Project description:Epigenetic alterations have been increasingly implicated in oncogenesis. Analysis of Drosophila mutants suggests that Polycomb and SWI/SNF complexes can serve antagonistic developmental roles. However, the relevance of this relationship to human disease is unclear. Here we have investigated functional relationships between these epigenetic regulators in oncogenic transformation. Mechanistically, we show that loss of the SNF5 tumor suppressor leads to elevated expression of the Polycomb gene EZH2 and that Polycomb targets are broadly H3K27-trimethylated and repressed in SNF5-deficient fibroblasts and cancers. Further, we show antagonism between SNF5 and EZH2 in the regulation of stem cell-associated programs and that Snf5 loss activates those programs. Finally, using conditional mouse models, we show that inactivation of Ezh2 blocks tumor formation driven by Snf5 loss. Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts (MEFs) conditionally inactivated for Ezh2, Snf5 and Ezh2, or from control WT MEFs were used to evaluated epigenetic antagonism between Snf5 and Ezh2 in the control of gene expression programs. Snf5-deficient lymphoma samples and control CD8+ WT T-cells were used to evaluate genetic programs misregulated by Snf5 inactivation during tumorigenesis. RNA was isolated from each of these samples and used for gene expression profiling on Affymetrix arrays.
Project description:Epigenetic antagonism between Snf5 and Ezh2 during oncogenic transformation and elevated levels of H3K27me3 in Snf5-deficient cells
Project description:Epigenetic alterations have been increasingly implicated in oncogenesis. Analysis of Drosophila mutants suggests that Polycomb and SWI/SNF complexes can serve antagonistic developmental roles. However, the relevance of this relationship to human disease is unclear. Here we have investigated functional relationships between these epigenetic regulators in oncogenic transformation. Mechanistically, we show that loss of the SNF5 tumor suppressor leads to elevated expression of the Polycomb gene EZH2 and that Polycomb targets are broadly H3K27-trimethylated and repressed in SNF5-deficient fibroblasts and cancers. Further, we show antagonism between SNF5 and EZH2 in the regulation of stem cell-associated programs and that Snf5 loss activates those programs. Finally, using conditional mouse models, we show that inactivation of Ezh2 blocks tumor formation driven by Snf5 loss.
Project description:Epigenetic alterations have been increasingly implicated in oncogenesis. Analysis of Drosophila mutants suggests that Polycomb and SWI/SNF complexes can serve antagonistic developmental roles. However, the relevance of this relationship to human disease is unclear. Here we have investigated functional relationships between these epigenetic regulators in oncogenic transformation. Mechanistically, we show that loss of the SNF5 tumor suppressor leads to elevated expression of the Polycomb gene EZH2 and that Polycomb targets are broadly H3K27-trimethylated and repressed in SNF5-deficient fibroblasts and cancers. Further, we show antagonism between SNF5 and EZH2 in the regulation of stem cell-associated programs and that Snf5 loss activates those programs. Finally, using conditional mouse models, we show that inactivation of Ezh2 blocks tumor formation driven by Snf5 loss.
Project description:As a master regulator of chromatin structure and function, the EZH2 lysine methyltransferase orchestrates transcriptional silencing of developmental gene networks. Overexpression of EZH2 is commonly observed in human epithelial cancers, such as non- small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), yet definitive demonstration of malignant transformation by deregulated EZH2 has proven elusive. Here, we demonstrate the causal role of EZH2 overexpression in NSCLC with a new genetically-engineered mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma. Deregulated EZH2 silences normal developmental pathways leading to epigenetic transformation independent from canonical growth factor pathway activation. As such, tumors feature a transcriptional program distinct from KRAS- and EGFR-mutant mouse lung cancers, but shared with human lung adenocarcinomas exhibiting high EZH2 expression. To target EZH2-dependent cancers, we developed a novel and potent EZH2 inhibitor that arises from a facile synthesis and possesses improved pharmacologic properties. JQEZ5 promoted the regression of EZH2-driven tumors in vivo, confirming oncogenic addiction to EZH2 in established tumors and providing the rationale for epigenetic therapy in a defined subset of lung cancer. Gene expression analysis of 7 samples, 3 EZH2 OE tumors, 2 EZH2 OE normal lung samples, and 2 WT lung samples
Project description:As a master regulator of chromatin structure and function, the EZH2 lysine methyltransferase orchestrates transcriptional silencing of developmental gene networks. Overexpression of EZH2 is commonly observed in human epithelial cancers, such as non- small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), yet definitive demonstration of malignant transformation by deregulated EZH2 has proven elusive. Here, we demonstrate the causal role of EZH2 overexpression in NSCLC with a new genetically-engineered mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma. Deregulated EZH2 silences normal developmental pathways leading to epigenetic transformation independent from canonical growth factor pathway activation. As such, tumors feature a transcriptional program distinct from KRAS- and EGFR-mutant mouse lung cancers, but shared with human lung adenocarcinomas exhibiting high EZH2 expression. To target EZH2-dependent cancers, we developed a novel and potent EZH2 inhibitor that arises from a facile synthesis and possesses improved pharmacologic properties. JQEZ5 promoted the regression of EZH2-driven tumors in vivo, confirming oncogenic addiction to EZH2 in established tumors and providing the rationale for epigenetic therapy in a defined subset of lung cancer. ChIP-Seq for H3K27ac and H3K27me3 in murine normal and EZH2 overexpressed tumor lung tissue
Project description:The T-cell leukemia homeobox 1 (TLX1, HOX11) transcription factor is critically involved in the multistep pathogenesis of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and often cooperates with NOTCH1 activation during malignant T-cell transformation. However, the exact molecular mechanisms by which these T-cell specific oncogenes cooperate during transformation remain to be established. Here, we used an integrative genomics approach to show that the oncogenic properties of TLX1 are mediated by genome-wide interference with the ETS1 and RUNX1 transcription factors. Partial disruption of ETS1 and RUNX1 activity by ectopic TLX1 expression in immature thymocytes drives repression of T-cell specific super-enhancers and mediates an unexpected transcriptional antagonism with NOTCH1 signaling. These phenomena coordinately trigger a TLX1 driven pre-leukemic phenotype in human thymic precursor cells, which corresponds with the in vivo thymic regression observed in murine TLX1 tumor models, and creates a strong genetic pressure for acquiring activating NOTCH1 mutations as a prerequisite for full leukemic transformation. In conclusion, our results uncover a functional antagonism between cooperative oncogenes during the earliest phases of tumor development and provide novel insights in the multistep pathogenesis of TLX1 driven human leukemia. ChIP-sequencing data was generated for TLX1 in the T-ALL cell line ALL-SIL.