Project description:Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) is the most common soft tissue cancer in children and is characterized by myogenic differentiation arrest. The prognosis of patients with relapsed or metastatic disease remains poor. ERMS genomes show few recurrent mutations, suggesting that other molecular mechanisms such as epigenetic regulation might play major role in driving ERMS tumor biology. In this study, we have demonstrated the diverse roles of HDACs in the pathogenesis of ERMS by characterizing effects of HDAC inhibitors, trichostatin A (TSA) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA; also known as vorinostat) in vitro and in vivo. TSA and SAHA suppress ERMS tumor growth and progression by inducing myogenic differentiation as well as reducing the self-renewal and migratory capacity of ERMS cells. To identify candidate genes that are differentially regulated in histone deacetylase inhibitor-treated embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a gene expression profiling study using the Affymetrix Human Gene 2.0 microarray platform and ingenuity pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes were performed on RD and 381T cells treated with trichostatin A or dimethyl sulfoxide (treatment vehicle).
Project description:A series of conditional mouse models of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and spindle cell sarcoma were generated and validated for relavence to corresponding human cancers. Conditional mouse models of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and spindle cell sarcoma were created by activation or deletion of Pax3:Fkhr, p53, Ptch1 or Rb1 genes.
Project description:Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) is the most common soft tissue cancer in children and is characterized by myogenic differentiation arrest. The prognosis of patients with relapsed or metastatic disease remains poor. ERMS genomes show few recurrent mutations, suggesting that other molecular mechanisms such as epigenetic regulation might play major role in driving ERMS tumor biology. In this study, we have demonstrated the diverse roles of HDACs in the pathogenesis of ERMS by characterizing effects of HDAC inhibitors, trichostatin A (TSA) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA; also known as vorinostat) in vitro and in vivo. TSA and SAHA suppress ERMS tumor growth and progression by inducing myogenic differentiation as well as reducing the self-renewal and migratory capacity of ERMS cells.
Project description:A series of conditional mouse models of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and spindle cell sarcoma were generated and validated for relavence to corresponding human cancers.
Project description:Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are part of a new generation of epigenetic drugs for cancer treatment. It is known that histone acetylation plays a key role in controlling essential chromosome functions, including gene regulation, and this process has been linked with cancer development and progression. Better understanding of molecular mechanisms involving HDAC inhibitors is needed for the design of new targeted drugs, and also to evaluate the effectiveness of current treatments. In this study, an untargeted metabolomics approach was used to identify intracellular metabolite deregulation after treating cancer cell lines with the HDAC inhibitor HC-Toxin. Metabolomics analysis was performed using high resolution mass spectrometry, in combination with univariate and multivariate statistics and pathway analysis. HDAC inhibition showed highly specific metabolic changes in cancer cell lines compared to non-cancerous cells. In particular, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, N-acetylmethionine, and N-acetyl-L-carnitine showed a dose dependent change. Moreover, pathways controlling protein biosynthesis, as well as tryptophan, cysteine and methionine metabolism were significantly altered by HDAC inhibition. This study illustrates that HDAC inhibition has multiple effects on different metabolic pathways and our results can be extrapolated to inform on the molecular transitions in human cells.
Project description:Activation of Sonic Hedgehog signaling through expression of a constitutively active Smoothened allele under control of an aP2 adipocyte-restricted transgene in mice gives rise to aggressive skeletal muscle tumors that display the histologic and molecular characteristics of human embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma with high penetrance. Conditional mouse models of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma were created by activation of the oncogenic SmoM2 allele by both the non-muscle aP2-Cre or myotube Myogenin-Cre.
