Diet profoundly affects metabolism and incidences of age-related diseases. Animals adapt their physiology to different food-types, modulating complex life-history traits like aging. The molecular mechanisms linking adaptive capacity to diet with aging are less known. We identify FLR-4 kinase as a novel modulator of aging in C. elegans, depending on bacterial diet. FLR-4 functions to prevent differential activation of the p38MAPK pathway in response to diverse food-types, thereby maintaining normal life span. In a kinase-dead flr-4 mutant, E. coli HT115 (K12 strain), but not the standard diet OP50 (B strain), is able to activate p38MAPK, elevate expression of cytoprotective genes through the nuclear hormone receptor NHR-8 and enhance life span. Interestingly, flr-4 and dietary restriction utilize similar pathways for longevity assurance, suggesting cross-talks between cellular modules that respond to diet quality and quantity. Together, our study discovers a new C. elegans gene-diet pair that controls the plasticity of aging.

Lowering insulin-IGF-1-like signalling (IIS) activates FOXO transcription factors (TF) to extend life span across species. To study the dynamics of FOXO chromatin occupancy under this condition in C. elegans, we report the first recruitment profile of endogenous DAF-16 and show that the response is conserved. DAF-16 predominantly acts as a transcriptional activator and binding within the 0.5 kb promoter-proximal region results in maximum induction of downstream targets that code for proteins involved in detoxification and longevity. Interestingly, genes that are activated under low IIS already have higher DAF-16 recruited to their promoters in WT. DAF-16 binds to variants of the FOXO consensus sequence in the promoter proximal regions of genes that are exclusively targeted during low IIS. We also define a set of ‘core’ direct targets, after comparing multiple studies, which tend to co-express and contribute robustly towards IIS-associated phenotypes. Additionally, we show that nuclear hormone receptor DAF-12 as well as zinc-finger TF EOR-1 may bind DNA in close proximity to DAF-16 and distinct TF classes that are direct targets of DAF-16 may be instrumental in regulating its indirect targets. Together, our study provides fundamental insights into the transcriptional biology of FOXO/DAF-16 and gene regulation downstream of the IIS pathway.

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Circular RNAs (circRNA) are a recently described class of RNA molecules that have attracted substantial attention as new components of disease mechanisms and as potential biomarkers in multiple diseases, including cancer. CircRNAs are often highly conserved and exhibit developmental stage- and disease-specific expression. Several studies have reported circRNA expression patterns that are associated with specific cancer types and with patient prognosis. Here, we overview the active registered clinical trials that investigate the value of circRNAs as cancer biomarkers and discuss the potential of circRNAs in clinical cancer care. Taken together, circRNAs are actively being investigated as diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic biomarkers, and their potential to serve as therapeutic intervention points motivates ongoing translational and clinical research.

The use of many essential drugs is restricted due to their deleterious effects on the liver. Molecules that can prevent or protect the liver from drug-induced liver injury (DILI) would be invaluable in such situations. We used a transgenic line in zebrafish with a hepatocyte-specific expression of bacterial nitroreductase to cause temporally controlled liver damage. A whole organism-based chemical screen using the transgenic line identified BML-257, a potent small molecule AKT inhibitor, that protected the liver against metronidazole-induced liver injury. BML-257 also showed potent prophylactic and pro-regenerative activity in this liver damage model. BML-257 was tested in two independent toxicological models of liver injury caused by acetaminophen and isoniazid and was found to be protective against damage. This suggests that BML-257 has the potential to protect against multiple kinds of DILI.

Highlights: Zebrafish is a valuable model for developing therapeutic strategies to augment liver regeneration  Liver regeneration in zebrafish is not well studied and pathways poorly understood  We develop a hepatocyte ablation model of liver injury and regeneration in adult zebrafish  We generate a comprehensive transcriptomic map of various stages of liver injury and regeneration  We discover a novel regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis pathways during liver regeneration Abstract:Background & Aims: Zebrafish is increasingly being used to study liver injury and regeneration. However, very little is known about molecular players that respond to injury and participate in liver regeneration. Here we aim to generate a temporal map of gene expression changes at injury and during regeneration of the adult zebrafish liver. Methods:We use a metronidazole-nitroreductase (MTZ-nfsb) based system to selectively ablate hepatocytes in adult zebrafish to create a model for liver injury and regeneration. Through RNA sequencing of liver samples at multiple time points we 2 generate a comprehensive temporal map of gene expression changes during injury and regeneration.Results: Gene expression reveals that soon after injury the immediate early transcription factor MYC induces a battery of genes that respond to the metronidazole-induced ROS by activating oxido-reductase pathways and apoptosis machinery. Upon injury, liver cells down regulate genes encoding complement proteins, bile acid and lipid biosynthesis pathway in a concerted manner. Midway through regeneration, we discover a spike of cholesterol biosynthesis and protein folding machinery genes suggesting an important role for these pathways in liver regeneration. Conclusions:The temporal transcriptomic map of liver regeneration would serve as a framework for further studies in understanding, and for screening for compounds that augment liver regeneration. General significance:Using a hepatocyte specific ablation of zebrafish liver, we create a model of adult liver regeneration. This model was used to generate a comprehensive transcriptomic map of gene expression trends during liver regeneration. This temporal map lays the groundwork to study important events in liver regeneration.

The use of many essential drugs is restricted due to their deleterious effects on the liver. Molecules that can prevent or protect the liver from drug induced liver injury (DILI) would be valuable in such situations. We used hepatocyte-specific expression of bacterial nitroreductase in zebrafish to cause temporally controlled liver damage. This transgenic line was used to run a whole organism based chemical screen in zebrafish larvae. In this screen we identified BML-257, a potent small molecule AKT inhibitor, that protected the liver against metronidazole-induced liver injury. BML-257 also showed potent prophylactic and pro-regenerative activity in this liver damage model. BML-257 also showed remarkable protective action in two independent toxicological models of liver injury caused by acetaminophen and Isoniazid. This suggests that BML-257 may have the potential to protect against multiple kinds of drug induced liver injury.