Project description:Despite the high toxicity, alkylating agents are still at the forefront of several clinical protocols used to treat cancers. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying alkylation damage responses, aiming to identify novel strategies to augment alkylating therapy efficacy. In this pursuit, we compared gene expression profiles of evolutionary distant cell types (D. melanogaster Kc167 cells, mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human cancer cells) in response to the alkylating agent methyl-methanesulfonate (MMS). We found that many responses to alkylation damage are conserved across species independent on their tumor/normal phenotypes. Key amongst these observations was the protective role of NRF2-induced GSH production primarily regulating GSH pools essential for MMS detoxification but also controlling activation of unfolded protein response (UPR) needed for mounting survival responses across species. An interesting finding emerged from a non-conserved mammalian-specific induction of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK)-dependent inflammatory responses following alkylation, which was not directly related to cell survival but stimulated the production of a pro-inflammatory, invasive and angiogenic secretome in cancer cells. Appropriate blocking of this inflammatory component blocked the invasive phenotype and angiogenesis in vitro and facilitated a controlled tumor killing by alkylation in vivo through inhibition of alkylation-induced angiogenic response, and induction of tumor healing.
Project description:Despite the high toxicity, alkylating agents are still at the forefront of several clinical protocols used to treat cancers. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying alkylation damage responses, aiming to identify novel strategies to augment alkylating therapy efficacy. In this pursuit, we compared gene expression profiles of evolutionary distant cell types (D. melanogaster Kc167 cells, mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human cancer cells) in response to the alkylating agent methyl-methanesulfonate (MMS). We found that many responses to alkylation damage are conserved across species independent on their tumor/normal phenotypes. Key amongst these observations was the protective role of NRF2-induced GSH production primarily regulating GSH pools essential for MMS detoxification but also controlling activation of unfolded protein response (UPR) needed for mounting survival responses across species. An interesting finding emerged from a non-conserved mammalian-specific induction of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK)-dependent inflammatory responses following alkylation, which was not directly related to cell survival but stimulated the production of a pro-inflammatory, invasive and angiogenic secretome in cancer cells. Appropriate blocking of this inflammatory component blocked the invasive phenotype and angiogenesis in vitro and facilitated a controlled tumor killing by alkylation in vivo through inhibition of alkylation-induced angiogenic response, and induction of tumor healing.
Project description:Despite the high toxicity, alkylating agents are still at the forefront of several clinical protocols used to treat cancers. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying alkylation damage responses, aiming to identify novel strategies to augment alkylating therapy efficacy. In this pursuit, we compared gene expression profiles of evolutionary distant cell types (D. melanogaster Kc167 cells, mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human cancer cells) in response to the alkylating agent methyl-methanesulfonate (MMS). We found that many responses to alkylation damage are conserved across species independent on their tumor/normal phenotypes. Key amongst these observations was the protective role of NRF2-induced GSH production primarily regulating GSH pools essential for MMS detoxification but also controlling activation of unfolded protein response (UPR) needed for mounting survival responses across species. An interesting finding emerged from a non-conserved mammalian-specific induction of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK)-dependent inflammatory responses following alkylation, which was not directly related to cell survival but stimulated the production of a pro-inflammatory, invasive and angiogenic secretome in cancer cells. Appropriate blocking of this inflammatory component blocked the invasive phenotype and angiogenesis in vitro and facilitated a controlled tumor killing by alkylation in vivo through inhibition of alkylation-induced angiogenic response, and induction of tumor healing.
Project description:DNA damage response and repair are key biological pathways to prevent genome instability caused by inefficient repair induced permanent mutations. Such changes may cause alterations to the normal cell cycle, the induction of apoptosis and the initiation and promotion of cancer development. Recently, the roles of ncRNAs functioning in the DNA damage response and DNA repair have gain more attention. To find out key ncRNAs involved in DNA damage response or repair pathways, we detected the transcription levels of ncRNAs in HeLa cells following ultraviolet (UV) light or methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) treatments by microarrays. This identified a variety of ncRNAs respond to UV or MMS-induced DNA damage. Therefore, further investigation on the ncRNAs in response to these genotoxic agents would help to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism of ncRNAs functioning in the DNA damage response and repair pathways and new strategies of treatment of cancer by co-ordinately targeting ncRNA repair factors.
Project description:We are investigating the transcriptional response of Anc1 deficient yeast under basal and MMS exposed conditions We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying the MMS response in WT and Anc1 deficient yeast Keywords: dose
Project description:The cellular response to treatment with DNA-damaging substances at low concentrations which are genotoxic but do not have a strong cytotoxic effect are of special interest. In addition, environmental variations that influence growth conditions, e.g. different media, and individual fitness, e.g. different strains, are likely to influence and modulate the adverse effects of individual DNA damaging substances. At sub-cytotoxic levels, DNA damaging substances play an important role in the accumulation of genomic mutations. In longer living organisms, like humans and other mammals, exposure to DNA damaging substances over extended period of time is a critical factor that contributes to the development of various diseases and in particular of tumors. The aim of our work was to study how strain background and growth conditions influence respond to DNA damage caused by low doses of MMS and which part of these changes is responsible for their sensitivity to toxic conditions. We analyzed sensitivity of two yeast strains FF18984 and BY4742 to MMS in media with limited and full nutrient availability. Keywords: Yeast, S.cerevisiae, MMS, stress response, DNA damage