Project description:Promoter rearrangement of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene juxtaposes the coding sequence to strong enhancer elements, leading to TERT overexpression and poor prognosis. TERT associated oncogenic signaling in neuroblastoma remains unclear. Gene set enrichment analysis of RNA-seq data from 498 neuroblastoma patients revealed a coordinated activation of oncogenic signaling pathways and differentially overexpressed gene signature in a subgroup of MycN non-amplified neuroblastomas with TERT overexpression. ChIP-seq analysis of human neuroblastoma cell line CLB-GA harboring TERT rearrangement uncovered genome-wide chromatin co-occupancy of Brd4 and H3K27Ac and robust enrichment of H3K36me3 in TERT and multiple TERT-associated genes. We demonstrated a critical regulatory role of Brd4 and cyclin-dependent kinases in the expression and chromatin activation. Inhibition of both with AZD5153 and dinaciclib proved most effective in tumor growth suppression of neuroblastoma cell lines, primary cells, and xenograft. Our study provides a therapeutic strategy utilizing epigenetic targeting of neuroblastoma with TERT overexpression.
Project description:Whole genome sequencing detected structural rearrangements of TERT in 17/75 high stage neuroblastoma with 5 cases resulting from chromothripsis. Rearrangements were associated with increased TERT expression and targeted immediate up- and down-stream regions of TERT, placing in 7 cases a super-enhancer close to the breakpoints. TERT rearrangements (23%), ATRX deletions (11%) and MYCN amplifications (37%) identify three almost non-overlapping groups of high stage neuroblastoma, each associated with very poor prognosis
Project description:Approximately 30% of high-risk neuroblastomas harbor genomic TERT rearrangements at diagnosis, resulting in high TERT transcript levels and active telomerase. Combined with mutations in the RAS/MAPK/ALK signaling transduction network, these patients have a dismal prognosis. Our objective was to establish a liquid biopsy-based monitoring strategy for this particularly vulnerable patient subgroup, for whom no in-time molecular diagnostic tools exist to date. Detection and quantification of TERT rearrangement breakpoints in cell-free tumor DNA circulating in peripheral blood and bone marrow plasma from patients with TERT-driven neuroblastoma improved minimal residual disease monitoring and early relapse detection in individual patients. TERT rearrangement breakpoints, as a single marker or combined with mutations in the RAS/MAPK/ALK signaling transduction network, can be reliably analyzed from 1ng DNA using droplet digital PCR assays fit for clinical routine use. TERT rearrangement breakpoints are reflected in cell-free tumor DNA and can serve as robust biomarkers for disease activity.
Project description:Whole genome sequencing detected structural rearrangements of TERT in 17/75 high stage neuroblastoma with 5 cases resulting from chromothripsis. Rearrangements were associated with increased TERT expression and targeted immediate up- and down-stream regions of TERT, placing in 7 cases a super-enhancer close to the breakpoints. TERT rearrangements (23%), ATRX deletions (11%) and MYCN amplifications (37%) identify three almost non-overlapping groups of high stage neuroblastoma, each associated with very poor prognosis. This submission contains all newly sequenced samples only.
study_refcenter AMC
Project description:Whole genome sequencing detected structural rearrangements of TERT in 17/75 high stage neuroblastoma with 5 cases resulting from chromothripsis. Rearrangements were associated with increased TERT expression and targeted immediate up- and down-stream regions of TERT, placing in 7 cases a super-enhancer close to the breakpoints. TERT rearrangements (23%), ATRX deletions (11%) and MYCN amplifications (37%) identify three almost non-overlapping groups of high stage neuroblastoma, each associated with very poor prognosis. This submission contains all newly sequenced samples only.
Project description:Our objective was to establish a liquid biopsy-based monitoring strategy for pediatric high-risk neuroblastomas that are harboring genomic TERT rearrangements at diagnosis. TERT rearrangement breakpoints are detected by a hybrid capture-based neuroblastoma DNA panel sequencing (published in PMID: 34442335) in tumor material and are reflected in cell-free tumor DNA and can serve as robust biomarkers for disease activity. Within the dataset, 5 tumors of 4 pediatric patients with a neuroblastoma were DNA sequenced. Provided are FASTQ data files, bam and bambai files, as well as breakpoint spanning and encompassing read (enspan) bam and bambai files. Sequencing bam data files are aligned to GRCh37.p13 reference genome (processed).
Project description:Our study proposes a precise mechanistic classification of clinical neuroblastoma phenotypes that is based on telomere maintenance mechanisms and RAS or p53 pathway mutations. A crucial factor in telomere maintenance is overexpression of TERT. We therefore determined a TERT expression threshold to identify MYCN-WT TERT-WT tumors whose TERT mRNA levels are comparable to those of tumors bearing MYCN or TERT alterations.
Project description:TERT promoter muatations occur frequently in tumors of various origin. We here accessed the frequency of TERT pomoter mutations in 131 human primary neuroblastomas and 20 human neuroblastoma cell lines. No TERT promoter mutations were found in the 131 primary neuroblastomas. However, in the three cell lines SH-SY5Y, SH-EP and SK-N-SH a TERT promoter mutation was detected. Sanger sequencing indicated a homozygous mutation. To confirm loss of heterozygosity (LOH) we performed Affymetrix CytoScanHD SNP arrays. Indeed LOH could be confirmed.
Project description:Our study proposes a precise mechanistic classification of clinical neuroblastoma phenotypes that is based on telomere maintenance mechanisms and RAS or p53 pathway mutations. A crucial factor in telomere maintenance is overexpression of TERT. We therefore determined a TERT expression threshold to identify MYCNWT TERTWT tumors whose TERT mRNA levels are comparable to those of tumors bearing MYCN or TERT alterations.
Project description:TERT promoter muatations occur frequently in tumors of various origin. We here accessed the frequency of TERT pomoter mutations in 131 human primary neuroblastomas and 20 human neuroblastoma cell lines. No TERT promoter mutations were found in the 131 primary neuroblastomas. However, in the three cell lines SH-SY5Y, SH-EP and SK-N-SH a TERT promoter mutation was detected. Sanger sequencing indicated a homozygous mutation. To confirm loss of heterozygosity (LOH) we performed Affymetrix CytoScanHD SNP arrays. Indeed LOH could be confirmed. SNP arry experiments were performed according to the standard protocol for Affymetrix CytoScanHD arrays (Affymetrix, Santa Clara). Briefly, a 250 ng sample of genomic DNA was digested with NspI, ligated to adaptors, amplified by PCR, fragmented and biotin-labeled. The labeled samples were hybridized to Affymetrix CytoscanHD arrays, followed by washing, staining and scanning in the Affymetrix GeneChip Scanner 3000. Analysis was performed using the Affymetrix Chromosome Analysis Suite v2.1.