Project description:Analysis of Rab25 in human colon samples The adenoma dataset (n=6) contains 6 colonic adenomas for use in comparison to colon adenocarcinoma datasets.
Project description:Transformation of epithelial cells is associated with loss of cell polarity, which includes alterations in cell morphology as well as changes in the complement of plasma membrane proteins. Rab proteins regulate polarized trafficking to the cell membrane and therefore represent potential regulators of this neoplastic transition. Here we have demonstrated a tumor suppressor function for Rab25 in intestinal neoplasia in both mice and humans. Human colorectal adenocarcinomas exhibited reductions in Rab25 expression independent of stage, with lower Rab25 expression levels correlating with substantially shorter patient survival. In wild-type mice, Rab25 was strongly expressed in cells luminal to the proliferating cells of intestinal crypts. While Rab25-deficient mice did not exhibit gross pathology, ApcMin/+ mice crossed onto a Rab25-deficient background showed a 4-fold increase in intestinal polyps and a 2-fold increase in colonic tumors compared with parental ApcMin/+ mice. Rab25-deficient mice had decreased beta1 integrin staining in the lateral membranes of villus cells, and this pattern was accentuated in Rab25-deficient mice crossed onto the ApcMin/+ background. Additionally, Smad3+/- mice crossed onto a Rab25-deficient background demonstrated a marked increase in colonic tumor formation. Taken together, these results suggest that Rab25 may function as a tumor suppressor in intestinal epithelial cells through regulation of protein trafficking to the cell surface.
Project description:Background & aimsLoss of claudin 18 (CLDN18), a membrane-spanning tight junction protein, occurs during early stages of development of gastric cancer and associates with shorter survival times of patients. We investigated whether loss of CLDN18 occurs in mice that develop intraepithelial neoplasia with invasive glands due to infection with Helicobacter pylori, and whether loss is sufficient to promote the development of similar lesions in mice with or without H pylori infection.MethodsWe performed immunohistochemical analyses in levels of CLDN18 in archived tissues from B6:129 mice infected with H pylori for 6 to 15 months. We analyzed gastric tissues from B6:129S5-Cldn18tm1Lex/Mmucd mice, in which the CLDN18 gene was disrupted in gastric tissues (CLDN18-knockout mice), or from control mice with a full-length CLDN18 gene (CLDN18+/+; B6:129S5/SvEvBrd) or heterozygous disruption of CLDN18 (CLDN18+/-; B6:129S5/SvEvBrd) that were infected with H pylori SS1 or PMSS1 at 6 weeks of age and tissues collected for analysis at 20 and 30 weeks after infection. Tissues from CLDN18-knockout mice and control mice with full-length CLDN18 gene expression were also analyzed without infection at 7 weeks and 2 years after birth. Tissues from control and CLDN18-knockout mice were analyzed by electron microscopy, stained by conventional methods and analyzed for histopathology, prepared by laser capture microdissection and analyzed by RNAseq, and immunostained for lineage markers, proliferation markers, and stem cell markers and analyzed by super-resolution or conventional confocal microscopy.ResultsCLDN18 had a basolateral rather than apical tight junction localization in gastric epithelial cells. B6:129 mice infected with H pylori, which developed intraepithelial neoplasia with invasive glands, had increasing levels of CLDN18 loss over time compared with uninfected mice. In B6:129 mice infected with H pylori compared with uninfected mice, CLDN18 was first lost from most gastric glands followed by disrupted and reduced expression in the gastric neck and in surface cells. Gastric tissues from CLDN18-knockout mice had low levels of inflammation but increased cell proliferation, expressed markers of intestinalized proliferative spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia, and had defects in signal transduction pathways including p53 and STAT signaling by 7 weeks after birth compared with full-length CLDN18 gene control mice. By 20 to 30 weeks after birth, gastric tissues from uninfected CLDN18-knockout mice developed intraepithelial neoplasia that invaded the submucosa; by 2 years, gastric tissues contained large and focally dysplastic polypoid tumors with invasive glands that invaded the serosa.ConclusionsH pylori infection of B6:129 mice reduced the expression of CLDN18 early in gastric cancer progression, similar to previous observations from human gastric tissues. CLDN18 regulates cell lineage differentiation and cellular signaling in mouse stomach; CLDN18-knockout mice develop intraepithelial neoplasia and then large and focally dysplastic polypoid tumors in the absence of H pylori infection.
Project description:Twelve clinical samples from human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) (seven tumors and five non-tumors) were sequenced using Illumina high-throughput sequencing and the RNA-Seq profiling was investigated with 1730 genes significantly differentially expressed. The gene Rab25 was found to be down-regulated in tumors (p-value < 1E-20) and identified as a novel candidate tumor suppressor gene. The down-regulation of Rab25 was examined in a large cohort of ESCC and non-tumor cases by qPCR and immunohistochemistry analyses. Aberrant methylation in the promoter region of Rab25 was studied by demethylation treatment with 5-aza-dC and bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS). In order to assess the effect of Rab25 on tumor growth and angiogenesis, in vitro and in vivo functional studies in ESCC cell lines using lentiviral-based overexpression or knockdown models were also performed.
Project description:US28 is a constitutively active chemokine receptor encoded by CMV (also referred to as human herpesvirus 5), a highly prevalent human virus that infects a broad spectrum of cells, including intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). To study the role of US28 in vivo, we created transgenic mice (VS28 mice) in which US28 expression was targeted to IECs. Expression of US28 was detected in all IECs of the small and large intestine, including in cells expressing leucine rich repeat containing GPCR5 (Lgr5), a marker gene of intestinal epithelial stem cells. US28 expression in IECs inhibited glycogen synthase 3β (GSK-3β) function, promoted accumulation of β-catenin protein, and increased expression of Wnt target genes involved in the control of the cell proliferation. VS28 mice showed a hyperplastic intestinal epithelium and, strikingly, developed adenomas and adenocarcinomas by 40 weeks of age. When exposed to an inflammation-driven tumor model (azoxymethane/dextran sodium sulfate), VS28 mice developed a significantly higher tumor burden than control littermates. Transgenic coexpression of the US28 ligand CCL2 (an inflammatory chemokine) increased IEC proliferation as well as tumor burden, suggesting that the oncogenic activity of US28 can be modulated by inflammatory factors. Together, these results indicate that expression of US28 promotes development of intestinal dysplasia and cancer in transgenic mice and suggest that CMV infection may facilitate development of intestinal neoplasia in humans.
Project description:BackgroundHLTF (Helicase-like Transcription Factor) is a DNA helicase protein homologous to the SWI/SNF family involved in the maintenance of genomic stability and the regulation of gene expression. HLTF has also been found to be frequently inactivated by promoter hypermethylation in human colon cancers. Whether this epigenetic event is required for intestinal carcinogenesis is unknown.ResultsTo address the role of loss of HLTF function in the development of intestinal cancer, we generated Hltf deficient mice. These mutant mice showed normal development, and did not develop intestinal tumors, indicating that loss of Hltf function by itself is insufficient to induce the formation of intestinal cancer. On the Apcmin/+ mutant background, Hltf- deficiency was found to significantly increase the formation of intestinal adenocarcinoma and colon cancers. Cytogenetic analysis of colon tumor cells from Hltf-/-/Apcmin/+ mice revealed a high incidence of gross chromosomal instabilities, including Robertsonian fusions, chromosomal fragments and aneuploidy. None of these genetic alterations were observed in the colon tumor cells derived from Apcmin/+ mice. Increased tumor growth and genomic instability was also demonstrated in HCT116 human colon cancer cells in which HLTF expression was significantly decreased.ConclusionTaken together, our results demonstrate that loss of HLTF function promotes the malignant transformation of intestinal or colonic adenomas to carcinomas by inducing genomic instability. Our findings highly suggest that epigenetic inactivation of HLTF, as found in most human colon cancers, could play an important role in the progression of colon tumors to malignant cancer.
Project description:Twelve clinical samples from human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) (seven tumors and five non-tumors) were sequenced using Illumina high-throughput sequencing and the RNA-Seq profiling was investigated with 1730 genes significantly differentially expressed. The gene Rab25 was found to be down-regulated in tumors (p-value < 1E-20) and identified as a novel candidate tumor suppressor gene. The down-regulation of Rab25 was examined in a large cohort of ESCC and non-tumor cases by qPCR and immunohistochemistry analyses. Aberrant methylation in the promoter region of Rab25 was studied by demethylation treatment with 5-aza-dC and bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS). In order to assess the effect of Rab25 on tumor growth and angiogenesis, in vitro and in vivo functional studies in ESCC cell lines using lentiviral-based overexpression or knockdown models were also performed. 7 tumor and 5 normal samples
Project description:Goal of the experiment: To identify transcriptional patterns across tumors from colorectal cancer murine models and normal mouse colon samples at different developmental stages. Experiment description: Colorectal cancer (CRC) results from multiple genetic and epigenetic events that produce variable histologies and clinical outcomes. To identify gene regulatory programs that underlie colon tumorigenesis, we profiled gene expression in 39 mouse colon tumors from four independent mouse models and compared this to mouse colon embryonic development, as well as with 100 human colon carcinomas. Here, we report a striking recapitulation of embryonic patterns of gene expression in both mouse and human colon tumors. All four of the mouse colon tumor models exhibited large-scale activation of embryonic gene expression signatures. The two nuclear beta-catenin-positive mouse tumors (azoxymethane-treated [AOM] and ApcMin/+), exhibited strong activation of genes characteristic of those expressed in the earliest embryonic stages, while tumors from two other models (Smad3-/- and Tgfb1-/- x Rag2-/-) exhibited lower activation of early stage-specific genes but substantial expression of general embryonic colon genes. Human colon cancer cases over-expressed genes characteristic of both early and late embryonic stages. Examining tumor gene expression through the lens of development has revealed an extensive network of therapeutic targets for cancer control. Keywords: Tumors from four murine models of colorectal cancer and normal mouse colon samples at different developmental stages
Project description:The Ras-family small GTPase RAB25 is involved in numerous aspects of endosomal protein trafficking and cell polarity. Recent evidence has established a role for RAB25, as well as related RAB-family and effector proteins, in oncogenic signaling, highlighting the need for chemical probes targeting this class of proteins. Here we report the development of all-hydrocarbon stabilized peptides targeting RAB25 derived from the RAB-binding FIP-family of proteins. Relative to unmodified FIP peptides, optimized stapled peptides show markedly increased structural stability, binding affinity, cell permeability and inhibition of RAB25:FIP complex formation. RAB25 expression has been shown to promote both pro- and anti-oncogenic phenotypes in specific cellular contexts. Stapled peptide RFP14 treatment of breast and ovarian cancer cell lines, in which RAB25 is pro-oncogenic, inhibited migration and proliferation in a RAB25-dependent manner. In contrast, treatment of a triple-negative breast cancer cell line in which RAB25 is tumor suppressive augmented proliferation and migration. Gene expression (RNA Seq) profiling identified significantly altered transcripts in response to RAB25 expression in ovarian cancer cells, and treatment with the optimized stapled peptide RFP14 reversed this expression profile. These data validate first-in-class chemical probes targeting RAB-family proteins and support the role of RAB25 in regulating context-specific oncogenic phenotypes.
Project description:Primary cilia (PC) are important signaling hubs in cells and we explored their role in colorectal cancer (CRC) and colitis. In the colon we found PC to be mostly present on different subtypes of fibroblasts and exposure of mice to either chemically induced colitis-associated colon carcinogenesis (CAC) or dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced acute colitis decreased PC numbers. We employed conditional knock-out strains for the PC essential genes, Kif3A and Ift88, to generate mice with reduced numbers of PC on colonic fibroblasts. These mice showed an increased susceptibility in the CAC model as well as in DSS-induced colitis. Secretome and immunohistochemical analyses of DSS-treated mice displayed an elevated production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in PC-deficient colons. An inflammatory environment diminished PC presence in primary fibroblast cultures. This was triggered by IL-6 as identified by RNAseq analysis together with blocking experiments, suggesting an activation loop between IL-6 production and PC loss. Notably, an analysis of PC presence on biopsies of patients with ulcerative colitis as well as CRC patients revealed decreased numbers of PC on colonic fibroblasts in pathological versus surrounding normal tissue. Taken together, we provide evidence that a decrease in colonic PC numbers promotes colitis and CRC.