技术资料

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a specific subpopulation of cancer cells with the ability of self‐renewal,infinite proliferation,multidifferentiation and tumorigenicity,and play critical roles in cancer progression and treatment resistance. CSCs are tightly regulated by the tumor microenvironment,such as hypoxia; however,how hypoxia regulates CSCs in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. The proportion of ALDH hi cells was examined using the Aldefluor assay. Tankyrase inhibitor XAV939 and siRNA were used to inhibit β‐catenin while pcDNA3‐β‐catenin (S33Y) plasmid enhanced the expression of β‐catenin. Western blot was administered for protein detection. The mRNA expression was measured by quantitative real‐time PCR. We found that hypoxia led to an increase in the proportion of ALDH hi cells in lung squamous carcinoma (LUSC) H520 cells,while causing a decrease in the ALDH hi cell proportion in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) A549 cells. Similarly,β‐catenin expression was upregulated in H520 cells but downregulated in A549 cells upon exposure to hypoxia. Mechanically,the proportion of ALDH hi cells in both cell lines was decreased by β‐catenin inhibitor or siRNA knockdown,whereas increased after β‐catenin overexpression. Furthermore,hypoxia treatment suppressed E‐cadherin expression in H520 cells and enhanced N‐cadherin and β‐catenin expression,while this effect was completely opposite in A549 cells. The hypoxia‐EMT‐β‐catenin axis functions as an important regulator for the proportion of CSCs in NSCLC and could potentially be explored as therapeutic targets in the future. View Publication

T cells protect tissues from cancer. Although investigations in mice showed that amino acids (AA) critically regulate T cell immunity,this remains poorly understood in humans. Here,we describe the AA composition of interstitial fluids in keratinocyte-derived skin cancers (KDSCs) and study the effect of AA on T cells using models of primary human cells and tissues. Gln contributed to ∼15% of interstitial AAs and promoted interferon gamma (IFN-γ),but not granzyme B (GzB) expression,in CD8 + T cells. Furthermore,the Toll-like receptor 7 agonist imiquimod (IMQ),a common treatment for KDSCs,down-regulated the metabolic gatekeepers c-MYC and mTORC1,as well as the AA transporter ASCT2 and intracellular Gln,Asn,Ala,and Asp in T cells. Reduced proliferation and IFN-γ expression,yet increased GzB,paralleled IMQ effects on AA. Finally,Gln was sufficient to promote IFN-γ-production in IMQ-treated T cells. Our findings indicate that Gln metabolism can be harnessed for treating KDSCs. Subject areas: Dermatology,Immunology View Publication

Glioblastoma (GBM) poses a significant challenge in oncology and stands as the most aggressive form of brain cancer. A primary contributor to its relentless nature is the stem‐like cancer cells,called glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs). GSCs have the capacity for self‐renewal and tumorigenesis,leading to frequent GBM recurrences and complicating treatment modalities. While natural killer (NK) cells exhibit potential in targeting and eliminating stem‐like cancer cells,their efficacy within the GBM microenvironment is limited due to constrained infiltration and function. To address this limitation,novel investigations focusing on boosting NK cell activity against GSCs are imperative. This study presents two streamlined image‐based assays assessing NK cell migration and cytotoxicity towards GSCs. It details protocols and explores the strengths and limitations of these methods. These assays could aid in identifying novel targets to enhance NK cell activity towards GSCs,facilitating the development of NK cell‐based immunotherapy for improved GBM treatment. View Publication

Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and Moraxella catarrhalis (Mcat) are two common respiratory tract pathogens often associated with acute exacerbations in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as well as with otitis media (OM) in children. Although there is evidence that these pathogens can adopt persistence mechanisms such as biofilm formation,the precise means through which they contribute to disease severity and chronicity remains incompletely understood,posing challenges for their effective eradication. The identification of potential vaccine candidates frequently entails the characterization of the host-pathogen interplay in vitro even though this approach is limited by the fact that conventional models do not permit long term bacterial infections. In the present work,by using air-liquid-interface (ALI) human airway in vitro models,we aimed to recreate COPD-related persistent bacterial infections. In particular,we explored an alternative use of the ALI system consisting in the assembly of an inverted epithelium grown on the basal part of a transwell membrane with the aim to enable the functionality of natural defense mechanisms such as mucociliary clearance and cellular extrusion that are usually hampered during conventional ALI infection experiments. The inversion of the epithelium did not affect tissue differentiation and considerably delayed NTHi or Mcat infection progression,allowing one to monitor host-pathogen interactions for up to three weeks. Notably,the use of these models,coupled with confocal and transmission electron microscopy,revealed unique features associated with NTHi and Mcat infection,highlighting persistence strategies including the formation of intracellular bacterial communities (IBCs) and surface-associated biofilm-like structures. Overall,this study demonstrates the possibility to perform long term host-pathogen investigations in vitro with the aim to define persistence mechanisms adopted by respiratory pathogens and individuate potential new vaccine targets. View Publication

Hematopoiesis continues throughout life to produce all types of blood cells from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Metabolic state is a known regulator of HSC self-renewal and differentiation,but whether and how metabolic sensor O -GlcNAcylation,which can be modulated via an inhibition of its cycling enzymes O -GlcNAcase (OGA) and O -GlcNAc transferase (OGT),contributes to hematopoiesis remains largely unknown. Herein,isogenic,single-cell clones of OGA -depleted (OGAi) and OGT -depleted (OGTi) human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were successfully generated from the master hiPSC line MUSIi012-A,which were reprogrammed from CD34 + hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) containing epigenetic memory. The established OGAi and OGTi hiPSCs exhibiting an increase or decrease in cellular O -GlcNAcylation concomitant with their loss of OGA and OGT,respectively,appeared normal in phenotype and karyotype,and retained pluripotency,although they may favor differentiation toward certain germ lineages. Upon hematopoietic differentiation through mesoderm induction and endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition,we found that OGA inhibition accelerates hiPSC commitment toward HSPCs and that disruption of O -GlcNAc homeostasis affects their commitment toward erythroid lineage. The differentiated HSPCs from all groups were capable of giving rise to all hematopoietic progenitors,thus confirming their functional characteristics. Altogether,the established single-cell clones of OGTi and OGAi hiPSCs represent a valuable platform for further dissecting the roles of O -GlcNAcylation in blood cell development at various stages and lineages of blood cells. The incomplete knockout of OGA and OGT in these hiPSCs makes them susceptible to additional manipulation,i.e.,by small molecules,allowing the molecular dynamics studies of O -GlcNAcylation. View Publication

Hemangiosarcoma and angiosarcoma are soft-tissue sarcomas of blood vessel–forming cells in dogs and humans,respectively. These vasoformative sarcomas are aggressive and highly metastatic,with disorganized,irregular blood-filled vascular spaces. Our objective was to define molecular programs which support the niche that enables progression of canine hemangiosarcoma and human angiosarcoma. Dog-in-mouse hemangiosarcoma xenografts recapitulated the vasoformative and highly angiogenic morphology and molecular characteristics of primary tumors. Blood vessels in the tumors were complex and disorganized,and they were lined by both donor and host cells. In a series of xenografts,we observed that the transplanted hemangiosarcoma cells created exuberant myeloid hyperplasia and gave rise to lymphoproliferative tumors of mouse origin. Our functional analyses indicate that hemangiosarcoma cells generate a microenvironment that supports expansion and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor populations. Furthermore,gene expression profiling data revealed hemangiosarcoma cells expressed a repertoire of hematopoietic cytokines capable of regulating the surrounding stromal cells. We conclude that canine hemangiosarcomas,and possibly human angiosarcomas,maintain molecular properties that provide hematopoietic support and facilitate stromal reactions,suggesting their potential involvement in promoting the growth of hematopoietic tumors. We demonstrate that hemangiosarcomas regulate molecular programs supporting hematopoietic expansion and differentiation,providing insights into their potential roles in creating a permissive stromal-immune environment for tumor progression. View Publication

STAT3 is constitutively activated in many cancer types,including lung cancer,and can induce cancer cell proliferation and cancer stem cell (CSC) maintenance. STAT3 is activated by tyrosine kinases,such as JAK and SRC,but the mechanism by which STAT3 maintains its activated state in cancer cells remains unclear. Here,we show that PRMT5 directly methylates STAT3 and enhances its activated tyrosine phosphorylation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. PRMT5 expression is also induced by STAT3,suggesting the presence of a positive feedback loop in cancer cells. Furthermore,methylation of STAT3 at arginine 609 by PRMT5 is important for its transcriptional activity and support of tumour growth and CSC maintenance. Indeed,NSCLC cells expressing the STAT3 mutant which R609 was replaced to alanine (R609K) show significantly impaired tumour growth in nude mice. Overall,our study reveals a mechanism by which STAT3 remains activated in NSCLC and provides a new target for cancer therapeutic approaches. Subject terms: Oncogenes,Non-small-cell lung cancer,Growth factor signalling View Publication

Neural–tumor interactions drive glioma growth as evidenced in preclinical models,but clinical validation is limited. We present an epigenetically defined neural signature of glioblastoma that independently predicts patients’ survival. We use reference signatures of neural cells to deconvolve tumor DNA and classify samples into low- or high-neural tumors. High-neural glioblastomas exhibit hypomethylated CpG sites and upregulation of genes associated with synaptic integration. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals a high abundance of malignant stemcell-like cells in high-neural glioblastoma,primarily of the neural lineage. These cells are further classified as neural-progenitor-cell-like,astrocyte-like and oligodendrocyte-progenitor-like,alongside oligodendrocytes and excitatory neurons. In line with these findings,high-neural glioblastoma cells engender neuron-to-glioma synapse formation in vitro and in vivo and show an unfavorable survival after xenografting. In patients,a high-neural signature is associated with decreased overall and progression-free survival. High-neural tumors also exhibit increased functional connectivity in magnetencephalography and resting-state magnet resonance imaging and can be detected via DNA analytes and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in patients’ plasma. The prognostic importance of the neural signature was further validated in patients diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma. Our study presents an epigenetically defined malignant neural signature in high-grade gliomas that is prognostically relevant. High-neural gliomas likely require a maximized surgical resection approach for improved outcomes. Subject terms: Translational research,CNS cancer,DNA methylation View Publication

As a critical mitotic regulator,Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is aberrantly activated in a wide range of cancers. Therapeutic targeting of AUKRA is a promising strategy for the treatment of solid tumors. In this study,we evaluated the preclinical characteristics of JAB-2485,a small-molecule inhibitor of AURKA currently in Phase I/IIa clinical trial in the US ( NCT05490472 ). Biochemical studies demonstrated that JAB-2485 is potent and highly selective on AURKA,with subnanomolar IC 50 and around 1500-fold selectivity over AURKB or AURKC. In addition,JAB-2485 exhibited favorable pharmacokinetic properties featured by low clearance and good bioavailability,strong dose–response relationship,as well as low risk for hematotoxicity and off-target liability. As a single agent,JAB-2485 effectively induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis and inhibited the proliferation of small cell lung cancer,triple-negative breast cancer,and neuroblastoma cells. Furthermore,JAB-2485 exhibited robust in vivo antitumor activity both as monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapies or the bromodomain inhibitor JAB-8263 in xenograft models of various cancer types. Together,these encouraging preclinical data provide a strong basis for safety and efficacy evaluations of JAB-2485 in the clinical setting. View Publication

Brain organoids represent a useful tool for modeling of neurodevelopmental disorders and can recapitulate brain volume alterations such as microcephaly. To monitor organoid growth,brightfield microscopy images are frequently used and evaluated manually which is time-consuming and prone to observer-bias. Recent software applications for organoid evaluation address this issue using classical or AI-based methods. These pipelines have distinct strengths and weaknesses that are not evident to external observers. We provide a dataset of more than 1,400 images of 64 trackable brain organoids from four clones differentiated from healthy and diseased patients. This dataset is especially powerful to test and compare organoid analysis pipelines because of (1) trackable organoids (2) frequent imaging during development (3) clone diversity (4) distinct clone development (5) cross sample imaging by two different labs (6) common imaging distractors,and (6) pixel-level ground truth organoid annotations. Therefore,this dataset allows to perform differentiated analyses to delineate strengths,weaknesses,and generalizability of automated organoid analysis pipelines as well as analysis of clone diversity and similarity. Subject terms: Disease model,Machine learning View Publication

Establishing robust models of human myelinating Schwann cells is critical for studying peripheral nerve injury and disease. Stem cell differentiation has emerged as a key human cell model and disease motivating development of Schwann cell differentiation protocols. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are considered the ideal pluripotent cell but ethical concerns regarding their use have propelled the popularity of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Given that the equivalence of hESCs and hiPSCs remains controversial,we sought to compare the molecular and functional equivalence of hESC- and hiPSC-derived Schwann cells generated with our previously reported protocol. We identified only modest transcriptome differences by RNA sequencing and insignificant proteome differences by antibody array. Additionally,both cell types comparably improved nerve regeneration and function in a chronic denervation and regeneration animal model. Our findings demonstrate that Schwann cells derived from hESCs and hiPSCs with our protocol are molecularly comparable and functionally equivalent. Subject areas: Neuroscience,Cell biology,Stem cells research,Transcriptomics View Publication

Differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into subtype-specific neurons holds substantial potential for disease modeling in vitro . For successful differentiation,a detailed understanding of the transcriptional networks regulating cell fate decisions is critical. The heterochronic nature of neurodevelopment,during which distinct cells in the brain and during in vitro differentiation acquire their fates in an unsynchronized manner,hinders pooled transcriptional comparisons. One approach is to “translate” chronologic time into linear developmental and maturational time. Simple binary promotor-driven fluorescent proteins (FPs) to pool similar cells are unable to achieve this goal,due to asynchronous promotor onset in individual cells. We tested five fluorescent timer (FT) molecules expressed from the endogenous paired box 6 (PAX6) promoter in 293T and human hPSCs. Each of these FT systems faithfully reported chronologic time in 293T cells,but none of the FT constructs followed the same fluorescence kinetics in human neural progenitor cells. Subject areas: Natural sciences,Biological sciences,Biochemistry,Molecular biology,Neuroscience,Cellular neuroscience,Cell biology View Publication