Genetic signature of histiocytic sarcoma revealed by a sleeping beauty transposon genetic screen in mice

The many faces of mouse histiocytic sarcoma in C57BL/6J mice

Histiocytic sarcoma is a tumor of the hematopoietic system considered to be derived from macrophages. Although rare in humans, it occurs frequently in mice. Histiocytic sarcoma can be a difficult tumor to diagnose due to its diverse cellular morphologies, growth patterns, and organ distributions. The varying morphology of histiocytic sarcomas makes it easy to confuse them with other types of neoplasia, including hepatic hemangiosarcoma, uterine schwannoma, leiomyosarcoma, uterine stromal cell tumor, intramedullary osteosarcoma, and myeloid leukemia. As such, immunohistochemistry (IHC) is often needed to differentiate histiocytic sarcomas from other common tumors in mice that they can morphologically mimic. The goal of this article is to present a broader perspective of the diverse cellular morphologies, growth patterns, organ distributions, and IHC labeling of histiocytic sarcomas encountered by the authors. This article describes these features in a set of 62 mouse histiocytic sarcomas, including the IHC characterization of the tumors using a panel of markers for the macrophage antigens F4/80, IBA1, MAC2, CD163, CD68, and lysozyme, and describes differentiating features of histiocytic sarcomas from other morphologically similar tumors. The genetic changes underlying the pathogenesis of histiocytic sarcoma in humans are beginning to be elucidated, but this is difficult due to its rarity. The higher prevalence of this tumor in mice provides opportunities to investigate mechanisms of its development and to test potential treatments.

In vivo functional screening for systems-level integrative cancer genomics

With the genetic portraits of all major human malignancies now available, we next face the challenge of characterizing the function of mutated genes, their downstream targets, interactions and molecular networks. Moreover, poorly understood at the functional level are also non-mutated but dysregulated genomes, epigenomes or transcriptomes. Breakthroughs in manipulative mouse genetics offer new opportunities to probe the interplay of molecules, cells and systemic signals underlying disease pathogenesis in higher organisms. Herein, we review functional screening strategies in mice using genetic perturbation and chemical mutagenesis. We outline the spectrum of genetic tools that exist, such as transposons, CRISPR and RNAi and describe discoveries emerging from their use. Genome-wide or targeted screens are being used to uncover genomic and regulatory landscapes in oncogenesis, metastasis or drug resistance. Versatile screening systems support experimentation in diverse genetic and spatio-temporal settings to integrate molecular, cellular or environmental context-dependencies. We also review the combination of in vivo screening and barcoding strategies to study genetic interactions and quantitative cancer dynamics during tumour evolution. These scalable functional genomics approaches are transforming our ability to interrogate complex biological systems.

Primary Histiocytic Sarcoma in Adult Polycystic Kidney Disease: Case Report and Review of Literature

Genetically driven tissue destruction followed by remodeling in adult polycystic kidney disease (APKD) raises the possibility of malignant transformation. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) associated with APKD has been frequently reported in the literature; however, only a few cases of nonepithelial neoplasms arising in APKD have been described so far. Histiocytic sarcoma (HS) is a lymphohematopoietic malignant neoplasm that accounts for less than 1% of hematologic malignancies. In this article, we describe a case of primary HS occurring in a 61-year-old man with end-stage renal disease secondary to APKD. This is the first reported case of primary HS in the setting of APKD. The aberrant h-caldesmon expression seen in this case is another novel finding that has previously not been described. This case highlights the importance of morphology in guiding diagnostic workup and reiterates the necessity of maintaining a high index of suspicion for neoplastic entities in APKD.

Transposon Insertion Mutagenesis in Mice for Modeling Human Cancers: Critical Insights Gained and New Opportunities

Transposon mutagenesis has been used to model many types of human cancer in mice, leading to the discovery of novel cancer genes and insights into the mechanism of tumorigenesis. For this review, we identified over twenty types of human cancer that have been modeled in the mouse using Sleeping Beauty and piggyBac transposon insertion mutagenesis. We examine several specific biological insights that have been gained and describe opportunities for continued research. Specifically, we review studies with a focus on understanding metastasis, therapy resistance, and tumor cell of origin. Additionally, we propose further uses of transposon-based models to identify rarely mutated driver genes across many cancers, understand additional mechanisms of drug resistance and metastasis, and define personalized therapies for cancer patients with obesity as a comorbidity.

A Forward Genetic Screen Targeting the Endothelium Reveals a Regulatory Role for the Lipid Kinase Pi4ka in Myelo- and Erythropoiesis

Given its role as the source of definitive hematopoietic cells, we sought to determine whether mutations initiated in the hemogenic endothelium would yield hematopoietic abnormalities or malignancies. Here, we find that endothelium-specific transposon mutagenesis in mice promotes hematopoietic pathologies that are both myeloid and lymphoid in nature. Frequently mutated genes included previously recognized cancer drivers and additional candidates, such as Pi4ka, a lipid kinase whose mutation was found to promote myeloid and erythroid dysfunction. Subsequent validation experiments showed that targeted inactivation of the Pi4ka catalytic domain or reduction in mRNA expression inhibited myeloid and erythroid cell differentiation in vitro and promoted anemia in vivo through a mechanism involving deregulation of AKT, MAPK, SRC, and JAK-STAT signaling. Finally, we provide evidence linking PI4KAP2, previously considered a pseudogene, to human myeloid and erythroid leukemia.

Liver-Specific Delivery of Sleeping Beauty Transposon System by Hydrodynamic Injection for Cancer Gene Validation

Understanding the complex genetic background of cancers is key in developing effective targeted therapies. The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system is a powerful and unbiased genetic editing tool that can be used for rapid screening of candidate liver cancer driver genes. Manipulating their expression level using a reverse genetic mouse model involving hydrodynamic tail-vein injection delivery can rapidly elucidate the role of these candidate genes in liver cancer tumorigenesis.

Sleeping Beauty transposition: from biology to applications

Sleeping Beauty (SB) is the first synthetic DNA transposon that was shown to be active in a wide variety of species. Here, we review studies from the last two decades addressing both basic biology and applications of this transposon. We discuss how host-transposon interaction modulates transposition at different steps of the transposition reaction. We also discuss how the transposon was translated for gene delivery and gene discovery purposes. We critically review the system in clinical, pre-clinical and non-clinical settings as a non-viral gene delivery tool in comparison with viral technologies. We also discuss emerging SB-based hybrid vectors aimed at combining the attractive safety features of the transposon with effective viral delivery. The success of the SB-based technology can be fundamentally attributed to being able to insert fairly randomly into genomic regions that allow stable long-term expression of the delivered transgene cassette. SB has emerged as an efficient and economical toolkit for safe and efficient gene delivery for medical applications.

TRAF3: a novel tumor suppressor gene in macrophages

Tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3 (TRAF3), a member of the TRAF family of cytoplasmic adaptor proteins with E3 ligase activity, is ubiquitously expressed in various cell types of the immune system. It is shared for signaling by a variety of adaptive and innate immune receptors as well as cytokine receptors. Previous studies examining conditional TRAF3-deficient mouse models that have the Traf3 gene specifically deleted in B lymphocytes or T lymphocytes have revealed the diverse and critical in vivo functions of TRAF3 in adaptive immunity. Although in vitro evidence points to a pivotal and indispensable role for TRAF3 in type I interferon production induced by pattern recognition receptors in macrophages and dendritic cells, the in vivo functions of TRAF3 in the innate immune system had long remained unclear. Three laboratories have recently addressed this gap in knowledge by investigating myeloid cell-specific TRAF3-deficient (genotype: TRAF3^flox/floxLysM^+/Cre) mice. The new evidence together demonstrates that specific ablation of TRAF3 in myeloid cells leads to inflammatory diseases, altered progression of diabetes, and spontaneous development of different types of tumors and infections in mice. These new findings indicate that TRAF3 acts as an anti-inflammatory factor and is required for optimal innate immunity in myeloid cells. Strikingly, the new evidence also identifies TRAF3 as a novel tumor suppressor gene in macrophages and other myeloid cells. In this review, we discuss and summarize the new findings and current knowledge about the multi-faceted regulatory roles and complex signaling mechanisms of myeloid cell TRAF3 in inflammation, innate immunity, and tumor development.

The utility of transposon mutagenesis for cancer studies in the era of genome editing

The use of transposons as insertional mutagens to identify cancer genes in mice has generated a wealth of information over the past decade. Here, we discuss recent major advances in transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis screens and compare this technology with other screening strategies.

Chromosome Condensation 1-Like (Chc1L) Is a Novel Tumor Suppressor Involved in Development of Histiocyte-Rich Neoplasms

Human chromosomal region 13q14 is a deletion hotspot in prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This region is believed to host multiple tumor suppressors. Chromosome Condensation 1-like (CHC1L) is located at 13q14, and found within the smallest common region of loss of heterozygosity in prostate cancer. Decreased expression of CHC1L is linked to pathogenesis and progression of both prostate cancer and multiple myeloma. However, there is no direct evidence for CHC1L’s putative tumor suppressing role in current literature. Presently, we describe the generation and characterization of Chc1L knockout mice. Chc1L^-/- mice do not develop cancer at a young age, but bone marrow and spleen cells from 8–12 week-old mice display an exaggerated proliferative response. By approximately two years of age, knockout and heterozygote mice have a markedly increased incidence of tumorigenesis compared to wild-type controls, with tumors occurring mainly in the spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes, liver and intestinal tract. Histopathological analysis found that most heterozygote and knockout mice succumb to either Histiocytic Sarcoma or Histiocyte-Associated Lymphoma. Our study suggests that Chc1L is involved in suppression of these two histiocyte-rich neoplasms in mice and supports clinical data suggesting that CHC1L loss of function is an important step in the pathogenesis of cancers containing 13q14 deletion.

Transposon Mutagenesis Screen Identifies Potential Lung Cancer Drivers and CUL3 as a Tumor Suppressor

Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) harbor thousands of passenger events that hide genetic drivers. Even highly recurrent events in NSCLC, such as mutations in PTEN, EGFR, KRAS, and ALK, are detected, at most, in only 30% of patients. Thus, many unidentified low-penetrant events are causing a significant portion of lung cancers. To detect low-penetrance drivers of NSCLC, a forward genetic screen was performed in mice using the Sleeping Beauty (SB) DNA transposon as a random mutagen to generate lung tumors in a Pten-deficient background. SB mutations coupled with Pten deficiency were sufficient to produce lung tumors in 29% of mice. Pten deficiency alone, without SB mutations, resulted in lung tumors in 11% of mice, whereas the rate in control mice was approximately 3%. In addition, thyroid cancer and other carcinomas, as well as the presence of bronchiolar and alveolar epithelialization, in mice deficient for Pten were also identified. Analysis of common transposon insertion sites identified 76 candidate cancer driver genes. These genes are frequently dysregulated in human lung cancers and implicate several signaling pathways. Cullin3 (Cul3), a member of a ubiquitin ligase complex that plays a role in the oxidative stress response pathway, was identified in the screen and evidence demonstrates that Cul3 functions as a tumor suppressor.

IMPLICATIONS

This study identifies many novel candidate genetic drivers of lung cancer and demonstrates that CUL3 acts as a tumor suppressor by regulating oxidative stress.

Use of DNA transposons for functional genetic screens in mouse models of cancer

Cancer is a very heterogeneous disease with complex genetic interactions. In recent years, the systematic sequencing of cancer genomes has provided information to design personalized therapeutic interventions. However, the complexity of cancer genomes commonly makes it difficult to identify specific genes involved in tumour development or therapeutic responsiveness. The generation of mouse models of cancer using transposon-mediated approaches has provided a powerful tool to unveil the role of key genes during cancer development. Here we will discuss how the use of forward and reverse genetic approaches mediated by DNA transposons can support the investigation of cancer pathogenesis, including the identification of cancer promoting mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets.

Sleeping Beauty transposon insertional mutagenesis based mouse models for cancer gene discovery

Large-scale genomic efforts to study human cancer, such as the cancer gene atlas (TCGA), have identified numerous cancer drivers in a wide variety of tumor types. However, there are limitations to this approach, the mutations and expression or copy number changes that are identified are not always clearly functionally relevant, and only annotated genes and genetic elements are thoroughly queried. The use of complimentary, nonbiased, functional approaches to identify drivers of cancer development and progression is ideal to maximize the rate at which cancer discoveries are achieved. One such approach that has been successful is the use of the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon-based mutagenesis system in mice. This system uses a conditionally expressed transposase and mutagenic transposon allele to target mutagenesis to somatic cells of a given tissue in mice to cause random mutations leading to tumor development. Analysis of tumors for transposon common insertion sites (CIS) identifies candidate cancer genes specific to that tumor type. While similar screens have been performed in mice with the PiggyBac (PB) transposon and viral approaches, we limit extensive discussion to SB. Here we discuss the basic structure of these screens, screens that have been performed, methods used to identify CIS.

Humanized TLR7/8 expression drives proliferative multisystemic histiocytosis in C57BL/6 mice

A humanized TLR7/TLR8 transgenic mouse line was engineered for studies using TLR7/8 ligands as vaccine adjuvants. The mice developed a spontaneous immune-mediated phenotype prior to six months of age characterized by runting, lethargy, blepharitis, and corneal ulceration. Histological examination revealed a marked, multisystemic histiocytic infiltrate that effaced normal architecture. The histological changes were distinct from those previously reported in mouse models of systemic lupus erythematosus. When the mice were crossed with MyD88-/- mice, which prevented toll-like receptor signaling, the inflammatory phenotype resolved. Illness may be caused by constitutive activation of human TLR7 or TLR8 in the bacterial artificial chromosome positive mice as increased TLR7 and TLR8 expression or activation has previously been implicated in autoimmune disease.