Biology subjects

Sausville, E. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Sausville, E. L..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

Combustible and electronic cigarette exposures increase ACE2 activity and SARS-CoV-2 Spike binding

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has extensively impacted global health. The causative pathogen, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, a transmembrane metallo-carboxypeptidase that is expressed in both membrane-anchored (mACE2) and soluble (sACE2) forms in the lung. Tobacco use has been speculated as a vulnerability factor for contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent disease severity, whilst electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been shown to induce harmful proteomic and immune changes in the lungs of vapers. We therefore tested the hypothesis that combustible tobacco (e.g. cigarettes) and non-combustible e-cigarettes could affect ACE2 activity and subsequent SARS-CoV-2 infection. We observed that sACE2 activity was significantly higher in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from both smokers and vapers compared to age-matched non-smokers. Exposure to cigarette smoke increased ACE2 levels, mACE2 activity, and sACE2 in primary bronchial epithelial cultures. Finally, treatment with either cigarette smoke condensate or JUUL e-liquid increased infections with a spike-coated SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus. Overall, these observations suggest that tobacco product use elevates ACE2 activity and increases the potential for SARS-CoV-2 infection through enhanced spike protein binding.

physiology↗

bioRxiv2020

Chromosomal instability accelerates the evolution of resistance to anti-cancer therapies

Aneuploidy is a ubiquitous feature of human tumors, but the acquisition of aneuploidy is typically detrimental to cellular fitness. To investigate how aneuploidy could contribute to tumor growth, we triggered periods of chromosomal instability (CIN) in human cells and then exposed them to a variety of different culture environments. While chromosomal instability was universally detrimental under normal growth conditions, we discovered that transient CIN reproducibly accelerated the ability of cells to adapt and thrive in the presence of anti-cancer therapeutic agents. Single-cell sequencing revealed that these drug-resistant populations recurrently developed specific whole-chromosome gains and losses. We independently derived one aneuploidy that was frequently recovered in cells exposed to paclitaxel, and we found that this chromosome loss event was sufficient to decrease paclitaxel sensitivity. Finally, we demonstrated that intrinsic levels of CIN correlate with poor responses to a variety of systemic therapies in a collection of patient-derived xenografts. In total, our results show that while chromosomal instability generally antagonizes cell fitness, it also provides phenotypic plasticity to cancer cells that can allow them to adapt to diverse stressful environments. Moreover, our findings suggest that aneuploidy may function as an under-explored cause of therapy failure in human tumors.

cancer biology↗