Author Correction: Inhibiting macrophage-derived lactate transport restores cGAS-STING signalling and enhances antitumour immunity in glioblastoma.
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Published Erratum↗
Biomedical subjects
Yun Chen
Publications and source records attributed to Yun Chen.
Brain perivascular macrophages regulate endothelial cell function via a cMAF-dependent transcriptional program in mouse and human.
Brain perivascular macrophages maintain brain physiology, yet their transcriptional regulators and functions in health and disease remain unclear. Using single-cell multi-omics and functional experiments, we identify cellular musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene (cMAF) as a key transcription factor for brain perivascular macrophages, and conditional deletion of cMAF disrupts their phenotype in vivo. Functionally, cMAF drives insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) expression in perivascular macrophages, enabling communication with endothelial cells. Consistently, cMAF deletion in perivascular macrophages causes transcriptional alterations in cerebral arteries, affecting vascular functions. Notably, cMAF emerges as the main transcription factor for human perivascular macrophages, suggesting conservation of this transcriptional module. During Alzheimer's disease (AD), human perivascular macrophages upregulate cMAF and IGF1 to enhance communication with vascular cells, and this response is abrogated in APOE4 carriers. Lastly, we explore an uncharacterized polymorphism in cMAF, providing evidence that the cMAF program is protective against AD. Targeting cMAF in perivascular macrophages may offer new therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.
APOE4↗
Balancing under constraint: Structural insights into norovirus evolution and antigenic innovation.
Norovirus is the leading cause of acute viral gastroenteritis worldwide. While genomic studies have revealed its diversity and evolutionary patterns, the structural mechanisms driving viral adaptation remain poorly understood. Here, we establish a comprehensive structural database of norovirus VP1 P-domains across nine genogroups (GI-GIX) through large-scale AlphaFold2 predictions. By integrating phylogenetic analysis of VP1 sequences and structures, we demonstrate that sequence and structural evolution show overall concordance under purifying selection, yet significant local discrepancies reveal distinct patterns of convergent evolution shaped by structural constraints and functional divergence. Focusing on the predominant GII.4 genotype, we found that compared to near-full-genome and nucleotide trees, only the VP1 amino acid tree reliably clustered GII.4 variants in chronological order as monophyletic groups. We further identify a hierarchical evolutionary strategy: positive selection may drive structural hypervariability in major antigenic epitopes D and C for immune escape, with epitope D exhibiting pronounced structural flexibility that complicates its structural characterization, whereas coevolutionary analysis uncovers a broad network of compensatory interactions spanning multiple epitopes, with striking enrichment in epitope A. These epitopes exhibited a pattern of "sequence plasticity with structural conservation", maintained by coevolutionary constraints that preserve conformational integrity. Together, these findings suggest that norovirus vaccine strategies targeting the structurally conserved conformations of epitopes A and G could overcome the limitations of traditional strain-specific approaches, offering a pathway toward broad protection against evolving viral diversity.
Norovirus↗
Structural genomics sheds light on protein functions and remote homologs across the insect tree of life.
Protein structure bridges the sequence-function relationship, enabling deep exploration of biological processes across diverse organisms. Insects, the most diverse animal lineage, accounting for over 50% of all described animal species, provide an exceptional system for exploring sequence-structure-function relationships. Here, we reconstructed a comprehensive and well-resolved phylogeny of 4854 insects, spanning all orders. Leveraging this framework, we created an atlas of 13.29 million predicted protein structures from 824 representative species, including 11.63 million newly predicted structures. Structural clustering revealed that proteins with divergent sequences but similar structures could be effectively grouped together. Structural similarity searches against proteins with well-characterized functions yielded annotations for 7.61 million insect proteins, including up to 14% of previously unannotated proteins. We further identified 750 million remote homologs between insect proteins, many of which trace back to ancient branches of the insect phylogeny. Remarkably, despite extensive sequence divergence, cGAS-like receptors (cGLRs) were structurally conserved across all 824 insects. Experimental assays demonstrated that these structurally identified cGLRs play a crucial role in antiviral defense in the yellow fever mosquito. Our findings highlight the significance of structural genomics for understanding protein function and evolution across the tree of life.
Animals↗
Inhibiting macrophage-derived lactate transport restores cGAS-STING signalling and enhances antitumour immunity in glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignancy with a complex tumour microenvironment (TME) dominated by GBM stem cells (GSCs) and infiltrated by tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) and exhibits aberrant metabolic pathways. Lactate is a critical glycolytic metabolite that promotes tumour progression; however, the mechanisms of lactate transport and lactylation in the TME of GBM remain elusive. Here we show that lactate is transported from TAMs to GSCs via MCT4-MCT1. TAMs provide lactate to GSCs, promoting GSC proliferation and inducing lactylation of the non-homologous end joining protein KU70 at lysine 317 (K317), which inhibits cGAS-STING signalling and remodels the immunosuppressive TME. Inhibition of lactate transport or targeting the lactylation of KU70, in combination with the immune checkpoint blockade, demonstrates additive therapeutic benefits in immunocompetent xenograft models. This study unveils TAM-derived lactate and lactylation as critical regulators in GSCs to enforce an immunosuppressive microenvironment, opening avenues for developing combinatorial therapy for GBM.
Glioblastoma↗
MYH16 upregulation is associated with lung adenocarcinoma aggressiveness and immune infiltration.
Myosin heavy chain 16 (MYH16) may significantly affect cell cycle progression. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evidence about the clinical relevance of MYH16 upregulation in pan cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). MYH16 expression patterns were evaluated in various bioinformatics databases using The Cancer Genome Atlas data set. Clinical and pathological factor data were employed to risk-stratify patients. The Kaplan-Meier plotter approach was used to estimate survival rates. Tumor immune infiltration was explored via the TIMER tool, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify the pathways involved in MYH16 upregulation. The results showed that MYH16 was abnormally upregulated in pan cancers, including LUAD. MYH16 expression induction in LUAD was found to be related to the tumor stage. Furthermore, MYH16 upregulation was correlated with LUAD development and worse overall survival, particularly in women. Notably, MYH16 overexpression in LUAD tissues corresponded to the amount of immune infiltration in the tumor. Additionally, univariate Cox hazard regression analysis revealed that MYH16 may be an independent prognostic indicator for LUAD. Furthermore, a nomogram was constructed according to MYH16 expression and clinical characteristics. BMP6 expression deficiency may be a key factor contributing to MYH16 upregulation in LUAD. Finally, GSEA demonstrated that MYH16 might mediate meiosis and gene silencing through RNA signaling pathways. This study, for the first time, showed that MYH16 upregulation in LUAD is associated with various risk factors, increased cancer aggressiveness, enhanced infiltration of tumor immune cells, and reduced survival rates.
Female↗