Glypican Is a Modulator of Netrin-Mediated Axon Guidance

Netrin is a key axon guidance cue that orients axon growth during neural circuit formation. However, the mechanisms regulating netrin and its receptors in the extracellular milieu are largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that in Caenorhabditis elegans, LON-2/glypican, a heparan sulfate proteoglycan, modulates UNC-6/netrin signaling and may do this through interactions with the UNC-40/DCC receptor. We show that developing axons misorient in the absence of LON-2/glypican when the SLT-1/slit guidance pathway is compromised and that LON-2/glypican functions in both the attractive and repulsive UNC-6/netrin pathways. We find that the core LON-2/glypican protein, lacking its heparan sulfate chains, and secreted forms of LON-2/glypican are functional in axon guidance. We also find that LON-2/glypican functions from the epidermal substrate cells to guide axons, and we provide evidence that LON-2/glypican associates with UNC-40/DCC receptor–expressing cells. We propose that LON-2/glypican acts as a modulator of UNC-40/DCC-mediated guidance to fine-tune axonal responses to UNC-6/netrin signals during migration.     

Retained in HIV Care But Not on Antiretroviral Treatment: A Qualitative Patient-Provider Dyadic Study

Background

Patients retained in HIV care but not on antiretroviral therapy (ART) represent an important part of the HIV care cascade in the United States. Even in an era of more tolerable and efficacious ART, decision making in regards to ART offer and uptake remains complex and calls for exploration of both patient and provider perspectives. We sought to understand reasons for lack of ART usage in patients meeting the Health Resources Services Administration definition of retention as well as what motivated HIV primary care appointment attendance in the absence of ART.

Methods and Findings

We conducted a qualitative study consisting of 70 in-depth interviews with ART-naïve and ART-experienced patients off ART and their primary care providers in two urban safety-net HIV clinics in San Francisco and New York. Twenty patients and their providers were interviewed separately at baseline, and 15 dyads were interviewed again after at least 3 mo and another clinic visit in order to understand any ART use in the interim. We applied dyadic analysis to our data. Nearly all patients were willing to consider ART, and 40% of the sample went on ART, citing education on newer antiretroviral drugs, acceptance of HIV diagnosis, social support, and increased confidence in their ability to adhere as facilitators. However, the strength of the provider recommendation of ART played an important role. Many patients had internalized messages from providers that their health was too good to warrant ART. In addition, providers, while demonstrating patient-centered care through sensitivity to patients experiencing psychosocial instability, frequently muted the offer of ART, at times unintentionally. In the absence of ART, lab monitoring, provider relationships, access to social services, opiate pain medications, and acute symptoms motivated care. The main limitations of this study were that treatment as prevention was not explored in depth and that participants were recruited from academic HIV clinics in the US, making the findings most generalizable to this setting.

Conclusions

Provider communication with regard to ART is a key focus for further exploration and intervention in order to increase ART uptake for those retained in HIV care.     

Keys to Lipid Selection in Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Catalysis: Structural Flexibility,Gating Residues and Multiple Binding Pockets

The fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) regulates the endocannabinoid system cleaving primarily the lipid messenger anandamide. FAAH has been well characterized over the years and, importantly, it represents a promising drug target to treat several diseases, including inflammatory-related diseases and cancer. But its enzymatic mechanism for lipid selection to specifically hydrolyze anandamide, rather than similar bioactive lipids, remains elusive. Here, we clarify this mechanism in FAAH, examining the role of the dynamic paddle, which is formed by the gating residues Phe432 and Trp531 at the boundary between two cavities that form the FAAH catalytic site (the “membrane-access” and the “acyl chain-binding” pockets). We integrate microsecond-long MD simulations of wild type and double mutant model systems (Phe432Ala and Trp531Ala) of FAAH, embedded in a realistic membrane/water environment, with mutagenesis and kinetic experiments. We comparatively analyze three fatty acid substrates with different hydrolysis rates (anandamide > oleamide > palmitoylethanolamide). Our findings identify FAAH’s mechanism to selectively accommodate anandamide into a multi-pocket binding site, and to properly orient the substrate in pre-reactive conformations for efficient hydrolysis that is interceded by the dynamic paddle. Our findings therefore endorse a structural framework for a lipid selection mechanism mediated by structural flexibility and gating residues between multiple binding cavities, as found in FAAH. Based on the available structural data, this exquisite catalytic strategy for substrate specificity seems to be shared by other lipid-degrading enzymes with similar enzymatic architecture. The mechanistic insights for lipid selection might assist de-novo enzyme design or drug discovery efforts.     

Prevention of Influenza Virus-Induced Immunopathology by TGF-β Produced during Allergic Asthma

Asthma is believed to be a risk factor for influenza infection, however little experimental evidence exists to directly demonstrate the impact of asthma on susceptibility to influenza infection. Using a mouse model, we now report that asthmatic mice are actually significantly more resistant to a lethal influenza virus challenge. Notably, the observed increased resistance was not attributable to enhanced viral clearance, but instead, was due to reduced lung inflammation. Asthmatic mice exhibited a significantly reduced cytokine storm, as well as reduced total protein levels and cytotoxicity in the airways, indicators of decreased tissue injury. Further, asthmatic mice had significantly increased levels of TGF-β1 and the heightened resistance of asthmatic mice was abrogated in the absence of TGF-β receptor II. We conclude that a transient increase in TGF-β expression following acute asthma can induce protection against influenza-induced immunopathology.     

Evolutionary and Functional Analysis of Old World Primate TRIM5 Reveals the Ancient Emergence of Primate Lentiviruses and Convergent Evolution Targeting a Conserved Capsid Interface

The widespread distribution of lentiviruses among African primates, and the lack of severe pathogenesis in many of these natural reservoirs, are taken as evidence for long-term co-evolution between the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) and their primate hosts. Evidence for positive selection acting on antiviral restriction factors is consistent with virus-host interactions spanning millions of years of primate evolution. However, many restriction mechanisms are not virus-specific, and selection cannot be unambiguously attributed to any one type of virus. We hypothesized that the restriction factor TRIM5, because of its unique specificity for retrovirus capsids, should accumulate adaptive changes in a virus-specific fashion, and therefore, that phylogenetic reconstruction of TRIM5 evolution in African primates should reveal selection by lentiviruses closely related to modern SIVs. We analyzed complete TRIM5 coding sequences of 22 Old World primates and identified a tightly-spaced cluster of branch-specific adaptions appearing in the Cercopithecinae lineage after divergence from the Colobinae around 16 million years ago. Functional assays of both extant TRIM5 orthologs and reconstructed ancestral TRIM5 proteins revealed that this cluster of adaptations in TRIM5 specifically resulted in the ability to restrict Cercopithecine lentiviruses, but had no effect (positive or negative) on restriction of other retroviruses, including lentiviruses of non-Cercopithecine primates. The correlation between lineage-specific adaptations and ability to restrict viruses endemic to the same hosts supports the hypothesis that lentiviruses closely related to modern SIVs were present in Africa and infecting the ancestors of Cercopithecine primates as far back as 16 million years ago, and provides insight into the evolution of TRIM5 specificity.     

A Human Type 5 Adenovirus-Based Trypanosoma cruzi Therapeutic Vaccine Re-programs Immune Response and Reverses Chronic Cardiomyopathy

Chagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a prototypical neglected tropical disease. Specific immunity promotes acute phase survival. Nevertheless, one-third of CD patients develop chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy (CCC) associated with parasite persistence and immunological unbalance. Currently, the therapeutic management of patients only mitigates CCC symptoms. Therefore, a vaccine arises as an alternative to stimulate protective immunity and thereby prevent, delay progression and even reverse CCC. We examined this hypothesis by vaccinating mice with replication-defective human Type 5 recombinant adenoviruses (rAd) carrying sequences of amastigote surface protein-2 (rAdASP2) and trans-sialidase (rAdTS) T. cruzi antigens. For prophylactic vaccination, naïve C57BL/6 mice were immunized with rAdASP2+rAdTS (rAdVax) using a homologous prime/boost protocol before challenge with the Colombian strain. For therapeutic vaccination, rAdVax administration was initiated at 120 days post-infection (dpi), when mice were afflicted by CCC. Mice were analyzed for electrical abnormalities, immune response and cardiac parasitism and tissue damage. Prophylactic immunization with rAdVax induced antibodies and H-2K^b-restricted cytotoxic and interferon (IFN)γ-producing CD8⁺ T-cells, reduced acute heart parasitism and electrical abnormalities in the chronic phase. Therapeutic vaccination increased survival and reduced electrical abnormalities after the prime (analysis at 160 dpi) and the boost (analysis at 180 and 230 dpi). Post-therapy mice exhibited less heart injury and electrical abnormalities compared with pre-therapy mice. rAdVax therapeutic vaccination preserved specific IFNγ-mediated immunity but reduced the response to polyclonal stimuli (anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28), CD107a⁺ CD8⁺ T-cell frequency and plasma nitric oxide (NO) levels. Moreover, therapeutic rAdVax reshaped immunity in the heart tissue as reduced the number of perforin+ cells, preserved the number of IFNγ⁺ cells, increased the expression of IFNγ mRNA but reduced inducible NO synthase mRNA. Vaccine-based immunostimulation with rAd might offer a rational alternative for re-programming the immune response to preserve and, moreover, recover tissue injury in Chagas’ heart disease.     

Compound Heterozygosity for Y Box Proteins Causes Sterility Due to Loss of Translational Repression

The Y-box proteins YBX2 and YBX3 bind RNA and DNA and are required for metazoan development and fertility. However, possible functional redundancy between YBX2 and YBX3 has prevented elucidation of their molecular function as RNA masking proteins and identification of their target RNAs. To investigate possible functional redundancy between YBX2 and YBX3, we attempted to construct Ybx2 ^-/- ;Ybx3 ^-/- double mutants using a previously reported Ybx2 ^-/- model and a newly generated global Ybx3 ^-/- model. Loss of YBX3 resulted in reduced male fertility and defects in spermatid differentiation. However, homozygous double mutants could not be generated as haploinsufficiency of both Ybx2 and Ybx3 caused sterility characterized by extensive defects in spermatid differentiation. RNA sequence analysis of mRNP and polysome occupancy in single and compound Ybx2/3 heterozygotes revealed loss of translational repression almost exclusively in the compound Ybx2/3 heterozygotes. RNAseq analysis also demonstrated that Y-box protein dose-dependent loss of translational regulation was inversely correlated with the presence of a Y box recognition target sequence, suggesting that Y box proteins bind RNA hierarchically to modulate translation in a range of targets.     

Combined Genetic and Genealogic Studies Uncover a Large BAP1 Cancer Syndrome Kindred Tracing Back Nine Generations to a Common Ancestor from the 1700s

We recently discovered an inherited cancer syndrome caused by BRCA1-Associated Protein 1 (BAP1) germline mutations, with high incidence of mesothelioma, uveal melanoma and other cancers and very high penetrance by age 55. To identify families with the BAP1 cancer syndrome, we screened patients with family histories of multiple mesotheliomas and melanomas and/or multiple cancers. We identified four families that shared an identical BAP1 mutation: they lived across the US and did not appear to be related. By combining family histories, molecular genetics, and genealogical approaches, we uncovered a BAP1 cancer syndrome kindred of ~80,000 descendants with a core of 106 individuals, whose members descend from a couple born in Germany in the early 1700s who immigrated to North America. Their descendants spread throughout the country with mutation carriers affected by multiple malignancies. Our data show that, once a proband is identified, extended analyses of these kindreds, using genomic and genealogical studies to identify the most recent common ancestor, allow investigators to uncover additional branches of the family that may carry BAP1 mutations. Using this knowledge, we have identified new branches of this family carrying BAP1 mutations. We have also implemented early-detection strategies that help identify cancers at early-stage, when they can be cured (melanomas) or are more susceptible to therapy (MM and other malignancies).     

Assessing Mitochondrial DNA Variation and Copy Number in Lymphocytes of ~2,000 Sardinians Using Tailored Sequencing Analysis Tools

DNA sequencing identifies common and rare genetic variants for association studies, but studies typically focus on variants in nuclear DNA and ignore the mitochondrial genome. In fact, analyzing variants in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences presents special problems, which we resolve here with a general solution for the analysis of mtDNA in next-generation sequencing studies. The new program package comprises 1) an algorithm designed to identify mtDNA variants (i.e., homoplasmies and heteroplasmies), incorporating sequencing error rates at each base in a likelihood calculation and allowing allele fractions at a variant site to differ across individuals; and 2) an estimation of mtDNA copy number in a cell directly from whole-genome sequencing data. We also apply the methods to DNA sequence from lymphocytes of ~2,000 SardiNIA Project participants. As expected, mothers and offspring share all homoplasmies but a lesser proportion of heteroplasmies. Both homoplasmies and heteroplasmies show 5-fold higher transition/transversion ratios than variants in nuclear DNA. Also, heteroplasmy increases with age, though on average only ~1 heteroplasmy reaches the 4% level between ages 20 and 90. In addition, we find that mtDNA copy number averages ~110 copies/lymphocyte and is ~54% heritable, implying substantial genetic regulation of the level of mtDNA. Copy numbers also decrease modestly but significantly with age, and females on average have significantly more copies than males. The mtDNA copy numbers are significantly associated with waist circumference (p-value = 0.0031) and waist-hip ratio (p-value = 2.4×10^-5), but not with body mass index, indicating an association with central fat distribution. To our knowledge, this is the largest population analysis to date of mtDNA dynamics, revealing the age-imposed increase in heteroplasmy, the relatively high heritability of copy number, and the association of copy number with metabolic traits.     

Disruption of the ribosomal P complex leads to stress-induced autophagy

The human ribosomal P complex, which consists of the acidic ribosomal P proteins RPLP0, RPLP1, and RPLP2 (RPLP proteins), recruits translational factors, facilitating protein synthesis. Recently, we showed that overexpression of RPLP1 immortalizes primary cells and contributes to transformation. Moreover, RPLP proteins are overexpressed in human cancer, with the highest incidence in breast carcinomas. It is thought that disruption of the P complex would directly affect protein synthesis, causing cell growth arrest and eventually apoptosis. Here, we report a distinct mechanism by which cancer cells undergo cell cycle arrest and induced autophagy when RPLP proteins are downregulated. We found that absence of RPLP0, RPLP1, or RPLP2 resulted in reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and MAPK1/ERK2 signaling pathway activation. Moreover, ROS generation led to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress that involved the EIF2AK3/PERK-EIF2S1/eIF2α-EIF2S2-EIF2S3-ATF4/ATF-4- and ATF6/ATF-6-dependent arms of the unfolded protein response (UPR). RPLP protein-deficient cells treated with autophagy inhibitors experienced apoptotic cell death as an alternative to autophagy. Strikingly, antioxidant treatment prevented UPR activation and autophagy while restoring the proliferative capacity of these cells. Our results indicate that ROS are a critical signal generated by disruption of the P complex that causes a cellular response that follows a sequential order: first ROS, then ER stress/UPR activation, and finally autophagy. Importantly, inhibition of the first step alone is able to restore the proliferative capacity of the cells, preventing UPR activation and autophagy. Overall, our results support a role for autophagy as a survival mechanism in response to stress due to RPLP protein deficiency.