Protein Cell All Journals

Mar 2025, Volume 16 Issue 3

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  • COMMENTARY
    SMURF1: a promising target for colon cancer therapy
    Xiufang Xiong, Yongchao Zhao, Yi Sun
  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    Endosomal catabolism of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate is fundamental in building resilience against pathogens
    Chao Yang, Longfeng Yao, Dan Chen, Changling Chen, Wenbo Li, Hua Tong, Zihang Cheng, Yanling Yan, Long Lin, Jing Zhang, Anbing Shi

    Endosomes are characterized by the presence of various phosphoinositides that are essential for defining the membrane properties. However, the interplay between endosomal phosphoinositides metabolism and innate immunity is yet to be fully understood. Here, our findings highlight the evolutionary continuity of RAB-10/Rab10’s involvement in regulating innate immunity. Upon infection of Caenorhabditis elegans with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an increase in RAB-10 activity was observed in the intestine. Conversely, when RAB-10 was absent, the intestinal diacylglycerols (DAGs) decreased, and the animal’s response to the pathogen was impaired. Further research revealed that UNC-16/JIP3 acts as an RAB-10 effector, facilitating the recruitment of phospholipase EGL-8 to endosomes. This leads to a decrease in endosomal phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) and an elevation of DAGs, as well as the activation of the PMK-1/p38 MAPK innate immune pathway. It is noteworthy that the dimerization of UNC-16 is a prerequisite for its interaction with RAB-10(GTP) and the recruitment of EGL-8. Moreover, we ascertained that the rise in RAB-10 activity, due to infection, was attributed to the augmented expression of LET-413/Erbin, and the nuclear receptor NHR-25/NR5A1/2 was determined to be indispensable for this increase. Hence, this study illuminates the significance of endosomal PI(4,5)P2 catabolism in boosting innate immunity and outlines an NHR-25-mediated mechanism for pathogen detection in intestinal epithelia.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    IL-24 promotes atopic dermatitis-like inflammation through driving MRSA-induced allergic responses
    Xinmin Qian, Meiyi Tong, Tianqing Zhang, Qingqing Li, Meng Hua, Nan Zhou, Wenwen Zeng

    Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a prevalent inflammatory skin disorder in which patients experience recurrent eczematous lesions and intense itching. The colonization of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is correlated with the severity of the disease, but its role in AD development remains elusive. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we uncovered that keratinocytes activate a distinct immune response characterized by induction of Il24 when exposed to methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Further experiments using animal models showed that the administration of recombinant IL-24 protein worsened AD-like pathology. Genetic ablation of Il24 or the receptor Il20rb in keratinocytes alleviated allergic inflammation and atopic march. Mechanistically, IL-24 acted through its heterodimeric receptors on keratinocytes and augmented the production of IL-33, which in turn aggravated type 2 immunity and AD-like skin conditions. Overall, these findings establish IL-24 as a critical factor for onset and progression of AD and a compelling therapeutic target.

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
    High-throughput single-microbe RNA sequencing reveals adaptive state heterogeneity and host-phage activity associations in human gut microbiome
    Yifei Shen, Qinghong Qian, Liguo Ding, Wenxin Qu, Tianyu Zhang, Mengdi Song, Yingjuan Huang, Mengting Wang, Ziye Xu, Jiaye Chen, Ling Dong, Hongyu Chen, Enhui Shen, Shufa Zheng, Yu Chen, Jiong Liu, Longjiang Fan, Yongcheng Wang

    Microbial communities such as those residing in the human gut are highly diverse and complex, and many with important implications for health and diseases. The effects and functions of these microbial communities are determined not only by their species compositions and diversities but also by the dynamic intra- and inter-cellular states at the transcriptional level. Powerful and scalable technologies capable of acquiring single-microbe-resolution RNA sequencing information in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of complex microbial communities together with their hosts are therefore utterly needed. Here we report the development and utilization of a droplet-based smRNA-seq (single-microbe RNA sequencing) method capable of identifying large species varieties in human samples, which we name smRandom-seq2. Together with a triple-module computational pipeline designed for the bacteria and bacteriophage sequencing data by smRandom-seq2 in four human gut samples, we established a single-cell level bacterial transcriptional landscape of human gut microbiome, which included 29,742 single microbes and 329 unique species. Distinct adaptive response states among species in Prevotella and Roseburia genera and intrinsic adaptive strategy heterogeneity in Phascolarctobacterium succinatutens were uncovered. Additionally, we identified hundreds of novel host-phage transcriptional activity associations in the human gut microbiome. Our results indicated that smRandom-seq2 is a high-throughput and high-resolution smRNA-seq technique that is highly adaptable to complex microbial communities in real-world situations and promises new perspectives in the understanding of human microbiomes.

  • LETTER
    A novel loop-structure-based bispecific CAR that targets CD19 and CD22 with enhanced therapeutic efficacy against B-cell malignancies
    Lijun Zhao, Shuhong Li, Xiaoyi Wei, Xuexiu Qi, Qiaoru Guo, Licai Shi, Ji-Shuai Zhang, Jun Li, Ze-Lin Liu, Zhi Guo, Hongyu Zhang, Jia Feng, Yuanyuan Shi, Suping Zhang, Yu J. Cao