| 1. |
- Anande, Govardhan, et al.
(author)
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RNA Splicing Alterations Induce a Cellular Stress Response Associated with Poor Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
- 2020
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In: Clinical Cancer Research. - 1078-0432 .- 1557-3265. ; 26:14, s. 3597-3607
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: RNA splicing is a fundamental biological process that generates protein diversity from a finite set of genes. Recurrent somatic mutations of splicing factor genes are common in some hematologic cancers but are relatively uncommon in acute myeloid leukemia (AML, < 20% of patients). We examined whether RNA splicing differences exist in AML, even in the absence of splicing factor mutations.Experimental Design: We developed a bioinformatics pipeline to study alternative RNA splicing in RNA-sequencing data from large cohorts of patients with AML.Results: We have identified recurrent differential alternative splicing between patients with poor and good prognosis. These splicing events occurred even in patients without any discernible splicing factor mutations. Alternative splicing recurrently occurred in genes with specific molecular functions, primarily related to protein translation. Developing tools to predict the functional impact of alternative splicing on the translated protein, we discovered that approximately 45% of the splicing events directly affected highly conserved protein domains. Several splicing factors were themselves misspliced and the splicing of their target transcripts were altered. Studying differential gene expression in the same patients, we identified that alternative splicing of protein translation genes in ELNAdv patients resulted in the induction of an integrated stress response and upregulation of inflammation-related genes. Finally, using machine learning techniques, we identified a splicing signature of four genes which refine the accuracy of existing risk prognosis schemes and validated it in a completely independent cohort.Conclusions: Our discoveries therefore identify aberrant alternative splicing as a molecular feature of adverse AML with clinical relevance.
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| 2. |
- Putri, Givanna H., et al.
(author)
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Analysing high-throughput sequencing data in Python with HTSeq 2.0
- 2022
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In: Bioinformatics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1367-4803 .- 1367-4811. ; 38:10, s. 2943-2945
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- HTSeq 2.0 provides a more extensive application programming interface including a new representation for sparse genomic data, enhancements for htseq-count to suit single-cell omics, a new script for data using cell and molecular barcodes, improved documentation, testing and deployment, bug fixes and Python 3 support.
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| 3. |
- Thoms, Julie A.I., et al.
(author)
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Disruption of a GATA2-TAL1-ERG regulatory circuit promotes erythroid transition in healthy and leukemic stem cells
- 2021
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In: Blood. - : American Society of Hematology. - 0006-4971 .- 1528-0020. ; 138:16, s. 1441-1455
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Changes in gene regulation and expression govern orderly transitions from hematopoietic stem cells to terminally differentiated blood cell types. These transitions are disrupted during leukemic transformation, but knowledge of the gene regulatory changes underpinning this process is elusive. We hypothesized that identifying core gene regulatory networks in healthy hematopoietic and leukemic cells could provide insights into network alterations that perturb cell state transitions. A heptad of transcription factors (LYL1, TAL1, LMO2, FLI1, ERG, GATA2, and RUNX1) bind key hematopoietic genes in human CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and have prognostic significance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These factors also form a densely interconnected circuit by binding combinatorially at their own, and each other's, regulatory elements. However, their mutual regulation during normal hematopoiesis and in AML cells, and how perturbation of their expression levels influences cell fate decisions remains unclear. In this study, we integrated bulk and single-cell data and found that the fully connected heptad circuit identified in healthy HSPCs persists, with only minor alterations in AML, and that chromatin accessibility at key heptad regulatory elements was predictive of cell identity in both healthy progenitors and leukemic cells. The heptad factors GATA2, TAL1, and ERG formed an integrated subcircuit that regulates stem cell-to-erythroid transition in both healthy and leukemic cells. Components of this triad could be manipulated to facilitate erythroid transition providing a proof of concept that such regulatory circuits can be harnessed to promote specific cell-type transitions and overcome dysregulated hematopoiesis.
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