eLife: RNA binding to human METTL3-METTL14 restricts N6-deoxyadenosine methylation of DNA in vitro (Gupta Lab)

January 21, 2022

 Shan Qi,  Javier Mota,  Siu-Hong Chan,  Johanna Villarreal,  Nan Dai,  Shailee Arya,  Robert A Hromas,  Manjeet K Rao,  Ivan R Corrêa Jr  Yogesh K Gupta  Abstract Methyltransferase like-3 (METTL3) and METTL14 complex transfer a methyl group from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to N6 amino group of adenosine bases in RNA (m6A) and DNA (m6dA). Emerging evidence highlights the role of [...]

Frontiers in Microbiology: Robust Heat Shock Response in Chlamydia Lacking a Typical Heat Shock Sigma Factor (Lai Lab)

January 20, 2022

 Yehong Huang1,2†, Wurihan Wurihan2†, Bin Lu1,2†, Yi Zou3, Yuxuan Wang2†, Korri Weldon3, Joseph D. Fondell2†, Zhao Lai3,4, Xiang Wu1*†, and Huizhou Fan2*† Cells reprogram their transcriptome in response to stress, such as heat shock. In free-living bacteria, the transcriptomic reprogramming is mediated by increased DNA-binding activity of heat shock sigma factors and activation of genes normally repressed [...]

Frontiers in Genetics: Differential lncRNA/mRNA Expression Profiling and Functional Network Analyses in Bmp2 Deletion of Mouse Dental Papilla Cells (Lai Lab)

January 20, 2022

 Feng Wang1,2†, Ran Tao1†, Li Zhao1, Xin-Hui Hao1, Yi Zou3, Qing Lin1, Meng Meng Liu2, Graham Goldman2, Daoshu Luo1* and Shuo Chen2* Bmp2 is essential for dentin development and formation. Bmp2 conditional knock-out (KO) mice display a similar tooth phenotype of dentinogenesis imperfecta (DGI). To elucidate a foundation for subsequent functional studies of cross-talk between [...]

iScience: SARS-CoV-2 infection enhances mitochondrial PTP complex activity to perturb cardiac energetics (Aune)

January 19, 2022

 Karthik Ramachandran110 Soumya Maity110  Alagar R.Muthukumar2  Soundarya Kandala1  Dhanendra Tomar3  Tarek Mohamed Abd El-Aziz49  Cristel Allen1  Yuyang Sun5  Manigandan Venkatesan1  Travis  R.Madaris1  Kevin Chiem6  RachelTruitt7  Neelanjan Vishnu1  Gregory Aune8 Allen Anderson1 Luis Martinez6  Wenli Yang7  James D.Stockand3  Brij B.Singh5  Subramanya Srikantan1 W. BrianReeves1  Muniswamy Madesh111 Highlights • SARS-CoV-2 perturbs human ion channel, quality control, and [...]

Urologic Oncology: Prevalence of pathogenic germline cancer risk variants in testicular cancer patients: Identifying high risk groups (Tomlinson)

January 19, 2022

 ChethanRamamurthyM.D.a‡Amin H.NassarM.D.bc‡SarahAbou AlaiwiM.D.bcElioAdibM.D.bcElie W.AklM.D.cShanYangPh.D.dEdward D.EsplinM.D., Ph.D.dMichael A.LissM.D.aGail E.TomlinsonM.D.eGuru P.SonpavdeM.D.b Highlights • Testicular cancer patients are at risk for carrying germline pathogenic variants. • Risk factors for germline variants include having another primary malignancy or a family history of testicular cancer. • A subset of patients with testicular cancer may particularly benefit from genetic evaluation. Abstract Background [...]

iScience: PEGylated talazoparib enhances therapeutic window of its combination with temozolomide in Ewing sarcoma (Kurmasheva & Houghton Labs)

January 18, 2022

 Vanessa del Pozo Andrew J.Robles Shaun D.Fontaine QianqianLiu Joel E.Michalek Peter J.Houghton Raushan T.Kurmasheva Highlights Nanoparticle-formulated drugs minimize drug-induced toxicity PEG∼TLZ enhances in vivo activity of TMZ in pediatric tumor xenografts A 3-day interval between each drug's administration widens the therapeutic window A single IV dose of PEG∼TLZ is advantageous for treating infants/young children Summary [...]

Cellular Oncology: Single-cell RNA profiling identifies diverse cellular responses to EWSR1/FLI1 down regulation in Ewing sarcoma cells (Houghton, Chen, Kitagawa, Ignatius)

January 12, 2022

 Roxane Khoogar, Fuyang Li, Yidong Chen, Myron Ignatius, Elizabeth R. Lawlor, Katsumi Kitagawa, Tim H.-M. Huang, Doris A. Phelps & Peter J. Houghton Background The EWSR1/FLI1 gene fusion is the most common rearrangement leading to cell transformation in Ewing sarcoma (ES). Previous studies have indicated that expression at the cellular level is heterogeneous and that levels [...]

Genes & Cancer: EZH2 suppresses endogenous retroviruses and an interferon response in cancers (Shiio Lab)

January 10, 2022

 Panneerselvam Jayabal1, Xiuye Ma1 and Yuzuru Shiio1,2,3 ABSTRACT Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive cancer of the bone and soft tissue in children. It is characterized by the chromosomal translocation between EWS and an Ets family transcription factor, most commonly FLI1. We recently reported that Ewing sarcoma depends on the autocrine signaling mediated by a cytokine, NELL2. [...]

PMC: The Role of Hedgehog Pathway in Uterine Leiomyosarcoma (Houghton Lab)

January 7, 2022

 Natalia Garcia,1 Mara Ulin,2 Ayman Al-Hendy,3 and Qiwei Yang3 DESCRIPTION The uterine Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) represents 3%-7% of all uterine cancers. This rare tumor has an annual incidence of 0.8 per 100,00 women. Unfortunately, LMS is well known for its poor prognosis due to its high recurrence rate and resistance to the currently available treatment options. These features open the [...]