Biology subjects

Wang, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Wang, G..

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Pan-cancer quantification of neoantigen-mediated immunoediting in cancer evolution

Immunoediting, which includes three temporally distinct stages, termed elimination, equilibrium, and escape, has been proposed to explain the interactions between cancer cells and the immune system during the evolution of cancer. However the status of immunoediting in cancer remains unclear, and the existence of neoantigen depletion signal in untreated cancer has been debated. Here we developed a distribution pattern based method for quantifying neoantigen mediated negative selection in cancer evolution. Our method provides a robust and reliable quantification for immunoediting signal in an individual cancer patient. The prevalence of immunoediting signal in immunotherapy untreated cancer genome has been demonstrated with this method. Importantly, the elimination and escape stages of immunoediting can be quantified separately, tumor types with strong immunoediting-elimination tend to have weak immunoediting-escape signal, and vice versa. Quantified immunoediting-elimination signal predicts cancer immunotherapy clinical response. Immunoediting quantification provides an evolutional perspective for evaluating the antigenicity of neoantigen, and reveals a potential biomarker for cancer precision immunotherapy.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Delta-Omicron recombinant SARS-CoV-2 in a transplant patient treated with Sotrovimab

BackgroundThe emergence of recombinant viruses is a threat to public health. Recombination of viral variants may combine variant-specific features that together catalyze viral escape from treatment or immunity. The selective advantages of recombinant SARS-CoV-2 isolates over their parental lineages remain unknown. MethodsMulti-method amplicon and metagenomic sequencing of a clinical swab and the in vitro grown virus allowed for high-confidence detection of a novel recombinant variant. Mutational, phylogeographic, and structural analyses determined features of the recombinant genome and spike protein. Neutralization assays using infectious as well as pseudotyped viruses and point mutants thereof defined the recombinants sensitivity to a panel of monoclonal antibodies and sera from vaccinated and/or convalescent individuals. ResultsA novel Delta-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 recombinant was identified in an unvaccinated, immunosuppressed kidney transplant recipient treated with monoclonal antibody Sotrovimab. The recombination breakpoint is located in the spike N-terminal domain, adjacent to the Sotrovimab quaternary binding site, and results in a 5-Delta AY.45 and a 3-Omicron BA.1 mosaic spike protein. Delta and BA.1 are sensitive to Sotrovimab neutralization, whereas the Delta-Omicron recombinant is highly resistant to Sotrovimab, both with and without the RBD resistance mutation E340D. ConclusionsRecombination between circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants can functionally contribute to immune escape. It is critical to validate phenotypes of mosaic viruses and monitor immunosuppressed COVID-19 patients treated with monoclonal antibodies for the selection of recombinant and immune escape variants. (Funded by NYU, the National Institutes of Health, and others)

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Deciphering TP53 mutant Cancer Evolution with Single-Cell Multi-Omics

TP53 is the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer, typically occurring in association with complex cytogenetics and dismal outcomes. Understanding the genetic and non-genetic determinants of TP53-mutation driven clonal evolution and subsequent transformation is a crucial step towards the design of rational therapeutic strategies. Here, we carry out allelic resolution single-cell multi-omic analysis of haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) from patients with a myeloproliferative neoplasm who transform to TP53-mutant secondary acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a tractable model of TP53-mutant cancer evolution. All patients showed dominant TP53 multi-hit HSPC clones at transformation, with a leukaemia stem cell transcriptional signature strongly predictive of adverse outcome in independent cohorts, across both TP53-mutant and wild-type AML. Through analysis of serial samples and antecedent TP53-heterozygous clones, we demonstrate a hitherto unrecognised effect of chronic inflammation, which supressed TP53 wild-type HSPC whilst enhancing the fitness advantage of TP53 mutant cells. Our findings will facilitate the development of risk-stratification, early detection and treatment strategies for TP53-mutant leukaemia, and are of broader relevance to other cancer types.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

The anti-fibrotic effects of RLN3 aggravated the pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis-a preliminary study

Previous research proposed that ligament laxity is a clinical feature that can be easily overlooked in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Relaxin and relaxin-related peptides, which have anti-fibrosis roles in the vascular and kidney system and relax the pubic symphysis during pregnancy, may contribute to ligament laxity. The goal of this research was to evaluate the role of in AIS. We found significantly increased relaxin-3 plasma in patients with AIS, as well as a significant correlation between joint hypermobility and relaxin 3 plasma levels. In a classic mouse model (C57BL/6J) of scoliosis, which was established according to the literature, showed significantly higher relaxin-3 plasma levels compared to normal group. In the relaxin-3 knockout C57BL/6J mice model the prevalence of scoliosis was significantly decreased. An in vitro experiment showed that relaxin 3 has anti-fibrotic effects on spinal ligament fibroblasts in both humans and mice by inhibiting TGF-{beta} via relaxin family peptide receptor 3 (RXFP3) and increasing expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 and matrix metalloproteinase 9 via the TGF-{beta}/Smad2 and MAPK-ERK1/2 pathway. Blocking RXFP3 function with R3(B1-22)R significantly decreased the prevalence of scoliosis in C57BL/6J mice. In summary, the anti-fibrotic effects of relaxin-3 and RXFP3 activation may aggravate the pathogenesis of AIS.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Human bone marrow organoids for disease modelling, discovery and validation of therapeutic targets in hematological malignancies

A lack of models that recapitulate the complexity of human bone marrow has hampered mechanistic studies of normal and malignant hematopoiesis and the validation of novel therapies. Here, we describe a step-wise, directed-differentiation protocol in which organoids are generated from iPSCs committed to mesenchymal, endothelial and hematopoietic lineages. These 3-dimensional structures capture key features of human bone marrow - stroma, lumen-forming sinusoidal vessels and myeloid cells including pro-platelet forming megakaryocytes. The organoids supported the engraftment and survival of cells from patients with blood malignancies, including cancer types notoriously difficult to maintain ex vivo. Fibrosis of the organoid occurred following TGF{beta} stimulation and engraftment with myelofibrosis but not healthy donor-derived cells, validating this platform as a powerful tool for studies of malignant cells and their interactions within a human bone marrow-like milieu. This enabling technology is likely to accelerate discovery and prioritization of novel targets for bone marrow disorders and blood cancers. Significance StatementWe present a 3D, vascularised human bone marrow organoid that supports growth of primary cells from patients with myeloid and lymphoid blood cancers. This model allows for mechanistic studies of blood cancers in the context of their microenvironment, and provides a much-needed, ex vivo tool for prioritization of new therapeutics.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Structure and mechanism of a mitochondrial AAA+ disaggregase CLBP

The human AAA+ ATPase CLPB (SKD3) is a protein disaggregase in the mitochondrial intermembrane space and functions to promote the solubilization of various mitochondrial proteins. CLPB deficiency by mutations is associated with a few human diseases with neutropenia and neurological disorders. Unlike canonical AAA+ proteins, CLPB contains a unique ankyrin repeat domain (ANK) at its N-terminus. The mechanism of CLPB functions as a disaggregase and the role of its ANK domain are currently unclear. Herein, we report a comprehensive structural characterization of human CLPB in both the apo- and substrate-bound states. CLPB assembles into homo- tetradecamers in apo-state and is remodeled into homo-dodecamers upon binding to substrates. Conserved pore- loops on the ATPase domains form a spiral staircase to grip and translocate the substrate in a step-size of two amino acid residues. The ANK domain is not only responsible for maintaining the higher-order assembly but also essential for the disaggregase activity. Interactome analysis suggests that the ANK domain may directly interact with a variety of mitochondrial substrates. These results reveal unique properties of CLPB as a general disaggregase in mitochondria and highlight its potential as a target for the treatment of various mitochondria-related diseases.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2022

De-heterogeneity of the eukaryotic viral reference database (EVRD) improves the accuracy and efficiency of viromic analysis

Widespread in public databases, the notorious contamination in virus reference databases often leads to confusing even wrong conclusions in applications like viral disease diagnosis and viromic analysis, highlighting the need of a high-quality database. Here, we report the comprehensive scrutiny and the purification of the largest viral sequence collections of GenBank and UniProt by detection and characterization of heterogeneous sequences (HGSs). A total of 766 nucleotide- and 276 amino acid-HGSs were determined with length up to 6,605 bp, which were widely distributed in 39 families, with many involving highly public health-related viruses, such as hepatitis C virus, Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and filovirus. Majority of these HGSs are sequences of a wide range of hosts including humans, with the rest resulting from vectors, misclassification and laboratory components. However, these HGSs cannot be simply considered as exotic contaminants, since part of which are resultants of natural occurrence or artificial engineering of the viruses. Nevertheless, they significantly disturb the genomic analysis, and hence were deleted from the database. A further augmentation was implemented with addition of the risk and vaccine sequences, which finally results in a high-quality eukaryotic virus reference database (EVRD). EVRD showed higher accuracy and less time-consuming without coverage compromise by reducing false positives than other integrated databases in viromic analysis. EVRD is freely accessible with favorable application in viral disease diagnosis, taxonomic clustering, viromic analysis and novel virus detection.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Deciphering the developmental patterns of white matter tracts in a diffusion MRI based fetal brain atlas

White matter of the fetal brain undergoes rapid development to form the early structural connections. Diffusion MRI has shown to be a useful tool to depict the fetal brain white matter in utero, and many studies have observed increasing fractional anisotropy and decreasing mean diffusivity in the fetal brain during the second-to-third trimester, whereas others reported non-monotonic changes. Unbiased diffusion MRI atlases of the fetal brain are important for characterizing developmental trajectories of white matter and providing normative references for in-utero diagnosis of prenatal abnormalities. To date, the sole fetal brain diffusion MRI atlas was collected from a Caucasian/mixed population, and was constructed based on the diffusion tensor model with limited spatial resolution. In this work, we proposed a fiber orientation distribution (FOD) based pipeline for the generation of fetal brain diffusion MRI atlases, which showed better registration accuracy than diffusion tensor-based pipeline. Based on the FOD pipeline, we constructed the first Chinese fetal brain diffusion MRI atlas using 89 normal fetal diffusion MRI scans at GA between 24 and 38 weeks. Complex non-monotonic trends of tensor- and FOD-derived microstructural parameters in eight white matter tracts were observed, which jointly pointed to different phases of microstructural development. Specifically, we speculated that the turning point of the diffusivity trajectory may correspond to the starting point of pre-myelination, based on which, the developmental order of white matter tracts can be mapped and the order was in agreement with order of myelination from histological studies. The normative atlas also provided a reference for detection of abnormal white matter development, such as that in congenital heart disease. Therefore, the high-order fetal brain diffusion MRI atlas established in this study depicted the spatiotemporal pattern of early white matter development, and findings may help decipher the distinct microstructural events in utero.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Proteomic analysis of human milk reveals nutritional and immune benefits in the colostrum from mothers with COVID-19

The range of benefits breastfeeding provides neonates and infants include nutrition, improved neonatal survival, and reduced morbidity from certain diseases. It also aids maternal health by speeding postpartum recovery. However, due to concern about the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and the lack of evidence of breastmilks protective effects against the virus, whether mothers with COVID-19 should be encouraged to breastfeed is under debate. Here, we present the results of proteomic and glycoproteomic studies of breast milk (colostrum and mature milk) from mothers with confirmed COVID-19. All colostrum samples exhibited significantly upregulated immune-related proteins, especially whey proteins with antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2, and increased glycosylation levels and heterogeneity at those proteins. Such adaptive differences in milk from COVID-19 mothers tend to fade in mature milk from the same mothers one month postpartum. These results suggest the immune benefits of colostrum from mothers with COVID-19 and provide molecular-level insights that aid breastmilk feeding decisions in cases of active infection.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Towards Effective and Generalizable Fine-tuning for Pre-trained Molecular Graph Models

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and Transformer have emerged as dominant tools for AI-driven drug discovery. Many state-of-the-art methods first pre-train GNNs or the hybrid of GNNs and Transformer on a large molecular database and then fine-tune on downstream tasks. However, different from other domains such as computer vision (CV) or natural language processing (NLP), getting labels for molecular data of downstream tasks often requires resource-intensive wet-lab experiments. Besides, the pre-trained models are often of extremely high complexity with huge parameters. These often cause the fine-tuned model to over-fit the training data of downstream tasks and significantly deteriorate the performance. To alleviate these critical yet under-explored issues, we propose two straightforward yet effective strategies to attain better generalization performance: 1. MolAug, which enriches the molecular datasets of down-stream tasks with chemical homologies and enantiomers; 2. WordReg, which controls the complexity of the pre-trained models with a smoothness-inducing regularization built on dropout. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed strategies achieve notable and consistent improvements over vanilla fine-tuning and yield multiple state-of-the-art results. Also, these strategies are model-agnostic and readily pluggable into fine-tuning of various pre-trained molecular graph models. We will release the code and the fine-tuned models.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2022

Extrachromosomal DNA is associated with decreased immune cell infiltration and antigen presentation, represents a potential cancer immune evasion mechanism

Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) is a type of circular and tumor specific genetic element. EcDNA has been reported to display open chromatin structure, facilitate oncogene amplification and genetic material unequal segregation, and is associated with poor cancer patients prognosis. The ability of immune evasion is a typical feature for cancer progression, however the tumor intrinsic factors that determine immune evasion remain poorly understood. Here we show that the presence of ecDNA is associated with markers of tumor immune evasion, and obtaining ecDNA could be one of the mechanisms employed by tumor cells to escape immune surveillance. Tumors with ecDNA usually have comparable TMB and neoantigen load, however they have lower immune cell infiltration and lower cytotoxic T cell activity. The microenvironment of tumors with ecDNA shows increased immune desert, decreased immune enriched fibrotic types. Both MHC class I and class II antigen presentation genes expression are decreased in tumors with ecDNA, and this could be the underlying mechanism for ecDNA associated immune evasion. This study provides evidence that the presence of ecDNA is an immune escape mechanism for cancer cells.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Collateral cleavage of 28s rRNA by RfxCas13d causes death of mice

The CRISPR-Cas13 system is an RNA-guided RNA-targeting system, and has been widely used in transcriptome engineering with potentially important clinical applications. However, it is still controversial whether Cas13 exhibits collateral activity in mammalian cells. Here, we found that knocking down gene expression using RfxCas13d in the adult brain neurons caused death of mice, which was not resulted from the loss of target gene function or off-target effects. Mechanistically, we showed that RfxCas13d exhibited collateral activity in mammalian cells, which is positively correlated with the abundance of target RNA. The collateral activity of RfxCas13d could cleave 28s rRNA into two fragments, leading to translation attenuation and activation of the ZAK-JNK/p38-immediate early gene (IEG) pathway. These results provide new mechanistic insights into the collateral activity of RfxCas13d and warn that the biosafety of CRISPR-Cas13 system needs further evaluation before applying it to clinical treatments.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2022

Heat-Dependent Hairpin Melting Drives TRPV1 Opening

Non-covalent interactions in bio-macromolecules are individually weak but collectively important. How they take a concerted action in a complex biochemical reaction network to realize their thermal stability and activity is still challenging to study. Here graph theory was used to investigate how the temperature-dependent non-covalent interactions as identified in the structures of the thermo-gated capsaicin receptor TRPV1 could form a systemic fluidic grid-like mesh network with topological grids to maintain the 3D structure of TRPV1 and to govern heat-sensing. The results showed that the heat-evoked melting of the biggest grid may initiate a specific temperature threshold for both channel activation and inactivation. Meanwhile, a thermostable balance between an open state and a putatively inactivated state from the same pre-open closed state may account for heat efficacy and the use-dependent desensitization, which were further stabilized by smaller grids. Altogether, both the biggest and smaller grids may be necessary for the temperature sensitivity. Therefore, this grid thermodynamic model may be broadly significant for the structural thermostability and the functional thermoactivity of biological macromolecules. HighlightsO_LIThermo-driven cyclization or decyclization of a DNA hairpin and a network grid in protein was thermodynamically comparable C_LIO_LIThe temperature thresholds of TRPV1 for channel activation and inactivation were comparable theoretically and experimentally C_LIO_LIThe thermo-sensitivities of TRPV1 for channel activation and inactivation were comparable theoretically and experimentally C_LIO_LIThe grid-based systemic thermal instability of TRPV1 was useful to identify different gating states C_LIO_LIThe release of the phosphatidylinositol lipid from the vanilloid site was required for the heat-evoked activation of TRPV1 C_LI

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2022

Design Maps of TRPM8 as a Thermometer for Cold Detection

The menthol sensor TRPM8 can be activated by cold and thus serves as a biothermometer in a primary afferent sensory neuron for innocuous-to-noxious cold detection. However, the precise structural origins of specific temperature thresholds and sensitivity have remained elusive. Here, a grid thermodynamic model was employed to examine if the temperature-dependent noncovalent interactions found in the 3D structures of thermo-gated TRPM8 could assemble into a well-organized fluidic grid-like mesh network, featuring the constrained grids as the thermorings for cold-sensing in response to PIP2, Ca2+ and chemical agents. The results showed that the different interactions of TRPM8 with PIP2 during the thermal incubation induced the formation of the biggest grids with distinct melting temperature threshold ranges. Further, the overlapped threshold ranges between open and pre-open closed states were required for initial cold activation with the matched thermo-sensitivity and the decrease in the systematic thermal instability. Finally, the intact anchor grid near the lower gate was important for channel opening with the active selectivity filter. Thus, PIP2-dependent thermorings in TRPM8 may play a pivotal role in cold sensing. (176 words)

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2021

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the invertase gene family in common wheat

BackgroundThe degradation of sucrose plays an important role in the process of crop biomass allocation and yield formation. Invertase (INV) irreversibly catalyzes the conversion of sucrose into glucose and fructose, which doomed its important role in plant development and stress tolerance. However, the functions of INV genes in wheat, one of the most important crops, were less studied due to the polyploidy. ResultsHere, we systematically analyzed the INV gene family based on the latest published wheat reference genomic information. A total of 126 TaINV genes were identified and classified into three classes based on the phylogenetic relationship and their gene structure. Of which, 11 and 83 gene pairs were identified as tandem and segmental duplication genes respectively, while the Ka/Ks ratios of tandem and segmental duplication TaINV genes were less than 1. Expression profile analysis shows that 18 TaINV genes have tissue-specific expression, and 54 TaINV genes were involved in stress response. Furthermore, RNA-seq showed that 35 genes are differentially expressed in grain weight NILs N0910-81L/N0910-81S, in which 9 TaINVs were stably detected by qRT-PCR at three time-points, 4, 7 and 10 DPA. Four of them (TaCWI47, TaCWI48, TaCWI50 and TaVI27) different expressed between the NILs resided in 4 QTL segments (QTGW.nwafu-5DL.1, QTGW.nwafu-5DL.2, QTGW.nwafu-7AS.1 and QTGW.nwafu-7AS.2). These findings facilitate function investigations of the wheat INV gene family and provide new insights into the grain development mechanism in wheat. ConclusionsOur results showed that allopolyploid events were the main reason for the expansion of the TaINV gene family in hexaploid wheat, and duplication genes might undergo purifying selection. The expression profiling of TaINV genes implied that they are likely to play an important role in wheat growth and development and adaption to stressful environments. And TaCWI47, TaCWI48, TaCWI50 and TaVI27 may have more important roles in grain developments. Our study lay a base for further dissecting the functional characterization of TaINV family members.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2021

Monospecific and bispecific monoclonal SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies that maintain potency against B.1.617

COVID-19 pathogen SARS-CoV-2 has infected hundreds of millions and caused over 5 million deaths to date. Although multiple vaccines are available, breakthrough infections occur especially by emerging variants. Effective therapeutic options such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are still critical. Here, we report the development, cryo-EM structures, and functional analyses of mAbs that potently neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. By high-throughput single cell sequencing of B cells from spike receptor binding domain (RBD) immunized animals, we identified two highly potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing mAb clones that have single-digit nanomolar affinity and low-picomolar avidity, and generated a bispecific antibody. Lead antibodies showed strong inhibitory activity against historical SARS-CoV-2 and several emerging variants of concern. We solved several cryo-EM structures at [~]3 [A] resolution of these neutralizing antibodies in complex with prefusion spike trimer ectodomain, and revealed distinct epitopes, binding patterns, and conformations. The lead clones also showed potent efficacy in vivo against authentic SARS-CoV-2 in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. We also generated and characterized a humanized antibody to facilitate translation and drug development. The humanized clone also has strong potency against both the original virus and the B.1.617.2 Delta variant. These mAbs expand the repertoire of therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2021

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron neutralization by therapeutic antibodies, convalescent sera, and post-mRNA vaccine booster

The rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 along with its high number of mutations in the spike gene has raised alarm about the effectiveness of current medical countermeasures. To address this concern, we measured neutralizing antibodies against Omicron in three important settings: (1) post-vaccination sera after two and three immunizations with the Pfizer/BNT162b2 vaccine, (2) convalescent sera from unvaccinated individuals infected by different variants, and (3) clinical-stage therapeutic antibodies. Using a pseudovirus neutralization assay, we found that titers against Omicron were low or undetectable after two immunizations and in most convalescent sera. A booster vaccination significantly increased titers against Omicron to levels comparable to those seen against the ancestral (D614G) variant after two immunizations. Neither age nor sex were associated with differences in post-vaccination antibody responses. Only three of 24 therapeutic antibodies tested retained their full potency against Omicron and high-level resistance was seen against fifteen. These findings underscore the potential benefit of booster mRNA vaccines for protection against Omicron and the need for additional therapeutic antibodies that are more robust to highly mutated variants. One Sentence SummaryThird dose of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine significantly boosts neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron variant compared to a second dose, while neutralization of Omicron by convalescent sera, two-dose vaccine-elicited sera, or therapeutic antibodies is variable and often low.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Non-rapid eye movement sleep and wake neurophysiology in schizophrenia

Motivated by the potential of objective neurophysiological markers to index thalamocortical function in patients with severe psychiatric illnesses, we comprehensively characterized key NREM sleep parameters across multiple domains, their interdependencies, and their relationship to waking event-related potentials and symptom severity. In 130 schizophrenia (SCZ) patients and controls, we confirmed a marked reduction in sleep spindle density in SCZ and extended these findings to show that only slow spindles predicted symptom severity, and that fast and slow spindle properties were largely uncorrelated. We also describe a novel measure of slow oscillation and spindle interaction that was attenuated in SCZ. The main sleep findings were replicated in a demographically distinct sample, and a joint model, based on multiple NREM components, predicted disease status in the replication cohort. Although also altered in patients, auditory event-related potentials elicited during wake were unrelated to NREM metrics. Consistent with a growing literature implicating thalamocortical dysfunction in SCZ, our characterization identifies independent NREM and wake EEG biomarkers that may index distinct aspects of SCZ pathophysiology and point to multiple neural mechanisms underlying disease heterogeneity. This study lays the groundwork for evaluating these neurophysiological markers, individually or in combination, to guide efforts at treatment and prevention as well as identifying individuals most likely to benefit from specific interventions.

neuroscience↗