MDPI Cells: Survivin-Sodium Iodide Symporter Reporter as a Non-Invasive Diagnostic Marker to Differentiate Uterine Leiomyosarcoma from Leiomyoma (Bishop Lab)

January 10, 2024

Natalia Garcia 1,2,†,Mara Ulin 1,3,†,Qiwei Yang 1,4ORCID,Mohamed Ali 1,4,5ORCID,Maarten C. Bosland 6,Weiqiao Zeng 1,Liaohai Chen 1 andAyman Al-Hendy 1,4, Abstract Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) has been challenging to diagnose because of limitations in clinical and radiographic predictors, as well as the lack of reliable serum or urinary biomarkers. Most uterine masses consist of benign leiomyoma (LM). However, [...]

Scientific Reports: Associations of tissue damage induced inflammatory plasticity in masseter muscle with the resolution of chronic myalgia (Lai)

January 4, 2024

Abstract Gene plasticity during myogenous temporomandibular disorder (TMDM) development is largely unknown. TMDM could be modeled by intramuscular inflammation or tissue damage. To model inflammation induced TMDM we injected complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) into masseter muscle (MM). To model tissue damage-induced TMDM, we injected extracellular matrix-degrading collagenase type 2 (Col). CFA and Col produced distinct [...]

Nucleic Acids Research: The protein phosphatase EYA4 promotes homologous recombination (HR) through dephosphorylation of tyrosine 315 on RAD51 (Sung Lab)

December 14, 2023

Bárbara de la Peña Avalos, Nicolas Paquet, Romain Tropée, Yan Coulombe, Hannah Palacios, Justin W Leung, Jean-Yves Masson, Pascal H G Duijf, Eloïse Dray Abstract Efficient DNA repair and limitation of genome rearrangements rely on crosstalk between different DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair pathways and their synchronization with the cell cycle. The selection, timing, and efficacy of DSB repair pathways are influenced by post-translational modifications of histones and [...]

Molecular Cell: SRSF2 Plays an Unexpected Role as Reader of m5C on mRNA, Linking Epitranscriptomics to Cancer (Gupta)

December 7, 2023

Hai-Li Ma 1 14, Martin Bizet 1 14, Christelle Soares Da Costa 1 14, Frédéric Murisier 1, Eric James de Bony 1 8, Meng-Ke Wang 2, Akihide Yoshimi 3 9, Kuan-Ting Lin 7, Kristin M. Riching 4, Xing Wang 2, John I. Beckman 5, Shailee Arya 5, Nathalie Droin 6, Emilie Calonne 1, Bouchra Hassabi 1, Qing-Yang Zhang 2 10, Ang Li 2 11, Pascale Putmans 1, Lionel Malbec 1, Céline Hubert 1…François Fuks 1 15 Highlights SRSF2 preferentially binds m5C-marked mRNA, whereas SRSF2P95H mutant impairs binding NSUN2 depletion reduces mRNA m5C levels and alters SRSF2 RNA binding and splicing NSUN2 loss and SRSF2P95H alter SRSF2 binding to key leukemia-related transcripts In leukemia patients, low NSUN2 levels and SRSF2P95H mutation predict poor outcomes. Summary A common mRNA [...]

Cold Spring Harbor, Spatial-Live: A lightweight and versatile tool for single cell spatial-omics data visualization (Chen, Zheng, Lai)

December 5, 2023

Zhenqing Ye, Zhao Lai, Siyuan Zheng, Yidong Chen Abstract Single-cell spatial-omics data visualization plays a pivotal role in unraveling the intricate spatial organization and heterogeneity of cellular systems. Although various software tools and packages have been developed for this purpose, challenges persist in terms of user-friendly accessibility, data integration, and interactivity. In this study, we introduce Spatial-Live, a lightweight and versatile viewer tool designed [...]

Molecular and Cellular Biology: A SNAI2/CTCF Interaction is Required for NOTCH1 Expression in Rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius Lab)

December 1, 2023

Prethish Sreenivas,Long Wang,Meng Wang,Anil Challa,Paulomi Modi,Nicole Rae Hensch,Berkley Gryder,Hsien-Chao Chou,Xiang R. Zhao,Benjamin Sunkel,Rodrigo Moreno-Campos,Javed Khan,Benjamin Z. Stanton & Myron S. Ignatius Abstract Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric malignancy of the muscle with characteristics of cells blocked in differentiation. NOTCH1 is an oncogene promoting self-renewal and blocking differentiation in the fusion negative-RMS sub-type. However, how NOTCH1 [...]

Molecular Cell: DICER Ribonuclease Removes Harmful R-Loops (Sung)

October 18, 2023

Lola P. Camino 1 2 4, Arijit Dutta 3 4, Sonia Barroso 1 2, Carmen Pérez-Calero 1 2, Jeffrey N. Katz 3, María García-Rubio 1 2, Patrick Sung 3, Belén Gómez-González 1 2, Andrés Aguilera 1 2 5 Highlights •DICER RNase activity mediates R-loop processing in vitro and in cells •DICER binds R-loops readily but not DNA-RNA hybrids •DICER cleaves the RNA moiety of DNA-RNA hybrids within R-loop structures •DICER overexpression counteracts harmful nuclear DNA-RNA hybrids Summary R-loops, consisting of a DNA-RNA hybrid and a displaced DNA strand, threaten genome integrity. To counteract [...]

Cancers: Dysregulation of Type I Interferon (IFN-I) Signaling: A Potential Contributor to Racial Disparity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) (Lai)

September 12, 2023

            Saranya Chidambaranathan Reghupaty 1,†,Sadia Kanwal 2, Rachel G. Mendoza 3, Eva Davis 4,Haiwen Li 2, Zhao Lai 5, Mikhail G. Dozmorov 6 ,Milton Omar Faison 7, Rafat Ali Siddiqui 2, *Devanand Sarkar 8,* Simple Summary Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer arising from the liver [...]

Embro Reports: Loss of BRD4 induces cell senescence in HSC/HPCs by deregulating histone H3 clipping (Chen)

September 5, 2023

Abstract Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) is overexpressed and functionally implicated in various myeloid malignancies. However, the role of BRD4 in normal hematopoiesis remains largely unknown. Here, utilizing an inducible Brd4 knockout mouse model, we find that deletion of Brd4 (Brd4Δ/Δ) in the hematopoietic system impairs hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal and differentiation, which associates with cell cycle arrest and [...]

Science Reports: Sex-dependent differences in the genomic profile of lingual sensory neurons in naïve and tongue-tumor bearing mice (Chen, Lai)

August 14, 2023

Tarek Ibrahim, Ping Wu, Li-Ju Wang, Chang Fang-Mei, Josue Murillo, Jaclyn Merlo, Sergey S. Shein, Alexei V. Tumanov, Zhao Lai, Korri Weldon, Yidong Chen & Shivani Ruparel Abstract Mechanisms of sex-dependent orofacial pain are widely understudied. A significant gap in knowledge exists about the comprehensive regulation of tissue-specific trigeminal sensory neurons in diseased states of both [...]