Gliomas are the most common and lethal intracranial tumours. RNA sequencing technologies and advanced data analyses recently enabled the characterization of transcriptomic information, including protein-coding gene expression, non-coding gene expression, alternative splicing, and fusion gene detection, to facilitate detection of diseases and altered phenotypes. As a part of the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) project, our aim was to delineate comprehensive transcriptome profiling in the malignant progression of human gliomas. Three hundred twenty five gliomas with different grades were collected over the past twelve years. Using the Illumina HiSeq 2,000 system, over 92 million high quality 101-bp paired-end reads were generated per sample, yielding a total of 30 billion reads. This comprehensive dataset will be useful to deepen the comprehensive understanding of gliomas, providing an opportunity to generate new therapies, diagnoses, and preventive strategies.

Airway remodeling, caused by inflammation and fibrosis, is a major component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and currently has no effective treatment. Transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) has been widely implicated in the pathogenesis of airway remodeling in COPD. TGF-β is expressed in a latent form that requires activation. The integrin αvβ8 (encoded by the itgb8 gene) is a receptor for latent TGF-β and is essential for its activation. Expression of integrin αvβ8 is increased in airway fibroblasts in COPD and thus is an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of airway remodeling in COPD. We demonstrate that an engineered optimized antibody to human αvβ8 (B5) inhibited TGF-β activation in transgenic mice expressing only human and not mouse ITGB8. The B5 engineered antibody blocked fibroinflammatory responses induced by tobacco smoke, cytokines, and allergens by inhibiting TGF-β activation. To clarify the mechanism of action of B5, we used hydrodynamic, mutational, and electron microscopic methods to demonstrate that αvβ8 predominantly adopts a constitutively active, extended-closed headpiece conformation. Epitope mapping and functional characterization of B5 revealed an allosteric mechanism of action due to locking-in of a low-affinity αvβ8 conformation. Collectively, these data demonstrate a new model for integrin function and present a strategy to selectively target the TGF-β pathway to treat fibroinflammatory airway diseases.

SummaryAn ideal vaccine against mucosal pathogens such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) should confer sustained, protective immunity at both systemic and mucosal levels. Here, we evaluated the in vivo systemic and mucosal antigen-specific immune responses induced by a single intramuscular or intragastric administration of recombinant adenoviral type 5 (Ad5) or type 41 (Ad41) -based vaccines expressing the MERS-CoV spike (S) protein. Intragastric administration of either Ad5-S or Ad41-S induced antigen-specific IgG and neutralizing antibody in serum; however, antigen-specific T-cell responses were not detected. In contrast, after a single intramuscular dose of Ad5-S or Ad41-S, functional antigen-specific T-cell responses were elicited in the spleen and pulmonary lymphocytes of the mice, which persisted for several months. Both rAdbased vaccines administered intramuscularly induced systemic humoral immune responses (neutralizing IgG antibodies). Our results show that a single dose of Ad5-S-or Ad41-S-based vaccines represents an appealing strategy for the control of MERS-CoV infection and transmission.