ABSTRACT: Multiocular Defect in the Old English Sheepdog: A canine form of Stickler syndrome type II associated with a missense variant in the collagen-type Gene COL11A1
Project description:Biomarkers that predict disease progression might assist the development of better therapeutic strategies for aggressive cancers, such as ovarian cancer. Here, we investigated the role of collagen type XI alpha 1 (COL11A1) in cell invasiveness and tumor formation and the prognostic impact of COL11A1 expression in ovarian cancer. Microarray analysis suggested that COL11A1 is a disease progression-associated gene that is linked to ovarian cancer recurrence and poor survival.
Project description:Collagen type XI alpha 1 (COL11A1) is identified as one of the most upregulated genes in cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer and recurrent ovarian cancer. However, the exact functions of COL11A1 in cisplatin resistance are unknown. The goal of this study is to determine molecular mechanisms by which COL11A1 confers cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells. We overexpressed COL11A1 in A2780 and OVCAR3 ovarian cancer cells, which express very low endogenous levels of COL11A1. We then compared the mRNA expression levels of various genes between COL11A1-overexpressing ovarian cancer cells and control ovarian cancer cells by RNA-Seq. Our RNA-Seq data show that COL11A1 overexpression did not consistently change the expression levels of genes involved in cisplatin efflux, glutathione metabolism, and DNA repair pathways, which are known to contribute to cisplatin resistance. This result implies that COL11A1 might confer cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells through other mechanisms.
Project description:Collagen type XI alpha 1 (COL11A1) is a novel biomarker associated with cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying how COL11A1 confers cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer are poorly understood. We identified that fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) is upregulated by COL11A1 in ovarian cancer cells and that COL11A1-driven cisplatin resistance can be abrogated by inhibition of FAO. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that COL11A1 also enhances the expression of proteins involved in fatty acid synthesis. Interestingly, COL11A1-induced upregulation of fatty acid synthesis and FAO is modulated by the same signaling molecules. We identified that binding of COL11A1 to its receptors, α1β1 integrin and discoidin domain receptor 2 (DDR2), activates Src-Akt-AMPK signaling to increase the expression of both fatty acid synthesis and oxidation enzymes, although DDR2 seems to be the predominant receptor. Inhibition of fatty acid synthesis downregulates FAO despite the presence of COL11A1, suggesting that fatty acid synthesis might be a driver of FAO in ovarian cancer cells. Taken together, our results suggest that COL11A1 upregulates fatty acid metabolism in ovarian cancer cells in a DDR2-Src-Akt-AMPK dependent manner. Therefore, we propose that blocking FAO might serve as a promising therapeutic target to treat ovarian cancer, particularly cisplatin-resistant recurrent ovarian cancers which typically express high levels of COL11A1.
Project description:In order to gain insight into epithelial morphogenesis and the influence of culture geometry on gene expression patterns, Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells where grown in 2-dimensional (2D) culture or 3-dimensional (3D) culture . MDCK cells cultured in 2D were plated atop a pre-solidified type I collagen gel. Cells cultured under these conditions grew as flat monolayer sheets. In 3D culture, cells are embedded within type I collagen gel. Cells grown under these conditions form large spherical cysts with hollow central lumens. We anticipate, therefore, that these results provide insight into the mechanisms that regulate epithelial cystogenesis.
Project description:Biomarkers that predict disease progression might assist the development of better therapeutic strategies for aggressive cancers, such as ovarian cancer. Here, we investigated the role of collagen type XI alpha 1 (COL11A1) in cell invasiveness and tumor formation and the prognostic impact of COL11A1 expression in ovarian cancer. Microarray analysis suggested that COL11A1 is a disease progression-associated gene that is linked to ovarian cancer recurrence and poor survival. Whole tumor gene expression profiling was conducted on tissue samples from 60 ovarian cancer patients, and characteristics and clinico-pathological features of the patients are provided. We used several steps to analyze the expression profiles of the samples to identify the genes whose expression values correlate with survival, recurrence and advanced disease stage. First, using hazard ratios from univariate Cox regression analysis, the top 200 survival-related genes were evaluated for intersection with the top 200 recurrence-related genes, and 44 genes were obtained. Second, we examined the 44 genes that met the criteria of fold-change values between advanced stage and early stage samples of greater than 2 or less than 0.5. Ultimately, 17 genes were identified. A heat map of the 17 genes is depicted in the associated publication. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses of the 17 genes were performed using Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). The major cellular component, biological process and molecular function of the 17 genes are associated with the extracellular region, intracellular signaling cascade, and protein binding and bridging, respectively. Two genes, COL11A1 and COL4A6, are involved in ECM-receptor interaction pathways. Notably, COL11A1 displayed the highest fold-change value in ovarian cancer disease progression; therefore, we selected COL11A1 for further experimental analysis.
Project description:In order to gain insight into epithelial morphogenesis and the influence of culture geometry on gene expression patterns, Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells where grown in 2-dimensional (2D) culture or 3-dimensional (3D) culture . MDCK cells cultured in 2D were plated atop a pre-solidified type I collagen gel. Cells cultured under these conditions grew as flat monolayer sheets. In 3D culture, cells are embedded within type I collagen gel. Cells grown under these conditions form large spherical cysts with hollow central lumens. We anticipate, therefore, that these results provide insight into the mechanisms that regulate epithelial cystogenesis. Cells grown in the 2D or 3D geometries were collected from digested type I collagen gels on day 8. The 2D MDCK cells were treated as the control condition and there gene expression patterns were compared to those of 3D grown cells, which served as the experimental condition.
Project description:We identified a missense variant in PSMD12 gene, recently associated to an emerging syndromic form of NDD, in a patient with intellectual disability/speech delay, congenital anomalies and facial dysmorphisms. The variant described herein is useful to expand the molecular spectrum of heterozygous PSMD12 mutations and to provide insight into the molecular pathogenesis of this new condition since it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first missense substitution to date reported in medical literature. Finally, our patient is the one with the most detailed dysmorphic characterization and for this reason useful to start defining a typical facial gestalt that addresses the diagnosis.