0000000000315917

AUTHOR

Carsten Geiß

MYC dosage compensation is mediated by miRNA-transcription factor interactions in aneuploid cancer

SummaryWe hypothesize that dosage compensation of critical genes arises from systems-level properties for cancer cells to withstand the negative effects of aneuploidy. We identified several candidate genes in cancer multi-omics data and developed a biocomputational platform to construct a mathematical model of their interaction network with miRNAs and transcription factors, where the property of dosage compensation emerged for MYC and was dependent on the kinetic parameters of its feedback interactions with three micro-RNAs. These circuits were experimentally validated with a novel genetic tug-of-war technique by overexpressing an exogenous MYC leading to over-expression of the three microR…

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MYC dosage compensation is mediated by miRNA-transcription factor interactions in aneuploid cancer

Summary We hypothesize that dosage compensation of critical genes arises from systems-level properties for cancer cells to withstand the negative effects of aneuploidy. We identified several candidate genes in cancer multiomics data and developed a biocomputational platform to construct a mathematical model of their interaction network with micro-RNAs and transcription factors, where the property of dosage compensation emerged for MYC and was dependent on the kinetic parameters of its feedback interactions with three micro-RNAs. These circuits were experimentally validated using a genetic tug-of-war technique to overexpress an exogenous MYC, leading to overexpression of the three microRNAs …

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Assessing the reliability of gene expression measurements in very-low-numbers of human monocyte-derived macrophages

Abstract Tumor-derived primary cells are essential for in vitro and in vivo studies of tumor biology. The scarcity of this cellular material limits the feasibility of experiments or analyses and hence hinders basic and clinical research progress. We set out to determine the minimum number of cells that can be analyzed with standard laboratory equipment and that leads to reliable results, unbiased by cell number. A proof-of-principle study was conducted with primary human monocyte-derived macrophages, seeded in decreasing number and constant cell density. Gene expression of cells stimulated to acquire opposite inflammatory states was analyzed by quantitative PCR. Statistical analysis indicat…

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Metabolic and inflammatory reprogramming of macrophages by ONC201 translates in a pro-inflammatory environment even in presence of glioblastoma cells

Tumor-associated macrophages facilitate tumor progression and resistance to therapy. Their capacity for metabolic and inflammatory reprogramming represents an attractive therapeutic target. ONC201/TIC10 is an anticancer molecule that antagonizes the dopamine receptor D2 and affects mitochondria integrity in tumor cells. We examined whether ONC201 induces a metabolic and pro-inflammatory switch in primary human monocyte-derived macrophages that reactivates their antitumor activities, thus enhancing the onco-toxicity of ONC201. Contrary to glioblastoma cells, macrophages exhibited a low ratio of dopamine receptors D2/D5 gene expression and were resistant to ONC201 cytotoxicity. Macrophages re…

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<i>MYC</i> Dosage Compensation is Mediated by miRNA-Transcription Factor Interactions in Aneuploid Cancer

Cancer complexity is consequence of genomic instability leading to aneuploidy. We hypothesize that dosage compensation of critical genes arise from systems-level properties for cancer cells to withstand the negative effects of aneuploidy. We developed a computational platform to identify a network of miRNAs and transcription factors interacting with candidate dosage-compensated genes using NCI-60 multi-omic data. We next constructed a mathematical model where the property of dosage compensation emerged for MYC and STAT3 and was dependent on the kinetic parameters of their feedback and feed-forward interactions with four miRNAs. We developed a genetic tug-of-war approach by overexpressing an…

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