Project description:The newly discovered 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) may complicate previous observations of abnormal cytosine methylation statuses used for the identification of new tumor suppressor gene candidates relevant to human hepatocarcinogenesis. The simultaneous detection of 5mC and 5hmC will stimulate the discovery of aberrantly methylated genes with increased accuracy in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we performed a newly developed single-base high-throughput sequencing approach (hydroxymethylation and methylation Sensitive Tag sequencing, HMST-seq) to synchronously measure these two modifications in HCC samples. After identifying the differentially methylated and hydroxymethylated genes in HCC, we integrated the DNA copy-number alterations as determined using array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) data with gene expression to identify genes potentially silenced by promoter hypermethylation. As a result, we report a high enrichment of genes with epigenetic aberrations in cancer signaling pathways. Six genes were selected as tumor suppressor gene (TSG) candidates, among which, ECM1, ATF5 and EOMES were confirmed to have potential anti-cancer function via siRNA experiments. To fully examine 5mC and 5hmC status in HCC, we used a newly developed single-base high-throughput sequencing approach (hydroxymethylation and methylation sensitive tag sequencing, HMST-seq) to synchronously measure these two modifications in HCC samples and their adjacent non-cancerous liver tissues (non-HCCs).
Project description:<p>High-throughput linking of T cell receptor (TCR) sequences to their binding antigens is vital for immune profiling, yet challenging. We present Tetramer associated TCR Sequencing (TetTCR-Seq) to address this challenge. Binding is determined using a library of DNA-barcoded antigen tetramers that are rapidly and inexpensively generated using an in vitro transcription/translation platform. We included CMV+ donors (CMV seropositive donors who are infected with Cytomegalovirus) to screen for CMV specific TCRs.</p>
Project description:To investigate functional transcripts in metastatic HCC, we performed high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of tumors from 3 metastatic HCC and 3 non-metastatic HCC. And we performed RIP-seq human PLC/PRF/5 cells to investigate the HNRNPD binding transcripts. To investigate function of circLARP1B on AMPK pathway, we performed high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of WT (DMSO or Compound C) and circLARP1B-Def (DMSO) PLC/PRF/5 cells.
Project description:To test the impact of nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) on BCR/TCR RNA sequences, we treated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with cycloheximide to block NMD and analyzed treated and untreated cells by scRNA-seq with scVDJ-seq.
Project description:Understanding the pulmonary adaptive immune system of pigs is of importance as respiratory pathogens present a major challenge for swine producers and pigs are increasingly used to model human pulmonary diseases. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) has accelerated the characterization of cellular phenotypes in the pig respiratory tract under both healthy and diseased conditions. However, combining scRNAseq with recovery of paired VJ and VDJ T cell receptor (TCR) as well as heavy (IGH) and light (IGL) chains of B cell receptors (BCR) to interrogate receptor repertoires has not to our knowledge been demonstrated for pigs. Here, we developed primers to enrich porcine TCR and BCR chains that are compatible with the 10x Genomics VDJ sequencing protocol. Using these pig-specific assays, we sequenced the T and B cell receptors of cryopreserved lung cells from CD1D-expressing and -deficient pigs after one or two infections with influenza A virus (IAV), a major swine and human respiratory pathogen, to examine whether natural killer T (NKT) cells alter pulmonary TCR and BCR repertoire selection. We also performed paired single-cell RNA and TCR sequencing of FACS-sorted T cells longitudinally sampled from the lungs of IAV-vaccinated and -infected pigs to track clonal expansion in response to IAV exposure. All pigs presented highly diverse repertoires. Pigs re-exposed to influenza antigens from either vaccination or infection exhibited higher numbers of expanded CD4 and CD8 T cell clonotypes with activated phenotypes, suggesting potential IAV reactive T cell populations. Our results demonstrate the utility of high throughput single-cell TCR and BCR sequencing in pigs.
Project description:TCR- and BCR-sequencing (TCR/BCR-seq) are two important technologies in studying the immune repertoire of samples such as PBMCs or tumors. In their most common form, these assays combine multiplex PCR of the repertoire using primers targeting regions of the V(D)J and the constant region with next-generation sequencing (NGS). The data produced by this assay provide a slew of information regarding immune repertoire(s) including the presence critical clonotypes, repertoire diversity, variable (V) gene usage, analysis of public clonotypes, etc. One issue that can arise during generation of the TCR/BCR-seq data is sequence bias during the PCR or NGS steps. To combat this, unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) have been used to identify and eliminate sequence bias. However, UMI fragments can be long and very diverse, resulting in the UMI sequences interfering with any of the multitude of primers during multiplex PCR. Here, we introduce Validator Barcodes (VBCs), a set of eight short barcodes (6-9 nucleotides in length). This compact set of barcodes improves PCR efficiency and facilitates PCR primer designs. Also, like UMIs, the VBCs may be used to estimate the number of template molecules (RNA or DNA). Very similar analytic results and minimal template values have been generated when using VBC-labeled primers in TCR and BCR repertoire profiles from PBMCs to those generated by UMI-based assay counts. Overall, VBCs are a useful and simpler alternative to UMIs in assaying TCR and BCR repertoires.
Project description:The B-cell receptor (BCR) enables individual B cells to identify diverse antigens, including bacterial and viral proteins. While advances in RNA-seq have enabled high throughput profiling of transcript expression in single cells, the unique task of assembling the full-length heavy and light chain sequences from single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) in B cells has been largely unstudied. We developed a new software tool, BASIC, which allows investigators to use scRNA-seq for assembling BCR sequences at single cell level. To demonstrate the utility of our software, we subjected single B cells from a human donor to scRNA-seq, assembled the full-length heavy and the light chains, and experimentally confirmed these results by using single cell primer based nested PCRs and Sanger sequencing.