技术资料

Personalized cancer therapy is based on a patient's tumor lineage,histopathology,expression analyses,and/or tumor DNA or RNA analysis. Here,we aim to develop an in vitro functional assay of a patient's living cancer cells that could complement these approaches. We present methods for developing cell cultures from tumor biopsies and identify the types of samples and culture conditions associated with higher efficiency of model establishment. Toward the application of patient-derived cell cultures for personalized care,we established an immunofluorescence-based functional assay that quantifies cancer cell responses to targeted therapy in mixed cell cultures. Assaying patient-derived lung cancer cultures with this method showed promise in modeling patient response for diagnostic use. This platform should allow for the development of co-clinical trial studies to prospectively test the value of drug profiling on tumor-biopsy-derived cultures to direct patient care. Kodack et al. report on the development of cancer models from tumor biopsies and technologies toward a functional approach for personalized medicine. They describe the ability to reliably test drug response in patient-derived samples of mixed cell populations. In doing so,they show that patient biopsy cultures may predict patient clinical responses. View Publication

Control of established chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection requires the production of neutralizing antibodies,but it remains unknown how the ensemble of antibodies evolves during ongoing infection. Here,we analyze the evolution of antibody responses during acute or chronic LCMV infection,combining quantitative functional assays and time-resolved antibody repertoire sequencing. We establish that antibody responses initially converge in both infection types on a functional and repertoire level,but diverge later during chronic infection,showing increased clonal diversity,the appearance of mouse-specific persistent clones,and distinct phylogenetic signatures. Chronic infection is characterized by a longer-lasting germinal center reaction and a continuous differentiation of plasma cells,resulting in the emergence of higher-affinity plasma cells exhibiting increased antibody secretion rates. Taken together,our findings reveal the emergence of a personalized antibody response in chronic infection and support the concept that maintaining B cell diversity throughout chronic LCMV infection correlates with the development of infection-resolving antibodies. View Publication

Several phase 1/2 clinical trials showed that low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) treatment is a safe and effective strategy for the treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease,hepatitis C virus-induced vasculitis,and type 1 diabetes. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition of the colon that lacks satisfactory treatment. In this study,we aimed to determine the effects of low-dose IL-2 as a therapeutic for UC on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Methods: Mice with DSS-induced colitis were intraperitoneally injected with low-dose IL-2. Survival,body weight,disease activity index,colon length,histopathological score,myeloperoxidase activity and inflammatory cytokine levels as well as intestinal barrier integrity were examined. Differential gene expression after low-dose IL-2 treatment was analyzed by RNA-sequencing. Results: Low-dose IL-2 significantly improved the symptoms of DSS-induced colitis in mice and attenuated pro-inflammatory cytokine production and immune cell infiltration. The most effective dose range of IL-2 was 16K-32K IU/day. Importantly,low-dose IL-2 was effective in ameliorating the disruption of epithelial barrier integrity in DSS-induced colitis tissues by restoring tight junction proteins and mucin production and suppressing apoptosis. The colon tissue of DSS-induced mice exposed to low-dose IL-2 mimic gene expression patterns in the colons of control mice. Furthermore,we identified the crucial role of the PI3K-AKT pathway in exerting the therapeutic effect of low-dose IL-2. Conclusions: The results of our study suggest that low-dose IL-2 has therapeutic effects on DSS-induced colitis and potential clinical value in treating UC. View Publication

Supercentenarians (≥110-year-old,SC) are a uniquely informative population not only because they surpass centenarians in age,but because they appear to age more slowly with fewer incidences of chronic age-related disease than centenarians. We reprogramed donor B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) derived from a 114-year-old (SC),a 43-year-old healthy disease-free control (HDC) and an 8-year-old with a rapid aging disease (Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS)) and compared SC-iPSC to HDC-iPSC and HGPS-iPSCs. Reprogramming to pluripotency was confirmed by pluripotency marker expression and differentiation to 3 germ-layers. Each iPSC clone differentiated efficiently to mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPC) as determined by surface marker expression and RNAseq analysis. We identified supercentenarian and HGPS associated gene expression patterns in the differentiated MPC lines that were not evident in the parental iPSC lines. Importantly,telomere length resetting occurred in iPSC from all donors albeit at a lower incidence in supercentenarian iPSCs. These data indicate the potential to use reprogramming to reset both developmental state and cellular age in the oldest of the old." We anticipate that supercentenarian iPSC and their differentiated derivatives will be valuable tools for studying the underlying mechanisms of extreme longevity and disease resistance." View Publication

Understanding the root causes of autoimmune diseases is hampered by the inability to access relevant human tissues and identify the time of disease onset. To examine the interaction of immune cells and their cellular targets in type 1 diabetes,we differentiated human induced pluripotent stem cells into pancreatic endocrine cells,including $\beta$ cells. Here,we describe an in vitro platform that models features of human type 1 diabetes using stress-induced patient-derived endocrine cells and autologous immune cells. We demonstrate a cell-type-specific response by autologous immune cells against induced pluripotent stem cell-derived $\beta$ cells,along with a reduced effect on $\alpha$ cells. This approach represents a path to developing disease models that use patient-derived cells to predict the outcome of an autoimmune response. View Publication

Type III interferon-lambda (IFN-$\lambda$) plays a critical role against infection,particularly in mucosal infection in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract. Our study and other previous studies have shown that porcine IFN-$\lambda$ more efficiently curtails the infection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in the intestine epithelia than type I IFN,whereas IFN-$\lambda$3 exerts a more potent effect than IFN-$\lambda$1. However,the underlying mechanism remains elusive,and in particular,the transcriptional profile induced by IFN-$\lambda$3 has not been reported. Here,to resolve the mechanism responsible for the disparity between IFN-$\lambda$3 and type I IFN in anti-mucosal virus infection,we compared the transcription profiles induced by the two IFNs in porcine intestinal epithelial (IPEC-J2) cells by RNA-Seq. Our results showed that the pretreatment of IPEC-J2 cells with IFN-$\lambda$3 resulted in the differential expression of 983 genes. In contrast,IFN-$\alpha$ only modified the expression of 134 genes,and 110 of these genes were also observed in the response to IFN-$\lambda$3. A transcriptional enrichment analysis indicated that IFN-$\lambda$3 or IFN-$\alpha$ regulates multiple cellular processes and that IFN-$\lambda$3 activates more robust signaling pathways,particularly the antiviral Jak-STAT signaling pathway,than IFN-$\alpha$. Furthermore,we verified the RNA-Seq results through an RT-qPCR analysis of IPEC-J2 cells and porcine enteroids. Moreover,transient expression of the porcine rsad2 and mx2 genes among the top 10 genes induced by IFN-$\lambda$3 significantly inhibited PEDV infection. Collectively,the data showed that IFN-$\lambda$3 induces a unique transcriptional profile that does not completely overlap with that induced by IFN-$\alpha$ and strongly elicits a set of genes responsible for the antiviral activity of IFN-$\lambda$3. These findings provide important knowledge regarding the elicited ISGs of type I and III IFNs in restricting porcine intestinal viral infection. View Publication

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and deadly brain cancer. There is growing interest to develop drugs that specifically target to glioblastoma tumor-initiating cells (TICs). However,the cost-effective production of large numbers of high quality glioblastoma TICs for drug discovery with current cell culturing technologies remains very challenging. Here,we report a new method that cultures glioblastoma TICs in microscale alginate hydrogel tubes (or AlgTubes). The AlgTubes allowed long-term culturing ({\~{}}50 days,10 passages) of glioblastoma TICs with high growth rate ({\~{}}700-fold expansion/14 days),high cell viability and high volumetric yield ({\~{}}3.0 × 108 cells/mL) without losing the stem cell properties,all offered large advancements over current culturing methods. This method can be applied for the scalable production of glioblastoma TICs at affordable cost for drug discovery. View Publication

Both antitumor and protumor property of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been demonstrated. We hypothesize that this contradiction is due to the heterogeneity of MSC subsets and that extracellular vesicles (EVs) from distinct MSC subsets can transfer the corresponding antitumor activities. Here we evaluated the antitumor activities of two subsets of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) and ADSC-derived EVs (ADSC-EVs) in immunocompetent syngeneic mouse models of breast cancer. We identified CD90high and CD90low ADSC subsets and demonstrated that CD90high ADSCs could be converted into CD90low ADSCs by stimulation with LPS. CD90low ADSCs and its derived EVs significantly inhibited tumor growth in tumor-bearing mice. Benefit of tumor control were associated with decreased tumor cell proliferation and migration,and enhanced tumor cell apoptosis mediated by ADSC-EVs. Antioncogenic miRNA-16-5p loaded CD90low ADSC-EVs further significantly enhanced antitumor activities. Taken together,this study represents the first attempt to apply our newly identified antitumor ADSCs and its derived EVs in preclinical treatment of breast cancer. This study also provides the evidence that EVs can serve as a novel and effective therapeutics or drug delivery vesicle. This new therapeutic approach could be potentially applicable to breast cancer and many other types of cancer. View Publication

Background Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) represents the hypergonadotropic hypoestrogenic symptoms that result in the loss of ovarian follicles. 5-30{\%} POI cases are suggested to be involved in autoimmune etiology. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a vital role in ovarian folliculogenesis via regulating and interacting with multiple target genes. Here,we conduct the target prediction of miR-21,identify the expression and correlation of miR-21 and its putative target Pellino-1 (Peli1),and confirm their relationship with clinical characteristics in autoimmune POI. Methods Bioinformatic analysis was conducted to screen the miR-21 putative target gene. Autoimmune POI mouse models were established by ZP3 immunization. Serum miR-21,Peli1 mRNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and regulatory T cells (Tregs),general status,spleen Tregs ratio,inflammatory factors,ovarian endocrine function,and ovarian structure were evaluated. For autoimmune POI patients,serum miR-21,PBMCs Peli1 mRNA levels,general data,immune parameters,hormone levels,and ultrasound examinations were obtained. The correlations of miR-21 with Peli1 and clinical characteristics in patients were analyzed. Results Peli1 was selected based on four microRNA prediction databases and literature retrieval. In mouse models,serum miR-21 level,PBMCs and Tregs Peli1 mRNA,and spleen Tregs ratio were 0.61 ± 0.09,0.12 ± 0.12,0.27±0.23 and 4.82 ± 0.58,respectively,lower than those in the control group. In patients,miR-21 level (0.60 ± 0.14) and Peli1 mRNA (0.30 ± 0.14) were lower than those in the control group (1.01 ± 0.07 and 1.63 ± 0.54); miR-21 was positively related with Peli1,AMH,E2,the size of the uterus,and ovarian volume and negatively related with FSH,LH,and the number of positive immune parameters (AOAb,EMAb,ACL,ANA,ds-DNA,ACA,IgG,IgA,IgM,IgE,C3,and C4). Conclusions Low expressions of miR-21 and Peli1 were detected in autoimmune POI mice and patients. Positive correlation between miR-21 and Peli1 was observed in autoimmune POI patients,suggesting that miR-21 and Peli1 might be associated with the pathogenesis of autoimmune POI. View Publication

Generating robust CD4+ T-helper cell type 1 (Th1) responses is essential for protective vaccine-induced type 1 immunity. Here,we examine whether immunization formulation associated with enhanced vaccine efficacy promotes antigen targeting and cell recruitment into lymph node (LN) niches associated with optimal type 1 responses. Immunization with antigen and Toll-like receptor agonist emulsified in oil leads to an increased differentiation of IFN$\gamma$/TNF-$\alpha$+ polyfunctional Th1 cells compared to an identical immunization in saline. Oil immunization results in a rapid delivery and persistence of antigen in interfollicular regions (IFRs) of the LN,whereas without oil,antigen is distributed in the medullary region. Following oil immunization,CXCL10-producing inflammatory monocytes accumulate in the IFR,which mobilizes antigen-specific CD4+ T cells into this niche. In this microenvironment,CD4+ T cells are advantageously positioned to encounter arriving IL-12-producing inflammatory dendritic cells (DCs). These data suggest that formulations delivering antigen to the LN IFR create an inflammatory niche that can improve vaccine efficacy. View Publication

Quiescence is a fundamental property that maintains hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) potency throughout life. Quiescent HSCs are thought to rely on glycolysis for their energy,but the overall metabolic properties of HSCs remain elusive. Using combined approaches,including single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq),we show that mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) distinguishes quiescent from cycling-primed HSCs. We found that primed,but not quiescent,HSCs relied readily on glycolysis. Notably,in vivo inhibition of glycolysis enhanced the competitive repopulation ability of primed HSCs. We further show that HSC quiescence is maintained by an abundance of large lysosomes. Repression of lysosomal activation in HSCs led to further enlargement of lysosomes while suppressing glucose uptake. This also induced increased lysosomal sequestration of mitochondria and enhanced the competitive repopulation ability of primed HSCs by over 90-fold in vivo. These findings show that restraining lysosomal activity preserves HSC quiescence and potency and may be therapeutically relevant. View Publication

Overcoming drug resistance and targeting cancer stem cells remain challenges for curative cancer treatment. To investigate the role of miRNAs in regulating drug resistance and leukemic stem cell (LSCs) fate,we performed global transcriptome profiling in treatment-na{\{i}}ve chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) stem/progenitor cells and identified that miR-185 levels anticipate their response to ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). miR-185 functions as a tumor suppressor; its restored expression impaired survival of drug-resistant cells sensitized them to TKIs in vitro and markedly eliminated long-term repopulating LSCs and infiltrating blast cells conferring a survival advantage in pre-clinical xenotransplantation models. Integrative analysis with mRNA profiles uncovered PAK6 as a crucial target of miR-185 and pharmacological inhibition of PAK6 perturbed the RAS/MAPK pathway and mitochondrial activity sensitizing therapy-resistant cells to TKIs. Thus miR-185 presents as a potential predictive biomarker and dual targeting of miR-185-mediated PAK6 activity and BCR-ABL may provide a valuable strategy for overcoming drug resistance in patients." View Publication