Murine Insulin Growth Factor-like (IGFL) and Human IGFL1 Proteins Are Induced in Inflammatory Skin Conditions and Bind to a Novel Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor Family Member, IGFLR1
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
Authors: Lobito, Adrian A.; Ramani, Sree R.; Tom, Irene; Bazan, J. Fernando; Luis, Elizabeth; Fairbrother, Wayne J.; Ouyang, Wenjun; Gonzalez, Lino C.
Abstract
Psoriasis is a human skin condition characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and infiltration of multiple leukocyte populations. In characterizing a novel insulin growth factor (IGF)-like (IGFL) gene in mice (mIGFL), we found transcripts of this gene to be most highly expressed in skin with enhanced expression in models of skin wounding and psoriatic-like inflammation. A possible functional ortholog in humans, IGFL1, was uniquely and significantly induced in psoriatic skin samples. In vitro IGFL1 expression was up-regulated in cultured primary keratinocytes stimulated with tumor necrosis factor alpha but not by other psoriasis-associated cytokines. Finally, using a secreted and transmembrane protein library, we discovered high affinity interactions between human IGFL1 and mIGFL and the TMEM149 ectodomain. TMEM149 (renamed here as IGFLR1) is an uncharacterized gene with structural similarity to the tumor necrosis factor receptor family. Our studies demonstrate that IGFLR1 is expressed primarily on the surface of mouse T cells. The connection between mIGFL and IGFLR1 receptor suggests mIGFL may influence T cell biology within inflammatory skin conditions.
Understanding tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes by single cell RNA sequencing
ADVANCES IN IMMUNOLOGY IN CHINA, PT A
Authors: Ren, Xianwen; Zhang, Zemin
Abstract
The clinical success of immune checkpoint blockade provides great hope for curing cancers. However, the patient responses are not even. Precise understanding of tumor immunity is necessary to improving the current cancer immunotherapies and to developing new treatment options. Here we applied full-length single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) to three cancer types and provide a comprehensive single T cell data resource for understanding various characteristics of tumor-infiltrating T cells. We also developed an analytical framework named as STARTRAC to quantitatively characterize the dynamic properties of various T cell subsets including tissue preference, clonal expansion, migration, and state transitions from the scRNA-seq snapshots of tumor immune microenvironments. Conserved and cancer type-specific T cell subsets and developmental patterns were revealed, and detailed molecular portrait of the tumor immunity-relevant T cell clusters were provided, shedding lights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the composition, heterogeneity, and formation of tumor immune microenvironments. Important genes such as LAYN and IGFLR1 also provided new options for future development of cancer therapeutics.