Microarrays in Lung Cancer Research : From Comparative Analyses to Verified Findings

Keuhkosyöpä on yleisimpiä syöpätauteja. Se jaetaan kahteen päätyyppiin: pienisoluiseen ja ei-pienisoluiseen keuhkosyöpään. Ei-pienisoluinen keuhkosyöpä jaetaan lisäksi alatyyppeihin, joista suurimmat ovat levyepiteeli-, adeno- ja suurisoluinen karsinooma. Keuhkosyövän tärkein riskitekijä on tupakointi, mutta muutkin työ- ja elinympäristön altisteet, kuten asbesti, voivat johtaa syöpään. Väitöstyössä tutkittiin kahdenlaisten keuhkosyöpäryhmien erityispiirteitä. Työssä kartoitettiin, onko löydettävissä muutoksia, jotka erottavat asbestikeuhkosyövät muista syövistä sekä luuytimeen varhaisessa vaiheessa leviävät keuhkosyövät leviämättömistä syövistä. Tutkimusten ensimmäisessä vaiheessa käytettiin mikrosirupohjaisia menetelmiä, jotka mahdollistavat jopa kaikkien geenien tarkastelun yhden kokeen avulla. Vertailevien mikrosirututkimusten avulla on mahdollista paikantaa geenejä tai kromosomialueita, joiden muutokset erottelevat ryhmät toisistaan. Asbestiin liittyvissä tutkimuksissa paikannettiin kuusi kromosomialuetta, joissa geenien kopiolukumäärän sekä ilmenemistason muutokset erottelivat potilaat altistushistorian mukaan. Riippumattomilla laboratoriomenetelmillä tehtyjen jatkoanalyysien avulla pystyttiin varmistamaan, että 19p-alueen häviämä oli yhteydessä asbestialtistukseen. Työssä osoitettiin myös, että 19p-alueen muutoksia voidaan indusoida altistamalla soluja asbestille in vitro. Tutkimuksessa saatiin lisäksi viitteitä asbestispesifisistä muutoksista signaalinvälitysreiteissä, sillä yhdessä toimivien geenien ilmentymisessä havaittiin eroja asbestille altistuneiden ja altistumattomien välillä. Vertailemalla luuytimeen syövän aikaisessa vaiheessa levinneiden ja leviämättömien keuhkoadenokarsinoomien muutosprofiileita toisiinsa, paikannettiin viisi aluetta, joilla geenien kopiolukumäärä- sekä ilmenemistason muutokset erottelivat ryhmät toisistaan. Jatkoanalyyseissä havaittiin, että 4q-alueen häviämää esiintyi adenokarsinoomien lisäksi levyepiteelikarsinoomiin, jotka olivat levinneet luuytimeen. Myös keuhkosyöpien aivometastaaseissa alue oli toistuvasti hävinnyt. Väitöstyön tutkimukset osoittavat, että vertailevien mikrosiruanalyysien avulla saadaan tietoa syöpäryhmien erityispiirteistä. Työssä saadut tulokset osoittavat, että 19p-alueen muutokset ovat tyypillisiä asbestikeuhkosyöville ja 4q-alueen muutokset luuytimeen aikaisessa vaiheessa leviäville keuhkosyöville.Lung cancers (LCs) represent a rather heterogeneous collection of tumors that are characterized by a large number of abnormalities of both chromosome number and structure. The genetic alterations displayed by a given tumor represent a combination of changes that are directly or indirectly caused by inducing factors, such as tobacco carcinogens, and those that rise up secondarily as a consequence of defects in genes that maintain genomic stability. Although a number of genes have been identified to be recurrently aberrated in LCs, numerous genes contributing to lung carcinogenesis are yet to be revealed. In this thesis, opposite categories of lung tumors were investigated using comparative microarray analyses with the aim to identify aberrations that are of significance in distinct types of LCs. The studies involved LCs in two separate themes: those induced by asbestos exposure and those that disseminate into bone marrow (BM) in early stages of tumorigenesis. The category-specific alterations were identified by using a differential region finding method that was developed in this thesis. Distinct chromosome regions were found to be more frequently aberrated in the LCs of asbestos-exposed than non-exposed patients. Aberrations of distinct regions also differentiated lung adenocarcinomas (ACs) from patients with and without evidence of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in their BM. In the asbestos-related studies, subsequent analyses verified that aberrations of 19p, caused by losses, were significantly more frequent in tumors of the asbestos-exposed than of the non-exposed patients. We showed also that 19p aberrations can be induced in vitro by means of a crocidolite asbestos treatment. Furthermore, a Gene Ontology (GO) analysis revealed a number of differentially regulated biological processes and molecular functions between the tumor groups with differences in protein ubiquitination and ion transport especially highlighted. In the subsequent dissemination-related studies, further analyses of the 4q region were performed on both primary LCs and brain metastases of LCs. The connection between the loss of 4q and presence of DTCs in BM in ACs could be verified, but additionally, 4q loss was demonstrated to be a common feature of BM-positive tumors across different histological types of LCs. Losses of 4q were also frequently observed in brain metastases of LCs

Pathways affected by asbestos exposure in normal and tumour tissue of lung cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies on asbestos-induced tumourigenesis have indicated the role of, e.g., reactive oxygen/nitrogen species, mitochondria, as well as NF-κB and MAPK signalling pathways. The exact molecular mechanisms contributing to asbestos-mediated carcinogenesis are, however, still to be characterized.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, gene expression data analyses together with gene annotation data from the Gene Ontology (GO) database were utilized to identify pathways that are differentially regulated in lung and tumour tissues between asbestos-exposed and non-exposed lung cancer patients. Differentially regulated pathways were identified from gene expression data from 14 asbestos-exposed and 14 non-exposed lung cancer patients using custom-made software and Iterative Group Analysis (iGA). Western blotting was used to further characterize the findings, specifically to determine the protein levels of UBA1 and UBA7.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Differences between asbestos-related and non-related lung tumours were detected in pathways associated with, e.g., ion transport, NF-κB signalling, DNA repair, as well as spliceosome and nucleosome complexes. A notable fraction of the pathways down-regulated in both normal and tumour tissue of the asbestos-exposed patients were related to protein ubiquitination, a versatile process regulating, for instance, DNA repair, cell cycle, and apoptosis, and thus being also a significant contributor of carcinogenesis. Even though UBA1 or UBA7, the early enzymes involved in protein ubiquitination and ubiquitin-like regulation of target proteins, did not underlie the exposure-related deregulation of ubiquitination, a difference was detected in the UBA1 and UBA7 levels between squamous cell carcinomas and respective normal lung tissue (p = 0.02 and p = 0.01) without regard to exposure status.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results indicate alterations in protein ubiquitination related both to cancer type and asbestos. We present for the first time pathway analysis results on asbestos-associated lung cancer, providing important insight into the most relevant targets for future research.</p

Gene expression profiles in asbestos-exposed epithelial and mesothelial lung cell lines

BACKGROUND: Asbestos has been shown to cause chromosomal damage and DNA aberrations. Exposure to asbestos causes many lung diseases e.g. asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma, and lung cancer, but the disease-related processes are still largely unknown. We exposed the human cell lines A549, Beas-2B and Met5A to crocidolite asbestos and determined time-dependent gene expression profiles by using Affymetrix arrays. The hybridization data was analyzed by using an algorithm specifically designed for clustering of short time series expression data. A canonical correlation analysis was applied to identify correlations between the cell lines, and a Gene Ontology analysis method for the identification of enriched, differentially expressed biological processes. RESULTS: We recognized a large number of previously known as well as new potential asbestos-associated genes and biological processes, and identified chromosomal regions enriched with genes potentially contributing to common responses to asbestos in these cell lines. These include genes such as the thioredoxin domain containing gene (TXNDC) and the potential tumor suppressor, BCL2/adenovirus E1B 19kD-interacting protein gene (BNIP3L), GO-terms such as "positive regulation of I-kappaB kinase/NF-kappaB cascade" and "positive regulation of transcription, DNA-dependent", and chromosomal regions such as 2p22, 9p13, and 14q21. We present the complete data sets as Additional files. CONCLUSION: This study identifies several interesting targets for further investigation in relation to asbestos-associated diseases