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Prathipati P, Pathania AS, Chaturvedi NK, Gupta SC, Byrareddy SN, Coulter DW, Challagundla KB. SAP30, an oncogenic driver of progression, poor survival, and drug resistance in neuroblastoma. MOLECULAR THERAPY. NUCLEIC ACIDS 2024; 35:101543. [PMID: 38817681 PMCID: PMC11137595 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtn.2022.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2024]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is the most devastating extracranial solid malignancy in children. Despite an intense treatment regimen, the prognosis for high-risk neuroblastoma patients remains poor, with less than 40% survival. So far, MYCN amplification status is considered the most prognostic factor but corresponds to only ∼25% of neuroblastoma patients. Therefore, it is essential to identify a better prognosis and therapy response marker in neuroblastoma patients. We applied robust bioinformatic data mining tools, such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis, cisTarget, and single-cell regulatory network inference and clustering on two neuroblastoma patient datasets. We found Sin3A-associated protein 30 (SAP30), a driver transcription factor positively associated with high-risk, progression, stage 4, and poor survival in neuroblastoma patient cohorts. Tumors of high-risk neuroblastoma patients and relapse-specific patient-derived xenografts showed higher SAP30 levels. The advanced pharmacogenomic analysis and CRISPR-Cas9 screens indicated that SAP30 essentiality is associated with cisplatin resistance and further showed higher levels in cisplatin-resistant patient-derived xenograft tumor cell lines. Silencing of SAP30 induced cell death in vitro and led to a reduced tumor burden and size in vivo. Altogether, these results indicate that SAP30 is a better prognostic and cisplatin-resistance marker and thus a potential drug target in high-risk neuroblastoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Prathipati
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, 7-6-8 Saito-Asagi, Ibaraki City, Osaka 567-0085, Japan
| | - Anup S. Pathania
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology & Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
| | - Nagendra K. Chaturvedi
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
| | - Subash C. Gupta
- Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221005, India
| | - Siddappa N. Byrareddy
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology & Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
- Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
| | - Don W. Coulter
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
| | - Kishore B. Challagundla
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology & Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
- The Child Health Research Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
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2
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Qin LJ, Xu H, Li LP, Li SH, Xu SY, Chen K, Yang T, Wang FH, Zuo L, Zeng L, Wang HY. CD20 highCD138 low tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes predominantly related to cytokine‒cytokine receptor interactions are associated with favorable outcomes in neuroblastoma patients. Heliyon 2024; 10:e30901. [PMID: 38774103 PMCID: PMC11107243 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30901] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2024] [Revised: 05/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Recent advances have revealed that the role of the immune system is prominent in the antitumor response. In the present study, it is aimed to provide an expression profile of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), including mature B cells, plasma cells, and their clinical relevance in neuroblastoma. The expression of CD20 and CD138 was analyzed in the Cangelosi786 dataset (n = 769) as a training dataset and in our cohort (n = 120) as a validation cohort. CD20 high expression was positively associated with favorable overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) (OS: P < 0.001; EFS: P < 0.001) in the training dataset, whereas CD138 high expression was associated with poor OS and EFS (OS: P < 0.001; EFS: P < 0.001) in both the training and validation datasets. Accordingly, a combined pattern of CD20 and CD138 expression was developed, whereby neuroblastoma patients with CD20highCD138low expression had a consistently favorable OS and EFS compared with those with CD20lowCD138high expression in both the training and validation cohorts (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.01, respectively). Examination of potential molecular functions revealed that signaling pathways, including cytokine‒cytokine receptor interactions, chemokine, and the NF-kappa B signaling pathways, were involved. Differentially expressed genes, such as BMP7, IL7R, BIRC3, CCR7, CXCR5, CCL21, and CCL19, predominantly play important roles in predicting the survival of neuroblastoma patients. Our study proposes that a new combination of CD20 and CD138 signatures is associated with neuroblastoma patient survival. The related signaling pathways reflect the close associations among the number of TILs, cytokine abundance and patient outcomes and provide therapeutic insights into neuroblastoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang-Jun Qin
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Hui Xu
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Li-Ping Li
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Shu-Hua Li
- Department of Paediatric Outpatient, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Shuo-Yu Xu
- Bio-totem Pte. Ltd., Foshan, 528231, China
- Department of General Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China
| | - Kai Chen
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Tianyou Yang
- Department of Pediatric Surgery, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Feng-Hua Wang
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Liandong Zuo
- Department of Andrology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Liang Zeng
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
| | - Hai-Yun Wang
- Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
- Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Child Health, National Children's Medical Center for South Central Region, Guangzhou, 510623, China
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Gola C, Maniscalco L, Iussich S, Morello E, Olimpo M, Martignani E, Accornero P, Giacobino D, Mazzone E, Modesto P, Varello K, Aresu L, De Maria R. Hypoxia-associated markers in the prognosis of oral canine melanoma. Vet Pathol 2024:3009858241244853. [PMID: 38613423 DOI: 10.1177/03009858241244853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/15/2024]
Abstract
Canine oral malignant melanoma (COMM) is the most common neoplasm in the oral cavity characterized by local invasiveness and high metastatic potential. Hypoxia represents a crucial feature of the solid tumor microenvironment promoting cancer progression and drug resistance. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and its downstream effectors, vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), glucose transporter isoform 1 (GLUT1), C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4), and carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX), are the main regulators of the adaptive response to low oxygen availability. The prognostic value of these markers was evaluated in 36 COMMs using immunohistochemistry. In addition, the effects of cobalt chloride-mediated hypoxia were evaluated in 1 primary COMM cell line. HIF-1α expression was observed in the nucleus, and this localization correlated with the presence or enhanced expression of HIF-1α-regulated genes at the protein level. Multivariate analysis revealed that in dogs given chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan-4 (CSPG4) DNA vaccine, COMMs expressing HIF-1α, VEGF-A, and CXCR4 were associated with shorter disease-free intervals (DFI) compared with tumors that were negative for these markers (P = .03), suggesting hypoxia can influence immunotherapy response. Western blotting showed that, under chemically induced hypoxia, COMM cells accumulate HIF-1α and smaller amounts of CAIX. HIF-1α induction and stabilization triggered by hypoxia was corroborated by immunofluorescence, showing its nuclear translocation. These findings reinforce the role of an hypoxic microenvironment in tumor progression and patient outcome in COMM, as previously established in several human and canine cancers. In addition, hypoxic markers may represent promising prognostic markers, highlighting opportunities for their use in therapeutic strategies for COMMs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Gola
- University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
- University of Turin, Grugliasco, Turin, Italy
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Paola Modesto
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Turin, Italy
| | - Katia Varello
- Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Turin, Italy
| | - Luca Aresu
- University of Turin, Grugliasco, Turin, Italy
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Bugara B, Durbas M, Kudrycka M, Malinowska A, Horwacik I, Rokita H. Silencing of the PHLDA1 leads to global proteome changes and differentiation pathways of human neuroblastoma cells. Front Pharmacol 2024; 15:1351536. [PMID: 38495105 PMCID: PMC10941682 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1351536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial pediatric solid tumor originating from the abnormal development of cells of the sympathoadrenal lineage of the neural crest. Targeting GD2 ganglioside (GD2), a glycolipid expressed on neuroblastoma cells, with GD2 ganglioside-recognizing antibodies affects several pivotal signaling routes that drive or influence the malignant phenotype of the cells. Previously performed gene expression profiling helped us to identify the PHLDA1 (pleckstrin homology-like domain family A member 1) gene as the most upregulated gene in the IMR-32 human neuroblastoma cells treated with the mouse 14G2a monoclonal antibody. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analyses were applied to better characterize a role of PHLDA1 protein in the response of neuroblastoma cells to chimeric ch14.18/CHO antibody. Additionally, global protein expression profile analysis in the IMR-32 cell line with PHLDA1 silencing revealed the increase in biological functions of mitochondria, accompanied by differentiation-like phenotype of the cells. Moreover, mass spectrometry analysis of the proteins co-immunoprecipitated using anti-PHLDA1-specific antibody, selected a group of possible PHLDA1 binding partners. Also, a more detailed analysis suggested that PHLDA1 interacts with the DCAF7/AUTS2 complex, a key component of neuronal differentiation in vitro. Importantly, our results indicate that PHLDA1 silencing enhances the EGF receptor signaling pathway and combinatory treatment of gefitinib and ch14.18/CHO antibodies might be beneficial for neuroblastoma patients. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD044319.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beata Bugara
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Małgorzata Durbas
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Maja Kudrycka
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
- Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Agata Malinowska
- Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Irena Horwacik
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Hanna Rokita
- Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Virology, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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Liu M, Zhang Y, Jian Y, Gu L, Zhang D, Zhou H, Wang Y, Xu ZX. The regulations of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in cancer. Cell Death Dis 2024; 15:90. [PMID: 38278800 PMCID: PMC10817947 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-024-06454-7] [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: 09/22/2023] [Revised: 01/04/2024] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/28/2024]
Abstract
Abnormal activation of telomerase occurs in most cancer types, which facilitates escaping from cell senescence. As the key component of telomerase, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is regulated by various regulation pathways. TERT gene changing in its promoter and phosphorylation respectively leads to TERT ectopic expression at the transcription and protein levels. The co-interacting factors play an important role in the regulation of TERT in different cancer types. In this review, we focus on the regulators of TERT and these downstream functions in cancer regulation. Determining the specific regulatory mechanism will help to facilitate the development of a cancer treatment strategy that targets telomerase and cancer cell senescence. As the most important catalytic subunit component of telomerase, TERT is rapidly regulated by transcriptional factors and PTM-related activation. These changes directly influence TERT-related telomere maintenance by regulating telomerase activity in telomerase-positive cancer cells, telomerase assembly with telomere-binding proteins, and recruiting telomerase to the telomere. Besides, there are also non-canonical functions that are influenced by TERT, including the basic biological functions of cancer cells, such as proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, initiating cell formation, EMT, and cell invasion. Other downstream effects are the results of the influence of transcriptional factors by TERT. Currently, some small molecular inhibitors of TERT and TERT vaccine are under research as a clinical therapeutic target. Purposeful work is in progress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingdi Liu
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China
| | - Yuning Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China
| | - Yongping Jian
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China
| | - Liting Gu
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China
| | - Dan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China
| | - Honglan Zhou
- Department of Urology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China.
| | - Yishu Wang
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China.
| | - Zhi-Xiang Xu
- Key Laboratory of Pathobiology, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China.
- Department of Urology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, Jilin, China.
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6
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Qian LD, Zhang SX, Li SQ, Feng LJ, Zhou ZA, Liu J, Zhang MY, Yang JG. Predicting MYCN amplification in paediatric neuroblastoma: development and validation of a 18F-FDG PET/CT-based radiomics signature. Insights Imaging 2023; 14:205. [PMID: 38001240 PMCID: PMC10673749 DOI: 10.1186/s13244-023-01493-8] [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: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To develop and validate an 18F-FDG PET/CT-based clinical-radiological-radiomics nomogram and evaluate its value in the diagnosis of MYCN amplification (MNA) in paediatric neuroblastoma (NB) patients. METHODS A total of 104 patients with NB were retrospectively included. We constructed a nomogram to predict MNA based on radiomics signatures, clinical and radiological features. The multivariable logistic regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used for feature selection. Radiomics models are constructed using decision trees (DT), logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. A clinical-radiological (C-R) model was developed using clinical and radiological features. A clinical-radiological-radiomics (C-R-R) model was developed using the C-R model of the best radiomics model. The prediction performance was verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, calibration curve analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA) in the training and validation cohorts. RESULTS The present study showed that four radiomics signatures were significantly correlated with MNA. The SVM classifier was the best model of radiomics signature. The C-R-R model has the best discriminant ability to predict MNA, with AUCs of 0.860 (95% CI, 0.757-0.963) and 0.824 (95% CI, 0.657-0.992) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The calibration curve indicated that the C-R-R model has the goodness of fit and DCA confirms its clinical utility. CONCLUSION Our research provides a non-invasive C-R-R model, which combines the radiomics signatures and clinical and radiological features based on 18F-FDGPET/CT images, shows excellent diagnostic performance in predicting MNA, and can provide useful biological information with stratified therapy. CRITICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT Radiomic signatures of 18F-FDG-based PET/CT can predict MYCN amplification in neuroblastoma. KEY POINTS • Radiomic signatures of 18F-FDG-based PET/CT can predict MYCN amplification in neuroblastoma. • SF, LDH, necrosis and TLG are the independent risk factors of MYCN amplification. • Clinical-radiological-radiomics model improved the predictive performance of MYCN amplification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luo-Dan Qian
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Shu-Xin Zhang
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Si-Qi Li
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Li-Juan Feng
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Zi-Ang Zhou
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Jun Liu
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China
| | - Ming-Yu Zhang
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China.
| | - Ji-Gang Yang
- Nuclear Medicine Department, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, China.
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7
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Lascano D, Zobel MJ, Lee WG, Chen SY, Zamora A, Asuelime GE, Choi SY, Chronopoulos A, Asgharzadeh S, Marachelian A, Park J, Sheard MA, Kim ES. Anti-CCL2 antibody combined with etoposide prolongs survival in a minimal residual disease mouse model of neuroblastoma. Sci Rep 2023; 13:19915. [PMID: 37964011 PMCID: PMC10645976 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-46968-2] [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: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) is a monocyte chemoattractant that promotes metastatic disease and portends a poor prognosis in many cancers. To determine the potential of anti-CCL2 inhibition as a therapy for recurrent metastatic disease in neuroblastoma, a mouse model of minimal residual disease was utilized in which residual disease was treated with anti-CCL2 monoclonal antibody with etoposide. The effect of anti-CCL2 antibody on neuroblastoma cells was determined in vitro with cell proliferation, transwell migration, and 2-dimensional chemotaxis migration assays. The in vivo efficacy of anti-CCL2 antibody and etoposide against neuroblastoma was assessed following resection of primary tumors formed by two cell lines or a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) in immunodeficient NOD-scid gamma mice. In vitro, anti-CCL2 antibody did not affect cell proliferation but significantly inhibited neuroblastoma cell and monocyte migration towards an increasing CCL2 concentration gradient. Treatment of mice with anti-CCL2 antibody combined with etoposide significantly increased survival of mice after resection of primary tumors, compared to untreated mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danny Lascano
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Michael J Zobel
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - William G Lee
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Stephanie Y Chen
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Abigail Zamora
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Grace E Asuelime
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - So Yung Choi
- Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Research Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Antonios Chronopoulos
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Shahab Asgharzadeh
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Araz Marachelian
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Jinseok Park
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Michael A Sheard
- The Saban Research Institute, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Eugene S Kim
- Division of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 116 N. Robertson Blvd, Suite PACT 700, Los Angeles, CA, 90048, USA.
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8
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Chicco D, Haupt R, Garaventa A, Uva P, Luksch R, Cangelosi D. Computational intelligence analysis of high-risk neuroblastoma patient health records reveals time to maximum response as one of the most relevant factors for outcome prediction. Eur J Cancer 2023; 193:113291. [PMID: 37708628 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2023.113291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Seek new candidate prognostic markers for neuroblastoma outcome, relapse or progression. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this multicentre and retrospective study, Random Forests coupled with recursive feature elimination techniques were applied to electronic records (55 clinical features) of 3034 neuroblastoma patients. To assess model performance and feature importance, dataset was split into a training set (80%) and a test set (20%). RESULTS In the test set, the mean Matthews correlation coefficient for the Random Forests models was greater than 0.46. Feature importance analysis revealed that, together with maximum response to first-line treatment (D_MAX_RESP), time to maximum response to first-line treatment (TIME_MAX_RESP.days) is a relevant predictor of both patients' outcome and relapse\progression. We showed the prognostic value of the max response to first-line treatment in clinically relevant subsets of high-, intermediate-, and low-risk patients for both overall and relapse-free survival (Log-rank p-value<0.0001). In high-risk patients older than 18 months and stage 4 tumour achieving a complete response or very good partial response, patients who exhibited a D_MAX_RESP greater than 9 months showed a better prognosis with respect to patients achieving D_MAX_RESP earlier than 9 months (overall survival): hazard ratio 3.3 95% confidence interval 1.8-5.9, Log-rank p-value p < 0.0001; relapse-free survival: 3.2 95%CI 1.8-5.6, Log-rank p-value p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION Our findings evidence the emerging role of the TIME_MAX_RESP.days in addition to the D_MAX_RESP as relevant predictors of outcome and relapse\progression in neuroblastoma with potential clinical impact on the management and treatment of patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Chicco
- Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Dipartimento di Informatica Sistemistica e Comunicazione, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Riccardo Haupt
- DOPO Clinic, Department of Hematology/Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | | | - Paolo Uva
- Unità di Bioinformatica Clinica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Roberto Luksch
- S.C. Pediatria oncologica, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Davide Cangelosi
- Unità di Bioinformatica Clinica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy.
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9
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Lee JY, Jonus HC, Sadanand A, Branella GM, Maximov V, Suttapitugsakul S, Schniederjan MJ, Shim J, Ho A, Parwani KK, Fedanov A, Pilgrim AA, Silva JA, Schnepp RW, Doering CB, Wu R, Spencer HT, Goldsmith KC. Identification and targeting of protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7) as an immunotherapy candidate for neuroblastoma. Cell Rep Med 2023; 4:101091. [PMID: 37343516 PMCID: PMC10314120 DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101091] [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: 09/16/2022] [Revised: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023]
Abstract
GD2-targeting immunotherapies have improved survival in children with neuroblastoma, yet on-target, off-tumor toxicities can occur and a subset of patients cease to respond. The majority of neuroblastoma patients who receive immunotherapy have been previously treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy, making it paramount to identify neuroblastoma-specific antigens that remain stable throughout standard treatment. Cell surface glycoproteomics performed on human-derived neuroblastoma tumors in mice following chemotherapy treatment identified protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7) to be abundantly expressed. Furthermore, PTK7 shows minimal expression on pediatric-specific normal tissues. We developed an anti-PTK7 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and find PTK7 CAR T cells specifically target and kill PTK7-expressing neuroblastoma in vitro. In vivo, human/murine binding PTK7 CAR T cells regress aggressive neuroblastoma metastatic mouse models and prolong survival with no toxicity. Together, these data demonstrate preclinical efficacy and tolerability for targeting PTK7 and support ongoing investigations to optimize PTK7-targeting CAR T cells for neuroblastoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmine Y Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Hunter C Jonus
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Arhanti Sadanand
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Gianna M Branella
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Victor Maximov
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Suttipong Suttapitugsakul
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Matthew J Schniederjan
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Jenny Shim
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Andrew Ho
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Kiran K Parwani
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Andrew Fedanov
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Adeiye A Pilgrim
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Jordan A Silva
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cancer Biology Program, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Robert W Schnepp
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Christopher B Doering
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Ronghu Wu
- School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - H Trent Spencer
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Kelly C Goldsmith
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA; Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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10
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Ognibene M, De Marco P, Amoroso L, Cangelosi D, Zara F, Parodi S, Pezzolo A. Multiple Genes with Potential Tumor Suppressive Activity Are Present on Chromosome 10q Loss in Neuroblastoma and Are Associated with Poor Prognosis. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:cancers15072035. [PMID: 37046696 PMCID: PMC10093755 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15072035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 03/26/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is a tumor affecting the peripheral sympathetic nervous system that substantially contributes to childhood cancer mortality. Despite recent advances in understanding the complexity of NB, the mechanisms determining its progression are still largely unknown. Some recurrent segmental chromosome aberrations (SCA) have been associated with poor survival. However, the prognostic role of most SCA has not yet been investigated. We examined a cohort of 260 NB primary tumors at disease onset for the loss of chromosome 10q, by array-comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) array and we found that 26 showed 10q loss, while the others 234 displayed different SCA. We observed a lower event-free survival for NB patients displaying 10q loss compared to patients with tumors carrying other SCA. Furthermore, analyzing the region of 10q loss, we identified a cluster of 75 deleted genes associated with poorer outcome. Low expression of six of these genes, above all CCSER2, was significantly correlated to worse survival using in silico data from 786 NB patients. These potential tumor suppressor genes can be partly responsible for the poor prognosis of NB patients with 10q loss.
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11
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Chicco D, Sanavia T, Jurman G. Signature literature review reveals AHCY, DPYSL3, and NME1 as the most recurrent prognostic genes for neuroblastoma. BioData Min 2023; 16:7. [PMID: 36870971 PMCID: PMC9985261 DOI: 10.1186/s13040-023-00325-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a childhood neurological tumor which affects hundreds of thousands of children worldwide, and information about its prognosis can be pivotal for patients, their families, and clinicians. One of the main goals in the related bioinformatics analyses is to provide stable genetic signatures able to include genes whose expression levels can be effective to predict the prognosis of the patients. In this study, we collected the prognostic signatures for neuroblastoma published in the biomedical literature, and noticed that the most frequent genes present among them were three: AHCY, DPYLS3, and NME1. We therefore investigated the prognostic power of these three genes by performing a survival analysis and a binary classification on multiple gene expression datasets of different groups of patients diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Finally, we discussed the main studies in the literature associating these three genes with neuroblastoma. Our results, in each of these three steps of validation, confirm the prognostic capability of AHCY, DPYLS3, and NME1, and highlight their key role in neuroblastoma prognosis. Our results can have an impact on neuroblastoma genetics research: biologists and medical researchers can pay more attention to the regulation and expression of these three genes in patients having neuroblastoma, and therefore can develop better cures and treatments which can save patients' lives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Chicco
- Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, M5T 3M7 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Tiziana Sanavia
- Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche, Università di Torino, Via Verdi 8, 10124 Turin, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Jurman
- Data Science for Health Unit, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Via Sommarive 18, 38123 Povo (Trento), Italy
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12
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Mills CM, Benton TZ, Piña I, Francis MJ, Reyes L, Dolloff NG, Peterson YK, Woster PM. Stimulation of natural killer cells with small molecule inhibitors of CD38 for the treatment of neuroblastoma. Chem Sci 2023; 14:2168-2182. [PMID: 36845935 PMCID: PMC9945084 DOI: 10.1039/d2sc05749b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2022] [Accepted: 01/28/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
High-risk neuroblastoma (NB) accounts for 15% of all pediatric cancer deaths. Refractory disease for high-risk NB patients is attributed to chemotherapy resistance and immunotherapy failure. The poor prognosis for high-risk NB patients demonstrates an unmet medical need for the development of new, more efficacious therapeutics. CD38 is an immunomodulating protein that is expressed constitutively on natural killer (NK) cells and other immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Furthermore, CD38 over expression is implicated in propagating an immunosuppressive milieu within the TME. Through virtual and physical screening, we have identified drug-like small molecule inhibitors of CD38 with low micromolar IC50 values. We have begun to explore structure activity relationships for CD38 inhibition through derivatization of our most effective hit molecule to develop a new compound with lead-like physicochemical properties and improved potency. We have demonstrated that our derivatized inhibitor, compound 2, elicits immunomodulatory effects in NK cells by increasing cell viability by 190 ± 36% in multiple donors and by significantly increasing interferon gamma. Additionally, we have illustrated that NK cells exhibited enhanced cytotoxicity toward NB cells (14% reduction of NB cells over 90 minutes) when given a combination treatment of our inhibitor and the immunocytokine ch14.18-IL2. Herein we describe the synthesis and biological evaluation of small molecule CD38 inhibitors and demonstrate their potential utility as a novel approach to NB immunotherapy. These compounds represent the first examples of small molecules that stimulate immune function for the treatment of cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine M Mills
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Thomas Z Benton
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Ivett Piña
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Megan J Francis
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Leticia Reyes
- Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Nathan G Dolloff
- Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Yuri K Peterson
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
| | - Patrick M Woster
- Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina 70 President St Charleston SC 29425 USA
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13
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A Simple, Test-Based Method to Control the Overestimation Bias in the Analysis of Potential Prognostic Tumour Markers. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:cancers15041188. [PMID: 36831529 PMCID: PMC9953998 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15041188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Revised: 01/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The early evaluation of prognostic tumour markers is commonly performed by comparing the survival of two groups of patients identified on the basis of a cut-off value. The corresponding hazard ratio (HR) is usually estimated, representing a measure of the relative risk between patients with marker values above and below the cut-off. A posteriori methods identifying an optimal cut-off are appropriate when the functional form of the relation between the marker distribution and patient survival is unknown, but they are prone to an overestimation bias. In the presence of a small sample size, which is typical of rare diseases, the external validation sets are hardly available and internal cross-validation could be unfeasible. We describe a new method to obtain an unbiased estimate of the HR at an optimal cut-off, exploiting the simple relation between the HR and the associated p-value estimated by a random permutation analysis. We validate the method on both simulated data and set of gene expression profiles from two large, publicly available data sets. Furthermore, a reanalysis of a previously published study, which included 134 Stage 4S neuroblastoma patients, allowed for the identification of E2F1 as a new gene with potential oncogenic activity. This finding was confirmed by an immunofluorescence analysis on an independent cohort.
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14
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Raggi F, Bartolucci M, Cangelosi D, Rossi C, Pelassa S, Trincianti C, Petretto A, Filocamo G, Civino A, Eva A, Ravelli A, Consolaro A, Bosco MC. Proteomic profiling of extracellular vesicles in synovial fluid and plasma from Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis patients reveals novel immunopathogenic biomarkers. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1134747. [PMID: 37205098 PMCID: PMC10186353 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1134747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction New early low-invasive biomarkers are demanded for the management of Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (OJIA), the most common chronic pediatric rheumatic disease in Western countries and a leading cause of disability. A deeper understanding of the molecular basis of OJIA pathophysiology is essential for identifying new biomarkers for earlier disease diagnosis and patient stratification and to guide targeted therapeutic intervention. Proteomic profiling of extracellular vesicles (EVs) released in biological fluids has recently emerged as a minimally invasive approach to elucidate adult arthritis pathogenic mechanisms and identify new biomarkers. However, EV-prot expression and potential as biomarkers in OJIA have not been explored. This study represents the first detailed longitudinal characterization of the EV-proteome in OJIA patients. Methods Fourty-five OJIA patients were recruited at disease onset and followed up for 24 months, and protein expression profiling was carried out by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in EVs isolated from plasma (PL) and synovial fluid (SF) samples. Results We first compared the EV-proteome of SF vs paired PL and identified a panel of EV-prots whose expression was significantly deregulated in SF. Interaction network and GO enrichment analyses performed on deregulated EV-prots through STRING database and ShinyGO webserver revealed enrichment in processes related to cartilage/bone metabolism and inflammation, suggesting their role in OJIA pathogenesis and potential value as early molecular indicators of OJIA development. Comparative analysis of the EV-proteome in PL and SF from OJIA patients vs PL from age/gender-matched control children was then carried out. We detected altered expression of a panel of EV-prots able to differentiate new-onset OJIA patients from control children, potentially representing a disease-associated signature measurable at both the systemic and local levels with diagnostic potential. Deregulated EV-prots were significantly associated with biological processes related to innate immunity, antigen processing and presentation, and cytoskeleton organization. Finally, we ran WGCNA on the SF- and PL-derived EV-prot datasets and identified a few EV-prot modules associated with different clinical parameters stratifying OJIA patients in distinct subgroups. Discussion These data provide novel mechanistic insights into OJIA pathophysiology and an important contribution in the search of new candidate molecular biomarkers for the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Raggi
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Unit of Autoinflammatory Diseases and Immunodeficiences, Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Martina Bartolucci
- Core Facilities, Clinical Proteomics and Metabolomics, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Davide Cangelosi
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Chiara Rossi
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Unit of Autoinflammatory Diseases and Immunodeficiences, Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Simone Pelassa
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Unit of Autoinflammatory Diseases and Immunodeficiences, Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Chiara Trincianti
- Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal-Infantile Sciences (DiNOGMI), University of Genova, Genova, Italy
| | - Andrea Petretto
- Core Facilities, Clinical Proteomics and Metabolomics, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Giovanni Filocamo
- Division of Pediatric Immunology and Rheumatology, Fondazione Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italy
| | - Adele Civino
- Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, Ospedale “Vito Fazzi”, Lecce, Italy
| | - Alessandra Eva
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Angelo Ravelli
- Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal-Infantile Sciences (DiNOGMI), University of Genova, Genova, Italy
- Scientific Direction, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Alessandro Consolaro
- Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal-Infantile Sciences (DiNOGMI), University of Genova, Genova, Italy
- Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Maria Carla Bosco
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- Unit of Autoinflammatory Diseases and Immunodeficiences, Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
- *Correspondence: Maria Carla Bosco,
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15
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Bao L, Festa F, Hirschler-Laszkiewicz I, Keefer K, Wang HG, Cheung JY, Miller BA. The human ion channel TRPM2 modulates migration and invasion in neuroblastoma through regulation of integrin expression. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20544. [PMID: 36446940 PMCID: PMC9709080 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25138-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Transient receptor potential channel TRPM2 is highly expressed in many cancers and involved in regulation of key physiological processes including mitochondrial function, bioenergetics, and oxidative stress. In Stage 4 non-MYCN amplified neuroblastoma patients, high TRPM2 expression is associated with worse outcome. Here, neuroblastoma cells with high TRPM2 expression demonstrated increased migration and invasion capability. RNA sequencing, RT-qPCR, and Western blotting demonstrated that the mechanism involved significantly greater expression of integrins α1, αv, β1, and β5 in cells with high TRPM2 expression. Transcription factors HIF-1α, E2F1, and FOXM1, which bind promoter/enhancer regions of these integrins, were increased in cells with high TRPM2 expression. Subcellular fractionation confirmed high levels of α1, αv, and β1 membrane localization and co-immunoprecipitation confirmed the presence of α1β1, αvβ1, and αvβ5 complexes. Inhibitors of α1β1, αvβ1, and αvβ5 complexes significantly reduced migration and invasion in cells highly expressing TRPM2, confirming their functional role. Increased pAktSer473 and pERKThr202/Tyr204, which promote migration through mechanisms including integrin activation, were found in cells highly expressing TRPM2. TRPM2 promotes migration and invasion in neuroblastoma cells with high TRPM2 expression through modulation of integrins together with enhancing cell survival, negatively affecting patient outcome and providing rationale for TRPM2 inhibition in anti-neoplastic therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Bao
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
| | - Fernanda Festa
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA ,grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
| | - Iwona Hirschler-Laszkiewicz
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
| | - Kerry Keefer
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
| | - Hong-Gang Wang
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA ,grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pharmacology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
| | - Joseph Y. Cheung
- grid.62560.370000 0004 0378 8294Renal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - Barbara A. Miller
- grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA ,grid.29857.310000 0001 2097 4281Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033 USA
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16
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Chicco D, Alameer A, Rahmati S, Jurman G. Towards a potential pan-cancer prognostic signature for gene expression based on probesets and ensemble machine learning. BioData Min 2022; 15:28. [PMID: 36329531 PMCID: PMC9632055 DOI: 10.1186/s13040-022-00312-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and can be caused by environmental aspects (for example, exposure to asbestos), by human behavior (such as smoking), or by genetic factors. To understand which genes might be involved in patients’ survival, researchers have invented prognostic genetic signatures: lists of genes that can be used in scientific analyses to predict if a patient will survive or not. In this study, we joined together five different prognostic signatures, each of them related to a specific cancer type, to generate a unique pan-cancer prognostic signature, that contains 207 unique probesets related to 187 unique gene symbols, with one particular probeset present in two cancer type-specific signatures (203072_at related to the MYO1E gene). We applied our proposed pan-cancer signature with the Random Forests machine learning method to 57 microarray gene expression datasets of 12 different cancer types, and analyzed the results. We also compared the performance of our pan-cancer signature with the performances of two alternative prognostic signatures, and with the performances of each cancer type-specific signature on their corresponding cancer type-specific datasets. Our results confirmed the effectiveness of our prognostic pan-cancer signature. Moreover, we performed a pathway enrichment analysis, which indicated an association between the signature genes and a protein-protein interaction analysis, that highlighted PIK3R2 and FN1 as key genes having a fundamental relevance in our signature, suggesting an important role in pan-cancer prognosis for both of them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Chicco
- grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, M5T 3M7 Toronto, Ontario Canada
| | - Abbas Alameer
- grid.411196.a0000 0001 1240 3921Department of Biological Sciences, Kuwait University, 13 KH Firdous Street, 13060 Kuwait City, Kuwait
| | - Sara Rahmati
- grid.231844.80000 0004 0474 0428Krembil Research Institute, 135 Nassau Street, M5T 1M8 Toronto, Ontario Canada
| | - Giuseppe Jurman
- grid.11469.3b0000 0000 9780 0901Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Via Sommarive 18, 38123 Povo (Trento), Italy
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17
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Fiz F, Bottoni G, Bini F, Cerroni F, Marinozzi F, Conte M, Treglia G, Morana G, Sorrentino S, Garaventa A, Siri G, Piccardo A. Prognostic value of texture analysis of the primary tumour in high-risk neuroblastoma: An 18 F-DOPA PET study. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2022; 69:e29910. [PMID: 35920594 DOI: 10.1002/pbc.29910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE To evaluate the prognostic value of texture analysis of the primary tumour with 18 fluorine-dihydroxyphenylalanine positron emission tomography/X-ray computed tomography (18 F-DOPA PET/CT) in patients affected by high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NBL). METHODS We retrospectively analysed 18 patients with HR-NBL, which had been prospectively enrolled in the course of a previous trial investigating the diagnostic role of 18 F-DOPA PET/CT at the time of the first onset. Texture analysis of the primary tumour was carried out on the PET images using LifeX. Conventional indices, histogram parameters, grey level co-occurrence (GLCM), run-length (GLRLM), neighbouring difference (NGLDM) and zone-length (GLZLM) matrices parameter were extracted; their values were compared with the overall metastatic load, expressed by means of whole-body metabolic burden (WBMB) score and the progression-free/overall survival (PFS and OS). RESULTS There was a direct correlation between WBMB and radiomics parameter describing uptake intensity (SUVmean : p = .004) and voxel heterogeneity (entropy: p = .026; GLCM_Contrast: p = .001). Conversely, texture indices of homogeneity showed an inverse correlation with WBMB (energy: p = .026; GLCM_Homogeneity: p = .006). On the multivariate model, WBMB (p < .01) and the first standardised uptake value (SUV) quartile (p < .001) predicted PFS; OS was predicted by WBMB and the N-myc proto-oncogene protein (MYCN) amplification (p < .05) for both. CONCLUSIONS Textural parameters describing heterogeneity and metabolic intensity of the primary HR-NBL are closely associated with its overall metastatic burden. In turn, the whole-body tumour load appears to be one of the most relevant predictors of progression-free and overall survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Fiz
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, E.O. 'Ospedali Galliera', Genoa, Italy
| | - Gianluca Bottoni
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, E.O. 'Ospedali Galliera', Genoa, Italy
| | - Fabiano Bini
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesca Cerroni
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Franco Marinozzi
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Massimo Conte
- Oncology Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Giorgio Treglia
- Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona, Switzerland.,Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.,Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Giovanni Morana
- Pediatric Neuroradiology Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy.,Department of Neurosciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | | | | | - Giacomo Siri
- Scientific Directorate, E.O. 'Ospedali Galliera', Genoa, Italy
| | - Arnoldo Piccardo
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, E.O. 'Ospedali Galliera', Genoa, Italy
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Cangelosi D, Brignole C, Bensa V, Tamma R, Malaguti F, Carlini B, Giusto E, Calarco E, Perri P, Ribatti D, Fonseca NA, Moreira JN, Eva A, Amoroso L, Conte M, Garaventa A, Sementa AR, Corrias MV, Ponzoni M, Pastorino F. Nucleolin expression has prognostic value in neuroblastoma patients. EBioMedicine 2022; 85:104300. [PMID: 36209521 PMCID: PMC9547201 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Neuroblastoma (NB) represents the most frequent form of extra-cranial solid tumour of infants, responsible for 15% of childhood cancer deaths. Nucleolin (NCL) prognostic value in NB was investigated. METHODS NCL protein expression was retrospectively evaluated in tumour samples of NB patients at diagnosis and after chemotherapy. NCL prognostic value at mRNA level was assessed in a cohort of 20 patients with stage 4 NB (qPCR20, n=20, discovery dataset) and in the MultiPlatform786 including 786 patients of all stages (validation dataset). Overall and event-free survival curves were plotted by Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank test. FINDINGS NCL protein, down-modulated after chemotherapy in association with features of neuroblastic differentiation,resulted statistically significantly overexpressed in NB tumours and higher in stage 4 compared to stage 1,2,3 patients. In the stage 4 patients cohort qPCR20, patients with high NCLmRNA expression revealed a statisticallysignificant lower survival probability than those with low NCL expression (OS: HR 4.1 95%CI 1.2-13.8;p=0.0215[Log-rank test], EFS: HR 4.1 95%CI 1.2-14.0, p=0.0197[Log-rank test]). In the MultiPlatform786 (n=786), multivariate analysis suggested thatNCL expression has a statistically significant prognostic value even in the model adjusted for established prognostic markers. NCL expression significantly stratified also patients with >18 months and stage 4 tumour (OS: HR 1.8 95%CI 1.2-2.7, p=0.0009[Log-rank test]; EFS: HR 1.7 95%CI 1.1-2.5, p=0.002[Log-rank test]), patients with>18 months stage 4 with MYCN non amplified tumour[EFS: HR 2.3 95%CI 1.2-4.7, p=0.01[Log-rank test]), and patients with MYCN non amplified and MYC high [OS: HR 11.9 95%CI 2.3-62.4, p=0.003[Log-rank test]; EFS: HR 7.2 95%CI 1.6-33.4, p=0.01[Log-rank test]). A statistically significant correlation between NCL and MYCN, MYC, and TERT was found in independent datasets (MultiPlatform786 (n=786) and Agilent394 (n=394). Gene set enrichment analysis revealed a statisticallysignificant positive enrichment of MYC target genes and genes involved in telomerase maintenance. INTERPRETATION NCL is a novel and independent (adjusting for age, INSS stage, and MYCN status) prognostic marker for NB. FUNDING IMH-EuroNanoMed II-2015 and AIRC-IG.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Cangelosi
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Chiara Brignole
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Veronica Bensa
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Roberto Tamma
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences, and Sensory Organs, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy
| | - Fabiana Malaguti
- Department of Pathology, IRCCS IstitutoGianninaGaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Barbara Carlini
- Department of Pathology, IRCCS IstitutoGianninaGaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Elena Giusto
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Enzo Calarco
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Patrizia Perri
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Domenico Ribatti
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences, and Sensory Organs, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy
| | - Nuno André Fonseca
- CNC – Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB), University of Coimbra, Faculty of Medicine (Polo 1), Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Joao Nuno Moreira
- CNC – Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology, Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB), University of Coimbra, Faculty of Medicine (Polo 1), Coimbra, Portugal,Univ Coimbra – University of Coimbra, CIBB, Faculty of Pharmacy, Pólo das Ciências da Saúde, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Alessandra Eva
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | | | - Massimo Conte
- UOC Oncologia, IRCCS IstitutoGiannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | | | | | - Maria Valeria Corrias
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Mirco Ponzoni
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy,Corresponding authors.
| | - Fabio Pastorino
- Laboratory of Experimental Therapies in Oncology, IRCCS Istituto G. Gaslini, Genoa, Italy,Corresponding authors.
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A Survey on Publicly Available Open Datasets Derived From Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of Patients with Neuroblastoma. DATA SCIENCE JOURNAL 2022. [DOI: 10.5334/dsj-2022-017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
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20
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Ognibene M, Cangelosi D, Sorrentino S, Zanardi S, Zara F, Pezzolo A, Parodi S. E2F3 gene expression is a potential negative prognostic marker for localised and MYCN not-amplified neuroblastoma: Results of in silico analysis of 786 samples. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2022; 69:e29800. [PMID: 35652628 DOI: 10.1002/pbc.29800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Revised: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Neuroblastoma (NB) is an enigmatic childhood malignancy characterised by a wide range of clinical behaviour. Many potential oncogenes for NB have recently been identified. Among them, E2 transcription factor 3 (E2F3) expression was associated with a poor survival in 134 stage 4S patients, but evidence for other stage groups remains poorly investigated. METHODS We have analysed the expression of E2F3 gene from a database of 786 NB samples. Overall and event-free survivals (EFS) were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, splitting the data on the median and tertile expression values. The Cox model was applied to control for the confounding by stage, age and MYCN amplification. Validation was performed by an in silico analysis of an independent cohort of 283 NB patients. Furthermore, an immunofluorescence analysis on 48 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded NB specimens was also performed. RESULTS E2F3 overexpression was associated with a poor survival (EFS = 84%, 95% CI: 79%-95%, for low expression levels; EFS = 62%, 95% CI: 56%-68% for middle levels; EFS = 30%, 95% CI: 24%-36%, for high levels, p < .001). This association was confirmed in multivariable analysis and was more evident in patients with MYCN not-amplified and localised stages. Immunofluorescence results and the validation on an independent cohort of NB primary samples confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS E2F3 is a new potential prognostic marker in NB with favourable characteristics at diagnosis. Further studies are needed to elucidate the potential role of E2F3 in NB oncogenesis and progression, in order to identify new targets for therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marzia Ognibene
- U.O.C. Genetica Medica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Davide Cangelosi
- Unità di Bioinformatica Clinica, Direzione Scientifica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Stefania Sorrentino
- U.O.C. Divisione di Oncologia, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Sabrina Zanardi
- U.O.S.I.D. Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Direzione Scientifica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | - Federico Zara
- U.O.C. Genetica Medica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
| | | | - Stefano Parodi
- Direzione Scientifica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy
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21
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Gomez RL, Ibragimova S, Ramachandran R, Philpott A, Ali FR. Tumoral heterogeneity in neuroblastoma. Biochim Biophys Acta Rev Cancer 2022; 1877:188805. [PMID: 36162542 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbcan.2022.188805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2022] [Revised: 08/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/17/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a solid, neuroendocrine tumor with divergent clinical behavior ranging from asymptomatic to fatal. The diverse clinical presentations of neuroblastoma are directly linked to the high intra- and inter-tumoral heterogeneity it presents. This heterogeneity is strongly associated with therapeutic resistance and continuous relapses, often leading to fatal outcomes. The development of successful risk assessment and tailored treatment strategies lies in evaluating the extent of heterogeneity via the accurate genetic and epigenetic profiling of distinct cell subpopulations present in the tumor. Recent studies have focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive tumoral heterogeneity in pursuing better therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. This review describes the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic aspects of neuroblastoma heterogeneity. In addition, we summarize the recent findings on three crucial factors that can lead to heterogeneity in solid tumors: the inherent diversity of the progenitor cells, the presence of cancer stem cells, and the influence of the tumor microenvironment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roshna Lawrence Gomez
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
| | - Shakhzada Ibragimova
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
| | - Revathy Ramachandran
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
| | - Anna Philpott
- Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Center, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Fahad R Ali
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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22
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Abstract
Pathway enrichment analysis (PEA) is a computational biology method that identifies biological functions that are overrepresented in a group of genes more than would be expected by chance and ranks these functions by relevance. The relative abundance of genes pertinent to specific pathways is measured through statistical methods, and associated functional pathways are retrieved from online bioinformatics databases. In the last decade, along with the spread of the internet, higher availability of computational resources made PEA software tools easy to access and to use for bioinformatics practitioners worldwide. Although it became easier to use these tools, it also became easier to make mistakes that could generate inflated or misleading results, especially for beginners and inexperienced computational biologists. With this article, we propose nine quick tips to avoid common mistakes and to out a complete, sound, thorough PEA, which can produce relevant and robust results. We describe our nine guidelines in a simple way, so that they can be understood and used by anyone, including students and beginners. Some tips explain what to do before starting a PEA, others are suggestions of how to correctly generate meaningful results, and some final guidelines indicate some useful steps to properly interpret PEA results. Our nine tips can help users perform better pathway enrichment analyses and eventually contribute to a better understanding of current biology.
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23
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Barco S, Lavarello C, Cangelosi D, Morini M, Eva A, Oneto L, Uva P, Tripodi G, Garaventa A, Conte M, Petretto A, Cangemi G. Untargeted LC-HRMS Based-Plasma Metabolomics Reveals 3-O-Methyldopa as a New Biomarker of Poor Prognosis in High-Risk Neuroblastoma. Front Oncol 2022; 12:845936. [PMID: 35756625 PMCID: PMC9231354 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.845936] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial malignant tumor in children. Although the survival rate of NB has improved over the years, the outcome of NB still remains poor for over 30% of cases. A more accurate risk stratification remains a key point in the study of NB and the availability of novel prognostic biomarkers of “high-risk” at diagnosis could help improving patient stratification and predicting outcome. In this paper we show a biomarker discovery approach applied to the plasma of 172 NB patients. Plasma samples from a first cohort of NB patients and age-matched healthy controls were used for untargeted metabolomics analysis based on high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). Differential expression analysis highlighted a number of metabolites annotated with a high degree of identification. Among them, 3-O-methyldopa (3-O-MD) was validated in a second cohort of NB patients using a targeted metabolite profiling approach and its prognostic potential was also analyzed by survival analysis on patients with 3 years follow-up. High expression of 3-O-MD was associated with worse prognosis in the subset of patients with stage M tumor (log-rank p < 0.05) and, among them, it was confirmed as a prognostic factor able to stratify high-risk patients older than 18 months. 3-O-MD might be thus considered as a novel prognostic biomarker of NB eligible to be included at diagnosis among catecholamine metabolite panels in prospective clinical studies. Further studies are warranted to exploit other potential biomarkers highlighted using our approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastiano Barco
- Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Section, Central Laboratory of Analysis, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Chiara Lavarello
- Core Facilities Clinical Proteomics and Metabolomics, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Davide Cangelosi
- Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Martina Morini
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Alessandra Eva
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Luca Oneto
- DIBRIS, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
| | - Paolo Uva
- Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Gino Tripodi
- Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Section, Central Laboratory of Analysis, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Alberto Garaventa
- Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Massimo Conte
- Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Andrea Petretto
- Core Facilities Clinical Proteomics and Metabolomics, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
| | - Giuliana Cangemi
- Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry Section, Central Laboratory of Analysis, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa, Italy
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24
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Liu L, Zhu H, Wang P, Wu S. Construction of a Six-Gene Prognostic Risk Model Related to Hypoxia and Angiogenesis for Cervical Cancer. Front Genet 2022; 13:923263. [PMID: 35769999 PMCID: PMC9234147 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.923263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The prognosis of cervical cancer (CC) is poor and not accurately reflected by the primary tumor node metastasis staging system. Our study aimed to develop a novel survival-prediction model. Methods: Hallmarks of CC were quantified using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis and univariate Cox proportional hazards analysis. We linked gene expression, hypoxia, and angiogenesis using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression was combined with the random forest algorithm to construct a prognostic model. We further evaluated the survival predictive power of the gene signature using Kaplan-Meier analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: Hypoxia and angiogenesis were the leading risk factors contributing to poor overall survival (OS) of patients with CC. We identified 109 candidate genes using WGCNA and univariate Cox regression. Our established prognostic model contained six genes (MOCSI, PPP1R14A, ESM1, DES, ITGA5, and SERPINF1). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high-risk patients had worse OS (hazard ratio = 4.63, p < 0.001). Our model had high predictive power according to the ROC curve. The C-index indicated that the risk score was a better predictor of survival than other clinicopathological variables. Additionally, univariate and multivariate Cox regressions indicated that the risk score was the only independent risk factor for poor OS. The risk score was also an independent predictor in the validation set (GSE52903). Bivariate survival prediction suggested that patients exhibited poor prognosis if they had high z-scores for hypoxia or angiogenesis and high risk scores. Conclusions: We established a six-gene survival prediction model associated with hypoxia and angiogenesis. This novel model accurately predicts survival and also provides potential therapeutic targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lili Liu
- TCM Gynecology Department, Foshan Fosun Chancheng Hospital, Foshan Clinical Medical School of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Foshan, China
| | - Hongcang Zhu
- Foshan Retirement Center for Retired Cadres, Guangdong Military Region of the PLA, Foshan, China
| | - Pei Wang
- Foshan Clinical Medical School, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Foshan, China
| | - Suzhen Wu
- TCM Gynecology Department, Foshan Fosun Chancheng Hospital, Foshan Clinical Medical School of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Foshan, China
- *Correspondence: Suzhen Wu,
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Ognibene M, De Marco P, Parodi S, Meli M, Di Cataldo A, Zara F, Pezzolo A. Genomic Analysis Made It Possible to Identify Gene-Driver Alterations Covering the Time Window between Diagnosis of Neuroblastoma 4S and the Progression to Stage 4. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23126513. [PMID: 35742955 PMCID: PMC9224358 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23126513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2022] [Revised: 06/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is a tumor of the developing sympathetic nervous system. Despite recent advances in understanding the complexity of NB, the mechanisms that determine its regression or progression are still largely unknown. Stage 4S NB is characterized by a favorable course of disease and often by spontaneous regression, while progression to true stage 4 is a very rare event. Here, we focused on genomic analysis of an NB case that progressed from stage 4S to stage 4 with a very poor outcome. Array-comparative genomic hybridization (a-CGH) on tumor-tissue DNA, and whole-exome sequencing (WES) on exosomes DNA derived from plasma collected at the onset and at the tumor progression, pointed out relevant genetic changes that can explain this clinical worsening. The combination of a-CGH and WES data allowed for the identification iof somatic copy number aberrations and single-nucleotide variants in genes known to be responsible for aggressive NB. KLRB1, MAPK3 and FANCA genes, which were lost at the time of progression, were studied for their possible role in this event by analyzing in silico the impact of their expression on the outcome of 786 NB patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marzia Ognibene
- U.O.C. Genetica Medica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147 Genova, Italy; (P.D.M.); (F.Z.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +39-010-5636-2601
| | - Patrizia De Marco
- U.O.C. Genetica Medica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147 Genova, Italy; (P.D.M.); (F.Z.)
| | - Stefano Parodi
- Scientific Directorate, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147 Genova, Italy;
| | - Mariaclaudia Meli
- U.O.C. Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (M.M.); (A.D.C.)
| | - Andrea Di Cataldo
- U.O.C. Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy; (M.M.); (A.D.C.)
| | - Federico Zara
- U.O.C. Genetica Medica, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, 16147 Genova, Italy; (P.D.M.); (F.Z.)
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Chicco D. geneExpressionFromGEO: An R Package to Facilitate Data Reading from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY (CLIFTON, N.J.) 2022; 2401:187-194. [PMID: 34902129 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1839-4_12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Gene expression profiling is a useful way to measure the activity of genes in molecular biology and, because of its effectiveness, researchers have released thousands of gene expression datasets publicly in online databases and repositories, such as Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). To read and analyze gene expression data, the computational biology community has developed several tools and platforms, including Bioconductor, an R open-source platform of software packages that can be used to analyze these data. Despite the usefulness of Bioconductor and of its packages, it is still difficult to read gene expression data from GEO, and to assign gene symbols to the probesets of datasets. To alleviate this problem, we introduce here a new R software package, geneExpressionFromGEO, which provides to the users the possibility to easily download gene expression data from GEO and to easily associate gene symbols to probesets. In this short chapter, we describe the assets of our software package, and we report an example of its usage. We believe that geneExpressionFromGEO can be very useful for the R community of bioinformaticians working on gene expression data.
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High Grade of Amplification of Six Regions on Chromosome 2p in a Neuroblastoma Patient with Very Poor Outcome: The Putative New Oncogene TSSC1. Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:cancers13225792. [PMID: 34830942 PMCID: PMC8616235 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13225792] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Revised: 11/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Here, a case of neuroblastoma (NB) carrying a high-grade amplification of six loci besides MYCN is described. Since the patient had a very poor outcome, we postulated that these DNA co-amplifications might have a synergistic effect in increasing NB cell proliferation. In order to verify this hypothesis, we analyzed in silico the impact of high expression of the genes located within the amplifications on the NB patients’ outcome using a large dataset integrating three different platforms. These analyses disclosed that high expression of the TSSC1 gene was the most significantly associated with reduced overall survival of NB patients, suggesting that it may have a potential prognostic role in NB in both MYCN amplified and MYCN not amplified tumors. Further studies on TSSC1 interactions and functioning could lead to possible focused therapies for high-risk NB patients. Abstract We observed a case of high-risk neuroblastoma (NB) carried by a 28-month-old girl, displaying metastatic disease and a rapid decline of clinical conditions. By array-CGH analysis of the tumor tissue and of the metastatic bone marrow aspirate cells, we found a high-grade amplification of six regions besides MYCN on bands 2p25.3–p24.3. The genes involved in these amplifications were MYT1L, TSSC1, CMPK2, RSAD2, RNF144A, GREB1, NTSR2, LPIN1, NBAS, and the two intergenic non-protein coding RNAs LOC730811 and LOC339788. We investigated if these DNA co-amplifications may have an effect on enhancing tumor aggressiveness. We evaluated the association between the high expression of the amplified genes and NB patient’s outcome using the integration of gene expression data of 786 NB samples profiled with different public platforms from patients with at least five-year follow-up. NB patients with high expression of the TSSC1 gene were associated with a reduced survival rate. Immunofluorescence staining on primary tumor tissues confirmed that the TSSC1 protein expression was high in the relapsed or dead stage 4 cases, but it was generally low in NB patients in complete remission. TSSC1 appears as a putative new oncogene in NB.
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Lebedev T, Vagapova E, Spirin P, Rubtsov P, Astashkova O, Mikheeva A, Sorokin M, Vladimirova U, Suntsova M, Konovalov D, Roumiantsev A, Stocking C, Buzdin A, Prassolov V. Growth factor signaling predicts therapy resistance mechanisms and defines neuroblastoma subtypes. Oncogene 2021; 40:6258-6272. [PMID: 34556815 PMCID: PMC8566230 DOI: 10.1038/s41388-021-02018-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) has a low frequency of recurrent mutations compared to other cancers, which hinders the development of targeted therapies and novel risk stratification strategies. Multikinase inhibitors have shown potential in treating high-risk NB, but their efficacy is likely impaired by the cancer cells' ability to adapt to these drugs through the employment of alternative signaling pathways. Based on the expression of 48 growth factor-related genes in 1189 NB tumors, we have developed a model for NB patient survival prediction. This model discriminates between stage 4 NB tumors with favorable outcomes (>80% overall survival) and very poor outcomes (<10%) independently from MYCN-amplification status. Using signaling pathway analysis and gene set enrichment methods in 60 NB patients with known therapy response, we identified signaling pathways, including EPO, NGF, and HGF, upregulated in patients with no or partial response. In a therapeutic setting, we showed that among six selected growth factors, EPO, and NGF showed the most pronounced protective effects in vitro against several promising anti-NB multikinase inhibitors: imatinib, dasatinib, crizotinib, cabozantinib, and axitinib. Mechanistically kinase inhibitors potentiated NB cells to stronger ERK activation by EPO and NGF. The protective action of these growth factors strongly correlated with ERK activation and was ERK-dependent. ERK inhibitors combined with anticancer drugs, especially with dasatinib, showed a synergistic effect on NB cell death. Consideration of growth factor signaling activity benefits NB outcome prediction and tailoring therapy regimens to treat NB.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timofey Lebedev
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
- Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
| | - Elmira Vagapova
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Pavel Spirin
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Petr Rubtsov
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Olga Astashkova
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), Moscow Region, Russia
| | - Alesya Mikheeva
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), Moscow Region, Russia
| | - Maxim Sorokin
- Group for Genomic Regulation of Cell Signaling Systems, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
- Department of Bioinformatics and Molecular Networks, OmicsWay Corporation, Walnut, CA, USA
- Institute of Personalized Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Uliana Vladimirova
- Institute of Personalized Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Maria Suntsova
- Institute of Personalized Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Dmitry Konovalov
- D. Rogachyov Federal Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexander Roumiantsev
- D. Rogachyov Federal Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Carol Stocking
- Research Department Cell and Gene Therapy, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Anton Buzdin
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), Moscow Region, Russia
- Group for Genomic Regulation of Cell Signaling Systems, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia
- Department of Bioinformatics and Molecular Networks, OmicsWay Corporation, Walnut, CA, USA
- Institute of Personalized Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vladimir Prassolov
- Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
- Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
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Hassan Venkatesh G, Abou Khouzam R, Shaaban Moustafa Elsayed W, Ahmed Zeinelabdin N, Terry S, Chouaib S. Tumor hypoxia: an important regulator of tumor progression or a potential modulator of tumor immunogenicity? Oncoimmunology 2021; 10:1974233. [PMID: 34595058 PMCID: PMC8477925 DOI: 10.1080/2162402x.2021.1974233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Goutham Hassan Venkatesh
- Thumbay Research Institute for Precision Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
| | - Raefa Abou Khouzam
- Thumbay Research Institute for Precision Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
| | | | - Nagwa Ahmed Zeinelabdin
- Thumbay Research Institute for Precision Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
| | - Stéphane Terry
- Inserm Umr 1186, Integrative Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy, Gustave Roussy, Faculty of Medicine, University Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
| | - Salem Chouaib
- Thumbay Research Institute for Precision Medicine, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.,Inserm Umr 1186, Integrative Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy, Gustave Roussy, Faculty of Medicine, University Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France
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30
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Shim J, Goldsmith KC. A New Player in Neuroblastoma: YAP and Its Role in the Neuroblastoma Microenvironment. Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:cancers13184650. [PMID: 34572875 PMCID: PMC8472533 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13184650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 09/11/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial pediatric solid tumor that accounts for more than 15% of childhood cancer-related deaths. High risk neuroblastomas that recur during or after intense multimodal therapy have a <5% chance at a second sustained remission or cure. The solid tumor microenvironment (TME) has been increasingly recognized to play a critical role in cancer progression and resistance to therapy, including in neuroblastoma. The Yes-Associated Protein (YAP) in the Hippo pathway can regulate cancer proliferation, tumor initiation, and therapy response in many cancer types and as such, its role in the TME has gained interest. In this review, we focus on YAP and its role in neuroblastoma and further describe its demonstrated and potential effects on the neuroblastoma TME. We also discuss the therapeutic strategies for inhibiting YAP in neuroblastoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Shim
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA;
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Kelly C. Goldsmith
- Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA;
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
- Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-404-727-2655
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31
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Daly LA, Brownridge PJ, Batie M, Rocha S, Sée V, Eyers CE. Oxygen-dependent changes in binding partners and post-translational modifications regulate the abundance and activity of HIF-1α/2α. Sci Signal 2021; 14:eabf6685. [PMID: 34285132 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.abf6685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Cellular adaptation to low-oxygen environments is mediated in part by the hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs). Like other transcription factors, the stability and transcriptional activity of HIFs-and consequently, the hypoxic response-are regulated by post-translational modifications (PTMs) and changes in protein-protein interactions. Our current understanding of PTM-mediated regulation of HIFs is primarily based on in vitro protein fragment-based studies typically validated in fragment-expressing cells treated with hypoxia-mimicking compounds. Here, we used immunoprecipitation-based mass spectrometry to characterize the PTMs and binding partners for full-length HIF-1α and HIF-2α under normoxic (21% oxygen) and hypoxic (1% oxygen) conditions. Hypoxia substantially altered the complexity and composition of the HIFα protein interaction networks, particularly for HIF-2α, with the hypoxic networks of both isoforms being enriched for mitochondrial proteins. Moreover, both HIFα isoforms were heavily covalently modified. We identified ~40 PTM sites composed of 13 different types of modification on both HIFα isoforms, including multiple cysteine modifications and an unusual phosphocysteine. More than 80% of the PTMs identified were not previously known and about half exhibited oxygen dependency. We further characterized an evolutionarily conserved phosphorylation of Ser31 in HIF-1α as a regulator of its transcriptional function, and we propose functional roles for Thr406, Thr528, and Ser581 in HIF-2α. These data will help to delineate the different physiological roles of these closely related isoforms in fine-tuning the hypoxic response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonard A Daly
- Department of Biochemistry and System Biology, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
- Centre for Proteome Research, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Philip J Brownridge
- Centre for Proteome Research, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Michael Batie
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Cell Signaling, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Sonia Rocha
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Cell Signaling, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Violaine Sée
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Cell Signaling, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK.
- Centre for Cell Imaging, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Claire E Eyers
- Department of Biochemistry and System Biology, Institute of Systems, Molecular, and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK.
- Centre for Proteome Research, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK
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Uva P, Bosco MC, Eva A, Conte M, Garaventa A, Amoroso L, Cangelosi D. Connectivity Map Analysis Indicates PI3K/Akt/mTOR Inhibitors as Potential Anti-Hypoxia Drugs in Neuroblastoma. Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:cancers13112809. [PMID: 34199959 PMCID: PMC8200206 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13112809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Revised: 05/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroblastoma (NB) is one of the deadliest pediatric cancers, accounting for 15% of deaths in childhood. Hypoxia is a condition of low oxygen tension occurring in solid tumors and has an unfavorable prognostic factor for NB. In the present study, we aimed to identify novel promising drugs for NB treatment. Connectivity Map (CMap), an online resource for drug repurposing, was used to identify connections between hypoxia-modulated genes in NB tumors and compounds. Two sets of 34 and 21 genes up- and down-regulated between hypoxic and normoxic primary NB tumors, respectively, were analyzed with CMap. The analysis reported a significant negative connectivity score across nine cell lines for 19 compounds mainly belonging to the class of PI3K/Akt/mTOR inhibitors. The gene expression profiles of NB cells cultured under hypoxic conditions and treated with the mTORC complex inhibitor PP242, referred to as the Mohlin dataset, was used to validate the CMap findings. A heat map representation of hypoxia-modulated genes in the Mohlin dataset and the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed an opposite regulation of these genes in the set of NB cells treated with the mTORC inhibitor PP242. In conclusion, our analysis identified inhibitors of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway as novel candidate compounds to treat NB patients with hypoxic tumors and a poor prognosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Uva
- Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, Scientific Direction, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy;
- Italian Institute of Technology, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy
| | - Maria Carla Bosco
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy; (M.C.B.); (A.E.)
| | - Alessandra Eva
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy; (M.C.B.); (A.E.)
| | - Massimo Conte
- UOC Oncologia, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy; (M.C.); (A.G.); (L.A.)
| | - Alberto Garaventa
- UOC Oncologia, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy; (M.C.); (A.G.); (L.A.)
| | - Loredana Amoroso
- UOC Oncologia, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy; (M.C.); (A.G.); (L.A.)
| | - Davide Cangelosi
- Clinical Bioinformatics Unit, Scientific Direction, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Via Gerolamo Gaslini 5, 16147 Genova, Italy;
- Correspondence:
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Melatonin and neuroblastoma: a novel therapeutic approach. Mol Biol Rep 2021; 48:4659-4665. [PMID: 34061325 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-021-06439-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Neuroblastoma is a deadly and serious malignancy among children. Although many developments have been occurred for the treatment of this disease, the rate of mortality is still high. Therefore, it is necessary to search for novel complementary and alternative therapies. Melatonin, a hormone secreted from pineal gland, is a multifunctional agent having anticancer potentials. Recently, several investigations have been conducted indicating melatonin effects against neuroblastoma. In this paper, we summarize current evidence on anti-neuroblastoma effects of melatonin based on cellular pathways.
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Molecular Genetics in Neuroblastoma Prognosis. CHILDREN-BASEL 2021; 8:children8060456. [PMID: 34072462 PMCID: PMC8226597 DOI: 10.3390/children8060456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, much research has been carried out to identify the biological and genetic characteristics of the neuroblastoma (NB) tumor in order to precisely define the prognostic subgroups for improving treatment stratification. This review will describe the major genetic features and the recent scientific advances, focusing on their impact on diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic solutions in NB clinical management.
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