Project description:In solid tumors, quiescent/G0 cell populations likely play important roles in maintaining cellular heterogeneity and promoting recurrence after stand of care. However, little is known about the mechanisms of tumor cell G0 ingress and egress. To discover regulators of G0-like states for glioblastoma (GBM), we performed a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen in patient-derived GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) for genes that when inhibited trap cells in G0-like states. We identify the protein acetyltransferase KAT5 as a key regulator of G0 and cell cycle dynamics in GSCs and GSC-derived tumors. In primary gliomas, KAT5low cells display quiescent properties, while overall KAT5 activity increases as tumors become more aggressive. Further, we find that KAT5 activity suppresses the emergence of non-dividing subpopulations with oligodendrocyte progenitor and radial glial cell characteristics both in vitro and in a GSC tumor model. These results reveal that KAT5 activity regulates transitions between non-dividing, neurodevelopmental, and proliferative states in GBM tumors.
Project description:In solid tumors, quiescent/G0 cell populations likely play important roles in maintaining cellular heterogeneity and promoting recurrence after stand of care. However, little is known about the mechanisms of tumor cell G0 ingress and egress. To discover regulators of G0-like states for glioblastoma (GBM), we performed a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen in patient-derived GBM stem-like cells (GSCs) for genes that when inhibited trap cells in G0-like states. We identify the protein acetyltransferase KAT5 as a key regulator of G0 and cell cycle dynamics in GSCs and GSC-derived tumors. In primary gliomas, KAT5low cells display quiescent properties, while overall KAT5 activity increases as tumors become more aggressive. Further, we find that KAT5 activity suppresses the emergence of non-dividing subpopulations with oligodendrocyte progenitor and radial glial cell characteristics both in vitro and in a GSC tumor model. These results reveal that KAT5 activity regulates transitions between non-dividing, neurodevelopmental, and proliferative states in GBM tumors.
Project description:Intratumoral microglia and MΦ constitute up to 70% of the tumor mass of high-grade gliomas (HGG) with profound impact on hallmarks of malignancy such as angiogenesis and immunosuppression. The dynamics and functional states of intratumoral myeloid cells during tumor progression and the molecular mechanisms controlling them are poorly understood. Here we define homeostatic and antigen-presenting myeloid cellular states in experimental and human HGG by longitudinal single-cell RNA-sequencing and combined transcriptome and proteome profiling. During glioma progression, myeloid cells gradually shift from a homeostatic to a tumor-associated effector state. We show that these dynamics are under strict control by early changes in resident microglia and the tumor genotype: In gliomas with mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), a disease-defining driver mutation, differentiation of invaded myeloid cells was blocked resulting in an immature, immunosuppressive phenotype. In late-stage IDH-mutant gliomas, monocyte-derived MΦ drive a tolerogenic remodeling of the glioma microenvironment thus preventing T-cell response. We define the molecular mechanism responsible for the tumor genotype-dependent education of infiltrating MΦ to be causally related to an enzymatically enhanced tryptophan catabolism via TDO2, resulting in the production of kynurenine, an endogenous ligand of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). TDO2 activation further induces an amino acid starvation response triggering the import of exogenous tryptophan by intratumoral MΦ via LAT1-CD98. We here provide evidence that paracrine R-2-HG and tryptophan are critically involved in the differentiation and activation of monocyte-derived MΦ and that the previously observed altered amino acid metabolism in IDHmut gliomas is also responsible for shaping an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment through maintenance of this complex metabolic axis. We further show that this regulatory metabolic network is particularly active in infiltrating MΦ because of their distinct expression profile that constitutes an immune subset-specific metabolic vulnerability. Consequently, the immunosuppressive phenotype in IDH-mutant glioma models was reversed by pharmacological inhibition of LAT1-CD98 or AHR. Thus, we provide evidence for a tumor genotype-dependent, dynamic network of resident and recruited intratumoral myeloid cells that shape the immune microenvironment of IDH-mutant HGG through pleiotropic interaction with the tumor metabolome and identify tryptophan metabolism as a viable therapeutic target for the immunotherapy of IDH-mutant tumors.
Project description:Isolated proximal tubular cells from proximal tubular cell-specific KAT5 knockout mice for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain the physiological significance of KAT5 in proximal tubular cells.
Project description:KAT5 encodes an essential lysine acetyltransferase previously called TIP60 involved in gene expression, DNA repair, chromatin remodeling, apoptosis and cell proliferation; but it remains unclear whether variants in this gene causes a genetic disease. Here, we study three individuals with heterozygous de novo missense variants in KAT5 that affect normally invariant residues, with one at the chromodomain (p.Arg53His) and two at or near the acetyl-CoA binding site (p.Cys369Ser and p.Ser413Ala). All three individuals have cerebral malformations, seizures, global developmental delay or intellectual disability, and severe sleep disturbance. Progressive cerebellar atrophy was also noted. Histone acetylation assays with purified mutant KAT5 demonstrated that the variants decrease or abolish the ability of the resulting NuA4/TIP60 multi-subunit complexes to acetylate the histone H4 tail in chromatin. Transcriptomic analysis in patient-derived fibroblasts showed deregulation of multiple genes controlling development. Moreover, there was also upregulated expression of PER1 (a key gene involved in circadian control), in agreement with sleep anomalies in all the patients. In conclusion, dominant missense KAT5 variants cause histone acetylation deficiency with transcriptional dysregulation of multiples genes, thereby leading to a neurodevelopmental syndrome with sleep disturbance, cerebellar atrophy and facial dysmorphisms suggesting a recognizable syndrome.
Project description:Many cells in mammals exist in the state of quiescence, which is characterized by reversible exit from the cell cycle. Quiescent cells are widely reported to exhibit reduced size, nucleotide synthesis, and metabolic activity. Much lower glycolytic rates have been reported in quiescent compared with proliferating lymphocytes. In contrast, we show here that primary human fibroblasts continue to exhibit high metabolic rates when induced into quiescence via contact inhibition. By monitoring isotope labeling through metabolic pathways and quantitatively identifying fluxes from the data, we show that contact-inhibited fibroblasts utilize glucose in all branches of central carbon metabolism at rates similar to those of proliferating cells, with greater overflow flux from the pentose phosphate pathway back to glycolysis. Inhibition of the pentose phosphate pathway resulted in apoptosis preferentially in quiescent fibroblasts. By feeding the cells labeled glutamine, we also detected a “backwards” flux in the tricarboxylic acid cycle from α-ketoglutarate to citrate that was enhanced in contact-inhibited fibroblasts; this flux likely contributes to shuttling of NADPH from the mitochondrion to cytosol for redox defense or fatty acid synthesis. The high metabolic activity of the fibroblasts was directed in part toward breakdown and resynthesis of protein and lipid, and in part toward excretion of extracellular matrix proteins. Thus, reduced metabolic activity is not a hallmark of the quiescent state. Quiescent fibroblasts, relieved of the biosynthetic requirements associated with generating progeny, direct their metabolic activity to preservation of self integrity and alternative functions beneficial to the organism as a whole. mRNAs were analyzed by two color microarray from two separate human neonatal dermal fibroblasts cell lines in proliferating, 7 days contact inhibition, or 14 days contact inhibition. Contact inhibited samples were co-hybridized to proliferating samples as a control, while an additional array co-hybridized the two proliferating samples to analyze reproducibility.