1
|
Baur B, Shin J, Schreiber J, Zhang S, Zhang Y, Manjunath M, Song JS, Stafford Noble W, Roy S. Leveraging epigenomes and three-dimensional genome organization for interpreting regulatory variation. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011286. [PMID: 37428809 PMCID: PMC10358954 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the impact of regulatory variants on complex phenotypes is a significant challenge because the genes and pathways that are targeted by such variants and the cell type context in which regulatory variants operate are typically unknown. Cell-type-specific long-range regulatory interactions that occur between a distal regulatory sequence and a gene offer a powerful framework for examining the impact of regulatory variants on complex phenotypes. However, high-resolution maps of such long-range interactions are available only for a handful of cell types. Furthermore, identifying specific gene subnetworks or pathways that are targeted by a set of variants is a significant challenge. We have developed L-HiC-Reg, a Random Forests regression method to predict high-resolution contact counts in new cell types, and a network-based framework to identify candidate cell-type-specific gene networks targeted by a set of variants from a genome-wide association study (GWAS). We applied our approach to predict interactions in 55 Roadmap Epigenomics Mapping Consortium cell types, which we used to interpret regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the NHGRI-EBI GWAS catalogue. Using our approach, we performed an in-depth characterization of fifteen different phenotypes including schizophrenia, coronary artery disease (CAD) and Crohn's disease. We found differentially wired subnetworks consisting of known as well as novel gene targets of regulatory SNPs. Taken together, our compendium of interactions and the associated network-based analysis pipeline leverages long-range regulatory interactions to examine the context-specific impact of regulatory variation in complex phenotypes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brittany Baur
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Junha Shin
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Jacob Schreiber
- Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Shilu Zhang
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| | - Yi Zhang
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Mohith Manjunath
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Jun S Song
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - William Stafford Noble
- Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Sushmita Roy
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Li S, Wu H, Chen M, Tollefsbol TO. Paternal Combined Botanicals Contribute to the Prevention of Estrogen Receptor-Negative Mammary Cancer in Transgenic Mice. J Nutr 2023; 153:1959-1973. [PMID: 37146973 PMCID: PMC10375510 DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Parental nutritional interventions have considerably affected gametogenesis and embryogenesis, leading to the differential susceptibility of offspring to chronic diseases such as cancer. Moreover, combinatorial bioactive diets are more efficacious in ameliorating epigenetic aberrations in tumorigenesis. OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the transgenerational influence and epigenetic regulation of paternal sulforaphane (SFN)-rich broccoli sprouts (BSp) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG)-rich green tea polyphenols (GTPs) consumption in the prevention of estrogen receptor-negative [ER(-)] mammary cancer in transgenic mice. METHODS Human breast cancer cells were used to detect cell viability and epigenetic-related gene expression after treatment with EGCG and/or SFN. Twenty-four C3 or HER2/neu males were randomly assigned into 4 groups and treated with control, 26% BSp (w/w) in food, 0.5% GTPs (w/v) in drinking water or combined BSp and GTPs for 7 wk before mating. Tumor growth of nontreated female pups was monitored weekly for 19 wk (C3) and 25 wk (HER2/neu). Tumor- and epigenetic-related protein expression and enzyme activities in mammary tumors were measured. Sperms were isolated from treated males for RNA sequencing and reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing analysis. Data were analyzed with a 2-factor or 3-factor analysis of variance. RESULTS EGCG and SFN inhibited breast cancer cell growth via epigenetic regulation. Combined BSp and GTPs synergistically (combination index < 1) suppressed tumor growth over time (P < 0.001) in 2 mouse models. Key tumor-related proteins were found differentially expressed (P < 0.05) along with epigenetic regulations in offspring mammary tumors. The transcriptome profile of sperm derived from dietary-treated males revealed differentially expressed genes correlated with spermatogenesis and breast cancer progression. DNA methylomes of the sperm and further integrated analysis with transcriptomes indicate that DNA methylation alone may not contribute to sufficient regulation in dietary-treated sperm pronucleus, leading to offspring tumor suppression. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, paternal consumption of combined BSp and GTPs shows potential for preventing ER(-) mammary cancer through transgenerational effects. J Nutr 2023;xx:xx-xx.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shizhao Li
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States.
| | - Huixin Wu
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Min Chen
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Trygve O Tollefsbol
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; Integrative Center for Aging Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; Comprehensive Diabetes Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; University Wide Microbiome Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Zhang G, Yin Z, Fang J, Wu A, Chen G, Cao K. Construction of the novel immune risk scoring system related to CD8 + T cells in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma. Cancer Cell Int 2023; 23:124. [PMID: 37349706 DOI: 10.1186/s12935-023-02966-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a gynecological malignant tumor with high incidence and poor prognosis. Although immunotherapy has brought significant survival benefits to advanced UCEC patients, traditional evaluation indicators cannot accurately identify all potential beneficiaries of immunotherapy. Consequently, it is necessary to construct a new scoring system to predict patient prognosis and responsiveness of immunotherapy. METHODS CIBERSORT combined with weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), and random forest algorithms to screen the module associated with CD8+ T cells, and key genes related to prognosis were selected out by univariate, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and multivariate Cox regression analyses to develop the novel immune risk score (NIRS). Kaplan-Meier (K-M) analysis was used to compare the difference of survival between high- and low- NIRS groups. We also explored the correlations between NIRS, immune infiltration and immunotherapy, and three external validation sets were used to verify the predictive performance of NIRS. Furthermore, clinical subgroup analysis, mutation analysis, differential expression of immune checkpoints, and drug sensitivity analysis were performed to generate individualized treatments for patients with different risk scores. Finally, gene set variation analysis (GSVA) was conducted to explore the biological functions of NIRS, and qRT-PCR was applied to verify the differential expressions of three trait genes at cellular and tissue levels. RESULTS Among the modules clustered by WGCNA, the magenta module was most positively associated with CD8+ T cells. Three genes (CTSW, CD3D and CD48) were selected to construct NIRS after multiple screening procedures. NIRS was confirmed as an independent prognostic factor of UCEC, and patients with high NIRS had significantly worse prognosis compared to those with low NIRS. The high NIRS group showed lower levels of infiltrated immune cells, gene mutations, and expression of multiple immune checkpoints, indicating reduced sensitivity to immunotherapy. Three module genes were identified as protective factors positively correlated with the level of CD8+ T cells. CONCLUSIONS In this study, we constructed NIRS as a novel predictive signature of UCEC. NIRS not only differentiates patients with distinct prognoses and immune responsiveness, but also guides their therapeutic regimens.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ganghua Zhang
- Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Zhijing Yin
- Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Jianing Fang
- Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Anshan Wu
- Zhuzhou Hospital Affiliated to Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Zhuzhou, China
| | - Guanjun Chen
- Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China
| | - Ke Cao
- Department of Oncology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Pagadala M, Sears TJ, Wu VH, Pérez-Guijarro E, Kim H, Castro A, Talwar JV, Gonzalez-Colin C, Cao S, Schmiedel BJ, Goudarzi S, Kirani D, Au J, Zhang T, Landi T, Salem RM, Morris GP, Harismendy O, Patel SP, Alexandrov LB, Mesirov JP, Zanetti M, Day CP, Fan CC, Thompson WK, Merlino G, Gutkind JS, Vijayanand P, Carter H. Germline modifiers of the tumor immune microenvironment implicate drivers of cancer risk and immunotherapy response. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2744. [PMID: 37173324 PMCID: PMC10182072 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38271-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
With the continued promise of immunotherapy for treating cancer, understanding how host genetics contributes to the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is essential to tailoring cancer screening and treatment strategies. Here, we study 1084 eQTLs affecting the TIME found through analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas and literature curation. These TIME eQTLs are enriched in areas of active transcription, and associate with gene expression in specific immune cell subsets, such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Polygenic score models built with TIME eQTLs reproducibly stratify cancer risk, survival and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) response across independent cohorts. To assess whether an eQTL-informed approach could reveal potential cancer immunotherapy targets, we inhibit CTSS, a gene implicated by cancer risk and ICB response-associated polygenic models; CTSS inhibition results in slowed tumor growth and extended survival in vivo. These results validate the potential of integrating germline variation and TIME characteristics for uncovering potential targets for immunotherapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Meghana Pagadala
- Biomedical Sciences Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Timothy J Sears
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Victoria H Wu
- Department of Pharmacology, UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Eva Pérez-Guijarro
- Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Hyo Kim
- Undergraduate Bioengineering Program, Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Andrea Castro
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - James V Talwar
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | | | - Steven Cao
- Division of Epidemiology, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | | | | | - Divya Kirani
- Undergraduate Biology and Bioinformatics Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Jessica Au
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Tongwu Zhang
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Teresa Landi
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Rany M Salem
- Division of Epidemiology, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Gerald P Morris
- Department of Pathology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Olivier Harismendy
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Sandip Pravin Patel
- Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, San Diego, CA, 92037, USA
| | - Ludmil B Alexandrov
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Jill P Mesirov
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Maurizio Zanetti
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- The Laboratory of Immunology and Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Chi-Ping Day
- Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Chun Chieh Fan
- Center for Population Neuroscience and Genetics, Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA
- Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Wesley K Thompson
- Division of Biostatistics, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Glenn Merlino
- Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - J Silvio Gutkind
- Department of Pharmacology, UCSD Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | | | - Hannah Carter
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Genetics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zhang Y, Xiang G, Jiang AY, Lynch A, Zeng Z, Wang C, Zhang W, Fan J, Kang J, Gu SS, Wan C, Zhang B, Liu XS, Brown M, Meyer CA. MetaTiME integrates single-cell gene expression to characterize the meta-components of the tumor immune microenvironment. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2634. [PMID: 37149682 PMCID: PMC10164163 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38333-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in single-cell RNA sequencing have shown heterogeneous cell types and gene expression states in the non-cancerous cells in tumors. The integration of multiple scRNA-seq datasets across tumors can indicate common cell types and states in the tumor microenvironment (TME). We develop a data driven framework, MetaTiME, to overcome the limitations in resolution and consistency that result from manual labelling using known gene markers. Using millions of TME single cells, MetaTiME learns meta-components that encode independent components of gene expression observed across cancer types. The meta-components are biologically interpretable as cell types, cell states, and signaling activities. By projecting onto the MetaTiME space, we provide a tool to annotate cell states and signature continuums for TME scRNA-seq data. Leveraging epigenetics data, MetaTiME reveals critical transcriptional regulators for the cell states. Overall, MetaTiME learns data-driven meta-components that depict cellular states and gene regulators for tumor immunity and cancer immunotherapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yi Zhang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Guanjue Xiang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Alva Yijia Jiang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Allen Lynch
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Zexian Zeng
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Chenfei Wang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Wubing Zhang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Jingyu Fan
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Jiajinlong Kang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Shengqing Stan Gu
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Changxin Wan
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Boning Zhang
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - X Shirley Liu
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Myles Brown
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Clifford A Meyer
- Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
- Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Shen S, Tu C, Shen H, Li J, Frangou C, Zhang J, Qu J. Comparative Proteomics Analysis of Exosomes Identifies Key Pathways and Protein Markers Related to Breast Cancer Metastasis. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:4033. [PMID: 36835443 PMCID: PMC9967130 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24044033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Proteomics analysis of circulating exosomes derived from cancer cells represents a promising approach to the elucidation of cell-cell communication and the discovery of putative biomarker candidates for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Nonetheless, the proteome of exosomes derived from cell lines with different metastatic capabilities still warrants further investigation. Here, we present a comprehensive quantitative proteomics investigation of exosomes isolated from immortalized mammary epithelial cells and matched tumor lines with different metastatic potentials in an attempt to discover exosome markers specific to breast cancer (BC) metastasis. A total of 2135 unique proteins were quantified with a high confidence level from 20 isolated exosome samples, including 94 of the TOP 100 exosome markers archived by ExoCarta. Moreover, 348 altered proteins were observed, among which several metastasis-specific markers, including cathepsin W (CATW), magnesium transporter MRS2 (MRS2), syntenin-2 (SDCB2), reticulon-4 (RTN), and UV excision repair protein RAD23 homolog (RAD23B), were also identified. Notably, the abundance of these metastasis-specific markers corresponds well with the overall survival of BC patients in clinical settings. Together, these data provide a valuable dataset for BC exosome proteomics investigation and prominently facilitate the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying primary tumor development and progression.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shichen Shen
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
- New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| | - Chengjian Tu
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
- New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| | - He Shen
- Department of Cancer Genetics and Genomics, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA
| | - Jun Li
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
- New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| | - Costa Frangou
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA
| | - Jianmin Zhang
- Department of Cancer Genetics and Genomics, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA
| | - Jun Qu
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
- New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Lee KK, Rishishwar L, Ban D, Nagar SD, Mariño-Ramírez L, McDonald JF, Jordan IK. Association of genetic ancestry and molecular signatures with cancer survival disparities: a pan-cancer analysis. Cancer Res 2022; 82:1222-1233. [DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-21-2105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2021] [Revised: 09/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
|
8
|
Baur B, Lee DI, Haag J, Chasman D, Gould M, Roy S. Deciphering the Role of 3D Genome Organization in Breast Cancer Susceptibility. Front Genet 2022; 12:788318. [PMID: 35087569 PMCID: PMC8787344 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.788318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer risk by environmental exposure is modulated by an individual's genetics and age at exposure. This age-specific period of susceptibility is referred to as the "Window of Susceptibility" (WOS). Rats have a similar WOS for developing breast cancer. A previous study in rat identified an age-specific long-range regulatory interaction for the cancer gene, Pappa, that is associated with breast cancer susceptibility. However, the global role of three-dimensional genome organization and downstream gene expression programs in the WOS is not known. Therefore, we generated Hi-C and RNA-seq data in rat mammary epithelial cells within and outside the WOS. To systematically identify higher-order changes in 3D genome organization, we developed NE-MVNMF that combines network enhancement followed by multitask non-negative matrix factorization. We examined three-dimensional genome organization dynamics at the level of individual loops as well as higher-order domains. Differential chromatin interactions tend to be associated with differentially up-regulated genes with the WOS and recapitulate several human SNP-gene interactions associated with breast cancer susceptibility. Our approach identified genomic blocks of regions with greater overall differences in contact count between the two time points when the cluster assignments change and identified genes and pathways implicated in early carcinogenesis and cancer treatment. Our results suggest that WOS-specific changes in 3D genome organization are linked to transcriptional changes that may influence susceptibility to breast cancer.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brittany Baur
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Da-Inn Lee
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Jill Haag
- McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Deborah Chasman
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Michael Gould
- McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sushmita Roy
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Zeng Z, Mao C, Vo A, Li X, Nugent JO, Khan SA, Clare SE, Luo Y. Deep learning for cancer type classification and driver gene identification. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:491. [PMID: 34689757 PMCID: PMC8543824 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04400-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Genetic information is becoming more readily available and is increasingly being used to predict patient cancer types as well as their subtypes. Most classification methods thus far utilize somatic mutations as independent features for classification and are limited by study power. We aim to develop a novel method to effectively explore the landscape of genetic variants, including germline variants, and small insertions and deletions for cancer type prediction.
Results We proposed DeepCues, a deep learning model that utilizes convolutional neural networks to unbiasedly derive features from raw cancer DNA sequencing data for disease classification and relevant gene discovery. Using raw whole-exome sequencing as features, germline variants and somatic mutations, including insertions and deletions, were interactively amalgamated for feature generation and cancer prediction. We applied DeepCues to a dataset from TCGA to classify seven different types of major cancers and obtained an overall accuracy of 77.6%. We compared DeepCues to conventional methods and demonstrated a significant overall improvement (p < 0.001). Strikingly, using DeepCues, the top 20 breast cancer relevant genes we have identified, had a 40% overlap with the top 20 known breast cancer driver genes. Conclusion Our results support DeepCues as a novel method to improve the representational resolution of DNA sequencings and its power in deriving features from raw sequences for cancer type prediction, as well as discovering new cancer relevant genes. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04400-4.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zexian Zeng
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 750 N Lake Shore Drive Room 11-189, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.,Department of Data Sciences, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Chengsheng Mao
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 750 N Lake Shore Drive Room 11-189, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA
| | - Andy Vo
- Committee on Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Janna Ore Nugent
- Research Computing Services, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Seema A Khan
- Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, NMH/Prentice Women's Hospital Room 4-420 250 E Superior, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
| | - Susan E Clare
- Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Robert H Lurie Medical Research Center Room 4-113 250 E Superior, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
| | - Yuan Luo
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 750 N Lake Shore Drive Room 11-189, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Plasma cells expression from smouldering myeloma to myeloma reveals the importance of the PRC2 complex, cell cycle progression, and the divergent evolutionary pathways within the different molecular subgroups. Leukemia 2021; 36:591-595. [PMID: 34365473 DOI: 10.1038/s41375-021-01379-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2021] [Revised: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Sequencing studies have shed some light on the pathogenesis of progression from smouldering multiple myeloma (SMM) and symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM). Given the scarcity of smouldering samples, little data are available to determine which translational programmes are dysregulated and whether the mechanisms of progression are uniform across the main molecular subgroups. In this work, we investigated 223 SMM and 1348 MM samples from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) for which we had gene expression profiling (GEP). Patients were analysed by TC-7 subgroup for gene expression changes between SMM and MM. Among the commonly dysregulated genes in each subgroup, PHF19 and EZH2 highlight the importance of the PRC2.1 complex. We show that subgroup specific differences exist even at the SMM stage of disease with different biological features driving progression within each TC molecular subgroup. These data suggest that MMSET SMM has already transformed, but that the other precursor diseases are distinct clinical entities from their symptomatic counterpart.
Collapse
|
11
|
Petrosino M, Novak L, Pasquo A, Chiaraluce R, Turina P, Capriotti E, Consalvi V. Analysis and Interpretation of the Impact of Missense Variants in Cancer. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22115416. [PMID: 34063805 PMCID: PMC8196604 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22115416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Revised: 05/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Large scale genome sequencing allowed the identification of a massive number of genetic variations, whose impact on human health is still unknown. In this review we analyze, by an in silico-based strategy, the impact of missense variants on cancer-related genes, whose effect on protein stability and function was experimentally determined. We collected a set of 164 variants from 11 proteins to analyze the impact of missense mutations at structural and functional levels, and to assess the performance of state-of-the-art methods (FoldX and Meta-SNP) for predicting protein stability change and pathogenicity. The result of our analysis shows that a combination of experimental data on protein stability and in silico pathogenicity predictions allowed the identification of a subset of variants with a high probability of having a deleterious phenotypic effect, as confirmed by the significant enrichment of the subset in variants annotated in the COSMIC database as putative cancer-driving variants. Our analysis suggests that the integration of experimental and computational approaches may contribute to evaluate the risk for complex disorders and develop more effective treatment strategies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria Petrosino
- Dipartimento Scienze Biochimiche “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy; (M.P.); (L.N.); (R.C.)
| | - Leonore Novak
- Dipartimento Scienze Biochimiche “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy; (M.P.); (L.N.); (R.C.)
| | - Alessandra Pasquo
- ENEA CR Frascati, Diagnostics and Metrology Laboratory FSN-TECFIS-DIM, 00044 Frascati, Italy;
| | - Roberta Chiaraluce
- Dipartimento Scienze Biochimiche “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy; (M.P.); (L.N.); (R.C.)
| | - Paola Turina
- Dipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie (FaBiT), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy;
| | - Emidio Capriotti
- Dipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie (FaBiT), University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy;
- Correspondence: (E.C.); (V.C.)
| | - Valerio Consalvi
- Dipartimento Scienze Biochimiche “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy; (M.P.); (L.N.); (R.C.)
- Correspondence: (E.C.); (V.C.)
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Robles-Espinoza CD, Mohammadi P, Bonilla X, Gutierrez-Arcelus M. Allele-specific expression: applications in cancer and technical considerations. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2021; 66:10-19. [PMID: 33383480 PMCID: PMC7985293 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2020.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Allele-specific gene expression can influence disease traits. Non-coding germline genetic variants that alter regulatory elements can cause allele-specific gene expression and contribute to cancer susceptibility. In tumors, both somatic copy number alterations and somatic single nucleotide variants have been shown to lead to allele-specific expression of genes, many of which are considered drivers of tumor growth. Here, we review recent studies revealing the pervasive presence of this phenomenon in cancer susceptibility and progression. Furthermore, we underscore the importance of careful experimental design and computational analysis for accurate allelic expression quantification and avoidance of false positives. Finally, we discuss additional methodological challenges encountered in cancer studies and in the burgeoning field of single-cell transcriptomics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carla Daniela Robles-Espinoza
- Laboratorio Internacional de Investigación sobre el Genoma Humano, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Boulevard Juriquilla 3001, Santiago de Querétaro 76230, Mexico; Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK
| | - Pejman Mohammadi
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA; Scripps Translational Science Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Ximena Bonilla
- Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Universitätsstr. 6, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland; Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge - Bâtiment Amphipôle, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland; University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Maria Gutierrez-Arcelus
- Center for Data Sciences, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Division of Rheumatology, Inflammation and Immunity, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Division of Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Chatrath A, Ratan A, Dutta A. Germline Variants That Affect Tumor Progression. Trends Genet 2020; 37:433-443. [PMID: 33203571 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2020.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2020] [Revised: 10/11/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Germline variants have a rich history of being studied in the context of cancer risk. Emerging studies now suggest that germline variants contribute not only to cancer risk but to tumor progression as well. In this opinion article, we discuss the initial discoveries associating germline variants with patient outcome and the mechanisms by which germline variants affect molecular pathways. Germline variants affect molecular pathways through amino acid changes, alteration of splicing patterns or expression of genes, influencing the selection for somatic mutations, and causing genome-wide mutational enrichment. These molecular alterations can lead to tumor phenotypes that become clinically apparent such as metastasis, alterations to the immune microenvironment, and modulation of therapeutic response. Overall, the growing body of evidence suggests that germline variants play a larger role in tumor progression than has been previously appreciated and that germline variation holds substantial potential for improving personalized medicine and patient outcomes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ajay Chatrath
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Aakrosh Ratan
- Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Anindya Dutta
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Liu J, Nie S, Wu Z, Jiang Y, Wan Y, Li S, Meng H, Zhou S, Cheng W. Exploration of a novel prognostic risk signatures and immune checkpoint molecules in endometrial carcinoma microenvironment. Genomics 2020; 112:3117-3134. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.05.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2020] [Revised: 05/21/2020] [Accepted: 05/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
|
15
|
Manjunath M, Zhang Y, Zhang S, Roy S, Perez-Pinera P, Song JS. ABC-GWAS: Functional Annotation of Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Genetic Variants. Front Genet 2020; 11:730. [PMID: 32765587 PMCID: PMC7379852 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the past decade, hundreds of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated genetic variants in various diseases, including cancer. However, only a few of these variants have been functionally characterized to date, mainly because the majority of the variants reside in non-coding regions of the human genome with unknown function. A comprehensive functional annotation of the candidate variants is thus necessary to fill the gap between the correlative findings of GWAS and the development of therapeutic strategies. By integrating large-scale multi-omics datasets such as the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), we performed multivariate linear regression analysis of expression quantitative trait loci, sequence permutation test of transcription factor binding perturbation, and modeling of three-dimensional chromatin interactions to analyze the potential molecular functions of 2,813 single nucleotide variants in 93 genomic loci associated with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. To facilitate rapid progress in functional genomics of breast cancer, we have created "Analysis of Breast Cancer GWAS" (ABC-GWAS), an interactive database of functional annotation of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer GWAS variants. Our resource includes expression quantitative trait loci, long-range chromatin interaction predictions, and transcription factor binding motif analyses to prioritize putative target genes, causal variants, and transcription factors. An embedded genome browser also facilitates convenient visualization of the GWAS loci in genomic and epigenomic context. ABC-GWAS provides an interactive visual summary of comprehensive functional characterization of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer variants. The web resource will be useful to both computational and experimental biologists who wish to generate and test their hypotheses regarding the genetic susceptibility, etiology, and carcinogenesis of breast cancer. ABC-GWAS can also be used as a user-friendly educational resource for teaching functional genomics. ABC-GWAS is available at http://education.knoweng.org/abc-gwas/.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mohith Manjunath
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - Yi Zhang
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - Shilu Zhang
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sushmita Roy
- Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Pablo Perez-Pinera
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- The Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Champaign, IL, United States
- Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| | - Jun S. Song
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
- Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States
| |
Collapse
|