Correction: Chao et al. MicroRNA-22-3p and MicroRNA-149-5p Inhibit Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Growth and Metastasis Properties by Regulating Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase. Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2022, 44, 952-962.

Author Correction: We apologize for unintentionally using the wrong figures (Figure 5b and Figure 6e) in the original article [...].

Effects of folate on telomere length and chromosome stability of human fibroblasts and melanoma cells in vitro: a comparison of folic acid and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate.

Telomere length (TL), which is maintained by human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT; component of telomerase) and/or TRF1/TRF2 (core components of shelterin) via different mechanisms, is essential for chromosomal stability and cell survival. Folates comprise a group of essential B9 vitamin that involve in DNA synthesis and methylation. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of folic acid (FA) and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MeTHF) on TL, chromosome stability, and cell survival of telomerase-negative BJ and telomerase-positive A375 cells in vitro. BJ and A375 cells were cultured in modified medium with FA or 5-MeTHF (22.6 or 2260 nM) for 28 days. TL and mRNA expression were determined by RT-qPCR. Chromosome instability (CIN) and cell death were measured by CBMN-Cyt assay. Results showed that abnormal TL elongation was observed in FA- and 5-MeTHF-deficient BJ cells. The TL of A375 cells showed no obvious alterations under the FA-deficient condition but was significantly elongated under the 5-MeTHF-deficient condition. In both BJ and A375 cells, FA and 5-MeTHF deficiency caused decreased TRF1, TRF2, and hTERT expression, increased CIN and cell death; while a high concentration of 5-MeTHF induced elongated TL, elevated CIN, increased TRF1 and TRF2 expression, and decreased hTERT expression, when compared with the FA counterpart. These findings concluded that folate deficiency induced TL instability in both telomerase-negative and -positive cells, and FA was more efficient in maintaining TL and chromosome stability compared with 5-MeTHF.

Effects of folate on telomere length and chromosome stability of human fibroblasts and melanoma cells in vitro: a comparison of folic acid and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate.

Telomere length (TL), which is maintained by human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT; component of telomerase) and/or TRF1/TRF2 (core components of shelterin) via different mechanisms, is essential for chromosomal stability and cell survival. Folates comprise a group of essential B9 vitamin that involve in DNA synthesis and methylation. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of folic acid (FA) and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MeTHF) on TL, chromosome stability, and cell survival of telomerase-negative BJ and telomerase-positive A375 cells in vitro. BJ and A375 cells were cultured in modified medium with FA or 5-MeTHF (22.6 or 2260 nM) for 28 days. TL and mRNA expression were determined by RT-qPCR. Chromosome instability (CIN) and cell death were measured by CBMN-Cyt assay. Results showed that abnormal TL elongation was observed in FA and 5-MeTHF deficient BJ cells. The TL of A375 cells showed no obvious alterations under the FA-deficient condition but was significantly elongated under the 5-MeTHF-deficient condition. In both BJ and A375 cells, FA and 5-MeTHF deficiency caused decreased TRF1, TRF2, and hTERT expression, increased CIN and cell death; while a high concentration of 5-MeTHF induced elongated TL, elevated CIN, increased TRF1 and TRF2 expression and decreased hTERT expression, when compared with the FA counterpart. These findings concluded that folate deficiency induced TL instability in both telomerase-negative and -positive cells, and FA was more efficient in maintaining TL and chromosome stability compared with 5-MeTHF.

MicroRNA-22-3p and MicroRNA-149-5p Inhibit Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Growth and Metastasis Properties by Regulating Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase.

microRNAs are small endogenous noncoding RNAs that have emerged as key negative regulators that target gene expression through RISC. Our previous study showed that the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (MTHFR) plays a key role in one carbon metabolism, which is downregulated by miR-22-3p and miR-149-5p, and that it could exert a potential anti-cancer effect. Whether miR-22-3p/miR-149-5p can regulate MTHFR to exert anti-cancer effects has become the focus of our research. Normal (HL-7702 cells) and cancerous (QGY-7703/HepG2 cells) human hepatocellular cells were transfected with 100 nM hsa-miR-22-3p/hsa-miR-149-5p mimic or controls. After 24, 48, and 72 h, cell proliferation ability was tested using CCK-8. The changes in MTHFR expression at both the transcriptional and translational levels were determined by RT-qPCR and Western blotting, respectively. Cancerous cell invasion and migration ability were confirmed by means of a transwell assay. We found that ectopic miR-22-3p/miR-149-5p inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation but does not inhibit normal human hepatocyte proliferation. The transfection of ectopic miR-22-3p/miR-149-5p downregulated the MTHFR expression in QGY-7703 and HepG2 but not in HL-7702. QGY-7703 and HepG2 migration and invasion were inhibited by ectopic miR-22-3p/miR-149-5p. Additionally, we found that ectopic miR-22-3p/miR-149-5p significantly increased the expression of TP53INP1 and PDCD4 in QGY-7703. The results of the study suggest that miRNA-22-3p and miRNA-149-5p inhibit tumor growth and metastasis properties may be by regulating MTHFR and that they exert anticancer effects in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Understanding the birth of rupture-prone and irreparable micronuclei.

Micronuclei are extra-nuclear bodies mainly derived from ana-telophase lagging chromosomes/chromatins (LCs) that are not incorporated into primary nuclei at mitotic exit. Unlike primary nuclei, most micronuclei are enclosed by nuclear envelope (NE) that is highly susceptible to spontaneous and irreparable rupture. Ruptured micronuclei act as triggers of chromothripsis-like chaotic chromosomal rearrangements and cGAS-mediated innate immunity and inflammation, raising the view that micronuclei play active roles in human aging and tumorigenesis. Thus, understanding the ways in which micronuclear envelope (mNE) goes awry acquires increased importance. Here, we review the data to present a general framework for this question. We firstly describe NE reassembly after mitosis and NE repair during interphase. Simultaneously, we briefly discuss how mNE is organized and how mNE rupture controls the fate of micronuclei and micronucleated cells. As a focus of this review, we highlight current knowledge about why mNE is rupture-prone and irreparable. For this, we survey observations from a series of elegant studies to provide a systematic overview. We conclude that the birth of rupture-prone and irreparable micronuclei may be the cumulative effects of their intracellular geographic origins, biophysical properties, and specific mNE features. We propose that DNA damage and immunogenicity in micronuclei increase stepwise from altered mNE components, mNE rupture, and refractory to repair. Throughout our discussion, we note interesting issues in mNE fragility that have yet to be resolved.

Mosaic loss of human Y chromosome: what, how and why.

Y chromosome (ChrY), the male-specific sex chromosome, has been considered as a genetic wasteland. Aging-related mosaic loss of ChrY (LOY) has been known for more than half a century, but it was constantly considered as a neutral karyotype related to normal aging. These views have been challenged with genome-wide association studies identifying mosaic LOY in human somatic cells is the most commonly acquired mutation in male's genome and is associated with a wide spectrum of human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and cardiovascular disease. These previously undescribed clinical significances deeply modify our perception on ChrY and open up a range of new questions. Here, we review the latest advances in our knowledge of the biological origins and clinical consequences of mosaic LOY. We highlight the association of mosaic LOY to pathogenic conditions and evaluate the cause-and-consequence relationships between mosaic LOY and pathogenesis. The known risk factors of mosaic LOY including age, genetic variants, ChrY structural aberrations and environmental stressors are discussed. In light of evidence from pioneering and more recent studies, we propose the micronucleation hypothesis and centromere-dysfunction and telomere-attrition models to explain how mosaic LOY occurs and why ChrY is prone to lose. We believe it is importantly and timely to extend mosaic LOY research from epidemiological associations to mechanistic studies. In this regard, we outline important gaps and assess several future directions from a biological and clinical perspective. An improved understanding of mosaic LOY will open new pathways to modify and increase healthy aging in males.

Shelterin differentially respond to oxidative stress induced by TiO2-NPs and regulate telomere length in human hepatocytes and hepatocarcinoma cells in vitro.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) have raised serious attention for their widely use and potential adverse effects on human mainly due to producing ROS. However, the influence of TiO2-NPs on telomere maintaining has not been studied clearly. Shelterin plays core roles in telomere length (TL) regulation. Abnormal TL are associated with chromosome instability (CIN) and high risk of diseases. This study investigated whether TiO2-NPs affect TL to induce CIN through ROS generation and the possible mechanisms. Human hepatocyte L-02 and hepatocarcinoma cells QGY were exposed to TiO2-NPs (0, 40, 80 µg/mL) for 72 h. The intracellular hydrogen dioxide (H2O2) concentration were measured. The TL, Nrf-2, and three core shelterin components (TRF1, TRF2, and POT1) transcription level were determined by quantitative real-time PCR. CIN was measured by cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. TiO2-NPs exposure increased intracellular H2O2 in both L-02 and QGY cells, and induced Nrf-2, TRF1, TRF2, POT1 downregulated transcription compared with control (P < 0.001) in L-02 but all upregulated (P < 0.05) in QGY. Significant TL shortening (P < 0.001) and CIN increase (P < 0.01) in L-02 cells were observed but not in QGY cells. The differentially responses of the tested components of shelterin and Nrf-2 to oxidative stress induced by TiO2-NPs led to the weakened telomere protection in normal cells and effective telomere maintenance in cancer cells, respectively. The upregulation of Nrf-2 and shelterin could protect TL and chromosome stability against TiO2-NPs exposure.

Geraniin selectively promotes cytostasis and apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cells by inducing catastrophic chromosomal instability.

Homeostasis of chromosomal instability (CIN) facilitates the origin and evolution of abnormal karyotypes that are critical for the survival and proliferation of cancer cells, but excessive CIN can result in cellular toxicity. Geraniin is a multifunctional ellagitannin found in some species of Geranium and Phyllanthus. We employed the cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay to evaluate the CIN, nuclear division index (NDI) and apoptosis induced by geraniin in human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (Colo205 and Colo320) and human colon mucosal epithelial cells (NCM460). Cells were exposed to 25, 50 or 100 µg/ml geraniin for 24, 48 or 72 h. 0.05 µg/ml mitomycin C was used as a positive control and media as a negative control. The results showed that, compared to negative controls, geraniin significantly reduced NDI (P < 0.01) and increased CIN (P < 0.01) and apoptosis (P < 0.05) in Colo205 and Colo320 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Conversely, geraniin significantly increased NDI (P < 0.05) and decreased CIN (P < 0.001) and apoptosis (P < 0.01) in NCM460 cells. Moreover, CIN was positively associated with apoptosis (r = 0.437, P < 0.001) and negatively associated with NDI (r = -0.744, P < 0.001) in these cells. Together, our results highlight that the induction of catastrophic CIN may underlie the antitumor potential of geraniin. Our data also suggest that geraniin can decrease the risk of oncogenic transformation via decreasing CIN in normal cells.

Folate deficiency induces mitotic aberrations and chromosomal instability by compromising the spindle assembly checkpoint in cultured human colon cells.

Folates comprise the essential B9 vitamin that act as cofactors and cosubstrates in one-carbon metabolism for both biosynthesis and methylation of DNA and RNA. Folate deficiency (FD) has been shown to induce chromosomal instability (CIN), yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we used human NCM460 colon mucosal cells as a model to investigate the effect of FD on spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), a cell-cycle regulatory pathway preventing CIN during mitosis. Cells were maintained in medium containing 1.36 (FD) and 2260 nM (control, FC) folate for 21 days. CIN was measured by cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay; mitotic infidelity was determined by aberrant mitosis analysis; SAC activity was assessed by nocodazole-challenge assay, and the expression of core SAC genes was examined by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). We found that, relative to FC, FD significantly induced CIN in a time-dependent way (P < 0.01). Mitotic cells cultured in FD medium had significant higher frequencies of misalignment, misegregation and spindle multipolarity than those cultured in FC medium (P < 0.01). FD-induced SAC impairment and overriding, resulting premature mitotic exit and cell multinucleation (P < 0.05). Moreover, FD deregulated the expression of several key SAC genes (P < 0.01). Overall, these data are the first to demonstrate that FD substantially compromises SAC network which predisposes cells to mitotic aberrations and CIN. These results establish a new link between folate metabolism and SAC signalling, two pathways that are highly relevant for tumorigenesis.

Gene therapy for hemophilia B with liver-specific element mediated by Rep-RBE site-specific integration system.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a nonpathogenic virus capable of targeting human chromosome 19 for integration at AAVS1 site, and a 16 bp Rep binding element (RBE) sequence of AAV was sufficient for mediating this specific integration in the presence of AAV regulation proteins (Rep). Previously, we cotransduced 2 plasmids, pRBE-CMV-hFIX and pRC, into the AAVS1 transgenic mice by hydrodynamic injection, and a long-term expression of human coagulation Factor IX (hFIX) was observed. The corresponding AAVS1 locus site-specific integrations were verified by nested polymerase chain reaction. In this study, we established a novel hFIX expression plasmid, pRBE-HCR-hAAT-hFIX, driven by a liver-specific promoter by replacing the CMV promoter of pRBE-CMV-hFIX with a humanized promoter consisting of HCR-hAAT. The expression of hFIX in vitro was almost the same in transient transfection of pRBE-CMV-hFIX or pRBE-HCR-hAAT-hFIX. AAVS1-specific integrations were identified both in mice transfected with pRC/pRBE-CMV-hFIX cocktail and pRC/pRBE-HCR-hAAT-hFIX cocktail. However, the expression of hFIX of pRBE-HCR-hAAT-hFIX mice was higher and persisted longer. It achieved more than 1% of normal plasma hFIX concentration and maintained for 240 days. The result suggested that RBE-HCR-hAAT element could improve the expression of hFIX and present potential usage of Rep-RBE site-specific integration in gene therapy for hemophilia B.

V101L of human formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1) increases receptor affinity and augments the antagonism mediated by cyclosporins.

Genetic variation plays a major role in drug response variability. CsA (cyclosporin A), a widely used immunosuppressive agent, is a specific antagonist for FPR1 (formyl peptide receptor 1), which is an important G-protein-coupled chemoattractant receptor in the innate immune system. In order to study the variable responses of cyclosporins to different FPR1 mutants, we investigated the distribution of human FPR1 haplotypes among 209 healthy Han Chinese subjects. The haplotype pattern in Han Chinese were characterized on the basis of five SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), including rs5030878 (p.T11I), rs2070745 (p.V101L), rs5030880 (p.R190W), rs1042229 (p.N192K) and rs867228 (p.A346E). Receptor binding affinity of cyclosporins to FPR1 haplotypes was assessed using N-formyl-Nle-Leu-Phe-Nle-Tyr-Lys-FITC in CHO-G(α16) cells stably transfected with cDNAs encoding the top 12 FPR1 haplotypes in the Han Chinese. Variants of FPR1 carrying a single amino acid substitution of leucine for valine at position 101 (p.Leu(101)) displayed significantly higher pK(i) values for CsA and CsH (cyclosporin H), indicative of an improved receptor affinity. The polymorphism of FPR1 p.Leu(101) also enhanced the inhibitory effects of cyclosporins on fMLF (N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine)-induced activities, including calcium mobilization, cell chemotaxis and MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) phosphorylation. These results point to a possible complication for clinical use of CsA in patients carrying the p.Leu(101) allele of FPR1.

MicroRNA-7 inhibits tumor growth and metastasis by targeting the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma.

UNLABELLED: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to be involved in carcinogenesis and tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, microRNA-7 (miR-7) has been proven to play a substantial role in glioblastoma and breast cancer, but its functions in the context of HCC remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that miR-7 inhibits HCC cell growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. We first screened and identified a novel miR-7 target, phosphoinositide 3-kinase catalytic subunit delta (PIK3CD). Overexpression of miR-7 would specifically and markedly down-regulate its expression. miR-7-overexpressing subclones showed significant cell growth inhibition by G(0) /G(1) -phase cell-cycle arrest and significant impairment of cell migration in vitro. To identify the mechanisms, we investigated the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway and found that Akt, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and p70S6K were down-regulated, whereas 4EBP1 was up-regulated in miR-7-overexpressing subclones. We also identified two novel, putative miR-7 target genes, mTOR and p70S6K, which further suggests that miR-7 may be a key regulator of the PI3K/Akt pathway. In xenograft animal experiments, we found that overexpressed miR-7 effectively repressed tumor growth (3.5-fold decrease in mean tumor volume; n = 5) and abolished extrahepatic migration from liver to lung in a nude mouse model of metastasis (n = 5). The number of visible nodules on the lung surface was reduced by 32-fold. A correlation between miR-7 and PIK3CD expression was also confirmed in clinical samples of HCC. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that miR-7 functions as a tumor suppressor and plays a substantial role in inhibiting the tumorigenesis and reversing the metastasis of HCC through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR-signaling pathway in vitro and in vivo. By targeting PIK3CD, mTOR, and p70S6K, miR-7 efficiently regulates the PI3K/Akt pathway. Given these results, miR-7 may be a potential therapeutic or diagnostic/prognostic target for treating HCC.

Role and fate of SP100 protein in response to Rep-dependent nonviral integration system.

Previously, we studied an AAVS1 site-specific non-viral integration system with a Rep-donor plasmid and a plasmid containing adeno-associated virus integration element. Our earlier study focused on the plasmid vector itself, but the cellular response to the system was still unknown. SP100 is a member of the promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies. It is involved in many cellular processes such as transcriptional regulation and the cellular intrinsic immune response against viral infection. In this study, we revealed that SP100 inhibited the Rep-dependent nonviral integration. Conversely, transient expression of Rep78 increased the degradation of SP100. This degradation was inhibited by treatment with MG132, an inhibitor of the ubiquitin proteasome. SP100 and Rep78 are both located in the nucleolus, which provides the spatial possibility for their interaction. Rep78 was coimmunoprecipitated with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-SP100 fusion protein but not EGFP, which verified the interaction between Rep78 and SP100. These results have enriched our knowledge about the cellular protein SP100 and Rep-dependent nonviral integration. It may lead to an improvement in the application of Rep-related transgene integration method and in the selection of target cells.

Adeno-associated virus Rep78 restricts adenovirus E1B55K-mediated p53 nuclear exportation.

Inactivation of p53 is needed during adenovirus type 5 DNA replication. E1B55K, an adenovirus early protein, has been reported to interact with p53 and inhibit p53 transactivation. Previous studies have shown that adeno-associated virus (AAV) type 2 could reduce the transforming potential of adenovirus by rescuing p53 from adenovirus-mediated degradation, but the details are not clear yet. We detected the Rep78-p53 interaction by co-immunoprecipitation assay. The co-localization assay revealed that Rep78 inhibits E1B55K-mediated p53 nuclear exportation. However, Rep78 did not detectably influence p53 stability and could not relieve the transcriptional inactivation of p53, as E1B55K could not be replaced from the p53-E1B55K complex by Rep78. Our results reveal a new possible mechanism that AAV-2 Rep78 inhibits adenovirus 5 by relocalizing p53 in the nucleus, which may shed some light on the regulatory mechanism of AAV-2 on its helper virus, adenovirus.

Phyllanthus emblica L. fruit extract induces chromosomal instability and suppresses necrosis in human colon cancer cells.

Phyllanthus emblica L. (PE) is an edible fruit indigenous to Southeast Asia. It has been considered as a potent functional food due to its numerous pharmacological applications, such as anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic and protection for multiple organs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a water extract of PE fruit on genomic damage and cell death in the human colon adenocarcinoma cell line COLO320 using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus cytome assay. Cells were exposed to RPMI-1640 medium containing 0, 20, 40, 80, or 160 µg/mL PE for 24, 48, 72, or 96 hours. The results showed that PE induced a significant decrease in necrosis (p < 0.001) and nuclear division index (NDI) (p < 0.001) in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and there was a highly significant correlation between the reduction of necrosis and NDI (r = 0.820, p < 0.001). Dose- and time-dependent increases (p < 0.001) in the frequency of chromosomal instability (CIN) were observed after PE exposure, and the frequency of CIN was negatively correlated with NDI (r = - 0.640, p < 0.001). PE also significantly increased apoptosis (p < 0.001), and there was a significant correlation of apoptosis with CIN (r = 0.566, p < 0.001). In conclusion, PE suppresses necrosis and delays mitotic progression, which results in massive CIN followed by apoptosis in COLO320 cells.

Effects of dietary restriction on genome stability are sex and feeding regimen dependent.

Preserving genome stability is essential to prevent aging and cancer. Dietary restriction (DR) is the most reproducible non-pharmacological way to improve health and extend lifespan in various species. Whether DR helps to preserve genome stability and whether this effect is altered by experimental variables remain unclear. Moreover, DR research relies heavily on experimental animals, making the development of reliable in vitro mimetics of great interest. Therefore, we tested the effects of sex and feeding regimen (time-restricted eating, alternate day fasting and calorie restriction) on genome stability in CF-1 mice and whether these effects can be recapitulated by cell culture paradigms. Here, we show that calorie restriction significantly decreases the spontaneous micronuclei (MN), a biomarker of genome instability, in bone marrow cells of females instead of males. Alternate day fasting significantly decreases cisplatin-induced MN in females instead of males. Unexpectedly, daily time-restricted eating significantly exacerbates cisplatin-induced MN in males but not in females. Additionally, we design several culture paradigms that are able to faithfully recapitulate the key effects of these DR regimens on genome stability. In particular, 30% reduction of serum, a mimetic of calorie restriction, exhibits a strong ability to decrease spontaneous and cisplatin-induced MN in immortalized human umbilical vein endothelial cells. We conclude that the effects of different DR regimens on genome stability are not universal and females from each diet regimen sustain a more stable genome than males. Our results provide novel insight into the understanding of how DR influences genome stability in a sex and regimen dependent way, and suggest that our in vitro DR mimetics could be adopted to study the underlying molecular mechanisms.

The 156KELK159 tetrapeptide of HIV-1 integrase is critical for lentiviral gene integration.

HIV-1 integrase (HIV-1 IN), a key element of HIV-1-derived lentiviral vectors, is crucial for the stable maintenance of the vector gene by inserting them into host genome. HIV-1 IN has been found to have functions other than integration, such as involving in virion morphology, viral DNA synthesis and viral DNA nuclear import. In our study, the yeast two-hybrid assay identified a tetrapeptide 156KELK159 in HIV-1 IN that was crucial for HIV-1 IN and Daxx interaction. To investigate the functions of the tetrapeptide 156KELK159 of the HIV-1 IN, both the wild type HIV-1 IN and a mutant without 156KELK159 were used to package the EGFP reporter gene contained lentivirus. p24 based titer assay revealed that deleting the tetrapeptide did not affect virus packaging. The result was verified by quantitative real time PCR with viral specific primers. But the 156KELK159 was crucial for lentiviral gene integration. Deleting the tetrapeptide made the percentage of cells expressing the reporter gene significantly decreased and did not affect the level of DNA entered into the cells or nucleus. Real time reverse transcription PCR and FACS were used to detect the lentiviral report gene expression in infection maintaining cells and revealed 156KELK159 did not affect lentiviral vector gene expression. Our results may shed light on the regulatory mechanism of gene integration of lentivirus.

Interplay of cGAS with micronuclei: Regulation and diseases.

In higher eukaryotes, sophisticate regulation of genome function requires all chromosomes to be packed into a single nucleus. Micronucleus (MN), the dissociative nucleus-like structure frequently observed in aging and multiple disease settings, has critical, yet under-recognized, pathophysiological functions. Micronuclei (MNi) have recently emerged as major sources of cytosolic DNA that can activate the cGAS-STING axis in a cell-intrinsic manner. However, MNi induced from different genotoxic stressors display great heterogeneity in binding or activating cGAS and the signaling responses downstream of the MN-induced cGAS-STING axis have divergent outcomes including autoimmunity, autoinflammation, metastasis, or cell death. Thus, full characterization of molecular network underpinning the interplay of cGAS and MN is important to elucidate the pathophysiological roles of immunogenic MN and design improved drugs that selectively target cancer via boosting the MN-derived cGAS-STING axis. Here, we summarize our current understanding of the mechanisms for self-DNA discrimination by cGAS. We focus on discussing how MN immunogencity is dictated by multiple mechanisms including integrity of micronuclear envelope, state of nucleosome and DNA, competitive factors, damaged mitochondrial DNA and micronucleophagy. We also describe emerging links between immunogenic MN and human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and COVID-19. Particularly, we explore the exciting concept of inducing immunogenic MN as a therapeutic approach in treating cancer. We propose a new theoretical framework to describe immunogenic MN as a biological sensor to modulate cellular processes in response to genotoxic stress and provide perspectives on developing novel experimental approaches to unravel the complexity of MN immunogenicity regulation and immunogenic MN pathophysiology.

Cdc20 mediates D-box-dependent degradation of Sp100.

Cdc20 is a co-activator of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C complex), which recruits substrates at particular phases of the cell cycle and mediates their degradation. Sp100 is a PML-NB scaffold protein, which localizes to nuclear particles during interphase and disperses from them during mitosis, participates in viral resistance, transcriptional regulation, and apoptosis. However, its metabolism during the cell cycle has not yet been fully characterized. We found a putative D-box in Sp100 using the Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) predictor database. The putative D-box of Sp100 was verified by mutational analysis. Overexpression of Cdc20 resulted in decreased levels of both endogenous Sp100 protein and overexpressed Sp100 mRNA in HEK 293 cells. Only an overexpressed D-box deletion mutant of Sp100 accumulated in HEK293 cells that also overexpressed Cdc20. Cdc20 knockdown by cdc20 specific siRNA resulted in increased Sp100 protein levels in cells. Furthermore, we discovered that the Cdc20 mediated degradation of Sp100 is diminished by the proteasome inhibitor MG132, which suggests that the ubiquitination pathway is involved in this process. However, unlike the other Cdc20 substrates, which display oscillating protein levels, the level of Sp100 protein remains constant throughout the cell cycle. Additionally, both overexpression and knockdown of endogenous Sp100 had no effect on the cell cycle. Our results suggested that sp100 is a novel substrate of Cdc20 and it is degraded by the ubiquitination pathway. The intact D-box of Sp100 was necessary for this process. These findings expand our knowledge of both Sp100 and Cdc20 as well as their role in ubiquitination.

Loss of Y chromosome: An emerging next-generation biomarker for disease prediction and early detection?

As human life expectancy increases substantially and aging is the primary risk factor for most chronic diseases, there is an urgent need for advancing the development of post-genomic era biomarkers that can be used for disease prediction and early detection (DPED). Mosaic loss of Y chromosome (LOY) is the state of nullisomy Y in sub-groups of somatic cells acquired from different post-zygotic development stages and onwards throughout the lifespan. Multiple large-cohort based epidemiology studies have found that LOY in blood cells is a significant risk factor for future mortality and various diseases in males. Many features intrinsic to LOY analysis may be leveraged to enhance its use as a non-invasive, sensitive, reliable, high throughput-biomarker for DPED. Here, we review the emerging literatures in LOY studies and highlight ten strengths for using LOY as a novel biomarker for genomics-driven DPED diagnostics. Meanwhile, the current limitations in this area are also discussed. We conclude by identifying some important knowledge gaps regarding the consequences of malsegregation of the Y chromosome and propose further steps that are required before clinical implementation of LOY. Taken together, we think that LOY has substantial potential as a biomarker for DPED, despite some hurdles that still need to be addressed before its integration into healthcare becomes acceptable.