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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Mutations in the tumour suppressor gene Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) are found in 80 % of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) tumours and are also responsible for the inherited form of CRC, Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). In order to identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of APC mutated CRC, we have generated an in vitro model of APC mutant CRC using CRISPR-cas9 gene editing. Using the APC wildtype colorectal carcinoma cell line RKO, we targeted the cells with guide RNA (gRNA) targeting exon 2 or exon 15 (encodes 80 % of APC) of the APC gene. We generated isogenic cell lines which differed in the expression of APC, the controls were APC wildtype and the APC mutant (APC Lys736fs) cell lines expressed a truncated ~80 kDa APC protein. We used these cell lines to perform an siRNA screen against 720 kinases and kinase-related genes. We selected seven genes to investigate further, unfortunately none of the potential hits validated. Additionally, we performed an FDA-approved compound screen targeting over 1000 compounds. From this, we identified a group of HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) inhibitors known as statins, which selectively cause a greater loss in cell viability in the APC mutated cell lines, compared to the APC wildtype cells. Mechanistically, our data suggests this synthetic lethal relationship is due to a greater decrease in the anti-apoptotic protein survivin. We propose this is due to statins altering the localisation of Rac1, reducing Pak1 activation and reducing the level of Wnt signalling. This results in the reduction of the Wnt target gene survivin. We have successfully identified an FDA-approved family of compounds, which show synthetic lethality with the APC mutation in our in vitro model.

The metastasis suppressor gene NM23-H1 has been shown to possess three enzymatic activities including nucleoside diphosphate kinase, histidine-dependent protein kinase and 3’-5’ exonuclease activity. While these properties have been demonstrated in vitro using recombinant proteins, the contribution of these activities to suppression of metastatic dissemination is unknown. Site-directed mutagenesis studies were used to identify amino acid residues which are required for proper function of each enzymatic activity associated with H1, providing a platform for studying the importance of each function on an individual basis. To assess the relevance of these activities to melanoma progression, a panel of mutants harboring selective lesions disrupting the enzymatic activities of H1 were overexpressed using stable transfection in two melanoma cell lines, WM793 (isolated from a vertical growth phase human melanoma), and the metastatic derivative cell line 1205LU. In vitro correlates of metastasis measuring motility and invasion were used in an attempt to identify the mechanism mediating H1-dependent motility suppression of cancer cells. Surprisingly, all mutants studied retained full motility suppression in this setting, suggesting that the enzymatic functions associated with H1 are not required for inhibiting cell migration. Instead, gene expression analyses conducted on the panel of stable transfectants indicate that differences in steady-state mRNA levels of genes involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling showed significant correlations with H1 expression and motility suppression. RNAi studies have confirmed that H1-dependent modulation of the expression of two genes in particular, BRAP and IQGAP2, contribute to the observed phenotype, suggesting a novel mechanism used by NM23 to control cellular migration in human melanoma.

Small intestinal neuroendocrine tumours (SI-NETs) are rare, hormone producing and proliferate slowly. Patients usually display metastases at time of diagnosis, the tumours are difficult to cure, and the disease course is unpredictable. The gene expression pattern was investigated in paper I, with emphasis on aggressive disease and tumour progression. Expression microarrays were performed on 42 tumours. Unsupervised hierarchal clustering revealed three clusters that were correlated to clinical features, and expression changes from primary tumour to metastasis. Eight novel genes, ACTG2, GREM2, REG3A, TUSC2, RUNX1, TGFBR2, TPH1 and CDH6 may be of importance for tumour progression. In paper II, expression of ACTG2 was detected in a fraction of SI-NETs, but not in normal enterochromaffin cells. Inhibition of histone methyltransferase and transfection of miR-145 induced expression and no effect was seen after DNA methylation or selective EZH2 inhibition in vitro. miR-145 expression was reduced in metastases compared to primary tumours. Overexpression of ACTG2 inhibited cell growth, and inducing ACTG2 may have therapeutic effects. TCEB3C (Elongin A3) is located on chromosome 18 and is imprinted in some tissues. In paper III a reduced protein expression was detected. The gene was epigenetically repressed by both DNA and histone methylation in a tumour tissue specific context. The expression was also induced in primary cell cultures after DNA demethylation and pyrosequencing revealed promoter region hypermethylation. Overexpression of TCEB3C inhibited cell growth by 50%, suggesting TCEB3C to be a tumour suppressor gene. In paper IV, 69 biomarkers were analysed in blood serum using multiplex proximity ligation assay. Nineteen markers displayed different levels between patients and controls. In an extended cohort, ELISA analysis showed elevated serum levels of Mindin, DcR3 and TFF3 in patients and protein expression in tumour cells. High levels of DcR3 and TFF3 were associated with poor survival, and DcR3 may be a marker for liver metastases. Mindin, DcR3, and TFF3 are potential novel diagnostic biomarkers for SI-NETs.