Biology subjects

Priyanka, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Priyanka, A..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

DNAm aging biomarkers are responsive: Insights from 51 longevity interventional studies in humans

Aging biomarkers can potentially allow researchers to rapidly monitor the impact of an aging intervention, without the need for decade-spanning trials, by acting as surrogate endpoints. Prior to testing whether aging biomarkers may be useful as surrogate endpoints, it is first necessary to determine whether they are responsive to interventions that target aging. Epigenetic clocks are aging biomarkers based on DNA methylation with prognostic value for many aging outcomes. Many individual studies are beginning to explore whether epigenetic clocks are responsive to interventions. However, the diversity of both interventions and epigenetic clocks in different studies make them difficult to compare systematically. Here, we curate TranslAGE-Response, a harmonized database of 51 public and private longitudinal interventional studies and calculate a consistent set of 16 prominent epigenetic clocks for each study, along with 95 other DNAm biomarkers that help explain changes in each clock. With this database, we discover patterns of responsiveness across a variety of interventions and DNAm biomarkers. For example, clocks trained to predict mortality or pace of aging have the strongest response across all interventions and show consistent agreement with each other, pharmacological and lifestyle interventions drive the strongest response from DNAm biomarkers, and study population and study duration are key factors in driving responsiveness of DNAm biomarkers in an intervention. Some classes of interventions such as TNF-alpha inhibitors have strong, consistent effects across multiple studies, while others such as senolytic drugs have inconsistent effects. Clocks with multiple sub-scores (i.e. "explainable clocks") provide specificity and greater mechanistic insight into responsiveness of interventions than single-score clocks. Our work can help the geroscience field design future clinical trials, by guiding the choice of interventions, specific subsets of epigenetic clocks to minimize multiple testing, study duration, study population, and sample size, with the eventual aim of determining whether epigenetic clocks can be used as surrogate endpoints.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Surprising variety in the USP deubiquitinase catalytic mechanism

The USP family of deubiquitinases (DUBs) controls many ubiquitin-dependent signaling events. This generates therapeutic potential, with active-site inhibitors in preclinical and clinical studies. Understanding of the USP active site was so far primarily guided by USP7 data, where the catalytic triad consists of cysteine, histidine and a third residue (first critical residue), which polarizes the histidine through a hydrogen bond. A conserved aspartate (second critical residue) is directly adjacent to this first critical residue. Here we study the roles of these critical residues in a subset of USPs and reveal a remarkable variety in function. While USP7 relies on the first critical residue for catalysis, this residue is dispensable in USP1, USP15, USP40 and USP48. Instead, their second critical residue is vital for catalysis. Interestingly, without their respective vital residue USP7, USP15 and USP40 can still perform nucleophilic attack. The diverging catalytic mechanisms of USP1 and USP7 are independent of substrate and retained in cells for USP1. The unexpected variety of catalytic mechanisms in this well-conserved protein family may generate opportunities for selective targeting of individual USPs. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=103 SRC="FIGDIR/small/550302v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (22K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1f3fdbeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@197f836org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@28b588org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a62a2b_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG SynopsisO_LIThe roles of the highly conserved critical residues in USP active sites are poorly understood. Here we show that these two residues have varying importance for catalysis between different USPs. C_LIO_LIExcept for USP7, the majority of USPs does not rely on the canonical third catalytic residue (first critical residue). Instead, the USPs tested rely primarily on the highly conserved second critical residue. C_LIO_LIIn some USPs, either critical residues can accommodate nucleophilic attack (USP7, USP40, USP15). USP1 and USP48 are unable to perform the nucleophilic attack without the second critical residue. C_LI

biochemistry↗