LepR+ niche cell-derived AREG compromises hematopoietic stem cell maintenance under conditions of DNA repair deficiency and aging.

The cross talk between extrinsic niche-derived and intrinsic hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) factors controlling HSC maintenance remains elusive. Here, we demonstrated that amphiregulin (AREG) from bone marrow (BM) leptin receptor (LepR+) niche cells is an important factor that mediates the cross talk between the BM niche and HSCs in stem cell maintenance. Mice deficient of the DNA repair gene Brca2, specifically in LepR+ cells (LepR-Cre;Brca2fl/fl), exhibited increased frequencies of total and myeloid-biased HSCs. Furthermore, HSCs from LepR-Cre;Brca2fl/fl mice showed compromised repopulation, increased expansion of donor-derived, myeloid-biased HSCs, and increased myeloid output. Brca2-deficient BM LepR+ cells exhibited persistent DNA damage-inducible overproduction of AREG. Ex vivo treatment of wild-type HSCs or systemic treatment of C57BL/6 mice with recombinant AREG impaired repopulation, leading to HSC exhaustion. Conversely, inhibition of AREG by an anti-AREG-neutralizing antibody or deletion of the Areg gene in LepR-Cre;Brca2fl/fl mice rescued HSC defects caused by AREG. Mechanistically, AREG activated the phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, promoted HSC cycling, and compromised HSC quiescence. Finally, we demonstrated that BM LepR+ niche cells from other DNA repair-deficient and aged mice also showed persistent DNA damage-associated overexpression of AREG, which exerts similar negative effects on HSC maintenance. Therefore, we identified an important factor that regulates HSCs function under conditions of DNA repair deficiency and aging.

Comprehensive Genomic Profile of Heterogeneous Long Follow-Up Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Its Clinical Characteristics Shows DNA Repair Deficiency Has Better Prognostic.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) presents a marked diversity at the molecular level, which promotes a clinical heterogeneity that further complicates treatment. We performed a detailed whole exome sequencing profile of 29 Mexican patients with long follow-up TNBC to identify genomic alterations associated with overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and pathologic complete response (PCR), with the aim to define their role as molecular predictive factors of treatment response and prognosis. We detected 31 driver genes with pathogenic mutations in TP53 (53%), BRCA1/2 (27%), CDKN1B (9%), PIK3CA (9%), and PTEN (9%), and 16 operative mutational signatures. Moreover, tumors with mutations in BRCA1/2 showed a trend of sensitivity to platinum salts. We found an association between deficiency in DNA repair and surveillance genes and DFS. Across all analyzed tumors we consistently found a heterogeneous molecular complexity in terms of allelic composition and operative mutational processes, which hampered the definition of molecular traits with clinical utility. This work contributes to the elucidation of the global molecular alterations of TNBC by providing accurate genomic data that may help forthcoming studies to improve treatment and survival. This is the first study that integrates genomic alterations with a long follow-up of clinical variables in a Latin American population that is an underrepresented ethnicity in most of the genomic studies.

DNA Damage as a Driver for Growth Delay: Chromosome Instability Syndromes with Intrauterine Growth Retardation.

DNA is constantly exposed to endogenous and exogenous mutagenic stimuli that are capable of producing diverse lesions. In order to protect the integrity of the genetic material, a wide array of DNA repair systems that can target each specific lesion has evolved. Despite the availability of several repair pathways, a common general program known as the DNA damage response (DDR) is stimulated to promote lesion detection, signaling, and repair in order to maintain genetic integrity. The genes that participate in these pathways are subject to mutation; a loss in their function would result in impaired DNA repair and genomic instability. When the DDR is constitutionally altered, every cell of the organism, starting from development, will show DNA damage and subsequent genomic instability. The cellular response to this is either uncontrolled proliferation and cell cycle deregulation that ensues overgrowth, or apoptosis and senescence that result in tissue hypoplasia. These diverging growth abnormalities can clinically translate as cancer or growth retardation; both features can be found in chromosome instability syndromes (CIS). The analysis of the clinical, cellular, and molecular phenotypes of CIS with intrauterine growth retardation allows inferring that replication alteration is their unifying feature.

Fenotipo de la reparación por escisión de nucleótidos en pacientes cubanos con hipersensibilidad al sol / Phenotype of the nucleotide excision repair in Cuban sun-hypersensitive patients

INTRODUCCIÓN: deficiencias en los mecanismos de reparación del ácido desoxirribonucleico constituyen un factor de riesgo para el desarrollo del cáncer, como ocurre en el xeroderma pigmentoso. OBJETIVOS: evaluar el fenotipo de la reparación por escisión de nucleótidos en pacientes cubanos con una elevada hipersensibilidad al sol, y la sospecha clínica de xeroderma pigmentoso en la fase eritematopigmentaria, mediante la variante alcalina del ensayo cometa. MÉTODOS: se estudiaron 28 pacientes, con predominio de las edades pediátricas. Como inductor del daño al ácido desoxirribonucleico se utilizó la radiación ultravioleta C (254 nm) a una dosis de 40 J/m². El daño del ácido desoxirribonucleico se cuantificó inmediatamente, después de irradiar las células (tiempo 0 minutos) y un tiempo después de la irradiación, incubado a 37 ºC en medio de cultivo, enriquecido con suero fetal al 10 % (tiempo 45 min). Con estos datos se determinó el por ciento de la diferencia en las unidades arbitrarias (UA) entre ambos momentos. RESULTADOS: no se obtuvieron diferencias significativas (p= 0,080976) entre el grupo de pacientes (224,23 UA) y el grupo de sujetos controles (195,43 UA). Los pacientes reconocieron y escindieron el daño inducido en el ácido desoxirribonucleico por luz ultravioleta C, con una eficiencia similar a la de los controles. CONCLUSIONES: el ensayo cometa alcalino acoplado a radiación ultravioleta C permitió identificar, claramente y de forma indirecta, el funcionamiento de los mecanismos de reparación por escisión de nucleótidos, donde actúan las proteínas XPA a XPG. Los sujetos en estudio fueron excluidos de presentar la forma clásica de la enfermedad.

INTRODUCTION: deficiencies in the deoxyribonucleic acid repair mechanisms are a risk factor for cancer as is the case of xeroderma pigmentosum. OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the phenotype of nucleotide excision repair in Cuban sun hypersensitive patients with clinical suspicion of xeroderma pigmentosum at erythematopigmentary phase, by using the Comet assay alkaline variant. METHODS: twenty eight patients mainly at pediatric ages were studied. The used DNA damage inducer was ultraviolet radiation C (254 nm) at 40 J/m2 dose. The DNA damage was quantified immediately after cell irradiation (0 minutes) and some time afterwards, then cultured at 37 ºC and enriched with 10 % fetal serum (45 minutes). This data allowed determining the percentage of difference in arbitrary units (AU) between both moments. RESULTS: there was no significant differences (p= 0.080976) between the group of patients (224.23 AU) and the control group (195.43 UA). The UV-C induced DNA damage was recognized and excised in the patients with similar effectiveness to that of the controls. CONCLUSIONS: the UV-C radiation-coupled alkaline comet assay allowed clearly and indirectly identifying the functioning of the nucleotide excision repair mechanisms in which XPA to XPG proteins influence. The studied subjects did not show the classical form of this disease.

Research on plants for the understanding of diseases of nuclear and mitochondrial origin.

Different model organisms, such as Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, mouse, cultured human cell lines, among others, were used to study the mechanisms of several human diseases. Since human genes and proteins have been structurally and functionally conserved in plant organisms, the use of plants, especially Arabidopsis thaliana, as a model system to relate molecular defects to clinical disorders has recently increased. Here, we briefly review our current knowledge of human diseases of nuclear and mitochondrial origin and summarize the experimental findings of plant homologs implicated in each process.

Rapid and progressive pulmonary fibrosis in 2 families with DNA repair deficiencies of undetermined etiology.

Known genetic causes of pediatric interstitial lung disease include disorders of surfactant metabolism, telomerase, and DNA repair. We report 4 children from 2 families with rapidly progressive and fatal pulmonary fibrosis. A novel DNA repair defect unrelated to the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated gene was found in 1 child from each family.

Exploring DNA damage responses in human cells with recombinant adenoviral vectors.

Recombinant adenoviral vectors provide efficient means for gene transduction in mammalian cells in vitro and in vivo. We are currently using these vectors to transduce DNA repair genes into repair deficient cells, derived from xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) patients. XP is an autosomal syndrome characterized by a high frequency of skin tumors, especially in areas exposed to sunlight, and, occasionally, developmental and neurological abnormalities. XP cells are deficient in nucleotide excision repair (affecting one of the seven known XP genes, xpa to xpg) or in DNA replication of DNA lesions (affecting DNA polymerase eta, xpv). The adenovirus approach allows the investigation of different consequences of DNA lesions in cell genomes. Adenoviral vectors carrying several xp and photolyases genes have been constructed and successfully tested in cell culture systems and in vivo directly in the skin of knockout model mice. This review summarizes these recent data and proposes the use of recombinant adenoviruses as tools to investigate the mechanisms that provide protection against DNA damage in human cells, as well as to better understand the higher predisposition of XP patients to cancer.

Identification in silico of putative damage responsive elements (DRE) in promoter regions of the yeast genome

We report an in silico analysis to identify nucleotide sequence motifs in DNA repair genes that may define a binding site for regulatory proteins during the induction of those genes by mutagens. The damage responsive elements (DRE) weight matrix generated in this analysis was used to search for homologous sequences in the promoter region of all genes, including putative gene and hypothetical open reading frames (ORFs), in the Saccharomyces Genome Data Base (SGD). The results demonstrated that over one third of the yeast genes in the database presented at least one 15-bp sequence in their promoter region with 85% or more of similarity to the DRE consensus sequence. The presence of the DRE sequence in the promoter region of regulatory genes and its high similarity to other well reported DNA binding sites points to its involvement in the general regulation of not only DNA repair genes but yeast genes in general