MOXD1 is a lineage-specific gene and a tumor suppressor in neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma is a childhood developmental cancer; however, its embryonic origins remain poorly understood. Moreover, in-depth studies of early tumor-driving events are limited because of the lack of appropriate models. Herein, we analyzed RNA sequencing data obtained from human neuroblastoma samples and found that loss of expression of trunk neural crest-enriched gene MOXD1 associates with advanced disease and worse outcome. Further, by using single-cell RNA sequencing data of human neuroblastoma cells and fetal adrenal glands and creating in vivo models of zebrafish, chick, and mouse, we show that MOXD1 is a determinate of tumor development. In addition, we found that MOXD1 expression is highly conserved and restricted to mesenchymal neuroblastoma cells and Schwann cell precursors during healthy development. Our findings identify MOXD1 as a lineage-restricted tumor-suppressor gene in neuroblastoma, potentiating further stratification of these tumors and development of novel therapeutic interventions.

Development of celiac-safe foods: prevention of transglutaminase 2 (TG2) deamidation of gluten in healthy non-celiac volunteers.

In celiac disease, intestinal transglutaminase (TG2) produces immunogenic peptides by deamidation of gluten proteins. These products drive the celiac immune response. We have previously identified an interaction between gliadin and a food additive, E304i, which prevents gliadin processing (both deamidation and transamidation) by TG2, in vitro. In this study, we investigated if E304i could prevent TG2 processing of gluten in flours and if the effect was evident after simulated gastrointestinal digestion. We also confirmed the outcome in vivo in a human cross-over intervention study in healthy non-celiac participants. TG2 transamidation experiments (in vitro) of digested wheat and rye flours supplemented with E304i at 30 mg/g indicated full prevention of TG2 processing. In the intervention study, participant serum levels of deamidated gliadin peptides (dGDPs) increased after the intake of reference wheat rolls (80 g per day for a week; 41% ± 4% compared to washout), while the intake of the intervention E304i/zinc sulfate wheat rolls generated a modest response (80 g per day for a week; 8 ± 10% of control). The difference between the groups (32.8 ± 15.6%) was significant (p = 0.00003, n = 9), confirming that E304i /zinc addition to wheat rolls prevented TG2 deamidation of gluten. In conclusion, this study shows that E304i /zinc addition to wheat rolls prevents TG2 deamidation of gluten in non-celiac participants. Clinical trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov, identifier (NCT06005376).

Drug-resilient Cancer Cell Phenotype Is Acquired via Polyploidization Associated with Early Stress Response Coupled to HIF2α Transcriptional Regulation.

Therapeutic resistance and recurrence remain core challenges in cancer therapy. How therapy resistance arises is currently not fully understood with tumors surviving via multiple alternative routes. Here, we demonstrate that a subset of cancer cells survives therapeutic stress by entering a transient state characterized by whole-genome doubling. At the onset of the polyploidization program, we identified an upregulation of key transcriptional regulators, including the early stress-response protein AP-1 and normoxic stabilization of HIF2α. We found altered chromatin accessibility, ablated expression of retinoblastoma protein (RB1), and enrichment of AP-1 motif accessibility. We demonstrate that AP-1 and HIF2α regulate a therapy resilient and survivor phenotype in cancer cells. Consistent with this, genetic or pharmacologic targeting of AP-1 and HIF2α reduced the number of surviving cells following chemotherapy treatment. The role of AP-1 and HIF2α in stress response by polyploidy suggests a novel avenue for tackling chemotherapy-induced resistance in cancer. SIGNIFICANCE: In response to cisplatin treatment, some surviving cancer cells undergo whole-genome duplications without mitosis, which represents a mechanism of drug resistance. This study presents mechanistic data to implicate AP-1 and HIF2α signaling in the formation of this surviving cell phenotype. The results open a new avenue for targeting drug-resistant cells.

Differential Effects of Iron Chelates vs. Iron Salts on Induction of Pro-Oncogenic Amphiregulin and Pro-Inflammatory COX-2 in Human Intestinal Adenocarcinoma Cell Lines.

We previously showed that two iron compounds that are orally ingested by humans, namely ferric EDTA and ferric citrate, can induce an oncogenic growth factor (amphiregulin) in human intestinal epithelial adenocarcinoma cell lines. Here, we further screened these iron compounds, plus four other iron chelates and six iron salts (i.e., 12 oral iron compounds in total), for their effects on biomarkers of cancer and inflammation. Ferric pyrophosphate and ferric EDTA were the main inducers of amphiregulin and its receptor monomer, IGFr1. Moreover, at the maximum iron concentrations investigated (500 µM), the highest levels of amphiregulin were induced by the six iron chelates, while four of these also increased IGfr1. In addition, we observed that ferric pyrophosphate promoted signaling via the JAK/STAT pathway by up-regulating the cytokine receptor subunit IFN-γr1 and IL-6. For pro-inflammatory cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), ferric pyrophosphate but not ferric EDTA elevated intracellular levels. This, however, did not drive the other biomarkers based on COX-2 inhibition studies and was probably downstream of IL-6. We conclude that of all oral iron compounds, iron chelates may particularly elevate intracellular amphiregulin. Ferric pyrophosphate additionally induced COX-2, probably because of the high IL-6 induction that was observed with this compound.

In vitro digestibility and Caco-2 cell bioavailability of sea lettuce (Ulva fenestrata) proteins extracted using pH-shift processing.

Seaweed is a promising sustainable source of vegan protein as its farming does not require arable land, pesticides/insecticides, nor freshwater supply. However, to be explored as a novel protein source the content and nutritional quality of protein in seaweed need to be improved. We assessed the influence of pH-shift processing on protein degree of hydrolysis (%DH), protein/peptide size distribution, accessibility, and cell bioavailability of Ulva fenestrata proteins after in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. pH-shift processing of Ulva, which concentrated its proteins 3.5-times, significantly improved the %DH from 27.7±2.6% to 35.7±2.1% and the amino acid accessibility from 56.9±4.1% to 72.7±0.6%. Due to the higher amino acid accessibility, the amount of most amino acids transported across the cell monolayers was higher in the protein extracts. Regarding bioavailability, both Ulva and protein extracts were as bioavailable as casein. The protein/peptide molecular size distribution after digestion did not disclose a clear association with bioavailability.

A LCMS Metabolomic Workflow to Investigate Metabolic Patterns in Human Intestinal Cells Exposed to Hydrolyzed Crab Waste Materials.

We have developed a LCMS metabolomic workflow to investigate metabolic patterns from human intestinal cells treated with simulated gastrointestinal-digested hydrolyzed crab waste materials. This workflow facilitates smart and reproducible comparisons of cell cultures exposed to different treatments. In this case the variable was the hydrolysis methods, also accounting for the GI digestion giving an output of direct correlation between cellular metabolic patterns caused by the treatments. In addition, we used the output from this workflow to select treatments for further evaluation of the Caco-2 cell response in terms of tentative anti-inflammatory activity in the hopes to find value in the crab waste materials to be used for food products. As hypothesized, the treatment identified to change the cellular metabolomic pattern most readily, was also found to cause the greatest effect in the cells, although the response was pro-inflammatory rather than anti-inflammatory, it proves that changes in cellular metabolic patterns are useful predictors of bioactivity. We conclude that the developed workflow allows for cost effective, rapid sample preparation as well as accurate and repeatable LCMS analysis and introduces a data pipeline specifically for probe the novel metabolite patterns created as a means to assess the performing treatments.

Iron Supplements Containing Lactobacillus plantarum 299v Increase Ferric Iron and Up-regulate the Ferric Reductase DCYTB in Human Caco-2/HT29 MTX Co-Cultures.

Several human interventions have indicated that Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (L. plantarum 299v) increases intestinal iron absorption. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible effects of L. plantarum 299v on the mechanisms of iron absorption on the cellular level. We have previously shown that lactic fermentation of vegetables increased iron absorption in humans. It was revealed that the level of ferric iron [Fe (H2O)5]2+ was increased after fermentation. Therefore, we used voltammetry to measure the oxidation state of iron in simulated gastrointestinal digested oat and mango drinks and capsule meals containing L. plantarum 299v. We also exposed human intestinal co-cultures of enterocytes and goblet cells (Caco-2/HT29 MTX) to the supplements in order to study the effect on proteins possibly involved (MUC5AC, DCYTB, DMT1, and ferritin). We detected an increase in ferric iron in the digested meals and drinks containing L. plantarum 299v. In the intestinal cell model, we observed that the ferric reductase DCYTB increased in the presence of L. plantarum 299v, while the production of mucin (MUC5AC) decreased independently of L. plantarum 299v. In conclusion, the data suggest that the effect of L. plantarum 299v on iron metabolism is mediated through driving the Fe3+/DCYTB axis.

Sourdough fermentation of wheat flour does not prevent the interaction of transglutaminase 2 with α2-gliadin or gluten.

The enzyme transglutaminase 2 (TG2) plays a crucial role in the initiation of celiac disease by catalyzing the deamidation of gluten peptides. In susceptible individuals, the deamidated peptides initiate an immune response leading to celiac disease. Several studies have addressed lactic fermentation plus addition of enzymes as a means to degrade gluten in order to prevent adverse response in celiacs. Processing for complete gluten degradation is often harsh and is not likely to yield products that are of comparable characteristics as their gluten-containing counterparts. We are concerned that incomplete degradation of gluten may have adverse effects because it leads to more available TG2-binding sites on gluten peptides. Therefore, we have investigated how lactic acid fermentation affects the potential binding of TG2 to gluten protein in wheat flour by means of estimating TG2-mediated transamidation in addition to measuring the available TG2-binding motif QLP, in α2-gliadin. We show that lactic fermentation of wheat flour, as slurry or as part of sourdough bread, did not decrease the TG2-mediated transamidation, in the presence of a primary amine, to an efficient level (73%-102% of unfermented flour). Nor did the lactic fermentation decrease the available TG2 binding motif QLP in α2-gliadin to a sufficient extent in sourdough bread (73%-122% of unfermented control) to be useful for celiac safe food.