Summary
We developed an RNA sequencing-based pipeline to discover differentially expressed cell surface molecules in neuroblastoma that meet criteria for optimal immunotherapeutic target safety and efficacy. Here we show that GPC2 is a strong candidate immunotherapeutic target in this childhood cancer. We demonstrate high GPC2 expression in neuroblastoma due to MYCN transcriptional activation and/or somatic gain of the GPC2 locus. We confirm GPC2 to be highly expressed on most neuroblastomas, but not detectable at appreciable levels in normal childhood tissues. Additionally, we demonstrate that GPC2 is required for neuroblastoma proliferation. Finally, we develop a GPC2 directed antibody-drug conjugate that is potently cytotoxic to GPC2-expressing neuroblastoma cells. Collectively, these findings validate GPC2 as a non-mutated neuroblastoma oncoprotein and candidate immunotherapeutic target.
Summary
Postnatal tissue quiescence is thought to be a default state in the absence of a proliferative stimulus such as injury. Previous studies have demonstrated that certain embryonic development programs are reactivated aberrantly in adult organs to drive repair and regeneration1–3, it is not well understood how quiescence is maintained in organs such as the lung which displays a remarkably low level of cellular turnover4,5. We now demonstrate that quiescence in the adult lung is an actively maintained state and is regulated by hedgehog signaling. Epithelial-specific deletion of sonic hedgehog during postnatal homeostasis in the lung results in a proliferative expansion of the adjacent lung mesenchyme. Hedgehog signaling is initially down-regulated during the acute phase of epithelial injury as the mesenchyme proliferates in response, but returns to baseline during injury resolution as quiescence is restored. Activation of hedgehog during acute epithelial injury attenuates the proliferative expansion of the lung mesenchyme, whereas inactivation of hedgehog signaling prevents the restoration of quiescence during injury resolution. Finally, we show that hedgehog also regulates epithelial quiescence and regeneration in response to injury via a mesenchymal feedback mechanism. These results demonstrate that epithelial-mesenchymal interactions coordinated by hedgehog actively maintains postnatal tissue homeostasis, and deregulation of hedgehog during injury leads to aberrant repair and regeneration in the lung.
Highlights d Multi-omics analysis and techniques with NASA's GeneLab platform d The largest cohort of astronaut data to date utilized for analysis d Mitochondrial dysregulation driving spaceflight health risks d NASA Twin Study data validates mitochondrial dysfunction during space missions
Mitochondrial homeostasis vitally depends on mitophagy, the programmed degradation of mitochondria. The roster of proteins known to participate in mitophagy remains small. We devised here a multidimensional CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screen, using multiple mitophagy reporter systems and pro-mitophagy triggers, and uncover numerous new components of Parkin-dependent Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:
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