1
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Chen L, Alexe G, Dharia NV, Ross L, Iniguez AB, Conway AS, Wang EJ, Veschi V, Lam N, Qi J, Gustafson WC, Nasholm N, Vazquez F, Weir BA, Cowley GS, Ali LD, Pantel S, Jiang G, Harrington WF, Lee Y, Goodale A, Lubonja R, Krill-Burger JM, Meyers RM, Tsherniak A, Root DE, Bradner JE, Golub TR, Roberts CW, Hahn WC, Weiss WA, Thiele CJ, Stegmaier K. CRISPR-Cas9 screen reveals a MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma dependency on EZH2. J Clin Invest 2017; 128:446-462. [PMID: 29202477 DOI: 10.1172/jci90793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2016] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Pharmacologically difficult targets, such as MYC transcription factors, represent a major challenge in cancer therapy. For the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, amplification of the oncogene MYCN is associated with high-risk disease and poor prognosis. Here, we deployed genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 screening of MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma and found a preferential dependency on genes encoding the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) components EZH2, EED, and SUZ12. Genetic and pharmacological suppression of EZH2 inhibited neuroblastoma growth in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, compared with neuroblastomas without MYCN amplification, MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas expressed higher levels of EZH2. ChIP analysis showed that MYCN binds at the EZH2 promoter, thereby directly driving expression. Transcriptomic and epigenetic analysis, as well as genetic rescue experiments, revealed that EZH2 represses neuronal differentiation in neuroblastoma in a PRC2-dependent manner. Moreover, MYCN-amplified and high-risk primary tumors from patients with neuroblastoma exhibited strong repression of EZH2-regulated genes. Additionally, overexpression of IGFBP3, a direct EZH2 target, suppressed neuroblastoma growth in vitro and in vivo. We further observed strong synergy between histone deacetylase inhibitors and EZH2 inhibitors. Together, these observations demonstrate that MYCN upregulates EZH2, leading to inactivation of a tumor suppressor program in neuroblastoma, and support testing EZH2 inhibitors in patients with MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liying Chen
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Gabriela Alexe
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Bioinformatics Graduate Program, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Neekesh V Dharia
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Linda Ross
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amanda Balboni Iniguez
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Saur Conway
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Emily Jue Wang
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Veronica Veschi
- Cell and Molecular Biology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Norris Lam
- Cell and Molecular Biology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Jun Qi
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - W Clay Gustafson
- Department of Pediatrics, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Nicole Nasholm
- Department of Pediatrics, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA
| | | | | | | | - Levi D Ali
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | | | | | - Yenarae Lee
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Goodale
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - James E Bradner
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Todd R Golub
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Charles Wm Roberts
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Comprehensive Cancer Center and Department of Oncology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
| | - William C Hahn
- Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - William A Weiss
- Department of Pediatrics, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA.,Department of Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Brain Tumor Research Center, UCSF, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Carol J Thiele
- Cell and Molecular Biology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
| | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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2
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Meyers RM, Bryan JG, McFarland JM, Weir BA, Sizemore AE, Xu H, Dharia NV, Montgomery PG, Cowley GS, Pantel S, Goodale A, Lee Y, Ali LD, Jiang G, Lubonja R, Harrington WF, Strickland M, Wu T, Hawes DC, Zhivich VA, Wyatt MR, Kalani Z, Chang JJ, Okamoto M, Stegmaier K, Golub TR, Boehm JS, Vazquez F, Root DE, Hahn WC, Tsherniak A. Computational correction of copy number effect improves specificity of CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens in cancer cells. Nat Genet 2017. [PMID: 29083409 DOI: 10.1038/ng.3984.] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized gene editing both at single genes and in multiplexed loss-of-function screens, thus enabling precise genome-scale identification of genes essential for proliferation and survival of cancer cells. However, previous studies have reported that a gene-independent antiproliferative effect of Cas9-mediated DNA cleavage confounds such measurement of genetic dependency, thereby leading to false-positive results in copy number-amplified regions. We developed CERES, a computational method to estimate gene-dependency levels from CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens while accounting for the copy number-specific effect. In our efforts to define a cancer dependency map, we performed genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens across 342 cancer cell lines and applied CERES to this data set. We found that CERES decreased false-positive results and estimated sgRNA activity for both this data set and previously published screens performed with different sgRNA libraries. We further demonstrate the utility of this collection of screens, after CERES correction, for identifying cancer-type-specific vulnerabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin M Meyers
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jordan G Bryan
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Barbara A Weir
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ann E Sizemore
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Han Xu
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Neekesh V Dharia
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Glenn S Cowley
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sasha Pantel
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Goodale
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yenarae Lee
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Levi D Ali
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Guozhi Jiang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Rakela Lubonja
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | | | - Ting Wu
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Derek C Hawes
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Victor A Zhivich
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Meghan R Wyatt
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Zohra Kalani
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jaime J Chang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Michael Okamoto
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Todd R Golub
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
| | - Jesse S Boehm
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Francisca Vazquez
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - David E Root
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - William C Hahn
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Aviad Tsherniak
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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3
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Meyers RM, Bryan JG, McFarland JM, Weir BA, Sizemore AE, Xu H, Dharia NV, Montgomery PG, Cowley GS, Pantel S, Goodale A, Lee Y, Ali LD, Jiang G, Lubonja R, Harrington WF, Strickland M, Wu T, Hawes DC, Zhivich VA, Wyatt MR, Kalani Z, Chang JJ, Okamoto M, Stegmaier K, Golub TR, Boehm JS, Vazquez F, Root DE, Hahn WC, Tsherniak A. Computational correction of copy number effect improves specificity of CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens in cancer cells. Nat Genet 2017; 49:1779-1784. [PMID: 29083409 PMCID: PMC5709193 DOI: 10.1038/ng.3984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1085] [Impact Index Per Article: 155.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2017] [Accepted: 10/04/2017] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionized gene editing both on single genes and in multiplexed loss-of-function screens, enabling precise genome-scale identification of genes essential to proliferation and survival of cancer cells1,2. However, previous studies reported that a gene-independent anti-proliferative effect of Cas9-mediated DNA cleavage confounds such measurement of genetic dependency, leading to false positive results in copy number amplified regions3,4. We developed CERES, a computational method to estimate gene dependency levels from CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens while accounting for the copy-number-specific effect. As part of our efforts to define a cancer dependency map, we performed genome-scale CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality screens across 342 cancer cell lines and applied CERES to this dataset. We found that CERES reduced false positive results and estimated sgRNA activity for both this dataset and previously published screens performed with different sgRNA libraries. Here, we demonstrate the utility of this collection of screens, upon CERES correction, in revealing cancer-type-specific vulnerabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin M Meyers
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jordan G Bryan
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Barbara A Weir
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ann E Sizemore
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Han Xu
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Neekesh V Dharia
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Glenn S Cowley
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sasha Pantel
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Goodale
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yenarae Lee
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Levi D Ali
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Guozhi Jiang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Rakela Lubonja
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | | | - Ting Wu
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Derek C Hawes
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Victor A Zhivich
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Meghan R Wyatt
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Zohra Kalani
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jaime J Chang
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Michael Okamoto
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Todd R Golub
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA
| | - Jesse S Boehm
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Francisca Vazquez
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - David E Root
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - William C Hahn
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Aviad Tsherniak
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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4
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Meyers RM, Aguirre AJ, Weir BA, Vazquez F, Zhang CZ, Ben-David U, Cook A, Ha G, Harrington WF, Doshi M, Gill S, Xu H, Ali LD, Jiang G, Pantel S, Lee Y, Goodale A, Cherniack AD, Oh C, Kryukov G, Cowley GS, Garraway LA, Stegmaier K, Roberts CW, Golub TR, Meyerson M, Root DE, Tsherniak A, Hahn WC. Abstract B39: Genomic copy number alterations introduce a gene-independent viability bias in CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out screens of cancer cell lines. Clin Cancer Res 2017. [DOI: 10.1158/1557-3265.pmccavuln16-b39] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Recent studies have demonstrated the power of CRISPR-Cas9 screening methods for identifying genetic vulnerabilities in cancer cells. As part of a larger effort to generate a comprehensive catalog of vulnerabilities, we performed CRISPR-Cas9 genome-scale loss-of-function screens in 33 cancer cell lines to identify genes essential for proliferation and survival. We found a strong correlation between gene copy number and cell viability after Cas9-targeting. Copy number alterations are extremely prevalent in human cancers and frequently lead to overexpression of driver oncogenes and potential vulnerabilities. Therefore, we sought to identify such genes by investigating the relationship of genomic copy number with essentiality from our screening data.
As expected, known oncogenes scored as essential in cell lines harboring amplifications of these genes. However, the scores of all other genes in these amplified regions were also strongly enriched for apparent essentiality, even among unexpressed genes. Furthermore, the infection of cells with sgRNAs targeting Cas9 to non-coding intergenic sequences within regions of high copy number gain also induced this negative effect on cell viability. We observed this effect across multiple different chromosomal structural alterations, including tandem duplications, breakage-fusion-bridge structures, and arm-level gains. More broadly, we found a striking global correlation between cell viability in response to Cas9-targeting and the genomic copy number of the targeted site, even among low-level copy number gain and loss. For example, Cas9-targeting of genes with two copies resulted in, on average, decreased viability relative to Cas9-targeting of genes with only one copy. By examining sgRNAs that target multiple genomic sites, but not within any amplified loci, we found that this cell response to Cas9-targeting correlated strongly with the total number of target sites.
Together, these observations indicate that genome targeting by CRISPR-Cas9 elicits a gene-independent anti-proliferative cell response with a severity proportional to the total number of discrete genomic loci targeted. This effect has important practical implications for interpretation of CRISPR-Cas9 screening data and confounds the use of this technology for identification of essential genes in amplified regions. This result illustrates the sensitivity of cancer cells to site-specific DNA damage, which may provide a path to novel therapeutic strategies. Targeting non-essential genes or non-coding intergenic sequences within regions of copy number amplification may reveal cancer-specific vulnerabilities.
Citation Format: Robin M. Meyers, Andrew J. Aguirre, Barbara A. Weir, Francisca Vazquez, Cheng-Zhong Zhang, Uri Ben-David, April Cook, Gavin Ha, William F. Harrington, Mihir Doshi, Stanley Gill, Han Xu, Levi D. Ali, Guozhi Jiang, Sasha Pantel, Yenarae Lee, Amy Goodale, Andrew D. Cherniack, Coyin Oh, Gregory Kryukov, Glenn S. Cowley, Levi A. Garraway, Kimberly Stegmaier, Charles W. Roberts, Todd R. Golub, Matthew Meyerson, David E. Root, Aviad Tsherniak, William C. Hahn. Genomic copy number alterations introduce a gene-independent viability bias in CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out screens of cancer cell lines. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Targeting the Vulnerabilities of Cancer; May 16-19, 2016; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2017;23(1_Suppl):Abstract nr B39.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Gavin Ha
- 1Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA,
| | | | | | | | - Han Xu
- 1Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA,
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Coyin Oh
- 1Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA,
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5
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Aguirre AJ, Meyers RM, Weir BA, Vazquez F, Zhang CZ, Ben-David U, Cook A, Ha G, Harrington WF, Doshi MB, Kost-Alimova M, Gill S, Xu H, Ali LD, Jiang G, Pantel S, Lee Y, Goodale A, Cherniack AD, Oh C, Kryukov G, Cowley GS, Garraway LA, Stegmaier K, Roberts CW, Golub TR, Meyerson M, Root DE, Tsherniak A, Hahn WC. Genomic Copy Number Dictates a Gene-Independent Cell Response to CRISPR/Cas9 Targeting. Cancer Discov 2016; 6:914-29. [PMID: 27260156 PMCID: PMC4972686 DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-16-0154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 361] [Impact Index Per Article: 45.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2016] [Accepted: 05/31/2016] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED The CRISPR/Cas9 system enables genome editing and somatic cell genetic screens in mammalian cells. We performed genome-scale loss-of-function screens in 33 cancer cell lines to identify genes essential for proliferation/survival and found a strong correlation between increased gene copy number and decreased cell viability after genome editing. Within regions of copy-number gain, CRISPR/Cas9 targeting of both expressed and unexpressed genes, as well as intergenic loci, led to significantly decreased cell proliferation through induction of a G2 cell-cycle arrest. By examining single-guide RNAs that map to multiple genomic sites, we found that this cell response to CRISPR/Cas9 editing correlated strongly with the number of target loci. These observations indicate that genome targeting by CRISPR/Cas9 elicits a gene-independent antiproliferative cell response. This effect has important practical implications for the interpretation of CRISPR/Cas9 screening data and confounds the use of this technology for the identification of essential genes in amplified regions. SIGNIFICANCE We found that the number of CRISPR/Cas9-induced DNA breaks dictates a gene-independent antiproliferative response in cells. These observations have practical implications for using CRISPR/Cas9 to interrogate cancer gene function and illustrate that cancer cells are highly sensitive to site-specific DNA damage, which may provide a path to novel therapeutic strategies. Cancer Discov; 6(8); 914-29. ©2016 AACR.See related commentary by Sheel and Xue, p. 824See related article by Munoz et al., p. 900This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 803.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Aguirre
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Robin M Meyers
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Barbara A Weir
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Francisca Vazquez
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Cheng-Zhong Zhang
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Uri Ben-David
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - April Cook
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Gavin Ha
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | | | - Mihir B Doshi
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | | | - Stanley Gill
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Han Xu
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Levi D Ali
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Guozhi Jiang
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Sasha Pantel
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Yenarae Lee
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Amy Goodale
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | | | - Coyin Oh
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Gregory Kryukov
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Glenn S Cowley
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Levi A Garraway
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland
| | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Charles W Roberts
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
| | - Todd R Golub
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland
| | - Matthew Meyerson
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - David E Root
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Aviad Tsherniak
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
| | - William C Hahn
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.
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