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Jeong R, Bulyk ML. Blood cell traits' GWAS loci colocalization with variation in PU.1 genomic occupancy prioritizes causal noncoding regulatory variants. CELL GENOMICS 2023; 3:100327. [PMID: 37492098 PMCID: PMC10363807 DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100327] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have uncovered numerous trait-associated loci across the human genome, most of which are located in noncoding regions, making interpretation difficult. Moreover, causal variants are hard to statistically fine-map at many loci because of widespread linkage disequilibrium. To address this challenge, we present a strategy utilizing transcription factor (TF) binding quantitative trait loci (bQTLs) for colocalization analysis to identify trait associations likely mediated by TF occupancy variation and to pinpoint likely causal variants using motif scores. We applied this approach to PU.1 bQTLs in lymphoblastoid cell lines and blood cell trait GWAS data. Colocalization analysis revealed 69 blood cell trait GWAS loci putatively driven by PU.1 occupancy variation. We nominate PU.1 motif-altering variants as the likely shared causal variants at 51 loci. Such integration of TF bQTL data with other GWAS data may reveal transcriptional regulatory mechanisms and causal noncoding variants underlying additional complex traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raehoon Jeong
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics Graduate Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Martha L. Bulyk
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics Graduate Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Jeong R, Bulyk ML. Colocalization of blood cell traits GWAS associations and variation in PU.1 genomic occupancy prioritizes causal noncoding regulatory variants. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.29.534582. [PMID: 37034747 PMCID: PMC10081269 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.29.534582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered numerous trait-associated loci across the human genome, most of which are located in noncoding regions, making interpretations difficult. Moreover, causal variants are hard to statistically fine-map at many loci because of widespread linkage disequilibrium. To address this challenge, we present a strategy utilizing transcription factor (TF) binding quantitative trait loci (bQTLs) for colocalization analysis to identify trait associations likely mediated by TF occupancy variation and to pinpoint likely causal variants using motif scores. We applied this approach to PU.1 bQTLs in lymphoblastoid cell lines and blood cell traits GWAS data. Colocalization analysis revealed 69 blood cell trait GWAS loci putatively driven by PU.1 occupancy variation. We nominate PU.1 motif-altering variants as the likely shared causal variants at 51 loci. Such integration of TF bQTL data with other GWAS data may reveal transcriptional regulatory mechanisms and causal noncoding variants underlying additional complex traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raehoon Jeong
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics Graduate Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Martha L. Bulyk
- Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics Graduate Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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He H, Wang Z, Yu H, Zhang G, Wen Y, Cai Z. Prioritizing risk genes as novel stratification biomarkers for acute monocytic leukemia by integrative analysis. Discov Oncol 2022; 13:55. [PMID: 35771283 PMCID: PMC9247126 DOI: 10.1007/s12672-022-00516-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a blood cancer with high heterogeneity and stratified as M0-M7 subtypes in the French-American-British (FAB) diagnosis system. Improved diagnosis with leverage of key molecular inputs will assist precisive medicine. Through deep-analyzing the transcriptomic data and mutations of AML, we report that a modern clustering algorithm, t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), successfully demarcates M2, M3 and M5 territories while M4 bias to M5 and M0 & M1 bias to M2, consistent with the traditional FAB classification. Combining with mutation profiles, the results show that top recurrent AML mutations were unbiasedly allocated into M2 and M5 territories, indicating the t-SNE instructed transcriptomic stratification profoundly outperforms mutation profiling in the FAB system. Further functional data mining prioritizes several myeloid-specific genes as potential regulators of AML progression and treatment by Venetoclax, a BCL2 inhibitor. Among them two encode membrane proteins, LILRB4 and LRRC25, which could be utilized as cell surface biomarkers for monocytic AML or for innovative immuno-therapy candidates in future. In summary, our deep functional data-mining analysis warrants several unappreciated immune signaling-encoding genes as novel diagnostic biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hang He
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Zhiqin Wang
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Hanzhi Yu
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Guorong Zhang
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yuchen Wen
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Zhigang Cai
- Department of Hematology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
- Department of Rheumatology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
- The Province and Ministry Co-Sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
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Bouti P, Zhao XW, Verkuijlen PJJH, Tool ATJ, van Houdt M, Köker N, Köker MY, Keskin O, Akbayram S, van Bruggen R, Kuijpers TW, Matlung HL, van den Berg TK. Kindlin3-Dependent CD11b/CD18-Integrin Activation Is Required for Potentiation of Neutrophil Cytotoxicity by CD47-SIRPα Checkpoint Disruption. Cancer Immunol Res 2020; 9:147-155. [PMID: 33355195 DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-20-0491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2020] [Revised: 10/07/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The CD47-signal regulatory protein-alpha (SIRPα) immune checkpoint constitutes a therapeutic target in cancer, and initial clinical studies using inhibitors of CD47-SIRPα interactions in combination with tumor-targeting antibodies show promising results. Blockade of CD47-SIRPα interaction can promote neutrophil antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) toward antibody-opsonized targets. Neutrophils induce killing of antibody-opsonized tumor cells by a process identified as trogoptosis, a necrotic/lytic type of cancer cell death that involves trogocytosis, the antibody-mediated endocytic acquisition of cancer membrane fragments by neutrophils. Both trogocytosis and killing strictly depend on CD11b/CD18-(Mac-1)-mediated neutrophil-cancer cell conjugate formation, but the mechanism by which CD47-SIRPα checkpoint disruption promotes cytotoxicity has remained elusive. Here, by using neutrophils from patients with leukocyte adhesion deficiency type III carrying FERMT3 gene mutations, hence lacking the integrin-associated protein kindlin3, we demonstrated that CD47-SIRPα signaling controlled the inside-out activation of the neutrophil CD11b/CD18-integrin and cytotoxic synapse formation in a kindlin3-dependent fashion. Our findings also revealed a role for kindlin3 in trogocytosis and an absolute requirement in the killing process, which involved direct interactions between kindlin3 and CD18 integrin. Collectively, these results identified a dual role for kindlin3 in neutrophil ADCC and provide mechanistic insights into the way neutrophil cytotoxicity is governed by CD47-SIRPα interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Panagiota Bouti
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Xi Wen Zhao
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Paul J J H Verkuijlen
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Anton T J Tool
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Michel van Houdt
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Nezihe Köker
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,Department of Immunology, Erciyes University Medical Faculty, Kayseri, Turkey
| | - Mustafa Yavuz Köker
- Department of Immunology, Erciyes University Medical Faculty, Kayseri, Turkey
| | - Ozlem Keskin
- Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey
| | - Sinan Akbayram
- Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Gaziantep University Medical Faculty, Gaziantep, Turkey
| | - Robin van Bruggen
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Taco W Kuijpers
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,Emma Children's Hospital, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Hanke L Matlung
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Timo K van den Berg
- Sanquin Research and Landsteiner Laboratory, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. .,Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Vrije University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Wittkowski KM, Dadurian C, Seybold MP, Kim HS, Hoshino A, Lyden D. Complex polymorphisms in endocytosis genes suggest alpha-cyclodextrin as a treatment for breast cancer. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0199012. [PMID: 29965997 PMCID: PMC6028090 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2017] [Accepted: 05/17/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Most breast cancer deaths are caused by metastasis and treatment options beyond radiation and cytotoxic drugs, which have severe side effects, and hormonal treatments, which are or become ineffective for many patients, are urgently needed. This study reanalyzed existing data from three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using a novel computational biostatistics approach (muGWAS), which had been validated in studies of 600-2000 subjects in epilepsy and autism. MuGWAS jointly analyzes several neighboring single nucleotide polymorphisms while incorporating knowledge about genetics of heritable diseases into the statistical method and about GWAS into the rules for determining adaptive genome-wide significance. Results from three independent GWAS of 1000-2000 subjects each, which were made available under the National Institute of Health's "Up For A Challenge" (U4C) project, not only confirmed cell-cycle control and receptor/AKT signaling, but, for the first time in breast cancer GWAS, also consistently identified many genes involved in endo-/exocytosis (EEC), most of which had already been observed in functional and expression studies of breast cancer. In particular, the findings include genes that translocate (ATP8A1, ATP8B1, ANO4, ABCA1) and metabolize (AGPAT3, AGPAT4, DGKQ, LPPR1) phospholipids entering the phosphatidylinositol cycle, which controls EEC. These novel findings suggest scavenging phospholipids as a novel intervention to control local spread of cancer, packaging of exosomes (which prepare distant microenvironment for organ-specific metastases), and endocytosis of β1 integrins (which are required for spread of metastatic phenotype and mesenchymal migration of tumor cells). Beta-cyclodextrins (βCD) have already been shown to be effective in in vitro and animal studies of breast cancer, but exhibits cholesterol-related ototoxicity. The smaller alpha-cyclodextrins (αCD) also scavenges phospholipids, but cannot fit cholesterol. An in-vitro study presented here confirms hydroxypropyl (HP)-αCD to be twice as effective as HPβCD against migration of human cells of both receptor negative and estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. If the previous successful animal studies with βCDs are replicated with the safer and more effective αCDs, clinical trials of adjuvant treatment with αCDs are warranted. Ultimately, all breast cancer are expected to benefit from treatment with HPαCD, but women with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) will benefit most, because they have fewer treatment options and their cancer advances more aggressively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Knut M. Wittkowski
- Center for Clinical and Translational Science, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Christina Dadurian
- Center for Clinical and Translational Science, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Martin P. Seybold
- Institut für Formale Methoden der Informatik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Han Sang Kim
- Department of Pediatrics, and Cell and Developmental Biology Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Ayuko Hoshino
- Department of Pediatrics, and Cell and Developmental Biology Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - David Lyden
- Department of Pediatrics, and Cell and Developmental Biology Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York, United States of America
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