Selective haematological cancer eradication with preserved haematopoiesis.

Haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation (HSCT) is the only curative treatment for a broad range of haematological malignancies, but the standard of care relies on untargeted chemotherapies and limited possibilities to treat malignant cells after HSCT without affecting the transplanted healthy cells1. Antigen-specific cell-depleting therapies hold the promise of much more targeted elimination of diseased cells, as witnessed in the past decade by the revolution of clinical practice for B cell malignancies2. However, target selection is complex and limited to antigens expressed on subsets of haematopoietic cells, resulting in a fragmented therapy landscape with high development costs2-5. Here we demonstrate that an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting the pan-haematopoietic marker CD45 enables the antigen-specific depletion of the entire haematopoietic system, including HSCs. Pairing this ADC with the transplantation of human HSCs engineered to be shielded from the CD45-targeting ADC enables the selective eradication of leukaemic cells with preserved haematopoiesis. The combination of CD45-targeting ADCs and engineered HSCs creates an almost universal strategy to replace a diseased haematopoietic system, irrespective of disease aetiology or originating cell type. We propose that this approach could have broad implications beyond haematological malignancies.

Nonlinear control of transcription through enhancer-promoter interactions.

Chromosome structure in mammals is thought to regulate transcription by modulating three-dimensional interactions between enhancers and promoters, notably through CTCF-mediated loops and topologically associating domains (TADs)1-4. However, how chromosome interactions are actually translated into transcriptional outputs remains unclear. Here, to address this question, we use an assay to position an enhancer at large numbers of densely spaced chromosomal locations relative to a fixed promoter, and measure promoter output and interactions within a genomic region with minimal regulatory and structural complexity. A quantitative analysis of hundreds of cell lines reveals that the transcriptional effect of an enhancer depends on its contact probabilities with the promoter through a nonlinear relationship. Mathematical modelling suggests that nonlinearity might arise from transient enhancer-promoter interactions being translated into slower promoter bursting dynamics in individual cells, therefore uncoupling the temporal dynamics of interactions from those of transcription. This uncovers a potential mechanism of how distal enhancers act from large genomic distances, and of how topologically associating domain boundaries block distal enhancers. Finally, we show that enhancer strength also determines absolute transcription levels as well as the sensitivity of a promoter to CTCF-mediated transcriptional insulation. Our measurements establish general principles for the context-dependent role of chromosome structure in long-range transcriptional regulation.

Regulation of the cohesin-loading factor NIPBL: Role of the lncRNA NIPBL-AS1 and identification of a distal enhancer element.

Cohesin is crucial for genome stability, cell division, transcription and chromatin organization. Its functions critically depend on NIPBL, the cohesin-loader protein that is found to be mutated in >60% of the cases of Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS). Other mutations are described in the cohesin subunits SMC1A, RAD21, SMC3 and the HDAC8 protein. In 25-30% of CdLS cases no mutation in the known CdLS genes is detected. Until now, functional elements in the noncoding genome were not characterized in the molecular etiology of CdLS and therefore are excluded from mutation screening, although the impact of such mutations has now been recognized for a wide range of diseases. We have identified different elements of the noncoding genome involved in regulation of the NIPBL gene. NIPBL-AS1 is a long non-coding RNA transcribed upstream and antisense to NIPBL. By knockdown and transcription blocking experiments, we could show that not the NIPBL-AS1 gene product, but its actual transcription is important to regulate NIPBL expression levels. This reveals a possibility to boost the transcriptional activity of the NIPBL gene by interfering with the NIPBL-AS1 lncRNA. Further, we have identified a novel distal enhancer regulating both NIPBL and NIPBL-AS1. Deletion of the enhancer using CRISPR genome editing in HEK293T cells reduces expression of NIPBL, NIPBL-AS1 as well as genes found to be dysregulated in CdLS.

A cohesin-independent role for NIPBL at promoters provides insights in CdLS.

The cohesin complex is crucial for chromosome segregation during mitosis and has recently also been implicated in transcriptional regulation and chromatin architecture. The NIPBL protein is required for the loading of cohesin onto chromatin, but how and where cohesin is loaded in vertebrate cells is unclear. Heterozygous mutations of NIPBL were found in 50% of the cases of Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS), a human developmental syndrome with a complex phenotype. However, no defects in the mitotic function of cohesin have been observed so far and the links between NIPBL mutations and the observed developmental defects are unclear. We show that NIPBL binds to chromatin in somatic cells with a different timing than cohesin. Further, we observe that high-affinity NIPBL binding sites localize to different regions than cohesin and almost exclusively to the promoters of active genes. NIPBL or cohesin knockdown reduce transcription of these genes differently, suggesting a cohesin-independent role of NIPBL for transcription. Motif analysis and comparison to published data show that NIPBL co-localizes with a specific set of other transcription factors. In cells derived from CdLS patients NIPBL binding levels are reduced and several of the NIPBL-bound genes have previously been observed to be mis-expressed in CdLS. In summary, our observations indicate that NIPBL mutations might cause developmental defects in different ways. First, defects of NIPBL might lead to cohesin-loading defects and thereby alter gene expression and second, NIPBL deficiency might affect genes directly via its role at the respective promoters.

Cohesin and CTCF differentially affect chromatin architecture and gene expression in human cells.

Recent studies of genome-wide chromatin interactions have revealed that the human genome is partitioned into many self-associating topological domains. The boundary sequences between domains are enriched for binding sites of CTCC-binding factor (CTCF) and the cohesin complex, implicating these two factors in the establishment or maintenance of topological domains. To determine the role of cohesin and CTCF in higher-order chromatin architecture in human cells, we depleted the cohesin complex or CTCF and examined the consequences of loss of these factors on higher-order chromatin organization, as well as the transcriptome. We observed a general loss of local chromatin interactions upon disruption of cohesin, but the topological domains remain intact. However, we found that depletion of CTCF not only reduced intradomain interactions but also increased interdomain interactions. Furthermore, distinct groups of genes become misregulated upon depletion of cohesin and CTCF. Taken together, these observations suggest that CTCF and cohesin contribute differentially to chromatin organization and gene regulation.

Epitope-engineered human hematopoietic stem cells are shielded from CD123-targeted immunotherapy.

Targeted eradication of transformed or otherwise dysregulated cells using monoclonal antibodies (mAb), antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), T cell engagers (TCE), or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) cells is very effective for hematologic diseases. Unlike the breakthrough progress achieved for B cell malignancies, there is a pressing need to find suitable antigens for myeloid malignancies. CD123, the interleukin-3 (IL-3) receptor alpha-chain, is highly expressed in various hematological malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, shared CD123 expression on healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) bears the risk for myelotoxicity. We demonstrate that epitope-engineered HSPCs were shielded from CD123-targeted immunotherapy but remained functional, while CD123-deficient HSPCs displayed a competitive disadvantage. Transplantation of genome-edited HSPCs could enable tumor-selective targeted immunotherapy while rebuilding a fully functional hematopoietic system. We envision that this approach is broadly applicable to other targets and cells, could render hitherto undruggable targets accessible to immunotherapy, and will allow continued posttransplant therapy, for instance, to treat minimal residual disease (MRD).

Cohesin and CTCF control the dynamics of chromosome folding.

In mammals, interactions between sequences within topologically associating domains enable control of gene expression across large genomic distances. Yet it is unknown how frequently such contacts occur, how long they last and how they depend on the dynamics of chromosome folding and loop extrusion activity of cohesin. By imaging chromosomal locations at high spatial and temporal resolution in living cells, we show that interactions within topologically associating domains are transient and occur frequently during the course of a cell cycle. Interactions become more frequent and longer in the presence of convergent CTCF sites, resulting in suppression of variability in chromosome folding across time. Supported by physical models of chromosome dynamics, our data suggest that CTCF-anchored loops last around 10 min. Our results show that long-range transcriptional regulation might rely on transient physical proximity, and that cohesin and CTCF stabilize highly dynamic chromosome structures, facilitating selected subsets of chromosomal interactions.

Experimental validation of specificity of the squamous cell carcinoma antigen-immunoglobulin M (SCCA-IgM) assay in patients with cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND: Squamous cell carcinoma antigen-immunoglobulin M (SCCA-IgM) is a useful biomarker for the risk of development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with cirrhosis due to its progressive increase associated to HCC evolution. In patients with cirrhosis, other assays have been affected by interfering reactivities of IgM. In this study, the analytical specificity of the SCCA-IgM assay was assessed by evaluating SCCA-IgM measurement dependence on different capture phases, and by measuring the recovery of SCCA-IgM reactivity following serum fractionation. METHODS: Serum samples from 82 patients with cirrhosis were analyzed. SCCA-IgM was measured using the reference test (Hepa-IC, Xeptagen, Italy) that is based on rabbit oligoclonal anti-squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) and a dedicated ELISA with a mouse monoclonal anti-SCCA as the capture antibody. RESULTS: SCCA-IgM concentrations measured with the reference assay (median value=87 AU/mL) were higher than those measured with the mouse monoclonal test (median value=78 AU/mL). However, the differences in the SCCA-IgM distribution were not statistically significant (p>0.05). When SCCA-IgM concentrations measured with both tests were compared, a linear correlation was found (r=0.77, p<0.05). Fractionation of the most reactive sera by gel-filtration chromatography showed that total recovery of SCCA-IgM reactivity was seen only in the fractions corresponding to components with a molecular weight higher than IgM and SCCA (>2000 kDa) with both tests. CONCLUSIONS: The equivalence of both SCCA-IgM assays and the absence of reactivity not related to immune complexes support the analytical specificity of SCCA-IgM measurements. The results validate the assessment of SCCA-IgM for prognostic purposes in patients with cirrhosis.

Investigation of the spatial structure and interactions of the genome at sub-kilobase-pair resolution using T2C.

Chromosome conformation capture (3C) and its derivatives (e.g., 4C, 5C and Hi-C) are used to analyze the 3D organization of genomes. We recently developed targeted chromatin capture (T2C), an inexpensive method for studying the 3D organization of genomes, interactomes and structural changes associated with gene regulation, the cell cycle, and cell survival and development. Here, we present the protocol for T2C based on capture, describing all experimental steps and bio-informatic tools in full detail. T2C offers high resolution, a large dynamic interaction frequency range and a high signal-to-noise ratio. Its resolution is determined by the resulting fragment size of the chosen restriction enzyme, which can lead to sub-kilobase-pair resolution. T2C's high coverage allows the identification of the interactome of each individual DNA fragment, which makes binning of reads (often used in other methods) basically unnecessary. Notably, T2C requires low sequencing efforts. T2C also allows multiplexing of samples for the direct comparison of multiple samples. It can be used to study topologically associating domains (TADs), determining their position, shape, boundaries, and intra- and inter-domain interactions, as well as the composition of aggregated loops, interactions between nucleosomes, individual transcription factor binding sites, and promoters and enhancers. T2C can be performed by any investigator with basic skills in molecular biology techniques in ∼7-8 d. Data analysis requires basic expertise in bioinformatics and in Linux and Python environments.

The detailed 3D multi-loop aggregate/rosette chromatin architecture and functional dynamic organization of the human and mouse genomes.

BACKGROUND: The dynamic three-dimensional chromatin architecture of genomes and its co-evolutionary connection to its function-the storage, expression, and replication of genetic information-is still one of the central issues in biology. Here, we describe the much debated 3D architecture of the human and mouse genomes from the nucleosomal to the megabase pair level by a novel approach combining selective high-throughput high-resolution chromosomal interaction capture (T2C), polymer simulations, and scaling analysis of the 3D architecture and the DNA sequence. RESULTS: The genome is compacted into a chromatin quasi-fibre with ~5 ± 1 nucleosomes/11 nm, folded into stable ~30-100 kbp loops forming stable loop aggregates/rosettes connected by similar sized linkers. Minor but significant variations in the architecture are seen between cell types and functional states. The architecture and the DNA sequence show very similar fine-structured multi-scaling behaviour confirming their co-evolution and the above. CONCLUSIONS: This architecture, its dynamics, and accessibility, balance stability and flexibility ensuring genome integrity and variation enabling gene expression/regulation by self-organization of (in)active units already in proximity. Our results agree with the heuristics of the field and allow "architectural sequencing" at a genome mechanics level to understand the inseparable systems genomic properties.

Targeted Chromatin Capture (T2C): a novel high resolution high throughput method to detect genomic interactions and regulatory elements.

BACKGROUND: Significant efforts have recently been put into the investigation of the spatial organization and the chromatin-interaction networks of genomes. Chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology and its derivatives are important tools used in this effort. However, many of these have limitations, such as being limited to one viewpoint, expensive with moderate to low resolution, and/or requiring a large sequencing effort. Techniques like Hi-C provide a genome-wide analysis. However, it requires massive sequencing effort with considerable costs. Here we describe a new technique termed Targeted Chromatin Capture (T2C), to interrogate large selected regions of the genome. T2C provides an unbiased view of the spatial organization of selected loci at superior resolution (single restriction fragment resolution, from 2 to 6 kbp) at much lower costs than Hi-C due to the lower sequencing effort. RESULTS: We applied T2C on well-known model regions, the mouse ß-globin locus and the human H19/IGF2 locus. In both cases we identified all known chromatin interactions. Furthermore, we compared the human H19/IGF2 locus data obtained from different chromatin conformation capturing methods with T2C data. We observed the same compartmentalization of the locus, but at a much higher resolution (single restriction fragments vs. the common 40 kbp bins) and higher coverage. Moreover, we compared the ß-globin locus in two different biological samples (mouse primary erythroid cells and mouse fetal brain), where it is either actively transcribed or not, to identify possible transcriptional dependent interactions. We identified the known interactions in the ß-globin locus and the same topological domains in both mouse primary erythroid cells and in mouse fetal brain with the latter having fewer interactions probably due to the inactivity of the locus. Furthermore, we show that interactions due to the important chromatin proteins, Ldb1 and Ctcf, in both tissues can be analyzed easily to reveal their role on transcriptional interactions and genome folding. CONCLUSIONS: T2C is an efficient, easy, and affordable with high (restriction fragment) resolution tool to address both genome compartmentalization and chromatin-interaction networks for specific genomic regions at high resolution for both clinical and non-clinical research.

Multiplexed chromosome conformation capture sequencing for rapid genome-scale high-resolution detection of long-range chromatin interactions.

Chromosome conformation capture (3C) technology is a powerful and increasingly popular tool for analyzing the spatial organization of genomes. Several 3C variants have been developed (e.g., 4C, 5C, ChIA-PET, Hi-C), allowing large-scale mapping of long-range genomic interactions. Here we describe multiplexed 3C sequencing (3C-seq), a 4C variant coupled to next-generation sequencing, allowing genome-scale detection of long-range interactions with candidate regions. Compared with several other available techniques, 3C-seq offers a superior resolution (typically single restriction fragment resolution; approximately 1-8 kb on average) and can be applied in a semi-high-throughput fashion. It allows the assessment of long-range interactions of up to 192 genes or regions of interest in parallel by multiplexing library sequencing. This renders multiplexed 3C-seq an inexpensive, quick (total hands-on time of 2 weeks) and efficient method that is ideal for the in-depth analysis of complex genetic loci. The preparation of multiplexed 3C-seq libraries can be performed by any investigator with basic skills in molecular biology techniques. Data analysis requires basic expertise in bioinformatics and in Linux and Python environments. The protocol describes all materials, critical steps and bioinformatics tools required for successful application of 3C-seq technology.

Increased antiprotease activity of the SERPINB3 polymorphic variant SCCA-PD.

SERPINB3 has been found in chronic liver damage and hepatocellular carcinoma, but not in normal liver. By direct mRNA sequencing, a new SERPINB3 polymorphism (SCCA-PD) has been identified, presenting the substitution Gly351Ala in the reactive center loop of the protein. The prevalence of the SCCA-PD isoform has been found to be significantly higher in patients with cirrhosis than in patients with chronic liver disease and in normal subjects. The aim of this study was to investigate the biological and functional activity of SERPINB3 isoforms using in vitro models. HepG2 and Huh7 cells lines were transfected with plasmid vectors containing wild-type SERPINB3 or its polymorphic variant SCCA-PD and their expression at transcriptional and protein level was determined. To assess the functional activity, both recombinant proteins were produced and kinetic analysis was carried out using papain and cathepsin-L as target proteases. In addition, the inhibition of JNK kinase activity by SERPINB3 isoforms was assessed. The crystal structure of wild-type SERPINB3 at 2.7 Å resolution was used for preparation of refined 3D models of the two isoforms. The results showed that transcriptional activity and protein expression of the two isoforms were similar in both transfected cell lines. Both SERPINB3 preparations exerted a dose-dependent protease inhibitory activity, but the effect of SCCA-PD was higher than that of the wild-type isoform. This result was supported by 3D modelling, where increased hydrophobic profile of the SCCA-PD isoform, introduced by the G351A mutation, was detected. In addition, at high protein concentration, SCCA-PD revealed a 16% higher inhibitory effect on c-Jun phosphorylation by JNK1, compared with wild-type SERPINB3. In conclusion, the single amino acid substitution in the SERPINB3 reactive site loop improves the functional activity of SCCA-PD isoform. This different antiprotease activity might favor disease progression in patients carrying this polymorphism.

Combinatorial semisynthesis of biomarker-IgM complexes.

Circulating immune complexes formed by tumor antigens and immunoglobulin M (IgM) represent a novel class of biomarkers with diagnostic value for early cancer detection. The quantitative analysis of these immune complexes is achieved by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods using a purified calibrator from samples of patients with cancer. These complexes obtained from samples of human origin are not suitable for cost-effective production processes with high safety standards. Given the ill-defined biomarker/IgM ratio in these complexes, semisynthesis with retention of functional properties is difficult to achieve and may vary widely according to the batch-to-batch heterogeneity of starting biological preparations. Here the authors describe the development of a combinatorial method for defining the optimal reaction conditions for the reproducible semisynthesis of biomarker-IgM complexes by exploiting the biotin-avidin technology. The method relies on screening by ELISA the 3D composition space defined by the combinatorial variation of biotinylated-biomarker, biotinylated-IgM, and avidin concentrations aiming to select those conditions leading to biomarker-IgM complexes with the highest immunoreactivity. The method allows the reproducible synthesis of species with immunoreactivity comparable to that of natural immune complexes and endowed with sufficient stability to be used as calibrators in ELISA.