The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a major role in the pathogenesis of multiple cancer types, including upper-gastrointestinal (GI) cancers that currently lack effective therapeutic options. ...Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) are an essential component of the TME, contributing to tumorigenesis by secreting growth factors, modifying the extracellular matrix, supporting angiogenesis, and suppressing antitumor immune responses. Through an unbiased approach, we have established that IL-6 mediates cross-talk between tumor cells and CAF not only by supporting tumor cell growth, but also by promoting fibroblast activation. As a result, IL-6 receptor (IL6Rα) and downstream effectors offer opportunities for targeted therapy in upper-GI cancers. IL-6 loss suppressed tumorigenesis in physiologically relevant three-dimensional (3D) organotypic and 3D tumoroid models and murine models of esophageal cancer. Tocilizumab, an anti-IL6Rα antibody, suppressed tumor growth
in part via inhibition of STAT3 and MEK/ERK signaling. Analysis of a pan-cancer TCGA dataset revealed an inverse correlation between IL-6 and IL6Rα overexpression and patient survival. Therefore, we expanded evaluation of tocilizumab to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patient-derived xenografts and gastric adenocarcinoma xenografts, demonstrating suppression of tumor growth and altered STAT3 and ERK1/2 gene signatures. We used small-molecule inhibitors of STAT3 and MEK1/2 signaling to suppress tumorigenesis in the 3D organotypic model of esophageal cancer. We demonstrate that IL6 is a major contributor to the dynamic cross-talk between tumor cells and CAF in the TME. Our findings provide a translational rationale for inhibition of IL6Rα and downstream signaling pathways as a novel targeted therapy in oral-upper-GI cancers.
These findings demonstrate the interaction of esophageal cancer and cancer-associated fibroblasts through IL-6 signaling, providing rationale for a novel therapeutic approach to target these cancers.
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Epithelial cells orchestrate pulmonary homeostasis and pathogen defense and play a crucial role in the initiation of allergic immune responses. Maintaining the balance between homeostasis and ...inappropriate immune activation and associated pathology is particularly complex at mucosal sites that are exposed to billions of potentially antigenic particles daily. We demonstrated that epithelial cell-derived cytokine TGF-β had a central role in the generation of the pulmonary immune response. Mice that specifically lacked epithelial cell-derived TGF-β1 displayed a reduction in type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), resulting in suppression of interleukin-13 and hallmark features of the allergic response including airway hyperreactivity. ILCs in the airway lumen were primed to respond to TGF-β by expressing the receptor TGF-βRII and ILC chemoactivity was enhanced by TGF-β. These data demonstrate that resident epithelial cells instruct immune cells, highlighting the central role of the local environmental niche in defining the nature and magnitude of immune reactions.
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•Epithelial-derived TGF-β drives pulmonary response to allergen•Epithelial TGF-β promotes GATA3-driven cytokine production by suppression of Sox4•TGF-β is chemoactive for innate lymphoid cells that express TGF-βRII•The local pulmonary environmental niche defines the nature of immune reactions
The role of epithelial-derived TGF-β in the pathogenesis of asthma is unknown. Lloyd and colleagues demonstrate that epithelial TGF-β is essential for the generation of the pulmonary allergic response to allergen by acting as a chemoactive factor for innate lymphoid type 2 cells and promoting GATA3-induced cytokine expression.
The importance of tryptophan as a precursor for neuroactive compounds has long been acknowledged. The metabolism of tryptophan along the kynurenine pathway and its involvement in mental disorders is ...an emerging area in psychiatry. We performed a meta-analysis to examine the differences in kynurenine metabolites in major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia (SZ). Electronic databases were searched for studies that assessed metabolites involved in the kynurenine pathway (tryptophan, kynurenine, kynurenic acid, quinolinic acid, 3-hydroxykynurenine, and their associate ratios) in people with MDD, SZ, or BD, compared to controls. We computed the difference in metabolite concentrations between people with MDD, BD, or SZ, and controls, presented as Hedges' g with 95% confidence intervals. A total of 101 studies with 10,912 participants were included. Tryptophan and kynurenine are decreased across MDD, BD, and SZ; kynurenic acid and the kynurenic acid to quinolinic acid ratio are decreased in mood disorders (i.e., MDD and BD), whereas kynurenic acid is not altered in SZ; kynurenic acid to 3-hydroxykynurenine ratio is decreased in MDD but not SZ. Kynurenic acid to kynurenine ratio is decreased in MDD and SZ, and the kynurenine to tryptophan ratio is increased in MDD and SZ. Our results suggest that there is a shift in the tryptophan metabolism from serotonin to the kynurenine pathway, across these psychiatric disorders. In addition, a differential pattern exists between mood disorders and SZ, with a preferential metabolism of kynurenine to the potentially neurotoxic quinolinic acid instead of the neuroprotective kynurenic acid in mood disorders but not in SZ.
Sleep loss increases the experience of pain. However, the brain mechanisms underlying altered pain processing following sleep deprivation are unknown. Moreover, it remains unclear whether ...ecologically modest night-to-night changes in sleep, within an individual, confer consequential day-to-day changes in experienced pain. Here, we demonstrate that acute sleep deprivation amplifies pain reactivity within human (male and female) primary somatosensory cortex yet blunts pain reactivity in higher-order valuation and decision-making regions of the striatum and insula cortex. Consistent with this altered neural signature, we further show that sleep deprivation expands the temperature range for classifying a stimulus as painful, specifically through a lowering of pain thresholds. Moreover, the degree of amplified reactivity within somatosensory cortex following sleep deprivation significantly predicts this expansion of experienced pain across individuals. Finally, outside of the laboratory setting, we similarly show that even modest nightly changes in sleep quality (increases and decreases) within an individual determine consequential day-to-day changes in experienced pain (decreases and increases, respectively). Together, these data provide a novel framework underlying the impact of sleep loss on pain and, furthermore, establish that the association between sleep and pain is expressed in a night-to-day, bidirectional relationship within a sample of the general population. More broadly, our findings highlight sleep as a novel therapeutic target for pain management within and outside the clinic, including circumstances where sleep is frequently short yet pain is abundant (e.g., the hospital setting).
Are you experiencing pain? Did you have a bad night of sleep? This study provides underlying brain and behavioral mechanisms explaining this common co-occurrence. We show that sleep deprivation enhances pain responsivity within the primary sensing regions of the brain's cortex yet blunts activity in other regions that modulate pain processing, the striatum and insula. We further establish that even subtle night-to-night changes in sleep in a sample of the general population predict consequential day-to-day changes in pain (bidirectionally). Considering the societal rise in chronic pain conditions in lock-step with the decline in sleep time through the industrial world, our data support the hypothesis that these two trends may not simply be co-occurring but are significantly interrelated.
•Ferroptosis is a major driver of cell death in neurodegenerative diseases e.g. AD.•Oxidative and nitrosative stress adversely affect cellular iron homeostasis.•Ferroptosis entails membrane lipid ...peroxidation and mitochondria involvement.•Neuroinflammation and high NTBI levels make neuroglia sensitive to iron overload.•Deferiprone with N-acetylcysteine offers a rational therapeutic approach.
Ferroptosis is a unique form of programmed death, characterised by cytosolic accumulation of iron, lipid hydroperoxides and their metabolites, and effected by the fatal peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the plasma membrane. It is a major driver of cell death in neurodegenerative neurological diseases. Moreover, cascades underpinning ferroptosis could be active drivers of neuropathology in major psychiatric disorders. Oxidative and nitrosative stress can adversely affect mechanisms and proteins governing cellular iron homeostasis, such as the iron regulatory protein/iron response element system, and can ultimately be a source of abnormally high levels of iron and a source of lethal levels of lipid membrane peroxidation. Furthermore, neuroinflammation leads to the upregulation of divalent metal transporter1 on the surface of astrocytes, microglia and neurones, making them highly sensitive to iron overload in the presence of high levels of non-transferrin-bound iron, thereby affording such levels a dominant role in respect of the induction of iron-mediated neuropathology. Mechanisms governing systemic and cellular iron homeostasis, and the related roles of ferritin and mitochondria are detailed, as are mechanisms explaining the negative regulation of ferroptosis by glutathione, glutathione peroxidase 4, the cysteine/glutamate antiporter system, heat shock protein 27 and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2. The potential role of DJ-1 inactivation in the precipitation of ferroptosis and the assessment of lipid peroxidation are described. Finally, a rational approach to therapy is considered, with a discussion on the roles of coenzyme Q10, iron chelation therapy, in the form of deferiprone, deferoxamine (desferrioxamine) and deferasirox, and N-acetylcysteine.
The sleep-deprived human brain Krause, Adam J; Simon, Eti Ben; Mander, Bryce A ...
Nature reviews. Neuroscience,
07/2017, Letnik:
18, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
How does a lack of sleep affect our brains? In contrast to the benefits of sleep, frameworks exploring the impact of sleep loss are relatively lacking. Importantly, the effects of sleep deprivation ...(SD) do not simply reflect the absence of sleep and the benefits attributed to it; rather, they reflect the consequences of several additional factors, including extended wakefulness. With a focus on neuroimaging studies, we review the consequences of SD on attention and working memory, positive and negative emotion, and hippocampal learning. We explore how this evidence informs our mechanistic understanding of the known changes in cognition and emotion associated with SD, and the insights it provides regarding clinical conditions associated with sleep disruption.
The ontogeny of airway macrophages (AMs) in human lung and their contribution to disease are poorly mapped out. In mice, aging is associated with an increasing proportion of peripherally, as opposed ...to perinatally derived AMs. We sought to understand AM ontogeny in human lung during healthy aging and after transplant. We characterized monocyte/macrophage populations from the peripheral blood and airways of healthy volunteers across infancy/childhood (2-12 yr), maturity (20-50 yr), and older adulthood (>50 yr). Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was performed on airway inflammatory cells isolated from sex-mismatched lung transplant recipients. During healthy aging, the proportions of blood bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) classical monocytes peak in adulthood and decline in older adults. scRNA-seq of BAL cells from lung transplant recipients indicates that after transplant, the majority of AMs are recipient derived. These data show that during aging, the peripheral monocyte phenotype is consistent with that found in the airways and, furthermore, that the majority of human AMs after transplant are derived from circulating monocytes.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating progressive disease with limited therapeutic options. Airway macrophages (AMs) are key components of the defense of the airways and are implicated ...in the pathogenesis of IPF. Alterations in iron metabolism have been described during fibrotic lung disease and in murine models of lung fibrosis. However, the role of transferrin receptor 1 (CD71)-expressing AMs in IPF is not known.
To assess the role of CD71-expressing AMs in the IPF lung.
We used multiparametric flow cytometry, gene expression analysis, and phagocytosis/transferrin uptake assays to delineate the role of AMs expressing or lacking CD71 in the BAL of patients with IPF and of healthy control subjects.
There was a distinct increase in proportions of AMs lacking CD71 in patients with IPF compared with healthy control subjects. Concentrations of BAL transferrin were enhanced in IPF-BAL, and furthermore, CD71
AMs had an impaired ability to sequester transferrin. CD71
and CD71
AMs were phenotypically, functionally, and transcriptionally distinct, with CD71
AMs characterized by reduced expression of markers of macrophage maturity, impaired phagocytosis, and enhanced expression of profibrotic genes. Importantly, proportions of AMs lacking CD71 were independently associated with worse survival, underlining the importance of this population in IPF and as a potential therapeutic target.
Taken together, these data highlight how CD71 delineates AM subsets that play distinct roles in IPF and furthermore show that CD71
AMs may be an important pathogenic component of fibrotic lung disease.
Background:
The blood–brain barrier acts as a highly regulated interface; its dysfunction may exacerbate, and perhaps initiate, neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Methods:
In this narrative ...review, focussing on redox, inflammatory and mitochondrial pathways and their effects on the blood–brain barrier, a model is proposed detailing mechanisms which might explain how increases in blood–brain barrier permeability occur and can be maintained with increasing inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress being the initial drivers.
Results:
Peripheral inflammation, which is causatively implicated in the pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders, is associated with elevated peripheral pro-inflammatory cytokines, which in turn cause increased blood–brain barrier permeability. Reactive oxygen species, such as superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide, and reactive nitrogen species, such as nitric oxide and peroxynitrite, play essential roles in normal brain capillary endothelial cell functioning; however, chronically elevated oxidative and nitrosative stress can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and damage to the blood–brain barrier. Activated microglia, redox control of which is mediated by nitric oxide synthases and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidases, secrete neurotoxic molecules such as reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide, prostaglandin, cyclooxygenase-2, quinolinic acid, several chemokines (including monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 MCP-1, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 CXCL-1 and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α MIP-1α) and the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β, which can exert a detrimental effect on blood–brain barrier integrity and function. Similarly, reactive astrocytes produce neurotoxic molecules such as prostaglandin E2 and pro-inflammatory cytokines, which can cause a ‘leaky brain’.
Conclusion:
Chronic inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress is associated with the development of a ‘leaky gut’. The following evidence-based approaches, which address the leaky gut and blood–brain barrier dysfunction, are suggested as potential therapeutic interventions for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders: melatonin, statins, probiotics containing Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli, N-acetylcysteine, and prebiotics containing fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides.
Abstract Sex differences appear to be an important factor in schizophrenia. Women with schizophrenia tend to exhibit less disease impairment than men, typically presenting with a later age-at-onset, ...lower overall incidence and less severe symptoms. These observations underpin the estrogen hypothesis of schizophrenia, which postulates a protective role of estrogen against the development and severity of the disorder. While there has been significant attention placed on the impact of estrogens in schizophrenia, less consideration has been afforded to the role of progesterone, the other main female gonadal hormone. This narrative review discusses the role of progesterone as a neuroactive steroid and how it may be dysregulated in schizophrenia. Preclinical and molecular studies relevant to schizophrenia are discussed with a particular focus on the interactions between progesterone and the dopaminergic system. Notably, existing data on progesterone in relation to schizophrenia is inconsistent, with some studies suggesting a neuroprotective role for the hormone ( e.g. animal models of cognitive dysfunction and positive symptoms), while other studies posit a disruptive impact of the hormone ( e.g. negative correlations with symptom modulation in patients). This review aims to thoroughly address these discrepancies, concluding that altogether the data suggest that progesterone is a key modulator of central systems implicated in schizophrenia. On this basis, we argue that a more inclusive, considered effort of future studies to understand the intricacies of the interactions between progesterone and estrogen. Such an effort may enhance our understanding of the roles of sex hormones in schizophrenia, thus leading to avenues for novel therapeutic approaches.
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