Project description:Abstract Maspin is a tumor and metastasis suppressor playing an essential role as gatekeeper of tumor progression. It is highly expressed in epithelial cells but is silenced in the onset of metastatic disease by epigenetic mechanisms. Reprogramming of Maspin epigenetic silencing offers a therapeutic potential to lock metastatic progression. Herein we have investigated the ability of the Artificial Transcription Factor 126 (ATF-126) designed to upregulate the Maspin promoter to inhibit tumor progression in pre-established breast tumors in immunodeficient mice. ATF-126 was transduced in the aggressive, mesenchymal-like and triple negative breast cancer line, MDA-MB-231. Induction of ATF expression in vivo by Doxycycline resulted in 50% reduction in tumor growth and totally abolished tumor cell colonization. Genome-wide transcriptional profiles of ATF-induced cells revealed a gene signature that was found over-represented in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) “Normal-like” intrinsic subtype of breast cancer and in poorly aggressive, ER+ luminal A breast cancer cell lines. The comparison transcriptional profiles of ATF-126 and Maspin cDNA defined an overlapping 19-gene signature, comprising novel targets downstream the Maspin signaling cascade. Our data suggest that Maspin up-regulates downstream tumor and metastasis suppressor genes that are silenced in breast cancers, and are normally expressed in the neural system, including CARNS1, SLC8A2 and DACT3. In addition, ATF-126 and Maspin cDNA induction led to the re-activation of tumor suppressive miRNAs also expressed in neural cells, such as miR-1 and miR-34, and to the down-regulation of potential oncogenic miRNAs, such as miR-10b, miR-124, and miR-363. As expected from its over-representation in ER+ tumors, the ATF-126-gene signature predicted favorable prognosis for breast cancer patients. Our results describe for the first time an ATF able to reduce tumor growth and metastatic colonization by epigenetic reactivation of a dormant, normal-like, and more differentiated gene program.

Project description:Abstract Maspin is a tumor and metastasis suppressor playing an essential role as gatekeeper of tumor progression. It is highly expressed in epithelial cells but is silenced in the onset of metastatic disease by epigenetic mechanisms. Reprogramming of Maspin epigenetic silencing offers a therapeutic potential to lock metastatic progression. Herein we have investigated the ability of the Artificial Transcription Factor 126 (ATF-126) designed to upregulate the Maspin promoter to inhibit tumor progression in pre-established breast tumors in immunodeficient mice. ATF-126 was transduced in the aggressive, mesenchymal-like and triple negative breast cancer line, MDA-MB-231. Induction of ATF expression in vivo by Doxycycline resulted in 50% reduction in tumor growth and totally abolished tumor cell colonization. Genome-wide transcriptional profiles of ATF-induced cells revealed a gene signature that was found over-represented in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) “Normal-like” intrinsic subtype of breast cancer and in poorly aggressive, ER+ luminal A breast cancer cell lines. The comparison transcriptional profiles of ATF-126 and Maspin cDNA defined an overlapping 19-gene signature, comprising novel targets downstream the Maspin signaling cascade. Our data suggest that Maspin up-regulates downstream tumor and metastasis suppressor genes that are silenced in breast cancers, and are normally expressed in the neural system, including CARNS1, SLC8A2 and DACT3. In addition, ATF-126 and Maspin cDNA induction led to the re-activation of tumor suppressive miRNAs also expressed in neural cells, such as miR-1 and miR-34, and to the down-regulation of potential oncogenic miRNAs, such as miR-10b, miR-124, and miR-363. As expected from its over-representation in ER+ tumors, the ATF-126-gene signature predicted favorable prognosis for breast cancer patients. Our results describe for the first time an ATF able to reduce tumor growth and metastatic colonization by epigenetic reactivation of a dormant, normal-like, and more differentiated gene program. A total of six cell lines were used for gene expression analyses: CONTROL –DOX, CONTROL +DOX, ATF-126 –DOX, ATF-126 +DOX (all with 3 technical replicates), p-RetoX-Tight-Maspin –DOX, and p-RetoX-Tight-Maspin +DOX (with 2 technical replicates). For each cell line, total RNA was purified, amplified, labeled, and hybridized [46] using Agilent Agilent 4X44K oligo microarrays (Agilent Technologies, United States). The probes/genes were filtered by requiring the lowest normalized intensity values in both –DOX and +DOX samples to be >10. The normalized log2 ratios (Cy5 sample/Cy3 control) of probes mapping to the same gene were averaged to generate independent expression estimates. We also used available microarrays from the breast cancer cell lines [21], the UNC337-patient [20], the MERGE 550-patient dataset [47] and the NKI (295 patients [48,49]). All microarray cluster analyses were displayed using Java Treeview version 1.1.3. Average-linkage hierarchical clustering was performed using Cluster v2.12 [50]. ANOVA tests for gene expression data were performed using R (http://cran.r-project.org).

Project description:Ovarian cancer is a major cause of cancer mortality among women largely due to late diagnosis of advanced stage metastatic disease. More extensive molecular analysis of metastatic ovarian cancer is needed to identify post-translational modifications of proteins particularly associated with metastatic disease so that we can better understand the metastatic process and identify potential therapeutic targets. Proteins are the target of many recently developed cancer treatments, but an often neglected aspect of biomarker discovery is protein glycosylation, especially those involving tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) such as sialyl-Lewis(x) (SLe(x) and sialyl-Lewis(a) (SLe(a), which have been identified in various cancers. Although it is already known that considerable changes in protein glycosylation are major contributors to the initiation, progression and metastasis of tumors, specifics about glycosylation changes particularly important to the metastatic process are still lacking. In this report we describe the results of a combined glycomic and proteomic study of metastatic ovarian cancer (OC) ascites fluids. Glycoproteins in ascites fluid were enriched by affinity binding to lectins (ConA or WGA) and other affinity matrices. Separate glycomic and proteomic analyses were performed as well as glycopeptide analyses. Relative abundances of different N-glycan groups and proteins were identified from original ascites fluids and corresponding lectin bound samples. Levels of biomarkers CA125, MUC1 and fibronectin were also monitored in these samples by Western blot analysis. N-glycan analysis of ascites fluids showed the presence of large, highly fucosylated and sialylated, complex and hybrid glycans, some of which were not observed in normal serum. Proteins in OC ascites that were more abundant or not present in the serum control, were haptoglobin, fibronectin, lumican, fibulin, hemopexin, ceruloplasmin, alpha-1-antitrypsin and alpha-1-antichymotrypsin. Glycopeptide analysis identified N- and O-glycans in clusterin, hemopexin, and fibulin that were present in OC ascites.

Project description:Intra-individual tumoral heterogeneity (ITH) is a hallmark of solid tumors and impedes accurate genomic diagnosis and selection of proper therapy. The purpose of this study was to identify ITH of ovarian serous adenocarcinomas (OSAs) and to determine the utility of ascitic cancer cells as a resource for mutation profiling in spite of ITH. We performed whole-exome sequencing, copy number profiling, and DNA methylation profiling of four OSA genomes using multiregional biopsies from 13 intraovarian lesions, 12 extraovarian tumor lesions (omentum/peritoneum), and ascitic cells. We observed substantial levels of heterogeneity in mutations and copy number alterations (CNAs) of the OSAs. We categorized the mutations into 'common', 'shared' and 'private' according to the regional distribution. Six common, 8 shared, and 24 private mutations were observed in known cancer-related genes,. but common mutations had a higher mutant allele frequency and included TP53 mutations in all four OSAs. Region-specific chromosomal amplifications and deletions involving BRCA1, PIK3CA, and RB1 were also identified. Of note, the mutations detected in ascitic cancer cells represented 92.3-100% of overall somatic mutations in the given case. Phylogenetic analyses of ascitic genomes predicted a polyseeding origin of somatic mutations in ascitic cells. Our results demonstrate that despite ITH, somatic mutations, CNAs, and DNA methylations in both âcommonâ category and cancer-related genes were highly conserved in ascitic cells of OSAs, highlighting the clinical relevance of genome analysis of ascitic cells. Ascitic tumor cells may serve as a potential resource to discover somatic mutations of primary OSA with diagnostic and therapeutic relevance. The purpose of this study was to identify intra-individual tumor heterogenety of ovarian serous adenocarcinomas Four to nine different ovarian cancer areas from intraovarian and extra-ovarian lesions that were at least 1cm apart as well as 50 ml ascites were collected from the four OSA patients. Genomic DNA from tumor and matched normal samples were simultaneously hybridized onto the array. Total 29 array experiments were conducted.

Project description:Intra-individual tumoral heterogeneity (ITH) is a hallmark of solid tumors and impedes accurate genomic diagnosis and selection of proper therapy. The purpose of this study was to identify ITH of ovarian serous adenocarcinomas (OSAs) and to determine the utility of ascitic cancer cells as a resource for mutation profiling in spite of ITH. We performed whole-exome sequencing, copy number profiling, and DNA methylation profiling of four OSA genomes using multiregional biopsies from 13 intraovarian lesions, 12 extraovarian tumor lesions (omentum/peritoneum), and ascitic cells. We observed substantial levels of heterogeneity in mutations and copy number alterations (CNAs) of the OSAs. We categorized the mutations into 'common', 'shared' and 'private' according to the regional distribution. Six common, 8 shared, and 24 private mutations were observed in known cancer-related genes,. but common mutations had a higher mutant allele frequency and included TP53 mutations in all four OSAs. Region-specific chromosomal amplifications and deletions involving BRCA1, PIK3CA, and RB1 were also identified. Of note, the mutations detected in ascitic cancer cells represented 92.3-100% of overall somatic mutations in the given case. Phylogenetic analyses of ascitic genomes predicted a polyseeding origin of somatic mutations in ascitic cells. Our results demonstrate that despite ITH, somatic mutations, CNAs, and DNA methylations in both â??commonâ?? category and cancer-related genes were highly conserved in ascitic cells of OSAs, highlighting the clinical relevance of genome analysis of ascitic cells. Ascitic tumor cells may serve as a potential resource to discover somatic mutations of primary OSA with diagnostic and therapeutic relevance. Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of ascitic cells as well as biopsies from ovarian serous adenocarcinomas cases obtained by Illumina Infinium 450k Human DNA methylation Beadchip Bisulphite converted DNA from the 16 samples were hybridized to the Illumina Infinium 450k Human Methylation Beadchip

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Targeting serous epithelial ovarian cancer with designer zinc finger transcription factors

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