Browsing by Author "Xu, Wei"

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    ALDH1 Bio-activates Nifuroxazide to Eradicate ALDHHigh Melanoma-Initiating Cells
    (Elsevier, 2018-12-20) Sarvi, Sana; Crispin, Richard; Lu, Yuting; Zeng, Lifan; Hurley, Thomas D.; Houston, Douglas R.; von Kriegsheim, Alex; Chen, Che-Hong; Mochly-Rosen, Daria; Ranzani, Marco; Mathers, Marie E.; Xu, Xiaowei; Xu, Wei; Adams, David J.; Carragher, Neil O.; Fujita, Mayumi; Schuchter, Lynn; Unciti-Broceta, Asier; Brunton, Valerie G.; Patton, E. Elizabeth; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    5-Nitrofurans are antibiotic pro-drugs that have potential as cancer therapeutics. Here, we show that 5-nitrofurans can be bio-activated by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) 1A1/1A3 enzymes that are highly expressed in a subpopulation of cancer-initiating (stem) cells. We discover that the 5-nitrofuran, nifuroxazide, is selective for bio-activation by ALDH1 isoforms over ALDH2, whereby it both oxidizes ALDH1 and is converted to cytotoxic metabolites in a two-hit pro-drug mechanism. We show that ALDH1High melanoma cells are sensitive to nifuroxazide, while ALDH1A3 loss-of-function mutations confer drug resistance. In tumors, nifuroxazide targets ALDH1High melanoma subpopulations with the subsequent loss of melanoma-initiating cell potential. BRAF and MEK inhibitor therapy increases ALDH1 expression in patient melanomas, and effectively combines with nifuroxazide in melanoma cell models. The selective eradication of ALDH1High cells by nifuroxazide-ALDH1 activation goes beyond current strategies based on inhibiting ALDH1 and provides a rational basis for the nifuroxazide mechanism of action in cancer.
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    Characterisation of age and polarity at onset in bipolar disorder
    (Cambridge University Press, 2021-12) Kalman, Janos L.; Olde Loohuis, Loes M.; Vreeker, Annabel; McQuillin, Andrew; Stahl, Eli A.; Ruderfer, Douglas; Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Maria; Panagiotaropoulou, Georgia; Ripke, Stephan; Bigdeli, Tim B.; Stein, Frederike; Meller, Tina; Meinert, Susanne; Pelin, Helena; Streit, Fabian; Papiol, Sergi; Adams, Mark J.; Adolfsson, Rolf; Adorjan, Kristina; Agartz, Ingrid; Aminoff, Sofie R.; Anderson-Schmidt, Heike; Andreassen, Ole A.; Ardau, Raffaella; Aubry, Jean-Michel; Balaban, Ceylan; Bass, Nicholas; Baune, Bernhard T.; Bellivier, Frank; Benabarre, Antoni; Bengesser, Susanne; Berrettini, Wade H.; Boks, Marco P.; Bromet, Evelyn J.; Brosch, Katharina; Budde, Monika; Byerley, William; Cervantes, Pablo; Chillotti, Catina; Cichon, Sven; Clark, Scott R.; Comes, Ashley L.; Corvin, Aiden; Coryell, William; Craddock, Nick; Craig, David W.; Croarkin, Paul E.; Cruceanu, Cristiana; Czerski, Piotr M.; Dalkner, Nina; Dannlowski, Udo; Degenhardt, Franziska; Del Zompo, Maria; DePaulo, J. Raymond; Djurovic, Srdjan; Edenberg, Howard J.; Al Eissa, Mariam; Elvsåshagen, Torbjørn; Etain, Bruno; Fanous, Ayman H.; Fellendorf, Frederike; Fiorentino, Alessia; Forstner, Andreas J.; Frye, Mark A.; Fullerton, Janice M.; Gade, Katrin; Garnham, Julie; Gershon, Elliot; Gill, Michael; Goes, Fernando S.; Gordon-Smith, Katherine; Grof, Paul; Guzman-Parra, Jose; Hahn, Tim; Hasler, Roland; Heilbronner, Maria; Heilbronner, Urs; Jamain, Stephane; Jimenez, Esther; Jones, Ian; Jones, Lisa; Jonsson, Lina; Kahn, Rene S.; Kelsoe, John R.; Kennedy, James L.; Kircher, Tilo; Kirov, George; Kittel-Schneider, Sarah; Klöhn-Saghatolislam, Farah; Knowles, James A.; Kranz, Thorsten M.; Lagerberg, Trine Vik; Landen, Mikael; Lawson, William B.; Leboyer, Marion; Li, Qingqin S.; Maj, Mario; Malaspina, Dolores; Manchia, Mirko; Mayoral, Fermin; McElroy, Susan L.; McInnis, Melvin G.; McIntosh, Andrew M.; Medeiros, Helena; Melle, Ingrid; Milanova, Vihra; Mitchell, Philip B.; Monteleone, Palmiero; Monteleone, Alessio Maria; Nöthen, Markus M.; Novak, Tomas; Nurnberger, John I.; O'Brien, Niamh; O'Connell, Kevin S.; O'Donovan, Claire; O'Donovan, Michael C.; Opel, Nils; Ortiz, Abigail; Owen, Michael J.; Pålsson, Erik; Pato, Carlos; Pato, Michele T.; Pawlak, Joanna; Pfarr, Julia-Katharina; Pisanu, Claudia; Potash, James B.; Rapaport, Mark H.; Reich-Erkelenz, Daniela; Reif, Andreas; Reininghaus, Eva; Repple, Jonathan; Richard-Lepouriel, Hélène; Rietschel, Marcella; Ringwald, Kai; Roberts, Gloria; Rouleau, Guy; Schaupp, Sabrina; Scheftner, William A.; Schmitt, Simon; Schofield, Peter R.; Schubert, K. Oliver; Schulte, Eva C.; Schweizer, Barbara; Senner, Fanny; Severino, Giovanni; Sharp, Sally; Slaney, Claire; Smeland, Olav B.; Sobell, Janet L.; Squassina, Alessio; Stopkova, Pavla; Strauss, John; Tortorella, Alfonso; Turecki, Gustavo; Twarowska-Hauser, Joanna; Veldic, Marin; Vieta, Eduard; Vincent, John B.; Xu, Wei; Zai, Clement C.; Zandi, Peter P.; Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) Bipolar Disorder Working Group; International Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen); Colombia-US Cross Disorder Collaboration in Psychiatric Genetics; Di Florio, Arianna; Smoller, Jordan W.; Biernacka, Joanna M.; McMahon, Francis J.; Alda, Martin; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Koutsouleris, Nikolaos; Falkai, Peter; Freimer, Nelson B.; Andlauer, Till F.M.; Schulze, Thomas G.; Ophoff, Roel A.; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    Background: Studying phenotypic and genetic characteristics of age at onset (AAO) and polarity at onset (PAO) in bipolar disorder can provide new insights into disease pathology and facilitate the development of screening tools. Aims: To examine the genetic architecture of AAO and PAO and their association with bipolar disorder disease characteristics. Method: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and polygenic score (PGS) analyses of AAO (n = 12 977) and PAO (n = 6773) were conducted in patients with bipolar disorder from 34 cohorts and a replication sample (n = 2237). The association of onset with disease characteristics was investigated in two of these cohorts. Results: Earlier AAO was associated with a higher probability of psychotic symptoms, suicidality, lower educational attainment, not living together and fewer episodes. Depressive onset correlated with suicidality and manic onset correlated with delusions and manic episodes. Systematic differences in AAO between cohorts and continents of origin were observed. This was also reflected in single-nucleotide variant-based heritability estimates, with higher heritabilities for stricter onset definitions. Increased PGS for autism spectrum disorder (β = -0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), major depression (β = -0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), schizophrenia (β = -0.39 years, s.e. = 0.08), and educational attainment (β = -0.31 years, s.e. = 0.08) were associated with an earlier AAO. The AAO GWAS identified one significant locus, but this finding did not replicate. Neither GWAS nor PGS analyses yielded significant associations with PAO. Conclusions: AAO and PAO are associated with indicators of bipolar disorder severity. Individuals with an earlier onset show an increased polygenic liability for a broad spectrum of psychiatric traits. Systematic differences in AAO across cohorts, continents and phenotype definitions introduce significant heterogeneity, affecting analyses.
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    Genome-wide association study of more than 40,000 bipolar disorder cases provides new insights into the underlying biology
    (Springer Nature, 2021-06) Mullins, Niamh; Forstner, Andreas J.; O'Connell, Kevin S.; Coombes, Brandon; Coleman, Jonathan R.I.; Qiao, Zhen; Als, Thomas D.; Bigdeli, Tim B.; Børte, Sigrid; Bryois, Julien; Charney, Alexander W.; Drange, Ole Kristian; Gandal, Michael J.; Hagenaars, Saskia P.; Ikeda, Masashi; Kamitaki, Nolan; Kim, Minsoo; Krebs, Kristi; Panagiotaropoulou, Georgia; Schilder, Brian M.; Sloofman, Laura G.; Steinberg, Stacy; Trubetskoy, Vassily; Winsvold, Bendik S.; Won, Hong-Hee; Abramova, Liliya; Adorjan, Kristina; Agerbo, Esben; Al Eissa, Mariam; Albani, Diego; Alliey-Rodriguez, Ney; Anjorin, Adebayo; Antilla, Verneri; Antoniou, Anastasia; Awasthi, Swapnil; Baek, Ji Hyun; Bækvad-Hansen, Marie; Bass, Nicholas; Bauer, Michael; Beins, Eva C.; Bergen, Sarah E.; Birner, Armin; Pedersen, Carsten Bøcker; Bøen, Erlend; Boks, Marco P.; Bosch, Rosa; Brum, Murielle; Brumpton, Ben M.; Brunkhorst-Kanaan, Nathalie; Budde, Monika; Bybjerg-Grauholm, Jonas; Byerley, William; Cairns, Murray; Casas, Miquel; Cervantes, Pablo; Clarke, Toni-Kim; Cruceanu, Cristiana; Cuellar-Barboza, Alfredo; Cunningham, Julie; Curtis, David; Czerski, Piotr M.; Dale, Anders M.; Dalkner, Nina; David, Friederike S.; Degenhardt, Franziska; Djurovic, Srdjan; Dobbyn, Amanda L.; Douzenis, Athanassios; Elvsåshagen, Torbjørn; Escott-Price, Valentina; Ferrier, I. Nicol; Fiorentino, Alessia; Foroud, Tatiana M.; Forty, Liz; Frank, Josef; Frei, Oleksandr; Freimer, Nelson B.; Frisén, Louise; Gade, Katrin; Garnham, Julie; Gelernter, Joel; Pedersen, Marianne Giørtz; Gizer, Ian R.; Gordon, Scott D.; Gordon-Smith, Katherine; Greenwood, Tiffany A.; Grove, Jakob; Guzman-Parra, José; Ha, Kyooseob; Haraldsson, Magnus; Hautzinger, Martin; Heilbronner, Urs; Hellgren, Dennis; Herms, Stefan; Hoffmann, Per; Holmans, Peter A.; Huckins, Laura; Jamain, Stéphane; Johnson, Jessica S.; Kalman, Janos L.; Kamatani, Yoichiro; Kennedy, James L.; Kittel-Schneider, Sarah; Knowles, James A.; Kogevinas, Manolis; Koromina, Maria; Kranz, Thorsten M.; Kranzler, Henry R.; Kubo, Michiaki; Kupka, Ralph; Kushner, Steven A.; Lavebratt, Catharina; Lawrence, Jacob; Leber, Markus; Lee, Heon-Jeong; Lee, Phil H.; Levy, Shawn E.; Lewis, Catrin; Liao, Calwing; Lucae, Susanne; Lundberg, Martin; MacIntyre, Donald J.; Magnusson, Sigurdur H.; Maier, Wolfgang; Maihofer, Adam; Malaspina, Dolores; Maratou, Eirini; Martinsson, Lina; Mattheisen, Manuel; McCarroll, Steven A.; McGregor, Nathaniel W.; McGuffin, Peter; McKay, James D.; Medeiros, Helena; Medland, Sarah E.; Millischer, Vincent; Montgomery, Grant W.; Moran, Jennifer L.; Morris, Derek W.; Mühleisen, Thomas W.; O'Brien, Niamh; O'Donovan, Claire; Loohuis, Loes M. Olde; Oruc, Lilijana; Papiol, Sergi; Pardiñas, Antonio F.; Perry, Amy; Pfennig, Andrea; Porichi, Evgenia; Potash, James B.; Quested, Digby; Raj, Towfique; Rapaport, Mark H.; DePaulo, J. Raymond; Regeer, Eline J.; Rice, John P.; Rivas, Fabio; Rivera, Margarita; Roth, Julian; Roussos, Panos; Ruderfer, Douglas M.; Sánchez-Mora, Cristina; Schulte, Eva C.; Senner, Fanny; Sharp, Sally; Shilling, Paul D.; Sigurdsson, Engilbert; Sirignano, Lea; Slaney, Claire; Smeland, Olav B.; Smith, Daniel J.; Sobell, Janet L.; Søholm Hansen, Christine; Artigas, Maria Soler; Spijker, Anne T.; Stein, Dan J.; Strauss, John S.; Świątkowska, Beata; Terao, Chikashi; Thorgeirsson, Thorgeir E.; Toma, Claudio; Tooney, Paul; Tsermpini, Evangelia-Eirini; Vawter, Marquis P.; Vedder, Helmut; Walters, James T.R.; Witt, Stephanie H.; Xi, Simon; Xu, Wei; Yang, Jessica Mei Kay; Young, Allan H.; Young, Hannah; Zandi, Peter P.; Zhou, Hang; Zillich, Lea; Adolfsson, Rolf; Agartz, Ingrid; Alda, Martin; Alfredsson, Lars; Babadjanova, Gulja; Backlund, Lena; Baune, Bernhard T.; Bellivier, Frank; Bengesser, Susanne; Berrettini, Wade H.; Blackwood, Douglas H.R.; Boehnke, Michael; Børglum, Anders D.; Breen, Gerome; Carr, Vaughan J.; Catts, Stanley; Corvin, Aiden; Craddock, Nicholas; Dannlowski, Udo; Dikeos, Dimitris; Esko, Tõnu; Etain, Bruno; Ferentinos, Panagiotis; Frye, Mark; Fullerton, Janice M.; Gawlik, Micha; Gershon, Elliot S.; Goes, Fernando S.; Green, Melissa J.; Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Maria; Hauser, Joanna; Henskens, Frans; Hillert, Jan; Hong, Kyung Sue; Hougaard, David M.; Hultman, Christina M.; Hveem, Kristian; Iwata, Nakao; Jablensky, Assen V.; Jones, Ian; Jones, Lisa A.; Kahn, René S.; Kelsoe, John R.; Kirov, George; Landén, Mikael; Leboyer, Marion; Lewis, Cathryn M.; Li, Qingqin S.; Lissowska, Jolanta; Lochner, Christine; Loughland, Carmel; Martin, Nicholas G.; Mathews, Carol A.; Mayoral, Fermin; McElroy, Susan L.; McIntosh, Andrew M.; McMahon, Francis J.; Melle, Ingrid; Michie, Patricia; Milani, Lili; Mitchell, Philip B.; Morken, Gunnar; Mors, Ole; Mortensen, Preben Bo; Mowry, Bryan; Müller-Myhsok, Bertram; Myers, Richard M.; Neale, Benjamin M.; Nievergelt, Caroline M.; Nordentoft, Merete; Nöthen, Markus M.; O'Donovan, Michael C.; Oedegaard, Ketil J.; Olsson, Tomas; Owen, Michael J.; Paciga, Sara A.; Pantelis, Chris; Pato, Carlos; Pato, Michele T.; Patrinos, George P.; Perlis, Roy H.; Posthuma, Danielle; Ramos-Quiroga, Josep Antoni; Reif, Andreas; Reininghaus, Eva Z.; Ribasés, Marta; Rietschel, Marcella; Ripke, Stephan; Rouleau, Guy A.; Saito, Takeo; Schall, Ulrich; Schalling, Martin; Schofield, Peter R.; Schulze, Thomas G.; Scott, Laura J.; Scott, Rodney J.; Serretti, Alessandro; Weickert, Cynthia Shannon; Smoller, Jordan W.; Stefansson, Hreinn; Stefansson, Kari; Stordal, Eystein; Streit, Fabian; Sullivan, Patrick F.; Turecki, Gustavo; Vaaler, Arne E.; Vieta, Eduard; Vincent, John B.; Waldman, Irwin D.; Weickert, Thomas W.; Werge, Thomas; Wray, Naomi R.; Zwart, John-Anker; Biernacka, Joanna M.; Nurnberger, John I.; Cichon, Sven; Edenberg, Howard J.; Stahl, Eli A.; McQuillin, Andrew; Florio, Arianna Di; Ophoff, Roel A.; Andreassen, Ole A.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Bipolar disorder is a heritable mental illness with complex etiology. We performed a genome-wide association study of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry, which identified 64 associated genomic loci. Bipolar disorder risk alleles were enriched in genes in synaptic signaling pathways and brain-expressed genes, particularly those with high specificity of expression in neurons of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Significant signal enrichment was found in genes encoding targets of antipsychotics, calcium channel blockers, antiepileptics and anesthetics. Integrating expression quantitative trait locus data implicated 15 genes robustly linked to bipolar disorder via gene expression, encoding druggable targets such as HTR6, MCHR1, DCLK3 and FURIN. Analyses of bipolar disorder subtypes indicated high but imperfect genetic correlation between bipolar disorder type I and II and identified additional associated loci. Together, these results advance our understanding of the biological etiology of bipolar disorder, identify novel therapeutic leads and prioritize genes for functional follow-up studies.
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    Lipotoxic Nephropathy Is More Severe in Male than Female Rats N with Non-Insulin Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM)
    (Hindawi, 2001-02-09) Dominguez, Jesus H.; Xu, Wei; Hawes, John W.; Peterson, Richard G.; Medicine, School of Medicine
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    PRMT5 is upregulated by B-cell receptor signaling and forms a positive-feedback loop with PI3K/AKT in lymphoma cells
    (Springer, 2019-05-23) Zhu, Fen; Guo, Hui; Bates, Paul D.; Zhang, Shanxiang; Zhang, Hui; Nomie, Krystle J.; Li, Yangguang; Lu, Li; Seibold, Kaitlyn R.; Wang, Fangyu; Rumball, Ian; Cameron, Hunter; Hoang, Nguyet M.; Yang, David T.; Xu, Wei; Zhang, Liang; Wang, Michael; Capitini, Christian M.; Rui, Lixin; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
    PRMT5, which regulates gene expression by symmetric dimethylation of histones and non-histone target proteins, is overexpressed and plays a pathogenic role in many cancers. In diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the mechanisms of PRMT5 dysregulation and its role in lymphomagenesis remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that B cell receptor (BCR) signaling regulates PRMT5 expression in DLBCL cells. Immunohistochemical analysis reveals elevated levels of PRMT5 expression in DLBCL cases and in germinal center (GC) B cells when compared to naive B cells. PRMT5 can be induced in naive B cells by BCR stimulation. We discovered that BTK-NF-κB signaling induces PRMT5 transcription in activated B cell-like (ABC) DLBCL cells while BCR downstream PI3K-AKT-MYC signaling upregulates PRMT5 expression in both ABC and GCB DLBCL cells. PRMT5 inhibition inhibits the growth of DLBCL cells in vitro and patient derived xenografts. Genomic and biochemical analysis demonstrate that PRMT5 promotes cell cycle progression and activates PI3K-AKT signaling, suggesting a feedback regulatory mechanism to enhance cell survival and proliferation. Co-targeting PRMT5 and AKT by their specific inhibitors is lethal to DLBCL cell lines and primary cancer cells. Therefore, this study provides a mechanistic rationale for clinical trials to evaluate PRMT5 and AKT inhibitors for DLBCL.