Biology subjects

Wakeland, E. K.

Publications and source records attributed to Wakeland, E. K..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Differences in systemic immune parameters in individuals with lung cancer according to race

IntroductionRacial and ethnic disparities in the presentation and outcomes of lung cancer are widely known. To evaluate potential factors contributing to these observations, we measured systemic immune parameters in Black and White patients with lung cancer. MethodsPatients scheduled to receive cancer immunotherapy were enrolled in a multi-institutional prospective biospecimen collection registry. Clinical and demographic information were obtained from electronic medical records. Pre-treatment peripheral blood samples were collected and analyzed for cytokines using a multiplex panel and for immune cell populations using mass cytometry. Differences between Black and White patients were determined and corrected for multiple comparisons. ResultsA total of 187 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (Black, 19; White, 168) were included in the analysis. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between Black and White patients. Compared to White patients, Black patients had significantly lower levels of CCL23 and CCL27, and significantly higher levels of CCL8, CXCL1, CCL26, CCL25, CCL1, IL-1 b, CXCL16, and IFN-{gamma} (all P<0.05, FDR<0.1). Black patients also exhibited greater populations of non-classical CD16+ monocytes, NKT-like cells, CD4+ cells, CD38+ monocytes, and CD57+ gamma delta T cells (all P<0.05). ConclusionsBlack and White patients with lung cancer exhibit several differences in immune parameters, with Black patients exhibiting greater levels of numerous pro-inflammatory cytokines and cell populations. The etiology and clinical significance of these differences warrant further evaluation.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Inflammation Drives Alternative First Exon usage to Regulate Immune Genes including a Novel Iron Regulated Isoform of Aim2

Determining the layers of gene regulation within the innate immune response is critical to our understanding of the cellular responses to infection and dysregulation in disease. We identified a conserved mechanism of gene regulation in human and mouse via changes in alternative first exon (AFE) usage following inflammation, resulting in changes to isoform usage. Of these AFE events, we identified 50 unannotated transcription start sites (TSS) in mice using Oxford Nanopore native RNA sequencing, one of which is the cytosolic receptor for dsDNA and known inflammatory inducible gene, Aim2. We show that this unannotated AFE isoform of Aim2 is the predominant isoform transcribed during inflammation and contains an iron-responsive element in its 5′UTR enabling mRNA translation to be regulated by iron levels. This work highlights the importance of examining alternative isoform changes and translational regulation in the innate immune response and uncovers novel regulatory mechanisms of Aim2.Summary Sentence Alternative first exon usage was the major splicing event observed in macrophages during inflammation, which resulted in the elucidation of a novel isoform and iron mediated regulatory mechanism of the protein coding gene, Aim2.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

immunology↗

bioRxiv2018

Transcriptome profiling of pathogen-specific CD4 T cells identifies T-cell-intrinsic caspase-1 as an important regulator of Th17 differentiation

One sentence summaryOur study revealed that DCs shape distinct pathogen-specific CD4 T cell transcriptome and from which, we discovered an unexpected role for T-cell-intrinsic caspase-1 in promoting Th17 differentiation.\n\nABSTRACTDendritic cells (DCs) are critical for priming and differentiation of pathogen-specific CD4 T cells. However, to what extent innate cues from DCs dictate transcriptional changes in T cells leading to effector heterogeneity remains elusive. Here we have used an in vitro approach to prime naive CD4 T cells by DCs stimulated with distinct pathogens. We have found that such pathogen-primed CD4 T cells express unique transcriptional profiles dictated by the nature of the priming pathogen. In contrast to cytokine-polarized Th17 cells that display signatures of terminal differentiation, pathogen-primed Th17 cells maintain a high degree of heterogeneity and plasticity. Further analysis identified caspase-1 as one of the genes upregulated only in pathogen-primed Th17 cells but not in cytokine-polarized Th17 cells. T-cell-intrinsic caspase-1, independent of its function in inflammasome, is critical for inducing optimal pathogen-driven Th17 responses. More importantly, T cells lacking caspase-1 fail to induce colitis following transfer into RAG-deficient mice, further demonstrating the importance of caspase-1 for the development of pathogenic Th17 cells in vivo. This study underlines the importance of DC-mediated priming in identifying novel regulators of T cell differentiation.

immunology↗