Apoptotic lymphocytes of H. sapiens lose nucleosomes in GC-rich promoters

Galaxy Dnpatterntools for Computational Analysis of Nucleosome Positioning Sequence Patterns

Nucleosomes are basic units of DNA packing in eukaryotes. Their structure is well conserved from yeast to human and consists of the histone octamer core and 147 bp DNA wrapped around it. Nucleosomes are bound to a majority of the eukaryotic genomic DNA, including its regulatory regions. Hence, they also play a major role in gene regulation. For the latter, their precise positioning on DNA is essential. In the present paper, we describe Galaxy dnpatterntools—software package for nucleosome DNA sequence analysis and mapping. This software will be useful for computational biologists practitioners to conduct more profound studies of gene regulatory mechanisms.

Nucleosome positioning sequence patterns as packing or regulatory

Nucleosome positioning DNA sequence patterns (NPS)-usually distributions of particular dinucleotides or other sequence elements in nucleosomal DNA-at least partially determine chromatin structure and arrangements of nucleosomes that in turn affect gene expression. Statistically, NPS are defined as oscillations of the dinucleotide periodicity of about 10 base pairs (bp) which reflects the double helix period. We compared the nucleosomal DNA patterns in mouse, human and yeast organisms and observed few distinctive patterns that can be termed as packing and regulatory referring to distinctive modes of chromatin function. For the first time the NPS patterns in nucleus accumbens cells (NAC) in mouse brain were characterized and compared to the patterns in human CD4+ and apoptotic lymphocyte cells and well studied patterns in yeast. The NPS patterns in human CD4+ cells and mouse brain cells had very high positive correlation. However, there was no correlation between them and patterns in human apoptotic lymphocyte cells and yeast, but the latter two were highly correlated with each other. By their dinucleotide arrangements the analyzed NPS patterns classified into stable canonical WW/SS (W = A or T and S = C or G dinucleotide) and less stable RR/YY (R = A or G and Y = C or T dinucleotide) patterns and anti-patterns. In the anti-patterns positioning of the dinucleotides is flipped compared to those in the regular patterns. Stable canonical WW/SS patterns and anti-patterns are ubiquitously observed in many organisms and they had high resemblance between yeast and human apoptotic cells. Less stable RR/YY patterns had higher positive correlation between mouse and normal human cells. Our analysis and evidence from scientific literature lead to idea that various distinct patterns in nucleosomal DNA can be related to the two roles of the chromatin: packing (WW/SS) and regulatory (RR/YY and "anti").

Do protons and X-rays induce cell-killing in human peripheral blood lymphocytes by different mechanisms?

Purpose

Significant progress has been made in the technological and physical aspects of dose delivery and distribution in proton therapy. However, mode of cell killing induced by protons is less understood in comparison with X-rays. The purpose of this study is to see if there is any difference in the mode of cell-killing, induced by protons and X-rays in an ex vivo human peripheral blood lymphocyte (HPBL) model.

Materials and methods

HPBL were irradiated with 60 MeV proton beam or 250-kVp X-rays in the dose range of 0.3–4.0 Gy. Frequency of apoptotic and necrotic cells was determined by the Fluorescein (FITC)-Annexin V labelling procedure, 1 and 4 h after irradiation. Chip-based DNA Ladder Assay was used to confirm radiation-induced apoptosis and necrosis. Chip-based DNA Ladder Assay was used to confirm radiation-induced apoptosis.

Results

Ex vivo irradiation of HPBL with proton beams of 60 MeV or 250 kVp X-rays resulted in apoptotic as well as necrotic modes of cell-killing, which were evident at both 1 and 4 h after irradiation in the whole dose and time range. Generally, our results indicated that protons cause relatively higher yields of cell death that appears to be necrosis compared to X-rays. The analysis also demonstrates that radiation type and dose play a critical role in mode of cell-killing.

Conclusion

Obtained results suggest that X-rays and protons induce cell-killing by different modes. Such differences in cell-killing modes may have implications on the potential of a given therapeutic modality to cause immune modulation via programmed cell death (X-rays) or necrotic cell death (proton therapy). These studies point towards exploring for gene expression biomarkers related necrosis or apoptosis to predict immune response after proton therapy.