Dissection of melanoma heterogeneity through gene expression profiling has led to the identification of two major phenotypes, conventionally defined as MITF high / proliferative and AXL high / invasive. Tumors or single melanoma cells characterized by a predominant AXL-related gene program show enhanced expression of sets of genes involved in motility, invasion and regulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), while these genes are downregulated in tumors or cells with a predominant MITF-related gene program. The activation of the AXLhi/MITFlo invasive gene program in melanoma is characterized by aberrant expression of transcription factors (TFs) involved in the embryonic EMT process. Additional master genes involved in promoting melanoma growth and invasive state have been identified within the family of epigenetic regulators. Two of these genes, RNF2 and EZH2, components of the polycomb repressive complexes 1 and 2, act by epigenetically silencing tumor suppressors that in turn regulate the invasive and EMT-like phenotype of melanoma cells. Additional master genes involved in promoting melanoma growth and invasive state have been identified within the family of epigenetic regulators. Two of these genes, RNF2 and EZH2, components of the polycomb repressive complexes 1 and 2, act by epigenetically silencing tumor suppressors that in turn regulate the invasive and EMT-like phenotype of melanoma cells. Here we provide evidence for a new actionable pathway that controls melanoma EMT-like/invasive phenotype. We show that in MITFlo melanomas, the TF NFATc2 controls the EMT-like transcriptional program, the invasive ability of neoplastic cells, as well as in-vitro and in-vivo growth, through a pathway that functionally links c-myc to FOXM1 and EZH2. Targeting of NFATc2, FOXM1 or EZH2 inhibited melanoma migratory and invasive activity. Moreover, pharmacological co-targeting of NFATc2 and EZH2 promoted apoptosis of BRAF-mutant melanomas with intrinsic resistance to BRAF inhibition.
An actionable axis linking NFATc2 to EZH2 controls the EMT-like program of melanoma cells.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesmiRNA abnormalities are increasingly relevent to cancer development, We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression upon miR-483 overexpression in sarcoma cell line MHH-ES-1.
The IGF2 intronic miR-483 selectively enhances transcription from IGF2 fetal promoters and enhances tumorigenesis.
Cell line, Treatment
View SamplesTherapeutic targeting of BRAFV600Eand of MEK has shown a significant impact on progression-free and overall survival in advanced melanoma, but only a fraction of patients benefit from these treatments, suggesting that additional signaling pathways involved in melanoma growth/survival need to be identified. To this end, we used whole genome microarray analysis to identify differentially expressed genes in a set of neoplastic clones, isolated from a single melanoma metastasis, and characterized by mututally exclusive expression of BRAFV600E or NRASQ61R. By this approach we identified two genes, SEMA6A and Mical-1 belonging to the semaphorin-plexin signaling pathway and higly expressed, at mRNA and protein level, in BRAF-mutant neoplastic clones. Real-time PCR, Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry confirmed the preferential expression of SEMA-6A and Mical-1 in BRAFV600E neoplastic cells from melanoma clones, primary and metastatic cell lines and tissue sections from melanoma lesions. SEMA6A depletion, by specific RNA-interference experiments, led to cytoskeletal remodeling, loss of stress fibers, generation of actin-rich protrusion, and cell death, whereas SEMA6A overexpression, in NRASQ61R clones, promoted invasiveness. Mical-1 depletion, by siRNA, in BRAFV600E melanomas, did not alter the actin cytoskeleton organization but caused a strong NDR phosphorylation and NDR-dependent apoptosis. Overall, these results suggest that the SEMA and MICAL pathways contribute to promote survival of BRAFV600E melanomas.
Sema6A and Mical1 control cell growth and survival of BRAFV600E human melanoma cells.
Cell line
View SamplesTargets of Retinoic Acid (RA) and 3,4-didehydroretinoic acid (ddRA) were identified in primary human epidermal keratinocytes grown in the presence of atRA or ddRA for 4 and 24 hours.
The effect of two endogenous retinoids on the mRNA expression profile in human primary keratinocytes, focusing on genes causing autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis.
Treatment
View SamplesPurpose: using RNA-seq as a screening tool to determine candidate genes of interest within a genetically defined neural subpopulation in the zebrafish embryonic spinal cord. Results: The early embryonic spinal cord displays patterns of spontaneous activity that generate the earliest motor behavior in the zebrafish. We show the behavior and the neural activity to be inhibited by environmental levels of light. Since at these young ages the fish is blind, and since restricted illumination patterns on the trunk of the fish can elicit a photo-response, we hypothesized that the photo-inhibition is an intrinsic property of the active central pattern generator network within the spinal cord. We FACS-isolated cells from this network as well as those from a panneuronal population and sequenced mRNAs. Through differential expression analysis we identified vertebrate ancient long opsin a as a candidate and then further validated its function in the circuit through knockdown and rescue experiments. Overall design: RNA sequencing of 2 FACS purified neural populations from zebrafish spinal cord.
A spinal opsin controls early neural activity and drives a behavioral light response.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesThe adaptor protein Lnk is an important negative regulator of HSC homeostasis and self-renewal. This study aims to investigate the role of Lnk in HSC aging. Here we performed expression profiling of bone marrow CD150+CD48-LSK LT-HSCs from young and old WT and Lnk-/- mice. Results identify select Lnk-mediated pathways with potential involvement in HSC self-renewal and aging.
Lnk deficiency partially mitigates hematopoietic stem cell aging.
Specimen part
View SamplesTHREE INDEPENDENT REPLICATES AND ARE THE CONTROL NON-INFECTED CELLS:
Modulation of NB4 promyelocytic leukemic cell machinery by Anaplasma phagocytophilum.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesRecessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is often caused by nonsense mutations that lead to low mRNA levels as a result of nonsense-mediated decay. Some RP genes are expressed at detectable levels in leukocytes as well as in the retina. We designed a microarray-based method to find recessive RP genes based on low lymphoblast mRNA expression levels
Insights from retinitis pigmentosa into the roles of isocitrate dehydrogenases in the Krebs cycle.
No sample metadata fields
View SamplesA key requisite for the success of a dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccine in treating malignancies is the capacity of the DCs to attract immune effector cells for further interaction and activation, considering crosstalk with DCs is partially regulated by cell-contact-dependent mechanisms. Although critical for therapeutic efficacy, immune cell recruitment is a largely overlooked aspect regarding optimization of DC therapy. In this paper we examine if the so-called interleukin (IL)-15 DC vaccine provides a favorable chemokine milieu for recruiting T cells, natural killer (NK) cells and gamma delta () T cells, in comparison with the IL-4 DCs used routinely for clinical studies, as well as the underlying mechanisms of immune cell attraction by IL-15 DCs. Chemokine signaling is studied both at the RNA level, using microarray data of mature DCs, and functional level, by means of a transwell chemotaxis assay. Important to note, the classic IL-4 DC vaccine falls short to attract the required immune effector lymphocytes, whereas the IL-15 DCs provide a favorable chemokine milieu for recruiting all cytolytic effector cells. The elevated secretion of the chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 4 (CCL4), also known as macrophage inflammatory protein-1 (MIP-1), by IL-15 DCs underlies the enhanced migratory responsiveness of T cells, NK cells and T cells. Namely, neutralizing its receptor CCR5 resulted in a significant drop in migration of the aforementioned effector cells towards IL-15 DCs. These findings should be kept in mind in the design of future DC-based cancer vaccines.
Desirable cytolytic immune effector cell recruitment by interleukin-15 dendritic cells.
Specimen part, Subject
View SamplesThe transcriptional response to many widely used drugs and its modulation by genetic variability is poorly understood. Here we present an analysis of RNAseq profiles from heart tissue of 18 inbred mouse strains treated with the ß-blocker atenolol (ATE) and the ß-agonist isoproterenol (ISO). Differential expression analyses revealed a large set of genes responding to ISO (n=1770 at FDR=0.0001) and a comparatively small one responding to ATE (n=23 at FDR=0.0001). At a less stringent definition of differential expression, the transcriptional responses to these two antagonistic drugs are reciprocal for many genes, with an overall anti-correlation of r= -0.3. This trend is also observed at the level of most individual strains even though the power to detect differential expression is significantly reduced. The inversely expressed gene sets are enriched with genes annotated for heart-related functions. Modular analysis revealed gene sets that exhibited coherent transcription profiles across some strains and/or treatments. Correlations between such modules and a broad spectrum of cardiovascular traits are stronger than expected by chance. This provides evidence for the overall importance of transcriptional regulation for these organismal responses and explicits links between co-expressed genes and the traits they are associated with. Gene set enrichment analysis of differentially expressed groups of genes pointed to pathways related to heart development and functionality. Our study provides new insights into the transcriptional response of the heart to perturbations of the ß-adrenergic system, implicating several new genes that had not been associated to this system previously. Overall design: Cardiac mRNA expression profiles of the various inbred mouse strains were examined either under baseline condition (control) or in response to chronic administration of isoproterenol or atenolol at 10 mg/kg per day for 2 weeks. Expression data were produced by RNA-sequencing, in triplicates, using the HiSeq 2000 Illumina platform. Only males, aged ten to twelve weeks on average, were included in the experimental protocol. Mouse ID numbers refer to those described in Berthonneche C. et al. PLoS One. 2009 Aug 12;4(8):e6610 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006610. PMID: 19672458). Corresponding individual phenotypic values, in particular heart rate, systolic blood pressure, electrocardiogaphic measurements and heart weight are available in dataset "maurer1" of the Mouse Phenome Database (http://phenome.jax.org/). Preparation of the sequencing libraries, RNA-sequencing and RNA expression quantitations were performed by the BGI.
RNAseq analysis of heart tissue from mice treated with atenolol and isoproterenol reveals a reciprocal transcriptional response.
Sex, Specimen part, Treatment, Subject
View Samples