Receptors & clinical investigation最新文献

Dendritic cells (DCs) are major antigen-presenting cells (APCs) that can induce and control host immune responses. DCs express pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which can translate external and internal triggers into different types of T cell responses. The types of CD4⁺ T cell responses elicited by DCs (e.g., Th1, Th2, Th17, Th21, Th22 and regulatory T cells (Tregs)) are associated with either host immunity or inflammatory diseases, including allergic diseases and autoimmune diseases. In particular, the pathogenic functions of Th2-type T cells in allergic immune disorders have been well documented, although Th2-type T cell responses are crucial for immunity against certain parasite infections. Recent evidence also indicates that the inflammatory Th2 signatures in cancers, including breast and pancreatic cancers, are highly associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients. It is thus important to find cellular/molecular targets expressed in DCs that control such inflammatory Th2-type T cell responses. In a recent paper published in The Journal of Immunology, we demonstrated that Dectin-1 expressed on the two major human DC subsets, myeloid DCs (mDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), has opposing roles in the control of Th2-type CD4⁺ T cell responses. Dectin-1 expressed on mDCs decreases Th2-type CD4⁺ T cell responses, while Dectin-1 expressed on pDCs favors Th2-type CD4⁺ T cell responses. This finding expands our understanding of the roles of DCs and Dectin-1 expressed on DCs in the pathogenesis of Th2-associated diseases and in host immunity to microbial infections and cancers.

Environmental and occupational exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is a major threat to female reproductive health. Bisphenol A (BPA), an environmental toxicant that is commonly found in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, has received much attention due to its estrogenic activity and high risk of chronic exposure in human. Whereas BPA has been linked to infertility and recurrent miscarriage in women, the impact of its exposure on uterine function during early pregnancy remains unclear. In a recent publication in Endocrinology, we demonstrated that prolonged exposure to an environmental relevant dose of BPA disrupts progesterone receptor-regulated uterine functions, thus affecting uterine receptivity for embryo implantation and decidua morphogenesis, two critical events for establishment and maintenance of early pregnancy. In particular we reported a marked impairment of progesterone receptor (PGR) expression and its downstream effector HAND2 in the uterine stromal cells in response to chronic BPA exposure. In an earlier study we have shown that HAND2 controls embryo implantation by repressing fibroblast growth factor (FGF) expression and the MAP kinase signaling pathway, thus inhibiting epithelial proliferation. Interestingly we observed that downregulation of PGR and HAND2 expression in uterine stroma upon BPA exposure was associated with an enhanced activation of FGFR and MAPK signaling, aberrant proliferation, and lack of uterine receptivity in the epithelium. In addition, the proliferation and differentiation of endometrial stromal cells to decidual cells, an event critical for the maintenance of early pregnancy, was severely compromised in response to BPA. This research highlight will provide an overview of our findings and discuss the potential mechanisms by which chronic BPA impairs PGR-HAND2 pathway and adversely affects implantation and the establishment of pregnancy.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive malignant brain tumor among all primary brain and central nervous system tumors. The median survival time for glioblastoma patients given the current standard of care treatment (surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy) is less than 15 months. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop more efficient therapeutics to improve the poor survival rates of patients with glioblastoma. To address this need, we have developed a novel tumor-targeted immunotoxin (IT), D2C7-(scdsFv)-PE38KDEL (D2C7-IT), by fusing the single chain variable fragment (scFv) from the D2C7 monoclonal antibody (mAb) with the Pseudomonas Exotoxin (PE38KDEL). D2C7-IT reacts with both the wild-type epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFRwt) and EGFR variant III (EGFRvIII), two onco-proteins frequently amplified or overexpressed in glioblastomas. Surface plasmon resonance and flow cytometry analyses demonstrated a significant binding capacity of D2C7-IT to both EGFRwt and EGFRvIII proteins. In vitro cytotoxicity data showed that D2C7-IT can effectively inhibit protein synthesis and kill a variety of EGFRwt-, EGFRvIII-, and both EGFRwt- and EGFRvIII-expressing glioblastoma xenograft cells and human tumor cell lines. Furthermore, D2C7-IT exhibited a robust anti-tumor efficacy in orthotopic mouse glioma models when administered via intracerebral convection-enhanced delivery (CED). A preclinical toxicity study was therefore conducted to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL) of D2C7-IT via intracerebral CED for 72 hours in rats. Based on this successful rat toxicity study, an Investigational New Drug (IND) application (#116855) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is now in effect for a Phase I/II D2C7-IT clinical trial (D2C7 for Adult Patients with Recurrent Malignant Glioma, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02303678). While it is still too early to draw conclusions from the trial, results thus far are promising.

Major vault protein (MVP) is the major component of the vault particle whose functions are not well understood. One proposed function of the vault is to serve as a mechanism of drug transport, which confers drug resistance in cancer cells. We show that MVP can be found in cardiac and smooth muscle. In human airway smooth muscle cells, knocking down MVP was found to cause cell death, suggesting that MVP serves as a cell survival factor. Further, our laboratory found that MVP is S-glutathionylated in response to ligand/receptor-mediated cell signaling. The S-glutathionylation of MVP appears to regulate protein-protein interactions between MVP and a protein called myosin heavy chain 9 (MYH9). Through MYH9 and Vsp34, MVP may form a complex with Beclin-1 that regulates autophagic cell death. In pulmonary vascular smooth muscle, proteasome inhibition promotes the ubiquitination of MVP, which may function as a mechanism of proteasome inhibition-mediated cell death. Investigating the functions and the regulatory mechanisms of MVP and vault particles is an exciting new area of research in cardiovascular/pulmonary pathophysiology.

Neurodegenerative diseases are linked to tauopathy as a result of cyclin dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) binding to its p25 activator instead of its p35 activator and becoming over-activated. The overactive complex stimulates the hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins, leading to neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and stunting axon growth and development. It is known that the sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R), an endoplasmic reticulum chaperone, can be involved in axon growth by promoting neurite sprouting through nerve growth factor (NGF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB)^{[1, 2]}. It has also been previously demonstrated that a Sig-1R deficiency impairs the process of neurogenesis by causing a down-regulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs)^[3]. The recent study by Tsai et al. sought to understand the relationship between Sig-1R and tauopathy^[4]. It was discovered that the Sig-1R helps maintain proper tau phosphorylation and axon development by facilitating p35 myristoylation and promoting p35 turnover. Neurons that had the Sig-1R knocked down exhibited shortened axons and higher levels of phosphorylated tau proteins compared to control neurons. Here we discuss these recent findings on the role of Sig-1R in tauopathy and highlight the newly presented physiological consequences of the Sig-1R-lipid interaction, helping to understand the close relationship between lipids and neurodegeneration.

The calcium ion (Ca²⁺) is a key intracellular signaling molecule with far-reaching effects on many cellular processes. One of the most important such Ca²⁺ regulated processes is transcription. A body of literature describes the effect of Ca²⁺ signaling on transcription initiation as occurring mainly through activation of gene-specific transcription factors by Ca²⁺-induced signaling cascades. However, the reach of Ca²⁺ extends far beyond the first step of transcription. In fact, Ca²⁺ can regulate all phases of transcription, with additional effects on transcription-associated events such as alternative splicing. Importantly, Ca²⁺ signaling mediates reduced transcription termination in response to certain stress conditions. This reduction allows readthrough transcription, generating a highly inducible and diverse class of downstream of gene containing transcripts (DoGs) that we have recently described.

Pulmonary hypertension complicating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, also known as secondary pulmonary hypertension, represents a major source of morbidity and mortality in affected patients. While the study of primary pulmonary arterial hypertension has yielded several therapies, the same is not true for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension secondary to pulmonary fibrosis. Recent studies have indicated an important role of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) - a regulatory protein that is vital in adaptation to hypoxic conditions - in the development of secondary pulmonary hypertension. HIF influences development of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension through alteration in voltage-gated potassium channels and homeostatic calcium regulation, resulting in disruption of endothelial cell-cell communication, and eventual vascular remodeling. This article summarizes salient literature related to HIF and secondary pulmonary hypertension, in addition to proposing a final common pathway in known mechanistic pathways that result in endothelial barrier integrity loss - vascular "leak" - primarily through a shared endothelial-epithelial signaling protein family, CCN.