The overall response rate for anti–PD-1 therapy remains modest in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that a combination of IFNα and anti–PD-1–based immunotherapy resulted in enhanced antitumor activity in patients with unresectable HCC. In both immunocompetent orthotopic and spontaneous HCC models, IFNα therapy synergized with anti–PD-1 and the combination treatment led to significant enrichment of cytotoxic CD27+CD8+ T cells. Mechanistically, IFNα suppressed HIF1α signaling by inhibiting FosB transcription in HCC cells, resulting in reduced glucose consumption capacity and consequentially establishing a high-glucose microenvironment that fostered transcription of the T-cell costimulatory molecule Cd27 via mTOR–FOXM1 signaling in infiltrating CD8+ T cells. Together, these data reveal that IFNα reprograms glucose metabolism within the HCC tumor microenvironment, thereby liberating T-cell cytotoxic capacities and potentiating the PD-1 blockade–induced immune response. Our findings suggest that IFNα and anti–PD-1 cotreatment is an effective novel combination strategy for patients with HCC. Significance: Our study supports a role of tumor glucose metabolism in IFNα-mediated antitumor immunity in HCC, and tumor-infiltrating CD27+CD8+ T cells may be a promising biomarker for stratifying patients for anti–PD-1 therapy. See related commentary by Kao et al., p. 1615. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1599

M icroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators in gene expression. The dysregulation of miRNA expression is widely reported in the transformation from physiological to pathological states of cells. A large number of differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) have been identified in various human cancers by using high-throughput technologies, such as microarray and miRNA-seq. Through mining of published studies with high-throughput experiment information, the database of DEMs in human cancers (dbDEMC) was constructed with the aim of providing a systematic resource for the storage and query of the DEMs. Here we report an update of the dbDEMC to version 3.0, which contains two-fold more data entries than the second version and now includes also data from mice and rats. The dbDEMC 3.0 contains 3268 unique DEMs in 40 different cancer types. The current datasets for differential expression analysis have expanded to 9 generalized categories. Moreover, the current release integrates functional annotations of DEMs obtained by using experimentally validated targets. The annotations can be of great benefit to the intensive analysis of the roles of DEMs in cancer. In summary, dbDEMC 3.0 provides a valuable resource for characterizing molecular functions and regulatory mechanisms of DEMs in human cancers. The dbDEMC 3.0 is freely accessible at https://www.biosino.org/dbDEMC.

Kluyveromyces marxianus, the known fastest-growing eukaryote on the earth, has remarkable thermotolerance and capacity to utilize various agricultural residues to produce low-cost bioethanol, and hence is industrially important to resolve the imminent energy shortage crisis. Currently, the poor ethanol tolerance hinders its operable application in the industry, and it is necessary to improve K. marxianus’ ethanol resistance and unravel the underlying systematical mechanisms. However, this has been seldom reported to date. We carried out a wild-type haploid K. marxianus FIM1 in adaptive evolution in 6% (v/v) ethanol. After 100-day evolution, the KM-100d population was obtained; its ethanol tolerance increased up to 10% (v/v). Interestingly, DNA analysis and RNA-seq analysis showed that KM-100d yeasts’ ethanol tolerance improvement was not due to ploidy change or meaningful mutations, but founded on transcriptional reprogramming in a genome-wide range. Even growth in an ethanol-free medium, many genes in KM-100d maintained their up-regulation. Especially, pathways of ethanol consumption, membrane lipid biosynthesis, anti-osmotic pressure, anti-oxidative stress, and protein folding were generally up-regulated in KM-100d to resist ethanol. Notably, enhancement of the secretory pathway may be the new strategy KM-100d developed to anti-osmotic pressure, instead of the traditional glycerol production way in S. cerevisiae. Inferred from the transcriptome data, besides ethanol tolerance, KM-100d may also develop the ability to resist osmotic, oxidative, and thermic stresses, and this was further confirmed by the cell viability test. Furthermore, under such environmental stresses, KM-100d greatly improved ethanol production than the original strain. In addition, we found that K. marxianus may adopt distinct routes to resist different ethanol concentrations. Trehalose biosynthesis was required for low ethanol, while sterol biosynthesis and the whole secretory pathway were activated for high ethanol. This study reveals that ethanol-driven laboratory evolution could improve K. marxianus’ ethanol tolerance via significant up-regulation of multiple pathways including anti-osmotic, anti-oxidative, and anti-thermic processes, and indeed consequently raised ethanol yield in industrial high-temperature and high-ethanol circumstance. Our findings give genetic clues for further rational optimization of K. marxianus’ ethanol production, and also partly confirm the positively correlated relationship between yeast’s ethanol tolerance and production.

Hmong-Mien (H-M) is a major language family in East Asia, and its speakers distribute primarily in southern China and Southeast Asia. To date, genetic studies on H-M speaking populations are virtually absent in the literature. In this report, we present the results of an analysis of genetic variations in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable segment 1 (HVS1) region and diagnostic variants in the coding regions in 537 individuals sampled from 17 H-M populations across East Asia. The analysis showed that the haplogroups that are predominant in southern East Asia, including B, R9, N9a, and M7, account for 63% (ranging from 45% to 90%) of mtDNAs in H-M populations. Furthermore, analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), phylogenetic tree analysis, and principal component (PC) analysis demonstrate closer relatedness between H-M and other southern East Asians, suggesting a general southern origin of maternal lineages in the H-M populations. The estimated ages of the mtDNA lineages that are specific to H-M coincide with those based on archeological cultures that have been associated with H-M. Analysis of genetic distance and phylogenetic tree indicated some extent of difference between the Hmong and the Mien populations. Together with the higher frequency of north-dominating lineages observed in the Hmong people, our results indicate that the Hmong populations had experienced more contact with the northern East Asians, a finding consistent with historical evidence. Moreover, our data defined some new (sub-)haplogroups (A6, B4e, B4f, C5, F1a1, F1a1a, and R9c), which will direct further efforts to improve the phylogeny of East Asian mtDNAs.