Biology subjects

Tedesco, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Tedesco, D..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

MafK mediates chromatin remodeling to silence IRF8 expression in non-immune cells in a lineage-specific manner

The regulation of gene expression is a result of a complex interplay between chromatin remodeling, transcription factors (TFs) and signaling molecules. Cell differentiation is accompanied by chromatin remodeling of specific loci to permanently silence genes that are not essential for the differentiated cell activity. The molecular cues that recruit the chromatin remodeling machinery are not well characterized. IRF8 is an immune-cell specific TF, and thus, serves as a model gene to elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing its silencing in non-immune cells. A high-throughput shRNA library screen in IRF8 expression-restrictive cells enabled the identification of MafK as modulator of IRF8 silencing, affecting chromatin architecture. ChIP-seq analysis revealed three MafK binding-regions (-25kb, -20kb and IRF8 6th intron) in the IRF8 locus. These MafK binding-sites are sufficient to repress a reporter-gene when cloned in genome-integrated lentiviral reporter constructs in expression-restrictive cells only. Conversely, plasmid-based constructs do not demonstrate such repressive effect. These results highlight the role of these MafK binding-sites in mediating repressed chromatin assembly. Furthermore, removal of MafK-int6 binding-region from BAC-IRF8 reporter construct was sufficient to promote accessible chromatin conformation. Taken together, we identified and characterized several MafK binding elements within the IRF8 locus that mediate repressive chromatin conformation resulting in the silencing of IRF8 expression only in non-immune cells.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2018

MDM4 is an essential disease driver targeted by 1q gain in Burkitt lymphoma

Oncogenic MYC activation promotes cellular proliferation in Burkitt lymphoma (BL), but also induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis mediated by TP53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in 40% of BL cases. To identify therapeutic targets in BL, we investigated molecular dependencies in BL cell lines using RNAi-based, loss-of-function screening. By integrating genotypic and RNAi data, we identified a number of genotype-specific dependencies including the dependence of TCF3/ID3 mutant cell lines on TCF3 and of MYD88 mutant cell lines on TLR signaling. TP53 wild-type (TP53wt) BL were dependent on MDM4, a negative regulator of TP53. In BL cell lines, MDM4 knockdown induced cell cycle arrest and decreased tumor growth in a xenograft model in a p53-dependent manner, while small molecule inhibition of the MDM4-p53 interaction restored p53 activity resulting in cell cycle arrest. Consistent with the pathogenic effect of MDM4 upregulation in BL, we found that TP53wt BL samples were enriched for gain of chromosome 1q which includes the MDM4 locus. 1q gain was also enriched across non-BL cancer cell lines (n=789) without TP53 mutation (23% in TP53wt and 12% in TP53mut, p<0.001). In a set of 216 cell lines representing 19 cancer entities from the Achilles project, MDM4 was the strongest genetic dependency in TP53wt cell lines (p<0.001).\n\nOur findings show that in TP53wt BL, MDM4-mediated inhibition of p53 is a mechanism to evade cell cycle arrest. The data highlight the critical role of p53 as a tumor suppressor in BL, and identifies MDM4 as a key functional target of 1q gain in a wide range of cancers, which is therapeutically targetable.

cancer biology↗