Project description:The goal of this study is profile gene expression patterns of Foxr2-induced brain tumor cells. Foxr2 overexpression in the brain induced tumor formation in the olfactory bulb (OB) and the brainstem (BS) under the p53 deficient background. Tumor cells were cultured in vitro, which resulted in sphere formation. Sphere-forming cells were used for gene expression analysis. Immortalized primary astroglia (AG) was analzyed for comparison.
Project description:Forkhead Box R2 (FOXR2) is a forkhead transcription factor located on the X chromosome whose expression is normally restricted to the testis. In this study, we performed a pan-cancer analysis of FOXR2 activation across more than 10,000 adult and pediatric cancer samples and found FOXR2 to be aberrantly upregulated in 70% of all cancer types and 8% of all individual tumors. The majority of tumors (78%) aberrantly express FOXR2 through a previously undescribed epigenetic mechanism that involves hypomethylation of a novel promoter, which was functionally validated as necessary for both FOXR2 expression as well as proliferation in FOXR2-expressing cancer cells. FOXR2 expression is sufficient to enhance tumor formation, and coopts ETS family transcription circuits across cancers. Taken together, this study identifies FOXR2 as potent and ubiquitous oncogene that is epigenetically activated across the majority of human cancers. The identification of ETS transcription circuit hijacking by FOXR2 extends the mechanisms known to activate ETS transcription factors and highlights a mechanism through which transcription factor families cooperate to enhance tumorigenesis.
Project description:Forkhead Box R2 (FOXR2) is a forkhead transcription factor located on the X chromosome whose expression is normally restricted to the testis. In this study, we performed a pan-cancer analysis of FOXR2 activation across more than 10,000 adult and pediatric cancer samples and found FOXR2 to be aberrantly upregulated in 70% of all cancer types and 8% of all individual tumors. The majority of tumors (78%) aberrantly express FOXR2 through a previously undescribed epigenetic mechanism that involves hypomethylation of a novel promoter, which was functionally validated as necessary for both FOXR2 expression as well as proliferation in FOXR2-expressing cancer cells. FOXR2 expression is sufficient to enhance tumor formation, and coopts ETS family transcription circuits across cancers. Taken together, this study identifies FOXR2 as potent and ubiquitous oncogene that is epigenetically activated across the majority of human cancers. The identification of ETS transcription circuit hijacking by FOXR2 extends the mechanisms known to activate ETS transcription factors and highlights a mechanism through which transcription factor families cooperate to enhance tumorigenesis.
Project description:Forkhead Box R2 (FOXR2) is a forkhead transcription factor located on the X chromosome whose expression is normally restricted to the testis. In this study, we performed a pan-cancer analysis of FOXR2 activation across more than 10,000 adult and pediatric cancer samples and found FOXR2 to be aberrantly upregulated in 70% of all cancer types and 8% of all individual tumors. The majority of tumors (78%) aberrantly express FOXR2 through a previously undescribed epigenetic mechanism that involves hypomethylation of a novel promoter, which was functionally validated as necessary for both FOXR2 expression as well as proliferation in FOXR2-expressing cancer cells. FOXR2 expression is sufficient to enhance tumor formation, and coopts ETS family transcription circuits across cancers. Taken together, this study identifies FOXR2 as potent and ubiquitous oncogene that is epigenetically activated across the majority of human cancers. The identification of ETS transcription circuit hijacking by FOXR2 extends the mechanisms known to activate ETS transcription factors and highlights a mechanism through which transcription factor families cooperate to enhance tumorigenesis.
Project description:The stabilization of MYCN by FOXR2 represents an alternative mechanism to MYCN amplification to increase MYCN protein levels. As such, FOXR2 expression identifies another subset of neuroblastoma patients with unfavorable clinical outcome. Background: Clinical outcomes of neuroblastoma patients range from spontaneous tumor regression to fatality. Hence, understanding the mechanisms that cause tumor progression are crucial for the treatment of patients. In this study, we show that FOXR2 activation identifies a subset of neuroblastoma tumors with unfavorable outcome and we investigate the mechanism how FOXR2 relates to poor outcome in patients.
Project description:Combining the results of a large scale proteomic analysis of human transcription factor interaction network with knowledge databases, we identified FOXR2 as one of the top-ranked candidate proto-oncogenes. Here, we show that FOXR2 forms a stable complex with MYC and MAX and subsequently regulates cell proliferation by promoting MYC’s transcriptional activities. We demonstrated that FOXR2 is highly expressed in several breast, lung, and liver cancer cell lines and related patient tumor samples, while reduction of FOXR2 expression in a xenograft model inhibits tumor growth. These results indicate that FOXR2 acts with MYC to promote cancer cell proliferation, which is a potential tumor-specific target for therapeutic intervention against MYC-driven cancers.
Project description:The goal of this study is to profile gene expression patterns of RasV12-induced brain tumors and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in the cerebellum. Ras activation in Msi1+ cells induced tumor formation in the cerebellum of Msi1-CreER;RasV12 mice (Ras). GFP+ tumor cells and CD11b+ phagocytes were isolated from the cerebellum of Ras mice at 3 weeks and used for gene expression analysis. GFP+ cells and CD11b+ phagocytes isolated from the cerebellum of Msi1-CreER;GFP mice (Cont) were used as control.
Project description:Primitive neuroectodermal tumors of the central nervous system (CNS PNETs) are highly aggressive, poorly differentiated embryonal tumors occurring predominantly in young children. Using DNA methylation and gene expression profiling we have demonstrated that a significant proportion of institutionally diagnosed CNS PNETs display molecular profiles indistinguishable from those of various other well defined CNS tumor entities, facilitating diagnosis and appropiate therapy for children with these tumors. From the remaining fraction of CNS PNETs, we have identified four distinct new CNS tumor entities extending to other neuroepithelial tumors, each associated with a recurrent genetic alteration and particular histopathological and clinical features. These molecular entities, designated âCNS Neuroblastoma with FOXR2 activation (CNS NB FOXR2)â, âCNS Ewing sarcoma family tumor with CIC alteration (CNS EFT CIC)â, âCNS high grade neuroepithelial tumor with MN1 alteration (CNS HGNET MN1)â, and âCNS high grade neuroepithelial tumor with BCOR alteration (CNS HGNET BCOR)â, will enable meaningful clinical trials and the development of therapeutic strategies for patients affected by these poorly differentiated CNS tumors. 182 brain tumor samples were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Arrays.