Melanoma remains a highly aggressive malignancy with limited effective therapies and frequent resistance to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent a promising platform for RNA-based therapeutics, but their clinical translation is impeded by inefficient cargo loading and insufficient tumor-specific targeting. To address these limitations, we developed an engineered EV strategy integrating efficient miRNA packaging with tumor-targeting surface modifications to enhance therapeutic outcomes in melanoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuper-resolution fluorescence imaging enables visualization of subcellular structures and molecular interactions at the nanoscale, but its broader application has been hindered by long-standing limitations in current protein tagging systems, including rapid photobleaching, tag-induced artifacts, poor post-fixation labeling efficiency, and restricted multiplexing capability. Here, we present (luorescent abeling for xchangeable, -resilient agging in dvanced eneric Nanoscopy), a comprehensive protein labeling system comprising three orthogonal, ultrasmall (<20 kDa), and self-renewable protein tags that collectively overcome these major limitations of existing tagging systems, enabling optimized multi-color super-resolution imaging. Through continuous exchange of organic fluorophores, FLEXTAG supports unprecedented durations of high-resolution imaging in both live and fixed cells with minimal photobleaching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn addition to histone acetylation, histone lysine propionylation (such as the H3K18Pr mark) has recently attracted significant attention as a common and abundant modification linking the cellular metabolic state and gene expression. CREB-binding protein (CREBBP) and EP300 are key histone acetyltransferases that play a critical role in gene expression through their catalytic activity. Although CREBBP and EP300 are homologous enzymes with high structural similarities, they exhibit both redundant and specific functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeveloping cancer therapies that induce robust death of the malignant cell is critical to prevent relapse. Highly effective strategies, such as immunotherapy, exemplify this observation. Here we provide the structural and molecular underpinnings for an approach that leverages chemical induced proximity to produce specific cell killing of diffuse large B cell lymphoma, the most common non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe CREBBP lysine acetyltransferase (KAT) is frequently mutated in follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and has been studied using gene knockout in murine and human cells. However, most CREBBP mutations encode amino acid substitutions within the catalytic KAT domain (CREBBP KAT-PM) that retain an inactive protein and have not been extensively characterized. Using CRISPR gene editing and extensive epigenomic characterization of lymphoma cell lines, we found that CREBBP KAT-PM lead to unloading of CREBBP from chromatin, loss of enhancer acetylation, and prevention of EP300 compensation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe field of natural language processing (NLP) has witnessed a transformative shift with the emergence of large language models (LLMs), revolutionizing various language tasks and applications, and the integration of LLMs into specialized domains enhances their capabilities for domain-specific applications. Notably, NLP has made significant strides in organic chemistry, particularly in predicting synthetic tasks, paving the way for the development of LLMs tailored to the organic chemistry field. In this work, we introduce SynAsk, a comprehensive organic chemistry domain-specific LLM platform developed by AIChemEco Inc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKinases are critical regulators of cellular function that are commonly implicated in the mechanisms underlying disease. Most drugs that target kinases are molecules that inhibit their catalytic activity, but here we used chemically induced proximity to convert kinase inhibitors into activators of therapeutic genes. We synthesized bivalent molecules that link ligands of the transcription factor B cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) to inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe domain is important for normal embryonic growth and development. The heart is the earliest developing and functioning organ of the embryo. In this study, we constructed a transcriptional termination model by inserting termination sequences and clarified that the lack of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression in the domain caused the death of maternal insertion mutant (MKI) and homozygous mutant (HOMO) mice starting from E13.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple epigenetic regulatory mechanisms exert critical roles in tumor development, and understanding the interactions and impact of diverse epigenetic modifications on gene expression in cancer is crucial for the development of precision medicine. We found that methyltransferase-like 14 (METTL14) was significantly downregulated in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues. Functional experiments demonstrated that overexpression of METTL14 inhibited the proliferation and migration of NSCLC cells both in vivo and in vitro, and the colorimetric mA quantification assay also showed that knockdown of METTL14 notably reduced global mA modification levels in NSCLC cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe activated B cell (ABC) subset of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by chronic B-cell receptor signaling and associated with poor outcomes when treated with standard therapy. In ABC-DLBCL, MALT1 is a core enzyme that is constitutively activated by stimulation of the B-cell receptor or gain-of-function mutations in upstream components of the signaling pathway, making it an attractive therapeutic target. We discovered a novel small-molecule inhibitor, ABBV-MALT1, that potently shuts down B-cell signaling selectively in ABC-DLBCL preclinical models leading to potent cell growth and xenograft inhibition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSMARCA4 encodes one of two mutually exclusive ATPase subunits in the BRG/BRM associated factor (BAF) complex that is recruited by transcription factors (TFs) to drive chromatin accessibility and transcriptional activation. SMARCA4 is among the most recurrently mutated genes in human cancer, including ∼30% of germinal center (GC)-derived Burkitt lymphomas. In mice, GC-specific Smarca4 haploinsufficiency cooperated with MYC over-expression to drive lymphomagenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Immunother Cancer
November 2023
Background: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting CD19 mediate potent and durable effects in B-cell malignancies. However, antigen loss or downregulation is a frequent cause of resistance. Here, we report development of a novel CAR T-cell therapy product to target CD79b, a pan B-cell antigen, widely expressed in most B-cell lymphomas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein kinases are disease drivers whose therapeutic targeting traditionally centers on inhibition of enzymatic activity. Here chemically induced proximity is leveraged to convert kinase inhibitors into context-specific activators of therapeutic genes. Bivalent molecules that link ligands of the transcription factor B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) to ATP-competitive inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) were developed to re-localize CDK to BCL6-bound loci on chromatin and direct phosphorylation of RNA Pol II.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenes that drive the proliferation, survival, invasion and metastasis of malignant cells have been identified for many human cancers. Independent studies have identified cell death pathways that eliminate cells for the good of the organism. The coexistence of cell death pathways with driver mutations suggests that the cancer driver could be rewired to activate cell death using chemical inducers of proximity (CIPs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBlood Cancer Discov
September 2022
Patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphomas (rrLBCL) can achieve long-term remission after CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CART19). However, more than half of recipients will experience treatment failure. Thus, approaches are needed to identify high-risk patients who may benefit from alternative or consolidative therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultimed Syst
October 2021
Online learning has become one of the most important learning styles, yet with the need of supervisors to consistently keep the learners motivated and on-task. Some learners could be supervised by outer factors, and distance learners have to be motivated by themselves. However, online learning engagement is hardly to be assessed by supervisors in real time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHaematologica
March 2022
B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) encompasses multiple clinically and phenotypically distinct subtypes of malignancy with unique molecular etiologies. Common subtypes of B-NHL, such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, have been comprehensively interrogated at the genomic level, but rarer subtypes, such as mantle cell lymphoma, remain less extensively characterized. Furthermore, multiple B-NHL subtypes have thus far not been comprehensively compared using the same methodology to identify conserved or subtype-specific patterns of genomic alterations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins is involved in a growing number of cellular processes. Most proteins with LLPS harbor intrinsically disordered regions (IDR), which serve as a guideline to search for cellular proteins that potentially phase separate. Herein, we reveal that oligomerization lowers the barriers for LLPS and could act as a general mechanism to enhance LLPS of proteins domains independent of IDR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRichter Transformation (RT) develops in CLL as an aggressive, therapy-resistant, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (RT-DLBCL), commonly clonally-related (CLR) to the concomitant CLL. Lack of available pre-clinical human models has hampered the development of novel therapies for RT-DLBCL. Here, we report the profiles of genetic alterations, chromatin accessibility and active enhancers, gene-expressions and anti-lymphoma drug-sensitivity of three newly established, patient-derived, xenograft (PDX) models of RT-DLBCLs, including CLR and clonally-unrelated (CLUR) to concomitant CLL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHematology Am Soc Hematol Educ Program
December 2020
Affinity maturation and terminal differentiation of B cells via the germinal center reaction is a complex multistep process controlled by transcription factors that induce or suppress large dynamic transcriptional programs. This occurs via the recruitment of coactivator or corepressor complexes that epigenetically regulate gene expression by post-translationally modifying histones and/or remodeling chromatin structure. B-cell-intrinsic developmental programs both regulate and respond to interactions with other cells in the germinal center that provide survival and differentiation signals, such as T-follicular helper cells and follicular dendritic cells.
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