Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains the top challenge to radiotherapy with only 25% one-year survival after diagnosis. Here, we reveal that co-enhancement of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (FAO) enzymes (CPT1A, CPT2 and ACAD9) and immune checkpoint CD47 is dominant in recurrent GBM patients with poor prognosis. A glycolysis-to-FAO metabolic rewiring is associated with CD47 anti-phagocytosis in radioresistant GBM cells and regrown GBM after radiation in syngeneic mice. Inhibition of FAO by CPT1 inhibitor etomoxir or CRISPR-generated CPT1A−/−, CPT2−/−, ACAD9−/− cells demonstrate that FAO-derived acetyl-CoA upregulates CD47 transcription via NF-κB/RelA acetylation. Blocking FAO impairs tumor growth and reduces CD47 anti-phagocytosis. Etomoxir combined with anti-CD47 antibody synergizes radiation control of regrown tumors with boosted macrophage phagocytosis. These results demonstrate that enhanced fat acid metabolism promotes aggressive growth of GBM with CD47-mediated immune evasion. The FAO-CD47 axis may be targeted to improve GBM control by eliminating the radioresistant phagocytosis-proofing tumor cells in GBM radioimmunotherapy.

The enzymes that determine protein O-GlcNAcylation, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), act on key transcriptional and epigenetic regulators, and both are abundantly expressed in the brain. However, little is known about how alterations in O-GlcNAc cycling affect human embryonic stem cell (hESC) neural differentiation. Here, we studied the effects of perturbing O-GlcNAcylation during neural induction of hESCs using the metabolic inhibitor of OGT, peracetylated 5-thio-N-acetylglucosamine (Ac4-5SGlcNAc). Treatment of hESCs with Ac4-5SGlcNAc during induction limited protein O-GlcNAcylation and also caused a dramatic decrease in global levels of UDP-GlcNAc. Concomitantly, a subpopulation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) acquired an immature neuronal morphology and expressed early neuronal markers such as β-III tubulin (TUJ1) and microtubule associated protein 2 (MAP2), phenotypes that took longer to manifest in the absence of OGT inhibition. These data suggest that chemical inhibition of OGT and perturbation of protein O-GlcNAcylation accelerate the differentiation of hESCs along the neuronal lineage, thus providing further insight into the dynamic molecular mechanisms involved in neuronal development.

Chlamydia is a prevalent sexually transmitted disease that infects more than 100 million people worldwide. Although most individuals infected with are initially asymptomatic, symptoms can arise if left undiagnosed. Long-term infection can result in debilitating conditions such as pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and blindness. infection, therefore, constitutes a significant public health threat, underscoring the need for a -specific vaccine. strains express a major outer-membrane protein (MOMP) that has been shown to be an effective vaccine antigen. However, approaches to produce a functional recombinant MOMP protein for vaccine development are limited by poor solubility, low yield, and protein misfolding. Here, we used an -based cell-free system to express a MOMP protein from the mouse-specific species (MoPn-MOMP or mMOMP). The codon-optimized mMOMP gene was co-translated with Δ49apolipoprotein A1 (Δ49ApoA1), a truncated version of mouse ApoA1 in which the N-terminal 49 amino acids were removed. This co-translation process produced mMOMP supported within a telodendrimer nanolipoprotein particle (mMOMP-tNLP). The cell-free expressed mMOMP-tNLPs contain mMOMP multimers similar to the native MOMP protein. This cell-free process produced on average 1.5 mg of purified, water-soluble mMOMP-tNLP complex in a 1-ml cell-free reaction. The mMOMP-tNLP particle also accommodated the co-localization of CpG oligodeoxynucleotide 1826, a single-stranded synthetic DNA adjuvant, eliciting an enhanced humoral immune response in vaccinated mice. Using our mMOMP-tNLP formulation, we demonstrate a unique approach to solubilizing and administering membrane-bound proteins for future vaccine development. This method can be applied to other previously difficult-to-obtain antigens while maintaining full functionality and immunogenicity.

For serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers, which entails collection of single-pulse diffraction patterns from a constantly refreshed supply of microcrystalline sample, delivery of the sample into the X-ray beam path while maintaining low background remains a technical challenge for some experiments, especially where this methodology is applied to relatively low-ordered samples or those difficult to purify and crystallize in large quantities. This work demonstrates a scheme to encapsulate biological samples using polymer thin films and graphene to maintain sample hydration in vacuum conditions. The encapsulated sample is delivered into the X-ray beam on fixed targets for rapid scanning using the Roadrunner fixed-target system towards a long-term goal of low-background measurements on weakly diffracting samples. As a proof of principle, we used microcrystals of the 24 kDa rapid encystment protein (REP24) to provide a benchmark for polymer/graphene sandwich performance. The REP24 microcrystal unit cell obtained from our sandwiched in-vacuum sample was consistent with previously established unit-cell parameters and with those measured by us without encapsulation in humidified helium, indicating that the platform is robust against evaporative losses. While significant scattering from water was observed because of the sample-deposition method, the polymer/graphene sandwich itself was shown to contribute minimally to background scattering.