Epigenetic Repression of STING by MYC Promotes Immune Evasion and Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

The MYC oncogene is frequently amplified in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Here, we show that MYC suppression induces immune-related hallmark gene set expression and tumor-infiltrating T cells in MYC-hyperactivated TNBCs. Mechanistically, MYC repressed stimulator of interferon genes (STING) expression via direct binding to the STING1 enhancer region, resulting in downregulation of the T-cell chemokines CCL5, CXCL10, and CXCL11.

Nuclear FGFR1 Regulates Gene Transcription and Promotes Antiestrogen Resistance in ER Breast Cancer.

Purpose: FGFR1 overexpression has been associated with endocrine resistance in ER breast cancer. We found FGFR1 localized in the nucleus of breast cancer cells in primary tumors resistant to estrogen suppression. We investigated a role of nuclear FGFR1 on gene transcription and antiestrogen resistance.

A Genome-wide Functional Signature Ontology Map and Applications to Natural Product Mechanism of Action Discovery.

Gene expression signature-based inference of functional connectivity within and between genetic perturbations, chemical perturbations, and disease status can lead to the development of actionable hypotheses for gene function, chemical modes of action, and disease treatment strategies. Here, we report a FuSiOn-based genome-wide integration of hypomorphic cellular phenotypes that enables functional annotation of gene network topology, assignment of mechanistic hypotheses to genes of unknown function, and detection of cooperativity among cell regulatory systems. Dovetailing genetic perturbation data with chemical perturbation phenotypes allowed simultaneous generation of mechanism of action hypotheses for thousands of uncharacterized natural products fractions (NPFs).

Author Correction: Small-molecule TFEB pathway agonists that ameliorate metabolic syndrome in mice and extend C. elegans lifespan.

The originally published version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Nathaniel W. Oswald, which was incorrectly given as Nathaniel W. Olswald.

Chemistry-First Approach for Nomination of Personalized Treatment in Lung Cancer.

Diversity in the genetic lesions that cause cancer is extreme. In consequence, a pressing challenge is the development of drugs that target patient-specific disease mechanisms. To address this challenge, we employed a chemistry-first discovery paradigm for de novo identification of druggable targets linked to robust patient selection hypotheses.

Small-molecule TFEB pathway agonists that ameliorate metabolic syndrome in mice and extend C. elegans lifespan.

Drugs that mirror the cellular effects of starvation mimics are considered promising therapeutics for common metabolic disorders, such as obesity, liver steatosis, and for ageing. Starvation, or caloric restriction, is known to activate the transcription factor EB (TFEB), a master regulator of lipid metabolism and lysosomal biogenesis and function. Here, we report a nanotechnology-enabled high-throughput screen to identify small-molecule agonists of TFEB and discover three novel compounds that promote autophagolysosomal activity.

Biomarker Accessible and Chemically Addressable Mechanistic Subtypes of BRAF Melanoma.

Genomic diversity among melanoma tumors limits durable control with conventional and targeted therapies. Nevertheless, pathologic activation of the ERK1/2 pathway is a linchpin tumorigenic mechanism associated with the majority of primary and recurrent disease. Therefore, we sought to identify therapeutic targets that are selectively required for tumorigenicity in the presence of pathologic ERK1/2 signaling.

XPO1-dependent nuclear export is a druggable vulnerability in KRAS-mutant lung cancer.

The common participation of oncogenic KRAS proteins in many of the most lethal human cancers, together with the ease of detecting somatic KRAS mutant alleles in patient samples, has spurred persistent and intensive efforts to develop drugs that inhibit KRAS activity. However, advances have been hindered by the pervasive inter- and intra-lineage diversity in the targetable mechanisms that underlie KRAS-driven cancers, limited pharmacological accessibility of many candidate synthetic-lethal interactions and the swift emergence of unanticipated resistance mechanisms to otherwise effective targeted therapies. Here we demonstrate the acute and specific cell-autonomous addiction of KRAS-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer cells to receptor-dependent nuclear export.

Exploiting the CRISPR/Cas9 PAM Constraint for Single-Nucleotide Resolution Interventions.

CRISPR/Cas9 is an enabling RNA-guided technology for genome targeting and engineering. An acute DNA binding constraint of the Cas9 protein is the Protospacer Adjacent Motif (PAM). Here we demonstrate that the PAM requirement can be exploited to specifically target single-nucleotide heterozygous mutations while exerting no aberrant effects on the wild-type alleles.

Synthesis and structure-activity studies of the V-ATPase inhibitor saliphenylhalamide (SaliPhe) and simplified analogs.

An efficient total synthesis of the potent V-ATPase inhibitor saliphenylhalamide (SaliPhe), a synthetic variant of the natural product salicylihalamide A (SaliA), has been accomplished aimed at facilitating the development of SaliPhe as an anticancer and antiviral agent. This new approach enabled facile access to derivatives for structure-activity relationship studies, leading to simplified analogs that maintain SaliPhe's biological properties. These studies will provide a solid foundation for the continued evaluation of SaliPhe and analogs as potential anticancer and antiviral agents.

RASSF1A inactivation unleashes a tumor suppressor/oncogene cascade with context-dependent consequences on cell cycle progression.

The RASSF1A gene is one of the most frequently inactivated genes in over 30 different types of cancers (H. Donninger, M. D.

Systematic identification of molecular subtype-selective vulnerabilities in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Context-specific molecular vulnerabilities that arise during tumor evolution represent an attractive intervention target class. However, the frequency and diversity of somatic lesions detected among lung tumors can confound efforts to identify these targets. To confront this challenge, we have applied parallel screening of chemical and genetic perturbations within a panel of molecularly annotated NSCLC lines to identify intervention opportunities tightly linked to molecular response indicators predictive of target sensitivity.

Using functional signature ontology (FUSION) to identify mechanisms of action for natural products.

A challenge for biomedical research is the development of pharmaceuticals that appropriately target disease mechanisms. Natural products can be a rich source of bioactive chemicals for medicinal applications but can act through unknown mechanisms and can be difficult to produce or obtain. To address these challenges, we developed a new marine-derived, renewable natural products resource and a method for linking bioactive derivatives of this library to the proteins and biological processes that they target in cells.

Host modulators of H1N1 cytopathogenicity.

Influenza A virus infects 5-20% of the population annually, resulting in ~35,000 deaths and significant morbidity. Current treatments include vaccines and drugs that target viral proteins. However, both of these approaches have limitations, as vaccines require yearly development and the rapid evolution of viral proteins gives rise to drug resistance.

Natural language query in the biochemistry and molecular biology domains based on cognition search™.

Motivation: With the increasing volume of scientific papers and heterogeneous nomenclature in the biomedical literature, it is apparent that an improvement over standard pattern matching available in existing search engines is required. Cognition Search Information Retrieval (CSIR) is a natural language processing (NLP) technology that possesses a large dictionary (lexicon) and large semantic databases, such that search can be based on meaning. Encoded synonymy, ontological relationships, phrases, and seeds for word sense disambiguation offer significant improvement over pattern matching.