ALBERT

Description: Globo H (GH) is a hexasaccharide specifically overexpressed on a variety of cancer cells and therefore, a good candidate for cancer vaccine development. To identify the optimal carrier and adjuvant combination, we chemically synthesized and linked GH to a carrier protein, including keyhole limpet hemocyanion, diphtheria toxoid cross-reactive material (CRM)...

Description: While the importance of changes in host biodiversity for disease risk continues to gain empirical support, the influence of natural variation in parasite diversity on epidemiological outcomes remains largely overlooked. Here, we combined field infection data from 2,191 amphibian hosts representing 158 parasite assemblages with mechanistic experiments to evaluate the influence of parasite richness on both parasite transmission and host fitness. Using a guild of larval trematode parasites (six species) and an amphibian host, our experiments contrasted the effects of parasite richness vs. composition, observed vs. randomized assemblages, and additive vs. replacement designs. Consistent with the dilution effect hypothesis extended to intrahost diversity, increases in parasite richness reduced overall infection success, including infections by the most virulent parasite. However, the effects of parasite richness on host growth and survival were context dependent; pathology increased when parasites were administered additively, even when the presence of the most pathogenic species was held constant, but decreased when added species replaced or reduced virulent species, emphasizing the importance of community composition and assembly. These results were similar or stronger when community structures were weighted by their observed frequencies in nature. The field data also revealed the highly nested structure of parasite assemblages, with virulent species generally occupying basal positions, suggesting that increases in parasite richness and antagonism in nature will decrease virulent infections. Our findings emphasize the importance of parasite biodiversity and coinfection in affecting epidemiological responses and highlight the value of integrating research on biodiversity and community ecology for understanding infectious diseases.

Description: The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, but has experienced episodic climate change during the past 40 million years. It remains unclear how ancient periods of climate change have shaped Antarctic biodiversity. The origin of antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) in Antarctic notothenioid fishes has become a classic example of how the evolution of a key innovation in response to climate change can drive adaptive radiation. By using a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of notothenioids and reconstructed paleoclimate, we demonstrate that the origin of AFGP occurred between 42 and 22 Ma, which includes a period of global cooling approximately 35 Ma. However, the most species-rich lineages diversified and evolved significant ecological differences at least 10 million years after the origin of AFGPs, during a second cooling event in the Late Miocene (11.6–5.3 Ma). This pattern indicates that AFGP was not the sole trigger of the notothenioid adaptive radiation. Instead, the bulk of the species richness and ecological diversity originated during the Late Miocene and into the Early Pliocene, a time coincident with the origin of polar conditions and increased ice activity in the Southern Ocean. Our results challenge the current understanding of the evolution of Antarctic notothenioids suggesting that the ecological opportunity that underlies this adaptive radiation is not linked to a single trait, but rather to a combination of freeze avoidance offered by AFGPs and subsequent exploitation of new habitats and open niches created by increased glacial and ice sheet activity.

Description: The rapid genetic drift of influenza virus hemagglutinin is an obstacle to vaccine efficacy. Previously, we found that the consensus hemagglutinin DNA vaccine (pCHA5) can only elicit moderate neutralization activities toward the H5N1 clade 2.1 and clade 2.3 viruses. Two approaches were thus taken to improve the protection broadness of CHA5. The first one was to include certain surface amino acids that are characteristic of clade 2.3 viruses to improve the protection profiles. When we immunized mice with CHA5 harboring individual mutations, the antibodies elicited by CHA5 containing P157S elicited higher neutralizing activity against the clade 2.3 viruses. Likewise, the viruses pseudotyped with hemagglutinin containing 157S became more susceptible to neutralization. The second approach was to update the consensus sequence with more recent H5N1 strains, generating a second-generation DNA vaccine pCHA5II. We showed that pCHA5II was able to elicit higher cross-neutralization activities against all H5N1 viruses. Comparison of the neutralization profiles of CHA5 and CHA5II, and the animal challenge studies, revealed that CHA5II induced the broadest protection profile. We concluded that CHA5II combined with electroporation delivery is a promising strategy to induce antibodies with broad cross-reactivities against divergent H5N1 influenza viruses.

Description: Host–parasite interactions are embedded within complex communities composed of multiple host species and a cryptic assemblage of other parasites. To date, however, surprisingly few studies have explored the joint effects of host and parasite richness on disease risk, despite growing interest in the diversity–disease relationship. Here, we combined field surveys...

Description: Massively parallel DNA sequencing technologies provide an unprecedented ability to screen entire genomes for genetic changes associated with tumour progression. Here we describe the genomic analyses of four DNA samples from an African-American patient with basal-like breast cancer: peripheral blood, the primary tumour, a brain metastasis and a xenograft derived from the primary tumour. The metastasis contained two de novo mutations and a large deletion not present in the primary tumour, and was significantly enriched for 20 shared mutations. The xenograft retained all primary tumour mutations and displayed a mutation enrichment pattern that resembled the metastasis. Two overlapping large deletions, encompassing CTNNA1, were present in all three tumour samples. The differential mutation frequencies and structural variation patterns in metastasis and xenograft compared with the primary tumour indicate that secondary tumours may arise from a minority of cells within the primary tumour.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872544/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872544/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ding, Li -- Ellis, Matthew J -- Li, Shunqiang -- Larson, David E -- Chen, Ken -- Wallis, John W -- Harris, Christopher C -- McLellan, Michael D -- Fulton, Robert S -- Fulton, Lucinda L -- Abbott, Rachel M -- Hoog, Jeremy -- Dooling, David J -- Koboldt, Daniel C -- Schmidt, Heather -- Kalicki, Joelle -- Zhang, Qunyuan -- Chen, Lei -- Lin, Ling -- Wendl, Michael C -- McMichael, Joshua F -- Magrini, Vincent J -- Cook, Lisa -- McGrath, Sean D -- Vickery, Tammi L -- Appelbaum, Elizabeth -- Deschryver, Katherine -- Davies, Sherri -- Guintoli, Therese -- Lin, Li -- Crowder, Robert -- Tao, Yu -- Snider, Jacqueline E -- Smith, Scott M -- Dukes, Adam F -- Sanderson, Gabriel E -- Pohl, Craig S -- Delehaunty, Kim D -- Fronick, Catrina C -- Pape, Kimberley A -- Reed, Jerry S -- Robinson, Jody S -- Hodges, Jennifer S -- Schierding, William -- Dees, Nathan D -- Shen, Dong -- Locke, Devin P -- Wiechert, Madeline E -- Eldred, James M -- Peck, Josh B -- Oberkfell, Benjamin J -- Lolofie, Justin T -- Du, Feiyu -- Hawkins, Amy E -- O'Laughlin, Michelle D -- Bernard, Kelly E -- Cunningham, Mark -- Elliott, Glendoria -- Mason, Mark D -- Thompson, Dominic M Jr -- Ivanovich, Jennifer L -- Goodfellow, Paul J -- Perou, Charles M -- Weinstock, George M -- Aft, Rebecca -- Watson, Mark -- Ley, Timothy J -- Wilson, Richard K -- Mardis, Elaine R -- 1 U01 CA114722-01/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- 3P50 CA68438/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- U01 CA114722/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- U10 CA076001/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003079/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003079-07/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- UL1 RR024992/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- UL1 TR000448/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2010 Apr 15;464(7291):999-1005. doi: 10.1038/nature08989.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉The Genome Center at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20393555" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Severe behavioural deficits in psychiatric diseases such as autism and schizophrenia have been hypothesized to arise from elevations in the cellular balance of excitation and inhibition (E/I balance) within neural microcircuitry. This hypothesis could unify diverse streams of pathophysiological and genetic evidence, but has not been susceptible to direct testing. Here we design and use several novel optogenetic tools to causally investigate the cellular E/I balance hypothesis in freely moving mammals, and explore the associated circuit physiology. Elevation, but not reduction, of cellular E/I balance within the mouse medial prefrontal cortex was found to elicit a profound impairment in cellular information processing, associated with specific behavioural impairments and increased high-frequency power in the 30-80 Hz range, which have both been observed in clinical conditions in humans. Consistent with the E/I balance hypothesis, compensatory elevation of inhibitory cell excitability partially rescued social deficits caused by E/I balance elevation. These results provide support for the elevated cellular E/I balance hypothesis of severe neuropsychiatric disease-related symptoms.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4155501/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4155501/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Yizhar, Ofer -- Fenno, Lief E -- Prigge, Matthias -- Schneider, Franziska -- Davidson, Thomas J -- O'Shea, Daniel J -- Sohal, Vikaas S -- Goshen, Inbal -- Finkelstein, Joel -- Paz, Jeanne T -- Stehfest, Katja -- Fudim, Roman -- Ramakrishnan, Charu -- Huguenard, John R -- Hegemann, Peter -- Deisseroth, Karl -- DP1 OD000616/OD/NIH HHS/ -- R01 MH075957/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R01 MH086373/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS006477/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS034774/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 Jul 27;477(7363):171-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10360.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. ofer.yizhar@weizmann.ac.il〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21796121" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Ependymomas are common childhood brain tumours that occur throughout the nervous system, but are most common in the paediatric hindbrain. Current standard therapy comprises surgery and radiation, but not cytotoxic chemotherapy as it does not further increase survival. Whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing of 47 hindbrain ependymomas reveals an extremely low mutation rate, and zero significant recurrent somatic single nucleotide variants. Although devoid of recurrent single nucleotide variants and focal copy number aberrations, poor-prognosis hindbrain ependymomas exhibit a CpG island methylator phenotype. Transcriptional silencing driven by CpG methylation converges exclusively on targets of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 which represses expression of differentiation genes through trimethylation of H3K27. CpG island methylator phenotype-positive hindbrain ependymomas are responsive to clinical drugs that target either DNA or H3K27 methylation both in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that epigenetic modifiers are the first rational therapeutic candidates for this deadly malignancy, which is epigenetically deregulated but genetically bland.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174313/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174313/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mack, S C -- Witt, H -- Piro, R M -- Gu, L -- Zuyderduyn, S -- Stutz, A M -- Wang, X -- Gallo, M -- Garzia, L -- Zayne, K -- Zhang, X -- Ramaswamy, V -- Jager, N -- Jones, D T W -- Sill, M -- Pugh, T J -- Ryzhova, M -- Wani, K M -- Shih, D J H -- Head, R -- Remke, M -- Bailey, S D -- Zichner, T -- Faria, C C -- Barszczyk, M -- Stark, S -- Seker-Cin, H -- Hutter, S -- Johann, P -- Bender, S -- Hovestadt, V -- Tzaridis, T -- Dubuc, A M -- Northcott, P A -- Peacock, J -- Bertrand, K C -- Agnihotri, S -- Cavalli, F M G -- Clarke, I -- Nethery-Brokx, K -- Creasy, C L -- Verma, S K -- Koster, J -- Wu, X -- Yao, Y -- Milde, T -- Sin-Chan, P -- Zuccaro, J -- Lau, L -- Pereira, S -- Castelo-Branco, P -- Hirst, M -- Marra, M A -- Roberts, S S -- Fults, D -- Massimi, L -- Cho, Y J -- Van Meter, T -- Grajkowska, W -- Lach, B -- Kulozik, A E -- von Deimling, A -- Witt, O -- Scherer, S W -- Fan, X -- Muraszko, K M -- Kool, M -- Pomeroy, S L -- Gupta, N -- Phillips, J -- Huang, A -- Tabori, U -- Hawkins, C -- Malkin, D -- Kongkham, P N -- Weiss, W A -- Jabado, N -- Rutka, J T -- Bouffet, E -- Korbel, J O -- Lupien, M -- Aldape, K D -- Bader, G D -- Eils, R -- Lichter, P -- Dirks, P B -- Pfister, S M -- Korshunov, A -- Taylor, M D -- P30 CA016672/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- P50 CA097257/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA121941/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA148621/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA163737/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01CA148699/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01CA159859/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- England -- Nature. 2014 Feb 27;506(7489):445-50. doi: 10.1038/nature13108. Epub 2014 Feb 19.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada [3] Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada [4]. ; 1] Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69120, Germany [3] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [4]. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] Division of Molecular Genetics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] Division of Theoretical Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; Department of Molecular Genetics, Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M4N 1X8, Canada. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] Genome Biology, European Molecular Biology, Laboratory Meyerhofstr. 1, Heidelberg 69117, Germany. ; 1] Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. ; Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada. ; Department of Genetics, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03756, USA. ; 1] Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] Division of Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Children's Hospital Boston, MIT, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. ; 1] Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre-University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada. ; Cancer Epigenetics Discovery Performance Unit, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Collegeville, Pennsylvania 19426, USA. ; Department of Oncogenomics, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam 1105, The Netherlands. ; 1] Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [3] CCU Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] Centre for High-Throughput Biology, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4 British Columbia, Canada [2] Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada. ; 1] Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1L3, Canada [2] Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 3N1, Canada. ; Department of Pediatrics and National Capital Consortium, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, USA. ; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132, USA. ; Pediatric Neurosurgery, Catholic University Medical School, Gemelli Hospital, Rome 00168, Italy. ; Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. ; Department of Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0646, USA. ; Department of Pathology, University of Warsaw, Children's Memorial Health Institute University of Warsaw, Warsaw 04-730, Poland. ; Division of Anatomical Pathology, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada. ; 1] Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] Department of Neuropathology Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] University of Michigan Cell and Developmental Biology, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2200, USA [2] Department of Neurosurgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. ; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. ; Department of Neurosurgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0112, USA. ; Departments of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Neurosurgery, University of California, San Francisco, The Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, San Francisco, California 94158, USA. ; 1] Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Department of Neuro-oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada. ; Department of Haematology and Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada. ; 1] Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada [3] Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. ; Departments of Pediatrics and Human Genetics, McGill University and the McGill University Health Center Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec H3Z 2Z3, Canada. ; Department of Neuro-oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada. ; Genome Biology, European Molecular Biology, Laboratory Meyerhofstr. 1, Heidelberg 69117, Germany. ; 1] Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre-University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [3] Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X8, Canada. ; 1] Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada [2] Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada [3] Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada [4] Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. ; 1] Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany [2] Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg 69120, Germany [3] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany. ; 1] German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany [2] University of Michigan Cell and Developmental Biology, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2200, USA [3] CCU Neuropathology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24553142" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Structural characterization of the catalytically significant sites on solid catalyst surfaces is frequently tenuous because their fraction, among all sites, typically is quite low. Here we report the combined application of solid-state 13C-cross-polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-CPMAS-NMR) spectroscopy, density functional theory (DFT), and Zr X-ray absorption spectroscopy...