SUMMARY A hexanucleotide GGGGCC repeat expansion in the noncoding region of the C9ORF72 gene is the most common genetic abnormality in familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The function of the C9ORF72 protein is unknown, as is the mechanism by which the repeat expansion could cause disease. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-differentiated neurons from C9ORF72 ALS patients revealed disease-specific (1) intranuclear GGGGCCexp RNA foci, (2) dysregulated gene expression, (3) sequestration of GGGGCCexp RNA binding protein ADARB2, and (4) susceptibility to excitotoxicity. These pathological and pathogenic characteristics were confirmed in ALS brain and were mitigated with antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics to the C9ORF72 transcript or repeat expansion despite the presence of repeat-associated non-ATG translation (RAN) products. These data indicate a toxic RNA gain-of-function mechanism as a cause of C9ORF72 ALS and provide candidate antisense therapeutics and candidate human pharmacodynamic markers for therapy.

Summary Amplification of 1q21 occurs in approximately 30% of de novo and 70% of relapsed multiple myeloma (MM) and is correlated with disease progression and drug resistance. Here, we provide evidence that the 1q21 amplification-driven overexpression of ILF2 in MM promotes tolerance of genomic instability and drives resistance to DNA-damaging agents. Mechanistically, elevated ILF2 expression exerts resistance to genotoxic agents by modulating YB-1 nuclear localization and interaction with the splicing factor U2AF65, which promotes mRNA processing and the stabilization of transcripts involved in homologous recombination in response to DNA damage. The intimate link between 1q21-amplified ILF2 and the regulation of RNA splicing of DNA repair genes may be exploited to optimize the use of DNA-damaging agents in patients with high-risk MM.

SUMMARY Th17 cells are potent mediators in autoimmune diseases and RORγt is required for their development. Recent studies have shown that RORγt+ Treg cells in the gut regulate intestinal inflammation by inhibiting effector T cell function. In the current study, we report that RORγt+ Treg cells were also found in lymph nodes following immunization. Not only distinct from intestinal RORγt+ Treg in their transcriptomes, peripheral RORγt+ Treg cells were derived from Foxp3+ thymic Treg cells, in an antigen-specific manner. Development of these RORγt+ Treg cells, coined as T regulatory 17 (Tr17) cells, depended on IL-6/Stat3 signaling. Tr17 cells showed suppressive activity against antigen-specific effector T cells in vitro. In addition, Tr17 cells efficiently inhibited myelin-specific Th17 cell-mediated CNS auto-inflammation in a passive EAE model. Collectively, our study demonstrates Tr17 cells as effector Treg cells that potentially restrict autoimmunity.

SUMMARY Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) risk correlates with advancing age, therapy-induced DNA damage, and/or shorter telomeres but whether telomere erosion directly induces MDS is unknown. Here, we provide the genetic evidence that telomere dysfunction-induced DNA damage drives classical MDS phenotypes and alters common myeloid progenitor (CMP) differentiation by repressing the expression of mRNA splicing/processing genes, including srsf2. RNA-Seq analyses of telomere dysfunctional CMP identified aberrantly spliced transcripts linked to pathways relevant to MDS pathogenesis such as genome stability, DNA repair, chromatin remodeling and histone modification, which are also enriched in mouse CMP haploinsufficient for srsf2 and in CD34+ CMML patient cells harboring srsf2 mutation. Together, our studies establish an intimate link across telomere biology, aberrant RNA splicing and myeloid progenitor differentiation.

Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a human stem cell disorder, and individuals with this disease have a substantially increased risk (~800-fold) of developing tumors. Epigenetic silencing of β2-spectrin (β2SP, encoded by SPTBN1), a SMAD adaptor for TGF-β signaling, is causally associated with BWS; however, a role of TGF-β deficiency in BWS-associated neoplastic transformation is unexplored. Here, we have reported that double-heterozygous Sptbn1+/- Smad3+/- mice, which have defective TGF-β signaling, develop multiple tumors that are phenotypically similar to those of BWS patients. Moreover, tumorigenesis-associated genes IGF2 and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) were overexpressed in fibroblasts from BWS patients and TGF-β-defective mice. We further determined that chromatin insulator CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is TGF-β inducible and facilitates TGF-β-mediated repression of TERT transcription via interactions with β2SP and SMAD3. This regulation was abrogated in TGF-β-defective mice and BWS, resulting in TERT overexpression. Imprinting of the IGF2/H19 locus and the CDKN1C/KCNQ1 locus on chromosome 11p15.5 is mediated by CTCF, and this regulation is lost in BWS, leading to aberrant overexpression of growth-promoting genes. Therefore, we propose that loss of CTCF-dependent imprinting of tumor-promoting genes, such as IGF2 and TERT, results from a defective TGF-β pathway and is responsible at least in part for BWS-associated tumorigenesis as well as sporadic human cancers that are frequently associated with SPTBN1 and SMAD3 mutations.