Project description:We studied the effect of BMI1 inhibition in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cells (DIPG). We reported the application of chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing for high-thoughput profiling of BMI1 and H2AK119ub in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cells (DIPG) in response to BMI1 inhibition. We also performed bulk RNA sequencing of DIPG cells in response to pharmacological inhibition or knockdown of BMI1.
Project description:Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) is a fatal brain cancer that arises in the brainstem of children with no effective treatment and near 100% fatality. The failure of most therapies can be attributed to the delicate location of these tumors and choosing therapies based on assumptions that DIPGs are molecularly similar to adult disease. Recent studies have unraveled the unique genetic make-up of this brain cancer with nearly 80% harboring a K27M-H3.3 or K27M-H3.1 mutation. However, DIPGs are still thought of as one disease with limited understanding of the genetic drivers of these tumors. To understand what drives DIPGs we integrated whole-genome-sequencing with methylation, expression and copy-number profiling, discovering that DIPGs are three molecularly distinct subgroups (H3-K27M, Silent, MYCN) and uncovering a novel recurrent activating mutation in the activin receptor ACVR1, in 20% of DIPGs. Mutations in ACVR1 were constitutively activating, leading to SMAD phosphorylation and increased expression of downstream activin signaling targets ID1 and ID2. Our results highlight distinct molecular subgroups and novel therapeutic targets for this incurable pediatric cancer. Illumina HT-12 arrays were performed according to the manufacturer's directions on RNA extracted from FFPE biopsy and autopsy brain tissue from DIPG patients. Gene expression profiling on Illumina HT-12 arrays was performed for 35 paediatric DIPG samples and 10 normal brain samples
Project description:We report the application of chromatin immunoprecipitation for high-thoughput profiling of RNA polymerase II and histone modifications (H3K27me3 and H3K27ac) in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cells (DIPG) in response to CDK9 inhibition
