Publications by authors named "Daniel Zhou"

Transcription activators are said to stimulate gene expression by 'recruiting' coactivators, yet this vague term fits multiple kinetic models. To directly analyze the dynamics of activator-coactivator interactions, single-molecule microscopy was used to image promoter DNA, a transcription activator and the Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) complex within yeast nuclear extract. SAGA readily but transiently binds nucleosome-free DNA without an activator, while chromatin association occurs primarily when an activator is present.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Transcription activators trigger transcript production by RNA Polymerase II (RNApII) via the Mediator coactivator complex. Here the dynamics of activator, Mediator, and RNApII binding at promoter DNA were analyzed using multi-wavelength single-molecule microscopy of fluorescently labeled proteins in budding yeast nuclear extract. Binding of Mediator and RNApII to the template required activator and an upstream activator sequence (UAS), but not a core promoter.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Breast cancer (BC) has distinct molecular subtypes influenced by different cell origins, yet the transcriptional networks for these subtypes are not well understood.
  • This study utilized advanced techniques on 61 samples from 37 BC patients to reveal how gene expression and chromatin accessibility connect BC subtypes to their likely cells of origin.
  • Key transcription factors BHLHE40 and KLF5 were found to play crucial roles in luminal and basal-like tumors, respectively, and exhausted CD8 T cells were linked to immune dysfunction in basal-like BC, showcasing the potential of single-cell level analysis in understanding cancer lineages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Temporal encephaloceles (TE) are a lesser-known cause of epilepsy that can be surgically treated, and this systematic review compiles data on their clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes.
  • The analysis included 24 studies with a total of 423 patients, finding that TE patients typically have later seizure onset, different seizure patterns, and a greater incidence of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) compared to those without TE.
  • Surgical interventions show promising outcomes, with a 75-85% success rate for different surgical techniques, indicating that better recognition and understanding of TE could improve epilepsy management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Directing groups guide substitution patterns in organic synthetic schemes, but little is known about pathways to control reactivity patterns, such as regioselectivity, in complex inorganic systems such as bioinorganic cofactors or extended surfaces. Interadsorbate effects are known to encode surface reactivity patterns in inorganic materials, modulating the location and binding strength of ligands. However, owing to limited experimental resolution into complex inorganic structures, there is little opportunity to resolve these effects on the atomic scale.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A significant increase in the use of second-line immunotherapies (like anakinra) and the ketogenic diet was observed from 2022 to 2023, with 69% of patients receiving second-line immunotherapy compared to 40% before 2022.
  • * Early administration of certain therapies, particularly anakinra and tocilizumab, was linked to shorter durations of status epilepticus, suggesting a potential avenue for future research on treatment timing and patient outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) is a subset of new onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) that involves a febrile infection prior to the onset of the refractory status epilepticus. It is unclear whether FIRES and non-FIRES NORSE are distinct conditions. Here, we compare 34 patients with FIRES to 30 patients with non-FIRES NORSE for demographics, clinical features, neuroimaging, and outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is clinically used to localize interictal spikes in discrete brain areas of epilepsy patients through the equivalent current dipole (ECD) method, but does not account for the temporal dynamics of spike activity. Recent studies found that interictal spike propagation beyond the temporal lobe may be associated with worse postsurgical outcomes, but studies using whole-brain data such as in MEG remain limited. In this pilot study, we developed a tool that visualizes the spatiotemporal dynamics of interictal MEG spikes normalized to spike-free sleep activity to assess their onset and propagation patterns in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and treatment is guided by biomarker profiles representing distinct molecular subtypes. Breast cancer arises from the breast ductal epithelium, and experimental data suggests breast cancer subtypes have different cells of origin within that lineage. The precise cells of origin for each subtype and the transcriptional networks that characterize these tumor-normal lineages are not established.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We report two distinct challenging initial presentations of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). Case 1 describes a 12-year-old boy who developed headaches refractory to pain medication followed by cranial neuropathies and intracranial hypertension, confirmed by lumbar puncture with an opening pressure >36 cm HO. Case 2 describes a 3-year-old boy who developed new-onset seizures refractory to antiseizure medications, a presentation of FLAIR-hyperintense lesions in MOG-antibody associated encephalitis with seizures (FLAMES).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cancer driver events refer to key genetic aberrations that drive oncogenesis; however, their exact molecular mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. Here, our multi-omics pan-cancer analysis uncovers insights into the impacts of cancer drivers by identifying their significant cis-effects and distal trans-effects quantified at the RNA, protein, and phosphoprotein levels. Salient observations include the association of point mutations and copy-number alterations with the rewiring of protein interaction networks, and notably, most cancer genes converge toward similar molecular states denoted by sequence-based kinase activity profiles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The National Cancer Institute's CPTAC focuses on analyzing tumors using a proteogenomic approach, which combines genomic data with proteomic information to better understand cancer.
  • - The consortium has developed a comprehensive dataset that includes genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and clinical data from over 1000 tumors across 10 different groups, aimed at enhancing cancer research.
  • - The CPTAC team addresses challenges in integrating and analyzing multi-omics data, especially the complexities arising from combining nucleotide sequencing with mass spectrometry proteomics information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Here, we investigate the stereoelectronic requirements of a family of Fe/CoSe molecular clusters to achieve a Goldilocks regime of substrate affinity for the catalytic coupling of tosyl azide and -butyl isocyanide. The reactivity of a catalytically competent iron-nitrenoid intermediate, observed , is explored toward nitrene transfer and hydrogen-atom abstraction. The dual role of isocyanide, which, on the one hand, prevents catalyst degradation but, in large amounts, slows down reactivity, is exposed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identifying tumor-cell-specific markers and elucidating their epigenetic regulation and spatial heterogeneity provides mechanistic insights into cancer etiology. Here, we perform snRNA-seq and snATAC-seq in 34 and 28 human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) specimens, respectively, with matched bulk proteogenomics data. By identifying 20 tumor-specific markers through a multi-omics tiered approach, we reveal an association between higher ceruloplasmin (CP) expression and reduced survival.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are prevalent in pancreatic cancer, and their proliferation is influenced by colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF1) from cancer-associated fibroblasts.
  • High levels of p21 in TAMs are linked to more inflammatory and immunosuppressive behaviors, impacting both the macrophage phenotype and cancer progression.
  • The study suggests that regulating p21 in TAMs could enhance responses to cancer treatments, indicating a connection between macrophage behavior, immune suppression, and tumor therapy effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a highly refractory hematologic cancer. Targeted immunotherapy has shown promise in MM but remains hindered by the challenge of identifying specific yet broadly representative tumor markers. We analyzed 53 bone marrow (BM) aspirates from 41 MM patients using an unbiased, high-throughput pipeline for therapeutic target discovery via single-cell transcriptomic profiling, yielding 38 MM marker genes encoding cell-surface proteins and 15 encoding intracellular proteins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A case study reports a healthy male developing cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) after receiving the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine, presenting with symptoms like headache and vomiting.
  • Neuroimaging revealed CVST, and despite an unremarkable hypercoagulability workup, the patient was treated with immunotherapy and anticoagulation, leading to symptom resolution.
  • The article emphasizes the importance of early recognition and neuroimaging for severe headaches, especially after vaccination, to ensure better clinical outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Changes in metabolism are a hallmark of cancer, but molecular signatures of altered bioenergetics to aid in clinical decision-making do not currently exist. We recently identified a group of human tumors with constitutively reduced expression of the mitochondrial structural protein, Mic60, also called mitofilin or inner membrane mitochondrial protein (IMMT). These Mic60-low tumors exhibit severe loss of mitochondrial fitness, paradoxically accompanied by increased metastatic propensity and upregulation of a unique transcriptome of Interferon (IFN) signaling and Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype (SASP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We present a case of a 3-year-old girl who rapidly developed bilateral facial palsy, dysphagia, dysphonia, areflexia, and ataxia soon after receiving an influenza vaccine. Brain and spine Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans with and without contrast showed enhancement of cranial nerves III, V, VII, and X, as well as the anterior and posterior cervical spinal and cauda equina roots. cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) studies showed white blood cell count of 19 cells/cm, glucose 81 mg/dL, and protein 116 mg/dL, with negative infectious and autoimmune labs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF