Project description:Over the last decade, CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib, ribociclib and abemaciclib) have emerged as promising anticancer drugs. Numerous studies have demonstrated that CDK4/6 inhibitors efficiently block the pRb-E2F pathway and induce cell cycle arrest in pRb-proficient cells. Based on these studies, the inhibitors have been approved by the FDA for treatment of advanced hormonal receptor (HR) positive breast cancers in combination with hormonal therapy. However, some evidence has recently shown unexpected effects of the inhibitors, promoting needs to understand more about the mechanism of inhibitors beyond pRb. Our study demonstrates here for the first time how palbociclib impairs the origin firing in the DNA replication process in pRb-deficient cell lines. Strikingly, despite the absence of pRb, cells treated with palbociclib synthesize less DNA without any induced cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, palbociclib treatment disturbs the temporal program of DNA replication and reduces the density of replication forks. Cells treated with palbociclib show a defect in the loading of proteins of the Pre-initiation complex (Pre-IC) on chromatin, indicating a reduced initiation of DNA replication. Our findings highlight hidden effects of palbociclib on the dynamics of DNA replication and on its cytotoxic consequences on cell viability in the absence of pRb. This study provides a potential therapeutic application of palbociclib to target genomic instability towards pRb deficient patient
Project description:Initiation of eukaryotic chromosome replication follows a spatiotemporal program. Current model suggests that replication origins compete for a limited pool of initiation factors. However, it remains to be answered how these limiting factors are preferentially recruited to early origins. Here, we report that Dbf4 is enriched at early origins through its interaction with forkhead transcription factors Fkh1 and Fkh2. This interaction is mediated by Dbf4 C-terminus and was successfully reconstituted in vitro. An interaction defective mutant dbf4ΔC phenocopies fkh alleles in terms of origin firing. Remarkably, genome-wide replication profiles reveal that the direct fusion of the DNA-binding domain of Fkh1 to Dbf4 restores the Fkh-dependent origin firing, but specifically interferes with the pericentromeric origin activation. Furthermore, Dbf4 directly interacts with Sld3 and promotes the recruitment of downstream limiting factors. These data suggest that Fkh1 targets Dbf4 to a subset of non-centromeric origins to promote early replication, in a manner that is reminiscent to the recruitment of Dbf4 to pericentromeric origins by Ctf19.
Project description:In this study, use of a gene-targeted mouse model that is defective for pRb-condensin II interactions, Rb1L, has revealed instances where condensin II localization in interphase nuclei is dependent on pRb. Condensin II binding overlaps significantly with marks of active chromatin, and is enriched at the promoters of genes, including closely spaced divergent promoters. Interestingly, there are some bidirectional promoters where condensin II binds in an pRb-dependent manner and transcription of only one of the two genes is upregulated in Rb1L/L MEFs, suggesting the pRb-condensin II complex may be acting as a repressor or an insulator at distinct genomic locations to influence transcription. Chromatin conformations at these locations demonstrated that the pRb-condensin II complex may be responsible for maintaining more static, long-range interactions. In addition, pRb also recruits TFIIIC, another condensin II interactor, to many genomic loci. These recently discovered non-canonical transcriptional functions of the pRb-condensin II complex may represent an additional mechanism of pRb-mediated tumor suppression.
Project description:In this study, use of a gene-targeted mouse model that is defective for pRb-condensin II interactions, Rb1L, has revealed instances where condensin II localization in interphase nuclei is dependent on pRb. Condensin II binding overlaps significantly with marks of active chromatin, and is enriched at the promoters of genes, including closely spaced divergent promoters. Interestingly, there are some bidirectional promoters where condensin II binds in an pRb-dependent manner and transcription of only one of the two genes is upregulated in Rb1L/L MEFs, suggesting the pRb-condensin II complex may be acting as a repressor or an insulator at distinct genomic locations to influence transcription. Chromatin conformations at these locations demonstrated that the pRb-condensin II complex may be responsible for maintaining more static, long-range interactions. In addition, pRb also recruits TFIIIC, another condensin II interactor, to many genomic loci. These recently discovered non-canonical transcriptional functions of the pRb-condensin II complex may represent an additional mechanism of pRb-mediated tumor suppression.
Project description:In this study, use of a gene-targeted mouse model that is defective for pRb-condensin II interactions, Rb1L, has revealed instances where condensin II localization in interphase nuclei is dependent on pRb. Condensin II binding overlaps significantly with marks of active chromatin, and is enriched at the promoters of genes, including closely spaced divergent promoters. Interestingly, there are some bidirectional promoters where condensin II binds in an pRb-dependent manner and transcription of only one of the two genes is upregulated in Rb1L/L MEFs, suggesting the pRb-condensin II complex may be acting as a repressor or an insulator at distinct genomic locations to influence transcription. Chromatin conformations at these locations demonstrated that the pRb-condensin II complex may be responsible for maintaining more static, long-range interactions. In addition, pRb also recruits TFIIIC, another condensin II interactor, to many genomic loci. These recently discovered non-canonical transcriptional functions of the pRb-condensin II complex may represent an additional mechanism of pRb-mediated tumor suppression.
Project description:In this study, use of a gene-targeted mouse model that is defective for pRb-condensin II interactions, Rb1L, has revealed instances where condensin II localization in interphase nuclei is dependent on pRb. Condensin II binding overlaps significantly with marks of active chromatin, and is enriched at the promoters of genes, including closely spaced divergent promoters. Interestingly, there are some bidirectional promoters where condensin II binds in an pRb-dependent manner and transcription of only one of the two genes is upregulated in Rb1L/L MEFs, suggesting the pRb-condensin II complex may be acting as a repressor or an insulator at distinct genomic locations to influence transcription. Chromatin conformations at these locations demonstrated that the pRb-condensin II complex may be responsible for maintaining more static, long-range interactions. In addition, pRb also recruits TFIIIC, another condensin II interactor, to many genomic loci. These recently discovered non-canonical transcriptional functions of the pRb-condensin II complex may represent an additional mechanism of pRb-mediated tumor suppression.
Project description:Over the last decade, CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib, ribociclib and abemaciclib) have emerged as promising anticancer drugs. Numerous studies have demonstrated that CDK4/6 inhibitors efficiently block the pRb-E2F pathway and induce cell cycle arrest in pRb-proficient cells. Based on these studies, the inhibitors have been approved by the FDA for treatment of advanced hormonal receptor (HR) positive breast cancers in combination with hormonal therapy. However, some evidence has recently shown unexpected effects of the inhibitors, underlining a need to characterize the effects of CDK4/6 inhibitors beyond pRb. Our study demonstrates how palbociclib impairs origin firing in the DNA replication process in pRb-deficient cell lines. Strikingly, despite the absence of pRb, cells treated with palbociclib synthesize less DNA while showing no cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, this CDK4/6 inhibitor treatment disturbs the temporal program of DNA replication and reduces the density of replication forks. Cells treated with palbociclib show a defect in the loading of the Pre-initiation complex (Pre-IC) proteins on chromatin, indicating a reduced initiation of DNA replication. Our findings highlight hidden effects of palbociclib on the dynamics of DNA replication and of its cytotoxic consequences on cell viability in the absence of pRb. This study provides a potential therapeutic application of palbociclib in combination with other drugs to target genomic instability in pRB-deficient cancers.
Project description:The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor is a substrate-defining component of E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes that target cellular substrates for proteasome-mediated degradation. VHL inactivation by mutation or transcriptional silencing is observed in most sporadic cases of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). VHL loss in ccRCC leads to constitutive stabilization of E3 ligase substrates, including hypoxia inducible factor α (HIFα). HIFα stabilization upon VHL loss is known to contribute to ccRCC development through transactivation of hypoxia-responsive genes. HIF-independent VHL targets have been implicated in oncogenesis, although those mechanisms are less well-defined than for HIFα. Using proximity labeling to identify proteasomal-sensitive VHL interactors, we identified retinoblastoma protein (pRb) as a novel substrate of VHL. Mechanistically, VHL interacts with pRb in a proteasomal-sensitive manner, promoting its ubiquitin-mediated degradation. Concordantly, VHL-inactivation results in pRb hyperstabilization. Functionally, loss of pRb in ccRCC led to increased cell death, transcriptional changes, and loss of oncogenic properties in vitro and in vivo. We also show that downstream transcriptional changes induced by pRb hyperstabilization may contribute to ccRCC tumor development. Together, our findings reveal a novel VHL-related pathway which can be therapeutically targeted to inhibit ccRCC tumor development.
Project description:RBP2 is downstream of pRB pathway We used gene expression profiling experiments to investigate if gene expression changes in cells with RBP2 knockdown significantly overlap with gene expression changes in cells overexpressing pRB, consistent with the data that knockdown of RBP2 phenocopies reintroduction of pRB in SAOS-2 (RB-/-) cells Keywords: epistatic experiment