Project description:Samples were taken from colorectal cancers in surgically resected specimens in 33 colorectal cancer patients. The expression profiles were determined using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays. Comparison between the sample groups allow to identify a set of discriminating genes that can be used for molecular markers for CIN phynotype Specimens from 33 consecutive stage II and stage III patients who had undergone surgical resection of CRC were studied. Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis and HNPCC were excluded from the study. Specimens from tumors and corresponding normal tissues in surgically resected specimens were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80degreesC until use. Parallel tumor specimens were formalin fixed and paraffin embedded for histological examination. DNA and RNA was extracted from paired tumor and normal tissue using frozen samples. The patients provided written, informed consent to the collection of specimens, and the local Ethics Committee approved the study protocol. MSI and LOH phenotype analysis were done as follows; Using DNA, we performed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and determined the MSI status. In addition to five microsatellite markers recommended by the National Cancer Institute workshop, we also used TP53, D18S46, D18S363 and D18S474.9 We determined LOH status in non–MSI-high tumors, because LOH is rare in MSI-high tumors and also interpretation of LOH is difficult in MSI-high tumors. We defined LOH at each locus as a 50% reduction in the height of one of two allele peaks in tumor DNA relative to non-neoplastic control DNA. LOH was defined as present if any of the markers on the same chromosome show LOH. In order to evaluate the severity of chromosomal instability based on the actual frequency of LOH among evaluable loci, we defined the LOH Ratio (%) as: LOH Ratio (%) = Total number of chromosomes with LOH / Total number of chromosomes that could be evaluated for LOH × 100. Depending on the LOH Ratio, we classified tumors as having high levels of chromosomal instability (CIN-high) (33% < LOH Ratio < 100%) or low levels of chromosomal instability (CIN-low) (0% < LOH Ratio <33%). Furthermore, CIN-high tumors were divided into two subgroups; CIN-high (mild type) (33% < LOH Ratio < 75%) and CIN-high (severe type) (75% < LOH Ratio <100%).

Project description:Samples were taken from colorectal cancers in surgically resected specimens in 35 colorectal cancer patients. The expression profiles were determined using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays. Comparison between the sample groups allow to identify a set of discriminating genes that can be used for molecular markers for CIN phynotype. Specimens from 35 consecutive stage II and stage III patients who had undergone surgical resection of CRC were studied. Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis and HNPCC were excluded from the study. Specimens from tumors and corresponding normal tissues in surgically resected specimens were snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 ºC until use. Parallel tumor specimens were formalin fixed and paraffin embedded for histological examination. DNA and RNA was extracted from paired tumor and normal tissue using frozen samples. The patients provided written, informed consent to the collection of specimens, and the local Ethics Committee approved the study protocol. MSI and LOH phenotype analysis were done as follows; Using DNA, we performed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and determined the MSI status. In addition to five microsatellite markers recommended by the National Cancer Institute workshop, we also used TP53, D18S46, D18S363 and D18S474.9 We determined LOH status in non–MSI-high tumors, because LOH is rare in MSI-high tumors and also interpretation of LOH is difficult in MSI-high tumors. We defined LOH at each locus as a 50% reduction in the height of one of two allele peaks in tumor DNA relative to non-neoplastic control DNA. LOH was defined as present if any of the markers on the same chromosome show LOH. In order to evaluate the severity of chromosomal instability based on the actual frequency of LOH among evaluable loci, we defined the LOH Ratio (%) as: LOH Ratio (%) = Total number of chromosomes with LOH / Total number of chromosomes that could be evaluated for LOH × 100. Depending on the LOH Ratio, we classified tumors as having high levels of chromosomal instability (CIN-high) (33% < LOH Ratio < 100%) or low levels of chromosomal instability (CIN-low) (0% < LOH Ratio <33%). Furthermore, CIN-high tumors were divided into two subgroups; CIN-high (mild type) (33% < LOH Ratio < 75%) and CIN-high (severe type) (75% < LOH Ratio <100%).

Project description:Chromosomal instability (CIN), defined as an increased occurrence of chromosome segregation errors during cell division, is a prominent form of genomic instability (Bakhoum and Avi Landau, 2017). It is the major cause of aneuploidy, an imbalanced complement of whole chromosomes or chromosome arms, which is the most prevalent genetic alteration in human cancers (Vasudevan et al., 2021; Santaguida and Amon, 2015). Importantly, aneuploidy is commonly associated with ongoing CIN through consecutive cell divisions (Shelzer et al. 2011; Passerini et al., 2016), resulting in intratumor genetic heterogeneity, a central driver of cancer evolution and therapeutic resistance (Sansregret et al., 2018; Ben-David and Amon, 2019). Indeed, aneuploidy has been shown to act both as a tumor suppressor and as a tumor initiator (Weaver et al., 2007; Silk et al., 2013; Vasudevan et al., 2020), most likely depending on the specific chromosomes that are gained or lost (Ben-David et al., 2011; Sack et al., 2018; Adell et al., 2023). Despite the ubiquitous presence of CIN in several aneuploid cancer types and its clinical relevance, its presence in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) remains largely unexplored owing to the impaired proliferation of leukemic cells in vitro and the lack of reliable experimental models to comprehensively assess chromosome segregation in vivo. B-ALL is the most frequent childhood cancer, with 75% of cases occurring in children under 6 years of age, and it is characterized by the accumulation of highly proliferative immature B-cell precursors in the bone marrow (BM) (Hunger and Mullighan, 2015). The presence of CIN and its contribution to aneuploid cB-ALL progression is largely unknown due to the lack of preclinical models to study actively dividing cells. Accordingly, studies of CIN in cB-ALL are limited to the characterization of chromosomal copy-number heterogeneity (chr-CNH) in primary cB-ALL samples, but there is controversy over its presence due to the different techniques used to assess karyotype variability (Raimondi et al., 1996; Talamo et al., 2010; Alpar et al., 2014; Heerema et al.; 2007; Ramos-Muntada et al., 2022). Here, we explored the presence and the levels of CIN in different clinically-relevant aneuploid subtypes of cB-ALL using single-cell whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of primary samples to reliably assess chr-CNH, and by generating a large cohort of PDX models from primary cB-ALL samples (cB-ALL-PDX). Our results in cB-ALL-PDX models revealed variable levels of CIN in aneuploid cB-ALL subtypes, which significantly correlate with intraclonal karyotype heterogeneity and with disease progression. Additionally, mass-spectrometry analyses of cB-ALL-PDX samples revealed a CIN “signature” enriched in mitosis and chromosome segregation regulatory pathways. We speculate that this signature identifies adaptive mechanisms to ongoing CIN in aneuploid cB-ALL cells, which displayed a transcriptional signature characterized by an impaired mitotic spindle as observed by RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) analyses of a large cohort of primary cB-ALL patient samples. Our work might help to improve stratification of patients with cB-ALL with different levels of CIN who could benefit in the future from new therapeutic approaches aiming to target ongoing CIN.

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Homo sapiens

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