Ph.D. / Molecular and Medical Genetics / The objective of this study is to examine, in light of the expression of multiple p53 family member isoforms, the specific role of p73 in malignant conversion, cellular response to DNA damage, and direct or indirect cooperation with other p53 family members in a clonal model of epidermal carcinogenesis. We first focused on the role of p73 in malignant conversion. Whether sporadic or siRNA induced, loss of p73 in initiated p53+/+ keratinocytes lead to conversion to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in vivo which was reversible upon reconstitution of TAp73α but not ΔNp73α. Second, we investigated the cellular response to ionizing radiation (IR) in the presence and absence of p73, showing that loss of p73 at malignant conversion was associated with resistance to IR in vitro. The loss of radiation sensitivity and malignant conversion was characterized by reduced steady state DNA binding levels of transcriptionally active p63 isoforms to the p21 promoter, failure to induce specific p53 family transcriptional targets, and failure to arrest in G1. Reconstitution of TAp73α, but not ΔNp73α, increased steady state DNA binding capabilities of TAp63β, TAp63γ, and ΔNp63γ, and steady state levels of p53 family target mRNA, but did not restore cellular sensitivity to IR. We thus uncovered a functional cooperation between TA isoforms of p73 and p63 and showed that p73-mediated DNA damage response was uncoupled from its tumor suppressive role. We observed preferential DNA binding of the inhibitory ΔNp63α isoform both in vitro and invivo in SCC suggesting that in the absence of TAp73α a balance is tipped toward DNA binding of the inhibitory isoforms. Third, we studied the role of the p53 family inkeratinocyte response to UVB. Tumorigenic cells lacking p73 that were resistant to IR remained sensitive to UVB, accompanied by DNA binding of the TAp63γ isoform, suggesting that keratinocyte response to UVB is not dependent upon p73 and suggesting a hierarchy of p53 family member responses to DNA damage. Finally, we examined TAp73α interaction with the p53 family inhibitor Mdm2. Mdm2 was in complex with DNA-bound p53 family members in malignant cells, but reconstitution of cells withTAp73α correlated with removal of Mdm2 from the complex, making them more like primary keratinocytes or initiated cells. Like the initiated cells, cells expressing TAp73α were refractory to treatment with the Mdm2-p53 inhibitor Nutlin-3 while cells lacking p73 expression or expressing ΔNp73α were sensitive. Thus, we suggest that p73 may be acting as a molecular shield to keep p53 family member inhibitors, such as ΔNp63α andMdm2, at bay. Further understanding of p53 family interplay in tumor development and DNA damage response could lead to new therapies or optimization of current therapeutic strategies in solid tumors of epithelium, particularly where deregulation or loss of p63 and p73 expression is associated with increased tumor invasiveness, treatment resistance, and poor patient prognosis.

Measurement of urine absorbance which has been irradiate by a dose of ionising radiation with addition of Mn2+ should serve to find the dose of radiation. This method could work quickly and reliably for homogeneous irradiation of person or as a rough estimate of the dose which the person received during a radiation accident. This method should serve for quick classification of the person. The target of this thesis is to find out if the irradiated urine with the addition of a solution of manganese chloride will change absorbance according to radiation dose. And if urine can be used as a biological dosimeter. In the theoretical part I describe the basic areas related to the topic and target of my thesis. This part is divided to seven subchapters: ionising radiation, radiation protection, radiotherapy, particle accelerators, spectrophotometry, excretion and urine, and dosimetry and its methods. Methods of this thesis are not clear. I tried different procedures during experiments with different results. First, I always prepared samples of urine in tubes and irradiated it in a linear accelerator Clinac 2100C/D in České Budějovice, a.s. hospital with doses from 1 to 25 Gy. Before each measurement I had two sets of tubes with these doses: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20 and 25 Gy. The following procedure was different in each experiment. Sometimes I tried adding a solution of manganese chloride to all tubes at once. Sometimes I tried to adding a solution of manganese chloride to each tube separately. I added the solution to irradiated urine at various concentrations of solution (from 1 do 5 mols) and different amounts (from 1 to 3 ml). Another difference was the use of centrifuges. A centrifuge was use in about half of experiments. Other measurements were made without centrifugation.In discussion I propose recommended methods. I recommend measuring only without centrifuges. Each cell should be measured as soon as possible after irradiation and simultaneously as soon as possible after adding the solution of manganese chloride. Results of the thesis are not clear. Only some experiments which were measuring with centrifuge were clear. I can say that this method does not work when a centrifuge is used at any tested concentration of solution of manganese chloride. The absorbance of single doses of ionising radiation does not change and the values were the same when using 1M, 3M and 5M solutions of MnCl2. The resulting graphs from all experiments have a constant absorbance value of all measured doses. (subchapter 3.1).In the remaining experiments measured without the centrifuge the results were much more interesting. In some experiments the measured absorbance really changed with the dose of ionising radiation so the hypothesis of this study was confirmed. But the differences were too small for this method to be used for measuring radiation doses (subchapter 3.2).The results were compared with the results of the thesis ?Measurement of urine extinction in depending on ionising radiation? from author Š. Radová. She performed a similar experiment, but with a different indicator - FeSO4. 7 H20. It was found that the indicator FeSO4. 7 H20 is preferable to measuring doses of ionising radiation in urine. In conclusion I can say that the hypothesis of this study was confirmed, but the method could not be used in practice and irradiated urine with added MnCl2 indicator does not function as a biological dosimeter.

Research in radiotherapy for cancer treatment focuses on finding methods that can improve the compromise between tumour cell inactivation versus damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. As new radiation modalities such as proton therapy become accessible for everyday clinical practice, a better understanding of the variation in biological response of the tumour and healthy tissues would improve treatment planning to achieve optimal outcome. The development of radiobiological models capable of accurate predictions of biological effectiveness is needed. Existing radiation quality descriptors such as absorbed dose and LET are insufficient to explain variation in biological effectiveness for different treatment modalities. The stochastic nature of ionizing radiation creates discrete patterns of energy deposition (ED) sites which can now be analysed through sophisticated computer simulations (e.g. Monte Carlo track structure codes). This opens the possibility to develop a nanometre characterization of radiation quality based on the spatial cluster patterns of ED. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the track structure (ED spatial pattern) properties of several radiation qualities at a micro- and nanometric scale while exploring their influence in biological response through correlations with published experimental data. This work uses track structure data simulated for a set of 15 different radiation qualities: 4 commonly used brachytherapy sources, 6 different proton energies, 4 different carbon ion energies, and 60Co photons used as reference radiation for quantification of biological effectiveness. At a micrometre level, the behaviour of the microdosimetric spread in energy deposition for target sizes of the order of cell nuclei was analysed. The degree of the influence it had in the biological response was found to be negligible for photon sources but for protons and carbon ions the impact increased with decreasing particle energy suggesting it may be a confounding factor in biological response. Finally, this thesis outlines a framework for modelling the relative biological effectiveness based on the frequency distribution of cluster order as a surrogate for the nanometre classification for the physical properties of radiation quality. The results indicate that this frequency is a valuable descriptor of ionizing radiation. The positive correlation across the different types of ionizing radiation encourages further development of the framework by incorporating the behavior of the microdosimetric spread and expanding tests to other experimental datasets.

This thesis examines the developmental neurotoxic effects of exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation (IR), alone or together with xenobiotics, during a critical period of neonatal brain development in mice. During mammalian brain development there is a period called the brain growth spurt (BGS), which involves extensive growth and maturation of the brain. It is known that neonatal exposure during the BGS to xenobiotics can have a negative impact on neonatal brain development, resulting in impaired cognitive function in the adult mouse. In humans, the BGS starts during the third trimester of pregnancy and continues for approximately 2 years in the child.   The present thesis has identified a defined critical period, during the BGS, when IR can induce developmental neurotoxicity in mice. The observed neurotoxicity was not dependent on sex or strain and manifested as altered neurobehaviour in the adult mouse. Furthermore, fractionated dose exposures appear to be as potent as a higher acute dose. The cholinergic system can be a target system for developmental neurotoxicity of IR, since alterations in adult mouse cholinergic system susceptibility were observed. Co-exposure to IR and nicotine exacerbated the behavioural disturbances and cholinergic system dysfunction. Furthermore, co-exposure with the environmental agent paraquat has indicated that the dopaminergic system can be a potential target.   In this thesis, clinically relevant doses of IR and a sedative/anesthetic agent (ketamine) were shown to interact and exacerbate defects in adult mouse neurobehaviour, learning and memory, following neonatal exposure, at doses where the single agents did not have any impact on the measured variables. This indicates a shift in the dose-response curve for IR, towards lower doses, if exposure occurs during the neonatal brain development. In addition, co-exposed mice, showing cognitive defects, expressed elevated levels of tau protein in the cerebral cortex. Furthermore, exacerbation of neurochemical deviations were observed following co-exposure compared to irradiation alone. Further investigations of neurotoxic effects following fractionated or acute low-dose IR, modelling the clinical situation during repeated CT scans or levels of radiation deposited in non-target tissue during radiotherapy, and possible interaction effects with xenobiotics, is of great importance in the field of radioprotection.

No description available.

Our cells are constantly dealing with DNA damage generated by endogenous cellular activity (e.g. DNA replication) and exogenous agents (e.g. ultraviolet and ionizing radiation (IR)). The cellular stress response to DNA damage requires strict co-ordination between cell cycle checkpoint control and DNA repair. In response to DNA double-strand breaks (DNA-dsbs), members of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase–related kinase family (e.g. ATM and DNA-PKcs kinases) have been shown to redundantly phosphorylate substrates including the DNA-dsb marker, gamma-H2AX, and the p53 tumour suppressor protein. The p53 protein is best known as the guardian of the genome through its transcriptional-dependent and -independent functions. Despite a clear link between ATM-dependent phosphorylation of p53 with cell cycle checkpoint control and various modes of DNA damage repair, the intracellular biology and sub-cellular localization of p53 and specifically its phosphoforms during DNA damage induction and repair remains poorly characterized. Using G0/G1 confluent primary human diploid fibroblast cultures, this thesis shows that endogenous p53, phosphorylated at serine 15 (p53Ser15), accumulates as discrete, dose-dependent and chromatin-bound foci within 30 minutes following the induction of DNA breaks. This biologically distinct sub-pool of p53Ser15 is ATM-dependent and resistant to 26S-proteasomal degradation. p53Ser15 co-localizes and co-immunoprecipitates with gamma-H2AX with kinetics similar to that of biochemical DNA-dsb rejoining. Sub-nuclear microbeam irradiation studies confirm that p53Ser15 is recruited to sites of DNA damage containing gamma-H2AX, ATMSer1981 and DNA-PKcsThr2609 in vivo. Furthermore, studies using isogenic human and murine cells, which express Ser15 or Ser18 phosphomutant proteins, respectively, show defective nuclear foci formation, decreased induction of p21WAF, decreased gamma-H2AX-association and altered DNA-dsb kinetics following DNA damage. We further hypothesized that the non-specific DNA binding activity of the p53 carboxy-terminus mediates chromatin anchoring at sites of DNA damage. YFP-p53 fusion constructs expressing carboxy-terminus deletion mutants of p53 were transfected into p53-null H1299 cells to determine the role of the carboxy-terminus in chromatin-binding pre- and post-IR, independent of transcriptional activity. Within this isogenic human cell system, we observed exogenous YFP-p53WT associated with ATMSer1981 and 53BP1 within cellular chromatin in a dynamic manner. We confirmed that these associations also occurred between endogenous WTp53 with ATMSer1981 and 53BP1 within the chromatin of primary human diploid fibroblasts. YFP-p53del1-299 fusion proteins, which lack transcriptional activity and the Ser15-residue, also associated within chromatin. Ser15-phosphorylation was found not to be essential for DNA damage-induced association of p53 with chromatin or with ATMSer1981 and 53BP1. These data suggest a unique biology for p53Ser15 phosphoforms in the initial steps of DNA damage signaling and implicates ATM-p53-53BP1 chromatin-based interactions as mediators of cell cycle checkpoint control and DNA repair. And we propose a model whereby a pre-existing pool of p53 that constantly scans the genome, responds immediately to radiation-induced DNA damage by virtue of its association with chromatin through its carboxy-terminus. The consequences for these p53-ATMSer1981-53BP1 complexes following DNA damage remains to be investigated: could residual complexes be associated with decreased DNA-dsb rejoining or error-prone repair, or could these complexes signal for cell survival or cell death? Since altered p53 function and biology is an important factor in cellular carcinogenesis and response to cancer therapy, this study provides a step towards a greater understanding of WTp53 and MTp53 biology in tumour development and therapeutic resistance, in the hopes to contribute towards predicting therapeutic response and/or improving p53-targeted therapies.

Currently, it is very challenging to accurately monitor the response of patients to radiation therapy over the course of treatment. The initial response to ionizing radiation occurs in the cells at a molecular level, and effects of the response are not typically noticeable on short time scales. Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, or SERS, has proven to be a useful technique in the analysis of tissues and cells at a molecular level. Specifically, the use of targeted SERS probes allows for the detection of specific proteins on the cell membrane. The work presented here looks to assess the feasibility of using targeted SERS probes and two-dimensional SERS microscopy to measure the response of tumour cells to ionizing radiation, by identifying changes in the distribution of membrane proteins following exposure to clinically relevant doses of ionizing radiation (≤ 60Gy). Two different types of targeted SERS probes were investigated, based on the work of Grubisha et al. ([1]; Type I) and Qian et al. ([2]; Type II), both containing a gold nanoparticle core. In a simplified cellular experiment, biotin on the surface of biotinylated OVCAR5 cells was targeted with streptavidin-SERS probes, and the Type-II SERS probes showed the most promising results. However, SERS maps still provided less characteristic spectral signal than expected, and challenges remain in the development of a reproducible cellular imaging technique. Despite difficulties in cellular imaging, the functionality of the Type-II SERS probes was verified separately, using gold slides with a biotin monolayer in place of cells. Following verification, the SERS intensities provided by differently sized clusters of the SERS probes were characterized. To begin, both SERS maps and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of gold slides were acquired after incubation with Type-II SERS probes for multiple times (1hr, 2hr, 3hr, 12hr). Data analysis of the SEM images provided a measure of the physical distribution of the SERS probes on the surface of the slide, while analysis of the SERS maps provided information about the spectral distribution of the probes. By relating the information provided by the SEM images and SERS maps, a simple polynomial relationship between SERS intensity and the number of clustered SERS probes providing the enhancement was determined, providing a framework for quantifiable SERS imaging. Finally, an independent experiment was devised to ensure that exposure to clinically relevant doses of ionizing radiation would affect the ability of the targeted protein to bind to SERS probes, thus leading to measurable differences in SERS maps of irradiated and unirradiated cells. A series of experiments utilizing the enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) was performed to test the effect of ionizing radiation-induced damage on the ability of streptavidin to bind to biotin, and the results confirmed that a noticeable reduction in binding could be detected at doses as low as 10 Gy. The results of this work demonstrate that following the development of a suitable cell/SERS probe incubation technique, Type-II SERS probes would be appropriate for use in quantifiable SERS imaging. Also, it is suggested that a measurable change in protein function will be present when comparing SERS maps of control cells to those of cells irradiated to clinically relevant doses. / Graduate

Humans are constantly exposed to different types of radiations. It has been suggested that low dose and low dose rate of γ-radiation as well as ultra violet A (UVA) induce oxidative stress in cells that may promote mutations. The mechanisms behind radiation-induced oxidative stress and its relation to genotoxicity and cancer induction are not well understood. In the majority of investigations, the DNA molecule has been studied as the target for mutations, however the results obtained in our group point out that DNA bases in the cytoplasm could also be a significant target. MTH1 and MYH are two of the key proteins of the repair pathway that prevent mutations arising from oxidized DNA bases. In this thesis, we studied the role of MTH1 and MYH in genotoxicity of UVA and γ-radiation. The adaptive response to low dose rates of γ-radiation was also investigated. MTH1 and/or MYH were knockdown in human lymphoblastoid TK6 cells. The clonogenic survival, mutant frequency and chromosomal aberration assays were performed following UVA or γ-radiation exposure. Our results indicated that acute exposure to UVA or γ-radiation affects cell survival and also increases the mutant frequency above the background. The mutant frequency in MTH1 deficient cells was higher than that in wild types after UVA exposure. Following γ-radiation exposure, a higher mutant frequency was observed in the MYH and MTH1 deficient cells, in comparison to either MYH or MTH1 deficient or wild type cells. No dose rate effect of γ-radiation for mutations was observed. An adaptive response to γ-radiation was observed at the mutation level in MCF-10A cells but not at the survival level. In summary, our results suggest that; a) MYH and MTH1 cooperatively protect cells against genotoxic effects of γ-radiation; b) MTH1 protects cells from UVA-induced mutations; c) low dose rates of γ-radiation may induce an adaptive response at the mutation level; d) there is no dose rate effect for γ-radiation at the mutation level. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The Wilms' tumor 1 gene is overexpressed in many types of cancer and is associated with poor prognosis and resistance to anti-cancer therapies. In vitro studies in non-glioma cells types have demonstrated that WTl plays a role in increased proliferation, resistance to apoptosis, and increased cellular invasion. We aimed to thoroughly characterize the expression pattern of Wilms' tumor 1 in human malignant glioma and discern its function in this complex disease process. We screened a large sample of established human malignant glioma cell lines and glioma tissue specimens of all grades for WT1 expression. The majority of cell lines and 80% of all glioma tissue expressed WTI mRNA, all of which expressed WTl(+KTS) isoforms. Further screening of the glioblastoma specimens for p53 mutation followed by logistic regression analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between WTl expression and wild-type p53 (p = 0.04). To determine if WTl and p53 functionally interacted, we generated LN-229 glioblastoma cells that stably expressed WTl. As LN-229 cells harbor a p53 mutation, transient transfection with wild-type p53 induced apoptosis. However, stable WTI expression did not protect cells from p53-mediated cell death. We then generated U87MG cells (p53 wild-type) that stably expressed WT1 to model an endogenous p53 response. It is well known that after treatment with ionizing radiation, U87MG cells readily undergo p53-mediated apoptosis. Again, WTI expression did not protect against ionizing radiation induced p53-mediated cell death. We next examined the effect of transient WTI silencing on ionizing radiation induced cell death in T98G and LN-18 cells which express endogenous WTl. Combination treatment with ionizing radiation and silencing of WTI using short interfering RNA caused a decrease in viability and clonogenic survival relative to radiation alone in both cell lines. Lastly, we studied the effect of stable WTl silencing using short hairpin RNA on glioblastoma cell tumorigenicity. Stable transduction of U25 1MG and LN-18 cells with WTI short hairpin RNA resulted in a marked decrease in proliferation. WTI silencing in U251MG cells also caused a decrease in in vitro invasion. WTl silencing in U251MG cells caused an increase in tumor latency and a decrease in tumor growth rate when cells were used to subcutaneously inoculate nude mice. Not only do these studies support an oncogenic role for WTI in glioma biology, they provide encouraging evidence that WTl may be a therapeutic target for molecular treatment of glioblastoma.

No description available.