生命科学学院学术报告
题目：Unravelling Drug Resistance Mechanisms in Breast Cancer
主讲人：Guotai Xu, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
时间：2019年6月27日（星期四）13:00-14:00
地点：北京大学吕志和楼B106
摘要：
For the 1^st part of the talk, we uncovered a novel mechanism of resistance to endocrine therapy in estrogen receptor positive (ER)+ breast cancer. Mutations in ARID1A, a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex, are the most common somatic alteration of the SWI/SNF complex across all cancers including ER+ breast cancer. We have recently reported that ARID1A inactivating mutations are present at a high frequency in advanced endocrine resistant ER+ breast cancer. In parallel, to identify mechanisms of resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer, we performed an epigenome CRISPR/CAS9 knockout screen that identified ARID1A as the top candidate whose loss determines resistance to the ER degrader fulvestrant. ARID1A knockout cells were found to be less responsive to endocrine therapy compared to intact ARID1A cells in vitro and in vivo. This set of observations in patients’ tumours and in unbiased CRISPR screens led us to explore the epigenetic mechanisms whereby loss of ARID1A may influence breast cancer progression and/or endocrine therapy resistance. ARID1A disruption in ER+ breast cancer cells led to widespread changes in chromatin accessibility converging on loss of activity of master transcription factors (TFs) that regulate gene expression programs critical for luminal lineage identity. Global transcriptome profiling of ARID1A knockout cell lines and patient samples harbouring ARID1A inactivating mutations revealed an enrichment for basal-like gene expression signatures. The state of increased cellular plasticity of luminal cells that acquire a basal-like phenotype upon ARID1A inactivation is enabled by loss of ARID1A-dependent SWI/SNF complex targeting to genomic sites of the major luminal-lineage determining transcription factors including ER, FOXA1, and GATA3. We also show that ARID1A regulates genome-wide FOXA1 and ER-chromatin interactions and ER-dependent transcription. Altogether, we uncover a critical role for ARID1A in the determination of breast luminal cell identity and endocrine therapeutic response in ER+ breast cancer.
For the 2^nd project, we identified a novel mechanism of PARP inhibitor resistance in BRCA1- related breast cancer. Error-free repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is achieved by homologous recombination (HR), and BRCA1 is an important factor for this repair pathway. In the absence of BRCA1-mediated HR, the administration of PARP inhibitors induces synthetic lethality of tumour cells of patients with breast or ovarian cancers. Despite the benefit of this tailored therapy, drug resistance can occur by HR restoration. Genetic reversion of BRCA1- inactivating mutations can be the underlying mechanism of drug resistance, but this does not explain resistance in all cases. In particular, little is known about BRCA1-independent restoration of HR. Here we show that loss of REV7 (also known as MAD2L2) in mouse and human cell lines re-establishes CTIP-dependent end resection of DSBs in BRCA1-deficient cells, leading to HR restoration and PARP inhibitor resistance, which is reversed by ATM kinase inhibition. REV7 is recruited to DSBs in a manner dependent on the H2AX-MDC1-RNF8-RNF168-53BP1 chromatin pathway, and seems to block HR and promote end joining in addition to its regulatory role in DNA damage tolerance. Finally, we establish that REV7 blocks DSB resection to promote non- homologous end-joining during immunoglobulin class switch recombination. Our results reveal an unexpected crucial function of REV7 downstream of 53BP1 in coordinating pathological DSB repair pathway choices in BRCA1-deficient cells.
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