The Developmental Changes in Cube Copying Abilities of Japanese Children with Typical Development

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the developmental changes in Necker cube copying and isometric perspective cube copying abilities of Japanese children of typical development.Methods and Results: [Study-1] A total of 40 individuals aged 5-18 years participated in Study-1. The Necker cube copying task was administered, and scores were assigned based on the method developed by Yorimitsu et al. (2013). The results showed that the scores increased significantly for children in the 8-9 years age group (p < 0.01).[Study-2] A total of 32 individuals aged 6-10 years participated in Study-2. The isometric perspective cube copying task was administered, and scores were assigned based on the method developed by Otomo (2009). The results showed that the scores increased significantly for children in the 7-8 years age group (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Japanese children of typical development were able to perform the Necker cube copying task from approximately nine years of age. The same participants were able to perform the isometric perspective cube copying task from approximately eight years of age

Integrated analysis and regulation of cellular diversity

金沢大学がん進展制御研究所本研究では乳がん組織のダイバーシティ構築のメカニズムの解明を大きな目的とし、ヒトがん臨床検体由来のスフェロイド、オルガノイド及びPDXモデルを活用する。まず、NRP1濃縮がん幹細胞様細胞集団を用いた1細胞解析により、増殖しない細胞集団にいる親玉がん幹細胞を同定した（特許出願）。親玉がん幹細胞は、正常乳腺の幹細胞あるいは前駆細胞の性質を持ち、NRP1に加えて膜タンパクFXYD3を組み合わせたダブルポジティブの細胞分画として同定された（論文投稿中）。秋山（A01の計画研究者）、中戸（A03の計画研究者）との共同研究による。NRP1によって濃縮されるがん幹細胞様細胞が、対称性分裂と非対称性分裂を起こして、がん組織を形成していく過程の1細胞レベルのリアルタイムイメージングをin vitro及びin vivoで行うために、NRP1をコードする遺伝子の3’末端にIRES配列をつけ、CRISPR-Cas9システムによってGFPをつなげた。リアルタイムイメージングを行っている。がん幹細胞内でMycの活性化によりDNA複製因子MCM10が活性化させて複製ストレスを回避していることを見出し、報告した。乳がんマウスモデルの解析により、がん超早期の乳腺組織においてFRS2beta分子によってNFkBが活性化し、乳腺組織微小環境を整えることががん発症にクリティカルであることを見出して、報告した。研究課題/領域番号:20H05029, 研究期間(年度):2020-04-01 – 2022-03-31出典：研究課題「幹細胞分裂過程リアルタイムイメージングによる細胞社会ダイバーシティ獲得機構の解明」課題番号20H05029（KAKEN：科学研究費助成事業データベース（国立情報学研究所）） （https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/report/KAKENHI-PUBLICLY-20H05029/20H050292021jisseki/）を加工して作

Alx4 relays sequential FGF signaling to induce lacrimal gland morphogenesis

The sequential use of signaling pathways is essential for the guidance of pluripotent progenitors into diverse cell fates. Here, we show that Shp2 exclusively mediates FGF but not PDGF signaling in the neural crest to control lacrimal gland development. In addition to preventing p53-independent apoptosis and promoting the migration of Sox10-expressing neural crests, Shp2 is also required for expression of the homeodomain transcription factor Alx4, which directly controls Fgf10 expression in the periocular mesenchyme that is necessary for lacrimal gland induction. We show that Alx4 binds an Fgf10 intronic element conserved in terrestrial but not aquatic animals, underlying the evolutionary emergence of the lacrimal gland system in response to an airy environment. Inactivation of ALX4/Alx4 causes lacrimal gland aplasia in both human and mouse. These results reveal a key role of Alx4 in mediating FGF-Shp2-FGF signaling in the neural crest for lacrimal gland development., The dry eye disease caused by lacrimal gland dysgenesis is one of the most common ocular ailments. In this study, we show that Shp2 mediates the sequential use of FGF signaling in lacrimal gland development. Our study identifies Alx4 as a novel target of Shp2 signaling and a causal gene for lacrimal gland aplasia in humans. Given this result, there may also be a potential role for Alx4 in guiding pluripotent stem cells to produce lacrimal gland tissue. Finally, our data reveals an Alx4-Fgf10 regulatory unit broadly conserved in the diverse array of terrestrial animals from humans to reptiles, but not in aquatic animals such as amphibians and fish, which sheds light on how the lacrimal gland arose as an evolutionary innovation of terrestrial animals to adapt to their newfound exposure to an airy environment

Inhibition of the mitochondria-shaping protein Opa1 restores sensitivity to Gefitinib in a lung adenocarcinomaresistant cell line

Drug resistance limits the efficacy of chemotherapy and targeted cancer treatments, calling for the identification of druggable targets to overcome it. Here we show that the mitochondria-shaping protein Opa1 participates in resistance against the tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib in a lung adenocarcinoma cell line. Respiratory profiling revealed that oxidative metabolism was increased in this gefitinib-resistant lung cancer cell line. Accordingly, resistant cells depended on mitochondrial ATP generation, and their mitochondria were elongated with narrower cristae. In the resistant cells, levels of Opa1 were increased and its genetic or pharmacological inhibition reverted the mitochondrial morphology changes and sensitized them to gefitinib-induced cytochrome c release and apoptosis. In vivo, the size of gefitinib-resistant lung orthotopic tumors was reduced when gefitinib was combined with the specific Opa1 inhibitor MYLS22. The combo gefitinib-MYLS22 treatment increased tumor apoptosis and reduced its proliferation. Thus, the mitochondrial protein Opa1 participates in gefitinib resistance and can be targeted to overcome it

Identifying regulational alterations in gene regulatory networks by state space representation of vector autoregressive models and variational annealing

Background: In the analysis of effects by cell treatment such as drug dosing, identifying changes on gene network structures between normal and treated cells is a key task. A possible way for identifying the changes is to compare structures of networks estimated from data on normal and treated cells separately. However, this approach usually fails to estimate accurate gene networks due to the limited length of time series data and measurement noise. Thus, approaches that identify changes on regulations by using time series data on both conditions in an efficient manner are demanded. Methods: We propose a new statistical approach that is based on the state space representation of the vector autoregressive model and estimates gene networks on two different conditions in order to identify changes on regulations between the conditions. In the mathematical model of our approach, hidden binary variables are newly introduced to indicate the presence of regulations on each condition. The use of the hidden binary variables enables an efficient data usage; data on both conditions are used for commonly existing regulations, while for condition specific regulations corresponding data are only applied. Also, the similarity of networks on two conditions is automatically considered from the design of the potential function for the hidden binary variables. For the estimation of the hidden binary variables, we derive a new variational annealing method that searches the configuration of the binary variables maximizing the marginal likelihood. Results: For the performance evaluation, we use time series data from two topologically similar synthetic networks, and confirm that our proposed approach estimates commonly existing regulations as well as changes on regulations with higher coverage and precision than other existing approaches in almost all the experimental settings. For a real data application, our proposed approach is applied to time series data from normal Human lung cells and Human lung cells treated by stimulating EGF-receptors and dosing an anticancer drug termed Gefitinib. In the treated lung cells, a cancer cell condition is simulated by the stimulation of EGF-receptors, but the effect would be counteracted due to the selective inhibition of EGF-receptors by Gefitinib. However, gene expression profiles are actually different between the conditions, and the genes related to the identified changes are considered as possible off-targets of Gefitinib. Conclusions: From the synthetically generated time series data, our proposed approach can identify changes on regulations more accurately than existing methods. By applying the proposed approach to the time series data on normal and treated Human lung cells, candidates of off-target genes of Gefitinib are found. According to the published clinical information, one of the genes can be related to a factor of interstitial pneumonia, which is known as a side effect of Gefitinib

Quinoid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-mediated production of reactive oxygen species and subsequet activation of NF-κB and induction of cyclooxygenase-2

Tobacco smoke and the atmosphere consist of a wide variety of compounds with adverse health effects. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are principal toxic compounds. Some of PAHs containing oxygen (quinoid PAHs) generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) through enzymatic and nonenzymatic redox cycling reactions. ROS can cause severe oxidative stress leading to various diseases such as cancer and inflammation. In this study, we estimated the intracellular ROS production and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) translocation in A549 cells exposed to isomers of quinoid PAHs having two to four rings. We found that both acenaphthenequinone (AcQ) and phenanthrene-9,10-quinone (PQ) enhanced ROS generation and that AcQ translocated NF-κB from the cytosol to the nucleus. In addition, AcQ induced cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production were mediated by the activation of NF-κB. Upregulation of NF-κB and COX-2 expression and PGE2 production by AcQ treatment was suppressed by the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine. These results provide that AcQ might play an important role in human lung cancer and inflammatory diseases.研究ノート (Note

Oncogenic fusion gene CD74-NRG1 confers cancer stem cell-like properties in lung cancer through a IGF2 autocrine/paracrine circuit

The CD74-Neuregulin1 (NRG1) fusion gene was recently identified as novel driver of invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma, a malignant form of lung cancer. However, the function of the CD74-NRG1 fusion gene in adenocarcinoma pathogenesis and the mechanisms by which it may impart protumorigenic characteristics to cancer stem cells (CSC) is still unclear. In this study, we found that the expression of the CD74-NRG1 fusion gene increased the population of lung cancer cells with CSC-like properties. CD74-NRG1 expression facilitated sphere formation not only of cancer cells, but also of nonmalignant lung epithelial cells. Using a limiting dilution assay in a xenograft model, we further show that the CD74-NRG1 fusion gene enhanced tumor initiation. Mechanistically, we found that CD74-NRG1 expression promoted the phosphorylation of ErbB2/3 and activated the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway. Furthermore, the expression of the secreted insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) and phosphorylation of its receptor, IGF1R, were enhanced in an NF-κB-dependent manner in cells expressing CD74-NRG1. These findings suggest that CD74-NRG1-induced NF-κB activity promotes the IGF2 autocrine/paracrine circuit. Moreover, inhibition of ErbB2, PI3K, NF-κB, or IGF2 suppressed CD74-NRG1-induced tumor sphere formation. Therefore, our study provides a preclinical rationale for developing treatment approaches based on these identified pathways to suppress CSC properties that promote tumor progression and recurrence. © 2016 American Association for Cancer Research