Kinome-wide siRNA screen identifies a DCLK2-TBK1 oncogenic signaling axis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) is a potential therapeutic target in multiple cancers, including clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). However, targeting TBK1 in clinical practice is challenging. One approach to overcome this challenge would be to identify an upstream TBK1 regulator that could be targeted therapeutically in cancer specifically. In this study, we perform a kinome-wide small interfering RNA (siRNA) screen and identify doublecortin-like kinase 2 (DCLK2) as a TBK1 regulator in ccRCC. DCLK2 binds to and directly phosphorylates TBK1 on Ser172. Depletion of DCLK2 inhibits anchorage-independent colony growth and kidney tumorigenesis in orthotopic xenograft models. Conversely, overexpression of DCLK2203, a short isoform that predominates in ccRCC, promotes ccRCC cell growth and tumorigenesis in vivo. Mechanistically, DCLK2203 elicits its oncogenic signaling via TBK1 phosphorylation and activation. Taken together, these results suggest that DCLK2 is a TBK1 activator and potential therapeutic target for ccRCC.

An oncogenic JMJD6-DGAT1 axis tunes the epigenetic regulation of lipid droplet formation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Characterized by intracellular lipid droplet accumulation, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is resistant to cytotoxic chemotherapy and is a lethal disease. Through an unbiased siRNA screen of 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG)-dependent enzymes, which play a critical role in tumorigenesis, we identified Jumonji domain-containing 6 (JMJD6) as an essential gene for ccRCC tumor development. The downregulation of JMJD6 abolished ccRCC colony formation in vitro and inhibited orthotopic tumor growth in vivo. Integrated ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analyses uncovered diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) as a critical JMJD6 effector. Mechanistically, JMJD6 interacted with RBM39 and co-occupied DGAT1 gene promoter with H3K4me3 to induce DGAT1 expression. JMJD6 silencing reduced DGAT1, leading to decreased lipid droplet formation and tumorigenesis. The pharmacological inhibition (or depletion) of DGAT1 inhibited lipid droplet formation in vitro and ccRCC tumorigenesis in vivo. Thus, the JMJD6-DGAT1 axis represents a potential new therapeutic target for ccRCC.

Transcription factor-mediated intestinal metaplasia and the role of a shadow enhancer.

Barrett's esophagus (BE) and gastric intestinal metaplasia are related premalignant conditions in which areas of human stomach epithelium express mixed gastric and intestinal features. Intestinal transcription factors (TFs) are expressed in both conditions, with unclear causal roles and cis-regulatory mechanisms. Ectopic CDX2 reprogrammed isogenic mouse stomach organoid lines to a hybrid stomach-intestinal state transcriptionally similar to clinical metaplasia; squamous esophageal organoids resisted this CDX2-mediated effect. Reprogramming was associated with induced activity at thousands of previously inaccessible intestine-restricted enhancers, where CDX2 occupied DNA directly. HNF4A, a TF recently implicated in BE pathogenesis, induced weaker intestinalization by binding a novel shadow Cdx2 enhancer and hence activating Cdx2 expression. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated germline deletion of that cis-element demonstrated its requirement in Cdx2 induction and in the resulting activation of intestinal genes in stomach cells. dCas9-conjugated KRAB repression mapped this activity to the shadow enhancer's HNF4A binding site. Altogether, we show extensive but selective recruitment of intestinal enhancers by CDX2 in gastric cells and that HNF4A-mediated ectopic CDX2 expression in the stomach occurs through a conserved shadow cis-element. These findings identify mechanisms for TF-driven intestinal metaplasia and a likely pathogenic TF hierarchy.

Aspartate all-in-one doping strategy enables efficient all-perovskite tandems.

All-perovskite tandem solar cells hold great promise in surpassing the Shockley-Queisser limit for single-junction solar cells1-3. However, the practical use of these cells is currently hampered by the subpar performance and stability issues associated with mixed tin-lead (Sn-Pb) narrow-bandgap perovskite subcells in all-perovskite tandems4-7. In this study, we focus on the narrow-bandgap subcells and develop an all-in-one doping strategy for them. We introduce aspartate hydrochloride (AspCl) into both the bottom poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) and bulk perovskite layers, followed by another AspCl posttreatment. We show that a single AspCl additive can effectively passivate defects, reduce Sn4+ impurities and shift the Fermi energy level. Additionally, the strong molecular bonding of AspCl-Sn/Pb iodide and AspCl-AspCl can strengthen the structure and thereby improve the stability of Sn-Pb perovskites. Ultimately, the implementation of AspCl doping in Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells yielded power conversion efficiencies of 22.46% for single-junction cells and 27.84% (27.62% stabilized and 27.34% certified) for tandems with 95% retention after being stored in an N2-filled glovebox for 2,000 h. These results suggest that all-in-one AspCl doping is a favourable strategy for enhancing the efficiency and stability of single-junction Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells and their tandems.

Cell type-specific molecular mechanisms and implications of necroptosis in inflammatory respiratory diseases.

Necroptosis is generally considered as an inflammatory cell death form. The core regulators of necroptotic signaling are receptor-interacting serine-threonine protein kinases 1 (RIPK1) and RIPK3, and the executioner, mixed lineage kinase domain-like pseudokinase (MLKL). Evidence demonstrates that necroptosis contributes profoundly to inflammatory respiratory diseases that are common public health problem. Necroptosis occurs in nearly all pulmonary cell types in the settings of inflammatory respiratory diseases. The influence of necroptosis on cells varies depending upon the type of cells, tissues, organs, etc., which is an important factor to consider. Thus, in this review, we briefly summarize the current state of knowledge regarding the biology of necroptosis, and focus on the key molecular mechanisms that define the necroptosis status of specific cell types in inflammatory respiratory diseases. We also discuss the clinical potential of small molecular inhibitors of necroptosis in treating inflammatory respiratory diseases, and describe the pathological processes that engage cross talk between necroptosis and other cell death pathways in the context of respiratory inflammation. The rapid advancement of single-cell technologies will help understand the key mechanisms underlying cell type-specific necroptosis that are critical to effectively treat pathogenic lung infections and inflammatory respiratory diseases.

Identification and correction for collider bias in a genome-wide association study of diabetes-related heart failure.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a major risk factor for heart failure (HF) and has elevated incidence among individuals with HF. Since genetics and HF can independently influence T2D, collider bias may occur when T2D (i.e., collider) is controlled for by design or analysis. Thus, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of diabetes-related HF with correction for collider bias. We first performed a GWAS of HF to identify genetic instrumental variables (GIVs) for HF and to enable bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis between T2D and HF. We identified 61 genomic loci, significantly associated with all-cause HF in 114,275 individuals with HF and over 1.5 million controls of European ancestry. Using a two-sample bidirectional MR approach with 59 and 82 GIVs for HF and T2D, respectively, we estimated that T2D increased HF risk (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-1.10), while HF also increased T2D risk (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.36-1.88). Then we performed a GWAS of diabetes-related HF corrected for collider bias due to the study design of index cases. After removing the spurious association of TCF7L2 locus due to collider bias, we identified two genome-wide significant loci close to PITX2 (chromosome 4) and CDKN2B-AS1 (chromosome 9) associated with diabetes-related HF in the Million Veteran Program and replicated the associations in the UK Biobank. Our MR findings provide strong evidence that HF increases T2D risk. As a result, collider bias leads to spurious genetic associations of diabetes-related HF, which can be effectively corrected to identify true positive loci.

Engineering of Cas12a nuclease variants with enhanced genome-editing specificity.

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-Cas12a system is a powerful tool in gene editing; however, crRNA-DNA mismatches might induce unwanted cleavage events, especially at the distal end of the PAM. To minimize this limitation, we engineered a hyper fidelity AsCas12a variant carrying the mutations S186A/R301A/T315A/Q1014A/K414A (termed HyperFi-As) by modifying amino acid residues interacting with the target DNA and crRNA strand. HyperFi-As retains on-target activities comparable to wild-type AsCas12a (AsCas12aWT) in human cells. We demonstrated that HyperFi-As has dramatically reduced off-target effects in human cells, and HyperFi-As possessed notably a lower tolerance to mismatch at the position of the PAM-distal region compared with the wild type. Further, a modified single-molecule DNA unzipping assay at proper constant force was applied to evaluate the stability and transient stages of the CRISPR/Cas ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. Multiple states were sensitively detected during the disassembly of the DNA-Cas12a-crRNA complexes. On off-target DNA substrates, the HyperFi-As-crRNA was harder to maintain the R-loop complex state compared to the AsCas12aWT, which could explain exactly why the HyperFi-As has low off-targeting effects in human cells. Our findings provide a novel version of AsCas12a variant with low off-target effects, especially capable of dealing with the high off-targeting in the distal region from the PAM. An insight into how the AsCas12a variant behaves at off-target sites was also revealed at the single-molecule level and the unzipping assay to evaluate multiple states of CRISPR/Cas RNP complexes might be greatly helpful for a deep understanding of how CRISPR/Cas behaves and how to engineer it in future.

Engineering of a compact, high-fidelity EbCas12a variant that can be packaged with its crRNA into an all-in-one AAV vector delivery system.

The CRISPR-associated endonuclease Cas12a has become a powerful genome-editing tool in biomedical research due to its ease of use and low off-targeting. However, the size of Cas12a severely limits clinical applications such as adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy. Here, we characterized a novel compact Cas12a ortholog, termed EbCas12a, from the metagenome-assembled genome of a currently unclassified Erysipelotrichia. It has the PAM sequence of 5'-TTTV-3' (V = A, G, C) and the smallest size of approximately 3.47 kb among the Cas12a orthologs reported so far. In addition, enhanced EbCas12a (enEbCas12a) was also designed to have comparable editing efficiency with higher specificity to AsCas12a and LbCas12a in mammalian cells at multiple target sites. Based on the compact enEbCas12a, an all-in-one AAV delivery system with crRNA for Cas12a was developed for both in vitro and in vivo applications. Overall, the novel smallest high-fidelity enEbCas12a, this first case of the all-in-one AAV delivery for Cas12a could greatly boost future gene therapy and scientific research.

Ubiquitin-induced RNF168 condensation promotes DNA double-strand break repair.

Rapid accumulation of repair factors at DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is essential for DSB repair. Several factors involved in DSB repair have been found undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) at DSB sites to facilitate DNA repair. RNF168, a RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase, catalyzes H2A.X ubiquitination for recruiting DNA repair factors. Yet, whether RNF168 undergoes LLPS at DSB sites remains unclear. Here, we identified K63-linked polyubiquitin-triggered RNF168 condensation which further promoted RNF168-mediated DSB repair. RNF168 formed liquid-like condensates upon irradiation in the nucleus while purified RNF168 protein also condensed in vitro. An intrinsically disordered region containing amino acids 460-550 was identified as the essential domain for RNF168 condensation. Interestingly, LLPS of RNF168 was significantly enhanced by K63-linked polyubiquitin chains, and LLPS largely enhanced the RNF168-mediated H2A.X ubiquitination, suggesting a positive feedback loop to facilitate RNF168 rapid accumulation and its catalytic activity. Functionally, LLPS deficiency of RNF168 resulted in delayed recruitment of 53BP1 and BRCA1 and subsequent impairment in DSB repair. Taken together, our finding demonstrates the pivotal effect of LLPS in RNF168-mediated DSB repair.

Nicotinamide riboside rescues dysregulated glycolysis and fatty acid ß-oxidation in a human hepatic cell model of citrin deficiency.

Citrin deficiency (CD) is an inborn error of metabolism caused by loss-of-function of the mitochondrial aspartate/glutamate transporter, CITRIN, which is involved in both the urea cycle and malate-aspartate shuttle. Patients with CD develop hepatosteatosis and hyperammonemia but there is no effective therapy for CD. Currently, there are no animal models that faithfully recapitulate the human CD phenotype. Accordingly, we generated a CITRIN knockout HepG2 cell line using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas 9 genome editing technology to study metabolic and cell signaling defects in CD. CITRIN KO cells showed increased ammonia accumulation, higher cytosolic ratio of reduced versus oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and reduced glycolysis. Surprisingly, these cells showed impaired fatty acid metabolism and mitochondrial activity. CITRIN KO cells also displayed increased cholesterol and bile acid metabolism resembling those observed in CD patients. Remarkably, normalizing cytosolic NADH:NAD+ ratio by nicotinamide riboside increased glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation but had no effect on the hyperammonemia suggesting the urea cycle defect was independent of the aspartate/malate shuttle defect of CD. The correction of glycolysis and fatty acid metabolism defects in CITRIN KO cells by reducing cytoplasmic NADH:NAD+ levels suggests this may be a novel strategy to treat some of the metabolic defects of CD and other mitochondrial diseases.

GWAS of longitudinal trajectories at biobank scale.

Biobanks linked to massive, longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data make numerous new genetic research questions feasible. One among these is the study of biomarker trajectories. For example, high blood pressure measurements over visits strongly predict stroke onset, and consistently high fasting glucose and Hb1Ac levels define diabetes. Recent research reveals that not only the mean level of biomarker trajectories but also their fluctuations, or within-subject (WS) variability, are risk factors for many diseases. Glycemic variation, for instance, is recently considered an important clinical metric in diabetes management. It is crucial to identify the genetic factors that shift the mean or alter the WS variability of a biomarker trajectory. Compared to traditional cross-sectional studies, trajectory analysis utilizes more data points and captures a complete picture of the impact of time-varying factors, including medication history and lifestyle. Currently, there are no efficient tools for genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of biomarker trajectories at the biobank scale, even for just mean effects. We propose TrajGWAS, a linear mixed effect model-based method for testing genetic effects that shift the mean or alter the WS variability of a biomarker trajectory. It is scalable to biobank data with 100,000 to 1,000,000 individuals and many longitudinal measurements and robust to distributional assumptions. Simulation studies corroborate that TrajGWAS controls the type I error rate and is powerful. Analysis of eleven biomarkers measured longitudinally and extracted from UK Biobank primary care data for more than 150,000 participants with 1,800,000 observations reveals loci that significantly alter the mean or WS variability.

Engineering allorejection-resistant CAR-NKT cells from hematopoietic stem cells for off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapy.

The clinical potential of current FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T (CAR-T) cell therapy is encumbered by its autologous nature, which presents notable challenges related to manufacturing complexities, heightened costs, and limitations in patient selection. Therefore, there is a growing demand for off-the-shelf universal cell therapies. In this study, we have generated universal CAR-engineered NKT (UCAR-NKT) cells by integrating iNKT TCR engineering and HLA gene editing on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), along with an ex vivo, feeder-free HSC differentiation culture. The UCAR-NKT cells are produced with high yield, purity, and robustness, and they display a stable HLA-ablated phenotype that enables resistance to host cell-mediated allorejection. These UCAR-NKT cells exhibit potent antitumor efficacy to blood cancers and solid tumors, both in vitro and in vivo, employing a multifaceted array of tumor-targeting mechanisms. These cells are further capable of altering the tumor microenvironment by selectively depleting immunosuppressive tumor-associated macrophages and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. In addition, UCAR-NKT cells demonstrate a favorable safety profile with low risks of graft-versus-host disease and cytokine release syndrome. Collectively, these preclinical studies underscore the feasibility and significant therapeutic potential of UCAR-NKT cell products and lay a foundation for their translational and clinical development.

RAP80 phase separation at DNA double-strand break promotes BRCA1 recruitment.

RAP80 has been characterized as a component of the BRCA1-A complex and is responsible for the recruitment of BRCA1 to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). However, we and others found that the recruitment of RAP80 and BRCA1 were not absolutely temporally synchronized, indicating that other mechanisms, apart from physical interaction, might be implicated. Recently, liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) has been characterized as a novel mechanism for the organization of key signaling molecules to drive their particular cellular functions. Here, we characterized that RAP80 LLPS at DSB was required for RAP80-mediated BRCA1 recruitment. Both cellular and in vitro experiments showed that RAP80 phase separated at DSB, which was ascribed to a highly disordered region (IDR) at its N-terminal. Meanwhile, the Lys63-linked poly-ubiquitin chains that quickly formed after DSBs occur, strongly enhanced RAP80 phase separation and were responsible for the induction of RAP80 condensation at the DSB site. Most importantly, abolishing the condensation of RAP80 significantly suppressed the formation of BRCA1 foci, encovering a pivotal role of RAP80 condensates in BRCA1 recruitment and radiosensitivity. Together, our study disclosed a new mechanism underlying RAP80-mediated BRCA1 recruitment, which provided new insight into the role of phase separation in DSB repair.

USP13 promotes deubiquitination of ZHX2 and tumorigenesis in kidney cancer.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is characterized by the loss of tumor suppressor Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) function. VHL is the component of an E3 ligase complex that promotes the ubiquitination and degradation of hypoxia inducible factor α (HIF-α) (including HIF1α and HIF2α) and Zinc Fingers And Homeoboxes 2 (ZHX2). Our recent research showed that ZHX2 contributed to ccRCC tumorigenesis in a HIF-independent manner. However, it is still unknown whether ZHX2 could be modified through deubiquitination even in the absence of pVHL. Here, we performed a deubiquitinase (DUB) complementary DNA (cDNA) library binding screen and identified USP13 as a DUB that bound ZHX2 and promoted ZHX2 deubiquitination. As a result, USP13 promoted ZHX2 protein stability in an enzymatically dependent manner, and depletion of USP13 led to ZHX2 down-regulation in ccRCC. Functionally, USP13 depletion led to decreased cell proliferation measured by two-dimensional (2D) colony formation and three-dimensional (3D) anchorage-independent growth. Furthermore, USP13 was essential for ccRCC tumor growth in vivo, and the effect was partially mediated by its regulation on ZHX2. Our findings support that USP13 may be a key effector in ccRCC tumorigenesis.

Apelin-13: a novel approach to suppressing renin production in RVHT.

Renovascular hypertension (RVHT) is characterized by renal artery stenosis and overactivated renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Apelin, known for its negative modulation of RAS, has protective effects against cardiovascular diseases. The role and mechanisms of the primary active form of apelin, apelin-13, in RVHT are unclear. In this study, male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control, two-kidney one-clip (2K1C) model, and 2K1C with apelin-13 treatment groups. Renin expression was analyzed using immunohistochemistry and molecular techniques. Full-length (pro)renin receptor (fPRR) and soluble PRR (sPRR) levels were assessed via Western blotting, and cAMP levels were measured using ELISA. Plasma renin content, plasma renin activity (PRA), angiotensin II (ANG II), and sPRR levels were determined by ELISA. Human Calu-6 and mouse As4.1 cells were used to investigate renin production mechanisms. The 2K1C model exhibited increased systolic blood pressure, plasma renin content, PRA, sPRR, and ANG II levels, while apelin-13 treatment reduced these elevations. Apelin-13 inhibited cAMP production, renin mRNA expression, protein synthesis, and PRR/sPRR protein expression in renal tissue. In Calu-6 cells, cAMP-induced fPRR and site-1 protease (S1P)-derived sPRR expression, which was blocked by cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB) inhibition. Apelin-13 suppressed cAMP elevation, CREB phosphorylation, fPRR/sPRR protein expression, and renin production. Recombinant sPRR (sPRR-His) stimulated renin production, which was inhibited by the PRR decoy peptide PRO20 and S1P inhibitor PF429242. These findings suggest that apelin-13 inhibits plasma renin expression through the cAMP/PKA/sPRR pathway, providing a potential therapeutic approach for RVHT. Understanding the regulation of renin production is crucial for developing effective treatments.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our research elucidated that apelin-13 inhibits renin production through the cAMP/PKA/soluble (pro)renin receptor pathway, presenting a promising therapeutic approach for renovascular hypertension (RVHT) by targeting renin expression mechanisms. These findings underscore the potential of apelin-13 as a novel strategy to address RVHT.

Palladium-Catalyzed Ligand-Controlled Switchable Hetero-(5 + 3)/Enantioselective [2σ+2σ] Cycloadditions of Bicyclobutanes with Vinyl Oxiranes.

For nearly 60 years, significant research efforts have been focused on developing strategies for the cycloaddition of bicyclobutanes (BCBs). However, higher-order cycloaddition and catalytic asymmetric cycloaddition of BCBs have been long-standing formidable challenges. Here, we report Pd-catalyzed ligand-controlled, tunable cycloadditions for the divergent synthesis of bridged bicyclic frameworks. The dppb ligand facilitates the formal (5+3) cycloaddition of BCBs and vinyl oxiranes, yielding valuable eight-membered ethers with bridged bicyclic scaffolds in 100% regioselectivity. The Cy-DPEphos ligand promotes selective hetero-[2σ+2σ] cycloadditions to access pharmacologically important 2-oxabicyclo[3.1.1]heptane (O-BCHeps). Furthermore, the corresponding catalytic asymmetric synthesis of O-BCHeps with 94-99% ee has been achieved using chiral (S)-DTBM-Segphos, representing the first catalytic asymmetric cross-dimerization of two strained rings. The obtained O-BCHeps are promising bioisosteres for ortho-substituted benzenes.

Assessing the contribution of rare genetic variants to phenotypes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using whole-genome sequence data.

RATIONALE: Genetic variation has a substantial contribution to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung function measurements. Heritability estimates using genome-wide genotyping data can be biased if analyses do not appropriately account for the nonuniform distribution of genetic effects across the allele frequency and linkage disequilibrium (LD) spectrum. In addition, the contribution of rare variants has been unclear. OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess the heritability of COPD and lung function using whole-genome sequence data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program. METHODS: Using the genome-based restricted maximum likelihood method, we partitioned the genome into bins based on minor allele frequency and LD scores and estimated heritability of COPD, FEV1% predicted and FEV1/FVC ratio in 11 051 European ancestry and 5853 African-American participants. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In European ancestry participants, the estimated heritability of COPD, FEV1% predicted and FEV1/FVC ratio were 35.5%, 55.6% and 32.5%, of which 18.8%, 19.7%, 17.8% were from common variants, and 16.6%, 35.8%, and 14.6% were from rare variants. These estimates had wide confidence intervals, with common variants and some sets of rare variants showing a statistically significant contribution (P-value < 0.05). In African-Americans, common variant heritability was similar to European ancestry participants, but lower sample size precluded calculation of rare variant heritability. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides updated and unbiased estimates of heritability for COPD and lung function, and suggests an important contribution of rare variants. Larger studies of more diverse ancestry will improve accuracy of these estimates.

Precise Synthesis of Organic Cocrystal Alloys with Full-Spectrum Emission Characteristics for the Stepless Color Changing Display.

Organic luminescent materials are indispensable in optoelectronic displays and solid-state luminescence applications. Compared with single-component, multi-component crystalline materials can improve optoelectronic characteristics. This work forms a series of full-spectrum tunable luminescent charge-transfer (CT) cocrystals ranging from 400 to 800 nm through intermolecular collaborative self-assembly. What is even more interesting is that o-TCP-Cor(x)-Pe(1-x), p-TCP-Cor(x)-Pe(1-x), and o-TCP-AN(x)-TP(1-x) alloys are prepared based on cocrystals by doping strategies, which correspondingly achieve the stepless color change from blue (CIE [0.22, 0.44]) to green (CIE [0.16, 0.14]), from green (CIE [0.27, 0.56]) to orange (CIE [0.58, 0.42]), from yellow (CIE [0.40, 0.57]) to red (CIE [0.65, 0.35]). The work provides an efficient method for precisely synthesizing new luminescent organic semiconductor materials and lays a solid foundation for developing advanced organic solid-state displays.

Multivariate genome-wide association analysis by iterative hard thresholding.

MOTIVATION: In a genome-wide association study, analyzing multiple correlated traits simultaneously is potentially superior to analyzing the traits one by one. Standard methods for multivariate genome-wide association study operate marker-by-marker and are computationally intensive. RESULTS: We present a sparsity constrained regression algorithm for multivariate genome-wide association study based on iterative hard thresholding and implement it in a convenient Julia package MendelIHT.jl. In simulation studies with up to 100 quantitative traits, iterative hard thresholding exhibits similar true positive rates, smaller false positive rates, and faster execution times than GEMMA's linear mixed models and mv-PLINK's canonical correlation analysis. On UK Biobank data with 470 228 variants, MendelIHT completed a three-trait joint analysis (n=185 656) in 20 h and an 18-trait joint analysis (n=104 264) in 53 h with an 80 GB memory footprint. In short, MendelIHT enables geneticists to fit a single regression model that simultaneously considers the effect of all SNPs and dozens of traits. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Software, documentation, and scripts to reproduce our results are available from https://github.com/OpenMendel/MendelIHT.jl.

IFIT1 + neutrophil is a causative factor of immunosuppressive features of poorly cohesive carcinoma (PCC).

The importance of the immune microenvironment in poorly cohesive carcinoma (PCC) has been highlighted due to its limited response rate to conventional therapy and emerging treatment resistance. A combination of clinical cohorts, bioinformatics analyses, and functional/molecular experiments revealed that high infiltration of Interferon Induced Protein with Tetratricopeptide Repeats 1 (IFIT1) + tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) is a distinguishing feature of PCC patients. Upregulation of IFIT1 + TANs promote migration and invasion of gastric cancer (GC) cell lines (MKN45 and MKN74) and stimulates the growth of cell-derived xenograft models. Besides, by promoting macrophage secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) expression and facilitating cancer-associated fibroblast and endothelial cell recruitment and activation through TANs, IFIT1 promotes a mesenchymal phenotype, which is associated with a poor prognosis. Importantly, compared to non-PCC (NPCC), PCC tumors is more immunosuppressive. Mechanistically, IFIT1 can be stimulated by IFN-γ and contributes to the expression of Programmed Cell Death 1 Ligand (PDL1) in TANs. We demonstrated in mouse models that IFIT1 + PDL1 + TANs can induce acquired resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, which may be responsible for the difficulty of PCC patients to benefit from immunotherapy. This work highlights the role of IFIT1 + TANs in mediating the remodeling of the tumor immune microenvironment and immunotherapeutic resistance and introduces IFIT1 + TANs as a promising target for precision therapy of PCC.