Scholars@Duke
Qi-Jing Li

Qi-Jing Li

Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology
Integrative Immunobiology
Box 3010 DUMC, 303 Jones Building, Durham, NC 27710
303 Jones Building, 207 Resear, Box 3010 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710

Featured Works

Tumor-induced erythroid precursor-differentiated myeloid cells mediate immunosuppression and curtail anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment efficacy.

Journal article Cancer Cell · June 13, 2022 Featured Work Despite the unprecedented success of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) as anti-cancer therapy, it remains a prevailing clinical need to identify additional mechanisms underlying ICI therapeutic efficacy and potential drug resistance. Here, using lineage ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cancer-cell-derived GABA promotes β-catenin-mediated tumour growth and immunosuppression.

Journal article Nat Cell Biol · February 2022 Featured Work Many cancers have an unusual dependence on glutamine. However, most previous studies have focused on the contribution of glutamine to metabolic building blocks and the energy supply. Here, we report that cancer cells with aberrant expression of glutamate d ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Resident memory T cells in tumor-distant tissues fortify against metastasis formation.

Journal article Cell Rep · May 11, 2021 Featured Work As a critical machinery for rapid pathogen removal, resident memory T cells (TRMs) are locally generated after the initial encounter. However, their development accompanying tumorigenesis remains elusive. Using a murine breast cancer model, we show that TR ... Full text Link to item Cite

Conversion of effector CD4+ T cells to a CD8+ MHC II-recognizing lineage.

Journal article Cell Mol Immunol · January 2021 Featured Work CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are dichotomous lineages in adaptive immunity. While conventionally viewed as distinct fates that are fixed after thymic development, accumulating evidence indicates that these two populations can exhibit significant lineage plasticit ... Full text Link to item Cite

Radiation-induced eosinophils improve cytotoxic T lymphocyte recruitment and response to immunotherapy.

Journal article Sci Adv · January 2021 Featured Work The efficacy of cancer immunotherapy is dictated by CD8+ T cell infiltration and the nature of the tumor microenvironment (TME). By inflaming the TME to favor CD8+ T cell immunity, radiation is now widely considered as a neoadjuvant for immunomodulation. H ... Full text Link to item Cite

Peripheral eosinophil counts predict efficacy of anti-CD19 CAR-T cell therapy against B-lineage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Journal article Theranostics · 2021 Featured Work Rationale: The onset of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and in vivo persistence of anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells after infusion correlate with clinical responsiveness. However, there are no known baseline biomarkers that can predict t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A mosaic analysis system with Cre or Tomato expression in the mouse.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · November 10, 2020 Featured Work Somatic mutations are major genetic contributors to cancers and many other age-related diseases. Many disease-causing somatic mutations can initiate clonal growth prior to the appearance of any disease symptoms, yet experimental models that can be used to ... Full text Link to item Cite

Potential lung attack and lethality generated by EpCAM-specific CAR-T cells in immunocompetent mouse models.

Journal article Oncoimmunology · August 15, 2020 Featured Work The tumoricidal efficiency of human CAR-T cells is generally evaluated using immune-deficient mouse models; however, due to their immune-incompetency and the species-specific reactivity of a target antigen, these models are problematic to imitate CAR-T-ind ... Full text Link to item Cite

TCR repertoire and CDR3 motif analyses depict the role of αβ T cells in Ankylosing spondylitis.

Journal article EBioMedicine · September 2019 Featured Work BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease with worldwide high prevalence. Although AS is strongly associated with HLA-B27 MHC-I antigen presentation, the role played by αβ T cells in AS remains elusive. METHODS: Utilizing TC ... Full text Link to item Cite

Local mutational diversity drives intratumoral immune heterogeneity in non-small cell lung cancer.

Journal article Nat Commun · December 18, 2018 Featured Work Combining whole exome sequencing, transcriptome profiling, and T cell repertoire analysis, we investigate the spatial features of surgically-removed biopsies from multiple loci in tumor masses of 15 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This re ... Full text Link to item Cite

Late-stage tumors induce anemia and immunosuppressive extramedullary erythroid progenitor cells.

Journal article Nat Med · October 2018 Featured Work Impaired immunity in patients with late-stage cancer is not limited to antitumor responses, as demonstrated by poor vaccination protection and high susceptibility to infection1-3. This has been largely attributed to chemotherapy-induced impairment of innat ... Full text Link to item Cite

CD36 initiates the secretory phenotype during the establishment of cellular senescence.

Journal article EMBO Rep · June 2018 Featured Work Cellular senescence is a unique cell fate characterized by stable proliferative arrest and the extensive production and secretion of various inflammatory proteins, a phenomenon known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The molecular me ... Full text Link to item Cite

In Vivo Expansion and Antitumor Activity of Coinfused CD28- and 4-1BB-Engineered CAR-T Cells in Patients with B Cell Leukemia.

Journal article Mol Ther · April 4, 2018 Featured Work Several recent clinical trials have successfully incorporated a costimulatory domain derived from either CD28 or 4-1BB with the original CD3ζ T cell activating domain to form second-generation chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can increase the respons ... Full text Link to item Cite

Glimpse of natural selection of long-lived T-cell clones in healthy life.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · August 30, 2016 Featured Work Homeostatic maintenance of T cells with broad clonal diversity is influenced by both continuing output of young T cells from the thymus and ongoing turnover of preexisting clones in the periphery. In the absence of infection, self and commensal antigens ar ... Full text Link to item Cite

Inflammation-Dependent IL18 Signaling Restricts Hepatocellular Carcinoma Growth by Enhancing the Accumulation and Activity of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes.

Journal article Cancer Res · April 15, 2016 Featured Work Chronic inflammation in liver tissue is an underlying cause of hepatocellular carcinoma. High levels of inflammatory cytokine IL18 in the circulation of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma correlates with poor prognosis. However, conflicting results hav ... Full text Link to item Cite

MicroRNA-23a Curbs Necrosis during Early T Cell Activation by Enforcing Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species Equilibrium.

Journal article Immunity · March 15, 2016 Featured Work Upon antigen engagement, augmented cytosolic reactive oxygen species (ROS) are needed to achieve optimal T cell receptor (TCR) signaling. However, uncontrolled ROS production is a prominent cause of necrosis, which elicits hyper-inflammation and tissue dam ... Full text Link to item Cite

Analysis of the Rab GTPase Interactome in Dendritic Cells Reveals Anti-microbial Functions of the Rab32 Complex in Bacterial Containment.

Journal article Immunity · February 16, 2016 Featured Work Dendritic cells (DCs) orchestrate complex membrane trafficking through an interconnected transportation network linked together by Rab GTPases. Through a tandem affinity purification strategy and mass spectrometry, we depicted an interactomic landscape of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Diversity index of mucosal resident T lymphocyte repertoire predicts clinical prognosis in gastric cancer.

Journal article Oncoimmunology · April 2015 Featured Work A characteristic immunopathology of human cancers is the induction of tumor antigen-specific T lymphocyte responses within solid tumor tissues. Current strategies for immune monitoring focus on the quantification of the density and differentiation status o ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Targeting miR-23a in CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes prevents tumor-dependent immunosuppression.

Journal article J Clin Invest · December 2014 Featured Work CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) have potent antitumor activity and therefore are leading candidates for use in tumor immunotherapy. The application of CTLs for clinical use has been limited by the susceptibility of ex vivo-expanded CTLs to become dys ... Full text Link to item Cite

MeCP2 enforces Foxp3 expression to promote regulatory T cells' resilience to inflammation.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · July 8, 2014 Featured Work Forkhead box P3(+) (Foxp3(+)) regulatory T cells (Tregs) are crucial for peripheral tolerance. During inflammation, steady Foxp3 expression in Tregs is essential for maintaining their lineage identity and suppressive function. However, the molecular machin ... Full text Link to item Cite

miR-17-92 cluster targets phosphatase and tensin homology and Ikaros Family Zinc Finger 4 to promote TH17-mediated inflammation.

Journal article J Biol Chem · May 2, 2014 Featured Work The miR-17-92 cluster regulates a broad spectrum of biological processes of T cell immunity. This cluster was found to facilitate T cell proliferation, enhance antitumor activities and promote T cell-dependent antibody responses. However, little is known a ... Full text Link to item Cite

MeCP2 reinforces STAT3 signaling and the generation of effector CD4+ T cells by promoting miR-124-mediated suppression of SOCS5.

Journal article Sci Signal · March 11, 2014 Featured Work Methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) is an X-linked, multifunctional epigenetic regulator that is best known for its role in the neurological disorder Rett syndrome; however, it is also linked to multiple autoimmune disorders. We examined a potential role ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transcriptomic analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in rapid progressors in early HIV infection identifies a signature closely correlated with disease progression.

Journal article Clin Chem · August 2013 Featured Work BACKGROUND: A substantial percentage (10%-15%) of HIV-infected individuals experience a sharp decline in CD4(+) T-cell counts and progress to AIDS quickly after primary infection. Identification of biomarkers distinguishing rapid progressors (RPs) vs chron ... Full text Link to item Cite

T cell receptor (TCR) and transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling converge on DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase to control forkhead box protein 3 (foxp3) locus methylation and inducible regulatory T cell differentiation.

Journal article J Biol Chem · June 28, 2013 Featured Work Naïve T cells can be induced to differentiate into Foxp3(+) regulatory T cells (iTregs) upon suboptimal T cell receptor (TCR) stimulus or TCR stimulus in conjunction with TGF-β signaling; however, we do not fully understand how these signals coordinately c ... Full text Link to item Cite

miR-126 and miR-126* repress recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells and inflammatory monocytes to inhibit breast cancer metastasis.

Journal article Nat Cell Biol · March 2013 Featured Work The tumour stroma is an active participant during cancer progression. Stromal cells promote tumour progression and metastasis through multiple mechanisms including enhancing tumour invasiveness and angiogenesis, and suppressing immune surveillance. We repo ... Full text Link to item Cite

TGF-β-miR-34a-CCL22 signaling-induced Treg cell recruitment promotes venous metastases of HBV-positive hepatocellular carcinoma.

Journal article Cancer Cell · September 11, 2012 Featured Work Portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is strongly correlated to a poor prognosis for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we uncovered a causative link between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and development of PVTT. Mechanistically, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Molecular dissection of the miR-17-92 cluster's critical dual roles in promoting Th1 responses and preventing inducible Treg differentiation.

Journal article Blood · November 17, 2011 Featured Work Mir-17-92 encodes 6 miRNAs inside a single polycistronic transcript, the proper expression of which is critical for early B-cell development and lymphocyte homeostasis. However, during the T-cell antigen response, the physiologic function of endogenous miR ... Full text Link to item Cite

Functional development of the T cell receptor for antigen.

Journal article Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci · 2010 Featured Work For over three decades now, the T cell receptor (TCR) for antigen has not ceased to challenge the imaginations of cellular and molecular immunologists alike. T cell antigen recognition transcends every aspect of adaptive immunity: it shapes the T cell repe ... Full text Link to item Cite

miR-19 is a key oncogenic component of mir-17-92.

Journal article Genes Dev · December 15, 2009 Featured Work Recent studies have revealed the importance of multiple microRNAs (miRNAs) in promoting tumorigenesis, among which mir-17-92/Oncomir-1 exhibits potent oncogenic activity. Genomic amplification and elevated expression of mir-17-92 occur in several human B-c ... Full text Link to item Cite

An endogenous positively selecting peptide enhances mature T cell responses and becomes an autoantigen in the absence of microRNA miR-181a.

Journal article Nat Immunol · November 2009 Featured Work Thymic positive selection is based on the interactions of T cell antigen receptors (TCRs) with self peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) ligands, but the identity of selecting peptides for MHC class II-restricted TCRs and the functional consequen ... Full text Link to item Cite

miR-181a is an intrinsic modulator of T cell sensitivity and selection.

Journal article Cell · April 6, 2007 Featured Work T cell sensitivity to antigen is intrinsically regulated during maturation to ensure proper development of immunity and tolerance, but how this is accomplished remains elusive. Here we show that increasing miR-181a expression in mature T cells augments the ... Full text Link to item Cite

T cells as a self-referential, sensory organ.

Journal article Annu Rev Immunol · 2007 Featured Work In light of recent data showing that both helper and cytotoxic T cells can detect even a single molecule of an agonist peptide-MHC, alphabeta T cells are clearly a type of sensory cell, comparable to any in the nervous system. In addition, endogenous (self ... Full text Link to item Cite

Agonist/endogenous peptide-MHC heterodimers drive T cell activation and sensitivity.

Journal article Nature · March 10, 2005 Featured Work Alphabeta T lymphocytes are able to detect even a single peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on the surface of an antigen-presenting cell. This is despite clear evidence, at least with CD4+ T cells, that monomeric ligands are not stimulatory. In ... Full text Link to item Cite

CD4 enhances T cell sensitivity to antigen by coordinating Lck accumulation at the immunological synapse.

Journal article Nat Immunol · August 2004 Featured Work How T cells respond with extraordinary sensitivity to minute amounts of agonist peptide and major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) molecules on the surface of antigen-presenting cells bearing large numbers of endogenous pMHC molecules is not understood. H ... Full text Link to item Cite

The N- and C-terminal peptides of hIL8/CXCL8 are ligands for hCXCR1 and hCXCR2.

Journal article FASEB J · April 2004 Featured Work Chemokines are small cytokines that function in immune responses, wound healing, and pathological conditions such as chronic inflammation and tumorigenesis. This multifunctionality has been attributed primarily to ligand interaction with multiple or dimeri ... Full text Link to item Cite

MAP kinase phosphorylation-dependent activation of Elk-1 leads to activation of the co-activator p300.

Journal article EMBO J · January 15, 2003 Featured Work CBP/p300 recruitment to enhancer-bound complexes is a key determinant in promoter activation by many transcription factors. We present a novel mechanism of activating such complexes and show that pre-assembled Elk-1-p300 complexes become activated followin ... Full text Link to item Cite

The cxc chemokine cCAF stimulates differentiation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts and accelerates wound closure.

Journal article J Cell Biol · January 7, 2002 Featured Work Chemokines are small cytokines primarily known for their roles in inflammation. More recently, however, they have been implicated in processes involved in development of the granulation tissue of wounds, but little is known about their functions during thi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Novel nuclear target for thrombin: activation of the Elk1 transcription factor leads to chemokine gene expression.

Journal article Blood · December 1, 2000 Featured Work Thrombin is primarily known for its role in homeostasis and thrombosis. However, this enzyme also plays important roles in wound healing and pathologic situations such as inflammation and tumorigenesis. Among the molecules stimulated by thrombin in these l ... Link to item Cite

Activation of the 9E3/cCAF chemokine by phorbol esters occurs via multiple signal transduction pathways that converge to MEK1/ERK2 and activate the Elk1 transcription factor.

Journal article J Biol Chem · May 28, 1999 Featured Work Using primary fibroblasts in culture, we have investigated the signal transduction mechanisms by which phorbol esters, a class of tumor promoters, activate the 9E3 gene and its chemokine product the chicken chemotactic and angiogenic factor. This gene is h ... Full text Link to item Cite