Principles of Advanced Flow Cytometry: A Practical Guide

Chimeric cytokine receptor TGF-β RⅡ/IL-21R improves CAR-NK cell function by reversing the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of gastric cancer

Gastric cancer remains a significant global health burden, characterized by regional variations in incidence and poor survival prospects in advanced stages. Natural killer (NK) cells play a crucial role in the body's anti-cancer defense, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cell therapy is gaining attention as a cutting-edge and promising treatment method. This study aims to tackle the challenge of TGF-β-mediated tumor immune evasion within the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment by designing a novel chimeric cytokine receptor TRII/21 R, which consists of extracellular domains of TGF-β receptor II (TRII) and transmembrane and intracellular domains of IL-21 receptor (21 R) and can convert the immunosuppressive signal from TGF-β in the tumor microenvironment (TME) into an NK cell activation signal through the IL-21R-STAT3 pathway. We successfully constructed NKG2D-CAR-NK cells expressing TRII/21 R and demonstrated strong anti-tumor activity against cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. The co-expression of TRII/21 R in CAR-NK cells enhanced the cytotoxicity, promoted proliferation and survival capabilities, and reduced the expression of exhaustion markers. In the xenograft mouse model, TRII/21R-CAR-NK cells significantly inhibited tumor growth and improved the survival rate of tumor-bearing mice compared to the mice receiving control CAR-NK cells. Additionally, TRII/21 R co-expression enhanced NK cells' infiltration, activation, and persistence within the tumor, indicating a robust anti-tumor response mediated by the JAK-STAT3 signaling pathway. This study underscores the therapeutic potential of TRII/21R-modified CAR-NK cells as a breakthrough strategy for combating cancer.

ADTnorm: Robust Integration of Single-cell Protein Measurement across CITE-seq Datasets

CITE-seq enables paired measurement of surface protein and mRNA expression in single cells using antibodies conjugated to oligonucleotide tags. Due to the high copy number of surface protein molecules, sequencing antibody-derived tags (ADTs) allows for robust protein detection, improving cell-type identification. However, variability in antibody staining leads to batch effects in the ADT expression, obscuring biological variation, reducing interpretability, and obstructing cross-study analyses. Here, we present ADTnorm (https://github.com/yezhengSTAT/ADTnorm), a normalization and integration method designed explicitly for ADT abundance. Benchmarking against 14 existing scaling and normalization methods, we show that ADTnorm accurately aligns populations with negative- and positive-expression of surface protein markers across 13 public datasets, effectively removing technical variation across batches and improving cell-type separation. ADTnorm enables efficient integration of public CITE-seq datasets, each with unique experimental designs, paving the way for atlas-level analyses. Beyond normalization, ADTnorm includes built-in utilities to aid in automated threshold-gating as well as assessment of antibody staining quality for titration optimization and antibody panel selection. Applying ADTnorm to a published COVID-19 CITE-seq dataset allowed for identifying previously undetected disease-associated markers, illustrating a broad utility in biological applications.

circ_PPAPDC1A promotes Osimertinib resistance by sponging the miR-30a-3p/ IGF1R pathway in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

BACKGROUND

Recent evidence has demonstrated that abnormal expression and regulation of circular RNA (circRNAs) are involved in the occurrence and development of a variety of tumors. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of circ_PPAPDC1A in Osimertinib resistance in NSCLC.

METHODS

Human circRNAs microarray analysis was conducted to identify differentially expressed (DE) circRNAs in Osimertinib-acquired resistance tissues of NSCLC. The effect of circ_PPAPDC1A on cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and apoptosis was assessed in both in vitro and in vivo. Dual-luciferase reporter assay, RT-qPCR, Western-blot, and rescue assay were employed to confirm the interaction between circ_PPAPDC1A/miR-30a-3p/IGF1R axis.

RESULTS

The results revealed that circ_PPAPDC1A was significantly upregulated in Osimertinib acquired resistance tissues of NSCLC. circ_PPAPDC1A reduced the sensitivity of PC9 and HCC827 cells to Osimertinib and promoted cell proliferation, invasion, migration, while inhibiting apoptosis in Osimertinib-resistant PC9/OR and HCC829/OR cells, both in vitro and in vivo. Silencing circ_PPAPDC1A partially reversed Osimertinib resistance. Additionally, circ_PPAPDC1A acted as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) by targeting miR-30a-3p, and Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF1R) was identified as a functional gene for miR-30a-3p in NSCLC. Furthermore, the results confirmed that circ_PPAPDC1A/miR-30a-3p/IGF1R axis plays a role in activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in NSCLC with Osimertinib resistance.

CONCLUSIONS

Therefore, for the first time we identified that circ_PPAPDC1A was significantly upregulated and exerts an oncogenic role in NSCLC with Osimertinib resistance by sponging miR-30a-3p to active IGF1R/PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. circ_PPAPDC1A may serve as a novel diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for NSCLC patients with Osimertinib resistance.

Fiber-Type Shifting in Sarcopenia of Old Age: Proteomic Profiling of the Contractile Apparatus of Skeletal Muscles

The progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and concomitant reduction in contractile strength plays a central role in frailty syndrome. Age-related neuronal impairments are closely associated with sarcopenia in the elderly, which is characterized by severe muscular atrophy that can considerably lessen the overall quality of life at old age. Mass-spectrometry-based proteomic surveys of senescent human skeletal muscles, as well as animal models of sarcopenia, have decisively improved our understanding of the molecular and cellular consequences of muscular atrophy and associated fiber-type shifting during aging. This review outlines the mass spectrometric identification of proteome-wide changes in atrophying skeletal muscles, with a focus on contractile proteins as potential markers of changes in fiber-type distribution patterns. The observed trend of fast-to-slow transitions in individual human skeletal muscles during the aging process is most likely linked to a preferential susceptibility of fast-twitching muscle fibers to muscular atrophy. Studies with senescent animal models, including mostly aged rodent skeletal muscles, have confirmed fiber-type shifting. The proteomic analysis of fast versus slow isoforms of key contractile proteins, such as myosin heavy chains, myosin light chains, actins, troponins and tropomyosins, suggests them as suitable bioanalytical tools of fiber-type transitions during aging.