Project description:The NRF2 pathway is frequently activated in various cancer types, yet a comprehensive analysis of its effects across different malignancies is currently lacking. We developed a robust NRF2 activity metric and utilized it to conduct a pan-cancer wide analysis of oncogenic NRF2 signaling. We identified a distinct immunoevasive phenotype where high NRF2 activity is associated with low interferon-gamma (IFNγ), HLA-I expression and T-cell infiltration spanning non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and squamous malignancies of head and neck area, cervix and esophagus. In squamous cell cancers, NRF2 overactive tumors comprise a molecular phenotype with SOX2/TP63 amplification, TP53 mutation and CDKN2A loss. These immune-cold NRF2 hyperactive diseases are associated with upregulation of immunomodulatory NAMPT, WNT5A, SPP1, SLC7A11 and SLC2A1 that represent candidate NRF2 target genes, suggesting direct modulation of the tumor immune milieu. Based on single-cell mRNA data, coupled with a priori information on intercellular ligand-receptor interactions, cancer cells of this subtype exhibit decreased expression of IFNγ responsive ligands, and increased expression of immunosuppressive ligands NAMPT, SPP1 and WNT5A that mediate signaling in intercellular crosstalk. As we observed differential cytokine mRNA expression with IFNγ treatment in NSCLC adenocarcinoma subtype, we explored the cytokine secretome in vitro. We found that secreted neutrophil chemoattractants interleukin-8 (CXCL8) and ENA-78 (CXCL5) are elevated in NRF2 overactive cells, suggesting contribution of immunosuppressive neutrophils in NRF2 driven immune escape. Importantly, as overactive NRF2 is associated with immune-cold characteristics, our results highlight the utility of NRF2 pathway activation as a putative biomarker for stratifying immune-checkpoint blockade responders and non-responders across NSCLC and squamous cancers.
Project description:We compared the transcriptional signatures of recoverin (Rec) negative lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells which had been transfected with a plasmid containing human recoverin cDNA (A549 Rec) or an empty plasmid as a mock control (A549 MOCK).
Project description:MicroRNA-203 was up-regulated markedly upon H5N1 virus infection. To identify the potential target genes of miR-203, we constructed a miR-203 knockout A549 cell line. Then wild-type and miR-203 knockout A549 cells were mock-infected or infected with H5N1 virus for 48h. The Agilent Whole Human Genome Oligo Microarray was performed to analyze the mRNA expression profiling. Meanwhile, the online tool TargetScanHuman (http://www.targetscan.org/vert_71/) was used to predict biological targets of miR-203. We combined the predicted genes with the genes differentially expressed in wild-type and miR-203 knockout A549 cells, and preliminarily identified some candidate mRNAs. Then more experiments were performed to further verify these target genes, such as dual-luciferase reporter assay, quantitative real-time PCR or Western blot analysis.
Project description:Mock and poliovirus infected A549 cells were used as model system to assess Nanostring's technology for detecting mRNA transcripts, linearity of signal, reproducibility and fold change measurements. As a comparison, the same samples were measured using Affymetrix U133 2.0 plus arrays and several genes were followed up using RT-PCR. All samples for all platforms were performed in triplicate
Project description:Expression data from NIH-3T3 cells treated with mock, 100 U/ml IFN alpha or 100 U/ml gamma for 1 or 3h on nt-RNA labeled for 30-60 min at different times of interferon treatment Differential gene expression caused by IFN alpha or gamma was analyzed in newly transcribed RNA (nt-RNA) of NIH-3T3 cells treated for 1 or 3 h. RNA was labeled for 30 to 60 min and separated from total cellular RNA (tc-RNA) following Trizol RNA preparation and thiol-specific biotinylation We used microarrays to analyze the effects of IFNalpha and gamma treatment in newly transcribed RNA (nt-RNA) Keywords: time course
Project description:We examined the transcriptome (polyA+ RNAseq) of parental or ATF3 knock-out A549 lung epithelial adenocarcinoma cell lines in response to either a mock infection or infection with ZIKV.
Project description:To study the effect of transcription factor GFI1 on lung cancer cells, we overexpressed GFI1 in A549 cells and performed RNA-seq. Moreover, control and GFI1-expressing A549 cells that were forced into suspension for 48hrs were used performed RNA-seq.