Project description:The 1918 influenza pandemic was unusually severe, resulting in about 50 million deaths worldwide. A reconstructed version of the 1918 (H1N1) virus has been shown to also highly pathogenic in mice; however, the potential virulence and pathogenicity of the 1918 virus in nonhuman primates in unknown. In these studies, we demonstrate that the 1918 virus caused a highly pathogenic respiratory infection in a cynomolgus macaque model that culminated in acute respiratory distress and a fatal outcome. To characterize the global gene expression host response, oligonulceotide microarray analysis was performed on RNA isolated from the bronchus of macaques infected with either the 1918 virus or a humanized contemporary H1N1 influenza virus (A/Kawasaki/173/01). These experiments showed that infected animals mounted an immune response, characterized by dysregulation of the antiviral response, that was insufficient for protection, suggesting that atypical host innate immune responses may contribute to lethality.
Project description:We constructed a database containing 248,000 exon sequences from 23,000 human RefSeq genes and compared each human exon with its best matching sequence in the January 2005 version of the rhesus genome project list of 486,000 DNA contigs. Best matching rhesus exon sequences for each of the 23,000 human genes were then concatenated in the proper order and orientation to produce a rhesus virtual transcriptome. Microarray probes were designed, one per gene, to the region closest to the 3? untranslated region (UTR) of each rhesus virtual transcript. Each probe was compared to a composite rhesus/human transcript database to test for cross-hybridization potential yielding a final probe set representing 18,296 rhesus/human gene orthologs, including transcript variants, and over 17,000 distinct genes. We hybridized mRNA from rhesus brain and spleen to both the EST- and genome-derived microarrays. Besides four-fold greater gene coverage, the genome-derived array also showed greater mean signal intensities for genes present on both arrays. Genome-derived probes showed 99.4% identity when compared to 4,767 rhesus GenBank sequence tag site (STS) sequences indicating that early stage low-pass versions of complex genomes are of sufficient quality to yield valuable functional genomic information when combined with finished genome information from a closely related species.
Project description:Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) responds to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as erlotinib. However, secondary somatic EGFR mutations (e.g. T790M) confer resistance to erlotinib. BMS-690514, a novel panHER/VEGFR inhibitor described here, exerted antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on NSCLC cell lines, with prominent efficacy on H1975 cells expressing the T790M mutation. In this model, BMS-690514 induced a G1 cell cycle arrest, as well as ultrastructural hallmarks of apoptosis, mitochondrial release of cytochrome c, and activation of caspases involved in the intrinsic (e.g. caspase -2, -3, -7 and -9), but not in the extrinsic (e.g. caspase-8) pathway. Caspase inhibition conferred partial protection against BMS-690514 cytotoxicity, pointing to the involvement of both caspase-dependent and -independent effector mechanisms. Transcriptome analyses revealed the upregulation of pro-apoptotic (e.g. Bim, Puma) and cell cycle inhibitory (e.g. p27Kip1, p57Kip2) factors, as well as the downregulation of anti-apoptotic (e.g. Mcl1), heat shock (e.g. HSP40, HSP70, HSP90) and cell cycle promoting (e.g. cyclins B1, D1 and D3, CDK1, MCM family proteins, PCNA) proteins. BMS-690514-induced death of H1975 cells was modified in a unique fashion by a panel of siRNAs targeting apoptosis modulators. Downregulation of components of the NF-kappaB survival pathway (e.g. p65, Nemo/IKK, TAB2) sensitized cells to BMS-690514, whereas knockdown of pro-apoptotic factors (e.g. Puma, Bax, Bak, caspase-2, etc) and DNA damage-related proteins (e.g. ERCC1, hTERT) exerted cytoprotective effects. BMS-690514 is a new pan-HER/VEGFR inhibitor that may become an alternative to erlotinib for the treatment of NSCLC.
Project description:During the oncogenic process, tetraploidy is a candidate intermediate stage leading from diploidy to aneuploidy. The aim of our experiment was to establish tetraploid clones and to characterize their transcriptome.
Project description:Carcinomas of unknown primary (CUP) are characterized by early metastatic dissemination in the absence of a detectable primary tumor. This disease accounts for about 3% of all malignant tumors. Most CUPs are poorly responsive to chemotherapy and have a rapid fatal evolution. The biological mechanisms supporting metastatic growth in various sites combined with regression or absence of growth in the primary site are still poorly understood. The aim of this project was to investigate characteristics of gene expression profile specific of CUPs with special attention to genes overexpressed or silenced in CUPs but not in classical secondary metastases. Three series of experiments were performed in 2006 and 2007. In all experiments, the mRNA used as a reference was obtained from diploid untransformed human fibroblasts (MRC5). The CUP samples were 2 xenografted CUP tumors (Capi1 and Capi3) and 4 CUP biopsies including a squamous carcinoma (Aud) and 3 adenocarcinomas (Gal, Pro, Gag). Samples representative of secondary metastases were xenografted tumors derived from metastases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (C17), lung adenocarcinoma (IC14) and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (xenografted Capan 1 cell line) and one biopsy from a breast carcinoma (Vuc).
Project description:The IGR-Heu tumor cell line was established from patient Heu suffering from large cell carcinoma of the lung. Heu171 T cell clones were isolated from autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. H32-22 clone was isolated from autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes after stimulation with IGR-Heu and sorting with peptide-MHC tetramers. T cells were grown in the presence of irradiated autologous tumor and lymphoblastoid cell lines in complete media supplemented with rIL-2 and conditioned medium from phytohemagglutinin-activated lymphocytes for 3 weeks. Then, for microarray assays, RNA was extracted from the different cells
Project description:Mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTCH1 are responsible for Gorlin syndrome, or nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS). NBCCS causes predisposition to basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the commonest cancer in adult human. In the general population BCC develop almost exclusively in sun-exposed area of the skin (Buettner PG, Raasch BA (1998) Int J Cancer 78: 587-593). In contrast, and, intriguingly, NBCCS BCCs are observed in both sun-protected and sun-exposed areas. Interestingly, our previous studies have shown that both fibroblasts and keratinocytes from NBCCS patients exhibit normal nucleotide excision repair of UVB-induced DNA lesions and survival capacities following a single UVB irradiation (Brellier F, Valin A, et al. (2008) Br J Dermatol.). These data suggest that sun UV are far from being the only etiologic factor of BCC in NBCCS patients. In this study we aimed at documenting the possible role of NBCCS fibroblasts in BCC development in NBCCS patients. Thus, the genome expression of NBCCS primary fibroblasts cultured in a dermal equivalent was compared to the one of control fibroblasts under the same circumstances.
Project description:From a tumoral line IGR-Heu; resulting from a biopsy of the primitive tumour of a patient reached of a bronchial cancer not with small cells (NSCLC); we established; by successive co-cultures of this line with the autologous CTL (clone T H161); a resistant line to the cytotoxic lysis induced by H161 (IGR-HeuR8 line). This resistant line was then cloned by limiting dilutions and a resistant clone was obtained (tumoral clone IGR-HeuR8). The goal of this study is to define profiles of genetic expression of the tumoral resistance to the CTL after phenotypical and functional study of the resistant clone IGR-HeuR8.
Project description:Tetraploid cells are more resistant against genotoxic stress (irradiation, platinum compounds, topoisomerase inhibitors) than their diploid precursors. Here, we studied the effect of cisplatin and/or Chk1 inhibition on the transcriptome of diploid and tetraploid HCT116 cells
Project description:In this experiment, there are replicate measurements of gene expression in a group of similarly treated animals measured in such a way as to provide data for comparison of technical variation with biological variability. The data are twelve microarray measurements on each of six rats that were subject to the same control-group treatment. The twelve measurements encompass triplicate measures of RNA from the liver, from the kidney, and from two mixtures of both RNAs.