Migratory Tumor Cells Cooperate with Cancer Associated Fibroblasts in Hormone Receptor-Positive and HER2-Negative Breast Cancer.

Hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer (HR+/HER2-BC) is the most common type with a favorable prognosis under endocrine therapy. However, it still demonstrates unpredictable progression and recurrences influenced by high tumoral diversity and microenvironmental status. To address these heterogeneous molecular characteristics of HR+/HER2-BC, we aimed to simultaneously characterize its transcriptomic landscape and genetic architecture at the same resolution. Using advanced single-cell RNA and DNA sequencing techniques together, we defined four distinct tumor subtypes. Notably, the migratory tumor subtype was closely linked to genomic alterations of EGFR, related to the tumor-promoting behavior of IL6-positive inflammatory tumor-associated fibroblast, and contributing to poor prognosis. Our study comprehensively utilizes integrated analysis to uncover the complex dynamics of this breast cancer subtype, highlighting the pivotal role of the migratory tumor subtype in influencing surrounding cells. This sheds light on potential therapeutic targets by offering enhanced insights for HR+/HER2-BC treatment.

Transcriptomes of the tumor-adjacent normal tissues are more informative than tumors in predicting recurrence in colorectal cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Previous investigations of transcriptomic signatures of cancer patient survival and post-therapy relapse have focused on tumor tissue. In contrast, here we show that in colorectal cancer (CRC) transcriptomes derived from normal tissues adjacent to tumors (NATs) are better predictors of relapse. RESULTS: Using the transcriptomes of paired tumor and NAT specimens from 80 Korean CRC patients retrospectively determined to be in recurrence or nonrecurrence states, we found that, when comparing recurrent with nonrecurrent samples, NATs exhibit a greater number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) than tumors. Training two prognostic elastic net-based machine learning models-NAT-based and tumor-based in our Samsung Medical Center (SMC) cohort, we found that NAT-based model performed better in predicting the survival when the model was applied to the tumor-derived transcriptomes of an independent cohort of 450 COAD patients in TCGA. Furthermore, compositions of tumor-infiltrating immune cells in NATs were found to have better prognostic capability than in tumors. We also confirmed through Cox regression analysis that in both SMC-CRC as well as in TCGA-COAD cohorts, a greater proportion of genes exhibited significant hazard ratio when NAT-derived transcriptome was used compared to when tumor-derived transcriptome was used. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results strongly suggest that NAT-derived transcriptomes and immune cell composition of CRC are better predictors of patient survival and tumor recurrence than the primary tumor.

Developmental Transitions Coordinate Assembly of the Coxiella burnetii Dot/Icm Type IV Secretion System.

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that has evolved a unique biphasic developmental cycle. The infectious form of C. burnetii is the dormant small cell variant (SCV), which transitions to a metabolically active large cell variant (LCV) that replicates inside the lysosome-derived host vacuole. A Dot/Icm type IV secretion system (T4SS), which can deliver over 100 effector proteins to host cells, is essential for the biogenesis of the vacuole and intracellular replication. How the distinct C. burnetii life cycle impacts the assembly and function of the Dot/Icm T4SS has remained unknown. Here, we combine advanced cryo-focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) milling and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) imaging to visualize all developmental transitions and the assembly of the Dot/Icm T4SS in situ. Importantly, assembled Dot/Icm machines were not present in the infectious SCV. The appearance of the assembled Dot/Icm machine correlated with the transition of the SCV to the LCV intracellularly. Furthermore, temporal characterization of C. burnetii morphological changes revealed regions of the inner membrane that invaginate to form tightly packed stacks during the LCV-to-SCV transition at late stages of infection, which may enable the SCV-to-LCV transition that occurs upon infection of a new host cell. Overall, these data establish how C. burnetii developmental transitions control critical bacterial processes to promote intracellular replication and transmission.

Role of Circulating Tumor DNA Profiling in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with EGFR Inhibitor.

OBJECTIVES: During targeted therapy, tumor heterogeneity can drive the evolution of multiple tumor subclones harboring unique resistance mechanisms. Sequential profiling of plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) provides a noninvasive method for early detection of patient progression. We investigated whether the genetic dynamics detected in cfDNA during treatment can act as a predictive or prognostic marker of outcome. METHODS: Patients with advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were included for consecutive blood sampling during EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment. Blood samples were serially collected from patients at baseline, first follow-up, and progression. Extracted cfDNA was analyzed with next-generation sequencing. RESULTS: Serial plasma samples (n = 187) from 63 patients were analyzed, and 44 patients showed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). EGFR mutations were detected in 36 of the 44 patients at baseline (81.8%). EGFR mutations were no longer detected in 19 of 36 shedders (52.8%) at 2 months after EGFR-TKI treatment and rebounded with resistant EGFR mutations (T790M or C797S) at progression. Other driver mutations such as KRAS G12D and BRAF V600E were found at baseline regardless of tissue EGFR status, suggesting tumor heterogeneity. Detection of ctDNA (shedder) at baseline associated with poor overall survival (p = 0.04) compared to nonshedder. Furthermore, in patients showing EGFR mutations in plasma at baseline, the clearing rate of those during the first 8 weeks of treatment served as a positive predictor for clinical outcome. CONCLUSION: Longitudinal liquid biopsies capture spatial and temporal heterogeneity underlining resistance to EGFR-TKIs in NSCLC. Thus, ctDNA monitoring during EGFR-TKI treatment is useful for detecting resistance mutations or predicting response. Dense serial monitoring using blood enables early prediction of treatment failure and provides a window of opportunity for well-timed intervention.

Investigation of the putative role of antisense transcripts as regulators of sense transcripts by correlation analysis of sense-antisense pairs in colorectal cancers.

Antisense transcription occurs widely more expected than when it was first identified in bacteria in the 1980s. However, the functional relevance of antisense transcripts in transcription remains controversial. Here, we investigated the putative role of antisense transcripts in regulating their corresponding sense transcripts by analyzing changes in correlative relationships between sense-antisense pairs under tumor and normal conditions. A total of 3469 sense-antisense gene pairs (SAGPs) downloaded from BioMart mapped to a list of sense and antisense genes in RNA-seq data derived from 80 paired colorectal cancer (CRC) samples were analyzed. As a result, cancer-related genes were significantly enriched in the significantly correlated SAGPs (SCPs). Differentially expressed genes estimated between normal and tumor conditions were also significantly more enriched in SCPs than in non-SCPs. Interestingly, using differential correlation analysis, we found that tumor samples had a significantly larger density of genes with higher correlation coefficients than normal samples, as verified by various cancer transcriptomes from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Moreover, we found that the magnitude of the correlation between SAGPs could distinguish poor prognostic CRCs from good prognostic CRCs, showing that correlation coefficients between the SAGPs of CRCs with a poor prognosis were significantly stronger than CRCs with a good prognosis. Consistent with this finding, the Cox proportion hazards model showed that the survival rates were significantly different between patients with high and low expression of genes in the SCPs. All these results strongly support the idea that antisense transcripts are important regulators of their corresponding sense transcripts.

SIDR: simultaneous isolation and parallel sequencing of genomic DNA and total RNA from single cells.

Simultaneous sequencing of the genome and transcriptome at the single-cell level is a powerful tool for characterizing genomic and transcriptomic variation and revealing correlative relationships. However, it remains technically challenging to analyze both the genome and transcriptome in the same cell. Here, we report a novel method for simultaneous isolation of genomic DNA and total RNA (SIDR) from single cells, achieving high recovery rates with minimal cross-contamination, as is crucial for accurate description and integration of the single-cell genome and transcriptome. For reliable and efficient separation of genomic DNA and total RNA from single cells, the method uses hypotonic lysis to preserve nuclear lamina integrity and subsequently captures the cell lysate using antibody-conjugated magnetic microbeads. Evaluating the performance of this method using real-time PCR demonstrated that it efficiently recovered genomic DNA and total RNA. Thorough data quality assessments showed that DNA and RNA simultaneously fractionated by the SIDR method were suitable for genome and transcriptome sequencing analysis at the single-cell level. The integration of single-cell genome and transcriptome sequencing by SIDR (SIDR-seq) showed that genetic alterations, such as copy-number and single-nucleotide variations, were more accurately captured by single-cell SIDR-seq compared with conventional single-cell RNA-seq, although copy-number variations positively correlated with the corresponding gene expression levels. These results suggest that SIDR-seq is potentially a powerful tool to reveal genetic heterogeneity and phenotypic information inferred from gene expression patterns at the single-cell level.

Dynamics of circulating tumor DNA during postoperative radiotherapy in patients with residual triple-negative breast cancer following neoadjuvant chemotherapy: a prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to evaluate circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) kinetics during postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in patients with residual triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) at surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). METHODS: Stage II/III patients with post-NAC residual TNBC who required PORT were prospectively included in this study between March 2019 and July 2020. For 11 TNBC patients, next-generation sequencing targeting 38 genes was conducted in 55 samples, including tumor tissue, three plasma samples, and leukocytes from each patient. The plasma samples were collected at three-time points; pre-PORT (T0), after 3 weeks of PORT (T1), and 1 month after PORT (T2). Serial changes in ctDNA variant allele frequency (VAF) were analyzed. RESULTS: Somatic variants were found in the tumor specimens in 9 out of 11 (81.8%) patients. Mutated genes included TP53 (n = 7); PIK3CA (n = 2); and AKT1, APC, CSMD3, MYC, PTEN, and RB1 (n = 1). These tumor mutations were not found in plasma samples. Plasma ctDNA variants were detected in three (27.3%) patients at T0. Mutations in EGFR (n = 1), CTNNB1 (n = 1), and MAP2K (n = 1) was identified with ctDNA analysis. In two (18.2%) patients, the ctDNA VAF decreased through T1 and T2 while increasing at T2 in one (9.1%) patient. After a median follow-up of 22 months, no patient showed cancer recurrence. CONCLUSION: Among patients with post-NAC residual TNBC, more than a quarter exhibited a detectable amount of ctDNA after curative surgery. The ctDNA VAF changed variably during the course of PORT. Therefore, ctDNA kinetics can serve as a biomarker for optimizing adjuvant treatment.

Analysis of changes in microbiome compositions related to the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients based on tissue-derived 16S rRNA sequences.

BACKGROUND: Comparing the microbiome compositions obtained under different physiological conditions has frequently been attempted in recent years to understand the functional influence of microbiomes in the occurrence of various human diseases. METHODS: In the present work, we analyzed 102 microbiome datasets containing tumor- and normal tissue-derived microbiomes obtained from a total of 51 Korean colorectal cancer (CRC) patients using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Two types of comparisons were used: 'normal versus (vs.) tumor' comparison and 'recurrent vs. nonrecurrent' comparison, for which the prognosis of patients was retrospectively determined. RESULTS: As a result, we observed that in the 'normal vs. tumor' comparison, three phyla, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, were more abundant in normal tissues, whereas some pathogenic bacteria, including Fusobacterium nucleatum and Bacteroides fragilis, were more abundant in tumor tissues. We also found that bacteria with metabolic pathways related to the production of bacterial motility proteins or bile acid secretion were more enriched in tumor tissues. In addition, the amount of these two pathogenic bacteria was positively correlated with the expression levels of host genes involved in the cell cycle and cell proliferation, confirming the association of microbiomes with tumorigenic pathway genes in the host. Surprisingly, in the 'recurrent vs. nonrecurrent' comparison, we observed that these two pathogenic bacteria were more abundant in the patients without recurrence than in the patients with recurrence. The same conclusion was drawn in the analysis of both normal and tumor-derived microbiomes. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, it seems that understanding the composition of tissue microbiomes is useful for predicting the prognosis of CRC patients.

The shape of recovery: Implications of past experience for the duration of the COVID-19 recession.

In this paper we seek to make headway on the question of what recovery from Covid-19 recession may look like, focusing on the duration of the recovery - that is, how long it will take to re-attain the levels of output and employment reached at the prior business cycle peak. We start by categorizing all post-1960 recessions in advanced countries and emerging markets into supply-shock, demand-shock and both-shock induced recessions. We measure recovery duration as the number of years required to re-attain pre-recession levels of output or employment. We then rely on the earlier literature on business cycle dynamics to identify candidate variables that can help to account for variations in recovery duration following different kinds of shocks. By asking which of these variables are operative in the Covid-19 recession, we can then draw inferences about the duration of the recovery under different scenarios. A number of our statistical results point in the direction of lengthy recoveries.

Plasma cell-free DNA is a prognostic biomarker for survival in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) can be released from tumor cells during proliferation and apoptosis; thus, a fraction of the cfDNA in patients with cancer is tumor-derived. However, the prognostic value of cfDNA in aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has not been determined. Between March 2017 and April 2019, plasma cfDNA was obtained from 158 patients with aggressive NHL who were registered in a prospective Samsung Medical Center lymphoma cohort (diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), n = 51; T cell lymphoma (TCL), n = 51; NK/T cell lymphoma (NKTCL), n = 56). The concentration of cfDNA was estimated in longitudinal samples collected from patients with NHL before and during various chemotherapy regimens. In pretreatment samples, the median cfDNA concentration of all patients with aggressive lymphoma was 13.7 ng/dl (range 1.7-1792), which was significantly higher than that of healthy volunteers (median 7.4 ng, range 3.7-14.4, p < 0.001), and advanced stages showed a higher cfDNA level than earlier stages. Multivariate analysis identified high cfDNA as an independent factor for event-free survival that predicted poor prognosis in DLBCL (hazard ratio [HR] = 5.33, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.72-16.52, p = 0.003) and TCL (HR = 2.82, 95% CI = 1.10-7.20, p = 0.030). NKTCL patients with a high level of cfDNA had worse overall survival (HR = 4.71, 95% CI = 1.09-20.35, p = 0.037) compared with those with a low level of cfDNA. In this study, our results suggest the usefulness of pretreatment cfDNA as a prognostic marker for patients with DLBCL, TCL, and NKTCL.

Performance evaluation of commercial library construction kits for PCR-based targeted sequencing using a unique molecular identifier.

BACKGROUND: Target enrichment is a critical component of targeted deep next-generation sequencing for the cost-effective and sensitive detection of mutations, which is predominantly performed by either hybrid selection or PCR. Despite the advantages of efficient enrichment, PCR-based methods preclude the identification of PCR duplicates and their subsequent removal. Recently, this limitation was overcome by assigning a unique molecular identifier(UMI) to each template molecule. Currently, several commercial library construction kits based on PCR enrichment are available for UMIs, but there have been no systematic studies to compare their performances. In this study, we evaluated and compared the performances of five commercial library kits from four vendors: the Archer® Reveal ctDNA™ 28 Kit, NEBNext Direct® Cancer HotSpot Panel, Nugen Ovation® Custom Target Enrichment System, Qiagen Human Comprehensive Cancer Panel(HCCP), and Qiagen Human Actionable Solid Tumor Panel(HASTP). RESULTS: We evaluated and compared the performances of the five kits using 50 ng of genomic DNA for the library construction in terms of the library complexity, coverage uniformity, and errors in the UMIs. While the duplicate rates for all kits were dramatically decreased by identifying unique molecules with UMIs, the Qiagen HASTP achieved the highest library complexity based on the depth of unique coverage indicating superb library construction efficiency. Regarding the coverage uniformity, the kits from Nugen and NEB performed the best followed by the kits from Qiagen. We also analyzed the UMIs, including errors, which allowed us to adjust the depth of unique coverage and the length required for sufficient complexity. Based on these comparisons, we selected the Qiagen HASTP for further performance evaluations. The targeted deep sequencing method based on PCR target enrichment combined with UMI tagging sensitively detected mutations present at a frequency as low as 1% using 6.25 ng of human genomic DNA as the starting material. CONCLUSION: This study is the first systematic evaluation of commercial library construction kits for PCR-based targeted deep sequencing utilizing UMIs. Because the kits displayed significant variability in different quality metrics, our study offers a practical guideline for researchers to choose appropriate options for PCR-based targeted sequencing and useful benchmark data for evaluating new kits.

Analyzing Somatic Genome Rearrangements in Human Cancers by Using Whole-Exome Sequencing.

Although exome sequencing data are generated primarily to detect single-nucleotide variants and indels, they can also be used to identify a subset of genomic rearrangements whose breakpoints are located in or near exons. Using >4,600 tumor and normal pairs across 15 cancer types, we identified over 9,000 high confidence somatic rearrangements, including a large number of gene fusions. We find that the 5' fusion partners of functional fusions are often housekeeping genes, whereas the 3' fusion partners are enriched in tyrosine kinases. We establish the oncogenic potential of ROR1-DNAJC6 and CEP85L-ROS1 fusions by showing that they can promote cell proliferation in vitro and tumor formation in vivo. Furthermore, we found that ∼4% of the samples have massively rearranged chromosomes, many of which are associated with upregulation of oncogenes such as ERBB2 and TERT. Although the sensitivity of detecting structural alterations from exomes is considerably lower than that from whole genomes, this approach will be fruitful for the multitude of exomes that have been and will be generated, both in cancer and in other diseases.

LiReD: A Light-Weight Real-Time Fault Detection System for Edge Computing Using LSTM Recurrent Neural Networks.

Monitoring the status of the facilities and detecting any faults are considered an important technology in a smart factory. Although the faults of machine can be analyzed in real time using collected data, it requires a large amount of computing resources to handle the massive data. A cloud server can be used to analyze the collected data, but it is more efficient to adopt the edge computing concept that employs edge devices located close to the facilities. Edge devices can improve data processing and analysis speed and reduce network costs. In this paper, an edge device capable of collecting, processing, storing and analyzing data is constructed by using a single-board computer and a sensor. And, a fault detection model for machine is developed based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks. The proposed system called LiReD was implemented for an industrial robot manipulator and the LSTM-based fault detection model showed the best performance among six fault detection models.

Systematic mapping of occluded genes by cell fusion reveals prevalence and stability of cis-mediated silencing in somatic cells.

Both diffusible factors acting in trans and chromatin components acting in cis are implicated in gene regulation, but the extent to which either process causally determines a cell's transcriptional identity is unclear. We recently used cell fusion to define a class of silent genes termed "cis-silenced" (or "occluded") genes, which remain silent even in the presence of trans-acting transcriptional activators. We further showed that occlusion of lineage-inappropriate genes plays a critical role in maintaining the transcriptional identities of somatic cells. Here, we present, for the first time, a comprehensive map of occluded genes in somatic cells. Specifically, we mapped occluded genes in mouse fibroblasts via fusion to a dozen different rat cell types followed by whole-transcriptome profiling. We found that occluded genes are highly prevalent and stable in somatic cells, representing a sizeable fraction of silent genes. Occluded genes are also highly enriched for important developmental regulators of alternative lineages, consistent with the role of occlusion in safeguarding cell identities. Alongside this map, we also present whole-genome maps of DNA methylation and eight other chromatin marks. These maps uncover a complex relationship between chromatin state and occlusion. Furthermore, we found that DNA methylation functions as the memory of occlusion in a subset of occluded genes, while histone deacetylation contributes to the implementation but not memory of occlusion. Our data suggest that the identities of individual cell types are defined largely by the occlusion status of their genomes. The comprehensive reference maps reported here provide the foundation for future studies aimed at understanding the role of occlusion in development and disease.

Fully automated circulating tumor cell isolation platform with large-volume capacity based on lab-on-a-disc.

Full automation with high purity for circulating tumor cell (CTC) isolation has been regarded as a key goal to make CTC analysis a "bench-to-bedside" technology. Here, we have developed a novel centrifugal microfluidic platform that can isolate the rare cells from a large volume of whole blood. To isolate CTCs from whole blood, we introduce a disc device having the biggest sample capacity as well as manipulating blood cells for the first time. The fully automated disc platform could handle 5 mL of blood by designing the blood chamber having a triangular obstacle structure (TOS) with lateral direction. To guarantee high purity that enables molecular analysis with the rare cells, CTCs were bound to the microbeads covered with anti-EpCAM to discriminate density between CTCs and blood cells and the CTCs being heavier than blood cells were only settled under a density gradient medium (DGM) layer. To understand the movement of CTCs under centrifugal force, we performed computational fluid dynamics simulation and found that their major trajectories were the boundary walls of the DGM chamber, thereby optimizing the chamber design. After whole blood was inserted into the blood chamber of the disc platform, size- and density-amplified cancer cells were isolated within 78 min, with minimal contamination as much as approximately 12 leukocytes per milliliter. As a model of molecular analysis toward personalized cancer treatment, we performed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation analysis with HCC827 lung cancer cells and the isolated cells were then successfully detected for the mutation by PCR clamping and direct sequencing.

Applying the natural disasters vulnerability evaluation model to the March 2011 north-east Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Natural hazards have a potentially large impact on economic growth, but measuring their economic impact is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. The central objective of this paper is to demonstrate a model--the natural disasters vulnerability evaluation (NDVE) model--that can be used to evaluate the impact of natural hazards on gross national product growth. The model is based on five basic indicators-natural hazards growth rates (αi), the national natural hazards vulnerability rate (ΩT), the natural disaster devastation magnitude rate (Π), the economic desgrowth rate (i.e. shrinkage of the economy) (δ), and the NHV surface. In addition, we apply the NDVE model to the north-east Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 to evaluate its impact on the Japanese economy.

Secreted antigen A peptidoglycan hydrolase is essential for Enterococcus faecium cell separation and priming of immune checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy.

Enterococcus faecium is a microbiota species in humans that can modulate host immunity, but has also acquired antibiotic resistance and is a major cause of hospital-associated infections. Notably, diverse strains of E. faecium produce SagA, a highly conserved peptidoglycan hydrolase that is sufficient to promote intestinal immunity and immune checkpoint inhibitor antitumor activity. However, the functions of SagA in E. faecium were unknown. Here we report that deletion of sagA impaired E. faecium growth and resulted in bulged and clustered enterococci due to defective peptidoglycan cleavage and cell separation. Moreover, Δ sagA showed increased antibiotic sensitivity, yielded lower levels of active muropeptides, displayed reduced activation of the peptidoglycan pattern-recognition receptor NOD2, and failed to promote cancer immunotherapy. Importantly, plasmid-based expression of SagA, but not its catalytically-inactive mutant, restored Δ sagA growth, production of active muropeptides and NOD2 activation. SagA is therefore essential for E. faecium growth, stress resistance and activation of host immunity.

Prmt7 regulates the JAK/STAT/Socs3 signaling pathway in postmenopausal cardiomyopathy.

Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) modulate diverse cellular processes, including stress responses. The present study explored the role of Prmt7 in protecting against menopause-associated cardiomyopathy. Mice with cardiac-specific Prmt7 ablation (cKO) exhibited sex-specific cardiomyopathy. Male cKO mice exhibited impaired cardiac function, myocardial hypertrophy, and interstitial fibrosis associated with increased oxidative stress. Interestingly, female cKO mice predominantly exhibited comparable phenotypes only after menopause or ovariectomy (OVX). Prmt7 inhibition in cardiomyocytes exacerbated doxorubicin (DOX)-induced oxidative stress and DNA double-strand breaks, along with apoptosis-related protein expression. Treatment with 17ß-estradiol (E2) attenuated the DOX-induced decrease in Prmt7 expression in cardiomyocytes, and Prmt7 depletion abrogated the protective effect of E2 against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. Transcriptome analysis of ovariectomized wild-type (WT) or cKO hearts and mechanical analysis of Prmt7-deficient cardiomyocytes demonstrated that Prmt7 is required for the control of the JAK/STAT signaling pathway by regulating the expression of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (Socs3), which is a negative feedback inhibitor of the JAK/STAT signaling pathway. These data indicate that Prmt7 has a sex-specific cardioprotective effect by regulating the JAK/STAT signaling pathway and, ultimately, may be a potential therapeutic tool for heart failure treatment depending on sex.

Secreted antigen A peptidoglycan hydrolase is essential for Enterococcus faecium cell separation and priming of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Enterococcus faecium is a microbiota species in humans that can modulate host immunity (Griffin and Hang, 2022), but has also acquired antibiotic resistance and is a major cause of hospital-associated infections (Van Tyne and Gilmore, 2014). Notably, diverse strains of E. faecium produce SagA, a highly conserved peptidoglycan hydrolase that is sufficient to promote intestinal immunity (Rangan et al., 2016; Pedicord et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2019) and immune checkpoint inhibitor antitumor activity (Griffin et al., 2021). However, the functions of SagA in E. faecium were unknown. Here, we report that deletion of sagA impaired E. faecium growth and resulted in bulged and clustered enterococci due to defective peptidoglycan cleavage and cell separation. Moreover, ΔsagA showed increased antibiotic sensitivity, yielded lower levels of active muropeptides, displayed reduced activation of the peptidoglycan pattern-recognition receptor NOD2, and failed to promote cancer immunotherapy. Importantly, the plasmid-based expression of SagA, but not its catalytically inactive mutant, restored ΔsagA growth, production of active muropeptides, and NOD2 activation. SagA is, therefore, essential for E. faecium growth, stress resistance, and activation of host immunity.