Project description:Carcinogenic bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, induce DNA double-strand breaks in infected host cells, while ATM-dependent DNA damage responses in host cells suppress genome instabilities caused by DNA breakages, which resulting in the suppression of H. pylori-induced gastric cancers. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is etiologically related to the inflammation-related malignancy, gastric cancers, it role in the molecular pathogenesis of disease remains unclear. In vitro studies have suggested the infection may cause breaks in double-stranded DNA. We used microarray analysis of H. pylori-infected human gastric biopsies to investigate the effect of H. pylori on gene expression genes involved in DNA repair and DNA damage response. Micro-array analysis and immunohistochemistory showed that ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) was upregulated in H. pylori gastritis but down regulated in the premalignant lesion, intestinal metaplasia. Studies in gastric cancer cell lines showed that H. pylori-infection induced activation of ATM and formation of γ-H2AX. γ-H2AX formation was present following infection with bout cag pathogenicity island (PAI)- positive and negative strains but more robust with cag PAI positive strains consistent with the fact that both cag PAI positive negative strains are associated with gastric cancer but the risk is higher with cag PAI positive strains. Eradication of H. pylori infection is associated with a reduction in cancer risk even in the most high risk populations. These data provide a plausible molecular mechanism for a direct bacterial-host interaction increasing cancer risk. To identify tumor suppressors affected by H. pylori-infection, microarray screening was used to compare the gene expression profiles of gastric mucosa obtained from individuals with H. pylori-gastritis and with intestinal metaplasia with tissue from uninfected controls.
Project description:Carcinogenic bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, induce DNA double-strand breaks in infected host cells, while ATM-dependent DNA damage responses in host cells suppress genome instabilities caused by DNA breakages, which resulting in the suppression of H. pylori-induced gastric cancers. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is etiologically related to the inflammation-related malignancy, gastric cancers, it role in the molecular pathogenesis of disease remains unclear. In vitro studies have suggested the infection may cause breaks in double-stranded DNA. We used microarray analysis of H. pylori-infected human gastric biopsies to investigate the effect of H. pylori on gene expression genes involved in DNA repair and DNA damage response. Micro-array analysis and immunohistochemistory showed that ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) was upregulated in H. pylori gastritis but down regulated in the premalignant lesion, intestinal metaplasia. Studies in gastric cancer cell lines showed that H. pylori-infection induced activation of ATM and formation of γ-H2AX. γ-H2AX formation was present following infection with bout cag pathogenicity island (PAI)- positive and negative strains but more robust with cag PAI positive strains consistent with the fact that both cag PAI positive negative strains are associated with gastric cancer but the risk is higher with cag PAI positive strains. Eradication of H. pylori infection is associated with a reduction in cancer risk even in the most high risk populations. These data provide a plausible molecular mechanism for a direct bacterial-host interaction increasing cancer risk.
Project description:Carcinogenic bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, induce DNA double-strand breaks in infected host cells, while ATM-dependent DNA damage responses in host cells suppress genome instabilities caused by DNA breakages, which resulting in the suppression of H. pylori-induced gastric cancers. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is etiologically related to the inflammation-related malignancy, gastric cancers, it role in the molecular pathogenesis of disease remains unclear. In vitro studies have suggested the infection may cause breaks in double-stranded DNA. We used microarray analysis of H. pylori-infected human gastric biopsies to investigate the effect of H. pylori on gene expression genes involved in DNA repair and DNA damage response. Micro-array analysis and immunohistochemistory showed that ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) was upregulated in H. pylori gastritis but down regulated in the premalignant lesion, intestinal metaplasia. Studies in gastric cancer cell lines showed that H. pylori-infection induced activation of ATM and formation of γ-H2AX. γ-H2AX formation was present following infection with bout cag pathogenicity island (PAI)- positive and negative strains but more robust with cag PAI positive strains consistent with the fact that both cag PAI positive negative strains are associated with gastric cancer but the risk is higher with cag PAI positive strains. Eradication of H. pylori infection is associated with a reduction in cancer risk even in the most high risk populations. These data provide a plausible molecular mechanism for a direct bacterial-host interaction increasing cancer risk. To identify tumor suppressors affected by H. pylori-infection, microarray screening was used to compare the gene expression profiles of gastric mucosa obtained from individuals with H. pylori-gastritis and with intestinal metaplasia with tissue from uninfected controls.
Project description:Carcinogenic bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, induce DNA double-strand breaks in infected host cells. Therefore, we have investigated which genes are upregulated after the infection. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is etiologically related to the inflammation-related malignancy, gastric cancers, it role in the molecular pathogenesis of disease remains unclear. In vitro studies have suggested the infection may cause breaks in double-stranded DNA. We used microarray analysis of H. pylori-infected human gastric biopsies to investigate the effect of H. pylori on gene expression genes involved in DNA repair and DNA damage response. Micro-array analysis and immunohistochemistory showed that ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) was upregulated in H. pylori gastritis but down regulated in the premalignant lesion, intestinal metaplasia. Studies in gastric cancer cell lines showed that H. pylori-infection induced activation of ATM and formation of γ-H2AX. γ-H2AX formation was present following infection with bout cag pathogenicity island (PAI)- positive and negative strains but more robust with cag PAI positive strains consistent with the fact that both cag PAI positive negative strains are associated with gastric cancer but the risk is higher with cag PAI positive strains. Eradication of H. pylori infection is associated with a reduction in cancer risk even in the most high risk populations. These data provide a plausible molecular mechanism for a direct bacterial-host interaction increasing cancer risk.
Project description:Carcinogenic bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, induce DNA double-strand breaks in infected host cells. Therefore, we have investigated which genes are upregulated after the infection. Although Helicobacter pylori infection is etiologically related to the inflammation-related malignancy, gastric cancers, it role in the molecular pathogenesis of disease remains unclear. In vitro studies have suggested the infection may cause breaks in double-stranded DNA. We used microarray analysis of H. pylori-infected human gastric biopsies to investigate the effect of H. pylori on gene expression genes involved in DNA repair and DNA damage response. Micro-array analysis and immunohistochemistory showed that ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) was upregulated in H. pylori gastritis but down regulated in the premalignant lesion, intestinal metaplasia. Studies in gastric cancer cell lines showed that H. pylori-infection induced activation of ATM and formation of ?-H2AX. ?-H2AX formation was present following infection with bout cag pathogenicity island (PAI)- positive and negative strains but more robust with cag PAI positive strains consistent with the fact that both cag PAI positive negative strains are associated with gastric cancer but the risk is higher with cag PAI positive strains. Eradication of H. pylori infection is associated with a reduction in cancer risk even in the most high risk populations. These data provide a plausible molecular mechanism for a direct bacterial-host interaction increasing cancer risk. To identify tumor suppressors affected by H. pylori-infection, microarray screening was used to compare the gene expression profiles of AGS cells, a gastric cancer cell line, infected with various mutants of H. pylori.
Project description:Many organisms respond to DNA damage by inducing expression of DNA repair genes. We find that the human stomach pathogen Helicobacter pylori instead induces transcription and translation of natural competence genes, thus increasing transformation frequency. Transcription of a lysozyme-like protein that promotes DNA donation from intact cells is also induced. Exogenous DNA modulates the DNA damage response, as both recA and the ability to take up DNA are required for full induction of the response. This feedback loop is active during stomach colonization, indicating a role in the pathogenesis of the bacterium. As patients can be infected with multiple genetically distinct clones of H. pylori, DNA damage induced genetic exchange may facilitate spread of antibiotic resistance and selection of fitter variants through re-assortment of preexisting alleles in this important human pathogen.
Project description:Genetic and cytologic data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mammals implicate the Mre11 complex, consisting of Mre11, Rad50, and Nbs1, as a sensor of DNA damage, and indicate that the complex influences the activity of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) in the DNA damage response. Rad50(S/S) mice exhibit precipitous apoptotic attrition of hematopoietic cells. We generated ATM- and Chk2-deficient Rad50(S/S) mice and found that Rad50(S/S) cellular attrition was strongly ATM and Chk2 dependent. The hypomorphic Mre11(ATLD1) and Nbs1(Delta)(B) alleles conferred similar rescue of Rad50(S/S)-dependent hematopoietic failure. These data indicate that the Mre11 complex activates an ATM-Chk2-dependent apoptotic pathway. We find that apoptosis and cell cycle checkpoint activation are parallel outcomes of the Mre11 complex-ATM pathway. Conversely, the Rad50(S) mutation mitigated several phenotypic features of ATM deficiency. We propose that the Rad50(S) allele is hypermorphic for DNA damage signaling, and that the resulting constitutive low-level activation of the DNA damage response accounts for the partial suppression of ATM deficiency in Rad50(S/S) Atm(-/-) mice.
Project description:In response to DNA damage, cells undergo either cell-cycle arrest or apoptosis, depending on the extent of damage and the cell's capacity for DNA repair. Cell-cycle arrest induced by double-stranded DNA breaks depends on activation of the ataxia-telangiectasia (ATM) protein kinase, which phosphorylates cell-cycle effectors such as Chk2 and p53 to inhibit cell-cycle progression. ATM is recruited to double-stranded DNA breaks by a complex of sensor proteins, including Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1, resulting in autophosphorylation, monomerization, and activation of ATM kinase.In characterizing Aven protein, a previously reported apoptotic inhibitor, we have found that Aven can function as an ATM activator to inhibit G2/M progression. Aven bound to ATM and Aven overexpressed in cycling Xenopus egg extracts prevented mitotic entry and induced phosphorylation of ATM and its substrates. Immunodepletion of endogenous Aven allowed mitotic entry even in the presence of damaged DNA, and RNAi-mediated knockdown of Aven in human cells prevented autophosphorylation of ATM at an activating site (S1981) in response to DNA damage. Interestingly, Aven is also a substrate of the ATM kinase. Mutation of ATM-mediated phosphorylation sites on Aven reduced its ability to activate ATM, suggesting that Aven activation of ATM after DNA damage is enhanced by ATM-mediated Aven phosphorylation.These results identify Aven as a new ATM activator and describe a positive feedback loop operating between Aven and ATM. In aggregate, these findings place Aven, a known apoptotic inhibitor, as a critical transducer of the DNA-damage signal.
Project description:Hypermethylation of CpG islands in the RASSF1 promoter is one of the most frequent events identified in human cancer. The epigenetic-driven loss of RASSF1A protein expression is observed more often in tumors of higher grade and correlates with a decreased responsiveness to DNA-damaging therapy. Ras association domain-containing family 1A (RASSF1A) promotes apoptosis by signaling through the MST2 and LATS1 kinases, leading to stabilization of the YAP1/p73 transcriptional complex. Here we provide evidence for a new pathway linking DNA damage signaling to RASSF1A via the main sensor of double-strand breaks in cells, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM). We show that, upon DNA damage, RASSF1A is phosphorylated by ATM on Ser131 and is involved in the activation of both MST2 and LATS1, leading to the stabilization of p73. Furthermore, lung and ovarian tumor cell lines that retain RASSF1A expression commonly harbor polymorphisms in the region of Ser131, and our analysis shows that the S131F polymorphism conveys resistance to DNA-damaging agents. Thus, we present a novel DNA damage pathway emanating from ATM that is frequently disabled in tumors via epigenetic silencing of RASSF1 or mutation of an ATM phosphorylation site.