Naganari Ohkura

Naturally arising regulatory CD4⁺ T (Treg) cells, which specifically express the transcription factor FoxP3 in the nucleus and CD25 and CTLA-4 on the cell surface, are a T-cell subpopulation specialized for immune suppression, playing a key role in maintaining immunological self-tolerance and homeostasis. FoxP3 is required for Treg function, especially for its suppressive activity. However, FoxP3 expression per se is not necessary for Treg cell lineage commitment in the thymus and ins

Foxp3-expressing CD25⁺CD4⁺ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are abundant in tumor tissues. Here, hypothesizing that tumor Tregs would clonally expand after they are activated by tumor-associated antigens to suppress antitumor immune responses, we performed single-cell analysis on tumor Tregs to characterize them by T cell receptor clonotype and gene-expression profiles. We found that multiclonal Tregs present in tumor tissues predominantly expressed the chemokine receptor CCR8. I

MEN1 is a tumor suppressor gene that is responsible for multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and that encodes a 610-amino-acid protein, called menin. While the majority of germ line mutations identified in MEN1 patients are frameshift and nonsense mutations resulting in truncation of the menin protein, various missense mutations have been identified whose effects on menin activity are unclear. For this study, we analyzed a series of menin proteins with single amino acid alterations and fou

Molecular diversity through alternative splicing is important for cellular function and development. However, little is known about the factors that regulate alternative splicing. Here we demonstrate that one isoform of coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (named CARM1-v3) associates with the U1 small nuclear RNP-specific protein U1C and affects 5' splice site selection of the pre-mRNA splicing. CARM1-v3 was generated by the retention of introns 15 and 16 of the primary transcript

CD4⁺ T cells are key mediators of various autoimmune diseases; however, their role in disease progression remains unclear due to cellular heterogeneity. Here, we evaluated CD4⁺ T cell subpopulations using decomposition-based transcriptome characterization and canonical clustering strategies. This approach identified 12 independent gene programs governing whole CD4⁺ T cell heterogeneity, which can explain the ambiguity of canonical clustering. In addition, we perf

In extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, chromosomal translocation creates a gene fusion between EWS and the orphan nuclear receptor NOR1. The resulting fusion gene product, EWS/NOR1, has been believed to lead to malignant transformation by functioning as a transcriptional activator, but an alternative mechanism may also be involved. Here, using a newly developed functional complementation screening in yeast, we found that EWS/NOR1, but not EWS or NOR1, complemented the loss of function of the sm