Chromatin mapping and single-cell immune profiling define the temporal dynamics of ibrutinib response in CLL

The Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib provides effective treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), despite extensive heterogeneity in this disease. To define the underlining regulatory dynamics, we analyze high-resolution time courses of ibrutinib treatment in patients with CLL, combining immune-phenotyping, single-cell transcriptome profiling, and chromatin mapping. We identify a consistent regulatory program starting with a sharp decrease of NF-kappa B binding in CLL cells, which is followed by reduced activity of lineage-defining transcription factors, erosion of CLL cell identity, and acquisition of a quiescence-like gene signature. We observe patient-to-patient variation in the speed of execution of this program, which we exploit to predict patient-specific dynamics in the response to ibrutinib based on the pre-treatment patient samples. In aggregate, our study describes time-dependent cellular, molecular, and regulatory effects for therapeutic inhibition of B cell receptor signaling in CLL, and it establishes a broadly applicable method for epigenome/transcriptome-based treatment monitoring

Distributed changes of the functional connectome in patients with glioblastoma

Glioblastoma might have widespread effects on the neural organization and cognitive function, and even focal lesions may be associated with distributed functional alterations. However, functional changes do not necessarily follow obvious anatomical patterns and the current understanding of this interrelation is limited. In this study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate changes in global functional connectivity patterns in 15 patients with glioblastoma. For six patients we followed longitudinal trajectories of their functional connectome and structural tumour evolution using bi-monthly follow-up scans throughout treatment and disease progression. In all patients, unilateral tumour lesions were associated with inter-hemispherically symmetric network alterations, and functional proximity of tumour location was stronger linked to distributed network deterioration than anatomical distance. In the longitudinal subcohort of six patients, we observed patterns of network alterations with initial transient deterioration followed by recovery at first follow-up, and local network deterioration to precede structural tumour recurrence by two months. In summary, the impact of focal glioblastoma lesions on the functional connectome is global and linked to functional proximity rather than anatomical distance to tumour regions. Our findings further suggest a relevance for functional network trajectories as a possible means supporting early detection of tumour recurrence

In vivo screening characterizes chromatin factor functions during normal and malignant hematopoiesis

Bulk ex vivo and single-cell in vivo CRISPR knockout screens are used to characterize 680 chromatin factors during mouse hematopoiesis, highlighting lineage-specific and normal and leukemia-specific functions. Cellular differentiation requires extensive alterations in chromatin structure and function, which is elicited by the coordinated action of chromatin and transcription factors. By contrast with transcription factors, the roles of chromatin factors in differentiation have not been systematically characterized. Here, we combine bulk ex vivo and single-cell in vivo CRISPR screens to characterize the role of chromatin factor families in hematopoiesis. We uncover marked lineage specificities for 142 chromatin factors, revealing functional diversity among related chromatin factors (i.e. barrier-to-autointegration factor subcomplexes) as well as shared roles for unrelated repressive complexes that restrain excessive myeloid differentiation. Using epigenetic profiling, we identify functional interactions between lineage-determining transcription factors and several chromatin factors that explain their lineage dependencies. Studying chromatin factor functions in leukemia, we show that leukemia cells engage homeostatic chromatin factor functions to block differentiation, generating specific chromatin factor-transcription factor interactions that might be therapeutically targeted. Together, our work elucidates the lineage-determining properties of chromatin factors across normal and malignant hematopoiesis

Generation of truncated proteoforms in proteolytic networks : modeling and prediction in the protease web

Primarily controlled by gene expression and fine-tuned by translation and degradation rates, protein activity is governed by a plethora of post-translation modifications such as phosphorylation and glycosylation, which generate a diversity of protein species and thereby control complex biological phenotypes. Protease processing by proteases is a particular modification leading to the irreversible generation of stable protein truncations. Well understood in examples such as signal- or propeptide removal, recent analyses consistently identify >50% of N-terminal peptides mapping inside the protein sequence as predicted by genomics, indicating an important regulatory role of proteases. All proteins undergo protease cleavage as part of processing or degradation, a second biological process controlled by proteases. Proteases are involved in numerous pathologies and commonly considered as drug targets. However, protease research and drug development is complicated, in part due to widespread crosstalk between proteases. Proteases regulate other proteases through direct cleavage or cleavage of protease inhibitors in a complex network of protease interactions, the protease web. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of the protease web has not been performed, hampering assignment of proteases to clear biological roles, their direct substrates, and protease inhibitor drug targeting. A second problem in the identification of protein processing is the potential confound between protein termini generated by protease processing, alternative splicing, and alternative translation. In this thesis, I computationally analyzed large and diverse datasets of protease interactions and protein truncations to gain insight into complex proteolytic processes and to guide biochemical follow- up experiments. Analyzing protease cleavage, alternative splicing and alternative translation data incorporated into our database TopFIND, I found that protease cleavage and alternative translation likely generate most protein truncations. Combining protease cleavage and inhibition data in a graph model of the protease web, I demonstrated extensive protease crosstalk and then predicted and validated a proteolytic pathway. Finally, investigating strategies for the prediction of protease inhibition, I predicted hundreds of protease-inhibitor interactions, and validated inhibition of kallikrein-5 by serpin B12. This work thus generated predictions for biochemical follow-up as well as important insights into the regulation of biological systems through proteases.Medicine, Faculty ofBiochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department ofGraduat

Reliable interpretability of biology-inspired deep neural networks

Abstract Deep neural networks display impressive performance but suffer from limited interpretability. Biology-inspired deep learning, where the architecture of the computational graph is based on biological knowledge, enables unique interpretability where real-world concepts are encoded in hidden nodes, which can be ranked by importance and thereby interpreted. In such models trained on single-cell transcriptomes, we previously demonstrated that node-level interpretations lack robustness upon repeated training and are influenced by biases in biological knowledge. Similar studies are missing for related models. Here, we test and extend our methodology for reliable interpretability in P-NET, a biology-inspired model trained on patient mutation data. We observe variability of interpretations and susceptibility to knowledge biases, and identify the network properties that drive interpretation biases. We further present an approach to control the robustness and biases of interpretations, which leads to more specific interpretations. In summary, our study reveals the broad importance of methods to ensure robust and bias-aware interpretability in biology-inspired deep learning

Interactome disassembly during apoptosis occurs independent of caspase cleavage

Abstract Protein–protein interaction networks (interactomes) define the functionality of all biological systems. In apoptosis, proteolysis by caspases is thought to initiate disassembly of protein complexes and cell death. Here we used a quantitative proteomics approach, protein correlation profiling (PCP), to explore changes in cytoplasmic and mitochondrial interactomes in response to apoptosis initiation as a function of caspase activity. We measured the response to initiation of Fas‐mediated apoptosis in 17,991 interactions among 2,779 proteins, comprising the largest dynamic interactome to date. The majority of interactions were unaffected early in apoptosis, but multiple complexes containing known caspase targets were disassembled. Nonetheless, proteome‐wide analysis of proteolytic processing by terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrates (TAILS) revealed little correlation between proteolytic and interactome changes. Our findings show that, in apoptosis, significant interactome alterations occur before and independently of caspase activity. Thus, apoptosis initiation includes a tight program of interactome rearrangement, leading to disassembly of relatively few, select complexes. These early interactome alterations occur independently of cleavage of these protein by caspases

Single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics unravel the role of monocytes in neuroblastoma bone marrow metastasis

Metastasis is the major cause of cancer-related deaths. Neuroblastoma (NB), a childhood tumor has been molecularly defined at the primary cancer site, however, the bone marrow (BM) as the metastatic niche of NB is poorly characterized. Here we perform single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of BM aspirates from 11 subjects spanning three major NB subtypes and compare these to five age-matched and metastasis-free BM, followed by in-depth single cell analyses of tissue diversity and cell-cell interactions, as well as functional validation. We show that cellular plasticity of NB tumor cells is conserved upon metastasis and tumor cell type composition is NB subtype-dependent. NB cells signal to the BM microenvironment, rewiring via macrophage mgration inhibitory factor and midkine signaling specifically monocytes, which exhibit M1 and M2 features, are marked by activation of pro- and anti-inflammatory programs, and express tumor-promoting factors, reminiscent of tumor-associated macrophages. The interactions and pathways characterized in our study provide the basis for therapeutic approaches that target tumor-to-microenvironment interactions

Network Analyses Reveal Pervasive Functional Regulation Between Proteases in the Human Protease Web

<div><p>Proteolytic processing is an irreversible posttranslational modification affecting a large portion of the proteome. Protease-cleaved mediators frequently exhibit altered activity, and biological pathways are often regulated by proteolytic processing. Many of these mechanisms have not been appreciated as being protease-dependent, and the potential in unraveling a complex new dimension of biological control is increasingly recognized. Proteases are currently believed to act individually or in isolated cascades. However, conclusive but scattered biochemical evidence indicates broader regulation of proteases by protease and inhibitor interactions. Therefore, to systematically study such interactions, we assembled curated protease cleavage and inhibition data into a global, computational representation, termed the protease web. This revealed that proteases pervasively influence the activity of other proteases directly or by cleaving intermediate proteases or protease inhibitors. The protease web spans four classes of proteases and inhibitors and so links both recently and classically described protease groups and cascades, which can no longer be viewed as operating in isolation <i>in vivo</i>. We demonstrated that this observation, termed reachability, is robust to alterations in the data and will only increase in the future as additional data are added. We further show how subnetworks of the web are operational in 23 different tissues reflecting different phenotypes. We applied our network to develop novel insights into biologically relevant protease interactions using cell-specific proteases of the polymorphonuclear leukocyte as a system. Predictions from the protease web on the activity of matrix metalloproteinase 8 (MMP8) and neutrophil elastase being linked by an inactivating cleavage of serpinA1 by MMP8 were validated and explain perplexing <i>Mmp8</i>^−/− versus wild-type polymorphonuclear chemokine cleavages <i>in vivo</i>. Our findings supply systematically derived and validated evidence for the existence of the protease web, a network that affects the activity of most proteases and thereby influences the functional state of the proteome and cell activity.</p></div

Reachability in the human protease web after various perturbations.

<p>Reachability of the largest connected component of the protease web (shown in <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001869#pbio-1001869-g002" target="_blank">Figures 2C</a> and <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001869#pbio-1001869-g003" target="_blank">3</a>) after various perturbations. Reachability is plotted as the inverse cumulative function of the percentage of nodes that can reach a given minimum number of nodes in the corresponding network. (A) Reachability in the high confidence network comprised of nodes annotated as having physiological relevance. The reachability distribution of the original network (“orig,” red solid line as also shown in <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001869#pbio-1001869-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2C</a>) is compared to networks where edges were removed to create a high confidence network (“hc,” black dashed line) and the high confidence network plus inhibitors (“hc+i,” black solid line). (B) Reachability before (“orig,” red line) and after (“inh rm,” black line) removing edges, reflecting cleavages of inhibitors. Cleavage edges were removed if (i) the inhibitor is annotated to be a serine protease inhibitor and the protease is a serine or cysteine protease or (ii) the inhibitor is A2M or PZP. (C) Reachability after removal of six nodes from the original network (PLG, alpha-1-antitrypsin, A2M, CTSL1, alpha-1-antichymotrypsin, and KLK4). The reachability after removing these six nodes (“6 rm,” black solid line) is compared to the reachability distribution of the original network (“orig,” red line) and to six networks representing each possible combination of keeping one of the six nodes and removing the other five (“5 rm,” black dotted lines), each showing much smaller reduction in reachability. (D) Reachability after removal of random edges. The reachability in the original network (“orig,” red line) compared to networks where 10%, 20%, 30%, or 40% of edges were removed at random. In each case, random edge deletion was carried out 200 times and the worst AUC value was selected for plotting.</p