RESUMO
Tumor cell heterogeneity defines therapy responsiveness in neuroblastoma (NB), a cancer derived from neural crest cells. NB consists of two primary subtypes: adrenergic and mesenchymal. Adrenergic traits predominate in NB tumors, while mesenchymal features becomes enriched post-chemotherapy or after relapse. The interconversion between these subtypes contributes to NB lineage plasticity, but the underlying mechanisms driving this phenotypic switching remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex ATPases are essential in establishing an mesenchymal gene-permissive chromatin state in adrenergic-type NB, facilitating lineage plasticity. Targeting SWI/SNF ATPases with SMARCA2/4 dual degraders effectively inhibits NB cell proliferation, invasion, and notably, cellular plasticity, thereby preventing chemotherapy resistance. Mechanistically, depletion of SWI/SNF ATPases compacts cis-regulatory elements, diminishes enhancer activity, and displaces core transcription factors (MYCN, HAND2, PHOX2B, and GATA3) from DNA, thereby suppressing transcriptional programs associated with plasticity. These findings underscore the pivotal role of SWI/SNF ATPases in driving intrinsic plasticity and therapy resistance in neuroblastoma, highlighting an epigenetic target for combinational treatments in this cancer.
RESUMO
Gene amplification is a hallmark of cancer with chromosomal instability although the underlying mechanism by which altered copy numbers are maintained is largely unclear. Cohesin, involved in sister chromatid cohesion, DNA repair, cell cycle progression and transcriptional regulation of key developmental genes, is frequently overexpressed in human cancer. Here we show that cohesin-dependent change in DNA replication controls the copy numbers of amplified genes in cancer cells with chromosomal instability. We found that the down-regulation of elevated cohesin leads to copy number-associated gene expression changes without disturbing chromosomal segregation. Highly amplified genes form typical long-range chromatin interactions, which are stabilized by enriched cohesin. The spatial proximities among cohesin binding sites within amplified genes are decreased by RAD21-knockdown, resulting in the rapid decline of amplified gene expression. After several passages, cohesin depletion inhibits DNA replication initiation by reducing the recruitment of pre-replication complexes such as minichromosome maintenance subunits 7 (MCM7), DNA polymerase α, and CDC45 at replication origins near the amplified regions, and as a result, decreases the DNA copy numbers of highly amplified genes. Collectively, our data demonstrate that cohesin-mediated chromatin organization and DNA replication are important for stabilizing gene amplification in cancer cells with chromosomal instability.
Assuntos
Instabilidade Cromossômica , Amplificação de Genes , Regulação Neoplásica da Expressão Gênica , Proteínas Nucleares/genética , Fosfoproteínas/genética , Neoplasias Gástricas/genética , Sítios de Ligação , Fator de Ligação a CCCTC , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/genética , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/metabolismo , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Cromátides/química , Cromátides/metabolismo , Cromatina/química , Cromatina/metabolismo , Segregação de Cromossomos , Hibridização Genômica Comparativa , DNA Polimerase I/genética , DNA Polimerase I/metabolismo , Replicação do DNA , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA , Dosagem de Genes , Células HCT116 , Células Hep G2 , Humanos , Componente 7 do Complexo de Manutenção de Minicromossomo/genética , Componente 7 do Complexo de Manutenção de Minicromossomo/metabolismo , Proteínas Nucleares/antagonistas & inibidores , Proteínas Nucleares/metabolismo , Fosfoproteínas/antagonistas & inibidores , Fosfoproteínas/metabolismo , Ligação Proteica , RNA Interferente Pequeno/genética , RNA Interferente Pequeno/metabolismo , Proteínas Repressoras/genética , Proteínas Repressoras/metabolismo , Neoplasias Gástricas/metabolismo , Neoplasias Gástricas/patologiaRESUMO
Recent genome-wide epigenomic and transcription profiling studies have demonstrated that epigenetic silencing can encompass multiple neighboring genes, termed as long-range epigenetic silencing (LRES). Herein, we identified a novel LRES region by comparing gene expression of human colon cancer HCT116 cells with their DNA methyltransferase 1 and DNA methyltransferase 3B double-knockout derivative double-knockout cells. Ten consecutive genes spanning 3 Mb of chromosome 15q25 were coordinately silenced, with eight genes showing promoter CpG island hypermethylation and enrichment of repressive histone marks, which were evaluated by bisulfite sequencing analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Comparison of primary gastric tumor specimens with normal tissue confirmed that the long-range silencing of this region was tumor specific. Methylation of genes within the LRES region was evaluated in 190 gastric tumor tissues using the MethyLight assay, and their association with clinicopathological features, such as older age, high-grade differentiation, and diffuse or mixed-type histology, was determined. LRES-positive gastric cancer patients (six or more methylated genes) showed lower recurrence and better survival. Our findings emphasize the differential dynamics of DNA methylation and histone modification, indicating the importance of studying the relationship of each epigenetic modification in the context of chromatin domains. Patients with LRES showed lower recurrence and better prognosis, indicating that stratifying patients according to underlying molecular features, such as LRES regions, may better predict recurrence and survival.
Assuntos
Cromossomos Humanos Par 15 , Epigênese Genética , Inativação Gênica , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/genética , Neoplasias Gástricas/genética , Adulto , Idoso , Ilhas de CpG , Metilação de DNA , Feminino , Histonas , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/mortalidade , Recidiva Local de Neoplasia/patologia , Regiões Promotoras Genéticas , Neoplasias Gástricas/mortalidade , Neoplasias Gástricas/patologia , Taxa de Sobrevida , Adulto JovemRESUMO
PURPOSE: Epigenetic alterations of specific genes have recently been identified as diagnostic biomarkers for human cancers. However, there are currently no standardized epigenetic biomarkers for drug sensitivity in human gastrointestinal cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify a novel epigenetic biomarker in gastrointestinal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using bisulfite sequencing and pyrosequencing analysis, DNA methylation patterns of gastric, colon primary tissues and their cancer cells were analyzed, and histone modifications were analyzed using chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. In addition, cancer cells were exposed to cisplatin and treated with a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor. RESULTS: We report that in human gastric and colon cancers, latrophilin 2 (LPHN2) is silenced by epigenetic modifications, including CpG island methylation and aberrant histone modifications. We also confirmed that LPHN2 was silenced by DNA hypermethylation in primary gastric and colon tumor tissues compared to their normal counterparts. Interestingly, we found that cancer cells with methylated LPHN2 showed higher sensitivity to cisplatin. Also, 5-aza- 2'-deoxycytidine combined with cisplatin decreased the cytotoxicity of cisplatin in cancer cells with methylated LPHN2. In addition, LPHN2 knockdown in cancer cells with high LPHN2 expression sensitized these cells to the anti-proliferative effects of cisplatin. CONCLUSION: In human gastrointestinal cancer, we found that LPHN2 is regulated by epigenetic modifications, and that cancer cells with lower LPHN2 expression show higher sensitivity to cisplatin. Therefore, the methylation status of LPHN2 is a potential novel epigenetic biomarker for cisplatin treatment in human gastric and colon cancers.