The histone chaperone HJURP is a new independent prognostic marker for luminal A breast carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different molecular subtypes that have varying responses to therapy. An ongoing challenge in breast cancer research is to distinguish high-risk patients from good prognosis patients. This is particularly difficult in the low-grade, ER-positive luminal A tumors, where robust diagnostic tools to aid clinical treatment decisions are lacking. Recent data implicating chromatin regulators in cancer initiation and progression offers a promising avenue to develop new tools to help guide clinical decisions. METHODS: Here we exploit a published transcriptome dataset and an independent validation cohort to correlate the mRNA expression of selected chromatin regulators with respect to the four intrinsic breast cancer molecular subtypes. We then perform univariate and multivariate analyses to compare the prognostic value of a panel of chromatin regulators to Ki67, a currently utilized proliferation marker. RESULTS: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering revealed a gene cluster containing several histone chaperones and histone variants highly-expressed in the proliferative subtypes (basal-like, HER2-positive, luminal B) but not in the luminal A subtype. Several chromatin regulators, including the histone chaperones CAF-1 (subunits p150 and p60), ASF1b, and HJURP, and the centromeric histone variant CENP-A, associated with local and metastatic relapse and poor patient outcome. Importantly, we find that HJURP can discriminate favorable and unfavorable outcome within the luminal A subtype, outperforming the currently utilized proliferation marker Ki67, as an independent prognostic marker for luminal A patients. CONCLUSIONS: The integration of chromatin regulators as clinical biomarkers, in particular the histone chaperone HJURP, will help guide patient substratification and treatment options for low-risk luminal A breast carcinoma patients.

Histocompatible parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells as a potential source for regenerative medicine.

Parthenogenesis is the process by which an oocyte develops into an embryo without fertilization. Parthenogenetic activation can be performed at various stages of meiosis, yielding embryos with a distinct genetic pattern of homozygousity and heterozygousity. The heterozygousity pattern specific to parthenogenetic embryonic stem (pES) cells derived from such embryos, can be predicted using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis to determine whether extrusion of the first or second polar body is prohibited. The heterozygous pES cells carrying the full complement of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigen matched to the oocyte donor, could therefore provide a potential source of MHC matched cells or tissue for cell replacement therapy. In this review, we summarized the mechanism of deriving heterozygous MHC-matched pES cells using a mouse and human models.

Treatment-dependent androgen receptor mutations in prostate cancer exploit multiple mechanisms to evade therapy.

Mutations in the androgen receptor (AR) that enable activation by antiandrogens occur in hormone-refractory prostate cancer, suggesting that mutant ARs are selected by treatment. To validate this hypothesis, we compared AR variants in metastases obtained by rapid autopsy of patients treated with flutamide or bicalutamide, or by excision of lymph node metastases from hormone-naïve patients. AR mutations occurred at low levels in all specimens, reflecting genetic heterogeneity of prostate cancer. Base changes recurring in multiple samples or multiple times per sample were considered putative selected mutations. Of 26 recurring missense mutations, most in the NH(2)-terminal domain (NTD) occurred in multiple tumors, whereas those in the ligand binding domain (LBD) were case specific. Hormone-naïve tumors had few recurring mutations and none in the LBD. Several AR variants were assessed for mechanisms that might underlie treatment resistance. Selection was evident for the promiscuous receptor AR-V716M, which dominated three metastases from one flutamide-treated patient. For the inactive cytoplasmically restricted splice variant AR23, coexpression with AR enhanced ligand response, supporting a decoy function. A novel NTD mutation, W435L, in a motif involved in intramolecular interaction influenced promoter-selective, cell-dependent transactivation. AR-E255K, mutated in a domain that interacts with an E3 ubiquitin ligase, led to increased protein stability and nuclear localization in the absence of ligand. Thus, treatment with antiandrogens selects for gain-of-function AR mutations with altered stability, promoter preference, or ligand specificity. These processes reveal multiple targets for effective therapies regardless of AR mutation.

Heterochromatin protein 1alpha: a hallmark of cell proliferation relevant to clinical oncology.

Mammalian cells contain three closely related heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) isoforms, HP1alpha, beta and gamma, which, by analogy to their unique counterpart in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, have been implicated in gene silencing, genome stability and chromosome segregation. However, the individual importance of each isoform during normal cell cycle and disease has remained an unresolved issue. Here, we reveal that HP1alpha shows a proliferation-dependent regulation, which neither HP1beta nor gamma display. During transient cell cycle exit, the HP1alpha mRNA and protein levels diminish. Transient depletion of HP1alpha, but not HP1beta or gamma, in tumoural and primary human cells leads to defects in chromosome segregation. Notably, analysis of an annotated collection of samples derived from carcinomas reveals an overexpression of HP1alpha mRNA and protein, which correlates with clinical data and disease outcome. Our results unveil a specific expression pattern for the HP1alpha isoform, suggesting a unique function related to cell division and tumour growth. The overexpression of HP1alpha constitutes a new example of a potential epigenetic contribution to tumourigenesis that is of clinical interest for cancer prognosis.

Profiling human androgen receptor mutations reveals treatment effects in a mouse model of prostate cancer.

Gain-of-function mutations in the androgen receptor (AR) are found in prostate cancer and are implicated in the failure of hormone therapy. Most studies have emphasized the ligand-binding domain (LBD) where mutations can create promiscuous receptors, but mutations in the NH(2)-terminal transactivation domain have also been found. To assess AR alteration as a mechanism of treatment resistance, a mouse model (h/mAR-TRAMP) was used in which the murine AR coding region is replaced by human sequence and prostate cancer initiated by a transgenic oncogene. Mice received either no treatment, androgen depletion by castration, or treatment with antiandrogens, and 20 AR transcripts were sequenced per end-stage tumor. All tumors expressed several mutant alleles, although most mutations were low frequency. Some mutations that occurred multiple times within the population were differentially located dependent on treatment. Mutations in castrated or antiandrogen-treated mice were widely dispersed but with a prominent cluster in the LBD (amino acids 736-771), whereas changes in intact mice centered near the NH(2)-terminal polymorphic glutamine tract. Functional characterization of selected LBD mutant alleles showed diverse effects on AR activity, with about half of the mutations reducing transactivation in vitro. One receptor, AR-R753Q, behaved in a cell- and promoter-dependent manner, although as a germ-line mutation it causes androgen insensitivity syndrome. This suggests that alleles that are loss of function during development may still activate a subset of AR targets to become gain of function in tumorigenesis. Mutant ARs may thus use multiple mechanisms to evade cancer treatment.