APOBEC Family Of Cytidine Deaminases Research Articles

Whole-exome sequencing explored mechanism of selpercatinib resistance in RET-rearranged lung adenocarcinoma transformation into small-cell lung cancer: a case report

Small cell transformation was one mechanism by which EGFR-mutation NSCLC acquired resistance after tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) treatment. A few reports of small cell transformation occurred in other oncogene-driven lung cancers. We found the first case of transformation of a RET-rearranged lung adenocarcinoma to SCLC after selpercatinib, a novel highly selective RET TKIs. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was used to explore alteration in gene expression in tumor tissue at initial diagnosis and after transformation into small cell carcinoma. We found that transformed into SCLC tumor tissue had inactivation of RB1 and TP53, with RET fusion was still present. In addition, the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases appeared amplification. Although RET rearrangement still existed, using another RET TKIs was ineffective, and etoposide plus platinum might be an effective rescue treatment.

Whole-genome sequencing based assessment of HER2 focal amplification for precision oncology of breast cancers.

609 Background: Focal oncogene amplification confers a growth advantage to tumor cells and drives cancer evolution. Herein, we aimed to explore focally amplified HER2 in breast carcinomas. Methods: We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) and whole-transcriptome sequencing (WTS) in 787 breast cancer samples. HER2 focal amplification was defined as having a segment length less than 3Mbp and ≥4 higher copy number than the surrounding region. Results: Most of the patients were premenopausal women (n = 574, 72.9%) with a median age of 37 (range 21-76) years. We identified 57 (58.8%) and 27 (5.0%) samples with HER2 focal amplification in HER2-positive (n = 97) and even HER2-negative (n = 536) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in-situ hybridization (ISH) according to ASCO guideline for breast cancer, respectively. Regardless of HER2-positivity, HER2 focal amplification was significantly associated with higher HER2 RNA expression. Among 28 patients who received six cycles of docetaxel/carboplatin/trastuzumab/pertuzumab neoadjuvant therapy followed by curative surgery, 21 patients had HER2 focal amplification and 14 (66.7%) achieved pathologic complete remission (pCR). Intriguingly, all patients without HER2 focal amplification (n = 7) failed to achieve pCR. HER2 focal amplification showed enrichment of TP53 mutations (OR 0.245, q < 0.001), but was mutually exclusive with GATA3 mutations (OR 2.82, q = 0.055). The mutational spectrums suggested that the activity in APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases were responsible for the somatic single-nucleotide variants of breast cancer with HER2 focal amplification. Compared to samples without HER2 focal amplification, samples with HER2 focal amplification were less likely to have defective homologous recombination DNA repair pathway. HER focal amplifications were closely associated with various types of structural variations. Translocation partners of HER2 were widespread across the entire genome with notable exceptions on chromosome 2, and most of them were close to super-enhancers implying enhancer hijacking as one of mechanisms of HER2 overexpression. Breast cancers with or without HER2 focal amplification showed distinct RNA expression patterns. Notably, activity of genes involved in doxorubicin-resistance and AKT1 signaling were significantly associated with HER2 focal amplification. Conclusions: Our analysis demonstrates that WGS enables better classification of the HER2 amplification status in breast cancer than IHC with ISH, suggesting WGS as a sensitive tool for screening breast cancers for anti-HER2-targeted therapies.

Structure-Guided Design of a Potent and Specific Inhibitor against the Genomic Mutator APOBEC3A.

Nucleic acid structure plays a critical role in governing the selectivity of DNA- and RNA-modifying enzymes. In the case of the APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases, these enzymes catalyze the conversion of cytosine (C) to uracil (U) in single-stranded DNA, primarily in the context of innate immunity. DNA deamination can also have pathological consequences, accelerating the evolution of viral genomes or, when the host genome is targeted by either APOBEC3A (A3A) or APOBEC3B (A3B), promoting tumor evolution leading to worse patient prognosis and chemotherapeutic resistance. For A3A, nucleic acid secondary structure has emerged as a critical determinant of substrate targeting, with a predilection for DNA that can form stem loop hairpins. Here, we report the development of a specific nanomolar-level, nucleic acid-based inhibitor of A3A. Our strategy relies on embedding the nucleobase 5-methylzebularine, a mechanism-based inhibitor, into a DNA dumbbell structure, which mimics the ideal substrate secondary structure for A3A. Structure-activity relationship studies using a panel of diverse inhibitors reveal a critical role for the stem and position of the inhibitor moiety in achieving potent inhibition. Moreover, we demonstrate that DNA dumbbell inhibitors, but not nonstructured inhibitors, show specificity against A3A relative to the closely related catalytic domain of A3B. Overall, our work demonstrates the feasibility of leveraging secondary structural preferences in inhibitor design, offering a blueprint for further development of modulators of DNA-modifying enzymes and potential therapeutics to circumvent APOBEC-driven viral and tumor evolution.

APOBEC3B is overexpressed in cervical cancer and promotes the proliferation of cervical cancer cells through apoptosis, cell cycle, and p53 pathway.

Objective APOBEC3B (A3B), a member of the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, has been gradually regarded as a key cancerous regulator. However, its expression and mechanism in cervical cancer (CC) have not been fully elucidated. This study was to investigate its expression pattern and potential mechanism on the cell cycle, as well as HPV oncogenes in CC.MethodsData from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression (GEO) were used to indicate the mRNA expression pattern of A3B in cervical cancer. Western blot assay was used to detect A3B levels in SiHa and Hela cell lines. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to explore A3B protein abundance and sublocation in cervical cancer as well as normal cervical tissues. Based on the Protein atlas (www.proteinatlas.org), A3B expression in the SiHa cell line is lower than in the HeLa cell line. Therefore, the SiHa cell line was used for A3B gene overexpression experiments while the HeLa cell line was used for knockdown experiments. Flow cytometry analysis was used to detect cell apoptosis. Biological function and cancer-related pathways of A3B were conducted using bioinformatics analysis.Results A3B mRNA was significantly overexpressed in cervical cancer in TCGA-cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC), GSE67522, and GSE7803. A3B was more highly expressed in cervical cancers than in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and normal controls. A3B expression was found to be progressively activated during cervical cancer development. IHC results showed that A3B was significantly higher in cervical cancer tissues than in normal cervical tissues. A3B plasmid-mediated overexpression experiments and A3B siRNA-mediated knockdown experiments showed that A3B significantly promotes cell proliferation, migration, cell cycle, and chemoresistance in cervical cancer cells by the p53 pathway. GO and KEGG analyses showed that A3B expression was strikingly associated with cell proliferation, apoptosis, and immune-associated pathways.ConclusionsTaken together, our study implies that A3B promotes cell proliferation, migration, and cell cycle and inhibits cancer cell apoptosis through the p53-mediated signaling pathway. Moreover, A3B could also contribute to chemoresistance in cervical cancer cells. It may be a potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for chemoresistant cervical cancers.

APOBEC Mutagenesis Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth through Induction of T cell-Mediated Antitumor Immune Responses.

The APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases is one of the most common endogenous sources of mutations in human cancer. Genomic studies of tumors have found that APOBEC mutational signatures are enriched in the HER2 subtype of breast cancer and are associated with immunotherapy response in diverse cancer types. However, the direct consequences of APOBEC mutagenesis on the tumor immune microenvironment have not been thoroughly investigated. To address this, we developed syngeneic murine mammary tumor models with inducible expression of APOBEC3B. We found that APOBEC activity induced antitumor adaptive immune responses and CD4+ T cell-mediated, antigen-specific tumor growth inhibition. Although polyclonal APOBEC tumors had a moderate growth defect, clonal APOBEC tumors were almost completely rejected, suggesting that APOBEC-mediated genetic heterogeneity limits antitumor adaptive immune responses. Consistent with the observed immune infiltration in APOBEC tumors, APOBEC activity sensitized HER2-driven breast tumors to anti-CTLA-4 checkpoint inhibition and led to a complete response to combination anti-CTLA-4 and anti-HER2 therapy. In human breast cancers, the relationship between APOBEC mutagenesis and immunogenicity varied by breast cancer subtype and the frequency of subclonal mutations. This work provides a mechanistic basis for the sensitivity of APOBEC tumors to checkpoint inhibitors and suggests a rationale for using APOBEC mutational signatures and clonality as biomarkers predicting immunotherapy response in HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers.

Genomic Instability and DNA Damage Repair Pathways Induced by Human Papillomaviruses.

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the causative agents of cervical and other anogenital cancers as well as those of the oropharynx. HPV proteins activate host DNA damage repair factors to promote their viral life cycle in stratified epithelia. Activation of both the ATR pathway and the ATM pathway are essential for viral replication and differentiation-dependent genome amplification. These pathways are also important for maintaining host genomic integrity and their dysregulation or mutation is often seen in human cancers. The APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases are innate immune factors that are increased in HPV positive cells leading to the accumulation of TpC mutations in cellular DNAs that contribute to malignant progression. The activation of DNA damage repair factors may corelate with expression of APOBEC3 in HPV positive cells. These pathways may actively drive tumor development implicating/suggesting DNA damage repair factors and APOBEC3 as possible therapeutic targets.

Abstract LB124: APOBEC3B fuels evolution of resistance during targeted cancer therapy

Abstract Despite recent advances in cancer treatment, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Lung adenocarcinoma is the most prevalent subtype of lung cancer. Genomic profiling of lung adenocarcinomas has led to the identification of several targetable oncogenic drivers. Therapies targeting the oncogenic-driver pathway using various tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), are effective initially but responses are often transient and tumors eventually regrow due to drug resistance. Furthermore, drug resistance can arise via the selection of pre-existing resistant clones or via the de novo acquisition of mutations that are not present before therapy. We set out to understand the mechanism for the de novo acquisition of drug resistance mutations in oncogene-driven lung cancers. To do so, we investigated the gene expression changes that occur upon inhibition of oncogenic pathways. We found that oncoprotein targeted therapy induces adaptations favorable for APOBEC genome mutagenesis. Treatment with small molecule inhibitors against EGFR and ALK promoted transcriptional upregulation of members of APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases and downregulation of the uracil glycosylase UNG, the key protein needed for removal of APOBEC-induced DNA lesions. These changes in mRNA levels resulted in functional effects that can impact nuclear DNA by increasing nuclear APOBEC activity and reducing nuclear uracil excision capacity. Determination of changes in APOBEC mRNA levels and nuclear APOBEC activity over time and depletion studies identified APOBEC3B as a driver of both baseline and targeted therapy-induced nuclear APOBEC activity in pre-clinical lung cancer models. We found that APOBEC3B mediates genetic evolution and emergence of resistance during targeted therapy. We identified NF-kB pathway induction and c-Jun downregulation as key mediators of these treatment-induced molecular changes. Furthermore, we find an upregulation of APOBEC3B in lung cancer patients with progressive disease and a high proportion of APOBEC-associated mutations in patient tumors treated with targeted therapy. Some putative resistance mutations in patient tumors were also in the APOBEC-preferred context. Our study identifies a novel targeted therapy-induced evolutionary process involving an APOBEC DNA deaminase that could serve as an attractive co-target to elicit more durable treatment responses. Citation Format: Manasi K. Mayekar, Deborah Caswell, Natalie Vokes, Wei Wu, Caroline McCoach, Collin Blakely, Nuri Alpay Temiz, Daniel Lucas Kerr, Julia Rotow, Franziska Haderk, Lauren Cech, Beatrice Gini, Shigeki Nanjo, Lisa Tan, Johnny Yu, Carlos Gomez, Philippe Gui, Elizabeth Yu, Nicholas Thomas, Julian Downward, Reuben Harris, Eliezer Van Allen, Charles Swanton, Trever Bivona. APOBEC3B fuels evolution of resistance during targeted cancer therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr LB124.

Potential APOBEC-mediated RNA editing of the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses and its impact on their longer term evolution

Members of the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases show antiviral activities in mammalian cells through lethal editing in the genomes of small DNA viruses, herpesviruses and retroviruses, and potentially those of RNA viruses such as coronaviruses. Consistent with the latter, APOBEC-like directional C→U transitions of genomic plus-strand RNA are greatly overrepresented in SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences of variants emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic. A C→U mutational process may leave evolutionary imprints on coronavirus genomes, including extensive homoplasy from editing and reversion at targeted sites and the occurrence of driven amino acid sequence changes in viral proteins. If sustained over longer periods, this process may account for the previously reported marked global depletion of C and excess of U bases in human seasonal coronavirus genomes. This review synthesizes the current knowledge on APOBEC evolution and function and the evidence of their role in APOBEC-mediated genome editing of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.

Molecular origins of APOBEC-associated mutations in cancer

The APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases has been proposed to represent a major enzymatic source of mutations in cancer. Here, we summarize available evidence that links APOBEC deaminases to cancer mutagenesis. We also highlight newly identified human cell models of APOBEC mutagenesis, including cancer cell lines with suspected endogenous APOBEC activity and a cell system of telomere crisis-associated mutations. Finally, we draw on recent data to propose potential causes of APOBEC misregulation in cancer, including the instigating factors, the relevant mutator(s), and the mechanisms underlying generation of the genome-dispersed and clustered APOBEC-induced mutations.

Structural Insights into APOBEC3-Mediated Lentiviral Restriction.

Mammals have developed clever adaptive and innate immune defense mechanisms to protect against invading bacterial and viral pathogens. Human innate immunity is continuously evolving to expand the repertoire of restriction factors and one such family of intrinsic restriction factors is the APOBEC3 (A3) family of cytidine deaminases. The coordinated expression of seven members of the A3 family of cytidine deaminases provides intrinsic immunity against numerous foreign infectious agents and protects the host from exogenous retroviruses and endogenous retroelements. Four members of the A3 proteins—A3G, A3F, A3H, and A3D—restrict HIV-1 in the absence of virion infectivity factor (Vif); their incorporation into progeny virions is a prerequisite for cytidine deaminase-dependent and -independent activities that inhibit viral replication in the host target cell. HIV-1 encodes Vif, an accessory protein that antagonizes A3 proteins by targeting them for polyubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation in the virus producing cells. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the role of human A3 proteins as barriers against HIV-1 infection, how Vif overcomes their antiviral activity, and highlight recent structural and functional insights into A3-mediated restriction of lentiviruses.

Polymorphisms in Human APOBEC3H Differentially Regulate Ubiquitination and Antiviral Activity.

The APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases are an important part of the host innate immune defense against endogenous retroelements and retroviruses like Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). APOBEC3H (A3H) is the most polymorphic of the human APOBEC3 genes, with four major haplotypes circulating in the population. Haplotype II is the only antivirally-active variant of A3H, while the majority of the population possess independently destabilizing polymorphisms present in haplotype I (R105G) and haplotypes III and IV (N15del). In this paper, we show that instability introduced by either polymorphism is positively correlated with degradative ubiquitination, while haplotype II is protected from this modification. Inhibiting ubiquitination by mutating all of the A3H lysines increased the expression of haplotypes III and IV, but these stabilized forms of haplotype III and IV had a strict nuclear localization, and did not incorporate into virions, nor exhibit antiviral activity. Fusion chimeras with haplotype II allowed for stabilization, cytoplasmic retention, and packaging of the N15del-containing haplotype III, but the haplotype III component of these chimeras was unable to restrict HIV-1 on its own. Thus, the evolutionary loss of A3H activity in many humans involves functional deficiencies independent of protein stability.

Characterization of mutational processes in ER+ metastatic breast cancer.

1019 Background: Diverse mutational processes are active at different stages of cancer development and cause the mutational burden in cancer cells. These processes leave distinctive signatures, characterized by varying frequencies of nucleotide substitutions and their flanking base-pairs. Mutational signatures found in early stage breast cancer have been described, but less is known about the mutational processes in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Methods: We performed whole exome sequencing (WES) on 209 metastatic tumor biopsies from patients with ER+ MBC. In a subset of patients, we obtained and performed WES on the matched primary biopsy (n = 62). Decomposition of mutational signatures was done by determining the linear combination of 30 previously reported mutational signatures (Alexandrov et al., 2013) that most accurately reconstructs the mutational profile of each tumor sample. For comparison, signature decomposition was also performed on 695 treatment-naïve primary ER+ breast cancers form The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Results: Cohort-level comparison of signature activity between our cohort of MBC biopsies versus the primary ER+ breast cancers from TCGA demonstrated enrichment of Signature 13 in MBC samples (q = 0.002), attributed to activity of the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases and implicated in resistance to endocrine therapies. Activity of Signature 22, associated to activity of the nucleotide-excision repair mechanism, was depleted in MBC tumors relative to TCGA ER+ breast tumors (q = 0.02). Decomposition of mutational signatures at the clone level in the subset of patients with both metastatic and matched primary samples allowed us to infer signatures acquired in the metastatic setting. Among mutations in acquired clones, we found enrichment of APOBEC signatures (Sig. 2, q = 0.018; Sig. 13, q = 0.003). Conversely, activity of Signature 1, attributed to the normal aging process, was enriched in mutations shared between primary and MBC samples (q = 0.004). This suggests that mutations developed early in tumor evolution may be driven primarily by natural processes, while later mutations may reflect selective pressures imposed by therapies and cellular defects acquired during disease progression. Conclusions: The profile of somatic mutations in MBC differs from early stage breast cancer. APOBEC-related mutations arising late during tumor evolution are one possible mechanism for this difference. Further studying the associations between clinical features and therapies to mutational processes could inform design of clinical trials and management of MBC.

Evolutionary effects of the AID/APOBEC family of mutagenic enzymes on human gamma-herpesviruses.

The human gamma-herpesviruses, Epstein–Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, establish lifelong latency in B cells and are associated with multiple malignancies. Virus-host coevolution often drive changes in both host immunity and in the viral genome. We consider one host immune mechanism, the activation-induced deaminase (AID)/APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, that induces mutations in viral DNA. AID, the ancestral gene in the family has a conserved role in somatic hypermutation, a key step in antibody affinity maturation. The APOBEC3 subfamily, of which there are seven genes in human, have evolved antiviral functions and have diversified in terms of their expression pattern, subcellular localization, and DNA mutation motifs (hotspots). In this study, we investigated how the human gamma-herpesviruses have evolved to avoid the action of the AID/APOBEC enzymes and determine if these enzymes are contributing to the ongoing evolution of the viruses. We used computational methods to evaluate observed versus expected frequency of AID/APOBEC hotspots in viral genomes and found that the viruses have evolved to limit the representation of AID and certain APOBEC3 motifs. At the same time, the remaining hotspots were highly likely to cause amino acid changes, suggesting prolonged evolutionary pressure of the enzymes on the viruses. To study current hypermutation, as opposed to historical mutation processes, we also analyzed putative mutations derived from alignments of published viral genomes and found again that AID and APOBEC3 appear to target the genome most frequently. New protein variants resulting from AID/APOBEC activity may have important consequences in health, including vaccine development (epitope evolution) and host immune evasion.

Critical Role for Apobec and Its Interacting Partners in Mediating Mutations and Cell Growth in Multiple Myeloma (MM)

The APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases include AID (activity induced deaminase) and 10 related APOBEC enzymes (A1,A2,A3A,A3B,A3C,A3D,A3F,A3G,A3H and A4). AID is well studied for its role in somatic hyper mutation and class switch recombination of immunoglobulin genes. APOBECs (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like) have been shown to have roles in mRNA editing and in antiviral immunity. Recently, a causal role for the AID/APOBECs in inducing somatic mutations in myeloma has been proposed and we have previously published that APOBEC signature mutations as a frequent event in Myeloma. We have also observed that APOBEC-mediated mutations may account for mutations associated with progression of smoldering myeloma to MM.We further investigated the role of APOBEC in genomic changes in MM and observed that APOBEC expression and activity is elevated in myeloma cell lines as well as patient samples. Using knockdown and over expression approaches, we showed that depletion of APOBECs in myeloma cell lines reduces genomic instability. Following APOBEC3G knock down we observed decreased DNA damage (by g-H2AX), decrease in acquisition of new copy number events over time, and reduced mutational load, strongly suggesting that inhibiting APOBECs could be a potential approach to reduce genome evolution in MM.We next investigated the effect of APOBEC inhibition on myeloma cell proliferation. We observed that Sh-RNA-based APOBEC knock down in MM1S and H929 MM cell lines, led to significant inhibition of MM cell proliferation, and induction of apoptotic cell death. Associated with APOBEC knockdown, we also observed increased levels of Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (p27Kip1) at both RNA and protein level. By immunoprecipitation we found that APOBEC3G interacts and inhibits the RNA binding protein DEAD-END 1 (DND1), thereby preventing it from inhibiting miR-221-mediated targeting of p27 transcripts. Knockdown of DND1, or over-expression of miR-221 in APOBEC-depleted cells rescued the cell proliferation defects with concomitant decrease in p27 levels. These results show that APOBCs bind to and sequester DND1, leading to miR-221-mediated depletion of p27. In the absence of APOBEC, DND1 prevents the degradation of p27 mRNA, leading to elevated p27 levels and inhibition of cell cycle, suggesting a role for APOBECs in regulating MM cell proliferation that might be independent of its RNA/DNA mutator function. Taken together, these results indicate a significant functional role for APOBECs both in genome evolution as well as cell growth in myeloma and may constitute an important therapeutic target. DisclosuresMunshi:OncoPep: Other: Board of director.

Abstract 3366: APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases in sensitizing triple-negative breast cancer cells to cisplatin and carboplatin

Abstract Cisplatin is a DNA damaging chemotherapeutic which forms interstrand crosslinks (ICL) and intrastrand adducts that induce replication fork collapse and lead to apoptosis. These adduct sites can be repaired through several repair pathways, the most important being nucleotide excision repair (NER). Cisplatin and carboplatin ICLs form a unique structure that forces cytosines flanking the adduct site to become extrahelical. Our lab has previously shown that base excision repair (BER) and mismatch repair (MMR) mediate sensitivity to cisplatin and carboplatin as a consequence of nonproductive processing of DNA flanking the ICL structure. The APOBEC3 (A3) protein family of cytidine deaminases have recently been implicated in cancer development and have potential to deaminate the extrahelical cytosines formed by cisplatin ICLs. Polβ knockdown MDA-MB-231 cells are resistant to cisplatin in vivo compared to wild-type cells (p<0.001). Knockdown of APOBEC3 family members in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells results in a resistant phenotype to cisplatin and carboplatin treatment compared to the control. Utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, we generated knockouts of A3 members. A3D knockdown in the APOBEC3C (A3C) knockout results in resistance to cisplatin compared to the control, suggesting that multiple A3 enzymes can deaminate the ICL induced extrahelical cytosine. APOBEC3A (A3A) knockdown in a cell line with high expression of A3A (SK-BR-3) shows no difference in cisplatin and carboplatin treatment, suggesting that A3A does not deaminate extrahelical cytosines. Overexpression of A3C or A3D in cell lines with low expression of A3 proteins (SK-BR-3) results in sensitivity to cisplatin. These results together suggest that A3C, A3D, and A3G can deaminate the ICL extrahelical cytosines, resulting in the activation of BER. The subsequent nucleotide misincorporation by Polβ followed by MMR protein binding would physically block NER proteins from repairing the ICL, therefore conferring sensitivity to cisplatin and carboplatin. Citation Format: Kayla L. Conner, Asra N. Shaik, Jordan White, Wen Lei, Michele L. Cote, Steve M. Patrick. APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases in sensitizing triple-negative breast cancer cells to cisplatin and carboplatin [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3366.

Abstract 1282: Activity of APOBEC3A, APOBEC3B, REV1, UNG, and FHIT is associated with drug sensitivity in specific cancer subtypes

Abstract We used gene expression information and mutational signature analysis of cell lines from a diverse range of cancerous tissues to examine the activity of two members of the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, APOBEC3A and APOBEC3B, and three additional genes. APOBEC3B is known to increase the mutation load in many cancers, generating kataegis clusters of closely spaced, single strand-specific DNA substitutions with a characteristic hypermutation signature. Some studies also suggested that APOBEC3A, REV1, UNG, and FHIT may also participate in hypermutation processes associated with APOBEC activity. We investigated how the activities of these five genes may affect the abundance of APOBEC-like signatures and whether they may be associated with sensitivity of cancer cells to treatment in different cancer categories. We analyzed several data sources for 1,408 cell lines from 26 cancer types available from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) resources. These data included whole exome sequencing (WES) data, microarray gene expression information, and drug sensitivity information. We examined correlations of the abundance of APOBEC-associated motifs and WES-wide mutation loads with APOBEC3A, APOBEC3B, REV1, UNG, and FHIT gene expression, as well as their association with cell line chemosensitivity to 255 antitumor drugs in multiple cancer subtypes. We were able to confirm several previously reported expression and chemosensitivity associations and found additional correlations, which may be clinically important. Sensitivity to JQ1, JNK inhibitors AS601245 and VIII, BMS-509744, bicalutamide, and several other agents was correlated with candidate gene expression levels or with abundance of APOBEC-like motif clusters in specific cancer categories such as pancreatic, breast and non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. For example, we observed a strong negative correlation between APOBEC3A expression in pancreatic cell lines and sensitivity to JQ1, a BET inhibitor, which had been reported to inhibit pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. In glioma cell lines, APOBEC3B expression was significantly negatively correlated with sensitivity to a CDK9 inhibitor THZ-2-49 and HSP90 inhibitors AUY922 and 17-AAG (tanespimycin). We observed a strong correlation between the combined length of kataegis clusters and chemoresistance to bicalutamide, a nonsteroidal antiandrogen drug, in breast cancer cell lines. Our findings suggest that associations of sensitivity to drug treatment with activities of APOBEC3A/B, REV1, UNG, and FHIT and with the rates of APOBEC-associated mutagenic processes may vary among different cancer categories. Citation Format: Suleyman Vural, Julia Krushkal, Richard Simon. Activity of APOBEC3A, APOBEC3B, REV1, UNG, and FHIT is associated with drug sensitivity in specific cancer subtypes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1282.

Abstract PD8-10: APOBEC mutation signature in breast cancer correlates with tumor mutation burden and poor responses to therapy

Abstract Introduction Mutational processes can be characterized by unique combinations of mutation types in the form of mutational signatures and have been associated with age, known mutagenic exposures, defects in DNA maintenance, or the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases. We asked whether mutation signatures could be extracted from DNA sequence information in a targeted 434 gene panel covering 297 breast cancer specimens. Materials and Methods Targeted whole exome sequencing (Illumina, 2x50bp) of a 434 gene panel was performed on a set of 297 primary and metastatic breast tumor samples. Tissue of origin included breast (56%), liver (15%), lymph node (10%), lung (3%) and others (16%). Alignment was done with BWA against the human reference hg19 and variant calling was performed using VarDict. Germline variants were filtered based on allele frequencies, cohort specific population frequencies, as well as using 1000 Genomes and ExAC population frequencies. For somatic signature inference, only single nucleotide variants were retained. Panel specific trinucleotide frequencies were computed and normalized towards whole genome frequencies and somatic signatures were inferred using deconstructSigs method. Results We identified a total of 26 signatures from the set of 30 known signatures in our patient samples. Due to the small panel size, there was only a limited number of mutations available per patient to infer somatic signatures. On average, we identified two somatic signatures per sample. Most common mutation signatures identified were: Signature 1 (90.8%) - result of an endogenous mutational process initiated by spontaneous deamination of 5-methylcytosine; Signature 6 (21.8%) - defective DNA mismatch repair; Signature 15 (15.6%) - defective DNA mismatch repair; Signatue 7 (9.9%) - ultraviolet light exposure; and Signature 10 (6.5%) - altered activity of POLE. An APOBEC specific signature was identified in 20 (7%) samples. APOBEC positive samples showed significantly higher tumor mutational burden (10.7 vs. 5.7 mutations/mb) as compared to APOBEC negative samples (p<=0.001). PIK3CA was found to be mutated in 80% of APOBEC positive samples, compared to 36% of APOBEC negative samples. In addition, we found higher rates of mutations in TP53 (70% vs. 50%), MLL3 (50% vs. 19%) and MLL2 (25% vs 14%) of APOBEC positive patients. Response rates of APOBEC positive patients were significantly worse than of APOBEC negative patients, with 50 percent of patients having progressive disease compared to 25 percent of APOBEC negative patients(p=0.07, borderline). Conclusions We demonstrate the feasibility of a targeted sequencing approach to extract somatic mutation signatures from breast tumor samples, and we highlight the potential of using the APOBEC signature to predict therapeutic responses. Citation Format: Meissner T, Amallraja A, Willis S, Harris R, Leyland-Jones B, Williams C. APOBEC mutation signature in breast cancer correlates with tumor mutation burden and poor responses to therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PD8-10.

APOBEC3H structure reveals an unusual mechanism of interaction with duplex RNA

The APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases cause lethal hypermutation of retroviruses via deamination of newly reverse-transcribed viral DNA. Their ability to bind RNA is essential for virion infiltration and antiviral activity, yet the mechanisms of viral RNA recognition are unknown. By screening naturally occurring, polymorphic, non-human primate APOBEC3H variants for biological and crystallization properties, we obtained a 2.24-Å crystal structure of pig-tailed macaque APOBEC3H with bound RNA. Here, we report that APOBEC3H forms a dimer around a short RNA duplex and, despite the bound RNA, has potent cytidine deaminase activity. The structure reveals an unusual RNA-binding mode in which two APOBEC3H molecules at opposite ends of a seven-base-pair duplex interact extensively with both RNA strands, but form no protein–protein contacts. CLIP-seq analysis revealed that APOBEC3H preferentially binds to sequences in the viral genome predicted to contain duplexes, a property that may facilitate both virion incorporation and catalytic activity.

Abstract IA11: Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer

Abstract All cancers are caused by somatic mutations. These mutations may be the consequence of the intrinsic slight infidelity of the DNA replication machinery, exogenous or endogenous mutagen exposures, enzymatic modification of DNA, or defective DNA repair. In some cancer types, a substantial proportion of somatic mutations are known to be generated by exogenous arcinogens, for example, tobacco smoking in lung cancers and ultraviolet light in skin cancers, or by abnormalities of DNA maintenance, for example, defective DNA mismatch repair in some colorectal cancers. Each biological process causing mutations leaves a characteristic imprint on the genome of a cancer cell, termed, mutational signature. In this talk, I will present mutational signatures analyses encompassing 12,023 cancer genomes across 40 distinct types of human cancer revealing more than 30 different signatures of mutational processes. Some signatures are present in many cancer types, notably a signature attributed to the APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases, whereas others are confined to a single cancer class. Certain signatures are associated with age of the patient at cancer diagnosis, known mutagenic exposures or defects in DNA maintenance, but many are of cryptic origin. The results reveal the diversity of mutational processes underlying the development of cancer, with potential implications for understanding of cancer etiology, prevention and therapy. Citation Format: Ludmil B. Alexandrov. Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on DNA Repair: Tumor Development and Therapeutic Response; 2016 Nov 2-5; Montreal, QC, Canada. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2017;15(4_Suppl):Abstract nr IA11.

The Anti-HIV-1 Cytidine Deaminase APOBEC3G Is a Cellular Site-Specific RNA Editing Enzyme

Background:The APOBEC3 (A3) family of cytidine deaminases in primates is comprised of seven homologous enzymes that are structurally related to the RNA editing enzyme APOBEC1. APOBEC3G (A3G) is a restriction factor for HIV-1 and endogenous retroviruses, and is highly expressed in T lymphocytes. Encapsidation of A3G into HIV-1 particles is essential for its antiviral activity which leads to hypermutation of its cDNA in target cells, and requires RNA binding by A3G to form a ribonucleoprotein complex with viral proteins. A3G can also reduce HIV-1 production in producer cells independently of its DNA deaminating activity. A3G has homologous N-and C-terminal catalytic domains (NTD and CTD) but only the CTD is active for deamination of ssDNAs. The zinc-coordinating catalytic residues as well as non-catalytic residues in A3G-NTD are known to bind RNA and this interaction is required for A3G's binding to the HIV-1 nucleocapsid for recruitment into nascent virions as well as for A3G dimerization. A3G binds to DNA and RNA substrates with similar affinity. Thus far, studies have demonstrated DNA deamination by A3G whereas deamination has not been observed in HIV-1 RNA or synthetic RNA oligonucleotides, thereby, ruling out the RNA editing function of A3G. We recently described that the structurally related enzyme A3A induces widespread site-specific C-to-U RNA editing of cellular transcripts in pro-inflammatory macrophages and in monocytes exposed to hypoxia and/or interferons. We hypothesized that A3G may also have RNA editing function, which may play a role in HIV-1 restriction.Methods:To determine if A3G is capable of RNA editing, we transiently overexpressed the protein in 293T cells, a model routinely used by various labs to study A3G function and its mode of HIV-1 restriction, and then performed transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq), Sanger sequencing and site-directed mutagenesis.Results: RNA sequencing analysis showed site-specific RNA editing in hundreds of genes' transcripts, including approximately 200 genes that acquire protein recoding. The transcripts edited by A3G are largely distinct from those edited by A3A. We find that several host genes including NMT1, CHMP4B, MAPK1, ACIN1, MED1, NFAT5, RBM14 which areinvolved in HIV-1 infection acquire pathogenic recoding RNA mutations by A3G-mediated RNA editing. By performing Sanger sequencing of PCR-amplified cDNA, we validated site-specific, non-synonymous C-to-U RNA editing for 21 of 21 (100%) tested sites in 20 genes that we had selected for experimental confirmation. As expected no genomic mutations were seen in the DNA sequences corresponding to the RNA-edited sites in 11 tested genes. The discovery of A3G's RNA editing function prompted us to study the role of the N-terminal domain in RNA editing. We made mutations in the zinc-coordinating and non-catalytic residues in both N-terminal and C-terminal domains of A3G. We demonstrate that mutating zinc-coordinating residues in either N- and C-terminal domains of A3G in 293T cells greatly reduce or abolish editing in its target transcripts.Conclusions: We demonstrate a novel RNA editing function for the A3G cytidine deaminase. Our study shows that the RNAs of genes involved in HIV-1 replication, assembly, transcription and infectivity are targets of A3G-mediated RNA editing. This result raises the possibility that the editing of host transcripts may be a novel mechanism by which HIV-1 infection is inhibited by A3G. Our findings suggest a previously unrecognized role for the N-terminal domain of A3G in RNA editing. A3G is the second of the seven members of the APOBEC3 family of cytidine deaminases and the first two-domain cytidine deaminase for which a previously unrecognized RNA editing activity has been discovered. It suggests that other APOBEC3 proteins may also possess hitherto unknown RNA editing activity that may underpin some of their biological roles. Our findings have the potential to significantly expand on the role of C-to-U RNA editing in epitranscriptomic regulation in T lymphocytes, define specific gene targets of A3G-mediated RNA editing and open new avenues of inquiry on the functions of APOBEC3 genes in HIV-1 restriction. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.