Project description:Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease described in well-recognized biological subtypes. Particularly, gene expression profiling has revealed 5 intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer characterized by different biological and clinical features. The diversity of the intrinsic subtypes across human population has been limited described, and there is few information about the genomic architecture of breast tumors in Mexican or Hispanic populations. In this study, we performed PAM50 assay, based in Affymetrix microarray profiling of 128 fresh frozen tumors from Mexican Latino Hispanic population, to describe the overall distribution of subtypes, and characterize the relation to clinicopathologic characteristics. As well, we correlated the mRNA expression patterns with specific copy number alterations (CPA), in order to analyze their role in breast tumors. A total of 100 blood-tumor samples were assayed using Affymetrix 6.0 SNP arrays; segmentation analysis and GISTIC were performed to identify focal amplifications or deletions. The distribution of PAM50 intrinsic subtypes in our cohort was computed to be 44% luminal A, 20% luminal B, 12.0% HER2-enriched, 12% basal-like, and 12% normal-like. Study comparison with the literature mainly TCGA and METABRIC (most of the patients came from Caucasian population), as well as LACE (which describe a population study) show a similar distribution of the intrinsic subtypes within Hispanic and Caucasian populations. Interestingly, basal-like subtype is less represented than in African-American race. The sum of sensitivity and specificity between the clinicopathologic and intrinsic subtype categories across 4 groups (excluding normal-like) was 50% and 87.5%, respectively. Differentially expression profiles within the subtypes reveal a set of genes altered in each group with biological relevance to stablish the phenotypical characteristics of each subtype. Our analyses confirmed the already reported copy number data. Importantly, many of the copy number profiles correlated with mRNA subtype. With this analysis we can conclude that breast cancer intrinsic subtypes have been reproduced in Mexican population contributing to the description of the PAM50 subtypes among multiple ethnic groups based on a gene expression assay. Our observation based in the integrative genomic analysis of mRNA expression and CPA allowed us to define gene circuits and phenotypic characteristics that can explain the heterogeneity of breast cancer subtypes.
Project description:Kynureninase is a member of a large family of catalytically diverse but structurally homologous pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes known as the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily or alpha-family. The Homo sapiens and other eukaryotic constitutive kynureninases preferentially catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine to produce 3-hydroxyanthranilate and l-alanine, while l-kynurenine is the substrate of many prokaryotic inducible kynureninases. The human enzyme was cloned with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag, expressed, and purified from a bacterial expression system using Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Kinetic characterization of the recombinant enzyme reveals classic Michaelis-Menten behavior, with a Km of 28.3 +/- 1.9 microM and a specific activity of 1.75 micromol min-1 mg-1 for 3-hydroxy-dl-kynurenine. Crystals of recombinant kynureninase that diffracted to 2.0 A were obtained, and the atomic structure of the PLP-bound holoenzyme was determined by molecular replacement using the Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase structure (PDB entry 1qz9) as the phasing model. A structural superposition with the P. fluorescens kynureninase revealed that these two structures resemble the "open" and "closed" conformations of aspartate aminotransferase. The comparison illustrates the dynamic nature of these proteins' small domains and reveals a role for Arg-434 similar to its role in other AAT alpha-family members. Docking of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine into the human kynureninase active site suggests that Asn-333 and His-102 are involved in substrate binding and molecular discrimination between inducible and constitutive kynureninase substrates.
Project description:Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease described in well-recognized biological subtypes. Particularly, gene expression profiling has revealed 5 intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer characterized by different biological and clinical features. The diversity of the intrinsic subtypes across human population has been limited described, and there is few information about the genomic architecture of breast tumors in Mexican or Hispanic populations. In this study, we performed PAM50 assay, based in Affymetrix microarray profiling of 128 fresh frozen tumors from Mexican Latino Hispanic population, to describe the overall distribution of subtypes, and characterize the relation to clinicopathologic characteristics. As well, we correlated the mRNA expression patterns with specific copy number alterations (CPA), in order to analyze their role in breast tumors. A total of 100 blood-tumor samples were assayed using Affymetrix 6.0 SNP arrays; segmentation analysis and GISTIC were performed to identify focal amplifications or deletions. The distribution of PAM50 intrinsic subtypes in our cohort was computed to be 44% luminal A, 20% luminal B, 12.0% HER2-enriched, 12% basal-like, and 12% normal-like. Study comparison with the literature mainly TCGA and METABRIC (most of the patients came from Caucasian population), as well as LACE (which describe a population study) show a similar distribution of the intrinsic subtypes within Hispanic and Caucasian populations. Interestingly, basal-like subtype is less represented than in African-American race. The sum of sensitivity and specificity between the clinicopathologic and intrinsic subtype categories across 4 groups (excluding normal-like) was 50% and 87.5%, respectively. Differentially expression profiles within the subtypes reveal a set of genes altered in each group with biological relevance to stablish the phenotypical characteristics of each subtype. Our analyses confirmed the already reported copy number data. Importantly, many of the copy number profiles correlated with mRNA subtype. With this analysis we can conclude that breast cancer intrinsic subtypes have been reproduced in Mexican population contributing to the description of the PAM50 subtypes among multiple ethnic groups based on a gene expression assay. Our observation based in the integrative genomic analysis of mRNA expression and CPA allowed us to define gene circuits and phenotypic characteristics that can explain the heterogeneity of breast cancer subtypes.
Project description:As the evolution of miRNA genes has been found to be one of the important factors in formation of the modern type of man, we performed a comparative analysis of the evolution of miRNA genes in two archaic hominines, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens denisova, and elucidated the expression of their target mRNAs in bain.A comparative analysis of the genomes of primates, including species in the genus Homo, identified a group of miRNA genes having fixed substitutions with important implications for the evolution of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens denisova. The mRNAs targeted by miRNAs with mutations specific for Homo sapiens denisova exhibited enhanced expression during postnatal brain development in modern humans. By contrast, the expression of mRNAs targeted by miRNAs bearing variations specific for Homo sapiens neanderthalensis was shown to be enhanced in prenatal brain development.Our results highlight the importance of changes in miRNA gene sequences in the course of Homo sapiens denisova and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis evolution. The genetic alterations of miRNAs regulating the spatiotemporal expression of multiple genes in the prenatal and postnatal brain may contribute to the progressive evolution of brain function, which is consistent with the observations of fine technical and typological properties of tools and decorative items reported from archaeological Denisovan sites. The data also suggest that differential spatial-temporal regulation of gene products promoted by the subspecies-specific mutations in the miRNA genes might have occurred in the brains of Homo sapiens denisova and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, potentially contributing to the cultural differences between these two archaic hominines.
Project description:PurposeWe investigated the evidence of recent positive selection in the human phototransduction system at single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and gene level.MethodsSNP genotyping data from the International HapMap Project for European, Eastern Asian, and African populations was used to discover differences in haplotype length and allele frequency between these populations. Numeric selection metrics were computed for each SNP and aggregated into gene-level metrics to measure evidence of recent positive selection. The level of recent positive selection in phototransduction genes was evaluated and compared to a set of genes shown previously to be under recent selection, and a set of highly conserved genes as positive and negative controls, respectively.ResultsSix of 20 phototransduction genes evaluated had gene-level selection metrics above the 90th percentile: RGS9, GNB1, RHO, PDE6G, GNAT1, and SLC24A1. The selection signal across these genes was found to be of similar magnitude to the positive control genes and much greater than the negative control genes.ConclusionsThere is evidence for selective pressure in the genes involved in retinal phototransduction, and traces of this selective pressure can be demonstrated using SNP-level and gene-level metrics of allelic variation. We hypothesize that the selective pressure on these genes was related to their role in low light vision and retinal adaptation to ambient light changes. Uncovering the underlying genetics of evolutionary adaptations in phototransduction not only allows greater understanding of vision and visual diseases, but also the development of patient-specific diagnostic and intervention strategies.