AvrA is a newly described bacterial effector existing in Salmonella. Here, we test the hypothesis that AvrA is a deubiquitinase that removes ubiquitin from two inhibitors of the nuclear factor-B (NF-B) pathway, IB␣ and ␤-catenin, thereby inhibiting the inflammatory responses of the host. The role of AvrA was assessed in intestinal epithelial cell models and in mouse models infected with AvrA-deficient and -sufficient Salmonella strains. We also purified AvrA and AvrA mutant proteins and characterized their deubiquitinase activity in a cellfree system. We investigated target gene and inflammatory cytokine expression, as well as effects on epithelial cell proliferation and apoptosis induced by AvrA-deficient and -sufficient bacterial strains in vivo. Our results show that AvrA blocks degradation of IB␣ and ␤-catenin in epithelial cells. AvrA deubiquitinates IB␣, which blocks its degradation and leads to the inhibition of NF-B activation. Target genes of the NF-B pathway, such as interleukin-6, were correspondingly down-regulated during bacterial infection with Salmonella expressing AvrA. AvrA also deubiquitinates and thus blocks degradation of ␤-catenin. Target genes of the ␤-catenin pathway, such as c-myc and cyclinD1, were correspondingly up-regulated with AvrA expression. Increased ␤-catenin further negatively regulates the NF-B pathway. Our findings suggest an important role for AvrA in regulating host inflammatory responses through NF-B and ␤-catenin pathways. (Am J Pathol

CD146 is a novel endothelial biomarker and plays an essential role in angiogenesis; however, its role in the molecular mechanism underlying angiogenesis remains poorly understood. In the present study, we show that CD146 interacts directly with VEGFR-2 on endothelial cells and at the molecular level and identify the structural basis of CD146 binding to VEGFR-2. In addition, we show that CD146 is required in VEGF-induced VEGFR-2 phosphorylation, AKT/p38 MAPKs/NF-κB activation, and thus promotion of endothelial cell migration and microvascular formation. Furthermore, we show that anti-CD146 AA98 or CD146 siRNA abrogates all VEGFR-2 activation induced by VEGF. An in vivo angiogenesis assay showed that VEGF-promoted microvascular formation was impaired in the endothelial conditional knockout of CD146 (CD146(EC-KO)). Our animal experiments demonstrated that anti-CD146 (AA98) and anti-VEGF (bevacizumab) have an additive inhibitory effect on xenografted human pancreatic and melanoma tumors. The results of the present study suggest that CD146 is a new coreceptor for VEGFR-2 and is therefore a promising target for blocking tumor-related angiogenesis.

The efficacy of the adaptive immune response declines dramatically with age, but the cell-intrinsic mechanisms driving immune aging in humans remain poorly understood. Immune aging is characterized by a loss of self-renewing naïve cells and the accumulation of differentiated but dysfunctional cells within the CD8 T cell compartment. Using ATAC-seq, we inferred the transcription factor binding activities correlated with naive and central and effector memory CD8 T cell states in young adults. Integrating our results with RNA-seq, we identified transcription networks associated with CD8 T cell differentiation, with prominent roles implicated for BATF, ETS1, Eomes, and Sp1. Extending our analysis to aged humans, we found that the differences between the memory and naive subsets were largely preserved across age, but that naive and central memory cells from older individuals exhibited a shift toward more differentiated patterns of chromatin openness. Additionally, aged naive cells displayed a loss in chromatin accessibility at gene promoters, largely associated with a decrease in NRF1 binding. This shift was implicated in a marked drop-off in the ability of the aged naive cells to transcribe respiratory chain genes, which may explain the reduced capacity of oxidative phosphorylation in older naïve cells. Our findings identify BATF- and NRF1-driven gene regulation as potential targets for delaying CD8 T cell aging and restoring function.