Selective activation of tumor growth-promoting Ca2+ channel MS4A12 in colon cancer by caudal type homeobox transcription factor CDX2

Colon cancer-associated MS4A12 is a novel colon-specific component of store-operated Ca2+ (SOC) entry sensitizing cells for epidermal growth factor (EGF)-mediated effects on proliferation and chemotaxis. In the present study, we investigated regulation of the MS4A12 promoter to understand the mechanisms responsible for strict transcriptional restriction of this gene to the colonic epithelial cell lineage. DNA-binding assays and luciferase reporter assays showed that MS4A12 promoter activity is governed by a single CDX homeobox transcription factor binding element. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated silencing of intestine-specific transcription factors CDX1 and CDX2 and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) in LoVo and SW48 colon cancer cells revealed that MS4A12 transcript and protein expression is essentially dependent on the presence of endogenous CDX2. In summary, our findings provide a rationale for colon-specific expression of MS4A12. Moreover, this is the first report establishing CDX2 as transactivator of tumor growth-promoting gene expression in colon cancer, adding to untangle the complex and conflicting biological functions of CDX2 in colon cancer and supporting MS4A12 as important factor for normal colonic development as well as for the biology and treatment of colon cancer

Molecular Characterization of Virus-induced Autoantibody Responses

Here we present a comprehensive molecular mapping of virus-induced autoimmune B cell responses obtained by serological identification of antigens by recombinant expression cloning analysis. Immunoscreening of cDNA expression libraries of various organs (lung, liver, and spleen) using sera from mice infected with cytopathic (vaccinia virus [VV]) or noncytopathic (lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus [LCMV]) viruses revealed a broad specificity of the elicited autoantibody response. Interestingly, the majority of the identified autoantigens have been previously described as autoantigens in humans. We found that induction of virus-induced autoantibodies of the immunoglobulin G class largely depends on the CD40–CD40L-mediated interaction between T and B cells. Furthermore, antibody titers against a number of autoantigens were comparable to the concomitantly induced antiviral antibody response. Comparison of serum reactivity against a selected panel of autoantigens after infection with VV, LCMV, or vesicular stomatitis virus showed that the different virus infections triggered distinct autoantibody responses, suggesting that virus infections may leave specific “autoantibody fingerprints” in the infected host

rapmad: Robust analysis of peptide microarray data

Background: Peptide microarrays offer an enormous potential as a screening tool for peptidomics experiments and have recently seen an increased field of application ranging from immunological studies to systems biology. By allowing the parallel analysis of thousands of peptides in a single run they are suitable for high-throughput settings. Since data characteristics of peptide microarrays differ from DNA oligonucleotide microarrays, computational methods need to be tailored to these specifications to allow a robust and automated data analysis. While follow-up experiments can ensure the specificity of results, sensitivity cannot be recovered in later steps. Providing sensitivity is thus a primary goal of data analysis procedures. To this end we created rapmad (Robust Alignment of Peptide MicroArray Data), a novel computational tool implemented in R. Results: We evaluated rapmad in antibody reactivity experiments for several thousand peptide spots and compared it to two existing algorithms for the analysis of peptide microarrays. rapmad displays competitive and superior behavior to existing software solutions. Particularly, it shows substantially improved sensitivity for low intensity settings without sacrificing specificity. It thereby contributes to increasing the effectiveness of high throughput screening experiments. Conclusions: rapmad allows the robust and sensitive, automated analysis of high-throughput peptide array data. The rapmad R-package as well as the data sets are available from http://www.tron-mz.de/compmed

Corrigendum: SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants: burden of disease, impact on vaccine effectiveness and need for variant-adapted vaccines

A Corrigendum on "SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants: burden of disease, impact on vaccine effectiveness and need for variant-adapted vaccines" by Pather S, Madhi SA, Cowling BJ, Moss P, Kamil JP, Ciesek S, Muik A and Türeci Ö (2023). . 14:1130539. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.113053

Mutanome Engineered RNA Immunotherapy: Towards Patient-Centered Tumor Vaccination

Advances in nucleic acid sequencing technologies have revolutionized the field of genomics, allowing the efficient targeting of mutated neoantigens for personalized cancer vaccination. Due to their absence during negative selection of T cells and their lack of expression in healthy tissue, tumor mutations are considered as optimal targets for cancer immunotherapy. Preclinical and early clinical data suggest that synthetic mRNA can serve as potent drug format allowing the cost efficient production of highly efficient vaccines in a timely manner. In this review, we describe a process, which integrates next generation sequencing based cancer mutanome mapping, in silico target selection and prioritization approaches, and mRNA vaccine manufacturing and delivery into a process we refer to as MERIT (mutanome engineered RNA immunotherapy)