Project description:We sought to investigate the anticancer effects of the novel FOXM1 inhibitor, STL001 in a variety of human cancers from solid tumors including ovarian cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancers. Here, the capacity of the novel compounds STL001 as FOXM1 inhibitor was verified in human cancer cell lines from solid tumors. Further, we showed here that FOXM1 inhibitor STL001 treatment resulted in sensitization of cancer cells to apoptotic death by multiple chemotherapeutic agents. STL001 was studied further to verify its direct target engagement with FOXM1. We have also provided Transcriptome-supported evidence that STL001 exhibits selectivity toward suppressing FOXM1-controlled regulatory pathways. This study verify and characterize a novel FOXM1 inhibitor STL001 that effectively antagonize FOXM1 activity and sensitize a variety of human cancer cells to traditionally used chemotherapy agents, and may be suitable for further clinical evaluation in targeting chemotherapy resistance human cancers.
Project description:Proper chromosome segregation is required to ensure genomic and chromosomal stability. The centromere is a unique chromatin domain present throughout the cell cycle on each chromosome defined by the CENP-A nucleosome. Centromeres (CEN) are responsible for recruiting the kinetochore (KT) during mitosis, ultimately regulating spindle attachment and mitotic checkpoint function. Upregulation of many genes that encode CEN/KT proteins is commonly observed in cancer. Here, we show although FOXM1 occupies the promoters of many CEN/KT genes with MYBL2, occupancy is insufficient alone to drive the FOXM1 correlated transcriptional program. We show that CENP-F, a component of the outer kinetochore, functions with FOXM1 to coregulate G2/M transcription and proper chromosome segregation. Loss of CENP-F results in alteration of chromatin accessibility at G2/M genes, including CENP-A, and leads to reduced FOXM1-MBB complex formation. The FOXM1-CENP-F transcriptional coordination is a cancer-specific function. We observed that a few CEN/KT genes escape FOXM1 regulation such as CENP-C which when upregulated with CENP-A, leads to increased chromosome misegregation and cell death. Together, we show that the FOXM1 and CENP-F coordinately regulate G2/M gene expression, and this coordination is specific to a subset of genes to allow for proliferation and maintenance of chromosome stability for cancer cell survival.
Project description:Proper chromosome segregation is required to ensure genomic and chromosomal stability. The centromere is a unique chromatin domain present throughout the cell cycle on each chromosome defined by the CENP-A nucleosome. Centromeres (CEN) are responsible for recruiting the kinetochore (KT) during mitosis, ultimately regulating spindle attachment and mitotic checkpoint function. Upregulation of many genes that encode CEN/KT proteins is commonly observed in cancer. Here, we show although FOXM1 occupies the promoters of many CEN/KT genes with MYBL2, occupancy is insufficient alone to drive the FOXM1 correlated transcriptional program. We show that CENP-F, a component of the outer kinetochore, functions with FOXM1 to coregulate G2/M transcription and proper chromosome segregation. Loss of CENP-F results in alteration of chromatin accessibility at G2/M genes, including CENP-A, and leads to reduced FOXM1-MBB complex formation. The FOXM1-CENP-F transcriptional coordination is a cancer-specific function. We observed that a few CEN/KT genes escape FOXM1 regulation such as CENP-C which when upregulated with CENP-A, leads to increased chromosome misegregation and cell death. Together, we show that the FOXM1 and CENP-F coordinately regulate G2/M gene expression, and this coordination is specific to a subset of genes to allow for proliferation and maintenance of chromosome stability for cancer cell survival.
Project description:Proper chromosome segregation is required to ensure genomic and chromosomal stability. The centromere is a unique chromatin domain present throughout the cell cycle on each chromosome defined by the CENP-A nucleosome. Centromeres (CEN) are responsible for recruiting the kinetochore (KT) during mitosis, ultimately regulating spindle attachment and mitotic checkpoint function. Upregulation of many genes that encode CEN/KT proteins is commonly observed in cancer. Here, we show although FOXM1 occupies the promoters of many CEN/KT genes with MYBL2, occupancy is insufficient alone to drive the FOXM1 correlated transcriptional program. We show that CENP-F, a component of the outer kinetochore, functions with FOXM1 to coregulate G2/M transcription and proper chromosome segregation. Loss of CENP-F results in alteration of chromatin accessibility at G2/M genes, including CENP-A, and leads to reduced FOXM1-MBB complex formation. The FOXM1-CENP-F transcriptional coordination is a cancer-specific function. We observed that a few CEN/KT genes escape FOXM1 regulation such as CENP-C which when upregulated with CENP-A, leads to increased chromosome misegregation and cell death. Together, we show that the FOXM1 and CENP-F coordinately regulate G2/M gene expression, and this coordination is specific to a subset of genes to allow for proliferation and maintenance of chromosome stability for cancer cell survival.
Project description:Proper chromosome segregation is required to ensure genomic and chromosomal stability. The centromere is a unique chromatin domain present throughout the cell cycle on each chromosome defined by the CENP-A nucleosome. Centromeres (CEN) are responsible for recruiting the kinetochore (KT) during mitosis, ultimately regulating spindle attachment and mitotic checkpoint function. Upregulation of many genes that encode CEN/KT proteins is commonly observed in cancer. Here, we show although FOXM1 occupies the promoters of many CEN/KT genes with MYBL2, occupancy is insufficient alone to drive the FOXM1 correlated transcriptional program. We show that CENP-F, a component of the outer kinetochore, functions with FOXM1 to coregulate G2/M transcription and proper chromosome segregation. Loss of CENP-F results in alteration of chromatin accessibility at G2/M genes, including CENP-A, and leads to reduced FOXM1-MBB complex formation. The FOXM1-CENP-F transcriptional coordination is a cancer-specific function. We observed that a few CEN/KT genes escape FOXM1 regulation such as CENP-C which when upregulated with CENP-A, leads to increased chromosome misegregation and cell death. Together, we show that the FOXM1 and CENP-F coordinately regulate G2/M gene expression, and this coordination is specific to a subset of genes to allow for proliferation and maintenance of chromosome stability for cancer cell survival.
Project description:The centrosomal protein, CEP55 is a key regulator of cytokinesis and its overexpression is linked to genomic instability, a hallmark of cancer. However, the mechanism by which it mediates genomic instability remains elusive. Here, we showed that CEP55 overexpression/knockdown impacts survival of aneuploid cells. Loss of CEP55 sensitizes breast cancer cells to anti-mitotic agents through premature CDK1/Cyclin B activation and CDK1-Caspase-dependent mitotic cell death. Further, we showed that CEP55 is a downstream effector of the MEK1/2-MYC axis. Blocking MEK1/2-PLK1 signaling therefore reduced outgrowth of basal-like syngeneic and human breast tumors in in-vivo models. In conclusion, high CEP55 levels dictate cell fate during perturbed mitosis. Forced mitotic cell death by blocking MEK1/2-PLK1 represents a potential therapeutic strategy for MYC-CEP55-dependent basal-like, triple-negative breast cancers.
Project description:Transcriptional repression is a pervasive feature of animal development. Here, we employ live-imaging methods to visualize the Snail repressor, which establishes the boundary between the presumptive mesoderm and neurogenic ectoderm of early Drosophila embryos. Snail target enhancers were attached to an MS2 reporter gene, permitting detection of nascent transcripts in living embryos. The transgenes exhibit initially broad patterns of transcription but are refined by repression in the mesoderm following mitosis. These observations reveal a correlation between mitotic silencing and Snail repression. We propose that mitosis and other inherent discontinuities in transcription boost the activities of sequence-specific repressors, such as Snail.
Project description:The DNA damage response is essential for preserving genome integrity and eliminating damaged cells. Although cellular metabolism plays a central role in cell fate decision between proliferation, survival or death, the metabolic response to DNA damage remains largely obscure. Here, we show that DNA damage induces fatty acid oxidation (FAO), which is required for DNA damage-induced cell death. Mechanistically, FAO induction increases cellular acetyl-CoA levels and promotes N-alpha-acetylation of caspase-2, leading to cell death. Whereas chemotherapy increases FAO related genes through PPARα, accelerated hypoxia-inducible factor-1α stabilization by tumor cells in obese mice impedes the upregulation of FAO, which contributes to its chemoresistance. Finally, we find that improving FAO by PPARα activation ameliorates obesity-driven chemoresistance and enhances the outcomes of chemotherapy in obese mice. These findings reveal the shift toward FAO induction is an important metabolic response to DNA damage and may provide effective therapeutic strategies for cancer patients with obesity.
Project description:FOXM1 plays a key role in M phase in normal cells and is overexpressed in human glioma. We found that FOXM1 deprivation could sensitize the glioma cells to TMZ chemotherapy. To find out the mechanistic regulation of FOXM1 in chemo-resistant genes, we used microarrays to select the potential genes regulated by FOXM1 which dominates in glioma chemo-resistance. U87 glioma cells were transiently transfected with none-target siRNA or FOXM1 siRNA. Total RNA were extracted after 48 hours and subjected to the microarray.
Project description:Regulated translation initiation has the potential to reshape the proteome, but conditions under which start codon selection is altered remain poorly defined. Here, using global translation initiation site profiling, we reveal widespread changes in start codon selection during the mammalian cell cycle. Low-efficiency initiation sites are preferentially repressed in mitosis, resulting in changes in the relative translation of thousands of annotated proteins, alternative translational isoforms, and uORFs. This increased mitotic translational stringency results from the cytoplasmic release of a nuclear pool of eIF1 upon nuclear envelope breakdown. Increased eIF1-40S ribosome interactions repress suboptimal initiation sites to rewire the mitotic proteome. Selectively depleting the nuclear pool of eIF1 eliminates changes to translational stringency during mitosis, resulting in substantially increased cell death following an extended mitotic delay induced by anti-mitotic chemotherapeutics. Thus, cells globally control translation initiation stringency to alter their physiology with critical roles during the mammalian cell cycle.