Biology subjects

Rath, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Rath, M..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Prenatal Inflammation as a Determinant of Long-Term Cardiovascular Risk: Evidence from a Murine Model

Background Intrauterine inflammation is associated with increased lifetime cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in offspring, yet long-term molecular mechanisms remain underexplored. We investigated the lasting cardiometabolic, hemodynamic, and vascular effects of prenatal inflammatory exposure in adult offspring using a mouse model. Methods On day 15 of gestation, pregnant CD-1 mice were randomized to receive intraperitoneal (IP) injections of either lipopolysaccharide (LPS group) or saline (SAL group). Blood samples were collected before and after injection to measure IL-6 concentrations. Blood pressure (BP) in offspring was measured at 6-8 months of age using the tail-cuff method, and tissues were collected. Protein was extracted from the brain cortex to measure cytokines utilizing the xMAP Luminex assay. The C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured in serum. Gene expression of IL-6, NOS3, NFkB, AT-1, and Trp53 was determined by real time RT-qPCR in the aorta. The experimental unit was a mother. Results were analyzed using the appropriate statistical methods. Results Maternal LPS administration induced significant acute systemic inflammation (P<0.05 for IL-6). At 6-8 months after delivery, maternal circulating CRP was significantly higher in LPS mice as compared to SAL (P=0.02). In offspring at 6-8 months of age, systolic BP was significantly elevated in LPS groups compared with SAL animals (P=0.04). LPS-exposed offspring exhibited higher total body and visceral adipose tissue weights. Aortic expression of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1) and NFkB were significantly upregulated (P=0.04 and P=0.03, respectively). Cortices of LPS offspring displayed a pro-inflammatory profile with increased total Inflammatory score, elevated pro-inflammatory IL-1{beta}, and reduced anti-inflammatory IL-4 and IL-10. Furthermore, protective Trp53 gene expression was significantly downregulated in both the aorta (P=0.01) and heart (P=0.04). Conclusion A single mid-gestation inflammatory insult programs long-term cardio-inflammatory perturbations in offspring and results in long-term systemic inflammation in mothers. Prenatal LPS exposure induces persistent visceral obesity, hypertension, vascular RAS upregulation, central neuroinflammation, and cardiac/vascular Trp53 suppression in adult offspring, offering a mechanistic link between prenatal inflammation and offspring CVD risk.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Stomatal setpoints and environmental responsiveness are sculpted by developmental trajectories

Efficient gas and water exchange between plants and their environment largely depends on the number and distribution of stomata, cellular valves in leaf epidermis. Core genetic regulators of stomatal cell identity and pattern along with asymmetric stem-cell like divisions in stomatal precursors are hypothesized to customize stomatal production for optimal leaf performance. How these regulators work in concert and how division dynamics are modified and adjusted in different environments, however, are poorly understood. Here, we leveraged the variation in stomatal patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana accessions from diverse environments to define developmental rules and constraints in the stomatal lineage. The accessions subtle and quantitative variation enables us to identify which cellular parameters are flexible, revealing how developmental plasticity generates phenotypic plasticity. By developing live-cell imaging tools to track cellular behaviors during leaf growth under varying environmental conditions in these accessions, we could decompose stomatal density variation into its developmental origins. Variation in final stomatal numbers is driven by differences in the relative contributions of stomatal initiation, cell size-based fate thresholds, general proliferative capacity, and coordination between sister and neighbor cell behaviors. Overall, diverse accessions converge toward two lineage regimes: one dominated by autonomous decisions with loose cell-cell coordination, the other by extensive cell-cell coordination. Challenging accessions with environmental fluctuations revealed regime-specific flexibility, with plasticity primarily mediated by a single division-related parameter. Our results show how cellular parameters integrate into alternative developmental strategies that shape environmental responsiveness.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Lipid-induced Caveolin1-Lipid droplet trafficking is associated with lipid droplet growth

Caveolae are 50-100 nm sized plasma membrane invaginations involved in cellular lipid uptake and lipid accumulation. Several caveolin1 and cavin1 mutations are associated to human lipodystrophy. Interestingly, previous research identified caveolae proteins at lipid droplets although their specific cellular function at lipid droplets and in lipid trafficking is not understood. Here, we show that extracellular dietary lipids like oleic acid and cholesterol shift caveolae at the plasma membrane to highly spherical invaginations. Within 3 hours of lipid treatment caveolin1 accumulates specifically to lipid droplets. Correlative fluorescence FIB-SEM and split-APEX proteomics revealed no caveolar vesicles at the lipid droplet but caveolin1 alone. Mechanistically, caveolin1-lipid droplet trafficking is regulated by EHD2 at the plasma membrane level, followed by caveolin1 localization to EEA1- and Rab5-positive endosomes within 1 hour of oleic acid treatment, and subsequently lipid droplet accumulation. Caveolin1-lipid droplet trafficking does not depend on lysosomal activity. Surprisingly, the deletion of the central caveolin1 {beta}-barrel (Cav1-F160X), a mutation found in lipodystrophy patients, abolished caveolin1-lipid droplet trafficking and lipid droplet growth. Taken together, our results show that dietary lipids induce caveolae uptake, caveolin1 accumulation to lipid droplets and a caveolin1-dependent lipid droplet growth.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2025

CD4 T cells acquire innate capability upon classical T cell activation

Memory T cells, a sizable compartment of the mature immune system, enable enhanced responses upon re-infection with the same pathogen. We have recently shown that virus-experienced innate acting T (TIA) cells can modulate infectious or autoimmune diseases through TCR-independent IFN-{gamma} production. However, how these cells arise remains unclear. Here, we show that CD4 TIA cells are present in various disease settings hinting towards a disease-agnostic nature. TCR stimulation and CD28 co-stimulation are sufficient to induce naive murine and human CD4 T cells to become capable of cytokine-mediated, TCR-independent IFN-{gamma} responses. In true TIA fashion, adoptive transfer of in vitro-induced TIA cells in mice yielded a TCR-independent IFN-{gamma} response during the innate phase of a Legionella pneumophila infection. Our data thus shows that CD4 TIA cells are more ubiquitous than anticipated and could therefore be involved in more settings than expected.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Breaking the Phalanx: Overcoming Bacterial Drug Resistance with Quorum Sensing Inhibitors that Enhance Therapeutic Activity of Antibiotics

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections loom over humanity as an increasingly deadly threat. There exists a dire need for new treatments, especially those that synergize with our existing arsenal of antibiotic drugs, to help overcome the gap in antibiotic efficacy and attenuate the development of new antibiotic resistance in the most dangerous pathogens. Quorum-sensing systems in bacteria drive the formation of biofilms, increase surface motility, and enhance other virulence factors, making these systems attractive targets for the discovery of novel antibacterials. Quorum-sensing inhibitors (QSIs) are hypothesized to synergize with existing antibiotics, making bacteria more sensitive to the effects of these drugs. In this study, we aimed to find the synergistic combinations between the QSIs and known antibiotics to combat the two deadliest hospital infections - Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. We mined biochemical activity databases and literature to identify known, high-efficacy QSIs against these bacteria. We used these data to develop and validate a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) model for predicting QSI activity and then employed this model to identify new potential QSIs from the Inxight database of approved and investigational drugs. We then tested binary mixtures of the identified QSIs with 11 existing antibiotics using a combinatorial matrix screening approach with ten (five of each) clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii. Amongst explored drug combinations, 22 exhibited a synergistic effect. Although no mixture inhibiting all the strains was found, piperacillin combined with ketoprofen, indomethacin, and piroxicam demonstrated the broadest antimicrobial action. We anticipate that further preclinical investigation of these combinations of novel repurposed QSIs with a known antibiotic may lead to novel clinical candidates. Table of Content Graphic O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=121 SRC="FIGDIR/small/633658v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (52K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17ee291org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14cc242org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@65a9e2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@743ac9_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2024

High-throughput differentiation of human blood vessel organoids reveals overlapping and distinct functions of the cerebral cavernous malformation proteins

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of thin-walled enlarged blood vessels in the central nervous system that are prone to recurrent hemorrhage and can occur in both sporadic and familial forms. The familial form results from loss-of-function variants in the CCM1, CCM2, or CCM3 gene. Despite a better understanding of CCM pathogenesis in recent years, it is still unclear why CCM3 mutations often lead to a more aggressive phenotype than CCM1 or CCM2 variants. By combining high-throughput differentiation of blood vessel organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) with a CCM1, CCM2, or CCM3 knockout, single-cell RNA sequencing, and high-content imaging, we uncovered both shared and distinct functions of the CCM proteins. While there was a significant overlap of differentially expressed genes in fibroblasts across all three knockout conditions, inactivation of CCM1, CCM2, or CCM3 also led to specific gene expression patterns in neuronal, mesenchymal, and endothelial cell populations, respectively. Taking advantage of the different fluorescent labels of the hiPSCs, we could also visualize the abnormal expansion of CCM1 and CCM3 knockout cells when differentiated together with wild-type cells into mosaic blood vessel organoids. In contrast, CCM2 knockout cells showed even reduced proliferation. These observations may help to explain the less severe clinical course in individuals with a pathogenic variant in CCM2 and to decode the molecular and cellular heterogeneity in CCM disease. Finally, the ability to differentiate blood vessel organoids in a 96-well format will further facilitate their use in drug discovery and other biomedical research studies. STATEMENTS AND DECLARATIONSO_ST_ABSConflicts of interest statementC_ST_ABSThe authors declare no competing interests. The here described protocol for high-throughput organoid synthesis has been filed as a patent application at the European Patent Office (Process number: EP24213596.0) Author contribution statementMR, DSk, and UF designed the study. DSk, VS, LM, and RAP performed most of the functional experiments. SH and TA performed the CAM assays. SR performed the immunohistochemical stainings. SB, DSi, DSk, and VS performed the confocal microscopy and high-content imaging analyses. AE, CB, and EMB performed the scRNA sequencing analysis. AW and CAH performed and analyzed the karyotyping of the hiPSC clones. DSk, RAP, VS, KC, MR, and SB analyzed the data. DSk, VS, LM, and MR prepared figures. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results. DSk, RAP, VS, and MR drafted the manuscript, and all authors contributed to writing. Ethics statementThis study does not involve human participants or animal subjects. Availability of data and materialsAll relevant data are published within the paper and the supplementary files. ScRNA sequencing data can be accessed through the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (record number: GSE276497).

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Neurog1 and Olig2 integrate patterning and neurogenesis signals in development of zebrafish dopaminergic and glutamatergic dual transmitter neurons

Dopaminergic neurons develop in distinct neural domains by integrating local patterning and neurogenesis signals. While the proneural proteins Neurog1 and Olig2 have been previously linked to development of dopaminergic neurons, their dependence on local prepatterning and specific contributions to dopaminergic neurogenesis are not well understood. Here, we show that both transcription factors are differentially required for the development of defined dopaminergic glutamatergic subpopulations in the zebrafish posterior tuberculum, which are homologous to A11 dopaminergic neurons in mammals. Both Olig2 and Neurog1 are expressed in otpa expressing progenitor cells and appear to act upstream of Otpa during dopaminergic neurogenesis. Our epistasis analysis confirmed that Neurog1 acts downstream of Notch signaling, while Olig2 acts downstream of Shh, but upstream and/or in parallel to Notch signaling. Furthermore, we identified Olig2 to be an upstream regulator of neurog1 in dopaminergic neurogenesis. This regulation occurs through Olig2-dependent repression of the proneural repressor and Notch target gene her2. Our study reveals how Neurog1 and Olig2 integrate local patterning signals, including Shh, with Notch neurogenic selection signaling, to specify the progenitor population and initiate neurogenesis and differentiation of A11-type dopaminergic neurons.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Identification and characterization of repressive domains in Drosophila transcription factors

All multicellular life relies on differential gene expression, determined by regulatory DNA elements and DNA-binding transcription factors that mediate activation and repression via cofactor recruitment. While activators have been extensively characterized, repressors are less well studied and their repressive domains (RDs) are typically unknown, as are the RDs properties and the co-repressors (CoRs) they recruit. Here, we develop the high-throughput next-generation-sequencing-based method Repressive-Domain (RD)-seq to systematically identify RDs in complex libraries. Screening more than 200,000 fragments covering the coding sequences of all transcription-related proteins in Drosophila melanogaster, we identify 195 RDs in known repressors and in proteins not previously associated with repression. Many RDs contain recurrent short peptide motifs that are required for RD function, as demonstrated by motif mutagenesis, and are conserved between fly and human. Moreover, we show that RDs which contain one of five distinct repressive motifs interact with and depend on different CoRs, including Groucho, CtBP, Sin3A or Smrter. Overall, our work constitutes an invaluable resource and advances our understanding of repressors, their sequences, and the functional impact of sequence-altering mutations.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2017

Resolving systematic errors in widely-used enhancer activity assays in human cells enables genome-wide functional enhancer characterization

The identification of transcriptional enhancers in the human genome is a prime goal in biology. Enhancers are typically predicted via chromatin marks, yet their function is primarily assessed with plasmid-based reporter assays. Here, we show that two previous observations relating to plasmid-transfection into human cells render such assays unreliable: (1) the function of the bacterial plasmid origin-of-replication (ORI) as a conflicting core-promoter and (2) the activation of a type I interferon (IFN-I) response. These problems cause strongly confounding false-positives and -negatives in luciferase assays and genome-wide STARR-seq screens. We overcome both problems by directly employing the ORI as a core-promoter and by inhibiting two kinases central to IFN-I induction. This corrects luciferase assays and enables genome-wide STARR-seq screens in human cells. Comprehensive enhancer activity profiles in HeLa-S3 cells uncover strong enhancers, IFN-I-induced enhancers, and enhancers endogenously silenced at the chromatin level. Our findings apply to all episomal enhancer activity assays in mammalian cells, and are key to the characterization of human enhancers.

genomics↗