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Kogure, Y.

Publications and source records attributed to Kogure, Y..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Personalized reference genome-based pipeline reveals comprehensive haplotype-resolved views of cancer genomes

Cancer genome analysis relies on standard human reference genomes, but detecting somatic alterations in highly repetitive or individual-specific regions remains challenging. We developed the Personalized Reference genome-based Cancer Genome Analysis Pipeline (PRCGAP, https://github.com/yos-sk/PRCGAP), to our knowledge, the first comprehensive pipeline integrating haplotype-resolved analyses of somatic point mutations, structural variants, copy number, and DNA methylation on personalized diploid reference genomes, with each variant phased and annotated by genomic features. We applied PRCGAP to eight tumor-normal cell line pairs and three newly collected pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) clinical samples. PRCGAP recovered most standard reference-based variants (86.7-96.4% across variant types), validated by orthogonal short-read sequencing, while additionally detecting variants that standard references missed (23.4% of SNVs and 32.6% of SVs). Notably, PRCGAP uncovered variants in centromeric and telomeric regions, and somatic single-nucleotide variants were enriched in centromere dip regions, the putative kinetochore formation sites. Using PRCGAP outputs, we identified L1 retrotransposition source sites absent from standard references and showed that a B-ALL IGH::DUX4 fusion arose from a DUX4 pseudogene within an internal D4Z4 repeat unit, rather than the canonical full-length DUX4 gene. Within a single haplotype-resolved framework, PRCGAP opens regions of the cancer genome that are inaccessible to standard references.

bioinformatics↗

HTLV-1-Induced Neuroimmunome Correlates with Disease Progression and Severity

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that infects approximately 5-10 million people worldwide. While most individuals remain asymptomatic, a significant subset develops debilitating neuroinflammatory or malignant disorders, including adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). To unravel the systemic molecular mechanisms underlying HTLV-1 pathogenesis, we employed a multi-dimensional systems biology approach, integrating bulk transcriptomic data from total PBMCs (n = 200) with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) from 233,093 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Our analysis revealed a consistent and clinically relevant neuroimmune signature within leukocytes, termed the neuroimmunome, comprising a set of differentially expressed genes shared across the nervous and immune systems. Through dimensionality reduction and machine learning techniques, such as PCA, gradient boosting, and MANOVA with bootstrapping, we identified potential biomarkers predictive of HTLV-1-driven leukemogenesis, which were subsequently validated across ATL, HAM/TSP, and asymptomatic cohorts via flow cytometry. Notably, expression levels of proteins such as ATF4 and SKIL were strongly correlated with proviral load, suggesting that sustained neuroimmune dysregulation may contribute to disease progression. These findings highlight a previously underappreciated neuroimmunological layer, redefining HTLV-1-associated disease as a condition deeply rooted in neuroimmune network disruption within leukocytes and offering potential novel targets.

molecular biology↗

FDXR Upregulation by p63/p73 is a Prognostic and Therapeutic Marker of HTLV-1-Associated Adult T Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma

Infection with human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) can lead to severe diseases, including adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), for which current therapies are inadequate. HTLV-1 persists chronically through integration of its genome into host DNA and expansion of infected clones via cellular proliferation. Selective elimination of infected cells is the ideal treatment goal but requires identifying cellular markers dysregulated by HTLV-1 that can be exploited therapeutically. Combining metabolomics and proteomics analyses, we identified increased expression of the mitochondrial enzyme ferredoxin reductase (FDXR) as a hallmark of HTLV-1-infected cells. In patient cells, FDXR upregulation mirrored disease severity, was enriched in proliferating tumour cells and predicted worse ATL prognosis. Mechanistically, FDXR upregulation was directly driven by the transactivating isoforms of two p53 family members, TAp63 and TAp73. In silico drug susceptibility predictions, followed by targeted cytotoxicity, proliferation and Drug-Seq assays demonstrated that FDXR upregulation is associated with increased sensitivity of ATL cells to repurposed chemotherapeutic agents, particularly fluorouracil. Overall, our findings establish FDXR as a novel biomarker of HTLV-1-associated disease progression and ATL prognosis, elucidate its upstream molecular regulation, and highlight its predictive potential for chemotherapeutic sensitivity of ATL cells.

microbiology↗

Msp1 and Pex19-Pex3 cooperate to achieve correct localization of Pex15 to peroxisomes

Yeast Msp1 is a dual-localized AAA-ATPase on the mitochondrial outer membrane (OM) and peroxisomal membrane. We previously showed that Msp1 transfers mistargeted tail-anchored (TA) proteins from mitochondria to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for degradation or delivery to their original destinations. However, the mechanism by which Msp1 in mitochondria and peroxisomes handles authentic peroxisomal TA proteins remains unclear. We show that newly synthesized Pex15 is targeted to peroxisomes primarily via the Pex19- and Pex3-dependent pathway. Mistargeted Pex15 on the mitochondrial OM is extracted by mitochondrial Msp1, and transferred to the ER via the guided-entry of TA proteins pathway for degradation or to peroxisomes via the Pex19-Pex3 pathway. Intriguingly, endogenous Pex15 localized in peroxisomes is also extracted from the membranes by peroxisomal Msp1, but returns to peroxisomes via the Pex19-Pex3 pathway. These results suggest that correct Pex15 localization to peroxisomes relies on not only the initial targeting by Pex19-Pex3 but also the constant re-routing by Msp1 and Pex19-Pex3.

cell biology↗

Coordinated multiple cellular processes in tongue development

Dysfunction of primary cilia leads to genetic disorder, ciliopathies, which shows various malformations in many vital organs such as brain. Multiple tongue deformities including cleft, hamartoma and ankyloglossia are also seen in ciliopathies, which yield difficulties in fundamental functions such as mastication and vocalization. Here, we found these tongue anomalies in mice with mutation of ciliary protein. Abnormal cranial neural crest-derived cells (CNCC) failed to evoke Hh signal for differentiation of mesoderm-derived cells into myoblasts, which resulted in abnormal differentiation of mesoderm-derived cells into adipocytes. The ectopic adipose subsequently arrested migration of other mesoderm-derived cells and CNCC. Some aberrant CNCC abnormally differentiated into osteoblasts due to the lack of Hh signal, which migrated into tongue to form ectopic bone. Ankyloglossia was caused by aberrant cell migration due to lack of non-canonical Wnt signaling. In addition to ciliopathies, these tongue anomalies are often observed as non-familial condition in human. We found that these tongue deformities could be reproduced in wild-type mice by simple mechanical manipulations in CNCC to disturb cellular processes which were disrupted in mutant mice. Thus, tongue development requires coordinated multiple cellular processes (cell-cell contact, migration and differentiation). Our results provide hints for possible future treatment in ciliopathies.

developmental biology↗

MCM10 compensates for Myc-induced DNA replication stress in breast cancer stem-like cells

Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are responsible for the drug resistance of tumors and recurrence while they experience DNA replication stress. However, the underlying mechanisms that cause DNA replication stress in CSCs and how they compensate for this stress remain unclear. Here we provide evidence that upregulated c-Myc expression induces stronger DNA replication stress in patient-derived breast CSCs than in differentiated cancer cells. Our results suggest critical roles for mini-chromosome maintenance protein 10 (MCM10), which is a firing (activating) factor of the DNA replication origins, to compensate for the DNA replication stress. Expression levels of MCM10 are upregulated in CSCs and maintained by c-Myc. c-Myc-dependent collisions may take place between RNA transcription and DNA replication machinery in nuclei, thereby causing DNA replication stress. MCM10 may activate dormant replication origins close to the collisions to ensure replication progression. Moreover, patient-derived breast CSCs were dependent on MCM10 for their maintenance even after enrichment for CSCs that were resistant to paclitaxel, the standard chemotherapeutic agent. In addition, MCM10 depletion decreased the growth of cancer cells but not normal cells. Therefore, MCM10 is likely to robustly compensate for DNA replication stress and facilitate genome duplication in the S-phase in cancer cells, which is more pronounced in CSCs. We provide a preclinical rationale to target the c-Myc-MCM10 axis to prevent drug resistance and recurrence.

cancer biology↗