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Molecular mechanisms of amoeboid invasion of cancer cells
Paňková, Daniela ; Brábek, Jan (advisor) ; Dvořák, Michal (referee) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee)
Tumour cell invasion is one of the most critical steps in malignant progression. It includes a broad spectrum of mechanisms, including both individual and collective cell migration, which enables them to spread towards adjacent tissue, and form new metastases. Understanding the mechanisms of cell spreading, and invasion, is crucial for effective anticancer therapy. Two modes of individual migration of tumour cells have been established in a three-dimensional environment. Mesenchymally migrating cells use proteases to cleave collagen bundles, and thus overcome the ECM barriers. Recently described protease-independent amoeboid mode of invasion has been discovered in studies of cancer cells with protease inhibitors. During my PhD study, I have focused on determining the molecular mechanisms involved in amoeboid invasion of tumour cells. We have examined invasive abilities in non-metastatic K2 and highly metastatic A3 rat sarcoma cell lines. We have shown that even though highly metastatic A3 rat sarcoma cells are of mesenchymal origin, they have upregulated Rho/ROCK signalling pathway. Moreover, A3 cells generate actomyosin-based mechanical forces at their leading edges to physically squeeze through the collagen fibrils by adopting an amoeboid phenotype. Amoeboid invasiveness is also less dependent on...
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Regulation of transcription by proteins of the Early growth response and Myb families
Čermák, Vladimír ; Dvořák, Michal (advisor) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee) ; Elleder, Daniel (referee)
The regulation of transcription of tens of thousands of genes in a vertebrate organism is an enormously complex phenomenon which entails the participation of thousands of various regulatory proteins. The largest functional category of these regulators is accounted for by sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins known as transcription factors. Proteins of the EGR and Myb families of transcription factors are long-studied regulators of a variety of physiological processes including cellular proliferation and differentiation. The structural and physical aspects of their function have been well characterized. Their cell-type specific participation in complex gene-regulatory networks, on the other hand, is still incompletely understood and represents a major challenge in the respective research areas. Preliminary analysis of gene expression data from metastasizing PR9692 and non- metastasizing PR9692-E9 chicken sarcoma cell lines revealed that the transcription factor EGR1 is expressed at a higher level in metastasizing cells and can thus take part in the regulatory processes that underlie the differences between the two cell lines. Further investigation demonstrated that the introduction of exogenous EGR1 into PR9692-E9 cells restored their metastatic potential to a level indistinguishable from PR9692...
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Regulation of actin cytoskeleton and epithelial cells morphology by the ERK signaling pathway
Rasl, Jan ; Vomastek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Tolde, Ondřej (referee)
The ERK signalling cascade belongs to a familly of the signalling pathways conserved in eukaryotic cells, which responds to the wide spectrum of extracellular stimuli and convert these stimuli to appropriate response. In epithelial cells the ERK signalling cascade induces disintegration of epithelial architecture and induces morphological changes leading to the gain of the autonomy of the epithelial cells. During morphological changes of the epithelial structure, the ERK signalling cascade participates in the remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton, which leads to the disassembly of cell-cell adhesions and the loss of the epithelial polarity. Subsequently ERK activates the migration programme, which enables epithelial cells to use individual mesenchymal-like mode of migration. The so called peripheral actin is one of the least explored actin structures that forms at the periphery of the epithelial cells and surrounds the colony of epithelial cells. Peripheral actin is located at the basal side of the cell and it probably takes part in the integrity of epithelial tissue. Nevertheless, up to date it is not know if and how ERK signalling cascade regulatesthe peripheral actin and if remodeling of peripheral actin takes part in the cell migration. In this thesis we show, that ERK signalling cascade is...
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Analyzing the role of the p130Cas SH3 domain in p130Cas-mediated signaling
Gemperle, Jakub ; Rösel, Daniel (advisor) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee) ; Truksa, Jaroslav (referee)
The adaptor protein p130Cas (CAS, BCAR1) represents a nodal signaling platform for integrin and growth factor receptor signaling, and influences normal development and tissue homeostasis. Its altered expression drives many pathological conditions including tumor growth, metastasis and drug resistance in many cancer types. How p130Cas contributes to many of these pathologies is still poorly understood. Therefore, the overall aim of my PhD work was to provide new insights to p130Cas signaling and its regulation. The SH3 domain is indispensable for p130Cas signaling, but the ligand binding characteristics of the p130Cas SH3 domain, and the structural determinants of its regulation were not well understood. To be able to study various aspects of p130Cas signaling we identified an atypical binding motif in p130Cas SH3 domain by establishing collaborations with Dr Veverka (Structural biology) and Dr Lepšík (Computational biochemistry; Academy of Sciences, CZ) which gave new insight into this binding interface. Through these collaborations I generated chimeras of p130Cas SH3 domain with its ligands for structural NMR analysis and learned how to visualize and analyze structures. Furthermore, my work expanded our knowledge of p130Cas SH3 ligand binding regulation and led to a novel model of Src-p130Cas- FAK...
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Molecular mechanism of quality control during snRNP biogenesis
Klimešová, Klára ; Staněk, David (advisor) ; Krásný, Libor (referee) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee)
The spliceosome is one of the largest and most dynamic molecular machines in the cell. The central part of the complex is formed by five small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) which are generated in a multi-step biogenesis pathway. Moreover, the snRNPs undergo extensive rearrangements during the splicing and require reassembly after every intron removal. Both de novo assembly and post-splicing recycling of snRNPs are guided and facilitated by specific chaperones. Here, I reveal molecular details of function of two snRNP chaperones, SART3 and TSSC4. While TSSC4 is a previously uncharacterized protein, SART3 has been described before as a U6 snRNP-specific factor which assists in association of U6 and U4 particles into di-snRNP, and is important for the U4/U6 snRNP recycling. However, the mechanism of its function has been unclear. Here, I provide an evidence that SART3 interacts with a post-splicing complex and propose that SART3 could promote its disassembly. Our data further suggest that SART3 binds U6 snRNP already within the post-splicing complex and thus participates in the whole recycling phase of U6 snRNP. Then, I show that TSSC4 is a novel U5 snRNP-specific chaperone which promotes an assembly of U5 and U4/U6 snRNPs into a splicing-competent tri-snRNP particle. We identified...
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Mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity induced by genotoxic stress
Přibyl, Miroslav ; Hodný, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Remešová, Hana (referee) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee)
Therapy resistance of malignant cells represents the main reason responsible for the failure of cancer therapy. The growth of malignant cells at primary tumour sites but most importantly the dissemination of tumour cells and their growth at secondary sites, are the main reasons why patients eventually succumb to the disease. Even novel immune-based therapies find their limitation in most tumour types. The therapy resistance is mediated by the tumour cells but also by other cellular components of the tumour microenvironment. Understanding the tumour cells mechanisms and the tumour microenvironment features responsible for therapy resistance enables the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Here, we show that ionizing irradiation, 5-azacytidine, and IFNγ treatments induced expression of suprabasin (SBSN) and therapy-resistant low-adherent phenotype in cancer cells. Knockdown of SBSN resulted in suppression of the phenotype. Next, we identified aberrantly elevated SBSN in the bone marrow of a subgroup of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients. SBSN was expressed by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and showed significant anti-correlation with T cell abundance and CCL2 levels, hence promises a prognostic value in clinical use. We compiled the most of the relevant knowledge of SBSN...
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Quality control in snRNP biogenesis
Roithová, Adriana ; Staněk, David (advisor) ; Malínský, Jan (referee) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee)
(English) snRNPs are key components of the spliceosome. During their life, they are found in the cytoplasm and also in the nucleus, where carry out their function. There are five major snRNPs named according to RNA they contain U1, U2, U4, U5 and U6. Each snRNP consists from RNA, ring of seven Sm or LSm proteins and additional proteins specific for each snRNP. Their biogenesis starts in the nucleus, where they are transcribed. Then they are transported into the cytoplasm. During their cytoplasmic phase, the SMN complex forms the Sm ring around the specific sequence on snRNA and cap is trimethylated. These two modifications are the signals for reimport of snRNA into the nucleus, where they accumulate in the nuclear structures called Cajal bodies (CBs), where the final maturation steps occur. There are several quality control points during snRNP biogenesis that ensure that only fully assembled particles reach the spliceosome. The first checkpoint is in the nucleus immediately after the transcription, when the export complex is formed. The second checkpoint is in the cytoplasm and proofreads Sm ring assembly. If the Sm ring formation fails, the defective snRNPs are degraded in the cytoplasm by Xrn1 exonuclease. However, it is still unclear, how the cell distinguishes between normal and defective...
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Mechanism of regulation of EGFR receptor ligand activation via the intramembrane pseudoprotease iRhom and cell surface metalloprotease ADAM17
Trávníčková, Květa ; Stříšovský, Kvido (advisor) ; Vomastek, Tomáš (referee)
Signalling through the EGF receptor is subject to a complex and multilayered regulation. One such mode of regulation is through control of ligand production which plays an important role in fine- tuning EGF receptor activation. In mammals, the production of soluble, biologically active forms of EGF receptor ligands relies on ADAM metalloproteases, predominantly ADAM10 and ADAM17. Recently, a pseudoprotease from the rhomboid-like family of intramembrane proteases, iRhom, emerged as a key positive regulator of ADAM17. However, Drosophila iRhom has also been implicated in the negative regulation of EGF receptor signalling by promoting the degradation of precursors of its ligands. Cell culture based assays suggest that mammalian iRhoms might also be involved in a similar process. In this thesis, the effect of mammalian iRhom overexpression on the levels of EGF receptor ligands has been investigated. Contrary to previous findings, the data presented in this thesis suggest that the observed effect might not be entirely iRhom specific, for the inactive mutants of rhomboid proteases also diminish the levels of EGF receptor ligands. Nor do we find the effect to be specific to EGF receptor ligands, as unrelated transmembrane proteins were also depleted by iRhom overexpression. The coexpression of ADAM17 was...
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Regulation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal transition by the ERK pathway.
Čáslavský, Josef ; Vomastek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Brábek, Jan (referee) ; Gregor, Martin (referee)
Typical epithelium is uniformly polarized solid structure defined by the presence of cell-cell contacts that are connected to well-organized network of actin cytoskeleton. While epithelium is considered to be rather static, during embryogenesis or cancer development epithelial tissues undergo considerable dynamic changes in their integrity that are characterized by loss of epithelial polarity, disruption of cell-cell adhesions and gaining mesenchymal or mesenchymal-like migratory phenotype. These changes, collectively termed as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), allow cells to effectively invade surrounding tissues and are considered to be a main factor underlying the formation of metastatic cancer. The MAPK/ERK cascade, comprised of protein kinases Raf, MEK and ERK, induces the breakdown of epithelial integrity and cell autonomous migration in various cell lines. In the ERK pathway, ERK is an effector protein kinase which, depending on the cellular context, phosphorylates a number of different substrates. Spatiotemporal phosphorylation of specific constellation of ERK substrates drives specific biologic outcome. The question arises whether, during conversion of multicellular epithelium to autonomously migrating cells, ERK regulates a "master" controller or whether the ERK regulatory function...
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