Person: Wei, Zhiyun
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Wei
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Zhiyun
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Wei, Zhiyun
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Publication Fetal Bovine Serum RNA Interferes with the Cell Culture derived Extracellular RNA(Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Wei, Zhiyun; Batagov, Arsen O.; Carter, David R. F.; Krichevsky, AnnaFetal bovine serum (FBS) has been used in eukaryotic cell cultures for decades. However, little attention has been paid to the biological effects associated with RNA content of FBS on cell cultures. Here, using RNA sequencing, we demonstrate that FBS contains a diverse repertoire of protein-coding and regulatory RNA species, including mRNA, miRNA, rRNA, and snoRNA. The majority of them (>70%) are retained even after extended ultracentrifugation in the preparations of vesicle-depleted FBS (vdFBS) commonly utilized in the studies of extracellular vesicles (EV) and intercellular communication. FBS-associated RNA is co-isolated with cell-culture derived extracellular RNA (exRNA) and interferes with the downstream RNA analysis. Many evolutionally conserved FBS-derived RNA species can be falsely annotated as human or mouse transcripts. Notably, specific miRNAs abundant in FBS, such as miR-122, miR-451a and miR-1246, have been previously reported as enriched in cell-culture derived EVs, possibly due to the confounding effect of the FBS. Analysis of publically available exRNA datasets supports the notion of FBS contamination. Furthermore, FBS transcripts can be taken up by cultured cells and affect the results of highly sensitive gene expression profiling technologies. Therefore, precautions for experimental design are warranted to minimize the interference and misinterpretations caused by FBS-derived RNA.Publication Allele-specific expression of mutated in colorectal cancer (MCC) gene and alternative susceptibility to colorectal cancer in schizophrenia(Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Wang, Yang; Cao, Yanfei; Huang, Xiaoye; Yu, Tao; Wei, Zhiyun; McGrath, John; Xu, Fei; Bi, Yan; Li, Xingwang; Yang, Fengping; Li, Weidong; Zou, Xia; Peng, Zhihai; Xiao, Yanzeng; Zhang, Yan; He, Lin; He, GuangEvidence has indicated that the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) among schizophrenia is lower than normal. To explore this potential protective effect, we employed an innovative strategy combining association study with allele-specific expression (ASE) analysis in MCC gene. We first genotyped four polymorphisms within MCC in 312 CRC patients, 270 schizophrenia patients and 270 controls. Using the MassArray technique, we performed ASE measurements in a second sample series consisting of 50 sporadic CRC patients, 50 schizophrenia patients and 52 controls. Rs2227947 showed significant differences between schizophrenia cases and controls, and haplotype analysis reported some significant discrepancies among these three subject groups. ASE values of rs2227948 and rs2227947 presented consistently differences between CRC (or schizophrenia) patients and controls. Of the three groups, highest frequencies of ASE in MCC were concordantly found in CRC group, whereas lowest frequencies of ASE were observed in schizophrenia group. Similar trends were confirmed in both haplotype frequencies and ASE frequencies (i.e. CRC > control > schizophrenia). We provide a first indication that MCC might confer alterative genetic susceptibility to CRC in individuals with schizophrenia promising to shed more light on the relationship between schizophrenia and cancer progression.Publication Meeting report: discussions and preliminary findings on extracellular RNA measurement methods from laboratories in the NIH Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium(Co-Action Publishing, 2015) Laurent, Louise C.; Abdel-Mageed, Asim B.; Adelson, P. David; Arango, Jorge; Balaj, Leonora; Breakefield, Xandra; Carlson, Elizabeth; Carter, Bob S.; Majem, Blanca; Chen, Clark C.; Cocucci, Emanuele; Danielson, Kirsty; Courtright, Amanda; Das, Saumya; Elmageed, Zakaria Y. Abd; Enderle, Daniel; Ezrin, Alan; Ferrer, Marc; Freedman, Jane; Galas, David; Gandhi, Roopali; Huentelman, Matthew J.; Van Keuren-Jensen, Kendall; Kalani, Yashar; Kim, Yong; Krichevsky, Anna; Lai, Charles; Lal-Nag, Madhu; Laurent, Clara D.; Leonardo, Trevor; Li, Feng; Malenica, Ivana; Mondal, Debasis; Nejad, Parham; Patel, Tushar; Raffai, Robert L.; Rubio, Renee; Skog, Johan; Spetzler, Robert; Sun, Jie; Tanriverdi, Kahraman; Vickers, Kasey; Wang, Liang; Wang, Yaoyu; Wei, Zhiyun; Weiner, Howard; Wong, David; Yan, Irene K.; Yeri, Ashish; Gould, StephenExtracellular RNAs (exRNAs) have been identified in all tested biofluids and have been associated with a variety of extracellular vesicles, ribonucleoprotein complexes and lipoprotein complexes. Much of the interest in exRNAs lies in the fact that they may serve as signalling molecules between cells, their potential to serve as biomarkers for prediction and diagnosis of disease and the possibility that exRNAs or the extracellular particles that carry them might be used for therapeutic purposes. Among the most significant bottlenecks to progress in this field is the lack of robust and standardized methods for collection and processing of biofluids, separation of different types of exRNA-containing particles and isolation and analysis of exRNAs. The Sample and Assay Standards Working Group of the Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium is a group of laboratories funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to develop such methods. In our first joint endeavour, we held a series of conference calls and in-person meetings to survey the methods used among our members, placed them in the context of the current literature and used our findings to identify areas in which the identification of robust methodologies would promote rapid advancements in the exRNA field.Publication Rapamycin upregulates glutamate transporter and IL-6 expression in astrocytes in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease(Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Zhang, Yunlong; He, Xiaoliang; Wu, Xiaojuan; Lei, Ming; Wei, Zhiyun; Zhang, Xiuping; Wen, Lei; Xu, Pingyi; Li, Shaomin; Qu, ShaogangRapamycin protects mice against 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons, which is an established model for Parkinson's disease. We demonstrated that rapamycin preserves astrocytic expression of glutamate transporters and glutamate reuptake. The protective effect was also observed in astrocyte cultures, indicating that rapamycin acts directly on astrocytes. In the MPTP model, rapamycin caused reduced expression of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Nedd4-2 (neuronal precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated 4-2) and reduced colocalization of glutamate transporters with ubiquitin. Rapamycin increased interleukin-6 (IL-6) expression, which was associated with reduced expression of inflammatory cytokines, indicating anti-inflammatory properties of IL-6 in the MPTP model. NF-κB was shown to be a key mediator for rapamycin, whereas Janus kinase 2, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and Akt partially mediated rapamycin effects in astrocytes. These results demonstrate for the first time in a Parkinson's disease animal model that the neuroprotective effects of rapamycin are associated with glial and anti-inflammatory effects.Publication Coding and noncoding landscape of extracellular RNA released by human glioma stem cells(Nature Publishing Group UK, 2017) Wei, Zhiyun; Batagov, Arsen O.; Schinelli, Sergio; Wang, Jintu; Wang, Yang; El Fatimy, Rachid; Rabinovsky, Rosalia; Balaj, Leonora; Chen, Clark C.; Hochberg, Fred; Carter, Bob; Breakefield, Xandra; Krichevsky, AnnaTumor-released RNA may mediate intercellular communication and serve as biomarkers. Here we develop a protocol enabling quantitative, minimally biased analysis of extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) associated with microvesicles, exosomes (collectively called EVs), and ribonucleoproteins (RNPs). The exRNA complexes isolated from patient-derived glioma stem-like cultures exhibit distinct compositions, with microvesicles most closely reflecting cellular transcriptome. exRNA is enriched in small ncRNAs, such as miRNAs in exosomes, and precisely processed tRNA and Y RNA fragments in EVs and exRNPs. EV-enclosed mRNAs are mostly fragmented, and UTRs enriched; nevertheless, some full-length mRNAs are present. Overall, there is less than one copy of non-rRNA per EV. Our results suggest that massive EV/exRNA uptake would be required to ensure functional impact of transferred RNA on brain recipient cells and predict the most impactful miRNAs in such conditions. This study also provides a catalog of diverse exRNAs useful for biomarker discovery and validates its feasibility on cerebrospinal fluid.