Superior lentiviral vectors designed for BSL-0 environment abolish vector mobilization.

Lentiviral vector mobilization following HIV-1 infection of vector-transduced cells poses biosafety risks to vector-treated patients and their communities. The self-inactivating (SIN) vector design has reduced, however, not abolished mobilization of integrated vector genomes. Furthermore, an earlier study demonstrated the ability of the major product of reverse transcription, a circular SIN HIV-1 vector comprising a single- long terminal repeat (LTR) to support production of high vector titers. Here, we demonstrate that configuring the internal vector expression cassette in opposite orientation to the LTRs abolishes mobilization of SIN vectors. This additional SIN mechanism is in part premised on induction of host PKR response to double-stranded RNAs comprised of mRNAs transcribed from cryptic transcription initiation sites around 3'SIN-LTR's and the vector internal promoter. As anticipated, PKR response following transfection of opposite orientation vectors, negatively affects their titers. Importantly, shRNA-mediated knockdown of PKR rendered titers of SIN HIV-1 vectors comprising opposite orientation expression cassettes comparable to titers of conventional SIN vectors. High-titer vectors carrying an expression cassette in opposite orientation to the LTRs efficiently delivered and maintained high levels of transgene expression in mouse livers. This study establishes opposite orientation expression cassettes as an additional PKR-dependent SIN mechanism that abolishes vector mobilization from integrated and episomal SIN lentiviral vectors.

N6-methyladenosine contributes to cellular phenotype in a genetically-defined model of breast cancer progression.

The mRNA modification N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is involved in many post-transcriptional regulatory processes including mRNA stability and translational efficiency. However, it is also imperative to correlate these processes with phenotypic outputs during cancer progression. Here we report that m6A levels are significantly decreased in genetically-defined immortalized and oncogenically-transformed human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs), as compared with their primary cell predecessor. Furthermore, the m6A methyltransferase (METTL3) is decreased and the demethylase (ALKBH5) is increased in the immortalized and transformed cell lines, providing a possible mechanism for this basal change in m6A levels. Although the immortalized and transformed cells showed lower m6A levels than their primary parental cell line, overexpression of METTL3 and METTL14, or ALKBH5 knockdown to increase m6A levels in transformed cells increased proliferation and migration. Remarkably, these treatments had little effect on the immortalized cells. Together, these results suggest that m6A modification may be downregulated in immortalized cells as a brake against malignant progression. Finally, we found that m6A levels in the immortalized and transformed cells increased in response to hypoxia without corresponding changes in METTL3, METTL14 or ALKBH5 expression, suggesting a novel pathway for regulation of m6A levels under stress.

N6-methyladenosine is required for the hypoxic stabilization of specific mRNAs.

Post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA during oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia, can affect the survivability of cells. Hypoxia has been shown to increase stability of a subset of ischemia-related mRNAs, including VEGF. RNA binding proteins and miRNAs have been identified as important for post-transcriptional regulation of individual mRNAs, but corresponding mechanisms that regulate global stability are not well understood. Recently, mRNA modification by N6-methyladenosine (m6A) has been shown to be involved in post-transcriptional regulation processes including mRNA stability and promotion of translation, but the role of m6A in the hypoxia response is unknown. In this study, we investigate the effect of hypoxia on RNA modifications including m6A. Our results show hypoxia increases m6A content of poly(A)+ messenger RNA (mRNA), but not in total or ribosomal RNA in HEK293T cells. Using m6A mRNA immunoprecipitation, we identify specific hypoxia-modified mRNAs, including glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) and c-Myc, which show increased m6A levels under hypoxic conditions. Many of these mRNAs also exhibit increased stability, which was blocked by knockdown of m6A-specific methyltransferases METTL3/14. However, the increase in mRNA stability did not correlate with a change in translational efficiency or the steady-state amount of their proteins. Knockdown of METTL3/14 did reveal that m6A is involved in recovery of translational efficiency after hypoxic stress. Therefore, our results suggest that an increase in m6A mRNA during hypoxic exposure leads to post-transcriptional stabilization of specific mRNAs and contributes to the recovery of translational efficiency after hypoxic stress.

Hypoxia and Hypoglycemia synergistically regulate mRNA stability.

Ischemic events, common in many diseases, result from decreased blood flow and impaired delivery of oxygen and glucose to tissues of the body. While much is known about the cellular transcriptional response to ischemia, much less is known about the posttranscriptional response to oxygen and glucose deprivation. The goal of this project was to investigate one such posttranscriptional response, the regulation of mRNA stability. To that end, we have identified several novel ischemia-related mRNAs that are synergistically stabilized by oxygen and glucose deprivation including VEGF, MYC, MDM2, and CYR61. This increase in mRNA half-life requires the synergistic effects of both low oxygen (1%) as well as low glucose (≤ 1 g/L) conditions. Oxygen or glucose deprivation alone fails to initiate the response, as exposure to either high glucose (4 g/L) or normoxic conditions inhibits the response. Furthermore, in response to hypoxia/hypoglycemia, the identified mRNAs are released from the RNA binding protein KHSRP which likely contributes to their stabilization.