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Biology subjects

Nakahata, T.

Publications and source records attributed to Nakahata, T..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

SMN promotes mitochondrial metabolic maturation during myogenesis by regulating the MYOD-miRNA axis.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a congenital neuromuscular disease caused by the mutation or deletion of survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. Although the primary cause of progressive muscle atrophy in SMA has classically been considered the degeneration of motor neurons, recent studies have indicated a skeletal muscle-specific pathological phenotype such as impaired mitochondrial function and enhanced cell death. Here we found that the downregulation of SMN causes mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent cell death in in vitro models of skeletal myogenesis with both a murine C2C12 cell line and human induced pluripotent stem cells. During myogenesis, SMN binds to the genome upstream of the transcriptional start sites of MYOD1 and microRNA (miR)-1 and -206. Accordingly, the loss of SMN downregulates these miRs, whereas supplementation of the miRs recovers the mitochondrial function, cell survival and myotube formation of SMN-deficient C2C12, indicating the SMN-miR axis is essential for myogenic metabolic maturation. Additionally, introduction of the miRs into ex vivo muscle stem cells derived from {Delta}7-SMA mice caused myotube formation and muscle contraction. In conclusion, our data revealed novel transcriptional roles of SMN during myogenesis, providing an alternative muscle-oriented therapeutic strategy for SMA patients. HighlightsO_LIReduced SMN causes mitochondrial dysregulation in myogenic cells. C_LIO_LIReduced SMN downregulates miR-1 and miR-206 expression in myogenic cells. C_LIO_LISMN protein binds to the genome upstream of MYOD1, miR-1 and miR-206. C_LIO_LImiR-1 and miR-206 are sufficient to improve skeletal muscle function in an SMA model. C_LI

cell biology↗

Inhibition of aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling promotes the terminal differentiation of human erythrocytes

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) plays an important role during mammalian embryo development. Inhibition of AHR signaling promotes the development of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. AHR also regulates the functional maturation of blood cells, such as T cells and megakaryocytes. However, little is known about the role of AHR modulation during the development of erythroid cells. In this study, we used the AHR antagonist StemRegenin 1 (SR1) and the AHR agonist 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) during different stages of human erythropoiesis to elucidate the function of AHR. We found that antagonizing AHR signaling improved the production of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived erythrocytes and enhanced erythroid terminal differentiation. RNA-sequencing showed that SR1 treatment of proerythroblasts upregulated the expression of erythrocyte differentiation-related genes and downregulated actin organization-associated genes. We found that SR1 promoted F-actin remodeling in terminally differentiated erythrocytes, favoring the maturation of the cytoskeleton and enucleation. We demonstrated that the effects of AHR inhibition on erythroid maturation resulted from an increase in F-actin remodeling. Our findings help uncover the mechanism for AHR-mediated human erythroid cell differentiation. We also provide a new approach toward the large-scale production of functionally mature hPSC-derived erythrocytes for use in translational applications.

cell biology↗

High-throughput Screening with Pluripotent Stem Cells Identifies CUDC-907 as an Effective Compound for Restoring the Proinflammatory Phenotype of Nakajo-Nishimura Syndrome

Nakajo-Nishimura syndrome (NNS) is an autoinflammatory disorder caused by a homozygous mutations in PSMB8 gene. The administration of systemic corticosteroids is partially effective, but continuous treatment causes severe side effects. We previously established a pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived NNS disease model that reproduces several inflammatory phenotypes including the overproduction of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and interferon gamma-induced protein-10 (IP-10). Here we performed high-throughput compound screening (HTS) using this PSC-derived NNS model to find potential therapeutic candidates and identified CUDC-907 as an effective inhibitor of the release of MCP-1 and IP-10. CUDC-907 did not induce cell death within therapeutic concentrations and was also effective on primary patient cells. Further analysis indicated that the inhibitory effect was post-transcriptional. These findings suggest that HTS with PSC-derived disease models is useful for finding drug candidates for autoinflammatory diseases. Significance statementIn this study, we identified a histone deacetylase inhibitor CUDC-907 as a potential effective compound for ameliorating overproduction of inflammatory chemokines in an autoinflammatory disease named Nakajo-Nishimura syndrome. We performed high-throughput screening using pluripotent stem cell-derived monocytic cell lines. Our data prove the validity of screening system as a versatile platform for seeking candidate compounds for the treatment of congenital immunological disorders associated with monocytic lineage cells.

immunology↗

Biomimetic Aorta-Gonad-Mesonephros on-a-Chip to Study Human Developmental Hematopoiesis

We established a multilayer microfluidic Aorta-Gonad-Mesonephros (AGM)-on-a-chip to emulate developmental hematopoiesis from human pluripotent stem cells. We show that the AGM-chip efficiently derives endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT) in the presence of mesenchymal stroma and endothelial cells. The AGM-chip could dissect the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human developmental hematopoiesis.

bioengineering↗

Novel Pure αVβ3 Integrin Antagonists That Do Not Induce Receptor Extension, Prime the Receptor, or Enhance Angiogenesis at Low Concentrations

The integrin V{beta}3 receptor has been implicated in several important diseases, but no V{beta}3 antagonists are approved for human therapy. One possible limitation of current small-molecule antagonists is their ability to induce a major conformational change in the receptor that induces it to adopt a high-affinity ligand-binding state. In response, we used structural inferences from a pure peptide antagonist to design the small-molecule pure antagonists TDI-4161 and TDI-3761. Both compounds inhibit V{beta}3-mediated cell adhesion to V{beta}3 ligands, but do not induce the conformational change as judged by antibody binding, electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography, and receptor priming studies. Both compounds demonstrated the favorable property of inhibiting bone resorption in vitro, supporting potential value in treating osteoporosis. Neither, however, had the unfavorable property of the V{beta}3 antagonist cilengitide of paradoxically enhancing aortic sprout angiogenesis at concentrations below its IC50, which correlates with cilengitides enhancement of tumor growth in vivo.\n\nSignificance StatementV{beta}3 is a potential therapeutic target for several important human diseases, but there are currently no V{beta}3 antagonists approved for human therapy. Current candidates are primarily based on the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif and act as partial agonists in that they induce V{beta}3 to undergo a conformational change that converts it into a high-affinity ligand-binding state. We have used structure-guided design to produce pure small-molecule V{beta}3 antagonists that do not induce the conformational change as judged by protein crystallography, electron microscopy, and receptor priming. These compounds inhibit V{beta}3-mediated bone resorption in vitro, but unlike the partial agonist cilengitide, do not enhance angiogenesis at low doses, a property that correlates with low-dose cilengitides enhancement of tumor growth in vivo. These pure V{beta}3 antagonists can help define V{beta}3s role in animal models. If they demonstrate benefits over partial agonists in these model systems, they may be appropriate to consider for human therapy.

pharmacology and toxicology↗