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| 2. |
- Kannan, P., et al.
(författare)
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Functional parameters derived from magnetic resonance imaging reflect vascular morphology in preclinical tumors and in human liver metastases
- 2018
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Ingår i: Clinical Cancer Research. - : American Association for Cancer Research Inc.. - 1078-0432 .- 1557-3265. ; 24:19, s. 4694-4704
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Tumor vessels influence the growth and response of tumors to therapy. Imaging vascular changes in vivo using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) has shown potential to guide clinical decision making for treatment. However, quantitative MR imaging biomarkers of vascular function have not been widely adopted, partly because their relationship to structural changes in vessels remains unclear. We aimed to elucidate the relationships between vessel function and morphology in vivo. Experimental Design: Untreated preclinical tumors with different levels of vascularization were imaged sequentially using DCE-MRI and CT. Relationships between functional parameters from MR (iAUC, Ktrans, and BATfrac) and structural parameters from CT (vessel volume, radius, and tortuosity) were assessed using linear models. Tumors treated with anti-VEGFR2 antibody were then imaged to determine whether antiangiogenic therapy altered these relationships. Finally, functional-structural relationships were measured in 10 patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer. Results: Functional parameters iAUC and Ktrans primarily reflected vessel volume in untreated preclinical tumors. The relationships varied spatially and with tumor vascularity, and were altered by antiangiogenic treatment. In human liver metastases, all three structural parameters were linearly correlated with iAUC and Ktrans. For iAUC, structural parameters also modified each other's effect. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MR imaging biomarkers of vascular function are linked to structural changes in tumor vessels and that antiangiogenic therapy can affect this link. Our work also demonstrates the feasibility of three-dimensional functional-structural validation of MR biomarkers in vivo to improve their biological interpretation and clinical utility.
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| 3. |
- Akhter, Shirin, et al.
(författare)
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Cone-setting in spruce is regulated by conserved elements of the age-dependent flowering pathway
- 2022
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 236:5, s. 1951-1963
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reproductive phase change is well characterized in angiosperm model species, but less studied in gymnosperms. We utilize the early cone-setting acrocona mutant to study reproductive phase change in the conifer Picea abies (Norway spruce), a gymnosperm. The acrocona mutant frequently initiates cone-like structures, called transition shoots, in positions where wild-type P. abies always produces vegetative shoots. We collect acrocona and wild-type samples, and RNA-sequence their messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) fractions. We establish gene expression patterns and then use allele-specific transcript assembly to identify mutations in acrocona. We genotype a segregating population of inbred acrocona trees. A member of the SQUAMOSA BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) gene family, PaSPL1, is active in reproductive meristems, whereas two putative negative regulators of PaSPL1, miRNA156 and the conifer specific miRNA529, are upregulated in vegetative and transition shoot meristems. We identify a mutation in a putative miRNA156/529 binding site of the acrocona PaSPL1 allele and show that the mutation renders the acrocona allele tolerant to these miRNAs. We show co-segregation between the early cone-setting phenotype and trees homozygous for the acrocona mutation. In conclusion, we demonstrate evolutionary conservation of the age-dependent flowering pathway and involvement of this pathway in regulating reproductive phase change in the conifer P. abies.
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| 4. |
- Akhter, Shirin, et al.
(författare)
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Integrative Analysis of Three RNA Sequencing Methods Identifies Mutually Exclusive Exons of MADS-Box Isoforms During Early Bud Development in Picea abies
- 2018
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Plant Science. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-462X. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent efforts to sequence the genomes and transcriptomes of several gymnosperm species have revealed an increased complexity in certain gene families in gymnosperms as compared to angiosperms. One example of this is the gymnosperm sister Glade to angiosperm TM3-like MADS-box genes, which at least in the conifer lineage has expanded in number of genes. We have previously identified a member of this subclade, the conifer gene DEFICIENS AGAMOUS LIKE 19 (DAL19), as being specifically upregulated in cone-setting shoots. Here, we show through Sanger sequencing of mRNA-derived cDNA and mapping to assembled conifer genomic sequences that DAL19 produces six mature mRNA splice variants in Picea abies. These splice variants use alternate first and last exons, while their four central exons constitute a core region present in all six transcripts. Thus, they are likely to be transcript isoforms. Quantitative Real-Time PCR revealed that two mutually exclusive first DAL19 exons are differentially expressed across meristems that will form either male or female cones, or vegetative shoots. Furthermore, mRNA in situ hybridization revealed that two mutually exclusive last DAL19 exons were expressed in a cell-specific pattern within bud meristems. Based on these findings in DAL19, we developed a sensitive approach to transcript isoform assembly from short-read sequencing of mRNA. We applied this method to 42 putative MADS-box core regions in P abies, from which we assembled 1084 putative transcripts. We manually curated these transcripts to arrive at 933 assembled transcript isoforms of 38 putative MADS-box genes. 152 of these isoforms, which we assign to 28 putative MADS-box genes, were differentially expressed across eight female, male, and vegetative buds. We further provide evidence of the expression of 16 out of the 38 putative MADS-box genes by mapping PacBio Iso-Seq circular consensus reads derived from pooled sample sequencing to assembled transcripts. In summary, our analyses reveal the use of mutually exclusive exons of MADS-box gene isoforms during early bud development in P. abies, and we find that the large number of identified MADS-box transcripts in P. abies results not only from expansion of the gene family through gene duplication events but also from the generation of numerous splice variants.
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| 5. |
- Akhter, Shirin, et al.
(författare)
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Transcriptome studies of the early cone-setting acrocona mutant provide evidence for a functional conservation of the age-dependent flowering pathway between angiosperms and gymnosperms.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- All seed plants go through a juvenile period before they initiate seed- and pollen-bearing organs and reproduce. Reproductive phase-change is well characterized in angiosperm model species, but much less well described in gymnosperms. Here, we utilize the early cone-setting acrocona mutant to study reproductive phase change in the conifer Picea abies; a representative of the gymnosperm lineage. The acrocona mutant frequently initiates cone-like structures, called transition shoots, in positions where wild-type P. abies always produces vegetative shoots. By sequence analysis of mRNA and microRNA transcripts, we demonstrate that orthologous components of the Age-dependent flowering pathway are active at the time of cone initiation. We show that a member of the SQUAMOSA BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) gene family, PaSPL7, is active in reproductive meristems, whereas a putative negative regulator of PaSPL7, microRNA156 is upregulated in vegetative meristem. By allele-specific assembly, we also identify a short nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the miRNA156 binding of PaSPL7. By genotyping a segregating population of inbred acrocona trees, we show a clear co-segregation between the early cone-setting phenotype and trees homozygous for the SNP. Hence, the data presented demonstrate evolutionary conservation of the age-dependent flowering pathway and involvement of this pathway in regulating cone-setting in the conifer P. abies.
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| 6. |
- Ingelshed, Katrine, et al.
(författare)
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The MDM2 Inhibitor Navtemadlin Arrests Mouse Melanoma Growth In Vivo and Potentiates Radiotherapy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Cancer Research Communications. - : American Association For Cancer Research (AACR). - 2767-9764. ; 2:9, s. 1075-1088
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The tumor suppressor protein p53 is mutated in close to 50% of human tumors and is dysregulated in many others, for instance by silencing or loss of p14ARF. Under steady-state conditions, the two E3 ligases MDM2/MDM4 interact with and inhibit the transcriptional activity of p53. Inhibition of p53–MDM2/4 interaction to reactivate p53 in tumors with wild-type (WT) p53 has therefore been considered a therapeutic strategy. Moreover, studies indicate that p53 reactivation may synergize with radiation and increase tumor immunogenicity. In vivo studies of most MDM2 inhibitors have utilized immunodeficient xenograft mouse models, preventing detailed studies of action of these molecules on the immune response. The mouse melanoma cell line B16-F10 carries functional, WT p53 but does not express the MDM2 regulator p19ARF. In this study, we tested a p53-MDM2 protein–protein interaction inhibitor, the small molecule Navtemadlin, which is currently being tested in phase II clinical trials. Using mass spectrometry–based proteomics and imaging flow cytometry, we identified specific protein expression patterns following Navtemadlin treatment of B16-F10 melanoma cells compared with their p53 CRISPR-inactivated control cells. In vitro, Navtemadlin induced a significant, p53-dependent, growth arrest but little apoptosis in B16-F10 cells. When combined with radiotherapy, Navtemadlin showed synergistic effects and increased apoptosis. In vivo, Navtemadlin treatment significantly reduced the growth of B16-F10 melanoma cells implanted in C57Bl/6 mice. Our data highlight the utility of a syngeneic B16-F10 p53+/+ mouse melanoma model for assessing existing and novel p53-MDM2/MDM4 inhibitors and in identifying new combination therapies that can efficiently eliminate tumors in vivo.Significance:The MDM2 inhibitor Navtemadlin arrests mouse tumor growth and potentiates radiotherapy. Our results support a threshold model for apoptosis induction that requires a high, prolonged p53 signaling for cancer cells to become apoptotic.
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| 7. |
- McCarthy, Shane, et al.
(författare)
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A reference panel of 64,976 haplotypes for genotype imputation
- 2016
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1061-4036 .- 1546-1718. ; 48:10, s. 1279-1283
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe a reference panel of 64,976 human haplotypes at 39,235,157 SNPs constructed using whole-genome sequence data from 20 studies of predominantly European ancestry. Using this resource leads to accurate genotype imputation at minor allele frequencies as low as 0.1% and a large increase in the number of SNPs tested in association studies, and it can help to discover and refine causal loci. We describe remote server resources that allow researchers to carry out imputation and phasing consistently and efficiently.
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| 8. |
- Paczkowski, Marcin, et al.
(författare)
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Reciprocal interactions between tumour cell populations enhance growth and reduce radiation sensitivity in prostate cancer
- 2021
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Nature. - 2399-3642. ; 4:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Intratumoural heterogeneity (ITH) contributes to local recurrence following radiotherapy in prostate cancer. Recent studies also show that ecological interactions between heterogeneous tumour cell populations can lead to resistance in chemotherapy. Here, we evaluated whether interactions between heterogenous populations could impact growth and response to radiotherapy in prostate cancer. Using mixed 3D cultures of parental and radioresistant populations from two prostate cancer cell lines and a predator-prey mathematical model to investigate various types of ecological interactions, we show that reciprocal interactions between heterogeneous populations enhance overall growth and reduce radiation sensitivity. The type of interaction influences the time of regrowth after radiation, and, at the population level, alters the survival and cell cycle of each population without eliminating either one. These interactions can arise from oxygen constraints and from cellular cross-talk that alter the tumour microenvironment. These findings suggest that ecological-type interactions are important in radiation response and could be targeted to reduce local recurrence. Using co-culture experiments and mathematical modelling, Paczkowski et al discover that prostate cancer spheroids comprising mixed tumour cell populations display enhanced growth and reduced radiation sensitivity due to competitive and antagonistic interactions between cell populations. This interdisciplinary approach reveals a role for ecological-type interactions in the radiation response and may be used to study other cancer types.
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| 9. |
- Westrin, Karl Johan, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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ClusTrast : a short read de novo transcript isoform assembler guided by clustered contigs
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Transcriptome assembly from RNA-sequencing data in species without a reliable referencegenome has to be performed de novo, but studies have shown that de novo methods often have inadequateability to reconstruct transcript isoforms. We address this issue by constructing an assembly pipeline whosemain purpose is to produce a comprehensive set of transcript isoforms.Results: We present the de novo transcript isoform assembler ClusTrast, which takes short read RNA-seq dataas input, assembles a primary assembly, clusters a set of guiding contigs, aligns the short reads to the guidingcontigs, assembles each clustered set of short reads individually, and merges the primary and clusterwiseassemblies into the final assembly. We tested ClusTrast on real datasets from six eukaryotic species, andshowed that ClusTrast reconstructed more expressed known isoforms than any of the other tested de novoassemblers, at a moderate reduction in precision. For recall, ClusTrast was on top in the lower end ofexpression levels (<15% percentile) for all tested datasets, and over the entire range for almost all datasets.Reference transcripts were often (35–69% for the six datasets) reconstructed to at least 95% of their length byClusTrast, and more than half of reference transcripts (58–81%) were reconstructed with contigs that exhibitedpolymorphism, measuring on a subset of reliably predicted contigs. ClusTrast recall increased when using aunion of assembled transcripts from more than one assembly tool as primary assembly.Conclusion: We suggest that ClusTrast can be a useful tool for studying isoforms in species without a reliablereference genome, in particular when the goal is to produce a comprehensive transcriptome set withpolymorphic variants.
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| 10. |
- Westrin, Karl Johan, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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ClusTrast : a short read de novo transcript isoform assembler guided by clustered contigs
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMC Bioinformatics. - : Springer Nature. - 1471-2105. ; 25:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Transcriptome assembly from RNA-sequencing data in species without a reliable reference genome has to be performed de novo, but studies have shown that de novo methods often have inadequate ability to reconstruct transcript isoforms. We address this issue by constructing an assembly pipeline whose main purpose is to produce a comprehensive set of transcript isoforms. Results: We present the de novo transcript isoform assembler ClusTrast, which takes short read RNA-seq data as input, assembles a primary assembly, clusters a set of guiding contigs, aligns the short reads to the guiding contigs, assembles each clustered set of short reads individually, and merges the primary and clusterwise assemblies into the final assembly. We tested ClusTrast on real datasets from six eukaryotic species, and showed that ClusTrast reconstructed more expressed known isoforms than any of the other tested de novo assemblers, at a moderate reduction in precision. For recall, ClusTrast was on top in the lower end of expression levels (<15% percentile) for all tested datasets, and over the entire range for almost all datasets. Reference transcripts were often (35–69% for the six datasets) reconstructed to at least 95% of their length by ClusTrast, and more than half of reference transcripts (58–81%) were reconstructed with contigs that exhibited polymorphism, measuring on a subset of reliably predicted contigs. ClusTrast recall increased when using a union of assembled transcripts from more than one assembly tool as primary assembly. Conclusion: We suggest that ClusTrast can be a useful tool for studying isoforms in species without a reliable reference genome, in particular when the goal is to produce a comprehensive transcriptome set with polymorphic variants.
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