A Novel Oncogenic Function of PRC2 Heterogeneity in Medulloblastoma

Intratumor epigenetic heterogeneity is emerging as a key mechanism underlying tumor evolution and drug resistance. Medulloblastomas, the most common childhood malignant brain tumor, are classified into four subtypes including SHH medulloblastomas, which are characterized by elevated SHH signaling and a cerebellum granule neuron precursor (CGNP) cell-of-origin. Medulloblastomas are highly associated with epigenetic abnormalities. We observed that the histone H3K27 methyltransferase polycomb repressor complex 2 (PRC2) is often heterogeneous within individual SHH medulloblastoma tumors. Using mouse models, we showed that while a complete deletion of the PRC2 core subunit EED inhibited medulloblastoma growth, a mosaic deletion of EED significantly enhanced tumor growth. EED is intrinsically required for CGNP maintenance by inhibiting both neural differentiation and cell death. Complete EED deletion led to CGNP depletion and reduced occurrence of medulloblastoma. Surprisingly, we found that medulloblastomas with mosaic EED levels grew faster than did control wildtype tumors and expressed increased levels of oncogenes such as Igf2. Igf2 is directly repressed by PRC2 and has been demonstrated to be both necessary and sufficient for SHH medulloblastoma progression. We showed that IGF2 mediated the oncogenic effects of PRC2 heterogeneity in tumor growth. Using a human medulloblastoma cell line, we generated clones with different EED levels and confirmed that EEDlow cells could stimulate the growth of EEDhigh cells through derepressed IGF2 signals. Thus, PRC2 heterogeneity controls medulloblastoma growth through both intrinsic growth competence and non-cell autonomous mechanisms in distinct tumor subclones. We reveal a novel oncogenic function of PRC2 heterogeneity in tumor development.

The Expression of the Cancer-Associated lncRNA Snhg15 Is Modulated by EphrinA5-Induced Signaling

The Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and their respective ephrin-ligands are an important family of membrane receptors, being involved in developmental processes such as proliferation, migration, and in the formation of brain cancer such as glioma. Intracellular signaling pathways, which are activated by Eph receptor signaling, are well characterized. In contrast, it is unknown so far whether ephrins modulate the expression of lncRNAs, which would enable the transduction of environmental stimuli into our genome through a great gene regulatory spectrum. Applying a combination of functional in vitro assays, RNA sequencing, and qPCR analysis, we found that the proliferation and migration promoting stimulation of mouse cerebellar granule cells (CB) with ephrinA5 diminishes the expression of the cancer-related lncRNA Snhg15. In a human medulloblastoma cell line (DAOY) ephrinA5 stimulation similarly reduced SNHG15 expression. Computational analysis identified triple-helix-mediated DNA-binding sites of Snhg15 in promoters of genes found up-regulated upon ephrinA5 stimulation and known to be involved in tumorigenic processes. Our findings propose a crucial role of Snhg15 downstream of ephrinA5-induced signaling in regulating gene transcription in the nucleus. These findings could be potentially relevant for the regulation of tumorigenic processes in the context of glioma.

MBRS-23. SIGNIFICANCE OF mi-R33 IN GENERATION AND PROGRESSION OF MEDULLOBLASTOMA

Lipid metabolism has been shown to be associated with tumorigenicity in various malignancies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of miR-33, a key regulator of lipid metabolism, in tumorigenicity and progression of medulloblastoma. miR-33a is an only isotype of miR-33 in rodents although miR-33b is also detected in human. Incidence of medulloblastoma and histopathological findings were compared between ptch1+/- mice and ptch1+/- miR-33a-/- mice. Effect of miR-33b upregulation by cordycepin was tested in DAOY medulloblastoma cells both in vitro and in vivo. Knockout of miR-33a in ptch1+/- transgenic mouse model increased the incidence of spontaneous generation of medulloblastoma from 19.8% to 49.5% (p < 0.001) at 10 months. Cordycepin, which upregulates miR-33b, prevented tumor growth in DAOY human medulloblastoma cell line, but the effect was not evident in an orthotopic mouse medulloblastoma model. Although miR-33 seems to be an important regulator of medulloblastoma, treatment efficacy of cordycepin was not enough. Combination treatment with immunotherapy or cytotoxic treatment needs to be tested to show survival benefit in preclinical models.

Large Extracellular Vesicles Can be Characterised by Multiplex Labelling Using Imaging Flow Cytometry

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous in size (30 nm–10 µm), content (lipid, RNA, DNA, protein), and potential function(s). Many isolation techniques routinely discard the large EVs at the early stages of small EV or exosome isolation protocols. We describe here a standardised method to isolate large EVs from medulloblastoma cells and examine EV marker expression and diameter using imaging flow cytometry. Our approach permits the characterisation of each large EVs as an individual event, decorated with multiple fluorescently conjugated markers with the added advantage of visualising each event to ensure robust gating strategies are applied. Methods: We describe step-wise isolation and characterisation of a subset of large EVs from the medulloblastoma cell line UW228-2 assessed by fluorescent light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and tunable resistance pulse sensing (TRPS). Viability of parent cells was assessed by Annexin V exposure by flow cytometry. Imaging flow cytometry (Imagestream Mark II) identified EVs by direct fluorescent membrane labelling with Cell Mask Orange (CMO) in conjunction with EV markers. A stringent gating algorithm based on side scatter and fluorescence intensity was applied and expression of EV markers CD63, CD9 and LAMP 1 assessed. Results: UW228-2 cells prolifically release EVs of up to 6 µm. We show that the Imagestream Mark II imaging flow cytometer allows robust and reproducible analysis of large EVs, including assessment of diameter. We also demonstrate a correlation between increasing EV size and co-expression of markers screened. Conclusions: We have developed a labelling and stringent gating strategy which is able to explore EV marker expression (CD63, CD9, and LAMP1) on individual EVs within a widely heterogeneous population. Taken together, data presented here strongly support the value of exploring large EVs in clinical samples for potential biomarkers, useful in diagnostic screening and disease monitoring.

In Vitro Comparison of Passive and Active Clinical Proton Beams

Nowadays, the irradiation methodology in proton therapy is switching from the use of passively scattered beams to active pencil beams due to the possibility of more conformal dose distributions. The dose rates of active pencil beams are much higher than those of passive beams. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is any difference in the biological effectiveness of these passive and active irradiation modes. The beam qualities of double scattering and pencil beam scanning were measured dosimetrically and simulated using the Monte Carlo code. Using the medulloblastoma cell line DAOY, we performed an in vitro comparison of the two modes in two positions along the dose–deposition curve plateau and inside the Bragg peak. We followed the clonogenic cell survival, apoptosis, micronuclei, and γH2AX assays as biological endpoints. The Monte Carlo simulations did not reveal any difference between the beam qualities of the two modes. Furthermore, we did not observe any statistically significant difference between the two modes in the in vitro comparison of any of the examined biological endpoints. Our results do not show any biologically relevant differences related to the different dose rates of passive and active proton beams.

Large extracellular vesicles can be characterised by multiplex labelling using imaging flow cytometry

ABSTRACTExtracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous in size (30nm-10µm), content (lipid, RNA, DNA, protein) and potential function(s). Many isolation techniques routinely discard the large EVs at the early stages of small EV or exosome isolation protocols. We describe here a standardised method to isolate large EVs and examine EV marker expression and diameter using imaging flow cytometry.MethodsWe describe step-wise isolation and characterisation of a subset of large EVs from the medulloblastoma cell line UW228-2 assessed by fluorescent light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and TRPS. Viability of parent cells was assessed by Annexin V exposure by flow cytometry. Imaging flow cytometry (Imagestream Mark II) identified EVs by direct fluorescent membrane labelling with Cell Mask Orange (CMO) in conjunction with EV markers. A stringent gating algorithm based on side scatter and fluorescence intensity was applied and expression of EV markers CD63, CD9 and LAMP 1 assessed.ResultsUW228-2 cells prolifically release EVs of up to 6 µm. We show that the Imagestream Mark II imaging flow cytometer allows robust and reproducible analysis of large EVs, including assessment of diameter. We also demonstrate a correlation between increasing EV size and co-expression of markers screened.ConclusionsWe have developed a labelling and stringent gating strategy which is able to explore EV marker expression (CD63, CD9 and LAMP1) on individual EVs within a widely heterogeneous population. Taken together data presented here strongly support the value of exploring large EVs in clinical samples for potential biomarkers, useful in diagnostic screening and disease monitoring.

Transient primary cilia mediate robust Hedgehog pathway-dependent cell cycle control

SummaryThe regulation of proliferation is one of the primary functions of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling in development. Transduction of Hh signaling requires the primary cilium, a microtubule-based organelle that is necessary for several steps in the pathway (Corbit et al., 2005; Huangfu and Anderson, 2005; Huangfu et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2005; Rohatgi et al., 2007). Many cells only build a primary cilium upon cell cycle arrest in G0. In those proliferating cells that do make a cilium, it is a transient organelle, being assembled in G1 and disassembled sometime after, although exactly when is not well-characterized (Ford et al., 2018; Pugacheva et al., 2007; Wang and Dynlacht, 2018). Thus the requirement for primary cilia presents a conundrum: how are proliferative signals conveyed through an organelle that is present for only part of the cell cycle? Here we investigate this question in a mouse medulloblastoma cell line, SMB55, that requires cilium-mediated Hh pathway activity for proliferation (Zhao et al., 2015). We show that SMB55 cells are often ciliated beyond G1 into S phase, and the presence of the cilium determines the periods of Hh pathway activity. Using live imaging over multiple cell cycles, we define two windows of opportunity for Hh pathway activity, either of which is sufficient to effect cell cycle entry. The first is in the ciliated phase of the previous cell cycle, and the second is in G1 of the cell cycle in which the decision is made. We propose that the ability of cells to integrate Hh pathway activity from more than one cell cycle imparts robustness on Hh pathway control of proliferation and may have implications for other Hh-mediated events in development.

Push–pull configuration of high-power MOSFETs for generation of nanosecond pulses for electropermeabilization of cells

A power MOSFET-based push–pull configuration nanosecond-pulse generator has been designed, constructed, and characterized to permeabilize cells for biological and medical applications. The generator can deliver pulses with durations ranging from 80 ns up to 1 µs and pulse amplitudes up to 1.4 kV. The unit has been tested for in vitro experiments on a medulloblastoma cell line. Following the exposure of cells to 100, 200, and 300 ns electric field pulses, permeabilization tests were carried out, and viability tests were conducted to verify the performance of the generator. The maximum temperature rise of the biological load was also calculated based on Joule heating energy conservation and experimental validation. Our results indicate that the developed device has good capabilities to achieve well-controlled electro-manipulation in vitro.