T3SS needle traversed as efficiently as wild-type P. aeruginosa, while a {Delta}exsD mutant  constitutively on for T3SS expression was traversal defective. Dispensability of the T3SS needle for effector-mediated traversal was confirmed using a mutant lacking the T3SS operon except the effector genes ({Delta}pscU-L mutant). That mutant reacquired the ability to traverse if complemented with rhamnose-inducible exsA, but not if the effector genes were also deleted ({Delta}pscU-L{Delta}exoSTY). Western immunoblot confirmed ExoS in culture supernatants of rhamnose-induced exsA-complemented {Delta}pscU-L mutants lacking all T3SS needle protein genes. Together, these results show that epithelial traversal by P. aeruginosa can involve T3SS effectors and translocon proteins independently of the T3SS needle previously thought essential for T3SS function. This advances our understanding of P. aeruginosa pathogenesis and has relevance to development of therapeutics targeting the T3SS system.

IO_SCPLOWMPORTANCEC_SCPLOWWhile the capacity to cross an epithelial barrier can be a critical step in bacterial pathogenesis, our understanding of mechanisms involved is derived largely from cell culture experimentation. The latter is due to practical limitations of in vivo/in situ models and challenge of visualizing individual bacteria in the context of host tissue. Here, factors used by P. aeruginosa to traverse an epithelial multilayer in situ were studied by: 1) leveraging the transparent properties and superficial location of the cornea, 2) using our established method for enabling bacterial traversal susceptibility, and 3) developing a novel strategy for accurate and quantitative localization of individual traversing bacteria in situ. Outcomes showed that T3SS translocon and T3SS effector proteins synergistically contribute to epithelial traversal efficiency independently of the T3SS needle. These findings challenge the assumption that the T3SS needle is essential for T3SS effectors or translocon proteins to contribute to bacterial pathogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jedel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schator, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleiszig, S. M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.28.635263</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Pseudomonas aeruginosa T3SS can contribute to traversal of an in situ epithelial multilayer independently of the T3SS needle]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.30.635692v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development of itaconate polymer microparticles for intracellular regulation of pro-inflammatory macrophage activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.30.635692v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Itaconate (IA) is an endogenous metabolite and a potent regulator of the innate immune system. Its use in immunomodulatory therapies has faced limitations due to inherent challenges in achieving controlled delivery and requirements for high extracellular concentrations to achieve internalization of the highly polar small molecule to achieve its intracellular therapeutic activity. Microparticle (MP)-based delivery strategies are a promising approach for intracellular delivery of small molecule metabolites through macrophage phagocytosis and subsequent intracellular polymer degradation-based delivery. Toward the goal of intracellular delivery of IA, degradable polyester polymer-(poly(itaconate-co-dodecanediol)) based IA polymer microparticles (IA-MPs) were generated using an emulsion method, forming micron-scale ([~] 1.5 {micro}m) degradable microspheres. IA-MPs were characterized with respect to their material properties and IA release kinetics to inform particle fabrication. Treatment of murine bone marrow-derived macrophages with an optimized particle concentration of 0.1 mg/million cells enabled phagocytosis-mediated internalization and low levels of cytotoxicity. Flow cytometry demonstrated IA-MP-specific regulation of IA-sensitive inflammatory targets. Metabolic analyses demonstrated that IA-MP internalization inhibited oxidative metabolism and induced glycolytic reliance, consistent with the established mechanism of IA-associated inhibition of succinate dehydrogenase. This development of IA-based polymer microparticles provides a basis for additional innovative metabolite-based microparticle drug delivery systems for the treatment of inflammatory disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Woodworth, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Froom, Z. S. C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborne, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rempe, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheeler, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medd, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callaghan, N. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acharya, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charron, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huyer, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.30.635692</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development of itaconate polymer microparticles for intracellular regulation of pro-inflammatory macrophage activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636346v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cryo-EM structures reveal the PP2A-B55α and Eya3 interaction that can be disrupted by a peptide inhibitor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636346v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We have previously shown that Eya3 recruits PP2A-B55 to dephosphorylate pT58 on Myc, increasing Myc stability and enhancing primary tumor growth of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the molecular details of how Eya3 recruits PP2A-B55 remain unclear. Here we determined the cryo-EM structures of PP2A-B55 bound with Eya3, with an inhibitory peptide B55i, and in its unbound state. These studies demonstrate that Eya3 binds B55 through an extended peptide in the NTD of Eya3. The Eya3 peptide and other PP2A-B55 substrates and protein/peptide inhibitors including B55i bind to a similar area on the B55 surface but the molecular details of the binding differ. We further demonstrated that the B55i peptide inhibits the B55 and Eya3 interaction in vitro. B55i peptide expressed on a plasmid increases pT58 and decreases Myc protein level in TNBC cells, suggesting the potential of B55i or similar peptides as therapies for TNBC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alderman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wick, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foulon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ford, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.04.636346</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cryo-EM structures reveal the PP2A-B55α and Eya3 interaction that can be disrupted by a peptide inhibitor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636462v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The conserved N-terminal SANT1-binding domain (SBD) of EZH2 Regulates PRC2 Activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.04.636462v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Polycomb group proteins maintain gene expression patterns established during early development, with Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) methyltransferase a key regulator of cell differentiation, identity and plasticity. Consequently, extensive somatic mutations in PRC2, including gain- or loss- of function (GOF or LOF), are observed in human cancers. The regulation of chromatin structure by PRC2 is critically dependent on its EZH2 (Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2) subunit, which catalyzes the methylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27). Recent structural studies of PRC2 revealed extensive conformational changes in the non-catalytic EZH2 N-terminal SANT-Binding Domain (SBD) during PRC2 activation, though the functional significance remains unclear. Here, we investigate how the SBD regulates PRC2 function. The domain is highly conserved in metazoans, dispensable for PRC2 assembly and chromatin localization, yet required for genome-wide histone H3K27 methylation. Further, we show that an intact SBD is necessary for the proliferation of EZH2- addicted lymphomas, and its deletion in the presence of EZH2 GOF mutations inhibits cancer cell growth. These observations provide new insights to the regulation of PRC2 activity in normal development and malignancy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patriotis, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soto-Feliciano, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrows, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leboeuf, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lund, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marunde, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Djomo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keogh, M.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soshnev, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allis, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.04.636462</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The conserved N-terminal SANT1-binding domain (SBD) of EZH2 Regulates PRC2 Activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.31.635976v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fatty Acid Transport Protein-2 (FATP2) Inhibition Enhances Glucose Tolerance through α-Cell-mediated GLP-1 Secretion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.31.635976v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Type 2 diabetes affects more than 30 million people in the US, and a major complication is kidney disease. During the analysis of lipotoxicity in diabetic kidney disease, global fatty acid transport protein-2 (FATP2) gene deletion was noted to markedly reduce plasma glucose in db/db mice due to sustained insulin secretion. To identify the mechanism, we observed that islet FATP2 expression was restricted to -cells, and -cell FATP2 was functional. Direct evidence of FATP2KO-induced -cell-mediated GLP-1 secretion included increased GLP-1-positive -cell mass in FATP2KO db/db mice, small molecule FATP2 inhibitor enhancement of GLP-1 secretion in TC1-6 cells and human islets, and exendin[9-39]-inhibitable insulin secretion in FATP2 inhibitor-treated human islets. FATP2-dependent enteroendocrine GLP-1 secretion was excluded by demonstration of similar glucose tolerance and plasma GLP-1 concentrations in db/db FATP2KO mice following oral versus intraperitoneal glucose loading, non-overlapping FATP2 and preproglucagon mRNA expression, and lack of FATP2/GLP-1 co-immunolocalization in intestine. We conclude that FATP2 deletion or inhibition exerts glucose-lowering effects through -cell-mediated GLP-1 secretion and paracrine {beta}-cell insulin release.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=136 SRC="FIGDIR/small/635976v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (28K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@190c799org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@203076org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14dbf26org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@140869e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaivin, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuels, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Son, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osei-Owusu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garvin, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Accili, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schelling, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.31.635976</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fatty Acid Transport Protein-2 (FATP2) Inhibition Enhances Glucose Tolerance through α-Cell-mediated GLP-1 Secretion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.05.636747v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rumenomics: Evaluation of rumen metabolites from healthy sheep identifies differentially produced metabolites across sex, age, and weight 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.05.636747v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe rumen harbors a diverse and dynamic microbiome vital in digesting vegetation into metabolic byproducts for energy and general biological function. Although previous studies have reported connections between the rumen and the overall health of the sheep, the exact biological process by which this occurs is not well understood. Therefore, our study aimed to quantify sheep rumen metabolites to determine if enriched biological pathways are differentiable across phenotypic features of sex, age, and weight.

ResultsWe collected and quantified metabolites of rumen samples from sixteen sheep using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We performed a series of univariate and multivariate statistical analyses to interpret the rumen metabolomics data. To identify metabolic pathways associated with the phenotypic features of sex, weight, and age, we used MetaboAnalyst, which identified amino acid metabolism as a distinguishing factor. Among the pathways, phenylalanine metabolism emerged as a key pathway differentiating sheep based on sex and age. Additionally, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis were exclusively associated with age. In univariate linear models, we also discovered that these amino acid and protein pathways were associated with weight by age-corrected effect. Finally, we identified arginine and proline biosynthesis as a pathway linked to metabolites with weight.

ConclusionOur study identified differential pathways based on the sex, age, and weight features of sheep. Metabolites produced by the rumen may act as an indicator for sheep health and other ruminants. These findings encourage further investigation of the differentially produced metabolites to assess overall sheep health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Munoz-Briones, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ball, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jena, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lescun, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.05.636747</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rumenomics: Evaluation of rumen metabolites from healthy sheep identifies differentially produced metabolites across sex, age, and weight]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637516v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lineage plasticity of the integrated stress response is a hallmark of cancer evolution. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637516v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The link between the "stress phenotype"-a well-established hallmark of cancer-and its role in tumor progression and intratumor heterogeneity remains poorly defined. The integrated stress response (ISR) is a key adaptive pathway that enables tumor survival under oncogenic stress. While ISR has been implicated in promoting tumor growth, its precise role in driving tumor evolution and heterogeneity has not been elucidated. In this study, using a genetically engineered mouse models, we demonstrate that ISR activation--indicated by elevated levels of phosphorylated eIF2 (p-eIF2) and ATF4--is essential for the emergence of dedifferentiated, therapy-resistant cell states. ISR, through the coordinated actions of ATF4 and MYC, facilitates the development of tumor cell populations characterized by high plasticity, stemness, and an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-prone phenotype. This process is driven by ISR-mediated expression of genes that maintain mitochondrial integrity and function, critical for sustaining tumor progression. Importantly, genetic, or pharmacological inhibition of the p-eIF2-ATF4 signaling axis leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and significantly impairs tumor growth in mouse models of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Moreover, ISR-driven dedifferentiation is associated with poor prognosis and therapy resistance in advanced human LUAD, underscoring ISR inhibition as a promising therapeutic strategy to disrupt tumor evolution and counteract disease progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Diao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghaddar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poulain, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koumenis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walter, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sonenberg, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Quesne, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tammela, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koromilas, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.10.637516</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lineage plasticity of the integrated stress response is a hallmark of cancer evolution.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637893v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mobile genetic elements that shape microbial diversity and functions inthawing permafrost soils 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637893v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The worlds ecosystems are shaped by microbiota. Their niches and their impacts depend on functional profiles influenced by gene gains and losses. While culture-based experiments demonstrate that mobile genetic elements (MGEs) can mediate gene flux, quantitative field data on the rates and impacts of MGE activity remains scarce. Here we leverage large-scale soil meta-omic data to develop and apply analytics for studying MGEs in complex natural systems. In our model permafrost-thaw ecosystem, Stordalen Mire, we identify [~]2.1 million MGE recombinases across 89 microbial phyla to assess ecological distributions, affected functions, past mobility, and current activity. This revealed MGEs shaping natural genetic diversity via differential impacts on major phyla; affecting a wide range of functions, including diverse regulatory and metabolic genes affecting carbon flux and nutrient cycling; and moving at rates that should significantly influence the realized functional profiles of natural microbiomes. These findings and this systematic meta-omic framework open new avenues to better investigate MGE diversity, activity, mobility, and impacts in nature.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aroney, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dominguez-Huerta, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vik, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ansah, C. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pratama, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solonenko, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howard-Varona, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fofana, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hodgkins, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cronin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>EMERGE Field Teams 2010-2019,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>EMERGE Coordinators,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodcroft, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyson, G. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rich, V. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roux, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bagby, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.12.637893</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mobile genetic elements that shape microbial diversity and functions inthawing permafrost soils]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637926v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of a multi-omics factor predictive of long COVID in the IMPACC study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.12.637926v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Following SARS-CoV-2 infection, [~]10-35% of COVID-19 patients experience long COVID (LC), in which often debilitating symptoms persist for at least three months. Elucidating the biologic underpinnings of LC could identify therapeutic opportunities. We utilized machine learning methods on biologic analytes and patient reported outcome surveys provided over 12 months after hospital discharge from >500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the IMPACC cohort to identify a multi-omics "recovery factor". IMPACC participants who experienced LC had lower recovery factor scores compared to participants without LC. Biologic characterization revealed increased levels of plasma proteins associated with inflammation, elevated transcriptional signatures of heme metabolism, and decreased androgenic steroids in LC patients. The recovery factor was also associated with altered circulating immune cell frequencies. Notably, recovery factor scores were predictive of LC occurrence in patients as early as hospital admission, irrespective of acute disease severity. Thus, the recovery factor identifies patients at risk of LC early after SARS-CoV-2 infection and reveals LC biomarkers and potential treatment targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gabernet, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maciuch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gygi, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syphurs, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayavelu, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corry, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kheradmand, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baden, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekaly, R.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McComsey, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cairns, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouphael, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez-Sesma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simon, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metcalf, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agudelo Higuita, N. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hough, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Messer, W. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeau, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pulendran, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraft, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bime, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaenman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erle, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calfee, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atkinson, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brackenridge, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melamed, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hafler, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozonoff, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosinger, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckalbar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maecker, H. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim-Schulze, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.12.637926</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of a multi-omics factor predictive of long COVID in the IMPACC study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.14.638381v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SLICK: A Sandwich-LIke Culturing Kit for in situ Cryo-ET Sample Preparation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.14.638381v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In situ cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has recently been widely used in observing subcellular structures and macromolecules in their native states at high resolution. One of the reasons that it has not been more widely adopted by cell biologists and structural biologists is the difficulties in sample preparation. Here we present the Sandwich-LIke Culturing Kit (SLICK), simplifying the procedure and increasing the throughput for sample preparation for in situ cryo-ET (69 words).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.14.638381</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SLICK: A Sandwich-LIke Culturing Kit for in situ Cryo-ET Sample Preparation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.16.638540v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting the ClpP-αSynuclein Interaction with a Decoy Peptide to Mitigate Neuropathology in Parkinson's Disease Models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.16.638540v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Parkinsons disease (PD), the most prevalent neurodegenerative movement disorder, is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons and the accumulation of -synuclein (Syn)-rich inclusions. Despite advances in understanding PD pathophysiology, disease-modifying therapies remain elusive, underscoring gaps in our knowledge of its underlying mechanisms. Mitochondria are key targets of Syn toxicity, and growing evidence suggests that Syn-mitochondrial interactions contribute to PD progression. Our recent findings identify mitochondrial protease ClpP as a crucial regulator of Syn pathology, with pathological Syn binding to and impairing ClpP function, thereby exacerbating mitochondrial impairment and neurodegeneration. To disrupt this deleterious interaction, we developed a decoy peptide, CS2, which directly binds to the non-amyloid-{beta} component (NAC) domain of Syn, preventing its association with ClpP. CS2 treatment effectively mitigated Syn toxicity in an Syn-stable neuronal cell line, primary cortical neurons inoculated with Syn pre-formed fibrils (PFFs), and DA neurons derived from PD patient-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Notably, subcutaneous administration of CS2 in transgenic mThy1-hSNCA PD mice rescued cognitive and motor deficits while reducing Syn aggregation and neuropathology. These findings establish the ClpP-Syn interaction as a druggable target in PD and position CS2 as a promising therapeutic candidate for PD and other Syn-associated neurodegenerative disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.16.638540</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting the ClpP-αSynuclein Interaction with a Decoy Peptide to Mitigate Neuropathology in Parkinson's Disease Models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.23.639777v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational Translation of Mouse Models of Osteoarthritis Predicts Human Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.23.639777v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveTranslation of biological insights from preclinical studies to human disease is a pressing challenge in biomedical research, including in osteoarthritis. Translatable Components Regression (TransComp-R) is a computational framework that has previously been used to synthesize preclinical and human OA data to identify biological pathways predictive of human disease conditions. We aimed to evaluate the translatability of two common murine models of post-traumatic osteoarthritis - surgical destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) and noninvasive anterior cruciate ligament rupture (ACLR) - to transcriptomics cartilage data from human OA outcomes.

DesignTranscriptomics cartilage data of DMM and ACLR mouse and human data was acquired from Gene Expression Omnibus. TransComp-R was used to project human OA data into a mouse model (DMM or ACLR) principal component analysis space. The principal components (PCs) were regressed against human OA conditions using increasing complexity of linear regression models incorporating human demographic covariates of OA, sex, and age. Biological pathways of the mouse PCs that significantly stratified human OA and control groups were then interpreted using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis.

ResultsFrom the TransComp-R model, we identified different enriched biological pathways across DMM and ACLR models. While PCs among the DMM models revealed pathways associated with cell signaling and metabolism, ACLR PCs represented immune function and cellular pathways associated with OA condition. The immune pathways presented in the ACLR further highlighted the potential relevance of the OA pathways observed in human conditions.

ConclusionsThe ACLR mouse model more successfully predicted human OA conditions, particularly with the human control groups without a history of joint injury or disease. Cross-species translational approaches support the selection of preclinical models intended for therapeutic discovery and pathway analysis in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Frost, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ball, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pendyala, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douglas, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.23.639777</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational Translation of Mouse Models of Osteoarthritis Predicts Human Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.27.640622v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Restoration of ovarian endocrine function with encapsulated immune isolated human ovarian xenograft in ovariectomized mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.27.640622v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anti-cancer treatments cause premature depletion of the non-renewable ovarian reserve of follicles, the source of key steroid hormones, leading to premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) in 50% of pediatric cancer survivors. Patients with POI, especially at the onset of pubertal development, experience significant endocrine complications, including delayed growth, elevated risks of obesity and diabetes, and accelerated cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurological disorders as adults. The only approved pharmacological treatment for POI is an off-label prescribed hormone replacement therapy, which does not replace physiologically functioning ovaries. To restore production of ovarian hormones and protect against immune-mediated injury, we developed a hydrogel-based capsule for implantation of donor ovarian tissue. We evaluated the restoration of ovarian endocrine function in ovariectomized immunodeficient (NOD scid gamma, NSG) mice implanted with encapsulated xenografts over 20 weeks through daily vaginal cytology, hormone measurements and histological analysis of explanted human xenografts. The encapsulated xenografts integrated into the murine hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad (HPG) axis responding to circulating murine gonadotropins and restoring ovarian endocrine function. As controls, we implanted non encapsulated human ovarian xenografts comparable in size. Without the need for exogeneous stimulation, the estrous cyclicity resumed in both groups of mice 12 weeks post implantation and all mice regularly cycled experiencing between 3 to 8 estrous cycles in 20 weeks. The levels of estradiol gradually increased reaching on average 50pg/mL 20 weeks post implantation. Morphological analysis of the encapsulated grafts revealed presence of large antral follicles, [~]3mm in diameter, consistent with regular cyclicity and measurable levels of circulating hormones. This work demonstrates that endocrine function of encapsulated human ovarian tissue was not affected by the encapsulation and integrated with the host physiology similarly to the non-encapsulated controls.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brunette, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wall, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machlin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blevins, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cascalho, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padmanabhan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shikanov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.27.640622</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Restoration of ovarian endocrine function with encapsulated immune isolated human ovarian xenograft in ovariectomized mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640247v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanism of CO2 and NH3 Transport through Human Aquaporin 1: Evidence for Parallel CO2 Pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640247v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The traditional view had been that dissolved gases cross membranes simply by dissolving in and diffusing through membrane lipid. However, some membranes are impermeable to CO2 and NH3, whereas some aquaporin (AQP) water channels--tetramers with hydrophobic central pores--are permeable to CO2, NH3, or both. Nevertheless, we understand neither the routes that CO2 and NH3 take through AQP tetramers, nor the basis of CO2/NH3 selectivity. Here, we show-- for human AQP1 (hAQP1)--that virtually all NH3 and H2O pass through the hydrophilic, monomeric pores. However CO2 passes both through the monomeric pores and another pathway. We expressed hAQP1 in Xenopus oocytes and used microelectrodes to monitor the maximal surface-pH transient ({Delta}pHS) caused by CO2 or NH3 influxes. We found that p-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate (pCMBS)--which reacts with C189 in the monomeric pore--eliminates the entire hAQP1-dependent (*) NH3 signal ({Delta}pHS*)NH3, but only half of the signals for CO2 ({Delta}pHS*)CO2 or osmotic water permeability Pf*. 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS), eliminates the remaining ({Delta}pHS*)CO2 but has no effect on ({Delta}pHS*)NH3 or Pf*. Together, the two drugs completely eliminate the CO2 permeability of hAQP1. When we express hAQP1 in Pichia pastoris, treat spheroplasts with DIDS, and examine hAQP1 by SDS-PAGE, reactivity with an anti-DIDS antibody shows that DIDS crosslinks hAQP1 monomers. Our results provide the first evidence that a molecule can move through an AQP via a route other than the monomeric pore, and raise the possibility that selectivity depends on the extent to which CO2/NH3 move through monomeric pores vs. an alternate pathway (e.g., the central pore).

Key PointsO_LISome membranes have little or no CO2 permeability, absent protein channels like aquaporin-1 (AQP1).
C_LIO_LIWe confirm that, during CO2 influx, heterologous expression of human AQP1 (hAQP1) in Xenopus oocytes increases the magnitude of the transient surface-pH increase by an amount ({Delta}pHS*)CO2, measured with microelectrodes. During NH3 influx, hAQP1 expression increases the magnitude of the transient pHS decrease by ({Delta}pHS*)NH3.
C_LIO_LIp-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate (pCMBS), which reacts with C189 in the monomeric pore, reduces ({Delta}pHS*)CO2 by; ({Delta}pHS*)NH3, to zero; and AQP1-dependent osmotic water permeability (Pf*), by half.
C_LIO_LI4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS) reduces ({Delta}pHS*)CO2 by half, but has no effect on ({Delta}pHS*)NH3 or Pf*. DIDS crosslinks AQP1 monomers expressed in Pichia pastoris.
C_LIO_LITogether, pCMBS+DIDS reduces ({Delta}pHS*)CO2 to zero. The C189S mutation of AQP1 eliminates the effects of pCMBS, but not DIDS. Our results thus show that CO2 traverses AQP1 via the monomeric pore plus a novel, DIDS-sensitive route that may be the central pore.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Musa-Aziz, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geyer, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boron, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.28.640247</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanism of CO2 and NH3 Transport through Human Aquaporin 1: Evidence for Parallel CO2 Pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640824v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Three-dimensional tissue platform co-laid with native collagen fibers and cells for phenotypic screening of stem cell interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640824v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Phenotypic screening of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions is critical yet challenging for drug discovery and disease modeling. In this study, a scalable 3D tissue platform was developed by co-laying extracted natural insoluble collagen fibers, mesenchymal stem cells, endothelial cells, and neural progenitor cells for phenotypic screening. Cell growth and interactions were enhanced in the co-laid platform, evident through increased cell proliferation, viability, and vascularization. Dense vascular networks rapidly formed through cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions without adding a traditionally needed growth factor set. Both in vitro and implantation studies confirmed that these blood vessels were of human origin. To evaluate the phenotypic screening of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, we propose a phenotype screening prototype for stem cell interactions that utilized multivariate analysis encompassing both cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions and demonstrated its effectiveness to screen vasculature formation and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) models. Using the prototype, we confirmed that collagen crosslinking, ROCK, WNT, and YAP pathways impact vasculogenesis. In addition, ASD donor-derived neural progenitor cells can be distinguished from non-ASD control donor-derived neural progenitor cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umerori, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alt, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carmean, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eppell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alsberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.28.640824</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Three-dimensional tissue platform co-laid with native collagen fibers and cells for phenotypic screening of stem cell interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.05.639948v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role of channels in the O2 permeabilityof murine red blood cells. I. Stopped-flow and hematological studies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.05.639948v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many have believed that oxygen (O2) crosses red blood cell (RBC) membranes by dissolving in lipids that offer a finite resistance to diffusion or, alternatively, no resistance at all. In this first in a series of three interrelated papers, we examine these idea in murine RBCs. In this first paper, analyses of hemoglobin (Hb) absorbance spectra during O2 off-loading from mouse RBCs indicate that RBC membranes do indeed offer resistance to O2 diffusion, and that the resistance would be far higher if not for the presence of O2-permeable channels. Two agents-- both excluded from the RBC interior--markedly reduce the rate constant for O2 off-loading (kHbO2): p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate (pCMBS) reduces membrane O2 permeability (PM,O2 by [~]82% (computed from kHbO2 in paper #3), and 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS) by [~]56%. Because neither likely produces these effects via membrane lipids, we examined RBCs from mice genetically deficient in aquaporin-1 (AQP1), the Rh complex (RhCx = Rhesus blood group-associated A glycoprotein, RhAG + Rhesus blood group D antigen, RhD), or both. The double knockout (dKO) reduces PM,O2 by [~]55%, and pCMBS+dKO, by [~]91%. Proteomic analyses of RBC membranes, flow cytometry, hematology (see paper #2), and mathematical simulations (paper #3) rule out meaningful contributions from other membrane proteins, RBC geometry, or extracellular unconvected fluid (EUF). Our work represents a paradigm shift for O2 physiology by identifying the first two animal O2 channels, and points to the existence of at least a third, all of which could be subject to physiological regulation and pharmacological intervention.

Key PointsO_LISome have held that red-blood-cell (RBC) membranes have a finite O2 permeability, governed by O2 solubility in membrane lipids; others, that membranes offer no resistance whatsoever to O2 diffusion.
C_LIO_LIThe present interdisciplinary study comprises three papers. This first paper describes stopped-flow absorbance spectroscopy in which we examine the rate constant of O2 offloading from intact RBCs (kHbO2) from wild-type (WT) mice or those lacking AQP1 and/or RhAG, sometimes treated with p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate (pCMBS) or 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS).
C_LIO_LIThe second paper describes RBC morphometry and membrane proteomics. The third introduces a mathematical reaction-diffusion model that generates simulations comporting with physiological data.
C_LIO_LIThis first paper shows that pCMBS or DIDS treatments, or deletion of AQP1 and/or RhAG, or combinations thereof, substantially reduce kHbO2.
C_LIO_LIThe three papers show that WT RBC membranes offer considerable resistance to O2 diffusion. AQP1 ([~]22%), Rh ([~]36%), and an unknown pCMBS-sensitive protein account for [~]91% of membrane O2 permeability.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Occhipinti, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geyer, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffmann, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyerson, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boron, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.05.639948</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role of channels in the O2 permeabilityof murine red blood cells. I. Stopped-flow and hematological studies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.05.639962v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role of channels in the O2 permeability of murine red blood cells II. Morphological and proteomic studies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.05.639962v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this second of three papers, we examine red blood cell (RBC) morphometry and RBC-membrane proteomics from our laboratory mouse strain (C57BL/6Case). In paper #1, using stopped-flow absorbance spectroscopy to ascertain the rate constant for oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) deoxygenation (kHbO2), we find substantial kHbO2 reductions with (1) membrane-protein inhibitors p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate (pCMBS) or 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonate (DIDS); (2) knockouts of aquaporin-1 (AQP1-KO), or Rhesus blood-group-associated A-glycoprotein (RhAG-KO), or double knockouts (dKO); or (3) inhibitor+dKO. In paper #3, reaction-diffusion mathematical modeling/simulations reveal that kHbO2 could fall secondary to slowed intracellular O2/HbO2/Hb diffusion. Here in paper #2, blood smears as well as still/video images and imaging flow cytometry (IFC) of living RBCs show that [~]97.5% to [~]98.6% of control (not drug-treated) cells are biconcave disks (BCDs) across all genotypes. Pretreatment with pCMBS raises non-BCD abundance to [~]8.7% for WT and [~]5.7% for dKO; for DIDS pretreatment, the figures are [~]41% and [~]21%, respectively. Modeling (paper #3) accommodates for these shape changes. Light-scattering flow cytometry shows no significant difference in RBC size or shape among genotypes. IFC reveals minor differences among genotypes in RBC major diameter (OMajor), which (along with mean corpuscular volume, paper #1) yields RBC thickness for simulations in paper #3. Label-free liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) proteomic analyses of RBC plasma-membrane ghosts confirm the deletion of proteins targeted by our knockouts, and rule out changes in the 100 proteins of greatest inferred abundance. Thus, genetically induced changes in kHbO2 must reflect altered abundance of AQP1 and /or the Rh complex.

Key PointsO_LIO2-offloading from red blood cells (RBCs) depends not only on membrane O2 permeability and oxyhemoglobin dissociation, but also on RBC size and shape. In this second of three papers, we use blood smears, still/video images of living RBCs, and imaging flow cytometry to examine morphometry of RBCs from paper #1.
C_LIO_LIWe find that mouse RBCs of all genotypes--wild-type, aquaporin-1 knockout (AQP1-KO), Rhesus blood group-associated A-glycoprotein knockout (RhAG-KO), and double knockout--are dominantly biconcave discs, with [~]1.4% to [~]2.5% poikilocytosis (shape change, SC). Drug pre-treatment increases %SC.
C_LIO_LIUsing label-free liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry to assess apparent abundance of RBC-ghost proteins, we find no significant differences among genotypes for any of the [~]100 most abundant protein species except, as appropriate, AQP1, RhAG, or Rhesus blood group D antigen.
C_LIO_LIThus, the substantial effects observed in paper #1 cannot be attributed to differences in morphometry or protein content.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moss, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salameh, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wass, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobberger, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffman, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyerson, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Occhipinti, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boron, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.05.639962</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role of channels in the O2 permeability of murine red blood cells II. Morphological and proteomic studies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.03.641311v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alternative polyadenylation regulates human urothelial differentiation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.03.641311v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The urothelium is stratified into progenitor basal cells, intermediate cells, and terminally differentiated umbrella cells. Proper renewal of umbrella cells is necessary for maintaining urinary tract barrier integrity. To investigate whether mRNA alternative cleavage and polyadenylation (APA) regulates urothelial differentiation, we developed a single-cell polyadenylation site usage (scPASU) computational pipeline to map cell state-specific polyadenylation sites in single-cell RNA-seq data from 13,544 urothelial cells. Leveraging single-cell spatial imaging, we directly visualized APA events in situ, revealing their spatial specificity within the adult human ureter. APA shaped urothelial differentiation, independent of gene expression changes. Furthermore, key APA-regulated genes shared conserved motifs in their 3 UTRs, often containing Alu elements, suggesting a potential mechanism regulating poly(A) site selection. Our study establishes APA as a driver of urothelial transcriptome diversity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Le, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sona, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schweickart, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kochat, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padron, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rai, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wessely, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ting, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.03.641311</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alternative polyadenylation regulates human urothelial differentiation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.09.642292v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Missense variants in GABAA receptor beta2 subunit disrupt receptor biogenesis and cause loss of function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.09.642292v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAARs) are the major inhibitory neurotransmitter-gated channel in the mammalian central nervous system. GABAARs function as heteropentamers, typically composed of two 1, two {beta}2, and one {gamma}2 subunits. Protein homeostasis between GABAAR folding, trafficking, assembly, and degradation is critical to ensure normal physiological functions. Variants in genes encoded for GABAARs lead to numerous neurological disorders, such as genetic epilepsy with or without neurodevelopmental delay. While these variants are associated with severe clinical presentations of epilepsy, the molecular mechanisms driving the disease remain to be elucidated. In this study, we focused on four missense epilepsy-associated variants (EAVs) in the GABRB2 gene: Q209F210delinsH (c. 627_629del), R240T (c. 719G>C), I246T (c. 737T>C), and I299S (c. 896T>G). HEK293T cells exogenously expressing these {beta}2 variants exhibited significantly reduced GABA-induced peak chloride current, indicating their loss of function. However, the four {beta}2 EAVs differed in the degree of proteostasis deficiencies, including increased ER retention, compromised assembly, decreased protein stability, and reduced trafficking and surface expression, with Q209F210delinsH and R240T variants leading to the most severe degradation. Collectively, these results indicate that these epilepsy-linked variants have debilitating effects on the early biogenesis of the {beta}2 subunit, causing misfolding, aggregation, and rapid degradation before it can be assembled with other subunits and transported to the plasma membrane. Overall, our work offers crucial mechanistic insight into how specific {beta}2 missense variants impact the proteostasis maintenance of GABAARs, which could facilitate the development of effective therapeutics for genetic epilepsy by targeting trafficking-deficient GABAAR variants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.09.642292</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Missense variants in GABAA receptor beta2 subunit disrupt receptor biogenesis and cause loss of function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642693v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Autism risk genes converge on PBX1 to govern neural cell growth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642693v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The alteration of neural progenitor cell (NPC) proliferation underlies autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It remains unclear whether targeting convergent downstream targets among mutations from different genes and individuals can rescue this alteration. We identified PBX1 as a convergent target of three autism risk genes: CTNNB1, PTEN, and DVL3, using isogenic iPSC-derived 2D NPCs. Overexpression of the PBX1a isoform effectively rescued increased NPC proliferation in all three isogenic ASD-related variants. Dysregulation of PBX1 in NPCs was further confirmed in publicly available datasets from other models of ASD. These findings spotlight PBX1, known to play important roles during olfactory bulb/adult neurogenesis and in multiple cancers, as an unexpected and key downstream target, influencing NPC proliferation in ASD and neurodevelopmental syndromes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynshaw-Boris, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.12.642693</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Autism risk genes converge on PBX1 to govern neural cell growth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642626v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific T Cell Adaptation and Clonal Distribution Across the Human Gut-Liver-Blood Axis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642626v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding T cell clonal relationships and tissue-specific adaptations is crucial for deciphering human immune responses, particularly within the gut-liver axis. We performed paired single-cell RNA and T cell receptor sequencing on matched colon (epithelium, lamina propria), liver, and blood T cells from the same human donors. This approach tracked clones across sites and assessed microenvironmental impacts on T cell phenotype. While some clones were shared between blood and tissues, colonic intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) exhibited limited overlap with lamina propria T cells, suggesting a largely resident population. Furthermore, tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) in the colon and liver displayed distinct transcriptional profiles. Notably, our analysis suggested that factors enriched in the liver microenvironment may influence the phenotype of colon lamina propria TRM. This integrated single-cell analysis maps T cell clonal distribution and adaptation across the gut-liver-blood axis, highlighting a potential liver role in shaping colonic immunity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uslu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siddiqui, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trapecar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.11.642626</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific T Cell Adaptation and Clonal Distribution Across the Human Gut-Liver-Blood Axis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642752v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The denitrosylase SCoR2 controls cardioprotective metabolic reprogramming 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642752v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and therapeutic options remain limited. Endogenously generated nitric oxide (NO) is highly cardioprotective, but protection is not replicated by nitroso-vasodilators (e.g., nitrates, nitroprusside) used in clinical practice, highlighting specificity in NO-based signaling and untapped therapeutic potential. Signaling by NO is mediated largely by S-nitrosylation, entailing specific enzymes that form and degrade S-nitrosothiols in proteins (SNO-proteins), termed nitrosylases and denitrosylases, respectively. SNO-CoA Reductase 2 (SCoR2; product of the Akr1a1 gene) is a recently discovered protein denitrosylase. Genetic variants in SCoR2 have been associated with cardiovascular disease, but its function is unknown. Here we show that mice lacking SCoR2/Akr1a1 exhibit robust protection in an animal model of MI. SCoR2 regulates ketolytic energy availability, antioxidant levels and polyol homeostasis via S-nitrosylation of key metabolic effectors. Human cardiomyopathy shows reduced SCoR2 expression and an S-nitrosylation signature of metabolic reprogramming, mirroring SCoR2-/- mice. Deletion of SCoR2 thus coordinately reprograms multiple metabolic pathways--ketone body utilization, glycolysis, pentose phosphate shunt and polyol metabolism--to limit infarct size, establishing SCoR2 as a novel regulator in the injured myocardium and a potential drug target.

Impact statementMice lacking the denitrosylase enzyme SCoR2 demonstrate robust cardioprotection resulting from coordinate reprogramming of multiple metabolic pathways.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=196 SRC="FIGDIR/small/642752v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grimmett, Z. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, H.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gross, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koch, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Premont, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stamler, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.12.642752</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The denitrosylase SCoR2 controls cardioprotective metabolic reprogramming]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.13.643120v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computation model predicts Rho GTPase function with the Plexin Transmembrane receptor GAP activity on Rap1b via dynamic allosteric changes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.13.643120v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plexin-semaphorin signaling regulates key processes such as cell migration, neuronal development, angiogenesis, and immune responses. Plexins stand out because they can directly bind with both Rho- and Ras-family small GTPases through their intracellular domains when these GTPases are in their active, GTP-bound states. This binding occurs via intracellular regions which include a Rho-GTPase Binding Domain (RBD) and a GTPase Activating Protein (GAP) segment. Studies have shown that Rho and Ras GTPases play vital roles in plexin signaling and activation. However, the structural dynamics of plexins and GTPases and how these conformational changes affect interactions when plexin is bound with both Ras and Rho-GTPases or bound to only one specific GTPase has remained unclear.

In this study, we conducted molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on six distinct plexin-GTPase bound systems to investigate the differences in conformations and dynamics between Plexin-B1 and three GTPases: Rap1b, Rnd1, and Rac1. Our analysis revealed that dynamics with Rac1 are more altered, compared to Rnd1 depending on whether plexins GAP domain is bound or unbound to Rap1b. In addition, we further investigated alterations in network centralities and compared the network dynamics of the Plexin-GTPases complexes, focusing on the differences when Plexin is bound to both Ras (Rap1b) and Rho-GTPases (Rnd1/Rac1) versus when it is bound to only one GTPase. Our study revealed that Rnd1 exhibits stronger and more stable interactions with Plexin-B1 in the absence of Rap1b, while Rac1 shows fewer and less stable connections in comparison. These computational models have features that broadly agree with experimental results from hydrogen-deuterium exchange detected by mass spectrometry (HDX-MS). Such insights provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying Plexin-GTPase interactions and the complexities of signaling mechanisms involving GTPases in general.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhattarai, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrison, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savage, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.13.643120</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computation model predicts Rho GTPase function with the Plexin Transmembrane receptor GAP activity on Rap1b via dynamic allosteric changes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.16.643550v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Replicative selfish genetic elements are driving rapid pathogenic adaptation of Enterococcus faecium 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.16.643550v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding how healthcare-associated pathogens adapt in clinical environments can inform strategies to reduce their burden. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that insertion sequences (IS), prokaryotic transposable elements, are a dominant mediator of rapid genomic evolution in healthcare-associated pathogens. Among 28,207 publicly available pathogen genomes, we find high copy numbers of the replicative ISL3 family in healthcare-associated Enterococcus faecium, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. In E. faecium, the ESKAPE pathogen with the highest IS density, we find that ISL3 proliferation has increased in the last 30 years. To enable better identification of structural variants, we long read-sequenced a new, single hospital collection of 282 Enterococcal infection isolates collected over three years. In these samples, we observed extensive, ongoing structural variation of the E. faecium genome, largely mediated by active replicative ISL3 elements. To determine if ISL3 is actively replicating in clinical timescales in its natural, gut microbiome reservoir, we long read-sequenced a collection of 28 longitudinal stool samples from patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation, whose gut microbiomes were dominated by E. faecium. We found up to six structural variants of a given E. faecium strain within a single stool sample. Examining longitudinal samples from one individual in further detail, we find ISL3 elements can replicate and move to specific positions with profound regulatory effects on neighboring gene expression. In particular, we identify an ISL3 element that upon insertion replaces an imperfect -35 promoter sequence at a folT gene locus with a perfect -35 sequence, which leads to substantial upregulation of expression of folT, driving highly effective folate scavenging. As a known folate auxotroph, E. faecium depends on other members of the microbiota or diet to supply folate. Enhanced folate scavenging may enable E. faecium to thrive in the setting of microbiome collapse that is common in HCT and other critically ill patients. Together, ISL3 expansion has enabled E. faecium to rapidly evolve in healthcare settings, and this likely contributes to its metabolic fitness and may strongly influence its ongoing trajectory of genomic evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grieshop, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Behr, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowden, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molari, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynolds, G. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brooks, E. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doyle, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Nava, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salinas, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banaei, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatt, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.16.643550</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Replicative selfish genetic elements are driving rapid pathogenic adaptation of Enterococcus faecium]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.15.642187v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In Vivo Multiplexed Modeling Reveals Diverse Roles of the TBX2 Subfamily and Egr1 in Ras-Driven Lung Adenocarcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.15.642187v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The TBX2 subfamily of T-box transcription factors (including Tbx2, Tbx3, Tbx4, Tbx5) plays an essential role in lung development. Downregulation of these genes in human Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) suggests that these genes may be tumor suppressive, however because downregulation appears to occur primarily via epigenetic change, it remains unclear if these changes causally drive tumor progression or are merely the consequence of upstream events. Herein, we developed the first multiplexed mouse model to study the impact of TBX2 subfamily loss, alongside associated signaling genes Egr1, Chd2, Tnfaip3a, and Atf3, in Ras-driven lung cancer. Using TuBa-seq, a high-throughput tumor-barcoding system, we quantified the growth effects of these knockouts during early and late tumorigenesis. Chd2 loss consistently suppressed tumor progression, while Tbx2 loss exhibited stage-dependent effects. Notably, Egr1 emerged as a potent tumor suppressor, with its knockout increasing tumor size ([~]5x) at 20 weeks, surpassing Rb1 loss. Transcriptomic analyses of Egr1-deficient tumors suggested immune dysregulation, including heightened inflammation and potential markers of T cell exhaustion in the tumor microenvironment. These findings indicate that Egr1 may play a role in suppressing tumor growth through modulating immune dynamics, offering new insights into the interplay between tumor progression and immune regulation in LUAD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khalil, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parks, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obeng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kersak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bedrock, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faber, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rahm, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaFramboise, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McFarland, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.15.642187</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In Vivo Multiplexed Modeling Reveals Diverse Roles of the TBX2 Subfamily and Egr1 in Ras-Driven Lung Adenocarcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.21.644638v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of Vaginal Microbiota in Planktonic and Biofilm States Unveils Species-Specific Metabolic Signatures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.21.644638v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) affects approximately 29% of women in the U.S., with higher rates among certain demographics and up to 50% recurrence within a year. Besides complications like increased risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pregnancy-related issues, it can negatively impact psychological well-being, leading to discomfort and reduced quality of life. While previous studies have provided insights into the overall metabolomic profile of healthy and diseased vaginal environments, the elucidation of individual microbial metabolite signatures remains limited. Furthermore, given that biofilms exhibit distinct metabolic requirements compared to planktonic cultures, a differential analysis of metabolites in both growth conditions could reveal potential therapeutic targets. This study presents a comprehensive metabolomic analysis and comparison of significant vaginal microbes including Lactobacillus crispatus, Gardenerella vaginalis, and Lactobacillus iners in both planktonic and biofilm growth conditions. Our analysis revealed distinct metabolite production and consumption patterns among different microbes and growth modes. In biofilm cultures, metabolite consumption is influenced by nutrient availability, which in turn regulates the profile of produced metabolites. G. vaginalis demonstrated the ability to form biofilms in various media types. Limited shared metabolic pathways in both biofilm types of G. vaginalis, highlights the unique metabolic processes involved in their formation. Despite L. crispatus suspension and biofilm cultures sharing 142 consumed and 104 produced metabolites, the biofilm culture demonstrated a remarkable metabolic shift. While comparing suspension and biofilm cultures of L. crispatus, L. iners, and G. vaginalis, we found convergence in nutrient utilization, but divergence in metabolic outputs reflecting growth-specific adaptations and underscore the importance of considering the state of existence when studying the vaginal microbiome.

This study provides valuable insights into the growth mode-specific metabolic requirements of key vaginal microbes. The findings underscore the potential for leveraging metabolite-mediated microbial cross-talk as a novel therapeutic approach against BV. This avenue of research warrants further investigation, as it could lead to the development of targeted interventions that modulate the vaginal microbiome through metabolic manipulation, potentially offering more effective and personalized treatments for BV.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jena, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawore, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, L. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.21.644638</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of Vaginal Microbiota in Planktonic and Biofilm States Unveils Species-Specific Metabolic Signatures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.646018v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inherent Specificity and Mutational Sensitivity as Quantitative Metrics for RBP Binding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.646018v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Interactions between RNAs and RNA binding proteins (RBPs) regulate gene expression in eukaryotic cells. RNA-RBP affinities measured in vitro reveal diverse binding specificities, yet approaches to directly compare specificities across RBPs are lacking. Here, we introduce two quantitative metrics: inherent specificity, which measures how selectively an RBP distinguishes its strongest binding motif from all possible motifs, and mutational sensitivity, which assesses tolerance to single nucleotide variations within preferred motifs. Analyzing high-throughput sequencing datasets, we compared these metrics across 100 RBPs in vitro and 27 RBPs in cells, finding a strong correlation between in vitro and cellular measurements for RBPs that bind RNA independently of a local structural context. Through RNA binding domain swap CLIP experiments between low-specificity RBM25 and high-specificity HNRNPC, we demonstrated that sequence specificity can be measurably transferred between protein contexts. Using these insights, we developed mathematical models illustrating how inherent specificity and mutational sensitivity influence competitive RBP binding, observing that low-specificity RBPs can functionally enhance the specificity of high-specificity RBPs by occupying non-target sites. Together, our results provide a quantitative framework for modeling RNA-RBP interactions and designing RBPs with targeted specificity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishna, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jankowsky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luna, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.28.646018</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inherent Specificity and Mutational Sensitivity as Quantitative Metrics for RBP Binding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.644622v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cathepsin Z is a conserved susceptibility factor underlying tuberculosis severity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.644622v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tuberculosis (TB) outcomes vary widely, from asymptomatic infection to mortality, yet most animal models do not recapitulate human phenotypic and genotypic variation. The genetically diverse Collaborative Cross mouse panel models distinct facets of TB disease that occur in humans and allows identification of genomic loci underlying clinical outcomes. We previously mapped a TB susceptibility locus on mouse chromosome 2. Here, we identify cathepsin Z (Ctsz) as a lead candidate underlying this TB susceptibility and show that Ctsz ablation leads to increased bacterial burden, CXCL1 overproduction, and decreased survival in mice. Ctsz disturbance within murine macrophages enhances production of CXCL1, a known biomarker of TB severity. From a Ugandan household contact study, we identify significant associations between CTSZ variants and TB disease severity. Finally, we examine patient-derived TB granulomas and report CTSZ localization within granuloma-associated macrophages, placing human CTSZ at the host-pathogen interface. These findings implicate a conserved CTSZ-CXCL1 axis in humans and genetically diverse mice that mediates TB disease severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meade, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adefisayo, O. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gontijo, M. T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pyle, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilburn, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ecker, A. M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivie, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McHenry, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neff, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ko, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stout, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawn, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobin, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.01.644622</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cathepsin Z is a conserved susceptibility factor underlying tuberculosis severity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646433v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pre-Clinical Evaluation of a Novel Immunomodulator: a potential immunotherapy for coronaviral disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646433v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
At present, no unifying animal study to quantify the effect of PI on innate immunity in animals has been reported. This study quantifies the effect of PI in mice and THP-1 cells using a multi-disciplinary approach employing flow cytometry to measure immune function and mass spectroscopy to identify metabolomic profiles of treated cells. For proof of principle, a case study was conducted to examine the potential benefit of administering PI to improve outcomes of a feline leukemia-positive cat that also contracted the effusive form of FIP. Our results indicate that quantifiable cellular and metabolic markers result from PI treatment and can be used to establish a platform measuring the efficacy of PI in modulating the innate immune system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berdis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patil, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pozza-Adams, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.01.646433</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pre-Clinical Evaluation of a Novel Immunomodulator: a potential immunotherapy for coronaviral disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647096v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mapping the spatial architecture of glioblastoma from core to edge delineates niche-specific tumor cell states and intercellular interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647096v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Treatment resistance in glioblastoma (GBM) is largely driven by the extensive multi-level heterogeneity that typifies this disease. Despite significant progress toward elucidating GBMs genomic and transcriptional heterogeneity, a critical knowledge gap remains in defining this heterogeneity at the spatial level. To address this, we employed spatial transcriptomics to map the architecture of the GBM ecosystem. This revealed tumor cell states that are jointly defined by gene expression and spatial localization, and multicellular niches whose composition varies along the tumor core-edge axis. Ligand-receptor interaction analysis uncovered a complex network of intercellular communication, including niche- and region-specific interactions. Finally, we found that CD8 positive GZMK positive T cells colocalize with LYVE1 positive CD163 positive myeloid cells in vascular regions, suggesting a potential mechanism for immune evasion. These findings provide novel insights into the GBM tumor microenvironment, highlighting previously unrecognized patterns of spatial organization and intercellular interactions, and novel therapeutic avenues to disrupt tumor-promoting interactions and overcome immune resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCornack, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dahiya, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foltz-Stringfellow, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherpa, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leavitt, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>West, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krbanjevic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leuthardt, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charest, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunn, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petti, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.04.647096</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mapping the spatial architecture of glioblastoma from core to edge delineates niche-specific tumor cell states and intercellular interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.646684v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcriptional downregulation of rhodopsin is associated with desensitization of rods to light-induced damage in a murine model of retinitis pigmentosa. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.646684v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Class I rhodopsin mutations are known for some of the most severe forms of vision impairments in dominantly inherited rhodopsin retinitis pigmentosa. They disrupt the VxPx transport signal, which is required for the proper localization of rhodopsin to the outer segments. While various studies have focused on the light-dependent toxicity of mutant rhodopsin, it remains unclear whether and how these mutations exert dominant-negative effects. Using the class I RhoQ344X rhodopsin knock-in mouse model, we characterized the expression of rhodopsin and other genes by RNA sequencing and qPCR. Those studies indicated that rhodopsin is the most prominently downregulated photoreceptor-specific gene in RhoQ344X/+ mice. Rhodopsin is downregulated significantly prior to the onset of rod degeneration, whereas downregulation of other phototransduction genes, transducin, and Pde6, occurs after the onset and correlate with the degree of rod cell loss. Those studies indicated that the mutant rhodopsin gene causes downregulation of wild-type rhodopsin, imposing an mRNA-level dominant negative effect. Moreover, it causes downregulation of the mutant mRNA itself, mitigating the toxicity. The observed dominant effect is likely common among rhodopsin retinitis pigmentosa as we found a similar rhodopsin downregulation in the major class II rhodopsin mutant model, RhoP23H/+ mice, in which mutant rhodopsin is prone to misfold. Potentially due to mitigated toxicity by reduced rhodopsin expression, RhoQ344X/+ mice did not exhibit light-dependent exacerbation of rod degeneration, even after continuous exposure of mice for 5 days at 3000 lux. Thus, this study describes a novel form of dominant negative effect in inherited neurodegenerative disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Takita, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harikrishnan, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imanishi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.03.646684</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcriptional downregulation of rhodopsin is associated with desensitization of rods to light-induced damage in a murine model of retinitis pigmentosa.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.646800v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phenylhydrazone-based Endoplasmic Reticulum Proteostasis Regulator Compounds with Enhanced Biological Activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.646800v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pharmacological enhancement of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis is an attractive strategy to mitigate pathology linked to etiologically-diverse protein misfolding diseases. However, despite this promise, few compounds have been identified that enhance ER proteostasis through defined mechanisms of action. We previously identified the phenylhydrazone-based compound AA263 as a compound that promotes adaptive ER proteostasis remodeling through mechanisms including preferential activation of the ATF6 signaling arm of the unfolded protein response (UPR). However, the protein target(s) of AA263 and the potential for further development of this class of ER proteostasis regulators had not been previously explored. Here, we employ chemical proteomics to demonstrate that AA263 covalently targets a subset of ER protein disulfide isomerases, revealing a potential molecular mechanism for the activation of ATF6 afforded by this compound. We then use medicinal chemistry to establish next-generation AA263 analogs showing improved potency and efficacy for ATF6 activation, as compared to the parent compound. Finally, we show that treatment with these AA263 analogs enhances secretory pathway proteostasis to correct the pathologic protein misfolding and trafficking of both a destabilized, disease-associated 1-antitrypsin (A1AT) variant and an epilepsy-associated GABAA receptor variant. These results establish AA263 analogs with enhanced potential for correcting imbalanced ER proteostasis associated with etiologically-diverse protein misfolding disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kline, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boinon, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guerrero, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutseikin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruz, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paxman, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balch, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiseman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.04.646800</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phenylhydrazone-based Endoplasmic Reticulum Proteostasis Regulator Compounds with Enhanced Biological Activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647282v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pyruvate kinase deficiency links metabolic perturbations to neurodegeneration and axonal protection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647282v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neurons rely on tightly regulated metabolic networks to sustain their high-energy demands, particularly through the coupling of glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Here, we investigate the role of pyruvate kinase (PyK), a key glycolytic enzyme, in maintaining axonal and synaptic integrity in the Drosophila melanogaster neuromuscular system. Using genetic deficiencies in PyK, we show that disrupting glycolysis induces progressive synaptic and axonal degeneration and severe locomotor deficits. These effects require the conserved dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK), Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and activator protein 1 (AP-1) Fos transcription factor axonal damage signaling pathway and the SARM1 NADase enzyme, a key driver of axonal degeneration. As both DLK and SARM1 regulate degeneration of injured axons (Wallerian degeneration), we probed the effect of PyK loss on this process. Consistent with the idea that metabolic shifts may influence neuronal resilience in context-dependent ways, we find that pyk knockdown delays Wallerian degeneration following nerve injury, suggesting that reducing glycolytic flux can promote axon survival under stress conditions. This protective effect is partially blocked by DLK knockdown and fully abolished by SARM1 overexpression. Together, our findings help bridge metabolism and neurodegenerative signaling by demonstrating that glycolytic perturbations causally activate stress response pathways that dictate the balance between protection and degeneration depending on the systems state. These results provide a mechanistic framework for understanding metabolic contributions to neurodegeneration and highlight the potential of metabolism as a target for therapeutic strategies.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Waller, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collins, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dus, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.04.647282</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pyruvate kinase deficiency links metabolic perturbations to neurodegeneration and axonal protection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647859v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanism of clinically relevant neurosecretory and metabolic impairment in Alzheimers and identification of engineered nanotherapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647859v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A central challenge in Alzheimers disease is understanding the mechanism of neuronal secretory dysfunction. By exploiting AI, we reveal how beta-amyloid disrupts key protein interactions within the neuronal secretory machinery. In a combinatorial strategy of reprogramming the neuronal secretory and metabolic components, we established a dual-target therapeutic framework that repairs synaptic and mitochondrial defects to counteract neurodegeneration in Alzheimers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munj, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jena, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arslanturk, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patil, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jena, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.09.647859</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanism of clinically relevant neurosecretory and metabolic impairment in Alzheimers and identification of engineered nanotherapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648385v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gut Microbe-Derived N-Acyl Serinol Lipids Shape Host Postprandial Metabolic Homeostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648385v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although strong evidence links the gut microbiome to metabolic disease, the mechanisms linking microbiota to hormonal and metabolic responses to food are not well understood. After a meal, gut bacteria produce a wide array of small molecule, protein, and lipid metabolites originating from bacterial sources. Annotating physiological function to select gut microbe-derived metabolites is critical to understanding diet-microbe-host interactions, and to developing microbiome-inspired therapies to improve human health. Here, we have investigated the role of a poorly annotated class of gut microbiome-derived lipids called N-acyl amides in postprandial metabolic physiology. Here we show both bacterial overproduction and provision of exogenous N-acyl amides reorganize host hormone-driven metabolic transition after a meal. Moreover, N-acyl amides exert broad effects on the meal- and circadian-related reorganization of gene expression, metabolic hormones, and gut microbiome composition. Collectively, these results demonstrate that microbiota-derived N-acyl amides play a physiologic role in postprandial metabolic homeostasis in the host.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dutta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahen, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Massey, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadharajan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burrows, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horak, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mrdjen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mouannes, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orabi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborn, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grubb, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohe, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uppin, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laungani, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sangwan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dwidar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajjar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guetschow, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westcott, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hazen, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.11.648385</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gut Microbe-Derived N-Acyl Serinol Lipids Shape Host Postprandial Metabolic Homeostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648417v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
15-PGDH inhibition promotes hematopoietic recovery and enhances HSC function during aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648417v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hematopoietic aging is characterized by diminished stem cell regenerative capacity and an increased risk of hematologic dysfunction. We previously identified that the prostaglandin-degrading enzyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) regulates hematopoietic stem cell activity. Here, we expand on this work and demonstrate that in aged mice, (1) 15-PGDH expression and activity remain conserved in the bone marrow and spleen, suggesting it remains a viable therapeutic target in aging, (2) prolonged PGDH inhibition (PGDHi) significantly increases the frequency and number of phenotypic hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells across multiple compartments, with transcriptional changes indicative of enhanced function, (3) PGDHi-treated bone marrow enhances short-term hematopoietic recovery following transplantation, leading to improved peripheral blood output and accelerated multilineage reconstitution, and (4) PGDHi confers a competitive advantage in primary hematopoietic transplantation while mitigating age-associated myeloid bias in secondary transplants. Notably, these effects occur without perturbing steady-state blood production, suggesting that PGDHi enhances hematopoiesis under regenerative conditions while maintaining homeostasis. Our work identifies PGDHi as a translatable intervention to rejuvenate aged HSCs and mitigate hematopoietic decline.

Significance StatementWe identify 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibition (PGDHi) as a strategy to enhance hematopoietic stem cell function in aging. In aged mice, PGDHi expands stem and progenitor populations, accelerates hematopoietic recovery after transplantation, and reduces myeloid bias while maintaining steady-state blood production. These findings highlight a potential therapeutic approach to restore hematopoietic resilience and improve regenerative outcomes in aging.

Graphical Abstract15-prostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibition ameliorates multiple facets of age-related hematopoietic decline. Schematic made using BioRender.com.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chaudhary, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cordova, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contreras, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rashmil, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goshevski, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markowitz, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.11.648417</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[15-PGDH inhibition promotes hematopoietic recovery and enhances HSC function during aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.13.648512v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhanced delivery of lipid nanoparticle-based immunotherapy by modulating the tumor tissue stiffness using ultrasound-activated nanobubbles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.13.648512v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumors often exhibit an extracellular matrix with elevated stiffness due to excessive accumulation and crosslinking of proteins, particularly collagen. This elevated stiffness acts as a physical barrier, impeding the infiltration of immune cells and the effective delivery of various immunotherapeutic agents, such as lipid nanoparticle-based RNA therapeutics. Here, we investigate the ability of ultrasound-activated nanobubbles (US-NBs) to increase the permeability and immunogenicity of tumors. Our results show that US-NBs physically remodel the tumor tissue by decreasing its stiffness by 60% five days after a single treatment. US-NB-treated tumors display randomly oriented collagen with a 5.47-fold lower deposition compared to untreated tumors. This leads to the effective delivery and widespread distribution of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) in the tumor. When LNPs are assisted by US-NB, they have higher gene-transfection across pan-immune cells relative to LNPs alone. Notably, US-NB enables LNPs to genetically modify T cells directly in vivo. By effectively engaging both arms of the immune system, US-NB-assisted LNPs enhance the tumor immunogenicity and infiltration of cytotoxic cells by 4-fold when compared to LNPs alone. These results indicate that gentle mechanical stimulation of the tumor using US-NB offers a promising strategy to augment the delivery and efficacy of existing immunotherapies.

Graphical Abstract

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhalotia, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nittayacharn, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheplyansky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takizawa, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nidhiry, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gopalakrishnan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosmides, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karathanasis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.13.648512</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhanced delivery of lipid nanoparticle-based immunotherapy by modulating the tumor tissue stiffness using ultrasound-activated nanobubbles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.16.647417v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kinocilia of Vestibular Hair Cells: Bridging Structural and Functional Traits of Primary and Motile Cilia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.16.647417v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vestibular hair cells (HCs) convert gravitational and head motion cues into neural signals through mechanotransduction, mediated by the hair bundle--a mechanically integrated organelle composed of stereocilia and a kinocilium. The kinocilium, a specialized form of primary cilium, remains incompletely defined in structure, molecular composition, and function. To elucidate its characteristics, we conducted single-cell RNA sequencing of adult vestibular and cochlear HCs, uncovering a selective enrichment of primary and motile cilia-associated genes in vestibular HCs, particularly those related to the axonemal repeat complex. This enrichment of orthologous axonemal-related genes was conserved in zebrafish and human vestibular HCs, indicating a shared molecular architecture. Immunostaining validated the expression of key motile cilia markers in vestibular kinocilia. Moreover, live imaging of bullfrog and mouse HCs from crista ampullaris revealed spontaneous kinociliary motion. Together, these findings define the kinocilium as a unique organelle with molecular features of primary and motile cilia and suggest its previously unknown role as an active, force-generating element within the hair bundle.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulasooriya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kachar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, D. Z. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.16.647417</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kinocilia of Vestibular Hair Cells: Bridging Structural and Functional Traits of Primary and Motile Cilia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.23.650044v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Isolation and characterization of TayeBlu, a novel bacteriophage of Azotobacter vinelandii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.23.650044v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Soil microbial communities drive global biogeochemical cycles and alter crop yields through nitrogen fixation. As agents of genetic mobility, mortality, and nutrient release, viruses have been shown to influence microbial community structure and activity in numerous marine and aquatic systems. However, their impacts on terrestrial ecosystems are less well understood, in part because few model phage-host systems have been established for soils. To fill this gap, we sought to develop a new model system for viral infection of nitrogen-fixing bacteria derived from agricultural soil. Here, we report the isolation, characterization, and sequencing of the novel bacteriophage TayeBlu, which infects the globally distributed aerobic soil bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii, a facultative diazotroph. TayeBlu was isolated from the rhizosphere of tomato plants in a farm greenhouse. We find that the availability of nitrogen to host cells strongly influences TayeBlu infection physiology at the level of adsorption kinetics, time to lysis, and burst size. Taxonomic and comparative genome analysis reveal that TayeBlu belongs to an understudied family in class Caudoviricetes in which a small core of structural and assembly genes has persisted through adaptive diversification on different bacterial hosts.

IMPORTANCEUnderstanding the forces regulating soil microbial activity is critical for building accurate ecosystem models that can inform land-management strategies aimed at mitigating climate risks and stabilizing the global food supply. For agricultural sustainability, it is particularly important to understand the dynamics of soil nitrogen-fixing bacteria like Azotobacter vinelandii, a well-studied and globally distributed species whose activity promotes plant growth and soil fertility. To support detailed investigations of the impact of viruses on diazotroph ecosystem outputs, we isolated and investigated a novel soil virus that infects A. vinelandii. This new phage-host system holds promise as a model experimental system for soil viral studies, illuminating a critical but poorly understood aspect of soil ecology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akanbi, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Labat, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bagby, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.23.650044</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Isolation and characterization of TayeBlu, a novel bacteriophage of Azotobacter vinelandii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.27.650697v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increasing Stemness Drives Prostate Cancer Progression, Plasticity, Therapy Resistance and Poor Patient Survival 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.27.650697v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundCancer progression is often accompanied by dedifferentiation and acquisition of stem cell-like properties (stemness). In prostate cancer (PCa), lineage plasticity and therapy resistance remain major clinical challenges, yet a unified quantitative transcriptomic framework connecting stemness, androgen receptor (AR) signaling, castration resistance, and disease progression across the PCa continuum is lacking.

MethodsWe performed an integrative analysis of 87,192 transcriptomic data from 27 preclinical and clinical datasets spanning the PCa continuum--from normal prostate and treatment-naive primary PCa (Pri-PCa) to PCa treated with neoadjuvant ADT (nADT) and metastatic castration-resistant PCa (mCRPC). Tumor stemness was quantified using a transcriptome-derived mRNAsi Stemness Index (Stemness for short), and a 12-gene PCa-Stem signature was developed to capture PCa-specific stemness. Canonical AR activity (c_AR-A) and castration-reprogrammed AR activity (cr_AR-A), RB1-loss, PTEN-loss, and MYC activity signature scores were analyzed across cohorts, with survival assessed in multiple datasets. Functional validations included MYC knockdown RNA-seq data analysis in LNCaP cells and siRNA-mediated depletion of representative PCa-Stem genes in androgen-independent LAPC4 (LAPC4-AI) cells.

ResultsThe Stemness score and c_AR-A increased concordantly during early prostate tumorigenesis but diverged with PCa progression: as Gleason grade increased, c_AR-A declined while Stemness continually increased. mCRPC exhibited the highest Stemness and lowest c_AR-A, a pattern recapitulated in Pten/Rb1/Trp53-deficient mouse models. Both global Stemness score and the PCa-Stem signature were enriched in aggressive PAM50-LumB and PCS1 subtypes, associated with the proliferative and lineage plasticity programs, and predicted poor survival. Depletion of representative PCa-Stem genes (HMMR, PBK, AURKB) suppressed proliferation, invasion and organoid formation in LAPC4-AI cells. Mechanistically, MYC activity, cr_AR-A and RB1-loss transcriptomic signature were consistently associated with and drove pervasively increasing Stemness during PCa progression. Shared mitotic regulators linked cr_AR-A, RB1-loss, MYC activity, and PCa-Stem to mitotic control and therapy-resistant proliferation.

ConclusionsThe Stemness scores reported herein quantitatively capture PCa aggressiveness, plasticity, treatment resistance and progression, and prognosticates poor patient survival. Therapy-reprogrammed AR activity (cr_AR-A), RB1 loss, and MYC activation together reinforce the high-Stemness state and therapy resistance in mCRPC. Collectively, our work establishes a trajectory-integrated and scalable transcriptomic framework that defines cancer Stemness as a quantifiable clinical determinant of PCa progression, plasticity, progression, therapy resistance and patient survival.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cortes, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ho, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davicioni, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, F. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alumkal, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spratt, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweeney, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatta, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nastiuk, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodrich, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rycaj, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jamroze, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirk, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puzanov, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.27.650697</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increasing Stemness Drives Prostate Cancer Progression, Plasticity, Therapy Resistance and Poor Patient Survival]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.28.651141v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Kozak sequence libraries for characterizing transgenes across expression levels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.28.651141v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Typical mammalian overexpression systems test protein sequence variants with little control over expression levels and steady-state protein abundances, hindering interpretations of how protein sequence and expression converge to yield phenotypic outcomes. We explored the translation initiation sequence, commonly referred to as the Kozak sequence, as a means to modulate protein steady-state abundance and cellular function. We performed sort-seq on a randomized library of the 6 nucleotides preceding the start codon, amounting to 4,042 sequences. Calibrating the scores revealed a ~100-fold range of protein steady-state abundances possible through manipulation of the Kozak sequence. We identified human germline variants with predicted expression-reducing Kozak substitutions in disease-associated genes. Modulating the cell surface abundance of the host cell receptor ACE2 controlled the rate at which those cells became infected by SARS-like coronavirus spike pseudotyped particles. We demonstrated the potential of the approach by simultaneously testing Kozak libraries with a small panel of coding variants for ACE2 and STIM1. This approach lays the methodological groundwork for linking the causal relationships between protein sequence, abundance, and functional outcome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shukla, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamath, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snell, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruchez, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.28.651141</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Kozak sequence libraries for characterizing transgenes across expression levels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.651477v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HIV infection in microglia leads to senescence, triggering activation of neurotoxicity pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.651477v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) persist in milder forms despite anti-retroviral therapy, leading to premature and exacerbated aging-related cognitive disorders. We investigated the interplay between HAND and aging in microglia, which constitute the main brain HIV reservoir. We compared the transcriptomic patterns associated with normal aging in healthy humans to those observed following HIV infection in both ex vivo and in vivo models. Single cell and bulk transcriptomic patterns revealed that HIV infection induces a pattern of cellular senescence, with strong parallels to the transcriptomic signature of normal aging. Both processes were characterized by p53 pathway activation, upregulation of inflammatory genes and downregulation of proliferative genes while maintaining mTOR signaling, a pattern characteristic of cellular senescence. Importantly, both actively HIV infected and bystander microglia showed the cellular senescence patterns. Our results provide a mechanistic basis for the observed premature brain aging in HAND, and identify senescence-associated pathways as potential therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mason, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sreeram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niazi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leskov, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valadkhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.08.651477</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HIV infection in microglia leads to senescence, triggering activation of neurotoxicity pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.05.652244v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Personalized Gut-Liver Microphysiological System Maps Donor-Specific Tissue Resident Immunity and Reveals a Conserved Metabolic Crosstalk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.05.652244v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tissue-resident immune (TRI) niches are unique to tissues and greatly vary between individuals. We built a personalized gut-liver microphysiological system (MPS) to recapitulate these profiles, combining primary colon epithelium, hepatocytes, and autologous CD45 TRI cells of two donors. Single-cell RNA-seq of colon and liver revealed distinct TRI profiles and predicted responses distinct between donors. Co-culture established organ and donor-specific immune programs: colonic epithelium induced Th1/Th17 polarization in Donor 1 but B cell differentiation in Donor 2. Gut-liver crosstalk in all donors converged on a retinoid-bile acid metabolic axis with a muted inflammatory set-point, indicating that circulating metabolites can override baseline immune differences. Microbial agonist challenges of gut compartments revealed distinct liver responses: Poly(I:C) induced a uniform type-I/III interferon burst, LPS triggered a stronger response in Donor 1, and 5-OP-RU selectively activated Donor 2. Our personalized, immune-competent gut-liver MPS demonstrates that a conserved metabolic dialogue coexists with and is modulated by TRI profiles. This work provides a blueprint for exploring immunometabolic diseases and precision therapeutics in multi-organ models reflecting human immune diversity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Uslu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siddiqui, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raechal, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogsa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perrot, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lieberman, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trapecar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.05.652244</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Personalized Gut-Liver Microphysiological System Maps Donor-Specific Tissue Resident Immunity and Reveals a Conserved Metabolic Crosstalk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.06.651695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vivo tracking of CAR-T cells in tumors via nanobubble-based contrastenhanced ultrasound 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.06.651695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
CAR-T cell therapy has led to remarkable advances in the outcomes of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), B cell lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. Given these successes in hematologic malignancies, extensive efforts are now focused on developing CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. The treatment of solid tumors poses significant hurdles with cell trafficking that is necessary to achieve efficacy and minimize off-tumor side effects. The development of simple, safe and inexpensive modalities to track CAR-T cell distribution in humans could provide critical insights to facilitate the development of improved CAR-T products for solid tumors. Here we demonstrate a strategy to monitor CAR-T cells in vivo using ultrasound imaging and nanobubble (NB) labeled cells. NBs are ultrasound contrast agents composed of a lipid shell and a C4F10 gas core that can be efficiently internalized into cells. This approach enables us to image the CAR-T cells using nonlinear contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). Utilizing this method, we found that CAR-T cells can be visualized after injection into both tumor bearing and non-tumor bearing mice. In summary, our ultrasound-based tracking approach can effectively monitor the trafficking of CAR-T cells in vivo, offering a valuable new strategy that can further enable the development of new CAR-T products and strategies to modulate cell trafficking.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Durig, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franklin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vasanna, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolios, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.06.651695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vivo tracking of CAR-T cells in tumors via nanobubble-based contrastenhanced ultrasound]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.06.652358v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mechanism Based Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Analysis of Polymyxin B-Based Combination Therapy Against Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates with Diverse Phenotypic and Genotypic Resistance Mechanisms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.06.652358v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Increased resistance to {beta}-lactams/{beta}-lactamase inhibitor by mutations in {beta}-lactamases gene, porin mutations and efflux pumps complicates the management of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP). Polymyxin B (PMB) based combination therapy is considered as a best alternative treatment for those middle and low-income countries that cannot access to the latest medicines. Its crucial to know both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of a pathogen to understand the killing effect of each drug and its combinations. Hence, our objective of this study was to incorporate mechanistic insights gained from resistance mechanisms to develop a mechanism based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model (MBM). Six clinical CRKP isolates were used for static concentration time kill (SCTK) assays to evaluate the rate and extent of killing by monotherapy, double and triple combinations using PMB, meropenem and fosfomycin. A MBM was developed using the SCTK data in S-ADAPT. The MBM estimated lower maximum killing rate constant of PMB (3.61 h-{superscript 1}) in an isolate with non-functional MgrB and high-level phenotypic resistance. Based upon model discrimination and PMBs outer membrane disruption, mechanistic synergy was included in 3 isolates which has porin mutations. Mechanistic synergy of PMB was 83-88% with meropenem and 81-98% with fosfomycin. The PMB concentration required to achieve 50% of synergy was 0.48-0.64 mg/L. Simulations with a lower PMB regimen (1mg/kg q12h) and fosfomycin (8g q8h) showed >73% reduction in area under the bacterial load-versus-time curve for four isolates. The triple combination showed 67.7% reduction in non-carbapenamase producing isolate. This study demonstrates that a low dosing regimen of PMB can produce synergistic effects in combination therapy and might be effective in managing infections caused by CRKP, including PMB resistant isolates.

Author summaryAntimicrobial resistance is a major concern in treating infectious diseases. CRKP bacterial isolates are resistant to most of the novel antimicrobial agents. One of the primary resistant mechanisms is restricting the permeability of drugs to the site of action. Polymyxin B, an antimicrobial agent, disrupts the bacterial outer membrane, enhancing the permeability of other drugs. When using combination therapy with polymyxin B, selecting drugs with different mechanisms of action is crucial to enhance synergistic effects and improve treatment efficacy. In our study we chose to evaluate the efficacy of meropenem and fosfomycin in double and triple combination therapies. Mechanism based models (MBMs) are the strongest tool to analyse the time course bacterial load data. Our study provides insights into applying available phenotypic and genotypic information to refine and enhance the accuracy of MBMs. Final model simulations revealed that low exposure of polymyxin B below the nephrotoxic threshold was sufficient to produce synergistic effects when combined with fosfomycin and meropenem. Additionally, we found that polymyxin B combination with fosfomycin was more effective compared to meropenem in treating CRKP.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mahadevan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elsheikh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parambi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abboud, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasteran, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaye, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonomo, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.06.652358</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mechanism Based Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Analysis of Polymyxin B-Based Combination Therapy Against Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates with Diverse Phenotypic and Genotypic Resistance Mechanisms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.652864v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
APOE genotype confers context dependent neurovascular vulnerability in immune-vascularized human forebrain organoids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.652864v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The APOE gene is a major genetic determinant of neurovascular and immune function, yet the mechanisms by which its isoforms modulate brain vulnerability to pathogenic stress remain incompletely understood. Here, we employ isogenic human iPSC-derived immune-vascularized--Forebrain Organoid-based Multicellular Assembled Cerebral Organoids (FORMA-COs)--to dissect isoform-specific responses to a clinically relevant viral challenge. We find that APOE2/2 and APOE4/4 FORMA-COs exhibit heightened viral RNA burden and distinct neuroinflammatory profiles compared to APOE3/3. Specifically, APOE4/4 promotes IL-1 and VEGFA induction, whereas APOE2/2 leads to elevated TNF-{beta} and VEGFA protein accumulation, indicating divergent pathways of injury. Integrated transcriptomic analyses, combined with known and predicted APOE protein-protein interaction networks, reveal genotype-dependent enrichment of cytokine signaling, angiogenic remodeling, and immune dysregulation. In vivo validation using humanized mouse models corroborates APOE genotype- specific vascular remodeling, microglial activation, and oligodendrocyte perturbation. These findings demonstrate that APOE genotype confers context-specific susceptibility to neuroimmune and vascular injury, providing insight into genetic risk mechanisms underlying infection-related and neurodegenerative brain disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bullen, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Condoleo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheat, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lissit, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neifert, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishai, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.08.652864</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[APOE genotype confers context dependent neurovascular vulnerability in immune-vascularized human forebrain organoids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.07.652677v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Short chain fatty acids regulate the chromatin landscape and distinct gene expression changes in human colorectal cancer cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.07.652677v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are small metabolites that are produced through the activity of microbes and have important roles in human physiology. These metabolites have varied mechanisms in interacting with the host, of which one such mode is decorating the chromatin landscape. We previously detected specific histone modifications in the mouse gut that can be derived from SCFAs and are regulated by the microbiota. However, the roles of these SCFAs on chromatin and how they impact gene regulation in human cells is largely unknown. Now, our studies demonstrate these microbiota-dependent histone posttranslational modifications (PTMs) are associated with alterations in gene regulation in human cells. We show that histone butyrylation on H3K27 is detected in human colon samples. Furthermore, histone acetylation, butyrylation, and propionylation on H3K9 and H3K27 are responsive to levels of SCFAs in human colon cancer cell lines and are associated with active gene regulatory elements. In addition, treatment of human cancer cell lines with individual metabolites or combinations of SCFAs replicating the intestinal lumen environment result in distinct and overlapping gene program changes, with butyrate largely driving gene regulatory effects of SCFA combinations. Lastly, we define butyrate effects on gene expression that are independent of HDAC inhibition and are dependent on p300/CBP, suggesting potential gene programs regulated by histone butyrylation. Together, these results demonstrate that SCFAs are key regulators of the chromatin landscape and gene programs in human colorectal cancer cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kabir, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connamacher, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeem, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smutny, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawler, Z. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Djomo, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gates, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.07.652677</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Short chain fatty acids regulate the chromatin landscape and distinct gene expression changes in human colorectal cancer cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.652740v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
H3K79 methylation and H3K36 tri-methylation synergistically regulate gene expression in pluripotent stem cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.08.652740v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In metazoans, nucleosomes harboring H3K79 methylation (H3K79me) deposited by the histone methyltransferase DOT1L decorate actively transcribed genes. Although DOT1L is implicated in transcription regulation and pathogenesis of human diseases such as leukemia and neurological disorders, the role of H3K79me in these biological processes remains elusive. Here, we reveal a novel functional synergism between H3K79me and H3K36 tri-methylation (H3K36me3), another histone modification enriched at active genes, in regulating gene expression and neural cell fate transition. Simultaneous catalytic inactivation of DOT1L and the H3K36 methyltransferase SETD2 via gene editing leads to the global loss of H3K79me and H3K36me3, hyperactive transcription, and failures in neural differentiation. Interestingly, the loss of H3K79me and H3K36me3 causes increased transcription elongation, gained chromatin accessibility at a group of enhancers, and increased binding of TEAD4 transcription factor and its co-activator YAP1 at these enhancers. Furthermore, YAP-TEAD inhibition partially restores the expression levels of hyperactivated genes upon H3K79me/H3K36me3 loss. Taken together, our study demonstrates a synergistic role of H3K79me and H3K36me3 in regulating transcription and cell fate transition, unveils novel mechanisms underlying such synergism, and provides insight into designing therapies that target diseases driven by misregulation or mutations of DOT1L and/or SETD2.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cooke, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nur, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>CHEN, F. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.08.652740</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[H3K79 methylation and H3K36 tri-methylation synergistically regulate gene expression in pluripotent stem cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.13.653828v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Large Language Models Can Extract Metadata for Annotation of Human Neuroimaging Publications 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.13.653828v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We show that recent (mid-to-late 2024) commercial large language models (LLMs) are capable of good quality metadata extraction and annotation with very little work on the part of investigators for several exemplar real-world annotation tasks in the neuroimaging literature. We investigated the GPT-4o LLM from OpenAI which performed comparably with several groups of specially trained and supervised human annotators. The LLM achieves similar performance to humans, between 0.91 and 0.97 on zero-shot prompts without feedback to the LLM. Reviewing the disagreements between LLM and gold standard human annotations we note that actual LLM errors are comparable to human errors in most cases, and in many cases these disagreements are not errors. Based on the specific types of annotations we tested, with exceptionally reviewed gold-standard correct values, the LLM performance is usable for metadata annotation at scale. We encourage other research groups to develop and make available more specialized "micro-benchmarks," like the ones we provide here, for testing both LLMs, and more complex agent systems annotation performance in real-world metadata annotation tasks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Turner, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Appaji, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ar Rakib, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golnari, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajasekar, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rathnam K V, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turner, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.13.653828</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Large Language Models Can Extract Metadata for Annotation of Human Neuroimaging Publications]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.653365v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PML1-Mediated Feedforward Loop Through PI3K and MAPK Axes Drives Endocrine Resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.653365v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Treatment of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer is significantly hindered by endocrine resistance. We identified PML1 as a key therapeutic entity that can be targeted to overcome resistance. Endocrine-resistant breast cancer cells share three key characteristics: elevated PML1 protein levels, enhanced activity of PI3K, MAPK, or both signaling pathways, and reduced ER activity. We developed a PML1 gene signature that predicts poor prognosis and correlates strongly with PI3K, MAPK, and endocrine resistance gene signatures, as evident by cellular studies, scRNA-seq analysis, and spatial transcriptomics of endocrine therapy-treated tumors. This signature is present in endocrine-resistant breast cancer cells harboring the Y537S ER mutation. We consistently demonstrate high PML1 protein levels across cells resistant to various treatments, including 4-hydroxytamoxifen, fulvestrant, elacestrant, and CDK4/6 inhibitors. Furthermore, treatments with these therapeutic agents or knockdown of ESR1 mRNA also increase PML1 protein levels. Mechanistically, we show that ER inhibition through fulvestrant treatment activates PI3K and MAPK signaling, which enhance PML1 protein stability and synthesis. PML1 then drives a feedforward loop by stimulating the expression of cytokine and growth factor mRNAs, including CCL5 and HBEGF, further amplifying PI3K and MAPK signaling. Consequently, in endocrine-resistant cells, endocrine therapies, while inactivating ER, paradoxically reinforce this loop through increased PI3K/MAPK activation and PML1 protein accumulation, ultimately compromising therapeutic efficacy. Finally, we demonstrated that arsenic trioxide, an FDA-approved, PML-reducing drug, effectively disrupts this feedforward loop, offering a promising strategy for treating resistant metastatic breast cancer.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEEndocrine resistance remains a major obstacle in treating estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer. Our study identifies PML1 as a central mediator of this resistance, revealing how it maintains a self-reinforcing signaling network through PI3K and MAPK pathways by enhancing the production of cytokines and growth factors. The clinical significance of our findings is threefold: we establish PML1 as a biomarker for therapy resistance, demonstrate its mechanistic role in treatment failure, and show that FDA-approved arsenic trioxide can disrupt PML1-driven resistance. These insights provide a direct path to clinical translation, as combining arsenic trioxide with existing therapies could benefit patients with limited treatment options.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yun, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pai, C.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keri, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiemann, W. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diehl, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.15.653365</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PML1-Mediated Feedforward Loop Through PI3K and MAPK Axes Drives Endocrine Resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.19.654941v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DJ-1 deficiency and aging: dual drivers of retinal mitochondrial dysfunction. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.19.654941v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We have previously extensively characterized the role of DJ-1 in oxidative stress regulation in the retina and RPE during aging. However, the DJ-1 protein also plays a role in regulating mitochondrias response to oxidative stress by translocating to the mitochondria where it helps clear generated reactive oxygen species (ROS). To study the effects of aging and oxidative stress in the retina, the DJ-1 KO mouse was analyzed. Freshly dissected ex vivo retinal punches were analyzed for real-time live cell metabolism. Total DNA and protein were isolated from RPE, and retina of 3- and 15-month-old DJ-1 WT and DJ-1 KO mice. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome was divided into four discrete regions (RI-RIV), and lesions/10kb were quantified using long-extension PCR. mtDNA content was analyzed using RT-qPCR. Protein levels of OXPHOS complexes, POLG, OGG1, SOD2, and PGC1 were measured by western blotting. Seahorse analysis detected significantly decreased basal and maximal OCR in 3- and 15-month-old DJ-1 KO compared to age-matched DJ-1 WT. In the RPE, a significant decrease in the protein levels of the NDUFB8 subunit of CI, the SDHB subunit of CII, and MTCO1 of CIV in 15-month-old DJ-1 KO mice compared to 15-month-old DJ-1 WT, while the ATP5A subunit of CV was significantly decreased in 3-month-old DJ-1 KO mice compared to 3-month-old DJ-1 WT. In the retina, significantly decreased levels of NDUFB8 subunit of CI and MTCO1 of CIV were detected in the in 3-month-old DJ-1 KO mice compared to 3-month-old DJ-1 WT. We observed a significant increase in mtDNA gene content in 15-month-old DJ-1 KO RPE and retina compared to age-matched DJ-1 WT. The PGC1 levels significantly decreased in 3- and 15-month-old RPE lysates compared to their age group DJ-1 WT. However, in the retina, there was only a decrease in DJ-1 WT with aging. The POLG levels increased when 15-month-old DJ-1 KO lysates were compared to 15-month-old DJ-1 WT. The mtDNA lesions in the RPE detected a trend of increase in 15-month-old DJ-1 WT and DJ-1 KO RPE in all regions compared to 3-month-old mice. In the retina, a significant increase in mtDNA lesions/10kb accumulation in the 15-month-old DJ-1 WT RIV was detected compared to 3-month-old DJ-1 WT. The OGG1 levels significantly increased in 3-month-old retinal lysates compared to the 3-month-old DJ-1 WT. Our findings suggest that DJ-1 is critical for mitochondrial regulation and function in RPE and retina. The observed changes reflect mitochondrial dysfunction related to absence of DJ-1.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Upadhyay, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sturgis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharyya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hagstrom, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonilha, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.19.654941</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DJ-1 deficiency and aging: dual drivers of retinal mitochondrial dysfunction.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.21.655421v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-Cell Analysis of Meningiomas Reveals Mutation-Associated Tumor and Immune Cell Gene Expression Programs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.21.655421v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genomic and epigenetic profiling, particularly DNA methylation analysis, have refined the molecular classification of meningiomas and revealed marked intratumoral heterogeneity. To further characterize heterogeneity within and between patients, we analyzed meningiomas using single-cell RNA sequencing (n=11), whole-exome sequencing (n=9), and spatial transcriptomics (n=3). Single-cell analysis revealed six transcriptionally distinct tumor cell states that corresponded to unique biological processes. Integration of the single-cell data with published exome and bulk RNA sequencing data from a large cohort revealed significant associations among somatic variants, tumor cell states, and immunological signatures. Notably, NF2-altered tumors were enriched for an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) cell state and immune cells, whereas NF2-intact tumors were enriched for a sterol metabolism cell state. Spatial transcriptomic analysis confirmed co-localization of immune cells and EMT tumor cells. Comparisons with immune cells from other brain tumors and peripheral tissues highlighted immunological cell states specific to meningioma. Collectively, these findings refine our genetic and molecular understanding of meningioma heterogeneity and underscore the link between genotype and molecular phenotype.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maldonado, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mashimo, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherpa, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anzaldua-Campos, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zipfel, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dowling, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leuthardt, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osbun, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vellimana, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chicoine, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunn, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petti, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.21.655421</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-Cell Analysis of Meningiomas Reveals Mutation-Associated Tumor and Immune Cell Gene Expression Programs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.654354v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Repurposing Romidepsin for Osteosarcoma: Screening FDA-Approved Oncology Drugs with Three-Dimensional Osteosarcoma Spheroids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.654354v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor and predominantly affects children, adolescents, and young adults. It is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths among 9-24-year-olds. Despite aggressive chemotherapeutic and surgical therapies, the survival rate is only 25% for patients with detectable lung metastases at diagnosis and only 70% in patients that present without detectable lung metastases. The poor prognosis is due to growth of metastases irrespective of whether they are initially large enough to detect clinically. It is therefore necessary to develop new methods to target the growth of lung micrometastases. An NCI panel of FDA-approved oncology drugs was therefore screened using three highly metastatic human osteosarcoma cell lines. To more closely approximate in vivo micro-metastases, the screen used a 3D multicellular in vitro osteosarcoma spheroid (sarcosphere) model. Among 13 hits from the initial screen, we identified the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDI) romidepsin as the most promising inhibitor in secondary screens based on sarcosphere viability. Romidepsin potency was evident with and without standard-of-care chemotherapeutics (MAP: Methotrexate, Adriamycin, Cisplatin) at drug concentrations that are clinically achievable and did not affect non-transformed cells. By those criteria, romidepsin also substantially outperformed the other three FDA-approved HDIs and eight HDIs in clinical trials. Importantly, sarcospheres derived from 30-50% of human and canine patient samples were also sensitive to romidepsin with ED50s 10- to 700-fold less than the Cmax in human patients. Based on these 3-D screening approaches, romidepsin is a promising drug to repurpose for osteosarcoma.

Significance StatementOur unbiased sarcosphere-based drug screen identified romidepsin as a promising candidate to repurpose for canine and human patients with metastatic osteosarcoma. This screening strategy allowed us to identify romidepsin-sensitive and -resistant patients. Sarcosphere-based screening may therefore be useful to stratify patients most likely to respond clinically to romidepsin or other drugs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Seiden, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Everitt, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knafler, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kinsella, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whiteside, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buschbach, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gandhi, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saadatzadeh, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wurtz, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Getty, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padgett, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamblin, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Childress, M. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fulkerson, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pollok, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collier, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenfield, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.22.654354</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Repurposing Romidepsin for Osteosarcoma: Screening FDA-Approved Oncology Drugs with Three-Dimensional Osteosarcoma Spheroids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.21.655349v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prevalence of sympathetic fibers within the rat cervical vagus, and functional consequence on physiological effects mediated by vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.21.655349v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionElectrical stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) is an FDA approved therapy for epilepsy, depression and rehabilitation after stroke, with recent clinical trials to treat heart failure and inflammation. VNS is often assumed to activate either parasympathetic efferents projecting to visceral organs, and/or sensory afferents projecting from these organs, for its therapeutic effects. Recent studies in humans, swine and dogs have shown that sympathetic nerve fibers from the sympathetic trunk (ST) can frequently be found within the cervical vagus nerve (VN). However, the prevalence and functional consequence of sympathetic fibers on VNS have yet to be elucidated in the most common high throughput animal model to study disease, the rodent.

MethodsWe carefully traced ST from sympathetic cervical ganglion (SCG) to find its location in the carotid sheath with reference to the VN in a cohort of Long Evans rats. We then assessed the prevalence of ST fibers with the cervical VN across the cohort using microCT and immunohistochemistry. Finally, we stimulated the VN and the ST in isolation, and where they were conjoined, to evaluate the ST contribution to changes in heart rate. VNS induced heart rate changes are a commonly used surrogate for changes in sympathetic/parasympathetic tone.

ResultsThe ST frequently runs in very close proximity to the VN in rats when traced caudally from the SCG. The ST is even conjoined with the VN for stretches within the carotid sheathe at the most common location to place an epineural cuff. Cross-connecting branches were found between the ST and the VN.

VNS performed at locations where there was minimal ST crossover induced dose-dependent bradycardia (decrease in heart rate) across the cohort, with detectable bradycardia across the cohort beginning at 50 A (n=8 right, n=3 left). Conversely, stimulation of the isolated ST induced tachycardia (increase in heart rate) across the cohort beginning at [~]200 A (n=7 right, n=3 left).

ConclusionThese data suggest that studies of VNS in the rodent model may also be stimulating sympathetic fibers from the ST in addition to canonical VN pathways. Concurrent sympathetic activation has profound implications for dissecting mechanisms of VNS for a host of diseases/disorders. As such, careful post-mortem assessment of the presence of  hitchhiking sympathetic fibers within the VN is critical for understanding sources of variability in VNS outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Deshmukh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, R. C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knudsen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevathan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.21.655349</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prevalence of sympathetic fibers within the rat cervical vagus, and functional consequence on physiological effects mediated by vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656600v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Not all alloantibodies are created equal: IgG glycosylation and severity of antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656600v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionAntibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is a leading cause of kidney transplant (KT) failure, driven by donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSA). However, not all patients with DSA experience accelerated graft loss, suggesting that factors beyond antibody presence influence AMR severity. Post-translational modifications, particularly glycosylation of Immunoglobulin-G (IgG), play a critical role in modulating antibody function. This study investigates the association between IgG glycosylation profiles and the risk and severity of AMR in KT recipients.

MethodsWe prospectively analyzed 65 KT patients, including 26 with acute AMR (aAMR), 27 with chronic-active AMR (caAMR), and 12 controls without rejection. IgG glycosylation was quantified using lectin-based ELISA, focusing on mannose, fucose, sialic acid, and bisecting N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) levels.

ResultsResults showed that bisecting GlcNAc levels of total IgG were significantly higher in caAMR patients than controls (p=0.019) and aAMR patients (p=0.045). Multivariable analysis revealed that higher bisecting GlcNAc levels of IgG were independently associated with glomerulitis [g-score, OR: 2.7 (95%CI: 1.2-6.7), p=0.019] and chronic glomerulopathy [cg-score, OR: 2.8 (95%CI: 1.3-7.5), p=0.021], independent of DSA presence.

ConclusionsThese findings indicate an association between IgG glycosylation, particularly bisecting GlcNAc, and AMR severity. IgG glycosylation profiles could serve as biomarkers for AMR risk and severity, offering new insights into the mechanisms of AMR and potential therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Noble, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glendenning, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bourdin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlson, G. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cobb, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cravedi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.28.656600</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Not all alloantibodies are created equal: IgG glycosylation and severity of antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656660v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Doxycycline Release From Cyclodextrin Oligomer-Containing Collagen Gels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656660v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dental implants commonly suffer from chronic peri-implantitis arising from infection and inflammation at the abutment/gingiva interface, primarily because they fail to replicate the collagen-rich soft tissue interface between natural teeth and the jawbone. Current treatment strategies involve frequent administration of systemic antibiotics and collagenase inhibitors which complicates clinical management. A localized controlled drug-release approach may offer a way to simplify this clinical management. In this study, we investigate doxycycline loading and release from a collagen hydrogel containing entrapped oligomers of {gamma}-cyclodextrin (CD). Incorporating these cyclodextrin oligomers increased the releasable amount of doxycycline by 220% and reduced its release rate fivefold. The resulting enhancement in both drug loading and release control expands the potential for further development of a collagen-coated dental implant.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Trout, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palomo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Recum, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eppell, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.28.656660</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Doxycycline Release From Cyclodextrin Oligomer-Containing Collagen Gels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.31.657160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A missense mutation in Muc2 promotes gut microbiome- and metabolome-dependent colitis-associated tumorigenesis. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.31.657160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Colitis-associated cancer (CAC) arises from a complex interplay between host and environmental factors, including the gut microbiome. Since ulcerative colitis (UC), a significant risk factor for CAC, is rising in prevalence worldwide, an integrative approach is essential to identify potential triggers linking inflammation to cancer. In the present study, we investigated the role of the gut microbiome using Winnie mice, a UC-like model with a relevant missense mutation in the Muc2 gene. Upon transfer from a conventional (CONV) to a specific-pathogen-free (SPF) facility, Winnie mice exhibited a more severe colitis phenotype, and notably, spontaneous CAC as early as four weeks of age, which progressively worsened over time. In contrast, CONV Winnie developed only mild colitis but with no overt signs of tumorigenesis. Notably, when rederived into germ-free (GF) conditions, SPF Winnie mice were protected from colitis or colon tumor development, indicating an essential role for the gut microbiome in the initiation and progression of CAC in these mice. Using shotgun metagenomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics, we identified a distinct pro-inflammatory microbial and metabolic signature that potentially drives the transition from colitis to CAC. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), using either SPF Winnie or WT (Bl/6) donors into GF Winnie recipients, demonstrated that while colitis developed regardless of donor, only FMT from SPF Winnie donors resulted in CAC, revealing a microbiota-driven, host-specific susceptibility to tumorigenesis in Winnie mice. Our studies present a novel and relevant model of CAC, providing further evidence that the microbiome plays a key role in the pathogenesis of CAC, thereby challenging the concept of colon cancer as a strictly non-transmissible disease.

Lay summaryThis study reveals a distinct metagenomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic profile associated with tumorigenesis in a murine model of ulcerative colitis, highlighting the risks of specific intestinal dysbiosis in genetically predisposed subjects.

What you need to knowO_ST_ABSBackground and contextC_ST_ABSColitis-associated colorectal cancer arises from complex host-environment interactions, including gut microbiome influences, driving chronic inflammation, with the intestinal lumen environment remaining a largely unexplored potential risk factor in cancer development.

New findingsWinnie mice in specific pathogen-free conditions developed severe colitis, and a novel juvenile colon dysplasia and cancer, with gut microbiome changes driving colitis-associated cancer initiation and progression.

LimitationsWe identified a pro-inflammatory microbial/metabolic signature promoting colitis-to-CAC transition in Winnie mice, with FMT confirming microbiota-driven tumor susceptibility. However, further research is needed to pinpoint the key bacteria-metabolite-lipid combination driving CAC.

Clinical research relevanceThis newly characterized microbiota-metabolome-based model of CAC, challenges the dogma of cancer as a non-transmittable disease, providing a foundation for developing microbiota-based strategies for CAC prevention and treatment.

Basic research relevanceUnlike genetic or chemically induced models, the Winnie mouse model uniquely serves as a dual model for spontaneous colitis and juvenile CAC, offering a fast, 100% penetrant phenotype that enhances reliability, accelerates research, and provides valuable insights into IBD and CAC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Verna, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Santis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Islam, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommella, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Licastro, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Almeida Celio, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merciai, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caponigro, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campiglia, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pizarro, T. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chieppa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cominelli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.31.657160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A missense mutation in Muc2 promotes gut microbiome- and metabolome-dependent colitis-associated tumorigenesis.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.04.657336v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TGF-β serves as a critical signaling determinant of liver progenitor cell fate and function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.04.657336v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Liver progenitor cells (LPCs) are the smallest cholangiocytes that perform hepatocyte functions to rescue the lives of patients suffering from acute liver failure (ALF) caused by massive hepatic necrosis (MHN). To date, it remains largely unknown how LPCs remain quiescent and become activated following MHN. This study elucidates the essential role of TGF-{beta} in regulating LPC quiescence and activation. Spatial transcriptomics analysis of liver tissues from four MHN-ALF patients revealed that LPCs receive multiple active signals from surrounding macrophages and hepatic stellate cells, including TGF-{beta}, HGF, and EGF. Physiologically, TGF-{beta} inhibits LPC proliferation by impeding G1-S phase transition. Ectopic Smad7 expression remarkably increased LPC proliferation in 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine-fed mice. Intriguingly, extensive LPC proliferation was observed in ALF patients despite robust TGF-{beta}-p-SMAD2 signaling in activated LPCs. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence revealed significantly elevated expression of p-MET, p-STAT3, p-EGFR, and p-ERK in LPCs, indicating active HGF and EGF signaling. In vitro, either HGF or EGF promoted LPC proliferation despite the presence of TGF-{beta}. Beyond acting as mitogens, HGF and EGF regulate master hepatocyte genes (e.g., HNF4) and cholangiocyte genes (e.g., SOX9) in LPCs. Notably, HGF-dependent HNF4 required TGF-{beta}-activated SMADs. Collectively, TGF-{beta} serves as a critical signaling determinant of LPC fate and function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>La Torre, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liebe, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ebert, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dooley, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, H.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.04.657336</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TGF-β serves as a critical signaling determinant of liver progenitor cell fate and function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.05.654750v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Astrocyte reprogramming drives tumor progression and chemotherapy resistance in agent-based models of breast cancer brain metastases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.05.654750v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM) affect nearly 90,000 patients annually in the United States and carry a significant risk of mortality. As metastatic lesions develop, the unique milieu of the brain microenvironment shapes disease progression and therapeutic response. Among resident brain cells, astrocytes are both the most common, and are increasingly recognized as key regulators of this process, yet their precise role remains poorly defined. Here, we present a hybrid agent-based model (ABM) to simulate tumor-astrocyte interactions on a two-dimensional lattice. In our model, metastatic tumor cells induce phenotypic reprogramming of astrocytes from an antito a pro-metastatic state, thereby enhancing tumor proliferation. We systematically evaluate how variations in astrocyte density, spatial distribution, and chemotherapy impact tumor expansion and spatial morphology, quantified by fractal dimension, lacunarity, and eccentricity. Our simulations reveal that astrocyte reprogramming accelerates tumor progression and contributes to increased morphological complexity and chemotherapeutic resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kaur, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barker-Clarke, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.05.654750</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Astrocyte reprogramming drives tumor progression and chemotherapy resistance in agent-based models of breast cancer brain metastases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.08.658532v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DDX3X acts as a selective dual switch regulator of mRNA translation in acute ER stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.08.658532v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In eukaryotes, regulation of mRNA translation initiation greatly impacts gene expression, and is critical for cellular stress responses. DDX3X is a ubiquitous DEAD-box RNA helicase whose precise role in 5  UTR scanning and start codon decoding in non-stressed and stressed cells is still elusive. Here we show that DDX3X engages with thousands of mRNAs as part of the eIF4F-mediated 48S scanning complex, simultaneously acting to promote or suppress translation of select mRNAs in non-stressed conditions, and switches this regulation in opposite directions in acute ER stress. We find distinct DDX3X binding patterns of differentially regulated mRNAs, which lead us to identify N4-acetylation of cytidines surrounding the start codon as an accompanying feature of mRNAs subject to DDX3X-mediated selective dual regulation. Our findings illuminate the role of DDX3X in stress response and highlight a novel connection between an RNA helicase and a post-transcriptional modification in regulating mRNA translation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shawky, A.-E.-M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarboro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mick, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dondeti, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avanzino, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simintiras, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vourekas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.08.658532</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DDX3X acts as a selective dual switch regulator of mRNA translation in acute ER stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.659200v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Murine peritoneal macrophages undergo female-specific remodeling with aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.659200v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging is a complex process characterized by a progressive decline in physiological functions driven by both biological and environmental factors, with notable differences between sexes. Immune function is strongly influenced by biological sex, affecting both innate and adaptive immune responses, including macrophage behavior. In this study, we investigated the effects of age and sex on the immune cell composition within the peritoneal cavity niche and identified macrophages as the most affected cell type. Macrophages, as central components of the innate immune system, play critical roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis and responding to infections. Here, we find that aging induces sex-specific remodeling of murine peritoneal macrophage transcriptomic and epigenomic landscapes. Consistently, peritoneal macrophages undergo sex-specific functional remodeling with aging (i.e. female-specific phagocytic decline and metabolic rewiring). Modulation of gonadal hormone signaling showed that changes in circulating estrogen levels likely contribute to aspects of female-specific macrophage age-related changes. Importantly, multi-omic analysis identified candidate transcription factors whose sex-specific age-regulated expression may drive aspects of sex-specific  omic remodeling with aging. Specifically, Irf2 downregulation in female macrophages recapitulates distinct transcriptomic and metabolic aspects of macrophage female aging phenotypes. These findings suggest that female-specific age-related functional remodeling arises through hormone-dependent and -independent mechanisms in peritoneal macrophages.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lu, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sampathkumar, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christensen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lau, I. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parihar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravikumar, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarenga, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehalko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodridge, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benayoun, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.11.659200</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Murine peritoneal macrophages undergo female-specific remodeling with aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660772v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cortical sculpting of a rhythmic motor program 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660772v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Motor cortex is the principal driver of discrete, voluntary movements like reaching. Correspondingly, current theories describe muscle activity as a function of cortical dynamics. Tasks like speech and locomotion, however, require the integration of voluntary commands with ongoing movements orchestrated by largely independent subcortical centers. In such cases, motor cortex must receive inputs representing the state of the environment and the state of subcortical networks, then transform these inputs into commands that modulate the rhythmic motor pattern. Here, we study this transformation in mice performing an obstacle traversal task, which combines a spinal locomotor pattern with voluntary cortical adjustments. Cortical dynamics contain a prominent representation of motor preparation that is linked to obstacle proximity and robust to removal of somatosensory or visual input, and also maintain a representation of the state of the spinal pattern generator. Readout signals resembling commands for obstacle traversal are consistent across trials, but small in amplitude. Using computational modeling, we identify a simple algorithm that generates the appropriate commands through phase-dependent gating. Together, these results reveal a regime in which motor cortex does not fully specify muscle activity, but must sculpt an ongoing, spinally-generated program to flexibly control behavior in a complex and changing environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kirk, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sauerbrei, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.20.660772</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cortical sculpting of a rhythmic motor program]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.22.660944v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structures of MmpL complexes reveal the assembly and mechanism of this family of transporters 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.22.660944v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We co-expressed the MmpL5 transporter and MmpS5 adaptor proteins in Mycobacterium smegmatis and defined their structures from these detergent-solubilized crude membranes. Data generated from these samples allowed us to simultaneously solve three distinct classes of membrane protein complexes to high resolutions. We observed that MmpL5 presents as a monomer in complex with the cytosolic meromycolate extension acyl carrier protein M (AcpM) in a molar ratio of 1:1, where these AcpM-MmpL5 complexes closely pack together to generate regular two-dimensional arrays. We also identified MmpL5 as a trimer that interacts with MmpS5 and AcpM in a molar ratio of 3:3:3 to assemble the tripartite complex AcpM-MmpL5-MmpS5 that spans both the inner and outer membranes of the mycobacterium. In addition, we discovered that MmpL5 and AcpM are able to form the trimeric AcpM-MmpL5 complex in a molar ratio of 3:3. The structural data reveal that the full-length MmpL5 trimer is capable of spanning the entire mycobacterial cell envelope to transport substrates. However, this assembly requires the presence of MmpS5 to stabilize secondary structural features of the MmpL5 periplasmic subdomains.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maharjan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregor, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klenotic, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.22.660944</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structures of MmpL complexes reveal the assembly and mechanism of this family of transporters]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.17.660217v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuromechanical Simulation with NEURON and MuJoCo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.17.660217v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In computational neuroscience, simulation platforms generally do not have adequate tools to model the brain, body and environment simultaneously. We demonstrate a method for simulating neuromechanical models using a novel combination of widely used software platforms: NEURON and MuJoCo. Different neural models are used to control a realistic musculoskeletal model in both open-loop and closed-loop configurations. Three models are presented: (1) an open-loop model using simple spiking neurons from the NEURON model library; (2) an open-loop model using realistic, spiking motoneurons; and (3) a closed-loop central pattern generator with feedback from the physics engine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fietkiewicz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDougal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinn, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiel, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.17.660217</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuromechanical Simulation with NEURON and MuJoCo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.09.657250v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DrugLM: A Unified Framework to Enhance Drug-Target Interaction Predictions by Incorporating Textual Embeddings via Language Models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.09.657250v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationAccurate prediction of drug-target interactions (DTIs) is central to computational drug discovery, offering the potential to reduce experimental costs and accelerate development timelines. While existing deep learning approaches such as Graph Neural Networks and Transformers have shown promise, they often overlook the rich semantic information embedded in textual descriptions of drugs and targets. These descriptions encode critical biomedical knowledge, including mechanisms of action, biological pathways involved, and therapeutic effects of drugs, which can enhance DTI prediction performance.

ResultsWe introduce DrugLM, a unified framework that integrates embeddings derived from large language models (LLMs) into DTI-specific model architectures. DrugLM leverages textual descriptions of drugs and targets to generate semantic embeddings using a range of pretrained LLMs. These embeddings can be seamlessly incorporated into existing DTI models. We systematically evaluate multiple LLMs on benchmark DTI datasets and demonstrate strong performance even without fine-tuning. Moreover, supervised parameter-efficient fine-tuning of the LLMs further improves embedding quality, leading to enhanced prediction accuracy. Notably, a simple multilayer perceptron (MLP) using only LLM-derived embeddings surpasses several established DTI methods, underscoring the power of semantic features. Our findings highlight the practical value of integrating LLMs into DTI pipelines and offer a straightforward recipe for improved drug discovery: LLM embeddings of drugs and targets are both effective and easy to use.

AvailabilityOur code and dataset are available at https://github.com/ShPhoebus/DrugLM
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.09.657250</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DrugLM: A Unified Framework to Enhance Drug-Target Interaction Predictions by Incorporating Textual Embeddings via Language Models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.09.664005v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using spatial statistics to infer game-theoretic interactions in an agent-based model of cancer cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.09.664005v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drug resistance in cancer is shaped not only by evolutionary processes but also by eco-evolutionary interactions between tumor subpopulations. These interactions can support the persistence of resistant cells even in the absence of treatment, undermining standard aggressive therapies and motivating drug holiday-based approaches that leverage ecological dynamics. A key challenge in implementing such strategies is efficiently identifying interaction between drug-sensitive and drug-resistant subpopulations. Evolutionary game theory provides a framework for characterizing these interactions. We investigate whether spatial patterns in single time-point images of cell populations can reveal the underlying game theoretic interactions between sensitive and resistant cells. To achieve this goal, we develop an agent-based model in which cell reproduction is governed by local game-theoretic interactions. We compute a suite of spatial statistics on single time-point images from the agent-based model under a range of games being played between cells. We quantify the informativeness of each spatial statistic and demonstrate that a simple machine learning model can classify the type of game being played. Our findings suggest that spatial structure contains sufficient information to infer ecological interactions. This work represents a step toward clinically viable tools for identifying cell-cell interactions in tumors, supporting the development of ecologically informed cancer therapies.

Author summaryDrug resistance is a major challenge in cancer treatment, often leading to relapse despite initially successful therapy. While mutations are a key driver, ecological interactions between drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cells also play a critical role. These interactions are complex and dynamic, and few molecular biomarkers exist, making them difficult to study and account for in treatment planning. We use evolutionary game theory, a framework for quantifying interactions between cells, to investigate whether it is possible to infer these interactions using just a single time-point image of the cells. We develop an agent-based model where cells reproduce based on local interactions and quantify the resulting patterns in how cells are distributed across space using a suite of spatial statistics. We find that specific interaction types produce distinct spatial patterns that are evident in these metrics, and we train a simple machine learning model to classify the interaction type based on the metrics. Our results suggest that spatial data alone can offer valuable insights into tumor dynamics, potentially enabling more informed and adaptable cancer treatments based on eco-evolutionary principles.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leither, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strobl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dolson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.09.664005</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using spatial statistics to infer game-theoretic interactions in an agent-based model of cancer cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664235v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Controlling treatment toxicity in ovarian cancer to prime the patient for tumor extinction therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664235v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) remains a major clinical challenge. In particular among those patients with homologous recombination (HR)-proficient tumors (>50%), most eventually succumb to their disease due to high recurrence rates, acquired resistance, and cumulative toxicity. This report summarizes work from the 12th IMO Workshop in which we explored an alternative "extinction therapy" strategy for frontline treatment of HGSOC. Inspired by ecological principles, this multi-strike approach aims to eradicate tumors not through a singular "magic bullet" but through a series of therapies after standard frontline treatment when the tumor is still, and perhaps most, vulnerable. We present a framework leveraging mathematical modeling (MM) to develop personalized multi-strike protocols for HGSOC. Key contributions include: 1) An "IMOme" score using liquid biopsy data to assess patient-specific hematopoietic toxicity risk, guiding the timing and selection of subsequent therapies, 2) MM strategies to design effective lowdose combinations of targeted agents to achieve synthetic lethality while managing toxicity, and 3) A MM framework to analyze the interplay between chemotherapy, gut microbiome toxicity, and immunotherapy, demonstrating how mitigating microbiome damage could enhance immune response. Overall, the computational approaches presented herein aim to support the design of personalized, multi-strike regimens in the frontline setting that proactively target tumor extinction while managing toxicity, ultimately seeking to deliver cures for patients with HGSOC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gallagher, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sousa, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatenbee, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schenck, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Citak, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leither, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazzacurati, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xella, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lemanne, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strobl, M. A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.10.664235</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Controlling treatment toxicity in ovarian cancer to prime the patient for tumor extinction therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664423v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Improving causal effect estimation in multi-ancestry multivariable Mendelian randomization with transfer learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664423v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) has been largely limited to individuals of European ancestry, due to the larger sample sizes available in European genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We introduce MRBEE-TL, one of the first multi-ancestry MVMR methods, which combines transfer learning with bias-corrected estimating equations to improve power in underpowered ancestries and to assess cross-ancestry heterogeneity of disease risk factors. In simulations, MRBEE-TL consistently outperformed MR methods that relied solely on ancestry-specific GWAS data. In real data analyses, MRBEE-TL not only identified ancestry-consistent and ancestry-specific causal effects missed by conventional methods, but also improved power in African and East Asian ancestries. MRBEE-TL is available through the R package MRBEEX at https://github.com/harryyiheyang/MRBEEX.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.11.664423</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Improving causal effect estimation in multi-ancestry multivariable Mendelian randomization with transfer learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664443v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell type-specific master metabolic regulators of Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664443v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) exhibits metabolic heterogeneity; yet, the consequences on metabolic dynamics in a cell-type-specific manner and the underlying metabolite-sensor network basis remain unclear. Here, we show that neurons exhibit a striking decrease in energy and lipid-related metabolic activity, contrasted by an increase in microglial metabolism associated with neuroinflammation. To identify cell-type specific master metabolic regulators of AD underlying the metabolic alterations in AD, we introduce scFUMES (single cell FUnctional MEtabolite-Sensor), an algorithm integrating single-cell RNA sequencing, interactomics, genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics from human brain biobanks. Applied to two AD-vulnerable regions (middle temporal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), scFUMES uncovers hundreds of AD-associated regulators, with neurons and microglia showing the most interactions. Particularly, scFUMES pinpoints genetics-informed master metabolic regulators across AD severity, sex and APOE genotype (e.g., PPARD-glycerol in microglia). Experimental testing reveals that two interaction pairs predicted by scFUMES, neuronal palmitic acid bound fatty acid binding protein 3 and gut metabolite indole-3-propionic acid binding to kynurenine aminotransferase 1, both lower pathological tau species in AD. Collectively, scFUMES systematically maps AD master metabolic regulators, offering insights into cellular metabolic heterogeneity and therapeutic strategies for AD and other AD-related dementia if broadly applied.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wetzel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caldwell, J. Z. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.11.664443</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell type-specific master metabolic regulators of Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.15.665024v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oral microbial signatures of head and neck cancer patients highlight diverse longitudinal patterns of oral mucositis severity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.15.665024v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundOral mucositis is a painful complication commonly observed in head and neck cancer patients receiving cancer treatment. Emerging evidence suggests that changes in the oral microbiome can contribute to oral mucositis development, making microbial signatures potential targets for therapeutic inter-ventions. This study aimed to: (1) characterize longitudinal microbial patterns of oral mucositis severity among head and neck cancer patients; (2) determine clinically relevant patient clusters based on oral mucositis severity trajectories; and (3) identify microbial signatures specific to these clusters.

ResultsWe derived a calibrated oral mucositis score by applying non-negative sparse principal component analysis to seven oral mucositis related symptom ratings, using longitudinal microbiome data from 140 head and neck cancer patients. Functional data analysis and hierarchical clustering identified three distinct patient clusters with differing microbial trajectories of oral mucositis progression. One cluster exhibited patients with a rapid increase in oral mucositis severity following treatment initiation, while the other clusters displayed more gradual increase. Demographic comparisons revealed significant differences in age and weight distributions between clusters, with older, lighter patients more common in clusters experiencing more gradual oral mucositis progression. Partial least squares knockoff analysis identified cluster-specific microbial signatures: notably, Prevotella spp. positively associated with calibrated oral mucositis score across all clusters, while Alloprevotella (Alloprevotella0302) was significantly enriched only in patients experiencing rapid oral mucositis progression. Conversely, genera associated with oral health, including Haemophilus, Rothia, and Actinomyces, were negatively correlated with calibrated oral mucositis score.

ConclusionsDistinct trajectories of oral mucositis scores in head and neck cancer patients are linked to specific oral microbial profiles and demographic factors. The identification of cluster-specific microbial profiles highlights the potential for microbiome-targeted interventions to manage oral mucositis severity. While most taxa were cluster-specific, Prevotella consistently ranked among the top taxa positively associated with the calibirated oral mucositis score across clusters, suggesting it may not differentiate between patient groups but rather reflects overall disease severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kodikara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>San Valentin, E. M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Do, K.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reyes-Gibby, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Cao, K.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.15.665024</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oral microbial signatures of head and neck cancer patients highlight diverse longitudinal patterns of oral mucositis severity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665601v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Selective life-long suppression of an odor processing channel in response to critical period experience 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665601v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sensory circuits undergo experience-dependent plasticity during early-life critical periods, attuning the nervous system to levels of key environmental stimuli. During a critical period in the Drosophila olfactory system, we found that exposure to ethyl butyrate (EB) induces glial phagocytosis of odorant receptor Or42a-positive olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) axon terminals which terminate in the VM7 glomerulus (Leier and Foden et al., 2025). Here, we extend these findings by establishing functional significance and circuit selectivity in this critical period paradigm. First, using a combination of two-photon Ca2+ imaging and the genetically-encoded voltage indicator ASAP5, we find that Or42a OSN odor-evoked responses are permanently suppressed in animals with critical period odor exposure. Thus, critical period odor exposure results in long-term changes to odor sensitivity in Or42a OSNs. Second, to establish the selectivity of glial pruning for Or42a axon terminals, we examined projection neurons (PNs) postsynaptic to Or42a OSNs as well as a second population of highly EB-responsive OSNs, called Or43b OSNs. We find that (1) within VM7, glial pruning is selective for Or42a terminals, and (2) while Or43b OSNs appear modestly pruned, they maintain their sensitivity to EB. To elucidate this difference, we turned to the Drosophila connectome. We identify striking differences in the scale of inhibitory connectivity to Or42a and Or43b OSNs, suggesting that Or42a OSNs may play a particularly central role in EB odor processing. This study expands our understanding of this critical period plasticity paradigm by demonstrating life-long suppression of pruned Or42a OSNs and establishing its specificity within and between sensory circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leier, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jonaitis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foden, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkov, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van der Linden Costello, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broihier, H. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dacks, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.18.665601</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Selective life-long suppression of an odor processing channel in response to critical period experience]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.21.665984v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct antibody-based signatures and functionality distinguish latent and active pediatric tuberculosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.21.665984v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundTuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is among the leading causes of death from an infectious agent among children worldwide. Children represent a particularly vulnerable population due to the greater challenges in diagnosis and the higher risk of progression to severe forms of the disease. However, whether different pediatric outcomes relate to distinct immunologic responses remains incompletely understood. Emerging data suggest that Mtb-specific humoral immune responses represent a correlate of protection against Mtb both following natural infection and vaccination.

MethodsTo determine if immune profiles can distinguish children across the spectrum from Mtb infection to TB disease, as well as children with TB from non-TB lower respiratory tract infection, we mapped the humoral immune response across a panel of 4 dozen Mtb antigens across children presenting with symptoms of active TB (ATB), children with evidence of latent TB infection (LTBI) and children exhibiting non-TB lower respiratory tract infection (non-TB LRTI). Using a custom Luminex assay, Mtb-specific antibody subclass/isotype, Fc receptor (FcR) binding profiles, and functions were profiled across the pediatric groups.

FindingsA robust humoral immune response was observed in children with active TB compared to non-TB LRTI, marked by a strong IgA response, that exhibited high FcR binding. Conversely, children with LTBI uniquely elicited Mtb-specific antibodies with enhanced opsinophagocytic Fc{gamma}R2A binding, as well as a higher capacity to activate NK cells and neutrophils.

InterpretationThere are significant differences in humoral immune profiles across the landscape of pediatric TB, potentially contributing to differential mycobacterial control, and highlighting biomarkers that could guide both diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

FundingUS National Institutes of Health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nziza, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franken, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ottenhoff, T. H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiguli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewinsohn, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boom, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayanja-Kizza, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nsereko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fortune, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNamara, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alter, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lancioni, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.21.665984</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct antibody-based signatures and functionality distinguish latent and active pediatric tuberculosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667736v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metabolic dysfunction promoted by mitochondrial DNA mutation burden drives retinal degeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667736v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Retinal degenerative diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa, and glaucoma, have been linked to mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the impact of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation accumulation in the context of these retinopathies has yet to be thoroughly explored. Our previous studies focused on the retinal phenotype observed in the PolgD257A mutator mice (D257A), revealing the effects of aging and mtDNA mutation accumulation in the retina. We have reported that this model exhibited significant morphological and functional deficits in the retina by 6 months of age, with notable alterations in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) occurring as early as 3 months, including changes in the cristae density and reduction in length of mitochondria.

This study investigated how mtDNA mutations affect the metabolic interaction between the retina and RPE in young (3 months) and old (12 months) wild-type (WT) and D257A mice. We assessed cellular energy production using freshly dissected retina samples from both groups through Seahorse analysis, immunofluorescence, and Western blot experiments.

The analysis of aged D257A retina punches revealed significantly reduced basal and maximal mitochondrial respiration, along with increased mitochondrial reserve capacity compared to WT. However, glycolytic flux, measured as a function of extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), did not differ between WT and D257A mice. Both D257A retina and RPE exhibited decreased expression of essential electron transport proteins involved in oxidative phosphorylation. Additionally, we observed a reduction in the expression of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) and lactate transporter (MCT1) at the apical surface of the RPE. Enzymes associated with glycolysis, including hexokinase II and lactate dehydrogenase A, were significantly lower in the aged D257A retina, while hexokinase I and pyruvate kinase 2 were upregulated in the RPE.

These findings indicate that the accumulation of mtDNA mutations leads to impaired metabolism in both the retina and RPE. Furthermore, it suggests that glucose from the choroidal blood supply is being utilized by the RPE rather than being transported to the neural retina. Mitochondrial dysfunction in RPE promotes a glycolytic state in these cells, leading to reduced availability of metabolites and, consequently, diminished overall retinal function. These results are essential for advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying retinal degeneration and provide a new perspective on the role of mtDNA mutations in these diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sturgis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hagstrom, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moorthy, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonilha, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.30.667736</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metabolic dysfunction promoted by mitochondrial DNA mutation burden drives retinal degeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667488v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Loss of NRMT1 allows expression of multiple differentiation pathways and alters transcription of secreted proteins in C2C12 myoblasts 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667488v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Muscle stem cells (satellite cells) retain their identity and function through expression of the paired homeobox transcription factor PAX7. PAX7 is able to both stimulate satellite cell proliferation and activate target genes involved in establishing myogenic identity, including myogenic factor 5 (MYF5) and the other myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs). Upregulation of the MRFs promotes commitment to the muscle lineage by initiating withdrawal from the cell cycle, upregulating expression of muscle-specific transcripts, and directing myoblast fusion. We have previously shown that knockout of the N-terminal methyltransferase NRMT1 in C2C12 mouse myoblasts results in significantly decreased Pax7 expression, an inability of the cells to differentiate into myotubes, and abnormal upregulation of osteogenic markers. Here, we use RNA-sequencing to more comprehensively determine how loss of NRMT1 affects the transcriptional profile of proliferating and differentiating C2C12 myoblasts. We see that upon inducing differentiation, NRMT1 knockout cells can downregulate cell cycle, DNA replication, and histone gene expression. Though they also have significantly downregulated Pax7 and Myf5 expression, other muscle-specific transcripts are significantly increased over wild type, indicating the muscle transcriptional program is not completely inhibited. However, signaling pathways involved in the differentiation of other types of mesenchymal and hematopoietic lineages are also increased with NRMT1 loss and expression of chemotactic genes is downregulated. Together, these data indicate that NRMT1 knockout cells can upregulate genes needed for cell cycle withdrawal and muscle specification but fail to suppress markers of other lineages and activate normal chemotactic signaling, which may lead to the observed differentiation phenotypes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tooley, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forster, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tedeschi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tooley, C. E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.29.667488</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Loss of NRMT1 allows expression of multiple differentiation pathways and alters transcription of secreted proteins in C2C12 myoblasts]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.01.668179v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A sustained Hox program delineates brainstem neurons essential for breathing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.01.668179v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Respiratory neurons in the brainstem must diversify and acquire unique properties during development to enable breathing at birth. Dbx1-expressing progenitors give rise to functionally and molecularly distinct excitatory respiratory populations, including rhythm-generating pre-Botzinger complex (preBotC) neurons and phrenic motor neuron (MN)-projecting rostral Ventral Respiratory Group (rVRG) neurons. These neurons are organized rostrocaudally within the ventral respiratory column (VRC) but, despite their critical functions in breathing, the mechanisms that control their organization and diversification are not well understood. Here, we generate a novel genetic tool to label brainstem neurons within the VRC. We find that rVRG neurons selectively express Hox5 genes through postnatal stages. Selective deletion of all Hox5 paralogs from Dbx1-derived neurons leads to respiratory dysfunction, perinatal death, and changes in the pattern and amplitude of phrenic MN firing. We show that Hox5 inactivation leads to a caudal expansion of putative preBotC neurons, likely at the expense of the rVRG. Collectively, our findings indicate that Hox5 proteins are required for the delineation and functional specialization of excitatory brainstem neurons essential for breathing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moore, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vagnozzi, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez de Boer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brozost, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeannotte, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindsay, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philippidou, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.01.668179</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A sustained Hox program delineates brainstem neurons essential for breathing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.28.667191v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Insights into Environmental Toxicant Exposures: The TaRGET II Resource 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.28.667191v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Environmental exposures to toxic chemicals can profoundly alter the transcriptome and epigenome in both humans and animals, contributing to disease development across the lifespan. To elucidate how early-life exposure to toxicants exerts such persistent effects, the Toxicant Exposures and Responses by Genomic and Epigenomic Regulators of Transcription II (TaRGET II) Consortium generated a landmark resource comprising 2,564 epigenomes and 1,043 transcriptomes from longitudinal studies in mice. All data are publicly available through the TaRGET II data portal and the WashU Epigenome Browser. This resource from target (liver, brain, lung, heart) and surrogate (blood) tissues at weaning (3 weeks) and two adult time-points (5 and 10 months) characterized the molecular response to arsenic (As), lead (Pb), bisphenol-A (BPA), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate(DEHP), tributyltin (TBT), tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and particulate matter with a diameter of <2.5m (PM2.5). The findings revealed persistent, toxicant-specific, sex-dependent epigenomic and transcriptomic perturbations, resulting in disrupted expression of 14,908 genes, altered chromatin accessibility at 87,409 regulatory elements, DNA methylation changes at 113,186 genomic regions, and chromatin state switching of histone modifications. The resulting high-resolution map of how environmental exposures reprogram the epigenome and transcriptome is broadly accessible via ToxiTaRGET database, offering unparalleled opportunities for the scientific community to investigate the molecular underpinnings of environmental toxicant exposures and their contributions to disease pathogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coarfa, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuntala, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colacino, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Svobada, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xing, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamanaka, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lalancette, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sartor, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krapp, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crawford, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patisaul, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiltshire, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aylor, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biswal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mutlu, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajagopalan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dolinoy, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartolomei, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimm, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruiz-Echartea, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katz, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jangid, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.28.667191</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Insights into Environmental Toxicant Exposures: The TaRGET II Resource]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667509v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Lipid Hydrolase ABHD6 is a Therapeutic Target in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD)-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667509v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Primary liver cancer accounts for approximately 700,000 deaths worldwide annually ranking third in cancer-related mortality, with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) comprising the majority of these tumors. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is currently a leading cause of HCC in the United States. We previously identified the lipid hydrolase alpha/beta hydrolase domain 6 (ABHD6) as a key mediator of the development of metabolic syndrome and intimately involved in cell signaling, making it a prime target for investigation in MASLD-related HCC. ABHD6 displays higher expression within HCC tumor cores when compared to adjacent non-tumor liver tissue in human subjects. Using an in vivo antisense oligonucleotide (ASO)-driven knockdown approach, we have shown the inhibition of ABHD6 prevents the development and progression of HCC in an obesity/MASLD-driven mouse model. Additionally, a xenograft model using the human Huh7 cell line displayed reduced tumor engraftment and growth with ABHD6 genetic deletion and small molecule inhibition. ABHD6 knockout cells demonstrated increased levels of bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphates (BMPs), lipids relevant to high fat diet-induced lysosomal dysfunction, and knockout cells also demonstrated altered autophagy and lysosomal activity using in vitro model of saturated fatty acid-induced lipotoxicity. These studies reveal novel lipid signaling mechanisms by which MASLD progresses towards HCC and provide support for ABHD6 as a therapeutic target in HCC.

SignificanceWe have identified that alpha/beta hydrolase domain 6 (ABHD6) plays a role in lysosomal membrane lipid remodeling pathways that are relevant in obesity/MASLD-driven HCC. Inhibitors targeting ABHD6 reorganize lysosomal lipid homeostasis to improve outcomes in HCC.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Orabi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Massey, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varadharajan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramachandiran, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osborn, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schugar, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finney, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burrows, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horak, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pathak, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helsley, R. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bulfon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zimmermann, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leung, Y. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madiraju, S. R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prentki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mullick, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zergeeva, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dasarathy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allende, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aucejo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.29.667509</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Lipid Hydrolase ABHD6 is a Therapeutic Target in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD)-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667925v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
EphA2 and Ephrin-A1 Use the Same Interface for Both in cis and in trans Interactions That Regulate Distinct Cell Signaling and Function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667925v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The 14 members of Eph receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) bind to membrane-tethered ligand called ephrins and mediate cell contact signaling where the receptors and ligands engage in trans on adjacent cells. Previous studies reveal that some Eph and ephrin pairs are coexpressed on the same cells, including EphA3-ephrin-A3 and EphA4/ephrin-A5, can also interact with each other in cis. However, significant discrepancies persist as to the molecular basis and functional significance of the cis interactions, owning to the difficulties to directly interrogate the interactions. Here, we utilize time-resolved live cell fluorescence spectroscopy to demonstrate direct in cis interactions between EphA2 and ephrin-A1. Structure-guided mutagenesis mapped interactions to two salt bridges between the ligand- and receptor-binding domains of EphA2 and ephrin-A1. Interestingly, the same interface is shared with in trans interaction. Consequently, EphA2-ephrin-A1 interaction in cis competes with their interaction in trans, which leads to attenuation of EphA2 canonical signaling and inhibition of cell rounding when ligand is presented in trans. EphA2 and ephrin-A1 are widely coexpressed in many epithelial tissues, and dysregulation of their expression is known to contribute to tumor initiation and progression. The detailed molecular characterization of the mutually exclusive cis and trans interactions uncovers a new mechanism underpinning their unique roles in oncogenesis.

Significance StatementEphA2 exerts dual functions in tumorigenesis, depending on the binding status of its membrane-tethered ephrin-A ligands. Ligands presented in trans on adjacent cells activate EphA2 canonical signaling associated with tumor suppression, whereas loss of ligand expression promotes oncogenic noncanonical signaling of EphA2 via serine 897 phosphorylation. Combining time-resolved spectroscopy in live cells, structure-guided mutagenesis, we show strong in cis interactions between EphA2 and ephrin-A1, which shares the same interface as interaction in trans. Moreover, the cis interaction interferes with ligand binding in trans, attenuates EphA2 canonical signaling. Our results uncover a new mechanism of EphA2 regulation by its co-expressed ligand ephrin-A1 with important implications in its known roles in oncogenesis as well as other disease processes including development of cataract.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toth, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seiradake, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.31.667925</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[EphA2 and Ephrin-A1 Use the Same Interface for Both in cis and in trans Interactions That Regulate Distinct Cell Signaling and Function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668464v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Platelets drive immune suppression and glioblastoma growth in a sex-dependent manner via PAR4 signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668464v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sex differences in cancer outcomes, including glioblastoma (GBM), are shaped by biological, hormonal, and immune factors, influencing disease progression, treatment responses, survival, and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Platelets, as key regulators of immune responses and tumor progression, may contribute to these sex-based differences by influencing the dynamics of the TME, however, the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we show that GBM patients exhibit heightened platelet reactivity driven by protease-activated receptor 4 (PAR4) signaling. In murine GBM models, targeting PAR4 with BMS986120 prolongs survival in females but not males. This survival advantage is estrogen-dependent and TME-specific, driven by enhanced CD8+ T cell infiltration within the tumor. Inhibiting platelet PAR4 signaling decreases platelet alpha-granule secretion in female tumor-bearing mice while enriching alternative exocytosis pathways, thereby influencing CD8+ T cell activity. PAR4-activated platelets within the TME suppress CD8+ T cell function and CD8+ T cell depletion eliminates the tumor induced platelet reactivity and survival benefit when PAR4 is inhibited. These findings establish platelet-mediated PAR4 signaling as a critical driver of tumor progression and identify sex-specific immune responses as key to therapeutic efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sloan, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bukenya, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aggarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosoff, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alban, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juric, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tacj, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navadgi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tannish, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scalise, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajasekar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vincenti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horbinski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sloan, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubert, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stavrou, E. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lohoff, F. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sangwan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khorana, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.06.668464</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Platelets drive immune suppression and glioblastoma growth in a sex-dependent manner via PAR4 signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669176v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Context-Dependent miRNA Regulatory Landscapes in Breast Cancer Uncovered by Network Community Structure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669176v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dysregulated microRNA (miRNA) expression is strongly linked to breast cancer, but their full impact on the transcriptome remains unexplored. To address this knowledge gap, we constructed a bipartite regulatory network of miRNAs and their mRNA targets using paired expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). This network enables a comprehensive investigation of each miRNAs systems level properties in breast cancer. Community analyses revealed 17 distinct regulatory communities, which define the coordinated functions of miRNA. These community-level insights uncovered novel collective miRNA functional associations. For example, the analysis reveals a link between the miR-29 family and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) that is shared across breast cancer molecular subtypes. This suggests that the miR-29 family can uniquely be used as a key regulator of EMT across breast cancers. This network-centric approach highlights coordinated miRNA expression in breast cancer, integrating network medicine principles with miRNA biology to identify novel therapeutic targets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Newby, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.07.669176</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Context-Dependent miRNA Regulatory Landscapes in Breast Cancer Uncovered by Network Community Structure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669177v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inhibition of KDEL receptors remodels the tumor microenvironment for robust T cell independent tumor regression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.07.669177v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor immunotherapy is supported by low-grade inflammatory conditions at the microenvironment, triggered by immunogenic cell death (ICD). However, ICD is dampened when tumors acquire resistance, affecting immune recognition. KDEL receptors (KDELRs), through a retrograde Golgi-to-ER transport, prevent spontaneous secretion of KDEL proteins. We report that inhibition of a single KDELR in a minor fraction of tumor cells, primarily KDELR2, provokes robust infiltration of macrophages and neutrophils into the tumor microenvironment, resulting in a complete regression of both immunogenic and non-immunogenic tumors independently of T cells. Importantly, in the course of regression, anti-tumor T cells are primed, conferring protection against a second challenge. Recapitulated by intratumoral delivery of siDKELR2 utilizing lipid nanoparticles, we implicate KDELR2 as a target to unleash an unusual robust innate immune response, which represents a tractable approach to initiate an adaptive response downstream, bypassing conventional ICD-inducing therapies. We propose KDELR targeting as a strategy to improve immunotherapy across tumor types, including "cold" tumors resistant to T cell-based immunotherapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tirosh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pattanayak, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willard, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merrick, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Z.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.07.669177</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inhibition of KDEL receptors remodels the tumor microenvironment for robust T cell independent tumor regression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.11.669689v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Paired plus-minus sequencing is an ultra-high throughput and accurate method for dual strand sequencing of DNA molecules 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.11.669689v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Distinguishing real biological variation in the form of single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) from errors is a major challenge for genome sequencing technologies. This is particularly true in settings where SNVs are at low frequency such as cancer detection through liquid biopsy, or human somatic mosaicism. State-of-the-art molecular denoising approaches for DNA sequencing rely on duplex sequencing, where both strands of a single DNA molecule are sequenced to discern true variants from errors arising from single stranded DNA damage. However, such duplex approaches typically require massive over-sequencing to overcome low capture rates of duplex molecules. To address these challenges, we introduce paired plus-minus sequencing (ppmSeq) technology, in which both DNA strands are partitioned and clonally amplified on sequencing beads through emulsion PCR. In this reaction, both strands of a double-stranded DNA molecule contribute to a single sequencing read, allowing for a duplex yield that scales linearly with sequencing coverage across a wide range of inputs (1.8-98 ng). We benchmarked ppmSeq against current duplex sequencing technologies, demonstrating superior duplex recovery with ppmSeq, with a rate of 44%{+/-}5.5% (compared to [~]5-11% for leading duplex technologies). Using both genomic as well as cell-free DNA, we established error rates for ppmSeq, which had residual SNV detection error rates as low as 7.98x10-8 for gDNA (using an end-repair protocol with dideoxy nucleotides) and 3.5x10-7{+/-}7.5x10-8 for cell-free DNA. To test the capabilities of ppmSeq for error-corrected whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for clinical application, we assessed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection for disease monitoring in cancer patients. We demonstrated that ppmSeq enables powerful tumor-informed ctDNA detection at concentrations of 10-4 across most cancers, parts per million sensitivity in cancers with high mutation burden, and further increased sensitivity with higher sequencing depth. We then leveraged genome-wide trinucleotide mutation patterns characteristic of urothelial (APOBEC3-related and platinum exposure-related signatures) and lung (tobacco-exposure-related signatures) cancers to perform tumor-naive ctDNA detection, showing that ppmSeq can identify a disease-specific signal in plasma cell-free DNA without a matched tumor, and that this signal correlates with imaging-based disease metrics. Altogether, ppmSeq provides an error-corrected, cost-efficient and scalable approach for high-fidelity WGS that can be harnessed for challenging clinical applications and emerging frontiers in human somatic genetics where high accuracy is required for mutation identification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rusinek, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sossin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widman, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meiri, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krieger, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hirschberg, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tov, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaimovich, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barad, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avaylon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajagopalan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potenski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prieto, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furatero, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Runnels, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costa, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoag, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al Assaad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigouros, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manohar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otilano, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malbari, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elemento, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mosquera, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altorki, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxena, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callahan, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robine, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Germer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evrony, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faltas, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landau, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.11.669689</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Paired plus-minus sequencing is an ultra-high throughput and accurate method for dual strand sequencing of DNA molecules]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.13.670184v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Systemic Metabolic Rewiring in a Mouse Model of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.13.670184v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) refers to the pathological thickening of the myocardial wall, and is strongly associated with several adverse cardiac outcomes and sudden cardiac death. While the biomechanical drivers of LVH are well established, growing evidence points to a critical role for cardiac and systemic metabolism in modulating hypertrophic remodeling and disease pathogenesis. Despite the efficiency of fatty acid oxidation (FAO), LVH hearts preferentially increase glucose uptake and catabolism to drive glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Development of therapies to increase and enhance LFCA FAO are underway, with promising results. However, the mechanisms of systemic metabolic states and LCFA dynamics in the context of cardiac hypertrophy remain incompletely understood. Further, it is unknown to what extent cardiac metabolism is influenced by whole-body energy balance and lipid profiles, despite the common occurrence of lipotoxicity in LVH. In this study, we measured whole-body and cellular respiration along with analysis of lipid and glycogen stores in a mouse model of LVH. We found that loss of the cardiac-specific gene, Myosin binding protein-C3 (Mybpc3), resulted in depletion of adipose tissue, decreased mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle, increased lipid accumulation in both heart and liver, and loss of whole-body metabolic flux. We found that supplementation of exogenous LCFAs boosted LVH mitochondrial function and reversed cardiac lipid accumulation, but did not fully reverse the hypertrophied heart nor systemic metabolic phenotypes. This study indicates that the LVH phenotype caused systemic metabolic rewiring in Mybpc3-/- mice, and that exogenous LCFA supplementation boosted mitochondrial function in both cardiac and skeletal muscle.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thambadurai, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'annibale, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bharathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goetzman, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stelzer, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.13.670184</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Systemic Metabolic Rewiring in a Mouse Model of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.14.670326v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mathematical Foundations of Beta Diversity: Why Common Metrics Fail in Microbiome Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.14.670326v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundIn microbiome studies, beta diversity quantifies dissimilarity between samples and is often visualized using ordination techniques. It enables researchers to characterize ecological structure, compare microbial communities, assess environmental or host-driven heterogeneity, and track longitudinal shifts over time. Although many diversity indices were originally developed with practical goals in mind, they lack a unified framework to ensure theoretical rigor and validity. This gap makes it challenging for researchers to evaluate and select appropriate beta diversity measures for microbiome analyses, potentially leading to biased analyses and invalid conclusions.

ResultsTo bridge the persistent knowledge gaps, we systematically evaluate the commonly used beta diversity measures according to key mathematical properties, including whether they are true metrics, conform to Euclidean geometry, and satisfy conditional negative definiteness. We show that their violations can compromise downstream analyses such as PCoA, PERMANOVA, and kernel-based tests. In addition, drawing on mathematical consensus, we introduce a novel four-category classification of beta diversity measures: scale difference, difference scale, Hamming difference, and distribution difference. Complementing this framework, we build diagnostic tools for assessing Euclidean validity and develop remedial strategies that correct problematic dissimilarity matrices while preserving ordination structures. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these solutions using real-world microbiome datasets.

ConclusionsThese results establish a unified framework for evaluating beta diversity in microbiome research, supported by an R package, interactive Shiny app, and step-by-step tutorials. The framework provides a clear roadmap for selecting and refining dissimilarity metrics, paving the way for future methodological advances.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenacre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satabdi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.14.670326</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mathematical Foundations of Beta Diversity: Why Common Metrics Fail in Microbiome Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671054v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Finding ancestry-specific chromatin architecture in Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671054v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genetic risk for Alzheimers Disease (AD) varies across populations. We hypothesized that three-dimensional (3D) genome architecture variations could offer novel epigenetic understanding of ancestry-specific genetic risk. Herein, we performed Hi-C analyses of frontal cortex from APOE {varepsilon}4/{varepsilon}4 individuals with African (AF) or European (EU) ancestry who also had single nuclei ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data available. Ancestry-specific 3D genome architecture was found at both compartment and chromatin loop levels. EU genomes have more active compartments than AF genomes, consistent with our previous report of higher chromatin accessibility in EU than AF genome. Of the over one million chromatin loops identified by the DeepLoop pipeline, we called 12,082 putative EU-specific and 2885 putative AF- specific loops. The AF-specific loops are smaller (median size =158 kb) and likely represent promoter-enhancer interactions, while EU-specific loops are larger (median size = 496 kb) and enriched for CTCF loops. We found that differently expressed genes between AF and EU ancestries were significantly enriched at the putative ancestry-specific loop loci (Fisher-test; p<2.2x10-16; OR=5.13). High confidence HiC-QTLs (N=38) were identified after filtering with CTCF consensus sequence and chromatin accessibility-QTLs. Our study demonstrates variations in 3D genome structure between ancestries, which may contribute to the ancestry-specific genetic risk.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LU, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flanagan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weintraub, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geula, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuck, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.19.671054</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Finding ancestry-specific chromatin architecture in Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670605v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fine scale structural information substantially improves multivariate regression model for mRNA in-vial degradation prediction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670605v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The success of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines has made optimizing mRNAs for in-vial stability a key objective. However, we still lack a complete understanding of the sequence metrics that influence mRNA stability in solution. RNA secondary structure plays a central role in protecting against hydrolysis, the primary degradation pathway under storage conditions. Yet, the structural metrics that best guide stability-focused mRNA design remain unclear. Global metrics like minimum free energy and average unpaired probability have improved mRNA stability but fail to capture local structural variation relevant to degradation. We show that base-pairing probability, in terms of log odds, provide fine-scale, orthogonal insight that complements global metrics and improves stability modeling. By combining local and global features into a four-feature regression model, dubbed STRAND (Stability Regression Analysis using Nucleotide-Derived features), we achieve substantial gains in predictive performance over current methods. This compact and interpretable model provides a practical framework for designing mRNAs with enhanced in-solution stability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jadeja, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metkar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.15.670605</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fine scale structural information substantially improves multivariate regression model for mRNA in-vial degradation prediction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
N-acetylcarnosine attenuates age-associated declines in multi-organ systems to improve survival 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Histidine containing dipeptides (HCDs) such as N-acetylcarnosine are endogenous metabolites that are ergogenic and mitigate metabolic dysfunction. We previously demonstrated that short-term N-acetylcarnosine treatment is highly efficacious in protecting muscle atrophy induced by disuse. Here we demonstrate that a 6-months treatment of N-acetylcarnosine attenuates a broad spectrum of age-associated maladies and improved survival by [~]50% in female mice. A comprehensive survey of organ systems revealed that N-acetylcarnosine prevents decline in adiposity, diastolic function, vasodilation, muscle strength, and bone density. Together, N-acetylcarnosine substantially delays the onset of system-wide end-stage pathology to prolong lifespan. As an endogenously present metabolite, treatment with N-acetylcarnosine may be a safe and promising intervention to promote healthy aging in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miranda, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shahtout, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watanabe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spaas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milam, N. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neiswanger, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Werbner, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stuart, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mookherjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Judge, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goh, I. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slater, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallop, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karasawa, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Landers, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rainbow, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Black, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikolova, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davey, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boudina, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karner, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harasymowicz, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramkumar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Symons, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaix, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, J. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drummond, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Funai, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.19.671148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[N-acetylcarnosine attenuates age-associated declines in multi-organ systems to improve survival]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671108v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MCA: A Multicellular analysis Calcium Imaging toolbox for ImageJ 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671108v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Functional imaging using genetically encoded indicators, such as GCaMP, has become a foundational tool for in vivo experiments and allows for the analysis of cellular dynamics, sensory processing, and cellular communication. However, large scale or complex functional imaging experiments pose analytical challenges. Many programs have worked to create pipelines to address these challenges, however, most platforms require proprietary software, impose operational restrictions, offer limited outputs, or require significant knowledge of various programming languages, which collectively can limit utility. To address this, we designed MCA (a Multicellular Analysis toolkit) to work with ImageJ, a widely used open-source software which has been the standard image analysis platform for the last 30 years. We developed MCA to be visually intuitive, utilizing ImageJs platform to generate new images based on completed tasks so users can visually see each step in the analysis pipeline. In addition, MCA implements a user-friendly GUI providing a simple interface which resembles other native ImageJ plugins. We incorporated functionality for rigid registration to correct motion artifacts, algorithms for cell body prediction, and methods for annotating cells and exporting data. For cell prediction, we trained a custom model in Cellpose 2.0 for segmentation of nuclei expressing pan-neuronal nuclear localized GCaMP in zebrafish. We validated the accuracy of MCA output to previously published zebrafish calcium imaging data which elicited visually evoked neuronal responses. To show the versatility of MCA, we also show that our software can be utilized for multiple sensory modalities, brain regions, and multiple model organisms including Drosophila and mouse. Together these data show that MCA is viable for extracting calcium dynamics in a user-friendly environment for multiple forms of functional imaging.

MotivationCalcium imaging has become one of the most common methods for investigating neural activity, however analytical methods are limited to a few software platforms or are custom made. This limits replicability and imposes restrictions on incorporating additional tools to support analysis. To address these challenges, we developed a modular, graphical based, open-source toolbox, based in the ImageJ application, for performing functional imaging analysis in diverse models and datasets.

HighlightsO_LIDeveloped MCA, an ImageJ based plugin for analyzing functional imaging datasets.
C_LIO_LIValidated accuracy of MCA functions
C_LIO_LIUtilized MCA across multiple sensory modalities and model organisms
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hageter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DelGaudio, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leathery, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raupp, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holcomb, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trevino, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jonitis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bridi, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dacks, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horstick, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.19.671108</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MCA: A Multicellular analysis Calcium Imaging toolbox for ImageJ]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673041v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dental topography and diet in marsupials and comparisons with primates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.673041v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dental topography is a powerful tool for investigating the relationship between diet and tooth shape in mammals. Here, we test whether dental topographic metrics (DTMs) can accurately predict diet in marsupials based on 81 lower molars from 43 extant species in 12 families (representing six of the seven extant orders), and compare them to DTMs of primates with similar diets. Specific DTMs tested included Dirichlet normal energy (DNE) and variants (ariaDNE, convex DNE, and ariaDNE CV), orientation patch count rotated (OPCR), and Relief Index (RFI). We also investigate the use of the ratio of trigonid to talonid height (TriTaHI) as an additional DTM. Highest dietary classification accuracy using a leave-one-out quadratic discriminant function analysis for marsupials was reached when ariaDNE, RFI, molar size, and TriTaHI of lower second and third molars were combined, resulting in 69.2% dietary accuracy. In contrast, the primate sample of lower second molars reached the highest classification accuracy of 80.4% when only ariaDNE, RFI, and molar size were used. Notably, 3D meshes from epoxy casts showed consistently higher OPCR and ariaDNE CV values than meshes from original specimens. When using a cross-validated approach, using the primate sample to predict marsupial diets and vice versa, only ariaDNE, RFI, and molar size were needed to obtain the maximum classification accuracy (69.7% when classifying primates using the marsupial training set; and 61.8% vice versa). The comparative dataset of this study will be very useful for studies aiming to reconstruct the diets of fossil mammals that lack phylogenetically close extant analogues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de Vries, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Croft, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkart, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gahan, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spinks, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beck, R. M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.29.673041</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dental topography and diet in marsupials and comparisons with primates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.02.673780v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BOGO: A Proteome-Wide Gene Overexpression Platform for Discovering Rational Cancer Combination Therapies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.02.673780v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/673780v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (56K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19d5d7dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@64f7eborg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d08b75org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@173c448_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG O_FLOATNOGraphical AbstractC_FLOATNO C_FIG Cancer drug resistance remains a major barrier to durable treatment success, often leading to relapse despite advances in precision oncology. While combination therapies are being increasingly investigated, such as chemotherapy with small molecule inhibitors, predicting drug response and identifying rational drug combinations based on resistance mechanisms remain major challenges. Therefore, a proteome-wide, single-gene overexpression screening platform is essential for guiding rational therapy selection. Here, we present BOGO (Bxb1-landing pad human ORFeome-integrated system for a proteome-wide Gene Overexpression), a robust, scalable, and reproducible screening platform that enables single-copy, site-specific integration and overexpression of [~]19,000 human open across cancer cell models. Using BOGO, we identified drug-specific response drivers for 16 chemotherapeutic agents and integrated clinical datasets to uncover proliferation and resistance-associated genes with prognostic potential. Drug response similarity networks revealed both shared and unique mechanisms, highlighting key pathways such as autophagy, apoptosis, and Wnt signaling, and notable resistance-associated genes including BCL2, POLD2, and TRADD. In particular, we proposed a synergistic combination of the BCL2 family inhibitor ABT-263 (Navitoclax(R)) and the DNA analog TAS-102 (Lonsurf(R)), which revealed that lysosomal modulation is a key mechanism driving DNA analog resistance. This combination therapy selectively enhanced cytotoxicity in colorectal and pancreatic cancer cells in vitro, and demonstrated therapeutic benefit in vivo in both cell line-derived xenograft (CDX) and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Together, these findings establish BOGO as a powerful gene overexpression perturbation platform for systematically identifying chemoresistance and chemosensitization drivers, and for discovering rational combination therapies. Its scalability and reproducibility position BOGO as a broadly applicable tool for functional genomics and therapeutic discovery beyond cancer resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jo, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alruwaili, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koh, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>You, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sane, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naranjo, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, F. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farh, K. K.- H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakin, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.02.673780</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BOGO: A Proteome-Wide Gene Overexpression Platform for Discovering Rational Cancer Combination Therapies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673792v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Disrupted Lipid Homeostasis as a Pathogenic Mechanism in ABCA7-Associated Alzheimers Disease Risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673792v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
INTRODUCTIONABCA7 (ATP-binding cassette sub-family A member 7) encodes a lipid transporter linked to Alzheimers disease (AD). While common variants confer modest risk in Europeans, a 44-base pair deletion (rs142076058; p.Arg578Alafs) is a strong risk factor in African Americans (AA). Despite this, the biological consequences of this ancestry-specific variant are not well understood.

METHODSWe expressed the truncated ABCA7 protein in HEK and HepG2 cells to assess localization and lipid metabolism. Additionally, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons carrying the deletion were compared with isogenic controls.

RESULTSThe truncated ABCA7 localized to the plasma membrane similarly to wild type but induced significant lipid droplet accumulation in HepG2 cells and iPSC-derived neurons.

DISCUSSIONThese findings show that the AA-specific ABCA7 deletion disrupts lipid regulation despite normal localization, suggesting a mechanistic link between impaired lipid homeostasis and increased AD risk. This work underscores the importance of ancestry-specific studies in AD research.

HighlightsO_LITruncated ABCA7 protein remains stable and correctly localizes to the plasma membrane in HEK293T cells.
C_LIO_LITruncated ABCA7 disrupts lipid droplet regulation in HepG2 cells.
C_LIO_LIABCA7 shows the highest expression in neurons among brain cell types.
C_LIO_LIABCA7 truncation impairs lipid metabolism in neurons.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nam, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeRosa, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayele, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitehead, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golightly, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Starks, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laverde-Paz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cukier, H. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akinyemi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarfo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akpalu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuccaro, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caban-Holt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reitz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldie, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.03.673792</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Disrupted Lipid Homeostasis as a Pathogenic Mechanism in ABCA7-Associated Alzheimers Disease Risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675654v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Individual olfactory channels shape distinct parameters of sleep architecture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675654v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractAcross the animal kingdom, olfactory dysfunction and anosmia have been associated with disruptions in sleep. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, various studies have demonstrated that broadly inhibiting olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) similarly disrupts sleep/wake cycles, suggesting that baseline ORN signaling is an integral component of olfactory modulation of sleep. However, due to the diversity of ORNs and combinatorial nature of olfactory processing, many of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which ORNs modulate sleep remain unclear. In this study, we addressed this gap of knowledge by characterizing the contributions of different ensembles of ORNs, individual ORN types, and a known modulator of ORNs on baseline sleep architecture. We find that the activity of distinct ORN types are important for day and nighttime sleep and heterogeneously shape parameters of sleep architecture. Importantly, the effects of ORN signaling on sleep are adjusted across mating status, suggesting that distinct ORN types are recruited within the context of sleep depending on the demands of the animal. Furthermore, the effects of ORN signaling on sleep are in part shaped by heterogeneous serotonin (5-HT) receptor expression. Together, this work identifies cellular and molecular pathways bridging olfaction and sleep, and helps establish a circuit model that can be used to further characterize the behavioral consequences of sensory dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cook, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pursley, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pauls, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roeder, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aites, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coates, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dacks, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.11.675654</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Individual olfactory channels shape distinct parameters of sleep architecture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675825v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Thermophysiology or resource availability: What shapes the post-flooding abundance of lizard species across artificial islands in a Neotropical biome? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675825v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Global warming has led to increased flooding events, causing significant habitat fragmentation and affecting species distribution in tropical ecosystems. This study investigates the postflooding abundance of lizard species across artificially created islands in the Cerrado biome, focusing on the roles of thermophysiological traits and resource availability. We conducted a comprehensive survey, recording 560 individual lizards representing 13 species from eight families, and used generalized additive models to assess the impact of mean field-active body temperature and net primary productivity on lizard abundance. Our results indicate that a rise in mean field-active body temperature significantly correlates with reduced lizard abundance, supporting the physiological tolerance hypothesis. This finding points out the critical importance of thermoregulation for ectotherm survival in the face of climate change. Conversely, resource availability, measured through net primary productivity, showed no significant effect on lizard abundance. These findings bring to light the vulnerability of lizard populations to thermal stress and emphasize the necessity for conservation strategies that prioritize the creation of thermal refuges and improve habitat connectivity to mitigate the impacts of rising temperatures. By integrating species traits into macroecological analyses, our study offers valuable insights for biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes. Future research should explore diverse ecosystems to validate these findings, thereby informing effective conservation planning and ensuring the resilience of ectotherm populations in altered environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Miranda, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deme, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandao, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.12.675825</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Thermophysiology or resource availability: What shapes the post-flooding abundance of lizard species across artificial islands in a Neotropical biome?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676330v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rethinking the Estrogen Receptor Beta Dominance Hypothesis in Endometriosis: Insights from Single Cell RNA Sequencing Meta-analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676330v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Structured AbstractO_ST_ABSBackgroundC_ST_ABSO_LIEndometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent disease characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue growing outside the uterus. The molecular and clinical heterogeneity of endometriosis complicate diagnostic and treatment options -- diagnostic delays of seven to ten years are common and therapies often lack long-term efficacy. Estrogen signaling and estrogen receptor beta (ER{beta}) expression is thought to be increased in endometriosis, contributing to increased cell proliferation in lesions. The "ER{beta} dominance hypothesis" is a prevailing hypothesis in the field, setting ER{beta} as a high-priority therapeutic target. If effectively modulated, ER{beta} could be the first therapy to directly target lesion biology, rather than only managing symptoms.
C_LI

Objective(s)O_LIWe aimed to characterize ER{beta}s expression in endometriosis by cell type and evaluate its therapeutic relevance, primarily assessing the validity of the ER{beta} dominance hypothesis.
C_LI

Study DesignO_LIWe reanalyzed scRNAseq data from eight previously published studies. Our final filtered dataset included 557,061 cells, the largest endometriosis single cell atlas ever constructed. We quantified gene expression levels of ESR1 and ESR2, which encode ER[a] and ER{beta} respectively, across each tissue and cell type, to identify cell-type specific drivers of ESR2/ER{beta} expression across diseased and healthy tissues. To characterize the differences between cells that uniquely express ESR1 versus those that uniquely express ESR2, we performed differential gene expression and pathway enrichment analyses.
C_LI

ResultsO_LICount and distribution analyses revealed no significant ESR2/ER{beta} dominance in any cell or tissue type by Fishers Exact Tests and Wilcoxon Rank Sum Tests. Differential gene expression and pathway enrichment analyses suggest distinct roles of each estrogen receptor isoform.
C_LI

Conclusion(s)O_LIOverall, our results argue against a simplified model of ER{beta} dominance and instead propose a dual-isoform and cell and tissue-specific framework for understanding estrogen receptor signaling in endometriosis. These findings hold important implications for future therapeutic strategies. Specifically, treatments that target ER{beta} alone may fail to account for the functional role and relative abundance of ER. In the future, therapeutic approaches that consider isoform-specific, tissue-specific, and cell-specific expression patterns may prove most effective in reducing recurrence and improving outcomes for patients.
C_LI

Condensation pageO_ST_ABSTweetable statementC_ST_ABSSingle cell RNA Sequencing meta-analysis shows estrogen receptor beta is not dominantly expressed in most endometriosis tissues. Estrogen receptor alpha to estrogen receptor beta ratios vary by cell type and tissue type. Each isoform directs cell-type specific behavior in endometriosis and disease-free tissues.

AJOG at a GlanceO_LIWhy was this study conducted?
O_LIWe wanted to characterize estrogen receptor betas expression in endometriosis and evaluate its therapeutic relevance.
C_LI
C_LIO_LIWhat are the key findings?
O_LIEstrogen receptor beta is not dominantly expressed in any tissue. Estrogen receptor alpha and estrogen receptor beta have disease- and cell-type specific behaviors.
C_LI
C_LIO_LIWhat does this study add to what is already known?
O_LIIt characterizes estrogen receptor isoform expression and signaling by cell type. It also challenges the current estrogen receptor beta dominance hypothesis, meaning estrogen receptor beta may not be a key driver of endometriosis.
C_LI
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Heath, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuend, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodman, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.15.676330</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rethinking the Estrogen Receptor Beta Dominance Hypothesis in Endometriosis: Insights from Single Cell RNA Sequencing Meta-analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676386v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exploring the Effect of LED-to-Photodetector Spacing on Subcutaneous Photoplethysmography for Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676386v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Photoplethysmography (PPG) is widely used to measure heart rate, blood oxygenation, and more recently, blood pressure. Implanted PPG systems offer the possibility to measure similar real-time measures of cardiovascular health, however, the detection method may vary due to a lack of capillary vessels for PPG sensors to observe in muscle tissue. To improve volumetric blood detection in large muscles, without relying on the capillary density of skin, a flexible PPG sensor was developed. The sensor included multiple spacing of illuminating infrared (IR) light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a single IR photodetector. This arrangement was expected to enable detection of blood volume changes at variable distances from the sensor face, potentially at much longer depths then feasible with skin-mounted PPG devices. IR bench phantoms simulating a large blood vessel embedded in IR absorbing, tissue-mimicking rubber were developed and used to determine the sensor performance in vitro. A preliminary in vivo test used an adult rabbit to provide additional performance validation. Test results reveal an observed trend of increased SNR for deeper vessel depths for the farthest LED to detector spacing which is aligned with our initial prediction. However, ANOVA and post-hoc tests reveal that these trends did not reach statistical significance. The in vivo test showed a relationship consistent with relevant literature. Future experiments are required to improve the phantoms representation of the biological setting and to confirm a reduced SNR variation for the farthest spacing.

Clinical RelevanceDevelopment of a subcutaneous, continuous blood pressure sensor may provide benefits towards monitoring autonomic dysreflexia and hypertension for people affected by spinal cord injury.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cabal, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kilgore, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakkar, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Majerus, S. J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.15.676386</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exploring the Effect of LED-to-Photodetector Spacing on Subcutaneous Photoplethysmography for Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676444v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Efineptakin alfa (NT-I7) improves overall survival and induces tertiary lymphoid structures in murine lung tumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676444v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) are emerging as good predictive biomarkers of response to cancer immunotherapy. However, therapeutic strategies to induce these structures are currently limited. We evaluated the therapeutic benefit of efineptakin alfa (NT-I7), a long-acting form of IL-7, and its ability to induce TLSs in a murine lung tumor model. NT-I7 improved overall survival in tumor-bearing mice. It also increased the abundance of T, B, dendritic cells, and stem-like CD8 T cells and promoted the formation of immune aggregates in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Stem-like CD8 T cells were preferentially located in the immune aggregates. Spatial transcriptomic analyses of the TME further demonstrated that the immune aggregates induced by NT-I7 included TLSs with enrichment of Cd274 (PD-L1) transcripts and genes involved in antigen processing and presentation. Upregulation of Cd274 in the TLSs may provide opportunities for synergy between NT-I7 and PD-1-targeted immunotherapy.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEThis study demonstrates the ability of efineptakin alfa (NT-I7) to potentially augment the clinical efficacy of cancer immunotherapy by inducing tertiary lymphoid structures in the tumor microenvironment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dinh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Islam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nanda, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bjelivuk, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrews, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mani, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolfarth, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skitzki, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obeng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.15.676444</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Efineptakin alfa (NT-I7) improves overall survival and induces tertiary lymphoid structures in murine lung tumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.677178v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Screening of a kinase library in human Huntington disease iPSC derived striatal precursor neurons reveals a neuroprotective effect of PKC alpha and PKC beta1 inhibition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.677178v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The loss of striatal medium spiny neurons is a hallmark of Huntingtons disease (HD). To identify potential disease-modifying treatments, we previously developed a human neuronal model by immortalizing and differentiating HD patient-derived iPSCs into highly homogeneous striatal precursor neurons (ISPNs). Using a 96-well screening platform, and two rounds of re-screening, we tested a kinase inhibitor library and identified 5 compounds that protected HD ISPNs from mutant huntingtin (mHTT)-induced toxicity. Among these, we prioritized the PKC-/{beta}1 inhibitor GO6976, which rescued HD ISPNs from mHTT toxicity in a dose-dependent manner. Further, we found increased phosphorylation of PKC- and PKC-{beta}1 in HD cells and tissues, while their overexpression was toxic to HD ISPNs. Knockdown of PKC-/{beta}1 protected the neurons, and both isoforms interacted and colocalized with HTT. These results suggest that PKC-/{beta}1 plays a role in HD neurodegeneration, and that inhibiting their activity may offer a potential therapeutic approach for HD.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=194 SRC="FIGDIR/small/677178v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (48K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@256d6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1931e7borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b6598borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b0bbb5_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG HighlightsO_LIHD patient-derived iPSC-based striatal precursor neurons (ISPNs) were used to screen and identify neuroprotective compounds.
C_LIO_LIThe PKC-/{beta}1 inhibitor GO6976 rescues HD ISPNs from mutant huntingtin (HTT)-induced toxicity.
C_LIO_LIThe phosphorylation of PKC-/{beta}1 is elevated in HD cell and tissues, and PKC-/{beta}1 interact with both wild-type and mutant huntingtin.
C_LIO_LIOverexpression of PKC-/{beta}1 is toxic to HD ISPNs, while its knockdown protects the neurons.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jiang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miryala, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sultania, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guttman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnston, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belkas, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Um, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holland, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Troncoso, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratovitski, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.18.677178</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Screening of a kinase library in human Huntington disease iPSC derived striatal precursor neurons reveals a neuroprotective effect of PKC alpha and PKC beta1 inhibition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.19.677399v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Leveraging Experimental Evolution to Extract Predictive Collateral Drug Response Signatures in Ewings Sarcoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.19.677399v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapeutic options for patients with relapsed or refractory Ewings sarcoma (EWS) remain limited. Collateral sensitivity, where resistance to one drug confers sensitivity to another, could be leveraged to optimize chemotherapy for EWS. Gene expression signatures that predict collateral sensitivity states can be used to guide treatment selection in an evolution-informed manner. We experimentally evolved resistance to first-line EWS chemotherapy in cell lines. Throughout, we measured collateral responses across a panel of anticancer drugs and quantified transcriptomic changes. Collateral drug responses varied across replicate evolutionary trajectories, but convergent states of collateral sensitivity emerged across different replicates at different times. By associating these convergent phenotypes with gene expression patterns, we derived a library of predictive signatures for numerous drugs. These signatures accurately distinguished states of collaterally sensitivity from states of collateral resistance within our dataset and were further validated in an independent EWS cell line. Our findings demonstrate that gene expression signatures can predict collateral sensitivity in EWS, providing a foundation for personalized therapeutic strategies. This approach also provides a generalizable workflow for developing predictive biomarkers to guide chemotherapy selection in patients with rare diseases that lack reliable second-line chemotherapy regimens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin-Rahardja, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canavan, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.19.677399</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Leveraging Experimental Evolution to Extract Predictive Collateral Drug Response Signatures in Ewings Sarcoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678215v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lipodystrophy and recovery are mediated by the Wnt/lipogenesis axis during skin fibrosis. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678215v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acquired lipodystrophy in the dermal white adipose tissue (DWAT) is a salient feature of skin fibrosis, and is followed by accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM). Lipodystrophy syndromes, often associated with metabolic co-morbidities, are estimated to affect 1 in 20,000 people. We recently showed that fibrosis-associated lipodystrophy is dependent on sustained Wnt signaling, but the mechanism is unclear. Transcriptomic profiling of mature dermal adipocytes in vivo reveal that Wnt activation downregulates the de novo-lipogenesis (DNL) axis enzymes within 48 hours. We found that protein expression of Fatty Acid Synthase (FASN), a key DNL enzyme, is dependent on sustained Wnt activation in vitro and in vivo. In human systemic sclerosis, FASN mRNA is significantly downregulated during two years of disease. Remarkably, pharmacological inhibition of FASN enzyme during reversal from Wnt induced fibrosis impedes recovery of DWAT lipid content as well as ECM accumulation and topography. All together, we demonstrate that acquired lipodystrophy in the context of skin fibrosis is mediated by a new role of the Wnt-DNL axis. These findings underscore the importance of this pathway in lipodystrophy and fibrosis, opening new avenues for therapeutic targets in skin fibrosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Madhavan, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varshney, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montegut, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klatt, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudolph, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.24.678215</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lipodystrophy and recovery are mediated by the Wnt/lipogenesis axis during skin fibrosis.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678097v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CRISPR/Cas9 screenings reveal the role of STX1A and CDK1 in Cathepsin G entering and killing colorectal cancer cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678097v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neutrophils are the major populations of white blood cells and have been reported to facilitate cancer metastasis. Meanwhile, emerging evidence has recently suggested the anti-cancer role of neutrophils. Our previous study revealed that CB-839 and 5-FU-treated colorectal cancer (CRC) tumors recruited neutrophils and induced neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Cathepsin G (CTSG), which is released during NET formation, enters CRC cells through the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) and cleaves 14-3-3{varepsilon} to promote apoptosis. However, the detailed mechanism underlying CTSGs anti-tumor function remains less studied. In this study, we report that CTSG enters CRC cells through RAGE-mediated endocytosis. Knocking out RAGE or inhibiting endocytosis blocks CTSG from entering CRC cells and attenuates CTSG-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, the clathrin coat assembly complex and SNARE proteins were enriched in an arrayed CRISPR/Cas9 screening targeting human membrane trafficking genes. Knocking out SNARE protein STX1A prevents the spread of CTSG in CRC cells and the induction of cleaved PARP. A pooled genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screening further identifies the role of CDK1 in the NET-induced killing of CRC cells. Inhibiting CDK1 protected CRC cells from killing by CTSG. Our study reveals novel mechanisms by which CTSG enters and kills CRC cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rozen, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dinh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.24.678097</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CRISPR/Cas9 screenings reveal the role of STX1A and CDK1 in Cathepsin G entering and killing colorectal cancer cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.25.678686v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structures redefine the mechanism of action for tetracyclines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.25.678686v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The tetracycline class of antibiotics is widely used for treating bacterial diseases including Lyme disease, anthrax, acne vulgaris, and pneumonia. Using a series of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures, we show that tetracyclines can simultaneously target the mRNA decoding center and the nascent peptide exit tunnel (NPET) of the bacterial 70S ribosome. Among the tested tetracyclines, Doxycycline was unique in its ability to dimerize and bind the NPET at multiple locations. Structural comparison of Doxycycline, Minocycline, and Sarecycline bound to the Escherichia coli and Cutibacterium acnes 70S ribosome revealed species-specific differences affecting drug interaction and occupancy. Our results redefine the mechanism of action for tetracyclines and provide a structural basis for rational design of narrow spectrum tetracyclines to overcome the rising threat of antibiotic resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Devarkar, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lomakin, I. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grada, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunick, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.25.678686</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structures redefine the mechanism of action for tetracyclines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.28.679079v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NK cell allorecognition shapes reprogramming of neutrophils infiltrating heart allografts 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.28.679079v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundRecent developments in neutrophil biology have demonstrated that neutrophils are phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous. Tissue microenvironments dictate changes in neutrophil cell states in infection and cancer, but little is known about how alloimmune responses or solid organ transplantation influence neutrophil heterogeneity and plasticity.

MethodsHere, we used the murine heterotopic heart transplant model in conjunction with high dimensional flow cytometry and transcriptome analysis to interrogate how the alloimmune response and microenvironment of a transplanted organ influence neutrophil subset differentiation and plasticity. Complete MHC mismatched A/J (H2a) or syngeneic B6 (H2b) hearts were transplanted to C57BL/6 or B6 background genetically modified recipients.

ResultsWe uncovered striking differences between neutrophils infiltrating complete MHC mismatched allografts and syngeneic isografts. Bone marrow neutrophil development was highly skewed towards an immature, interferon stimulated gene (ISG)+ subset (marked by IFIT1 expression) early after transplant in both allo- and iso-graft recipients. ISG+ neutrophils were also the dominant population in the peripheral blood of both recipient groups. In contrast, neutrophils maintained the ISG+ phenotype after infiltrating an allograft but appeared to turn off this program upon infiltrating an isograft. The heart graft microenvironment imposed additional reprogramming independent of donor-recipient mismatch, as neutrophils from both allo- and iso-grafts were skewed towards a mature, aged and proangiogenic dcTRAIL-R1+ phenotype. Interestingly, while the existing literature indicates that IFIT1-expressing ISG+ neutrophils and proangiogenic dcTRAIL-R1+ neutrophils are distinct subsets, we identified a novel IFIT1+ dcTRAIL-R1+ hybrid population that is highly enriched in allografts. Mechanistically, NK cell-mediated innate allorecognition drives this early intra-allograft specific neutrophil phenotypic programing.

ConclusionsThese findings provide novel insights into the innate immune allorecognition-mediated regulation of the plasticity of recently described key neutrophil subsets and will enable specific targeting to neutralize detrimental neutrophil subsets and enhance solid organ transplant outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Koritzinsky, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keslar, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fairchild, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.28.679079</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NK cell allorecognition shapes reprogramming of neutrophils infiltrating heart allografts]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.28.679107v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fluid-structure Interaction Simulation of the Cerebrovascular Circulation: Immersed Boundary versus Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian Mesh Formulations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.28.679107v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposePatient-specific fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations allow for the in silico modeling of vascular pathology. Though existing attempts to model the cerebrovasculature confirm the potential of FSI as a future diagnostic tool, standard simulation methods and modeling parameters remain undefined. The purpose of this investigation was to compare immersed boundary (IB) and arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulations to discern whether the increased modeling complexity offered by ALE is necessary for the modeling of smaller-caliber vessels, given increased computational load.

MethodsDirect comparisons of Fluent and Mechanical behavior were conducted between IB and ALE methods of FSI simulation. Simulations utilized an internal carotid artery geometry conduit with optimized mesh. Boundary constraints were derived from previous investigation of vascular tissue and fit to a Prony series. Both qualitative profile comparisons and quantitative parametric analyses of variance were conducted to assess differences in simulation output.

ResultsIn this study, we report deviations in Fluent and Mechanical output between IB and ALE cases of FSI simulation. More specifically, ALE-method simulations boast higher stress, lower wall shear stress, and lower strain. These differences persist across the vessel geometry and increase with high strain. Additionally, inconsistencies between solving methods are exacerbated in areas of more complex mesh geometry (i.e. vessel bifurcation).

ConclusionSubstantial alterations in intraluminal stress, shear stress, and strain suggest that ALE formulation is necessary for modeling blood vessels of the cerebrovasculature. Our findings highlight the importance of accurately modeling the dynamic interactions that occur between the fluid and material domains of simulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCune, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomeer, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davison, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rashidi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, N. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.28.679107</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fluid-structure Interaction Simulation of the Cerebrovascular Circulation: Immersed Boundary versus Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian Mesh Formulations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679363v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Effects of DMSO Cryopreservation on the Biomechanics and Histology of Human Cerebrovascular Tissue 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679363v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionTissue preservation techniques, chiefly cryopreservation, have been demonstrated to alter vascular histology and tissue biomechanics via rapid osmotic change--resulting in collagen fiber rearrangement and internal elastic laminae (IEL) microfractures; however, this has not yet been evaluated in cerebrovascular tissue. As such, we sought to measure the effectiveness of a canonical cryopreservation strategy on the thickness and continuity of human cerebrovascular tissue. With the recent rise in biomechanical analyses of cerebrovascular tissue for the design of novel treatments and optimization of surgical strategies, the importance of designing models with accurate tissue proxies is paramount.

MethodsFresh, human cerebrovascular tissue was obtained through the Cleveland Clinic institutional cadaver donation program. Donors with prior craniotomy, intracranial malignancy, or history of cerebrovascular disease were excluded. Cadaveric tissue dissections were completed within fourteen days of patient expiration and sectioned into four specimens. The 164 tissue samples obtained from three donors were then randomized into one of the following experimental conditions: 10% formalin (control), distilled water (dH2O), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), or -80 {degrees}C DMSO cryopreservation. Specimens were then processed into paraffin-embedded sections and treated with Movat pentachrome staining. Vessel layers were measured by two blinded evaluators and discontinuities in internal elastin lamina were tallied.

ResultsWe found that DMSO cryopreservation failed to consistently provide a protective effect to cerebrovascular specimens. Tissue stored via this method was reported to occasionally swell in specific vessel tunics of select vessel territories compared to formalin controls. We also observed an increase in the number of transverse elastin breaks with DMSO cryopreservation.

ConclusionsThis data demonstrates that conventional tissue preservation methods may fail to preserve layer thicknesses between some vessels and alter biomechanical properties for future testing. Further, with more frequent elastin fractures in the cryopreservation group, recoilability of preserved vessels may vary from in vivo counterparts.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=130 SRC="FIGDIR/small/679363v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCune, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davison, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thiyagarajah, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomeer, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albabish, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owusu-Ansah, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.29.679363</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Effects of DMSO Cryopreservation on the Biomechanics and Histology of Human Cerebrovascular Tissue]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679646v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Retinoic acid production via the ray-finned fish gene beta-carotene oxygenase 1-like is essential for juvenile development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679646v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In vertebrates, vitamin A (VA) is crucial for development, tissue homeostasis, vision, and immunity. Retinal, a form of VA, is produced via enzymatic cleavage of {beta}-carotene by beta-carotene oxygenase 1 (bco1) and bco1-like (bco1l). While bco1 is found across vertebrate taxa, bco1l is a paralog of bco1 that we discover to have evolved in the ray-finned fishes, the most abundant, speciose, and commercially important group of fishes. We investigated the function of bco1l in ray-finned Siamese fighting fish, commonly known as betta, an emerging model for genetics and development. Using CRISPR-Cas9 knockouts, we find that lack of bco1l results in reduced VA and elevated {beta}-carotene in larvae, starting when animals have exhausted their yolk supply of retinal, followed by stunted growth and death during juvenile development. Exogenous retinoic acid rescues the mutation, demonstrating its deficiency causes these defects. bco1l is 4x more abundant than bco1 in the intestine. This, coupled with the inability of bco1 to sustain VA production in the bco1l mutant, indicates that bco1l is the primary enzyme for dietary carotenoid conversion into retinal. Our results show that VA production by bco1l is required for post-embryonic development, and that bco1l became essential after evolving via duplication of bco1.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krupa, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villamayor, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palmiotti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Lintig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bendesky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.30.679646</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Retinoic acid production via the ray-finned fish gene beta-carotene oxygenase 1-like is essential for juvenile development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680734v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adaptive Disruption of Carotenoid Metabolism in Cavefish via Loss of Beta-carotene oxygenase 2a (Bco2a) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680734v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient that supports vision, immunity, and development, yet excess vitamin A can be toxic1,2. Most vertebrates maintain tightly regulated vitamin A levels by cleaving dietary carotenoids into retinoids via specialized enzymes, including the mitochondrial carotenoid oxygenase Bco23,4. To what extent genetic changes in carotenoid-metabolism enzymes like Bco2 drive natural variation in vitamin A homeostasis remains unclear. Here we show that multiple cave-adapted populations of the Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus) have evolved loss-of-function mutations in bco2a, leading to impaired carotenoid cleavage and dramatic carotenoid and vitamin A accumulation. These mutations yield enzymatically inactive Bco2a proteins, are under selection in cavefish, and may provide a physiological advantage under inconsistent carotenoid supply. Contrary to expectations from mammalian models where Bco2 loss induces oxidative damage5,6, cavefish appear to tolerate and even benefit from carotenoid accumulation, potentially through enhanced antioxidant capacity and modified mitochondrial metabolism. Our findings reveal that the vitamin A regulatory system is evolutionarily flexible, and that the adaptive loss of Bco2a function may enable survival in nutrient-variable, low-oxygen cave environments. This work provides a framework for understanding how animals balance essential nutrient thresholds in extreme environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perez Guerra, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Lintig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riddle, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.06.680734</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adaptive Disruption of Carotenoid Metabolism in Cavefish via Loss of Beta-carotene oxygenase 2a (Bco2a)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680855v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Legionella effector RidL promotes mitochondrial fragmentation through phosphorylation activation of the large GTPase Drp1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.07.680855v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intracellular pathogens such as Legionella pneumophila secrete effector proteins that manipulate host cell processes to promote bacterial survival. One such effector, RidL, is known to inhibit retrograde trafficking by interacting with the retromer complex via its N-terminal domain. Here, we identify a second function of RidL mediated by its C-terminal domain, which directly binds to the mitochondrial fission GTPase Drp1 and related large GTPases. In vitro, RidL reduces Drp1 GTPase activity and disrupts its oligomerization. During infection, RidL localizes to mitochondria, enhances the accumulation of Drp1 and the outer membrane protein Tom20, and impairs mitochondrial dynamics and function. Moreover, in L. pneumophila-infected cells, RidL promotes phosphorylation of Drp1 at Ser616, leading to Drp1 activation and mitochondrial fragmentation. These findings establish RidL as a bifunctional effector that targets both the retromer complex and Drp1 through distinct domains. By interfering with host mitochondrial dynamics, RidL enables L. pneumophila to remodel host organelles and optimize conditions for intracellular replication.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Katic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vittori, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halter, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steiner, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swart, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radiom, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Rodriguez, F.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaggi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buchrieser, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Escoll, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panse, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hilbi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.07.680855</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Legionella effector RidL promotes mitochondrial fragmentation through phosphorylation activation of the large GTPase Drp1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681609v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Systematic elucidation and pharmacologic targeting on non-oncogene dependencies in imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681609v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) with imatinib and other KIT-targeting drugs, has been effective. However, most patients with advanced GIST eventually develop imatinib-resistance and succumb to disease. We have developed mutation-agnostic, network-based methodologies to systematically elucidate and pharmacologically target Master Regulator (MR) proteins representing critical non-oncogene dependencies of cancer cells. Unsupervised, MR-based clustering of 34 GIST patient tumor samples produced two clusters clearly separating imatinib-resistant vs. sensitive tumors. High-throughput profiling of transcriptional responses by two GIST cell lines to FDA approved and late-stage experimental drugs identified six candidate drugs that reversed the MR activity of imatinib-resistant GIST. Predictions were validated in two imatinib-resistant, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. The top prediction, linifanib, induced marked tumor growth inhibition in both PDXs across a wide dose range, while selinexor was also effective compared to imatinib. We confirmed in vivo MR activity reversal by these drugs, but not by ineffective drugs.

Statement of SignificanceWe leveraged our network-based platforms, OncoTreat and OncoTarget, to characterize Master Regulators of imatinib-resistance in GIST and identify candidate MR-targeting drugs, an unmet clinical need. Top predicted drugs were successfully validated in cognate PDXs, thus providing a path for translation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mundi, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grunn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kojadinovic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Realubit, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caescu, I. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hibshoosh, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aburi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ingham, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothschild, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, G. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Califano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.12.681609</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Systematic elucidation and pharmacologic targeting on non-oncogene dependencies in imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.15.682539v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting Endothelial PERK Accelerates Lymphoid Regeneration by Enhancing DLL4-NOTCH3 Signaling at the Pre-B Niche 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.15.682539v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Delayed immune recovery after hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is associated with a poor clinical outcome, yet strategies to enhance lymphocyte regeneration are limited. We studied the role of unfolded protein response (ER stress) in hematopoietic regeneration within the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. We revealed that PERK activation is a prominent feature of BM endothelium in leukemia patients and is a hallmark response in mouse BM following ionizing irradiation. Ablating endothelial Perk boosted Notch ligand DLL4 expression and promoted DLL4-dependent early HSC and B progenitor regeneration. Single-cell analysis shows that endothelial DLL4 activates NOTCH3 expressed by mesenchymal stroma cells, and that the PERK-DLL4 axis coordinates the regulation of lymphoid commitment and niche cytokine production. NOTCH3 is critical for the upregulation of IL7 following irradiation and for supporting the expansion of lymphoid progenitors in mesenchymal sphere cultures. These findings not only unveil a previously unrecognized ER stress-controlled vascular-stroma signaling mechanism in regenerative hematopoiesis but also highlight PERK blockade as a promising therapeutic strategy to improve immune recovery after myeloablative transplantation.

SummaryZou et al unravel that the adaptive ER stress response in bone marrow blood vessels restricts the post-transplant regeneration of immune progenitor cells by attenuating the expression of Notch ligand DLL4. Targeting ER stress sensor PERK can accelerate immune recovery after transplantation by enhancing DLL4-NOTCH3 signaling and IL7 cytokine production.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zou, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christensen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adoro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, C.-h. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pingali, S. R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, S. T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jafar-Nejad, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.15.682539</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting Endothelial PERK Accelerates Lymphoid Regeneration by Enhancing DLL4-NOTCH3 Signaling at the Pre-B Niche]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.18.683226v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synthesis and Characterization of ICG-based Near-infrared Photoacoustic Contrast Agents 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.18.683226v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Near-infrared photoacoustic imaging (NIR-PAI) integrates optical excitation with ultrasound detection to enable high-resolution, deep-tissue imaging by taking advantage of reduced light scattering and absorption in this spectral window. Despite its potential, clinical translation of contrast-enhanced NIR-PAI is limited by the scarcity of effective contrast agents. Indocyanine green (ICG), an FDA-approved NIR dye, is a strong candidate due to its biocompatibility and photoacoustic efficiency. However, its concentration-dependent aggregation, lack of facile targeting strategies, instability in aqueous environments, and low photostability result in variable signal, high background noise, and reduced reliability in vivo. To address these challenges, we developed three biocompatible ICG-based nanoprobe platforms amenable to facile, scalable synthesis: 5-arm DNA-ICG nanostructures (5-arm DNA-ICG), lipid-shelled ICG nanobubbles (ICG-NBs), and Azide-modified ICG J-aggregates (JAAZ). These platforms are designed to preserve ICG monomers or control aggregation, enabling enhanced NIR-PAI performance. Spectroscopic and photoacoustic analyses revealed consistent absorbance and photoacoustic profiles, showing enhanced signals compared to free ICG. The greatest improvement was observed for JAAZ, followed by ICG-NBs and 5-arm DNA-ICG. Photostability studies showed that JAAZ aggregation protects ICG from light-induced photodegradation, whereas monomer preservation in 5-arm DNA-ICG and ICG-NBs provides less protection and moderate signal stability. All three probes demonstrated stable performance under physiological conditions, achieved strong signal-to-noise ratios at depth and under tissue-mimicking conditions, and required markedly reduced probe concentrations to generate robust signals. Their modular architectures allow incorporation of targeting ligands, offering molecular specificity and multimodal functionality. Collectively, these contrast agent platforms provide noninvasive, deep-tissue molecular imaging and biosensing, with strong potential for future preclinical and clinical translation, and represent a promising alternative to free ICG for biomedical applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hanafi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giammanco, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ronzier, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laliwala, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wegierak, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abenojar, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>NITTAYACHARN, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chitnis, P. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veneziano, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.18.683226</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synthesis and Characterization of ICG-based Near-infrared Photoacoustic Contrast Agents]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684841v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A simple theory to explain super-additivity of highly similar drug combinations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684841v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small-molecule drugs canonically act by binding to a specific site on a single protein, leading to a change in the proteins activity. In particular, allosteric agonists bind preferentially to the active form of the protein, increasing the population of the active state and increasing activity. Hence, it is not surprising that similar compounds often act in similar ways, because they naturally bind to the same sites. However, recent work has provided examples of closely related small molecules that act super-additively when co-administered, a phenomenon that is difficult to explain using this approach. Here, we derive a simple thermodynamic model that describes how a super-additive response can occur, even for two very similar ligands. We discuss its implications for the specific case of cysteine-derived compounds and the treatment of opioid withdrawal symptoms and suggest avenues by which it could be tested experimentally.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weed-Nichols, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seckler, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Getsy, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grossfield, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.27.684841</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A simple theory to explain super-additivity of highly similar drug combinations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.02.686085v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultra-High Field 31P functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals NAD+ Dynamics in Brain Energy Metabolism during Visual Stimulation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.02.686085v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We investigated dynamic changes in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD{square}) metabolism in the human occipital lobe using ultra-high field 31P functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) at 7 Tesla. Twenty-five healthy volunteers (mean age 24 {+/-} 4 years, 10 female) performed a visual task alternating between fixation and flashing checkerboard stimuli. 31P MRS spectra were acquired from a visual cortex voxel functionally localized by prior fMRI. Linear mixed-effects modelling revealed a significant reduction in NAD{square} concentrations during the first stimulation block, while no significant change was observed during the second block. No significant changes were observed for other high-energy phosphate metabolites (ATP, phosphocreatine, and inorganic phosphate), indicating specificity in the NAD{square} response. Exploratory analyses, dividing the blocks in two halves, suggested further reductions in NAD{square} and tNAD in the second halves of both stimulation blocks, though these trends were not statistically significant. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using fMRS at 7T to detect stimulus-induced dynamics in cerebral NAD{square} metabolism in vivo, providing insights into the interplay between glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation during neural activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kaiser, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anvari Vind, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duarte, J. M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jelescu, I. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widmaier, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.02.686085</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultra-High Field 31P functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Reveals NAD+ Dynamics in Brain Energy Metabolism during Visual Stimulation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.685424v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Derivation of functional early gestation decidual natural killer cell subtypes from induced pluripotent stem cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.685424v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Abnormal decidual natural killer cell (dNK) function is linked to pregnancy complications occurring in both early and late stages of gestation, including recurrent pregnancy loss, preeclampsia, and preterm birth. Exploration of dNK heterogeneity as it relates to function is an active area of research; however, most of this work has focused on early gestation. We applied flow cytometric and transcriptomic single cell definitions of dNK subtypes to dNK at the chorioamniotic membranes (CAM) and basal plate (BP) of the placenta at term. We found decreased low-effector-function dNK1 and increased high-effector-function dNK3 abundance at term. In comparison to BP-dNK, CAM-dNK had greater abundance of moderate-effector-function dNK2 and lower expression of inhibitory CD9. We applied this knowledge to establish a protocol for differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) into CD45+CD56brightCD16-, functional dNK-like, applying TGF{beta} to enrich for dNK2 - the most abundant dNK subtype at first trimester- while inducing expression of dNK markers, CD9 and CD103. We analyzed the secretomes of first trimester dNK, term BP-dNK and CAM-dNK, and peripheral blood NK cells to identify proteomic profiles for each. Finally, we analyzed the secretome of TGF{beta}-treated iPSC-dNK and found an enrichment in first trimester dNK-specific proteins. We identify changes in dNK function across gestation and placental region and suggests that these changes can be explained by shifts in dNK subtypes, which we specifically and reproducibly derive from iPSC, providing a new model for these cells and laying the foundation for cell-based therapies of reproductive diseases.

Significance StatementAlterations in maternal decidual natural killer cells (dNK) are associated with pregnancy complications - from recurrent pregnancy loss to preeclampsia and preterm birth. We found dNK from different regions of the term placenta to be distinct from peripheral blood NK and early gestation dNK, based on gene and surface marker expression, subtype composition, and secretome. We report a novel, reproducible protocol to generate dNK resembling the most abundant dNK subtype in early gestation from induced pluripotent stem cells. Our study lays the foundation for in vitro modeling of the maternal-fetal interface and therapeutic development for reproductive disease.

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheung, V. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DaCosta, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaimez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arora, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caron, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slamecka, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meads, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisch, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morey, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pant, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufman, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horii, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bui, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parast, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.03.685424</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Derivation of functional early gestation decidual natural killer cell subtypes from induced pluripotent stem cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-ancestry Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Reveals Shared and Population-Specific Genetic Effects in Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) risk differs across ancestral populations, yet most genetic studies have focused on Non-Hispanic White (NHW) cohorts. We conducted a multi-population transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) using whole-blood RNA-seq and genotype data from reported NHW (n=235), African American (AA; n=224), and Hispanic (HISP; n=292) participants in MAGENTA. Using SuShiE for multi-population fine-mapping, we identified credible sets of eQTLs for 8,748 genes and improved fine-mapping precision relative to analyses using fewer populations. eQTL effects were largely shared across populations, with population-specific regulation for a subset of genes. Population-stratified TWAS and sample size-weighted meta-analysis (FUSION + MAFOCUS) prioritized and and fine-mapped nine genes (FDR<0.05, PIP>0.8), including established AD loci (BIN1, PTK2B, DMPK) with consistent effects across populations. Importantly, at BIN1 we fine-mapped regulatory variants associated with gene expression and AD risk beyond the GWAS index SNP--most notably rs11682128, which is only in modest LD with rs6733839 (r^2{approx}0.34)--demonstrating that multi-population TWAS can implicate additional functional variants not captured by single-SNP GWAS signals. We also discovered a novel association between COG4 expression and AD in NHW, implicating Golgi apparatus function. Using independent SuShiE-derived models from TOPMed MESA (PBMC), several associations replicated directionally across ancestries, with statistical significance most evident in NHW. Our results show that multi-population fine-mapping improves eQTL resolution and TWAS interpretability, reveals regulatory variants beyond GWAS index SNPs, and underscores the need to expand non-European AD cohorts to resolve shared and population-specific mechanisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mews, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheeler, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benchek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reitz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naj, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Below, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tosto, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cornejo-Olivas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrd, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feliciano-Astacio, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunkle, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pericak-Vance, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haines, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bush, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.03.686160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-ancestry Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Reveals Shared and Population-Specific Genetic Effects in Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.08.687405v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lightweight open-source fine-tuning of SAM2 enables domain-specific microscopy segmentation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.08.687405v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quantitation of structures is a critical step in analyzing images. Automated segmentation of biological samples remains a central challenge in microscopy, where variations in signal/noise, intensity, texture, and edges hinder accurate delineation of cellular and tissue structures. Adaptations of foundation models such as Segment Anything Model (SAM) remain computationally intensive and require large training datasets. Here, we introduce a lightweight, open-source Google Colab pipeline that enables efficient fine-tuning of SAM2 on domain-specific datasets without additional architectural layers or specialized hardware. By coupling mask-decoder fine-tuning with biologically informed post-processing, our framework achieves robust segmentation across diverse imaging modalities. Applied to hippocampal segmentation in brain images and single-cell segmentation in cell images, fine-tuned SAM2 demonstrates substantial gains of accuracy relative to basic SAM2 and matches leading tools. This work establishes a scalable and accessible paradigm for domain-specific adaptations of SAM2 in microscopy, lowering computational and data barriers to advanced image segmentation.

HighlightsO_LILightweight fine-tuning with no added architectural complexity.
C_LIO_LIHigh segmentation accuracy (Dice/Jaccard scores) achieved with small datasets.
C_LIO_LICross-domain generalization across tissue and cell imaging with biologically informed post-processing.
C_LIO_LIComparable or superior performance to widely used tools (Cellpose, Imaris, ilastik) at substantially lower computational cost.
C_LIO_LIOpen-source and executable in a single Colab notebook, ensuring reproducibility and accessibility for non-computational users.
C_LIO_LITurnkey adaptability, allowing researchers to transform raw microscopy data into fine-tuned SAM2 models with minimal input.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhat, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Selvan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okekenwa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dechkounian, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saha, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.08.687405</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lightweight open-source fine-tuning of SAM2 enables domain-specific microscopy segmentation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.686860v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
eIF2B Selectively Anchors and Activates Mutant KRAS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.686860v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Much is known about how RAS oncoproteins regulate mRNA translation factors, but the reverse relationship, how translation factors influence RAS activity, has remained largely unexplored. At the plasma membrane (PM), Son of Sevenless (SOS) acts as the canonical guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for RAS proteins, yet mechanisms governing its specificity for individual RAS isoforms remain unknown. Here, we show that the translation initiation factor eIF2B, best known for its GEF function in translation initiation, forms a distinct complex with SOS and mutant KRAS at the PM, but not with other oncogenic RAS variants. Mechanistically, eIF2B acts as an allosteric regulator of SOS, selectively enhancing GDP-GTP exchange on mutant KRAS. This specificity arises from the translational activity of eIF2B, which upregulates glycosphingolipid (GSL) biosynthesis to remodel PM lipids and preferentially anchor mutant KRAS. Together, our results uncover an unexpected moonlighting function of eIF2B: acting both as a direct activator of SOS and as a regulator of GSL pathway that shapes the membrane landscape, both required for mutant KRAS activation. These insights redefine our understanding of eIF2B and mutant KRAS functions in cancer and have profound implications for KRAS-driven oncogenesis.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=161 SRC="FIGDIR/small/686860v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f50934org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2f55b9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a51e39org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1634aac_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG O_LIeIF2B interacts with mutant KRAS and SOS at the plasma membrane (PM).
C_LIO_LIThe eIF2B:SOS complex promotes the GTP-bound active state of mutant KRAS.
C_LIO_LIeIF2B enhances the translation of B4GALT5 mRNA, encoding a key enzyme of glycosphingolipid (GSL) biosynthesis.
C_LIO_LIUpregulation of the GSL metabolites, ganglioside GM3 and sulfatide SM4, remodels PM lipid composition to facilitate eIF2B:SOS:KRAS complex formation and mutant KRAS nanoclustering.
C_LIO_LIThrough its interaction with SOS and stimulation of GSL synthesis, eIF2B selectively activates mutant KRAS at the PM among RAS isoforms.
C_LIO_LIeIF2B is required for the development of mKRAS-driven lung adenocarcinoma in mice.
C_LIO_LIeIF2B is a marker of poor prognosis in mutant KRAS-driven cancers.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, K.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, H.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egea, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantsar, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghaddar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amiri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gannaban, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hancock, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sasaki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asara, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lowy, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawrence, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azpilcueta-Nicolas, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lumb, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Columbus, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turbyville, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikura, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groves, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sonenberg, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walter, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koromilas, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.10.686860</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[eIF2B Selectively Anchors and Activates Mutant KRAS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.19.687256v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Micro-CT Analysis of a Needle to Nerve Approach for Interfascicular Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Porcine Nerves 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.19.687256v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationPeripheral nerve interfaces typically have a tradeoff between selectivity and invasiveness. Interfascicular interfaces placed within the peripheral nerve, but outside of the fascicles preserving the perineurium are a promising avenue in balancing this tradeoff. This study quantifies electrode placement using novel tools designed to deliver flexible microwires interfascicularly in a porcine model.

MethodsSeven Yorkshire pigs were implanted with Minimally invasive interfascicular Nerve Stimulation (MiiNS) arrays in the nerves of the brachial plexus resulting in a total of ten implanted nerve samples. High-resolution micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) of implanted nerves stained with phosphotungistic acid (PTA) showed contact placement relative to fascicular anatomy and all other contacts. The analysis also examined the relationship between microwire trajectory angle and fascicle traversal. Further, in a subset of samples (n=4), hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) histological analysis was performed after micro-CT imaging. These histological images were coregistered with the micro-CT to validate the positional information of the micro-CT.

ResultsAcross the 56 total MiiNS microwire placements, 84% were interfascicular, while 16% were intrafascicular, characterized by traversal through a fascicle. Contacts were broadly distributed throughout the nerves cross section and the majority (79%) were in the central half of the nerves cross section (R>0.707), with no evidence of angular clustering in any single direction. On average, nearest neighbor distances between contacts measured 2256.26{+/-}1760.28 {micro}m in 3D and 730.71 {+/-}564.83 {micro}m transversely, with implants spanning 10.3 {+/-} 4.3 mm along length of nerve. The angle of wire trajectory into the nerve was correlated with fascicle traversal, with steeper angles of insertion associated with more instances of fascicle traversal. Histological analysis corroborated the fascicular borders and wire placements found on micro-CT and demonstrated perineurium integrity.

SignificanceInterfascicular implantation can reliably access both central and distributed regions of the nerve, while not being confined to a single plane, enabling access to regions which have been historically challenging to stimulate effectively. The observed nearest-neighbor transverse spacing between contacts is within the range of reported ideal values for selective activation. The MiiNS placement characteristics show its potential as an effective peripheral nerve interface alternative which achieves distributed contact placement, including in the center of the nerve volume, while remaining predominantly outside of the perineurium.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Randolph, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcu, V. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsiptsis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoffstall, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskin, J. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyler, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.19.687256</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Micro-CT Analysis of a Needle to Nerve Approach for Interfascicular Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Porcine Nerves]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.22.689920v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
B-cell activating factor plays a critical role in CAR-T cell-associated cytokine release syndrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.22.689920v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is the most common and potentially life-threatening toxicity associated with CAR-T cell therapy and is related to a heightened immune effector state. In this work, we identified a novel role of the pro-tumorigenic cytokine B-cell activating factor (BAFF) in its pathophysiology. First, we observed that patients who experienced CAR-T cell-related CRS have elevated serum BAFF levels that coincide with elevated IL-6. Mechanistically, we show that IFN-{gamma}, produced by activated CAR-T cells, stimulates monocytes to release BAFF, which induces the expression of CRS-related cytokines from monocytes. Monocytes derived from CRS patients express BCMA, which is further induced by IFN-{gamma} stimulation. Neutralization of BAFF with belimumab significantly reduces production of various CRS and ICANS-related cytokines without impairing CAR-T cell activation or killing. Overall, we demonstrate that BAFF plays a critical role in CAR-T-cell-related CRS, and its neutralization may be a novel strategy for treating both CRS and ICANS.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=67 SRC="FIGDIR/small/689920v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@187a0edorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1566904org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@896b5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1de5db6_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fritz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Metheny, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caimi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.22.689920</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[B-cell activating factor plays a critical role in CAR-T cell-associated cytokine release syndrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.25.690197v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Upregulation of MAM by C99 disrupts ACSL4 activity and phospholipid homeostasis in Alzheimer disease. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.25.690197v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The structure and function of cellular and intracellular membranes are critically governed by the fatty acid (FA) composition of phospholipids (PLs), which is dynamically regulated by a network of enzymes that fine-tune lipid species according to cellular demands.

In this study, we identify a mechanism through which the formation of mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes (MAMs) modulates the activity of the acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4 (ACSL4), an enzyme that channels polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) into phosphatidylcholine (PC) via the Lands cycle. Through integrated biochemical, proteomic, and lipidomic analyses in both cellular and animal models, we demonstrate that MAM formation enhances ACSL4 activity, promoting arachidonic acid (AA) activation and its preferential incorporation into PC in concert with the MAM-localized lysophospholipid acyltransferase 4 (LPCAT4).

Our findings further uncover an unexpected link between this pathway and the pathogenesis of Alzheimers disease (AD). We show that elevated levels of C99--the {beta}-secretase cleavage product of amyloid precursor protein (APP)--induce MAM remodeling through cholesterol clustering, which in turn activates ACSL4 and alters PC composition. This effect is mirrored in AD models as well as in fibroblasts, neurons, and immune cells derived from both familial and sporadic AD patients, all of which exhibit chronically increased C99 levels, heightened ACSL4 activity, and enrichment of PUFA-containing PC species, leading to lipid imbalance and membrane dysfunction.

Together, these results establish MAMs as dynamic lipid-regulatory hubs that coordinate ACSL4-dependent membrane remodeling and highlight the contribution of MAM dysregulation to lipid abnormalities observed in AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Montesinos, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salomon-Cruz, I. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agudelo-castrillon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uceda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferrer, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton-Barros, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez-lopez, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agrawal, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larrea, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velasco, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez-Bernal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benitez, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schon, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardona-Gomez, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Area-Gomez, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.25.690197</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Upregulation of MAM by C99 disrupts ACSL4 activity and phospholipid homeostasis in Alzheimer disease.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.691042v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development of a New Approach Method to Monitor and Modify Caffeine Metabolism Correlated to CYP1A2 Expression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.691042v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
New approach methodologies (NAMs) that seek to reduce reliance on animal testing require sensitive, mechanism-based assays to accurately predict human-specific metabolic responses. Caffeine, primarily metabolized by cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2), serves as an ideal probe substrate for evaluating CYP1A2 function. Here, we describe the development of an in vitro platform that combines high-sensitivity triple quadrupole multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) LC-MS analysis of paraxanthine with quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (qPCR) of CYP1A2 expression. Using human hepatocellular carcinoma-derived cell lines (HepG2 and Hep3B), we demonstrate that modulating CYP1A2 with known effectors, sulforaphane (a known CYP1A2 inhibitor), 3-methylcholanthrene (inducer), and galangin (moderate inducer), changes in both paraxanthine accumulation and CYP1A2 mRNA levels can be effectively monitored. The correlations observed between transcriptional responses and metabolic outputs validate paraxanthine as a sensitive readout of CYP1A2 function in these cell lines. Moreover, the assay remains robust across multiple experimental conditions and facilitates insights into enzyme induction or inhibition mechanisms. By providing a straightforward and scalable alternative to animal models, this approach expands the toolbox available for interrogating xenobiotic metabolism, and enzyme regulation. Ultimately, these findings highlight the utility of an integrated cell culture-based system for advancing studies of hepatic enzyme function. This platform enables investigators to readily screen and characterize compounds that influence CYP1A2-mediated metabolism, providing a straightforward, scalable, alternative to animal models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tochtrop, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.27.691042</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development of a New Approach Method to Monitor and Modify Caffeine Metabolism Correlated to CYP1A2 Expression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690774v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ACSS2 mediates prenatal alcohol exposure-related morphological and behavioral phenotypes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.26.690774v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The metabolic enzyme Acetyl-CoA Synthetase 2 (ACSS2) recently emerged as an unexpected regulator of molecular and behavioral changes associated with alcohol use. Its role during prenatal exposure, however, remains unknown. Here, we use a combination of proteomic, genomic and behavioral approaches to establish ACSS2 as a key mediator of prenatal alcohol exposure-related phenotypes. We define the developmental window during which ACSS2 translocates to nuclei in the mouse brain, and show that alcohol-derived acetate is incorporated into fetal brain histone acetylation in utero. Using genetically engineered mice not expressing ACSS2, we demonstrate that loss of this enzyme attenuates chronic prenatal alcohol exposure-induced craniofacial abnormalities, motor function deficits, cognitive impairments as well as associated chromatin and gene expression changes in the dorsal hippocampus and the cerebellar vermis. Our results outline a previously unknown mechanism underlying prenatal alcohol exposure-related phenotypes regulated by ACSS2, which will inform the development of future therapeutic interventions.

HIGHLIGHTSO_LIACSS2 translocates to nuclei during in utero brain development
C_LIO_LIAlcohol-derived acetate is incorporated into fetal brain histone acetylation
C_LIO_LIPrenatal alcohol exposure results in long-lasting and ACSS2-dependent chromatin and gene expression changes in the hippocampus and cerebellar vermis
C_LIO_LILoss of ACSS2 attenuates molecular changes, craniofacial abnormalities and cognitive impairments linked to prenatal alcohol exposure
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dodson, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Periandri, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yadav, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barfield, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ola, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Luna Vitorino, F. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cearlock, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maloney, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egervari, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.26.690774</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ACSS2 mediates prenatal alcohol exposure-related morphological and behavioral phenotypes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691905v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural Basis of Inhibition and Desensitization in Heteromeric Kainate Receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691905v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Kainate receptors (KARs) mediate excitatory synaptic transmission and regulate neurotransmitter release. In the central nervous system, KARs predominantly exist as heterotetramers comprising low-affinity (GluK1-3) and high-affinity (GluK4-5) subunits, with GluK2/GluK5 being the most abundant. To elucidate their conformational transitions, we determined electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of GluK2/GluK5 KARs in multiple functional states. The apo structure reveals compact packing with extensive intersubunit interactions between the ligand-binding domains (LBDs), beyond conserved D1-D1 contacts. Similarly, the glutamate-bound structure exhibits enhanced packing that stabilizes the desensitized conformation through increased intersubunit contacts relative to homomeric KARs, indicating that heterotetramers are conformationally less dynamic. To investigate subtype-specific inhibition, we engineered GluK2 and GluK5 mutants with altered affinities for the antagonist UBP310. Structural analysis of these mutants reveals distinct UBP310 binding modes on GluK2 versus GluK5 subunits. Furthermore, we demonstrate that targeting GluK5 is more effective than targeting GluK2; stabilizing GluK5 locks the receptor in a pore-occluded conformation, whereas antagonizing GluK2 leaves considerable physical space above the pore. These findings provide a structural framework for understanding the distinct contributions of GluK2 and GluK5 subunits to KAR function and highlight new strategies for developing subunit-specific therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tajima, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segura-Covarrubias, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.02.691905</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural Basis of Inhibition and Desensitization in Heteromeric Kainate Receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692092v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Guidance receptor-mediated mechanocompliance of GBM cells facilitates immune-silent invasion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692092v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The lethality of glioblastoma (GBM) stems from diffuse infiltration and immune evasion, two hallmarks traditionally studied separately. Here, we identify as unifying mechanism how GBM cells utilize guidance receptors Plexin-D1 and Plexin-B2 to gain mechanocompliance, i.e., the ability to deform and remodel membrane/cytoskeleton during confined migration without triggering immune activation. We show that PLXND1 upregulation marks invasive fronts and predicts poor survival of glioma patients. Through live-cell imaging in microchannels, intracranial xenografts, single-nucleus transcriptomics, and lipidomics we demonstrate that Plexin-D1/B2 enable GBM cells to retract tumor microtubes (TMs), traverse constrictions, and escape microglial surveillance. Single and especially double deletion of PLXND1 and B2 resulted in TM overgrowth, membrane instability, and susceptibility to cell fragment shedding, leading to impaired migration and a shift to activation of tumor-associated myeloid cells. Our findings thus reveal a molecular strategy used by GBM cells to penetrate through interstitial space while escaping immune surveillance.

SIGNIFICANCEPlexin-mediated mechanocompliance underlies the invasive yet immune-silent behavior of GBM cells, exposing a vulnerability that could be therapeutically exploited by forcing invading tumor cells into a mechanically fragile, immunogenic state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alves, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolsteeg, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadia, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dixon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsankova, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramakrishnan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedel, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.03.692092</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Guidance receptor-mediated mechanocompliance of GBM cells facilitates immune-silent invasion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.07.692731v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomic and Transcriptomic Landscapes of MEN1-Wild-Type Low-Grade Metastatic Pancreatic NETs Uncover Key Oncogenic Drivers and Targetable Pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.07.692731v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sporadic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) with wild type MEN1 represent a major yet largely ignored subset whose biology and metastatic potential remain poorly understood. Because metastasis can occur despite low histologic grade and modest mutational burden, we hypothesized that metastatic competence in MEN1-wild-type pNETs reflects quantitative reinforcement of shared oncogenic pathways rather than distinct mutational processes. We profiled 75 primary low-grade pNETs by whole-exome and RNA sequencing, including 25 percent with lymph node and/or liver metastasis, and integrated genomic and transcriptomic data to connect pathway lesions with expression state. Metastatic tumors showed a slight increase in mutation frequency but conserved base-substitution spectra relative to non-metastatic cases, and adverse clinicopathologic features were enriched in Grade 2 disease. Aggregating alterations to pathways revealed broad convergence on canonical networks, with transcriptomic analyses demonstrating cohort-wide enrichment of Calcium, WNT, and KRAS/PI3K-AKT programs in metastasis. Intersection of significantly mutated genes with differentially expressed genes identified a focused 29-gene overlap, including RYR1 and ZNF273, that marks these convergent axes and distinguishes metastatic from non-metastatic tumors. Gene set enrichment confirmed preferential activation of Calcium, WNT, and PI3K-AKT signaling in metastatic tumors, consistent with a network-intensity model of progression. Finally, upstream-regulator analysis (iPathwayGuide) and gene-centric perturbation mapping (Gene2Drug) nominated candidate targeted and repurposable agents predicted to reverse the metastatic expression phenotype and flagged drugs unlikely to provide benefit, yielding a prioritized, testable therapeutic shortlist which includes fasudil and spaglumic acid. Convergent, domain-specific mutational patterns in highly mutated genes such as ZNF273 and CLCA1 define a molecular signature that could stratify metastatic risk in low-grade pNETs. Collectively, our data reframe metastasis in MEN1-wild-type low-grade pNETs as a property of pathway state rather than mutation quantity and provide a translational blueprint for biomarker-guided therapy development focused on Calcium, WNT, and KRAS/PI3K hubs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Uddin, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahdi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muqbil, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herring, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bart, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aboukameel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bannoura, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Hallak, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohamed, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hadid, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaishampayan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ong, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dyson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beydoun, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beal, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shields, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philip, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beebe-Dimmer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammad, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasche, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El-Rayes, B. E.-R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azmi, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.07.692731</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomic and Transcriptomic Landscapes of MEN1-Wild-Type Low-Grade Metastatic Pancreatic NETs Uncover Key Oncogenic Drivers and Targetable Pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.11.693693v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The effect of environmental enrichment on social dominance and welfare in a cichlid fish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.11.693693v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Environmental enrichment can have complex, contradictory effects on aggression and animal welfare. Although increasing enrichment may reduce aggression by limiting the visibility of competitors, it may also intensify territorial defense and harm the welfare of subordinates who are the target of territorial aggression. However, it remains unclear how variation in the complexity of an enrichment structure defended by a single dominant individual influences welfare outcomes for subordinates. In the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, dominant males defend structures as mating territories, whereas subordinate males do not. To establish social hierarchies, we housed two differently sized males (larger become dominant) and six females in one compartment containing one defendable structure. We manipulated structure complexity by placing 1, 2, or 3 halves of terracotta pots clumped together. Increasing cave number did not enhance territoriality: dominant males showed similar aggression rates, relative gonad sizes, and testosterone levels across treatments. Cave number did not significantly affect mortality, body condition, growth rate, or fin damage in subordinate males. Although relative gonad size and testosterone levels were generally higher in dominants, these differences were not always significant in the 2 and/or 3-cave treatments, suggesting weaker physiological differentiation between social states. The behavioral data supported this pattern, with status-specific differences in chase rates declining with increasing cave number. Overall, increasing environmental enrichment had little effect on welfare, but resulted in reduced physiological and behavioral distinctions between dominant and subordinate males. Therefore, careful consideration of enrichment strategies is essential for accurately interpreting status-specific outcomes in laboratory settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chamily, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderklok, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buzinski, O. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ketterl, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hager, Z. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oldfield, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dijkstra, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.11.693693</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The effect of environmental enrichment on social dominance and welfare in a cichlid fish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.13.694139v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alpha hemolysin polymorphisms in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates regulate ADAM10-dependent neutrophil IL-1 beta secretion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.13.694139v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Staphylococcus aureus -hemolysin (Hla) is a major virulence factor that utilizes cell surface ADAM10 to oligomerize and form a functional heptameric pore. We show here that Hla from strain USA300 is required to induce IL-1{beta} secretion by neutrophils and to cause severe corneal disease in mice. We also demonstrate that in contrast to USA300 and other clonal complex 8 (CC8) methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolated from the skin, CC5 Hla from corneas of infected patients have single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) that result in two amino acid substitutions, D208E (Asp-Glu) and I275T (Ile-Thr). Structural modeling predicts CC5 Hla self-assembly and altered binding to ADAM10 that is distinct from CC8 Hla. The ADAM10 inhibitor GI254023X blocked neutrophil IL-1{beta} secretion induced by Hla-expressing CC8, but not by CC5 conditioned media, indicating that these Hla polymorphisms play an important role in Hla receptor binding and neutrophil IL-1{beta} secretion, and affect corneal disease severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liboro, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chau, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Begando, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbodante, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lackner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ly, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubyak, G. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilmore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNulty, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andre, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pearlman, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.13.694139</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alpha hemolysin polymorphisms in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates regulate ADAM10-dependent neutrophil IL-1 beta secretion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696317v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
From Dimerization to Signaling: Molecular Dynamics Insights into EphA1 and EphA2 Isoform Specificity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696317v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ephrin receptors (Ephs) are receptor tyrosine kinases that regulate cellular growth, differentiation, and motility. EphA2, often overexpressed in cancer, is notable for its ligand-independent activation, which drives pro-oncogenic signaling distinct from the canonical, ligand-dependent pathway that restricts cell movement. While ligand binding induces extracellular clustering, kinase activation depends on dimerization within the transmembrane (TM) region. EphA1 and EphA2 differ substantially in their function, likely due to differences in their TM, juxtamembrane (JM), and membrane-proximal fibronectin type III (FN1/FN2) domains, but how these regions modulate dimerization remains unresolved. To address this, we performed extensive coarse-grained simulations using Martini 3 in an anionic POPC/PS/PIP2 membrane. Both receptors formed stable TM dimers, though EphA1 favored a symmetric AXXXGXXXG-centered interface, whereas EphA2 favoured an additional leucine zipper interface and both receptors sampled multiple configurations, reflecting substantial intrinsic variability. Basic residues in the JM region remained membrane-bound, and the EphA2 FN domain displayed sustained PIP2 interactions, consistent with previous observations. Notably, the FN2 domain alone restricted TM association in both receptors, whereas inclusion of the second FN1 domain restored dimerization but produced receptor-specific extracellular interfaces. These differences arise from distinct FN1-FN2 linker flexibilities and FN-domain membrane contacts, which together shape TM geometry and lipid engagement. Overall, our results highlight how TM and TM-proximal elements cooperatively tune dimerization in Eph receptors, offering mechanistic insight into the divergent activation behaviors of EphA1 and EphA2 and providing testable models relevant to cancer biology and Eph-driven signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattarai, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.23.696317</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[From Dimerization to Signaling: Molecular Dynamics Insights into EphA1 and EphA2 Isoform Specificity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696403v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multivalent Nanobodies for Potent and Broad Neutralization of Staphylococcus aureus Toxins 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696403v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of lethal bacteremia and pneumonia, which are driven by potent virulence factors such as T-cell superantigens and alpha hemolysin. S. aureus has among the highest rates of antibiotic resistance, yet no vaccines or alternative therapies are available despite decades of research. Here, we developed a repertoire of potent, high affinity nanobodies (Nbs) targeting key toxins in S. aureus infection, including superantigens (SAgs) SEB, SEC, TSST-1, and Hla. Comprehensive cryo-EM and AlphaFold3 analyses of these Nbs, which were elicited with clinical cocktail vaccines, revealed diverse neutralizing epitopes and mechanisms that provide strategic insights for immunotherapy and vaccine design. Guided by these findings, we engineered highly stable, multivalent, and multifunctional Nb constructs. These constructs included an aerosolizable trimeric Nb with enhanced neuralization activity against Hla and SEC, and an ultrapotent decameric Nb-IgG-Fc fusion construct against a wide range of major toxins in S. aureus sepsis (SEB, SEC, TSST-1, and Hla). These multifunctional Nbs demonstrated promising protective activity in murine models of pneumonia and sepsis, underscoring their potential as versatile immunotherapies that address the complex virulence profiles of S. aureus. Our work lays a foundation for precision immunotherapies beyond current treatment options to combat complex bacterial infections with multiple virulence mechanisms.

Significance statementS. aureus is among the most common, antibiotic-resistant, and deadly causes of bacterial infections. We developed nanobodies against clinically significant virulence factors in S. aureus sepsis and pneumonia, including superantigens (SAgs) SEB, SEC, and TSST-1 as well as pore forming toxin Hla. These nanobodies displayed complete and potent neutralization of each toxin, exploiting a wide variety neutralizing mechanisms. Structural investigation of these diverse neutralizing nanobodies, which were elicited in llamas using clinically investigated cocktail vaccines, highlighted the importance of disrupting SAg interaction with TCR or MHCII and potential flaws in targeting poorly neutralizing conserved SAg epitopes using vaccine cocktails. Nb leads against each toxin were combined in different multivalent configurations, including an aerosolizable trimeric Nb and a half-life extended decameric Nb IgG Fc fusion construct. This work highlights multivalent nanobodies as a comprehensive yet therapeutically precise drug platform that addresses the complex virulence profiles of bacterial infectious diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walton, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sussman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hook, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCormick, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.24.696403</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multivalent Nanobodies for Potent and Broad Neutralization of Staphylococcus aureus Toxins]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697164v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stabilising selection and ecological trade-offs underpin coexistence in a tropical flora 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697164v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tropical forests harbour the majority of global plant biodiversity1,2, yet the genomic mechanisms governing the assembly and maintenance of these communities remain poorly understood. Here, we assembled draft genomes for 499 angiosperm species from a lowland rainforest in Singapore, representing 67% of its flora, and integrated these with plant traits and comprehensive forest census data.

Across the community, most gene families evolve under stabilising selection, with copy numbers maintained near long-term optima that differ among ecological strategies. These niche-associated genomic attractor states provide a mechanism for convergent adaptation and species coexistence. Modelling stabilising selection also identified a strong trade-off between defence and growth, indicating that pathogen pressure constrains developmental diversification. Consistent with this, species-specific genome space was enriched for resistance genes and transposable elements.

In contrast, genomic processes structuring present-day plant community composition differ from those driving deep-time convergence. Genomic comparisons across forest types revealed stronger selection on defence-related pathways in old-growth primary forests and on growth-related processes in regenerating secondary forests, while community-level genomic profiles showed expansions in gene families associated with rapid responses to environmental fluctuations.

Stabilising selection therefore links population-level adaptation3,4 with long-term species diversification in the tropics. Niche similarity promotes long-term coexistence, whereas local community structure is shaped by more rapid ecological filtering driven by environmental change. Taken together, these two distinct evolutionary layers provide a genomic framework for understanding how hyperdiverse rainforest floras arise and persist.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Niissalo, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ngiam, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajaraman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choo, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jong, J. J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ngo, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leong, F. W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lum, S. K. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beentje, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buerki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callmander, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chua, M. S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Kok, R. P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Wilde-Duyfjes, B. E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duistermaat, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esser, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleck, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganesan, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koh, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leong, P. K. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leong-Skornickova, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindsay, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Low, Y. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lua, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pannell, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puglisi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodda, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savinov, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seah, W. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simpson, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strijk, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turner, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Welzen, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkie, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wo</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.31.697164</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stabilising selection and ecological trade-offs underpin coexistence in a tropical flora]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.30.697004v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PREP-aring is worth it: Success of the Case Western Reserve University Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program and its Scholars 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.30.697004v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), established by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the National Institutes of Health in 2000, was a research-intense, one-year training program for recent college graduates from backgrounds uncommon in science who intended to matriculate with a PhD or MD/PhD program in preparation for an eventual career in biomedical research. Case Western Reserve University had an NIGMS-supported PREP (CasePREP) from 2007 to 2025, the year NIGMS terminated the PREP funding mechanism. A major goal of CasePREP was to prepare post-baccalaureate trainees (termed Scholars) for graduate school, and major metrics of success were measured as Scholars who a) matriculated in and b) completed PhD or MD/PhD programs. A major goal of NIGMS-supported PREPs was the retention of these scientists in the biomedical research workforce. We report here the extent that CasePREP met program goals as well as the economic and scientific impact NIGMS-supported PREP has had for a variety of stakeholders. Data from 18 CasePREP cohorts included self-reported (surveys, interviews, questionnaires) and public data (websites, PubMed, NIH Reporter). Descriptive statistics and large language models were used to describe the major outcomes related to program goals and a new resilience course as well as Scholar productivity and contribution to science. Between 2007 and 2025, CasePREP was awarded $5.6 million USD and trained 108 Scholars. Most (89%) Scholars resided outside of Ohio prior to the start of CasePREP, with 38.89% from Puerto Rico. Almost all (98%) Scholars completed the one-year program in Cleveland, Ohio, and of those, 83% entered a PhD or MD/PhD program. As of September 2025, 46 Scholars have completed a PhD program, two Scholars have completed an MD/PhD program, and 27 are still in training. The attrition rate for CasePREP Scholars in graduate school is currently 14.77%, much lower than the attrition rates of national PhD programs. Most CasePREP Scholars (69.44%) are co-authors on one or more published manuscripts, and these 406 published works have garnered 14,261 total citations, with an average 35.04 citations per publication. Termination of PREP represents a five-year loss of [~]$2.7 million USD to CasePREP, a budget that would have trained an additional 30 Scholars. CasePREP was a great success as measured by its major outcomes. CasePREP Scholars have persisted in science and have made substantial contributions to the scientific workforce and enterprise. PREPs in general provided a crucial bridge for research talents who had little prior research opportunities to realize their potential and career goals. NIGMS termination of PREP support has negative economic consequences and endangers an important pathway to a career in science for Americans who would not otherwise have similar opportunities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Crawford, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vazquez-Hidalgo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.30.697004</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PREP-aring is worth it: Success of the Case Western Reserve University Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program and its Scholars]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.697428v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural Mechanisms of Mixed Speech and Grasp Representation in Sensorimotor Cortices 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.697428v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent brain-machine interface (BMI) studies have challenged traditional views of functional specialization in human motor cortices, suggesting that regions associated with hand control also support speech. The extent of this dual functionality as well as the neural mechanisms underlying it are unclear. We address this by analyzing intracortical neural activity from seven brain regions (spanning motor, premotor, somatosensory and parietal regions) across two human participants with tetraplegia. Across all regions, grasp decoding was robust. In addition, we achieved reliable discrete-word decoding during silent reading as well as vocalized speech. Both tasks largely recruited overlapping neural populations within each region, yet these populations reconfigured their functional connectivity between tasks. Additionally, subspace analyses revealed segregated computations for speech and grasping despite mixed selectivity at the single channel level. Our findings support multi-functional BMIs capable of decoding speech and grasping from the same implant and highlight ventral premotor area 6r as a novel target.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Foli, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conlan, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Memberg, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhat, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graczyk, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herring, E. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajiboye, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.02.697428</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural Mechanisms of Mixed Speech and Grasp Representation in Sensorimotor Cortices]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698065v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Consumption of processed foods impairs memory function through dietary advanced glycation end-products 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698065v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Consumption of processed foods is associated with dementia, obesity, and other negative health outcomes. Sustained heat treatment, a common food processing approach to enhance flavor, induces the chemical Maillard reaction that promotes the formation of dietary advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). The neurocognitive impacts of consuming dietary AGEs are poorly understood. Here we modeled an AGE-rich diet through heat treatment fed to rats during adolescence, a critical period of neural development, to mechanistically evaluate the long-term impact of early life dietary AGEs on behavioral and neural processes. Consuming the AGE-rich diet impaired hippocampal-dependent memory function and altered the gut microbiome without inducing obesity or nonspecific behavioral deficits. AGE-induced memory deficits were coupled with impaired hippocampal glutamatergic synaptic neurotransmission and altered expression in the synapse-pruning complement system. Hippocampal synaptic deficits likely result from direct AGE-complement interactions, as our extended studies reveal competitive antagonist action of AGEs on complement receptors. Memory impairments were prevented by administration of the AGE-inhibitor, alagebrium, and by supplementation with an AGE-inhibiting bacterial taxon, Lactococcus lactis, which was depleted in the heat-treated diet. These findings reveal a functional connection between early life dietary AGEs, the microbiome, and memory impairments, thus illuminating mechanisms through which food processing negatively impacts neurocognition.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hayes, A. M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klug, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez Gonzalez, E. D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dent, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sell, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monnier, V. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rea, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahuja, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanios, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gianatiempo, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shanmugam, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsiao, E. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schier, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fodor, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodruff, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shuck, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gati, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herring, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coughlan, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kanoski, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.07.698065</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Consumption of processed foods impairs memory function through dietary advanced glycation end-products]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.11.698915v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Polymer of methyl malonic acid suppress inflammation by downregulating IL-2 through ROS overproduction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.11.698915v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metabolites belonging to the propionate metabolism pathway can regulate immune cell responses in the context of autoimmunity and chronic inflammation. Methyl malonic acid (MMA), a metabolite in this pathway is known to cause dysregulation of T cell oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and downregulating pro inflammatory T cell effector functions. However, the effects of MMA on T cell signaling and T cell activation is not clearly known. Furthermore, since MMA is a small molecule, using it in the context of therapy remains a problem. It gets metabolized in a short time and millimolar concentrations are required to get effective results. This work describes a novel polymer, 1,6 MMA, synthesized using 1,6 Hexane-diol and MMA, which helps in slow, steady and continuous release of the small molecule. Doses in micromolar ranges generate long lasting and robust immunosuppression of activated T cells via an IL2 dependent mechanism in both human and mice T cells without causing non-specific toxicity. This causes a dysregulated expression of pSTAT5 which eventually enhances BLIMP1 mediated T cell apoptosis. Finally, 1,6 MMA mediated T cell suppression is caused due to increase in mitochondrial ROS production. Extrapolation of our findings in-vivo showed the polymer inhibited autoreactive T cell responses in mice with collagen induced arthritis (CIA). Overall, 1,6 MMA, a novel metabolite polymer, has major therapeutic potential in combating inflammatory disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pathak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaggrapu, M. M. C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khodaei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thumsi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acharya, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.11.698915</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Polymer of methyl malonic acid suppress inflammation by downregulating IL-2 through ROS overproduction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.698472v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrative Single-cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Osteosarcoma Reveals Conserved and Distinct Ecosystems Across Sites and Species 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.698472v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Osteosarcoma is a heterogeneous malignancy, exhibiting significant variability among patients, individual cancer cells within a tumor, and the stromal cells that compose primary and metastatic lesions. To facilitate the study of this complex disease, we compiled a unique cross-species single-cell transcriptomic dataset totaling over a million cells/nuclei from human specimens, canine specimens, patient-derived xenografts/PDX, and syngeneic mouse models at both primary (bone) and metastatic (lung) sites. Using a rigorous process for multi-species alignment and annotation, we identified six conserved tumor cell transcriptional states organized along hierarchical differentiation trajectories from progenitor to differentiated phenotypes. Parallel analysis of tumor-associated cells identified conserved macrophage, fibroblast, and endothelial populations that exhibit species- and site-specific reprogramming. Validation by mapping cell types using spatial transcriptomics revealed structured neighborhood architectures that were reproduced across multiple samples. Cell-cell interaction analysis revealed similarities and differences in tumor-host networks across primary and metastatic sites and across species. This analysis enabled pathway-specific assessment of tumor-host communication fidelity across osteosarcoma model systems relative to humans, revealing canine osteosarcoma as a more faithful model. Metastatic lung lesions, counterintuitively, exhibited more intense and complex extracellular matrix (ECM) signaling than primary bone tumors. A key example was tumor-derived fibronectin (FN1), which engages integrin and syndecan receptors on lung epithelial cells, driving a pathological mesenchymal and profibrotic state that promotes fibrotic niche formation and metastatic lung colonization. Together, this cross-species resource delineates both conserved and divergent tumor microenvironment programs, demonstrates how model-aware analyses uncover previously unrecognized tumor-host interactions, and underscores the need for therapies that co-target tumor heterogeneity and its supportive metastatic niche.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Budhathoki, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannon, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McEachron, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gust, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Modiano, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ammons, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cronise, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dries, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarver, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macchietto, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.13.698472</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrative Single-cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Osteosarcoma Reveals Conserved and Distinct Ecosystems Across Sites and Species]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699073v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Selection for targeted therapy resistance leads to an indirect selection for higher phenotypic plasticity and enhanced evolvability to orthogonal stressors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699073v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acquired resistance to targeted therapies is the primary barrier to durable cancer remission. Therapy resistance is often associated with stemness and intermediate EMT programs, which are often viewed as proximal resistance mechanisms. On the other hand, a growing body of evidence suggests that these programs facilitate resistance through plasticity-mediated adaptations. Integrating computational modeling, functional experimental assays, and lineage tracing, we investigated the relationship between EMT and therapy resistance in experimental models of acquired resistance to ALK+ lung cancer. Our results support a model where phenotypic plasticity, associated with intermediate EMT, is a selectable trait, and selection for subpopulations with higher phenotypic plasticity is amplified under a multifactorial resistance scenario.

Consequently, resistance to targeted therapy is associated with higher ability to adapt to orthogonal therapeutic and environmental stressors, as well as higher metastatic potential. These findings identify cellular plasticity as the fundamental substrate from which multifactorial resistance and metastatic competence evolve, indicating that targeting phenotypic plasticity can suppress the acquisition of resistance and prolong therapeutic responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bjornberg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xierali, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Froid, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clarke, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maltas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vander Velde, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riffas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gryder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bassanta, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, A. R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turati, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusyk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.13.699073</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Selection for targeted therapy resistance leads to an indirect selection for higher phenotypic plasticity and enhanced evolvability to orthogonal stressors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699289v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Motor Intention Drives Corticospinal Facilitation during Interception Planning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699289v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intercepting a moving target requires integrating visual motion information with motor preparation, yet how action intention and gaze strategy jointly shape corticospinal excitability during interception planning remains unclear. We applied single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over primary motor cortex to probe corticospinal excitability while participants either prepared to intercept a moving target or passively viewed its motion. Targets moved at one of two speeds, and participants judged target speed relative to a reference after each trial. Across blocks, participants were instructed to either smoothly pursue the target or fixate their eyes on the interception zone. Motor-evoked potentials were elicited at baseline, after task instruction, early during target motion, or shortly before target arrival. Task goal and gaze strategy interacted to influence both perceptual judgments and corticospinal excitability. Passive viewing led to overestimation of target speed and was associated with sustained suppression of corticospinal excitability, particularly during fixation. In contrast, preparing to intercept produced a robust facilitation of corticospinal excitability immediately before movement onset, regardless of gaze strategy. Smooth pursuit improved perceptual accuracy and reduced interception timing error compared with fixation but did not independently influence corticospinal facilitation. These findings demonstrate that the intention to act is the primary determinant of the transition from corticospinal suppression to facilitation during interception planning, whereas eye movements modulate perceptual estimates and support behavioral performance.

New & NoteworthyThis study dissociates the contributions of visual tracking, eye movements, and motor intention to corticospinal excitability during interception. Here, we show that corticospinal facilitation emerges only when an action is planned, whereas passive viewing maintains suppression despite identical visual input. Smooth pursuit enhanced perceptual accuracy and interception timing but had a limited effect on corticospinal excitability, highlighting motor intention as the key driver of preparatory motor output.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCurdy, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvis, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ariga, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barany, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.13.699289</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Motor Intention Drives Corticospinal Facilitation during Interception Planning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.14.699500v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RasGRP1 agonists stimulate P-TEFb biogenesis via MEK-ERK-mTORC1 signaling to reverse HIV latency with minimal CD4 downregulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.14.699500v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reactivation of latent HIV to facilitate clearance of persisting infected cells requires identifying non-toxic latency-reversing agents (LRAs) that activate P-TEFb, a cellular transcription factor essential for efficient HIV RNA synthesis. Diacylglycerol (DAG)-mimicking PKC agonists induce P-TEFb to reverse HIV latency mainly through a PKC-independent RasGRP1-Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK1/2 pathway, but also elicit global T-cell activation and a drastic downregulation of CD4 receptors. Here, we demonstrate that synthetic DAG-indololactones, which preferentially bind RasGRP1 over PKC by up to 60-fold, strongly induce posttranscriptional P-TEFb expression in memory CD4+ T cells via MEK-ERK1/2-mTORC1 signaling without triggering T-cell activation markers and with minimal CD4 loss. Elevation of T-cell activation markers by natural and synthetic PKC agonists proceeds through MEK-ERK1/2 but is independent of mTORC1 activity. Combinations of the DAG-indololactone 2A127 and HDAC inhibitors synergistically reactivate latent HIV in a primary T-cell model and CD4+ T cells from treated individuals. These findings suggest that a combination LRA approach targeting P-TEFb production through RasGRP1-ERK1/2-mTORC1 signaling and the epigenetic activation of proviral HIV can efficiently and safely reverse HIV latency.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mbonye, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellomo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elhalem, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donadio, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.14.699500</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RasGRP1 agonists stimulate P-TEFb biogenesis via MEK-ERK-mTORC1 signaling to reverse HIV latency with minimal CD4 downregulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.17.700099v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization of novel cytoplasmic roles for the N-terminal methyltransferase NRMT1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.17.700099v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
N-terminal methylation of proteins by the trimethylase NRMT1 plays important roles in oncogenesis, development, and aging. As N-terminal methylation has frequently been shown to regulate protein-DNA interactions, and many NRMT1 substrates are transcription factors or regulators of chromatin structure, previous research has focused on how transcriptional regulation by NRMT1 affects cell growth and differentiation. However, we have recently identified a new, cytoplasmic role for NRMT1, inhibiting the eukaryotic elongation factor 1 alpha (eEF1A) methyltransferase METTL13, which indicates NRMT1 could also be acting as a translational regulator. Here we further explore NRMT1 cytoplasmic functions and show that, unlike previously thought, NRMT1 can methylate substrates in the cytoplasm. We also show that while many of these substrates remain bound to NRMT1, it can also interact with a number of non-target ribosomal proteins and proteins associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To confirm NRMT1 interaction with the ribosome, we performed polysome profiling, which showed a portion of NRMT1 co-migrates with the 40S and 60S subunits but not with actively translating polysomes, indicating NRMT1 may play an early role in translation. To see if NRMT1 was affecting target mRNA selection of ribosomes, we also performed ribosome-sequencing experiments in proliferating and differentiating C2C12 mouse myoblasts. These results show a striking upregulation of translation of soluble proteins with NRMT1 loss and corresponding decrease in translation of transmembrane and signal sequence-containing proteins. We now propose a model where NRMT1 regulates the translation of transmembrane and secreted proteins by facilitating interactions between the ribosome and the ER.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tooley, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obeidat, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arbel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tedeschi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaner Tooley, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.17.700099</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization of novel cytoplasmic roles for the N-terminal methyltransferase NRMT1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700367v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The heat-ramp method to study regulated cell death in a pathogenic yeastCryptococcus neoformans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700367v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human fungal pathogens cause a significant public health burden. While no reliable surveilence data are available, estimations suggest that 1 billion infections and over 2 million deaths are attributable to fungal infections annually worldwide. This drove the World Health Organization to generate a priority list of fungal pathogens for reearch, which includes the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans in a top critical priority. With the rise of drug-resistance and emerging fungal pathogens, new conceptual strategies for antifungal therapies are needed in addition to existing antibiotic development pipelines to meet clinical needs. Intrinsic cell death pathways encoded by pathogenic fungi are largely unstudied but could be leveraged for antifungal therapy analogous to anti-cancer therapeutics that activate apoptosis or other cell death mechanisms. Thus far, molecularly defined fungal cell death mechanisms are best characterized for only a few, predominantly model filamentous species. To extend these studies to pathogenic yeast, here we describe and demonstrate a tunable heat-ramp stimulus that when applied to small volumes of yeast cell suspensions reveals a protracted cell death process in the pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. This low cost protocol induces robust and reproducible phenotypes to study gene-dependent mechanisms in laboratory strains and clinical isolates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuhn, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casadevall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamb, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolp, Z. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardwick, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.19.700367</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The heat-ramp method to study regulated cell death in a pathogenic yeastCryptococcus neoformans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.699565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deep Plasma Proteomics Coupled with Functional Genomics Reveals Drivers of Parkinson's Disease Progression and Levodopa Response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.699565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Parkinsons disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder lacking disease-modifying therapies, and its management is limited by the absence of accessible biomarkers for disease progression and treatment response. We implemented an ultra-deep plasma proteomics workflow integrating Mag-Net extracellular vesicle enrichment with Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometry to profile longitudinal samples from PD patients. This approach quantified 6,481 plasma proteins, an unprecedented depth in PD studies, revealing distinct signatures associated with disease duration and dopaminergic therapy exposure. Candidate biomarkers were validated in an independent cohort using ELISA, demonstrating predictive utility in AI-driven models. To uncover mechanistic drivers, we intersected proteomic data with our new genome-wide overexpression screens for regulators of alpha-synuclein pre-formed fibril uptake, identifying MFN2, PSMD4, and EIF4G1 as major hubs that link systemic proteomic changes to mitochondrial dynamics and proteostasis. Additionally, a meta-analysis of brain transcriptomes responsive to Levodopa (L-DOPA) treatment identified 42 candidate genes, including NDUFS4, GNAS, TSC1, and NTS, some of which are targets of approved therapeutics. Finally, an integrative network analysis revealed that key pathological hubs, such as CD14, IFNG, and PLAT, are targets of approved pharmacological agents. Overall, these findings provide a systems-level resource for PD biomarker discovery and reveal druggable pathways for precision medicine strategies aimed at improving therapeutic outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.-s.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jo, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shlaifer, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ha, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sane, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woo, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chae, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahni, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matreyek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kairs, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsu, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnes, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trempe, J.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rak, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durcan, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, K.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.19.699565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deep Plasma Proteomics Coupled with Functional Genomics Reveals Drivers of Parkinson's Disease Progression and Levodopa Response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.697254v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuronal microscale biophysical instability mediates macroscale network dynamics shaping pathological manifestations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.697254v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microscale biophysical alterations in neuronal dynamics can have profound implications for macroscale pathological outcomes in the brain. Despite the critical need to link neuronal perturbations to large-scale disease manifestations, few studies successfully bridge these hierarchical scales. Here, we bridge microscale biophysical variability within neuronal dynamics to macroscale disease-related phenotypes. We find that Drosophila models expressing tauopathy- and epilepsy-associated molecular mutations exhibit increased dynamic instability in the timing of action potential initiation, and microscale biophysical changes are manifested at the level of the macroscale global brain state. We show that variability in voltage-gated sodium channel currents during non-stationary channel inactivation may act as a microscale biophysical contributor to the increased dynamic instability observed in action potential timing. We also find that treatment with antiepileptic drugs stabilizes neuronal dynamics by modulating this variability in voltage-gated sodium channel currents. Finally, we show that neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with Alzheimers disease and epilepsy exhibit analogous dynamic instability, which is reversible by administration of antiepileptic medications. Our results highlight how subtle microscale neuronal instabilities propagate and are amplified to produce macroscopic pathological phenotypes, providing new biophysical insights into neurological disorders and potential strategies for therapeutic intervention.

Significance StatementLinking microscale neuronal changes to macroscale disease phenotypes remains a key challenge in neuroscience biophysics. Here, we show that subtle biophysical instability, such as variability in action potential timing and increased noise in voltage-gated sodium channel activity, can destabilize neuronal network integrity and cause systemic pathology. Stabilizing neuronal dynamics with antiepileptic drugs reverses tau-induced instabilities in a Drosophila disease model. Similar neuronal instabilities occur in fly neurons expressing epilepsy-linked sodium channel mutations and in human iPSC-derived neurons from Alzheimers and epilepsy patients, revealing a shared cellular mechanism. These findings highlight that targeting microscale instabilities may offer a unifying therapeutic approach for complex neurological disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kumar, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez Franco, V. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferry, F. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutson, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daniels, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spera, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knauss, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sudhakar, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, G. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.20.697254</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuronal microscale biophysical instability mediates macroscale network dynamics shaping pathological manifestations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700905v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bayesian rhythmic model for jointly detecting circadian biomarkers and predicting molecular circadian time in human post-mortem brain transcriptome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700905v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcriptomic circadian analysis of human post-mortem brain provides a unique opportunity to characterize in vivo molecular circadian rhythms across brain regions implicated in aging and psychiatric disorders. A primary goal in such analyses is the detection of circadian biomarkers. However, this task is complicated by the frequent mismatch between a subjects recorded circadian clock time and their true molecular circadian time -- arising from observational or recording errors, as well as intrinsic biological variability. Existing methods typically address either biomarker detection or circadian time prediction in isolation. Because errors in one task can degrade performance in the other, the lack of a unified approach remains a key limitation. We propose BayCT -- a Bayesian model for simultaneous circadian marker detection and molecular circadian time estimation. The model extends naturally to repeated measurements from multiple brain regions or organs. For circular data, we employ a von Mises prior distribution, with slice sampling and reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for Bayesian inference. Through extensive simulations and applications to transcriptomic data from three human brain regions and from 12 mouse organs, BayCT demonstrates superior performance in both biomarker detection and circadian time estimation. Furthermore, we highlight the advantages of integrating data across brain regions, achieving substantial improvements in both tasks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xue, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seney, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tseng, G. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.21.700905</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bayesian rhythmic model for jointly detecting circadian biomarkers and predicting molecular circadian time in human post-mortem brain transcriptome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.24.701458v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Unexpected Visibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Reveals a Hidden Route of Surface Trafficking. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.24.701458v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid (N) protein, long regarded as an internal structural component of the virion, unexpectedly localizes to the plasma membrane of infected cells. Here, we show that N is actively trafficked to the cell surface via a ceramide-dependent unconventional secretory pathway. Live-stained imaging and kinetic analyses revealed that N surface association begins early in infection, before Spike (S) expression and viral release, and persists after enzymatic removal of heparan sulfate. Pharmacological disruption of phosphoinositide or phosphatidylserine interactions had minimal effect, whereas inhibition of neutral sphingomyelinase with GW4869 markedly reduced surface N, identifying a ceramide-regulated route as essential for its export. This mechanism distinguishes N from canonical transmembrane viral proteins and explains how N-specific antibodies mediate potent Fc-effector responses across SARS-CoV-2 variants. Our findings redefine the spatiotemporal dynamics of coronavirus structural proteins and reveal an unanticipated axis of immune visibility within the infected cell.

IMPORTANCEInternal viral proteins are generally thought to remain confined to intracellular compartments, yet several viruses display such proteins at the surface of infected cells through mechanisms that remain incompletely defined. In this study, we characterize a host-regulated trafficking route that contributes to the delivery of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein, a non-membrane viral protein, to the plasma membrane. Our findings indicate that N protein surface expression occurs independently of virion assembly, membrane integration, or extracellular rebinding, and instead involves host vesicular processes outside the classical secretory pathway. By elucidating how a leaderless coronavirus protein can access the cell surface, this work addresses a key gap in coronavirus cell biology and provides a framework for understanding how internal viral proteins may exploit host trafficking pathways. More broadly, these results highlight unconventional host trafficking pathways as determinants of viral protein localization and provide a framework for understanding how viruses exploit cellular export mechanisms beyond the classical secretory system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Osuagwu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCausland, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.24.701458</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Unexpected Visibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Reveals a Hidden Route of Surface Trafficking.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702834v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Correction of multiple splicing mutations associated with CFTR exon 18 using a single exon-specific U1 snRNA 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702834v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Splice site mutations represent a major class of pathogenic mutations in many diseases, as these changes disrupt normal splicing leading to gene expression changes. Cystic fibrosis (CF) results from mutations to the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene that encodes an essential ion channel. Approximately 13% of the over 2,100 known CFTR mutations disrupt 3 or 5 splice sites and are predicted to cause splicing defects. Because each splicing mutation is rare, developing individualized therapies to treat each one is financially challenging. Exon specific U1 snRNA (ExSpeU1) targets the non-conserved intronic region downstream the 5 splice site (ss) to rescue exon skipping. Because this approach is exon-rather than mutation-specific, a single agent can potentially rescue multiple mutations. In this study, we have developed a platform to systematically classify all patient variants associated with an exon that are predicted to affect splicing and then determine their rescue potential using ExSpeU1. Here we report the results of these studies. Our minigene reporter study shows that 7 of 10 exon 18 variants resulted in exon skipping. Four mutations at the 3 and 5 ss were rescued at least partially using a single ExSpeU1. Using a luciferase reporter, we observe that the splicing rescue is reflected at the protein level. Lastly, we demonstrate exon-targeting ExSpeU1s can also rescue 3 and 5 ss mutations. Overall, this study exemplifies the power of our platform to screen and rescue multiple patient-derived splicing mutations using a single agent.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elsner Pacheco, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Betts, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callejas, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mader, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKinney, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conlon, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drumm, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.30.702834</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Correction of multiple splicing mutations associated with CFTR exon 18 using a single exon-specific U1 snRNA]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702558v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resolving Conformational Heterogeneity in IntrinsicallyDisordered Proteins via Experimentally Guided Multi-Replica Simulations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702558v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The conformational landscapes of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) remain obscured by the ensemble averaging inherent to experimental observables. Here, we present Multi-replica Averaged Restraint Simulation (MARS), a data-driven modeling framework that reconstructs these landscapes by enforcing ensemble-averaged restraints across multiple replicas without imposing prior structural knowledge. Using the N-terminal domain of estrogen receptor alpha (ER-NTD) as a model system, MARS simultaneously integrates small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and six paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) profiles, comprising over 600 pairwise restraints, to generate ensembles that quantitatively fit all input structural restraints. The resulting ensemble is consistent with independent backbone relaxation measurements and reveals two major conformational states: a dominant extended state and a low-populated yet functionally relevant compact state whose structural features align with prior mutagenesis studies. Systematic benchmarking demonstrates that SAXS and PRE provide orthogonal global and local constraints, that each PRE profile contributes non-redundant structural information, and that multi-replica sampling is essential for preserving conformational heterogeneity. MARS offers a scalable framework for integrating orthogonal biophysical measurements to resolve both dominant and rare functional states in IDPs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.29.702558</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resolving Conformational Heterogeneity in IntrinsicallyDisordered Proteins via Experimentally Guided Multi-Replica Simulations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703423v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural Mechanisms of SAMD9 Autoinhibition and Pathogenic Dysregulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703423v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SAMD9 and SAMD9L (SAMD9/9L) are large cytosolic proteins essential for hematopoietic homeostasis and antiviral defense1-3. Germline gain-of-function (GoF) mutations in SAMD9/9L cause severe multisystem disorders and predisposition to leukemia, yet the mechanisms that regulate SAMD9/9L activity and how pathogenic mutations disrupt these processes, remain poorly understood. Here, we determine cryo-electron microscopy structures of human SAMD9 in multiple conformational and oligomeric states. We show that SAMD9 predominantly adopts a closed, autoinhibited conformation stabilized by a central ATP-bound nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD) and an extensive network of intramolecular interactions. Recurrent patient-derived GoF mutations localize to and destabilize these intramolecular interfaces, and restoring the disrupted interactions through compensatory mutations reinstates autoinhibition. We further identify low-abundance asymmetric SAMD9 dimers in which one protomer undergoes large conformational changes and establishes intermolecular interactions that are essential for SAMD9 activation. Together, these findings define the structural basis of SAMD9 autoinhibition and explain how human GoF mutations subvert this regulatory mechanism to drive disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morales, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.02.703423</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural Mechanisms of SAMD9 Autoinhibition and Pathogenic Dysregulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.703873v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hog1/p38 and ZAKα drive Shwachman-Diamond syndrome and provide targets to improve cell growth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.703873v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a ribosomopathy characterized by neutropenia, pancreatic insufficiency, skeletal defects, and predisposition to leukemia. Most cases result from biallelic SBDS mutations that impairing 80S ribosome and polysome assembly. In yeast lacking SDO1 (the SBDS ortholog), growth slows dramatically and the p38 ortholog Hog1 signaling is elevated by multiple types of stress. SBDS-deficient HeLa cells exhibited reduced proliferation and slowed cell cycling. The p38 kinase was constitutively activated in SBDS mutants and SDS patient-derived blood cells. Because ZAK detects ribosome dysfunction, its activation links ribosomal defects to stress kinase pathways in SDS. Suppressing p38 or its upstream activator ZAK restored cell growth and reduced stress signaling. These findings reveal an evolutionarily conserved-independent mechanism via p38 drives SDS pathophysiology and identifies stress kinases as potential therapeutic targets for ribosomal dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kawashima, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prasad, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tedeschi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saito, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hristodor, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luna, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cipolli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bezzerri, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.05.703873</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hog1/p38 and ZAKα drive Shwachman-Diamond syndrome and provide targets to improve cell growth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704577v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expanding CyanoHAB Monitoring: New Micropeptins and Generalizable MS/MS Workflows for the Annotation of Cyanopeptide Classes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704577v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) are a major ecological and public health concern, commonly monitored for hepatotoxic microcystins and cylindrospermopsins and neurotoxic anatoxins and saxitoxins. However, the broader suite of bioactive metabolites produced during blooms remains under characterized. Here, we interrogated a chromatography fraction library generated from a cyanoHAB in Muskegon, Michigan. From this library, we isolated two new micropeptins (1 and 2), including an analog bearing a bishomologated tyrosine residue, and we confirmed the structure of ferintoic acid C (3). Structures were established using complementary spectrometric and spectroscopic methods. To expand chemical space coverage beyond isolated compounds, we analyzed LC-MS/MS data using the GNPS2 Analysis Hub query language for product ion searching, enabling annotation of cyanopeptide classes and class-specific modifications across the fraction set, which provided a practical and user-friendly approach for identifying cyanopeptide classes. One of the new micropeptins (1) exhibited moderate inhibition of neutrophil elastase, consistent with roles in ecological interactions and potential relevance to human exposure. Analysis of field samples from ongoing Lake Erie blooms showed recurring micropeptins but no evidence of microcystins. Together, these results challenge microcystin-centric assessments of bloom hazard and support expanded monitoring of non-microcystin cyanopeptides.

SYNOPSISRoutine cyanoHAB monitoring targets few regulated toxins; we reveal abundant, under characterized cyanopeptides and enable rapid class-level annotation across datasets with a new LC-MS/MS analysis pipeline.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=114 SRC="FIGDIR/small/704577v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1849d1eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@16729a8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1dffe58org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b36a52_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkhauser, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Youngs, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.07.704577</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expanding CyanoHAB Monitoring: New Micropeptins and Generalizable MS/MS Workflows for the Annotation of Cyanopeptide Classes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.702027v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metaplastic neuronal state transition regulates species-specific interoceptive processing in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.702027v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Interoceptive processing, which involves the sensing and integration of internal physiological states, is fundamental to maintaining homeostasis. However, how species-specific interoceptive features arise from the underlying biophysical properties of neural circuit physiology remains unclear. We investigate the biophysical basis of species-specific interoception by examining protein-hunger dopamine neurons (DA-WED) in two Drosophila species with divergent dietary ecologies. We find that DA-WED neurons in D. melanogaster exhibit weak persistence of internal states, enabling flexible behavioral transitions during nutrient stress. In contrast, D. sechellia shows strong state persistence, locking neurons into a "preferred" configuration during protein deprivation. This divergence is supported by distinct intrinsic membrane properties, including protein deprivation-induced rebound spikes unique to D. sechellia. Analysis of synaptic dynamics and cardiomyocyte electrophysiology reveals species-specific physiological regulations coordinating central and peripheral systems. Behavioral assays confirm corresponding differences in protein consumption strategies, directly linking neural state geometry to ecologically relevant feeding behavior. Our findings establish metaplastic regulation of neural state transitions as a fundamental mechanism through which ecological specialization shapes interoceptive processing and brain-body coordination.

Significance StatementWe identify physiological regulations of neural state transitions as a core mechanism underlying species-specific interoceptive processing. Through comparative electrophysiology in D. melanogaster and D. sechellia, we demonstrate that ecological specialization manifests through distinct intrinsic membrane properties of DA-WED neurons, fundamentally altering neural state space geometry during protein deprivation. Species-specific synaptic plasticity gates these transitions while coupling cardiac rhythms to central computation. Our findings reveal how evolution transforms nutrient sensing into divergent neural dynamics, establishing a mechanistic framework for understanding how ecological pressures sculpt the biophysical architecture of interoceptive circuits to coordinate adaptive brain-body interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brann, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarjetskiy, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pokaleva, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.07.702027</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metaplastic neuronal state transition regulates species-specific interoceptive processing in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705927v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhanced Hi-C Capture Analysis reveals complex regulatory architecture at the PICALM-EED locus for Alzheimer Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705927v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveBoth the phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein gene (PICALM) and the embryonic ectoderm development gene (EED) have been implicated as causal genes driving a genome-wide association for Alzheimer disease (AD) risk. We employed a new virtual approach using genome-wide chromatin interactions (Hi-C) called enhanced Hi-C Capture Analysis (eHiCA) to identify the genes and regulatory regions that are driving this important AD risk association.

MethodsHi-C data from the frontal cortex of eight AD patients, as well as inducible pluripotent stem cell-derived microglia and spheroids of AD and control patients were used. We applied 14 eHiCA baits each containing a GWAS SNP to identify the cis regulatory interactions in this GWAS locus at a 5kb resolution.

ResultsThe baits derived from the GWAS associated haplotype primarily interacted with the PICALM promoter and the large cis-regulatory elements cluster (CREe) lying upstream of the EED promoter. The EED promoter interacts with PICALM gene body and promoter region but not directly with the associated risk haplotype. Although the AD-associated variants segregate together as a haplotype in the population, each bait exhibited distinct functional chromatin interactions.

InterpretationThe PICALM gene is the primary driver of the association in microglia along with the CREe locus. Different SNPs in a segregating haplotype can display different physical Hi-C interactions. This study demonstrates that eHiCA can help resolve the casual genes driving complex GWAS associations, opening new pathways to study Alzheimer disease and other disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nasciben, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, l.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moura, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajabli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Celis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gearing, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weintraub, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geula, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuck, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nuytemans, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dykxhoorn, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PERICAK-VANCE, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griswold, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.14.705927</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhanced Hi-C Capture Analysis reveals complex regulatory architecture at the PICALM-EED locus for Alzheimer Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.16.706251v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chemical interactions in polyethylene glycol-induced condensates lead to an anomalous FRET response from a flexible linker-fluorescent protein crowding sensor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.16.706251v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cellular cytosol is a crowded environment. Biomolecular Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensors have been developed to measure crowding in cytosol mimics comprised of synthetic polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) and Ficoll that impart an excluded volume effect. In the current study, we explore the unsolicited role of PEG in driving the phase separation of a protein crowding sensor, AcGFP1/mCherry-FRET crowding helix 2 (CrH2), into fluorescent puncta. In contrast, a DNA-based crowding sensor (CrD), with an Alexa488/Cy5 FRET pair, does not form puncta under the same crowding conditions. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching imaging, we uncover the liquid-like physical properties of the PEG-induced puncta. Two-color fluorescence microscopy imaging reveals crowder-induced inhomogeneity, concentration variations, and partition coefficient across the dilute and dense phases of the liquid puncta, which remain largely underexplored in bulk fluorometry measurements. Thus, the average crowding sensor response may originate from an aqueous biphasic system, reporting an erroneous average response instead of distinct levels of crowdedness. A comparison of excluded volume effects conferred by Ficoll and PEGs of various molecular weight ranges shows the influence of size, concentration, excluded volume, and chemical composition on the CrH2 sensor response. We demonstrate that PEGs enable phase separation and alter sensor response through a mechanism that may be driven by polymer interactions with the flexible hinge region of CrH2. Overall, we determine the biophysical mechanisms underlying PEG-induced condensation of CrH2 and demonstrate a CrD sensor as an alternative that does not undergo phase separation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mohapatra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antarasen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Latham, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barilla, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.16.706251</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chemical interactions in polyethylene glycol-induced condensates lead to an anomalous FRET response from a flexible linker-fluorescent protein crowding sensor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.18.706578v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Altering dosage of meiotic crossover-associated RING finger proteins affects crossover number and interference in Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.18.706578v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Crossovers play a critical role in ensuring correct reductional segregation of homologous chromosomes in the first meiotic division. Crossing over is initiated by formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), but the number of DSBs is greater than the number of crossovers. Which recombination sites become crossovers, versus being repaired as non-crossovers, is not random, but is subject to several crossover patterning phenomena, including crossover assurance and crossover interference. One current model for crossover designation proposes that crossover-associated RING finger proteins (CORs) undergo the biophysical process of coarsening, in which larger accumulations continue to get larger and smaller accumulations go away. Genetic and cytological studies of the three CORs in Drosophila melanogaster, Vilya, Narya, and Nenya, are consistent with this model. In females heterozygous for a deletion of vilya, fewer doublecrossovers are observed. Conversely, crossovers are elevated in females carrying a duplication of vilya and in females coordinately overexpressing Vilya, Narya, and Nenya. These findings support a model in which crossover designation occurs through coarsening of COR proteins within the synaptonemal complex.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Frantz, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santa Rosa, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMahan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sekelsky, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.18.706578</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Altering dosage of meiotic crossover-associated RING finger proteins affects crossover number and interference in Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.21.707218v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
rRNA Expansion Segments Mediate Ribosome Dimerization as a Conserved Stress Response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.21.707218v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Inhibition of mRNA translation is a common feature in proteostatic stress cellular responses. Puromycin, a widely used compound for studying translation, disrupts protein synthesis by mimicking the 3 end of aminoacyl-tRNAs. Despite its extensive use as a research tool to probe the connection between translation activity and various physiological and pathological states, the cellular response associated with puromycin-induced translation stress remains incompletely understood. Utilizing in situ cellular electron tomography and topology analysis, we visualized the translation machinery at high resolution. Our analysis revealed that puromycin-treated neuronal cells exhibit an accumulation of "idle ribosomes" characterized by the binding of eIF5A, indicating a close association of this factor with translationally inactive ribosome states under stress. Additionally, the idle ribosomes formed dimeric complexes mediated by ribosomal RNA expansion segments, suggesting an evolved mechanism involving these regions in translation hibernating and protecting idle ribosomes. We show that the hibernating disome formation is not unique to puromycin administration but represents a conserved mechanism as a response to different cellular stressors including those associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and amino acid depletion. Altogether, our findings shed light on previously unexplored aspects regarding unique states of mammalian ribosome hibernation, and collectively offers new avenues for understanding the correlation of cellular stress response and the regulation of protein synthesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatzoglou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.21.707218</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[rRNA Expansion Segments Mediate Ribosome Dimerization as a Conserved Stress Response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.704410v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bradykinin Contributes to Vasogenic Edema in Murine Experimental Cerebral Malaria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.704410v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cerebral malaria (CM) due to Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) infection is a major cause of death in African children. Bradykinin (BK) is a mediator of vasogenic edema. It could contribute to the pathogenesis of central nervous system malaria in Kenyan children and P. berghei ANKA (PbA) infected C57BL/6J mice with experimental cerebral malaria. Cleaved plasma high molecular weight kininogen (cHK) is a marker for prior BK release. 40% of children with central nervous system malaria had plasma cHK versus 18% of children with uncomplicated malaria. Wild-type PbA-infected mice had circulating plasma cHK, elevated BK levels, and reduced HK and prekallikrein levels. HK null (Kng1-/-), combined BK B1 and B2 receptor null (Bdkrb1-/- / Bdkrb2-/-), BK B2 (Bdkrb2-/-) or BK B1 (Bdkrb1-/-) receptor null mice were protected from neurologic deterioration and brain edema compared to wild-type mice. F12-/-mice were not protected from neurological deterioration.

Prekallikrein null (Klkb1-/-), prolylcarboxypeptidase hypomorphs (Prcpgt/gt), and brain endothelial cell conditional knockout of PRCP (Prcpfl/fl Cre) mice had reduced neurologic deterioration and brain edema. Adjuvant plasma kallikrein inhibition combined with artesunate treatment of PbA-infected mice reversed neurologic deterioration and brain edema and prolonged survival relative to artesunate alone. BK-induced vasogenic edema contributes to human and murine CM.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pinheiro, A. d. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teixeira, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silva-Aguiar, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shim, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merkulova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silbak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skomorovska-Prokvolit, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Midem, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogolla, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burckhardt, B. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangnus, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scharfstein, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caruso-Neves, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarty, O. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gailani, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bader, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenthal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dent, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Janse, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCrae, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinheiro, A. A. d. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazura, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmaier, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.23.704410</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bradykinin Contributes to Vasogenic Edema in Murine Experimental Cerebral Malaria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.26.708196v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
scProfiterole: Clustering of Single-Cell Proteomic DataUsing Graph Contrastive Learning via Spectral Filters 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.26.708196v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Novel technologies for the acquisition of protein expression data at the single cell level are emerging rapidly. Although there exists a substantial body of computational algorithms and tools for the analysis of single cell gene expression (scRNAseq) data, tools for even basic tasks such as clustering or cell type identification for single cell proteomic (scProteomics) data are relatively scarce. Adoption of algorithms that have been developed for scRNAseq into scProteomics is challenged by the larger number of drop-outs, missing data, and noise in single cell proteomic data. Graph contrastive learning (GCL) on cell-to-cell similarity graphs derived from single cell protein expression profiles show promise in cell type identification. However, missing edges and noise in the cell-to-cell similarity graph requires careful design of convolution matrices to overcome the imperfections in these graphs. Here, we introduce scPO_SCPLOWROFITEROLEC_SCPLOW (Single Cell Proteomics Clustering via Spectral Filters), a computational framework to facilitate effective use of spectral graph filters in GCL-based clustering of single cell proteomic data. Since clustering assumes a homophilic network topology, we consider three types of homophilic filters: (i) random walks, (ii) heat kernels, (iii) beta kernels. Direct implementation of these filters is computationally prohibitive, thus the filters are either truncated or approximated in practice. To overcome this limitation, scPO_SCPLOWROFITEROLEC_SCPLOW uses Arnoldi orthonormalization to implement polynomial interpolations of any given spectral graph filter. Our results on comprehensive single cell proteomic data show that (i) graph contrastive learning with learnable polynomial coefficients that are carefully initialized improves the effectiveness and robustness of cell type identification, (ii) heat kernels and beta kernels improve clustering performance over adjacency matrices or random walks, and (iii) polynomial interpolation of spectral filters outperforms approximation or truncation. The source code for scPO_SCPLOWROFITEROLEC_SCPLOW and Supplementary Materials are available at https://github.com/mustafaCoskunAgu/scProfiterole.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coskun, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopes, F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kubilay Tolunay, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chance, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koyuturk, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.26.708196</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[scProfiterole: Clustering of Single-Cell Proteomic DataUsing Graph Contrastive Learning via Spectral Filters]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.28.708725v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanotranscriptomic Profiling of Breast Cancer Cells Intravasated from Engineered Microtumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.28.708725v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intravasation is the process by which cancer cells breach the physical boundaries of a primary tumor and enter blood or lymphatic vessels. In this work, MCF-7 breast cancer cells were cultured within polymer-based microcapsules (here referred to as artificial microtumors) to investigate the transcriptomic and morpho-mechanical changes occurring in cancer cells during their release from these matrices, mimicking in vitro the process of intravasation.

Our results show that even confined and released cancer cells share approximately 95% of their global transcriptomic profiles, intravasation-like cells exhibited marked differences in the expression of pathogenic hallmarks, including pathways associated with cell proliferation, immunosurveillance, and dormancy. Notably, a clear upregulation of YAP/TAZ signaling was observed in released cells, a result further supported by single-cell traction force microscopy assays, demonstrating that those cells exhibit higher biomechanical activity compared to cells located within artificial microtumors or those cultured on conventional 2D flasks, as shown for intravasated cells in vivo.

To further enrich our investigation, the mechanotranscriptomic activity of MCF-7 cells was compared with suspended spheroids cultured on non-adherent surfaces (i.e., agarose hydrogels). Our results show that released cells displayed increased biomechanical activity and elevated expression of malignant markers, indicating that mechanical stress, beyond cell-cell contact alone, is required to trigger malignant responses. These observations were further supported by co-culture studies of MCF-7 cells with human fibroblasts and endothelial cells, which showed reduced proliferative and invasive capacities under confinement.

Overall, our findings demonstrate that shifts in mechanical and metabolic stress, as experienced during intravasation, act as critical stimuli driving mechanotranscriptomic programs associated with cancer progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krueger, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuentes-Chandia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atiya, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De La Cruz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pashapour, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boccaccini, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Selhuber-Unkel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kappelmann-Fenzl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosserhoff, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal-Egana, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.28.708725</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanotranscriptomic Profiling of Breast Cancer Cells Intravasated from Engineered Microtumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.01.708642v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Early electrical stimulation promotes functional recovery after volumetric muscle loss 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.01.708642v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Volumetric muscle loss (VML) injuries overwhelm the inherent regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle, causing persistent functional deficits with no routinely effective therapies. Electrical stimulation (ES) has been shown to preserve muscle structure in other injury models, but technical barriers have prevented daily delivery during the acute post-injury window when critical regenerative programs are established. Here, we developed a fully implantable bioelectronic system with nanoporous platinum-modified electrodes enabling daily therapeutic stimulation and electromyographic recording without repeated anesthesia in a rat tibialis anterior VML model. Animals receiving ES during the acute post-injury period (10 sessions over days 0-14) showed sustained functional improvement, reaching 86.5% of baseline torque at 8 weeks compared to 68.1% in unstimulated controls. This recovery reflected enhanced remodeling of injured muscle rather than synergistic muscle compensation. Histological analysis revealed coordinated early increases in vascularization, pro-regenerative macrophages, and satellite cells. These findings establish early ES as a promising intervention for promoting muscle regeneration after catastrophic injury.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gershanok, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Behre, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vinokurova, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blount, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garg, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ersoz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ranke, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen-Karni, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feinberg, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen-Karni, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.01.708642</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Early electrical stimulation promotes functional recovery after volumetric muscle loss]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.03.709294v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Conformational signatures of native ligand and pharmacochaperone binding in rhodopsin 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.03.709294v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rhodopsin misfolding underlies rhodopsin-linked retinitis pigmentosa, and small-molecule pharmacochaperones represent a promising therapeutic strategy. However, the mechanisms by which these compounds interact with and stabilize rhodopsin remain poorly understood. Here, we combine backbone amide hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (amide HDX-MS), histidine-specific HDX (His-HDX), protein structure network (PSN) analysis, molecular docking, and functional spectroscopy to define ligand-induced conformational signatures in this receptor elicited by three non-retinoid small molecules, quercetin, myricetin, and the chromenone CR5, and to compare them with those of the native chromophore 11-cis-retinal. Binding of 11-cis-retinal to ligand-free opsin establishes a benchmark orthosteric conformational signature, characterized by strong backbone HDX protection across TM4-TM7 and adjacent loops, suppression of EX1-like hydrogen-deuterium exchange kinetics at the N-terminal ends of TM1 and TM4, and reorganization of PSN hubs that stabilizes an inactive-state residue interaction network. All three non-retinoid ligands generate HDX footprints that closely track this retinal-induced pattern within the chromophore pocket, consistent with direct orthosteric engagement, but they confer weaker and ligand-specific stabilization. Among them, quercetin most closely reproduces the retinal-like backbone protection and His-HDX microenvironment changes, whereas myricetin and CR5 only partially recapitulate retinal-induced stabilization and redistribute conformational flexibility toward TM1 and intradiscal regions, without fully suppressing EX1-like gating. In addition, all three compounds induce weak cytoplasmic allosteric effects in retinal-bound rhodopsin, indicating secondary interactions in addition to a primary orthosteric mechanism. Together, these results provide the first residue-level experimental framework for understanding the differential pharmacochaperoning capacity of non-retinoid ligands and highlight key conformational principles for future optimization of opsin stabilizers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pashandi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortega, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golczak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrzebska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.03.709294</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Conformational signatures of native ligand and pharmacochaperone binding in rhodopsin]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.10.710780v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exotoxin A is not essential for corneal disease severity or bacterial survival 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.10.710780v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces multiple toxins and exoenzymes that contribute to its survival and ability to cause disease. As prior studies reported an important role for type III-secretion in the severity of corneal disease in P. aeruginosa keratitis, we examined if there is a requirement for the type II-secreted cytotoxin Exotoxin A (ToxA) in bacterial persistence and disease severity in infected murine corneas. Using independently generated {Delta}toxA mutants and complemented strains, we found that ToxA is expressed in vivo, but ToxA deletion did not significantly affect bacterial replication, neutrophil recruitment or disease severity. These findings contrast with an earlier study identifying a critical role for ToxA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Begando, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubyak, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rietsch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pearlman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.10.710780</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exotoxin A is not essential for corneal disease severity or bacterial survival]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711389v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Route of Adenovirus Type 5-Vectored Influenza Vaccination Shapes Systemic and Mucosal Immunity in a Maternal-Neonatal Pig Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711389v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Influenza A virus can cause severe complications in pregnant women and infants, yet no influenza vaccines are approved for infants younger than six months. To address this, novel maternal vaccination strategies are needed to increase global access and coverage in these vulnerable populations. This study evaluated a hemagglutinin (HA) A/California/2009 (H1N1)-based human adenovirus 5 (huAd5) vector vaccine, adjuvanted with a TLR3 agonist, for its ability to induce influenza-specific passive immunity from pregnant and lactating pigs to their piglets following different immunization routes. Influenza naive pregnant dams were vaccinated via oral, intranasal (IN), or intramuscular (IM) routes three weeks prepartum and boosted four weeks later. Serum, colostrum and milk samples were collected longitudinally to assess HA-specific antibody induced by vaccination. H1N1-Ca/09 neutralizing antibodies were evaluated in serum and IFN{gamma} producing cells were assessed in blood, spleen and lymph node cells. IN and IM routes elicited robust serum HA-specific antibody responses when compared to control animals at one- and four-weeks post-boost, whereas the oral route resulted in poor antibody induction across all samples tested. Piglets nursing from IN and IM vaccinated dams showed a significantly higher level of HA-specific antibodies in serum at 2-3 weeks post-partum compared to control piglets. Notably, IN immunized dams and their piglets showed significantly elevated influenza neutralizing antibodies compared to controls. This work demonstrated that both IN and IM immunization with a huAd5-vectored vaccine robustly induced maternal influenza-specific immunity that supported passive transfer to nursing piglets, with IN immunization resulting in superior transfer of neutralizing antibodies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Langel, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrne, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sirisereewan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meritet, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rahe, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watanabe, T. T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Compton, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajao, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferreira, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tucker, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crisci, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.12.711389</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Route of Adenovirus Type 5-Vectored Influenza Vaccination Shapes Systemic and Mucosal Immunity in a Maternal-Neonatal Pig Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711493v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stochastic Evolutionary Control in Heterogeneous Populations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711493v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapeutic resistance, which poses a central challenge in cancer and infectious disease treatment, arises from the evolutionary dynamics of heterogeneous populations as a natural consequence of the evolutionary tendency towards higher fitness. Here we introduce SHEPHERD (Stochastic Heterogeneity-informed Evolutionary Policy Hampering the Expansion of Resistance to Drugs), which integrates Wright-Fisher (WF) population genetics modeling with Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to design optimal adaptive drug policies which reduce the fitness of evolving disease, mitigating resistance. While MDPs have been applied to evolutionary control under the strong-selection, weak-mutation (SSWM) assumption--where populations are effectively homogeneous--SHEPHERD operates beyond this regime, effectively capturing the full stochastic dynamics of genetically heterogeneous populations experiencing mutation and selection of a wide array of strengths. Using synthetic multi-drug fitness landscapes, we show the benefit of the optimized SHEPHERD protocol for in silico disease systems with three, four, and eight genotypes: the long-term mean fitness of the disease is reduced compared to any single-drug or two-drug periodic regimen. Although these examples specifically model drug resistance, we discuss the potential broad applicability of our approach to calculating strategies for controlling a wide class of evolving populations. We further analyze the sensitivity of SHEPHERD strategies to different levels of genotypic frequency discretization and temporal resolution, demonstrating robustness once moderate resolution is achieved, but strong dependence on the timing of drug updates. Although current results rely on synthetic landscapes due to the lack of empirical multi-genotype, multi-drug measurements outside the SSWM regime, our study establishes a foundation for applying MDP optimization to broad classes of evolutionary dynamics, highlighting both the opportunities and the computational challenges of controlling evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pachter, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scott, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinczewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.12.711493</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stochastic Evolutionary Control in Heterogeneous Populations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.710153v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
stMCP: Spatial Transcriptomics with a Model Context Protocol Server 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.710153v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spatial transcriptomics enables high-resolution mapping of gene expression in intact tissues but remains challenging due to complex computational workflows that limit accessibility and reproducibility. Here, we present a Model Context Protocol (MCP) framework enabling natural language-driven spatial transcriptomics analysis. By executing analytical tools locally, this architecture eliminates the need to upload massive datasets to large language models, bypassing high token costs and mitigating data privacy and training risks. The MCP orchestrator interprets intent, dynamically routes requests, maintains session state, and verifies input integrity to ensure reproducible execution. Benchmarking across biological discovery, orchestration accuracy, token usage, and execution time demonstrates robust performance. This architecture establishes a scalable template for AI-native research by standardizing the interface between models and local analytical engines. Rather than replacing bioinformaticians, this framework empowers biologists to independently and comprehensively explore their data, accelerating hypothesis testing, and unlocking broader biological discoveries.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McPheeters, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widjaja-Adhi, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Littleton, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saban, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golczak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.710153</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[stMCP: Spatial Transcriptomics with a Model Context Protocol Server]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711153v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteomic analysis reveals shared biological pathways linking acrolein to biomolecular changes in the acute phase of rat spinal cord injury 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711153v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spinal cord injury (SCI) pathology is highly difficult to treat due to substantial heterogeneity in injury presentation and spread, along with unclear mechanisms linking damage to pathology. Damages from injury forces (primary injury) are exacerbated by a series of biochemical events that follow the initial damage and injure additional tissue, known as secondary injury. Reactive aldehydes, such as acrolein, play a key role in propagating secondary injury cascades following SCI. Targeting acrolein after SCI has demonstrated therapeutic potential in limiting injury spread and pathology. However, injury mechanisms linking reactive aldehydes to SCI outcome have not been fully characterized. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying SCI, we generated proteomic profiles of rat spinal cords 24 h (acute phase) after subjection to SCI, sham injury, saline injection, or acrolein injection. We performed gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) to characterize proteins and pathways significantly enriched after SCI and acrolein-injection. We then used Translatable Components Regression (TransComp-R), a framework for translating biological signatures across systems, to assess whether acrolein-associated spinal cord signatures can stratify SCI from sham outcomes. Our proteomics analysis revealed 467 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between the sham and SCI groups and 7 DEPs between saline and acrolein injection groups. Notably, the complement and coagulation cascades were upregulated in spinal cords subjected to SCI and acrolein injection. Our TransComp-R analysis further demonstrated that acrolein-associated signatures could distinguish SCI from sham conditions. Taken together, our findings suggest that acrolein induces proteomic alterations during the acute phase of SCI and is associated with complement and coagulation cascade activation, among other pathways. Therefore, this study reinforces the notion that understanding the role of acrolein in the acute phase of secondary SCI may be beneficial.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stingel, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ball, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.711153</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteomic analysis reveals shared biological pathways linking acrolein to biomolecular changes in the acute phase of rat spinal cord injury]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711460v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human frontal eye field and eyelid motor area revisited with electrical cortical stimulation and electrode co-registration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.12.711460v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We investigated the anatomical localization of the frontal eye field (FEF) and its relationship to the eyelid motor area (EMA) and precentral motor cortex. We performed functional mapping using electrical cortical stimulation (ECS) and correlated electrode position by non-linear co-registration techniques using postoperative MRI. We studied 22 patients who underwent chronic implantation of subdural electrodes for epilepsy surgery. Eye movements were elicited at 52 electrodes overall. The majority of the movements were conjugated, saccadic eye deviation contralateral to the side of ECS. Head turning and non-saccadic eye deviation more frequently occurred in the vicinity of the precentral sulcus. Anatomically, FEF was located at Brodmanns area 6 in the most-caudal region of the middle frontal gyrus and in the adjacent part of the superior frontal sulcus and precentral sulcus. Functionally, FEF was situated at the level of the hand motor area, more dorsal than was described in Penfields motor homunculus. The FEF is situated anteriorly from the precentral motor cortex. The EMA was situated within the precentral motor cortex, partially overlapping with but distinctly ventral and caudal to FEF, and dorsal to the lower face motor area. A standardized map of the FEF and precentral motor homunculus is provided as a reference for human system neuroscience research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fumuro, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bulacio, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bingaman, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikeda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shibasaki, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luders, H. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nair, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matsumoto, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.12.711460</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human frontal eye field and eyelid motor area revisited with electrical cortical stimulation and electrode co-registration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.13.710942v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Selective regulation of transsynaptic alignment and postsynaptic assembly by a novel NCAM family synaptic adhesion molecule 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.13.710942v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synapse formation underlies the organization of neurons into functional circuits during brain development and requires precise alignment and maturation of pre-and postsynaptic compartments. Many synaptogenic adhesion molecules have been identified that drive target recognition and sustained adhesion between appropriate synaptic partners. Yet the degree to which individual molecules serve selective functions in distinct aspects of synapse formation and maturation remains poorly understood. In particular, how exquisite nanoalignment of pre-and postsynaptic specializations flows from micron-scale adhesive interactions between synaptic partners remains a key unanswered question. Here we shed new light on this question by establishing a specialized set of synaptic functions for Epithelial limiter of Fasciclin II function (Elff), an NCAM family member with previously unknown roles in the nervous system. Our structural and functional studies at the glutamatergic Drosophila NMJ indicate that Elff is required for postsynaptic assembly, maturation, and transsynaptic alignment; however, it is not required for presynaptic function, bouton formation, or developmental expansion of the NMJ. Notably, NMJs in elff null mutants display reduced glutamate receptor clustering beginning at the embryonic stage when NMJ synapses first form. These poorly defined postsynaptic specializations are frequently out of register with presynaptic release sites, disrupting neurotransmission. Unexpectedly, the striking defects in elff nulls occur in the context of both normal active zone number and developmental expansion of the NMJ. These findings suggest a surprising degree of specialization among transsynaptic adhesion complexes and demonstrate that Elff-mediated signaling is critical for the transsynaptic nanoarchitecture of glutamatergic synapses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Van der Linden Costello, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wennerberg, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rydbom, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gratz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fennema, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor-Giles, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broihier, H. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.13.710942</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Selective regulation of transsynaptic alignment and postsynaptic assembly by a novel NCAM family synaptic adhesion molecule]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.19.709872v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In-Situ ssDNA Isolation from dsDNA Sources as a Streamlined Pathway to DNA Origami Assembly and Testing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.19.709872v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Scaffolded DNA origami has become a valuable nanoscale tool for applications in biomedical and physical sciences. Critical to leveraging the modular and programmable properties of DNA origami nanodevices is access to the scaffold strand, a long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) of precise length and sequence, which is folded into a compact shape via piecewise base-pairing with many staple strands, short ssDNA oligonucleotides. Current methods to produce and manipulate long ssDNA scaffolds can be costly, time-consuming, and cumbersome. In contrast, methods to produce and manipulate the sequence of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) are efficient and scalable. Here, we present a method for the rapid isolation of target ssDNA sequences from a variety of dsDNA sources using oligonucleotides as blocking strands that bind continuously to the undesired strand, thereby releasing the target scaffold strand. We report successful ssDNA isolation from linear and supercoiled dsDNAs of various sequences and lengths, ranging from 769 to 15,101 nucleotides. In addition to isolating ssDNA, we demonstrated this approach enables folding of DNA origami directly from dsDNA templates using both blocking and staple strands in a single-pot thermally controlled reaction. Furthermore, we explore multi-scaffold and gene-encoding DNA origami structures, expanding the framework for application-based designs.

Graphical Abstract

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ruiz, E. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neyra, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, R.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paramasamy, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bizjak, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halley, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sotomayor, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poirier, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathur, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castro, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfeifer, W. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.19.709872</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In-Situ ssDNA Isolation from dsDNA Sources as a Streamlined Pathway to DNA Origami Assembly and Testing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.21.713346v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metaplastic sleep regulation in Drosophila determined by microscale circadian neural dynamics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.21.713346v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The biophysical mechanisms by which circadian clock neurons integrate temporal coding signals to regulate sleep remain elusive. Here, using Drosophila, we identify Rabphilin (Rph) in DN1p clock neurons as a key stabilizer of the metaplasticity setpoint governing circadian regulation of sleep. Rph protein levels are elevated at night relative to daytime and modulate stochastic process of DN1p membrane potential dynamics linked to variability in synaptic activity at connections between DN1p neurons and their downstream postsynaptic partners. We find that Rph acts as a bidirectional regulator of synaptic plasticity thresholds. Under dim nocturnal light stimulation, Rph knockdown permits synaptic potentiation, whereas synthesized Rph introduction induces synaptic depression. In contrast, under optogenetic manipulation mimicking daytime spiking in DN1p neurons, these effects are reversed. We further show that spike-timing-dependent plasticity emerges when postsynaptic spiking is engaged, with nocturnal dim light conditions determining the direction of plasticity. Together, these findings establish a mechanistic link between microscale circadian neural dynamics and hierarchical metaplastic regulation, demonstrating how circadian regulation of sleep dynamically balances stability and adaptive flexibility through circadian setpoints and environmental nocturnal light interactions.

Significance StatementWe show that circadian metaplasticity regulates sleep through membrane potential dynamics. Circadian clock neurons implement flexible metaplasticity, whereby the direction can be determined by internal circadian setpoints and interactions with nocturnal environmental light. This mechanism engages spike-timing-dependent plasticity to determine plasticity polarity. Our findings identify membrane potential dynamics as a computational substrate for physiological state control, linking molecular mechanisms to circuit-level circadian regulation of sleep. Together, they reframe sleep regulation as an active metaplastic process that hierarchically integrates microscale circadian neural dynamics to optimize circuit function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hutson, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarjetskiy, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pokaleva, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chong, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez Franco, V. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zukowski, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faulk, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferry, F. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.21.713346</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metaplastic sleep regulation in Drosophila determined by microscale circadian neural dynamics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.21.713391v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cross-Species Translation Enhances the Use of Mouse Models for Translatability and Drug Discovery in Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.21.713391v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) is a brain disease characterized by deposition of insoluble amyloid-{beta} plaque, intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles, and cognitive dysfunction. AD can be characterized as early-onset or late-onset based on age and genetic factors. For early-onset, these genetic factors can include amyloid precursor protein (APP), presenilin-1 (PSEN1), and presenilin-2 (PSEN2). For late-onset, these can include apolipoprotein E e4 (APOE4), and the R47H variant of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2). Mouse models incorporating these risk factors provide critical knowledge for studying AD pathology and preclinical studies for drug development. However, these transgenic mice depend on early-onset genetic mutations and are deficient in certain AD features that are present in late-onset. Here, we developed innovative non-linear and feature selection procedures for our cross-species translation framework, Translatable Components Regression (TransComp-R), to identify transcriptomic features in mouse models predictive of human late-onset AD pathobiology. We used the cross-species computational translatability links of TransComp-R to perform computational high-throughput drug screening and identified multiple repurposable drugs for AD treatment that targeted the sleep-wake cycle. We tested these predictions in an orthogonal, prospective cohort of human subjects treated with an orexin receptor antagonist, suvorexant. We correlated conserved protein-level biomarkers from our cross-species transcriptomics model with significant reductions in phosphorylated tau in cerebrospinal fluid collected from humans treated with suvorexant. This study demonstrates the power of computational methods like TransComp-R to enhance the utility of murine disease models for discovering new therapeutic approaches for AD.

One Sentence SummaryCross-species translation modeling across different mouse models reveals sleep-relevant drug mechanisms as potentially therapeutic for Alzheimers disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Park, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucey, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brubaker, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.21.713391</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cross-Species Translation Enhances the Use of Mouse Models for Translatability and Drug Discovery in Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.713976v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MLL3/4 methyltransferases regulate the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells via cellular respiration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.713976v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enhancer-regulating epigenetic modifiers play critical roles in normal physiological processes and human pathogenesis. The major enhancer regulator paralogs MLL3 and MLL4 (MLL3/4) belong to the lysine methyltransferase 2 (KMT2) family, which catalyzes the methylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me). MLL3/4 are required for enhancer activation and are essential for mammalian development and stem cell differentiation. Recent studies have linked MLL3/4 with different metabolic pathways in the context of stem cell self-renewal and cancer cell growth; however, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we utilize Seahorse extracellular flux analysis, stable isotope tracing, stem cell biology techniques, and transcriptomic analysis to investigate the functional relationship of MLL3/4, cellular respiration, and stem cell differentiation. Our results indicate that the loss of MLL3/4 impairs glycolytic activity and mitochondrial respiration in murine embryonic stem cells by downregulating the rate-limiting glycolytic enzyme Hexokinase 2 (HK2) and impairing the function of the Alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) complex. Furthermore, simultaneously overexpression of HK2 and OGDH rescues defects in both cellular respiration and differentiation caused by MLL3/4 loss. Taken together, our study reveals a novel mechanism by which epigenetic machineries such as MLL3/4 govern the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells and facilitates the understanding of disease pathogenesis driven by enhancer malfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nur, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lepak, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ben-Sahra, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.24.713976</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MLL3/4 methyltransferases regulate the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells via cellular respiration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714247v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultrasound Activated Nanobubbles Induce Durable Systemic Antitumor Immunity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714247v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Clinical outcomes in aggressive breast cancer vary widely, in part because the tumor microenvironment is structured to exclude immune infiltration. Low antigen load, dysfunctional antigen-presenting cells, T cell exclusion and exhaustion, and a stiff extracellular matrix that physically restricts immune cell trafficking work together to form a suppressive barrier that current immunotherapies struggle to overcome. We addressed this barrier using ultrasound (US)-activated nanobubbles (NBs), a drug-free intervention based on perfluoropropane-filled nanoparticles. The size and deformable phospholipid shell enable NBs to achieve deep tumor penetration and a uniform distribution throughout the entire tumor. Upon ultrasound activation, NBs generate localized mechanical forces that restore extracellular matrix elasticity, disrupt tumor transport barriers, and drive HMGB1 release, re-engaging endogenous antitumor immunity without pharmacological agents. In a syngeneic triple-negative breast cancer model, US-NB treatment depleted immunosuppressive myeloid cells 3-fold within 3 hours, followed by a greater than 5-fold increase in the ratio of antigen-experienced to suppressive T cells at 48 hours. US-NB drives rapid infiltration of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells within 48 hours. US-NB treatment achieved an 85% cure rate in the D2A1 model; cured animals maintained durable systemic immune memory, rejecting both local and systemic tumor rechallenge. Consistent therapeutic benefit was observed in a luminal B-like mammary tumor model (E0771), supporting activity across breast cancer subtypes. These results establish US-NB mechanical immunomodulation as a drug-free therapeutic strategy capable of generating robust and durable antitumor immunity, acting through biophysical tissue properties rather than tumor-specific molecular targets.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhalotia, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nittayacharn, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheplyansky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takizawa, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nidhiry, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hariharan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosmides, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exner, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karathanasis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.25.714247</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultrasound Activated Nanobubbles Induce Durable Systemic Antitumor Immunity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714913v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
eSIG-Net: Accurate prediction of single-mutation induced perturbations on protein interactions using a language model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714913v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Most proteins exert their functions in complex with other interactors. Single mutations can exhibit a profound impact on perturbing protein interactions, leading to human disease. However, predicting the effect of single mutations on protein interactions remains a major computational challenge. Deep learning, particularly protein language models or transformers, has become an effective tool in bioinformatics for protein structure prediction. However, the functional divergence of mutations makes it difficult to predict their interaction perturbation profiles. To address this fundamental challenge, we present eSIG-Net (edgetic mutation Sequence-based Interaction Grammar Network), a novel sequence-based "Interaction Language Model" for predicting protein interaction alterations caused by single mutations. eSIG-Net combines various protein sequence embeddings, introduces a mutation-encoding module with syntax and evolutionary insights, and employs contrastive learning to evaluate mutation-induced interaction changes. eSIG-Net significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art sequence-based and structure-based prediction methods at predicting mutational impact on protein interactions. We highlight examples where eSIG-Net nominates causal variants with high confidence and elucidates their functional role under relevant biological contexts. Together, eSIG-Net is a first-in-kind "interaction language model" that can accurately predict interaction-specific rewiring by single mutations with only sequence information, and exhibits generalizability across biological contexts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrawat, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghavan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckhardt, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuxman Bass, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarosz, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGrail, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheynkman, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahni, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.27.714913</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[eSIG-Net: Accurate prediction of single-mutation induced perturbations on protein interactions using a language model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715365v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SPTBN2 promotes an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and cross-resistance to anti-cancer therapies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715365v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) inactivates CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTLs). Here, we identify SPTBN2 spectrin as a key immunosuppressive regulator induced in CTLs in response to nutritional deficit. In human pancreatic and colorectal cancers, SPTBN2 expression negatively correlated with CTL infiltration and patients survival. In TME of mouse pancreatic and colorectal adenocarcinomas, SPTBN2 inactivated intratumoral CTLs, stimulated tumor growth and conferred cross-resistance to anti-cancer therapies. SPTBN2 knockout protected CAR T-cells from trogocytosis and increased their memory state. SPTBN2 maintained levels of cell surface proteins such as BTLA that undermine CAR T-cell cytotoxicity and promote exhaustion. Re-expression of BTLA largely reversed phenotypes in SPTBN2-deficient CAR T-cells. In manufactured CAR T cells, SPTBN2 was associated with their clinical failure in pediatric patients with leukemia. Accordingly, ablation of SPTBN2 in CAR T-cells increased their cytotoxicity, in vivo persistence and therapeutic effects indicating that SPTBN2 can be targeted to increase the efficacy of anti-cancer therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bui, Q. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basavaraja, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhamdhere, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holczbauer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paruzzo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guruprasad, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scaglione, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beiting, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nash, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fazelinia, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spruce, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conn, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koumenis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spiegelman, V. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rui, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diehl, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atherton, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanger, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailis, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruella, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuchs, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.30.715365</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SPTBN2 promotes an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and cross-resistance to anti-cancer therapies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715425v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
When feeling is better than seeing: Adult Zebrafish Ignore Wide-Field Optic-Flow in Laminar, but not Turbulent Hydrodynamic Environments. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715425v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many animals navigate their world largely by seeing and feeling it. To disentangle these visual and mechanosensory contributions, we developed a virtual reality assay targeting the optomotor response in adult wild-type zebrafish swimming against flow. By projecting dynamic visual patterns onto the walls of a variable-speed flow tank, we decoupled wide-field optic flow from hydrodynamic velocity. We then tested fish responses to abrupt visual perturbations while they held station in the unsteady wake behind a bluff body. These perturbations reliably elicited compensatory optomotor responses, with fish aligning to the direction of the moving stimulus. Notably, this behavior was absent in uniform flows, suggesting that fish prioritize visual input when predictive lateral line signaling is compromised. We propose that this sensory shift serves to optimize swimming energetics in turbulent wakes. Extending this framework, we further show that zebrafish swimming against flow, whether alone or in groups, exhibit heightened escape responses to looming visual stimuli. Together, our findings reveal that fish sensory strategies are not fixed but dynamically tuned to hydrodynamic context: favoring visual cues in turbulent environments and lateral line input in uniform flows.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dave, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.30.715425</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[When feeling is better than seeing: Adult Zebrafish Ignore Wide-Field Optic-Flow in Laminar, but not Turbulent Hydrodynamic Environments.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715455v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Computational and Neural Basis of Zero-Shot Control in Dynamic Pursuit 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715455v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biological agents flexibly adapt their behavior to novel goals and environmental demands without additional training, yet the computational principles enabling such control remain unclear. Here, we propose that three cognitive constructs constitute minimal computational motifs for such flexible control: relational structure, spotlight attention, and affordance computation. We examine whether these constructs underpin flexible control in an embodied dynamic pursuit task that requires continuous integration of inter-entity relations, reward, and action feasibility, making it a suitable testbed for real-time control. By implementing these constructs within a multi-module graph convolutional network, we show that the model achieves zero-shot transfer across novel pursuit scenarios that vary in physics, target properties, and interaction policies such as fleeing or chasing, without additional training. Although not explicitly trained to do so, the model also exhibits change-of-mind (CoM) behavior, or mid-course target revision, a hallmark of flexible control exhibited by biological agents. Neural recordings from the primate dorsal anterior cingulate cortex revealed population-level signatures that link these constructs to neural dynamics, providing biological support for the proposed computational architecture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayden, B. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoo, S. B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.30.715455</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Computational and Neural Basis of Zero-Shot Control in Dynamic Pursuit]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
</rdf:RDF>
