Name: pooled shrna library screening to identify factors that modulate a drug resistance phenotype
Uploaded: 2022-06-17T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Pooled shRNA Library Screening to Identify Factors that Modulate a Drug Resistance Phenotype at JoVE.com

This study is funded in part by a Department of Biotechnology grant BT/PR8742/AGR/36/773/2013 to SRV; and Department of Biotechnology India BT/COE/34/SP13432/2015 and Department of Science and Technology, India: EMR/2017/003880 to P.B. RVS and P.B. are supported by Wellcome DBT India Alliance IA/S/17/1/503118 and IA/S/15/1/501842, respectively. S.D. is supported by the CSIR-UGC fellowship, and S.I. is supported by an ICMR senior research fellowship. We thank Abhirup Bagchi, Sandya Rani, and the CSCR Flow Cytometry Core Facility staff for their help. We also thank MedGenome Inc. for helping with the high-throughput sequencing and data analysis.

Follow the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) guidelines and use the proper facility to handle lentivirus (BSL-2). Personnel should be appropriately trained in the handling and disposal of lentivirus. This protocol follows the biosafety guidelines of Christian Medical College, Vellore.
1. Selection of the most potent promoter to obtain persistent and prolonged expression of the shRNAs
NOTE: It is essential to perform a transduction experiment us...

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RNA interference (RNAi) is extensively used for functional genomics studies, which include siRNA and shRNA screening. The benefit of shRNA is that they can be incorporated into plasmid vectors and integrated into genomic DNA, resulting in stable expression and, thus, more prolonged knockdown of the target mRNA. A pooled shRNA library screening is robust and cost-effective compared to the conventional arrayed screens (siRNA). Identifying the essentiality of a specific class of proteins in a genome-wide screen can be cumbe...

Therapeutic options in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have remained unchanged for nearly the past five decades, with cytarabine (AraC) and anthracyclines as the cornerstone for treating the disease. One of the challenges to the success of AML therapy is the resistance of leukemic stem cells to chemotherapy, leading to disease relapse1,2. Epigenetic regulation plays a vital role in cancer pathogenesis and drug resistance, and several epigenetic factors have emerged as promising therapeutic targets3,4,5. Epigenetic regulatory mechanisms affect proliferation and survival under continuous exposure to chemotherapeutic drugs. Studies in non-hematological malignancies have reported that a small fraction of cells that overcome the drug effect undergo various epigenetics modifications, resulting in those cells&#39; survival6,7. However, the role of epigenetic factors in mediating acquired resistance to cytarabine in AML has not been explored.
High-throughput screening is an approach to drug discovery that has gained global importance over time and has become a standard method in different aspects to identify potential targets in cellular mechanisms, for pathway profiling, and at the molecular level8,9. The synthetic lethality concept involves the interaction between two genes where the perturbation of either gene alone is viable but of both genes simultaneously results in the loss of viability10. Exploiting synthetic lethality in cancer treatment could help identify and mechanistically characterize robust synthetic lethal genetic interactions11. We have adopted a combinatorial approach of high-throughput shRNA screening with synthetic lethality to identify the epigenetic factors responsible for acquired cytarabine resistance in AML.
Acute leukemias driven by chromosomal translocation of the mixed-lineage leukemia gene (MLL or KMT2A) are known to be associated with poor survival in patients. The resulting chimeric products of MLL gene rearrangements, i.e., MLL fusion proteins (MLL-FPs), can transform hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) into leukemic blasts with the involvement of multiple epigenetic factors. These epigenetic regulators constitute a complicated network that dictates the maintenance of the leukemia program and, therefore, could form potential therapeutic targets. In this context, we used the MV4-11 cell line (harboring the MLL fusion gene MLL-AF4 with the FLT3-ITD mutation; termed as MV4-11 P) to develop the acquired cytarabine resistant cell line, termed as MV4-11 AraC R. The cell line was exposed to increasing doses of cytarabine with intermittent recovery from the drug treatment, known as a drug holiday. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was assessed by in vitro cytotoxicity assay.
We used the pooled epigenetic shRNA Library (see Table of Materials) driven by the hEF1a promoter with a pZIP lentiviral backbone. This library comprises shRNAs targeting 407 epigenetic factors. Each factor has 5-24 shRNAs, with a total of 5,485 shRNAs, including five non-targeting control shRNAs. The modified &#34;UltrmiR&#34; miR-30 scaffold has been optimized for efficient primary shRNA biogenesis and expression12,13.
The outline of this experiment is illustrated in Figure 1A. The current protocol focuses on RNAi screening using the epigenetic factor shRNA library in the MV4-11 AraC R cell line (Figure&#160;1B), a suspension cell line. This protocol can be used to screen any targeted library in any drug-resistant cell line of one&#39;s choice. It should be noted that the transduction protocol will be different for adherent cells.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagents</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>100 bp Ladder Hyper Ladder</td>
			<td>BIOLINE</td>
			<td>BIO-33025</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1kb Ladder Hyper Ladder</td>
			<td>BIOLINE</td>
			<td>BIO-33056</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Agarose</td>
			<td>Lonza Seachekm</td>
			<td>50004</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Betaine (5mM)</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>B03001VL</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Boric Acid</td>
			<td>Qualigens</td>
			<td>12005</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cell culture plasticware</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>as appicable</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cytosine &#946;-D-arabinofuranoside hydrochloride</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>C1768-500MG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM</td>
			<td>MP BIO</td>
			<td>91233354</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMSO</td>
			<td>Wak Chemie GMBH</td>
			<td>Cryosure DMSO 10ml</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EDTA</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>E5134</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethidium Bromide</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>E1510-10 mL</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal Bovine Serum</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>16000044</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gel/PCR Purification Kit</td>
			<td>MACHEREY-NAGEL</td>
			<td>REF&#160;740609.50</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gibco- RPMI 1640</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>23400021</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glacial Acetic Acid</td>
			<td>Thermo</td>
			<td>Q11007</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>hCMV GFP Plasmid</td>
			<td>Transomics</td>
			<td>TransOmics Promoter selection KIT</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>hEF1a GFPlasmid</td>
			<td>Transomics</td>
			<td>TransOmics Promoter selection KIT</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEK 293T</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CRL-11268</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HL60 cell line</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CCL-240</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KOD Hot Start Polymerase</td>
			<td>Merck</td>
			<td>71086</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Molm13 cell line</td>
			<td>Ellen Weisberg Lab, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA</td>
			<td>Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MV4-11 cell line</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CRL-9591</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin streptomycin</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>15140122</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>psPAX2 and pMD2.G</td>
			<td>Addgene</td>
			<td>Addgene plasmid no.12260 &#38; Addgene plasmid no. 12259</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Qubit dsDNA HS Assay Kit</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td>REF Q32854</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SFFV&#160; GFP Plasmid</td>
			<td>Transomics</td>
			<td>TransOmics Promoter selection KIT</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>shERWOOD-UltrmiR shRNA Library from Transomics</td>
			<td>Transomics</td>
			<td>Cat No. TLH UD7409; Lot No: A116.V 132.14</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trans-IT-LTI Mirus</td>
			<td>Mirus</td>
			<td>Mirus Catalog Number: MIR2300</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tris</td>
			<td>MP Biomedicals</td>
			<td>0219485591</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypan Blue</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>T8154-100ML</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultra centrifuge Tubes</td>
			<td>Beckman Coulter</td>
			<td>&#160;103319</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Equipments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>5% CO2 incubator</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BD Aria III cell sorter</td>
			<td>Becton Dickinson</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Beckman Coulter Optima L-100K- Ultracentrifugation</td>
			<td>Beckman coulter</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Centrifuge</td>
			<td>Thermo Multiguge 3SR+</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ChemiDoc Imaging system&#160;(Fluro Chem M system)</td>
			<td>Fluro Chem</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Leica AF600</td>
			<td>Leica</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Light Microscope</td>
			<td>Zeiss Axiovert 40c</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nanodrop</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Qubit 3.0 Fluorometer</td>
			<td>Invitrogen</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Thermal Cycler</td>
			<td>BioRad</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

pooled shrna library screening to identify factors that modulate a drug resistance phenotype

Understanding clinically relevant driver mechanisms of acquired chemo-resistance is crucial for elucidating ways to circumvent resistance and improve survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A small fraction of leukemic cells that survive chemotherapy have a poised epigenetic state to tolerate chemotherapeutic insult. Further exposure to chemotherapy allows these drug persister cells to attain a fixed epigenetic state, which leads to altered gene expression, resulting in the proliferation of these drug-resistant populations and eventually relapse or refractory disease. Therefore, identifying epigenetic modulations that necessitate the survival of drug-resistant leukemic cells is critical. We detail a protocol to identify epigenetic modulators that mediate resistance to the nucleoside analog cytarabine (AraC) using pooled shRNA library screening in an acquired cytarabine-resistant AML cell line. The library consists of 5,485 shRNA constructs targeting 407 human epigenetic factors, which allows high-throughput epigenetic factor screening.

The overall screening workflow is depicted in Figure 1A. In vitro cytotoxicity of the MV4-11 AraC R (48 h) revealed the IC50 to cytarabine in the MV4-11 AraC R to be higher than the MV4-11 P (Figure 1B). This cell line was used in the study as the model for screening the epigenetic factors responsible for cytarabine resistance.
Figure 2A shows the linearized pZIP vector maps with...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Pooled shRNA Library Screening to Identify Factors that Modulate a Drug Resistance Phenotype at JoVE.com

Pooled shRNA Library Screening to Identify Factors that Modulate a Drug Resistance Phenotype

High-throughput RNA interference (RNAi) screening using a pool of lentiviral shRNAs can be a tool to detect therapeutically relevant synthetic lethal targets in malignancies. We provide a pooled shRNA screening approach to investigate the epigenetic effectors in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Understanding clinically relevant driver mechanisms of acquired chemo-resistance is crucial for elucidating ways to circumvent resistance and improve ...

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