Rapid Generation of Somatic Mouse Mosaics with Locus-Specific, Stably Integrated Transgenic Elements.

In situ transgenesis methods such as viruses and electroporation can rapidly create somatic transgenic mice but lack control over copy number, zygosity, and locus specificity. Here we establish mosaic analysis by dual recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (MADR), which permits stable labeling of mutant cells expressing transgenic elements from precisely defined chromosomal loci. We provide a toolkit of MADR elements for combination labeling, inducible and reversible transgene manipulation, VCre recombinase expression, and transgenesis of human cells. Further, we demonstrate the versatility of MADR by creating glioma models with mixed reporter-identified zygosity or with "personalized" driver mutations from pediatric glioma. MADR is extensible to thousands of existing mouse lines, providing a flexible platform to democratize the generation of somatic mosaic mice. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Annexin A1, Annexin A2, and Dyrk 1B are upregulated during GAS1-induced cell cycle arrest.

GAS1 is a pleiotropic protein that has been investigated because of its ability to induce cell proliferation, cell arrest, and apoptosis, depending on the cellular or the physiological context in which it is expressed. At this point, we have information about the molecular mechanisms by which GAS1 induces proliferation and apoptosis; but very few studies have been focused on elucidating the mechanisms by which GAS1 induces cell arrest. With the aim of expanding our knowledge on this subject, we first focused our research on finding proteins that were preferentially expressed in cells arrested by serum deprivation. By using a proteomics approach and mass spectrometry analysis, we identified 17 proteins in the 2-DE protein profile of serum deprived NIH3T3 cells. Among them, Annexin A1 (Anxa1), Annexin A2 (Anxa2), dual specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1B (Dyrk1B), and Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3, F (eIf3f) were upregulated at transcriptional the level in proliferative NIH3T3 cells. Moreover, we demonstrated that Anxa1, Anxa2, and Dyrk1b are upregulated at both the transcriptional and translational levels by the overexpression of GAS1. Thus, our results suggest that the upregulation of Anxa1, Anxa2, and Dyrk1b could be related to the ability of GAS1 to induce cell arrest and maintain cell viability. Finally, we provided further evidence showing that GAS1 through Dyrk 1B leads not only to the arrest of NIH3T3 cells but also maintains cell viability.

GAS1 is present in the cerebrospinal fluid and is expressed in the choroid plexus of the adult rat.

Growth arrest specific 1 (GAS1) is a GPI-anchored protein that inhibits proliferation when overexpressed in tumors but during development it promotes proliferation and survival of different organs and tissues. This dual ability is caused by its capacity to interact both by inhibiting the signaling induced by the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor and by facilitating the activity of the sonic hedgehog pathway. GAS1 is expressed as membrane bound in different organs and as a secreted form by glomerular mesangial cells. In the developing central nervous system, GAS1 is found in neural progenitors; however, it continues to be expressed in the adult brain. Here, we demonstrate that soluble GAS1 is present in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and it is expressed in the choroid plexus (CP) of the adult rat, the main producer of CSF. Additionally, we confirm the presence of GAS1 in blood plasma and liver of the adult rat, the principal source of blood plasma proteins. The pattern of expression of GAS1 is perivascular in both the CP and the liver. In vitro studies show that the fibroblast cell line NIH/3T3 expresses one form of GAS1 and releases two soluble forms into the supernatant. Briefly, in the present work, we show the presence of GAS1 in adult rat body fluids focusing in the CSF and the CP, and suggest that secreted GAS1 exists as two different isoforms.

The Internalization of Neurotensin by the Low-Affinity Neurotensin Receptors (NTSR2 and vNTSR2) Activates ERK 1/2 in Glioma Cells and Allows Neurotensin-Polyplex Transfection of tGAS1.

Glioblastoma is the most malignant primary brain tumor and is very resistant to treatment; hence, it has a poor prognosis. Neurotensin receptor type 1 (NTSR1) plays a key role in cancer malignancy and has potential therapeutic applications. However, the presence and function of neurotensin (NTS) receptors in glioblastoma is not clearly established. RT-PCR assays showed that healthy (non-tumor) astroglial cells and C6 glioma cells express NTSR2 and its isoform (vNTSR2) rather than NTSR1. In glioma cells, NTS promotes the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK 1/2), an effect that was completely abolished by blocking the internalization of the NTS/NTSR complex. We demonstrated pharmacologically that the internalization is dependent on the activation of NTSR2 receptors and it was prevented by levocabastine, a NTSR2 receptor antagonist. The internalization of NTSR2 and vNTSR2 was further demonstrated by its ability to mediate gene transfer (transfection) via the NTS-polyplex system. Expression of reporter transgenes and of the pro-apoptotic soluble form of growth arrest specific 1 (tGAS1) was observed in glioma cells. A significant reduction on the viability of C6 cells was determined when tGAS1 was transfected into glioma cells. Conversely, astroglial cells could neither internalize NTS nor activate ERK 1/2 and could not be transfected by the NTS-polyplex. These results demonstrate that the internalization process of NTSR2 receptors is a key regulator necessary to trigger the activation of the ERK 1/2. Our data support a new internalization pathway in glioma C6 cells that involve NTSR2/vNTSR2, which can be used to selectively transfer therapeutic genes using the NTS-polyplex system.

Cholinergic Neuronal Activity Promotes Diffuse Midline Glioma Growth through Muscarinic Signaling.

Neuronal activity promotes the proliferation of healthy oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPC) and their malignant counterparts, gliomas. Many gliomas arise from and closely resemble oligodendroglial lineage precursors, including diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a cancer affecting midline structures such as the thalamus, brainstem and spinal cord. In DMG, glutamatergic and GABAergic neuronal activity promotes progression through both paracrine signaling and through bona-fide neuron-to-glioma synapses. However, the putative roles of other neuronal subpopulations - especially neuromodulatory neurons located in the brainstem that project to long-range target sites in midline anatomical locations where DMGs arise - remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that the activity of cholinergic midbrain neurons modulates both healthy OPC and malignant DMG proliferation in a circuit-specific manner at sites of long-range cholinergic projections. Optogenetic stimulation of the cholinergic pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) promotes glioma growth in pons, while stimulation of the laterodorsal tegmentum nucleus (LDT) facilitates proliferation in thalamus, consistent with the predominant projection patterns of each cholinergic midbrain nucleus. Reciprocal signaling was evident, as increased activity of cholinergic neurons in the PPN and LDT was observed in pontine DMG-bearing mice. In co-culture, hiPSC-derived cholinergic neurons form neuron-to-glioma networks with DMG cells and robustly promote proliferation. Single-cell RNA sequencing analyses revealed prominent expression of the muscarinic receptor genes CHRM1 and CHRM3 in primary patient DMG samples, particularly enriched in the OPC-like tumor subpopulation. Acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter cholinergic neurons release, exerts a direct effect on DMG tumor cells, promoting increased proliferation and invasion through muscarinic receptors. Pharmacological blockade of M1 and M3 acetylcholine receptors abolished the activity-regulated increase in DMG proliferation in cholinergic neuron-glioma co-culture and in vivo. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that midbrain cholinergic neuron long-range projections to midline structures promote activity-dependent DMG growth through M1 and M3 cholinergic receptors, mirroring a parallel proliferative effect on healthy OPCs.

Murine-Derived Glioma Organoids and Cell Line Culture Systems.

Research models in cancer have greatly evolved in the last decade, with the advent of several new methods both in vitro and in vivo. While in vivo models remain the gold standard for preclinical studies, these methods present a series of disadvantages such as a high cost and long periods of time to produce results compared with in vitro models. We have previously developed a method named Mosaic Analysis by Dual Recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (MADR) that generates autochthonous gliomas in immunocompetent mice through the transgenesis of personalized driver mutations, which highly mimic the spatial and temporal tumor development of their human counterparts. Due to the control of single-copy expression of transgenes, it allows for comparing the visualization of tumor cells and non-tumor cells. Here we describe a method to generate murine-derived glioma organoids (MGOs) and cell line cultures from these murine models by physical and enzymatic methods for in vitro downstream applications. Tumor cells can be readily distinguished from non-tumor cell populations, in both organoids and monolayer cell cultures, and isolated due to the use of personalized fluorescent reporter transgenes. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Generation of 3D murine-derived glioma organoids Basic Protocol 2: Generation of 2D glioma monolayer cell lines.

De Novo Generation of Murine and Human MADR Recipient Cell Lines for Locus-Specific, Stable Integration of Transgenic Elements.

Mosaic analysis by dual recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (MADR) is a technology that allows stable and locus-specific integration of transgenic elements into recipient cells carrying loxP and FRT sites. Nevertheless, most cell lines lack these recombination-specific sites. This protocol describes a method to introduce the minimum requirements into cells, leading to the generation of de novo primary MADR recipient cells or MADR "Proxy" cells. These cell lines allow the combinatorial use of a wide range of transgenic elements through MADR. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Kim et al. (2019).