Developmental origin of oligodendrocytes determines their function in the adult brain.

In the mouse embryonic forebrain, developmentally distinct oligodendrocyte progenitor cell populations and their progeny, oligodendrocytes, emerge from three distinct regions in a spatiotemporal gradient from ventral to dorsal. However, the functional importance of this oligodendrocyte developmental heterogeneity is unknown. Using a genetic strategy to ablate dorsally derived oligodendrocyte lineage cells (OLCs), we show here that the areas in which dorsally derived OLCs normally reside in the adult central nervous system become populated and myelinated by OLCs of ventral origin. These ectopic oligodendrocytes (eOLs) have a distinctive gene expression profile as well as subtle myelination abnormalities. The failure of eOLs to fully assume the role of the original dorsally derived cells results in locomotor and cognitive deficits in the adult animal. This study reveals the importance of developmental heterogeneity within the oligodendrocyte lineage and its importance for homeostatic brain function.

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals maturation trajectory in human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in engineered tissues.

Cardiac in vitro models have become increasingly obtainable and affordable with the optimization of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hPSC-CM) differentiation. However, these CMs are immature compared to their in vivo counterparts. Here we study the cellular phenotype of hPSC-CMs by comparing their single-cell gene expression and functional profiles in three engineered cardiac tissue configurations: human ventricular (hv) cardiac anisotropic sheet, cardiac tissue strip, and cardiac organoid chamber (hvCOC), with spontaneously aggregated 3D cardiac spheroids (CS) as control. The CM maturity was found to increase with increasing levels of complexity of the engineered tissues from CS to hvCOC. The contractile components are the first function to mature, followed by electrophysiology and oxidative metabolism. Notably, the 2D tissue constructs show a higher cellular organization whereas metabolic maturity preferentially increases in the 3D constructs. We conclude that the tissue engineering models resembling configurations of native tissues may be reliable for drug screening or disease modeling.

Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Major Histocompatibility Complex II‒Expressing Keratinocytes in Pressure Ulcers with Worse Healing Outcomes.

Pressure ulcer (PU) is a chronic wound often seen in patients with spinal cord injury and other bed-bound individuals, particularly in the elderly population. Despite its association with high mortality, the pathophysiology of PU remains poorly understood. In this study, we compared single-cell transcriptomic profiles of human epidermal cells from PU wound edges with those from uninjured skin and acute wounds in healthy donors. We identified significant shifts in the cell composition and gene expression patterns in PU. In particular, we found that major histocompatibility complex class II‒expressing keratinocytes were enriched in patients with worse healing outcomes. Furthermore, we showed that the IFN-γ in PU-derived wound fluid could induce major histocompatibility complex II expression in keratinocytes and that these wound fluid‒treated keratinocytes inhibited autologous T-cell activation. In line with this observation, we found that T cells from PUs enriched with major histocompatibility complex II+ keratinocytes produced fewer inflammatory cytokines. Overall, our study provides a high-resolution molecular map of human PU compared with that of acute wounds and intact skin, providing insights into PU pathology and the future development of tailored wound therapy.

Spatial RNA Sequencing Identifies Robust Markers of Vulnerable and Resistant Human Midbrain Dopamine Neurons and Their Expression in Parkinson's Disease.

Defining transcriptional profiles of substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons is critical to understanding their differential vulnerability in Parkinson's Disease (PD). Here, we determine transcriptomes of human SNc and VTA dopamine neurons using LCM-seq on a large sample cohort. We apply a bootstrapping strategy as sample input to DESeq2 and identify 33 stably differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between these two subpopulations. We also compute a minimal sample size for identification of stable DEGs, which highlights why previous reported profiles from small sample sizes display extensive variability. Network analysis reveal gene interactions unique to each subpopulation and highlight differences in regulation of mitochondrial stability, apoptosis, neuronal survival, cytoskeleton regulation, extracellular matrix modulation as well as synapse integrity, which could explain the relative resilience of VTA dopamine neurons. Analysis of PD tissues showed that while identified stable DEGs can distinguish the subpopulations also in disease, the SNc markers SLIT1 and ATP2A3 were down-regulated and thus appears to be biomarkers of disease. In summary, our study identifies human SNc and VTA marker profiles, which will be instrumental for studies aiming to modulate dopamine neuron resilience and to validate cell identity of stem cell-derived dopamine neurons.

Single-Cell RNA-Seq Reveals Cellular Heterogeneity of Pluripotency Transition and X Chromosome Dynamics during Early Mouse Development.

Following implantation, the epiblast (EPI) cells transit from the naive to primed pluripotency, accompanied by dynamic changes in X chromosome activity in females. To investigate the molecular attributes of this process, we performed single-cell RNA-seq analysis of 1,724 cells of E5.25, E5.5, E6.25, and E6.5 mouse embryos. We identified three cellular states in the EPI cells that capture the transition along the pluripotency continuum and the acquisition of primitive streak propensity. The transition of three EPI states was driven by inductive signaling activity emanating from the visceral endoderm (VE). In the EPI of female embryos, X chromosome reactivation (XCR) was initiated prior to the completion of imprinted X chromosome inactivation (XCI), and the ensuing random XCI was highly asynchronous. Moreover, imprinted paternal XCI proceeded faster in the VE than the extraembryonic ectoderm. Our study has provided a detailed molecular roadmap of the emergent lineage commitment before gastrulation and characterized X chromosome dynamics during early mouse development.

Salivary Analysis Based on Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensors Distinguishes Early and Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients from Healthy Persons.

Development of new methods to screen early gastric cancer patients has great clinical requirement. Ten amino acids in human saliva are identified as small metabolite biomarkers to distinguish early gastric cancer patients and advanced gastric cancer patients from healthy persons by using high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Then, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors based on graphene oxide nanoscrolls wrapped with gold nanoparticles are developed to detect ten amino acids biomarkers in saliva. The distinctive graphene oxide nanoscrolls wrapped with gold nanoparticles are facilely prepared via ultrasonication without any organic stabilizer, and endow the SERS sensors with excellent uniformity, stability and SERS activity to adsorb and detect the biomarkers with 108 enhancement coefficient. The SERS sensors were confirmed to be feasible for distinguishing early gastric cancer patients and advanced gastric cancer patients from healthy persons by simulation samples and 220 clinical saliva samples with excellent performance (specificity >87.7% and sensitivity >80%). This non-invasive, cheap, fast and reliable salivary analysis method based on the SERS sensors provides a new strategy to screen out early gastric cancer patients and advanced gastric cancer patients from population, and owns clinical translational prospects.

Revealing allele-specific gene expression by single-cell transcriptomics.

Single-cell sequencing has emerged as a revolutionary method that reveals biological processes with unprecedented resolution and scale, and has already greatly impacted biology and medicine. To investigate processes such as alternative splicing, novel exon detection and allele-specific expression (ASE), full-length based single-cell RNA-seq methods are required for broad sequence coverage and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) identification. In this review, we revisit recent achievements from studies that used single-cell RNA-seq to advance our understanding of ASE in the context of both autosomal and X-chromosome genes. We also recapitulate useful bioinformatic tools developed to identify haplotype phase.

Characteristics Analyses and Comparisons of the Protein Structure Networks Constructed by Different Methods.

Protein structure networks (PSNs) were widely used in analyses of protein structure and function. In this work, we analyzed and compared the characters of PSNs by different methods. The degrees of the different types of the nodes were found to be associated with the amino acid characters, including SAS, secondary structure, hydropathy and the volume of amino acids. It showed that PSNs by the methods of CA10, SC10 and AT5 inherited more amino acid characters and had higher correlations with the original protein structures. And PSNs by these three methods would be powerful tools in understanding the characters of protein structures.

Human CIK Cells Loaded with Au Nanorods as a Theranostic Platform for Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging and Enhanced Immunotherapy and Photothermal Therapy.

How to realize targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer has become a great challenge. Herein, we reported for the first time that human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) loaded with gold nanorods were used for targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy of gastric cancer. Silica-modified gold nanorods were prepared; then incubated with human cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK), resultant human CIK cells loaded with Au nanorods were evaluated for their cytotoxicity, targeted ability of gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo, immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy efficacy. In vitro cell experiment shows that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods actively target gastric cancer MGC803 cells, inhibit growth of MGC803 cells by inducing cell apoptosis, and kill MGC803 cells under low power density near-infrared (NIR) laser treatment (808-nm continuous wave laser, 1.5 W/cm(2), 3 min). In vivo experiment results showed that human CIK cells labeled with gold nanorods could target actively and image subcutaneous gastric cancer vessels via photoacoustic imaging at 4 h post-injection, could enhance immunotherapy efficacy by up-regulating cytokines such as IL-1, IL-12, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and IFN-γ, and kill gastric cancer tissues by photothermal therapy via direct injection into tumor site under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. High-performance human CIK cells labeled with Au nanorods are a good novel theranostic platform to exhibit great potential in applications such as tumor-targeted photoacoustic imaging, enhanced immunotherapy, and photothermal therapy in the near future.

Chiral Antioxidant-based Gold Nanoclusters Reprogram DNA Epigenetic Patterns.

Epigenetic modifications sit 'on top of' the genome and influence DNA transcription, which can force a significant impact on cellular behavior and phenotype and, consequently human development and disease. Conventional methods for evaluating epigenetic modifications have inherent limitations and, hence, new methods based on nanoscale devices are needed. Here, we found that antioxidant (glutathione) chiral gold nanoclusters induce a decrease of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), which is an important epigenetic marker that associates with gene transcription regulation. This epigenetic change was triggered partially through ROS activation and oxidation generated by the treatment with glutathione chiral gold nanoclusters, which may inhibit the activity of TET proteins catalyzing the conversion of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5hmC. In addition, these chiral gold nanoclusters can downregulate TET1 and TET2 mRNA expression. Alteration of TET-5hmC signaling will then affect several downstream targets and be involved in many aspects of cell behavior. We demonstrate for the first time that antioxidant-based chiral gold nanomaterials have a direct effect on epigenetic process of TET-5hmC pathways and reveal critical DNA demethylation patterns.

Breath Analysis Based on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensors Distinguishes Early and Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients from Healthy Persons.

Fourteen volatile organic compound (VOC) biomarkers in the breath have been identified to distinguish early gastric cancer (EGC) and advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients from healthy persons by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry coupled with solid phase microextraction (SPME). Then, a breath analysis approach based on a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor was developed to detect these biomarkers. Utilizing hydrazine vapor adsorbed in graphene oxide (GO) film, the clean SERS sensor is facilely prepared by in situ formation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) without any organic stabilizer. In the SERS sensor, RGO can selectively adsorb and enrich the identified biomarkers from breath as an SPME fiber, and AuNPs well dispersed on RGO endow the SERS sensor with an effective detection of adsorbed biomarkers. Fourteen Raman bands associated with the biomarkers are selected as the fingerprints of biomarker patterns to distinguish persons in different states. The approach has successfully analyzed and distinguished different simulated breath samples and 200 breath samples of clinical patients with a sensitivity of higher than 83% and a specificity of more than 92%. In conclusion, the VOC biomarkers and breath analysis approach in this study can not only diagnose gastric cancer but also distinguish EGC and AGC. This work has great potential for clinical translation in primary screening diagnosis and stage determination of stomach cancer in the near future.

ROS-Responsive Mitochondria-Targeting Blended Nanoparticles: Chemo- and Photodynamic Synergistic Therapy for Lung Cancer with On-Demand Drug Release upon Irradiation with a Single Light Source.

Mitochondria in cancer cells maintain a more negative membrane potential than normal cells. Mitochondria are the primary source of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are necessary for photodynamic therapy. Thus, the strategy of targeting mitochondria can maximize the photodynamic therapeutic efficiency for cancer. Here we report, for the first time, synthesis of a new mitochondria-targeting drug delivery system, ZnPc/CPT-TPPNPs. To synthesize this novel compound, polyethylene glycol was functionalized with thioketal linker-modified camptothecin (TL-CPT) and triphenylphosphonium to form the block copolymer, TL-CPT-PEG1K-TPP. The ZnPc/CPT-TPPNPs was constructed for delivery of the photosensitizer Zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) by blending the block copolymer TL-CPT-PEG1K-TPP with 1, 2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy (polyethylene glycol)] (DSPE-PEG).Triphenylphosphine can accumulate selectively several hundred-fold within mitochondria. The thioketal linker is ROS-responsive and CPT can be released upon ROS cleavage. We also show that the ZnPc loaded in ZnPc/CPT-TPPNPs absorbed the 633 nm laser to produce ROS, which could be utilized both in photodynamic therapy and to cleave the thioketal linker thereby releasing camptothecin for chemotherapy. Thus, the mitochondria-targeting nanoparticles could elevate photodynamic therapeutic efficacy. Our results showed that surface modification of the nanoparticles with triphenylphosphine cations facilitated efficient subcellular delivery of the photosensitizer to mitochondria. The nanoparticles had a good ROS-responsive effect to release CPT, which could transfer to the nucleus and interfere with DNA replication as a topoisomeraseⅠinhibitor. Thus, the blended nanoparticles provide a new promising approach as a mitochondria-targeting ROS-activated chemo- and photodynamic therapy with a single light source for lung cancer.

Features of S-nitrosylation based on statistical analysis and molecular dynamics simulation: cysteine acidity, surrounding basicity, steric hindrance and local flexibility.

S-Nitrosylation is involved in protein functional regulation and cellular signal transduction. Although intensive efforts have been made, the molecular mechanisms of S-nitrosylation have not yet been fully understood. In this work, we carried out a survey on 213 protein structures with S-nitrosylated cysteine sites and molecular dynamic simulations of hemoglobin as a case study. It was observed that the S-nitrosylated cysteines showed a lower pKa, a higher population of basic residues, a lower population of big-volume residues in the neighborhood, and relatively higher flexibility. The case study of hemoglobin showed that, compared to that in the T-state, Cysß93 in the R-state hemoglobin possessed the above structural features, in agreement with the previous report that the R-state was more reactive in S-nitrosylation. Moreover, basic residues moved closer to the Cysß93 in the dep-R-state hemoglobin, while big-volume residues approached the Cysß93 in the dep-T-state. Using the four characteristics, i.e. cysteine acidity, surrounding basicity, steric hindrance, and local flexibility, a 3-dimensional model of S-nitrosylation was constructed to explain 61.9% of the S-nitrosylated and 58.1% of the non-S-nitrosylated cysteines. Our study suggests that cysteine deprotonation is a prerequisite for protein S-nitrosylation, and these characteristics might be useful in identifying specificity of protein S-nitrosylation.

Site selectivity for protein tyrosine nitration: insights from features of structure and topological network.

Tyrosine nitration is a covalent post-translational modification, which regulates protein functions such as hindering tyrosine phosphorylation and affecting essential signal transductions in cells. Based on up-to-date proteomics data, tyrosine nitration appears to be a highly selective process since not all tyrosine residues in proteins or all proteins are nitrated in vivo. Quite a few investigations included the protein structural information from the RCSB PDB database, where near 100,000 high-quality three-dimensional structures are available. In this work, we analyzed the local protein structures and amino acid topological networks of the nitrated and non-nitrated tyrosine sites in nitrated proteins, including neighboring atomic distribution, amino acid pair (AAP) and amino acid triangle (AAT). It has been found that aromatic and aliphatic residues, particularly with large volume, aromatic, aliphatic, or acidic side chains, are disfavored for the nitration. After integrating these structural features and topological network features with traditional sequence features, the predictive model achieves a sensitivity of 63.30% and a specificity of 92.24%, resulting in a much better accuracy compared to the previous models with only protein sequence information. Our investigation implies that the site selectivity may stem from a more open, hydrophilic and high-pH chemical environment around the tyrosine residue.