1
|
Menez V, Kergrohen T, Shasha T, Silva-Evangelista C, Le Dret L, Auffret L, Subecz C, Lancien M, Ajlil Y, Vilchis IS, Beccaria K, Blauwblomme T, Oberlin E, Grill J, Castel D, Debily MA. VRK3 depletion induces cell cycle arrest and metabolic reprogramming of pontine diffuse midline glioma - H3K27 altered cells. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1229312. [PMID: 37886173 PMCID: PMC10599138 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1229312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023] Open
Abstract
We previously identified VRK3 as a specific vulnerability in DMG-H3K27M cells in a synthetic lethality screen targeting the whole kinome. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the mechanisms by which VRK3 depletion impact DMG-H3K27M cell fitness. Gene expression studies after VRK3 knockdown emphasized the inhibition of genes involved in G1/S transition of the cell cycle resulting in growth arrest in G1. Additionally, a massive modulation of genes involved in chromosome segregation was observed, concomitantly with a reduction in the level of phosphorylation of serine 10 and serine 28 of histone H3 supporting the regulation of chromatin condensation during cell division. This last effect could be partly due to a concomitant decrease of the chromatin kinase VRK1 in DMG following VRK3 knockdown. Furthermore, a metabolic switch specific to VRK3 function was observed towards increased oxidative phosphorylation without change in mitochondria content, that we hypothesized would represent a cell rescue mechanism. This study further explored the vulnerability of DMG-H3K27M cells to VRK3 depletion suggesting potential therapeutic combinations, e.g. with the mitochondrial ClpP protease activator ONC201.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Virginie Menez
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Thomas Kergrohen
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Tal Shasha
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Claudia Silva-Evangelista
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Ludivine Le Dret
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Lucie Auffret
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Chloé Subecz
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Manon Lancien
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Yassine Ajlil
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Irma Segoviano Vilchis
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Kévin Beccaria
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
- Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France
| | - Thomas Blauwblomme
- Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France
| | - Estelle Oberlin
- Inserm UMRS-MD 1197, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Jacques Grill
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
- Département de Cancérologie de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - David Castel
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Marie-Anne Debily
- U981, Molecular Predictors and New Targets in Oncology, Team Genomics and Oncogenesis of Pediatric Brain Tumors, INSERM, Gustave Roussy, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
- Univ Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Evry, France
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Du N, Zhang B, Zhang Y. Downregulation of VRK1 Inhibits Progression of Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma through DNA Damage. Can Respir J 2023; 2023:4533504. [PMID: 37547297 PMCID: PMC10403328 DOI: 10.1155/2023/4533504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2022] [Revised: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is a common malignancy. And the antitumor effect of bovine pox virus-associated kinase 1 (VRK1) is becoming a hot research topic. Methods VRK1 expression and prognosis in LUSC were analyzed using the GEPIA database. The expression of VRK1 mRNA was detected in 25 LUSC clinical tissue samples by RT-PCR. VRK1 shRNA was transfected into LUSC NCI-H520 and SK-MES-1 cell lines to interfere with VRK1 expression, and the efficiency of VRK1 shRNA interference was detected by the western blot. The effects of VRK1 downregulation on LUSC cell viability, migration, cell cycle, and apoptosis were analyzed by the CCK8 assay, scratch assay, transwell assay, and flow cytometry. The effect of VRK1 downregulation on DNA damage response (DDR) was examined by immunofluorescence staining and western blot assays and further validated by in vivo experiments. Results VRK1 was highly expressed in both LUSC tissues and cells. Survival analysis showed that the overall survival of LUSC patients with high VRK1 expression was significantly lower than that of LUSC patients with low VRK1 expression (P=0.0026). The expression level of the VRK1 gene was significantly higher in cancer tissues of LUSC patients than in paracancerous tissues. After transfection of VRK1 shRNA in both LUSC cells, cell activity decreased (P < 0.001), migration ability started to be inhibited (P < 0.001), the ratio of G0/G1 phase cells increased (P < 0.001), and apoptosis rate increased (P < 0.001). Immunofluorescence and western blot results showed that shVRK1 increased the level of γ-H2A.X (P < 0.001) and promoted apoptosis of tumor cells (P < 0.001). In addition, the results of animal experiments showed that shVRK1 had antitumor effects (P < 0.001) and a combined effect with DOX (P < 0.001). Conclusion The downregulation of VRK1 significantly affected the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and cell cycle progression of LUSC cells via DDR, suggesting that VRK1 is a suitable target for potential LUSC therapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ning Du
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 277 West Yanta Road, Xi'an 710061, Shaanxi, China
| | - Boxiang Zhang
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 277 West Yanta Road, Xi'an 710061, Shaanxi, China
| | - Yunfeng Zhang
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 277 West Yanta Road, Xi'an 710061, Shaanxi, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Sledzieski S, Singh R, Cowen L, Berger B. D-SCRIPT translates genome to phenome with sequence-based, structure-aware, genome-scale predictions of protein-protein interactions. Cell Syst 2021; 12:969-982.e6. [PMID: 34536380 PMCID: PMC8586911 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2021.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Revised: 08/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
We combine advances in neural language modeling and structurally motivated design to develop D-SCRIPT, an interpretable and generalizable deep-learning model, which predicts interaction between two proteins using only their sequence and maintains high accuracy with limited training data and across species. We show that a D-SCRIPT model trained on 38,345 human PPIs enables significantly improved functional characterization of fly proteins compared with the state-of-the-art approach. Evaluating the same D-SCRIPT model on protein complexes with known 3D structure, we find that the inter-protein contact map output by D-SCRIPT has significant overlap with the ground truth. We apply D-SCRIPT to screen for PPIs in cow (Bos taurus) at a genome-wide scale and focusing on rumen physiology, identify functional gene modules related to metabolism and immune response. The predicted interactions can then be leveraged for function prediction at scale, addressing the genome-to-phenome challenge, especially in species where little data are available.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Sledzieski
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Rohit Singh
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Lenore Cowen
- Department of Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
| | - Bonnie Berger
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Liu H, Zhang M, Shi M, Zhang T, Zhang Z, Cui Q, Yang S, Li Z. A Survival-Related Competitive Endogenous RNA Network of Prognostic lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in Wilms Tumor. Front Oncol 2021; 11:608433. [PMID: 33718161 PMCID: PMC7953909 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2021.608433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Wilms tumor (WT) commonly occurs in infants and children. We evaluated clinical factors and the expression of multiple RNAs in WT samples in the TARGET database. Eight long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs; AC079310.1, MYCNOS, LINC00271, AL445228.3, Z84485.1, AC091180.5, AP002518.2, and AC007879.3), two microRNAs (miRNAs; hsa-mir-152 andhsa-mir-181a), and nine messenger RNAs (mRNAs; TCTEX1D4, RNF133, VRK1, CCNE1, HEY1, C10orf71, SPRY1, SPAG11A, and MAGEB18) were screened from differentially expressed RNAs and used to construct predictive survival models. These models showed good prognostic ability and were highly correlated with tumor stage and histological classification. Additionally, survival-related ceRNA network was constructed using 35 RNAs (15 lncRNAs, eight miRNAs, and 12 mRNAs). KEGG pathway analysis suggested the "Wnt signaling pathway" and "Cellular senescence" as the main pathways. In conclusion, we established a multinomial predictive survival model and a survival-related ceRNA network, which provide new potential biomarkers that may improve the prognosis and treatment of WT patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- HengChen Liu
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - MingZhao Zhang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - ManYu Shi
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - TingTing Zhang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - ZeNan Zhang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - QingBo Cui
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - ShuLong Yang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| | - ZhaoZhu Li
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
The Vaccinia Virus B12 Pseudokinase Represses Viral Replication via Interaction with the Cellular Kinase VRK1 and Activation of the Antiviral Effector BAF. J Virol 2021; 95:JVI.02114-20. [PMID: 33177193 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.02114-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The poxviral B1 and B12 proteins are a homologous kinase-pseudokinase pair, which modulates a shared host pathway governing viral DNA replication and antiviral defense. While the molecular mechanisms involved are incompletely understood, B1 and B12 seem to intersect with signaling processes mediated by their cellular homologs termed the vaccinia-related kinases (VRKs). In this study, we expand upon our previous characterization of the B1-B12 signaling axis to gain insights into B12 function. We begin our studies by demonstrating that modulation of B12 repressive activity is a conserved function of B1 orthologs from divergent poxviruses. Next, we characterize the protein interactome of B12 using multiple cell lines and expression systems and discover that the cellular kinase VRK1 is a highly enriched B12 interactor. Using complementary VRK1 knockdown and overexpression assays, we first demonstrate that VRK1 is required for the rescue of a B1-deleted virus upon mutation of B12. Second, we find that VRK1 overexpression is sufficient to overcome repressive B12 activity during B1-deleted virus replication. Interestingly, we also evince that B12 interferes with the ability of VRK1 to phosphoinactivate the host defense protein BAF. Thus, B12 restricts vaccinia virus DNA accumulation in part by repressing the ability of VRK1 to inactivate BAF. Finally, these data establish that a B12-VRK1-BAF signaling axis forms during vaccinia virus infection and is modulated via kinases B1 and/or VRK2. These studies provide novel insights into the complex mechanisms that poxviruses use to hijack homologous cellular signaling pathways during infection.IMPORTANCE Viruses from diverse families encode both positive and negative regulators of viral replication. While their functions can sometimes be enigmatic, investigation of virus-encoded, negative regulators of viral replication has revealed fascinating aspects of virology. Studies of poxvirus-encoded genes have largely concentrated on positive regulators of their replication; however, examples of fitness gains attributed to poxvirus gene loss suggests that negative regulators of poxvirus replication also impact infection dynamics. This study focuses on the vaccinia B12 pseudokinase, a protein capable of inhibiting vaccinia DNA replication. Here, we elucidate the mechanisms by which B12 inhibits vaccinia DNA replication, demonstrating that B12 activates the antiviral protein BAF by inhibiting the activity of VRK1, a cellular modulator of BAF. Combined with previous data, these studies provide evidence that poxviruses govern their replication by employing both positive and negative regulators of viral replication.
Collapse
|