bims-ectoca Biomed News
on Epigenetic control of tolerance in cancer
Issue of 2022‒05‒08
twelve papers selected by
Ankita Daiya, Birla Institute of Technology and Science



  1. Front Mol Biosci. 2022 ;9 867303
      Cis-regulatory elements such as enhancers can be located even a million base pairs away from their cognate promoter and yet modulate gene transcription. Indeed, the 3D organisation of chromatin enables the establishment of long-range enhancer-promoter communication. The observation of long-range enhancer-promoter chromatin loops at active genes originally led to a model in which enhancers and promoters form physical contacts between each other to control transcription. Yet, recent microscopy data has challenged this prevailing activity-by-contact model of enhancer-promoter communication in transcriptional activation. Live single-cell imaging approaches do not systematically reveal a correlation between enhancer-proximity and transcriptional activation. We therefore discuss the need to move from a static to a dynamic view of enhancer-promoter relationships. We highlight recent studies that not only reveal considerable chromatin movement in specific cell types, but suggest links between chromatin compaction, chromatin movement and transcription. We describe the interplay between enhancer-promoter proximity within the context of biomolecular condensates and the need to understand how condensate microenvironments influence the chromatin binding kinetics of proteins that bind at cis-regulatory elements to activate transcription. Finally, given the complex multi-scale interplay between regulatory proteins, enhancer-promoter proximity and movement, we propose the need to integrate information from complementary single-cell next-generation sequencing and live-cell imaging approaches to derive unified 3D theoretical models of enhancer-promoter communication that are ultimately predictive of transcriptional output and cell fate. In time, improved models will shed light on how tissues grow and diseases emerge.
    Keywords:  cell fate and differentiation; chromatin mobility; enhancer-promoter communication; enhancer-promoter interaction; stem cell; transcription
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.867303
  2. J Proteomics. 2022 Apr 27. pii: S1874-3919(22)00120-8. [Epub ahead of print] 104596
      Epigenetic variation plays a significant role in normal development and human diseases including cancer, in part through post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histones. Identification and profiling of changes in histone PTMs, and in proteins regulating PTMs, are crucial to understanding diseases, and for discovery of epigenetic therapeutic agents. In this study, we have adapted and validated an antibody-based reverse phase protein array (RPPA) platform for profiling 20 histone PTMs and expression of 40 proteins that modify histones and other epigenomic regulators. The specificity of the RPPA assay for histone PTMs was validated with synthetic peptides corresponding to histone PTMs and by detection of histone PTM changes in response to inhibitors of histone modifier proteins in cell cultures. The useful application of the RPPA platform was demonstrated with two models: induction of pluripotent stem cells and a mouse mammary tumor progression model. Described here is a robust platform that includes a rapid microscale method for histone isolation and partially automated workflows for analysis of histone PTMs and histone modifiers that can be performed in a high-throughput manner with hundreds of samples. This RPPA platform has potential for translational applications through the discovery and validation of epigenetic states as therapeutic targets and biomarkers. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study has established an antibody-based reverse phase protein array platform for global profiling of a wide range of post-translational modifications of histones and histone modifier proteins. The high-throughput platform provides comprehensive analyses of epigenetics for biological research and disease studies and may serve as screening assay for diagnostic purpose or therapy development.
    Keywords:  Breast cancer; Epigenetics; High-throughput; Pluripotent stem cells; Post-translational modifications; RPPA
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprot.2022.104596
  3. FASEB Bioadv. 2022 May;4(5): 342-361
      Lymphatic drainage generates force that induces prostate cancer cell motility via activation of Yes-associated protein (YAP), but whether this response to fluid force is conserved across cancer types is unclear. Here, we show that shear stress corresponding to fluid flow in the initial lymphatics modifies taxis in breast cancer, whereas some cell lines use rapid amoeboid migration behavior in response to fluid flow, a separate subset decrease movement. Positive responders displayed transcriptional profiles characteristic of an amoeboid cell state, which is typical of cells advancing at the edges of neoplastic tumors. Regulation of the HIPPO tumor suppressor pathway and YAP activity also differed between breast subsets and prostate cancer. Although subcellular localization of YAP to the nucleus positively correlated with overall velocity of locomotion, YAP gain- and loss-of-function demonstrates that YAP inhibits breast cancer motility but is outcompeted by other pro-taxis mediators in the context of flow. Specifically, we show that RhoA dictates response to flow. GTPase activity of RhoA, but not Rac1 or Cdc42 Rho family GTPases, is elevated in cells that positively respond to flow and is unchanged in cells that decelerate under flow. Disruption of RhoA or the RhoA effector, Rho-associated kinase (ROCK), blocked shear stress-induced motility. Collectively, these findings identify biomechanical force as a regulator amoeboid cell migration and demonstrate stratification of breast cancer subsets by flow-sensing mechanotransduction pathways.
    Keywords:  ECM–receptor interactions; actomyosin cytoskeleton; biomechanical force; hippo; mechanotransduction; motility; shear stress
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1096/fba.2021-00055
  4. RSC Adv. 2020 Dec 17. 10(73): 45008-45018
      It is a challenge to select the right target to treat conditions without affecting non-diseased cells. Cancer belongs to the top 10 causes of death in the world and it remains difficult to treat. Amongst cancer emerging targets, silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) - a histone deacetylase - has shown many roles in cancer, ageing and metabolism. Here we report novel SIRT1 ligands that bind and modulate the activity of SIRT1 within cells and enhance its enzymatic activity. We developed a modified aptamer capable of binding to and forming a complex with SIRT1. Our ligands are aptamers, they can be made of DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, their binding domain can recognise a target with very high affinity and specificity. We used the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) technique to develop circular and linear aptamers selectively binding to SIRT1. Cellular consequences of the interaction were monitored by fluorescence microscopy, cell viability assay, stability and enzymatic assays. Our results indicate that from our pool of aptamers, circular AC3 penetrates cancerous cells and is recruited to modulate the SIRT1 activity. This modulation of SIRT1 resulted in anticancer activity on different cancer cell lines. Furthermore, this modified aptamer showed no toxicity on one non-cancerous cell line and was stable in human plasma. We have demonstrated that aptamers are efficient tools for localisation of internal cell targets, and in this particular case, anticancer activity through modulation of SIRT1.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ra07857c
  5. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2022 May 02.
      Two genomes regulate the energy metabolism of eukaryotic cells: the nuclear genome, which codes for most cellular proteins, and the mitochondrial genome, which, together with the nuclear genome, coregulates cellular bioenergetics. Therefore, mitochondrial genome variations can affect, directly or indirectly, all energy-dependent cellular processes and shape the metabolic state of the organism. This review provides a current and up-to-date overview on how codependent these two genomes are, how they appear to have coevolved, and how variations within the mitochondrial genome might be associated with the manifestation of metabolic diseases. This review summarizes and structures results obtained from epidemiological studies that identified links between mitochondrial haplogroups and individual risks for developing obesity and diabetes. This is complemented by findings on the compatibility of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes and cellular bioenergetic fitness, which have been acquired from well-controlled studies in conplastic animal models. These elucidate, more mechanistically, how single-nucleotide variants can influence cellular metabolism and physiology. Overall, it seems that certain mitochondrial genome variations negatively affect mitochondrial-nuclear compatibility and are statistically linked with the onset of metabolic diseases, whereas, for others, greater uncertainty exists, and additional research into this exciting field is required.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23424
  6. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2022 May 04.
      There is robust evidence of genetic susceptibility to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); however, there still remains significant variability that is not attributable to genetic factors. The emerging field of epigenetics is beginning to reveal how genotypic expression can be mediated by an array of variables including external environmental exposure, inter-individual developmental variation, and by the genome itself. Epigenetic modification plays a central role in neurobiological and developmental processes, and disturbances to these processes can have implications for a range of mental health problems. Although the field is still in its early days, this chapter will discuss the current standing of epigenetic research into ADHD. Firstly, key relevant epigenetic processes will be discussed. This will be followed by an overview of the key findings to date investigating the role of epigenetics in ADHD. Human studies have included the theory-driven approach of candidate-gene studies (CGS), as well as the increasingly popular exploratory approach of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS). Overall, the findings are heterogeneous. However, it is possible that with more longitudinal studies and better characterised cohorts, both predictive and protective links between epigenetic processes and ADHD will be revealed.
    Keywords:  Candidate gene; EWAS; Epigenetic; Epigenome; Methylation
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2022_339
  7. RSC Adv. 2020 Nov 27. 10(71): 43383-43388
      Controlled intracellular chemical reactions to regulate cellular functions remain a challenge in biology mimetic systems. Herein, we developed an intra-mitochondrial bio-orthogonal reaction to induce aggregation induced emission. In situ carbonyl ligation inside mitochondria drives the molecules to form nano-aggregates with green fluorescence, which leads to depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane, generation of ROS, and subsequently mitochondrial dysfunction. This intra-mitochondrial carbonyl ligation shows great potential for anticancer treatment in various cancer cell lines.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ra07471c
  8. Cell. 2022 Apr 28. pii: S0092-8674(22)00462-7. [Epub ahead of print]
      Tumor evolution is driven by the progressive acquisition of genetic and epigenetic alterations that enable uncontrolled growth and expansion to neighboring and distal tissues. The study of phylogenetic relationships between cancer cells provides key insights into these processes. Here, we introduced an evolving lineage-tracing system with a single-cell RNA-seq readout into a mouse model of Kras;Trp53(KP)-driven lung adenocarcinoma and tracked tumor evolution from single-transformed cells to metastatic tumors at unprecedented resolution. We found that the loss of the initial, stable alveolar-type2-like state was accompanied by a transient increase in plasticity. This was followed by the adoption of distinct transcriptional programs that enable rapid expansion and, ultimately, clonal sweep of stable subclones capable of metastasizing. Finally, tumors develop through stereotypical evolutionary trajectories, and perturbing additional tumor suppressors accelerates progression by creating novel trajectories. Our study elucidates the hierarchical nature of tumor evolution and, more broadly, enables in-depth studies of tumor progression.
    Keywords:  fitness; genetically engineered mouse model; lineage tracing; lung cancer; phylogenetics; plasticity; single cell; transcriptome heterogeneity; tumor evolution
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.04.015
  9. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2022 Jun 14. 28 435-449
      Transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ), one of core modules of the Hippo pathway, involves inflammatory cell infiltration in the liver, but little information is available regarding its physiological function in the microglia-mediated inflammatory response. Here we revealed that activation of TAZ prevented microglia production of proinflammatory cytokines, indicating TAZ's importance in anti-inflammation. After translocation into the nucleus, TAZ interacted with transcriptional enhanced associate domain (TEAD) and bound to the promoter of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), whose blockage caused inability of TAZ to improve inflammation, implying that Nrf2 is a direct target of TAZ. Further analysis showed that TAZ induced Nrf2 nuclear translocation to enhance antioxidant capacity with attenuation of oxidative stress and the inflammatory response. Under inflammatory conditions, TAZ impeded mitochondrial dysfunction, as indicated by amelioration of ATP levels, mtDNA copy numbers, and mitochondrial membrane potential with an obvious reduction in mitochondrial superoxide, but this impediment was neutralized by blockage of Nrf2. TAZ hindered opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, restrained release of cytochrome c from mitochondria into the cytosol, and was sufficient to rescue microglia from apoptosis dependent on Nrf2. Nrf2 acted as a downstream target of TAZ to repress NF-κB activation by enhancing antioxidant capacity. Collectively, TAZ might ameliorate the microglia-mediated inflammatory response through the Nrf2-reactive oxygen species (ROS)-nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway.
    Keywords:  Nrf2-ROS-NF-κB pathway; TAZ; cell apoptosis; inflammation; microglia; mitochondrial function; oligonucleotide therapies and applications; oxidative stress
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2022.03.025
  10. Nat Methods. 2022 May 02.
      In this work, we describe NEAT-seq (sequencing of nuclear protein epitope abundance, chromatin accessibility and the transcriptome in single cells), enabling interrogation of regulatory mechanisms spanning the central dogma. We apply this technique to profile CD4 memory T cells using a panel of master transcription factors (TFs) that drive T cell subsets and identify examples of TFs with regulatory activity gated by transcription, translation and regulation of chromatin binding. We also link a noncoding genome-wide association study single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within a GATA motif to a putative target gene, using NEAT-seq data to internally validate SNP impact on GATA3 regulation.
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-022-01461-y
  11. BMC Bioinformatics. 2022 May 05. 23(1): 163
      BACKGROUND: To reduce drug side effects and enhance their therapeutic effect compared with single drugs, drug combination research, combining two or more drugs, is highly important. Conducting in-vivo and in-vitro experiments on a vast number of drug combinations incurs astronomical time and cost. To reduce the number of combinations, researchers classify whether drug combinations are synergistic through in-silico methods. Since unstructured data, such as biomedical documents, include experimental types, methods, and results, it can be beneficial extracting features from documents to predict anti-cancer drug combination synergy. However, few studies predict anti-cancer drug combination synergy using document-extracted features.RESULTS: We present a novel approach for anti-cancer drug combination synergy prediction using document-based feature extraction. Our approach is divided into two steps. First, we extracted documents containing validated anti-cancer drug combinations and cell lines. Drug and cell line synonyms in the extracted documents were converted into representative words, and the documents were preprocessed by tokenization, lemmatization, and stopword removal. Second, the drug and cell line features were extracted from the preprocessed documents, and training data were constructed by feature concatenation. A prediction model based on deep and machine learning was created using the training data. The use of our features yielded higher results compared to the majority of published studies.
    CONCLUSIONS: Using our prediction model, researchers can save time and cost on new anti-cancer drug combination discoveries. Additionally, since our feature extraction method does not require structuring of unstructured data, new data can be immediately applied without any data scalability issues.
    Keywords:  Anti-cancer drug combination; Deep learning; Document-based feature extraction; Drug synergy; Machine learning; Natural language processing; Text mining; Word2vec
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-022-04698-8
  12. Gastroenterology. 2022 Apr 27. pii: S0016-5085(22)00440-1. [Epub ahead of print]
      BACKGROUND & AIMS: YAP aberrant activation is implicated in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA). TEAD mediated transcriptional regulation is the primary signaling event downstream of YAP. The role of Wnt/β-Catenin signaling in cholangiocarcinogenesis remains undetermined. Here, we investigated the possible molecular interplay between YAP and β-Catenin cascades in iCCA.METHODS: Activated Akt (Myr-Akt) was co-expressed with Yap (YapS127A) or Tead2VP16 via hydrodynamic tail vein injection into the mouse livers. Tumor growth was monitored, liver tissues were collected and analyzed using histopathologic and molecular analysis. Yap, β-Catenin, and TEAD interaction in iCCAs was investigated through co-immunoprecipitation. Conditional Ctnnb1 KO mice were utilized to determine β-Catenin function in murine iCCA models. RNA sequencing (RNASeq) was performed to analyze the genes regulated by YAP and/or β-Catenin. Immunostaining of total and non-phosphorylated/activated β-Catenin staining was performed in mouse and human iCCAs.
    RESULTS: We discovered that TEAD factors are required for YAP-dependent iCCA development. However, transcriptional activation of TEADs did not fully recapitulate YAP's activities in promoting cholangiocarcinogenesis. Notably, β-Catenin physically interacted with YAP in human and mouse iCCA. Ctnnb1 ablation strongly suppressed human iCCA cell growth and Yap-dependent cholangiocarcinogenesis. Furthermore, RNASeq analysis revealed that YAP/TAZ regulate a set of genes significantly overlapping with those controlled by β-Catenin. Importantly, activated/non-phosphorylated β-Catenin was detected in over 80% of human iCCAs.
    CONCLUSION: YAP induces cholangiocarcinogenesis via TEAD-dependent transcriptional activation and interaction with β-Catenin. β-Catenin binds to YAP in iCCA and is required for YAP full transcriptional activity, revealing the functional crosstalk between YAP and β-Catenin pathways in cholangiocarcinogenesis.
    Keywords:  Hippo/YAP; Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; TEADs; β-Catenin
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2022.04.028