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Burtscher J, Strasser B, Pepe G, Burtscher M, Kopp M, Di Pardo A, Maglione V, Khamoui AV. Brain-Periphery Interactions in Huntington's Disease: Mediators and Lifestyle Interventions. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:4696. [PMID: 38731912 PMCID: PMC11083237 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25094696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2024] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Prominent pathological features of Huntington's disease (HD) are aggregations of mutated Huntingtin protein (mHtt) in the brain and neurodegeneration, which causes characteristic motor (such as chorea and dystonia) and non-motor symptoms. However, the numerous systemic and peripheral deficits in HD have gained increasing attention recently, since those factors likely modulate disease progression, including brain pathology. While whole-body metabolic abnormalities and organ-specific pathologies in HD have been relatively well described, the potential mediators of compromised inter-organ communication in HD have been insufficiently characterized. Therefore, we applied an exploratory literature search to identify such mediators. Unsurprisingly, dysregulation of inflammatory factors, circulating mHtt, and many other messenger molecules (hormones, lipids, RNAs) were found that suggest impaired inter-organ communication, including of the gut-brain and muscle-brain axis. Based on these findings, we aimed to assess the risks and potentials of lifestyle interventions that are thought to improve communication across these axes: dietary strategies and exercise. We conclude that appropriate lifestyle interventions have great potential to reduce symptoms and potentially modify disease progression (possibly via improving inter-organ signaling) in HD. However, impaired systemic metabolism and peripheral symptoms warrant particular care in the design of dietary and exercise programs for people with HD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes Burtscher
- Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Barbara Strasser
- Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rehabilitation Research, 1100 Vienna, Austria;
- Faculty of Medicine, Sigmund Freud Private University, 1020 Vienna, Austria
| | - Giuseppe Pepe
- IRCCS Neuromed, 86077 Pozzilli, Italy; (G.P.); (A.D.P.); (V.M.)
| | - Martin Burtscher
- Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria; (M.B.); (M.K.)
| | - Martin Kopp
- Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria; (M.B.); (M.K.)
| | - Alba Di Pardo
- IRCCS Neuromed, 86077 Pozzilli, Italy; (G.P.); (A.D.P.); (V.M.)
| | | | - Andy V. Khamoui
- Department of Exercise Science and Health Promotion, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33458, USA;
- Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
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2
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Jeong S, Cho S, Yang SK, Oh SA, Kang YK. Parallel shift of DNA methylation and gene expression toward the mean in mouse spleen with aging. Aging (Albany NY) 2023; 15:6690-6709. [PMID: 37494662 PMCID: PMC10415566 DOI: 10.18632/aging.204903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Age-associated DNA-methylation drift (AMD) manifests itself in two ways in mammals: global decrease (hypomethylation) and local increase of DNA methylation (hypermethylation). To comprehend the principle behind this bidirectional AMD, we studied methylation states of spatially clustered CpG dinucleotides in mouse splenic DNA using reduced-representation-bisulfite-sequencing (RRBS). The mean methylation levels of whole CpGs declined with age. Promoter-resident CpGs, generally weakly methylated (<5%) in young mice, became hypermethylated in old mice, whereas CpGs in gene-body and intergenic regions, initially moderately (~33%) and extensively (>80%) methylated, respectively, were hypomethylated in the old. Chromosome-wise analysis of methylation revealed that inter-individual heterogeneities increase with age. The density of nearby CpGs was used to classify individual CpGs, which found hypermethylation in CpG-rich regions and hypomethylation in CpG-poor regions. When genomic regions were grouped by methylation level, high-methylation regions tended to become hypomethylated whereas low-methylation regions tended to become hypermethylated, regardless of genomic structure/function. Data analysis revealed that while methylation level and CpG density were interdependent, methylation level was a better predictor of the AMD pattern representing a shift toward the mean. Further analysis of gene-expression data showed a decrease in the expression of highly-expressed genes and an increase in the expression of lowly-expressed genes with age. This shift towards the mean in gene-expression changes was correlated with that of methylation changes, indicating a potential link between the two age-associated changes. Our findings suggest that age-associated hyper- and hypomethylation events are stochastic and attributed to malfunctioning intrinsic mechanisms for methylation maintenance in low- and high-methylation regions, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sangkyun Jeong
- Medical Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34054, South Korea
- Genomics Department, Keyomics Co. Ltd., Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34013, South Korea
| | - Sunwha Cho
- Genomics Department, Keyomics Co. Ltd., Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34013, South Korea
| | - Seung Kyoung Yang
- Genomics Department, Keyomics Co. Ltd., Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34013, South Korea
| | - Soo A. Oh
- Medical Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34054, South Korea
| | - Yong-Kook Kang
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Aging Convergence Research Center (ACRC), Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea
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3
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Kang YK, Min B, Eom J, Park JS. Different phases of aging in mouse old skeletal muscle. Aging (Albany NY) 2022; 14:143-160. [PMID: 35017317 PMCID: PMC8791220 DOI: 10.18632/aging.203812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
With a graying population and increasing longevity, it is essential to identify life transition in later years and discern heterogeneity among older people. Subclassifying the elderly population to inspect the subdivisions for pathophysiological differences is particularly important for the investigation of age-related illnesses. For this purpose, using 24- and 28-month-old mice to represent the "young-old" and "old-old", respectively, we compared their skeletal muscle transcriptomes and found each in a distinct stage: early/gradual (E-aging) and late/accelerated aging phase (L-aging). Principal component analysis showed that the old-old transcriptomes were largely disengaged from the forward transcriptomic trajectory generated in the younger-aged group, indicating a substantial change in gene expression profiles during L-aging. By calculating the transcriptomic distance, it was found that the 28-month group was closer to the two-month group than to the 24-month group. The divergence rate per month for the transcriptomes was the highest in L-aging, twice as fast as the rate in E-aging. Indeed, many of the L-aging genes were significantly altered in transcription, although the changes did not seem random but rather coordinated in a variety of functional gene sets. Of 2,707 genes transcriptionally altered during E-aging, two-thirds were also significantly changed during L-aging, to either downturning or upturning way. The downturn genes were related to mitochondrial function and translational gene sets, while the upturn genes were linked to inflammation-associated gene sets. Our results provide a transcriptomic muscle signature that distinguishes old-old mice from young-old mice. This can help to methodically examine muscle disorders in the elderly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong-Kook Kang
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea.,Department of Functional Genomics, Korea University of Science and Technology (UST), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34113, South Korea
| | - Byungkuk Min
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea
| | - Jaemin Eom
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea.,Department of Functional Genomics, Korea University of Science and Technology (UST), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34113, South Korea
| | - Jung Sun Park
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB), Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea
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Gupta K, Yadav P, Maryam S, Ahuja G, Sengupta D. Quantification of Age-Related Decline in Transcriptional Homeostasis. J Mol Biol 2021; 433:167179. [PMID: 34339725 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2021] [Revised: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Age-dependent dysregulation of transcription regulatory machinery triggers modulations in the gene expression levels leading to the decline in cellular fitness. Tracking of these transcripts along the temporal axis in multiple species revealed a spectrum of evolutionarily conserved pathways, such as electron transport chain, translation regulation, DNA repair, etc. Recent shreds of evidence suggest that aging deteriorates the transcription machinery itself, indicating the hidden complexity of the aging transcriptomes. This reinforces the need for devising novel computational methods to view aging through the lens of transcriptomics. Here, we present Homeostatic Divergence Score (HDS) to quantify the extent of messenger RNA (mRNA) homeostasis by assessing the balance between spliced and unspliced mRNA repertoire in single cells. We validated its utility in two independent aging datasets, and identified sets of genes undergoing age-related breakdown of transcriptional homeostasis. Moreover, testing of our method on a subpopulation of human embryonic stem cells revealed a set of differentially processed transcripts segregating these subpopulations. Our preliminary analyses in this direction suggest that mRNA processing level information offered by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data is a superior determinant of chronological age as compared to transcriptional noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krishan Gupta
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India
| | - Princey Yadav
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India
| | - Sidrah Maryam
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India
| | - Gaurav Ahuja
- Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India.
| | - Debarka Sengupta
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India; Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India; Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), Okhla, Phase III, New Delhi 110020, India; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
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5
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Kang YK, Min B. SETDB1 Overexpression Sets an Intertumoral Transcriptomic Divergence in Non-small Cell Lung Carcinoma. Front Genet 2020; 11:573515. [PMID: 33343623 PMCID: PMC7738479 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.573515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
An increasing volume of evidence suggests that SETDB1 plays a role in the tumorigenesis of various cancers, classifying SETDB1 as an oncoprotein. However, owing to its numerous protein partners and their global-scale effects, the molecular mechanism underlying SETDB1-involved oncogenesis remains ambiguous. In this study, using public transcriptome data of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), we compared tumors with high-level SETDB1 (SH) and those with low-level SETDB1 (comparable with normal samples; SL). The results of principal component analysis revealed a transcriptomic distinction and divergence between the SH and SL samples in both ADCs and SCCs. The results of gene set enrichment analysis indicated that genes involved in the “epithelial–mesenchymal transition,” “innate immune response,” and “autoimmunity” collections were significantly depleted in SH tumors, whereas those involved in “RNA interference” collections were enriched. Chromatin-modifying genes were highly expressed in SH tumors, and the variance in their expression was incomparably high in SCC-SH, which suggested greater heterogeneity within SCC tumors. DNA methyltransferase genes were also overrepresented in SH samples, and most differentially methylated CpGs (SH/SL) were undermethylated in a highly biased manner in ADCs. We identified interesting molecular signatures associated with the possible roles of SETDB1 in lung cancer. We expect these SETDB1-associated molecular signatures to facilitate the development of biologically relevant targeted therapies for particular types of lung cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong-Kook Kang
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea.,Department of Functional Genomics, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Byungkuk Min
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea
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6
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Min B, Jeon K, Park JS, Kang Y. Demethylation and derepression of genomic retroelements in the skeletal muscles of aged mice. Aging Cell 2019; 18:e13042. [PMID: 31560164 PMCID: PMC6826136 DOI: 10.1111/acel.13042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2019] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Changes in DNA methylation influence the aging process and contribute to aging phenotypes, but few studies have been conducted on DNA methylation changes in conjunction with skeletal muscle aging. We explored the DNA methylation changes in a variety of retroelement families throughout aging (at 2, 20, and 28 months of age) in murine skeletal muscles by methyl‐binding domain sequencing (MBD‐seq). The two following contrasting patterns were observed among the members of each repeat family in superaged mice: (a) hypermethylation in weakly methylated retroelement copies and (b) hypomethylation in copies with relatively stronger methylation levels, representing a pattern of “regression toward the mean” within a single retroelement family. Interestingly, these patterns depended on the sizes of the copies. While the majority of the elements showed a slight increase in methylation, the larger copies (>5 kb) displayed evident demethylation. All these changes were not observed in T cells. RNA sequencing revealed a global derepression of retroelements during the late phase of aging (between 20 and 28 months of age), which temporally coincided with retroelement demethylation. Following this methylation drift trend of “regression toward the mean,” aging tended to progressively lose the preexisting methylation differences and local patterns in the genomic regions that had been elaborately established during the early period of development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Byungkuk Min
- Development and Differentiation Research Center Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB) Daejeon Korea
| | - Kyuheum Jeon
- Development and Differentiation Research Center Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB) Daejeon Korea
- Department of Functional Genomics University of Science and Technology (UST) Daejeon Korea
| | - Jung Sun Park
- Development and Differentiation Research Center Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB) Daejeon Korea
| | - Yong‐Kook Kang
- Development and Differentiation Research Center Korea Research Institute of Bioscience Biotechnology (KRIBB) Daejeon Korea
- Department of Functional Genomics University of Science and Technology (UST) Daejeon Korea
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7
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Jeon J, Park JS, Min B, Chung SK, Kim MK, Kang YK. Retroelement Insertion in a CRISPR/Cas9 Editing Site in the Early Embryo Intensifies Genetic Mosaicism. Front Cell Dev Biol 2019; 7:273. [PMID: 31781562 PMCID: PMC6857330 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2019] [Accepted: 10/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Continued CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing activity that allows differential and asynchronous modification of alleles in successive cell generations expands allelic complexity. To understand the earliest events during CRISPR/Cas9 editing and the allelic selection among the progeny of subsequent cell divisions, we inspected in detail the genotypes of 4- and 8-cell embryos and embryonic stem cells (ESCs) after microinjection of a CRISPR toolkit into the zygotes. We found a higher editing frequency in 8-cell embryos than in 4-cell embryos, indicating that the CRISPR/Cas9 activity persisted through the 8-cell stage. Analysis of a CRISPR/Cas9 transgenic founder mouse revealed that four different alleles were present in its organs in different combinations and that its germline included three different mutant alleles, as shown by the genotypes of the pups. The indel depth, which measured the extent of indels at the sequence level within single embryos, decreased significantly as the embryos advanced to form ESCs, suggesting that exclusion of fatal indels occurred in the subsequent cell generations. Interestingly, we discovered that the CRISPR sites frequently contained introduced retroelement sequences and that this occurred preferentially with certain classes of retroelements. Therefore, in addition to CRISPR/Cas9's innate mechanism of separate, differential enzymatic modifications of alleles, the frequent retroelement insertions that occur in early mouse embryos during CRISPR/Cas9 editing further expand the allelic diversity and mosaicism in the resulting transgenic founders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeehyun Jeon
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, South Korea.,Department of Animal Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Jung Sun Park
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Byungkuk Min
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Sun-Ku Chung
- Division of Clinical Medicine, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Min Kyu Kim
- Department of Animal Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Yong-Kook Kang
- Development and Differentiation Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, South Korea.,Department of Functional Genomics, University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, South Korea
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Zheng Q, Liu P, Gao G, Yuan J, Wang P, Huang J, Xie L, Lu X, Di F, Tong T, Chen J, Lu Z, Guan J, Wang G. Mitochondrion-processed TERC regulates senescence without affecting telomerase activities. Protein Cell 2019; 10:631-648. [PMID: 30788732 PMCID: PMC6711880 DOI: 10.1007/s13238-019-0612-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2018] [Accepted: 01/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Mitochondrial dysfunctions play major roles in ageing. How mitochondrial stresses invoke downstream responses and how specificity of the signaling is achieved, however, remains unclear. We have previously discovered that the RNA component of Telomerase TERC is imported into mitochondria, processed to a shorter form TERC-53, and then exported back to the cytosol. Cytosolic TERC-53 levels respond to mitochondrial functions, but have no direct effect on these functions, suggesting that cytosolic TERC-53 functions downstream of mitochondria as a signal of mitochondrial functions. Here, we show that cytosolic TERC-53 plays a regulatory role on cellular senescence and is involved in cognition decline in 10 months old mice, independent of its telomerase function. Manipulation of cytosolic TERC-53 levels affects cellular senescence and cognition decline in 10 months old mouse hippocampi without affecting telomerase activity, and most importantly, affects cellular senescence in terc−/− cells. These findings uncover a senescence-related regulatory pathway with a non-coding RNA as the signal in mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Zheng
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Peipei Liu
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Ge Gao
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Jiapei Yuan
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Pengfeng Wang
- Peking University Research Center on Aging, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Jinliang Huang
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Leiming Xie
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Xinping Lu
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Fan Di
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Tanjun Tong
- Peking University Research Center on Aging, Beijing, 100191, China.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Jun Chen
- Peking University Research Center on Aging, Beijing, 100191, China.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, China
| | - Zhi Lu
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Jisong Guan
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
| | - Geng Wang
- MOE Key laboratory of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology and Development Center, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
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