Product Information

The human brain is composed of a complex assembly of about 171 billion heterogeneous cellular units (86 billion neurons and 85 billion non-neuronal glia cells). A comprehensive description of brain cells is necessary to understand the nervous system in health and disease. Recently,advances in genomics have permitted the accurate analysis of the full transcriptome of single cells (scRNA-seq). We have built upon such technical progress to combine scRNA-seq with patch-clamping electrophysiological recording and morphological analysis of single human neurons in vitro. This new powerful method,referred to as Patch-seq,enables a thorough,multimodal profiling of neurons and permits us to expose the links between functional properties,morphology,and gene expression. Here,we present a detailed Patch-seq protocol for isolating single neurons from in vitro neuronal cultures. We have validated the Patch-seq whole-transcriptome profiling method with human neurons generated from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells (ESCs/iPSCs) derived from healthy subjects,but the procedure may be applied to any kind of cell type in vitro. Patch-seq may be used on neurons in vitro to profile cell types and states in depth to unravel the human molecular basis of neuronal diversity and investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying brain disorders. View Publication

Traumatic spinal cord injury results in persistent disability due to disconnection of surviving neural elements. Neural stem cell transplantation has been proposed as a therapeutic option,but optimal cell type and mechanistic aspects remain poorly defined. Here,we describe robust engraftment into lesioned immunodeficient mice of human neuroepithelial stem cells derived from the developing spinal cord and maintained in self-renewing adherent conditions for long periods. Extensive elongation of both graft and host axons occurs. Improved functional recovery after transplantation depends on neural relay function through the grafted neurons,requires the matching of neural identity to the anatomical site of injury,and is accompanied by expression of specific marker proteins. Thus,human neuroepithelial stem cells may provide an anatomically specific relay function for spinal cord injury recovery. View Publication

Enterochromaffin (EC) cells constitute the largest population of intestinal epithelial enteroendocrine (EE) cells. EC cells are proposed to be specialized mechanosensory cells that release serotonin in response to epithelial forces,and thereby regulate intestinal fluid secretion. However,it is unknown whether EE and EC cells are directly mechanosensitive,and if so,what the molecular mechanism of their mechanosensitivity is. Consequently,the role of EE and EC cells in gastrointestinal mechanobiology is unclear. Piezo2 mechanosensitive ion channels are important for some specialized epithelial mechanosensors,and they are expressed in mouse and human EC cells. Here,we use EC and EE cell lineage tracing in multiple mouse models to show that Piezo2 is expressed in a subset of murine EE and EC cells,and it is distributed near serotonin vesicles by superresolution microscopy. Mechanical stimulation of a subset of isolated EE cells leads to a rapid inward ionic current,which is diminished by Piezo2 knockdown and channel inhibitors. In these mechanosensitive EE cells force leads to Piezo2-dependent intracellular Ca2+ increase in isolated cells as well as in EE cells within intestinal organoids,and Piezo2-dependent mechanosensitive serotonin release in EC cells. Conditional knockout of intestinal epithelial Piezo2 results in a significant decrease in mechanically stimulated epithelial secretion. This study shows that a subset of primary EE and EC cells is mechanosensitive,uncovers Piezo2 as their primary mechanotransducer,defines the molecular mechanism of their mechanotransduction and mechanosensitive serotonin release,and establishes the role of epithelial Piezo2 mechanosensitive ion channels in regulation of intestinal physiology. View Publication

Cattle are an economically important domestic animal species. In vitro 2D cultures of intestinal epithelial cells or epithelial cell lines have been widely used to study cell function and host-pathogen interactions in the bovine intestine. However,these cultures lack the cellular diversity encountered in the intestinal epithelium,and the physiological relevance of monocultures of transformed cell lines is uncertain. Little is also known of the factors that influence cell differentiation and homeostasis in the bovine intestinal epithelium,and few cell-specific markers that can distinguish the different intestinal epithelial cell lineages have been reported. Here we describe a simple and reliable procedure to establish in vitro 3D enteroid,or mini gut" cultures from bovine small intestinal (ileal) crypts. These enteroids contained a continuous central lumen lined with a single layer of polarized enterocytes bound by tight junctions with abundant microvilli on their apical surfaces. Histological and transcriptional analyses suggested that the enteroids comprised a mixed population of intestinal epithelial cell lineages including intestinal stem cells enterocytes Paneth cells goblet cells and enteroendocrine cells. We show that bovine enteroids can be successfully maintained long-term through multiple serial passages without observable changes to their growth characteristics morphology or transcriptome. Furthermore the bovine enteroids can be cryopreserved and viable cultures recovered from frozen stocks. Our data suggest that these 3D bovine enteroid cultures represent a novel physiologically-relevant and tractable in vitro system in which epithelial cell differentiation and function and host-pathogen interactions in the bovine small intestine can be studied." View Publication

Broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies (bNAbs) isolated from infected subjects display protective potential in animal models. Their elicitation by immunization is thus highly desirable. The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) is the sole viral target of bnAbs,but is also targeted by binding,non-neutralizing antibodies. Env-based immunogens tested so far in various animal species and humans have elicited binding and autologous neutralizing antibodies but not bNAbs (with a few notable exceptions). The underlying reasons for this are not well understood despite intensive efforts to characterize the binding specificities of the elicited antibodies; mostly by employing serologic methodologies and monoclonal antibody isolation and characterization. These approaches provide limited information on the ontogenies and clonal B cell lineages that expand following Env-immunization. Thus,our current understanding on how the expansion of particular B cell lineages by Env may be linked to the development of non-neutralizing antibodies is limited. Here,in addition to serological analysis,we employed high-throughput BCR sequence analysis from the periphery,lymph nodes and bone marrow,as well as B cell- and antibody-isolation and characterization methods,to compare in great detail the B cell and antibody responses elicited in non-human primates by two forms of the clade C HIV Env 426c: one representing the full length extracellular portion of Env while the other lacking the variable domains 1,2 and 3 and three conserved N-linked glycosylation sites. The two forms were equally immunogenic,but only the latter elicited neutralizing antibodies by stimulating a more restricted expansion of B cells to a narrower set of IGH/IGK/IGL-V genes that represented a small fraction (0.003-0.02{\%}) of total B cells. Our study provides new information on how Env antigenic differences drastically affect the expansion of particular B cell lineages and supports immunogen-design efforts aiming at stimulating the expansion of cells expressing particular B cell receptors. View Publication

In recent years,immunotherapy has shown considerable promise in the management of several malignancies. However,the majority of preclinical studies have been conducted in rodents,the results of which often translate poorly to patients given the substantial differences between murine and human immunology. As the porcine immune system is far more analogous to that of humans,pigs may serve as a supplementary preclinical model for future testing of such therapies. We have generated the genetically modified Oncopig with inducible tumor formation resulting from concomitant KRAS(G12D) and TP53(R167H) mutations under control of an adenoviral vector Cre-recombinase (AdCre). The objective of this study was to characterize the tumor microenvironment in this novel animal model with respect to T-cell responses in particular and to elucidate the potential use of Oncopigs for future preclinical testing of cancer immunotherapies. In this study,we observed pronounced intratumoral T-cell infiltration with a strong CD8$\beta$(+) predominance alongside a representation of highly differentiated $\gamma$$\delta$ T cells. The infiltrating CD8$\beta$(+) T cells displayed increased expression of the cytotoxic marker perforin when compared with the peripheral T-cell pool. Similarly,there was robust granzyme B staining localizing to the tumors; affirming the presence of cytotoxic immune cells within the tumor. In parallel with this antitumor immune response,the tumors displayed enrichment in FOXP3-expressing T cells and increased gene expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1),cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA4),and programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL1). Finally,we investigated the Oncopig immune system in mediating antitumor immunity. We observed pronounced killing of autologous tumor cells,which demonstrates the propensity of the Oncopig immune system to recognize and mount a cytotoxic response against tumor cells. Together,these findings suggest innate and adaptive recognition of the induced tumors with a concomitant in vivo suppression of T-cell effector functions. Combined,the data support that the Oncopig may serve as a valuable model for future preclinical testing of immunotherapies aimed at reactivating tumor-directed cytotoxicity in vivo. View Publication

Economic development has become a prominent issue for state governments. Nevertheless,states vary in the economic policies they choose. Two general approaches to the issue are discussed: the maintenance/attraction strategy and the creation strategy. Factor analysis allows us to gauge state effort on these two criteria. Regression analysis shows that political culture is an important factor in predicting which approach a state chooses,with traditionalistic states favoring the maintenance/attraction strategy,and moralistic states favoring the creation alternative. Other predictors of state policy choices include the condition of the economy and the diffusion of innovations. Also discussed is the interaction of political culture with other relevant variables in shaping state policies.

The T cell antigen receptor (TCR) recognizes peptides from pathogenic proteins bound in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). To convert this binding event into downstream signaling,the TCR complex contains immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) that act as docking sites for the cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase ZAP-70. Unique among antigen receptors,the TCR complex uses 10 ITAMs to transduce peptide-MHC binding to the cell interior. Using synthetic,drug-inducible receptor-ligand pairs,it was found that greater ITAM multiplicity primarily enhanced the efficiency with which ligand binding was converted into an intracellular signal. This manifested as an increase in the fraction of cells that became activated in response to antigen,and a more synchronous initiation of TCR-proximal signaling,rather than direct amplification of the intracellular signals. Exploiting these findings,the potency and selectivity of chimeric antigen receptors targeted against cancer were substantially enhanced by modulating the number of encoded ITAMs. View Publication

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) is a low-grade B-cell neoplasm and ∼2{\%} to 9{\%} patients develop an aggressive lymphoma,most commonly diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Richter transformation,DLBCL-RT). Programmed death-1 (PD-1) pathway plays a crucial role in tumor host immunity evasion and its blockade has emerged as an effective anti-cancer immunotherapy. PD-L1 and PD-1 expression has shown predictive value in anti-PD cancer immunotherapy; however,it has not been well documented in CLL/SLL and DLBCL-RT. We evaluated PD-1 and PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemistry in 39 CLL/SLL,15 DLBCL-RT,and 26 other DLBCL. In CLL/SLL,neoplastic B-cell PD-1 expression was weak and restricted to prolymphocytes/paraimmunoblasts within proliferation centers (PCs) and accentuated PCs of all sizes. Neoplastic B-cell PD-1 expression was highly prevalent and demonstrated increased intensity in DLBCL-RT,but in contrast was only rarely seen in other DLBCL (12/15 vs. 1/26; P{\textless}0.0001). An excellent correlation (90{\%} concordance) was observed between neoplastic B-cell PD-1 immunohistochemistry positivity and molecularly defined CLL/SLL clonal relatedness in DLBCL-RT. PD-L1 expression was observed on the neoplastic B cells in rare DLBCL-RT and other DLBCL cases (1/15 vs. 1/26; P{\textgreater}0.05) as well as background histiocytes and dendritic cells. Overall survival of DLBCL-RT was significantly inferior to that of the other DLBCL (median,16.9 vs. 106.1 mo; P=0.002). Our findings suggest a biological continuum from prolymphocytes/paraimmunoblasts in CLL/SLL PCs to the neoplastic B-cells in DLBCL-RT. The characteristic PD-1 expression in DLBCL-RT makes it a potential surrogate marker for determining clonal relatedness to CLL/SLL,which may have important prognostic and therapeutic implications. View Publication

Recently,deficiency in the cytosolic DNA sensor RNA Polymerase III was described in children with severe primary varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection in the CNS and lungs. In the present study we examined adult patients with VZV CNS infection caused by viral reactivation. By whole exome sequencing we identified mutations in POL III genes in two of eight patients. These mutations were located in the coding regions of the subunits POLR3A and POLR3E. In functional assays,we found impaired expression of antiviral and inflammatory cytokines in response to the POL III agonist Poly(dA:dT) as well as increased viral replication in patient cells compared to controls. Altogether,this study provides significant extension on the current knowledge on susceptibility to VZV infection by demonstrating mutations in POL III genes associated with impaired immunological sensing of AT-rich DNA in adult patients with VZV CNS infection. View Publication