Mediator kinase inhibition further activates super-enhancer-associated genes in AML.

Super-enhancers (SEs), which are composed of large clusters of enhancers densely loaded with the Mediator complex, transcription factors and chromatin regulators, drive high expression of genes implicated in cell identity and disease, such as lineage-controlling transcription factors and oncogenes. BRD4 and CDK7 are positive regulators of SE-mediated transcription. By contrast, negative regulators of SE-associated genes have not been well described. Here we show that the Mediator-associated kinases cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) and CDK19 restrain increased activation of key SE-associated genes in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells. We report that the natural product cortistatin A (CA) selectively inhibits Mediator kinases, has anti-leukaemic activity in vitro and in vivo, and disproportionately induces upregulation of SE-associated genes in CA-sensitive AML cell lines but not in CA-insensitive cell lines. In AML cells, CA upregulated SE-associated genes with tumour suppressor and lineage-controlling functions, including the transcription factors CEBPA, IRF8, IRF1 and ETV6 (refs 6-8). The BRD4 inhibitor I-BET151 downregulated these SE-associated genes, yet also has anti-leukaemic activity. Individually increasing or decreasing the expression of these transcription factors suppressed AML cell growth, providing evidence that leukaemia cells are sensitive to the dosage of SE-associated genes. Our results demonstrate that Mediator kinases can negatively regulate SE-associated gene expression in specific cell types, and can be pharmacologically targeted as a therapeutic approach to AML.

Overinhibition of corticostriatal activity following prenatal cocaine exposure.

OBJECTIVE: Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) can cause persistent neuropsychological and motor abnormalities in affected children, but the physiological consequences of PCE remain unclear. Conclusions drawn from clinical studies can sometimes be confounded by polysubstance abuse and nutritional deprivation. However, existing observations suggest that cocaine exposure in utero, as in adults, increases synaptic dopamine and promotes enduring dopamine-dependent plasticity at striatal synapses, altering behaviors and basal ganglia function. METHODS: We used a combination of behavioral measures, electrophysiology, optical imaging, and biochemical and electrochemical recordings to examine corticostriatal activity in adolescent mice exposed to cocaine in utero. RESULTS: We show that PCE caused abnormal dopamine-dependent behaviors, including heightened excitation following stress and blunted locomotor augmentation after repeated treatment with amphetamine. These abnormal behaviors were consistent with abnormal γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) interneuron function, which promoted a reversible depression in corticostriatal activity. PCE hyperpolarized and reduced tonic GABA currents in both fast-spiking and persistent low-threshold spiking type GABA interneurons to increase tonic inhibition at GABAB receptors on presynaptic corticostriatal terminals. Although D2 receptors paradoxically increased glutamate release following PCE, normal corticostriatal modulation by dopamine was reestablished with a GABAA receptor antagonist. INTERPRETATION: The dynamic alterations at corticostriatal synapses that occur in response to PCE parallel the reported effects of repeated psychostimulants in mature animals, but differ in being specifically generated through GABAergic mechanisms. Our results indicate approaches that normalize GABA and D2 receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity may be useful for treating the behavioral effects of PCE and other developmental disorders that are generated through abnormal GABAergic signaling.

Regulation of prefrontal excitatory neurotransmission by dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core.

Interactions between dopamine and glutamate signalling within the nucleus accumbens core are required for behavioural reinforcement and habit formation. Dopamine modulates excitatory glutamatergic signals from the prefrontal cortex, but the precise mechanism has not been identified. We combined optical and electrophysiology recordings in murine slice preparations from CB1 receptor-null mice and green fluorescent protein hemizygotic bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic mice to show how dopamine regulates glutamatergic synapses specific to the striatonigral and striatopallidal basal ganglia pathways. At low cortical frequencies, dopamine D1 receptors promote glutamate release to both D1 and D2 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons while D2 receptors specifically inhibit excitatory inputs to D2 receptor-expressing cells by decreasing exocytosis from cortical terminals with a low probability of release. At higher cortical stimulation frequencies, this dopaminergic modulation of presynaptic activity is occluded by adenosine and endocannabinoids. Glutamatergic inputs to both D1 and D2 receptor-bearing medium spiny neurons are inhibited by adenosine, released upon activation of NMDA and AMPA receptors and adenylyl cyclase in D1 receptor-expressing cells. Excitatory inputs to D2 receptor-expressing cells are specifically inhibited by endocannabinoids, whose release is dependent on D2 and group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors. The convergence of excitatory and inhibitory modulation of corticoaccumbal activity by dopamine, adenosine and endocannabinoids creates subsets of corticoaccumbal inputs, selectively and temporally reinforces strong cortical signals through the striatonigral pathway while inhibiting the weak, and may provide a mechanism whereby continued attention might be focused on behaviourally salient information.

Incorporation of a nucleoside analog maps genome repair sites in postmitotic human neurons.

Neurons are the longest-lived cells in our bodies and lack DNA replication, which makes them reliant on a limited repertoire of DNA repair mechanisms to maintain genome fidelity. These repair mechanisms decline with age, but we have limited knowledge of how genome instability emerges and what strategies neurons and other long-lived cells may have evolved to protect their genomes over the human life span. A targeted sequencing approach in human embryonic stem cell-induced neurons shows that, in neurons, DNA repair is enriched at well-defined hotspots that protect essential genes. These hotspots are enriched with histone H2A isoforms and RNA binding proteins and are associated with evolutionarily conserved elements of the human genome. These findings provide a basis for understanding genome integrity as it relates to aging and disease in the nervous system.

Mediator Kinase Phosphorylation of STAT1 S727 Promotes Growth of Neoplasms With JAK-STAT Activation.

Constitutive JAK-STAT signaling drives the proliferation of most myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and a subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but persistence emerges with chronic exposure to JAK inhibitors. MPN and post-MPN AML are dependent on tyrosine phosphorylation of STATs, but the role of serine STAT1 phosphorylation remains unclear. We previously demonstrated that Mediator kinase inhibitor cortistatin A (CA) reduced proliferation of JAK2-mutant AML in vitro and in vivo and also suppressed CDK8-dependent phosphorylation of STAT1 at serine 727. Here we report that phosphorylation of STAT1 S727 promotes the proliferation of AML cells with JAK-STAT pathway activation. Inhibition of serine phosphorylation by CA promotes growth arrest and differentiation, inhibits colony formation in MPN patient samples and reduces allele burden in MPN mouse models. These results reveal that STAT1 pS727 regulates growth and differentiation in JAK-STAT activated neoplasms and suggest that Mediator kinase inhibition represents a therapeutic strategy to regulate JAK-STAT signaling.