Enhancer hijacking determines extrachromosomal circular MYCN amplicon architecture in neuroblastoma.

MYCN amplification drives one in six cases of neuroblastoma. The supernumerary gene copies are commonly found on highly rearranged, extrachromosomal circular DNA (ecDNA). The exact amplicon structure has not been described thus far and the functional relevance of its rearrangements is unknown. Here, we analyze the MYCN amplicon structure using short-read and Nanopore sequencing and its chromatin landscape using ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq and Hi-C. This reveals two distinct classes of amplicons which explain the regulatory requirements for MYCN overexpression. The first class always co-amplifies a proximal enhancer driven by the noradrenergic core regulatory circuit (CRC). The second class of MYCN amplicons is characterized by high structural complexity, lacks key local enhancers, and instead contains distal chromosomal fragments harboring CRC-driven enhancers. Thus, ectopic enhancer hijacking can compensate for the loss of local gene regulatory elements and explains a large component of the structural diversity observed in MYCN amplification.

Drosophila Bag-of-marbles directly interacts with the CAF40 subunit of the CCR4-NOT complex to elicit repression of mRNA targets.

Drosophila melanogaster Bag-of-marbles (Bam) promotes germline stem cell (GSC) differentiation by repressing the expression of mRNAs encoding stem cell maintenance factors. Bam interacts with Benign gonial cell neoplasm (Bgcn) and the CCR4 deadenylase, a catalytic subunit of the CCR4-NOT complex. Bam has been proposed to bind CCR4 and displace it from the CCR4-NOT complex. Here, we investigated the interaction of Bam with the CCR4-NOT complex by using purified recombinant proteins. Unexpectedly, we found that Bam does not interact with CCR4 directly but instead binds to the CAF40 subunit of the complex in a manner mediated by a conserved N-terminal CAF40-binding motif (CBM). The crystal structure of the Bam CBM bound to CAF40 reveals that the CBM peptide adopts an α-helical conformation after binding to the concave surface of the crescent-shaped CAF40 protein. We further show that Bam-mediated mRNA decay and translational repression depend entirely on Bam's interaction with CAF40. Thus, Bam regulates the expression of its mRNA targets by recruiting the CCR4-NOT complex through interaction with CAF40.

Silver nanoparticles defeat p53-positive and p53-negative osteosarcoma cells by triggering mitochondrial stress and apoptosis.

Loss of function of the tumour suppressor p53 observed frequently in human cancers challenges the drug-induced apoptotic elimination of cancer cells from the body. This phenomenon is a major concern and provides much of the impetus for current attempts to develop a new generation of anticancer drugs capable of provoking apoptosis in a p53-independent manner. Since silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) possess unique cytotoxic features, we examined, whether their activity could be exploited to kill tumour suppressor-deficient cancer cells. Therefore, we investigated the effects of AgNPs on osteosarcoma cells of different p53 genetic backgrounds. As particle diameters might influence the molecular mechanisms leading to AgNP-induced cell death we applied 5 nm and 35 nm sized citrate-coated AgNPs. We found that both sized AgNPs targeted mitochondria and induced apoptosis in wild-type p53-containing U2Os and p53-deficient Saos-2 cells. According to our findings AgNPs are able to kill osteosarcoma cells independently from their actual p53 status and induce p53-independent cancer cell apoptosis. This feature renders AgNPs attractive candidates for novel chemotherapeutic approaches.