BET inhibition disrupts transcription but retains enhancer-promoter contact [Capture-C]
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ABSTRACT: Enhancers are DNA sequences that enable complex temporal and tissue-specific regulation of genes in higher eukaryotes. Although it is not entirely clear how enhancer-promoter interactions can increase gene expression, this proximity has been observed in multiple systems at multiple loci and is thought to be essential for the maintenance of gene expression. Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal domain (BET) and Mediator proteins have been shown capable of forming phase condensates and are thought to be essential for super-enhancer function. Here, we show that targeting of cells with inhibitors of BET proteins or pharmacological degradation of BET protein Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) has a strong impact on transcription but very little impact on enhancer-promoter interactions. Dissolving phase condensates reduces BRD4 and Mediator binding at enhancers and can also strongly affect gene transcription, without disrupting enhancer-promoter interactions. These results suggest that activation of transcription and maintenance of enhancer-promoter interactions are separable events. Our findings further indicate that enhancer-promoter interactions are not dependent on high levels of BRD4 and Mediator, and are likely maintained by a complex set of factors including additional activator complexes and, at some sites, CTCF and cohesin.
Project description:Enhancers are DNA sequences that enable complex temporal and tissue-specific regulation of genes in higher eukaryotes. Although it is not entirely clear how enhancer-promoter interactions can increase gene expression, this proximity has been observed in multiple systems at multiple loci and is thought to be essential for the maintenance of gene expression. Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal domain (BET) and Mediator proteins have been shown capable of forming phase condensates and are thought to be essential for super-enhancer function. Here, we show that targeting of cells with inhibitors of BET proteins or pharmacological degradation of BET protein Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) has a strong impact on transcription but very little impact on enhancer-promoter interactions. Dissolving phase condensates reduces BRD4 and Mediator binding at enhancers and can also strongly affect gene transcription, without disrupting enhancer-promoter interactions. These results suggest that activation of transcription and maintenance of enhancer-promoter interactions are separable events. Our findings further indicate that enhancer-promoter interactions are not dependent on high levels of BRD4 and Mediator, and are likely maintained by a complex set of factors including additional activator complexes and, at some sites, CTCF and cohesin.
Project description:Enhancers are DNA sequences that enable complex temporal and tissue-specific regulation of genes in higher eukaryotes. Although it is not entirely clear how enhancer-promoter interactions can increase gene expression, this proximity has been observed in multiple systems at multiple loci and is thought to be essential for the maintenance of gene expression. Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal domain (BET) and Mediator proteins have been shown capable of forming phase condensates and are thought to be essential for super-enhancer function. Here, we show that targeting of cells with inhibitors of BET proteins or pharmacological degradation of BET protein Bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) has a strong impact on transcription but very little impact on enhancer-promoter interactions. Dissolving phase condensates reduces BRD4 and Mediator binding at enhancers and can also strongly affect gene transcription, without disrupting enhancer-promoter interactions. These results suggest that activation of transcription and maintenance of enhancer-promoter interactions are separable events. Our findings further indicate that enhancer-promoter interactions are not dependent on high levels of BRD4 and Mediator, and are likely maintained by a complex set of factors including additional activator complexes and, at some sites, CTCF and cohesin.
Project description:BRD4, a member of the BET family, can bind to ER binding sites and activate transcription of BETi-resistant genes, such as MYC, independently of bromodomains. Importantly, we uncover that the bromodomain-independent recruitment of BRD4 to enhancers relies on the Mediator complex, and that disruption of Mediator complex reduces BRD4's enhancer occupancy.
Project description:The bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) protein Brd4 is a validated drug target in leukemia, yet its regulatory function in this disease is not well understood. Here, we show that Brd4 chromatin occupancy in acute myeloid leukemia closely correlates with the hematopoietic transcription factors (TFs) Pu.1, Fli1, Erg, C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, and Myb at nucleosome-depleted enhancer and promoter regions. We provide evidence that these TFs, in conjunction with the lysine acetyltransferase activity of p300/CBP, facilitate Brd4 recruitment to their occupied sites to promote transcriptional activation. Moreover, chemical inhibition of BET bromodomains is found to suppress the functional output each hematopoietic TF, thereby interfering with essential lineage-specific transcriptional circuits in this disease. These findings reveal a chromatin-based signaling cascade comprised of hematopoietic TFs, p300/CBP, and Brd4, which supports leukemia maintenance and is suppressed by BET bromodomain inhibition. ChIP-Seq for regulatory factors of Brd4 in MLL-AF9 transformed acute myeloid leukemia cells (RN2)
Project description:The bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) protein Brd4 is a validated drug target in leukemia, yet its regulatory function in this disease is not well understood. Here, we show that Brd4 chromatin occupancy in acute myeloid leukemia closely correlates with the hematopoietic transcription factors (TFs) Pu.1, Fli1, Erg, C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, and Myb at nucleosome-depleted enhancer and promoter regions. We provide evidence that these TFs, in conjunction with the lysine acetyltransferase activity of p300/CBP, facilitate Brd4 recruitment to their occupied sites to promote transcriptional activation. Moreover, chemical inhibition of BET bromodomains is found to suppress the functional output each hematopoietic TF, thereby interfering with essential lineage-specific transcriptional circuits in this disease. These findings reveal a chromatin-based signaling cascade comprised of hematopoietic TFs, p300/CBP, and Brd4, which supports leukemia maintenance and is suppressed by BET bromodomain inhibition. PolyA selected RNA-Seq for drug treated or shRNA-expressing MLL-AF9 transformed acute myeloid leukemia cells (RN2)
Project description:Aberrant enhancer activation is a key mechanism driving oncogene expression in many cancers. While much is known about the regulation of larger chromosome domains in eukaryotes, the details of enhancer-promoter interactions remain poorly understood. Recent work suggests co-activators like BRD4 and Mediator have little impact on enhancer-promoter interactions. In leukemias controlled by the MLL-AF4 fusion protein, we use the ultra-high resolution technique Micro-Capture-C (MCC) to show that MLL-AF4 binding promotes broad, high-density regions of enhancer-promoter interactions at a subset of key targets. These enhancers are enriched for transcription elongation factors like PAF1C and FACT and loss of these factors abolishes enhancer-promoter contact. This work not only provides a new model for how MLL-AF4 is able to drive high levels of transcription at key genes in leukemia, but also suggests a more general model linking enhancer-promoter crosstalk and transcription elongation.
Project description:Chromatin regulators have become highly attractive targets for cancer therapy, yet many of these regulators are expressed in a broad range of healthy cells and contribute generally to gene expression. An important conundrum has thus emerged: how can inhibition of a general regulator of gene expression produce selective effects at specific oncogenes? Here we investigate how inhibition of the transcriptional coactivator BRD4 (Bromodomain containing 4) leads to selective inhibition of disease-critical oncogenes in a highly malignant blood cancer, multiple myeloma (MM). We found that BRD4 generally occupies the promoter elements of active genes together with the Mediator coactivator, but remarkably high levels of these two coactivator proteins were associated with a small set of exceptionally large enhancers. These super-enhancers are associated with genes that feature prominently in MM biology, including the MYC oncogene. Treatment of MM tumor cells with the BET-bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 led to preferential loss of BRD4 at super-enhancers and consequent transcription elongation defects that preferentially impact genes with super-enhancers, including the c-MYC oncogene. Super-enhancers were found at key oncogenic drivers in many other tumor cells. Thus, super-enhancers can regulate oncogenic drivers in tumor cells, which in some cells can be preferentially disrupted by BRD4 inhibition, which in turn contributes to the selective transcriptional effects observed at these oncogenes. These observations have implications for the discovery of novel cancer therapeutics directed at components of super-enhancers in diverse tumor types. Gene expression profiling in multiple myeloma cells after BET-Bromodomain inhibition with JQ1
Project description:The bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) protein Brd4 is a validated drug target in leukemia, yet its regulatory function in this disease is not well understood. Here, we show that Brd4 chromatin occupancy in acute myeloid leukemia closely correlates with the hematopoietic transcription factors (TFs) Pu.1, Fli1, Erg, C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, and Myb at nucleosome-depleted enhancer and promoter regions. We provide evidence that these TFs, in conjunction with the lysine acetyltransferase activity of p300/CBP, facilitate Brd4 recruitment to their occupied sites to promote transcriptional activation. Moreover, chemical inhibition of BET bromodomains is found to suppress the functional output each hematopoietic TF, thereby interfering with essential lineage-specific transcriptional circuits in this disease. These findings reveal a chromatin-based signaling cascade comprised of hematopoietic TFs, p300/CBP, and Brd4, which supports leukemia maintenance and is suppressed by BET bromodomain inhibition.
Project description:The bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) protein Brd4 is a validated drug target in leukemia, yet its regulatory function in this disease is not well understood. Here, we show that Brd4 chromatin occupancy in acute myeloid leukemia closely correlates with the hematopoietic transcription factors (TFs) Pu.1, Fli1, Erg, C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, and Myb at nucleosome-depleted enhancer and promoter regions. We provide evidence that these TFs, in conjunction with the lysine acetyltransferase activity of p300/CBP, facilitate Brd4 recruitment to their occupied sites to promote transcriptional activation. Moreover, chemical inhibition of BET bromodomains is found to suppress the functional output each hematopoietic TF, thereby interfering with essential lineage-specific transcriptional circuits in this disease. These findings reveal a chromatin-based signaling cascade comprised of hematopoietic TFs, p300/CBP, and Brd4, which supports leukemia maintenance and is suppressed by BET bromodomain inhibition.
Project description:Proinflammatory stimuli rapidly and globally remodel chromatin landscape, thereby enabling transcriptional responses. Yet, the mechanisms coupling chromatin regulators to the master regulatory inflammatory transcription factor NF-kB remain poorly understood. We report in human endothelial cells (ECs) that activated NF-kB binds to enhancers, provoking a rapid, global redistribution of BRD4 preferentially at super-enhancers, large enhancer domains highly bound by chromatin regulators. Newly established NF-kB super-enhancers drive nearby canonical inflammatory response genes. In both ECs and macrophages BET bromodomain inhibition prevents super-enhancer formation downstream of NF-kB activation, abrogating proinflammatory transcription. In TNFa-activated endothelium this culminates in functional suppression of leukocyte rolling, adhesion and transmigration. Sustained BET bromodomain inhibitor treatment of LDLr -/- animals suppresses atherogenesis, a disease process rooted in pathological vascular inflammation involving endothelium and macrophages. These data establish BET-bromodomains as key effectors of inflammatory response through their role in the dynamic, global reorganization of super-enhancers during NF-kB activation. Gene expression analysis of human endothelial cells in resting state, treatment with TNFalpha or TNFalpha with the BET bromodomain inhibitor JQ1