GCNA Interacts with Spartan and Topoisomerase II to Regulate Genome Stability

GCNA proteins are expressed across eukarya in pluripotent cells and have conserved functions in fertility. GCNA homologs Spartan (DVC-1) and Wss1 resolve DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs), including Topoisomerase-DNA adducts, during DNA replication. Here, we show that GCNA mutants in mouse and C. elegans display defects in genome maintenance including DNA damage, aberrant chromosome condensation, and crossover defects in mouse spermatocytes and spontaneous genomic rearrangements in C. elegans. We show that GCNA and topoisomerase II (TOP2) physically interact in both mice and worms and colocalize on condensed chromosomes during mitosis in C. elegans embryos. Moreover, C. elegans gcna-1 mutants are hypersensitive to TOP2 poison. Together, our findings support a model in which GCNA provides genome maintenance functions in the germline and may do so, in part, by promoting the resolution of TOP2 DPCs.

BRD4-targeted therapy induces Myc-independent cytotoxicity in Gnaq/11-mutatant uveal melanoma cells

Uveal melanoma (UM) is an aggressive intraocular malignancy with limited therapeutic options. Both primary and metastatic UM are characterized by oncogenic mutations in the G-protein alpha subunit q and 11. Furthermore, nearly 40% of UM has amplification of the chromosomal arm 8q and monosomy of chromosome 3, with consequent anomalies of MYC copy number. Chromatin regulators have become attractive targets for cancer therapy. In particular, the bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) inhibitor JQ1 has shown selective inhibition of c-Myc expression with antiproliferative activity in hematopoietic and solid tumors. Here we provide evidence that JQ1 had cytotoxic activity in UM cell lines carrying Gnaq/11 mutations, while in cells without the mutations had little effects. Using microarray analysis, we identified a large subset of genes modulated by JQ1 involved in the regulation of cell cycle, apoptosis and DNA repair. Further analysis of selected genes determined that the concomitant silencing of Bcl-xL and Rad51 represented the minimal requirement to mimic the apoptotic effects of JQ1 in the mutant cells, independently of c-Myc. In addition, administration of JQ1 to mouse xenograft models of Gnaq-mutant UM resulted in significant inhibition of tumor growth.

Collectively, our results define BRD4 targeting as a novel therapeutic intervention against UM with Gnaq/Gna11 mutations.

Whole blood expression profiling from the TREAT trial: insights for the pathogenesis of polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Background

The Trial of Early Aggressive Therapy in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (TREAT trial) was accompanied by a once-in-a-generation sample collection for translational research. In this paper, we report the results of whole blood gene expression analyses and genomic data-mining designed to cast light on the immunopathogenesis of polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods

TREAT samples and samples from an independent cohort were analyzed on Affymetrix microarrays and compared to healthy controls. Data from the independent cohort were used to validate the TREAT data. Pathways analysis was used to characterize gene expression profiles. Furthermore, we correlated differential gene expression with new information about functional regulatory elements within the genome to develop models of aberrant gene expression in JIA.

Results

There was a strong concordance in gene expression between TREAT samples and the independent cohort. In addition, rheumatoid factor (RF)-positive and RF-negative patients showed only small differences on whole blood expression profiles. Analysis of the combined samples showed 158 genes represented by 176 probes that showed differential expression between TREAT subjects at baseline and healthy controls. None of the differentially expressed genes were encoded within linkage disequilibrium blocks containing single nucleotide polymorphisms known to be associated with risk for JIA. Functional analysis of these genes showed functional associations with multiple processes associated with innate and adaptive immunity, and appeared to reflect overall suppression of STAT1–3/interferon response factor-mediated pathways.

Conclusions

Despite their limitations, whole blood expression profiles clearly distinguish children with polyarticular JIA from healthy controls. Whole blood expression profiles identify several immunologic pathways of biologic relevance that will need to be pursued in homogeneous cell populations in order to clarify mechanisms of pathogenesis.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov registry #NCT00443430, originally registered 2 March 2007 and last updated 30 May 2013.

Identification of Master Regulator Genes in Human Periodontitis

Analytic approaches confined to fold-change comparisons of gene expression patterns between states of health and disease are unable to distinguish between primary causal disease drivers and secondary noncausal events. Genome-wide reverse engineering approaches can facilitate the identification of candidate genes that may distinguish between causal and associative interactions and may account for the emergence or maintenance of pathologic phenotypes. In this work, we used the algorithm for the reconstruction of accurate cellular networks (ARACNE) to analyze a large gene expression profile data set (313 gingival tissue samples from a cross-sectional study of 120 periodontitis patients) obtained from clinically healthy (n = 70) or periodontitis-affected (n = 243) gingival sites. The generated transcriptional regulatory network of the gingival interactome was subsequently interrogated with the master regulator inference algorithm (MARINA) and gene expression signature data from healthy and periodontitis-affected gingiva. Our analyses identified 41 consensus master regulator genes (MRs), the regulons of which comprised between 25 and 833 genes. Regulons of 7 MRs (HCLS1, ZNF823, XBP1, ZNF750, RORA, TFAP2C, and ZNF57) included >500 genes each. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated differential expression of these regulons in gingival health versus disease with a type 1 error between 2% and 0.5% and with >80% of the regulon genes in the leading edge. Ingenuity pathway analysis showed significant enrichment of 36 regulons for several pathways, while 6 regulons (those of MRs HCLS1, IKZF3, ETS1, NHLH2, POU2F2, and VAV1) were enriched for >10 pathways. Pathways related to immune system signaling and development were the ones most frequently enriched across all regulons. The unbiased analysis of genome-wide regulatory networks can enhance our understanding of the pathobiology of human periodontitis and, after appropriate validation, ultimately identify target molecules of diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic value.

Dynamic tracking of functional gene modules in treated juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Background

We have previously shown that childhood-onset rheumatic diseases show aberrant patterns of gene expression that reflect pathology-associated co-expression networks. In this study, we used novel computational approaches to examine how disease-associated networks are altered in one of the most common rheumatic diseases of childhood, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods

Using whole blood gene expression profiles derived from children in a pediatric rheumatology clinical trial, we used a network approach to understanding the impact of therapy and the underlying biology of response/non-response to therapy.

Results

We demonstrate that therapy for JIA is associated with extensive re-ordering of gene expression networks, even in children who respond inadequately to therapy. Furthermore, we observe distinct differences in the evolution of specific network properties when we compare children who have been treated successfully with those who have inadequate treatment response.

Conclusions

Despite the inherent noisiness of whole blood gene expression data, our findings demonstrate how therapeutic response might be mapped and understood in pathologically informative cells in a broad range of human inflammatory diseases.

Increased burden of de novo predicted deleterious variants in complex congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a serious birth defect that accounts for 8% of all major birth anomalies. Approximately 40% of cases occur in association with other anomalies. As sporadic complex CDH likely has a significant impact on reproductive fitness, we hypothesized that de novo variants would account for the etiology in a significant fraction of cases. We performed exome sequencing in 39 CDH trios and compared the frequency of de novo variants with 787 unaffected controls from the Simons Simplex Collection. We found no significant difference in overall frequency of de novo variants between cases and controls. However, among genes that are highly expressed during diaphragm development, there was a significant burden of likely gene disrupting (LGD) and predicted deleterious missense variants in cases (fold enrichment = 3.2, P-value = 0.003), and these genes are more likely to be haploinsufficient (P-value = 0.01) than the ones with benign missense or synonymous de novo variants in cases. After accounting for the frequency of de novo variants in the control population, we estimate that 15% of sporadic complex CDH patients are attributable to de novo LGD or deleterious missense variants. We identified several genes with predicted deleterious de novo variants that fall into common categories of genes related to transcription factors and cell migration that we believe are related to the pathogenesis of CDH. These data provide supportive evidence for novel genes in the pathogenesis of CDH associated with other anomalies and suggest that de novo variants play a significant role in complex CDH cases.

Whole blood gene expression profiling predicts therapeutic response at six months in patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Objective

To determine whether gene expression profiles identified in peripheral whole blood samples could be used to determine therapeutic outcome in a cohort of children with newly diagnosed polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

Methods

Whole blood samples from the Trial of Early Aggressive Therapy (TREAT) in JIA patients were analyzed on Illumina microarrays, and differential gene expression was compared to expression in healthy controls. Microarray results were validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in an independent cohort of samples. Pathway analysis software was used to characterize gene expression profiles. Support vector machines were used to develop predictive models for different patient classes.

Results

Differential gene expression profiles for rheumatoid factor (RF)–positive and RF-negative patients were remarkably similar. Pathway analysis revealed a broad range of affected pathways, consistent with current mechanistic theories. Modeling showed that the prognosis at 6 months was strongly linked to gene expression at presentation, irrespective of treatment.

Conclusion

Gene expression is linked to therapeutic outcome, and gene expression in the peripheral blood may be a suitable target for a prognostic test.