Creating new drugs is an important national need, but a critical barrier is escalating cost, often due to late failures in the pipeline. Although in vitr screens targeting proteins or cell lines provide important avenues, in vivo screens on intact vertebrates can help overcome late-failure problems. Intact animal disease models provide an unbiased approach that screens all proteins and tissues, many of which may not yet be known to play a role in disease. The goal of this resource-related research project is to develop animal models and related materials for using global gene expression patterns to identify novel therapies for human disease. Larval fish provide especially useful subjects for intact-animal drug screens because they have organs that function like human organs, including epithelia for absorption, livers for metabolism, kidneys for excretion, and organs like eyes, ears, brain and thyroid sensitive to drug toxicity. Fish can absorb drugs directly from the water and their small size makes testing economical. Disease states are characterized by constellations of gene activity indicating disease etiology and response to disease. In an innovative screen, this project will identify transcriptional disease signatures (TDSs), suites of genes whose activities change in disease, and will develop efficient methods to identify compounds that return the TDS to that of healthy fish. The project predicts that TDS changes will reveal drug effects earlier than altered morphologies would and will represent a whole-organism response to therapy better than in vitro protein- or cell-based tests. Outcomes include improved screens for chronic disease therapeutics and improved animal models for drug screening. Investigations will use two disparate models for human disease: a transgenic medaka model for malignant melanoma (MM, a deadly human skin cancer), and a mutant zebrafish model for Fanconi anemia (FA, a disease of bone marrow failure that inhibits stem cell proliferation and survival).
Aim 1 is to use RNA-seq to identify TDSs that define diseased vs. healthy fish.
Aim 2 is to evaluate HTG-Edge and NanoString nCounter for their efficiency in assaying TDSs.
Aims 3 and 4 are to conduct pilot screens on MM medaka (Aim 3) and FA zebrafish (Aim 4) to identify compounds that change the TDS from disease to healthy profiles. 'Hits' will be candidates for mechanistic analyses in fish and for safety and efficacy studies in mammals suffering MM and FA disease. Achieving these aims will have an enduring influence on translational research by developing novel but widely applicable drug screen resources and methodologies, as well as improving animal models of human disease and exploiting the advantages of intact-animal screens, thus complementing other screen systems. Results will enhance research infrastructure by outlining best practice protocols for using the innovative concept of transcriptome disease signatures to identify potential therapeutics for human disease and enhance translational research by providing lead compounds for chemical therapies for melanoma and Fanconi anemia.

Public Health Relevance

The goal of this resource-related research project is to develop animal models and related materials for using global gene expression patterns to identify novel therapies for human disease. Focusing on animal models of two dissimilar fatal human diseases (the skin cancer malignant melanoma in medaka fish and the blood disease Fanconi Anemia in zebrafish), we will identify genes expressed abnormally in disease, develop methods to efficiently assay expression of disease genes, and conduct pilot screens to identify molecules that disease gene expression signatures to normal. Results could revolutionize drug screens in general, develop new methodologies for using aquatic models of human disease, and contribute to translational research by identifying lead compounds for drug therapies for malignant melanoma and Fanconi anemia.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
5R24OD018555-04
Application #
9110356
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Contreras, Miguel A
Project Start
2014-08-01
Project End
2018-07-31
Budget Start
2016-08-01
Budget End
2017-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Oregon
Department
Neurosciences
Type
Graduate Schools
DUNS #
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97403
Boswell, Mikki; Boswell, William; Lu, Yuan et al. (2018) The transcriptional response of skin to fluorescent light exposure in viviparous (Xiphophorus) and oviparous (Danio, Oryzias) fishes. Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol 208:77-86
Klotz, Barbara; Kneitz, Susanne; Regensburger, Martina et al. (2018) Expression signatures of early-stage and advanced medaka melanomas. Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol 208:20-28
Gonzalez, Trevor J; Lu, Yuan; Boswell, Mikki et al. (2018) Fluorescent light exposure incites acute and prolonged immune responses in zebrafish (Danio rerio) skin. Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol 208:87-95
Lu, Yuan; Boswell, Mikki; Boswell, William et al. (2018) Comparison of Xiphophorus and human melanoma transcriptomes reveals conserved pathway interactions. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 31:496-508
Lu, Yuan; Reyes, Jose; Walter, Sean et al. (2018) Characterization of basal gene expression trends over a diurnal cycle in Xiphophorus maculatus skin, brain and liver. Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol 208:2-11
Boswell, William T; Boswell, Mikki; Walter, Dylan J et al. (2018) Exposure to 4100K fluorescent light elicits sex specific transcriptional responses in Xiphophorus maculatus skin. Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol 208:96-104
Regneri, Janine; Klotz, Barbara; Wilde, Brigitta et al. (2018) Analysis of the putative tumor suppressor gene cdkn2ab in pigment cells and melanoma of Xiphophorus and medaka. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res :
Walter, Ronald B; Boswell, Mikki; Chang, Jordan et al. (2018) Waveband specific transcriptional control of select genetic pathways in vertebrate skin (Xiphophorus maculatus). BMC Genomics 19:355
Kroeger Jr, Paul T; Drummond, Bridgette E; Miceli, Rachel et al. (2017) The zebrafish kidney mutant zeppelin reveals that brca2/fancd1 is essential for pronephros development. Dev Biol 428:148-163
Lu, Yuan; Boswell, Mikki; Boswell, William et al. (2017) Molecular genetic analysis of the melanoma regulatory locus in Xiphophorus interspecies hybrids. Mol Carcinog 56:1935-1944

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