Project description:Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death among men worldwide and thus research on the genetic factors enabling the formation of treatment resistant cancer cells is crucial for improving patient outcomes.Here, we report a cell-line specific dependence on FANCI and related signalling pathways to counteract effects of DNA damaging chemotherapy in prostate cancer. Our results reveal that FANCI depletion results in significant downregulation of Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway members in prostate cancer cells indicating that FANCI is an important regulator of FA pathway. Furthermore, we found that FANCI silencing reduces proliferation in p53-expressing prostate cancer cells. This extends the evidence that inactivation of FANCI may convert cancer cells from a resistant to an eradicable state under the stress of DNA-damaging chemotherapy. Our results also indicate that high expression of FA pathway genes correlates with poorer survival in prostate cancer patients. Moreover, genomic alterations of FA pathway members are prevalent in prostate adenocarcinoma patients; mutation and copy number information for the FA pathway genes in seven patient cohorts (N = 1732 total tumor samples) reveals that 1025 (59.2%) tumor samples have an alteration in at least one of the FA pathway genes, suggesting that genomic alteration of the pathway is a prominent feature in patients with the disease.
Project description:DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are repaired by the Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway. The FA pathway is activated by phosphorylation of FANCI in FANCD2-FANCI complex. To investigate how phosphorylation regulates FA pathway activation and function, recombinant FANCD2-FANCI complexes prepared using either the wild-type FANCI or the phosphomimetic FANCI, were comparied using crosslinking/mass spectrometry.
Project description:Fanconi anemia is a rare inherited hematological disorder which commonly presents with bone marrow failure, developmental abnormalities and susceptibility to cancer with high rates of prevalence in ethnic populations. The objective of this study was to identify potential genes that aid in the progression of the disease or produce its principal symptoms and to hypothesize enabling roles for certain genes that are not part of the central molecular machinery causing the disease. A total of 2 Fanconi anemia samples were collected from patients who displayed characteristic FA features. All of them gave positive results for the DNA breakage test after mitomycin C treatment. Samples were referred by Dr. Sheila Mohan of REFAIN (Registry for Fanconi anemia in India). Whole genome microarray analysis of peripheral blood from 2 patient samples and one normal individual. Sequential analysis of microarray data was carried out using gene ontology and pathway analysis to identify candidate genes.
Project description:Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare inherited disease complicated by aplastic anemia. There is evidence that hematopoietic stem cells have lost self replicative capacity and undergo apoptosis when exposed to inhibitory cytokines including interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. We used gene expression microarrays to identify transcriptomal differences between bone marrow cells from normal volunteers and from children and adults with Fanconi anemia
Project description:The twenty-three Fanconi Anemia proteins cooperate in a DNA repair pathway, called the FA/BRCA pathway, required for the monoubiquitination of FANCD2 and the excision of interstrand DNA crosslinks (ICLs). The CCAR1 (cell division cycle and apoptosis regulator 1) protein is also a regulator of ICL repair, though its possible function in the FA/BRCA pathway remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CCAR1 plays a unique upstream role in the FA/BRCA pathway and is required for FANCA protein expression and FANCD2 monoubiquitination. Interestingly, loss of CCAR1 results in retention of a poison exon in the FANCA transcript, thereby leading to reduced FANCA protein expression. A unique domain of CCAR1, the so-called EF-hand domain, binds to the spliceosome SF3B complex and is required for its mRNA splicing activity. Taken together, CCAR1 is a unique splicing factor, required for normal splicing of the FANCA mRNA and perhaps other mRNAs involved in various cellular pathways.
Project description:Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare inherited disease complicated by aplastic anemia. There is evidence that hematopoietic stem cells have lost self replicative capacity and undergo apoptosis when exposed to inhibitory cytokines including interferon gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. We used gene expression microarrays to identify transcriptomal differences between bone marrow cells from normal volunteers and from children and adults with Fanconi anemia Experiment Overall Design: Fanconi anemia patients were identified using mitomycin C and/or diepoxybutane chromosomal breakage analysis. Eleven normal volunteers and 21 FA patients were studied. All FA patients with cytogenetic evidence of clonal evolution were excluded. All FA patients with acute leukemia were excluded. RNA was prepared from freshly obtained low density mononuclear cell fractions.