Deciphering cellular states of innate tumor drug responses

BACKGROUND: The molecular mechanisms underlying innate tumor drug resistance, a major obstacle to successful cancer therapy, remain poorly understood. In colorectal cancer (CRC), molecular studies have focused on drug-selected tumor cell lines or individual candidate genes using samples derived from patients already treated with drugs, so that very little data are available prior to drug treatment. RESULTS: Transcriptional profiles of clinical samples collected from CRC patients prior to their exposure to a combined chemotherapy of folinic acid, 5-fluorouracil and irinotecan were established using microarrays. Vigilant experimental design, power simulations and robust statistics were used to restrain the rates of false negative and false positive hybridizations, allowing successful discrimination between drug resistance and sensitivity states with restricted sampling. A list of 679 genes was established that intrinsically differentiates, for the first time prior to drug exposure, subsequently diagnosed chemo-sensitive and resistant patients. Independent biological validation performed through quantitative PCR confirmed the expression pattern on two additional patients. Careful annotation of interconnected functional networks provided a unique representation of the cellular states underlying drug responses. CONCLUSION: Molecular interaction networks are described that provide a solid foundation on which to anchor working hypotheses about mechanisms underlying in vivo innate tumor drug responses. These broad-spectrum cellular signatures represent a starting point from which by-pass chemotherapy schemes, targeting simultaneously several of the molecular mechanisms involved, may be developed for critical therapeutic intervention in CRC patients. The demonstrated power of this research strategy makes it generally applicable to other physiological and pathological situations

Integrative Annotation of 21,037 Human Genes Validated by Full-Length cDNA Clones

The human genome sequence defines our inherent biological potential; the realization of the biology encoded therein requires knowledge of the function of each gene. Currently, our knowledge in this area is still limited. Several lines of investigation have been used to elucidate the structure and function of the genes in the human genome. Even so, gene prediction remains a difficult task, as the varieties of transcripts of a gene may vary to a great extent. We thus performed an exhaustive integrative characterization of 41,118 full-length cDNAs that capture the gene transcripts as complete functional cassettes, providing an unequivocal report of structural and functional diversity at the gene level. Our international collaboration has validated 21,037 human gene candidates by analysis of high-quality full-length cDNA clones through curation using unified criteria. This led to the identification of 5,155 new gene candidates. It also manifested the most reliable way to control the quality of the cDNA clones. We have developed a human gene database, called the H-Invitational Database (H-InvDB; http://www.h-invitational.jp/). It provides the following: integrative annotation of human genes, description of gene structures, details of novel alternative splicing isoforms, non-protein-coding RNAs, functional domains, subcellular localizations, metabolic pathways, predictions of protein three-dimensional structure, mapping of known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), identification of polymorphic microsatellite repeats within human genes, and comparative results with mouse full-length cDNAs. The H-InvDB analysis has shown that up to 4% of the human genome sequence (National Center for Biotechnology Information build 34 assembly) may contain misassembled or missing regions. We found that 6.5% of the human gene candidates (1,377 loci) did not have a good protein-coding open reading frame, of which 296 loci are strong candidates for non-protein-coding RNA genes. In addition, among 72,027 uniquely mapped SNPs and insertions/deletions localized within human genes, 13,215 nonsynonymous SNPs, 315 nonsense SNPs, and 452 indels occurred in coding regions. Together with 25 polymorphic microsatellite repeats present in coding regions, they may alter protein structure, causing phenotypic effects or resulting in disease. The H-InvDB platform represents a substantial contribution to resources needed for the exploration of human biology and pathology

Integrative annotation of 21,037 human genes validated by full-length cDNA clones.

publication en ligne. Article dans revue scientifique avec comité de lecture. nationale.National audienceThe human genome sequence defines our inherent biological potential; the realization of the biology encoded therein requires knowledge of the function of each gene. Currently, our knowledge in this area is still limited. Several lines of investigation have been used to elucidate the structure and function of the genes in the human genome. Even so, gene prediction remains a difficult task, as the varieties of transcripts of a gene may vary to a great extent. We thus performed an exhaustive integrative characterization of 41,118 full-length cDNAs that capture the gene transcripts as complete functional cassettes, providing an unequivocal report of structural and functional diversity at the gene level. Our international collaboration has validated 21,037 human gene candidates by analysis of high-quality full-length cDNA clones through curation using unified criteria. This led to the identification of 5,155 new gene candidates. It also manifested the most reliable way to control the quality of the cDNA clones. We have developed a human gene database, called the H-Invitational Database (H-InvDB; http://www.h-invitational.jp/). It provides the following: integrative annotation of human genes, description of gene structures, details of novel alternative splicing isoforms, non-protein-coding RNAs, functional domains, subcellular localizations, metabolic pathways, predictions of protein three-dimensional structure, mapping of known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), identification of polymorphic microsatellite repeats within human genes, and comparative results with mouse full-length cDNAs. The H-InvDB analysis has shown that up to 4% of the human genome sequence (National Center for Biotechnology Information build 34 assembly) may contain misassembled or missing regions. We found that 6.5% of the human gene candidates (1,377 loci) did not have a good protein-coding open reading frame, of which 296 loci are strong candidates for non-protein-coding RNA genes. In addition, among 72,027 uniquely mapped SNPs and insertions/deletions localized within human genes, 13,215 nonsynonymous SNPs, 315 nonsense SNPs, and 452 indels occurred in coding regions. Together with 25 polymorphic microsatellite repeats present in coding regions, they may alter protein structure, causing phenotypic effects or resulting in disease. The H-InvDB platform represents a substantial contribution to resources needed for the exploration of human biology and pathology

Genetic diagnosis of primary immunodeficiencies: A survey of the French national registry

International audienceTo the Editor:Since the mid-1980s, continuous progress in genetics and genomics has accelerated the rapid identification of causative genetic variants leading to primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs; >300 genes),1 with the noticeable exception of B-cell disorders, such as common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). The identification of these mutations not only validates a clinical diagnosis but also is useful in several other respects (more accurate prognosis on phenotype/genotype correlation, targeted therapy, and genetic counseling). [...