Faculty Bibliography

Epigenetic plasticity is a pivotal factor that drives metastasis. Here, we show that the promoter of the gene that encodes the ubiquitin ligase subunit FBXL7 is hypermethylated in advanced prostate and pancreatic cancers, correlating with decreased FBXL7 mRNA and protein levels. Low FBXL7 mRNA levels are predictive of poor survival in patients with pancreatic and prostatic cancers. FBXL7 mediates the ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of active c-SRC after its phosphorylation at Ser 104. The DNA-demethylating agent decitabine recovers FBXL7 expression and limits epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and cell invasion in a c-SRC-dependent manner. In vivo, FBXL7-depleted cancer cells form tumours with a high metastatic burden. Silencing of c-SRC or treatment with the c-SRC inhibitor dasatinib together with FBXL7 depletion prevents metastases. Furthermore, decitabine reduces metastases derived from prostate and pancreatic cancer cells in a FBXL7-dependent manner. Collectively, this research implicates FBXL7 as a metastasis-suppressor gene and suggests therapeutic strategies to counteract metastatic dissemination of pancreatic and prostatic cancer cells.

Background: In preclinical studies, the combination of amivantamab (EGFR-MET bispecific antibody) with lazertinib demonstrates synergistic inhibition of tumor growth. We present the safety and early efficacy results of patients receiving amivantamab in combination with lazertinib in the phase 1 CHRYSALIS study (NCT02609776).
Method(s): Patients with EGFR Exon 19 deletion or L858R mutation non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were enrolled in this 2-part study. To identify the recommended phase 2 combination dose (RP2CD), Part 1 enrolled patients without restriction on prior therapy to evaluate escalating dose cohorts of amivantamab (700-1050 mg, iv once weekly for 28 days; biweekly thereafter) in combination with standard monotherapy dosing of lazertinib (240 mg oral daily). The ongoing Part 2 dose expansion Cohort E is evaluating preliminary efficacy, without biomarker selection, in patients progressing on osimertinib. Response was assessed by investigator per RECIST v1.1.
Result(s): As of 17 March 2020, 71 patients received the combination: median age was 61 y (36-79), median prior lines was 1 (0-9). In Part 1, the RP2CD was the maximally assessed doses of 1050 mg (1400 mg, >=80 kg) amivantamab + 240 mg lazertinib. Interim safety profile includes rash (78%), infusion related reaction (61%), paronychia (42%), stomatitis (31%), pruritus (24%), and diarrhea (14%). Majority of treatment-related AEs were grade 1-2, with grade >=3 reported in 7%. As of 30 April 2020, in 23 Part 1 patients with measurable disease, the overall response rate (ORR) was 43.5% (95% CI, 23.2-65.5) with 10 partial responses (PRs), and 9 patients with stable disease (SD); median treatment duration was 8.2 months (0.5-10.7), with 13 patients still ongoing. In the post-osimertinib expansion Cohort E, early antitumor activity is being observed in 14/20 response-evaluable patients with 1 complete response, 7 PRs (2 pending confirmation), and 6 SD with tumor shrinkage.
Conclusion(s): Amivantamab can be combined safely with lazertinib at their respective full monotherapy doses. Encouraging preliminary activity was observed in osimertinib-relapsed disease: updated data will be presented. Clinical trial identification: NCT02609776; submitted November 18, 2015. Editorial acknowledgement: Medical writing support was provided by Tracy T. Cao, PhD (Janssen Global Services, LLC) and funded by Janssen Global Services, LLC. Legal entity responsible for the study: Janssen R&D.
Funding(s): Janssen R&D. Disclosure: B.C. Cho: Advisory/Consultancy: Novartis, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Yuhan, Pfizer, Lilly, Janssen, Takeda, MSD, Ono Pharmaceuticals; Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony: Novartis; Licensing/Royalties: Champions Oncology; Shareholder/Stockholder/Stock options: Theravance, Gencurix, Bridgebio Therapeutics, Novartis, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Mogam Biotechnology Research Institute, Dong-A ST, Champions Oncology, Janssen, Yuhan, Ono Pharmaceutical, Dizal Pharma, MSD; Research grant/Funding (self): Novartis, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Mogam Biotechnology Research Institute, Dong-A ST, Champions Oncology, Janssen, Yuhan, Ono Pharmaceutical, Dizal Pharma, MSD. K.H. Lee: Advisory/Consultancy: Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD, AstraZeneca; Honoraria (self): Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD, AstraZeneca. D-W. Kim: Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Daiichi Sankyo, Amgen; Research grant/Funding (institution): Alpha Biopharma, AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Hanmi, Janssen, Merus, Mirati Therapeutics, MSD, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Roche/Genentech, Takeda, TP Therapeutics, Xcovery, Yuhan, Boehringer Ingelheim. J-Y. Han: Advisory/Consultancy: MSD Oncology, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly, Novartis, Takeda, Pfizer; Honoraria (self): Roche, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD, Takeda; Research grant/Funding (self): Roche, Pfizer, Ono Pharmaceutical, Takeda. A. Spira: Advisory/Consultancy, AstraZeneca/MedImmune consulting applies to my institution: Array BioPharma, Incyte, Amgen, Novartis, AstraZeneca/MedImmune; Shareholder/Stockholder/Stock options: Lilly; Honoraria (self): CytomX Therapeutics, AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Merck, Takeda, Amgen; Research grant/Funding (institution): Roche, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas Pharma, MedImmune, Novartis, Newlink Genetics, Incyte, AbbVie, Ignyta, LAM Therapeutics, Trovagene, Takeda, Macrogenics, CytomX Therapeutics, Astex Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Loxo, Arch Therap; Research grant/Funding (self): LAM Therapeutics. E.B. Haura: Advisory/Consultancy: Janssen; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Janssen; Research grant/Funding (institution): Janssen, Novartis, Revolution Medicines, AstraZeneca, Genentech; Research grant/Funding (self): FORMA Therapeutics, Incyte. J.K. Sabari: Advisory/Consultancy: AstraZeneca. R.E. Sanborn: Advisory/Consultancy: Amgen, Seattle Genetics, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, ARIAD, Genentech/Roche, AstraZeneca, Celldex, AbbVie, Takeda; Travel/Accommodation/Expenses: Five Prime Therapeutics, Janssen, AstraZeneca; Honoraria (self): AstraZeneca; Research grant/Funding (institution): Bristol-Myers Squibb, MedImmune; Research grant/Funding (self): Merck. J.M. Bauml: Advisory/Consultancy: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Celgene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Guardant Health, Takeda, Novartis, Janssen, Ayala Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron; Research grant/Funding (institution): Merck, Carevive Systems, Novartis, Incyte, Bayer, Janssen, AstraZeneca, Takeda, Amgen. J.E. Gomez: Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Atara, AstraZeneca. P. Lorenzini, J.R. Infante, J. Xie, N. Haddish-Berhane, M. Thayu, R.E. Knoblauch: Full/Part-time employment: Janssen; Shareholder/Stockholder/Stock options: Johnson & Johnson. K. Park: Advisory/Consultancy: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, Hanmi, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical, Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD, Blueprint Medicines, Amgen, Merck KGaA, Loxo, AbbVie, Daiichi Sankyo; Speaker Bureau/Expert testimony: Boehringer Ingelheim, AZD; Research grant/Funding (self): AstraZeneca, MSD Oncology. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
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Articular cartilage injury, as a hallmark of arthritic diseases, is difficult to repair and causes joint pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility. Over the years, the most significant problems for the drug-based treatment of arthritis have been related to drug administration and delivery. In recent years, much research has been devoted to developing new strategies for repairing or regenerating the damaged osteoarticular tissue. The RNA interference (RNAi) has been suggested to have the potential for implementation in targeted therapy in which the faulty gene can be edited by delivering its complementary Short Interfering RNA (siRNA) at the post-transcriptional stage. The successful editing of a specific gene by the delivered siRNA might slow or halt osteoarthritic diseases without side effects caused by chemical inhibitors. However, cartilage siRNA delivery remains a challenging objective because cartilage is an avascular and very dense tissue with very low permeability. Furthermore, RNA is prone to degradation by serum nucleases (such as RNase H and RNase A) due to an extra hydroxyl group in its phosphodiester backbone. Therefore, successful delivery is the first and most crucial requirement for efficient RNAi therapy. Nanomaterials have emerged as highly advantage tools for these studies, as they can be engineered to protect siRNA from degrading, address barriers in siRNA delivery to joints, and target specific cells. This review will discuss recent breakthroughs of different siRNA delivery technologies for cartilage diseases.

Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS: OMIM 154500) is an autosomal dominant craniofacial disorder belonging to the heterogeneous group of mandibulofacial dysostoses.

Disruption of systemic homeostasis by either chronic or acute stressors, such as obesity¹ or surgery², alters cancer pathogenesis. Patients with cancer, particularly those with breast cancer, can be at increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to treatment toxicity and changes in lifestyle behaviors^3-5. While elevated risk and incidence of cardiovascular events in breast cancer is well established, whether such events impact cancer pathogenesis is not known. Here we show that myocardial infarction (MI) accelerates breast cancer outgrowth and cancer-specific mortality in mice and humans. In mouse models of breast cancer, MI epigenetically reprogrammed Ly6C^hi monocytes in the bone marrow reservoir to an immunosuppressive phenotype that was maintained at the transcriptional level in monocytes in both the circulation and tumor. In parallel, MI increased circulating Ly6C^hi monocyte levels and recruitment to tumors and depletion of these cells abrogated MI-induced tumor growth. Furthermore, patients with early-stage breast cancer who experienced cardiovascular events after cancer diagnosis had increased risk of recurrence and cancer-specific death. These preclinical and clinical results demonstrate that MI induces alterations in systemic homeostasis, triggering cross-disease communication that accelerates breast cancer.

Background: Recent advances in high-throughput single-cell sequencing technologies have led to their increasingly widespread adoption for clinical applications. However, challenges associated with tissue viability, cell yield, and delayed time-to-capture have created unique obstacles for data processing. Chronic wounds, in particular, represent some of the most difficult target specimens, due to the significant amount of fibrinous debris, extracellular matrix components, and non-viable cells inherent in tissue routinely obtained from debridement. Methods: Here, we examined the feasibility of single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis to evaluate human chronic wound samples acquired in the clinic, subjected to prolonged cold ischemia time, and processed without FACS sorting. Wound tissue from human diabetic and non-diabetic plantar foot ulcers were evaluated using an optimized 10X Genomics scRNA-seq platform and analyzed using a modified data pipeline designed for low-yield specimens. Cell subtypes were identified informatically and their distributions and transcriptional programs were compared between diabetic and non-diabetic tissue. Results: 139,000 diabetic and non-diabetic wound cells were delivered for 10X capture after either 90 or 180 min of cold ischemia time. cDNA library concentrations were 858.7 and 364.7 pg/µL, respectively, prior to sequencing. Among all barcoded fragments, we found that 83.5% successfully aligned to the human transcriptome and 68% met the minimum cell viability threshold. The average mitochondrial mRNA fraction was 8.5% for diabetic cells and 6.6% for non-diabetic cells, correlating with differences in cold ischemia time. A total of 384 individual cells were of sufficient quality for subsequent analyses; from this cell pool, we identified transcriptionally-distinct cell clusters whose gene expression profiles corresponded to fibroblasts, keratinocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, and endothelial cells. Fibroblast subpopulations with differing fibrotic potentials were identified, and their distributions were found to be altered in diabetic vs. non-diabetic cells. Conclusions: scRNA-seq of clinical wound samples can be achieved using minor modifications to standard processing protocols and data analysis methods. This simple approach can capture widespread transcriptional differences between diabetic and non-diabetic tissue obtained from matched wound locations.

The neuropeptide Y (NPY) system is emerging as a promising therapeutic target for neuropsychiatric disorders by intranasal delivery to the brain. However, the vast majority of underlying research has been performed with males despite females being twice as susceptible to many stress-triggered disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anorexia nervosa, and anxiety disorders. Here, we review sex differences in the NPY system in basal and stressed conditions and how it relates to varied susceptibility to stress-related disorders. The majority of studies demonstrate that NPY expression in many brain areas under basal, unstressed conditions is lower in females than in males. This could put them at a disadvantage in dealing with stress. Knock out animals and Flinders genetic models show that NPY is important for attenuating depression in both sexes, while its effects on anxiety appear more pronounced in males. In females, NPY expression after exposure to stress may depend on age, timing, and nature and duration of the stressors and may be especially pronounced in the catecholaminergic systems. Furthermore, alterations in NPY receptor expression and affinity may contribute to the sex differences in the NPY system. Overall, the review highlights the important role of NPY and sex differences in manifestation of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Pulmonary disease increases the risk of developing abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). However, the mechanism underlying the pathological dialogue between the lungs and aorta is undefined. Here, we find that inflicting acute lung injury (ALI) to mice doubles their incidence of AAA and accelerates macrophage-driven proteolytic damage of the aortic wall. ALI-induced HMGB1 leaks and is captured by arterial macrophages thereby altering their mitochondrial metabolism through RIPK3. RIPK3 promotes mitochondrial fission leading to elevated oxidative stress via DRP1. This triggers MMP12 to lyse arterial matrix, thereby stimulating AAA. Administration of recombinant HMGB1 to WT, but not Ripk3^-/- mice, recapitulates ALI-induced proteolytic collapse of arterial architecture. Deletion of RIPK3 in myeloid cells, DRP1 or MMP12 suppression in ALI-inflicted mice repress arterial stress and brake MMP12 release by transmural macrophages thereby maintaining a strengthened arterial framework refractory to AAA. Our results establish an inter-organ circuitry that alerts arterial macrophages to regulate vascular remodeling.

Brown and brown-like beige/brite adipocytes dissipate energy and have been proposed as therapeutic targets to combat metabolic disorders. However, the therapeutic effects of cell-based therapy in humans remain unclear. Here, we created human brown-like (HUMBLE) cells by engineering human white preadipocytes using CRISPR-Cas9-SAM-gRNA to activate endogenous uncoupling protein 1 expression. Obese mice that received HUMBLE cell transplants showed a sustained improvement in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, as well as increased energy expenditure. Mechanistically, increased arginine/nitric oxide (NO) metabolism in HUMBLE adipocytes promoted the production of NO that was carried by S-nitrosothiols and nitrite in red blood cells to activate endogenous brown fat and improved glucose homeostasis in recipient animals. Together, these data demonstrate the utility of using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to engineer human white adipocytes to display brown fat-like phenotypes and may open up cell-based therapeutic opportunities to combat obesity and diabetes.