Biology subjects

Bowler, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Bowler, S..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Disruption of natural killer cell homing as a biomarker in persons aging with or without HIV

Natural killer (NK) cells are critical modulators of HIV transmission and disease. While recent evidence suggests a loss of NK cell cytotoxicity during aging, a compound analysis of NK cell biology and aging in persons with HIV (PWH) is lacking. We set out to perform one of the first large comprehensive analyses of people aging with and without HIV to determine NK phenotypic changes during aging and how these changes are modulated while aging with HIV. Utilizing high-dimensional polychromatic flow cytometry we analyzed 30 immune-related proteins spanning broad functions such as trafficking, activation/inhibition, NK specific receptors, and memory/checkpoint receptors on peripheral NK cells from health donors, PWH with viral suppression, and viremic PWH. NK cell phenotypes are dynamic across the age span but are significantly altered in HIV and ART and with co-factors such as CMV. Specifically, NK cells in healthy aging show increasing levels of 4{beta}7 and decreasing CCR7 expression during aging, a phenomenon nearly perfectly reversed in PWH. These HIV-associated trafficking changes could be in part due to NK cell recruitment to HIV reservoir formation in lymphoid tissue or failed mucosal signaling in the HIV-infected gut, but regardless appear to be tight biomarkers of age-related NK cell changes.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2021

JAMMIT Analysis Defines 2 Semi-Independent Immune Processes Common to 29 Solid Tumors

Immunophenotype of solid tumors has relevance to cancer immunotherapy, as not all patients respond optimally to treatment utilizing monoclonal antibodies. Bioinformatic studies have failed to clearly identify tumor immunophenotype in a way that encompasses a wide variety of tumor types and highlights fundamental differences among them, complicating prediction of patient clinical response. The novel JAMMIT algorithm was used to analyze mRNA data for 33 cancer types in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that B cells and T cells constitute the principal source of variation in most patient cohorts, and that virtually all solid malignancies formed three hierarchical clustering patterns with similar molecular features. The second main source of variability in transcriptomic studies we attribute to monocytes. We identified the three tumor types as TC1-mediated, TC17-mediated and non-immunogenic immunophenotypes and used a 3-gene signature to approximate infiltration by agranulocytes. Methods of in silico validation such as pathway analysis, Cibersort and published data from treated cohorts were used to substantiate these findings. Monocytic infiltrate is found to be related to patient survival according to immunophenotype, important differences in some solid tumors are identified and deficiencies of common bioinformatic approaches relevant to diagnosis are detailed by this work.

cancer biology↗