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A Robust Discovery Platform for the Identification of Novel Mediators of Melanoma Metastasis

Metastasis is a complex process, requiring cells to overcome barriers that are only incompletely modeled by in vitro assays. A systematic workflow was ...

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Perlmutter Cancer Center

Metastasis is the primary cause of death of cancer patients. Dissecting mechanisms governing metastatic spread may uncover important tumor biology and/or yield promising therapeutic insights. Here, we investigated the role of circular RNAs (circRNA) in metastasis, using melanoma as a model aggressive tumor. We identified silencing of cerebellar degeneration-related 1 antisense (CDR1as), a regulator of miR-7, as a hallmark of melanoma progression. CDR1as depletion results from epigenetic silencing of LINC00632, its originating long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and promotes invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo through a miR-7-independent, IGF2BP3-mediated mechanism. Moreover, CDR1as levels reflect cellular states associated with distinct therapeutic responses. Our study reveals functional, prognostic, and predictive roles for CDR1as and expose circRNAs as key players in metastasis.

Epigenetic Silencing of CDR1as Drives IGF2BP3-Mediated Melanoma Invasion and Metastasis.

TSC1 is a tumor suppressor that inhibits cell growth via negative regulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex (mTORC1).  mutations are associated with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), characterized by multiple benign tumors of mesenchymal and epithelial origin. TSC1 modulates self-renewal and differentiation in hematopoietic stem cells; however, its effects on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are unknown. We investigated the impact of  inactivation in murine bone marrow (BM)-MSCs, using tissue-specific, transgelin ()-mediated cre-recombination, targeting both BM-MSCs and smooth muscle cells.  mutants were viable, but homozygous inactivation led to a dwarfed appearance with TSC-like pathologies in multiple organs and reduced survival. In young (28 day old) mice,  deficiency-induced significant cell expansion of non-hematopoietic BM in vivo, and MSC colony-forming potential in vitro, that was normalized upon treatment with the mTOR inhibitor, everolimus. The hyperproliferative BM-MSC phenotype was lost in aged (1.5 yr) mice, and  inactivation was also accompanied by elevated ROS and increased senescence. ShRNA-mediated knockdown of  in BM-MSCs replicated the hyperproliferative BM-MSC phenotype and led to impaired adipogenic and myogenic differentiation. Our data show that  is a negative regulator of BM-MSC proliferation and support a pivotal role for the Tsc1-mTOR axis in the maintenance of the mesenchymal progenitor pool.

 Regulates the Proliferation Capacity of Bone-Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

Five years ago, the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) conducted an assessment of the challenges and opportunities facing the melanoma research community and patients with melanoma. Since then, remarkable progress has been made on both the basic and clinical research fronts. However, the incidence, recurrence, and death rates for melanoma remain unacceptably high and significant challenges remain. Hence, the MRF Scientific Advisory Council and Breakthrough Consortium, a group that includes clinicians and scientists, reconvened to facilitate intensive discussions on thematic areas essential to melanoma researchers and patients alike, prevention, detection, diagnosis, metastatic dormancy and progression, response and resistance to targeted and immune-based therapy, and the clinical consequences of COVID-19 for patients with melanoma and providers. These extensive discussions helped to crystalize our understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the broader melanoma community today. In this report, we discuss the progress made since the last MRF assessment, comment on what remains to be overcome, and offer recommendations for the best path forward.

The State of Melanoma: Emergent Challenges and Opportunities.

Recent preclinical data suggest that there may be therapeutic synergy between immune checkpoint blockade and inhibition of the coagulation cascade. Here, we investigate whether patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and were on concomitant anticoagulation (AC) experienced better treatment outcomes than individuals not on AC.Affiliation: Kindly confirm if corresponding authors affiliation is identified correctly.The corresponding author's affiliation is correct.

Treatment with therapeutic anticoagulation is not associated with immunotherapy response in advanced cancer patients.

Melanoma is the most lethal skin malignancy, driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations in the complex tumour microenvironment. While large-scale molecular profiling of melanoma has identified molecular signatures associated with melanoma progression, comprehensive systems-level modeling remains elusive. This study builds up predictive gene network models of molecular alterations in primary melanoma by integrating large-scale bulk-based multi-omic and single-cell transcriptomic data. Incorporating clinical, epigenetic, and proteomic data into these networks reveals key subnetworks, cell types, and regulators underlying melanoma progression. Tumors with high immune infiltrates are found to be associated with good prognosis, presumably due to induced CD8+ T-cell cytotoxicity, via MYO1F-mediated M1-polarization of macrophages. Seventeen key drivers of the gene subnetworks associated with poor prognosis, including the transcription factor ZNF180, are tested for their pro-tumorigenic effects in vitro. The anti-tumor effect of silencing ZNF180 is further validated using in vivo xenografts. Experimentally validated targets of ZNF180 are enriched in the ZNF180 centered network and the known pathways such as melanoma cell maintenance and immune cell infiltration. The transcriptional networks and their critical regulators provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of melanomagenesis and pave the way for developing therapeutic strategies for melanoma.

Eva Hernando

Department of Pathology

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

A Robust Discovery Platform for the Identification of Novel Mediators of Melanoma Metastasis

Eva Hernando

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Pathology

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

A Robust Discovery Platform for the Identification of Novel Mediators of Melanoma Metastasis

Department of Pathology