Project description:Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA samples extracted from seven melanoma cell lines resistant to either vemurafenib (BRAF V600E inhibitor) or trametinib (MEK1/2 inhibitor). The aim of the experiment was to search for genetic alterations responsible for phenotypic diversity of melanoma cell lines reported at the level of cell morphology, activity of signaling pathways essential for melanoma development and progression, and resistance to targeted therapeutics.
Project description:Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA samples extracted from seven melanoma cell lines resistant to either vemurafenib (BRAF V600E inhibitor) or trametinib (MEK1/2 inhibitor). The aim of the experiment was to search for genetic alterations responsible for phenotypic diversity of melanoma cell lines reported at the level of cell morphology, activity of signaling pathways essential for melanoma development and progression, and resistance to targeted therapeutics.
Project description:Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA sample extracted from one melanoma cell line resistant to vemurafenib (BRAF V600E inhibitor). The aim of the experiment was to search for genetic alterations responsible for phenotypic diversity of melanoma cell lines reported at the level of cell morphology, activity of signaling pathways essential for melanoma development and progression, and resistance to targeted therapeutics.
Project description:BRAF targeted drug vemurafenib have shown very good clinical benefit in melanoma patient containing BRAF V600E mutation. However, resistance always occurs in patient. Early stage of the resistance development require the tumor cell adapted to the targeted drug. We are trying to study the kinetic of melanoma cell adaptation towards vemurafenib. 10 melanoma cell lines with BRAF mutation are treated with targeted therapy vemurafenib. RNA-seq samples are collected after drug treatment for different time (day3 and day21) to compare with DMSO-treated control samples for each cell line. Except innate resistant cell line M381, all other cell lines shows inhibition of proliferation. However, a small cluster of cell lines (M397, M229 and M263) shows some other unique transcriptomic change. For cell line M397, M229 and M263, we also collected the RNA-seq data for long-term (73day/90day) drug treatment condition where the cells developed resistance to vemurafenib treatment. Dedifferentiation is enriched in these unique transcriptomic change within these 3 cell lines. Similar cell state dedifferentiation phenomenon is also reported to cause resistance towards immunotherpay where the resistant de-differentiated melanoma cells are induced by TNF which is secreted by tumor-infiltrating T cells. We also treat our cultured melanoma cells with TNF and collected the treated sample for RNA-seq experiment.
Project description:In vitro cell cultures are frequently used to define the molecular background of drug resistance. In this study our major aim was to compare the gene expression signature of 2D and 3D cultured BRAFV600E mutant melanoma cell lines. We successfully developed BRAF-drug resistant cell lines from paired primary/metastatic melanoma cell lines in both 2D and 3D in vitro cultures. Using Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST arrays, we determined the gene expression pattern of all cell lines. Our study highlights gene expression alterations that might help to understand the development of acquired resistance in melanoma cells in tumour tissue.
Project description:Increased MITF expression contributes to melanoma progression and resistance to BRAF pathway inhibition. We show that, unexpectedly, lack of MITF is associated with more severe resistance to a range of inhibitors. Indeed, the presence of endogenous MITF was essential for robust drug responses. Both in primary and acquired resistance, MITF levels inversely correlated with expression of several activated receptor tyrosine kinases, most commonly AXL. The MITF-low/AXL-high/drug resistance phenotype was seen in roughly half of BRAF mutant and the majority of NRAS mutant melanoma cell lines. The dichotomous behavior of MITF in drug response was corroborated in vemurafenib-resistant biopsies, including MITF high and low clones in a relapsed patient. Drug cocktails containing AXL inhibitor enhanced melanoma cell elimination by BRAF or ERK inhibition. Our results demonstrate that a low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs, and warrant clinical validation of AXL inhibitors to combat resistance of BRAF and NRAS mutant MITF-low melanomas. Experssion analysis by RNAseq of 14 melanoma cell lines.
Project description:Despite recent therapeutic advances in the management of BRAFV600-mutant melanoma, there is still a compelling need for more effective treatments for patients who developed BRAF/NRAS wild type disease. Since the activity of single targeted agents is limited by innate and acquired resistance, we performed a high-throughput drug screen using 180 drug combinations to generate over 17,000 viability curves, with the aim of identifying agents that synergise to kill BRAF/NRAS wild type melanoma cells. From this screen we identified a promising drug combination that efficiency kills 30% of melanoma cell lines. We validated in vivo the synergy of the drug combination and found a potential marker to identify sensitive tumors. We applied a genome-wide CRISPR screening which revealed that resistance mechanisms to the drug combination. In order to investigate the mechanism of drug synergy, we treated sensitive and resistance melanoma cell lines with the single drugs and the drug combination and performed proteome analyses to investigate the changes in total proteins and protein phosphorylation. These analysis highlighted specific pathway deregulations associated to the drug synergy that allowed to get a better understanding of the drug interaction and their efficacy in killing melanoma cell lines.
Project description:Melanoma recurrence frequently occurs after a latency period of several years. In vivo studies demonstrated that tumor cells overcoming latency show a T cell-edited phenotype, suggesting a relevant role for CD8+ T cells in maintaining metastatic latency. Here, in a patient model of multiple recurrent lesions, we illustrate the genetic evolution of poorly immunogenic melanoma phenotypes, evolving in the presence of autologous tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells. Melanoma cells from two of three late recurrent metastases, developing within a 6-year latency period, lacked HLA class I expression. HLA class I-negative tumor cells became clinically apparent 1.5 and 6 years into stage IV disease. Genome profiling by SNP arrays revealed total T-cell resistance in both metastases originating from a shared chromosome 15q alteration and independently acquired focal B2M gene deletions. A third HLA class I-positive lesion developed in year 3 of stage IV disease. By HLA haplotype loss lesion-derived melanoma cells acquired resistance towards dominant T-cell clonotypes targeting early stage III tumor cells. Early disease melanoma cells showed a dedifferentiated MITFnegative phenotype, recently described to be associated with immunosuppression, in contrast to the MITFhigh phenotype of T cell-edited tumor cells from late metastases. In summary, our study demonstrates that tumor recurrences after long-term latency develop towards T-cell resistance by independent genetic events, suggesting a mechanism of T cell-driven genetic evolution of melanoma as a means to evade immune recognition and tumor immunotherapy. Genetic alterations lead to loss of tumor antigen presentation. Cell lines were generated from tumor material, differences in T cell recognition were observed and Affymetrix SNP arrays were performed according to the manufacturer's directions on DNA extracted from the cell lines. SNP analysis of different melanoma cell lines obtained from one melanoma patient (4 cell lines from different metastasis of one patient with matching germline DNA).
Project description:Targeted therapy with small molecules inhibiting BRAF and MEK kinase represents a therapeutic option in advanced metastatic melanoma although drug resistance limits the achievement of persistent cures. The genomic analyses of tumors from patients developing treatment resistance indicate that drug tolerance may result from non-mutational events occurring in the tumor microenvironment. To identify tumor specific transcriptional changes related to resistance to the BRAF-inhibitor PLX4032, cell lines with acquired resistance to PLX4032 were generated from six sensitive melanoma lines by chronic in vitro drug exposure (Vergani E, Oncotarget 2016) and analyzed for gene expression profiles; in addition a set of cell lines with intrinsic resistance was included for comparison. Cell lines were obtained from metastatic surgical specimens and were previously genetically characterized (Daniotti M, Oncogene 2004; Vergani E, JID 2022, accepted).