Project description:Recurrent mutations in RNA splicing factors SF3B1, U2AF1, and SRSF2 have been reported in hematologic cancers including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, SF3B1 is the only splicing associated gene to be found mutated in CLL and has been shown to induce aberrant splicing. To investigate if any other genomic aberration caused similar transcriptome changes, we clustered RNASeq samples based on an alternative 3’ splice site (ss) pattern previously identified in SF3B1-mutant CLL patients. Out of 215 samples, we identified 37 (17%) with alternative 3’ ss usage, the majority of which harbored known SF3B1 hotspot mutations. Interestingly, 3 patient samples carried previously unreported in-frame deletions in SF3B1 around K700, the most frequent mutation hotspot. To study the functional effects of these deletions, we used various minigenes demonstrating that recognition of canonical 3’ ss and alternative branchsite are required for aberrant splicing, as observed for SF3B1 p.K700E. The common mechanism of action of these deletions and substitutions result in similar sensitivity of primary cells towards splicing inhibitor E7107. Altogether, these data demonstrate that novel SF3B1 in-frame deletion events identified in CLL result in aberrant splicing, a common biomarker in spliceosome-mutant cancers.
Project description:The RNA splicing factor SF3B1 is recurrently mutated in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but its functional role in the pathogenesis of this disease has not been firmly established. Here, we show that conditional expression of heterozygous Sf3b1-K700E mutation in mouse B lineage cells disrupts pre-mRNA splicing, alters B-cell development and function, and induces a state of cellular senescence. B-cell restricted expression of this mutation combined with Atm deletion led to the overcoming of cellular senescence, together with enhanced genome instability and the development of clonal B220+CD5+ CLL cells in elderly mice at low penetrance. Mice with CLL-like disease were found to have amplifications of chromosomes 15 and 17. Integrated transcriptome and proteome analysis of the CLL-like cells revealed coordinated dysregulation of multiple CLL-associated cellular processes. This included an unexpected signature of deregulated B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling, which we could also identify in SF3B1-mutated CLL samples from two independent patient cohorts. Notably, human CLLs harboring SF3B1 mutations exhibited greater sensitivity and altered response kinetics to BTK kinase ibrutinib. Our genetically faithful murine model of CLL thus reveals fresh insights regarding the impact of SF3B1 mutation on CLL pathogenesis and suggests a system for identifying vulnerabilities related to this mutation that can be further exploited for the treatment of CLLs with this common mutation.
Project description:Several DNA sequencing studies of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) revealed that the splicing factor SF3B1 accumulated somatic point mutations in about 10 percent of the patients. In most cases the mutations were located in the genomic regions coding for the C-terminal HEAT-repeat domain and in many cases, the mutations gave rise to specific amino acid substitutions. Here, we aimed to investigate differential usage of exons associated with the mutation K700E of SF3B1 in CLL tumuor cells. We generated RNA-Seq transcriptome data from two patients with mutations in SF3B1, two patient without mutations in SF3B1 and from healthy donors. We report interesting examples and possible consequences of the alternative exon usage in these genes. This dataset contains only the files resulting from the processing the RNA sequencing raw data. This avoids potential patient identifiability, but ensures the full reproducibility of the results described in the publication.
Project description:RNA splicing factor SF3B1 is recurrently mutated in various cancers, particularly in hematological malig-nancies. We previously reported that co-expression of Sf3b1 mutation and Atm deletion in B cells, but not either lesion alone, leads to the onset of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with CLL cells harboring chromosome amplification. However, the exact role of Sf3b1 mutation and Atm deletion in chromosomal instability (CIN) remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that SF3B1 mutation promotes centromeric R-loop (cen-R-loop) accumulation, leading to increased chromosome oscillation, impaired chromosome segrega-tion, altered spindle architecture and aneuploidy, which can be alleviated by removal of cen-R-loop and exaggerated by deletion of ATM. Aberrant splicing of key genes involved in R-loop processing underlies augmentation of cen-R-loop as overexpression of the normal isoform, but not the altered form, mitigates mitotic stress in SF3B1 mutant cells. Our study underscores the critical role of novel splice variants in link-ing RNA splicing dysregulation and CIN, and highlights cen-R-loop augmentation as a key mechanism for leukemogenesis.
Project description:To study the role of distinct ATRX aberrations in neuroblastoma we created isogenic ATRX aberrant models using CRISPR-Cas9 in several neuroblastoma cell lines and one tumoroid. We created ATRX knock-out models, ATRX in-frame exon 2-10 deletions and ATRX in-frame exon 2-13 deletions. Additionally, we included patient-derived models data (i.e. cell line data and one tumoroid).
Project description:SF3B1 is the most frequently mutated RNA splicing factor in cancer, including in ~25% of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients. SF3B1-mutated MDS, which is strongly associated with ringed sideroblast morphology, is characterized by ineffective erythropoiesis, leading to severe, often fatal, anemia. However, functional evidence linking SF3B1 mutations to the anemia described in MDS patients harboring this genetic aberration is weak, and the underlying mechanism is completely unknown. Using isogenic SF3B1 wild-type and mutant cell lines, normal human CD34 cells and MDS patient cells, we define a previously unrecognized role of the kinase MAP3K7, encoded by a known mutant SF3B1-targeted transcript, in controlling proper terminal erythroid differentiation, and show how MAP3K7 missplicing leads to the anemia characteristic of SF3B1-mutated MDS, although not to ringed sideroblast formation. We found that p38 MAPK is deactivated in SF3B1 mutant isogenic and patient cells and that MAP3K7 is an upstream positive effector of p38 MAPK. We demonstrate that disruption of this MAP3K7-p38 MAPK pathway leads to premature downregulation of GATA1, a master regulator of erythroid differentiation, and that this is sufficient to trigger accelerated differentiation, erythroid hyperplasia and ultimately apoptosis. Our findings thus define the mechanism leading to the severe anemia found in MDS patients harboring SF3B1 mutations.
Project description:We have performed a comprehensive proteomic analysis of clinical patient samples of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) alongside genome-, transcriptome- and ex-vivo drug response profiling. Trisomy 12 and IGHV mutation status had the strongest impact on the proteome and transcriptome; and SF3B1 mutations preferentially affected the proteome. Unsupervised clustering of the proteome data partitioned CLL patients into six protein based subgroups (PG) with contrasting clinical behavior. PG1-4 could be explained by the impact of trisomy 12 and IGHV mutation status on protein abundances and another subgroup (PG6), was enriched for TP53 mutations. In addition we uncovered a new subgroup (PG5) only detectable from the proteome, characterized by low expression of central B-cell receptor proteins, altered splicing, metabolic reprogramming and increased sensitivity to proteasomal inhibition. https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/archive/projects/PXD024544
Project description:Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common hematologic malignancy in adults. While B cell-targeted therapies have revolutionized treatment, the underlying molecular targets of disease have not been addressed. A quarter of CLL patients have somatic trisomy 12 (tri12) which confers intermediate risk, and is otherwise embryonically lethal. Here, we report human pluripotent stem cells (PSC) harboring tri12 uniquely genocopy and phenocopy tri12 CLL. Using unbiased machine learning and transcriptomics, combined with chemical genomics, we reveal candidate tri12 gene networks and targets. These targets were validated to specifically reduce leukemic growth of tri12 CLL patient samples. Our study establishes a paradigm for using PSC to overcome barriers in revealing molecular networks involved in complex genetic abnormalities of human cancers such as tri12 CLL.
Project description:Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are characterized by recurrent somatic alterations often affecting components of RNA splicing machinery. Mutations of splice factors SF3B1, SRSF2, ZRSR2 and U2AF1 occur in >50% of MDS. To assess the impact of spliceosome mutations on splicing and to identify common pathways/genes affected by distinct mutations, we performed RNA-sequencing of 24 MDS bone marrow samples harboring spliceosome mutations (including hotspot alterations of SF3B1, SRSF2 and U2AF1; small deletions of SRSF2 and truncating mutations of ZRSR2), and devoid of other common co-occurring mutations. We uncover the landscape of splicing alterations in each splice factor mutant MDS and demonstrate that SRSF2 deletions cause highest number of splicing alterations compared with other spliceosome mutations. Although the mis-spliced events observed in different splice factor mutations were largely non-overlapping, a subset of genes, including EZH2, were aberrantly spliced in multiple mutant groups. Pathway analysis revealed that the mis-spliced genes in different mutant groups were enriched in RNA splicing and transport as well as several signaling cascades, suggesting converging biological consequences downstream of distinct spliceosome mutations.