Loss of P2Y14 Results in an Arresting Response to Hematological Stress

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Loss of P2Y14 Results in an Arresting Response to Hematological Stress Loss of P2Y14 results in an arresting response to hematological stress Brian S. Garrison, Derrick J. Rossi J Clin Invest. 2014;124(7):2846-2848. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI76626. Commentary The regenerative capacity of tissues to recover from injury or stress is dependent on stem cell competence, yet the underlying mechanisms that govern how stem cells detect stress and initiate appropriate responses are poorly understood. In this issue of the JCI, Cho and Yusuf et al. demonstrate that the purinergic receptor P2Y14 may mediate the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell regenerative response. Find the latest version: https://jci.me/76626/pdf commentaries rial infections? In view of the critical pro- microbial properties of cells in the urinary links innate immune cell activation with adaptive immunity via a Toll-like receptor-4-dependent tective role played by A-ICs, do their sister tract, such as A-ICs, may become viable mechanism. J Clin Invest. 2005;115(2):468–475. cells, B-ICs, play a complementary role in therapeutic alternatives. 7. Paragas N, et al. α–Intercalated cells defend the uri- combating infection? Despite any linger- nary system from bacterial infection. J Clin Invest. ing questions, the results of this study are Acknowledgments 2014;124(7):2963–2976. 8. Goetz DH, Holmes MA, Borregaard N, Bluhm ME, important and reveal how a specialized kid- The authors were funded by NIH grants Raymond KN, Strong RK. The neutrophil lipocalin ney cell, previously implicated in acid-base U01-AI082107, R01-AI096305, and R56- NGAL is a bacteriostatic agent that interferes with homeostasis, combats bacterial infections DK095198 and by a block grant from siderophore-mediated iron acquisition. Mol Cell. 2002;10(5):1033–1043. of the urinary tract. Duke-NUS, Singapore. 9. Flo TH, et al. Lipocalin 2 mediates an innate Highly specialized epithelial cells are dis- immune response to bacterial infection by seques- persed on various mucous membranes and Address correspondence to: Soman N. trating iron. Nature. 2004;432(7019):917–921. 10. Jaillon S, et al. The humoral pattern recognition are involved in maintaining the integrity of Abraham, Department of Pathology, Duke molecule PTX3 is a key component of innate the mucosal barrier, mediating secretion, University Medical Center, Box 3712, Dur- immunity against urinary tract infection. Immu- selective absorption, or transcellular trans- ham, North Carolina 27514, USA. Phone: nity. 2014;40(4):621–632. port. The revelation by Paragas and col- 919.684.3630; Fax: 919.684.2021; E-mail: 11. Al-Awqati Q. Cell biology of the intercalated cell in the kidney. FEBS Lett. 2013;587(13):1911–1914. laborators that, in addition to maintaining [email protected]. 12. Wall SM. Recent advances in our understanding acid-base homeostasis, kidney A-ICs play a of intercalated cells. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. key role in abrogating bacterial infection in 1. Chromek M, Brauner A. Antimicrobial mecha- 2005;14(5):480–484. nisms of the urinary tract. J Mol Med (Berl). 2008; 13. Chan CY, St John AL, Abraham SN. Mast cell inter- the urinary tract (7), has implications for 86(1):37–47. leukin-10 drives localized tolerance in chronic human renal diseases. For example, human 2. Chromek M, et al. The antimicrobial peptide cat- bladder infection. Immunity. 2013;38(2):349–359. diseases that involve A-IC dysfunction, helicidin protects the urinary tract against invasive 14. Mishra J, et al. Neutrophil gelatinase-associat- such as chronic distal renal tubular acido- bacterial infection. Nat Med. 2006;12(6):636–641. ed lipocalin (NGAL) as a biomarker for acute 3. Spencer JD, et al. Ribonuclease 7 is a potent anti- renal injury after cardiac surgery. Lancet. 2005; sis, are characterized by recurrent UTIs and microbial peptide within the human urinary tract. 365(9466):1231–1238. pyelonephritis (15). As the aged population Kidney Int. 2011;80(2):174–180. 15. DuBose TD, Alpern RJ. Renal tubular acidosis. In: has dramatically grown in recent years, 4. Schilling JD, Martin SM, Hung CS, Lorenz RG, Valle D, et al., eds. The Online Metabolic and Molecular Hultgren SJ. Toll-like receptor 4 on stromal and Bases of Inherited Disease. New York, New York, USA: recurrent UTIs have become a substantial hematopoietic cells mediates innate resistance to McGraw-Hill; 2007:Chapter 195. doi:10.1036/ clinical problem in hospitals and nursing uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci ommbid.228. homes (16). Antibiotics are increasingly U S A. 2003;100(7):4203–4208. 16. Raz R, Stamm WE. A controlled trial of intra- 5. Ganz T. Defensins in the urinary tract and other vaginal estriol in postmenopausal women with ineffective for combating UTIs; therefore, tissues. J Infect Dis. 2001;183(suppl 1):S41–S42. recurrent urinary tract infections. N Engl J Med. harnessing and boosting the innate anti- 6. Saemann MD, et al. Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein 1993;329(11):753–756. Loss of P2Y14 results in an arresting response to hematological stress Brian S. Garrison1,2,3 and Derrick J. Rossi1,2,3,4 1Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 2Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 3Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 4Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The regenerative capacity of tissues to recover from injury or stress is depen- gation, cellular senescence is now under- dent on stem cell competence, yet the underlying mechanisms that govern stood to be a complex mechanism that may how stem cells detect stress and initiate appropriate responses are poorly limit cell growth as well as prevent cancer understood. In this issue of the JCI, Cho and Yusuf et al. demonstrate that in vivo and that can be initiated in response the purinergic receptor P2Y14 may mediate the hematopoietic stem and pro- to a variety of cellular stresses, including genitor cell regenerative response. oxidative damage, telomere shortening, DNA damage, and gene deregulation (2–4). Senescence and stem cell decline ard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead, who As with the majority of tissues, the Cellular senescence, a state of permanent observed that normal human fibroblasts hematopoietic system exhibits signs of irreversible growth arrest, was initially cease to replicate after 50 to 60 cellular age-related decline, including immune described over half a century ago by Leon- divisions (1). This barrier to everlasting dysfunction, decreased red blood cell pro- cellular proliferation later became termed duction, increased incidence of malignan- the “Hayflick limit,” denoting the loss of cies, and impaired recovery from injury, Conflict of interest: Derrick Rossi has an ownership proliferative potential even though the cell much of which appears to arise through stake and provides consultation for Moderna Thera- peutics. remains viable and metabolically active. cell autonomous changes in the HSC com- Citation for this article: J Clin Invest. 2014; While this phenomenon was originally partment (5–8). These age-related changes 124(7):2846–2848. doi:10.1172/JCI76626. connected to long-term in vitro cell propa- in the HSC compartment appear to be 2846 The Journal of Clinical Investigation http://www.jci.org Volume 124 Number 7 July 2014 commentaries Figure 1 HSPCs lacking P2Y14 have reduced functionality. Competitive transplantation of WT and P2Y14-deficient HSPCs into an irradiated animal results in equal repopulation of the hematopoietic environment. Following blood reconstitution, P2y14–/– HSPCs exhibit a competitive disadvantage if mice are exposed to additional hematological stress, such as irradiation or serial transplantation. Furthermore, in response to stress, P2Y14- deficient HSPCs show several markers of senescence, including increased ROS, p38 MAPK, p16INK4A, and SA–β-gal. driven by diverse processes, including DNA Under situations of stress, such as irra- mediator of the ROS-response pathway, damage accumulation (9, 10), loss of cell diation or chemotherapy, a portion of the indicating that dysfunctional ROS man- polarity (11), epigenetic changes of DNA HSPC pool may be lost, leading to myelo- agement may be a significant underlying methylation and histone modifications suppression (decreased red cell, white cell, contributor (17). (12, 13), and clonal dominance of lineage- and platelet numbers), and in such cases, HSC function has previously been shown biased HSCs (7). While age-related decline the surviving HSPCs must increase self to diminish as a consequence of ROS dys- in many tissues is thought to coincide renewal and differentiation to repopulate regulation, leading to premature exhaus- with increased cellular senescence of their required cell populations. How HSPCs tion and shortened lifespan. For example, respective stem and progenitor cell popu- integrate stress signals to invoke the appro- mice deficient in ataxia telangiectasia lations (14), in the HSC compartment, it priate stress responses remains unclear. mutated (ATM) experience hematopoietic is unclear whether senescence promotes Cho, Yusuf, and colleagues have revealed failure, which is largely abrogated by NAC physiological aging, though classical senes- that P2Y14 regulates the HSPC response treatment (18). Similarly, deletion of genes cence markers, such as p16INK4A, do not to stress. Specifically, the authors demon- encoding forkhead box transcription fac- appear to be robustly upregulated in aged
Recommended publications
  • Humankind 2.0: the Technologies of the Future 6. Biotech
    Humankind 2.0: The Technologies of the Future 6. Biotech Piero Scaruffi, 2017 See http://www.scaruffi.com/singular/human20.html for the full text of this discussion A brief History of Biotech 1953: Discovery of the structure of the DNA 2 A brief History of Biotech 1969: Jon Beckwith isolates a gene 1973: Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer create the first recombinant DNA organism 1974: Waclaw Szybalski coins the term "synthetic biology” 1975: Paul Berg organizes the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA 3 A brief History of Biotech 1976: Genentech is founded 1977: Fred Sanger invents a method for rapid DNA sequencing and publishes the first full DNA genome of a living being Janet Rossant creates a chimera combining two mice species 1980: Genentech’s IPO, first biotech IPO 4 A brief History of Biotech 1982: The first biotech drug, Humulin, is approved for sale (Eli Lilly + Genentech) 1983: Kary Mullis invents the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for copying genes 1986: Leroy Hood invents a way to automate gene sequencing 1986: Mario Capecchi performs gene editing on a mouse 1990: William French Anderson’s gene therapy 1990: First baby born via PGD (Alan Handyside’s lab) 5 A brief History of Biotech 1994: FlavrSavr Tomato 1994: Maria Jasin’s homing endonucleases for genome editing 1996: Srinivasan Chandrasegaran’s ZFN method for genome editing 1996: Ian Wilmut clones the first mammal, the sheep Dolly 1997: Dennis Lo detects fetal DNA in the mother’s blood 2000: George Davey Smith introduces Mendelian randomization 6 A brief History of Biotech
    [Show full text]
  • RNA-Based Reprogramming
    RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS STEM CELLS RNA-based reprogramming RNA molecules can both induce pluripo- RNA-based technique instead of viral tech- development, began producing myotubes. In tency and direct differentiation. niques for much of its induced pluripotent fact, Rossi expects that techniques using RNA The ability to make person-specific pluri- stem cell production. for differentiation will probably be adopted potent stem cells opens up many possibilities Getting the technique to work required more quickly than using RNA for reprogram- for research tools and perhaps even therapies. a lot of trial and error, says Rossi. His first ming. “I think people will have an easier time But most reprogramming techniques alter cells’ attempts to reprogram cells with RNA failed in differentiation because it’s often one factor genomes, making cells less predictable and more because cells responded as if they had been rather than several,” he says. prone to cancer-like growth. Methods to repro- infected by a virus, committing apoptosis or Making the modified RNA itself is easy, gram cells without changing their genomes launching other antiviral defenses. Swapping says Rossi, but researchers will need to exist but are inefficient and labor-intensive; out two nucleosides with similar analogs mit- spend some time tinkering to find the best most also rely on DNA and so still carry the igated the response and allowed the research- conditions for their systems. Every aspect risk of unintended genetic alterations. ers to reprogram cultured human cells by of culture conditions affects how cells are A reprogramming technique recently applying daily doses of RNAs coding for four transfected with RNA, he says.
    [Show full text]
  • Empire State Stem Cell Board Full Board Committee Meeting Minutes December 17, 2010
    Empire State Stem Cell Board Full Board Committee Meeting Minutes December 17, 2010 The Empire State Stem Cell Board held a meeting on Friday, December 17, 2010, at the offices of the Department of Health, 90 Church Street, New York, New York. Dr. David C. Hohn, M.D., presided as Vice Chair. Funding Committee Members Present: Dr. David Hohn, Chairperson Mr. Kenneth Adams Mr. Robin Elliott Dr. Bradford Berk* Dr. Mario Loomis * via videoconference Ms. Madelyn Wils Funding Committee Members Absent: Dr. Richard Daines Dr. Allen Spiegel Dr. Gerald Fischbach Dr. Michael Stocker Dr. Hilda Hutcherson Ethics Committee Members Present: Ms. Jann Armantrout Dr. Vivian Lee Fr. Thomas Berg Rev. H. Hugh Maynard-Reid Ms. Brooke Ellison* Dr. Samuel Packer Dr. Samuel Gorovitz Mr. Robert Swidler Dr. Robert Klitzman *via videoconference Ethics Committee Members Absent: Ms. Nancy Dubler Department of Health Staff Present: Dr. David Anders Ms. Susie Han Mr. Andrew Bentley Dr. Matthew Kohn Ms. Bonnie Brautigam Ms. Beth Roxland Dr. Kathy Chou Ms. Lakia Rucker Ms. Janet Cohn Dr. Lawrence Sturman Presenter: Dr. Derrick Rossi Observers Present: Ms. Jennifer Becht Ms. Caroline Marshall Mr. Joe Feldman Mr. David McKeon Mr. Mike Jolin Ms. Valeria Vavassori-Chen Ms. Elizabeth Misa Welcome and Introductions Dr. Hohn called the meeting to order and welcomed Board members, staff, and the public. He introduced Ms. Jann Armantrout, the newest member of the Ethics Committee. Dr. Hohn then asked members and staff to introduce themselves and provide their title and affiliation. Dr. Hohn stated that during the lunch break, several members had approached him to request special recognition of Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • BCRP Brochure 2021 Class
    Boston Combined Residency Program This brochure describes the residency program as we assume it will -19 exist will in be JulyThe 2021, Pediatric by which time Residency authorities Training Program predict a vaccine to COVID of available. If thatBoston is not the Children’s case and the Hospital pandemic is still active, the program Harvard Medical School will be very similar but many of the and educational conferences and other group activities Bostonwill be virtual Medical instead Center Boston University School of Medicine of in-person, as they are today. August 2020 edi,on CLASS OF 2021.. BOSTON COMBINED RESIDENCY PROGRAM Boston Medical Center Boston Children’s Hospital CONTENTS History…………........................... 3 Rotation # descriptions.................. 47# Global health fellowships............ 84# BCRP…........................................ 3# Night call................................... 53# Global health grants………….… 84 # Boston Children’s Hospital........... 3# Longitudinal ambulatory.............. 54# Diversity and Inclusion................. 84# Boston Medical Center................. 8# Electives………………………….. 55# Salaries and benefits.................... 87# People……................................... 11 Individualized curriculum............ 56# Child care................................... 88# Program director biosketches...... 11# Academic development block.. 56# O$ce of fellowship training....... 88# Residency program leadership..... 12# Education.................................... 57# Cost of living..............................
    [Show full text]
  • Nano Comes to Life
    Nano comes to life: How nanotechnology ushers physics in to biology, transforming medicine and the future ot technology Physics 物理 reality, human understanding (maths/logic/intuition/experiments) (宋明理學, 朱子學) and technology… Resolving the tension between simplicity and complexity : technologies became increasingly powerful at extracting knowledge & value from nature 21 century : physics reaches biology’s complexity Sonia Contera, Nano comes to life. Oxford Physics https://www.quantamagazine.org/mat hematicians-disprove-conjecture- made-to-save-black-holes-20180517/ Gimzewski neuromorphic computing 30/08/2021 30/08/2021 Sonia Contera, Nano comes to life. Oxford Physics Pierre-Gilles de Genes Elemental particles Quantum mechanics Photograph 51 1900-1920s 1944 Franklin (1953) Solid State Physics Soft Matter Physics 1960… (Superconductivity 1937….) “there is plenty of room at the bottom” X-ray crystallography 1900-1920s Jagadish Self-organisation Chandra Bose Fractals Complex dynamics 1917. Torahiko Terada Chaos Theory 1960s Earthquake 1947 Multidiscipoli Many body physics (Lorentz , using computers) nary institute Institute 1926 “Runaway Ulam and von Neumann John Horton Conway Lars Onsager Game of Life cyclone” Cellular automaton Ilya Prigogine 1940s 1970 Turing Machine 1936 Goedel’s incompleteness Claude Shannon theorems30/08/2021 Sonia“A mathematical Contera, Nano comes theory to life.of communication” Oxford Physics 1931 1948 (Shannon entropy) 1985, Fullerene nanomaterials 30/08/2021 Sonia Contera, Nano comes to life. Oxford Physics DNA nanotechnology Seeman, N. C. & Sleiman, H. F. (2017) DNA nanotechnology Nat. Rev. Mater. doi:10.1038/natrevmats.2017.68 30/08/2021 Sonia Contera, Nano comes to life. Oxford Physics 1986 30/08/2021 Sonia Contera, Nano comes to life.
    [Show full text]
  • Moderna Therapeutics Has Big Ambitions and a Bankroll to Match
    NEWS FEATURE THE BILLION-DOLLAR BIOTECH Moderna Therapeutics has big ambitions and a bankroll to match. How a fledgling start-up became one of the most highly valued private drug firms ever. BY ELIE DOLGIN t a breakfast meeting two-and-a-half years But Moderna is also something of a mystery. are mostly limited to secreted molecules. An ago, Pascal Soriot, the newly minted chief As a private firm, it has revealed very little of mRNA-based therapy would be able to make executive of pharmaceutical giant Astra- its research. Its academic founders have pub- proteins that operate inside the cell as well. A Zeneca, shook hands on the first major lished only one study1 using Moderna’s mRNA “mRNA delivery would reinvent how we as drug-development deal of his tenure. It was therapeutics technology in rodents. And the an industry tackle many diseases,” says Peter a research partnership with little-known bio- company itself has disclosed scientific details Kolchinsky, managing partner of RA Capital technology company Moderna Therapeutics (including some about early work in non- Management in Boston, Massachusetts, which of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Worth up to human primates) only through patent filings. is one of the latest investors in Moderna. US$420 million, the deal was unusually large Add in questions about the strength of Mod- But delivery is tricky. In the early 1990s, for a start-up that offered only a fledgling drug erna’s patent position and the troubled history scientists first demonstrated that injected technology, especially one that had not yet even of other RNA-based drugs, and some analysts mRNA could generate proteins in mice2 and been tested in humans.
    [Show full text]
  • Ectopic Expression of RAD52 and Dn53bp1 Improves Homology-Directed Repair During CRISPR–Cas9 Genome Editing
    ARTICLES DOI: 10.1038/s41551-017-0145-2 Ectopic expression of RAD52 and dn53BP1 improves homology-directed repair during CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing Bruna S. Paulsen1,2, Pankaj K. Mandal 1,2,3, Richard L. Frock2,4, Baris Boyraz5,6, Rachita Yadav7,8,9, Srigokul Upadhyayula2,3,10, Paula Gutierrez-Martinez 1,2, Wataru Ebina1,2, Anders Fasth11, Tomas Kirchhausen2,3,10, Michael E. Talkowski7,8,9, Suneet Agarwal3,5,12,13, Frederick W. Alt2,4,14 and Derrick J. Rossi1,2,3,13* Gene disruption by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) is highly efficient and relies on the error-prone non-homologous end-joining pathway. Conversely, precise gene editing requires homology-directed repair (HDR), which occurs at a lower frequency than non-homologous end-joining in mammalian cells. Here, by testing whether manipulation of DNA repair factors improves HDR efficacy, we show that transient ectopic co-expression of RAD52 and a dominant-negative form of tumour protein p53-binding protein 1 (dn53BP1) synergize to enable efficient HDR using a single-stranded oligonucleotide DNA donor template at multiple loci in human cells, including patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. Co-expression of RAD52 and dn53BP1 improves multiplexed HDR-mediated editing, whereas expression of RAD52 alone enhances HDR with Cas9 nickase. Our data show that the frequency of non-homologous end-joining-mediated double-strand break repair in the presence of these two factors is not suppressed and suggest that dn53BP1 competitively antagonizes 53BP1 to augment HDR in combination with RAD52. Importantly, co-expression of RAD52 and dn53BP1 does not alter Cas9 off-target activity.
    [Show full text]
  • Derrick Rossi P '24, '26, '28 Stem Cell Science and the Genesis Of
    Bissell Grogan Symp Program 2017 3.qxp_Layout 1 1/10/17 1:16 PM Page 1 Derrick Rossi P ’24, ’26, ’28 Samantha Hale Stem Cell Science and the Genesis of Innovative New erapies for Patients e 5-0 and Y.O.U.: How can the people and the police get along? Dr. Derrick Rossi will broadly discuss how stem cell science is at the tipping point for the Teen Empowerment—e Center for Teen Empowerment (Teen Empowerment or TE) is emergence of innovative new therapies to treat deadly diseases. In particular, he will focus on an asset-based youth development program, founded in 1992, that reaches low-income youth how discoveries made in his lab and in his colleagues’ labs have made the leap into clinical and neighborhoods in Boston and Somerville, MA, and in Rochester, NY. Teen Empowerment development within the rich biotechnology ecosphere of Boston/Cambridge. inspires young people, and the adults who work with them, to think deeply about the most Dr. Rossi is an Associate Professor in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department difficult social problems in their communities, and gives them the tools they need to work with at Harvard University and an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard others in creating significant positive change. In addition to youth-led social change initiatives Medical School. He is also an investigator in the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine that reach more than 6,000 youth and adults annually, TE provides consulting and training to at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he holds a Boston Children’s Hospital Pediatrics Chair.
    [Show full text]
  • The Year in Biomedicine - Technology … Close Window
    12/29/2010 The Year in Biomedicine - Technology … Close Window Published by MIT Monday, December 27, 2010 The Year in Biomedicine Two steps forward and one step back for stem cells, genome sequencing to diagnose disease, and the creation of artificial life. By Emily Singer Stem cells In October, 12 years after human embryonic stem cells were first isolated, a therapy derived from such cells was tested in humans for the first time (First Human Tests of Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Underway). The therapy, developed by Geron, is designed to treat spinal- cord injury with an injection of differentiated neural cells into the injury site. Because the clinical trial is the first of its kind, Geron has had to forge a new path forward with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the agency figures out how to regulate embryonic-stem-cell therapies and assess the safety of these cells. The company initially won approval to begin clinical tests last year, but a few months later these were put on hold because animal tests raised new safety concerns.(FDA lets stem cell trials resume) A second company, Advanced Cell Technology, won FDA approval in November to begin human tests of its embryonic-stem-cell-derived therapy for an inherited form of blindness. While these two human trials mark major steps forward in stem-cell research, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., may have pushed the field a giant step back. In August, just 18 months after President Obama did away with an executive order from President George W.
    [Show full text]
  • An Emergent Ebola Virus Nucleoprotein Variant Influences Virion
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/454314; this version posted October 29, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 An emergent Ebola virus nucleoprotein variant influences virion 2 budding, oligomerization, transcription and replication 3 Aaron E Lin1,2,3,11, William E Diehl4,11, Yingyun Cai5, Courtney Finch5, Chidiebere Akusobi6, 4 Robert N Kirchdoerfer7, Laura Bollinger5, Stephen F Schaffner2,3, Elizabeth A Brown2,3, Erica 5 Ollmann Saphire7,8, Kristian G Andersen7,9, Jens H Kuhn5,12, Jeremy Luban4,12, Pardis C 6 Sabeti1,2,3,10,12 7 8 1Harvard Program in Virology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. 2FAS Center 9 for Systems Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 10 Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 3Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. 11 4Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 12 01605, USA. 5Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and 13 Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702. 6Department of 14 Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 15 02120, USA. 7Department of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, The Scripps Research 16 Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. 8The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps 17 Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. 9Scripps Translational Science Institute, La Jolla, 18 CA 92037, USA.
    [Show full text]
  • Messenger RNA (Mrna) – a Forgotten Molecule; Its Past, Present and Future for Therapeutics Melin J
    Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Review Article ISSN: 2398-8096 Messenger RNA (mRNA) – A forgotten molecule; its past, present and future for therapeutics Melin J. Khandekar1 and Janardan D. Khandekar2* 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA 2Department of Medicine, Northshore University Health System, University of Chicago, USA Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. The disease rapidly disseminated, affecting at least 167 million people worldwide with a minimum of 3.4 million deaths. In the United States alone, close to six hundred thousand deaths can be attributed to Covid. (Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering – My 24th 2020) The pandemic has caused worldwide economic recession and hardships to millions, if not billions, of people. Amongst this gloom, one molecule stands out as a shining light; messenger RNA-based (mRNA) vaccines. Rapid development and deployment of these vaccines in the community has resulted in decreasing infection rates, transmission of infections in the community, and reduced death rates in the countries that have been able to distribute them. Here, we briefly review the advances in molecular biology that led to the development of mRNA-based vaccines at lightning speed. We briefly discuss mechanisms by which these vaccines produce B and T cell immunity, as well as outstanding questions, including the duration of the protective effect of vaccines and the efficacy of vaccines in immuno-compromised people. We also briefly discuss other applications of mRNA-based technology in management of cancer and other diseases. The development of these vaccines show the amazing power of science to save lives and economic livelihoods, and how forgotten aspects of science can be redeveloped to great therapeutic effect.
    [Show full text]
  • Mrna Vaccine
    mRNA Vaccine In the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus (Covid-19), scientists have poured money and manpower to come up with an effective vaccine to combat the virus. The mRNA (messenger RNA) is one such vaccine which injects pieces of mRNA into human cells in order to get them the produce pathogen antigens. This article will give further details about the mRNA Vaccine within the context of the IAS Exam Overview of mRNA Vaccine The first known demonstration of RNA vaccines was by scientists at Karolinska Institute in 1994. The earliest known attempts to use mRNA against disease is attributed to Hungarian biochemist Katalin Kariko. He tested it on mice which showed positive results. In 2005, Harvard stem cell biologist Derrick Rossi read Kariko’s paper and founded the biotech Moderna with Robert Langer, who saw its potential in vaccine development. Another mRNA biotech, BioNTech, was founded in Germany and licensed Kariko’s work. By November 2020, no mRNA drug had yet been licensed for use in humans, however, both Moderna and BioNTech were close to emergency use authorization for their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine How does the mRNA vaccine work? The mRNA vaccines function differently from traditional vaccines. Traditional vaccines stimulate an antibody response by injecting a human with antigens. mRNA vaccines inject a fragment of the RNA sequence of a virus directly into the cells, which then stimulate an adaptive immune response.mRNA fragment is a specific piece of the virus that carries instructions to build the antigen of the virus. An advantage of RNA vaccines is that they stimulate cellular immunity.
    [Show full text]