Biology subjects

Zhang, H.

Publications and source records attributed to Zhang, H..

At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Deficiency in a special dynein DNAH12 causes male infertility by impairing DNAH1 and DNALI1 recruitment in humans and mice

Asthenoteratozoospermia, a prevalent cause of male infertility, lacks a well-defined etiology. DNAH12 is a special dynein featured by the absence of a microtubule-binding domain, however, its functions in spermatogenesis remain largely unknown. Through comprehensive genetic analyses involving whole-exome sequencing and subsequent Sanger sequencing on infertile patients and fertile controls from six distinct families, we unveiled six biallelic mutations in DNAH12 that co-segregate recessively with male infertility in the studied families. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed pronounced axonemal abnormalities, including inner dynein arms (IDAs) impairment and central pair (CP) loss in sperm flagella of the patients. Mouse models (Dnah12-/- and Dnah12mut/mut) were generated and recapitulated the reproductive defects in the patients. Noteworthy, DNAH12 deficiency did not show effects on cilium organization and function. Mechanistically, DNAH12 was confirmed to interact with two other IDA components DNALI1 and DNAH1, while disruption of DNAH12 leads to failed recruitment of DNALI1 and DNAH1 to IDAs and compromised sperm development. Furthermore, DNAH12 also interacts with radial spoke head proteins RSPH1, RSPH9, and DNAJB13 to regulate CP stability. Moreover, the infertility of Dnah12-/- mice could be overcome by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment. Collectively, DNAH12 plays a crucial role in the proper organization of axoneme in sperm flagella, but not cilia, by recruiting DNAH1 and DNALI1 in both humans and mice. These findings expand our comprehension of dynein component assembly in flagella and cilia and provide a valuable marker for genetic counseling and diagnosis of asthenoteratozoospermia in clinical practice.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2024

O-Glycosylated RNA Identification and Site-specific Prediction by Solid-phase Chemoenzymatic TnORNA method and PONglyRNA tool

Recent studies have shown that the cell surface undergoes post-transcriptional modification by N-linked glycosylation. However, the question of whether RNA can be glycosylated by O-glycans remains to be explored. The presence of O-glycosylation in cells is indirectly revealed by the presence of O-glycans on RNAs following treatment with O-glycoproteases. To identify RNA O-glycosylation, we have developed a chemoenzymatic method for capturing and enriching O-glycosylated RNA (O-glycoRNA) using covalent immobilization on a solid support. GalNAcEXO selectively releases Tn-containing O-glycosylated RNAs (TnORNA). Using this method and SPCgRNA, we compared the expression of O-glycoRNAs and N-glycoRNAs in pancreatic cancer cell lines and tissues. We found that glycosylated miR-103a-3p, miR-122-5p, and miR-4492 regulate pancreatic cancer cell growth and proliferation through the PI3K-Akt pathway. In vitro assays and PDAC tissue analysis confirmed the potential regulatory roles of Tn-O-glycosylated miRNAs in pancreatic tumor growth and metastasis. Furthermore, a significant number (131) of miRNAs carrying both N- and Tn-O-glycosylation were identified, indicating the co-occurrence of N-linked and O-linked glycosylation on small RNAs. We have also developed PONglyRNA, an online bioinformatic tool for the site-specific prediction of RNA glycosylation. PONglyRNA identifies glycosylation motifs based on RNA sequence and has been validated using our glycoRNA data. In conclusion, this study establishes robust experimental and computational tools for identifying O-linked glycoRNAs. Additionally, it uncovers the novel role of glycosylation in PDAC development and progression through altered glycosylation of oncogenic miRNAs. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=195 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/599663v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (72K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@199511corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@9c3338org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e6d315org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2c1fc1_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Genome-wide Mapping of Topoisomerase Binding Sites Suggests Topoisomerase 3α(TOP3A) as a Reader of Transcription-Replication Conflicts (TRC)

Both transcription and replication can take place simultaneously on the same DNA template, potentially leading to transcription-replication conflicts (TRCs) and topological problems. Here we asked which topoisomerase(s) is/are the best candidate(s) for sensing TRC. Genome-wide topoisomerase binding sites were mapped in parallel for all the nuclear topoisomerases (TOP1, TOP2A, TOP2B, TOP3A and TOP3B). To increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR), we used ectopic expression of those topoisomerases in H293 cells followed by a modified CUT&Tag method. Although each topoisomerase showed distinct binding patterns, all topoisomerase binding signals positively correlated with gene transcription. TOP3A binding signals were suppressed by DNA replication inhibition. This was also observed but to a lesser extent for TOP2A and TOP2B. Hence, we propose the involvement of TOP3A in sensing both head-on TRCs (HO-TRCs) and codirectional TRCs (CD-TRCs). In which case, the TOP3A signals appear concentrated within the promoters and first 20 kb regions of the 5 -end of genes, suggesting the prevalence of TRCs and the recruitment of TOP3A in the 5-regions of transcribed and replicated genes. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=81 SRC="FIGDIR/small/599352v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (10K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d1afdeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17146eaorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e6bed3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1fa40db_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

genomics↗

bioRxiv2024

IDH1 regulates human erythropoiesis by eliciting chromatin state reprogramming in a metabolic enzyme independent manner

Isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) is the key enzyme that was involved in the modulation of cellular metabolism, epigenetic modification and redox states homeostasis. Gain-of-function mutations and decreased expression of IDH1 have been demonstrated to be tightly associated with the pathogenesis of various myeloid malignancies characterized by ineffective erythropoiesis, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). However, the function and mechanism of IDH1 in human erythropoiesis still remains to be further explored. Here, utilizing the human erythropoiesis system, we present an evidence of IDH1-mediated chromatin state reprogramming besides its well-characterized metabolism effects. We showed that knockdown of IDH1 induced chromatin reorganization and subsequently led to abnormalities of various key biological events in erythroid precursors, which could not be rescued by addition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers or supplementation of -ketoglutarate (-KG). We further revealed that deficiency of IDH1 induces genome-wide changes in distribution and intensity of multiple histone marks, among which H3K79me3 was identified as a critical factor in chromatin state reprogramming. Integrated analysis of ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq and RNA-seq recognized that SIRT1 was the key gene affected by IDH1 deficiency. Thus, our current work provided novel insights for further clarifying fundamental biological function of IDH1 which has substantial implications for an in-depth understanding of pathogenesis of diseases with IDH1 dysfunction and accordingly development of therapeutic strategies. Key PointsO_LIIDH1 deficiency impaired terminal erythropoiesis; C_LIO_LIIDH1 deficiency leads to chromatin states reprogramming by causing aberrant accumulation and genome-wide re-distribution of H3K79me3; C_LIO_LIDyserythropoiesis is caused by upregulation of SIRT1 induced by H3K79me3 accumulation. C_LI Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=81 SRC="FIGDIR/small/599556v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (28K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@328986org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e2e8a0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@166885org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1283261_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Deep generative models generate mRNA sequences with enhanced translation capacity and stability

Despite the tremendous success of messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines, the extension of this modality to a broader spectrum of diseases necessitates substantial enhancements, particularly in the design of mRNAs with elevated expression levels and extended durability. Here we present GEMORNA, a deep generative model designed to generate novel mRNA coding sequences (CDSs) and untranslated regions (UTRs) with superior translation capacity, comparable to the sophisticated task of language translation and free-form poetry composition with accurate grammar and semantics. Our AI model was trained on an extensive collection of RNA sequences from diverse families, further enhanced with labeled data to refine its performance. Remarkably, we demonstrate that our AI-generated mRNAs exhibited 8.2-fold and 15.9-fold increases in firefly luciferase expression compared to benchmark mRNAs in two different cell types. Additionally, Our AI- designed COVID-19 mRNA vaccine elicited a 4-fold increase in anti-COVID antibody titer in mice relative to BNT162b2. Furthermore, GEMORNAs versatility extends to circular mRNA design, which we facilitated a 27-fold increase in human erythropoietin protein expression in vivo than a systematically optimized benchmark sequence. We also created circular mRNAs with substantial improvements in expression levels, durability and anti-tumor cell cytotoxicity in mRNA-transduced CAR-T cells compared with an experimentally validated benchmark. In summary, GEMORNA generates novel mRNA sequences with significant performance improvements and has the potential to enable a wide range of therapeutic and vaccine applications.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Fission yeast Caprin protein is required for efficient heterochromatin establishment

Heterochromatin is a key feature of eukaryotic genomes that serves important regulatory and structural roles in regions such as centromeres. In fission yeast, maintenance of existing heterochromatic domains relies on positive feedback loops involving histone methylation and non-coding RNAs. However, requirements for de novo establishment of heterochromatin are less well understood. Here, through a cross-based assay we have identified a novel factor influencing the efficiency of heterochromatin establishment. We determine that the previously uncharacterised protein is an ortholog of human Caprin1, an RNA-binding protein linked to stress granule formation. We confirm that the fission yeast ortholog, here named Cpn1, also associates with stress granules, and we uncover evidence of interplay between heterochromatin integrity and ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granule formation, with heterochromatin mutants showing reduced granule formation in the presence of stress, but increased granule formation in the absence of stress. We link this to regulation of non-coding heterochromatic transcripts, since in heterochromatin-deficient cells, absence of Cpn1 leads to hyperaccumulation of centromeric RNAs at centromeres. Together, our findings unveil a novel link between RNP homeostasis and heterochromatin assembly, and implicate Cpn1 and associated factors in facilitating efficient heterochromatin establishment by enabling removal of excess transcripts that would otherwise impair assembly processes.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Inhibitor of cardiolipin biosynthesis-related enzyme MoGep4 confers broad-spectrum anti-fungal activity

Plant pathogens cause devastating diseases, leading to serious losses to agriculture. Mechanistic understanding of pathogenesis of plant pathogens lays the foundation for the development of fungicides for disease control. Mitophagy, a specific form of autophagy, is important for fungal virulence. The role of cardiolipin, mitochondrial signature phospholipid, in mitophagy and pathogenesis is largely unknown in plant pathogenic fungi. The functions of enzymes involved in cardiolipin biosynthesis and relevant inhibitors were assessed using a set of assays, including genetic deletion, plant infection, lipidomics, chemical-protein interaction, chemical inhibition, and field trials. Our results showed that the cardiolipin biosynthesis-related gene MoGEP4 of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae regulates growth, conidiation, cardiolipin biosynthesis, and virulence. Mechanistically, MoGep4 regulated mitophagy and Mps1-MAPK phosphorylation, which are required for virulence. Chemical alexidine dihydrochloride (AXD) inhibited the enzyme activity of MoGep4, cardiolipin biosynthesis and mitophagy. Importantly, AXD efficiently inhibited the growth of 10 plant pathogens and controlled rice blast and Fusarium head blight in the field. Our study demonstrated that MoGep4 regulates mitophagy, Mps1 phosphorylation and pathogenesis in M. oryzae. In addition, we found that the MoGep4 inhibitor, AXD, displays broad-spectrum antifungal activity and is a promising candidate for fungicide development.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2024

The continuous differentiation of multiscale structural gradients from childhood to adolescence correlates with the maturation of cortical morphology and functional specialization

From childhood to adolescence, the structural organization of the human brain undergoes dynamic and regionally heterogeneous changes across multiple scales, from synaptic pruning to the reorganization of large-scale anatomical wiring. However, during this period, the developmental process of multiscale structural architecture, its association with cortical morphological changes, and its role in the maturation of functional organization remain largely unknown. Here, we utilized a longitudinal multimodal imaging dataset including 276 children aged 6 to 14 years to investigate the developmental process of multiscale cortical wiring. We used an in vivo model of cortical wiring that combines features of white matter tractography, cortico-cortical proximity, and microstructural similarity to construct a multiscale brain structural connectome. By employing the gradient mapping method, the gradient space derived from the multiscale structural connectome effectively recapitulated the sensory-association axis and anterior-posterior axis. Our findings revealed a continuous expansion of the multiscale structural gradient space during development, with the principal gradient increasingly distinguishing between primary and transmodal regions. This age-related differentiation coincided with regionally heterogeneous changes in cortical morphology. Furthermore, our study revealed that developmental changes in coupling between multiscale structural and functional connectivity were correlated with functional specialization refinement, as evidenced by changes in the participation coefficient. We also found that the differentiation of the principal multiscale structural gradient was associated with improved cognitive abilities, such as enhanced working memory and attention performance, and potentially supported by molecular processes related to synaptic functions. These findings advance our understanding of the intricate maturation process of brain structural organization and its implications for cognitive performance.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

In Vivo Proximity Labeling Identifies a New Function for the Lifespan and Autophagy-regulating Kinase Pef1, an Ortholog of Human Cdk5

Cdk5 is a highly-conserved, noncanonical cell division kinase important to the terminal differentiation of mammalian cells in multiple organ systems. We previously identified Pef1, the Schizosaccharomyces pombe ortholog of cdk5, as regulator of chronological lifespan. To reveal the processes impacted by Pef1, we developed APEX2-biotin phenol-mediated proximity labeling in S. pombe. Efficient labeling required a short period of cell wall digestion and eliminating glucose and nitrogen sources from the medium. We identified 255 high-confidence Pef1 neighbors in growing cells and a novel Pef1-interacting partner, the DNA damage response protein Rad24. The Pef1-Rad24 interaction was validated by reciprocal proximity labeling and co-immunoprecipitation. Eliminating Pef1 partially rescued the DNA damage sensitivity of cells lacking Rad24. To monitor how Pef1 neighbors change under different conditions, cells induced for autophagy were labeled and 177 high-confidence Pef1 neighbors were identified. Gene ontology (GO) analysis of the Pef1 neighbors identified proteins participating in processes required for autophagosome expansion including regulation of actin dynamics and vesicle-mediated transport. Some of these proteins were identified in both exponentially growing and autophagic cells. Pef1-APEX2 proximity labeling therefore identified a new Pef1 function in modulating the DNA damage response and candidate processes that Pef1 and other cdk5 orthologs may regulate.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2024

Electrostatic interactions in nucleosome and higher-order structures are regulated by protonation state of histone ionizable residue

The nucleosome serves as the fundamental unit of chromatin organization, with electrostatic interactions acting as the driving forces in the folding of nucleosomes into chromatin. Perturbations in cellular pH conditions can lead to changes in the protonation states of titratable histone residues, impacting nucleosome surface electrostatic potentials and interactions. However, the effects of proton uptake or release of histone ionizable groups on nucleosome-partner protein interactions and higher-order chromatin structures remain largely unexplored. Here, we conducted comprehensive analyses of histone titratable residue pKa values in various nucleosome contexts, utilizing 96 experimentally determined structures. We revealed that pH-induced changes in histone residue protonation states modulated nucleosome surface electrostatic potentials and significantly influenced nucleosome-partner protein interactions. Furthermore, we observed that proton uptake or release often accompanied nucleosome-partner protein interactions, facilitating their binding processes. Additionally, using a dataset of 1266 recurrent histone cancer mutations, we systematically characterized their impact on nucleosome surface electrostatics, demonstrating their profound effects on electrostatic interactions between nucleosomes and partner proteins. Finally, our findings suggest that alterations in histone protonation or cancer mutations can also regulate nucleosome self-association, thereby modulating the organization and dynamics of higher-order chromatin structure.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2024

A replicable and generalizable neuroimaging-based indicator of pain sensitivity across individuals

Developing neural indicators of pain sensitivity is crucial for revealing the neural basis of individual differences in pain and advancing individualized pain treatment. To identify reliable neural indicators of pain sensitivity, we leveraged six large and diverse functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) datasets (total N=1046). We found replicable and generalizable correlations between nociceptive-evoked fMRI responses and pain sensitivity for laser heat, contact heat, and mechanical pains. These fMRI responses correlated more strongly with pain sensitivity than with tactile, auditory, and visual sensitivity. Moreover, we developed a machine learning model that accurately predicted not only pain sensitivity but also pain reduction from different interventions in healthy individuals. Notably, these findings were influenced considerably by sample sizes, requiring >200 for univariate correlation analysis and >150 for multivariate machine learning modelling. Altogether, we demonstrate the validity of decoding pain sensitivity from fMRI responses, thus facilitating interpretations of subjective pain reports and promoting more mechanistically informed investigation of pain physiology.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

TNBC response to paclitaxel phenocopies interferon response which reveals cell cycle-associated resistance mechanisms

Paclitaxel is a standard of care neoadjuvant therapy for patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC); however, it shows limited benefit for locally advanced or metastatic disease. Here we used a coordinated experimental-computational approach to explore the influence of paclitaxel on the cellular and molecular responses of TNBC cells. We found that escalating doses of paclitaxel resulted in multinucleation, promotion of senescence, and initiation of DNA damage induced apoptosis. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of TNBC cells after paclitaxel treatment revealed upregulation of innate immune programs canonically associated with interferon response and downregulation of cell cycle progression programs. Systematic exploration of transcriptional responses to paclitaxel and cancer-associated microenvironmental factors revealed common gene programs induced by paclitaxel, IFNB, and IFNG. Transcription factor (TF) enrichment analysis identified 13 TFs that were both enriched based on activity of downstream targets and also significantly upregulated after paclitaxel treatment. Functional assessment with siRNA knockdown confirmed that the TFs FOSL1, NFE2L2 and ELF3 mediate cellular proliferation and also regulate nuclear structure. We further explored the influence of these TFs on paclitaxel-induced cell cycle behavior via live cell imaging, which revealed altered progression rates through G1, S/G2 and M phases. We found that ELF3 knockdown synergized with paclitaxel treatment to lock cells in a G1 state and prevent cell cycle progression. Analysis of publicly available breast cancer patient data showed that high ELF3 expression was associated with poor prognosis and enrichment programs associated with cell cycle progression. Together these analyses disentangle the diverse aspects of paclitaxel response and identify ELF3 upregulation as a putative biomarker of paclitaxel resistance in TNBC.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Multi-step engineered adeno-associated virus enables whole-brain mRNA delivery

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are commonly used vectors for DNA delivery in gene therapy. Here we developed a system that enables the AAV shell to package mRNAs by multi-step introduction of RNA-packaging components and modification of AAV Rep proteins. The resultant mRNA-carrying AAVs (RAAVs) retained most properties of conventional AAVs, including capsid composition, virus morphology, and tissue tropism. These RAAVs could mediate mRNA transfer into target cells and tissues, leading to transient expression of the functional protein. Importantly, intravenously injected RAAVs efficiently crossed the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and infected the whole mouse brain. Thus, the DNA viral vector could be modified for RNA delivery, and our RAAV represents the first highly efficient BBB-crossing mRNA delivery system that could be used for therapeutic purposes via whole-brain infection.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

CellFM: a large-scale foundation model pre-trained on transcriptomics of 100 million human cells

The rapid evolution of single-cell sequencing technologies has facilitated precise transcriptomics profiling at the single-cell level, shedding light on the intricate heterogeneity within cellular populations. Despite these advances, the inherent diversity of cells and data challenges such as noise, batch effects, and sparsity, underscores the pressing need for a unified model to learn and represent cellular states effectively. Single-cell Large Language Models (LLMs) have been crafted to bridge this gap yet exhibit limited performance on human cells. This short-fall may stem from the confounding effects of training data from diverse species, partly because of limited cells for the single species. Here, we have compiled a dataset of approximately 100 million human cells sequenced by multiple technolo-gies from human single-cell datasets with various file types deposited in public databases and websites. Leveraging these extensive data cohorts, we developed CellFM, a robust single-cell foundation model with an impressive 800 million parameters, marking an eight-fold increase over the current largest single-species model. To ensure the training of CellFM on the MindSpore AI framework from Huawei, we have integrated RetNet, a Transformer architecture variant with lin-ear complexity for a balance between efficiency and performance, serving as the backbone of our model. Our comprehensive experiments have shown that CellFM outperforms existing models across diverse applications, such as cell annotation, perturbation prediction, and gene function prediction.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2024

The Assembly of Purple-red Spinach Provides Insight into the Mechanism of Betalain Biosynthesis

Purple-red spinach is a unique cultivar with rich in betalains, which has been used for food colorants and is beneficial for human health. In view of the lack of genomic inforamtion of purple-red spinach genome and promote the idetification of betalian gene, we presented the genome of purple-red spinach with Nanopore ultra-long and illumina sequencing platform. The contig N50 size was 2.2Mb and 99.33% contig sequence was anchored to the six chromosomes, totaling 878.83Mb. The purple-red genome constitues 74.15% repeat sequence and harbors 26020 protein-coding genes. We also comprehensively identified candidate genes in betalain biosynthesis pathway in spinach. Moreover, a combined transcriptomic and BSA analysis uncovered a key betalain gene, FUN_002594, which regulated the color and betalain content of leaf. Our data present a valuable resource for facilitating molecular breeding programs of spinach and shed novel light on unique attributes, as well as the modulation of betalain biosynthesis.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2024

Loopsim: Enrichment Analysis of ChromosomeConformation Capture with Fast EmpiricalDistribution Simulation

SummaryGene regulation is intricately influenced by the three-dimensional organization of the genome. In particular, chromatin can exist in loop structures that enable long-range regulatory interactions. By utilizing chromosome conformation capture techniques such as Hi-C, valuable information regarding the organization of these loop structures in 3D space can be obtained. While functional/feature enrichment has become a standard downstream analysis for different genomic data to provide biological context, tools that developed specifically for high throughput assays capturing chromosome conformation are relatively limited. Here, we present Loopsim, a command-line application that performs enrichment analysis on Hi-C loop profiles against user-defined regions. Loopsim efficiently simulates a background distribution using a distinctive sampling approach that considers loop size, intervals, loop-loop distances, and structure; it then computes loop-level statistics based on the empirical null distribution. AvailabilityLoopsim is a Python package available via PyPI (https://pypi.org/project/loopsim) and the source code is available on GitHub (https://github.com/CutaneousBioinf/Loopsim) under the MIT license.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2024

The human blood harbors a phageome which differs in Crohn's disease

Increasing evidence suggests that the human blood hosts microbes including bacteria and eukaryotic viruses, which could have important implications for health. Bacteriophages of the blood are challenging to study and have been overlooked, but could translocate to this environment from different body-sites. We thus developed specific virome protocols and analysis methods to study the viral communities of blood samples obtained from healthy individuals and Crohns disease (CD) patients. We uncovered a diverse viral community in the human blood, dominated by phages infecting Pseudomonadota bacteria. We found that an important fraction of those phages overlaps with the gut virome, consolidating the idea that gut phages can translocate to the blood. Strikingly, viral communities of the blood were different between CD patients and healthy individuals, revealing a new signature of disease. This was not the case for fecal viral communities. Collectively, these results advance our knowledge of the microorganisms present in the human blood and pave the way for further studies of this environment in the context of disease.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2024

Hepatic Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Liver Metastasis in NAFLD

How pathological livers shape tumors, thereby driving pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) metastasis to the liver, is poorly understood. In the present study, we focus on examining key molecules implicated in this process and assessing their translational significance. We demonstrated that patients with combined non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have approximately a ninefold increased risk of developing liver metastasis compared to those without NAFLD. In mice model, NAFLD fosters an immunosuppressive microenvironment with increased tumor cell pluripotency and focal adhesion. Mechanistically, NAFLD-induced MIF mediated the progression of PDAC liver metastasis by attracting CD44 positive pancreatic cells. Hepatic MIF knockdown significantly reduced metastases burden with decreased stem-like cancer cells, tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) infiltration and focal adhesion. Targeting the MIF-CD44 axis by either a MIF tautomerase inhibitor, IPG1576, or by CD44 knockdown in tumor cells significantly attenuate liver metastasis of PDAC within the NAFLD context. Patients with PDAC liver metastasis and NAFLD had elevated hepatic MIF expression and increased number of stem-cell like cancer cells. Collectively, our study highlights a pivotal role for MIF-CD44 axis in cancer stemness and offer novel avenues for tailoring therapeutic strategies to individual patients with NAFLD as an underlying condition.

cancer biology↗