Targeting stroma and tumor, silencing galectin 1 treats orthotopic mouse hepatocellular carcinoma

This study examines inhibiting galectin 1 (Gal1) as a treatment option for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Gal1 has immunosuppressive and cancer-promoting roles. Our data showed that Gal1 was highly expressed in human and mouse HCC. The levels of Gal1 positively correlated with the stages of human HCC and negatively with survival. The roles of Gal1 in HCC were studied using overexpression (OE) or silencing using Igals1 siRNA delivered by AAV9. Prior to HCC initiation induced by RAS and AKT mutations, lgals1-OE and silencing had opposite impacts on tumor load. The treatment effect of lgals1 siRNA was further demonstrated by intersecting HCC at different time points when the tumor load had already reached 9% or even 42% of the body weight. Comparing spatial transcriptomic profiles of Gal1 silenced and OE HCC, inhibiting matrix formation and recognition of foreign antigen in CD45+ cell-enriched areas located at tumor-margin likely contributed to the anti-HCC effects of Gal1 silencing. Within the tumors, silencing Gal1 inhibited translational initiation, elongation, and termination. Furthermore, Gal1 silencing increased immune cells as well as expanded cytotoxic T cells within the tumor, and the anti-HCC effect of lgals1 siRNA was CD8-dependent. Overall, Gal1 silencing has a promising potential for HCC treatment.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Molecular Expression Pattern and Intercellular Interactions in the Glial Scar Response to Spinal Cord Injury / 神经科学通报·英文版

Nerve regeneration in adult mammalian spinal cord is poor because of the lack of intrinsic regeneration of neurons and extrinsic factors - the glial scar is triggered by injury and inhibits or promotes regeneration. Recent technological advances in spatial transcriptomics (ST) provide a unique opportunity to decipher most genes systematically throughout scar formation, which remains poorly understood. Here, we first constructed the tissue-wide gene expression patterns of mouse spinal cords over the course of scar formation using ST after spinal cord injury from 32 samples. Locally, we profiled gene expression gradients from the leading edge to the core of the scar areas to further understand the scar microenvironment, such as neurotransmitter disorders, activation of the pro-inflammatory response, neurotoxic saturated lipids, angiogenesis, obstructed axon extension, and extracellular structure re-organization. In addition, we described 21 cell transcriptional states during scar formation and delineated the origins, functional diversity, and possible trajectories of subpopulations of fibroblasts, glia, and immune cells. Specifically, we found some regulators in special cell types, such as Thbs1 and Col1a2 in macrophages, CD36 and Postn in fibroblasts, Plxnb2 and Nxpe3 in microglia, Clu in astrocytes, and CD74 in oligodendrocytes. Furthermore, salvianolic acid B, a blood-brain barrier permeation and CD36 inhibitor, was administered after surgery and found to remedy fibrosis. Subsequently, we described the extent of the scar boundary and profiled the bidirectional ligand-receptor interactions at the neighboring cluster boundary, contributing to maintain scar architecture during gliosis and fibrosis, and found that GPR37L1_PSAP, and GPR37_PSAP were the most significant gene-pairs among microglia, fibroblasts, and astrocytes. Last, we quantified the fraction of scar-resident cells and proposed four possible phases of scar formation: macrophage infiltration, proliferation and differentiation of scar-resident cells, scar emergence, and scar stationary. Together, these profiles delineated the spatial heterogeneity of the scar, confirmed the previous concepts about scar architecture, provided some new clues for scar formation, and served as a valuable resource for the treatment of central nervous system injury.

Spatially resolved expression landscape and gene-regulatory network of human gastric corpus epithelium

Molecular knowledge of human gastric corpus epithelium remains incomplete. Here, by integrated analyses using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell assay for transposase accessible chromatin sequencing (scATAC-seq) techniques, we uncovered the spatially resolved expression landscape and gene-regulatory network of human gastric corpus epithelium. Specifically, we identified a stem/progenitor cell population in the isthmus of human gastric corpus, where EGF and WNT signaling pathways were activated. Meanwhile, LGR4, but not LGR5, was responsible for the activation of WNT signaling pathway. Importantly, FABP5 and NME1 were identified and validated as crucial for both normal gastric stem/progenitor cells and gastric cancer cells. Finally, we explored the epigenetic regulation of critical genes for gastric corpus epithelium at chromatin state level, and identified several important cell-type-specific transcription factors. In summary, our work provides novel insights to systematically understand the cellular diversity and homeostasis of human gastric corpus epithelium in vivo.

Advance in Spatial Transcriptomics and Its Application in Neuroscience / 中国生物化学与分子生物学报

Spatial transcriptomics is an omics technology that realizes the determination of cell spatial location information on the basis of single cell RNA sequencing. This technology overcomes the problem of losing the spatial information of cells in the tissue during the single-cell isolation of single cell RNA sequencing. Spatial transcriptomics can provide both transcriptome information and spatial location information of research objects in tissues. Spatial transcriptomics plays an important role in the study of cell lineage generation, regulation mechanism and interaction between cells, and is an important development direction and hot spot of omics technology research. In recent years, spatial transcriptomics technology has developed rapidly, new detection methods have been continuously produced, and technical indicators such as detection sensitivity, resolution and detection throughput have been continuously improved. According to the different principles of obtaining spatial information, this paper classifies the commonly used spatial transcriptomics techniques, and summarizes the detection principles, representative technical methods and technical indicators. Then, the application of spatial transcriptomics technology in neuroscience is expounded from two aspects: differentiation of brain cell types and construction of cell layer maps, and analysis of characteristics of diseases and biomarker related to nervous systems. Finally, we summarize the current problems of spatial transcriptomics technology and give an outlook on its future development direction.