Project description:Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are anti-cancer therapeutics used in long-term treatment. However, many of them cause cardiotoxicity with limited cure. We aim to define molecular mechanisms of cardiotoxicity that can be targeted for oncocardiology treatment. Eight TKIs with different levels of cardiotoxicity were selected and transcriptome responses of human cardiomyocytes to them at varying doses and times were profiled using a high throughput RNAseq technique. Transcriptome changes are classified into 7 clusters with mainly single-drug clusters. Drug-specific effects on the transcriptome dominate over dose-, time- or toxicity-dependent effects. Two clusters with three TKIs (afatinib, ponatinib and sorafenib) have the top enriched pathway as the endoplasmic reticulum stress. These TKIs cause an increase in reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation, or calcium, and induce biased endoplasmic reticulum stress on the PERK and the IRE1α pathway. Inhibiting either PERK or IRE1α blocks expression of cardiomyocyte injury and pro-inflammatory markers. Our data contain rich information about stress responses of human cardiomyocytes to specific TKIs, representing potential molecular mechanisms of cardiotoxicity. ER stress-induced inflammation is a promising therapeutic target to mitigate ponatinib- and sorafenib-induced cardiotoxicity
Project description:To define molecular markers of tyrosine kinase inhibitor-induced cardiotoxicity, we measured transcriptome changes in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) treated with one of four tyrosine kinase inhibitors (Erlotinib, Lapatinib, Sorafenib, or Sunitinib) displaying a range of mild to severe cardiotoxicity or a vehicle-only control (DMSO). Gene expression changes were assessed at the cell population level using total RNA-seq, which measured levels of both mRNAs and non-coding RNAs. hiPSC-CMs used in this study were the Cor.4U cells purchased from Ncardia.
Project description:Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), despite efficacy as anti-cancer therapies, are associated with cardiovascular side effects ranging from induced arrhythmias to heart failure. We have utilized patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs), generated from 11 healthy individuals and 2 patients receiving cancer treatment, to screen FDA-approved TKIs for cardiotoxicities by measuring alterations in cardiomyocyte viability, contractility, electrophysiology, calcium handling, and signaling. With these data, we generated a “cardiac safety index” to assess cardiotoxicities of existing TKIs. Many TKIs with a low cardiac safety index exhibit cardiotoxicity in patients. We also derived endothelial cells (hiPSC-ECs) and cardiac fibroblasts (hiPSC-CFs) to examine cell type-specific cardiotoxicities. Using high-throughput screening, we determined that VEGFR2/PDGFR-inhibiting TKIs caused cardiotoxicity in hiPSC-CMs, hiPSC-ECs, and hiPSC-CFs. Using phosphoprotein analysis, we determined that VEGFR2/PDGFR-inhibiting TKIs led to a compensatory increase in cardioprotective insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling in hiPSC-CMs. Activating cardioprotective signaling with exogenous insulin or IGF1 improved hiPSC-CM viability during co-treatment with cardiotoxic VEGFR2/PDGFR-inhibiting TKIs. Thus, hiPSC-CMs can be used to screen for cardiovascular toxicities associated with anti-cancer TKIs, correlating with clinical phenotypes. This approach provides unexpected insights, as illustrated by our finding that toxicity can be alleviated via cardioprotective insulin/IGF signaling.
Project description:Drug-induced cardiotoxicity is a widespread clinical issue affecting numerous drug classes and remains difficult to treat. One such drug class is Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs), which cause varying degrees of contraction-related cardiotoxicity usually after weeks of exposure. Understanding molecular mechanisms underlying both acute and chronic toxicity of TKIs could help identify new treatment opportunities. Here, we presented transcriptome responses to four TKIs (Sunitinib, Sorafenib, Lapatinib and Erlotinib) across 3 doses and 4 time points in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Gene expression evolved continually under drug treatment and revealed changes in several biological networks that were associated with cardiac metabolism and contraction. These changes were confirmed by proteomics and resulted in metabolic and structural remodeling of hiPSC-CMs. One of the metabolic remodeling was the increased aerobic glycolysis induced by Sorafenib, which is an adaptive response in preserving cell survival under Sorafenib treatment. Drug adaptation in cardiac cells may represent new targets for managing chronic forms of TKI-induced cardiotoxicity.
Project description:We present a microfluidic device for rapid gene expression profiling in single cells using multiplexed quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). This device integrates all processing steps, including cell isolation and lysis, complementary DNA synthesis, pre-amplification, sample splitting, and measurement in twenty separate qPCR reactions. Each of these steps is performed in parallel on up to 200 single cells per run. Experiments performed on dilutions of purified RNA establish assay linearity over a dynamic range of at least 104, a qPCR precision of 15 %, and detection sensitivity down to a single cDNA molecule. We demonstrate the application of our device for rapid profiling of microRNA expression in single cells. Measurements performed on a panel of twenty miRNA in two types of cells revealed clear cell-to-cell heterogeneity, with evidence of spontaneous differentiation manifest as distinct expression signatures. Highly multiplexed microfluidic RT-qPCR fills a gap in current capabilities for single-cell analysis, providing a rapid and cost-effective approach for profiling panels of marker genes, thereby complementing single-cell genomics methods that are best suited for global analysis and discovery. We expect this approach to enable new studies requiring fast, cost-effective, and precise measurements across hundreds of single cells.
Project description:Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), as a class of small-molecule drugs that exert anti-tumor effects by inhibiting tyrosine kinase-catalyzed phosphorylation, have been used in the treatment of various cancers. Sorafenib, as a multi-targeted TKI drug, is the first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma and unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. However, sorafenib has repeatedly been reported to cause cardiac events in patients without a history of heart diseases during clinical use, indicating that it has cardiotoxicity. Alternative splicing of cardiac contraction-related genes happens during heart development and cardiac diseases, and is critical for heart function. However, whether alternative splicing plays a role in drug-induced cardiotoxicity remains unexplored. RBM20 is an important cardiac-specific splicing factor, mutations of which cause dilated cardiomyopathy or other cardiac dysfunctions. Rbm20 also mediates alternative splicing of genes essential for heart contraction, which is often negatively affected in drug-induced cardiotoxicity. Existing studies do not fully explain the mechanism of sorafenib cardiotoxicity, and none of the relationship between cardiotoxicity of sorafenib and alternative splicing mediated by tissue-specific splicing factors, such as Rbm20, have been reported. In order to explore whether cardiac-specific alternative splicing plays a role in sorafenib-induced cardiotoxicity, we establish both cell and animal models of cardiotoxicity, and obtain the following results: (1) By constructing a rat animal model administered with sorafenib, we find that sorafenib causes abnormal cardiac function in rats, and the genes that undergo alternative splicing in rat hearts are related to cytoskeleton of actin; (2) Alternatively spliced genes induced by sorafenib in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) are enriched in sarcomere, actin filament, calcium transient regulation, mitochondria, all of which are critical for cardiac contraction. These genes are associated with dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other cardiomyopathy; (3) Sorafenib induces a decrease in the expression of cardiac-specific splicing factor RBM20; (3) Many genes whose splicing are altered by sorafenib overlap with Rbm20 targets, indicating that sorafenib may affect alternative splicing through Rbm20; (4) Sorafenib induces pathogenic alternative splicing of FHOD3, which is a RBM20 target gene and participates in myocardial sarcomere formation. Sorafenib also affects alternative splicing of SLC25A3, which encodes a phosphate transporter on the mitochondrial inner membrane and regulates ATP synthesis; (5) Enhancing the expression of RBM20 rescues the cardiotoxicity of sorafenib by reducing apoptosis and increasing ATP levels, which is mediated by reversing the alternative splicing of FHOD3 and SLC25A3 induced by sorafenib. This paper uncovers that sorafenib reduces the expression of RBM20 to cause pathogenic alternative splicing of genes related to myocardial sarcomere and energy mechanism, resulting in abnormal myocardial function. Increasing the expression of RBM20 reverses the alternative splicing of FHOD3 and SLC25A3 associated with cardiac sarcomeres and mitochondria respectively, rescuing the cardiotoxicity of sorafenib.