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Lucena MI, Villanueva-Paz M, Alvarez-Alvarez I, Aithal GP, Björnsson ES, Cakan-Akdogan G, Cubero FJ, Esteves F, Falcon-Perez JM, Fromenty B, Garcia-Ruiz C, Grove JI, Konu O, Kranendonk M, Kullak-Ublick GA, Miranda JP, Remesal-Doblado A, Sancho-Bru P, Nelson L, Andrade RJ, Daly AK, Fernandez-Checa JC. Roadmap to DILI research in Europe. A proposal from COST action ProEuroDILINet. Pharmacol Res 2024; 200:107046. [PMID: 38159783 DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2023.107046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
In the current article the aims for a constructive way forward in Drug-Induced Liver Injury (DILI) are to highlight the most important priorities in research and clinical science, therefore supporting a more informed, focused, and better funded future for European DILI research. This Roadmap aims to identify key challenges, define a shared vision across all stakeholders for the opportunities to overcome these challenges and propose a high-quality research program to achieve progress on the prediction, prevention, diagnosis and management of this condition and impact on healthcare practice in the field of DILI. This will involve 1. Creation of a database encompassing optimised case report form for prospectively identified DILI cases with well-characterised controls with competing diagnoses, biological samples, and imaging data; 2. Establishing of preclinical models to improve the assessment and prediction of hepatotoxicity in humans to guide future drug safety testing; 3. Emphasis on implementation science and 4. Enhanced collaboration between drug-developers, clinicians and regulatory scientists. This proposed operational framework will advance DILI research and may bring together basic, applied, translational and clinical research in DILI.
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Affiliation(s)
- M I Lucena
- Servicios de Aparato Digestivo y Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Plataforma de Investigación Clínica y Ensayos Clínicos UICEC-IBIMA, Plataforma ISCIII de Investigación Clínica, Madrid, Spain.
| | - M Villanueva-Paz
- Servicios de Aparato Digestivo y Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain
| | - I Alvarez-Alvarez
- Servicios de Aparato Digestivo y Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain
| | - G P Aithal
- Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, Translational Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom; NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - E S Björnsson
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland
| | - G Cakan-Akdogan
- Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey. Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - F J Cubero
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and ORL, Complutense University School of Medicine, Madrid, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), Madrid, Spain
| | - F Esteves
- Center for Toxicogenomics and Human Health (ToxOmics), NMS | FCM, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - J M Falcon-Perez
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Exosomes Laboratory, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia, 48160, Spain. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Bizkaia 48009, Spain
| | - B Fromenty
- INSERM, Univ Rennes, INRAE, Institut NUMECAN (Nutrition Metabolisms and Cancer) UMR_A 1341, UMR_S 1317, F-35000 Rennes, France
| | - C Garcia-Ruiz
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
| | - J I Grove
- Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, Translational Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom; NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - O Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey; UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - M Kranendonk
- Center for Toxicogenomics and Human Health (ToxOmics), NMS | FCM, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - G A Kullak-Ublick
- Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; CMO & Patient Safety, Global Drug Development, Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland
| | - J P Miranda
- Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - A Remesal-Doblado
- Servicios de Aparato Digestivo y Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
| | - P Sancho-Bru
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - L Nelson
- Institute for Bioengineering, School of Engineering, Faraday Building, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
| | - R J Andrade
- Servicios de Aparato Digestivo y Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain
| | - A K Daly
- Translational & Clinical Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - J C Fernandez-Checa
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Madrid, Spain; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
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Vural-Ozdeniz M, Calisir K, Acar R, Yavuz A, Ozgur MM, Dalgıc E, Konu O. CAP-RNAseq: an integrated pipeline for functional annotation and prioritization of co-expression clusters. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbad536. [PMID: 38279653 PMCID: PMC10818169 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2024] [Indexed: 01/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Cluster analysis is one of the most widely used exploratory methods for visualization and grouping of gene expression patterns across multiple samples or treatment groups. Although several existing online tools can annotate clusters with functional terms, there is no all-in-one webserver to effectively prioritize genes/clusters using gene essentiality as well as congruency of mRNA-protein expression. Hence, we developed CAP-RNAseq that makes possible (1) upload and clustering of bulk RNA-seq data followed by identification, annotation and network visualization of all or selected clusters; and (2) prioritization using DepMap gene essentiality and/or dependency scores as well as the degree of correlation between mRNA and protein levels of genes within an expression cluster. In addition, CAP-RNAseq has an integrated primer design tool for the prioritized genes. Herein, we showed using comparisons with the existing tools and multiple case studies that CAP-RNAseq can uniquely aid in the discovery of co-expression clusters enriched with essential genes and prioritization of novel biomarker genes that exhibit high correlations between their mRNA and protein expression levels. CAP-RNAseq is applicable to RNA-seq data from different contexts including cancer and available at http://konulabapps.bilkent.edu.tr:3838/CAPRNAseq/ and the docker image is downloadable from https://hub.docker.com/r/konulab/caprnaseq.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kubra Calisir
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
| | - Rana Acar
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
| | - Aysenur Yavuz
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
| | - Mustafa M Ozgur
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
| | - Ertugrul Dalgıc
- Department of Medical Biology, School of Medicine, Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Türkiye
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye
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Karoglu-Eravsar ET, Tuz-Sasik MU, Karaduman A, Keskus AG, Arslan-Ergul A, Konu O, Kafaligonul H, Adams MM. Long-Term Acetylcholinesterase Depletion Alters the Levels of Key Synaptic Proteins while Maintaining Neuronal Markers in the Aging Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Brain. Gerontology 2023; 69:1424-1436. [PMID: 37793352 DOI: 10.1159/000534343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [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: 01/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Interventions targeting cholinergic neurotransmission like acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition distinguish potential mechanisms to delay age-related impairments and attenuate deficits related to neurodegenerative diseases. However, the chronic effects of these interventions are not well described. METHODS In the current study, global levels of cholinergic, cellular, synaptic, and inflammation-mediating proteins were assessed within the context of aging and chronic reduction of AChE activity. Long-term depletion of AChE activity was induced by using a mutant zebrafish line, and they were compared with the wildtype group at young and old ages. RESULTS Results demonstrated that AChE activity was lower in both young and old mutants, and this decrease coincided with a reduction in ACh content. Additionally, an overall age-related reduction in AChE activity and the AChE/ACh ratio was observed, and this decline was more prominent in wildtype groups. The levels of an immature neuronal marker were upregulated in mutants, while a glial marker showed an overall reduction. Mutants had preserved levels of inhibitory and presynaptic elements with aging, whereas glutamate receptor subunit levels declined. CONCLUSION Long-term AChE activity depletion induces synaptic and cellular alterations. These data provide further insights into molecular targets and adaptive responses following the long-term reduction of AChE activity that was also targeted pharmacologically to treat neurodegenerative diseases in human subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elif Tugce Karoglu-Eravsar
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Psychology, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey
| | - Melek Umay Tuz-Sasik
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Aysenur Karaduman
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayca Arslan-Ergul
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hulusi Kafaligonul
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Michelle M Adams
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Nanotechnology Research Center and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- National Magnetic Resonance Research Center (UMRAM), Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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4
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Rosa DA, Serrano‐Morillas N, González‐Alayón C, Shehwana H, Konu O, Hernández‐Guerra M. Transcriptional response of aldosterone target genes in the rat and human distal colon during hepatic cirrhosis. FASEB J 2022. [DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.2022.36.s1.r3360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Diego Alvarez Rosa
- Basic Medical SciencesUniversidad de La LagunaLa Laguna
- Institute of Biomedical TechnologiesUniversidad de La LagunaLa Laguna
| | | | | | - Huma Shehwana
- Department of Molecular Biology and GeneticsBilkent UniversityAnkara
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and GeneticsBilkent UniversityAnkara
| | - Manuel Hernández‐Guerra
- Servicio de Aparato DigestivoHospital Universitario de CanariasLa Laguna
- Internal MedicineUniversidad de La LagunaLa Laguna
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Tombaz M, Yanyatan C, Keskus AG, Konu O. Extraction and Prioritization of a Gene-Cancer-By-Survival Network Involved in Homeostasis of Intracellular Calcium Concentrations Using TCGA PANCAN Data. Bioelectricity 2022. [DOI: 10.1089/bioe.2022.0013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Melike Tombaz
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Cagdas Yanyatan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | | | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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Targen S, Konu O. Zebrafish Xenotransplantation Models for Studying Gene Function and Drug Treatment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma. J Gastrointest Cancer 2021; 52:1248-1265. [PMID: 35031971 DOI: 10.1007/s12029-021-00782-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/13/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Zebrafish is a promising model organism for human disease including hepatocellular cancer (HCC). Recently, zebrafish has emerged also as a host for xenograft studies of liver cancer cell lines and patient derived tumors of HCC. Zebrafish embryos enable drug screening and gene function studies of xenografted cells via ease of microinjection and visualization of tumor growth and metastasis. OBJECTIVES In this review, we aimed to overview zebrafish HCC and liver cancer xenotransplantation studies focusing on 'gene functional analysis' and 'drug/chemical screening'. METHODS Herein, a comprehensive literature search was performed for liver and HCC xenografts in zebrafish on PubMed using different key words and filters for molecular modifications or drug exposure. RESULTS Our literature search revealed around 250 studies which were filtered and summarized in a table (Table 1) revealing comprehensive collection of experimental and technical details on microinjection, injected cell lines, molecular modifications of injected cells, types and doses of drug treatments as well as biological assessments. CONCLUSION This review provides a platform for HCC and liver xenografts and highlights studies performed to understand gene functionality and drug efficacy in vivo in zebrafish.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seniye Targen
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
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Cagnan I, Keles M, Keskus AG, Tombaz M, Sahan OB, Aerts-Kaya F, Uckan-Cetinkaya D, Konu O, Gunel-Ozcan A. Global miRNA expression of bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells derived from Fanconi anemia patients. Hum Cell 2021; 35:111-124. [PMID: 34792755 DOI: 10.1007/s13577-021-00626-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [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: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by genomic instability, developmental defects, and bone marrow (BM) failure. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in BM interact with the mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs); and this partly sustains the tissue homeostasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can play a critical role during these interactions possibly via paracrine mechanisms. This is the first study addressing the miRNA profile of FA BM-MSCs obtained before and after BM transplantation (preBMT and postBMT, respectively). Non-coding RNA expression profiling and quality control analyses were performed in Donors (n = 13), FA preBMT (n = 11), and FA postBMT (n = 6) BM-MSCs using GeneChip miRNA 2.0 Array. Six Donor-FA preBMT pairs were used to identify a differentially expressed miRNA expression signature containing 50 miRNAs, which exhibited a strong correlation with the signature obtained from unpaired samples. Five miRNAs (hsa-miR-146a-5p, hsa-miR-148b-3p, hsa-miR-187-3p, hsa-miR-196b-5p, and hsa-miR-25-3p) significantly downregulated in both the paired and unpaired analyses were used to generate the BM-MSCs' miRNA-BM mononuclear mRNA networks upon integration of a public dataset (GSE16334; studying Donor versus FA samples). Functionally enriched KEGG pathways included cellular senescence, miRNAs, and pathways in cancer. Here, we showed that hsa-miR-146a-5p and hsa-miR-874-3p were rescued upon BMT (n = 3 triplets). The decrease in miR-146a-5p was also validated using RT-qPCR and emerged as a strong candidate as a modulator of BM mRNAs in FA patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilgin Cagnan
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Eastern Mediterranean University, 99628, Famagusta, North Cyprus, via Mersin-10, Turkey
| | - Mustafa Keles
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, PEDI-STEM, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Melike Tombaz
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozge Burcu Sahan
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, PEDI-STEM, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Fatima Aerts-Kaya
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, PEDI-STEM, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Duygu Uckan-Cetinkaya
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, PEDI-STEM, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Pediatrics, Division of Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. .,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
| | - Aysen Gunel-Ozcan
- Department of Stem Cell Sciences, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey. .,Center for Stem Cell Research and Development, PEDI-STEM, Hacettepe University, 06100, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey.
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Ozhan A, Tombaz M, Konu O. Discovery of Cancer-Specific and Independent Prognostic Gene Subsets of the Slit-Robo Family Using TCGA-PANCAN Datasets. OMICS 2021; 25:782-795. [PMID: 34757814 DOI: 10.1089/omi.2021.0097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
The Slit-Robo family of axon guidance molecules works in concert, playing important roles in organ development and cancer. Expressions of individual Slit-Robo genes have been used in calculating univariable hazard ratios (HRuni) for predicting cancer prognosis in the literature. However, Slit-Robo members do not act independently; hence, hazard ratios from multivariable Cox regression (HRmulti) on the whole gene set can further lead to identification of cancer-specific, novel, and independent prognostic gene pairs or modules. Herein, we obtained mRNA expressions of the Slit-Robo family consisting of four Robos (ROBO1/2/3/4) and three Slits (SLIT1/2/3), along with four types of survival outcome across cancers found in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We used cluster heat maps to visualize closely associated pairs/modules of prognostic genes across 33 different cancers. We found a smaller number of significant genes in HRmulti than in HRuni, suggesting that the former analysis was less redundant. High ROBO4 expression emerged as relatively protective within the family, in both types of HR analyses. Multivariable Cox regression, on the other hand, revealed significantly more HR signatures containing Slit-Robo pairs acting in opposing directions than those containing Slit-Slit or Robo-Robo pairs for disease-specific survival. Furthermore, we discovered, through the online app SmulTCan's lasso regression, Slit-Robo gene subsets that significantly differentiated between high- versus low-risk prognosis patient groups, particularly for renal cancers and low-grade glioma. The statistical pipeline reported herein can help test independent and significant pairs/modules within a codependent gene family for cancer prognostication, and thus should also prove useful in personalized/precision medicine research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayse Ozhan
- UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center, Institute of Material Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Melike Tombaz
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- UNAM-National Nanotechnology Research Center, Institute of Material Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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9
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Keskus AG, Tombaz M, Arici BI, Dincaslan FB, Nabi A, Shehwana H, Konu O. Functional analysis of co-expression networks of zebrafish ace2 reveals enrichment of pathways associated with development and disease. Genome 2021; 65:57-74. [PMID: 34606733 DOI: 10.1139/gen-2021-0033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Human Angiotensin I Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays an essential role in blood pressure regulation and SARS-CoV-2 entry. ACE2 has a highly conserved, one-to-one ortholog (ace2) in zebrafish, which is an important model for human diseases. However, the zebrafish ace2 expression profile has not yet been studied during early development, between genders, across different genotypes, or in disease. Moreover, a network-based meta-analysis for the extraction of functionally enriched pathways associated with differential ace2 expression is lacking in the literature. Herein, we first identified significant development-, tissue-, genotype-, and gender-specific modulations in ace2 expression via meta-analysis of zebrafish Affymetrix transcriptomics datasets (ndatasets = 107); and the correlation analysis of ace2 meta-differential expression profile revealed distinct positively and negatively correlated local functionally enriched gene networks. Moreover, we demonstrated that ace2 expression was significantly modulated under different physiological and pathological conditions related to development, tissue, gender, diet, infection, and inflammation using additional RNA-seq datasets. Our findings implicate a novel translational role for zebrafish ace2 in organ differentiation and pathologies observed in the intestines and liver.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Melike Tombaz
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Burcin Irem Arici
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | | | - Afshan Nabi
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Huma Shehwana
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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10
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Fernandez-Checa JC, Bagnaninchi P, Ye H, Sancho-Bru P, Falcon-Perez JM, Royo F, Garcia-Ruiz C, Konu O, Miranda J, Lunov O, Dejneka A, Elfick A, McDonald A, Sullivan GJ, Aithal GP, Lucena MI, Andrade RJ, Fromenty B, Kranendonk M, Cubero FJ, Nelson LJ. Advanced preclinical models for evaluation of drug-induced liver injury - consensus statement by the European Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network [PRO-EURO-DILI-NET]. J Hepatol 2021; 75:935-959. [PMID: 34171436 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhep.2021.06.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 06/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major cause of acute liver failure (ALF) and one of the leading indications for liver transplantation in Western societies. Given the wide use of both prescribed and over the counter drugs, DILI has become a major health issue for which there is a pressing need to find novel and effective therapies. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying DILI, our incomplete knowledge of its pathogenesis and inability to predict DILI is largely due to both discordance between human and animal DILI in preclinical drug development and a lack of models that faithfully recapitulate complex pathophysiological features of human DILI. This is exemplified by the hepatotoxicity of acetaminophen (APAP) overdose, a major cause of ALF because of its extensive worldwide use as an analgesic. Despite intensive efforts utilising current animal and in vitro models, the mechanisms involved in the hepatotoxicity of APAP are still not fully understood. In this expert Consensus Statement, which is endorsed by the European Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network, we aim to facilitate and outline clinically impactful discoveries by detailing the requirements for more realistic human-based systems to assess hepatotoxicity and guide future drug safety testing. We present novel insights and discuss major players in APAP pathophysiology, and describe emerging in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical models, as well as advanced imaging and in silico technologies, which may improve prediction of clinical outcomes of DILI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jose C Fernandez-Checa
- Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB), Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain; Liver Unit, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; USC Research Center for ALPD, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, United States, CA 90033.
| | - Pierre Bagnaninchi
- Center for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Regenerative and Repair, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, EH16 4UU; School of Engineering, Institute for Bioengineering, The University of Edinburgh, Faraday Building, Colin Maclaurin Road, EH9 3 DW, Scotland, UK
| | - Hui Ye
- Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology & ENT, Complutense University School of Medicine, 28040 Madrid, Spain; Health Research Institute Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), 28007 Madrid, Spain
| | - Pau Sancho-Bru
- Instituto Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain
| | - Juan M Falcon-Perez
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; Exosomes Laboratory, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia, 48160, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Bizkaia, 48015, Spain
| | - Felix Royo
- Exosomes Laboratory, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Bizkaia, 48160, Spain
| | - Carmen Garcia-Ruiz
- Cell Death and Proliferation, Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB), Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain; Liver Unit, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; USC Research Center for ALPD, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, United States, CA 90033
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey; UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Joana Miranda
- Research Institute for iMedicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-003 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Oleg Lunov
- Department of Optical and Biophysical Systems, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Alexandr Dejneka
- Department of Optical and Biophysical Systems, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Alistair Elfick
- Institute for Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 3DW, UK
| | - Alison McDonald
- Institute for Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 3DW, UK
| | - Gareth J Sullivan
- University of Oslo and the Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Hybrid Technology Hub-Center of Excellence, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Pediatric Research, Oslo University Hosptial, Oslo, Norway
| | - Guruprasad P Aithal
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust and University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
| | - M Isabel Lucena
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; Servicio de Farmacología Clínica, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga-IBIMA, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, UICEC SCReN, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
| | - Raul J Andrade
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Enfermedades Digestivas, Instituto de Investigación, Biomédica de Málaga-IBIMA, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Universidad de Málaga, Malaga, Spain
| | - Bernard Fromenty
- INSERM, Univ Rennes, INRAE, Institut NUMECAN (Nutrition Metabolisms and Cancer) UMR_A 1341, UMR_S 1241, F-35000 Rennes, France
| | - Michel Kranendonk
- Center for Toxicogenomics and Human Health (ToxOmics), Genetics, Oncology and Human Toxicology, NOVA Medical School, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Francisco Javier Cubero
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, 28029, Spain; Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology & ENT, Complutense University School of Medicine, 28040 Madrid, Spain; Health Research Institute Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM), 28007 Madrid, Spain
| | - Leonard J Nelson
- Center for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Regenerative and Repair, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, EH16 4UU; School of Engineering, Institute for Bioengineering, The University of Edinburgh, Faraday Building, Colin Maclaurin Road, EH9 3 DW, Scotland, UK; Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering (IB3), School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS), Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH12 2AS, Scotland, UK.
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11
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Sierra-Ramos C, Velazquez-Garcia S, Keskus AG, Vastola-Mascolo A, Rodríguez-Rodríguez AE, Luis-Lima S, Hernández G, Navarro-González JF, Porrini E, Konu O, Alvarez de la Rosa D. Increased SGK1 activity potentiates mineralocorticoid/NaCl-induced kidney injury. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 2021; 320:F628-F643. [PMID: 33586495 DOI: 10.1152/ajprenal.00505.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) stimulates aldosterone-dependent renal Na+ reabsorption and modulates blood pressure. In addition, genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of SGK1 limits the development of kidney inflammation and fibrosis in response to excess mineralocorticoid signaling. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that a systemic increase in SGK1 activity would potentiate mineralocorticoid/salt-induced hypertension and kidney injury. To that end, we used a transgenic mouse model with increased SGK1 activity. Mineralocorticoid/salt-induced hypertension and kidney damage was induced by unilateral nephrectomy and treatment with deoxycorticosterone acetate and NaCl in the drinking water for 6 wk. Our results show that although SGK1 activation did not induce significantly higher blood pressure, it produced a mild increase in glomerular filtration rate, increased albuminuria, and exacerbated glomerular hypertrophy and fibrosis. Transcriptomic analysis showed that extracellular matrix- and immune response-related terms were enriched in the downregulated and upregulated genes, respectively, in transgenic mice. In conclusion, we propose that systemically increased SGK1 activity is a risk factor for the development of mineralocorticoid-dependent kidney injury in the context of low renal mass and independently of blood pressure.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Increased activity of the protein kinase serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 may be a risk factor for accelerated renal damage. Serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 expression could be a marker for the rapid progression toward chronic kidney disease and a potential therapeutic target to slow down the process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catalina Sierra-Ramos
- Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Silvia Velazquez-Garcia
- Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Ayse G Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Arianna Vastola-Mascolo
- Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | | | - Sergio Luis-Lima
- Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento de Medicina Interna, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Guadalberto Hernández
- Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Juan F Navarro-González
- Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Unidad de Investigación y Servicio de Nefrología, Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
| | - Esteban Porrini
- Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Departamento de Medicina Interna, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Diego Alvarez de la Rosa
- Departamento de Ciencias Médicas Básicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.,Instituto de Tecnologías Biomédicas, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
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12
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Karadayi FZ, Yaman M, Kisla MM, Konu O, Ates-Alagoz Z. Design, synthesis, anticancer activity, molecular docking and ADME studies of novel methylsulfonyl indole-benzimidazoles in comparison with ethylsulfonyl counterparts. NEW J CHEM 2021. [DOI: 10.1039/d1nj01019k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Specific sidechain modifications on the indole-benzimidazole scaffold play fundamental roles for determining molecule's affinity against ERα and its anti-cancer activity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Murat Yaman
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
- Bilkent University
- Ankara
- Turkey
| | - Mehmet Murat Kisla
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
- Faculty of Pharmacy
- Ankara University
- Ankara
- Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
- Bilkent University
- Ankara
- Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
| | - Zeynep Ates-Alagoz
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
- Faculty of Pharmacy
- Ankara University
- Ankara
- Turkey
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13
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Abstract
Rapidly accumulating literature has proven feasibility of the zebrafish xenograft models in cancer research. Nevertheless, online databases for searching the current zebrafish xenograft literature are in great demand. Herein, we have developed a manually curated database, called ZenoFishDb v1.1 (https://konulab.shinyapps.io/zenofishdb), based on R Shiny platform aiming to provide searchable information on ever increasing collection of zebrafish studies for cancer cell line transplantation and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). ZenoFishDb v1.1 user interface contains four modules: DataTable, Visualization, PDX Details, and PDX Charts. The DataTable and Visualization pages represent xenograft study details, including injected cell lines, PDX injections, molecular modifications of cell lines, zebrafish strains, as well as technical aspects of the xenotransplantation procedures in table, bar, and/or pie chart formats. The PDX Details module provides comprehensive information on the patient details in table format and can be searched and visualized. Overall, ZenoFishDb v1.1 enables researchers to effectively search, list, and visualize different technical and biological attributes of zebrafish xenotransplantation studies particularly focusing on the new trends that make use of reporters, RNA interference, overexpression, or mutant gene constructs of transplanted cancer cells, stem cells, and PDXs, as well as distinguished host modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seniye Targen
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Tuğberk Kaya
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Institute of Neuronal Cell Biology, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - M Ender Avci
- Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Damla Gunes
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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14
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Karadayi FZ, Yaman M, Kisla MM, Keskus AG, Konu O, Ates-Alagoz Z. Design, synthesis and anticancer/antiestrogenic activities of novel indole-benzimidazoles. Bioorg Chem 2020; 100:103929. [PMID: 32464404 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2020.103929] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [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: 03/27/2020] [Revised: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 05/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Indole-benzimidazoles have recently gained attention due to their antiproliferative and antiestrogenic effects. However, their structural similarities and molecular mechanisms shared with selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) have not yet been investigated. In this study, we synthesized novel ethylsulfonyl indole-benzimidazole derivatives by substituting the first (R1) and fifth (R2) positions of benzimidazole and indole groups, respectively. Subsequently, we performed 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and Mass spectral and in silico docking analyses, and anticancer activity screening studies of these novel indole-benzimidazoles. The antiproliferative effects of indole-benzimidazoles were found to be more similar between the estrogen (E2) responsive cell lines MCF-7 and HEPG2 in comparison to the Estrogen Receptor negative (ER-) cell line MDA-MB-231. R1:p-fluorobenzyl group members were selected as lead compounds for their potent anticancer effects and moderate structural affinity to ER. Microarray expression profiling and gene enrichment analyses (GSEA) of the selected compounds (R1:p-fluorobenzyl: 48, 49, 50, 51; R1:3,4-difluorobenzyl: 53) helped determine the similarly modulated cellular signaling pathways among derivatives. Moreover, we identified known compounds that have significantly similar gene signatures to that of 51 via queries performed in LINCS database; and further transcriptomics comparisons were made using public GEO datasets (GSE35428, GSE7765, GSE62673). Our results strongly demonstrate that these novel indole-benzimidazoles can modulate ER target gene expression as well as dioxin-mediated aryl hydrocarbon receptor and amino acid deprivation-mediated integrated stress response signaling in a dose-dependent manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fikriye Zengin Karadayi
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, 06100 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Murat Yaman
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mehmet Murat Kisla
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, 06100 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayse G Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey; Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey; UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey.
| | - Zeynep Ates-Alagoz
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, 06100 Ankara, Turkey.
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15
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Shehwana H, Konu O. Comparative Transcriptomics Between Zebrafish and Mammals: A Roadmap for Discovery of Conserved and Unique Signaling Pathways in Physiology and Disease. Front Cell Dev Biol 2019; 7:5. [PMID: 30775367 PMCID: PMC6367222 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2018] [Accepted: 01/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Huma Shehwana
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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16
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Cingir Koker S, Jahja E, Shehwana H, Keskus AG, Konu O. Cholinergic Receptor Nicotinic Alpha 5 (CHRNA5) RNAi is associated with cell cycle inhibition, apoptosis, DNA damage response and drug sensitivity in breast cancer. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0208982. [PMID: 30543688 PMCID: PMC6292578 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2018] [Accepted: 11/28/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Cholinergic Receptor Nicotinic Alpha 5 (CHRNA5) is an important susceptibility locus for nicotine addiction and lung cancer. Depletion of CHRNA5 has been associated with reduced cell viability, increased apoptosis and alterations in cellular motility in different cancers yet not in breast cancer. Herein we first showed the expression of CHRNA5 was variable and positively correlated with the fraction of total genomic alterations in breast cancer cell lines and tumors indicating its potential role in DNA damage response (DDR). Next, we demonstrated that silencing of CHRNA5 expression in MCF7 breast cancer cell line by RNAi affected expression of genes involved in cytoskeleton, TP53 signaling, DNA synthesis and repair, cell cycle, and apoptosis. The transcription profile of CHRNA5 depleted MCF7 cells showed a significant positive correlation with that of A549 lung cancer cell line while exhibiting a negative association with the CHRNA5 co-expression profile obtained from Cancer Cell Line Encylopedia (CCLE). Moreover, it exhibited high similarities with published MCF7 expression profiles obtained from exposure to TP53 inducer nutlin-3a and topoisomerase inhibitors. We then demonstrated that CHRNA5 siRNA treatment reduced cell viability and DNA synthesis indicating G1 arrest while it significantly increased apoptotic sub-G1 cell population. Accordingly, we observed lower levels of phosphorylated RB (Ser807/811) and an increased BAX/BCL2 ratio in RNAi treated MCF7 cells. We also showed that CHRNA5 RNAi transcriptome correlated negatively with DDR relevant gene expression profile in breast cancer gene expression datasets while the coexposure to topoisomerase inhibitors in the presence of CHRNA5 RNAi enhanced chemosensitivity potentially due to reduced DDR. CHRNA5 RNAi consistently lowered total CHEK1 mRNA and protein levels as well as phosphorylated CHEK1 (Ser345) in MCF7 cells. We also detected a significant positive correlation between the expression levels of CHRNA5 and CHEK1 in CCLE, TCGA and METABRIC breast cancer datasets. Our study suggests CHRNA5 RNAi is associated with cell cycle inhibition, apoptosis as well as reduced DDR and increased drug sensitivity in breast cancer yet future studies are warranted since dose- and cell line-specific differences exist in response to CHRNA5 depletion. Gene expression microarray data can be accessed from GEO database under the accession number GSE89333.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahika Cingir Koker
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ermira Jahja
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Huma Shehwana
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
| | - Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Ankara, Turkey
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17
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Avci ME, Keskus AG, Targen S, Isilak ME, Ozturk M, Atalay RC, Adams MM, Konu O. Development of a novel zebrafish xenograft model in ache mutants using liver cancer cell lines. Sci Rep 2018; 8:1570. [PMID: 29371671 PMCID: PMC5785479 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-19817-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2016] [Accepted: 01/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme responsible for degradation of acetylcholine, has been identified as a prognostic marker in liver cancer. Although in vivo Ache tumorigenicity assays in mouse are present, no established liver cancer xenograft model in zebrafish using an ache mutant background exists. Herein, we developed an embryonic zebrafish xenograft model using epithelial (Hep3B) and mesenchymal (SKHep1) liver cancer cell lines in wild-type and ache sb55 sibling mutant larvae after characterization of cholinesterase expression and activity in cell lines and zebrafish larvae. The comparison of fluorescent signal reflecting tumor size at 3-days post-injection (dpi) revealed an enhanced tumorigenic potential and a reduced migration capacity in cancer cells injected into homozygous ache sb55 mutants when compared with the wild-type. Increased tumor load was confirmed using an ALU based tumor DNA quantification method modified for use in genotyped xenotransplanted zebrafish embryos. Confocal microscopy using the Huh7 cells stably expressing GFP helped identify the distribution of tumor cells in larvae. Our results imply that acetylcholine accumulation in the microenvironment directly or indirectly supports tumor growth in liver cancer. Use of this model system for drug screening studies holds potential in discovering new cholinergic targets for treatment of liver cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Ender Avci
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey.
- Izmir International Biomedicine and Genome Institute (iBG-izmir), Dokuz Eylul University, 35340, Izmir, Turkey.
| | - Ayse Gokce Keskus
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Seniye Targen
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
| | - M Efe Isilak
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mehmet Ozturk
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
- Izmir International Biomedicine and Genome Institute (iBG-izmir), Dokuz Eylul University, 35340, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Rengul Cetin Atalay
- Medical Informatics Department, Graduate School of Informatics, Middle East Technical University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Michelle M Adams
- Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey.
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey.
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey.
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18
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Karoglu ET, Halim DO, Erkaya B, Altaytas F, Arslan-Ergul A, Konu O, Adams MM. Aging alters the molecular dynamics of synapses in a sexually dimorphic pattern in zebrafish ( Danio rerio ). Neurobiol Aging 2017; 54:10-21. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2016] [Revised: 02/09/2017] [Accepted: 02/10/2017] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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19
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Demirkol S, Gomceli I, Isbilen M, Dayanc BE, Tez M, Bostanci EB, Turhan N, Akoglu M, Ozyerli E, Durdu S, Konu O, Nissan A, Gonen M, Gure AO. A Combined ULBP2 and SEMA5A Expression Signature as a Prognostic and Predictive Biomarker for Colon Cancer. J Cancer 2017; 8:1113-1122. [PMID: 28607584 PMCID: PMC5463424 DOI: 10.7150/jca.17872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2016] [Accepted: 03/05/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: Prognostic biomarkers for cancer have the power to change the course of disease if they add value beyond known prognostic factors, if they can help shape treatment protocols, and if they are reliable. The aim of this study was to identify such biomarkers for colon cancer and to understand the molecular mechanisms leading to prognostic stratifications based on these biomarkers. Methods and Findings: We used an in house R based script (SSAT) for the in silico discovery of stage-independent prognostic biomarkers using two cohorts, GSE17536 and GSE17537, that include 177 and 55 colon cancer patients, respectively. This identified 2 genes, ULBP2 and SEMA5A, which when used jointly, could distinguish patients with distinct prognosis. We validated our findings using a third cohort of 48 patients ex vivo. We find that in all cohorts, a combined ULBP2/SEMA5A classification (SU-GIB) can stratify distinct prognostic sub-groups with hazard ratios that range from 2.4 to 4.5 (p≤0.01) when overall- or cancer-specific survival is used as an end-measure, independent of confounding prognostic parameters. In addition, our preliminary analyses suggest SU-GIB is comparable to Oncotype DX colon(®) in predicting recurrence in two different cohorts (HR: 1.5-2; p≤0.02). SU-GIB has potential as a companion diagnostic for several drugs including the PI3K/mTOR inhibitor BEZ235, which are suitable for the treatment of patients within the bad prognosis group. We show that tumors from patients with worse prognosis have low EGFR autophosphorylation rates, but high caspase 7 activity, and show upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines that relate to a relatively mesenchymal phenotype. Conclusions: We describe two novel genes that can be used to prognosticate colon cancer and suggest approaches by which such tumors can be treated. We also describe molecular characteristics of tumors stratified by the SU-GIB signature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Secil Demirkol
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ismail Gomceli
- Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey
| | - Murat Isbilen
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
| | | | - Mesut Tez
- Fifth Department of Surgery, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Erdal Birol Bostanci
- Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Yuksek Ihtisas Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Nesrin Turhan
- Department of General and Oncological Surgery - Surgery C, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Musa Akoglu
- Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Yuksek Ihtisas Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ezgi Ozyerli
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Sevi Durdu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Aviram Nissan
- Department of General and Oncological Surgery - Surgery C, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
| | - Mithat Gonen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ali Osmay Gure
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Cankaya, Ankara, Turkey
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Sucularli C, Shehwana H, Kuscu C, Dungul DC, Ozdag H, Konu O. Functionally conserved effects of rapamycin exposure on zebrafish. Mol Med Rep 2016; 13:4421-30. [PMID: 27035657 DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2016.5059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2015] [Accepted: 01/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a conserved serine/threonine kinase important in cell proliferation, growth and protein translation. Rapamycin, a well‑known anti‑cancer agent and immunosuppressant drug, inhibits mTOR activity in different taxa including zebrafish. In the present study, the effect of rapamycin exposure on the transcriptome of a zebrafish fibroblast cell line, ZF4, was investigated. Microarray analysis demonstrated that rapamycin treatment modulated a large set of genes with varying functions including protein synthesis, assembly of mitochondrial and proteasomal machinery, cell cycle, metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation in ZF4 cells. A mild however, coordinated reduction in the expression of proteasomal and mitochondrial ribosomal subunits was detected, while the expression of numerous ribosomal subunits increased. Meta‑analysis of heterogeneous mouse rapamycin microarray datasets enabled the comparison of zebrafish and mouse pathways modulated by rapamycin, using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene Ontology pathway analysis. The analyses demonstrated a high degree of functional conservation between zebrafish and mice in response to rapamycin. In addition, rapamycin treatment resulted in a marked dose‑dependent reduction in body size and pigmentation in zebrafish embryos. The present study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to evaluate the conservation of rapamycin‑modulated functional pathways between zebrafish and mice, in addition to the dose‑dependent growth curves of zebrafish embryos upon rapamycin exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ceren Sucularli
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
| | - Huma Shehwana
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
| | - Cem Kuscu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
| | | | - Hilal Ozdag
- Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Ankara 06010, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara 06800, Turkey
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21
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Doldur-Balli F, Ozel MN, Gulsuner S, Tekinay AB, Ozcelik T, Konu O, Adams MM. Characterization of a novel zebrafish (Danio rerio) gene, wdr81, associated with cerebellar ataxia, mental retardation and dysequilibrium syndrome (CAMRQ). BMC Neurosci 2015; 16:96. [PMID: 27390838 PMCID: PMC4690267 DOI: 10.1186/s12868-015-0229-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2015] [Accepted: 12/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background WDR81 (WD repeat-containing protein 81) is associated with cerebellar ataxia, mental retardation and disequilibrium syndrome (CAMRQ2, [MIM 610185]). Human and mouse studies suggest that it might be a gene of importance during neurodevelopment. This study aimed at fully characterizing the structure of the wdr81 transcript, detecting the possible transcript variants and revealing its expression profile in zebrafish, a powerful model organism for studying development and disease. Results As expected in human and mouse orthologous proteins, zebrafish wdr81 is predicted to possess a BEACH (Beige and Chediak-Higashi) domain, a major facilitator superfamily domain and WD40-repeats, which indicates a conserved function in these species. We observed that zebrafish wdr81 encodes one open reading frame while the transcript has one 5′ untranslated region (UTR) and the prediction of the 3′ UTR was mainly confirmed along with a detected insertion site in the embryo and adult brain. This insertion site was also found in testis, heart, liver, eye, tail and muscle, however, there was no amplicon in kidney, intestine and gills, which might be the result of possible alternative polyadenylation processes among tissues. The 5 and 18 hpf were critical timepoints of development regarding wdr81 expression. Furthermore, the signal of the RNA probe was stronger in the eye and brain at 18 and 48 hpf, then decreased at 72 hpf. Finally, expression of wdr81 was detected in the adult brain and eye tissues, including but not restricted to photoreceptors of the retina, presumptive Purkinje cells and some neurogenic brains regions. Conclusions Taken together these data emphasize the importance of this gene during neurodevelopment and a possible role for neuronal proliferation. Our data provide a basis for further studies to fully understand the function of wdr81. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12868-015-0229-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fusun Doldur-Balli
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mehmet Neset Ozel
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Suleyman Gulsuner
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ayse B Tekinay
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Tayfun Ozcelik
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.,Molecular Biology and Genetics Department Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Michelle M Adams
- UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. .,Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. .,Molecular Biology and Genetics Department Zebrafish Facility, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. .,Psychology Department, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
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22
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Sayar N, Karahan G, Konu O, Bozkurt B, Bozdogan O, Yulug IG. Transgelin gene is frequently downregulated by promoter DNA hypermethylation in breast cancer. Clin Epigenetics 2015; 7:104. [PMID: 26421063 PMCID: PMC4587865 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-015-0138-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2015] [Accepted: 09/18/2015] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background CpG hypermethylation in gene promoters is a frequent mechanism of tumor suppressor gene silencing in various types of cancers. It usually occurs at early steps of cancer progression and can be detected easily, giving rise to development of promising biomarkers for both detection and progression of cancer, including breast cancer. 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (AZA) is a DNA demethylating and anti-cancer agent resulting in induction of genes suppressed via DNA hypermethylation. Results Using microarray expression profiling of AZA- or DMSO-treated breast cancer and non-tumorigenic breast (NTB) cells, we identified for the first time TAGLN gene as a target of DNA hypermethylation in breast cancer. TAGLN expression was significantly and frequently downregulated via promoter DNA hypermethylation in breast cancer cells compared to NTB cells, and also in 13/21 (61.9 %) of breast tumors compared to matched normal tissues. Analyses of public microarray methylation data showed that TAGLN was also hypermethylated in 63.02 % of tumors compared to normal tissues; relapse-free survival of patients was worse with higher TAGLN methylation; and methylation levels could discriminate between tumors and healthy tissues with 83.14 % sensitivity and 100 % specificity. Additionally, qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry experiments showed that TAGLN expression was significantly downregulated in two more independent sets of breast tumors compared to normal tissues and was lower in tumors with poor prognosis. Colony formation was increased in TAGLN silenced NTB cells, while decreased in overexpressing BC cells. Conclusions TAGLN gene is frequently downregulated by DNA hypermethylation, and TAGLN promoter methylation profiles could serve as a future diagnostic biomarker, with possible clinical impact regarding the prognosis in breast cancer. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13148-015-0138-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nilufer Sayar
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Gurbet Karahan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Betul Bozkurt
- Department of General Surgery, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, 06100 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Onder Bozdogan
- Department of Pathology, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, 06100 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Isik G Yulug
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
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Alotaibi H, Basilicata MF, Shehwana H, Kosowan T, Schreck I, Braeutigam C, Konu O, Brabletz T, Stemmler MP. Enhancer cooperativity as a novel mechanism underlying the transcriptional regulation of E-cadherin during mesenchymal to epithelial transition. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 2015; 1849:731-42. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2015.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2014] [Revised: 01/06/2015] [Accepted: 01/24/2015] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
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24
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Karahan G, Sayar N, Gozum G, Bozkurt B, Konu O, Yulug IG. Relative expression of rRNA transcripts and 45S rDNA promoter methylation status are dysregulated in tumors in comparison with matched-normal tissues in breast cancer. Oncol Rep 2015; 33:3131-45. [PMID: 25962577 DOI: 10.3892/or.2015.3940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2015] [Accepted: 03/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) expression, one of the most important factors regulating ribosome production, is primarily controlled by a CG-rich 45 S rDNA promoter. However, the DNA methylation state of the 45 S rDNA promoter, as well as its effect on rRNA gene expression in types of human cancers is controversial. In the present study we analyzed the methylation status of the rDNA promoter (-380 to +53 bp) as well as associated rRNA expression levels in breast cancer cell lines and breast tumor-normal tissue pairs. We found that the aforementioned regulatory region was extensively methylated (74-96%) in all cell lines and in 68% (13/19 tumor-normal pairs) of the tumors. Expression levels of rRNA transcripts 18 S, 28 S, 5.8 S and 45 S external transcribed spacer (45 S ETS) greatly varied in the breast cancer cell lines regardless of their methylation status. Analyses of rRNA transcript expression levels in the breast tumor and normal matched tissues showed no significant difference when normalized with TBP. On the other hand, using the geometric mean of the rRNA expression values (GM-rRNA) as reference enabled us to identify significant changes in the relative expression of rRNAs in the tissue samples. We propose GM-rRNA normalization as a novel strategy to analyze expression differences between rRNA transcripts. Accordingly, the 18S rRNA/GM-rRNA ratio was significantly higher whereas the 5.8S rRNA/GM-rRNA ratio was significantly lower in breast tumor samples than this ratio in the matched normal samples. Moreover, the 18S rRNA/GM-rRNA ratio was negatively correlated with the 45 S rDNA promoter methylation level in the normal breast tissue samples, yet not in the breast tumors. Significant correlations observed between the expression levels of rRNA transcripts in the normal samples were lost in the tumor samples. We showed that the expression of rRNA transcripts may not be based solely on promoter methylation. Carcinogenesis may cause dysregulation of the correlation between spliced rRNA expression levels, possibly due to changes in rRNA processing, which requires further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gurbet Karahan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Nilufer Sayar
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Gokcen Gozum
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Betul Bozkurt
- Department of General Surgery, Ankara Numune Research and Teaching Hospital, TR-06100 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
| | - Isik G Yulug
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Faculty of Science, TR-06800 Ankara, Turkey
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25
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Ersahin T, Carkacioglu L, Can T, Konu O, Atalay V, Cetin-Atalay R. Identification of novel reference genes based on MeSH categories. PLoS One 2014; 9:e93341. [PMID: 24682035 PMCID: PMC3969360 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2013] [Accepted: 03/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcriptome experiments are performed to assess protein abundance through mRNA expression analysis. Expression levels of genes vary depending on the experimental conditions and the cell response. Transcriptome data must be diverse and yet comparable in reference to stably expressed genes, even if they are generated from different experiments on the same biological context from various laboratories. In this study, expression patterns of 9090 microarray samples grouped into 381 NCBI-GEO datasets were investigated to identify novel candidate reference genes using randomizations and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The analysis demonstrated that cell type specific reference gene sets display less variability than a united set for all tissues. Therefore, constitutively and stably expressed, origin specific novel reference gene sets were identified based on their coefficient of variation and percentage of occurrence in all GEO datasets, which were classified using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). A large number of MeSH grouped reference gene lists are presented as novel tissue specific reference gene lists. The most commonly observed 17 genes in these sets were compared for their expression in 8 hepatocellular, 5 breast and 3 colon carcinoma cells by RT-qPCR to verify tissue specificity. Indeed, commonly used housekeeping genes GAPDH, Actin and EEF2 had tissue specific variations, whereas several ribosomal genes were among the most stably expressed genes in vitro. Our results confirm that two or more reference genes should be used in combination for differential expression analysis of large-scale data obtained from microarray or next generation sequencing studies. Therefore context dependent reference gene sets, as presented in this study, are required for normalization of expression data from diverse technological backgrounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tulin Ersahin
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Levent Carkacioglu
- Computer Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Tolga Can
- Computer Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Volkan Atalay
- Computer Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Rengul Cetin-Atalay
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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26
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Senses KM, Gonen M, Barutcu AR, Kalaylioglu Z, Isbilen M, Konu O, Chen YT, Altorki NK, Gure AO. Cancer-testis gene expression is associated with the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase 677 C>T polymorphism in non-small cell lung carcinoma. BMC Med Genet 2013; 14:97. [PMID: 24063603 PMCID: PMC3849821 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2350-14-97] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2013] [Accepted: 09/20/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Background Tumor-specific, coordinate expression of cancer-testis (CT) genes, mapping to the X chromosome, is observed in more than 60% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Although CT gene expression has been unequivocally related to DNA demethylation of promoter regions, the underlying mechanism leading to loss of promoter methylation remains elusive. Polymorphisms of enzymes within the 1-carbon pathway have been shown to affect S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) production, which is the sole methyl donor in the cell. Allelic variants of several enzymes within this pathway have been associated with altered SAM levels either directly, or indirectly as reflected by altered levels of SAH and Homocysteine levels, and altered levels of DNA methylation. We, therefore, asked whether the five most commonly occurring polymorphisms in four of the enzymes in the 1-carbon pathway associated with CT gene expression status in patients with NSCLC. Methods Fifty patients among a cohort of 763 with NSCLC were selected based on CT gene expression status and typed for five polymorphisms in four genes known to affect SAM generation by allele specific q-PCR and RFLP. Results We identified a significant association between CT gene expression and the MTHFR 677 CC genotype, as well as the C allele of the SNP, in this cohort of patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that the genotype and allele strongly associate with CT gene expression, independent of potential confounders. Conclusions Although CT gene expression is associated with DNA demethylation, in NSCLC, our data suggests this is unlikely to be the result of decreased MTHFR function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kerem M Senses
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
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27
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Gunel-Ozcan A, Cagnan I, Konu O, Kaya FA, Kuskonmaz B, Uckan D. Differential miRNA expression profile of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells in fanconi anemia patients and healthy donors. Exp Hematol 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.exphem.2013.05.238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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28
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Yildiz G, Arslan-Ergul A, Bagislar S, Konu O, Yuzugullu H, Gursoy-Yuzugullu O, Ozturk N, Ozen C, Ozdag H, Erdal E, Karademir S, Sagol O, Mizrak D, Bozkaya H, Ilk HG, Ilk O, Bilen B, Cetin-Atalay R, Akar N, Ozturk M. Genome-wide transcriptional reorganization associated with senescence-to-immortality switch during human hepatocellular carcinogenesis. PLoS One 2013; 8:e64016. [PMID: 23691139 PMCID: PMC3655073 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2013] [Accepted: 04/07/2013] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Senescence is a permanent proliferation arrest in response to cell stress such as DNA damage. It contributes strongly to tissue aging and serves as a major barrier against tumor development. Most tumor cells are believed to bypass the senescence barrier (become “immortal”) by inactivating growth control genes such as TP53 and CDKN2A. They also reactivate telomerase reverse transcriptase. Senescence-to-immortality transition is accompanied by major phenotypic and biochemical changes mediated by genome-wide transcriptional modifications. This appears to happen during hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development in patients with liver cirrhosis, however, the accompanying transcriptional changes are virtually unknown. We investigated genome-wide transcriptional changes related to the senescence-to-immortality switch during hepatocellular carcinogenesis. Initially, we performed transcriptome analysis of senescent and immortal clones of Huh7 HCC cell line, and identified genes with significant differential expression to establish a senescence-related gene list. Through the analysis of senescence-related gene expression in different liver tissues we showed that cirrhosis and HCC display expression patterns compatible with senescent and immortal phenotypes, respectively; dysplasia being a transitional state. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that cirrhosis/senescence-associated genes were preferentially expressed in non-tumor tissues, less malignant tumors, and differentiated or senescent cells. In contrast, HCC/immortality genes were up-regulated in tumor tissues, or more malignant tumors and progenitor cells. In HCC tumors and immortal cells genes involved in DNA repair, cell cycle, telomere extension and branched chain amino acid metabolism were up-regulated, whereas genes involved in cell signaling, as well as in drug, lipid, retinoid and glycolytic metabolism were down-regulated. Based on these distinctive gene expression features we developed a 15-gene hepatocellular immortality signature test that discriminated HCC from cirrhosis with high accuracy. Our findings demonstrate that senescence bypass plays a central role in hepatocellular carcinogenesis engendering systematic changes in the transcription of genes regulating DNA repair, proliferation, differentiation and metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gokhan Yildiz
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- INSERM - Université Joseph Fourrier, CRI U823, Grenoble, France
| | - Ayca Arslan-Ergul
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Sevgi Bagislar
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- INSERM - Université Joseph Fourrier, CRI U823, Grenoble, France
| | - Ozlen Konu
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Haluk Yuzugullu
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- INSERM - Université Joseph Fourrier, CRI U823, Grenoble, France
| | - Ozge Gursoy-Yuzugullu
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- INSERM - Université Joseph Fourrier, CRI U823, Grenoble, France
| | - Nuri Ozturk
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Cigdem Ozen
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hilal Ozdag
- Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Esra Erdal
- Department of Medical Biology, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Sedat Karademir
- Department of Surgery, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Ozgul Sagol
- Department of Pathology, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey
| | - Dilsa Mizrak
- Department of Gastroenterology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hakan Bozkaya
- Department of Gastroenterology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Hakki Gokhan Ilk
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlem Ilk
- Department of Statistics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Biter Bilen
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Rengul Cetin-Atalay
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Nejat Akar
- Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Mehmet Ozturk
- BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
- INSERM - Université Joseph Fourrier, CRI U823, Grenoble, France
- * E-mail:
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Abstract
microRNA expression and sequence analysis database (http://konulab.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/mirna/) (mESAdb) is a regularly updated database for the multivariate analysis of sequences and expression of microRNAs from multiple taxa. mESAdb is modular and has a user interface implemented in PHP and JavaScript and coupled with statistical analysis and visualization packages written for the R language. The database primarily comprises mature microRNA sequences and their target data, along with selected human, mouse and zebrafish expression data sets. mESAdb analysis modules allow (i) mining of microRNA expression data sets for subsets of microRNAs selected manually or by motif; (ii) pair-wise multivariate analysis of expression data sets within and between taxa; and (iii) association of microRNA subsets with annotation databases, HUGE Navigator, KEGG and GO. The use of existing and customized R packages facilitates future addition of data sets and analysis tools. Furthermore, the ability to upload and analyze user-specified data sets makes mESAdb an interactive and expandable analysis tool for microRNA sequence and expression data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koray D Kaya
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey
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Sucularli C, Senturk S, Ozturk M, Konu O. Dose- and time-dependent expression patterns of zebrafish orthologs of selected E2F target genes in response to serum starvation/replenishment. Mol Biol Rep 2010; 38:4111-23. [PMID: 21116857 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-010-0531-2] [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] [Received: 06/13/2010] [Accepted: 11/15/2010] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Targets of E2F transcription factors effectively regulate the cell cycle from worms to humans. Furthermore, the dysregulation of E2F transcription modules plays a highly conserved role in cancers of human and zebrafish. Studying E2F target expression under a given cellular state, such as quiescence, might lead to a better understanding of the conserved patterns of expression in different taxa. In the present study, we used literature searches and phylogeny to identify several targets of E2F transcription factors that are known to be serum-responsive; namely, PCNA, MYBL2, MCM7, TYMS, and CTGF. The transcriptional serum response of zebrafish orthologs of these genes were quantified under different doses (i.e., 0, 0.1, 1, 3, and 10% FBS) and time points (i.e., 6, 24 and 48 hours, h) using quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) in the zebrafish fibroblast cells (ZF4). Our results indicated that mRNA expression of zebrafish pcna, mybl2, mcm7 and tyms drastically decreased while that of ctgf increased with decreasing serum levels as observed in mammals. These genes responded to serum starvation at 24 and 48 h and to the mitogenic stimuli as early as 6 h except for ctgf whose expression was significantly altered at 24 h. The zebrafish Mcm7 protein levels also were modulated by serum starvation/replenishment. The present study provides a foundation for the comparative analysis of quantitative expression patterns for genes involved in regulation of cell cycle using a zebrafish serum response model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ceren Sucularli
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
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Carkacioglu L, Atalay RC, Konu O, Atalay V, Can T. Bi-k-bi clustering: mining large scale gene expression data using two-level biclustering. INT J DATA MIN BIOIN 2010; 4:701-21. [DOI: 10.1504/ijdmb.2010.037548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Gur-Dedeoglu B, Konu O, Bozkurt B, Ergul G, Seckin S, Yulug IG. Identification of endogenous reference genes for qRT-PCR analysis in normal matched breast tumor tissues. Oncol Res 2009; 17:353-65. [PMID: 19544972 DOI: 10.3727/096504009788428460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantitative gene expression measurements from tumor tissue are frequently compared with matched normal and/or adjacent tumor tissue expression for diagnostic marker gene selection as well as assessment of the degree of transcriptional deregulation in cancer. Selection of an appropriate reference gene (RG) or an RG panel, which varies depending on cancer type, molecular subtypes, and the normal tissues used for interindividual calibration, is crucial for the accurate quantification of gene expression. Several RG panels have been suggested in breast cancer for making comparisons among tumor subtypes, cell lines, and benign/malignant tumors. In this study, expression patterns of 15 widely used endogenous RGs (ACTB, TBP, GAPDH, SDHA, HPRT, HMBS, B2M, PPIA, GUSB, YWHAZ2, PGK1, RPLP0, PUM1, MRPL19, and RPL41), and three candidate genes that were selected through analysis of two independent microarray datasets (IL22RA1, TC22, ZNF224) were determined in 23 primary breast tumors and their matched normal tissues using qRT-PCR. Additionally, 18S rRNA, ACTB, and SDHA were tested using randomly primed cDNAs from 13 breast tumor pairs to assess the rRNA/mRNA ratio. The tumors exhibited significantly lower rRNA/mRNA ratio when compared to their normals, on average. The expression of the studied RGs in breast tumors did not exhibit differences in terms of grade, ER, or PR status. The stability of RGs was examined based on two different statistical models, namely GeNorm and NormFinder. Among the 18 tested endogenous reference genes, ACTB and SDHA were identified as the most suitable reference genes for the normalization of qRT-PCR data in the analysis of normal matched tumor breast tissue pairs by both programs. In addition, the expression of the gelsolin (GSN) gene, a well-known downregulated target in breast tumors, was analyzed using the two most suitable genes and different RG combinations to validate their effectiveness as a normalization factor (NF). The GSN expression of the tumors used in this study was significantly lower than that of normals showing the effectivity of using ACTB and SDHA as suitable RGs in this set of tumor-normal tissue panel. The combinational use of the best performing two RGs (ACTB and SDHA) as a normalization factor can be recommended to minimize sample variability and to increase the accuracy and resolution of gene expression normalization in tumor-normal paired breast cancer qRT-PCR studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bala Gur-Dedeoglu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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Gur-Dedeoglu B, Konu O, Kir S, Ozturk AR, Bozkurt B, Ergul G, Yulug IG. A resampling-based meta-analysis for detection of differential gene expression in breast cancer. BMC Cancer 2008; 8:396. [PMID: 19116033 PMCID: PMC2631593 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-8-396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2008] [Accepted: 12/30/2008] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Accuracy in the diagnosis of breast cancer and classification of cancer subtypes has improved over the years with the development of well-established immunohistopathological criteria. More recently, diagnostic gene-sets at the mRNA expression level have been tested as better predictors of disease state. However, breast cancer is heterogeneous in nature; thus extraction of differentially expressed gene-sets that stably distinguish normal tissue from various pathologies poses challenges. Meta-analysis of high-throughput expression data using a collection of statistical methodologies leads to the identification of robust tumor gene expression signatures. Methods A resampling-based meta-analysis strategy, which involves the use of resampling and application of distribution statistics in combination to assess the degree of significance in differential expression between sample classes, was developed. Two independent microarray datasets that contain normal breast, invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) samples were used for the meta-analysis. Expression of the genes, selected from the gene list for classification of normal breast samples and breast tumors encompassing both the ILC and IDC subtypes were tested on 10 independent primary IDC samples and matched non-tumor controls by real-time qRT-PCR. Other existing breast cancer microarray datasets were used in support of the resampling-based meta-analysis. Results The two independent microarray studies were found to be comparable, although differing in their experimental methodologies (Pearson correlation coefficient, R = 0.9389 and R = 0.8465 for ductal and lobular samples, respectively). The resampling-based meta-analysis has led to the identification of a highly stable set of genes for classification of normal breast samples and breast tumors encompassing both the ILC and IDC subtypes. The expression results of the selected genes obtained through real-time qRT-PCR supported the meta-analysis results. Conclusion The proposed meta-analysis approach has the ability to detect a set of differentially expressed genes with the least amount of within-group variability, thus providing highly stable gene lists for class prediction. Increased statistical power and stringent filtering criteria used in the present study also make identification of novel candidate genes possible and may provide further insight to improve our understanding of breast cancer development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bala Gur-Dedeoglu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Bilkent University, TR-06800, Ankara, Turkey.
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Avci ME, Konu O, Yagci T. Quantification of SLIT-ROBO transcripts in hepatocellular carcinoma reveals two groups of genes with coordinate expression. BMC Cancer 2008; 8:392. [PMID: 19114000 PMCID: PMC2632672 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-8-392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2008] [Accepted: 12/29/2008] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND SLIT-ROBO families of proteins mediate axon pathfinding and their expression is not solely confined to nervous system. Aberrant expression of SLIT-ROBO genes was repeatedly shown in a wide variety of cancers, yet data about their collective behavior in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is missing. Hence, we quantified SLIT-ROBO transcripts in HCC cell lines, and in normal and tumor tissues from liver. METHODS Expression of SLIT-ROBO family members was quantified by real-time qRT-PCR in 14 HCC cell lines, 8 normal and 35 tumor tissues from the liver. ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analyses were performed in R environment, and different clinicopathological subgroups were pairwise compared in Minitab. Gene expression matrices of cell lines and tissues were analyzed by Mantel's association test. RESULTS Genewise hierarchical clustering revealed two subgroups with coordinate expression pattern in both the HCC cell lines and tissues: ROBO1, ROBO2, SLIT1 in one cluster, and ROBO4, SLIT2, SLIT3 in the other, respectively. Moreover, SLIT-ROBO expression predicted AFP-dependent subgrouping of HCC cell lines, but not that of liver tissues. ROBO1 and ROBO2 were significantly up-regulated, whereas SLIT3 was significantly down-regulated in cell lines with high-AFP background. When compared to normal liver tissue, ROBO1 was found to be significantly overexpressed, while ROBO4 was down-regulated in HCC. We also observed that ROBO1 and SLIT2 differentiated histopathological subgroups of liver tissues depending on both tumor staging and differentiation status. However, ROBO4 could discriminate poorly differentiated HCC from other subgroups. CONCLUSION The present study is the first in comprehensive and quantitative evaluation of SLIT-ROBO family gene expression in HCC, and suggests that the expression of SLIT-ROBO genes is regulated in hepatocarcinogenesis. Our results implicate that SLIT-ROBO transcription profile is bi-modular in nature, and that each module shows intrinsic variability. We also provide quantitative evidence for potential use of ROBO1, ROBO4 and SLIT2 for prediction of tumor stage and differentiation status.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehmet Ender Avci
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Ozlen Konu
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
| | - Tamer Yagci
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM The liver has a unique capacity to regenerate upon exposure to viral infections, toxic reactions and cancer formation. Liver regeneration is a complex phenomenon in which several factors participate during its onset. Cellular proliferation is an important component of this process and the factors that regulate this proliferation have a vital role. FLT3, a well-known hematopoietic stem cell and hepatic lineage surface marker, is involved in proliferative events of hematopoietic stem cells. However, its contribution to liver regeneration is not known. Therefore, the aim of this study was to clone and examine the role of FLT3 during liver regeneration in rats. METHODS Partial cDNA of rat homolog of FLT3 gene was cloned from thymus and the tissue specific expression of this gene at mRNA and protein levels was examined by RT-PCR and Western blot. After treating with 2-AAF and performing hepatectomy in rats to induce progenitor-dependent liver regeneration, the mRNA and protein expression profile of FLT3 was investigated by real-time PCR and Western blot during liver regeneration. In addition, cellular localization of FLT3 protein was determined by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS The results indicated that rat FLT3 cDNA has high homology with mouse and human FLT3 cDNA. It was also found that FLT3 is expressed in most of the rat tissues and during liver regeneration. In addition, its intracellular localization is altered during the late stages of liver regeneration. CONCLUSION The FLT3 receptor is activated at the late stages of liver regeneration and participates in the proliferation response that is observed during progenitor-dependent liver regeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iraz T Aydin
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
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Wang J, Gutala R, Hwang YY, Kim JM, Konu O, Ma JZ, Li MD. Strain- and region-specific gene expression profiles in mouse brain in response to chronic nicotine treatment. Genes Brain Behav 2007; 7:78-87. [PMID: 17504244 DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-183x.2007.00328.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
A pathway-focused complementary DNA microarray and gene ontology analysis were used to investigate gene expression profiles in the amygdala, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex (PFC) and ventral tegmental area of C3H/HeJ and C57BL/6J mice receiving nicotine in drinking water (100 mug/ml in 2% saccharin for 2 weeks). A balanced experimental design and rigorous statistical analysis have led to the identification of 3.5-22.1% and 4.1-14.3% of the 638 sequence-verified genes as significantly modulated in the aforementioned brain regions of the C3H/HeJ and C57BL/6J strains, respectively. Comparisons of differential expression among brain tissues showed that only a small number of genes were altered in multiple brain regions, suggesting presence of a brain region-specific transcriptional response to nicotine. Subsequent principal component analysis and Expression Analysis Systematic Explorer analysis showed significant enrichment of biological processes both in C3H/HeJ and C57BL/6J mice, i.e. cell cycle/proliferation, organogenesis and transmission of nerve impulse. Finally, we verified the observed changes in expression using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for six representative genes in the PFC region, providing an independent replication of our microarray results. Together, this report represents the first comprehensive gene expression profiling investigation of the changes caused by nicotine in brain tissues of the two mouse strains known to exhibit differential behavioral and physiological responses to nicotine.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Wang
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Dalkic E, Kuscu C, Sucularli C, Aydin IT, Akcali KC, Konu O. Alternatively spliced Robo2 isoforms in zebrafish and rat. Dev Genes Evol 2006; 216:555-63. [PMID: 16625395 DOI: 10.1007/s00427-006-0070-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2005] [Accepted: 03/13/2006] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Robo2, a member of the robo gene family, functions as a repulsive axon guidance receptor as well as a regulator of cell migration and tissue morphogenesis in different taxa. In this study, a novel isoform of the zebrafish robo2 (robo2_tv2), which included an otherwise alternatively spliced exon (CAE), has been characterized. Robo2_tv2 is expressed differentially in most non-neuronal tissues of adult zebrafish whereas robo2_tv1 expression to a great extent is restricted to the brain and eye. In zebrafish, robo2_tv2 exhibits a very-low-level basal expression starting from 1 day post fertilization until the mid-larval stages, at which time its expression increases dramatically and could be detected throughout adulthood. Our findings demonstrate that the amino acid sequence coded by CAE of the robo2 gene is highly conserved between zebrafish and mammals, and also contains conserved motifs shared with robo1 and robo4 but not with robo3. Furthermore, we provide an account of differential transcription of the CAE homolog in various tissues of the adult rat. These results suggest that the alternatively spliced robo2 isoforms may exhibit tissue specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ertugrul Dalkic
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
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Gur B, Bozkurt B, Konu O, Seckin S, Yulug IG. Real-time PCR-based expression profiling of BRCA1-induced genes in primary breast tumors. Breast Cancer Res 2005. [PMCID: PMC4233570 DOI: 10.1186/bcr1149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
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Abstract
The present study focuses on the nicotine-induced modulation of mRNA and protein expression of a number of genes involved in glutamatergic synaptic transmission in rat brain over different time periods of exposure. A subchronic (3 days) but not the chronic (7 or 14 days) administration of nicotine resulted in the up-regulation of Homer2a/b mRNA in the amygdala while in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) no change in expression of either Homer2a/b or Homer1b/c was observed. Although the increase in Homer2a/b mRNA was not translated into the protein level in the amygdala, a slight but significant up-regulation of Homer1b/c protein was observed in the same region at day 3. Both Homer forms were up-regulated at the protein level in the VTA at day 3. In the nucleus accumbens, 14 days of nicotine treatment up-regulated mRNA of Homer2b/c by 68.2% (P < 0.05), while the short form Homer1a gene was down-regulated by 65.0% at day 3 (P < 0.05). In regard to other components of the glutamatergic signalling, we identified an acute and intermittent increase in the mRNA and protein levels of mGluR1 and mGluR5 in the amygdala. In the VTA, however, the effects of nicotine on mGluR mRNA expression were long-lasting but rather specific to mGluR1. Nevertheless, mGluR1 protein levels in the VTA area were up-regulated only at day 3, as in the amygdala. These data provide further evidence for the involvement of nicotine in the glutamatergic neuronal synaptic activity in vivo, suggesting a role for the newly identified Homer proteins in this paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- J K Kane
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA
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Kane JK, Konu O, Ma JZ, Li MD. Nicotine coregulates multiple pathways involved in protein modification/degradation in rat brain. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2004; 132:181-91. [PMID: 15582157 DOI: 10.1016/j.molbrainres.2004.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [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] [Accepted: 09/12/2004] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Previously, we used cDNA microarrays to demonstrate that the phosphatidylinositol and MAP kinase signaling pathways are regulated by nicotine in different rat brain regions. In the present report, we show that, after exposure to nicotine for 14 days, ubiquitin, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, 20S and 19S proteasomal subunits, and chaperonin-containing TCP-1 protein (CCT) complex members are upregulated in rat prefrontal cortex (PFC) while being downregulated in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH). In particular, relative to saline controls, ubiquitins B and C were upregulated by 33% and 47% (P<0.01), respectively, in the PFC. The proteasome beta subunit 1 (PSMB1) and 26S ATPase 3 (PSMC3) genes were upregulated in the PFC by 95% and 119% (P<0.001), respectively. In addition to the protein degradation pathway of the ubiquitin-proteasome complexes, we observed in the PFC an increase in the expression of small, ubiquitin-related modifiers (SUMO) 1 and 2 by 80% and 33%, respectively (P<0.001), and in 3 of 6 CCT subunits by up to 150% (P<0.0001). To a lesser extent, a change in the opposite direction was obtained in the expression of the same gene families in the MBH. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR was used to validate the microarray results obtained with some representative genes involved in these pathways. Taken together, our results suggest that, in response to systemic nicotine administration, the ubiquitin-proteasome, SUMO, and chaperonin complexes provide an intricate control mechanism to maintain cellular homeostasis, possibly by regulating the composition and signaling of target neurons in a region-specific manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin K Kane
- Program in Genomics and Bioinformatics on Drug Addiction, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, United States
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Konu O, Xu X, Ma JZ, Kane J, Wang J, Shi SJ, Li MD. Application of a customized pathway-focused microarray for gene expression profiling of cellular homeostasis upon exposure to nicotine in PC12 cells. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2004; 121:102-13. [PMID: 14969741 DOI: 10.1016/j.molbrainres.2003.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [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] [Accepted: 11/14/2003] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Maintenance of cellular homeostasis is integral to appropriate regulation of cellular signaling and cell growth and division. In this study, we report the development and quality assessment of a pathway-focused microarray comprising genes involved in cellular homeostasis. Since nicotine is known to have highly modulatory effects on the intracellular calcium homeostasis, we therefore tested the applicability of the homeostatic pathway-focused microarray on the gene expression in PC-12 cells treated with 1 mM nicotine for 48 h relative to the untreated control cells. We first provided a detailed description of the focused array with respect to its gene and pathway content and then assessed the array quality using a robust regression procedure that allows for the exclusion of unreliable measurements while decreasing the number of false positives. As a result, the mean correlation coefficient between duplicate measurements of the arrays used in this study (control vs. nicotine treatment, three samples each) has increased from 0.974+/-0.017 to 0.995+/-0.002. Furthermore, we found that nicotine affected various structural and signaling components of the AKT/PKB signaling pathway and protein synthesis and degradation processes in PC-12 cells. Since modulation of intracellular calcium concentrations ([Ca(2+)](i)) and phosphatidylinositol signaling are important in various biological processes such as neurotransmitter release and tissue pathogenesis including tumor formation, we expect that the homeostatic pathway-focused microarray potentially can be used for the identification of unique gene expression profiles in comparative studies of drugs of abuse and diverse environmental stimuli, such as starvation and oxidative stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ozlen Konu
- Program in Genomics and Bioinformatics on Drug Addiction, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, Mail Code 7792, San Antonio, TX 78229-3900, USA
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Abstract
Obesity is an epidemic problem in the U. S. and many other industrialized nations. Historically, the drugs used for the treatment of obesity generally targeted small molecule neurotransmitters. As research grows to decipher the underlying molecular mechanisms behind energy homeostasis, it is becoming evident that the modulating effects of neuropeptides also are critical in the regulation of appetite and metabolism. The search for drugs to modify these monoaminergic and peptidergic pathways may eventually prove successful in the treatment of obesity. While tobacco smoking has long been used as one strategy to maintain a lower body weight, especially in female smokers, its adverse associations with addiction and disease overshadow its potential use as an antiobesity agent. Potential pharmacological effects of nicotine could be better understood as the intricacies of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor are revealed. The objective of this review is threefold: first is to provide an overview of the physiological effects of nicotine on body weight while focusing on the drugs that are available as antiobesity and smoking cessation agents. Second is to provide the present status of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as it relates to energy homeostasis and its potential as an effective treatment modality for obesity. Third is to present the current knowledge with respect to nicotine's effects on energy homeostatic and reward related pathways at the molecular level. A better understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying the pharmacological effects of nicotine on body weight will provide insights in identification of potential targets for the development of appropriate medicines in the treatment of obesity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming D Li
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
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Konu O, Li MD. Correlations between mRNA expression levels and GC contents of coding and untranslated regions of genes in rodents. J Mol Evol 2002; 54:35-41. [PMID: 11734896 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-001-0015-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [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: 02/06/2001] [Accepted: 06/15/2001] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Gene expression is regulated by a highly coordinated network of events whose efficiency may constrain the level of expression. Among other factors, natural selection for increased translational efficiency and/or fidelity may shape nucleotide composition and, hence, codon usage during evolution. Previous studies have shown that highly expressed genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, and Drosophila melanogaster have relatively higher codon usage biases. However, in the case of mammals, results have been equivocal. In this study, we assessed the correlation between nucleotide composition and mRNA expression levels of rodent genes measured by cDNA microarray and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) techniques. We found that mRNA expression levels were correlated with the third nucleotide position GC (GC3) content for both Rattus norvegicus (r = 0.246, p = 0.01; N = 110) and Mus musculus (r = 0.21, p = 0.0026; N = 203) genes. However, no significant correlation was evident between mRNA expression level and GC contents of 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions (UTRs) for either species. This suggests that, in rodents, nucleotide composition of coding sequences and UTRs might evolve differentially when considered along an expression gradient. Accordingly, it is possible that higher GC levels may present the rodent genes with a selective advantage for translational efficiency. However, the increase in GC3 content seems to level off above an expressional threshold (e.g., >or=threefold the median expression for R. norvegicus), suggesting that conflicting demands posed by different aspects of transcriptional and translational machineries (e.g., efficiency versus fidelity) may set an upper limit for GC3.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ozlen Konu
- Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Resource Center, University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Memphis, TN 38163, USA
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