Fine-mapping identifies two additional breast cancer susceptibility loci at 9q31.2.

We recently identified a novel susceptibility variant, rs865686, for estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer at 9q31.2. Here, we report a fine-mapping analysis of the 9q31.2 susceptibility locus using 43 160 cases and 42 600 controls of European ancestry ascertained from 52 studies and a further 5795 cases and 6624 controls of Asian ancestry from nine studies. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs676256 was most strongly associated with risk in Europeans (odds ratios [OR] = 0.90 [0.88-0.92]; P-value = 1.58 × 10(-25)). This SNP is one of a cluster of highly correlated variants, including rs865686, that spans ∼14.5 kb. We identified two additional independent association signals demarcated by SNPs rs10816625 (OR = 1.12 [1.08-1.17]; P-value = 7.89 × 10(-09)) and rs13294895 (OR = 1.09 [1.06-1.12]; P-value = 2.97 × 10(-11)). SNP rs10816625, but not rs13294895, was also associated with risk of breast cancer in Asian individuals (OR = 1.12 [1.06-1.18]; P-value = 2.77 × 10(-05)). Functional genomic annotation using data derived from breast cancer cell-line models indicates that these SNPs localise to putative enhancer elements that bind known drivers of hormone-dependent breast cancer, including ER-α, FOXA1 and GATA-3. In vitro analyses indicate that rs10816625 and rs13294895 have allele-specific effects on enhancer activity and suggest chromatin interactions with the KLF4 gene locus. These results demonstrate the power of dense genotyping in large studies to identify independent susceptibility variants. Analysis of associations using subjects with different ancestry, combined with bioinformatic and genomic characterisation, can provide strong evidence for the likely causative alleles and their functional basis.

Unbiased analysis of potential targets of breast cancer susceptibility loci by Capture Hi-C.

Genome-wide association studies have identified more than 70 common variants that are associated with breast cancer risk. Most of these variants map to non-protein-coding regions and several map to gene deserts, regions of several hundred kilobases lacking protein-coding genes. We hypothesized that gene deserts harbor long-range regulatory elements that can physically interact with target genes to influence their expression. To test this, we developed Capture Hi-C (CHi-C), which, by incorporating a sequence capture step into a Hi-C protocol, allows high-resolution analysis of targeted regions of the genome. We used CHi-C to investigate long-range interactions at three breast cancer gene deserts mapping to 2q35, 8q24.21, and 9q31.2. We identified interaction peaks between putative regulatory elements ("bait fragments") within the captured regions and "targets" that included both protein-coding genes and long noncoding (lnc) RNAs over distances of 6.6 kb to 2.6 Mb. Target protein-coding genes were IGFBP5, KLF4, NSMCE2, and MYC; and target lncRNAs included DIRC3, PVT1, and CCDC26. For one gene desert, we were able to define two SNPs (rs12613955 and rs4442975) that were highly correlated with the published risk variant and that mapped within the bait end of an interaction peak. In vivo ChIP-qPCR data show that one of these, rs4442975, affects the binding of FOXA1 and implicate this SNP as a putative functional variant.

Synergistic therapeutic vascular cytoprotection against complement-mediated injury induced via a PKCα-, AMPK-, and CREB-dependent pathway.

Endothelial injury and dysfunction precede accelerated arterial disease in allograft vasculopathy and systemic autoimmune diseases and involve pathogenic Abs and complement. Recent reports suggest that switching to rapamycin from calcineurin antagonists reduces posttransplant vasculopathy and prolongs survival following cardiac transplantion. The majority of these patients also receive statin therapy. We examined potential mechanisms underlying this protective response in human endothelial cells and identified synergy between rapamycin and atorvastatin. Mechanistically, atorvastatin and rapamycin activated a protein kinase Cα, AMP-activated kinase, and CREB-dependent vasculoprotective pathway, which induced decay-accelerating factor (DAF) promoter activity via binding to the cAMP response element, mutation of which attenuated promoter activity. This response significantly increased endothelial cell surface DAF and enhanced protection against complement-mediated injury. Synergy with rapamycin was reproduced by simvastatin, whereas combining atorvastatin with cyclosporine or mycophenolate in place of rapamycin was ineffective. Importantly, synergy was reproduced in vivo, in which only atorvastatin and rapamycin therapy in combination was sufficient to induce DAF on murine aortic endothelium. We believe this pathway represents an important therapeutically inducible vasculoprotective mechanism for diseases mediated by pathogenic Abs and complement, including posttransplant vasculopathy and systemic lupus erythematosus. Although our study focuses on the vascular endothelium, the findings are likely to be broadly applicable, given the diverse cellular expression of DAF.

The transcription factor Erg regulates expression of histone deacetylase 6 and multiple pathways involved in endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis.

The endothelial ETS transcription factor Erg plays an important role in homeostasis and angiogenesis by regulating many endothelial functions including survival and junction stability. Here we show that Erg regulates endothelial cell (EC) migration. Transcriptome profiling of Erg-deficient ECs identified ∼ 80 genes involved in cell migration as candidate Erg targets, including many regulators of Rho- GTPases. Inhibition of Erg expression in HUVECs resulted in decreased migration in vitro, while Erg overexpression using adenovirus caused increased migration. Live-cell imaging of Erg-deficient HUVECs showed a reduction in lamellipodia, in line with decreased motility. Both actin and tubulin cytoskeletons were disrupted in Erg-deficient ECs, with a dramatic increase in tubulin acetylation. Among the most significant microarray hits was the cytosolic histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6), a regulator of cell migration. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and transactivation studies demonstrated that Erg regulates HDAC6 expression. Rescue experiments confirmed that HDAC6 mediates the Erg-dependent regulation of tubulin acetylation and actin localization. In vivo, inhibition of Erg expression in angiogenic ECs resulted in decreased HDAC6 expression with increased tubulin acetylation. Thus, we have identified a novel function for the transcription factor Erg in regulating HDAC6 and multiple pathways essential for EC migration and angiogenesis.

ICAM-2 regulates vascular permeability and N-cadherin localization through ezrin-radixin-moesin (ERM) proteins and Rac-1 signalling.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial junctions control functions such as permeability, angiogenesis and contact inhibition. VE-Cadherin (VECad) is essential for the maintenance of intercellular contacts. In confluent endothelial monolayers, N-Cadherin (NCad) is mostly expressed on the apical and basal membrane, but in the absence of VECad it localizes at junctions. Both cadherins are required for vascular development. The intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-2, also localized at endothelial junctions, is involved in leukocyte recruitment and angiogenesis. RESULTS: In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), both VECad and NCad were found at nascent cell contacts of sub-confluent monolayers, but only VECad localized at the mature junctions of confluent monolayers. Inhibition of ICAM-2 expression by siRNA caused the appearance of small gaps at the junctions and a decrease in NCad junctional staining in sub-confluent monolayers. Endothelioma lines derived from WT or ICAM-2-deficient mice (IC2neg) lacked VECad and failed to form junctions, with loss of contact inhibition. Re-expression of full-length ICAM-2 (IC2 FL) in IC2neg cells restored contact inhibition through recruitment of NCad at the junctions. Mutant ICAM-2 lacking the binding site for ERM proteins (IC2 ΔERM) or the cytoplasmic tail (IC2 ΔTAIL) failed to restore junctions. ICAM-2-dependent Rac-1 activation was also decreased in these mutant cell lines. Barrier function, measured in vitro via transendothelial electrical resistance, was decreased in IC2neg cells, both in resting conditions and after thrombin stimulation. This was dependent on ICAM-2 signalling to the small GTPase Rac-1, since transendothelial electrical resistance of IC2neg cells was restored by constitutively active Rac-1. In vivo, thrombin-induced extravasation of FITC-labeled albumin measured by intravital fluorescence microscopy in the mouse cremaster muscle showed that permeability was increased in ICAM-2-deficient mice compared to controls. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that ICAM-2 regulates endothelial barrier function and permeability through a pathway involving N-Cadherin, ERMs and Rac-1.

The transcription factor Erg controls endothelial cell quiescence by repressing activity of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65.

The interaction of transcription factors with specific DNA sequences is critical for activation of gene expression programs. In endothelial cells (EC), the transcription factor NF-κB is important in the switch from quiescence to activation, and is tightly controlled to avoid excessive inflammation and organ damage. Here we describe a novel mechanism that controls the activation of NF-κB in EC. The transcription factor Erg, the most highly expressed ETS member in resting EC, controls quiescence by repressing proinflammatory gene expression. Focusing on intercellular adhesion molecule 1(ICAM)-1 as a model, we identify two ETS binding sites (EBS -118 and -181) within the ICAM-1 promoter required for Erg-mediated repression. We show that Erg binds to both EBS -118 and EBS -181, the latter located within the NF-κB binding site. Interestingly, inhibition of Erg expression in quiescent EC results in increased NF-κB-dependent ICAM-1 expression, indicating that Erg represses basal NF-κB activity. Erg prevents NF-κB p65 from binding to the ICAM-1 promoter, suggesting a direct mechanism of interference. Gene set enrichment analysis of transcriptome profiles of Erg and NF-κB-dependent genes, together with chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) studies, reveals that this mechanism is common to other proinflammatory genes, including cIAP-2 and IL-8. These results identify a role for Erg as a gatekeeper controlling vascular inflammation, thus providing an important barrier to protect against inappropriate endothelial activation.

Endothelial von Willebrand factor regulates angiogenesis.

The regulation of blood vessel formation is of fundamental importance to many physiological processes, and angiogenesis is a major area for novel therapeutic approaches to diseases from ischemia to cancer. A poorly understood clinical manifestation of pathological angiogenesis is angiodysplasia, vascular malformations that cause severe gastrointestinal bleeding. Angiodysplasia can be associated with von Willebrand disease (VWD), the most common bleeding disorder in man. VWD is caused by a defect or deficiency in von Willebrand factor (VWF), a glycoprotein essential for normal hemostasis that is involved in inflammation. We hypothesized that VWF regulates angiogenesis. Inhibition of VWF expression by short interfering RNA (siRNA) in endothelial cells (ECs) caused increased in vitro angiogenesis and increased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-2 (VEGFR-2)-dependent proliferation and migration, coupled to decreased integrin αvß3 levels and increased angiopoietin (Ang)-2 release. ECs expanded from blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells of VWD patients confirmed these results. Finally, 2 different approaches, in situ and in vivo, showed increased vascularization in VWF-deficient mice. We therefore identify a new function of VWF in ECs, which confirms VWF as a protein with multiple vascular roles and defines a novel link between hemostasis and angiogenesis. These results may have important consequences for the management of VWD, with potential therapeutic implications for vascular diseases.

The transcription factor Erg inhibits vascular inflammation by repressing NF-kappaB activation and proinflammatory gene expression in endothelial cells.

OBJECTIVE: To test whether ETS-related gene (Erg) inhibits tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-dependent endothelial activation and inflammation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Endothelial activation underlies many vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. Endothelial activation by proinflammatory cytokines decreases expression of the ETS transcription factor Erg. By using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), we showed that Erg overexpression by adenovirus (AdErg) repressed basal and TNF-α-induced expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM), and interleukin 8 (IL-8). Erg inhibited TNF-α-dependent activation of the ICAM-1 promoter, nuclear factor (NF)-κB activity, and NF-κB p65 phosphorylation. Basal NF-κB activity was also inhibited by Erg overexpression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that Erg binds to the ICAM-1 proximal promoter region, which contains 7 putative ETS binding sites. To test the anti-inflammatory role of Erg in vivo, we used a murine model of TNF-α-dependent acute inflammation. The injection of AdErg into the paw decreased TNF-α-induced inflammation compared with control. Finally, staining of human coronary plaques showed loss of Erg expression from the endothelium overlaying active plaque shoulders. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a novel physiological anti-inflammatory pathway under the control of the transcription factor Erg; this pathway inhibits NF-κB-dependent transcription and TNF-α-induced inflammation in vivo. These results suggest a novel approach to anti-inflammatory therapies.

Identifying high-confidence capture Hi-C interactions using CHiCANE.

The ability to identify regulatory interactions that mediate gene expression changes through distal elements, such as risk loci, is transforming our understanding of how genomes are spatially organized and regulated. Capture Hi-C (CHi-C) is a powerful tool to delineate such regulatory interactions. However, primary analysis and downstream interpretation of CHi-C profiles remains challenging and relies on disparate tools with ad-hoc input/output formats and specific assumptions for statistical modeling. Here we present a data processing and interaction calling toolkit (CHiCANE), specialized for the analysis and meaningful interpretation of CHi-C assays. In this protocol, we demonstrate applications of CHiCANE to region capture Hi-C (rCHi-C) and promoter capture Hi-C (pCHi-C) libraries, followed by quality assessment of interaction peaks, as well as downstream analysis specific to rCHi-C and pCHi-C to aid functional interpretation. For a typical rCHi-C/pCHi-C dataset this protocol takes up to 3 d for users with a moderate understanding of R programming and statistical concepts, although this is dependent on dataset size and compute power available. CHiCANE is freely available at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/chicane .

Regulation of angiogenesis by ETS transcription factors.

Transcription factors of the ETS family are important regulators of endothelial gene expression. Here, we review the evidence that ETS factors regulate angiogenesis and briefly discuss the target genes and pathways involved. Finally, we discuss novel evidence that shows how these transcription factors act in a combinatorial fashion with others, through composite sites that may be crucial in determining endothelial specificity in gene transcription.

Capture Hi-C identifies putative target genes at 33 breast cancer risk loci.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified approximately 100 breast cancer risk loci. Translating these findings into a greater understanding of the mechanisms that influence disease risk requires identification of the genes or non-coding RNAs that mediate these associations. Here, we use Capture Hi-C (CHi-C) to annotate 63 loci; we identify 110 putative target genes at 33 loci. To assess the support for these target genes in other data sources we test for associations between levels of expression and SNP genotype (eQTLs), disease-specific survival (DSS), and compare them with somatically mutated cancer genes. 22 putative target genes are eQTLs, 32 are associated with DSS and 14 are somatically mutated in breast, or other, cancers. Identifying the target genes at GWAS risk loci will lead to a greater understanding of the mechanisms that influence breast cancer risk and prognosis.

Major amino acid sequence variants of viral vascular endothelial growth factor are functionally equivalent during Orf virus infection of sheep skin.

Orf virus infection causes a contagious pustular dermatitis characterized by extensive vascular changes that have been linked to a virally encoded vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The VEGF genes of different strains of orf virus can vary extensively in amino acid sequence. Functional analyses of two major variant VEGF proteins derived from orf virus strains, NZ2 and NZ7, have revealed quantitative differences in biological activities and receptor binding specificities suggesting that these viral VEGFs could have different roles in the pathology of orf virus infection. In this study, we show that both orf virus strains express equivalent levels of the viral VEGF variants and during infection of sheep skin induce comparable levels of vascularization, edema, epidermal rete ridge and scab formation. Recombinants of orf virus NZ2 and NZ7 strains in which the variant VEGF genes were disrupted showed markedly reduced vascular changes and evidence of partially attenuated viral growth. These results demonstrate that despite substantial differences in sequence and biological activity in vitro, these virally expressed virulence factors are functionally equivalent in their natural host, contributing equally to orf virus pathology.

Capture Hi-C identifies the chromatin interactome of colorectal cancer risk loci.

Multiple regulatory elements distant from their targets on the linear genome can influence the expression of a single gene through chromatin looping. Chromosome conformation capture implemented in Hi-C allows for genome-wide agnostic characterization of chromatin contacts. However, detection of functional enhancer-promoter interactions is precluded by its effective resolution that is determined by both restriction fragmentation and sensitivity of the experiment. Here we develop a capture Hi-C (cHi-C) approach to allow an agnostic characterization of these physical interactions on a genome-wide scale. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with complex diseases often reside within regulatory elements and exert effects through long-range regulation of gene expression. Applying this cHi-C approach to 14 colorectal cancer risk loci allows us to identify key long-range chromatin interactions in cis and trans involving these loci.

Transcription factor Erg regulates angiogenesis and endothelial apoptosis through VE-cadherin.

Tight regulation of the balance between apoptosis and survival is essential in angiogenesis. The ETS transcription factor Erg is required for endothelial tube formation in vitro. Inhibition of Erg expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), using antisense oligonucleotides, resulted in detachment of cell-cell contacts and increased cell death. Inhibition of Erg expression by antisense in HUVECs also lowered expression of the adhesion molecule vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin, a key regulator of endothelial intercellular junctions and survival. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we showed that Erg binds to the VE-cadherin promoter. Furthermore, Erg was found to enhance VE-cadherin promoter activity in a transactivation assay. Apoptosis induced by inhibition of Erg was partly rescued by overexpression of VE-cadherin-GFP, suggesting that VE-cadherin is involved in the Erg-dependent survival signals. To show the role of Erg in angiogenesis in vivo, we used siRNA against Erg in a Matrigel plug model. Erg inhibition resulted in a significant decrease in vascularization, with increase in caspase-positive endothelial cells (ECs). These results identify a new pathway regulating angiogenesis and endothelial survival, via the transcription factor Erg and the adhesion molecule VE-cadherin.

Viral vascular endothelial growth factors vary extensively in amino acid sequence, receptor-binding specificities, and the ability to induce vascular permeability yet are uniformly active mitogens.

Infections of humans and ungulates by parapoxviruses result in skin lesions characterized by extensive vascular changes that have been linked to viral-encoded homologues of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF acts via a family of receptors (VEGFRs) to mediate endothelial cell proliferation, vascular permeability, and angiogenesis. The VEGF genes from independent parapoxvirus isolates show an extraordinary degree of inter-strain sequence variation. We conducted functional comparisons of five representatives of the divergent viral VEGFs. These revealed that despite the sequence divergence, all were equally active mitogens, stimulating proliferation of human endothelial cells in vitro and vascularization of sheep skin in vivo with potencies equivalent to VEGF. This was achieved even though the viral VEGFs bound VEGFR-2 less avidly than did VEGF. Surprisingly the viral VEGFs varied in their ability to cross-link VEGFR-2, induce vascular permeability and bind neuropilin-1. Correlations between these three activities were detected. In addition it was possible to correlate these functional variations with certain sequence and structural motifs specific to the viral VEGFs. In contrast to the conserved ability to bind human VEGFR-2, the viral growth factors did not bind either VEGFR-1 or VEGFR-3. We propose that the extensive sequence divergence seen in the viral VEGFs was generated primarily by selection against VEGFR-1 binding.