Cellular Oncology: Single-cell RNA profiling identifies diverse cellular responses to EWSR1/FLI1 down regulation in Ewing sarcoma cells (Houghton, Chen, Kitagawa, Ignatius)

January 12, 2022

 Roxane Khoogar, Fuyang Li, Yidong Chen, Myron Ignatius, Elizabeth R. Lawlor, Katsumi Kitagawa, Tim H.-M. Huang, Doris A. Phelps & Peter J. Houghton Background The EWSR1/FLI1 gene fusion is the most common rearrangement leading to cell transformation in Ewing sarcoma (ES). Previous studies have indicated that expression at the cellular level is heterogeneous and that levels [...]

PMC: The Role of Hedgehog Pathway in Uterine Leiomyosarcoma (Houghton Lab)

January 7, 2022

 Natalia Garcia,1 Mara Ulin,2 Ayman Al-Hendy,3 and Qiwei Yang3 DESCRIPTION The uterine Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) represents 3%-7% of all uterine cancers. This rare tumor has an annual incidence of 0.8 per 100,00 women. Unfortunately, LMS is well known for its poor prognosis due to its high recurrence rate and resistance to the currently available treatment options. These features open the [...]

CANCER RESEARCH: SNAI2-Mediated Repression of BIM Protects Rhabdomyosarcoma from Ionizing Radiation (Houghton, Ignatius, Vaseva, and Zheng labs)

November 24, 2021

 Long Wang, Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Jiangfei Chen, Rodrigo Moreno Campos, Kunal Baxi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Benjamin D. Sunkel, Berkley E. Gryder, Silvia Pomella, Benjamin Z. Stanton, Siyuan Zheng, Eleanor Y. Chen, Rossella Rota, Javed Khan, Peter J. Houghton and Myron S. Ignatius Abstract Ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy [...]

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics: Vertical Inhibition of the RAF-MEK-ERK Cascade Induces Myogenic Differentiation, Apoptosis and Tumor Regression in H/NRAS Q61X-mutant Rhabdomyosarcoma (Houghton, Chen, Ignatius, Vaseva)

November 8, 2021

 Natalia Garcia, Vanessa Del Pozo, Marielle E. Yohe, Craig M. Goodwin, Terry J Shackleford, Long Wang, Kunal Baxi, Yidong Chen, Anna T Rogojina, Sara M. Zimmerman, Cody J. Peer, William D. Figg, Myron S. Ignatius, Kris C Wood, Peter J. Houghton, and Angelina V Vaseva Abstract Oncogenic RAS signaling is an attractive target for fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma (FN-RMS). Our study validates the role of the ERK MAPK effector pathway in mediating RAS dependency in a panel of H/NRASQ61X-mutant RMS cells and correlates in vivo efficacy of the MEK [...]

Cancer Research: SNAI2-mediated repression of BIM protects rhabdomyosarcoma from ionizing radiation (Houghton, Ignatius, & Zheng Labs)

August 31, 2021

Long Wang, Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Jiangfei Chen, Rodrigo Moreno Campos, Kunal Baxi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Benjamin D. Sunkel, Berkley E. Gryder, Silvia Pomella, Benjamin Z. Stanton, Siyuan Zheng, Eleanor Y. Chen, Rossella Rota, Javed Khan, Peter J. Houghton and Myron S. Ignatius Abstract Ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy are mainstays of treatment for patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), yet the molecular mechanisms that underlie the success or failure of radiotherapy remain unclear. The transcriptional repressor SNAI2 was previously identified as a key regulator of IR sensitivity in […]

Pediatric Blood & Cancer: In vivo evaluation of the lysine-specific demethylase (KDM1A/LSD1) inhibitor SP-2577 (Seclidemstat) against pediatric sarcoma preclinical models: A report from the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Consortium (PPTC) (Kurmasheva, Houghton)

August 30, 2021

Raushan T. Kurmasheva, Stephen W. Erickson, Ruolan Han, Beverly A. Teicher, Malcolm A. Smith, Michael Roth, Richard Gorlick, Peter J. Houghton Abstract SP-2577(Seclidemstat), an inhibitor of lysine-specific demthylase KDM1A (LSD1) that is overexpressed in pediatric sarcomas, was evaluated against pediatric sarcoma xenografts. SP-2577 (100 mg/kg/day × 28 days) statistically significantly (p < .05) inhibited the growth of three of eight Ewing sarcoma (EwS), four […]

Science Advances: Predicting and characterizing a cancer dependency map of tumors with deep learning (Aune, Chen, Rao, Houghton & Zheng Labs)

August 24, 2021

Yu-Chiao Chiu1, Siyuan Zheng1,2, Li-Ju Wang1, View ORCID ProfileBrian S. Iskra1, View ORCID ProfileManjeet K. Rao1,3, Peter J. Houghton1,4, View ORCID ProfileYufei Huang5,6,* and View ORCID ProfileYidong Chen1,2,* Abstract Genome-wide loss-of-function screens have revealed genes essential for cancer cell proliferation, called cancer dependencies. It remains challenging to link cancer dependencies to the molecular compositions of cancer […]