The rockefeller university

IntroductionPatient demographics, disease characteristics, and treatment history can impact the efficacy of biologic treatments in patients with psoriasis. Understanding the efficacy of biologics, such as bimekizumab, across diverse patient subgroups is important for optimising treatment outcomes. Here, we assess whether high overall clinical responses observed in bimekizumab-treated patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis are consistent across subgroups, both versus comparators and with long-term treatment. MethodsData were analysed post hoc from the BE SURE, BE VIVID, and BE READY phase 3 trials, their open-label extension (OLE) BE BRIGHT, and the BE RADIANT phase 3b trial. Patients received either bimekizumab or adalimumab to week 24 (BE SURE), bimekizumab or ustekinumab to week 52 (BE VIVID), and bimekizumab or secukinumab to week 48 (BE RADIANT). In the 3-year pooled analysis (all trials), included patients received bimekizumab continuously from baseline into the OLE. Subgroups of patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis were defined by age, sex, weight, disease duration, disease severity, nail involvement (modified Nail Psoriasis Severity Index > 0), and prior biologic exposure, at baseline. The proportions of patients achieving complete skin clearance (PASI 100; 100% improvement from baseline in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index) in each subgroup are reported alongside 95% confidence intervals (CI). Modified non-responder imputation (mNRI) was used for missing data. ResultsFollowing comparator-controlled periods, the proportion of bimekizumab-treated patients who achieved PASI 100 was consistent across subgroups and numerically greater versus patients who received adalimumab (to week 24), ustekinumab (to week 52), and secukinumab (to week 48) in all subgroups. Among patients who received bimekizumab continuously for 3 years (N = 1107), PASI 100 response rates remained consistent across age (68.6% [40 to < 65 years]-73.7% [>= 65 years]), sex (69.6% [male]-71.4% [female]), weight (63.4% [>= 103.9 kg]-75.5% [< 74.3 kg]), disease duration (65.5% [<= 5 years]-71.1% [> 20 years]), disease severity (67.7% [PASI 12 to < 15]-71.1% [PASI >= 20]), nail involvement (69.1% [yes]/71.3% [no]), and prior biologic exposure (71.7% [yes]/69.1% [no]; prior anti-TNF exposure 67.6% [yes]/70.6% [no]) subgroups; 95% CIs overlapped in all instances, indicating no meaningful differences between subgroups. ConclusionBimekizumab demonstrated consistently high long-term efficacy in patients with psoriasis across diverse subgroups. Higher rates of PASI 100 were achieved with bimekizumab versus adalimumab, ustekinumab, and secukinumab, across all subgroups. These results highlight bimekizumab as an effective treatment for a broad range of people living with psoriasis. Trial RegistrationNCT03412747, NCT03370133, NCT03410992, NCT03598790, NCT03536884. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY Psoriasis is a long-lasting skin condition affect-ing around 1 in every 50 people. Since psoriasis is common, people with the condition differ in terms of who they are, how psoriasis affects them, other health conditions they may have, and past treatments. These differences can affect how a drug works and choosing the correct treatment for individual patients is important. Finding treat-ments that work equally well across diverse groups of people would help make treatment decisions easier. Previous studies have shown that bimeki-zumab, a treatment for psoriasis, works better than other treatments (adalimumab, ustekinumab, and secukinumab) to completely clear the skin and keep it clear for a long time. To see if these results were consistent across diverse groups of people, we categorised patients into subgroups based on age, sex, body weight, health conditions, psoria-sis duration and severity, and prior treatments. We analysed results from people taking bimeki-zumab and other similar treatments for periods of up to 1 year, as well as those receiving bime-kizumab continuously for 3 years. Bimekizumab consistently helped a high number of patients achieve completely clear skin, regardless of their background. In all subgroups, approximately 7 out of 10 patients had completely clear skin after 3 years of continuous bimekizumab treatment. Over periods of up to 1 year, more patients treated with bimekizumab had completely clear skin com-pared with adalimumab, ustekinumab, and secuki-numab, in all analysed subgroups. These results indicate that bimekizumab is an effective treat-ment for a wide range of people with moderate to severe psoriasis.

Background Reference genomes for the entire sea turtle clade have the potential to reveal the genetic basis of traits driving the ecological and phenotypic diversity in these ancient and iconic marine species. Furthermore, these genomic resources can support conservation efforts and deepen our understanding of their unique evolution.Results We present haplotype-resolved, chromosome-level reference genomes and high-quality gene annotations for 5 sea turtle species. This completes the catalog of reference genomes of the entire sea turtle clade when combined with our previously published reference genomes. Our analysis reveals remarkable genome synteny and collinearity across all species, despite the clade's origin dating back more than 60 million years. Regions of high interspecific genetic distance and intraspecific genetic diversity are consistently clustered in genomic hotspots, which are enriched with genes coding for immune response proteins, olfactory receptors, zinc fingers, and G-protein-coupled receptors. These hotspot regions may offer insights into the genetic mechanisms driving phenotypic divergence among species and represent areas of significant adaptive potential. Ancient demographic analysis revealed a synchronous population expansion among sea turtle species during the Pleistocene, with varying magnitudes of demographic change, likely shaped by their diverse ecological adaptations and biogeographic contexts.Conclusions Our work provides genomic resources for exploring genetic diversity, evolutionary adaptations, and demographic histories of sea turtles. We outline genomic regions with increased diversity, linked to immune response, sensory evolution, and adaptation to varying environments that have historically been subject to strong diversifying selection and likely will underpin sea turtles' responses to future environmental change. These reference genomes can assist conservation by providing insights into the demographic and evolutionary processes that sustain and threaten these iconic species.

Examples of convergent evolution, wherein distantly related organisms evolve similar traits, including behaviors, underscore the adaptive power of natural selection. In birds, obligate brood parasitism, and the associated loss of parental care behaviors, has evolved independently in seven different lineages, though little is known about the genetic basis of the complex suite of traits associated with this rare life history strategy. We generated genome assemblies for ten brood parasitic species plus eight species representatives of their parental/nesting outgroups. This includes nine long-read chromosome-level assemblies, with scaffold N50 sizes ranging from 38.1 to 72.6 MB, and gene representation completeness measures >97%. Leveraging this new catalog of avian genomes, we constructed clade-level alignments that reveal variation in chromosomal synteny, provide first-time or improved annotations of protein-coding and non-coding genes, and define cross-species ortholog reference sets. We also refine estimates for the timing of the seven independent origins of brood parasitism, ranging from recent events such as 1.6-4.5 million years ago in Molothrus cowbirds to much earlier origins over 30 million years ago in two of the three cuckoo lineages. These genomic resources lay the foundation for investigating the genetic and genomic underpinnings of brood parasitism, including the loss of parental care, shifts in mating systems, perhaps resulting in heightened sperm competition, elevated annual fecundity, improved spatial cognition related to nest-finding, and the diverse adaptations shaped by intense coevolution with host species.

Despite significant interest in therapeutic targeting of splicing, few chemical probes are available for the proteins involved in splicing. Here, we show that elaborated stereoisomeric acrylamide EV96 and its analogues lead to a selective T cell state-dependent loss of interleukin 2-inducible T cell kinase (ITK) by targeting one of the core splicing factors SF3B1. Mechanistic investigations suggest that the state-dependency stems from a combination of differential protein turnover rates and extensive ITK mRNA alternative splicing. We further introduce the most comprehensive list to date of proteins involved in splicing and leverage cysteine- and protein-directed activity-based protein profiling with electrophilic scout fragments to demonstrate covalent ligandability for many classes of splicing factors and splicing regulators in T cells. Taken together, our findings show how chemical perturbation of splicing can lead to immune state-dependent changes in protein expression and provide evidence for the broad potential to target splicing factors with covalent chemistry.

Cells fine-tune gene expression in response to cellular stress, a process critical for tumorigenesis. However, mechanisms governing stress-responsive transcription remain incompletely understood. This study shows that the MED1 subunit of the Mediator coactivator complex is acetylated in its intrinsically disordered region (IDR). Under stress, SIRT1 associates with the super elongation complex to deacetylate MED1 in promoter-proximal regions. The deacetylated (or acetylation-defective mutant) MED1 amplified stress-activated cytoprotective genes and rescued stress-suppressed growth-supportive genes in estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer (ER+ BC) cells. Mechanistically, deacetylated MED1 promotes chromatin incorporation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) through IDR-mediated interactions. Functionally, ER+ BC cells with deacetylated MED1 exhibit faster growth and enhanced stress resistance in culture and in an orthotopic mouse model. These findings advance our understanding of Pol II regulation under cellular stress and potentially suggest therapeutic strategies targeting oncogenic transcription driven by MED1 and Mediator.

The molecular mechanisms that enable memories to persist over long timescales from days to weeks and months are still poorly understood1. Here, to develop insights into this process, we created a behavioural task in which mice formed multiple memories but only consolidated some, while forgetting others, over the span of weeks. We then monitored circuit-specific molecular programs that diverged between consolidated and forgotten memories. We identified multiple distinct waves of transcription, that is, cellular macrostates, in the thalamocortical circuit that defined memory persistence. Of note, a small set of transcriptional regulators orchestrated broad molecular programs that enabled entry into these macrostates. Targeted CRISPR-knockout studies revealed that although these transcriptional regulators had no effects on memory formation, they had prominent, causal and strikingly time-dependent roles in memory stabilization. In particular, the calmodulin-dependent transcription factor CAMTA1 was required for initial memory maintenance over days, whereas the transcription factor TCF4 and the histone methyltransferase ASH1L were required later to maintain memory over weeks. These results identify a critical CAMTA1-TCF4-ASH1L thalamocortical transcriptional cascade that is required for memory stabilization and put forth a model in which the sequential recruitment of circuit-specific transcriptional programs enables memory maintenance over progressively longer timescales.

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), arising from the skin, head and neck, lungs, esophagus, and cervix, are collectively among the most common cancers and a frequent cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Despite distinct stratified epithelial tissues of origin, converging evidence points toward shared biologic pathways across SCCs. With recent breakthroughs in molecular technologies have come novel SCC treatment paradigms, including immunotherapies and targeted therapy. This review compares commonalities and differences across SCCs from different anatomical sites, including risk factors and genetics, as well as cellular and molecular programs driving tumorigenesis. We review landmark discoveries of the "cancer stem cells" (CSCs) that initiate and propagate SCCs and their gene and translational regulation programs. This has led to an appreciation that interactions between CSCs and the immune system play key roles in invasion and therapeutic resistance. Here, we review the unifying principles of SCCs that have emerged from these exciting advances in our understanding of these epithelial cancers.

Chlamydia muridarum (Cm) is a moderately prevalent, gram-negative, intracellular bacterium that affects laboratory mice, causing subclinical to severe disease, depending on the host's immune status. The effectiveness of various antibiotic regimens aimed at eradicating Cm in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent laboratory mice was evaluated. NSG mice were cohoused with Cm-shedding BALB/cJ mice for 14 d to simulate natural exposure. Four groups of 8 infected NSG mice were treated for 7 d with either 0.08% sulfamethoxazole and 0.016% trimethoprim (TMS) in water, 0.0625% doxycycline in feed, 0.124%/0.025% TMS in feed, or 0.12% amoxicillin in feed. A control group was provided standard water and feed. The impact of treatment on gastrointestinal microbiota (GM) was investigated using next-generation shotgun sequencing on the last day of treatment. TMS and amoxicillin had negligible effects on GM, while doxycycline had the largest effect. All antibiotic-treated NSG mice exhibited clinical disease, including dehydration, hunched posture, greater than 20% weight loss, and dyspnea, leading to euthanasia 21 to 40 d posttreatment (32.6 +/- 4.2 d; mean +/- SD). Untreated controls were euthanized 14 to 33 d postexposure (23.75 +/- 5.9 d). All mice were fecal PCR positive for Cm at euthanasia. Histologic evaluation revealed multifocal histiocytic and neutrophilic bronchointerstitial pneumonia and/or bronchiolitis featuring prominent intralesional chlamydial inclusion bodies in all mice. Subsequently, groups of 8 C57BL/6J, BALB/cJ, NOD.SCID, and NSG mice infected with Cm were treated with 0.124%/0.025% TMS in feed for 7 (BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J) or 21 d (NSG and NOD.SCID). All immunocompetent and NOD.SCID mice were negative for Cm by PCR 14 d posttreatment, remained clinically normal, and had no evidence of Cm infection at necropsy, and all NSG mice remained Cm positive and were euthanized. While these findings highlight the difficulties in eradicating Cm from highly immunodeficient mice, eradication of Cm from immunocompetent or moderately immunocompromised mice with antibiotics is feasible.

The Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), the closest living relative of the extinct Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), is endemic to Southeast Asia with a fragmented distribution across numerous small islands. It suffers from habitat loss, hunting, and predation from invasive species, resulting in its classification as Near Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. We have generated a haplotype-resolved and chromosome-level genome assembly of the Nicobar pigeon using a combination of PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing and Arima Hi-C chromatin interaction mapping. This assembly includes two haplotypes, each spanning approximately 1.2 Gb. Haplotype 1 has a contig N50 of 25.2 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 79.7 Mb, whereas haplotype 2 has a contig N50 of 24.7 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 107.9 Mb. As the first high-quality genome assembly of any bird in the Columbidae Indo-Pacific clade, this resource provides valuable insights for phylogenetic studies. Furthermore, the phylogenetic proximity of the Nicobar pigeon to the Dodo (R. cucullatus) and the Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) offers a unique opportunity to study these extinct species, making this assembly a critical resource for evolutionary studies. It also offers a unique model for studying genetic diversity, adaptation, and speciation in island environments. This genomic resource will not only enhance our understanding of the evolutionary history of the Nicobar pigeon but also serve as a valuable tool for future conservation efforts aimed at preserving this unique species and its fragile island ecosystem.