Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early-stage lung cancer evolution.

The early detection of relapse following primary surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer and the characterization of emerging subclones, which seed metastatic sites, might offer new therapeutic approaches for limiting tumour recurrence. The ability to track the evolutionary dynamics of early-stage lung cancer non-invasively in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) has not yet been demonstrated. Here we use a tumour-specific phylogenetic approach to profile the ctDNA of the first 100 TRACERx (Tracking Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Evolution Through Therapy (Rx)) study participants, including one patient who was also recruited to the PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) post-mortem study. We identify independent predictors of ctDNA release and analyse the tumour-volume detection limit. Through blinded profiling of postoperative plasma, we observe evidence of adjuvant chemotherapy resistance and identify patients who are very likely to experience recurrence of their lung cancer. Finally, we show that phylogenetic ctDNA profiling tracks the subclonal nature of lung cancer relapse and metastasis, providing a new approach for ctDNA-driven therapeutic studies

Engineering the substrate specificity of Bacillus megaterium cytochrome P-450 BM3: Hydroxylation of alkyl trimethylammonium compounds

Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis has been used to replace arginine-47 with glutamate in cytochrome P-450 BM3 from Bacillus megaterium and in its haem domain. The mutant has been characterized by sequencing, mass spectrometry, steady-state kinetics and by optical and NMR measurements of substrate binding. The mutant retains significant catalytic activity towards C12-C16 fatty acids, catalysing hydroxylation in the same (omega-1, omega-2, omega-3) positions with kcat/Km values a factor of 14-21 lower. C12-C16 alkyl trimethylammonium compounds are relatively poor substrates for the wild-type enzyme, but are efficiently hydroxylated by the arginine-47-->glutamate mutant at the omega-1, omega-2 and omega-3 positions, with kcat values of up to 19 s-1. Optical spectroscopy shows that the binding of the C14 and C16 alkyl trimethylammonium compounds to the mutant is similar to that of the corresponding fatty acids to the wild-type enzyme. Paramagnetic relaxation measurements show that laurate binds to the ferric state of the mutant in a significantly different position, 1.5 A closer to the iron, than seen in the wild-type, although this difference is much smaller ( approximately 0.2 A) in the ferrous state of the complex. The binding of a substrate having the same charge as residue 47 to the ferric state of the enzyme is roughly ten times weaker than that of a substrate having the opposite charge (and thus is able to make an ion-pair interaction with this residue). The results are discussed in the light of the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme