Tracking the antibody immunome in sporadic colorectal cancer by using antigen self-assembled protein arrays

© 2021 by the authors.Sporadic Colorectal Cancer (sCRC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in the Western world, and the sCRC patients presenting with synchronic metastasis have the poorest prognosis. Genetic alterations accumulated in sCRC tumor cells translate into mutated proteins and/or abnormal protein expression levels, which contribute to the development of sCRC. Then, the tumor-associated proteins (TAAs) might induce the production of auto-antibodies (aAb) via humoral immune response. Here, Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Arrays (NAPPArray) are employed to identify aAb in plasma samples from a set of 50 sCRC patients compared to seven healthy donors. Our goal was to establish a systematic workflow based on NAPPArray to define differential aAb profiles between healthy individuals and sCRC patients as well as between non-metastatic (n = 38) and metastatic (n = 12) sCRC, in order to gain insight into the role of the humoral immune system in controlling the development and progression of sCRC. Our results showed aAb profile based on 141 TAA including TAAs associated with biological cellular processes altered in genesis and progress of sCRC (e.g., FSCN1, VTI2 and RPS28) that discriminated healthy donors vs. sCRC patients. In addition, the potential capacity of discrimination (between non-metastatic vs. metastatic sCRC) of 7 TAAs (USP5, ML4, MARCKSL1, CKMT1B, HMOX2, VTI2, TP53) have been analyzed individually in an independent cohort of sCRC patients, where two of them (VTI2 and TP53) were validated (AUC ~75%). In turn, these findings provided novel insights into the immunome of sCRC, in combination with transcriptomics profiles and protein antigenicity characterizations, wich might lead to the identification of novel sCRC biomarkers that might be of clinical utility for early diagnosis of the tumor. These results explore the immunomic analysis as potent source for biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic value in CRC. Additional prospective studies in larger series of patients are required to confirm the clinical utility of these novel sCRC immunomic biomarkers.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III (ISCIII) for the grants: FIS PI14/01538, FIS PI17/01930 and CB16/12/00400. We also acknowledge Fondos FEDER (EU) “Una manera de hacer Europa” and Junta Castilla-León (COVID19 grant COV20EDU/00187). Fundación Solórzano FS/38-2017. The Proteomics Unit belongs to ProteoRed, PRB3-ISCIII, supported by grant PT17/0019/0023, of the PE I + D + I 2017-2020, funded by ISCIII and FEDER. CNPq-National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Brazil) (306258/2019-6) and FAPERJ-Foundation for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State for the financial support (E-26/201.670/2017 and 210.379/2018). M. González-González is supported by MINECOPTA2019-017870-I.A. Landeira-Viñuela is supported by VIII Centenario-USAL PhD Program. P.J.-V. is supported by JCYL PhD Program and scholarship JCYL-EDU/601/2020. P.D. and E.B. are supported by a JCYL-EDU/346/2013 Ph.D. scholarship

A Dual Infection Pseudorabies Virus Conditional Reporter Approach to Identify Projections to Collateralized Neurons in Complex Neural Circuits

Replication and transneuronal transport of pseudorabies virus (PRV) are widely used to define the organization of neural circuits in rodent brain. Here we report a dual infection approach that highlights connections to neurons that collateralize within complex networks. The method combines Cre recombinase (Cre) expression from a PRV recombinant (PRV-267) and Cre-dependent reporter gene expression from a second infecting strain of PRV (PRV-263). PRV-267 expresses both Cre and a monomeric red fluorescent protein (mRFP) fused to viral capsid protein VP26 (VP26-mRFP) that accumulates in infected cell nuclei. PRV-263 carries a Brainbow cassette and expresses a red (dTomato) reporter that fills the cytoplasm. However, in the presence of Cre, the dTomato gene is recombined from the cassette, eliminating expression of the red reporter and liberating expression of either yellow (EYFP) or cyan (mCerulean) cytoplasmic reporters. We conducted proof-of-principle experiments using a well-characterized model in which separate injection of recombinant viruses into the left and right kidneys produces infection of neurons in the renal preautonomic network. Neurons dedicated to one kidney expressed the unique reporters characteristic of PRV-263 (cytoplasmic dTomato) or PRV-267 (nuclear VP26-mRFP). Dual infected neurons expressed VP26-mRFP and the cyan or yellow cytoplasmic reporters activated by Cre-mediated recombination of the Brainbow cassette. Differential expression of cyan or yellow reporters in neurons lacking VP26-mRFP provided a unique marker of neurons synaptically connected to dual infected neurons, a synaptic relationship that cannot be distinguished using other dual infection tracing approaches. These data demonstrate Cre-enabled conditional reporter expression in polysynaptic circuits that permits the identification of collateralized neurons and their presynaptic partners

Production and characterization of functionally graded NiTi shape memory alloys by Joule effect

Localized heat treatments via Joule effect were performed on cold-drawn NiTi strips to produce a functionallygraded material (FGM). Three zones where locally heat treated at 300, 350, and 400 °C for 10 min followed byair cooling. Multiscale and multiphenomena characterization of the obtained FGM was performed through infraredtemperature testing, four-point probe and eddy current testing, mechanical testing and synchrotron X-raydiffraction. The effect of these localized heat treatments is clearly observed by different techniques. The use ofthese short and localized heat treatments avoids the need of highly expensive manufacturing routes typicallyused to obtain the same effect on NiTi shape memory alloys, thus opening new possibilities for processing theseadvanced engineering alloys

In Situ Structural Characterization of Functionally Graded Ni–Ti Shape Memory Alloy During Tensile Loading

A functionally graded NiTi shape memory alloywire was investigated by in situ synchrotron radiationbasedX-ray diffraction (SR-XRD) during cyclic tensiledeformation. The transformation temperatures were determinedby DSC and the thermomechanical behaviour wasanalysed by three-point bending test. The present studyfocussed on the localized heat treatment (Joule heat effect,reaching 300 C, 350 and 400 C pulses for 10 min) ofNiTi wires, using an equipment that allows a large varietyof graded conditions. Structural, mechanical and thermomechanicalcharacterization is presented to get a perspectiveof the different types of graded functionality. Acombination of two strategies has been used for the in situanalysis by SR-XRD of the tensile tests: (i) continuouslyfollowing the structural evolution at one single point (at thecenter of the heat-treated segment) all long the load/unloadcycle and (ii) scanning the full heat-treated segmentatpreviously defined discrete steps of the stress–strain curve.The combined information from both types of testsprovided detailed information about the phase transformationstaking place in different regions of the functionallygraded segment, at different steps of the tensile load/unloadcycle, giving a better understanding of the overallmechanical, namely the evidence of the sequence B2 $R$ B190 for the direct and reverse transformations