Kinetics of viral load and antibody response in relation to COVID-19 severity

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Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent for COVID-19 pneumonia. Little is known about the kinetics, tissue distribution, cross-reactivity and neutralization antibody response in COVID-19 patients. Two groups of RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients were enrolled in this study, including 12 severe patients in ICUs who needed mechanical ventilation and 11 mild patients in isolation wards. Serial clinical samples were collected for laboratory detection. Results showed that most of the severe patients had viral shedding in a variety of tissues for 20~40 days post onset of disease (8/12, 66.7%); while the majority of mild patients had viral shedding restricted to the respiratory tract and had no detectable virus RNA after 10 days post-onset (9/11, 81.8%). Mild patients showed significantly lower IgM response compared with that of the severe group. IgG responses were detected in most patients in both severe and mild groups at 9 days post onset and remained high level throughout the study. Antibodies cross-reactive to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 were detected in COVID-19 patients but not in MERS patients. High-levels of neutralizing antibodies were induced after about 10 days post onset in both severe and mild patients which were higher in the severe group. SARS-CoV-2 pseudotype neutralization test and focus reduction neutralization test with authentic virus showed consistent results. Sera from COVID-19 patients, but not convalescent SARS and MERS patients inhibited SARS-CoV-2 entry. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S and N IgG level exhibited moderate correlation with neutralization titers in patients’ plasma. This study improves our understanding of immune response in human after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Authors

Yanqun Wang, Lu Zhang, Ling Sang, Feng Ye, Shicong Ruan, Bei Zhong, Tie Song, Abeer N. Alshukairi, Rongchang Chen, Zhaoyong Zhang, Mian Gan, Airu Zhu, Yongbo Huang, Ling Luo, Chris KP Mok, Manal M. Al Gethamy, Haitao Tan, Zhengtu Li, Xiaofang Huang, Fang Li, Jing Sun, Yanjun Zhang, Liyan Wen, Yuming Li, Zhao Chen, Zhen Zhuang, Jianfen Zhuo, Chunke Chen, Lijun Kuang, Junxiang Wang, Huibin Lv, Yongliang Jiang, Min Li, Yimin Lin, Ying Deng, Lan Tang, Jieling Liang, Jicheng Huang, Stanley Perlman, Nanshan Zhong, Jingxian Zhao, J.S. Malik Peiris, Yimin Li, Jincun Zhao

LIN28B promotes the development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer

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Abstract

Therapy-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-NEPC) is a highly aggressive subtype of prostate cancer with poor patient survival. Emerging evidence indicates that t-NEPC can develop when prostate adenocarcinoma cells acquire cancer stem-like cell signaling in the presence of androgen receptor inhibition, followed by re-differentiation toward neuroendocrine lineage and subsequent t-NEPC progression. Whether the stem-like signaling is controlled by the core pluripotency stem cell genes (e.g., LIN28 and SOX2) remains unknown. Here, we report that the transcription of LIN28B isoform and SOX2 are co-upregulated in t-NEPC patient tumors, patient-derived xenografts, transgenic mice, and cell models. Immunohistochemistry validated that LIN28B and SOX2 protein expression are elevated in t-NEPC patient biopsies. Using prostate adenocarcinoma and t-NEPC cell models, we demonstrated that LIN28B induces a stem-like gene network, neuroendocrine biomarkers, and neuroendocrine cell morphology. LIN28B depletion by CRISPR inhibited t-NEPC tumorigenesis and xenograft growth. These LIN28B functions were mediated mainly through the suppression of let-7 miRNA expression, resulting in de-repression of the transcription factors HMGA2 and HMGA2-mediated SOX2 expression. This study reveals a mechanism by which t-NEPC can develop through the LIN28B/let-7/SOX2 axis that regulates a cancer cell stem-like gene network, highlighting LIN28B as a potential therapeutic target in t-NEPC.

Authors

Jessica M. Lovnicki, Yu Gan, Tingting Feng, Yinan Li, Ning Xie, Chia-Hao Ho, Ahn R. Lee, Xufeng Chen, Lucia Nappi, Bo Han, Ladan Fazli, Jiaoti Huang, Martin Gleave, Xuesen Dong

Transcriptional frameshifts contribute to protein allergenicity

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Abstract

Transcription infidelity (TI) is a mechanism that increases RNA and protein diversity. We found that single-base omissions (i.e., gaps) occurred at significantly higher rates in the RNA of highly-allergenic legumes. Transcripts from peanut, soybean, sesame, and mite allergens contained a higher density of gaps than those of non-allergens. Allergen transcripts translate into proteins with a cationic carboxy-terminus depleted in hydrophobic residues. In mice, recombinant TI variants of the peanut allergen Ara h 2, but not the canonical allergen itself, induced, without adjuvant, the production of anaphylactogenic specific IgE (sIgE) binding to linear epitopes on both canonical and TI segments of the TI variants. The removal of cationic proteins from bovine lactoserum markedly reduced its capacity to induce sIgE. In peanut-allergic children, the sIgE reactivity was directed toward both canonical and TI segments of Ara h 2 variants. We discovered two novel peanut allergens because of their RNA-DNA divergence gap patterns and TI peptide amino-acid composition. Finally, we showed that the sIgE of children with IgE-negative milk allergy targeted cationic proteins in lactoserum. We propose that it is not the canonical allergens, but their TI variants, that initiate sIgE isotype switching, while both canonical and TI variants elicit clinical allergic reactions.

Authors

Benoit Thouvenot, Olivier Roitel, Julie Tomasina, Benoit Hilselberger, Christelle Richard, Sandrine Jacquenet, Françoise Codreanu-Morel, Martine Morisset, Gisèle Kanny, Etienne Beaudouin, Christine Delebarre-Sauvage, Thierry Olivry, Claude Favrot, Bernard Bihain

Soluble RARRES1 induces podocyte apoptosis to promote glomerular disease progression

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Abstract

Utilizing the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network Consortium and other publicly available transcriptomic datasets, we identified Retinoic acid receptor responder protein 1 (RARRES1) as a gene whose expression positively correlated with renal function decline in human glomerular disease. The glomerular expression of RARRES1, which is largely restricted to podocytes, increased in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) was a potent inducer of RARRES1 expression in cultured podocytes, and transcriptomic analysis showed the enrichment of cell death pathway genes with RARRES1 overexpression. The overexpression of RARRES1 indeed induced podocyte apoptosis in vitro. Notably, this effect was dependent on its cleavage in the extracellular domain, as the mutation of its cleavage site abolished the apoptotic effect. Mechanistically, the soluble RARRES1 is endocytosed and interacts with and inhibits RIO kinase 1 (RIOK1), resulting in p53 activation and podocyte apoptosis. In mice, podocyte-specific overexpression of RARRES1 resulted in marked glomerular injury and albuminuria, while the overexpression of RARRES1 cleavage mutant had no effect. Conversely, podocyte-specific knockdown of Rarres1 in mice ameliorated glomerular injury in the setting of Adriamycin-induced nephropathy. Together, our study demonstrates an important role and the mechanism of RARRES1 in podocyte injury in glomerular disease.

Authors

Anqun Chen, Ye Feng, Han Lai, Wenjun Ju, Zhengzhe Li, Yu Li, Andrew Wang, Quan Hong, Fang Zhong, Chengguo Wei, Jia Fu, Tian-Jun Guan, Bi-Cheng Liu, Matthias Kretzler, Kyung Lee, John Cijiang He

SARS-CoV-2 viral load and antibody responses: the case for convalescent plasma therapy

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Abstract

Most patients with COVID-19 lack antibody to SARS-CoV-2 in the first 10 days of illness while the virus drives disease pathogenesis. SARS-CoV-2 antibody deficiency in the setting of a tissue viral burden suggests that using an antibody as a therapeutic agent would augment the antiviral immune response. In this issue of the JCI, Wang and collaborators describe the kinetics of viral load and antibody responses of 23 individuals with COVID-19 with mild and severe disease. The researchers found: 1) individuals with mild and severe disease produced neutralizing IgG to SARS-CoV-2 10 days after disease onset; 2) SARS-CoV-2 persisted longer in those with severe disease; and 3) there was cross-reactivity between antibodies to SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, but only antibodies from patients with COVID-19 neutralized SARS-CoV-2. These observations provide important information on the serological response to SARS-CoV-2 of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 that can inform the use of convalescent plasma therapy.

Authors

Arturo Casadevall, Michael J. Joyner, Liise-anne Pirofski

Long noncoding RNA H19X is a key mediator of TGFβ driven fibrosis

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Abstract

TGFβ is a master regulator of fibrosis, driving the differentiation of fibroblasts into apoptosis resistant myofibroblasts and sustaining the production of extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Here, we identify the nuclear lncRNA H19X as a master regulator of TGFβ-driven tissue fibrosis. H19X was consistently upregulated in a wide variety of human fibrotic tissues and diseases and was strongly induced by TGFβ, particularly in fibroblasts and fibroblast-related cells. Functional experiments following H19X silencing revealed that H19X is an obligatory factor for the TGFβ-induced ECM synthesis as well as differentiation and survival of ECM-producing myofibroblasts. We showed that H19X regulates DDIT4L gene expression, specifically interacting with a region upstream of DDIT4L gene and changing the chromatin accessibility of a DDIT4L enhancer. These events resulted in transcriptional repression of DDIT4L and, in turn, in increased collagen expression and fibrosis. Our results shed light on key effectors of the TGFβ-induced ECM remodeling and fibrosis.

Authors

Elena Pachera, Shervin Assassi, Gloria A. Salazar, Mara Stellato, Florian Renoux, Adam Wunderlin, Przemyslaw Blyszczuk, Robert Lafyatis, Fina Kurreeman, Jeska de Vries-Bouwstra, Tobias Messemaker, Carol A. Feghali-Bostwick, Gerhard Rogler, Wouter T. van Haaften, Gerard Dijkstra, Fiona Oakley, Maurizio Calcagni, Janine Schniering, Britta Maurer, Jörg H.W. Distler, Gabriela Kania, Mojca Frank-Bertoncelj, Oliver Distler

Glioma escape signature and clonal development under immune pressure

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Abstract

Immunotherapeutic strategies are increasingly important in neuro-oncology and the elucidation of escape mechanisms which lead to treatment resistance is crucial. We investigated the impact of immune pressure on the clonal dynamics and immune escape signature by comparing glioma growth in immunocompetent versus immunodeficient mice. Glioma-bearing wildtype and Pd-1-/- mice survived significantly longer than immunodeficient Pfp-/- Rag2-/- mice. While tumors in Pfp-/- Rag2-/- mice were highly polyclonal, immunoedited tumors in WT and Pd-1-/- mice displayed reduced clonality with emergence of immune escape clones. Tumor cells in wildtype mice were distinguished by an interferon-γ-mediated response signature with upregulation of genes involved in immunosuppression. Tumor-infiltrating stromal cells, which include macrophages/microglia, contributed even stronger to the immunosuppressive signature than the actual tumor cells. The identified murine immune escape signature was reflected in human patients and correlated with poor survival. In conclusion, immune pressure profoundly shapes the clonal composition and gene regulation in malignant gliomas.

Authors

Cecile L. Maire, Malte Mohme, Michael Bockmayr, Krystian D. Fita, Kristoffer Riecken, Daniela Börnigen, Malik Alawi, Antonio Virgilio Failla, Katharina Kolbe, Svenja Zapf, Mareike Holz, Katrin Neumann, Lasse Dührsen, Tobias Lange, Boris Fehse, Manfred Westphal, Katrin Lamszus

Everolimus improves the efficacy of dasatinib in PDGFRα-driven glioma

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Abstract

Background: Pediatric and adult high-grade glioma (HGG) frequently harbor PDGFRA alterations. We hypothesized that co-treatment with everolimus may improve the efficacy of dasatinib in PDGFRα-driven glioma through combinatorial synergism and increased tumor accumulation of dasatinib. Methods: Dose response, synergism studies, P-gp inhibition and pharmacokinetic studies were performed on in vitro and in vivo human and mouse models of HGG. Six patients with recurrent PDGFRα-driven glioma were treated with dasatinib and everolimus. Results: Dasatinib effectively inhibited the proliferation of mouse and human primary HGG cells with a variety of PDGFRA alterations. Dasatinib exhibited synergy with everolimus in the treatment of HGG cells at low nanomolar concentrations of both agents, with reduction in mTOR signaling that persists after dasatinib treatment alone. Prolonged exposure to everolimus significantly improved the CNS retention of dasatinib and extended survival of PPK tumor bearing mice. Pediatric patients (n=6) with glioma tolerated this combination without significant adverse events. Recurrent patients (n=4) demonstrated median overall survival of 8.5 months. Conclusion: Efficacy of dasatinib treatment of PDGFRα-driven HGG is improved with everolimus and suggests a promising route for improving targeted therapy for this patient population. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03352427 Funding: The authors thank the patients and their families for participation in this study. CKis supported by NIH/NINDS K08-NS099427-01, the University of Michigan Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, the Chad Tough Foundation, Hyundai Hope on Wheels, Catching up With Jack, Prayers from Maria Foundation, U CAN-CER VIVE FOUNDATION, Morgan Behen Golf Classic, and the DIPG Collaborative. The PEDS-MIONCOSEQ study was supported by grant 1UM1HG006508 from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Award (PI: Arul Chinnaiyan).

Authors

Zachary Miklja, Viveka Nand Yadav, Rodrigo T. Cartaxo, Ruby Siada, Chase C. Thomas, Jessica R. Cummings, Brendan Mullan, Stefanie Stallard, Alyssa Paul, Amy K. Bruzek, Kyle Wierzbicki, Tao Yang, Taylor Garcia, Ian Wolfe, Marcia Leonard, Patricia L. Robertson, Hugh J.L. Garton, Daniel R. Wahl, Hemant A. Parmar, Jann N. Sarkaria, Cassie Kline, Sabine Mueller, Theodore Nicolaides, Chana Glasser, Sarah E. S. Leary, Sriram Venneti, Chandan Kumar-Sinha, Arul M. Chinnaiyan, Rajen Mody, Manjunath P. Pai, Timothy N. Phoenix, Bernard L. Marini, Carl Koschmann

12(S)-HETE mediates diabetes induced endothelial dysfunction by activating intracellular endothelial cell TRPV1

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Abstract

Diabetic patients develop endothelial dysfunction shortly after diabetes onset that progresses to vascular disease underlying the majority of diabetes associated comorbidities. Increased lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial calcium overload and mitochondrial dysfunction are characteristics of dysfunctional endothelial cells in diabetic patients. We here identified that targeting the lipid peroxidation product 12(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12(S)-HETE) induced activation of the intracellularly located cation channel transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) in endothelial cells is a means to causally control early stage vascular disease in type I diabetic mice. Mice with an inducible, endothelial specific 12/15 lipoxygenase (12/15Lo) knock out were similarly protected from type I diabetes induced endothelial dysfunction and impaired vascular regeneration following arterial injury as TRPV1 knock out mice. Both 12(S)-HETE in concentrations found in diabetic patients and TRPV1 agonists triggered mitochondrial calcium influx and mitochondrial dysfunction in endothelial cells and 12(S)-HETE effects were absent in endothelial cells from TRPV1 knock out mice. As a therapeutic consequence, we found that a peptide targeting 12(S)-HETE induced TRPV1 interaction at the TRPV1 TRP box ameliorated diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction and augmented vascular regeneration in diabetic mice. Our findings suggest that pharmacological targeting of increased endothelial lipid peroxidation can attenuate diabetes induced comorbidities related to vascular disease.

Authors

Mandy Otto, Clarissa Bucher, Wantao Liu, Melanie Müller, Tobias Schmidt, Marina Kardell, Marvin Noel Driessen, Jan Rossaint, Eric R. Gross, Nana-Maria Wagner

Improved Killing of HIV-infected Cells Using Three Neutralizing and Non-neutralizing Antibodies

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Abstract

The correlation of HIV-specific Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) responses with protection from, and delayed progression of HIV-1 infection provides a rationale to leverage ADCC-mediating antibodies for treatment purposes. We evaluated ADCC mediated by different combinations of two to six neutralizing and non-neutralizing anti-HIV-1-Envelope (Env) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), using concentrations ≤ 1 µg/mL, to identify combinations effective at targeting latent reservoir HIV-1 viruses (LRVs) from ten individuals. We found that within 2 hours, combinations of three mAbs mediated >30% killing of HIV-infected primary CD4+ T cells in presence of autologous NK cells, with the combination of A32 (C1C2), DH511.2K3 (MPER), and PGT121 (V3) mAbs being the most effective. Increasing the incubation of target and effector cells in presence of mAb combinations from 2 to 24 hours resulted in increased specific killing of infected cells, even with neutralization-resistant viruses. The same combination eliminated reactivated HIV-1 latently-infected cells in an ex vivo qualitative viral outgrowth (QVOA) assay. Therefore, administration of a combination of three mAbs should be considered when planning in vivo studies seeking to eliminate persistently HIV-1 infected cells.

Authors

Marina Tuyishime, Carolina Garrido, Shalini Jha, Matthew Moeser, Dieter Mielke, Celia LaBranche, David Montefiori, Barton F. Haynes, Sarah B. Joseph, David M. Margolis, Guido Ferrari