Affinity maturation of the humoral response is mediated by somatic hypermutation of the immunoglobulin (Ig) genes and selection of higher-affinity B cell clones. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is the first of a complex series of proteins that introduce these point mutations into variable regions of the Ig genes. AID deaminates deoxycytidine residues in single-stranded DNA to deoxyuridines, which are then processed by DNA replication, base excision repair (BER), or mismatch repair (MMR). In germinal center B cells, MMR, BER, and other factors are diverted from their normal roles in preserving genomic integrity to increase diversity within the Ig locus. Both AID and these components of an emerging error-prone mutasome are regulated on many levels by complex mechanisms that are only beginning to be elucidated.

The failure of chemotherapeutic regimens to eradicate cancers often results from the outgrowth of minor subclones with more dangerous genomic abnormalities or with self-renewing capacity. To explore such intratumor complexities in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), we measured B-cell kinetics in vivo by quantifying deuterium ( 2 H)-labeled cells as an indicator of a cell that had divided. Separating CLL clones on the basis of reciprocal densities of chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) and cluster designation 5 (CD5) revealed that the CXCR4 dim CD5 bright (proliferative) fraction contained more 2 H-labeled DNA and hence divided cells than the CXCR4 bright CD5 dim (resting) fraction. This enrichment was confirmed by the relative expression of two cell cycle-associated molecules in the same fractions, Ki-67 and minichromosome maintenance protein 6 (MCM6). Comparisons of global gene expression between the CXCR4 dim CD5 bright and CXCR4 bright CD5 dim fractions indicated higher levels of pro-proliferation and antiapoptotic genes and genes involved in oxidative injury in the proliferative fraction. An extended immunophenotype was also defined, providing a wider range of surface molecules characteristic of each fraction. These intraclonal analyses suggest a model of CLL cell biology in which the leukemic clone contains a spectrum of cells from the proliferative fraction, enriched in recently divided robust cells that are lymphoid tissue emigrants, to the resting fraction enriched in older, less vital cells that need to immigrate to lymphoid tissue or die. The model also suggests several targets preferentially expressed in the two populations amenable for therapeutic attack. Finally, the study lays the groundwork for future analyses that might provide a more robust understanding of the development and clonal evolution of this currently incurable disease.

The indisputable role of epigenetics in cancer and the fact that epigenetic alterations can be reversed have favoured development of epigenetic drugs. In this study, we design and synthesize potent novel, selective and reversible chemical probes that simultaneously inhibit the G9a and DNMTs methyltransferase activity. In vitro treatment of haematological neoplasia (acute myeloid leukaemia-AML, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia-ALL and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma-DLBCL) with the lead compound CM-272, inhibits cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis, inducing interferon-stimulated genes and immunogenic cell death. CM-272 significantly prolongs survival of AML, ALL and DLBCL xenogeneic models. Our results represent the discovery of first-in-class dual inhibitors of G9a/DNMTs and establish this chemical series as a promising therapeutic tool for unmet needs in haematological tumours.

Mammalian Exonuclease 1 (EXO1) is an evolutionarily conserved, multifunctional exonuclease involved in DNA damage repair, replication, immunoglobulin diversity, meiosis, and telomere maintenance. It has been assumed that EXO1 participates in these processes primarily through its exonuclease activity, but recent studies also suggest that EXO1 has a structural function in the assembly of higher-order protein complexes. To dissect the enzymatic and nonenzymatic roles of EXO1 in the different biological processes in vivo, we generated an EXO1-E109K knockin (Exo1 EK ) mouse expressing a stable exonuclease-deficient protein and, for comparison, a fully EXO1-deficient (Exo1 null ) mouse. In contrast to Exo1 null/null mice, Exo1 EK/EK mice retained mismatch repair activity and displayed normal class switch recombination and meiosis. However, both Exo1-mutant lines showed defects in DNA damage response including DNA double-strand break repair (DSBR) through DNA end resection, chromosomal stability, and tumor suppression, indicating that the enzymatic function is required for those processes. On a transformation-related protein 53 (Trp53)-null background, the DSBR defect caused by the E109K mutation altered the tumor spectrum but did not affect the overall survival as compared with p53-Exo1 null mice, whose defects in both DSBR and mismatch repair also compromised survival. The separation of these functions demonstrates the differential requirement for the structural function and nuclease activity of mammalian EXO1 in distinct DNA repair processes and tumorigenesis in vivo.somatic hypermuation | scaffold function | ssDNA E xonuclease 1 (EXO1) belongs to the XPG/Rad2 family of metallonucleases and was first described as a 5′-3′ exonuclease associated with meiosis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (1). Since then EXO1 has been implicated in a multitude of eukaryotic DNA metabolic pathways and in maintaining genomic integrity. It is involved in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) by hydrolyzing DNA mismatches (2-4), in DNA double-strand break repair (DSBR) through DNA end resection (5-7), in B-cell development through the generation of antibody diversity (8), and in telomere maintenance by promotion of telomeric recombination (9). Biochemical analysis had shown that the N-terminal half of EXO1 possesses 5′-3′ exonuclease and 5′ flap-endonuclease activities (10). However, these apparently distinct functions now are thought to be mechanistically unified (11).MMR is essential for maintaining the integrity of eukaryotic genomes by removing misincorporated nucleotides that result from erroneous replication. During MMR, the repair of distinct types of mismatches is initiated by two partially redundant MutS homolog (MSH) complexes: the MSH2-MSH6 (MutSα) heterodimer, that recognizes and binds to single-base mispairs and single-base insertion/deletions, and the MSH2-MSH3 (MutSβ) complex that primarily interacts with single-base and larger insertions/deletions. Subsequent to mismatch recognition by the MSH complexes, a MutL homolog (MLH) complex con...

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class-switch recombination (CSR) of Ig genes are dependent upon activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID)-induced mutations. The scaffolding properties of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and ubiquitylation of its residue K164 have been suggested to play an important role organizing the error-prone repair events that contribute to the AID-induced diversification of the Ig locus. We generated knockout mice for PCNA (Pcna ؊/؊ ), which were embryonic lethal. Expression of PCNA with the K164R mutation rescued the lethal phenotype, but the mice (Pcna ؊/؊ tg K164R ) displayed a meiotic defect in early pachynema and were sterile. B cells proliferated normally in Pcna ؊/؊ tg K164R mice, but a PCNA-K164R mutation resulted in impaired ex vivo CSR to IgG1 and IgG3, which was associated with reduced mutation frequency at the switch regions and a bias toward blunt junctions. Analysis of the heavy chain V186.2 region after NP-immunization showed in Pcna ؊/؊ tg K164R mice a significant reduction in the mutation frequency of A:T residues in WA motifs preferred by polymerase-(Pol ), and a strand-biased increase in the mutation frequency of G residues, preferentially in the context of AID-targeted GYW motifs. The phenotype of Pcna ؊/؊ tg K164R mice supports the idea that ubiquitylation of PCNA participates directly in the meiotic process and the diversification of the Ig locus through class-switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM).T o mount an effective antibody response, mice and humans create a highly diverse repertoire of antigen binding sites through the rearrangement of the germ line variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) Ig locus. Following interaction with antigen, B cells in the germinal centers (GCs) of secondary lymphoid organs express activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). AID, together with other enzymes, causes a very high rate (10 Ϫ5 -10 Ϫ3 /base pair/generation) of point mutations in Ig V regions resulting in the affinity maturation and the changes in fine specificity required to produce protective antibodies (1, 2). AID also initiates class-switch recombination (CSR) by mutating the switch regions (SRs) that are located just 5Ј of the constant region genes (3, 4). CSR allows antibodies to be distributed throughout the body and to carry out a wide variety of effector functions. AID deaminates deoxycytidines (dC) in single-stranded DNA in the V and SRs to generate deoxyuridine (dU) (1, 2). However, more than half of the mutations in the V and SRs of mice and humans are in A:T bases and are not the result of the direct biochemical action of AID. Rather, these mutations arise during a second phase of SHM and result from the error-prone base excision repair (BER) and mismatch repair (MMR), both of which are recruited to the dU:dG mismatch generated by AID (1, 2, 4).When critical MMR genes are deleted from mice, most of the mutations in A:T in the V region no longer occur, suggesting that MMR is responsible for the majority of the mutations that ar...