技术资料

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers in men and is associated with high mortality and disability rates. β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB),a ketone body,has received increasing attention for its role in cancer. However,its role in PCa remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the mechanism and feasibility of BHB as a treatment alternative for PCa. Colony formation assay,flow cytometry,western blot assay,and transwell assays were performed to determine the effect of BHB on the proliferation and metastasis of PCa cells. Tumor sphere formation and aldehyde dehydrogenase assays were used to identify the impact of BHB or indoleacetamide-N-methyltransferase (INMT) on the stemness of PCa cells. N6-methyladenosine (m6A)–meRIP real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and dual luciferase assays were conducted to confirm INMT upregulation via the METTL3–m6A pathway. Co-IP assay was used to detect the epigenetic modification of INMT by BHB-mediated β-hydroxybutyrylation (kbhb) and screen enzymes that regulate INMT kbhb. Mouse xenograft experiments demonstrated the antitumor effects of BHB in vivo. BHB can inhibit the proliferation,migration,and invasion of PCa cells by suppressing their stemness. Mechanistically,INMT,whose expression is upregulated by the METTL3–m6A pathway,was demonstrated to be an oncogenic gene that promotes the stem-like characteristics of PCa cells. BHB can suppress the malignant phenotypes of PCa by kbhb of INMT,which in turn inhibits INMT expression. Our findings indicate a role of BHB in PCa metabolic therapy,thereby suggesting an epigenetic therapeutic strategy to target INMT in aggressive PCa. Not applicable. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-024-03277-6. View Publication

Tumor cells have the ability to invade and form small clusters that protrude into adjacent tissues,a phenomenon that is frequently observed at the periphery of a tumor as it expands into healthy tissues. The presence of these clusters is linked to poor prognosis and has proven challenging to treat using conventional therapies. We previously reported that p60AmotL2 expression is localized to invasive colon and breast cancer cells. In vitro,p60AmotL2 promotes epithelial cell invasion by negatively impacting E-cadherin/AmotL2-related mechanotransduction. Using epithelial cells transfected with inducible p60AmotL2,we employed a phenotypic drug screening approach to find compounds that specifically target invasive cells. The phenotypic screen was performed by treating cells for 72 h with a library of compounds with known antitumor activities in a dose-dependent manner. After assessing cell viability using CellTiter-Glo,drug sensitivity scores for each compound were calculated. Candidate hit compounds with a higher drug sensitivity score for p60AmotL2-expressing cells were then validated on lung and colon cell models,both in 2D and in 3D,and on colon cancer patient-derived organoids. Nascent RNA sequencing was performed after BET inhibition to analyse BET-dependent pathways in p60AmotL2-expressing cells. We identified 60 compounds that selectively targeted p60AmotL2-expressing cells. Intriguingly,these compounds were classified into two major categories: Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) inhibitors and Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal motif (BET) inhibitors. The latter consistently demonstrated antitumor activity in human cancer cell models,as well as in organoids derived from colon cancer patients. BET inhibition led to a shift towards the upregulation of pro-apoptotic pathways specifically in p60AmotL2-expressing cells. BET inhibitors specifically target p60AmotL2-expressing invasive cancer cells,likely by exploiting differences in chromatin accessibility,leading to cell death. Additionally,our findings support the use of this phenotypic strategy to discover novel compounds that can exploit vulnerabilities and specifically target invasive cancer cells. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13046-024-03031-w. View Publication

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies targeting B cell-restricted antigens CD19,CD20,or CD22 can produce potent clinical responses for some B cell malignancies,but relapse remains common. Camelid single-domain antibodies (sdAbs or nanobodies) are smaller,simpler,and easier to recombine than single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) used in most CARs,but fewer sdAb-CARs have been reported. Thus,we sought to identify a therapeutically active sdAb-CAR targeting human CD22. Immunization of an adult Llama glama with CD22 protein,sdAb-cDNA library construction,and phage panning yielded >20 sdAbs with diverse epitope and binding properties. Expressing CD22-sdAb-CAR in Jurkat cells drove varying CD22-specific reactivity not correlated with antibody affinity. Changing CD28- to CD8-transmembrane design increased CAR persistence and expression in vitro . CD22-sdAb-CAR candidates showed similar CD22-dependent CAR-T expansion in vitro,although only membrane-proximal epitope targeting CD22-sdAb-CARs activated direct cytolytic killing and extended survival in a lymphoma xenograft model. Based on enhanced survival in blinded xenograft studies,a lead CD22sdCAR-T was selected,achieving comparable complete responses to a benchmark short linker m971-scFv CAR-T in high-dose experiments. Finally,immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry confirm tissue and cellular-level specificity of the lead CD22-sdAb. This presents a complete report on preclinical development of a novel CD22sdCAR therapeutic. View Publication

Immune tolerance fails in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS-1) because of AIRE mutations. We have used single cell transcriptomics to characterize regulatory T cells (Tregs) sorted directly from blood and from in vitro expanded Tregs in APS-1 patients compared to healthy controls. We revealed only CD52 and LTB (down) and TXNIP (up) as consistently differentially expressed genes in the datasets. There were furthermore no large differences of the TCR-repertoire of expanded Tregs between the cohorts,but unique patients showed a more restricted use of specific clonotypes. We also found that in vitro expanded Tregs from APS-1 patients had similar suppressive capacity as controls in co-culture assays,despite expanding faster and having more exhausted cells. Our results suggest that APS-1 patients do not have intrinsic defects in their Treg functionality,and that their Tregs can be expanded ex vivo for potential therapeutic applications. Subject areas: Health sciences,Immunology,Components of the immune system,Proteomics,Transcriptomics View Publication

AML is characterized by mutations in genes associated with growth regulation such as internal tandem duplications (ITD) in the receptor kinase FLT3. Inhibitors targeting FLT3 (FLT3i) are being used to treat patients with FLT3-ITD+ but most relapse and become resistant. To elucidate the resistance mechanism,we compared the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of leukemic cells from patients before and after relapse,which revealed that the GRNs of drug-responsive patients were altered by rewiring their AP-1-RUNX1 axis. Moreover,FLT3i induces the upregulation of signaling genes,and we show that multiple cytokines,including interleukin-3 (IL-3),can overcome FLT3 inhibition and send cells back into cycle. FLT3i leads to loss of AP-1 and RUNX1 chromatin binding,which is counteracted by IL-3. However,cytokine-mediated drug resistance can be overcome by a pan-RAS inhibitor. We show that cytokines instruct AML growth via the transcriptional regulators AP-1 and RUNX1 and that pan-RAS drugs bypass this barrier. Subject area: Pharmacy,Molecular biology View Publication

Telomeres as the protective ends of linear chromosomes,are synthesized by the enzyme telomerase (TERT). Critically short telomeres essentially contribute to aging-related diseases and are associated with a broad spectrum of disorders known as telomeropathies. In cardiomyocytes,telomere length is strongly correlated with cardiomyopathies but it remains ambiguous whether short telomeres are the cause or the result of the disease. In this study,we employed an inducible CRISPRi human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line to silence TERT expression enabling the generation of hiPSCs and hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes with long and short telomeres. Reduced telomerase activity and shorter telomere lengths of hiPSCs induced global transcriptomic changes associated with cardiac developmental pathways. Consequently,the differentiation potential towards cardiomyocytes was strongly impaired and single cell RNA sequencing revealed a shift towards a more smooth muscle cell like identity in the cells with the shortest telomeres. Poor cardiomyocyte function and increased sensitivity to stress directly correlated with the extent of telomere shortening. Collectively our data demonstrates a TERT dependent cardiomyogenic differentiation defect,highlighting the CRISPRi TERT hiPSCs model as a powerful platform to study the mechanisms and consequences of short telomeres in the heart and also in the context of telomeropathies. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00018-024-05239-7. View Publication

Timothy syndrome (TS) is a severe,multisystem disorder characterized by autism,epilepsy,long-QT syndrome and other neuropsychiatric conditions 1 . TS type 1 (TS1) is caused by a gain-of-function variant in the alternatively spliced and developmentally enriched CACNA1C exon 8A,as opposed to its counterpart exon 8. We previously uncovered several phenotypes in neurons derived from patients with TS1,including delayed channel inactivation,prolonged depolarization-induced calcium rise,impaired interneuron migration,activity-dependent dendrite retraction and an unanticipated persistent expression of exon 8A 2 – 6 . We reasoned that switching CACNA1C exon utilization from 8A to 8 would represent a potential therapeutic strategy. Here we developed antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to effectively decrease the inclusion of exon 8A in human cells both in vitro and,following transplantation,in vivo. We discovered that the ASO-mediated switch from exon 8A to 8 robustly rescued defects in patient-derived cortical organoids and migration in forebrain assembloids. Leveraging a transplantation platform previously developed 7,we found that a single intrathecal ASO administration rescued calcium changes and in vivo dendrite retraction of patient neurons,suggesting that suppression of CACNA1C exon 8A expression is a potential treatment for TS1. Broadly,these experiments illustrate how a multilevel,in vivo and in vitro stem cell model-based approach can identify strategies to reverse disease-relevant neural pathophysiology. Subject terms: Autism spectrum disorders,Development of the nervous system View Publication

The implementation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has effectively restricted the transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and improved overall clinical outcomes. However,a complete cure for HIV remains out of reach,as the virus persists in a stable pool of infected cell reservoir that is resistant to therapy and thus a main barrier towards complete elimination of viral infection. While the mechanisms by which host proteins govern viral gene expression and latency are well-studied,the emerging regulatory functions of non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) in the context of T cell activation,HIV gene expression and viral latency have not yet been thoroughly explored. Here,we report the identification of the Cytoskeleton Regulator (CYTOR) long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) as an activator of HIV gene expression that is upregulated following T cell stimulation. Functional studies show that CYTOR suppresses viral latency by directly binding to the HIV promoter and associating with the cellular positive transcription elongation factor (P-TEFb) to activate viral gene expression. CYTOR also plays a global role in regulating cellular gene expression,including those involved in controlling actin dynamics. Depletion of CYTOR expression reduces cytoplasmic actin polymerization in response to T cell activation. In addition,treating HIV-infected cells with pharmacological inhibitors of actin polymerization reduces HIV gene expression. We conclude that both direct and indirect effects of CYTOR regulate HIV gene expression. View Publication

Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency (SSADHD) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive neurometabolic disorder caused by ALDH5A1 mutations presenting with autism and epilepsy. Here,we report the generation and characterization of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) derived from fibroblasts of three unrelated SSADHD patients – one female and two males with the CRISPR-corrected isogenic controls. These individuals are clinically diagnosed and are being followed in a longitudinal clinical study. View Publication

The fine control of synaptic function requires robust trans-synaptic molecular interactions. However,it remains poorly understood how trans-synaptic bridges change to reflect the functional states of the synapse. Here,we develop optical tools to visualize in firing synapses the molecular behavior of two trans-synaptic proteins,LGI1 and ADAM23,and find that neuronal activity acutely rearranges their abundance at the synaptic cleft. Surprisingly,synaptic LGI1 is primarily not secreted,as described elsewhere,but exo- and endocytosed through its interaction with ADAM23. Activity-driven translocation of LGI1 facilitates the formation of trans-synaptic connections proportionally to the history of activity of the synapse,adjusting excitatory transmission to synaptic firing rates. Accordingly,we find that patient-derived autoantibodies against LGI1 reduce its surface fraction and cause increased glutamate release. Our findings suggest that LGI1 abundance at the synaptic cleft can be acutely remodeled and serves as a critical control point for synaptic function. View Publication

Leigh syndrome French Canadian type (LSFC) is a recessive neurodegenerative disease characterized by tissue-specific deficiency in cytochrome c oxidase (COX),the fourth complex in the oxidative phosphorylation system. LSFC is caused by mutations in the leucine rich pentatricopeptide repeat containing gene ( LRPPRC ). Most LSFC patients in Quebec are homozygous for an A354V substitution that causes a decrease in the expression of the LRPPRC protein. While LRPPRC is ubiquitously expressed and is involved in multiple cellular functions,tissue-specific expression of LRPPRC and COX activity is correlated with clinical features. In this proof-of-principle study,we developed human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based models from fibroblasts taken from a patient with LSFC,homozygous for the LRPPRC *354V allele,and from a control,homozygous for the LRPPRC *A354 allele. Specifically,for both of these fibroblast lines we generated hiPSC,hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and hepatocyte-like cell (hiPSC-HLCs) lines,as well as the three germ layers. We observed that LRPPRC protein expression is reduced in all cell lines/layers derived from LSFC patient compared to control cells,with a reduction ranging from ∼70% in hiPSC-CMs to undetectable levels in hiPSC-HLC,reflecting tissue heterogeneity observed in patient tissues. We next performed exploratory analyses of these cell lines and observed that COX protein expression was reduced in all cell lines derived from LSFC patient compared to control cells. We also observed that mutant LRPPRC was associated with altered expression of key markers of endoplasmic reticulum stress response in hiPSC-HLCs but not in other cell types that were tested. While this demonstrates feasibility of the approach to experimentally study genotype-based differences that have tissue-specific impacts,this study will need to be extended to a larger number of patients and controls to not only validate the current observations but also to delve more deeply in the pathogenic mechanisms of LSFC. View Publication

Solar ultraviolet (sUV) exposure is known to cause skin damage. However,the pathological mechanisms of sUV on hair follicles have not been extensively explored. Here,we established a model of sUV-exposed skin and its appendages using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived skin organoids with planar morphology containing hair follicles. Our model closely recapitulated several symptoms of photodamage,including skin barrier disruption,extracellular matrix degradation,and inflammatory response. Specifically,sUV induced structural damage and catagenic transition in hair follicles. As a potential therapeutic agent for hair follicles,we applied exosomes isolated from human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells to sUV-exposed organoids. As a result,exosomes effectively alleviated inflammatory responses by inhibiting NF-κB activation,thereby suppressing structural damage and promoting hair follicle regeneration. Ultimately,our model provided a valuable platform to mimic skin diseases,particularly those involving hair follicles,and to evaluate the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of potential therapeutics. View Publication