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Nature Communications Oct 2023Genome instability is a feature of cancer cells, transcription being an important source of DNA damage. This is in large part associated with R-loops, which hamper...
Genome instability is a feature of cancer cells, transcription being an important source of DNA damage. This is in large part associated with R-loops, which hamper replication, especially at head-on transcription-replication conflicts (TRCs). Here we show that TRCs trigger a DNA Damage Response (DDR) involving the chromatin network to prevent genome instability. Depletion of the key chromatin factors INO80, SMARCA5 and MTA2 results in TRCs, fork stalling and R-loop-mediated DNA damage which mostly accumulates at S/G2, while histone H3 Ser10 phosphorylation, a mark of chromatin compaction, is enriched at TRCs. Strikingly, TRC regions show increased mutagenesis in cancer cells with signatures of homologous recombination deficiency, transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) and of the AID/APOBEC cytidine deaminases, being predominant at head-on collisions. Thus, our results support that the chromatin network prevents R-loops and TRCs from genomic instability and mutagenic signatures frequently associated with cancer.
Topics: Humans; Chromatin; DNA Replication; Transcription, Genetic; Mutagenesis; DNA Damage; Genomic Instability; Neoplasms; Histone Deacetylases; Repressor Proteins
PubMed: 37898641
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42653-0 -
Current Opinion in Structural Biology Apr 2021APOBEC3 enzymes are key enzymes in our innate immune system regulating antiviral response in HIV and unfortunately adding diversity in cancer as they deaminate cytosine.... (Review)
Review
APOBEC3 enzymes are key enzymes in our innate immune system regulating antiviral response in HIV and unfortunately adding diversity in cancer as they deaminate cytosine. Seven unique single and double domain APOBEC3s provide them with unique activity and specificity profiles for this deamination. Recent crystal and NMR structures of APOBEC3 complexes are unraveling the variety of epitopes involved in binding nucleic acids, including at the catalytic site, elsewhere on the catalytic domain and in the inactive N-terminal domain. The interplay between these diverse interactions is critical to uncovering the mechanisms by which APOBEC3s recognize and process their substrates.
Topics: APOBEC Deaminases; DNA; RNA
PubMed: 33486429
DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2020.12.004 -
Journal of Hematology & Oncology Mar 2023Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptides (APOBECs) are cytosine deaminases involved in innate and adaptive immunity. However, some APOBEC family... (Review)
Review
Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptides (APOBECs) are cytosine deaminases involved in innate and adaptive immunity. However, some APOBEC family members can also deaminate host genomes to generate oncogenic mutations. The resulting mutations, primarily signatures 2 and 13, occur in many tumor types and are among the most common mutational signatures in cancer. This review summarizes the current evidence implicating APOBEC3s as major mutators and outlines the exogenous and endogenous triggers of APOBEC3 expression and mutational activity. The review also discusses how APOBEC3-mediated mutagenesis impacts tumor evolution through both mutagenic and non-mutagenic pathways, including by inducing driver mutations and modulating the tumor immune microenvironment. Moving from molecular biology to clinical outcomes, the review concludes by summarizing the divergent prognostic significance of APOBEC3s across cancer types and their therapeutic potential in the current and future clinical landscapes.
Topics: Humans; Clinical Relevance; Neoplasms; Mutagenesis; Mutation; Peptides; Cytidine Deaminase; Tumor Microenvironment; APOBEC Deaminases
PubMed: 36978147
DOI: 10.1186/s13045-023-01425-5 -
Molecular Therapy. Nucleic Acids Dec 2023Over recent years, zinc-dependent deaminases have attracted increasing interest as key components of nucleic acid editing tools that can generate point mutations at... (Review)
Review
Over recent years, zinc-dependent deaminases have attracted increasing interest as key components of nucleic acid editing tools that can generate point mutations at specific sites in either DNA or RNA by combining a targeting module (such as a catalytically impaired CRISPR-Cas component) and an effector module (most often a deaminase). Deaminase-based molecular tools are already being utilized in a wide spectrum of therapeutic and research applications; however, their medical and biotechnological potential seems to be much greater. Recent reports indicate that the further development of nucleic acid editing systems depends largely on our ability to engineer the substrate specificity and catalytic activity of the editors themselves. In this review, we summarize the current trends and achievements in deaminase engineering. The presented data indicate that the potential of these enzymes has not yet been fully revealed or understood. Several examples show that even relatively minor changes in the structure of deaminases can give them completely new and unique properties.
PubMed: 38028200
DOI: 10.1016/j.omtn.2023.102062 -
Future Virology Jul 2022The expression pattern of RNA deaminases determines the mutation and evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
The expression pattern of RNA deaminases determines the mutation and evolution of SARS-CoV-2.
PubMed: 35873408
DOI: 10.2217/fvl-2022-0043 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jan 2021Besides smoking and alcohol, human papillomavirus (HPV) is a factor promoting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In some human tumors, including HNSCC, a... (Review)
Review
Besides smoking and alcohol, human papillomavirus (HPV) is a factor promoting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In some human tumors, including HNSCC, a number of mutations are caused by aberrantly activated DNA-modifying enzymes, such as the apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) family of cytidine deaminases. As the enzymatic activity of APOBEC proteins contributes to the innate immune response to viruses, including HPV, the role of APOBEC proteins in HPV-driven head and neck carcinogenesis has recently gained increasing attention. Ongoing research efforts take the cue from two key observations: (1) APOBEC expression depends on HPV infection status in HNSCC; and (2) APOBEC activity plays a major role in HPV-positive HNSCC mutagenesis. This review focuses on recent advances on the role of APOBEC proteins in HPV-positive vs. HPV-negative HNSCC.
Topics: APOBEC Deaminases; Alphapapillomavirus; Carcinogenesis; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Immunity, Innate; Mutagenesis; Mutation; Papillomavirus Infections; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck
PubMed: 33573337
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22031402 -
Science Advances Nov 2023Mutational signatures represent a genomic footprint of endogenous and exogenous mutational processes through tumor evolution. However, their functional impact on the...
Mutational signatures represent a genomic footprint of endogenous and exogenous mutational processes through tumor evolution. However, their functional impact on the proteome remains incompletely understood. We analyzed the protein-coding impact of single-base substitution (SBS) signatures in 12,341 cancer genomes from 18 cancer types. Stop-gain mutations (SGMs) (i.e., nonsense mutations) were strongly enriched in SBS signatures of tobacco smoking, APOBEC cytidine deaminases, and reactive oxygen species. These mutational processes alter specific trinucleotide contexts and thereby substitute serines and glutamic acids with stop codons. SGMs frequently affect cancer hallmark pathways and tumor suppressors such as , , and . Tobacco-driven SGMs in lung cancer correlate with smoking history and highlight a preventable determinant of these harmful mutations. APOBEC-driven SGMs are enriched in YTCA motifs and associate with expression. Our study exposes SGM expansion as a genetic mechanism by which endogenous and carcinogenic mutational processes directly contribute to protein loss of function, oncogenesis, and tumor heterogeneity.
Topics: Humans; Mutation; Neoplasms; Cytidine Deaminase; APOBEC Deaminases; Tobacco Smoking
PubMed: 37922356
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh3083 -
Briefings in Bioinformatics Jan 2022The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has triggered an unprecedented international effort to sequence complete viral genomes. We...
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has triggered an unprecedented international effort to sequence complete viral genomes. We leveraged this wealth of information to characterize the substitution spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 and to compare it with those of other human and animal coronaviruses. We show that, once nucleotide composition is taken into account, human and most animal coronaviruses display a mutation spectrum dominated by C to U and G to U substitutions, a feature that is not shared by other positive-sense RNA viruses. However, the proportions of C to U and G to U substitutions tend to decrease as divergence increases, suggesting that, whatever their origin, a proportion of these changes is subsequently eliminated by purifying selection. Analysis of the sequence context of C to U substitutions showed little evidence of apolipoprotein B mRNA editing catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC)-mediated editing and such contexts were similar for SARS-CoV-2 and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus sampled from different hosts, despite different repertoires of APOBEC3 proteins in distinct species. Conversely, we found evidence that C to U and G to U changes affect CpG dinucleotides at a frequency higher than expected. Whereas this suggests ongoing selective reduction of CpGs, this effect alone cannot account for the substitution spectra. Finally, we show that, during the first months of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spread, the frequency of both G to U and C to U substitutions increased. Our data suggest that the substitution spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 is determined by an interplay of factors, including intrinsic biases of the replication process, avoidance of CpG dinucleotides and other constraints exerted by the new host.
Topics: APOBEC Deaminases; Animals; COVID-19; Evolution, Molecular; Genome, Viral; Humans; Mutation; Pandemics; Phylogeny; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 34518866
DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbab382 -
Nature Feb 2022Clustered somatic mutations are common in cancer genomes and previous analyses reveal several types of clustered single-base substitutions, which include doublet- and...
Clustered somatic mutations are common in cancer genomes and previous analyses reveal several types of clustered single-base substitutions, which include doublet- and multi-base substitutions, diffuse hypermutation termed omikli, and longer strand-coordinated events termed kataegis. Here we provide a comprehensive characterization of clustered substitutions and clustered small insertions and deletions (indels) across 2,583 whole-genome-sequenced cancers from 30 types of cancer. Clustered mutations were highly enriched in driver genes and associated with differential gene expression and changes in overall survival. Several distinct mutational processes gave rise to clustered indels, including signatures that were enriched in tobacco smokers and homologous-recombination-deficient cancers. Doublet-base substitutions were caused by at least 12 mutational processes, whereas most multi-base substitutions were generated by either tobacco smoking or exposure to ultraviolet light. Omikli events, which have previously been attributed to APOBEC3 activity, accounted for a large proportion of clustered substitutions; however, only 16.2% of omikli matched APOBEC3 patterns. Kataegis was generated by multiple mutational processes, and 76.1% of all kataegic events exhibited mutational patterns that are associated with the activation-induced deaminase (AID) and APOBEC3 family of deaminases. Co-occurrence of APOBEC3 kataegis and extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), termed kyklonas (Greek for cyclone), was found in 31% of samples with ecDNA. Multiple distinct kyklonic events were observed on most mutated ecDNA. ecDNA containing known cancer genes exhibited both positive selection and kyklonic hypermutation. Our results reveal the diversity of clustered mutational processes in human cancer and the role of APOBEC3 in recurrently mutating and fuelling the evolution of ecDNA.
Topics: APOBEC Deaminases; Genome; Humans; INDEL Mutation; Mutagenesis; Mutation; Neoplasms
PubMed: 35140399
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04398-6 -
Biochemical and Biophysical Research... Jan 2021The extensive sequence data generated from SARS-CoV-2 during the 2020 pandemic has facilitated the study of viral genome evolution over a brief period of time. This has... (Review)
Review
The extensive sequence data generated from SARS-CoV-2 during the 2020 pandemic has facilitated the study of viral genome evolution over a brief period of time. This has highlighted instances of directional mutation pressures exerted on the SARS-CoV-2 genome from host antiviral defense systems. In this brief review we describe three such human defense mechanisms, the apolipoprotein B mRNA editing catalytic polypeptide-like proteins (APOBEC), adenosine deaminase acting on RNA proteins (ADAR), and reactive oxygen species (ROS), and discuss their potential implications on SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Topics: APOBEC Deaminases; Adenosine Deaminase; COVID-19; Gene Editing; Genome, Viral; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; RNA-Binding Proteins; Reactive Oxygen Species; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 33234239
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.10.092