Publications

HuProt Small Molecule: The serine protease inhibitor Rv3364c of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is highly expressed in cells during MTB exposure. In this study, we showed that the 12WLVSKF17 motif of Rv3364c interacts with the BAR domain of SNX9 and inhibits endosome trafficking to interact with p47phox, thereby suppressing TLR4 inflammatory signaling in macrophages. Derived from the structure of this Rv3364c peptide motif, 2,4-diamino-6-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,5-trazine, DATPT as a 12WLVSKF17 peptide-mimetic small molecule has been identified. DATPT can block the SNX9–p47phox interaction in the endosome and suppress reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cytokine production; it demonstrated significant therapeutic effects in a mouse model of cecal ligation and puncture-induced sepsis.

• Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01551

HuProt Review: The introduction of multiparametric autoantibody tests has been proposed to improve the accuracy of the immunological diagnosis of autoimmune diseases (AID) and to accelerate time for completing the diagnostic process. Multiplex tests are capable of detecting many autoantibodies in a single run whereas a traditional immunoassay uses a single antigen to detect only a single specificity of autoantibodies. The reasons why multiplex tests could replace conventional immunoassays lie in the evidence that they allow for more efficient handling of large numbers of samples by the laboratory, while ensuring greater diagnostic sensitivity in AID screening.

• Link: https://academic.oup.com/jalm/article/7/1/137/6498239?login=false

HuProt Autoantibodies: The introduction of multiparametric autoantibody tests has been proposed to improve the accuracy of the immunological diagnosis of autoimmune diseases (AID) and to accelerate time for completing the diagnostic process. Multiplex tests are capable of detecting many autoantibodies in a single run whereas a traditional immunoassay uses a single antigen to detect only a single specificity of autoantibodies. The reasons why multiplex tests could replace conventional immunoassays lie in the evidence that they allow for more efficient handling of large numbers of samples by the laboratory, while ensuring greater diagnostic sensitivity in AID screening.

• Link: https://academic.oup.com/jalm/article/7/1/137/6498239

HuProt Autoantibodies: Autoantibodies (AAbs) targeted tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) have the potential for early detection of breast cancer. Here, 574 early-stage breast cancer (ES-BC) patients containing 4 subtypes (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2+, TN), 126 benign breast disease (BBD) patients, and 199 normal healthy controls (NHC) were separated into three-phases to discover, verify, and validate AAbs. In discovery phase using high-throughput protein microarray, 37 AAbs with sensitivity of 31.25%-86.25% and specificity over 73% in ES-BC, and 40 AAbs with different positive rates between subtypes were identified as candidates. In verification phase, 18 AAbs were significantly increased compared with the Control (BBD and NHC) in focused array.

• Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cas.15227

HuProt Autoantibodies: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignancy with a dismal survival rate. The novel autoantibodies panel may provide new insights for the diagnosis of HCC. Biomarkers screened by two methods (bioinformatics and the antigen-antibody system) were taken as candidate tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the corresponding autoantibodies in 888 samples of verification and validation cohorts. The verification cohort was used to verify the autoantibodies. Samples in the validation cohort were randomly divided into a train set and a test set with the ratio of 6:4. A diagnostic model was established by support vector machines within the train set. The test set further verified the model.

• Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cas.15217

HuProt Review: Technical variation, or variation from non-biological sources, is present in most laboratory assays. Correcting for this variation enables analysts to extract a biological signal that informs questions of interest. However, each assay has different sources and levels of technical variation, and the choice of correction methods can impact downstream analyses. Compared to similar assays such as DNA microarrays, relatively few methods have been developed and evaluated for protein microarrays, a versatile tool for measuring levels of various proteins in serum samples.

• Link: https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pmic.202100033

HuProt Review: Circulating autoantibodies against tumor-associated autoantigens (TAA) may serve as valuable biomarkers for a wide range of diagnostic purposes. Modern immunology offers a large variety of methods for in-depth comparative analysis of the repertoires of circulating antibodies’ antigenic specificities in health and disease. Nevertheless, this research field so far has met somewhat limited clinical success, while numerous data on the repertoires of circulating autoantibodies’ specificities in cancer patients are poorly integrated into the contemporary picture of the immunological and molecular landscapes of human tumors.

• Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0006297921100060

HuProt PPI: Hsa-miR-1587 has been found to be capable of forming G-quadruplex structures and is overexpressed in multiple cancer cell lines. Here, we explored the interactions between miR-1587 and proteins. HuProt™ human proteome microarray was utilized to screen the binding proteins, and it was discovered that CASK could bind to miR-1587 on the base of the G-quadruplex structure. Moreover, reelin and p21, which are downstream of CASK, were downregulated both transcriptionally and translationally by miR-1587, uncovered by q-RT-PCR and Western blot assays.

• Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/19/10716

HuProt Enzyme: Expression of β-crystallin B2 (CRYβB2) is elevated in African American (AA) breast tumors. The underlying mechanisms of CRYβB2-induced malignancy and the association of CRYβB2 protein expression with survival have not yet been described. Here, we report that the expression of CRYβB2 in breast cancer cells increases stemness, growth, and metastasis. Transcriptomics data revealed that CRYβB2 upregulates genes that are functionally associated with unfolded protein response, oxidative phosphorylation, and DNA repair, while down-regulating genes related to apoptosis.

• Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-021-01975-3

HuProt Autoantibodies: Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is a serious sequela of Group A Streptococcus (GAS) infection associated with significant global mortality. Pathogenesis remains poorly understood, with the current prevailing hypothesis based on molecular mimicry and the notion that antibodies generated in response to GAS infection cross-react with cardiac proteins such as myosin. Contemporary investigations of the broader autoantibody response in ARF are needed to both inform pathogenesis models and identify new biomarkers for the disease.

• Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.702877/full