Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to understand the signaling pathway alteration in NCI-H226 cells treated with new TEAD autopalmitoylation inhibitor TM2, and to further validate TEAD inhibitor for specifity in TEAD-YAP interuption. Methods: Mesothelioma cell line NCI-H226 was chosen to be treated with TEAD palmitoylation inhibitor TM2 at 1μM for 24 hours. Total RNA was isolated for the analysis. RNA samples were sent to Novogen for library construction, RNA sequencing and raw data process. Conclusions: Our study privides gene expression profiling evidence to validate our TEAD palmitoylation inhibitor TM2 as specific small molecule to block TEAD transcriptional activity in mesothelioma cells.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to understand the signaling pathway alteration in NCI-H226 cells treated with TEAD inhibitors. Methods: Mesothelioma cell line NCI-H226 was chosen to be treated with TEAD inhibitors at 1μM for 24 hours. Total RNA was isolated for the analysis. RNA samples were sent to Novogen for library construction, RNA sequencing and raw data process. Conclusions: Our study privides gene expression profiling evidence to validate TEAD inhibitors to block TEAD transcriptional activity in mesothelioma cells.
Project description:We investigate the dependence of human malignant mesothelioma on functional TEAD transcription factors to maintain fully established tumors in vivo. We show that TEAD inhibitor K-975 stops tumor growth in vivo, eventually causing tumor regression, by downregulating TEAD activity and altering, thus, TEAD-dependent transcription in a dysfunctional Hippo genetic background. Our data validate the concept of inhibiting an activated YAP1/TEAD complex for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma patients.
Project description:The Hippo pathway is a key growth-control pathway conserved across species. The downstream effectors of the Hippo pathway YAP/TAZ are frequently activated in cancer cells by a diverse array of mechanisms to drive proliferation and survival. Based on the premise that sustained interactions between YAP/TAZ and TEADs are central to their transcriptional activities, we discovered a potent small molecule inhibitor (SMI) GNE-7883 that allosterically blocks the interactions between YAP/TAZ and all four TEAD paralogs in human cells through binding to the TEAD lipid pocket. GNE-7883 effectively reduces chromatin accessibility specifically at TEAD motifs, suppresses cell proliferation in a variety of cell line models, and achieved strong anti-tumor efficacy in vivo. Furthermore, we uncovered that GNE-7883 effectively overcomes resistance to the recently approved KRAS G12C inhibitor sotorasib in both treatment-refractory and acquired resistance cell line models, providing strong proof-of-concept of TEAD SMIs in targeting YAP/TAZ-mediated KRAS inhibitor resistance. Taken together, this work demonstrates activities of TEAD SMIs in YAP/TAZ-dependent cancers and highlights their potential broad applications in precision oncology and therapy resistance.
Project description:Early invasive growth and metastasis are features of pancreatic cancer that rely on resistance to anoikis, an apoptosis program activated upon loss of adequate matrix anchorage. Re-expression of the tumor suppressor p16 reversed anoikis resistance of pancreatic cancer cells. This conversion to an anoikis-susceptible phenotype was found to be associated with a striking loss of GNE mRNA expression, prompting us to address the role of GNE in pancreatic cancer in more detail. GNE catalyzes a rate-limiting key step of the sialic acid biosynthesis and may have additional functions in the nucleus. Pancreatic cancer cells Capan-1. Three GNE-silencing samples and three control samples.
Project description:GNE Myopathy is a rare, recessively inherited neuromuscular worldwide disorder, caused by a spectrum of bi-allelic mutations in the human GNE gene. GNE encodes a bi-functional enzyme responsible for the rate-limiting step of sialic acid biosynthesis pathway. However, the process in which GNE mutations lead to the development of a muscle pathology is not clear yet. Cellular and mouse models for GNE Myopathy established to date have not been informative. Further, additional GNE functions in muscle have been hypothesized. In these studies, we aimed to investigate gne functions using zebrafish genetic and transgenic models, and characterized them using macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular approaches. We first established transgenic zebrafish lineages expressing the human GNE cDNA carrying the M743T mutation, driven by the zebrafish gne promoter. These fish developed entirely normally. Then, we generated a gne knock-out (KO) fish using the CRISPR/Cas9 methodology. These fish died 8-10 days post-fertilization (dpf), but a phenotype appeared less than 24 hours before death and included progressive body axis curving, deflation of the swim bladder and decreasing movement and heart rate. However, muscle histology uncovered severe defects, already at 5 dpf, with compromised fiber organization. Sialic acid supplementation did not rescue the larvae from this phenotype nor prolonged their lifespan. To have deeper insights into the potential functions of gne in zebrafish, RNA sequencing was performed at 3 time points (3, 5, and 7 dpf). Genotype clustering was progressive, with only 5 genes differentially expressed in gne KO compared to gne WT siblings at 3 dpf. Enrichment analyses of the primary processes affected by the lack of gne also at 5 and 7 dpf point to the involvement of cell cycle and DNA damage/repair processes in the gne KO zebrafish. Thus, we have established a gne KO zebrafish lineage and obtained new insights into gne functions. This is the only model where GNE can be related to clear muscle defects, thus the only animal model relevant to GNE Myopathy to date. Further elucidation of gne precise mechanism-of-action in these processes could be relevant to GNE Myopathy and allow the identification of novel therapeutic targets.
Project description:GNE myopathy is an adult onset neuromuscular disorder characterized by slowly progressive distal and proximal muscle weakness, caused by missense recessive mutations in the GNE gene. Although the encoded bifunctional enzyme is well known as the limiting factor in the biosynthesis of sialic acid, no clear mechanisms have been recognized to account for the muscle atrophic pathology, and novel functions for GNE have been hypothesized. Two major issues impair studies on this protein. First, the expression of the GNE protein is minimal in humans and mice muscles and there is no reliable antibody to follow up endogenous expression. Second, no reliable animal model is available for the disease and cellular models from GNE myopathy patients' muscle cells (expressing the mutated protein) are less informative than expected. In order to broaden our knowledge on GNE functions in muscle, we have taken advantage of the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome editing to first, add a tag to the endogenous Gne gene in mouse, allowing the determination of the spatiotemporal expression of the protein in the organism using well established and reliable antibodies against the specific tag. In addition we have generated a Gne knock out murine muscle cell lineage to identify the events resulting from the total lack of the protein. A thorough multi-omics analysis of both systems including transcriptomics, proteomics, phosphoproteomics and ubiquitination, unraveled novel pathways for Gne, in particular its involvement in cell cycle control and in the DNA damage/repair pathway. The elucidation of fundamental mechanisms of Gne in normal muscle may contribute to the identification of the disrupted functions in GNE myopathy, thus, to the definition of novel biomarkers and possible therapeutic targets for this disease.