An optofluidic constriction chip for monitoring metastatic potential and drug response of cancer cells.

Cellular mechanical properties constitute good markers to characterize tumor cells, to study cell population heterogeneity and to highlight the effect of drug treatments. In this work, we describe the fabrication and validation of an integrated optofluidic chip capable of analyzing cellular deformability on the basis of the pressure gradient needed to push a cell through a narrow constriction. We demonstrate the ability of the chip to discriminate between tumorigenic and metastatic breast cancer cells (MCF7 and MDA-MB231) and between human melanoma cells with different metastatic potential (A375P and A375MC2). Moreover, we show that this chip allows highlighting the effect of drugs interfering with microtubule organization (paclitaxel, combretastatin A-4 and nocodazole) on cancer cells, which leads to changes in the pressure-gradient required to push cells through the constriction. Our single-cell microfluidic device for mechanical evaluation is compact and easy to use, allowing for an extensive use in different laboratory environments.

Telomerase: cellular immortalization and neoplastic transformation. Multiple functions of a multifaceted complex.

The telomerase complex allows telomere length maintenance, which is required for an unlimited cellular proliferation. Telomerase is virtually absent in normal human somatic cells, which are characterized by a definite proliferation potential, while it is present in the vast majority of tumors (around 90%). Restoring telomerase activity in normal somatic cells can indefinitely prolong cellular life span. However, evidence has been reported that this event can be associated with the acquisition of characteristics typical of cellular transformation. Moreover, analysis of telomerase immortalized cells, as well as of tumor cells in which telomerase is inactivated, has highlighted multiple functions of telomerase in tumorigenesis, besides telomere lengthening. In this paper, we will review telomerase immortalization of somatic cells, together with its possible consequences, and we will examine the complex role of telomerase in tumorigenesis.

Stress-induced nuclear bodies are sites of accumulation of pre-mRNA processing factors.

Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) HAP (hnRNP A1 interacting protein) is a multifunctional protein with roles in RNA metabolism, transcription, and nuclear structure. After stress treatments, HAP is recruited to a small number of nuclear bodies, usually adjacent to the nucleoli, which consist of clusters of perichromatin granules and are depots of transcripts synthesized before stress. In this article we show that HAP bodies are sites of accumulation for a subset of RNA processing factors and are related to Sam68 nuclear bodies (SNBs) detectable in unstressed cells. Indeed, HAP and Sam68 are both present in SNBs and in HAP bodies, that we rename "stress-induced SNBs." The determinants required for the redistribution of HAP lie between residue 580 and 788. Different portions of this region direct the recruitment of the green fluorescent protein to stress-induced SNBs, suggesting an interaction of HAP with different components of the bodies. With the use of the 580-725 region as bait in a two-hybrid screening, we have selected SRp30c and 9G8, two members of the SR family of splicing factors. Splicing factors are differentially affected by heat shock: SRp30c and SF2/ASF are efficiently recruited to stress-induced SNBs, whereas the distribution of SC35 is not perturbed. We propose that the differential sequestration of splicing factors could affect processing of specific transcripts. Accordingly, the formation of stress-induced SNBs is accompanied by a change in the splicing pattern of the adenovirus E1A transcripts.

Structure and dynamics of hnRNP-labelled nuclear bodies induced by stress treatments.

We have previously described HAP, a novel hnRNP protein that is identical both to SAF-B, a component of the nuclear scaffold, and to HET, a transcriptional regulator of the gene for heat shock protein 27. After heat shock, HAP is recruited to a few nuclear bodies. Here we report the characterisation of these bodies, which are distinct from other nuclear components such as coiled bodies and speckles. The formation of HAP bodies is part of a general cell response to stress agents, such as heat shock and cadmium sulfate, which also affect the distribution of hnRNP protein M. Electron microscopy demonstrates that in untreated cells, similar to other hnRNP proteins, HAP is associated to perichromatin fibrils. Instead, in heat shocked cells the protein is preferentially associated to clusters of perichromatin granules, which correspond to the HAP bodies observed in confocal microscopy. Inside such clusters, perichromatin granules eventually merge into a highly packaged 'core'. HAP and hnRNP M mark different districts of these structures. HAP is associated to perichromatin granules surrounding the core, while hnRNP M is mostly detected within the core. BrU incorporation experiments demonstrate that no transcription occurs within the stress-induced clusters of perichromatin granules, which are depots for RNAs synthesised both before and after heat shock.

A novel hnRNP protein (HAP/SAF-B) enters a subset of hnRNP complexes and relocates in nuclear granules in response to heat shock.

A two-hybrid screening in yeast for proteins interacting with the human hnRNP A1, yielded a nuclear protein of 917 amino acids that we termed hnRNP A1 associated protein (HAP). HAP contains an RNA binding domain (RBD) flanked by a negatively charged domain and by an S/K-R/E-rich region. In in vitro pull-down assays, HAP interacts with hnRNP A1, through its S/K-R/E-rich region, and with several other hnRNPs. HAP was found to be identical to the previously described Scaffold Attachment Factor B (SAF-B) and to HET, a transcriptional regulator of the Heat Shock Protein 27 gene. We show that HAP is a bona fide hnRNP protein, since anti-HAP antibodies immunoprecipitate from HeLa cell nucleoplasm the complete set of hnRNP proteins. Unlike most hnRNP proteins, the subnuclear distribution of HAP is profoundly modified in heat-shocked HeLa cells. Heat-shock treatment at 42 degrees C causes a transcription-dependent recruitment of HAP to a few large nuclear granules that exactly coincide with sites of accumulation of Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1). The recruitment of HAP to the granules is temporally delayed with respect to HSF1 and persists for a longer time during recovery at 37 degrees C. The hnRNP complexes immunoprecipitated from nucleoplasm of heat-shocked cells with anti-HAP antibodies have an altered protein composition with respect to canonical complexes. Altogether our results suggest an involvement of HAP in the cellular response to heat shock, possibly at the RNA metabolism level.