Metastatic uveal melanomas are highly resistant to all existing treatments. To address this critical issue, we performed a kinome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screen, which revealed the LKB1-SIK2 module in restraining uveal melanoma tumorigenesis. Functionally, LKB1 loss enhances proliferation and survival through SIK2 inhibition and upregulation of the sodium/calcium (Na /Ca ) exchanger SLC8A1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntratumor heterogeneity has been recognized in numerous cancers as a major source of metastatic dissemination. In uveal melanomas, the existence and identity of specific subpopulations, their biological function and their contribution to metastasis remain unknown. Here, in multiscale analyses using single-cell RNA sequencing of six different primary uveal melanomas, we uncover an intratumoral heterogeneity at the genomic and transcriptomic level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegration of chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing and microarray data enabled us to identify previously unreported MITF-target genes, among which the amino acid transporter SLC7A5 is also included. We reported that small interfering RNA-mediated SLC7A5 knockdown decreased pigmentation in B16F10 cells but neither affected morphology nor dendricity. Treatment with the SLC7A5 inhibitors 2-amino-2-norbornanecarboxylic acid (BCH) or JPH203 also decreased melanin synthesis in B16F10 cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyeloid malignancy is increasingly viewed as a disease spectrum, comprising hematopoietic disorders that extend across a phenotypic continuum ranging from clonal hematopoiesis to myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In this study, we derived a collection of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines capturing a range of disease stages encompassing preleukemia, low-risk MDS, high-risk MDS, and secondary AML. Upon their differentiation, we found hematopoietic phenotypes of graded severity and/or stage specificity that together delineate a phenotypic roadmap of disease progression culminating in serially transplantable leukemia.
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