Cancer progression involves disordered gene regulation. In epithelial tissues such as skin, where ~90% of human malignancies arise, the earliest steps in this process involve disrupted expression of differentiation and proliferation genes, leading to the abnormal tissue polarity that presages cancerous invasion. The genome-wide nature of the gene dysregulation seen in the tumor progression process implicates globally active epigenetic gene regulators, however, each regulator class contains multiple isoforms whose specific roles in cancer are not fully understood. In the case of DNA methylation, there are multiple non-redundant DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), which act primarily by silencing expression of specific genes. DNMT action is antagonized by a group of genes found over the past 2 years to actively promote DNA demethylation. The role of DNMTs and their antagonists in early tumor progression in human tissue, however, is unknown. This revised proposal focuses on characterizing the role of regulators of DNA methylation in early tumor progression, specifically the conversion of normal human epidermis to invasive neoplasia. First, we will define the role of DNMT isoforms in early tumor progression. We recently observed that DNMT1, which is mis-expressed in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of skin and other tissues, controls the normal epidermal growth and differentiation gene program and regulates a significant subset of the genes that are altered in early human epidermal tumorigenesis. Using an inducible human tissue model of Ras-driven epidermal neoplasia, in Aim I we will test an additive DNMT model in which DNMT1 maintains the undifferentiated proliferative state while DNMT3A/B/L silence de novo induction of tumor inhibitory genes. Second, we will study the role of recently characterized DNMT-antagonizing proteins. Active DNA demethylation has recently been found to proceed via proteins interacting with the base excision repair (BER) pathway (MBD4, TDG, and AID/Apobec2) and the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway (XPA, XPG, ERCC2, TAF12). Gadd45 proteins interact with both BER and NER mechanisms to enable DNA demethylation. In support of a potential role for mediators of DNA demethylation in tumorigenesis, we recently observed that Gadd45 promotes epidermal differentiation and inhibits ectopic tumor formation in association with diminishing DNA methylation at specific genes.
In Aim II, we will test the hypothesis that specific mediators of DNA demethylation inhibit early tumor progression. At the end of proposed funding, we plan to have characterized the role of regulators of DNA methylation on tumor progression in human tissue as a foundation for future strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. 1

Public Health Relevance

Conversion of normal tissue into cancer involves progressively disordered gene expression. Epigenetic regulators possess the capacity to control global gene expression in cancer and other processes by altering genomic marks, such as DNA methylation. In epithelial tissues, such as skin, where ~90% of human malignancies arise, regulators of DNA methylation are abnormally expressed, however, their roles in cancer progression are undefined. The current proposal aims to characterize the role of regulators of DNA methylation on tumor progression in human tissue as a foundation for future strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. 1

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01CA142635-01A1
Application #
8040037
Study Section
Cancer Genetics Study Section (CG)
Program Officer
Okano, Paul
Project Start
2010-12-10
Project End
2015-11-30
Budget Start
2010-12-10
Budget End
2011-11-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$330,011
Indirect Cost
Name
Stanford University
Department
Dermatology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
009214214
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305
Siprashvili, Zurab; Webster, Dan E; Johnston, Danielle et al. (2016) The noncoding RNAs SNORD50A and SNORD50B bind K-Ras and are recurrently deleted in human cancer. Nat Genet 48:53-8
Zarnegar, Brian J; Flynn, Ryan A; Shen, Ying et al. (2016) irCLIP platform for efficient characterization of protein-RNA interactions. Nat Methods 13:489-92
Ungewickell, Alexander; Bhaduri, Aparna; Rios, Eon et al. (2015) Genomic analysis of mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome identifies recurrent alterations in TNFR2. Nat Genet 47:1056-60
Webster, Dan E; Barajas, Brook; Bussat, Rose T et al. (2014) Enhancer-targeted genome editing selectively blocks innate resistance to oncokinase inhibition. Genome Res 24:751-60
Lee, Carolyn S; Bhaduri, Aparna; Mah, Angela et al. (2014) Recurrent point mutations in the kinetochore gene KNSTRN in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Nat Genet 46:1060-2
Jameson, Katherine L; Mazur, Pawel K; Zehnder, Ashley M et al. (2013) IQGAP1 scaffold-kinase interaction blockade selectively targets RAS-MAP kinase-driven tumors. Nat Med 19:626-630
Kretz, Markus; Siprashvili, Zurab; Chu, Ci et al. (2013) Control of somatic tissue differentiation by the long non-coding RNA TINCR. Nature 493:231-5
Kretz, Markus; Webster, Dan E; Flockhart, Ross J et al. (2012) Suppression of progenitor differentiation requires the long noncoding RNA ANCR. Genes Dev 26:338-43
Flockhart, Ross J; Webster, Dan E; Qu, Kun et al. (2012) BRAFV600E remodels the melanocyte transcriptome and induces BANCR to regulate melanoma cell migration. Genome Res 22:1006-14
Siprashvili, Zurab; Webster, Dan E; Kretz, Markus et al. (2012) Identification of proteins binding coding and non-coding human RNAs using protein microarrays. BMC Genomics 13:633

Showing the most recent 10 out of 14 publications