Project description:Purpose: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized system-based cell pathway analysis. The purposes of this study were to compare and analyze the expression differences of skin squamous cell line A431 in stem cells after Mir-22 deletion. Methods: mRNA profiles of control and case cells were generated by deep sequencing, in duplicate, using Illumina NovaSeq 6000. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level with two methods:Bowtie2 to map clean reads to reference gene and use HISAT to reference genome.Bowtie2 parameters forSE reads:-q--phred64--sensitive--dpad0--gbar and HISTAparameters forSE reads:-p8--phred64--sensitive-I1-X 1000. qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays Results: Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 24 million sequence reads per sample to the human genome (build hg19) and identified 17000 transcripts in control and case cells with RSEM workflow. Approximately 5% of the transcripts showed differential expression between control and case cells, with a fold change ≥1.5 and p value <0.01. Altered expression of 10 candidate genes was confirmed with qRT–PCR, demonstrating the high degree of sensitivity of the RNA-seq method.
Project description:Analysis of sncRNA expression in 22 primary cSCC (10 from cSCCs that had evolved to histologically confirmed metastases, or MSCC, and 12 from a cSCC control group who had not developed any metastasis in a 5-year follow-up period). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the most variably expressed sncRNAs stratified the tumors into two groups, one formed mainly by NMSCC and the other formed exclusively by metastasizing cSCC, the latter displaying an overall sncRNA downregulation. Supervised clustering of MSCC vs. NMSCC identified the differential expression of 330 sncRNAs, most of them downregulated in the metastasizing group (248 sncRNAs; 75%). Functional and sequence-based classification of the probes in the array revealed alterations in the proportion of the snoRNAs represented in MSCCs when compared to their expression in NMSCCs.
Project description:Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the leading cause of death in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) patients but remains poorly studied on a proteomic level. We aim to characterize the RDEB-SCC proteome by comparing it to the proteomes of UV-light induced cSCC of non-aggressive and aggressive behavior with which RDEB cSCC share either the well-differentiated morphology or the aggressive behavior, respectively. We applied a direct trypsinization protocol using an acid labile surfactant and label-free quantitation to study formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues from patients with RDEB cSCC (n=6), low-risk cSCC (n=5) and metastasizing cSCC (n=13) by liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry.
Project description:Keratinocyte-derived cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the most common metastatic skin cancer, and its incidence is increasing globally. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in various biological processes, and their role in cancer progression is emerging. Whole transcriptome analysis of cSCC cell lines (n=8) and normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs, n=4) revealed overexpression of long intergenic ncRNA (LINC00346) in cSCC cells (GSE66412). We wanted to futher study the RNA expression profile of LINC00346 knockdown cSCC cells. Based on our observations, LINC00346 was named PRECSIT (p53 regulated carcinoma-associated STAT3-activating long intergenic non-protein coding transcript).
Project description:The tumor suppressor gene adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is mutated in most colorectal cancers (CRC) resulting in constitutive Wnt activation. To understand the Wnt-activating mechanism of APC mutation, we applied CRISPR/Cas9 technology to engineer various APC-truncated isogenic lines. We find that the β-catenin inhibitory domain (CID) in APC represents the threshold for pathological levels of Wnt activation and tumor transformation. Mechanistically, CID-deleted APC truncation promotes β-catenin deubiquitination through reverse binding of β-TrCP and USP7 to the destruction complex. USP7 depletion in APC-mutated CRC inhibits Wnt activation by restoring β-catenin ubiquitination, drives differentiation and suppresses xenograft tumor growth. Finally, the Wnt-activating role of USP7 is specific to APC mutations, thus can be used as tumor-specific therapeutic target for most CRCs.
Project description:Human papilloma virus (HPV)-driven cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the most common cancer in immunosuppressed patients. Despite indications suggesting that HPV promotes genomic instability during cSCC development, the molecular pathways underpinning HPV-driven cSCC development remain unknown. We compared the transcriptome of HPV-driven mouse cSCC with normal skin and observed higher amounts of transcripts for Porcupine and WNT ligands in cSCC, suggesting a role for WNT-signaling in cSCC progression. We confirmed increased Porcupine expression in human cSCC samples. Blocking the secretion of WNT-ligands by the Porcupine inhibitor LGK974 significantly diminished initiation and progression of HPV-driven cSCC. Administration of LGK974 to mice with established cSCC resulted in differentiation of cancer cells and significant reduction of the cancer stem cell compartment. Thus, WNT/b-catenin signaling is essential for HPV-driven cSCC initiation and progression as well as for maintaining the cancer stem cell niche. Interference with WNT-secretion may thus represent a promising approach for therapeutic intervention.
Project description:Canonical Wnt signaling output is mediated by β-catenin, which interacts with LEF/TCF transcription factors and recruits a general transcriptional activation complex to its C-terminus. Its N-terminus binds BCL9/9L proteins, which bind co-activators that in mammals contribute to fine-tuning the transcriptional output. We found that a BCL9/9L-dependent gene expression signature was strongly associated with patient outcome in colorectal cancer and that stem cell and mesenchymal genes determine its prognostic value. Abrogating BCL9/9L-β-catenin signaling in independent mouse colorectal cancer models resulted in virtual loss of these traits, and oncogenic intestinal organoids lacking BCL9/9L proteins proved no longer tumorigenic. Our findings suggest that the BCL9/9L arm of Wnt-β-catenin signaling sustains a stemness-to-differentiation equilibrium in colorectal cancer, which critically affects disease outcome. Mutational activation of the Wnt pathway is a key oncogenic event in colorectal cancer. Targeting the pathway downstream of activating mutations is challenging, and the therapeutic window is limited by intestinal toxicity. Contrasting with phenotypes caused by inactivating key Wnt pathway components, ablation of BCL9/9L proteins in adult mice indicated that they were dispensable for intestinal homeostasis, consistent with their role in tuning transcription. Cancer stem cells are increasingly recognized as responsible for tumor recurrence. The correlation between stemness traits in colorectal cancer models and BCL9/9L-β-catenin signaling suggests that high Wnt signaling output is required for their maintenance. Our findings suggest that pruning Wnt-β-catenin signaling might be well tolerated and prove sufficient for trimming stemness traits and improving disease outcome. Examination of Bcl9/9l-knockout versus wild-type transcriptome in murine AOM-DSS tumors, APC-Kras tumors and healthy colocyte extracts.
Project description:Keratinocyte carcinomas (BCC and cSCC) are the most common cancers worldwide. cSCC is considered as the most prevalent metastatic skin malignancy and its incidence is increasing globally. The complement system is a fundamental part of the host immune defense. It is composed of three distinct pathways (classical, alternative and lectin) that get activated sequentially. However, the process of complement activation is rigorously regulated by a series of soluble and membrane-bound inhibitor proteins that protect the host cells from lytic damage. One of these soluble negative regulators is complement factor I (CFI) which is an 88 kDa serine protease that hampers all three complement pathways through blockade of C3- and C5- convertases by cleaving C3b and C4b. Oligonucleotide array (Affymetrix)-based analysis of normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs; n=5), primary (Prim. cSCC; n=5) and metastatic (Met. cSCC; n=3) cSCC cell lines as well as next-generation-sequencing (SOLiD) based transcriptome profiling of NHEKs (n=4), primary (Prim. cSCC; n=5) and metastatic (Met. cSCC; n=3) cSCC cell lines revealed marked overexpression of CFI in cSCC cells compared to NHEKs (GSE66368 and GSE66412 respectively). Furthermore, we have previously shown that knockdown of CFI inhibits proliferation and migration of cSCC cells and potently impedes growth of cSCC xenograft tumors in vivo. In these respects, we intended to further investigate the functional role and molecular mechanism of CFI in cSCC progression via analyzing the mRNA expression profile of CFI in cSCC cells.
Project description:Punch biopsies from patients with cSCC (n=3) and non-lesional skin (n=3) were included in the study. Microarray based circRNA expression profiles were acquired using Arraystar circRNA Arrays V. 2.0 screening for 13.617 distinct human circRNA candidates. We identified circRNAs differentially expressed in cSCC compared to non-lesional skin (control).