Host CLIC4 expression in the tumor microenvironment is essential for breast cancer metastatic competence.

The TGF-ß-regulated Chloride Intracellular Channel 4 (CLIC4) is an essential participant in the formation of breast cancer stroma. Here, we used data available from the TCGA and METABRIC datasets to show that CLIC4 expression was higher in breast cancers from younger women and those with early-stage metastatic disease. Elevated CLIC4 predicted poor outcome in breast cancer patients and was linked to the TGF-ß pathway. However, these associations did not reveal the underlying biological contribution of CLIC4 to breast cancer progression. Constitutive ablation of host Clic4 in two murine metastatic breast cancer models nearly eliminated lung metastases without reducing primary tumor weight, while tumor cells ablated of Clic4 retained metastatic capability in wildtype hosts. Thus, CLIC4 was required for host metastatic competence. Pre- and post-metastatic proteomic analysis identified circulating pro-metastatic soluble factors that differed in tumor-bearing CLIC4-deficient and wildtype hosts. Vascular abnormalities and necrosis increased in primary tumors from CLIC4-deficient hosts. Transcriptional profiles of both primary tumors and pre-metastatic lungs of tumor-bearing CLIC4-deficient hosts were consistent with a microenvironment where inflammatory pathways were elevated. Altogether, CLIC4 expression in human breast cancers may serve as a prognostic biomarker; therapeutic targeting of CLIC4 could reduce primary tumor viability and host metastatic competence.

The role of CD101-expressing CD4 T cells in HIV/SIV pathogenesis and persistence.

Despite the advent of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to pose major challenges, with extensive pathogenesis during acute and chronic infection prior to ART initiation and continued persistence in a reservoir of infected CD4 T cells during long-term ART. CD101 has recently been characterized to play an important role in CD4 Treg potency. Using the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) model of HIV infection in rhesus macaques, we characterized the role and kinetics of CD101+ CD4 T cells in longitudinal SIV infection. Phenotypic analyses and single-cell RNAseq profiling revealed that CD101 marked CD4 Tregs with high immunosuppressive potential, distinct from CD101- Tregs, and these cells also were ideal target cells for HIV/SIV infection, with higher expression of CCR5 and α4ß7 in the gut mucosa. Notably, during acute SIV infection, CD101+ CD4 T cells were preferentially depleted across all CD4 subsets when compared with their CD101- counterpart, with a pronounced reduction within the Treg compartment, as well as significant depletion in mucosal tissue. Depletion of CD101+ CD4 was associated with increased viral burden in plasma and gut and elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines. While restored during long-term ART, the reconstituted CD101+ CD4 T cells display a phenotypic profile with high expression of inhibitory receptors (including PD-1 and CTLA-4), immunsuppressive cytokine production, and high levels of Ki-67, consistent with potential for homeostatic proliferation. Both the depletion of CD101+ cells and phenotypic profile of these cells found in the SIV model were confirmed in people with HIV on ART. Overall, these data suggest an important role for CD101-expressing CD4 T cells at all stages of HIV/SIV infection and a potential rationale for targeting CD101 to limit HIV pathogenesis and persistence, particularly at mucosal sites.

Real-Time Loosely Coupled 3DMA GNSS/Doppler Measurements Integration Using a Graph Optimization and Its Performance Assessments in Urban Canyons of New York.

Smart health applications have received significant attention in recent years. Novel applications hold significant promise to overcome many of the inconveniences faced by persons with disabilities throughout daily living. For people with blindness and low vision (BLV), environmental perception is compromised, creating myriad difficulties. Precise localization is still a gap in the field and is critical to safe navigation. Conventional GNSS positioning cannot provide satisfactory performance in urban canyons. 3D mapping-aided (3DMA) GNSS may serve as an urban GNSS solution, since the availability of 3D city models has widely increased. As a result, this study developed a real-time 3DMA GNSS-positioning system based on state-of-the-art 3DMA GNSS algorithms. Shadow matching was integrated with likelihood-based ranging 3DMA GNSS, generating positioning hypothesis candidates. To increase robustness, the 3DMA GNSS solution was then optimized with Doppler measurements using factor graph optimization (FGO) in a loosely-coupled fashion. This study also evaluated positioning performance using an advanced wearable system's recorded data in New York City. The real-time forward-processed FGO can provide a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of about 21 m. The RMSE drops to 16 m when the data is post-processed with FGO in a combined direction. Overall results show that the proposed loosely-coupled 3DMA FGO algorithm can provide a better and more robust positioning performance for the multi-sensor integration approach used by this wearable for persons with BLV.

Mechanistic Basis for the Role of Phytochemicals in Inflammation-Associated Chronic Diseases.

Chronic inflammatory diseases occur in a large portion of the population and are associated with a poor diet. Key natural products found in fruits and vegetables may assist in lowering inflammation associated with chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. This review seeks to examine the roles of several natural products, resveratrol (RES), quercetin (QUE), curcumin (CUR), piperine (PIP), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and gingerol (GIN), in their ability to attenuate inflammatory markers in specific diseases states. Additionally, we will discuss findings in past and ongoing clinical trials, detail possible phytochemical-drug interactions, and provide a brief resource for researchers and healthcare professionals on natural product and supplement regulation as well as names of databases with information on efficacy, indications, and natural product-drug interactions. As diet and over-the-counter supplement use are modifiable factors and patients are interested in using complementary and alternative therapies, understanding the mechanisms by which natural products have demonstrated efficacy and the types of drugs they interact with and knowing where to find information on herbs and supplements is important for practicing healthcare providers and researchers interested in this field.

Semantic VPS for Smartphone Localization in Challenging Urban Environments.

Accurate smartphone-based outdoor localization systems in deep urban canyons are increasingly needed for various IoT applications. As smart cities have developed, building information modeling (BIM) has become widely available. This article, for the first time, presents a semantic Visual Positioning System (VPS) for accurate and robust position estimation in urban canyons where the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tends to fail. In the offline stage, a material segmented BIM is used to generate segmented images. In the online stage, an image is taken with a smartphone camera that provides textual information about the surrounding environment. The approach utilizes computer vision algorithms to segment between the different types of material class identified in the smartphone image. A semantic VPS method is then used to match the segmented generated images with the segmented smartphone image. Each generated image contains position information in terms of latitude, longitude, altitude, yaw, pitch, and roll. The candidate with the maximum likelihood is regarded as the precise position of the user. The positioning result achieved an accuracy of 2.0 m among high-rise buildings on a street, 5.5 m in a dense foliage environment, and 15.7 m in an alleyway. This represents an improvement in positioning of 45% compared to the current state-of-the-art method. The estimation of yaw achieved accuracy of 2.3°, an eight-fold improvement compared to the smartphone IMU.

Skymask Matching Aided Positioning Using Sky-Pointing Fisheye Camera and 3D City Models in Urban Canyons.

3D-mapping-aided (3DMA) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning that improves positioning performance in dense urban areas has been under development in recent years, but it still faces many challenges. This paper details a new algorithm that explores the potential of using building boundaries for positioning and heading estimation. Rather than applying complex simulations to analyze and correct signal reflections by buildings, the approach utilizes a convolutional neural network to differentiate between the sky and building in a sky-pointing fisheye image. A new skymask matching algorithm is then proposed to match the segmented fisheye images with skymasks generated from a 3D building model. Each matched skymask holds a latitude, longitude coordinate and heading angle to determine the precise location of the fisheye image. The results are then compared with the smartphone GNSS and advanced 3DMA GNSS positioning methods. The proposed method provides degree-level heading accuracy, and improved positioning accuracy similar to other advanced 3DMA GNSS positioning methods in a rich urban environment.

Dynamical System Modeling to Simulate Donor T Cell Response to Whole Exome Sequencing-Derived Recipient Peptides Demonstrates Different Alloreactivity Potential in HLA-Matched and -Mismatched Donor-Recipient Pairs.

Immune reconstitution kinetics and subsequent clinical outcomes in HLA-matched recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) are variable and difficult to predict. Considering SCT as a dynamical system may allow sequence differences across the exomes of the transplant donors and recipients to be used to simulate an alloreactive T cell response, which may allow better clinical outcome prediction. To accomplish this, whole exome sequencing was performed on 34 HLA-matched SCT donor-recipient pairs (DRPs) and the nucleotide sequence differences translated to peptides. The binding affinity of the peptides to the relevant HLA in each DRP was determined. The resulting array of peptide-HLA binding affinity values in each patient was considered as an operator modifying a hypothetical T cell repertoire vector, in which each T cell clone proliferates in accordance with the logistic equation of growth. Using an iterating system of matrices, each simulated T cell clone's growth was calculated with the steady-state population being proportional to the magnitude of the binding affinity of the driving HLA-peptide complex. Incorporating competition between T cell clones responding to different HLA-peptide complexes reproduces a number of features of clinically observed T cell clonal repertoire in the simulated repertoire, including sigmoidal growth kinetics of individual T cell clones and overall repertoire, Power Law clonal frequency distribution, increase in repertoire complexity over time with increasing clonal diversity, and alteration of clonal dominance when a different antigen array is encountered, such as in SCT. The simulated, alloreactive T cell repertoire was markedly different in HLA-matched DRPs. The patterns were differentiated by rate of growth and steady-state magnitude of the simulated T cell repertoire and demonstrate a possible correlation with survival. In conclusion, exome wide sequence differences in DRPs may allow simulation of donor alloreactive T cell response to recipient antigens and may provide a quantitative basis for refining donor selection and titration of immunosuppression after SCT.

RNAIII-independent target gene control by the agr quorum-sensing system: insight into the evolution of virulence regulation in Staphylococcus aureus.

Cell-density-dependent gene regulation by quorum-sensing systems has a crucial function in bacterial physiology and pathogenesis. We demonstrate here that the Staphylococcus aureus agr quorum-sensing regulon is divided into (1) control of metabolism and PSM cytolysin genes, which occurs independently of the small regulatory RNA RNAIII, and (2) RNAIII-dependent control of additional virulence genes. Remarkably, PSM expression was regulated by direct binding of the AgrA response regulator. Our findings suggest that quorum-sensing regulation of PSMs was established before wide-ranging control of virulence was added to the agr regulon, which likely occurred by development of the RNAIII-encoding region around the gene encoding the PSM delta-toxin. Moreover, the agr regulon in the community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus MW2 considerably differed from that previously determined using laboratory strains. By establishing a two-level model of quorum-sensing target gene regulation in S. aureus, our study gives important insight into the evolution of virulence control in this leading human pathogen.

Whole exome sequencing to estimate alloreactivity potential between donors and recipients in stem cell transplantation.

Whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed on stem cell transplant donor-recipient (D-R) pairs to determine the extent of potential antigenic variation at a molecular level. In a small cohort of D-R pairs, a high frequency of sequence variation was observed between the donor and recipient exomes independent of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) matching. Nonsynonymous, nonconservative single nucleotide polymorphisms were approximately twice as frequent in HLA-matched unrelated, compared with related D-R pairs. When mapped to individual chromosomes, these polymorphic nucleotides were uniformly distributed across the entire exome. In conclusion, WES reveals extensive nucleotide sequence variation in the exomes of HLA-matched donors and recipients.

Timely Treatment and No Change in Thyroid Cancer Mortality During COVID-19 Pandemic. Reply to Nocini et al. No Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Mortality for Thyroid Cancer in the US. Comment on "Lee et al. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Thyroid Cancer Surgery. Curr. Oncol. 2024, 31, 3579-3590".

We thank Nocini et al [...].

Employing an innovative underwater camera to improve electronic monitoring in the commercial Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery.

Vessel electronic monitoring (EM) systems used in fisheries around the world apply a variety of cameras to record catch as it is brought on deck and during fish processing activities. In EM work conducted by the Center for Fisheries Electronic Monitoring at Mote (CFEMM) in the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery, there was a need to improve upon current technologies to enhance camera views for accurate species identification of large sharks, particularly those that were released while underwater at the vessel side or underneath the hull. This paper describes how this problem was addressed with the development of the first known EM system integrated underwater camera (UCAM) with a specialized vessel-specific deployment device on a bottom longline reef fish vessel. Data are presented based on blind video reviews from CFEMM trained reviewers of the resulting UCAM video footage compared with video from only the overhead EM cameras from 68 gear retrievals collected from eight fishing trips. Results revealed that the UCAM was a successful tool for capturing clear underwater video footage of released large (>2m) sharks to enable reviewers to improve individual species identification, determination, and fate by 34.4%. This was particularly important for obtaining data on incidental catches of large protected shark species. It also provided clear underwater imagery of the presence of potential predators such as marine mammals close to the vessel, more specifically bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) during gear retrieval, which often damaged or removed catch. This information is intended to assist researchers in need of gathering critical data on bycatch in close proximity to a vessel in which conventional overhead EM cameras are limited.

Telehealth Usage in Otolaryngology: A Comparative Study Pre- and Post-COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased telehealth utilization in outpatient otolaryngology settings. While other studies on telehealth usage in otolaryngology settings have focused on demographic disparities during the pandemic, none have yet assessed how these demographic disparities have evolved from before versus after the pandemic. This study examines 4 recent consecutive years of demographic and clinical data from a large hospital system to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed demographic patterns in telehealth utilization. We demonstrate substantial increases in the number of otolaryngology patients participating in telehealth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but with no differences in patient distributions by race or ethnicity over time. We also found that telehealth patients, on average, were younger, more likely to be English-speaking, and more likely to be female. While these disparities widened slightly after the start of the pandemic, they were also present prior to the pandemic.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Thyroid Cancer Surgery.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to healthcare services in 2020, delaying cancer diagnosis and treatment. While early-stage thyroid cancer often progresses slowly, it is crucial to determine whether treatment delays associated with the pandemic have impacted the clinical presentation and management of advanced-stage thyroid cancer. The purpose of our study was to determine the impact of the early COVID-19 pandemic on thyroid cancer presentation and treatment times. Utilizing the National Cancer Database, chi-squared tests and regression analyses were performed to compare patient demographic and clinical characteristics over time for 56,011 patients diagnosed with primary thyroid cancer who were treated at the Commission on Cancer-accredited sites in 2019 and 2020. We found that thyroid cancer diagnoses decreased between 2019 and 2020, with the biggest drop among patients with cT1 disease relative to other T stages. We also found that patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2020 had similar treatment times to patients diagnosed in 2019, as measured by both the time between diagnosis and start of treatment and the time between surgery and start of radioactive iodine therapy. Overall, our study suggests that resources during the pandemic were allocated to patients with advanced thyroid disease, despite a decrease in diagnoses.

T cells and macrophages jointly modulate osteogenesis of mesenchymal stromal cells.

Approximately 5%-10% of fractures go on to delayed healing and nonunion, posing significant clinical, economic, and social challenges. Current treatment methods involving open bone harvesting and grafting are associated with considerable pain and potential morbidity at the donor site. Hence, there is growing interest in minimally invasive approaches such as bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC), which contains mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), macrophages (Mφ), and T cells. However, the use of cultured or activated cells for treatment is not yet FDA-approved in the United States, necessitating further exploration of optimal cell types and proportions for effective bone formation. As our understanding of osteoimmunology advances, it has become apparent that factors from anti-inflammatory Mφ (M2) promote bone formation by MSCs. Additionally, M2 Mφ promote T helper 2 (Th2) cells and Treg cells, both of which enhance bone formation. In this study, we investigated the interactions among MSCs, Mφ, and T cells in bone formation and explored the potential of subsets of BMAC. Coculture experiments were conducted using primary MSCs, Mφ, and CD4+ T cells at specific ratios. Our results indicate that nonactivated T cells had no direct influence on osteogenesis by MSCs, while coculturing MSCs with Mφ and T cells at a ratio of 1:5:10 positively impacted bone formation. Furthermore, higher numbers of T cells led to increased M2 polarization and a higher proportion of Th2 cells in the early stages of coculture. These findings suggest the potential for enhancing bone formation by adjusting immune and mesenchymal cell ratios in BMAC. By understanding the interactions and effects of immune cells on bone formation, we can develop more effective strategies and protocols for treating bone defects and nonunions. Further studies are needed to investigate these interactions in vivo and explore additional factors influencing MSC-based therapies.

Correction: Pius et al. Effects of Aging on Osteosynthesis at Bone-Implant Interfaces. Biomolecules 2024, 14, 52.

Max L. Lee was not included as an author in the original publication [...].

The interactions of macrophages, lymphocytes, and mesenchymal stem cells during bone regeneration.

Bone regeneration and repair are crucial to ambulation and quality of life. Factors such as poor general health, serious medical comorbidities, chronic inflammation, and ageing can lead to delayed healing and nonunion of fractures, and persistent bone defects. Bioengineering strategies to heal bone often involve grafting of autologous bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with biocompatible scaffolds. While BMAC shows promise, variability in its efficacy exists due to discrepancies in MSC concentration and robustness, and immune cell composition. Understanding the mechanisms by which macrophages and lymphocytes - the main cellular components in BMAC - interact with MSCs could suggest novel strategies to enhance bone healing. Macrophages are polarized into pro-inflammatory (M1) or anti-inflammatory (M2) phenotypes, and influence cell metabolism and tissue regeneration via the secretion of cytokines and other factors. T cells, especially helper T1 (Th1) and Th17, promote inflammation and osteoclastogenesis, whereas Th2 and regulatory T (Treg) cells have anti-inflammatory pro-reconstructive effects, thereby supporting osteogenesis. Crosstalk among macrophages, T cells, and MSCs affects the bone microenvironment and regulates the local immune response. Manipulating the proportion and interactions of these cells presents an opportunity to alter the local regenerative capacity of bone, which potentially could enhance clinical outcomes.

Disulfide bond oxidoreductase DsbA2 of Legionella pneumophila exhibits protein disulfide isomerase activity.

The extracytoplasmic assembly of the Dot/Icm type IVb secretion system (T4SS) of Legionella pneumophila is dependent on correct disulfide bond (DSB) formation catalyzed by a novel and essential disulfide bond oxidoreductase DsbA2 and not by DsbA1, a second nonessential DSB oxidoreductase. DsbA2, which is widely distributed in the microbial world, is phylogenetically distinct from the canonical DsbA oxidase and the DsbC protein disulfide isomerase (PDI)/reductase of Escherichia coli. Here we show that the extended N-terminal amino acid sequence of DsbA2 (relative to DsbA proteins) contains a highly conserved 27-amino-acid dimerization domain enabling the protein to form a homodimer. Complementation tests with E. coli mutants established that L. pneumophila dsbA1, but not the dsbA2 strain, restored motility to a dsbA mutant. In a protein-folding PDI detector assay, the dsbA2 strain, but not the dsbA1 strain, complemented a dsbC mutant of E. coli. Deletion of the dimerization domain sequences from DsbA2 produced the monomer (DsbA2N), which no longer exhibited PDI activity but complemented the E. coli dsbA mutant. PDI activity was demonstrated in vitro for DsbA2 but not DsbA1 in a nitrocefin-based mutant TEM ß-lactamase folding assay. In an insulin reduction assay, DsbA2N activity was intermediate between those of DsbA2 and DsbA1. In L. pneumophila, DsbA2 was maintained as a mixture of thiol and disulfide forms, while in E. coli, DsbA2 was present as the reduced thiol. Our studies suggest that DsbA2 is a naturally occurring bifunctional disulfide bond oxidoreductase that may be uniquely suited to the majority of intracellular bacterial pathogens expressing T4SSs as well as in many slow-growing soil and aquatic bacteria.

Effects of Aging on Osteosynthesis at Bone-Implant Interfaces.

Joint replacement is a common surgery and is predominantly utilized for treatment of osteoarthritis in the aging population. The longevity of many of these implants depends on bony ingrowth. Here, we provide an overview of current techniques in osteogenesis (inducing bone growth onto an implant), which is affected by aging and inflammation. In this review we cover the biologic underpinnings of these processes as well as the clinical applications. Overall, aging has a significant effect at the cellular and macroscopic level that impacts osteosynthesis at bone-metal interfaces after joint arthroplasty; potential solutions include targeting prolonged inflammation, preventing microbial adhesion, and enhancing osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties.

C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 2 Enhances Macrophage Chemotaxis, Osteogenesis, and Angiogenesis during the Inflammatory Phase of Bone Regeneration.

Local cell therapy has recently gained attention for the treatment of joint diseases and fractures. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are not only involved in osteogenesis and angiogenesis, but they also have immunomodulatory functions, such as inducing macrophage migration during bone regeneration via macrophage crosstalk. C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), a known inflammatory mediator, is associated with the migration of macrophages during inflammation. This study examined the utility of CCL2 as a therapeutic target for local cell therapy. Using lentiviral vectors for rabbit MSCs, genetically modified CCL2 overexpressing MSCs were generated. Osteogenic differentiation assays were performed using MSCs with or without macrophages in co-culture, and cell migration assays were also performed. Additionally, co-cultures were performed with endothelial cells (ECs), and angiogenesis was evaluated using a tube formation assay. Overexpression of CCL2 did not affect bone formation under monoculture conditions but promoted chemotaxis and osteogenesis when co-cultured with macrophages. Furthermore, CCL2-overexpression promoted tube formation in co-culture with ECs. These results suggest that CCL2 induces macrophage chemotaxis and osteogenesis by promoting crosstalk between MSCs and macrophages; CCL2 also stimulates ECs to induce angiogenesis. These findings indicate that CCL2 may be a useful therapeutic target for local cell therapy in areas of bone loss.

DsbA2 (27 kDa Com1-like protein) of Legionella pneumophila catalyses extracytoplasmic disulphide-bond formation in proteins including the Dot/Icm type IV secretion system.

In Gram-negative bacteria, thiol oxidoreductases catalyse the formation of disulphide bonds (DSB) in extracytoplasmic proteins. In this study, we sought to identify DSB-forming proteins required for assembly of macromolecular structures in Legionella pneumophila. Here we describe two DSB-forming proteins, one annotated as dsbA1 and the other annotated as a 27 kDa outer membrane protein similar to Com1 of Coxiella burnetii, which we designate as dsbA2. Both proteins are predicted to be periplasmic, and while dsbA1 mutants were readily isolated and without phenotype, dsbA2 mutants were not obtained. To advance studies of DsbA2, a cis-proline residue at position 198 was replaced with threonine that enables formation of stable disulphide-bond complexes with substrate proteins. Expression of DsbA2 P198T mutant protein from an inducible promoter produced dominant-negative effects on DsbA2 function that resulted in loss of infectivity for amoeba and HeLa cells and loss of Dot/Icm T4SS-mediated contact haemolysis of erythrocytes. Analysis of captured DsbA2 P198T-substrate complexes from L. pneumophila by mass spectrometry identified periplasmic and outer membrane proteins that included components of the Dot/Icm T4SS. More broadly, our studies establish a DSB oxidoreductase function for the Com1 lineage of DsbA2-like proteins which appear to be conserved among those bacteria also expressing T4SS.