Project description:We report that loss of a component of the STRIPAK complex in MDA-MB-231 cells known as STRIP1 causes cell cycle arrest and decreased proliferation due to increased expression of cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors, p21 and p27. This change in p21 and p27 expression results in a subset of cells forgoing therapy-induced senescence and becoming proliferative.
Project description:P53 inactivation occurs in about 50% human cancers, where p53-driven p21 activity is devoid and p27 becomes essential for the establishment of the G1/S checkpoint upon DNA damage. Here, we show that the E2F1-responsive lncRNA LIMp27 selectively represses p27 expression and contributes to proliferation, tumorigenicity, and treatment resistance in p53-defective colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) cells. LIMp27 competes with p27 mRNA for binding to cytoplasm-localized hnRNA0, which otherwise stabilizes p27 mRNA leading to cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase. In response to DNA-damage, LIMp27 is upregulated in both wild-type and p53-muant COAD cells, whereas cytoplasmic hnRNPA0 is only increased due to translocation from the nucleus in p53-mutant COAD cells. High LIMp27 expression is associated with poor survival of p53-mutant but not wide-type p53 COAD patients. These results uncover a lncRNA mechanism that promotes p53-defective cancer pathogenesis and suggest that LIMp27 may constitute a target for the treatment of such cancers.
Project description:P53 inactivation occurs in about 50% of human cancers, where p53-driven p21 activity is devoid and p27 becomes essential for the establishment of the G1/S checkpoint upon DNA damage. Here, we show that the E2F1-responsive lncRNA LIMp27 selectively represses p27 expression and contributes to proliferation, tumorigenicity, and treatment resistance in p53-defective colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) cells. LIMp27 competes with p27 mRNA for binding to cytoplasmically localized hnRNA0, which otherwise stabilizes p27 mRNA leading to cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. In response to DNA damage, LIMp27 is upregulated in both wild-type and p53-mutant COAD cells, whereas cytoplasmic hnRNPA0 is only increased in p53-mutant COAD cells due to translocation from the nucleus. Moreover, high LIMp27 expression is associated with poor survival of p53-mutant but not wild-type p53 COAD patients. These results uncover a lncRNA mechanism that promotes p53-defective cancer pathogenesis and suggest that LIMp27 may constitute a target for the treatment of such cancers.
Project description:Our goal is to find new genes regulated by p21 in human primary cells . To get it we carried out a gene expression profiling in two different models, human myeloid leukemia K562 cells and human keratinocytes both of them with conditional expression of p21. In order to identify genes specifically modulated by p21 we compared with the cell line with overexpression of p27, because p21 and p27 belong to the same gene family and regulated the same genes specially in cell cycle. So, our intention is to identify only genes regulated by p21 and not p27. In order to confirm these results we studied the p21-dependent repression of mitotic genes in a different cellular system. We chose human primary keratinocytes because they are non-tumorigenic, non-immortalized and epithelial cells, in contrast to human myeloid leukemia K562 cells. Human primary keratinocytes were infected with recombinant adenoviruses expressing the full-length p21 protein. A dramatic increase in p21 in infected keratinocytes was demonstrated by RT-qPCR (as we show in the manuscript). As controls, we also infected the keratinocytes with adenovirus carrying the genes for p27 which overexpression was also confirmed by RT-qPCR (as we show in the manuscript). We prepared RNA 24 h after infection and performed large-scale expression assay using the Afftymetrix platform. The clustering analysis revealed that p21 provoked the down-regulation of a number genes involved in cell cycle control not shared by cells expressing p27 (as we show in the manuscript). Our goal, has been getting genes regulated more strongly by p21 and not by p27 in cell cycle and mitosis. Our result are supported because we have found the same genes in two different models and also we have validated (by RT-qPCR) more than 20 cell cycle and mitotic genes, found in our affymetrix arrays. Also we have found the region of p21 that is sufficient for gene regulation and for one gene we have described as p21 bind to the promoter. Finally, we have discussed in our manuscript how p21 can do this regulation by bioinformatic analysis of p21-target genes. The success of this study is to describe a new role of p21 as a transcriptional co-repressor in some systems.
Project description:In addition to its classical role as a CDK inhibitor, p27 also acts as a transcriptional regulator. We found that at early passages, embryonic fibroblasts from p27-/- mouse show reduced expression of genes involved in DNA replication and progress slowly through the cell cycle. These cells have high levels of p21 that associate with cyclin-cdk2 complexes and reduce their activity. Decreasing p21 in these cells elevates cdk2 activity and DNA replication. We observed that silencing p27 in cells induces p21 transcription. Interestingly, the transcription factor Pitx2 is up-regulated in p27-/- cells. We found that p27 associates with a regulatory domain of the Pitx2 gene and represses its expression. In turn, Pitx2 associates with p21 promoter and induces its transcription. Moreover, reducing Pitx2 in p27-/- cells decreases p21 levels. These findings indicate that p27 controls cell cycle progression by regulating Pitx2-mediated expression of p21.
Project description:Our goal is to find new genes regulated by p21 in human primary cells . To get it we carried out a gene expression profiling in two different models, human myeloid leukemia K562 cells and human keratinocytes both of them with conditional expression of p21. In order to find genes regulated by p21 in human primary cells we carried out a gene expression profiling in human myeloid leukemia K562 cells with conditional expression of p21. We previously described a K562 derivative, termed Kp21-4, that carries a zinc-inducible p21 gene (Munoz-Alonso MJ et at., 2005). We performed a kinetic study to identify the expression peak of p21 in this system. This transient induction of p21 was accompanied by proliferation arrest and an increase in polyploid cells after 48-72 h (Munoz-Alonso MJ et at., 2005). Actually, 6-12 h of p21 induction with ZnSO4 is sufficient to irreversibly trigger proliferation arrest. Therefore, we chose 12 h as the induction time to analyse p21 effects on the transcriptome of these cells, as gene expression changes later on may be indirect due to other phenotypic effects. We next carried out the gene expression profiling of Kp21-4 cells upon p21 induction by ZnSO4. In order to identify genes specifically modulated by p21 we compared with the cell line Kp27-5, which carries a Zn2+-inducible p27 allele (Munoz-Alonso MJ et at., 2005). p27 is a close relative to p21 that also inhibits CDKs and induce cell cycle arrest . Thus, the comparison serves to identify genes specifically regulated by p21 in our analysis. We subtracted the gene expression changes occurring at 72 h in Kp21-4 cells those genes regulated by p27 in the Kp27-5 cells and genes changed by ZnSO4 treatment in parental K562 cells. So, our intention is to identify only genes regulated at short time of induction by p21 and not by p27. In order to confirm these results we studied the p21-dependent repression of mitotic genes in a different cellular system. A dramatic increase in p21 and p27 in Kp21 and Kp27 were demonstrated by RT-qPCR and immunoblot (as we show in the manuscript). We prepared RNA 12 h and 72h after induction with ZnSO4 and performed large-scale expression assay using the Afftymetrix platform. The clustering analysis revealed that p21 provoked the down-regulation of a number genes involved in cell cycle control not shared by cells expressing p27 (as we show in the manuscript). Our goal, has been getting genes regulated more strongly by p21 and not by p27, in cell cycle and itosis. Our result are supported because we have found the same genes in two different models and also we have validated (by RT-qPCR) more than 20 cell cycle and mitotic genes, found in our affymetrix arrays. Also we have found the region of p21 that is sufficient for gene regulation and for one gene we have described as p21 bind to the promoter. Finally, we have discussed in our manuscript how p21 can do this regulation by bioinformatic analysis of p21-target genes. The sucess of this study is describe a new role of p21 as a transcriptional co-repressor in some systems.
Project description:Treatment with ionizing irradiation (IR) may lead to accumulation of tumor-infiltrating T regulatory (Treg) cells and subsequent tumor resistance to radiotherapy. Here we focused on the contribution of Langerhans cells (LCs) to this phenomenon because of their unique ability to resist depletion by high-dose IR. We found that LCs resisted apoptosis and rapidly repaired DNA damage post-IR. Particularly, we found that p21 was overexpressed in LCs, and that p21-deficient LCs underwent apoptosis and accumulated DNA damage following IR treatment. Wild-type, but not p21-deficient, LCs upregulated major histocompatibility complex class II molecules, migrated to the draining lymph nodes and increased Treg cell numbers upon exposure to IR. These findings suggest a means for manipulating LC IR-resistance to increase cutaneous tumor response to radiotherapy. See above Cells were purified by flow cytometry and pooled until >10,000 cells/sample. At least 2 replicates of each sample were submitted.
Project description:Treatment with ionizing irradiation (IR) may lead to accumulation of tumor-infiltrating T regulatory (Treg) cells and subsequent tumor resistance to radiotherapy. Here we focused on the contribution of Langerhans cells (LCs) to this phenomenon because of their unique ability to resist depletion by high-dose IR. We found that LCs resisted apoptosis and rapidly repaired DNA damage post-IR. Particularly, we found that p21 was overexpressed in LCs, and that p21-deficient LCs underwent apoptosis and accumulated DNA damage following IR treatment. Wild-type, but not p21-deficient, LCs upregulated major histocompatibility complex class II molecules, migrated to the draining lymph nodes and increased Treg cell numbers upon exposure to IR. These findings suggest a means for manipulating LC IR-resistance to increase cutaneous tumor response to radiotherapy. See above