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Targeting Oncogenic BRAF: Past, Present, and Future.
Identifying recurrent somatic genetic alterations of, and dependency on, the kinase BRAF has enabled a "precision medicine" paradigm to diagnose and treat BRAF-driven tumors. Although targeted kinase inhibitors against BRAF are effective in a subset of mutant BRAF tumors, resistance to the therapy inevitably emerges. In this review, we discuss BRAF biology, both in wild-type and mutant settings. We discuss the predominant BRAF mutations and we outline therapeutic strategies to block mutant BRAF and cancer growth. We highlight common mechanistic themes that underpin different classes of resistance mechanisms against BRAF-targeted therapies and discuss tumor heterogeneity and co-occurring molecular alterations as a potential source of therapy resistance. We outline promising therapy approaches to overcome these barriers to the long-term control of BRAF-driven tumors and emphasize how an extensive understanding of these themes can offer more pre-emptive, improved therapeutic strategies
A Spatial Simulation Approach to Account for Protein Structure When Identifying Non-Random Somatic Mutations
Background: Current research suggests that a small set of "driver" mutations
are responsible for tumorigenesis while a larger body of "passenger" mutations
occurs in the tumor but does not progress the disease. Due to recent
pharmacological successes in treating cancers caused by driver mutations, a
variety of of methodologies that attempt to identify such mutations have been
developed. Based on the hypothesis that driver mutations tend to cluster in key
regions of the protein, the development of cluster identification algorithms
has become critical.
Results: We have developed a novel methodology, SpacePAC (Spatial Protein
Amino acid Clustering), that identifies mutational clustering by considering
the protein tertiary structure directly in 3D space. By combining the
mutational data in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) and
the spatial information in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), SpacePAC is able to
identify novel mutation clusters in many proteins such as FGFR3 and CHRM2. In
addition, SpacePAC is better able to localize the most significant mutational
hotspots as demonstrated in the cases of BRAF and ALK. The R package is
available on Bioconductor at:
http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/SpacePAC.html
Conclusion: SpacePAC adds a valuable tool to the identification of mutational
clusters while considering protein tertiary structureComment: 16 pages, 8 Figures, 4 Table
Targeted next-generation sequencing of dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma in the skull base reveals combined TP53 and PTEN mutations with increased proliferation index, an implication for pathogenesis
Dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma (DDCS) is a rare disease with a dismal prognosis. DDCS consists of two morphologically distinct components: the cartilaginous and noncartilaginous components. Whether the two components originate from the same progenitor cells has been controversial. Recurrent DDCS commonly displays increased proliferation compared with the primary tumor. However, there is no conclusive explanation for this mechanism. In this paper, we present two DDCSs in the sellar region. Patient 1 exclusively exhibited a noncartilaginous component with a TP53 frameshift mutation in the pathological specimens from the first surgery. The tumor recurred after radiation therapy with an exceedingly increased proliferation index. Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) revealed the presence of both a TP53 mutation and a PTEN deletion in the cartilaginous and the noncartilaginous components of the recurrent tumor. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunostaining confirmed reduced DNA copy number and protein levels of the PTEN gene as a result of the PTEN deletion. Patient 2 exhibited both cartilaginous and noncartilaginous components in the surgical specimens. Targeted NGS of cells from both components showed neither TP53 nor PTEN mutations, making Patient 2 a naïve TP53 and PTEN control for comparison. In conclusion, additional PTEN loss in the background of the TP53 mutation could be the cause of increased proliferation capacity in the recurrent tumor
Utilizing Protein Structure to Identify Non-Random Somatic Mutations
Motivation: Human cancer is caused by the accumulation of somatic mutations
in tumor suppressors and oncogenes within the genome. In the case of oncogenes,
recent theory suggests that there are only a few key "driver" mutations
responsible for tumorigenesis. As there have been significant pharmacological
successes in developing drugs that treat cancers that carry these driver
mutations, several methods that rely on mutational clustering have been
developed to identify them. However, these methods consider proteins as a
single strand without taking their spatial structures into account. We propose
a new methodology that incorporates protein tertiary structure in order to
increase our power when identifying mutation clustering.
Results: We have developed a novel algorithm, iPAC: identification of Protein
Amino acid Clustering, for the identification of non-random somatic mutations
in proteins that takes into account the three dimensional protein structure. By
using the tertiary information, we are able to detect both novel clusters in
proteins that are known to exhibit mutation clustering as well as identify
clusters in proteins without evidence of clustering based on existing methods.
For example, by combining the data in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and the
Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer, our algorithm identifies new
mutational clusters in well known cancer proteins such as KRAS and PI3KCa.
Further, by utilizing the tertiary structure, our algorithm also identifies
clusters in EGFR, EIF2AK2, and other proteins that are not identified by
current methodology
Understanding oncogenicity of cancer driver genes and mutations in the cancer genomics era
One of the key challenges of cancer biology is to catalogue and understand the somatic genomic alterations leading to cancer. Although alternative definitions and search methods have been developed to identify cancer driver genes and mutations, analyses of thousands of cancer genomes return a remarkably similar catalogue of around 300 genes that are mutated in at least one cancer type. Yet, many features of these genes and their role in cancer remain unclear, first and foremost when a somatic mutation is truly oncogenic. In this review, we first summarize some of the recent efforts in completing the catalogue of cancer driver genes. Then, we give an overview of different aspects that influence the oncogenicity of somatic mutations in the core cancer driver genes, including their interactions with the germline genome, other cancer driver mutations, the immune system, or their potential role in healthy tissues. In the coming years, this research holds promise to illuminate how, when, and why cancer driver genes and mutations are really drivers, and thereby move personalized cancer medicine and targeted therapies forward
Mutational patterns in oncogenes and tumour suppressors
All cancers depend upon mutations in critical genes, which confer a selective advantage to the tumour cell. Knowledge of these mutations is crucial to understanding the biology of cancer initiation and progression, and to the development of targeted therapeutic strategies. The key to understanding the contribution of a disease-associated mutation to the development and progression of cancer, comes from an understanding of the consequences of that mutation on the function of the affected protein, and the impact on the pathways in which that protein is involved. In this paper we examine the mutation patterns observed in oncogenes and tumour suppressors, and discuss different approaches that have been developed to identify driver mutations within cancers that contribute to the disease progress. We also discuss the MOKCa database where we have developed an automatic pipeline that structurally and functionally annotates all proteins from the human proteome that are mutated in cancer
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