Project description:Identification of promoter methylation profile associated with cervical cancer progression. The Ilumina Infinium 27k Human DNA methylation Beadchip v1.2 was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 27,000 CpGs from 19 cervical samples (including normal, CIN I-II, in situ and invasive cervical cancer tissues).
Project description:Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a crucial role in metastasis, which is the leading cause of death in breast cancer patients. We show that Cdc42 GTPase-activating protein (CdGAP) promotes tumor formation and metastasis to lungs in the HER2-positive (HER2+) murine breast cancer model. CdGAP facilitates intravasation, extravasation, and growth at metastatic sites. CdGAP depletion in HER2+ murine primary tumors mediates crosstalk with a Dlc1-RhoA pathway and is associated with a transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-induced EMT transcriptional signature. To further delineate the molecular mechanisms underlying the pro-migratory role of CdGAP in breast cancer cells, we searched for CdGAP interactors by performing a proteomic analysis using HEK293 cells overexpressing GFP-CdGAP. We found that CdGAP interacts with the adaptor Talin to modulate focal adhesion dynamics and integrin activation. Moreover, HER2+ breast cancer patients with high CdGAP mRNA expression combined with a high TGF-β-EMT signature are more likely to present lymph node invasion. Our results suggest CdGAP as a candidate therapeutic target for HER2+ metastatic breast cancer by inhibiting TGF-β and Integrin/Talin signaling pathways.
Project description:Persistent infection by high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is associated with the development of cervical cancer and a subset of anogenital and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Abnormal expression of cellular microRNAs (miRNAs) plays an important role in the development of cancer, including HPV-related tumors. MiRNA expression profile was investigated by microrray analysis in the HPV-positive cervical cancer cell lines SiHa (HPV16-positive cell line derived from a cervical squamous cell carcinoma), CaSki (HPV16-positive cell line derived from a metastatic cervical epidermoid carcinoma), and HeLa (HPV18-positive cell line derived from a cervical adenocarcinoma) and compared with primary HFKs and C33a (HPV-negative cervical cell line).
Project description:Human papillomavirus (HPV) integration is a critical step in cervical cancer development, while the oncogenic mechanism in genome-wide transcriptional level is still poorly understood. In this study, we employed integrative analysis on multi-omics data of cervical cancer cell lines. Through HPV integration detection, super enhancer (SE) identification, SE-associated gene expression and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) investigation, we aimed to explore the genome-wide transcriptional influence of HPV integration. We identified 5 high-ranking cellular super enhancers generated by HPV integration (the HPV breakpoint induced cellular super enhancers, BP-cSE), leading to intra-chromosomal and inter-chromosomal regulations of chromosomal genes. The pathway analysis showed the dysregulated chromosomal genes were correlated to cervical cancer associated pathways. Importantly, we demonstrated that BP-cSE existed in the HPV-host ecDNA, explaining above transcription alterations. Our results suggest that HPV integration generates cellular super enhancers and functions as ecDNA to regulate unconstraint transcription, expanding the tumorigenic mechanism of HPV integration and providing insights of developing new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.