scholarly journals Computational drug repositioning of bortezomib to reverse metastatic effect ofGALNT14in lung cancer

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ok-Seon Kwon ◽  
Haeseung Lee ◽  
Hyeon-Joon Kong ◽  
Ji Eun Park ◽  
Wooin Lee ◽  
...  

AbstractAlthough many molecular targets for cancer therapy have been discovered, they often show poor druggability, which is a major obstacle to develop targeted drugs. As an alternative route to drug discovery, we adopted anin silicodrug repositioning (in silicoDR) approach based on large-scale gene expression signatures, with the goal of identifying inhibitors of lung cancer metastasis. Our analysis of clinicogenomic data identified GALNT14, an enzyme involved in O-linked N-acetyl galactosamine glycosylation, as a putative driver of lung cancer metastasis leading to poor survival. To overcome the poor druggability of GALNT14, we leveraged Connectivity Map approach, anin silicoscreening for drugs that are likely to revert the metastatic expression patterns. It leads to identification of bortezomib (BTZ) as a potent metastatic inhibitor, bypassing direct inhibition of poorly druggable target, GALNT14. The anti-metastatic effect of BTZ was verifiedin vitroandin vivo. Notably, both BTZ treatment andGALNT14knockdown attenuated TGFβ-mediated gene expression and suppressed TGFβ-dependent metastatic genes, suggesting that BTZ acts by modulating TGFβ signalingTaken together, these results demonstrate that ourin silicoDR approach is a viable strategy to identify a candidate drug for undruggable targets, and to uncover its underlying mechanisms.

Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shang-Gin Wu ◽  
Tzu-Hua Chang ◽  
Yi-Nan Liu ◽  
Jin-Yuan Shih

Tumor metastasis is a hallmark of cancer, with distant metastasis frequently developing in lung cancer, even at initial diagnosis, resulting in poor prognosis and high mortality. However, available biomarkers cannot reliably predict cancer spreading sites. The metastatic cascade involves highly complicated processes including invasion, migration, angiogenesis, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition that are tightly controlled by various genetic expression modalities along with interaction between cancer cells and the extracellular matrix. In particular, microRNAs (miRNAs), a group of small non-coding RNAs, can influence the transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes, with dysregulation of miRNA expression contributing to the regulation of cancer metastasis. Nevertheless, although miRNA-targeted therapy is widely studied in vitro and in vivo, this strategy currently affords limited feasibility and a few miRNA-targeted therapies for lung cancer have entered into clinical trials to date. Advances in understanding the molecular mechanism of metastasis will thus provide additional potential targets for lung cancer treatment. This review discusses the current research related to the role of miRNAs in lung cancer invasion and metastasis, with a particular focus on the different metastatic lesions and potential miRNA-targeted treatments for lung cancer with the expectation that further exploration of miRNA-targeted therapy may establish a new spectrum of lung cancer treatments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne-Line Rabben ◽  
Gøran Troseth Andersen ◽  
Aleksandr Ianevski ◽  
Magnus Kringstad Olsen ◽  
Denis Kainov ◽  
...  

Objective: The aim of the present study was repositioning of ivermectin in treatment of gastric cancer (GC) by computational prediction based on gene expression profiles of human and mouse model of GC and validations with in silico, in vitro and in vivo approaches.Methods: Computational drug repositioning was performed using connectivity map (cMap) and data/pathway mining with the Ingenuity Knowledge Base. Tissue samples of GC were collected from 16 patients and 57 mice for gene expression profiling. Additional seven independent datasets of gene expression of human GC from the TCGA database were used for validation. In silico testing was performed by constructing interaction networks of ivermectin and the downstream effects in targeted signaling pathways. In vitro testing was carried out in human GC cell lines (MKN74 and KATO-III). In vivo testing was performed in a transgenic mouse model of GC (INS-GAS mice).Results: GC gene expression “signature” and data/pathway mining but not cMAP revealed nine molecular targets of ivermectin in both human and mouse GC associated with WNT/β-catenin signaling as well as cell proliferation pathways. In silico inhibition of the targets of ivermectin and concomitant activation of ivermectin led to the inhibition of WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway in “dose-depended” manner. In vitro, ivermectin inhibited cell proliferation in time- and concentration-depended manners, and cells were arrested in the G1 phase at IC50 and shifted to S phase arrest at >IC50. In vivo, ivermectin reduced the tumor size which was associated with inactivation of WNT/β-catenin signaling and cell proliferation pathways and activation of cell death signaling pathways.Conclusion: Ivermectin could be recognized as a repositioning candidate in treatment of gastric cancer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abeer Babiker Idris ◽  
Einas Babiker Idris ◽  
Amany Eltayib Ataelmanan ◽  
Ali Elbagir Ali Mohamed ◽  
Bashir M. Osman Arbab ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infects nearly half of the world’s population with a variation in incidence among different geographic regions. Genetic variants in the promoter regions of the IL1B gene can affect cytokine expression and creates a condition of hypoacidity which favors the survival and colonization of H. pylori. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the polymorphic sites in the 5’- region [-687_+297] of IL1B in H. pylori infection using in silico tools.Results: A total of five nucleotide variations were detected in the 5’-regulatory region [-687_+297] of IL1B which led to the addition or alteration of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) or composite regulatory elements (CEs). Genotyping of IL1B-31 C>T revealed a significant association between -31T and susceptibility to H. pylori infection in the studied population (P=0.0363). Comparative analysis showed conservation rates of IL1B upstream [−368_+10] region above 70% in chimpanzee, rhesus monkey, a domesticated dog, cow and rat.Conclusions: In H. pylori-infected patients, three detected SNPs (-338, -155 and -31) located in the IL1B promoter were predicted to alter TFBSs and CE, which might affect the gene expression. These in silico predictions provide insight for further experimental in vitro and in vivo studies of the regulation of IL1B expression and its relationship to H. pylori infection. However, the recognition of regulatory motifs by computer algorithms is fundamental for understanding gene expression patterns.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Fulton ◽  
Seongwon Hwang ◽  
Yuxuan Wang ◽  
Lewis Thomson ◽  
Bethan Clark ◽  
...  

Pattern formation in development has been principally studied in tissues that are not undergoing extensive cellular rearrangement. However, in most developmental contexts, gene expression domains emerge as cells re-arrange their spatial positions within the tissue, providing an additional, and seldom explored, level of complexity to the process of pattern formation in vivo. To investigate this issue, we addressed the regulation of TBox expression in the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) as this tissue develops in zebrafish embryos. Here, cells must differentiate in a manner that leads to well-defined spatial gene expression domains along the tissue while undergoing rapid movements to generate axial length. We find that in vivo, mesoderm progenitors undergo TBox differentiation over a broad range of time scales while in vitro their differentiation is simultaneous. By reverse-engineering a gene regulatory network (GRN) to recapitulate TBox gene expression, we were able to predict the population-level differentiation dynamics observed in culture, but not in vivo. In order to address this discrepancy in differentiation dynamics we developed a ‘Live Modelling’ framework that allowed us to simulate the GRN on 3D tracking data generated from large-scale time-lapse imaging datasets of the developing PSM. Once the network was simulated on a realistic representation of the cells’ morphogenetic context, the model was able to recapitulate the range of differentiation time scales observed in vivo, and revealed that these were necessary for TBox gene expression patterns to emerge correctly at the level of the tissue. This work thus highlights a previously unappreciated role for cell movement as a driver of pattern formation in development.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin A. Sorg ◽  
Clement Gallay ◽  
Jan-Willem Veening

AbstractStreptococcus pneumoniae can cause disease in various human tissues and organs, including the ear, the brain, the blood and the lung, and thus in highly diverse and dynamic environments. It is challenging to study how pneumococci control virulence factor expression, because cues of natural environments and the presence of an immune system are difficult to simulate in vitro. Here, we apply synthetic biology methods to reverse-engineer gene expression control in S. pneumoniae. A selection platform is described that allows for straightforward identification of transcriptional regulatory elements out of combinatorial libraries. We present TetR- and LacI-regulated promoters that show expression ranges of four orders of magnitude. Based on these promoters, regulatory networks of higher complexity are assembled, such as logic AND and IMPLY gates. Finally, we demonstrate single-copy genome-integrated toggle switches that give rise to bimodal population distributions. The tools described here can be used to mimic complex expression patterns, such as the ones found for pneumococcal virulence factors, paving the way for in vivo investigations of the importance of gene expression control on the pathogenicity of S. pneumoniae.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Letícia Tiburcio Ferreira ◽  
Juliana Rodrigues ◽  
Gustavo Capatti Cassiano ◽  
Tatyana Almeida Tavella ◽  
Kaira Cristina Peralis Tomaz ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Widespread resistance against antimalarial drugs thwarts current efforts for controlling the disease and urges the discovery of new effective treatments. Drug repositioning is increasingly becoming an attractive strategy since it can reduce costs, risks, and time-to-market. Herein, we have used this strategy to identify novel antimalarial hits. We used a comparative in silico chemogenomics approach to select Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax proteins as potential drug targets and analyzed them using a computer-assisted drug repositioning pipeline to identify approved drugs with potential antimalarial activity. Among the seven drugs identified as promising antimalarial candidates, the anthracycline epirubicin was selected for further experimental validation. Epirubicin was shown to be potent in vitro against sensitive and multidrug-resistant P. falciparum strains and P. vivax field isolates in the nanomolar range, as well as being effective against an in vivo murine model of Plasmodium yoelii. Transmission-blocking activity was observed for epirubicin in vitro and in vivo. Finally, using yeast-based haploinsufficiency chemical genomic profiling, we aimed to get insights into the mechanism of action of epirubicin. Beyond the target predicted in silico (a DNA gyrase in the apicoplast), functional assays suggested a GlcNac-1-P-transferase (GPT) enzyme as a potential target. Docking calculations predicted the binding mode of epirubicin with DNA gyrase and GPT proteins. Epirubicin is originally an antitumoral agent and presents associated toxicity. However, its antiplasmodial activity against not only P. falciparum but also P. vivax in different stages of the parasite life cycle supports the use of this drug as a scaffold for hit-to-lead optimization in malaria drug discovery.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
N. Ruddock ◽  
K. Wilson ◽  
M. Cooney ◽  
R. Tecirlioglu ◽  
V. Hall ◽  
...  

Developmental pathways in the mammalian embryo are profoundly influenced by the epigenetic interaction of the environment and the genome. Loss of epigenetic control has been implicated in aberrant gene expression and altered imprinting patterns with consequence to the physiology and viability of the conceptus. Bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is contingent on in vitro culture, and both SCNT and culture conditions are known to induce changes in embryonic gene expression patterns. Using these experimental models, this study compared gene expression of Day 7 cloned blastocysts created from three different SCNT protocols using the same cell line, with Day 7 in vivo blastocysts to elucidate mechanisms responsible for variations in phenotypic outcomes. SCNT methods included: (1) traditional SCNT by subzonal injection (SI); (2) handmade cloning (HMC); and (3) modified serial nuclear transfer (SNT), developed within the group. Four imprinted genes (Grb10, Ndn, Nnat, and Ube3a), four chromatin remodeling genes (Cbx1, Cbx3, Smarca4, and Smarcb1) and two genes implicated in polycystic liver disease (Prkcsh and Sec63) were analyzed in single blastocysts from each treatment (n = 5). All blastocysts expressed Actin, Oct-4 and Ifn-tau. All genes were sequence verified. Several genes were expressed ubiquitously across all groups, including Ndn, Ube3a, Cbx1, Cbx3, and Smarcb1. Interestingly, Grb10 was not expressed in two HMCs and one SNT blastocyst. Nnat was weakly expressed in one in vivo blastocyst and in the majority of cloned blastocysts in all groups. Prkcsh and Sec63 were expressed in all but one HMC blastocyst. While gene expression patterns were mostly maintained following SCNT, the imprinted genes Nnat and Grb10 showed instances of differential or abnormal expression in SCNT embryos. The chromatin remodeling genes were maintained in all SCNT treatments. Prkcsh and Sec63 were both absent in one HMC blastocyst, with implications for liver dysfunction, a condition previously reported in abnormal cloned offspring. The variable mRNA expression following SCNT provides an insight into genetic and environmental factors controlling implantation, placentation, organ formation, and fetal growth.


Blood ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 92 (12) ◽  
pp. 4622-4631 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Stanford ◽  
Georgina Caruana ◽  
Katherine A. Vallis ◽  
Maneesha Inamdar ◽  
Michihiro Hidaka ◽  
...  

Abstract We have developed a large-scale, expression-based gene trap strategy to perform genome-wide functional analysis of the murine hematopoietic and vascular systems. Using two different gene trap vectors, we have isolated embryonic stem (ES) cell clones containing lacZreporter gene insertions in genes expressed in blood island and vascular cells, muscle, stromal cells, and unknown cell types. Of 79 clones demonstrating specific expression patterns, 49% and 16% were preferentially expressed in blood islands and/or the vasculature, respectively. The majority of ES clones that expressedlacZ in blood islands also expressed lacZ upon differentiation into hematopoietic cells on OP9 stromal layers. Importantly, the in vivo expression of the lacZ fusion products accurately recapitulated the observed in vitro expression patterns. Expression and sequence analysis of representative clones suggest that this approach will be useful for identifying and mutating novel genes expressed in the developing hematopoietic and vascular systems.


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