A crowd-sourcing approach for the construction of species-specific cell signaling networks
BIOINFORMATICS
Authors: Bilal, Erhan; Sakellaropoulos, Theodore; Participants, Challenge; Melas, Ioannis N.; Messinis, Dimitris E.; Belcastro, Vincenzo; Rhrissorrakrai, Kahn; Meyer, Pablo; Norel, Raquel; Iskandar, Anita; Blaese, Elise; Rice, John J.; Peitsch, Manuel C.; Hoeng, Julia; Stolovitzky, Gustavo; Alexopoulos, Leonidas G.; Poussin, Carine
Abstract
Motivation: Animal models are important tools in drug discovery and for understanding human biology in general. However, many drugs that initially show promising results in rodents fail in later stages of clinical trials. Understanding the commonalities and differences between human and rat cell signaling networks can lead to better experimental designs, improved allocation of resources and ultimately better drugs. Results: The sbv IMPROVER Species-Specific Network Inference challenge was designed to use the power of the crowds to build two species-specific cell signaling networks given phosphoproteomics, transcriptomics and cytokine data generated from NHBE and NRBE cells exposed to various stimuli. A common literature-inspired reference network with 220 nodes and 501 edges was also provided as prior knowledge from which challenge participants could add or remove edges but not nodes. Such a large network inference challenge not based on synthetic simulations but on real data presented unique difficulties in scoring and interpreting the results. Because any prior knowledge about the networks was already provided to the participants for reference, novel ways for scoring and aggregating the results were developed. Two human and rat consensus networks were obtained by combining all the inferred networks. Further analysis showed that major signaling pathways were conserved between the two species with only isolated components diverging, as in the case of ribosomal S6 kinase RPS6KA1. Overall, the consensus between inferred edges was relatively high with the exception of the downstream targets of transcription factors, which seemed more difficult to predict.
A high definition picture of somatic mutations in chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer cells
BLOOD CANCER JOURNAL
Authors: Gasparini, Vanessa Rebecca; Binatti, Andrea; Coppe, Alessandro; Teramo, Antonella; Vicenzetto, Cristina; Calabretto, Giulia; Barila, Gregorio; Barizza, Annica; Giussani, Edoardo; Facco, Monica; Mustjoki, Satu; Semenzato, Gianpietro; Zambello, Renato; Bortoluzzi, Stefania
Abstract
The molecular pathogenesis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer (NK) cells (CLPD-NK) is poorly understood. Following the screening of 57 CLPD-NK patients, only five presented STAT3 mutations. WES profiling of 13 cases negative for STAT3/STAT5B mutations uncovered an average of 18 clonal, population rare and deleterious somatic variants per patient. The mutational landscape of CLPD-NK showed that most patients carry a heavy mutational burden, with major and subclonal deleterious mutations co-existing in the leukemic clone. Somatic mutations hit genes wired to cancer proliferation, survival, and migration pathways, in the first place Ras/MAPK, PI3K-AKT, in addition to JAK/STAT (PIK3R1 and PTK2). We confirmed variants with putative driver role of MAP10, MPZL1, RPS6KA1, SETD1B, TAOK2, TMEM127, and TNFRSF1A genes, and of genes linked to viral infections (DDX3X and RSF1) and DNA repair (PAXIP1). A truncating mutation of the epigenetic regulator TET2 and a variant likely abrogating PIK3R1-negative regulatory activity were validated. This study significantly furthered the view of the genes and pathways involved in CLPD-NK, indicated similarities with aggressive diseases of NK cells and detected mutated genes targetable by approved drugs, being a step forward to personalized precision medicine for CLPD-NK patients.