Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yun-Zhang Dai, Yong-da Liu, Jie Li, Mei-Ting Chen, Mei Huang, Fang Wang, Qing-Song Yang, Ji-Hang Yuan, Shu-Han Sun
Summary: This study identified the METTL16/RAB11B-AS1 regulatory axis in HCC, which represented novel targets for HCC prognosis and treatment.
CELLULAR & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Haisu Tao, Yuxin Zhang, Jiang Li, Junjie Liu, Tong Yuan, Wenqiang Wang, Huifang Liang, Erlei Zhang, Zhiyong Huang
Summary: This study found that the lncRNA BBOX1-AS1 promotes tumor progression and drug resistance in HCC by upregulating PHF8. BBOX1-AS1 enhances the stability of PHF8 mRNA by targeting miR-361-3p, leading to tumor progression and autophagy. These findings suggest that BBOX1-AS1 promotes HCC progression and sorafenib resistance through the miR-361-3p/PHF8 axis.
MOLECULAR THERAPY-ONCOLYTICS
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Leiyi Zhang, Fei Ye, Zhongkun Zuo, Ding Cao, Yu Peng, Zedong Li, Jiangsheng Huang, Lunxi Duan
Summary: TPT1-AS1 promotes tumor progression and metastasis in CRC by upregulating TPT1 levels and activating the FAK and JAK-STAT3 signaling pathways.
Article
Oncology
Qingqing Zhu, Chongguo Zhang, Tianyu Qu, Xiyi Lu, Xuezhi He, Wei Li, Dandan Yin, Liang Han, Renhua Guo, Erbao Zhang
Summary: This study reveals that the lncRNA MNX1-AS1 upregulates c-Myc and E2F1 signaling by driving phase separation of IGF2BP1, leading to enhanced cell-cycle progression and proliferation in NSCLC.
Article
Oncology
Fengyu Xu, Mengqi Huang, Qingyong Chen, Yi Niu, Yuhang Hu, Ping Hu, Ding Chen, Chi He, Kang Huang, Zhu Zeng, Jiang Tang, Fan Wang, Yong Zhao, Chunyou Wang, Gang Zhao
Summary: The reciprocal feedback loop between HIF1A-AS1 and HIF1 alpha promotes gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic cancer, highlighting a potential therapeutic target.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jen-Hao Yang, Ming-Wen Chang, Dimitrios Tsitsipatis, Xiaoling Yang, Jennifer L. Martindale, Rachel Munk, Aiwu Cheng, Elizabeth Izydore, Poonam R. Pandey, Yulan Piao, Krystyna Mazan-Mamczarz, Supriyo De, Kotb Abdelmohsen, Myriam Gorospe
Summary: In this study, the researchers discovered a noncoding RNA regulatory network that promotes myoblast fusion into multinucleated myotubes by modulating the degradation of miR-7.
NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Qi-Nian Wu, Xiao-Jing Luo, Jia Liu, Yun-Xin Lu, Yun Wang, Jingjing Qi, Ze-Xian Liu, Qi-Tao Huang, Ze-Kun Liu, Jia-Bin Lu, Ying Jin, Heng-Ying Pu, Pei-Shan Hu, Jia-Bo Zheng, Zhao-Lei Zeng, Huai-Qiang Ju, Dan Xie, Qi Zhao, Ruihua Xu
Summary: This study identified a novel colorectal cancer biomarker and therapeutic target, MNX1-AS1, a long noncoding RNA that drives proliferation through the MYC/MNX1-AS1/YB1 signaling pathway. These findings suggest that the MYC-MNX1-AS1-YB1 axis could potentially serve as a biomarker and therapeutic target in colorectal cancer.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hai-Ting Liu, Yong-Xin Zou, Wen-Jie Zhu, Sen-Liu, Guo-Hao Zhang, Ran-Ran Ma, Xiang-Yu Guo, Peng Gao
Summary: This study identified that THAP7-AS1 is highly expressed in gastric cancer, associated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis, and promotes gastric cancer progression through pathways involving SP1 and METTL3. These findings suggest that THAP7-AS1 may be a potential molecular target for gastric cancer therapy.
CELL DEATH AND DIFFERENTIATION
(2022)
Article
Cell Biology
Xiaoping Zhang, Yong Zhong, Lin Liu, Chengyou Jia, Haidong Cai, Jianshe Yang, Bo Wu, Zhongwei Lv
Summary: The study found that fasting can inhibit glycolysis and mitochondrial function in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Fasting significantly increases the expression of lncRNA PRKCQ-AS1 in PTC cells, which leads to suppression of glycolysis and reduced mitochondrial function. PRKCQ-AS1 interacts with IGF2BPs and enhances the expression of PRMT7 mRNA, thereby regulating glycolysis and mitochondrial function in PTC and inhibiting tumor growth.
CELL DEATH & DISEASE
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Ruixue Li, Qianyin Zhou, Guangmin Liu, Fang Zhu, Zhizhong Liu, Hao Bo, Liqing Fan
Summary: Our study found that the lncRNA CSNK1G2-AS1 is significantly downregulated in TGCTs compared to normal testis, and hypomethylation of CSNK1G2-AS1 is associated with a better prognosis in TGCT patients. Overexpression of CSNK1G2-AS1 promotes proliferation, migration, and invasion of TGCT cells while inhibiting apoptosis, possibly through the EMT and AKT pathways.
Article
Hematology
Prabhash Kumar Jha, Aatira Vijay, Amit Prabhakar, Tathagata Chatterjee, Velu Nair, Nitin Bajaj, Bhuvnesh Kumar, Manish Sharma, Mohammad Zahid Ashraf
Summary: This study used RNAseQ to compare gene expression profiles between high-altitude DVT patients and controls, revealing genes related to hypoxia, immune response, and coagulation cascade. It also unveiled potential interactions between lncRNAs, miRNAs, and regulatory transcription factors.
THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mengyu Xie, Long Zhang, Linyu Han, Linying Huang, Yizhou Huang, Ming Yang, Nasha Zhang
Summary: The ASH1L-AS1-ASH1L regulatory axis plays a significant role in histone modification reprogramming and activation of the RAS signaling pathway, making it a potential novel target for gastric cancer therapeutics and diagnosis.
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Minzhen Qin, Yiliang Meng, Chunying Luo, Shougao He, Fengxue Qin, Yixia Yin, Junling Huang, Hailiang Zhao, Jing Hu, Zhihua Deng, Yiying Qiu, Gaoyu Hu, Hanhe Pan, Zongshuai Qin, Zansong Huang, Tingzhuang Yi
Summary: PRR34-AS1 is highly expressed in HCC and promotes cell proliferation, migration, and invasion by modulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. It sequesters miR-296-5p to positively regulate E2F2 and SOX12 in HCC. These findings suggest that PRR34-AS1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for HCC.
MOLECULAR THERAPY-NUCLEIC ACIDS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Talia Guardia, Yuqi Zhang, Keyata N. Thompson, Se Jong Lee, Stuart S. Martin, Konstantinos Konstantopoulos, Aikaterini Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos
Summary: Mounting evidence suggests that obscurin, a giant cytoskeletal protein, is involved in the predisposition and development of breast cancer. Low levels of obscurin correlate with reduced overall and relapse-free survival in breast cancer patients. The antisense lncRNA OBSCN-AS1 regulates obscurin expression and functions as a metastasis suppressor, potentially serving as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for metastatic breast cancer.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bosen You, Yin Sun, Jie Luo, Keliang Wang, Qing Liu, Ruizhe Fang, Bingmei Liu, Fuju Chou, Ronghao Wang, Jialin Meng, Chi-Ping Huang, Shuyuan Yeh, Chawnshang Chang, Wanhai Xu
Summary: The study suggests that androgen receptor (AR) promotes vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation in ccRCC cells by regulating lncRNA-TANAR/TWIST1 signals, potentially impacting metastasis. This discovery provides a clue for the development of a novel anti-angiogenesis therapy to better suppress ccRCC progression.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Zhengyang Zhou, Hung-Chih Ku, Sydney E. Manning, Ming Zhang, Chao Xing
Summary: This study presents a flexible statistical procedure to detect gene-environment interaction (GxE) regardless of whether the underlying relationship is linear or not. By modeling the joint genetic and GxE effects as a varying-coefficient function of the environmental factor, the proposed model is able to capture dynamic trajectories of GxE. A likelihood ratio test with a fast Monte Carlo algorithm is employed for hypothesis testing. Simulations and real data analysis demonstrate the validity and power of the proposed model in various settings, especially for nonlinear GxE.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Miao Chen, Ping Zhou, Yun Kong, Jingrui Li, Yan Li, Yao Zhang, Jie Ran, Jun Zhou, Yan Chen, Songbo Xie
Summary: By exploiting aptamers as targeting warheads, we developed a strategy for inducible degradation of undruggable proteins, thereby inhibiting cancer cell proliferation. To reduce on-target toxicity, we further developed a light-controllable PROTAC that can release the targeting warhead through UV irradiation, leading to target activation and degradation.
JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sydney Manning, Hung-Chih Ku, Douglas Dluzen, Chao Xing, Zhengyang Zhou
Summary: Identification of new genetic signals associated with susceptibility to complex human diseases is crucial for disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. This study compares the power of the Jonckheere-Terpstra (JT) trend test and the Cochran-Armitage (CA) trend test under different scenarios, and shows that the JT trend test outperforms the CA trend test in terms of statistical power in certain circumstances, especially when the sample size is small and the minor allele frequency is low. Overall, the JT trend test is a valuable alternative to the CA trend test for better detection of genetic signals and a finer understanding of their genetic architecture.
Article
Microbiology
Maikke B. Ohlson, Jennifer L. Eitson, Alexandra I. Wells, Ashwani Kumar, Seoyeon Jang, Chunyang Ni, Chao Xing, Michael Buszczak, John W. Schoggins
Summary: Viruses rely on host ribosomes for protein synthesis, but the specific factors involved in translation of viral RNAs are not fully understood. Through a CRISPR screen, researchers identified multiple host factors, including 60S ribosome biogenesis proteins, that are required for viral protein synthesis. In addition, the study revealed the importance of SBDS and SPATA5 in viral replication for a wide range of viruses.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Leah S. Imlay, Aloysus K. Lawong, Suraksha Gahalawat, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, Nimisha Mittal, Sergio Wittlin, Alisje Churchyard, Hanspeter Niederstrasser, Benigno Crespo-Fernandez, Bruce A. Posner, Francisco-Javier Gamo, Jake Baum, Elizabeth A. Winzeler, Benoit Laleu, Joseph M. Ready, Margaret A. Phillips
Summary: Current malaria treatments face drug resistance and there is an urgent need for new drugs. Through a screening process, we discovered (S)-SW228703 ((S)-SW703), a tyrosine amide with activity against asexual blood and liver stages of malaria and a fast-killing profile. Resistance to (S)-SW703 is associated with mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum cyclic amine resistance locus (Pf CARL) and P. falciparum acetyl CoA transporter (PfACT), similar to other compounds with fast and liver-stage activity. The exact mechanism of action or binding mode of these compounds, which are thought to act in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), remains unknown. (S)-SW703 provides a new chemical series with broad activity against multiple life-cycle stages and a fast-killing mechanism of action, which can be further optimized for the development of new malaria treatments.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Michael L. Neugent, Neha Hulyalkar, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, Philippe E. Zimmern, Vladimir Shulaev, Nicole J. De Nisco
Summary: Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are linear polysaccharides with negative charges, composed of uronic acid and amino sugars. The bladder epithelium is covered by a layer of GAGs, which are believed to serve as a protective barrier and potential interaction site for the urinary microbiome. This study investigated urinary GAG composition in postmenopausal women and found that chondroitin sulfate (CS) is the major GAG. The study also identified an elevation of urinary CS in women with active recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI). Additionally, the study revealed associations between urinary GAGs and urobiome composition, including specific bacterial species associated with different GAG types and vaginal dysbiosis.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Matthew B. McDougal, Anthony M. De Maria, Maikke B. Ohlson, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, John W. Schoggins
Summary: Interferons control viral infection by inducing the expression of antiviral effector proteins encoded by interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). Using CRISPR-based loss-of-function screens, this study identified a limited set of ISGs that mediate interferon-mediated suppression of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV). Combinatorial gene targeting revealed that three antiviral effectors, ZAP, IFIT3, and IFIT1, together constitute the majority of interferon-mediated restriction of VEEV, while accounting for < 0.5% of the interferon-induced transcriptome. These findings suggest a refined model of the antiviral interferon response.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Martyna Kosno, Simon L. Currie, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, Michael K. Rosen
Summary: In this study, the formation of biomolecular condensates by the oncogenic fusion protein BRD4-NUT and its associated histone acetyltransferase p300 were investigated. The researchers found that a minimal fragment of NUT fused with BRD4 is sufficient to bind p300 and form condensates. The results suggest a model for condensate formation involving positive feedback and phase separation, and identify different regions of p300 that contribute to condensate formation and transcriptional regulation.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Widler Casy, Irvin T. Garza, Xin Chen, Thomas Dong, Yuhui Hu, Mohammed Kanchwala, Cynthia B. Trygg, Charles Shyng, Chao Xing, Bruce A. Bunnell, Stephen E. Braun, Steven J. Gray
Summary: The use of AAV capsid libraries with selection strategies has successfully generated novel AAVs with enhanced features. However, the inability to sequence the complete capsid gene in a high-throughput manner has limited capsid engineering. To overcome this limitation, AAV capsid shuffled libraries were generated and directed evolution was applied in mice and non-human primates to yield AAVs compatible for translational applications. The use of single molecule real-time sequencing and nuclei-enrichment step provided insights for variant identification in the central nervous system.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Fieke W. Hoff, Chao Xing, Vinaya Simha, Anil K. Agarwal, Xunzhi Zhang, Leena Lekkala, Madhumati S. Vaishnav, Frank Vuitch, Abhimanyu Garg
Summary: Through a study on an Asian Indian family, it was found that 4 family members had Werner's syndrome instead of the common types of diabetes. The research suggests that the diagnosis of Werner's syndrome should be considered in cases with consanguinity, dysmorphic features, and malignancy.
MOLECULAR GENETICS & GENOMIC MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Ophthalmology
Bogale Aredo, Ashwani Kumar, Bo Chen, Chao Xing, Rafael L. Ufret-Vincenty
Summary: In this study, the fundus camera-delivered light-induced retinal degeneration model was used to analyze cell type-specific responses to retinal oxidative injury. It was found that a subpopulation of Muller glia cells plays a crucial role in the cellular recovery process. These findings may contribute to the development of therapeutic approaches for minimizing damage and promoting recovery.
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Ophthalmology
Brian C. Leonard, Sangwan Park, Soohyun Kim, Laura J. Young, Iman Jalilian, Krista Cosert, Xunzhi Zhang, Jessica M. Skeie, Hanna Shevalye, Nayeli Echeverria, Vanessa Rozo, Xin Gong, Chao Xing, Christopher J. Murphy, Mark A. Greiner, V. Vinod Mootha, Vijay Krishna Raghunathan, Sara M. Thomasy
Summary: This study examines the role of Wwtr1 in murine ocular structure and function, and its relationship with FECD. The results suggest that Wwtr1 deficient mice exhibit phenotypic abnormalities similar to FECD-affected patients, indicating that they could serve as a murine model for late-onset FECD.
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Chunhui Jiang, Ashwani Kumar, Ze Yu, Tracey Shipman, Yong Wang, Renee M. McKay, Chao Xing, Lu Q. Le
Summary: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common tumor-predisposing genetic disorder characterized by the development of benign neurofibromas. This study explored the mechanism of extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition during neurofibroma development and treatment response. The researchers found that basement membrane (BM) proteins, rather than major collagen isoforms, were upregulated in the ECM during plexiform neurofibroma (pNF) development. They also identified TGF-β1 signaling as a key regulator of ECM dynamics and demonstrated that TGF-β1 overexpression promoted pNF progression. The findings suggest that BM proteins could serve as biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring the treatment response of NF1.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Leah S. Imlay, Aloysus K. Lawong, Suraksha Gahalawat, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, Nimisha Mittal, Sergio Wittlin, Alisje Churchyard, Hanspeter Niederstrasser, Benigno Crespo-Fernandez, Bruce A. Posner, Francisco-Javier Gamo, Jake Baum, Elizabeth A. Winzeler, Benoit Laleu, Joseph M. Ready, Margaret A. Phillips
Summary: Current malaria treatments face the threat of drug resistance, necessitating the development of new drugs. Through a screening process, (S)-SW228703 ((S)-SW703) was identified as a potential antimalarial with activity against asexual blood and liver stages and a fast-killing profile. Resistance to (S)-SW703 is associated with mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum cyclic amine resistance locus (Pf CARL) and P. falciparum acetyl CoA transporter (PfACT). The discovery of (S)-SW703 offers a new chemical series with broad activity for multiple life-cycle stages and a fast-killing mechanism, which can be further optimized for malaria treatment.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Islam Oguz Tuncay, Darlene Devries, Ashlesha Gogate, Kiran Kaur, Ashwani Kumar, Chao Xing, Kimberly Goodspeed, Leah Seyoum-Tesfa, Maria H. Chahrour
Summary: This study investigates the genetics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an East African population, revealing a higher prevalence of ASD and decreased genetic heterogeneity. The findings highlight the importance of African genetic variation and admixture analysis in understanding the genetic architecture of complex disorders.
