An Unexpected Role of Neutrophils in Clearing Apoptotic Hepatocytes In Vivo biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

An Unexpected Role of Neutrophils in Clearing Apoptotic Hepatocytes In Vivo

Billions of apoptotic cells are removed daily in a human adult by professional phagocytes (e.g. macrophages) and neighboring nonprofessional phagocytes (e.g. stromal cells). Despite being a type of professional phagocyte, neutrophils are thought to be excluded from apoptotic sites to avoid tissue inflammation. Here we report a fundamental and unexpected role of neutrophils as the predominant phagocyte responsible for the clearance of apoptotic hepatic cells in the steady state. In contrast to the engulfment of dead cells by macrophages, neutrophils burrowed directly into apoptotic hepatocytes, a process we term perforocytosis , and ingested the effete cells from the inside. The depletion of neutrophils caused defective removal of apoptotic bodies, induced tissue injury in the mouse liver and led to the generation of autoantibodies. Human autoimmune liver disease showed similar defects in the neutrophil-mediated clearance of apoptotic hepatic cells. Hence, neutrophils possess a specialized immunologically silent mechanism for the clearance of apoptotic hepatocytes through perforocytosis, and defects in this key housekeeping function of neutrophils contribute to the genesis of autoimmune liver disease. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

New @NEJM
Interferon λ, a new way to cut hospitalizations by 50% after Covid, in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial >2,000 patients age 50+ or high risk
@dr_gilmarreis and colleagues
nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM

Beautiful work by
@casanova_lab
& collaborators on the causes of SARS-CoV-2-driven MIS-C in children! Much more to discover...
Inborn errors of OAS–RNase L in SARS-CoV-2–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children

science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc

'Approximately 4 in 10 early-career clinician-investigators with full-time faculty appointments leave academia within 10 years due in part to time conflicts driven by caregiving (5). Underrepresented groups and women leave at higher rates than White people and men. This represents an astonishing loss of highly educated professionals from the biomedical research workforce, and reinforces inequity gaps across gender, race, and ethnicity.'

jci.org/articles/view/166075

RT @NatRevDrugDisc@twitter.com

For readers interested in the history of immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer therapy, here's a recent perspective go.nature.com/3FhRN53

🐦🔗: twitter.com/NatRevDrugDisc/sta

Is allergy the cause of appendicitis?
mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/23/15086

IL-5 Serum and Appendicular Lavage Fluid Concentrations Correlate with Eosinophilic Infiltration in the Appendicular Wall Supporting a Role for a Hypersensitivity Type I Reaction in Acute Appendicitis

Appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency, but its aetiology is not fully understood. We and others have proposed that allergic responses play significant roles in its pathophysiology. Eosinophils and Interleukin (IL)-5 are involved in a hypersensitivity type I reaction. Eosinophil infiltration is common in the allergic target organ and is dependent on IL-5. In the presence of an allergic component, it is expected that the eosinophil count and IL-5 local and systemic concentrations become elevated. To address this hypothesis, we designed a prospective study that included 65 patients with acute appendicitis (grouped as acute phlegmonous or gangrenous according to the histological definition) and 18 patients with the clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis, but with normal histological findings (control group) were enrolled. Eosinophil blood counts and appendicular wall eosinophil infiltration were determined. IL-5 levels in blood and appendicular lavage fluid were evaluated. Appendicular lavage fluid was collected by a new methodology developed and standardized by our group. Appendicular wall eosinophil infiltration was higher in acute phlegmonous appendicitis than in gangrenous appendicitis (p = 0.000). IL-5 blood levels were similar in both pathologic and control groups (p > 0.05). In the appendicular lavage fluid, the higher levels of IL-5 were observed in the phlegmonous appendicitis group (p = 0.056). We found a positive correlation between the appendicular wall eosinophilic infiltration and the IL-5 concentrations, in both the blood and the appendicular lavage fluid, supporting the IL-5 reliance in eosinophil local infiltration. We observed the highest presence of eosinophils at phlegmonous appendicitis walls. In conclusion, the present data are compatible with a hypersensitivity type I allergic reaction in the target organ, the appendix, during the phlegmonous phase of appendicitis.

www.mdpi.com

@domhenri Then you are in! Many doing that for semetime now.

New from Ardem Patapoutian's lab:

'Here, we show that humans lacking PIEZO2 exhibit impaired bowel sensation and motility. Piezo2 in mouse dorsal root but not nodose ganglia is required to sense gut content, and this activity slows down food transit rates in the stomach, small intestine, and colon. Indeed, Piezo2 is directly required to detect colon distension in vivo. Our study unveils the mechanosensory mechanisms that regulate the transit of luminal contents throughout the gut, which is a critical process to ensure proper digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste removal.'


biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

PIEZO2 in somatosensory neurons controls gastrointestinal transit

The gastrointestinal tract is in a state of constant motion. These movements are tightly regulated by the presence of food and help digestion by mechanically breaking down and propelling gut content. Mechanical sensing in the gut is thought to be essential for regulating motility; however, the identity of the neuronal populations, the molecules involved, and the functional consequences of this sensation are unknown. Here, we show that humans lacking PIEZO2 exhibit impaired bowel sensation and motility. Piezo2 in mouse dorsal root but not nodose ganglia is required to sense gut content, and this activity slows down food transit rates in the stomach, small intestine, and colon. Indeed, Piezo2 is directly required to detect colon distension in vivo. Our study unveils the mechanosensory mechanisms that regulate the transit of luminal contents throughout the gut, which is a critical process to ensure proper digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste removal. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

I always wondered how Bell Labs, a private lab, could be so successful and win 9 (!) Nobel Prizes. The answer seems to be a continuous stream of funding and an environment that valued longterm research goals and scientific discovery over progress reports.

nature.com/articles/s42254-022

Today in #Science (@sciencemagazine), Claudia Arevalo, Scott Hensley, & al develop an #mRNA#LipidNanoparticle #vaccine encoding #hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 known #influenza A & B virus subtypes/lineages! #Vaccination protected animals challenged w/ matched & mismatched viral strains!

In the same issue,
Alyson Kelvin & Darryl Falzarano write a wonderful Perspective on this important next step towards a #UniversalFluVaccine!

Article: bit.ly/Sci_abm0271
PS: bit.ly/Sci_adf0900

#IAV #IBV

"The endothelium is a vertebrate specific specialization of the circulatory system that enabled a critical new level of vasoregulation. The evolutionary origin of these endothelial cells is unclear. We hypothesized that Mir-126, an endothelial cell-specific microRNA may be informative."

biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Direct observation of the evolution of cell-type specific microRNA expression signatures supports the hematopoietic origin model of endothelial cells

The evolution of specialized cell-types is a long-standing interest of biologists but given the deep time-scales very difficult to reconstruct or observe. microRNAs have been linked to the evolution of cellular complexity and may inform on specialization. The endothelium is a vertebrate specific specialization of the circulatory system that enabled a critical new level of vasoregulation. The evolutionary origin of these endothelial cells is unclear. We hypothesized that Mir-126, an endothelial cell-specific microRNA may be informative. We here reconstruct the evolutionary history of Mir-126. Mir-126 likely appeared in the last common ancestor of vertebrates and tunicates, a species without an endothelium, within an intron of the evolutionary much older EGF Like Domain Multiple (Egfl) locus. Mir-126 has a complex evolutionary history due to duplications and losses of both the host gene and the microRNA. Taking advantage of the strong evolutionary conservation of the microRNA among Olfactores, and using RNA in situ hybridization (RISH), we localized Mir-126 in the tunicate Ciona robusta. We found exclusive expression of the mature Mir-126 in granular amebocytes, supporting a long-proposed scenario that endothelial cells arose from hemoblasts, a type of proto-endothelial amoebocyte found throughout invertebrates. This observed change of expression of Mir-126 from proto-endothelial amoebocytes in the tunicate to endothelial cells in vertebrates is the first direct observation of the evolution of a cell-type in relation to microRNA expression indicating that microRNAs can be a prerequisite of cell-type evolution. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

Inhibition of myeloperoxidase prevents thoracic aortic aneurysm formation in Marfan mice biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Inhibition of myeloperoxidase prevents thoracic aortic aneurysm formation in Marfan mice

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a prevalent inherited connective tissue disorder associated with premature mortality due to thoracic aortic aneurysms and subsequent fatal aortic events. Current treatment options improve outcomes only partially and better preventive pharmacotherapies are needed. By utilizing patient samples and animal disease models, we herein demonstrate that leukocyte-derived myeloperoxidase (MPO) critically contributes to disease progression. MFS patients and mice displayed increased circulating MPO levels as well as marked aortic MPO deposition compared to controls. Mechanistically, MPO induced inflammatory endothelial activation and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition which triggered aortic leukocyte recruitment. Furthermore, MPO directly contributed to adverse extracellular matrix remodeling by promoting oxidative stress and nitrosylation of extracellular matrix proteins. Genetic MPO deficiency and pharmacological MPO inhibition attenuated MFS-related aneurysm formation. We herein identify MPO as a critical mediator of MFS-related thoracic aortic aneurysm formation and a promising target to influence disease progression. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

A multi-omics atlas of the human retina at single-cell resolution biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

A multi-omics atlas of the human retina at single-cell resolution

Cell classes in the human retina are highly heterogeneous with their abundance varying by several orders of magnitude. Although previous studies reported the profiles of the retinal cell types as the transcriptome level, there is no study regarding the open-chromatin profiles at a similar resolution. Here, we generated and integrated a multi-omics single-cell atlas of the adult human retina, including over 250K nuclei for single-nuclei RNA-seq and 137K nuclei for single-nuclei ATAC-seq. Through enrichment of rare cell types, this single cell multiome atlas is more comprehensive than previous human retina studies. Cross species comparison of the retina atlas among human, monkey, mice, and chicken revealed relatively conserved and non-conserved types. Interestingly, the overall cell heterogeneity in primate retina decreases compared to that of rodent and chicken retina. Furthermore, integrative analysis of the single cell multi-omics data identified 35k distal cis-element-gene pairs with most of these cis-elements being cell type specific. We also showed that the cis-element-gene relationship in different cell types within the same class could be highly heterogenous. Moreover, we constructed transcription factor (TF)-target regulons for over 200 TFs, partitioned the TFs into distinct co-active modules, and annotated each module based on their cell-type specificity. Taken together, we present the most comprehensive single-cell multi-omics atlas of the human retina as a valuable resource that enables systematic in-depth molecular characterization at individual cell type resolution. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

MMR vaccination induces a trained immunity program characterized by functional and metabolic reprogramming of γδ T cells biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

MMR vaccination induces a trained immunity program characterized by functional and metabolic reprogramming of γδ T cells

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine protects against all-cause mortality in children, but the immunological mechanisms mediating these effects are poorly known. We systematically investigated whether MMR can induce long-term functional changes in innate immune cells, a process termed trained immunity, that could at least partially mediate this heterologous protection. In a randomized placebo-controlled trial, 39 healthy adults received either the MMR vaccine or a placebo. By using single-cell RNA-sequencing, we found that MMR caused transcriptomic changes in CD14-positive monocytes and NK cells, but most profoundly in γδ T cells. Surprisingly, monocyte function was not altered by MMR vaccination. In contrast, the function of γδ T cells was significantly enhanced by MMR vaccination, with higher production of TNF and IFNγ, as well as upregulation of cellular metabolic pathways. In conclusion, we describe a new trained immunity program characterized by modulation of γδ T cell function induced by MMR vaccination. ### Competing Interest Statement MGN is a scientific founder and member of the scientific advisory board of Trained Therapeutix Discovery.

www.biorxiv.org

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of RNA sequencing, but what if you can't analyze the data? We (mostly Guy) created a software to make your life easy! Read our NEW preprint & REBLOG. Please try it (follow the detailed tutorial) and give us feedback! 🤟🙏

"RNAlysis: analyze your RNA sequencing data without writing a single line of code"
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

Here's Guy's thread with all the details:

twitter.com/GuyTeichman/status

RNAlysis: analyze your RNA sequencing data without writing a single line of code

Background: Amongst the major challenges in next-generation sequencing experiments are exploratory data analysis, interpreting trends, identifying potential targets/candidates, and visualizing the results clearly and intuitively. These hurdles are further heightened for researchers who are not experienced in writing computer code, since the majority of available analysis tools require programming skills. Even for proficient computational biologists, an efficient and replicable system is warranted to generate standardized results. Results: We have developed RNAlysis, a modular Python-based analysis software for RNA sequencing data. RNAlysis allows users to build customized analysis pipelines suiting their specific research questions, going all the way from raw FASTQ files, through exploratory data analysis and data visualization, clustering analysis, and gene-set enrichment analysis. RNAlysis provides a friendly graphical user interface, allowing researchers to analyze data without writing code. We demonstrate the use of RNAlysis by analyzing RNA data from different studies using C. elegans nematodes. We note that the software is equally applicable to data obtained from any organism. Conclusions: RNAlysis is suitable for investigating a variety of biological questions, and allows researchers to more accurately and reproducibly run comprehensive bioinformatic analyses. It functions as a gateway into RNA sequencing analysis for less computer-savvy researchers, but can also help experienced bioinformaticians make their analyses more robust and efficient, as it offers diverse tools, scalability, automation, and standardization between analyses. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

www.biorxiv.org

Enjoying holiday weekend reading of this fascinating new book by Siddhartha Mukhergee, which is filled with historical nuggets about the foundations of Cell Biology. For example, in the 1820s, when cells had been observed but functions not yet formulated, the brilliant French scientist François-Vincent Raspail speculated that “A cell is a kind of laboratory” where some sort of fantastic chemistry must be occurring, and “From cells come cells,” all long before fields of biochemistry and molecular biology emerged.

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