Live-cell three-dimensional single-molecule tracking reveals modulation of enhancer dynamics by NuRD.

To understand how the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex regulates enhancers and enhancer-promoter interactions, we have developed an approach to segment and extract key biophysical parameters from live-cell three-dimensional single-molecule trajectories. Unexpectedly, this has revealed that NuRD binds to chromatin for minutes, decompacts chromatin structure and increases enhancer dynamics. We also uncovered a rare fast-diffusing state of enhancers and found that NuRD restricts the time spent in this state. Hi-C and Cut&Run experiments revealed that NuRD modulates enhancer-promoter interactions in active chromatin, allowing them to contact each other over longer distances. Furthermore, NuRD leads to a marked redistribution of CTCF and, in particular, cohesin. We propose that NuRD promotes a decondensed chromatin environment, where enhancers and promoters can contact each other over longer distances, and where the resetting of enhancer-promoter interactions brought about by the fast decondensed chromatin motions is reduced, leading to more stable, long-lived enhancer-promoter relationships.

Heterobifunctional poly(ethylene oxide) oligomers containing carboxylic acids.

Syntheses of vinylsilyl alcohols having one to three vinyl moieties and their use as initiators for ethylene oxide polymerizations are discussed. Poly(ethylene oxide) oligomers with vinylsilanes at one end and a hydroxyl group at the other were prepared in base-catalyzed reactions. Molecular weights determined from 1H NMR and gel permeation chromatography were close to the targeted values. Carboxylic acid functional poly(ethylene oxide) oligomers were prepared from ene-thiol addition reactions of mercaptoacetic acid across the vinylsilane terminus. It is anticipated that these carboxylic acid functional oligomers will complex to magnetite nanoparticles to afford complexes that can be dispersed in aqueous media.

Vorinostat and Mithramycin A in combination therapy as an interesting strategy for the treatment of Sézary T lymphoma: a transcriptomic approach.

SAHA (vorinostat) is a histone deacetylase inhibitor approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating advanced refractory cutaneous T cell lymphomas. As SAHA alters the expression of many genes under control of the Sp1 transcription factor, we examined the effect of its association with the FDA-approved anticancer antibiotic Mithramycin A (MTR, plicamycin), a competitive inhibitor of Sp1 binding to DNA. Sézary syndrome (SS) cells, expanded ex vivo from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 4 patients, were tested for their sensitivity to the drugs regarding cytotoxicity and differential responsive gene expression. Multivariate statistical methods were used to identify genes whose expression is altered by SAHA, MTR, and the synergist effect of the two drugs. MTR, like SAHA, induced the apoptosis of SS cells, while the two drugs in combination showed clear synergy or potentiation. Expression data stressed a likely important role of additive or synergistic epigenetic modifications in the combined effect of the two drugs, while direct inhibition of Sp1-dependent transcription seemed to have only limited impact. Ontological analysis of modified gene expression suggested that the two drugs, either independently or synergistically, counteracted many intertwined pro-survival pathways deregulated in SS cells, resistance of these tumors to intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis, abnormal adhesion migration, and invasive properties, as well as immunosuppressive behavior. Our findings provide preliminary clues on the individual and combined effects of SAHA and MTR in SS cells and highlight a potential therapeutic interest of this novel pair of drugs for treatment of SS patients.

Preparation and functional properties of monoclonal antibodies to human, mouse and rat OX-2.

We have prepared mouse and rat hybridomas to a 43-kDa molecule expressed in the thymus, on a subpopulation of dendritic cells, and in the brain, in mammalian tissue derived from mouse, rat and human. Using CHO cells transiently transfected with adenovirus vector(s) expressing a cDNA construct for the relevant OX-2 gene, we show these monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) detect a molecule encoded by this construct (rat OX-2 (rOX-2), mouse OX-2 (mOX-2) and human OX-2 (huOX-2), respectively). Furthermore, at least some of the anti-rat Mabs detect determinants expressed on the murine OX-2 molecule, as we predicted in an earlier publication. Previous studies have implied that this molecule might serve an important role in regulation of cell signaling for cytokine production. Using one-way mixed leukocyte reactions we show that when cells are cultured in the presence of the species-specific Mab, cytokine production becomes polarized 'away from' type-2 cytokine production, with preferentially increased expression of type-1 cytokine production.