Biology subjects

Julien, O.

Publications and source records attributed to Julien, O..

10 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Siglec-G on B cells restrains the germinal center response by controlling T cell help during positive selection

The germinal center (GC) reaction requires tight regulation of B cell and T follicular helper (Tfh) cell interactions to ensure B cell expansion and antibody affinity maturation, while preventing oncogenesis. However, regulatory mechanisms fine-tuning B-T cell interactions within the GC to prevent aberrant activation and proliferation remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify Siglec-G, the mouse ortholog of human Siglec-10, as an immune checkpoint that restrains the GC by dampening B-T cell interactions. Selective and temporal ablation of Siglec-G on B cells after immunization triggers GC hyperplasia and enhanced plasma cell and antibody output. While Siglec-G is dispensable in B cell receptor (BCR)-mediated processes, it acts as an intrinsic inhibitory receptor of B-T cell interactions in the GC, ultimately limiting Myc and mTORC activation within positively selected GC B cells. Trans interactions of Siglec-G and its glycan ligands on Tfh likely contribute in fine-tuning the strength of bidirectional signaling following contact between GC B cells and Tfh cells. This interaction is further reinforced by glycan remodeling that occurs in the GC, resulting in concurrent decreased in glycan ligands on GC B cells and increased in glycan ligands on Tfh. This augmented binding of Siglec-G/10 on Tfh is mainly due to the upregulation of 2-6 linked sialic acid ligands. Moreover, APEX2-based proximity labeling revealed several candidate Siglec-G/10 binding partners on T cells, including BTLA, CD6, and Slamf6, which are known negative regulators of Tfh cell activation. Taken together, our findings identified that Siglec-G acts as a GC checkpoint receptor, restricting B cell proliferation by tuning T cell help following B-T cell interactions.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2026

Matrix metalloproteinases proteolyze RAB proteins and contribute to cisplatin-induced ototoxicity

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are rapidly expressed and activated in response to oxidative stress and contribute to various pathological conditions. Cisplatin is a highly effective chemotherapeutic agent; however, its clinical use is limited by its associated permanent hearing loss (ototoxicity). While cispwlatin-induced oxidative stress and inner ear cell death are well-established, the contribution of MMPs remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that cisplatin exposure triggers activation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 and expression of an intracellular N-terminal-truncated isoform of MMP-2 in mouse inner ear hair cells. Pharmacological inhibition of MMP-2 and genetic knockdown of Mmp-9 enhanced hair cell survival and attenuated cisplatin-induced inflammation and cytotoxicity. Furthermore, proteomic analysis revealed that proteins involved in intracellular trafficking, including RAB proteins, may serve as potential substrates of intracellular MMP-2 upon cisplatin exposure, pointing to a previously unrecognized mechanism of cisplatin-induced hair cell injury. In vitro analysis confirmed that MMP-2 cleaves RAB9A in response to cisplatin, and in silico analyses predicted MMP-2-preferred cleavage sites on RAB9A. Collectively, our findings identify MMP-2 as a promising therapeutic target for mitigating cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.

pharmacology and toxicology↗

bioRxiv2025

A metabolite extracted from E. coli suppresses tau aggregation

Tau aggregation is a key pathological feature of neurodegenerative diseases termed tauopathies. Identifying the various cellular factors that function to prevent tau aggregation in cells can generate key insights into how to mitigate diseases associated with protein misfolding. During an investigation into developing purification methods for the protein tau, we observed that isolates of E. coli lysate prevented human tau aggregation in vitro. Fractionation of the lysate was used to further isolate a small molecular weight (MW) inhibitory fraction containing multiple components, as determined by mass spectrometry and NMR. A putative inhibitory component, methylphosphonic acid (MePn), decreased tau amyloid formation when supplemented to in vitro aggregation assays. MePn also blocked the aggregation of expressed tau in live E. coli when supplemented to the culture media. Our findings can be directly applied to optimizing purification of recombinant tau protein and more broadly, highlight the potential of cellular metabolites to directly modulate tau amyloid formation.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2025

Mechanistic insight into the regulation of virulence factor type 1 pili in pathogenic E. coli by rhomboid protease GlpG

With the rise in antimicrobial resistance, understanding the virulence factors utilized by pathogenic E. coli is essential for the development of alternative therapeutics. While previous work has shown that disruption of the E. coli rhomboid protease gene glpG leads to defects in bacterial colonization, here we provide mechanistic insight into the loss of fitness. We show GlpG is essential for the assembly of type 1 pili, a virulence factor required for the colonization of eukaryotic cells. Since pili are critical for biofilm formation and bacterial persistence, the absence of GlpG proteolytic activity reduces the production of biofilm. Working towards new potential antimicrobial targets for treating infections, we show that biofilm formation is hampered by GlpG inhibition. Our data demonstrates that GlpG plays a key role in protein quality control of type 1 pili and alters the paradigm for GlpG proteolysis, previously implicated in the cleavage of only membrane embedded substrates.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2025

Investigation of CD36 interactome provides insights into multimolecular complexes necessary for anti-angiogenic signalling

Signal transduction is a fundamental process that enables cells to adapt to external cues and organize adequate responses including survival, death, growth, and homeostasis. A key mechanism modulating signal transduction relies on the formation of multimolecular complexes optimized for specificity, modularity and signal amplification. The scavenger receptor CD36, which binds diverse ligands in different cellular contexts, illustrates this principle. To uncover the nature of CD36 multimolecular complexes, we employed a proximity biotinylation labeling approach on human endothelial cells, where CD36 binds to thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) to initiate a signaling cascade promoting programmed cell death. Using biotin capture and mass spectrometry protein identification, we uncovered a list of proteins in the vicinity of CD36. This list of candidates was refined by proximity ligation assays. The relationship between key CD36 interacting molecules, in particular active integrin beta-1 (ITGB1) and CD9, was further decoded by conditional colocalization analysis, providing support for their association within a tri-molecular complex. The implication of selected candidates in the signaling function of CD36 was further evaluated using shRNA knockdown, revealing that active ITGB1 is essential for Fyn activation downstream of CD36, with the tetraspanin playing a connecting role between CD36 and active ITGB1. Our approach to investigating CD36 complexes emphasizes the complexity and fundamental role of protein-protein interactions and coordination in the context of transmembrane signal transduction.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Maternal humoral factors modulate offspring gut immune homeostasis to mitigate diabetes development

Environmental risk factors possess the potential to modulate the pathogenesis of type I diabetes (T1D). Foremost among these factors are early life influences impacting the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. During infancy, both the microbiota and immune system are influenced by maternal factors contributing to key events in the neonatal GI tract. Despite the well-known importance of maternal factors on infant immune development, whether maternal immune dysregulation and dysbiosis can perpetuate the same in offspring remains largely unknown. To explore how these maternal factors impact offspring disease development, we used IgA-deficiency induced maternal dysbiosis in Non-Obese Diabetic (NOD) dams to study T1D development in their progeny. We found that maternal dysbiosis and absence of IgA led to changes in IgA-sufficient offspring immune development resulting in heightened GI immune activity. Maternal dysbiosis also contributed to altered microbiome establishment in progeny, such that pups exhibited reduced colonic abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila and Clostridoides difficile. In adulthood, these mice exhibited a lowered incidence of T1D. This protection was replicated by fostering high incidence offspring to dysbiotic dams, prompting us to propose that altered breast milk composition in dysbiotic dams can influence immune development and microbiome establishment in offspring, contributing to T1D resistance.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2023

Alzheimer's disease associated isoforms of human CD33 distinctively modulate microglial cell responses in 5XFAD mice

Microglia play diverse pathophysiological roles in Alzheimers disease (AD), with genetic susceptibility factors skewing microglial cell function to influence AD risk. CD33 is an immunomodulatory receptor associated with AD susceptibility through a single nucleotide polymorphism that modulates mRNA splicing, skewing protein expression from a long protein isoform (CD33M) to a short isoform (CD33m). Understanding how human CD33 isoforms differentially impact microglial cell function in vivo has been challenging due to functional divergence of CD33 between mice and humans. We address this challenge by studying transgenic mice expressing either of the human CD33 isoforms crossed with the 5XFAD mouse model of amyloidosis and find that human CD33 isoforms have opposing effects on the response of microglia to amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) deposition. Mice expressing CD33M have increased A{beta} levels, mo7re diffuse plaques, fewer disease-associated microglia, and more dystrophic neurites compared to control 5XFAD mice. Conversely, CD33m promotes plaque compaction and microglia-plaque contacts, and minimizes neuritic plaque pathology, highlighting an AD protective role for this isoform. Protective phenotypes driven by CD33m are detected at an earlier timepoint compared to the more aggressive pathology in CD33M mice that appears at a later timepoint, suggesting that CD33m has a more prominent impact on microglia cell function at earlier stages of disease progression. In addition to divergent roles in modulating phagocytosis, scRNAseq and proteomics analyses demonstrate that CD33m+ microglia upregulate nestin, an intermediate filament involved in cell migration, at plaque contact sites. Overall, our work provides new functional insights into how CD33, as a top genetic susceptibility factor for AD, modulates microglial cell function.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Disease associated mutations in tau encode for changes in aggregate structure conformation

The accumulation of tau aggregates is associated with neurodegenerative diseases collectively known as tauopathies. Tau aggregates isolated from different tauopathies such as Alzheimers disease, corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy have distinct cryo-electron microscopy structures with respect to their packed fibril cores. To understand the mechanisms by which tau can be sensitized to form distinct aggregate conformations, we created a panel of tau variants encoding for individual disease-associated missense mutations in full-length 0N4R tau (wild-type and 36 mutants). We developed a high-throughput protein purification platform for direct comparison of tau variants in biochemical assays. Structural analysis of the protease-resistant core of tau aggregates formed in vitro reveals that mutations can promote aggregate core packing distinct from that produced by WT tau. Comparing aggregate structure changes with aggregation kinetic parameters for tau mutants revealed no clear linkage between these two aggregation properties. We also found that tau mutation-dependent alterations of tau aggregate structure are not readily explained by current tau fibril structure data. This is the first study to show the broad potential of tau mutations to alter the packed core structures contained within aggregated tau and sheds new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of tau aggregate structures that may drive their associated pathology in disease.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2023

SARS-CoV-2 Mpro protease variants of concern display altered viral and host target processing but retain potency towards antivirals

Main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (Mpro) is the most promising drug target against coronaviruses due to its essential role in virus replication. With newly emerging variants there is a concern that mutations in Mpro may alter structural and functional properties of protease and subsequently the potency of existing and potential antivirals. We explored the effect of 31 mutations belonging to 5 variants of concern (VOC) on catalytic parameters and substrate specificity, which revealed changes in substrate binding and rate of cleavage of a viral peptide. Crystal structures of 11 Mpro mutants provided structural insight into their altered functionality. Additionally, we show Mpro mutations influence proteolysis of an immunomodulatory host protein Galectin-8 (Gal-8) and subsequent significant decrease in cytokine secretion, providing evidence for alterations in escape of host-antiviral mechanisms. Accordingly, mutations associated with the highly virulent Delta VOC resulted in significant increase in Gal-8 cleavage. Importantly, IC50s of nirmatrelvir (Pfizer) and our irreversible inhibitor AVI-8053 demonstrated no changes in potency for both drugs for all mutants, suggesting Mpro will remain a high-priority antiviral drug candidate as SARS-CoV-2 evolves.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2021

NOD1 is super-activated through spatially-selective ubiquitination by the Salmonella effector SspH2

As part of its pathogenesis, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium delivers effector proteins into host cells. One effector is SspH2, a member of the novel E3 ubiquitin ligase family, interacts with, and enhances, NOD1 pro-inflammatory signaling, though the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, we report the novel discovery that SspH2 interacts with multiple members of the NLRC family to enhance pro-inflammatory signaling that results from targeted ubiquitination. We show that SspH2 modulates host innate immunity by interacting with both NOD1 and NOD2 in mammalian epithelial cell culture. We also show that SspH2 specifically interacts with the NBD and LRR domains of NOD1 and super-activates NOD1- and NOD2-mediated cytokine secretion via the NF-{kappa}B pathway. Mass spectrometry analyses identified lysine residues in NOD1 that were ubiquitinated after interaction with SspH2. Through NOD1 mutational analyses, we identified four key lysine residues that are required for NOD1 super-activation by SspH2, but not its basal activity. These critical lysine residues are positioned in the same region of NOD1 and define a surface on NOD1 that is targeted by SspH2. Overall, this work provides evidence for post-translational modification of NOD1 by ubiquitin, and uncovers a unique mechanism of spatially-selective ubiquitination to enhance the activation of an archetypal NLR. SYNOPSISSspH2 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase injected by Salmonella Typhimurium into host cells that induces pro-inflammatory signaling. The immune receptor, NOD1, is ubiquitinated in the presence of SspH2, resulting in increased pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. O_LISspH2 super-activates NOD1 and NOD2 to increase pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, in part, through the NF-{kappa}B pathway C_LIO_LIUbiquitin modification of NOD1 were identified by mass spectrometry C_LIO_LIA specific region of NOD1 is targeted by SspH2 to enhance NOD1 activity. C_LI

microbiology↗