51
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Wang H, Lin X, Liu E, Jian Z, Ou Y. MicroRNA-33b regulates hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation, apoptosis, and mobility via targeting Fli-1-mediated Notch1 pathway. J Cell Physiol 2020; 235:7635-7644. [PMID: 32239672 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.29673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been confirmed to play pivotal roles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) carcinogenesis. However, the underlying function of microRNA-33b (miR-33b) in HCC remains unclear. Here, we found that miR-33b level was significantly reduced in both HCC tissues and tumor cell lines. Further, luciferase reporter assay and western blot analysis confirmed that Friend leukemia virus integration 1 (Fli-1) was a direct target of miR-33b. Overexpression of miR-33b dramatically suppressed HCC tumor cell proliferation and cell mobility, but facilitated tumor cell apoptosis in vitro. Besides, restoration of Fli-1 partially attenuated miR-33b-mediated inhibition of cell growth and metastasis via activating Notch1 signaling and its downstream effectors. Our findings demonstrate the important role of miR-33b/Fli-1 axis in HCC progression and provide novel therapeutic candidates for HCC clinical treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huiling Wang
- Department of General Surgery, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xingtao Lin
- Department of Pathology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Entao Liu
- Weilun PET Center, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhixiang Jian
- Department of General Surgery, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yingliang Ou
- Department of General Surgery, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
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52
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Flores G, Everett JH, Boguslawski EA, Oswald BM, Madaj ZB, Beddows I, Dikalov S, Adams M, Klumpp-Thomas CA, Kitchen-Goosen SM, Martin SE, Caplen NJ, Helman LJ, Grohar PJ. CDK9 Blockade Exploits Context-dependent Transcriptional Changes to Improve Activity and Limit Toxicity of Mithramycin for Ewing Sarcoma. Mol Cancer Ther 2020; 19:1183-1196. [PMID: 32127464 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-19-0775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2019] [Revised: 12/17/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
There is a need to develop novel approaches to improve the balance between efficacy and toxicity for transcription factor-targeted therapies. In this study, we exploit context-dependent differences in RNA polymerase II processivity as an approach to improve the activity and limit the toxicity of the EWS-FLI1-targeted small molecule, mithramycin, for Ewing sarcoma. The clinical activity of mithramycin for Ewing sarcoma is limited by off-target liver toxicity that restricts the serum concentration to levels insufficient to inhibit EWS-FLI1. In this study, we perform an siRNA screen of the druggable genome followed by a matrix drug screen to identify mithramycin potentiators and a synergistic "class" effect with cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) inhibitors. These CDK9 inhibitors enhanced the mithramycin-mediated suppression of the EWS-FLI1 transcriptional program leading to a shift in the IC50 and striking regressions of Ewing sarcoma xenografts. To determine whether these compounds may also be liver protective, we performed a qPCR screen of all known liver toxicity genes in HepG2 cells to identify mithramycin-driven transcriptional changes that contribute to the liver toxicity. Mithramycin induces expression of the BTG2 gene in HepG2 but not Ewing sarcoma cells, which leads to a liver-specific accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). siRNA silencing of BTG2 rescues the induction of ROS and the cytotoxicity of mithramycin in these cells. Furthermore, CDK9 inhibition blocked the induction of BTG2 to limit cytotoxicity in HepG2, but not Ewing sarcoma cells. These studies provide the basis for a synergistic and less toxic EWS-FLI1-targeted combination therapy for Ewing sarcoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillermo Flores
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan.,College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Joel H Everett
- Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Elissa A Boguslawski
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Brandon M Oswald
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Zachary B Madaj
- Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Ian Beddows
- Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Sergey Dikalov
- The Free Radicals in Medicine Core, Division of Clinical Pharmacology Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Marie Adams
- Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Carleen A Klumpp-Thomas
- Trans-NIH RNAi Screening Facility, Division of Preclinical Innovation, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH, Rockville, Maryland
| | - Susan M Kitchen-Goosen
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | - Scott E Martin
- Trans-NIH RNAi Screening Facility, Division of Preclinical Innovation, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH, Rockville, Maryland
| | - Natasha J Caplen
- Genetics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Lee J Helman
- Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Patrick J Grohar
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan. .,Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, NCI, Bethesda, Maryland.,Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.,Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.,Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan.,Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
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53
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Precision medicine in Ewing sarcoma: a translational point of view. Clin Transl Oncol 2020; 22:1440-1454. [PMID: 32026343 DOI: 10.1007/s12094-020-02298-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is a rare tumor that arises in bones of children and teenagers but, in 15% of the patients it is presented as a primary soft tissue tumor. Balanced reciprocal chimeric translocation t(11;22)(q24;q12), which encodes an oncogenic protein fusion (EWSR1/FLI1), is the most generalized and characteristic molecular event. Using conventional treatments, (chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy) long-term overall survival rate is 30% for patients with disseminated disease and 65-75% for patients with localized tumors. Urgent new effective drug development is a challenge. This review summarizes the preclinical and clinical investigational knowledge about prognostic and targetable biomarkers in Ewing sarcoma, finally suggesting a workflow for precision medicine committees.
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54
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Transcriptional Programs Define Intratumoral Heterogeneity of Ewing Sarcoma at Single-Cell Resolution. Cell Rep 2020; 30:1767-1779.e6. [DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.01.049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2019] [Revised: 10/07/2019] [Accepted: 01/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
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55
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Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is a rare tumor developed in bone and soft tissues of children and teenagers. This entity is biologically led by a chromosomal translocation, typically including EWS and FLI1 genes. Little is known about Ewing sarcoma predisposition, although the role of environmental factors, ethnicity and certain polymorphisms on Ewing sarcoma susceptibility has been studied during the last few years. Its prevalence among cancer predisposition syndromes has also been thoroughly examined. This review summarizes the available evidence on predisposing factors involved in Ewing sarcoma susceptibility. On the basis of these data, an integrated approach of the most influential factors on Ewing sarcoma predisposition is proposed.
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56
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Musa J, Cidre-Aranaz F, Aynaud MM, Orth MF, Knott MML, Mirabeau O, Mazor G, Varon M, Hölting TLB, Grossetête S, Gartlgruber M, Surdez D, Gerke JS, Ohmura S, Marchetto A, Dallmayer M, Baldauf MC, Stein S, Sannino G, Li J, Romero-Pérez L, Westermann F, Hartmann W, Dirksen U, Gymrek M, Anderson ND, Shlien A, Rotblat B, Kirchner T, Delattre O, Grünewald TGP. Cooperation of cancer drivers with regulatory germline variants shapes clinical outcomes. Nat Commun 2019; 10:4128. [PMID: 31511524 PMCID: PMC6739408 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12071-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/16/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Pediatric malignancies including Ewing sarcoma (EwS) feature a paucity of somatic alterations except for pathognomonic driver-mutations that cannot explain overt variations in clinical outcome. Here, we demonstrate in EwS how cooperation of dominant oncogenes and regulatory germline variants determine tumor growth, patient survival and drug response. Binding of the oncogenic EWSR1-FLI1 fusion transcription factor to a polymorphic enhancer-like DNA element controls expression of the transcription factor MYBL2 mediating these phenotypes. Whole-genome and RNA sequencing reveals that variability at this locus is inherited via the germline and is associated with variable inter-tumoral MYBL2 expression. High MYBL2 levels sensitize EwS cells for inhibition of its upstream activating kinase CDK2 in vitro and in vivo, suggesting MYBL2 as a putative biomarker for anti-CDK2-therapy. Collectively, we establish cooperation of somatic mutations and regulatory germline variants as a major determinant of tumor progression and highlight the importance of integrating the regulatory genome in precision medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Musa
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Florencia Cidre-Aranaz
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Marie-Ming Aynaud
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisée LNCC Genetics and Biology of Pediatric Cancers, PSL Research University, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie Research Centre, Paris, France
| | - Martin F Orth
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Maximilian M L Knott
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Olivier Mirabeau
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisée LNCC Genetics and Biology of Pediatric Cancers, PSL Research University, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie Research Centre, Paris, France
| | - Gal Mazor
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Mor Varon
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Tilman L B Hölting
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sandrine Grossetête
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisée LNCC Genetics and Biology of Pediatric Cancers, PSL Research University, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie Research Centre, Paris, France
| | - Moritz Gartlgruber
- Neuroblastoma Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Didier Surdez
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisée LNCC Genetics and Biology of Pediatric Cancers, PSL Research University, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie Research Centre, Paris, France
| | - Julia S Gerke
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Shunya Ohmura
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Aruna Marchetto
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Marlene Dallmayer
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Michaela C Baldauf
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Stefanie Stein
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Giuseppina Sannino
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Jing Li
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Laura Romero-Pérez
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Frank Westermann
- Neuroblastoma Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Hartmann
- Division of Translational Pathology, Gerhard-Domagk Institute of Pathology, University Hospital of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Uta Dirksen
- Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital of Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Melissa Gymrek
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Nathaniel D Anderson
- Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Adam Shlien
- Program in Genetics and Genome Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Paediatric Laboratory Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Barak Rotblat
- Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Thomas Kirchner
- Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner site Munich, Munich, Germany
- German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Olivier Delattre
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisée LNCC Genetics and Biology of Pediatric Cancers, PSL Research University, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie Research Centre, Paris, France
| | - Thomas G P Grünewald
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
- Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
- German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner site Munich, Munich, Germany.
- German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
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57
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Lin L, Huang M, Shi X, Mayakonda A, Hu K, Jiang YY, Guo X, Chen L, Pang B, Doan N, Said JW, Xie J, Gery S, Cheng X, Lin Z, Li J, Berman BP, Yin D, Lin DC, Koeffler HP. Super-enhancer-associated MEIS1 promotes transcriptional dysregulation in Ewing sarcoma in co-operation with EWS-FLI1. Nucleic Acids Res 2019; 47:1255-1267. [PMID: 30496486 PMCID: PMC6379679 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gky1207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2018] [Revised: 10/27/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
As the second most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescents, Ewing sarcoma is initiated and exacerbated by a chimeric oncoprotein, most commonly, EWS-FLI1. In this study, we apply epigenomic analysis to characterize the transcription dysregulation in this cancer, focusing on the investigation of super-enhancer and its associated transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. We demonstrate that super-enhancer-associated transcripts are significantly enriched in EWS-FLI1 target genes, contribute to the aberrant transcriptional network of the disease, and mediate the exceptional sensitivity of Ewing sarcoma to transcriptional inhibition. Through integrative analysis, we identify MEIS1 as a super-enhancer-driven oncogene, which co-operates with EWS-FLI1 in transcriptional regulation, and plays a key pro-survival role in Ewing sarcoma. Moreover, APCDD1, another super-enhancer-associated gene, acting as a downstream target of both MEIS1 and EWS-FLI1, is also characterized as a novel tumor-promoting factor in this malignancy. These data delineate super-enhancer-mediated transcriptional deregulation in Ewing sarcoma, and uncover numerous candidate oncogenes which can be exploited for further understanding of the molecular pathogenesis for this disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lehang Lin
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China.,Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Moli Huang
- School of Biology and Basic Medical Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, P.R. China
| | - Xianping Shi
- Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Anand Mayakonda
- Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599, Singapore
| | - Kaishun Hu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - Yan-Yi Jiang
- Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599, Singapore
| | - Xiao Guo
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - Li Chen
- Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Brendan Pang
- Department of Pathology, National University Hospital Singapore, 119074, Singapore
| | - Ngan Doan
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Los Angeles and David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Jonathan W Said
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Los Angeles and David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Jianjun Xie
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Shantou University, Shantou 515041, P.R. China
| | - Sigal Gery
- Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Xu Cheng
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - Zhaoyu Lin
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China.,Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - Jinsong Li
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China.,Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - Benjamin P Berman
- Department of Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - Dong Yin
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Medical Research Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, P.R. China
| | - De-Chen Lin
- Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA
| | - H Phillip Koeffler
- Department of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.,Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599, Singapore.,National University Cancer Institute, National University Hospital Singapore, 119074, Singapore
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58
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EWSR1-FLI1 Activation of the Cancer/Testis Antigen FATE1 Promotes Ewing Sarcoma Survival. Mol Cell Biol 2019; 39:MCB.00138-19. [PMID: 31036566 DOI: 10.1128/mcb.00138-19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2019] [Accepted: 04/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is characterized by a pathognomonic chromosomal translocation that generates the EWSR1-FLI1 chimeric transcription factor. The transcriptional targets of EWSR1-FLI1 that are essential for tumorigenicity are incompletely defined. Here, we found that EWSR1-FLI1 modulates the expression of cancer/testis (CT) antigen genes, whose expression is biased to the testes but is also activated in cancer. Among these CT antigens, fetal and adult testis expressed 1 (FATE1) is most robustly induced. EWSR1-FLI1 associates with the GGAA repeats in the proximal promoter of FATE1, which exhibits accessible chromatin exclusively in mesenchymal progenitor cells (MPCs) and Ewing sarcoma cells. Expression of EWSR1-FLI1 in non-Ewing sarcoma cells and in MPCs enhances FATE1 mRNA and protein expression. Conversely, depletion of EWSR1-FLI1 in Ewing sarcoma cells leads to a loss of FATE1 expression. Importantly, we found that FATE1 is required for survival and anchorage-independent growth in Ewing sarcoma cells via attenuating the accumulation of BNIP3L, a BH3-only protein that is toxic when stabilized. This action appears to be mediated by the E3 ligase RNF183. We propose that engaging FATE1 function can permit the bypass of cell death mechanisms that would otherwise inhibit tumor progression.
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59
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Lindén M, Thomsen C, Grundevik P, Jonasson E, Andersson D, Runnberg R, Dolatabadi S, Vannas C, Luna Santamarίa M, Fagman H, Ståhlberg A, Åman P. FET family fusion oncoproteins target the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. EMBO Rep 2019; 20:embr.201845766. [PMID: 30962207 PMCID: PMC6500973 DOI: 10.15252/embr.201845766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2018] [Revised: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 03/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Members of the human FET family of RNA‐binding proteins, comprising FUS, EWSR1, and TAF15, are ubiquitously expressed and engage at several levels of gene regulation. Many sarcomas and leukemias are characterized by the expression of fusion oncogenes with FET genes as 5′ partners and alternative transcription factor‐coding genes as 3′ partners. Here, we report that the N terminus of normal FET proteins and their oncogenic fusion counterparts interact with the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. In contrast to normal FET proteins, increased fractions of FET oncoproteins bind SWI/SNF, indicating a deregulated and enhanced interaction in cancer. Forced expression of FET oncogenes caused changes of global H3K27 trimethylation levels, accompanied by altered gene expression patterns suggesting a shift in the antagonistic balance between SWI/SNF and repressive polycomb group complexes. Thus, deregulation of SWI/SNF activity could provide a unifying pathogenic mechanism for the large group of tumors caused by FET fusion oncoproteins. These results may help to develop common strategies for therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Malin Lindén
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Christer Thomsen
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.,Department of Clinical Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Pernilla Grundevik
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Emma Jonasson
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Daniel Andersson
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Rikard Runnberg
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Soheila Dolatabadi
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Christoffer Vannas
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.,Department of Oncology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Manuel Luna Santamarίa
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Henrik Fagman
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.,Department of Clinical Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Anders Ståhlberg
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden .,Department of Clinical Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.,Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Pierre Åman
- Department of Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden .,Department of Clinical Pathology and Genetics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
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60
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Perry JA, Seong BKA, Stegmaier K. Biology and Therapy of Dominant Fusion Oncoproteins Involving Transcription Factor and Chromatin Regulators in Sarcomas. ANNUAL REVIEW OF CANCER BIOLOGY-SERIES 2019. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-cancerbio-030518-055710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
A third of soft tissue sarcomas have been shown to carry recurrent, characteristic chromosomal translocations, many of which generate fusion proteins that act as dominant transcription factors or as chromatin regulators. With routine use of massively parallel sequencing and advances in technology for the study of epigenetics and protein complexes, the last decade has seen a marked advancement in the identification of novel fusions and in our understanding of the mechanisms by which they contribute to the malignant state. Moreover, with new approaches in chemistry, such as the strategy of targeted protein degradation, we are now better poised to address these previously intractable targets. In this review, we describe three of the most common fusion-driven sarcomas (Ewing sarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, and synovial sarcoma), mechanistic themes emerging across these diseases, and novel approaches to their targeting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A. Perry
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Bo Kyung Alex Seong
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
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61
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Theisen ER, Miller KR, Showpnil IA, Taslim C, Pishas KI, Lessnick SL. Transcriptomic analysis functionally maps the intrinsically disordered domain of EWS/FLI and reveals novel transcriptional dependencies for oncogenesis. Genes Cancer 2019; 10:21-38. [PMID: 30899417 PMCID: PMC6420793 DOI: 10.18632/genesandcancer.188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
EWS/FLI is the pathognomic fusion oncoprotein that drives Ewing sarcoma. The amino-terminal EWS portion coordinates transcriptional regulation and the carboxy-terminal FLI portion contains an ETS DNA-binding domain. EWS/FLI acts as an aberrant transcription factor, orchestrating a complex mix of gene activation and repression, from both high affinity ETS motifs and repetitive GGAA-microsatellites. Our overarching hypothesis is that executing multi-faceted transcriptional regulation requires EWS/FLI to use distinct molecular mechanisms at different loci. Many attempts have been made to map distinct functions to specific features of the EWS domain, but described deletion mutants are either fully active or completely "dead" and other approaches have been limited by the repetitive and disordered nature of the EWS domain. Here, we use transcriptomic approaches to show an EWS/FLI mutant, called DAF, previously thought to be nonfunctional, displays context-dependent and partial transcriptional activity but lacks transforming capacity. Using transcriptomic and phenotypic anchorage-independent growth profiles of other EWS/FLI mutants coupled with reported EWS/FLI localization data, we have mapped the critical structure-function requirements of the EWS domain for EWS/FLI-mediated oncogenesis. This approach defined unique classes of EWS/FLI response elements and revealed novel structure-function relationships required for EWS/FLI activation at these response elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily R Theisen
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Kyle R Miller
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Iftekhar A Showpnil
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.,Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Cenny Taslim
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Kathleen I Pishas
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Stephen L Lessnick
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.,Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.,Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Blood & Marrow Transplant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
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62
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Charville GW, Wang WL, Ingram DR, Roy A, Thomas D, Patel RM, Hornick JL, van de Rijn M, Lazar AJ. PAX7 expression in sarcomas bearing the EWSR1-NFATC2 translocation. Mod Pathol 2019; 32:154-156. [PMID: 29985454 DOI: 10.1038/s41379-018-0095-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gregory W Charville
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Wei-Lien Wang
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Davis R Ingram
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Angshumoy Roy
- Departments of Pathology & Immunology and Pediatrics, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Dafydd Thomas
- Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Rajiv M Patel
- Department of Pathology, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jason L Hornick
- Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Matt van de Rijn
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Alexander J Lazar
- Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
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63
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Genome-wide association study identifies multiple new loci associated with Ewing sarcoma susceptibility. Nat Commun 2018; 9:3184. [PMID: 30093639 PMCID: PMC6085378 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05537-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2017] [Accepted: 07/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is a pediatric cancer characterized by the EWSR1-FLI1 fusion. We performed a genome-wide association study of 733 EWS cases and 1346 unaffected individuals of European ancestry. Our study replicates previously reported susceptibility loci at 1p36.22, 10q21.3 and 15q15.1, and identifies new loci at 6p25.1, 20p11.22 and 20p11.23. Effect estimates exhibit odds ratios in excess of 1.7, which is high for cancer GWAS, and striking in light of the rarity of EWS cases in familial cancer syndromes. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses identify candidate genes at 6p25.1 (RREB1) and 20p11.23 (KIZ). The 20p11.22 locus is near NKX2-2, a highly overexpressed gene in EWS. Interestingly, most loci reside near GGAA repeat sequences and may disrupt binding of the EWSR1-FLI1 fusion protein. The high locus to case discovery ratio from 733 EWS cases suggests a genetic architecture in which moderate risk SNPs constitute a significant fraction of risk. Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is a rare pediatric bone cancer typically involving the EWSR1-FLI1 fusion. Here the authors perform a genome-wide association study and report three new EWS risk loci that reside near GGAA repeat sequences, and identify candidate genes (RREB1 and KIZ) from eQTL analysis.
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64
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Chong S, Dugast-Darzacq C, Liu Z, Dong P, Dailey GM, Cattoglio C, Heckert A, Banala S, Lavis L, Darzacq X, Tjian R. Imaging dynamic and selective low-complexity domain interactions that control gene transcription. Science 2018; 361:eaar2555. [PMID: 29930090 PMCID: PMC6961784 DOI: 10.1126/science.aar2555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 599] [Impact Index Per Article: 99.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2017] [Revised: 03/12/2018] [Accepted: 06/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Many eukaryotic transcription factors (TFs) contain intrinsically disordered low-complexity sequence domains (LCDs), but how these LCDs drive transactivation remains unclear. We used live-cell single-molecule imaging to reveal that TF LCDs form local high-concentration interaction hubs at synthetic and endogenous genomic loci. TF LCD hubs stabilize DNA binding, recruit RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II), and activate transcription. LCD-LCD interactions within hubs are highly dynamic, display selectivity with binding partners, and are differentially sensitive to disruption by hexanediols. Under physiological conditions, rapid and reversible LCD-LCD interactions occur between TFs and the RNA Pol II machinery without detectable phase separation. Our findings reveal fundamental mechanisms underpinning transcriptional control and suggest a framework for developing single-molecule imaging screens for drugs targeting gene regulatory interactions implicated in disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shasha Chong
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Claire Dugast-Darzacq
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- CIRM Center of Excellence, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Zhe Liu
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Peng Dong
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Gina M Dailey
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Claudia Cattoglio
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Alec Heckert
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Sambashiva Banala
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Luke Lavis
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Xavier Darzacq
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- CIRM Center of Excellence, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Robert Tjian
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- CIRM Center of Excellence, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
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65
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Boulay G, Volorio A, Iyer S, Broye LC, Stamenkovic I, Riggi N, Rivera MN. Epigenome editing of microsatellite repeats defines tumor-specific enhancer functions and dependencies. Genes Dev 2018; 32:1008-1019. [PMID: 30042132 PMCID: PMC6075149 DOI: 10.1101/gad.315192.118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2018] [Accepted: 06/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Boulay et al. find that a subset of microsatellite repeats is transcriptionally active in Ewing sarcoma and that silencing individual repeats abolishes local nascent transcription and leads to markedly reduced expression of putative target genes. Various types of repetitive sequences are dysregulated in cancer. In Ewing sarcoma, the oncogenic fusion protein EWS-FLI1 induces chromatin features typical of active enhancers at GGAA microsatellite repeats, but the function of these sites has not been directly demonstrated. Here, by combining nascent transcription profiling with epigenome editing, we found that a subset of GGAA microsatellite repeats is transcriptionally active in Ewing sarcoma and that silencing individual repeats abolishes local nascent transcription and leads to markedly reduced expression of putative target genes. Epigenome silencing of these repeat sites does not affect gene expression in unrelated cells, can prevent the induction of gene expression by EWS-FLI1, and, in the case of a GGAA repeat that controls SOX2 expression from a distance of 470 kb, is sufficient to impair the growth of Ewing sarcoma xenografts. Using an experimental approach that is broadly applicable to testing different types of repetitive genomic elements, our study directly demonstrates that specific repeat microsatellites can have critical gene regulation functions in cancer and thus represent tumor-specific vulnerabilities that may be exploited to develop new therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaylor Boulay
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
| | - Angela Volorio
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Institute of Pathology, Department of Experimental Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sowmya Iyer
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
| | - Liliane C Broye
- Institute of Pathology, Department of Experimental Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ivan Stamenkovic
- Institute of Pathology, Department of Experimental Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicolo Riggi
- Institute of Pathology, Department of Experimental Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Miguel N Rivera
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
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66
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Shimizu R, Tanaka M, Tsutsumi S, Aburatani H, Yamazaki Y, Homme M, Kitagawa Y, Nakamura T. EWS-FLI1 regulates a transcriptional program in cooperation with Foxq1 in mouse Ewing sarcoma. Cancer Sci 2018; 109:2907-2918. [PMID: 29945296 PMCID: PMC6125457 DOI: 10.1111/cas.13710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2018] [Accepted: 06/20/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
EWS-FLI1 constitutes an oncogenic transcription factor that plays key roles in Ewing sarcoma development and maintenance. We have recently succeeded in generating an ex vivo mouse model for Ewing sarcoma by introducing EWS-FLI1 into embryonic osteochondrogenic progenitors. The model well recapitulates the biological characteristics, small round cell morphology, and gene expression profiles of human Ewing sarcoma. Here, we clarified the global DNA binding properties of EWS-FLI1 in mouse Ewing sarcoma. GGAA microsatellites were found to serve as binding sites of EWS-FLI1 albeit with less frequency than that in human Ewing sarcoma; moreover, genomic distribution was not conserved between human and mouse. Nevertheless, EWS-FLI1 binding sites within GGAA microsatellites were frequently associated with the histone H3K27Ac enhancer mark, suggesting that EWS-FLI1 could affect global gene expression by binding its target sites. In particular, the Fox transcription factor binding motif was frequently observed within EWS-FLI1 peaks and Foxq1 was identified as the cooperative partner that interacts with the EWS portion of EWS-FLI1. Trib1 and Nrg1 were demonstrated as target genes that are co-regulated by EWS-FLI1 and Foxq1, and are important for cell proliferation and survival of Ewing sarcoma. Collectively, our findings present novel aspects of EWS-FLI1 function as well as the importance of GGAA microsatellites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rikuka Shimizu
- Division of Carcinogenesis, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Oral Diagnosis and Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Miwa Tanaka
- Division of Carcinogenesis, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Shuichi Tsutsumi
- Genome Science Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Aburatani
- Genome Science Division, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yukari Yamazaki
- Division of Carcinogenesis, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mizuki Homme
- Division of Carcinogenesis, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yoshimasa Kitagawa
- Department of Oral Diagnosis and Medicine, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Takuro Nakamura
- Division of Carcinogenesis, The Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, Japan
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67
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Grünewald TGP, Cidre-Aranaz F, Surdez D, Tomazou EM, de Álava E, Kovar H, Sorensen PH, Delattre O, Dirksen U. Ewing sarcoma. Nat Rev Dis Primers 2018; 4:5. [PMID: 29977059 DOI: 10.1038/s41572-018-0003-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 419] [Impact Index Per Article: 69.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is the second most frequent bone tumour of childhood and adolescence that can also arise in soft tissue. Ewing sarcoma is a highly aggressive cancer, with a survival of 70-80% for patients with standard-risk and localized disease and ~30% for those with metastatic disease. Treatment comprises local surgery, radiotherapy and polychemotherapy, which are associated with acute and chronic adverse effects that may compromise quality of life in survivors. Histologically, Ewing sarcomas are composed of small round cells expressing high levels of CD99. Genetically, they are characterized by balanced chromosomal translocations in which a member of the FET gene family is fused with an ETS transcription factor, with the most common fusion being EWSR1-FLI1 (85% of cases). Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 protein (EWSR1)-Friend leukaemia integration 1 transcription factor (FLI1) is a tumour-specific chimeric transcription factor (EWSR1-FLI1) with neomorphic effects that massively rewires the transcriptome. Additionally, EWSR1-FLI1 reprogrammes the epigenome by inducing de novo enhancers at GGAA microsatellites and by altering the state of gene regulatory elements, creating a unique epigenetic signature. Additional mutations at diagnosis are rare and mainly involve STAG2, TP53 and CDKN2A deletions. Emerging studies on the molecular mechanisms of Ewing sarcoma hold promise for improvements in early detection, disease monitoring, lower treatment-related toxicity, overall survival and quality of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G P Grünewald
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany. .,Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany. .,German Cancer Consortium, partner site Munich, Munich, Germany. .,German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Florencia Cidre-Aranaz
- Max-Eder Research Group for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany. .,Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany. .,German Cancer Consortium, partner site Munich, Munich, Germany. .,German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
| | - Didier Surdez
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisé LNCC, PSL Université, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie, Paris, France
| | - Eleni M Tomazou
- Children's Cancer Research Institute, St Anna Kinderkrebsforschung, Vienna, Austria
| | - Enrique de Álava
- Institute of Biomedicine of Seville, Virgen del Rocío University Hospital/CSIC/University of Seville/CIBERONC, Seville, Spain
| | - Heinrich Kovar
- Children's Cancer Research Institute, St Anna Kinderkrebsforschung, Vienna, Austria.,Department of Pediatrics, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Poul H Sorensen
- British Columbia Cancer Research Centre and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Olivier Delattre
- INSERM U830, Équipe Labellisé LNCC, PSL Université, SIREDO Oncology Centre, Institut Curie, Paris, France
| | - Uta Dirksen
- German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.,Cooperative Ewing Sarcoma Study group, Essen University Hospital, Essen, Germany.,German Cancer Consortium, partner site Essen, Essen, Germany
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68
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Fish A, Chen L, Capra JA. Gene Regulatory Enhancers with Evolutionarily Conserved Activity Are More Pleiotropic than Those with Species-Specific Activity. Genome Biol Evol 2018; 9:2615-2625. [PMID: 28985297 PMCID: PMC5737616 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evx194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/16/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of regulatory activity and gene expression have revealed an intriguing dichotomy: There is substantial turnover in the regulatory activity of orthologous sequences between species; however, the expression level of orthologous genes is largely conserved. Understanding how distal regulatory elements, for example, enhancers, evolve and function is critical, as alterations in gene expression levels can drive the development of both complex disease and functional divergence between species. In this study, we investigated determinants of the conservation of regulatory enhancer activity for orthologous sequences across mammalian evolution. Using liver enhancers identified from genome-wide histone modification profiles in ten diverse mammalian species, we compared orthologous sequences that exhibited regulatory activity in all species (conserved-activity enhancers) to shared sequences active only in a single species (species-specific-activity enhancers). Conserved-activity enhancers have greater regulatory potential than species-specific-activity enhancers, as quantified by both the density and diversity of transcription factor binding motifs. Consistent with their greater regulatory potential, conserved-activity enhancers have greater regulatory activity in humans than species-specific-activity enhancers: They are active across more cellular contexts, and they regulate more genes than species-specific-activity enhancers. Furthermore, the genes regulated by conserved-activity enhancers are expressed in more tissues and are less tolerant of loss-of-function mutations than those targeted by species-specific-activity enhancers. These consistent results across various stages of gene regulation demonstrate that conserved-activity enhancers are more pleiotropic than their species-specific-activity counterparts. This suggests that pleiotropy is associated with the conservation of regulatory across mammalian evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Fish
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University.,Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University
| | - Ling Chen
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University
| | - John A Capra
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University.,Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University.,Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Computer Science, Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University
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69
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McBride MJ, Kadoch C. Disruption of mammalian SWI/SNF and polycomb complexes in human sarcomas: mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities. J Pathol 2018; 244:638-649. [PMID: 29359803 DOI: 10.1002/path.5042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2017] [Revised: 01/11/2018] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Soft-tissue sarcomas are increasingly characterized and subclassified by genetic abnormalities that represent underlying drivers of their pathology. Hallmark tumor suppressor gene mutations and pathognomonic gene fusions collectively account for approximately one-third of all sarcomas. These genetic abnormalities most often result in global transcriptional misregulation via disruption of protein regulatory complexes which govern chromatin architecture. Specifically, alterations to mammalian SWI/SNF (mSWI/SNF or BAF) ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes and polycomb repressive complexes cause disease-specific changes in chromatin architecture and gene expression across a number of sarcoma subtypes. Understanding the functions of chromatin regulatory complexes and the mechanisms underpinning their roles in oncogenesis will be required for the design and development of new therapeutic strategies in sarcomas. Copyright © 2018 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J McBride
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.,Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.,Chemical Biology Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Cigall Kadoch
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.,Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
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70
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Gardiner JD, Abegglen LM, Huang X, Carter BE, Schackmann EA, Stucki M, Paxton CN, Lor Randall R, Amatruda JF, Putnam AR, Kovar H, Lessnick SL, Schiffman JD. C/EBPβ-1 promotes transformation and chemoresistance in Ewing sarcoma cells. Oncotarget 2018; 8:26013-26026. [PMID: 28148901 PMCID: PMC5432234 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.14847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2016] [Accepted: 01/16/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
CEBPB copy number gain in Ewing sarcoma was previously shown to be associated with worse clinical outcome compared to tumors with normal CEBPB copy number, although the mechanism was not characterized. We employed gene knockdown and rescue assays to explore the consequences of altered CEBPB gene expression in Ewing sarcoma cell lines. Knockdown of EWS-FLI1 expression led to a decrease in expression of all three C/EBPβ isoforms while re-expression of EWS-FLI1 rescued C/EBPβ expression. Overexpression of C/EBPβ-1, the largest of the three C/EBPβ isoforms, led to a significant increase in colony formation when cells were grown in soft agar compared to empty vector transduced cells. In addition, depletion of C/EBPβ decreased colony formation, and re-expression of either C/EBPβ-1 or C/EBPβ-2 rescued the phenotype. We identified the cancer stem cell marker ALDH1A1 as a target of C/EBPβ in Ewing sarcoma. Furthermore, increased expression of C/EBPβ led to resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. In summary, we have identified CEBPB as an oncogene in Ewing sarcoma. Overexpression of C/EBPβ-1 increases transformation, upregulates expression of the cancer stem cell marker ALDH1A1, and leads to chemoresistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamie D Gardiner
- Department of Pediatrics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Lisa M Abegglen
- Department of Pediatrics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Xiaomeng Huang
- Department of Pediatrics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Bryce E Carter
- School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | | | - Marcus Stucki
- Department of Pediatrics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Christian N Paxton
- ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology®, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - R Lor Randall
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sarcoma Services, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - James F Amatruda
- Department of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Angelica R Putnam
- Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Heinrich Kovar
- Children's Cancer Research Institute, St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung, Vienna, Austria
| | - Stephen L Lessnick
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and the Division of Pediatric Heme/Onc/BMT, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Joshua D Schiffman
- Department of Pediatrics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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71
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Loganathan SN, Tang N, Fleming JT, Ma Y, Guo Y, Borinstein SC, Chiang C, Wang J. BET bromodomain inhibitors suppress EWS-FLI1-dependent transcription and the IGF1 autocrine mechanism in Ewing sarcoma. Oncotarget 2017; 7:43504-43517. [PMID: 27259270 PMCID: PMC5190040 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.9762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2016] [Accepted: 05/20/2016] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is driven by characteristic chromosomal translocations between the EWSR1 gene with genes encoding ETS family transcription factors (EWS-ETS), most commonly FLI1. However, direct pharmacological inhibition of transcription factors like EWS-FLI1 remains largely unsuccessful. Active gene transcription requires orchestrated actions of many epigenetic regulators, such as the bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) family proteins. Emerging BET bromodomain inhibitors have exhibited promising antineoplastic activities via suppression of oncogenic transcription factors in various cancers. We reasoned that EWS-FLI1-mediated transcription activation might be susceptible to BET inhibition. In this study, we demonstrated that small molecule BET bromodomain inhibitors repressed EWS-FLI1-driven gene signatures and downregulated important target genes. However, expression of EWS-FLI1 was not significantly affected. Repression of autocrine IGF1 by BET inhibitors led to significant inhibition of the IGF1R/AKT pathway critical to Ewing sarcoma cell proliferation and survival. Consistently, BET inhibitors impaired viability and clonogenic survival of Ewing sarcoma cell lines and blocked EWS-FLI1-induced transformation of mouse NIH3T3 fibroblast cells. Selective depletion of individual BET genes partially phenocopied the actions of BET inhibitors. Finally, the prototypical BET inhibitor, JQ1, significantly repressed Ewing sarcoma xenograft tumor growth. These findings suggest therapeutic potential of BET inhibitors in Ewing sarcoma and highlight an emerging paradigm of using epigenetic agents to treat cancers driven by fusion transcription factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sudan N Loganathan
- Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Nan Tang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China
| | - Jonathan T Fleming
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Yufang Ma
- Department of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Yan Guo
- Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | | | - Chin Chiang
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Jialiang Wang
- Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.,Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
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72
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Johnson KM, Taslim C, Saund RS, Lessnick SL. Identification of two types of GGAA-microsatellites and their roles in EWS/FLI binding and gene regulation in Ewing sarcoma. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0186275. [PMID: 29091716 PMCID: PMC5665490 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2017] [Accepted: 09/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is a bone malignancy of children and young adults, frequently harboring the EWS/FLI chromosomal translocation. The resulting fusion protein is an aberrant transcription factor that uses highly repetitive GGAA-containing elements (microsatellites) to activate and repress thousands of target genes mediating oncogenesis. However, the mechanisms of EWS/FLI interaction with microsatellites and regulation of target gene expression is not clearly understood. Here, we profile genome-wide protein binding and gene expression. Using a combination of unbiased genome-wide computational and experimental analysis, we define GGAA-microsatellites in a Ewing sarcoma context. We identify two distinct classes of GGAA-microsatellites and demonstrate that EWS/FLI responsiveness is dependent on microsatellite length. At close range “promoter-like” microsatellites, EWS/FLI binding and subsequent target gene activation is highly dependent on number of GGAA-motifs. “Enhancer-like” microsatellites demonstrate length-dependent EWS/FLI binding, but minimal correlation for activated and none for repressed targets. Our data suggest EWS/FLI binds to “promoter-like” and “enhancer-like” microsatellites to mediate activation and repression of target genes through different regulatory mechanisms. Such characterization contributes valuable insight to EWS/FLI transcription factor biology and clarifies the role of GGAA-microsatellites on a global genomic scale. This may provide unique perspective on the role of non-coding DNA in cancer susceptibility and therapeutic development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten M. Johnson
- The Medical Scientist Training Program and the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Cenny Taslim
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Ranajeet S. Saund
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Stephen L. Lessnick
- The Medical Scientist Training Program and the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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73
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Grünewald TGP. [Functional genomics of Ewing sarcoma]. DER PATHOLOGE 2017; 38:198-201. [PMID: 28849372 DOI: 10.1007/s00292-017-0332-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is a highly aggressive bone or soft-tissue tumor mostly occurring in children and adolescents. Conventional multi-modal therapies are associated with considerable acute and chronic toxicity. Thus, more effective and in particular less toxic therapeutic strategies are urgently required. Despite the fact that Ewing sarcoma is characterized by specific EWSR1-ETS gene fusions, the resulting fusion oncoproteins are not suitable for targeted therapy due to their low immunogenicity and the ubiquitous expression of their constituents. However, functional genomics revealed several EWSR1-ETS target genes, which are only minimally expressed in normal tissues, and which could serve as surrogate-targets for (immuno-)therapeutic approaches. Moreover, functional genomic analyses yielded first mechanistic explanations for the relatively high incidence of Ewing sarcoma in Europeans, and first studies are exploring the value of circulating free DNA and/or exosomal mRNA of EWSR1-ETS fusion oncogenes as minimal-residual-disease markers in Ewing sarcoma. This review summarizes key contributions to these aspects and gives a perspective on their medical relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- T G P Grünewald
- Max-Eder Nachwuchsgruppe für Pädiatrische Sarkombiologie, Pathologisches Institut, Medizinische Fakultät, LMU München, Thalkirchner Str. 36, 80337, München, Deutschland.
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74
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Role for the EWS domain of EWS/FLI in binding GGAA-microsatellites required for Ewing sarcoma anchorage independent growth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:9870-9875. [PMID: 28847958 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1701872114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma usually expresses the EWS/FLI fusion transcription factor oncoprotein. EWS/FLI regulates myriad genes required for Ewing sarcoma development. EWS/FLI binds GGAA-microsatellite sequences in vivo and in vitro. These sequences provide EWS/FLI-mediated activation to reporter constructs, suggesting that they function as EWS/FLI-response elements. We now demonstrate the critical role of an EWS/FLI-bound GGAA-microsatellite in regulation of the NR0B1 gene as well as for Ewing sarcoma proliferation and anchorage-independent growth. Clinically, genomic GGAA-microsatellites are highly variable and polymorphic. Current data suggest that there is an optimal "sweet-spot" GGAA-microsatellite length (of 18-26 GGAA repeats) that confers maximal EWS/FLI-responsiveness to target genes, but the mechanistic basis for this remains unknown. Our biochemical studies, using recombinant Δ22 (a version of EWS/FLI containing only the FLI portion), demonstrate a stoichiometry of one Δ22-monomer binding to every two consecutive GGAA-repeats on shorter microsatellite sequences. Surprisingly, the affinity for Δ22 binding to GGAA-microsatellites significantly decreased, and ultimately became unmeasureable, when the size of the microsatellite was increased to the sweet-spot length. In contrast, a fully functional EWS/FLI mutant (Mut9, which retains approximately half of the EWS portion of the fusion) showed low affinity for smaller GGAA-microsatellites but instead significantly increased its affinity at sweet-spot microsatellite lengths. Single-gene ChIP and genome-wide ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq) and RNA-seq studies extended these findings to the in vivo setting. Together, these data demonstrate the critical requirement of GGAA-microsatellites as EWS/FLI activating response elements in vivo and reveal an unexpected role for the EWS portion of the EWS/FLI fusion in binding to sweet-spot GGAA-microsatellites.
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75
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Boulay G, Sandoval GJ, Riggi N, Iyer S, Buisson R, Naigles B, Awad ME, Rengarajan S, Volorio A, McBride MJ, Broye LC, Zou L, Stamenkovic I, Kadoch C, Rivera MN. Cancer-Specific Retargeting of BAF Complexes by a Prion-like Domain. Cell 2017; 171:163-178.e19. [PMID: 28844694 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.07.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 295] [Impact Index Per Article: 42.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2017] [Revised: 06/14/2017] [Accepted: 07/21/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Alterations in transcriptional regulators can orchestrate oncogenic gene expression programs in cancer. Here, we show that the BRG1/BRM-associated factor (BAF) chromatin remodeling complex, which is mutated in over 20% of human tumors, interacts with EWSR1, a member of a family of proteins with prion-like domains (PrLD) that are frequent partners in oncogenic fusions with transcription factors. In Ewing sarcoma, we find that the BAF complex is recruited by the EWS-FLI1 fusion protein to tumor-specific enhancers and contributes to target gene activation. This process is a neomorphic property of EWS-FLI1 compared to wild-type FLI1 and depends on tyrosine residues that are necessary for phase transitions of the EWSR1 prion-like domain. Furthermore, fusion of short fragments of EWSR1 to FLI1 is sufficient to recapitulate BAF complex retargeting and EWS-FLI1 activities. Our studies thus demonstrate that the physical properties of prion-like domains can retarget critical chromatin regulatory complexes to establish and maintain oncogenic gene expression programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaylor Boulay
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Gabriel J Sandoval
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Nicolo Riggi
- Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sowmya Iyer
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
| | - Rémi Buisson
- Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Beverly Naigles
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Mary E Awad
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Shruthi Rengarajan
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Angela Volorio
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Matthew J McBride
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Liliane C Broye
- Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Lee Zou
- Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Ivan Stamenkovic
- Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Cigall Kadoch
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
| | - Miguel N Rivera
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
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76
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Evola FR, Costarella L, Pavone V, Caff G, Cannavò L, Sessa A, Avondo S, Sessa G. Biomarkers of Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, and Ewing Sarcoma. Front Pharmacol 2017; 8:150. [PMID: 28439237 PMCID: PMC5383728 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2017.00150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2016] [Accepted: 03/09/2017] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Osteosarcoma is the most frequent malignant bone neoplasm, followed by chondrosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. The diagnosis of bone neoplasms is generally made through histological evaluation of a biopsy. Clinical and radiological features are also important in aiding diagnosis and to complete the staging of bone cancer. In addition to these, there are several non-specific serological or specific molecular markers for bone neoplasms. In bone tumors, molecular markers increase the accuracy of the diagnosis and assist in subtyping bone tumors. Here, we review these markers and discuss their role in the diagnosis and prognosis of the three most frequent malignant bone neoplasms, namely osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco R Evola
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Luciano Costarella
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Vito Pavone
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Caff
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Luca Cannavò
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Andrea Sessa
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Sergio Avondo
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Sessa
- Clinica Ortopedica, Dipartimento di Chirurgia, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele di CataniaCatania, Italy
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77
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Gymrek M. A genomic view of short tandem repeats. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2017; 44:9-16. [PMID: 28213161 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2017.01.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2016] [Accepted: 01/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Short tandem repeats (STRs) are some of the fastest mutating loci in the genome. Tools for accurately profiling STRs from high-throughput sequencing data have enabled genome-wide interrogation of more than a million STRs across hundreds of individuals. These catalogs have revealed that STRs are highly multiallelic and may contribute more de novo mutations than any other variant class. Recent studies have leveraged these catalogs to show that STRs play a widespread role in regulating gene expression and other molecular phenotypes. These analyses suggest that STRs are an underappreciated but rich reservoir of variation that likely make significant contributions to Mendelian diseases, complex traits, and cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa Gymrek
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
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78
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Theisen ER, Pishas KI, Saund RS, Lessnick SL. Therapeutic opportunities in Ewing sarcoma: EWS-FLI inhibition via LSD1 targeting. Oncotarget 2017; 7:17616-30. [PMID: 26848860 PMCID: PMC4951237 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.7124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2015] [Accepted: 01/23/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive primary pediatric bone tumor, often diagnosed in adolescents and young adults. A pathognomonic reciprocal chromosomal translocation results in a fusion gene coding for a protein which derives its N-terminus from a FUS/EWS/TAF15 (FET) protein family member, commonly EWS, and C-terminus containing the DNA-binding domain of an ETS transcription factor, commonly FLI1. Nearly 85% of cases express the EWS-FLI protein which functions as a transcription factor and drives oncogenesis. As the primary genomic lesion and a protein which is not expressed in normal cells, disrupting EWS-FLI function is an attractive therapeutic strategy for Ewing sarcoma. However, transcription factors are notoriously difficult targets for the development of small molecules. Improved understanding of the oncogenic mechanisms employed by EWS-FLI to hijack normal cellular programming has uncovered potential novel approaches to pharmacologically block EWS-FLI function. In this review we examine targeting the chromatin regulatory enzymes recruited to conspire in oncogenesis with a focus on the histone lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1). LSD1 inhibitors are being aggressively investigated in acute myeloid leukemia and the results of early clinical trials will help inform the future use of LSD1 inhibitors in sarcoma. High LSD1 expression is observed in Ewing sarcoma patient samples and mechanistic and preclinical data suggest LSD1 inhibition globally disrupts the function of EWS-ETS proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily R Theisen
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Kathleen I Pishas
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.,Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory, Centre for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Ranajeet S Saund
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Stephen L Lessnick
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.,Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
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79
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Osgood CL, Maloney N, Kidd CG, Kitchen-Goosen S, Segars L, Gebregiorgis M, Woldemichael GM, He M, Sankar S, Lessnick SL, Kang M, Smith M, Turner L, Madaj ZB, Winn ME, Núñez LE, González-Sabín J, Helman LJ, Morís F, Grohar PJ. Identification of Mithramycin Analogues with Improved Targeting of the EWS-FLI1 Transcription Factor. Clin Cancer Res 2016; 22:4105-18. [PMID: 26979396 PMCID: PMC4987166 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-15-2624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2015] [Accepted: 02/18/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE The goal of this study was to identify second-generation mithramycin analogues that better target the EWS-FLI1 transcription factor for Ewing sarcoma. We previously established mithramycin as an EWS-FLI1 inhibitor, but the compound's toxicity prevented its use at effective concentrations in patients. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We screened a panel of mithralogs to establish their ability to inhibit EWS-FLI1 in Ewing sarcoma. We compared the IC50 with the MTD established in mice to determine the relationship between efficacy and toxicity. We confirmed the suppression of EWS-FLI1 at the promoter, mRNA, gene signature, and protein levels. We established an improved therapeutic window by using time-lapse microscopy to model the effects on cellular proliferation in Ewing sarcoma cells relative to HepG2 control cells. Finally, we established an improved therapeutic window using a xenograft model of Ewing sarcoma. RESULTS EC-8105 was found to be the most potent analogue and was able to suppress EWS-FLI1 activity at concentrations nontoxic to other cell types. EC-8042 was substantially less toxic than mithramycin in multiple species but maintained suppression of EWS-FLI1 at similar concentrations. Both compounds markedly suppressed Ewing sarcoma xenograft growth and inhibited EWS-FLI1 in vivo CONCLUSIONS These results provide a basis for the continued development of EC-8042 and EC-8105 as EWS-FLI1 inhibitors for the clinic. Clin Cancer Res; 22(16); 4105-18. ©2016 AACR.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Antibiotics, Antineoplastic/pharmacology
- Cell Line, Tumor
- Disease Models, Animal
- Gene Expression Profiling
- Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects
- Humans
- Mice
- Molecular Targeted Therapy
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/antagonists & inhibitors
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/metabolism
- Plicamycin/pharmacology
- Promoter Regions, Genetic
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/antagonists & inhibitors
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/metabolism
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/antagonists & inhibitors
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/drug therapy
- Sarcoma, Ewing/genetics
- Sarcoma, Ewing/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/mortality
- Transcription Factors
- Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
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Affiliation(s)
- Christy L Osgood
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Nichole Maloney
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Christopher G Kidd
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
| | | | - Laura Segars
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Meti Gebregiorgis
- Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Girma M Woldemichael
- Basic Science Program, Leidos Biomedical Research Laboratory, Inc., Molecular Targets Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, Maryland
| | - Min He
- Developmental Therapeutics Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Savita Sankar
- Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
| | - Stephen L Lessnick
- Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
| | - Min Kang
- Texas Tech University Health Science Center, School of Medicine, Lubbock, Texas
| | - Malcolm Smith
- Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. Developmental Therapeutics Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Lisa Turner
- Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | | | - Mary E Winn
- Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan
| | | | | | - Lee J Helman
- Pediatric Oncology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
| | | | - Patrick J Grohar
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Helen De Vos Children's Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Department of Pediatrics, Michigan State University School of Medicine, East Lansing, Michigan.
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80
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Caropreso V, Darvishi E, Turbyville TJ, Ratnayake R, Grohar PJ, McMahon JB, Woldemichael GM. Englerin A Inhibits EWS-FLI1 DNA Binding in Ewing Sarcoma Cells. J Biol Chem 2016; 291:10058-66. [PMID: 26961871 PMCID: PMC4858959 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m115.701375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2015] [Revised: 03/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
High-throughput screening of extracts from plants, marine, and micro-organisms led to the identification of the extract from the plant Phyllanthus engleri as the most potent inhibitor of EWS-FLI1 induced luciferase reporter expression. Testing of compounds isolated from this extract in turn led to the identification of Englerin A (EA) as the active constituent of the extract. EA induced both necrosis and apoptosis in Ewing cells subsequent to a G2M accumulation of cells in the cell cycle. It also impacted clonogenic survival and anchorage-independent proliferation while also decreasing the proportion of chemotherapy-resistant cells identified by high ALDH activity. EA also caused a sustained increase in cytosolic calcium levels. EA appears to exert its effect on Ewing cells through a decrease in phosphorylation of EWS-FLI1 and its ability to bind DNA. This effect is mediated, at least in part, through a decrease in the levels of the calcium-dependent protein kinase PKC-βI after a transient up-regulation.
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MESH Headings
- Aldehyde Dehydrogenase/genetics
- Aldehyde Dehydrogenase/metabolism
- Apoptosis/drug effects
- Apoptosis/genetics
- Bone Neoplasms/drug therapy
- Bone Neoplasms/genetics
- Bone Neoplasms/metabolism
- Bone Neoplasms/pathology
- Cell Line, Tumor
- DNA, Neoplasm/genetics
- DNA, Neoplasm/metabolism
- Humans
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/genetics
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/metabolism
- Phosphorylation/drug effects
- Phosphorylation/genetics
- Protein Binding/drug effects
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/genetics
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/metabolism
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/genetics
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/drug therapy
- Sarcoma, Ewing/genetics
- Sarcoma, Ewing/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/pathology
- Sesquiterpenes, Guaiane/pharmacology
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Affiliation(s)
- Vittorio Caropreso
- From the Molecular Targets Laboratory, NCI, National Institutes of Health
| | - Emad Darvishi
- From the Molecular Targets Laboratory, NCI, National Institutes of Health
| | - Thomas J Turbyville
- Optical Microscopy and Analysis Laboratory, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., and
| | - Ranjala Ratnayake
- From the Molecular Targets Laboratory, NCI, National Institutes of Health
| | - Patrick J Grohar
- Center for Cancer and Cell Biology, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503, and Division of Hematology/Oncology, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
| | - James B McMahon
- From the Molecular Targets Laboratory, NCI, National Institutes of Health
| | - Girma M Woldemichael
- Basic Science Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Molecular Targets Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory, Frederick, Maryland 21702,
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81
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Grünewald TGP, Gilardi-Hebenstreit P, Charnay P, Delattre O. [Cooperation between a somatic mutation and a genetic susceptibility variant in Ewing sarcoma]. Med Sci (Paris) 2016; 32:323-6. [PMID: 27137684 DOI: 10.1051/medsci/20163204004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G P Grünewald
- Laboratory for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology of the LMU Munich, Thalkirchnerstrasse 36, 80337 Munich, Allemagne - Institut Curie, PSL Research University, unité de Génétique et Biologie des Cancers, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Cedex 05 Paris, France - Inserm U830, Institut Curie, Centre de recherches, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris, France
| | - Pascale Gilardi-Hebenstreit
- École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Inserm U1024, CNRS UMR8197, Institut de biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), 46, rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Patrick Charnay
- École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Inserm U1024, CNRS UMR8197, Institut de biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), 46, rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Olivier Delattre
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, unité de Génétique et Biologie des Cancers, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Cedex 05 Paris, France - Inserm U830, Institut Curie, Centre de recherches, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris, France - Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie, Centre hospitalier, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris, France
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82
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Boeva V. Analysis of Genomic Sequence Motifs for Deciphering Transcription Factor Binding and Transcriptional Regulation in Eukaryotic Cells. Front Genet 2016; 7:24. [PMID: 26941778 PMCID: PMC4763482 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2016.00024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Accepted: 02/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Eukaryotic genomes contain a variety of structured patterns: repetitive elements, binding sites of DNA and RNA associated proteins, splice sites, and so on. Often, these structured patterns can be formalized as motifs and described using a proper mathematical model such as position weight matrix and IUPAC consensus. Two key tasks are typically carried out for motifs in the context of the analysis of genomic sequences. These are: identification in a set of DNA regions of over-represented motifs from a particular motif database, and de novo discovery of over-represented motifs. Here we describe existing methodology to perform these two tasks for motifs characterizing transcription factor binding. When applied to the output of ChIP-seq and ChIP-exo experiments, or to promoter regions of co-modulated genes, motif analysis techniques allow for the prediction of transcription factor binding events and enable identification of transcriptional regulators and co-regulators. The usefulness of motif analysis is further exemplified in this review by how motif discovery improves peak calling in ChIP-seq and ChIP-exo experiments and, when coupled with information on gene expression, allows insights into physical mechanisms of transcriptional modulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Boeva
- Centre de Recherche, Institut CurieParis, France; INSERM, U900Paris, France; Mines ParisTechFontainebleau, France; PSL Research UniversityParis, France; Department of Development, Reproduction and Cancer, Institut CochinParis, France; INSERM, U1016Paris, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 8104Paris, France; Université Paris Descartes UMR-S1016Paris, France
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83
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Kulakovskiy IV, Vorontsov IE, Yevshin IS, Soboleva AV, Kasianov AS, Ashoor H, Ba-Alawi W, Bajic VB, Medvedeva YA, Kolpakov FA, Makeev VJ. HOCOMOCO: expansion and enhancement of the collection of transcription factor binding sites models. Nucleic Acids Res 2016; 44:D116-25. [PMID: 26586801 PMCID: PMC4702883 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkv1249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 146] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2015] [Revised: 10/29/2015] [Accepted: 10/30/2015] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Models of transcription factor (TF) binding sites provide a basis for a wide spectrum of studies in regulatory genomics, from reconstruction of regulatory networks to functional annotation of transcripts and sequence variants. While TFs may recognize different sequence patterns in different conditions, it is pragmatic to have a single generic model for each particular TF as a baseline for practical applications. Here we present the expanded and enhanced version of HOCOMOCO (http://hocomoco.autosome.ru and http://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/hocomoco10), the collection of models of DNA patterns, recognized by transcription factors. HOCOMOCO now provides position weight matrix (PWM) models for binding sites of 601 human TFs and, in addition, PWMs for 396 mouse TFs. Furthermore, we introduce the largest up to date collection of dinucleotide PWM models for 86 (52) human (mouse) TFs. The update is based on the analysis of massive ChIP-Seq and HT-SELEX datasets, with the validation of the resulting models on in vivo data. To facilitate a practical application, all HOCOMOCO models are linked to gene and protein databases (Entrez Gene, HGNC, UniProt) and accompanied by precomputed score thresholds. Finally, we provide command-line tools for PWM and diPWM threshold estimation and motif finding in nucleotide sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan V Kulakovskiy
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Vavilova 32, Moscow, Russia Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Gubkina 3, Moscow, Russia
| | - Ilya E Vorontsov
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Gubkina 3, Moscow, Russia
| | - Ivan S Yevshin
- Design Technological Institute of Digital Techniques, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Academician Rzhanov 6, Novosibirsk, Russia Institute of Systems Biology Ltd, 630112, office 901, Krasina 54, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Anastasiia V Soboleva
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Institutskiy per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia
| | - Artem S Kasianov
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Gubkina 3, Moscow, Russia
| | - Haitham Ashoor
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Wail Ba-Alawi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Vladimir B Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Yulia A Medvedeva
- Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Gubkina 3, Moscow, Russia Center for Bioengineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117312, 60-letiya Oktyabrya 7/2, Moscow, Russia
| | - Fedor A Kolpakov
- Design Technological Institute of Digital Techniques, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Academician Rzhanov 6, Novosibirsk, Russia Institute of Systems Biology Ltd, 630112, office 901, Krasina 54, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Vsevolod J Makeev
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Vavilova 32, Moscow, Russia Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, GSP-1, Gubkina 3, Moscow, Russia Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Institutskiy per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia
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84
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Grünewald TGP, Delattre O. Cooperation between somatic mutations and germline susceptibility variants in tumorigenesis - a dangerous liaison. Mol Cell Oncol 2015; 3:e1086853. [PMID: 27314638 DOI: 10.1080/23723556.2015.1086853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2015] [Revised: 08/21/2015] [Accepted: 08/21/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
High-throughput genotyping and sequencing generate comprehensive catalogs of inherited genetic variations and acquired somatic mutations. However, their possible interactions and roles in tumorigenesis remain largely unexplored. We recently reported cooperation between the EWSR1-FLI1 (Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 - Friend leukemia virus integration 1) fusion oncogene and a germline variant that regulates the EGR2 (early growth response 2) Ewing sarcoma susceptibility gene via a GGAA-microsatellite.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G P Grünewald
- Laboratory for Pediatric Sarcoma Biology, Institute of Pathology of the LMU Munich, Munich, Germany; Institut Curie, PSL Research University, "Genetics and Biology of Cancers" unit, Paris, France; INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Olivier Delattre
- Institut Curie, PSL Research University, "Genetics and Biology of Cancers" unit, Paris, France; INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France; Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie Centre Hospitalier, Paris, France
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85
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Mwangi S, Attardo G, Suzuki Y, Aksoy S, Christoffels A. TSS seq based core promoter architecture in blood feeding Tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans morsitans) vector of Trypanosomiasis. BMC Genomics 2015; 16:722. [PMID: 26394619 PMCID: PMC4578606 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-1921-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2014] [Accepted: 09/11/2015] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Transcription initiation regulation is mediated by sequence-specific interactions between DNA-binding proteins (transcription factors) and cis-elements, where BRE, TATA, INR, DPE and MTE motifs constitute canonical core motifs for basal transcription initiation of genes. Accurate identification of transcription start site (TSS) and their corresponding promoter regions is critical for delineation of these motifs. To this end, the genome scale analysis of core promoter architecture in insects has been confined to Drosophila. The recently sequenced Tsetse fly genome provides a unique opportunity to analyze transcription initiation regulation machinery in blood-feeding insects. Results A computational method for identification of TSS in newly sequenced Tsetse fly genome was evaluated, using TSS seq tags sampled from two developmental stages namely; larvae and pupae. There were 3134 tag clusters among which 45.4 % (1424) of the tag clusters mapped to first coding exons or their proximal predicted 5′UTR regions and 1.0 % (31) tag clusters mapping to transposons, within a threshold of 100 tags per cluster. These 1393 non transposon-derived core promoters had propensity for AT nucleotides. The −1/+1 and 1/+1 positions in D. melanogaster, and G. m. morsitans had propensity for CA and AA dinucleotides respectively. The 1393 tag clusters comprised narrow promoters (5 %), broad with peak promoters (23 %) and broad without peak promoters (72 %). Two-way motif co-occurrence analysis showed that the MTE-DPE pair is over-represented in broad core promoters. The frequently occurring triplet motifs in all promoter classes are the INR-MTE-DPE, TATA-MTE-DPE and TATA-INR-DPE. Promoters without the TATA motif had higher frequency of the MTE and INR motifs than those observed in Drosophila, where the DPE motif occur more frequently in promoters without TATA motif. Gene ontology terms associated with developmental processes were overrepresented in the narrow and broad with peak promoters. Conclusions The study has identified different motif combinations associated with broad promoters in a blood-feeding insect. In the case of TATA-less core promoters, G.m. morsitans uses the MTE to compensate for the lack of a TATA motif. The increasing availability of TSS seq data allows for revision of existing gene annotation datasets with the potential of identifying new transcriptional units. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1921-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Mwangi
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.
| | - Geoffrey Attardo
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
| | - Yutaka Suzuki
- Department of Medical Genome Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Serap Aksoy
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
| | - Alan Christoffels
- South African MRC Bioinformatics Unit, South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.
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86
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Grünewald TGP, Bernard V, Gilardi-Hebenstreit P, Raynal V, Surdez D, Aynaud MM, Mirabeau O, Cidre-Aranaz F, Tirode F, Zaidi S, Perot G, Jonker AH, Lucchesi C, Le Deley MC, Oberlin O, Marec-Bérard P, Véron AS, Reynaud S, Lapouble E, Boeva V, Rio Frio T, Alonso J, Bhatia S, Pierron G, Cancel-Tassin G, Cussenot O, Cox DG, Morton LM, Machiela MJ, Chanock SJ, Charnay P, Delattre O. Chimeric EWSR1-FLI1 regulates the Ewing sarcoma susceptibility gene EGR2 via a GGAA microsatellite. Nat Genet 2015. [PMID: 26214589 DOI: 10.1038/ng.3363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Deciphering the ways in which somatic mutations and germline susceptibility variants cooperate to promote cancer is challenging. Ewing sarcoma is characterized by fusions between EWSR1 and members of the ETS gene family, usually EWSR1-FLI1, leading to the generation of oncogenic transcription factors that bind DNA at GGAA motifs. A recent genome-wide association study identified susceptibility variants near EGR2. Here we found that EGR2 knockdown inhibited proliferation, clonogenicity and spheroidal growth in vitro and induced regression of Ewing sarcoma xenografts. Targeted germline deep sequencing of the EGR2 locus in affected subjects and controls identified 291 Ewing-associated SNPs. At rs79965208, the A risk allele connected adjacent GGAA repeats by converting an interspaced GGAT motif into a GGAA motif, thereby increasing the number of consecutive GGAA motifs and thus the EWSR1-FLI1-dependent enhancer activity of this sequence, with epigenetic characteristics of an active regulatory element. EWSR1-FLI1 preferentially bound to the A risk allele, which increased global and allele-specific EGR2 expression. Collectively, our findings establish cooperation between a dominant oncogene and a susceptibility variant that regulates a major driver of Ewing sarcomagenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G P Grünewald
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Virginie Bernard
- Institut Curie Genomics of Excellence (ICGex) Platform, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Pascale Gilardi-Hebenstreit
- École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), INSERM U1024, CNRS UMR8197, Paris, France
| | - Virginie Raynal
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France.,Institut Curie Genomics of Excellence (ICGex) Platform, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Didier Surdez
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Marie-Ming Aynaud
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Olivier Mirabeau
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Florencia Cidre-Aranaz
- Instituto de Investigación de Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Franck Tirode
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Sakina Zaidi
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Gaëlle Perot
- INSERM U916 Biology of Sarcomas, Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, France
| | - Anneliene H Jonker
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Carlo Lucchesi
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Marie-Cécile Le Deley
- Département d'Epidémiologie et de Biostatistiques, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | - Odile Oberlin
- Département de Pédiatrie, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | - Perrine Marec-Bérard
- Institute for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Leon-Bérard Cancer Center, University of Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Amélie S Véron
- INSERM U1052, Léon-Bérard Cancer Centre, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Stephanie Reynaud
- Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie Centre Hospitalier, Paris, France
| | - Eve Lapouble
- Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie Centre Hospitalier, Paris, France
| | - Valentina Boeva
- INSERM U900, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Computational Systems Biology of Cancer, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France.,Mines ParisTech, Fontainebleau, France
| | - Thomas Rio Frio
- Institut Curie Genomics of Excellence (ICGex) Platform, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France
| | - Javier Alonso
- Instituto de Investigación de Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Smita Bhatia
- Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, School of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
| | - Gaëlle Pierron
- Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie Centre Hospitalier, Paris, France
| | - Geraldine Cancel-Tassin
- Centre de Recherche sur les Pathologies Prostatiques (CeRePP)-Laboratory for Urology, Research Team 2, UPMC, Hôpital Tenon, Paris, France
| | - Olivier Cussenot
- Centre de Recherche sur les Pathologies Prostatiques (CeRePP)-Laboratory for Urology, Research Team 2, UPMC, Hôpital Tenon, Paris, France
| | - David G Cox
- INSERM U1052, Léon-Bérard Cancer Centre, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Lindsay M Morton
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Mitchell J Machiela
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Stephen J Chanock
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Patrick Charnay
- École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Institut de Biologie de l'ENS (IBENS), INSERM U1024, CNRS UMR8197, Paris, France
| | - Olivier Delattre
- Genetics and Biology of Cancers Unit, Institut Curie, PSL Research University, Paris, France.,INSERM U830, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France.,Institut Curie Genomics of Excellence (ICGex) Platform, Institut Curie Research Center, Paris, France.,Unité Génétique Somatique (UGS), Institut Curie Centre Hospitalier, Paris, France
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87
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Cidre-Aranaz F, Alonso J. EWS/FLI1 Target Genes and Therapeutic Opportunities in Ewing Sarcoma. Front Oncol 2015; 5:162. [PMID: 26258070 PMCID: PMC4507460 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2015.00162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2015] [Accepted: 07/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive bone malignancy that affect children and young adults. Ewing sarcoma is the second most common primary bone malignancy in pediatric patients. Although significant progress has been made in the treatment of Ewing sarcoma since it was first described in the 1920s, in the last decade survival rates have remained unacceptably invariable, thus pointing to the need for new approaches centered in the molecular basis of the disease. Ewing sarcoma driving mutation, EWS–FLI1, which results from a chromosomal translocation, encodes an aberrant transcription factor. Since its first characterization in 1990s, many molecular targets have been described to be regulated by this chimeric transcription factor. Their contribution to orchestrate Ewing sarcoma phenotype has been reported over the last decades. In this work, we will focus on the description of a selection of EWS/FLI1 targets, their functional role, and their potential clinical relevance. We will also discuss their role in other types of cancer as well as the need for further studies to be performed in order to achieve a broader understanding of their particular contribution to Ewing sarcoma development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florencia Cidre-Aranaz
- Unidad de Tumores Sólidos Infantiles, Área de Genética Humana, Instituto de Investigación de Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Madrid , Spain
| | - Javier Alonso
- Unidad de Tumores Sólidos Infantiles, Área de Genética Humana, Instituto de Investigación de Enfermedades Raras, Instituto de Salud Carlos III , Madrid , Spain
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88
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Sand LGL, Szuhai K, Hogendoorn PCW. Sequencing Overview of Ewing Sarcoma: A Journey across Genomic, Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Landscapes. Int J Mol Sci 2015; 16:16176-215. [PMID: 26193259 PMCID: PMC4519945 DOI: 10.3390/ijms160716176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2015] [Revised: 07/03/2015] [Accepted: 07/07/2015] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive neoplasm occurring predominantly in adolescent Caucasians. At the genome level, a pathognomonic EWSR1-ETS translocation is present. The resulting fusion protein acts as a molecular driver in the tumor development and interferes, amongst others, with endogenous transcription and splicing. The Ewing sarcoma cell shows a poorly differentiated, stem-cell like phenotype. Consequently, the cellular origin of Ewing sarcoma is still a hot discussed topic. To further characterize Ewing sarcoma and to further elucidate the role of EWSR1-ETS fusion protein multiple genome, epigenome and transcriptome level studies were performed. In this review, the data from these studies were combined into a comprehensive overview. Presently, classical morphological predictive markers are used in the clinic and the therapy is dominantly based on systemic chemotherapy in combination with surgical interventions. Using sequencing, novel predictive markers and candidates for immuno- and targeted therapy were identified which were summarized in this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurens G L Sand
- Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333 ZA, The Netherlands.
| | - Karoly Szuhai
- Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333 ZA, The Netherlands.
| | - Pancras C W Hogendoorn
- Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden 2333 ZA, The Netherlands.
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89
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EWS/FLI utilizes NKX2-2 to repress mesenchymal features of Ewing sarcoma. Genes Cancer 2015; 6:129-43. [PMID: 26000096 PMCID: PMC4426950 DOI: 10.18632/genesandcancer.57] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2015] [Accepted: 04/16/2015] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In Ewing sarcoma, NKX2-2 is a critical activated target of the oncogenic transcription factor EWS/FLI that is required for transformation. However, its biological function in this malignancy is unknown. Here we provide evidence that NKX2-2 mediates the EWS/FLI-controlled block of mesenchymal features. Transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing revealed that NKX2-2 represses cell adhesion and extracellular matrix organization genes. NKX2-2-depleted cells form more focal adhesions and organized actin stress fibers, and spread over a wider area—hallmarks of mesenchymally derived cells. Furthermore, NKX2-2 represses the actin-stabilizing protein zyxin, suggesting that these morphological changes are attributable to zyxin de-repression. In addition, NKX2-2-knockdown cells display marked increases in migration and substrate adhesion. However, only part of the EWS/FLI phenotype is NKX2-2-dependent; consequently, NKX2-2 is insufficient to rescue EWS/FLI repression of mesenchymalization. Strikingly, we found that EWS/FLI-and NKX22-repressed genes are activated by ZEB2, which was previously shown to block Ewing sarcoma epithelialization. Together, these data support an emerging theme wherein Ewing sarcoma cells highly express transcription factors that maintain an undifferentiated state. Importantly, co-opting epithelial and mesenchymal traits by Ewing sarcoma cells may explain how the primary tumor grows rapidly while also “passively” metastasizing, without the need for transitions toward differentiated states, as in carcinomas.
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90
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Marques Howarth M, Simpson D, Ngok SP, Nieves B, Chen R, Siprashvili Z, Vaka D, Breese MR, Crompton BD, Alexe G, Hawkins DS, Jacobson D, Brunner AL, West R, Mora J, Stegmaier K, Khavari P, Sweet-Cordero EA. Long noncoding RNA EWSAT1-mediated gene repression facilitates Ewing sarcoma oncogenesis. J Clin Invest 2014; 124:5275-90. [PMID: 25401475 DOI: 10.1172/jci72124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2013] [Accepted: 10/09/2014] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Chromosomal translocation that results in fusion of the genes encoding RNA-binding protein EWS and transcription factor FLI1 (EWS-FLI1) is pathognomonic for Ewing sarcoma. EWS-FLI1 alters gene expression through mechanisms that are not completely understood. We performed RNA sequencing (RNAseq) analysis on primary pediatric human mesenchymal progenitor cells (pMPCs) expressing EWS-FLI1 in order to identify gene targets of this oncoprotein. We determined that long noncoding RNA-277 (Ewing sarcoma-associated transcript 1 [EWSAT1]) is upregulated by EWS-FLI1 in pMPCs. Inhibition of EWSAT1 expression diminished the ability of Ewing sarcoma cell lines to proliferate and form colonies in soft agar, whereas EWSAT1 inhibition had no effect on other cell types tested. Expression of EWS-FLI1 and EWSAT1 repressed gene expression, and a substantial fraction of targets that were repressed by EWS-FLI1 were also repressed by EWSAT1. Analysis of RNAseq data from primary human Ewing sarcoma further supported a role for EWSAT1 in mediating gene repression. We identified heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (HNRNPK) as an RNA-binding protein that interacts with EWSAT1 and found a marked overlap in HNRNPK-repressed genes and those repressed by EWS-FLI1 and EWSAT1, suggesting that HNRNPK participates in EWSAT1-mediated gene repression. Together, our data reveal that EWSAT1 is a downstream target of EWS-FLI1 that facilitates the development of Ewing sarcoma via the repression of target genes.
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MESH Headings
- Cell Line, Tumor
- Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/genetics
- Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/metabolism
- Cell Transformation, Neoplastic/pathology
- Down-Regulation/genetics
- Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
- Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein K
- Humans
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/biosynthesis
- Oncogene Proteins, Fusion/genetics
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/biosynthesis
- Proto-Oncogene Protein c-fli-1/genetics
- RNA, Long Noncoding/biosynthesis
- RNA, Long Noncoding/genetics
- RNA, Neoplasm/biosynthesis
- RNA, Neoplasm/genetics
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/biosynthesis
- RNA-Binding Protein EWS/genetics
- Ribonucleoproteins/genetics
- Ribonucleoproteins/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/genetics
- Sarcoma, Ewing/metabolism
- Sarcoma, Ewing/pathology
- Sequence Analysis, RNA
- Up-Regulation/genetics
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91
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Riggi N, Knoechel B, Gillespie SM, Rheinbay E, Boulay G, Suvà ML, Rossetti NE, Boonseng WE, Oksuz O, Cook EB, Formey A, Patel A, Gymrek M, Thapar V, Deshpande V, Ting DT, Hornicek FJ, Nielsen GP, Stamenkovic I, Aryee MJ, Bernstein BE, Rivera MN. EWS-FLI1 utilizes divergent chromatin remodeling mechanisms to directly activate or repress enhancer elements in Ewing sarcoma. Cancer Cell 2014; 26:668-681. [PMID: 25453903 PMCID: PMC4492343 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2014.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 286] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2014] [Revised: 07/14/2014] [Accepted: 10/06/2014] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The aberrant transcription factor EWS-FLI1 drives Ewing sarcoma, but its molecular function is not completely understood. We find that EWS-FLI1 reprograms gene regulatory circuits in Ewing sarcoma by directly inducing or repressing enhancers. At GGAA repeat elements, which lack evolutionary conservation and regulatory potential in other cell types, EWS-FLI1 multimers induce chromatin opening and create de novo enhancers that physically interact with target promoters. Conversely, EWS-FLI1 inactivates conserved enhancers containing canonical ETS motifs by displacing wild-type ETS transcription factors. These divergent chromatin-remodeling patterns repress tumor suppressors and mesenchymal lineage regulators while activating oncogenes and potential therapeutic targets, such as the kinase VRK1. Our findings demonstrate how EWS-FLI1 establishes an oncogenic regulatory program governing both tumor survival and differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolò Riggi
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Birgit Knoechel
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Shawn M Gillespie
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
| | - Esther Rheinbay
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Gaylor Boulay
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Mario L Suvà
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Nikki E Rossetti
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Wannaporn E Boonseng
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ozgur Oksuz
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Edward B Cook
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aurélie Formey
- Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Anoop Patel
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Melissa Gymrek
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Vishal Thapar
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Vikram Deshpande
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - David T Ting
- Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Francis J Hornicek
- Center for Sarcoma and Connective Tissue Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - G Petur Nielsen
- Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ivan Stamenkovic
- Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Martin J Aryee
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Bradley E Bernstein
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
| | - Miguel N Rivera
- Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Bledsoe KL, McGee-Lawrence ME, Camilleri ET, Wang X, Riester SM, van Wijnen AJ, Oliveira AM, Westendorf JJ. RUNX3 facilitates growth of Ewing sarcoma cells. J Cell Physiol 2014; 229:2049-56. [PMID: 24812032 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.24663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2014] [Accepted: 05/06/2014] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive pediatric small round cell tumor that predominantly occurs in bone. Approximately 85% of Ewing sarcomas harbor the EWS/FLI fusion protein, which arises from a chromosomal translocation, t(11:22)(q24:q12). EWS/FLI interacts with numerous lineage-essential transcription factors to maintain mesenchymal progenitors in an undifferentiated state. We previously showed that EWS/FLI binds the osteogenic transcription factor RUNX2 and prevents osteoblast differentiation. In this study, we investigated the role of another Runt-domain protein, RUNX3, in Ewing sarcoma. RUNX3 participates in mesenchymal-derived bone formation and is a context dependent tumor suppressor and oncogene. RUNX3 was detected in all Ewing sarcoma cells examined, whereas RUNX2 was detected in only 73% of specimens. Like RUNX2, RUNX3 binds to EWS/FLI via its Runt domain. EWS/FLI prevented RUNX3 from activating the transcription of a RUNX-responsive reporter, p6OSE2. Stable suppression of RUNX3 expression in the Ewing sarcoma cell line A673 delayed colony growth in anchorage independent soft agar assays and reversed expression of EWS/FLI-responsive genes. These results demonstrate an important role for RUNX3 in Ewing sarcoma.
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93
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Abe H, Gemmell NJ. Abundance, arrangement, and function of sequence motifs in the chicken promoters. BMC Genomics 2014; 15:900. [PMID: 25318583 PMCID: PMC4203960 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2014] [Accepted: 10/08/2014] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Eukaryotic promoters are regions containing various sequence motifs necessary to control gene transcription. Much evidence has emerged showing that structural and/or contextual changes in regulatory elements can critically affect cis-regulatory activity. As sequence motifs can be key factors in maintaining complex promoter architectures, one effective approach to further understand the evolution of promoter regions in vertebrates is to compare the abundance and distribution patterns of sequence motifs in these regions between divergent species. When compared with mammals, the chicken (Gallus gallus) has a very different genome composition and sufficient genomic information to make it a good model for the exploration of promoter structure and evolution. Results More than 10% of chicken genes contained short tandem repeat (STR) in the region 2 kb upstream of promoters, but the total number of STRs observed in chicken is approximately half of that detected in human promoters. In terms of the STR motif frequencies, chicken promoter regions were more similar to other avian and mammalian promoters than these were to the entire chicken genome. Unlike other STRs, nearly half of the trinucleotide repeats found in promoters partly or entirely overlapped with CpG islands, indicating potential association with nucleosome positions. Moreover, the chicken promoters are abundant with sequence motifs such as poly-A, poly-G and G-quadruplexes, especially in the core region, that are otherwise rare in the genome. Most of sequence motifs showed strong functional enrichment for particular gene ontology (GO) categories, indicating roles in regulation of transcription and gene expression, as well as immune response and cognition. Conclusions Chicken promoter regions share some, but not all, of the structural features observed in mammalian promoters. The findings presented here provide empirical evidence suggesting that the frequencies and locations of STR motifs have been conserved through promoter evolution in a lineage-specific manner. Correlation analysis between GO categories and sequence motifs suggests motif-specific constraints acting on gene function. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-900) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hideaki Abe
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
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94
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Kovar H. Blocking the road, stopping the engine or killing the driver? Advances in targeting EWS/FLI-1 fusion in Ewing sarcoma as novel therapy. Expert Opin Ther Targets 2014; 18:1315-28. [PMID: 25162919 DOI: 10.1517/14728222.2014.947963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Ewing sarcoma (ES) represents the paradigm of an aberrant E-twenty-six (ETS) oncogene-driven cancer. It is characterized by specific rearrangements of one of five alternative ETS family member genes with EWSR1. There is experimental evidence that the resulting fusion proteins act as aberrant transcription factors driving ES pathogenesis. The transcriptional gene regulatory network driven by EWS-ETS proteins provides the oncogenic engine to the tumor. Therefore, EWS-ETS and their downstream machinery are considered ideal tumor-specific therapeutic targets. AREAS COVERED This review critically discusses the literature on the development of EWS-ETS-directed ES targeting strategies considering current knowledge of EWS-ETS biology and cellular context. It focuses on determinants of EWS-FLI1 function with an emphasis on interactions with chromatin structure. We speculate about the relevance of poorly investigated aspects in ES research such as chromatin remodeling and DNA damage repair for the development of targeted therapies. EXPERT OPINION This review questions the specificity of signature-based screening approaches to the identification of EWS-FLI1-targeted compounds. It challenges the view that targeting the downstream gene regulatory network carries potential for therapeutic breakthroughs because of resistance-inducing network rewiring. Instead, we propose to combine targeting of the fusion protein with epigenetic therapy as a future treatment strategy in ES.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heinrich Kovar
- Children´s Cancer Research Institute, St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung, and Medical University Vienna, Department of Pediatrics , Zimmermannplatz 10, A1090 Vienna , Austria +43 1 40470 4092 ; +43 1 40470 64092 ;
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95
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Monument MJ, Johnson KM, McIlvaine E, Abegglen L, Watkins WS, Jorde LB, Womer RB, Beeler N, Monovich L, Lawlor ER, Bridge JA, Schiffman JD, Krailo MD, Randall RL, Lessnick SL. Clinical and biochemical function of polymorphic NR0B1 GGAA-microsatellites in Ewing sarcoma: a report from the Children's Oncology Group. PLoS One 2014; 9:e104378. [PMID: 25093581 PMCID: PMC4122435 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2014] [Accepted: 07/08/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The genetics involved in Ewing sarcoma susceptibility and prognosis are poorly understood. EWS/FLI and related EWS/ETS chimeras upregulate numerous gene targets via promoter-based GGAA-microsatellite response elements. These microsatellites are highly polymorphic in humans, and preliminary evidence suggests EWS/FLI-mediated gene expression is highly dependent on the number of GGAA motifs within the microsatellite. OBJECTIVES Here we sought to examine the polymorphic spectrum of a GGAA-microsatellite within the NR0B1 promoter (a critical EWS/FLI target) in primary Ewing sarcoma tumors, and characterize how this polymorphism influences gene expression and clinical outcomes. RESULTS A complex, bimodal pattern of EWS/FLI-mediated gene expression was observed across a wide range of GGAA motifs, with maximal expression observed in constructs containing 20-26 GGAA motifs. Relative to white European and African controls, the NR0B1 GGAA-microsatellite in tumor cells demonstrated a strong bias for haplotypes containing 21-25 GGAA motifs suggesting a relationship between microsatellite function and disease susceptibility. This selection bias was not a product of microsatellite instability in tumor samples, nor was there a correlation between NR0B1 GGAA-microsatellite polymorphisms and survival outcomes. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that GGAA-microsatellite polymorphisms observed in human populations modulate EWS/FLI-mediated gene expression and may influence disease susceptibility in Ewing sarcoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J. Monument
- Sarcoma Services, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Kirsten M. Johnson
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth McIlvaine
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Lisa Abegglen
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - W. Scott Watkins
- Department of Human Genetics and Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Lynn B. Jorde
- Department of Human Genetics and Eccles Institute of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Richard B. Womer
- Division of Oncology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Natalie Beeler
- Children's Oncology Group Biopathology Center, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Laura Monovich
- Children's Oncology Group Biopathology Center, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth R. Lawlor
- Departments of Pediatrics and Pathology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Julia A. Bridge
- Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America
| | - Joshua D. Schiffman
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Mark D. Krailo
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - R. Lor Randall
- Sarcoma Services, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
| | - Stephen L. Lessnick
- Sarcoma Services, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Center for Children's Cancer Research, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is a pediatric bone tumor characterized in 85% of cases by the fusion between EWS and FLI1 genes that results in the expression of the EWS-FLI1 aberrant transcription factor. Histologically, the Ewing tumor expresses high levels of the CD99 membrane glycoprotein. It has been recently described that CD99 expression contributes to the Ewing tumor oncogenesis by modulating growth and differentiation of tumor cells. Different studies have also shown that overexpression of EWS-FLI1 induces CD99 expression in non-Ewing cells. At the opposite, the knockdown of EWS-FLI1 expression by siRNA approaches has no significant effect on CD99 mRNA level in Ewing cells. Here, by in vivo and in vitro studies, we show that while EWS-FLI1 inhibition has only slight effects on the amount of CD99 transcript, it induces a dramatic decrease of the CD99 protein expression level, hence suggesting post-transcriptional regulations, possibly mediated by microRNAs. To further investigate this issue, we identified a set of 91 miRNAs that demonstrate EWS-FLI1 modulation, three of them being predicted to bind CD99 3' untranslated region (30'UTR). Among these, we show that miR-30a-5p has the ability to interact with the 30'UTR region of CD99 and to regulate its expression. Moreover, the re-expression of miRNA-30a-5p in Ewing cell line induces decreased cell proliferation and invasion. In this study, we therefore show that miR-30a-5p constitutes a major functional link between EWS-FLI1 and CD99, two critical biomarkers and therapeutic targets in Ewing sarcoma.
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97
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Bilke S, Schwentner R, Yang F, Kauer M, Jug G, Walker RL, Davis S, Zhu YJ, Pineda M, Meltzer PS, Kovar H. Oncogenic ETS fusions deregulate E2F3 target genes in Ewing sarcoma and prostate cancer. Genome Res 2013; 23:1797-809. [PMID: 23940108 PMCID: PMC3814880 DOI: 10.1101/gr.151340.112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Deregulated E2F transcription factor activity occurs in the vast majority of human tumors and has been solidly implicated in disturbances of cell cycle control, proliferation, and apoptosis. Aberrant E2F regulatory activity is often caused by impairment of control through pRB function, but little is known about the interplay of other oncoproteins with E2F. Here we show that ETS transcription factor fusions resulting from disease driving rearrangements in Ewing sarcoma (ES) and prostate cancer (PC) are one such class of oncoproteins. We performed an integrative study of genome-wide DNA-binding and transcription data in EWSR1/FLI1 expressing ES and TMPRSS2/ERG containing PC cells. Supported by promoter activity and mutation analyses, we demonstrate that a large fraction of E2F3 target genes are synergistically coregulated by these aberrant ETS proteins. We propose that the oncogenic effect of ETS fusion oncoproteins is in part mediated by the disruptive effect of the E2F–ETS interaction on cell cycle control. Additionally, a detailed analysis of the regulatory targets of the characteristic EWSR1/FLI1 fusion in ES identifies two functionally distinct gene sets. While synergistic regulation in concert with E2F in the promoter of target genes has a generally activating effect, EWSR1/FLI1 binding independent of E2F3 is predominantly associated with repressed differentiation genes. Thus, EWSR1/FLI1 appears to promote oncogenesis by simultaneously promoting cell proliferation and perturbing differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sven Bilke
- Genetics Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA
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Stoll G, Surdez D, Tirode F, Laud K, Barillot E, Zinovyev A, Delattre O. Systems biology of Ewing sarcoma: a network model of EWS-FLI1 effect on proliferation and apoptosis. Nucleic Acids Res 2013; 41:8853-71. [PMID: 23935076 PMCID: PMC3799442 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkt678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Ewing sarcoma is the second most frequent pediatric bone tumor. In most of the patients, a chromosomal translocation leads to the expression of the EWS-FLI1 chimeric transcription factor that is the major oncogene in this pathology. Relative genetic simplicity of Ewing sarcoma makes it particularly attractive for studying cancer in a systemic manner. Silencing EWS-FLI1 induces cell cycle alteration and ultimately leads to apoptosis, but the exact molecular mechanisms underlying this phenotype are unclear. In this study, a network linking EWS-FLI1 to cell cycle and apoptosis phenotypes was constructed through an original method of network reconstruction. Transcriptome time-series after EWS-FLI1 silencing were used to identify core modulated genes by an original scoring method based on fitting expression profile dynamics curves. Literature data mining was then used to connect these modulated genes into a network. The validity of a subpart of this network was assessed by siRNA/RT-QPCR experiments on four additional Ewing cell lines and confirmed most of the links. Based on the network and the transcriptome data, CUL1 was identified as a new potential target of EWS-FLI1. Altogether, using an original methodology of data integration, we provide the first version of EWS-FLI1 network model of cell cycle and apoptosis regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gautier Stoll
- Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris cedex 05, France, INSERM U900, Bioinformatique, biostatistique et épidémiologie d'un système complexe, Paris, France, Mines ParisTech, Fontainebleau, France, INSERM U830, Unité de Génétique et Biologie des Cancers, Paris, France and Institut Curie, Unité de génétique somatique, Paris, France
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100
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Monument MJ, Bernthal NM, Randall RL. Salient features of mesenchymal stem cells-implications for Ewing sarcoma modeling. Front Oncol 2013; 3:24. [PMID: 23443465 PMCID: PMC3580960 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2013.00024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2013] [Accepted: 01/30/2013] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite a heightened appreciation of the many defining molecular aberrations in Ewing sarcoma, the cooperative genetic environment and permissive cell of origin essential for EWS/ETS-mediated oncogenesis remain elusive. Consequently, inducible animal and in vitro models of Ewing sarcoma from a native cellular context are unable to fully recapitulate malignant transformation. Despite these shortcomings, human, and murine mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are the closest working in vitro systems available. MSCs are tolerant of ectopic EWS/FLI expression, which is accompanied by a molecular signature most similar to Ewing sarcoma. Whether MSCs are the elusive cell of origin or simply a tolerant platform of the EWS/FLI transcriptome, these cells have become an excellent molecular tool to investigate and manipulate oncogenesis in Ewing sarcoma. Our understanding of the biological complexity and heterogeneity of human MSCs (hMSCs) has increased substantially over time and as such, appreciation and utilization of these salient complexities may greatly enhance the efficient use of these cells as surrogate models for Ewing sarcoma tumorigenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Monument
- Sarcoma Services, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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