Project description:The use of androgen receptor (AR) inhibitors in prostate cancer gives rise to increased cellular lineage plasticity resulting resistance to AR-targeted therapies. By examining the chromatin landscape of AR positive prostate cancer cells following exposure to the AR inhibitor enzalutamide, we have identified a novel regulator of cell plasticity, homeobox transcription factor SIX2, whose motif is enriched in accessible regions post-treatment. Our investigation demonstrates that depletion of SIX2 in androgen-independent PC-3 prostate cancer cells is sufficient to induce a switch from a stem-like to an epithelial state, leading to the reduction of key cancer-related properties such as proliferation, colony formation, and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. These effects are mediated through downregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and subsequent reduced nuclear localization of β-catenin. Collectively, our findings provide compelling evidence that depletion of SIX2 may represent a promising strategy for overcoming cell plasticity mechanisms driving AR resistance in prostate cancer.
Project description:The use of androgen receptor (AR) inhibitors in prostate cancer gives rise to increased cellular lineage plasticity resulting resistance to AR-targeted therapies. By examining the chromatin landscape of AR positive prostate cancer cells following exposure to the AR inhibitor enzalutamide, we have identified a novel regulator of cell plasticity, homeobox transcription factor SIX2, whose motif is enriched in accessible regions post-treatment. Our investigation demonstrates that depletion of SIX2 in androgen-independent PC-3 prostate cancer cells is sufficient to induce a switch from a stem-like to an epithelial state, leading to the reduction of key cancer-related properties such as proliferation, colony formation, and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. These effects are mediated through downregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and subsequent reduced nuclear localization of β-catenin. Collectively, our findings provide compelling evidence that depletion of SIX2 may represent a promising strategy for overcoming cell plasticity mechanisms driving AR resistance in prostate cancer.
Project description:The use of androgen receptor (AR) inhibitors in prostate cancer gives rise to increased cellular lineage plasticity resulting resistance to AR-targeted therapies. By examining the chromatin landscape of AR positive prostate cancer cells following exposure to the AR inhibitor enzalutamide, we have identified a novel regulator of cell plasticity, homeobox transcription factor SIX2, whose motif is enriched in accessible regions post-treatment. Our investigation demonstrates that depletion of SIX2 in androgen-independent PC-3 prostate cancer cells is sufficient to induce a switch from a stem-like to an epithelial state, leading to the reduction of key cancer-related properties such as proliferation, colony formation, and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. These effects are mediated through downregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and subsequent reduced nuclear localization of β-catenin. Collectively, our findings provide compelling evidence that depletion of SIX2 may represent a promising strategy for overcoming cell plasticity mechanisms driving AR resistance in prostate cancer.
Project description:Self-renewing undifferentiated nephron progenitors express Six2, a transcription factor that is required for their maintenance as undifferentiated progenitors. Differentiation of nephron progenitors is triggered by Wnt/b-catenin signaling. In order to understand how Six2 and Wnt signaling counteract each other, we performed ChIP-seq of Six2 and b-catenin in mesenchymal nephron progenitor cells. Nephron progenitors were FACS-isolated from BAC transgenic Six2GFPcre-positive embryonic kidneys at E16.5. For Six2 ChIP, freshly FACS isolated Six2+ cells were used. For b-catenin ChIP, FACS isolated Six2+ cells were aggregated by centrifugation at 850g for 5min and incubated in 10%FBS/DMEM containing 4uM BIO for 24hrs.
Project description:Self-renewing undifferentiated nephron progenitors express Six2, a transcription factor that is required for their maintenance as undifferentiated progenitors. Differentiation of nephron progenitors is triggered by Wnt/b-catenin signaling. In order to understand how Six2 and Wnt signaling counteract each other, we performed ChIP-seq of Six2 and b-catenin in mesenchymal nephron progenitor cells.
Project description:During canonical Wnt signalling the activity of nuclear beta-catenin is largely mediated by the TCF/LEF family of transcription factors. To challenge this view we used the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing approach to generate HEK 293T cell clones simultaneously carrying loss-of-function alleles of all four TCF/LEF genes. Exploiting unbiased whole transcriptome sequencing studies, we found that a subset of beta-catenin transcriptional targets did not require TCF/LEF factors for their regulation. Consistent with this finding, we observed in a genome-wide analysis that beta-catenin occupied specific genomic regions in the absence of TCF/LEF. Finally, we revealed the existence of a transcriptional activity of beta-catenin that specifically appears when TCF/LEF factors are absent, and refer to this as beta-catenin-GHOST response. Collectively, this study uncovers a previously neglected modus operandi of beta-catenin that bypasses the TCF/LEF transcription factors.