Common mechanisms for the regulation of B cell differentiation and transformation by the transcriptional repressor protein BCL-6

Role of Transcription Factor BEND3 and Its Potential Effect on Cancer Progression

BEND3 is a transcription factor that plays a critical role in the regulation of gene expression in mammals. While there is limited research on the role of BEND3 as a tumor suppressor or an oncogene and its potential role in cancer therapy is still emerging, several studies suggest that it may be involved in both the processes. Its interaction and regulation with multiple other factors via p21 have already been reported to play a significant role in cancer development, which serves as an indication of its potential role in oncogenesis. Its interaction with chromatin modifiers such as NuRD and NoRC and its role in the recruitment of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) are some of the additional events indicative of its potential role in cancer development. Moreover, a few recent studies indicate BEND3 as a potential target for cancer therapy. Since the specific mechanisms by which BEND3 may contribute to cancer progression are not yet fully elucidated, in this review, we have discussed the possible pathways BEND3 may take to serve as an oncogenic driver or suppressor.

Contribution of Epstein–Barr Virus Lytic Proteins to Cancer Hallmarks and Implications from Other Oncoviruses

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a prevalent human gamma-herpesvirus that infects the majority of the adult population worldwide and is associated with several lymphoid and epithelial malignancies. EBV displays a biphasic life cycle, namely, latent and lytic replication cycles, expressing a diversity of viral proteins. Among the EBV proteins being expressed during both latent and lytic cycles, the oncogenic roles of EBV lytic proteins are largely uncharacterized. In this review, the established contributions of EBV lytic proteins in tumorigenesis are summarized according to the cancer hallmarks displayed. We further postulate the oncogenic properties of several EBV lytic proteins by comparing the evolutionary conserved oncogenic mechanisms in other herpesviruses and oncoviruses.

Immunoglobulins and Transcription Factors in Otitis Media

The causes of otitis media (OM) involve bacterial and viral infection, anatomo-physiological abnormalities of the Eustachian canal and nasopharynx, allergic rhinitis, group childcare centers, second-hand smoking, obesity, immaturity and defects of the immune system, formula feeding, sex, race, and age. OM is accompanied by complex and diverse interactions among bacteria, viruses, inflammatory cells, immune cells, and epithelial cells. The present study summarizes the antibodies that contribute to immune reactions in all types of otitis media, including acute otitis media, otitis media with effusion, and chronic otitis media with or without cholesteatoma, as well as the transcription factors that induce the production of these antibodies. The types and distribution of B cells; the functions of B cells, especially in otorhinolaryngology; antibody formation in patients with otitis media; and antibodies and related transcription factors are described. B cells have important functions in host defenses, including antigen recognition, antigen presentation, antibody production, and immunomodulation. The phenotypes of B cells in the ear, nose, and throat, especially in patients with otitis media, were shown to be CD5^low, CD23^high, CD43^low, B220^high, sIgM^low, sIgD^high, Mac-1^low, CD80(B7.1)^low, CD86(B7.2)^low, and Syndecam-1^low. Of the five major classes of immunoglobulins produced by B cells, three (IgG, IgA, and IgM) are mainly involved in otitis media. Serum concentrations of IgG, IgA, and IgM are lower in patients with OM with effusion (OME) than in subjects without otitis media. Moreover, IgG, IgA, and IgM concentrations in the middle ear cavity are increased during immune responses in patients with otitis media. B cell leukemia/lymphoma-6 (Bcl-6) and paired box gene 5 (Pax-5) suppress antibody production, whereas B lymphocyte inducer of maturation program 1 (Blimp-1) and X-box binding protein 1 (XBP-1) promote antibody production during immune responses in patients with otitis media.

CHD4/NuRD complex regulates complement gene expression and correlates with CD8 T cell infiltration in human hepatocellular carcinoma

Backgrounds

The NuRD (Nucleosome Remodeling and Deacetylation) complex is a repressive complex in gene transcription by modulating chromatin accessibility of target genes to transcription factors and RNA polymerase II. Although individual subunits of the complex have been implicated in many other cancer types, the complex’s role in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not fully understood. More importantly, the NuRD complex has not yet been investigated as a whole in cancers.

Methods

We analyzed the expression of the NuRD complex in HCC and evaluated the prognostic value of NuRD complex expression in HCC using the RNA-seq data obtained from the TCGA project. We examined the effect of CHD4 knockdown on HCC cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, colony-forming ability, and on complement gene expression. We also performed bioinformatic analyses to investigate the correlation between the NuRD complex expression and immune infiltration.

Results

We found that nine subunits, out of 14 subunits of the NuRD complex examined, were significantly overexpressed in HCC, and their expression levels were positively correlated with cancer progression. More importantly, our data also demonstrated that these subunits tended to be overexpressed as a whole in HCC. Subsequent studies demonstrated that knockdown of CHD4 in HCC cells inhibits cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony-forming ability and promotes apoptosis of HCC cells, indicating that the CHD4/NuRD complex plays oncogenic roles in HCC. Further analysis revealed that the CHD4/NuRD complex regulates complement gene expression in HCC. Intriguingly, we found that the CHD4/NuRD complex expression was inversely correlated with CD8 T cell infiltration in HCC.

Conclusions

Our data demonstrate that the CHD4/NuRD complex plays an oncogenic role in human HCC and regulates complement gene expression in HCC cells. The results of inverse correlation between the CHD4/NuRD complex and CD8 T cell and DC cell infiltration in HCC suggest that the CHD4/NuRD complex not only plays direct regulatory roles in HCC cells, but also has an impact on the immune microenvironment of HCC.

Histone Acetylation and Plant Development

Reversible histone acetylation and deacetylation at the N-terminus of histone tails play a crucial role in regulation of gene activity. Hyperacetylation of histones relaxes chromatin structure and is associated with transcriptional activation, whereas hypoacetylation of histones induces chromatin compaction and gene repression. Histone acetylation and deacetylation are catalyzed by histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs), respectively. Emerging evidences revealed that plant HATs and HDACs play essential roles in regulation of gene expression in plant development and plant responses to environmental stresses. Furthermore, HATs and HDACs were shown to interact with various chromatin-remodeling factors and transcription factors involved in transcriptional regulation of multiple developmental processes.

Suppression of human B cell activation by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin involves altered regulation of B cell lymphoma-6

The environmental contaminant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) produces marked suppression of the primary humoral immune response in virtually every animal species evaluated thus far. In addition, epidemiological studies performed in areas of dioxin contamination have identified an association between TCDD exposure and an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Recent studies using an in vitro CD40 ligand model of human B cell differentiation have shown that TCDD impairs both B cell activation and differentiation. The present study extends these findings by identifying B cell lymphoma-6 [BCL-6] as a putative cellular target for deregulation by TCDD, which may contribute to suppression of B cell function as well as NHL. BCL-6 is a multifunctional transcriptional repressor frequently mutated in NHLs and known to regulate critical events of B cell activation and differentiation. In the presence of TCDD, BCL-6 protein levels were elevated and concurrently the same population of cells with high BCL-6 levels showed decreased CD80 and CD69 expression indicative of impaired cellular activation. The elevated BCL-6 levels resulted in a concomitant increase in BCL-6 DNA binding activity at its cognate binding site within an enhancer region for CD80. Furthermore, a small molecule inhibitor of BCL-6 activity reversed TCDD-mediated suppression of CD80 expression in human B cells. In the presence of a low-affinity ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), suppression of B cell activation and altered BCL-6 regulation were not observed. These results provide new mechanistic insights into the role of BCL-6 in the suppression of human B cell activation by TCDD.

Cancer biology and NuRD: a multifaceted chromatin remodelling complex

The nucleosome remodelling and histone deacetylase (NuRD; also known as Mi-2) complex regulates gene expression at the level of chromatin. The NuRD complex has been identified - using both genetic and molecular analyses - as a key determinant of differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells and during development in various model systems. Similar to other chromatin remodellers, such as SWI/SNF and Polycomb complexes, NuRD has also been implicated in the regulation of transcriptional events that are integral to oncogenesis and cancer progression. Emerging molecular details regarding the recruitment of NuRD to specific loci during development, and the modulation of these events in cancer, are used to illustrate how the inappropriate localization of the complex could contribute to tumour biology.

T cells and follicular dendritic cells in germinal center B-cell formation and selection

Germinal centers (GCs) are specialized microenvironments formed after infection where activated B cells can mutate their B-cell receptors to undergo affinity maturation. A stringent process of selection allows high affinity, non-self-reactive B cells to become long-lived memory B cells and plasma cells. While the precise mechanism of selection is still poorly understood, the last decade has advanced our understanding of the role of T cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) in GC B-cell formation and selection. T cells and non-T-cell-derived CD40 ligands on FDCs are essential for T-dependent (TD) and T-independent GC formation, respectively. TD-GC formation requires Bcl-6-expressing T cells capable of signaling through SAP, which promotes formation of stable T:B conjugates. By contrast, differentiation of B blasts along the extrafollicular pathway is less dependent on SAP. T-follicular helper (Tfh) cell-derived CD40L, interleukin-21, and interleukin-4 play important roles in GC B-cell proliferation, survival, and affinity maturation. A role for FDC-derived integrin signals has also emerged: GC B cells capable of forming an immune synapse with FDCs have a survival advantage. This emerges as a powerful mechanism to ensure death of B cells that bind self-reactive antigen, which would not normally be presented on FDCs.

DNA methylation prevents CTCF-mediated silencing of the oncogene BCL6 in B cell lymphomas

Aberrant DNA methylation commonly occurs in cancer cells where it has been implicated in the epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes. Additional roles for DNA methylation, such as transcriptional activation, have been predicted but have yet to be clearly demonstrated. The BCL6 oncogene is implicated in the pathogenesis of germinal center-derived B cell lymphomas. We demonstrate that the intragenic CpG islands within the first intron of the human BCL6 locus were hypermethylated in lymphoma cells that expressed high amounts of BCL6 messenger RNA (mRNA). Inhibition of DNA methyltransferases decreased BCL6 mRNA abundance, suggesting a role for these methylated CpGs in positively regulating BCL6 transcription. The enhancer-blocking transcription factor CTCF bound to this intronic region in a methylation-sensitive manner. Depletion of CTCF by short hairpin RNA in neoplastic plasma cells that do not express BCL6 resulted in up-regulation of BCL6 transcription. These data indicate that BCL6 expression is maintained during lymphomagenesis in part through DNA methylation that prevents CTCF-mediated silencing.

Histiocytic sarcoma arising in indolent small B-cell lymphoma: report of two cases with molecular/genetic evidence suggestive of a 'transdifferentiation' during the clonal evolution

The biologic relationship between small B-cell lymphoma and histiocytic sarcoma (HS) when occurring in the same patient remains unclear, though recent data suggest a possible 'transdifferentiation' from follicular lymphoma (FL) to HS. We investigated the clonal relationship in two cases of small B-cell lymphoma with subsequent HS. Case 1: A 62-year-old female with splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) developed HS in a groin lymph node 1 year after the primary diagnosis. PCR/sequence analysis of the IGH gene showed a monoclonal rearrangement carrying an identical nucleotide sequence of PCR products from the spleen with SMZL and the lymph node with HS. Case 2: A 61-year-old female with a remote history of FL developed supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, which was confirmed to be HS. PCR analysis of the HS detected a monoclonal rearrangement of the IGH gene and FISH analysis revealed IGH/BCL2 fusion, a genetic hallmark for FL. The transformed HSs showed partial retention of their prior B-cell lymphomas' signatures, including expression of OCT2 in both cases and expression of BCL6 and enhanced expression of BCL2 in case 2. Both HSs demonstrated hypermutated IGH variable regions, arguing against a common progenitor mechanism of the transformation process. The data suggest a common clonal origin of B-cell lymphoma and subsequent HS occurring in the same patient, indicating that 'transdifferentiation' occurs in other small B-cell lymphomas, in addition to the previously reported FL or B-cell lymphoma with IGH/BCL2.

IgA and Differentiation-associated Transcription Factors in Chronic Otitis Media with Effusion

Objectives

Inadequate antibody responses to pathogens may lead to the recurrence of otitis media with effusion (OME). Although B-cell production by antibodies is controlled by transcription factors, the status of these factors has not been assessed in patients with OME.

Methods

Expression of immunoglobulin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of transcription factors Bcl-6, Blimp-1, Pax-5, and XBP-1 was assessed by RT-PCR in the middle-ear fluid of 29 children with >4 OME episodes in 12 months or >3 episodes in 6 months (the OME-prone group) and in 32 children with <3 OME episodes in 12 months (OME group). The relationship between recurrence of OME and expression levels of immunoglobulins and transcription factors in middle-ear fluid was determined.

Results

The concentration of IgA in middle-ear fluid was significantly lower in the OME-prone than in the OME group, as was the expression of mRNA encoding the transcription factors Blimp-1 and XBP-1 (P<0.05 each). Expression of mRNA encoding the transcription factors Bcl-6 and Pax-5 was more intense in the OME-prone than in the OME group, but these differences were not significant (P>0.05).

Conclusion

Lower concentrations of IgA, Blimp-1 and XBP-1 in middle ear fluid of patients with OME may be related to OME recurrence and chronicity.

A human natural killer cell subset provides an innate source of IL-22 for mucosal immunity

Natural killer (NK) cells are classically viewed as lymphocytes that provide innate surveillance against virally infected cells and tumour cells through the release of cytolytic mediators and interferon (IFN)-gamma. In humans, blood CD56(dim) NK cells specialize in the lysis of cell targets. In the lymph nodes, CD56(bright) NK cells secrete IFN-gamma cooperating with dendritic cells and T cells in the generation of adaptive responses. Here we report the characterization of a human NK cell subset located in mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues, such as tonsils and Peyer's patches, which is hard-wired to secrete interleukin (IL)-22, IL-26 and leukaemia inhibitory factor. These NK cells, which we refer to as NK-22 cells, are triggered by acute exposure to IL-23. In vitro, NK-22-secreted cytokines stimulate epithelial cells to secrete IL-10, proliferate and express a variety of mitogenic and anti-apoptotic molecules. NK-22 cells are also found in mouse mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues and appear in the small intestine lamina propria during bacterial infection, suggesting that NK-22 cells provide an innate source of IL-22 that may help constrain inflammation and protect mucosal sites.