Biology subjects

McPhail, N.

Publications and source records attributed to McPhail, N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Divergent trajectories to structural diversity impact patient survival in high grade serous ovarian cancer

Deciphering the structural variation across tumour genomes is crucial to determine the events driving tumour progression and better understand tumour adaptation and evolution. High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is an exemplar tumour type showing extreme, but poorly characterised structural diversity. We comprehensively describe the mutational landscape driving HGSOC, exploiting a large (N=324), deeply whole genome sequenced dataset. We reveal two divergent evolutionary trajectories, affecting patient survival and involving differing genomic environments. One involves homologous recombination repair deficiency (HRD) while the other is dominated by whole genome duplication (WGD) with frequent chromothripsis, breakage-fusion-bridges and extra-chromosomal DNA. These trajectories contribute to structural variation hotspots, containing novel candidate driver genes with significantly altered expression. While structural variation predominantly drives tumorigenesis, we also find high mtDNA mutation loads associated with shorter patient survival, and acting in combination with alterations in the nuclear genome to impact prognosis and suggesting new strategies for patient stratification.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Dual states of Bmi1-expressing intestinal stem cells drive epithelial development and tissue regeneration

Intestinal development, response to injury and disease states rely upon balanced stem cell proliferation. Historically, two subtypes of intestinal epithelial stem cells (ISCs)--slow-cycling/label-retaining, and actively-cycling/canonical Wnt-dependent--coordinate to drive proliferation and regulate epithelial renewal during adult tissue homeostasis and injury response. Recent studies focused on Bmi1-expressing cells revealed that differentiated Bmi1+ enteroendocrine cells could dedifferentiate towards a canonical Wnt-dependent stem cell state, calling into question the dogma that a dual stem cell axis regulates epithelial proliferation. Herein, we identify stem cell function in a Bmi1+ cell population in early murine intestinal development prior to the establishment of canonical Wnt-dependent, Lgr5-expressing ISCs. In-depth analyses of developmental Bmi1+ ISCs using lineage-tracing and single cell RNA-sequencing reveal their distinct identity and capacity to differentiate into Lgr5+ ISCs and other differentiated lineages. Further, during in utero development, the Bmi1+ ISCs initially exists in a highly proliferative state then transitions to a slow-cycling state, with the emergence of actively-cycling Lgr5+ ISCs. In adult tissue, Bmi1+ ISCs are a distinct population that re-express developmental gene and protein profiles, and a non-canonical Wnt signaling signature in response to injury and in human colorectal tumors. Further, developmental Bmi1+ ISCs are distinct from Lgr5+ ISCs and the previously identified differentiated Bmi1+ progenitor cells. Re-evaluation of an under-appreciated Bmi1+ ISC population with fundamental importance in intestinal development re-establishes the importance of the dynamic interplay between discrete ISC populations that are regulated by opposing Wnt signaling pathways. This finding opens opportunities and targetable pathways to augment regeneration or inhibit tumorigenesis.

developmental biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Structural variants at the BRCA1/2 loci are a common source of homologous repair deficiency in high grade serous ovarian carcinoma

Around half of high grade serous ovarian carcinomas (HGSOC) show homologous recombination repair deficiency (HRD), often caused by germline or somatic single nucleotide variant (SNV) mutations or small indels disrupting BRCA1/2. We have uniformly processed the largest collection of whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from HGSOC samples to date (N=205), comprehensively characterising the somatic mutational landscape, and expression at the BRCA1/2 loci. We discover that large structural variants (SV) are a frequent but unappreciated source of BRCA1/2 disruption in these tumours. Somatic structural variation at these loci is dominated by multi-megabase deletions that span the entirety of BRCA1 (median = 4.9Mb) or BRCA2 (median = 6.2Mb), independently affecting a substantial proportion of patients (16%) in addition to those affected by damaging germline or somatic short variants, within the BRCA1/2 coding sequences (24%). In common with previous studies, we show that the presence of damaging somatic SNVs or short indels in BRCA1 (OR=10, 95% CI 1.8-103, p=0.002, adj p=0.027 and BRCA2 (OR=17, 95% CI 2.1-816), p=0.002, adj.p=0.021) was found to influence HRD. For the first time we also study the compound effect of SV and SNV or short indel mutations at both loci, demonstrating that SVs often contribute to compound deficiencies involving SNVs or indels, with large somatic deletions contributing to these compound deficiencies in 15/205 (7%) of samples. Notably the strongest risk of HRD (OR=19 (2.4-896), p=6.6x10-3, adj P=8.5x10-3) is generated by combined large deletions at BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the absence of SNVs or indels, affecting 3% of patients. Overall, we show that HRD is a complex phenotype in HGSOC tumours, affected by the patterns of shorter variants such as SNVs and indels, SVs, methylation and expression seen at multiple loci, and we construct a successful (ROC AUC = 0.75) predictive model of HRD using such variables. In addition, HRD impacts patient survival when conferred by mechanisms other than through the well-understood short variants at BRCA1/2, currently exploited in the clinic. These results alter our understanding of the mutational landscape at the BRCA1/2 loci in highly rearranged tumours, and increase the number of patients predicted to benefit from therapies exploiting HRD in tumours such as PARP inhibition.

cancer biology↗