Variability of Gene Expression and Drug Resistance

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Variability of Gene Expression and Drug Resistance

November 12, 2015 by larryhbern

Variability of Gene Expression and Drug Resistance

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

New Data Suggest Extreme Genetic Diversity of Tumors May Impart Drug Resistance

Nov 10, 2015|a GenomeWeb staff reporter https://www.genomeweb.com/gene-expression-research/new-data-suggest-extreme-genetic-diversity-tumors-may-impart-drug

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Researchers from the University of Chicago and the Beijing Institute of Genomics have undertaken one of the most extensive analyses of the genome of a single tumor and found far greater genetic diversity than anticipated. Such variation, they said, may enable even small tumors to resist treatment.

“With 100 million mutations, each capable of altering a protein in some way, there is a high probability that a significant minority of tumor cells will survive, even after aggressive treatment,” Chung-I Wu, a University of Chicago researcher and senior author of the study, said in a statement. “In a setting with so much diversity, those cells could multiply to form new tumors, which would be resistant to standard treatments.”

Extremely high genetic diversity in a single tumor points to prevalence of non-Darwinian cell evolution

Shaoping Ling^a,¹, Zheng Hu^a,¹, Zuyu Yang^a,¹, Fang Yang^a,¹, Yawei Li^a, Pei Lin^b, Ke Chen^a, Lili Dong^a, Lihua Cao^a, Yong Tao^a, Lingtong Hao^a, Qingjian Chen^b, Qiang Gong^a, et al.

Shaoping Ling, PNAS Nov 11, 2015, http://dx.doi.org:/10.1073/pnas.1519556112 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/11/1519556112

A tumor comprising many cells can be compared to a natural population with many individuals. The amount of genetic diversity reflects how it has evolved and can influence its future evolution. We evaluated a single tumor by sequencing or genotyping nearly 300 regions from the tumor. When the data were analyzed by modern population genetic theory, we estimated more than 100 million coding region mutations in this unexceptional tumor. The extreme genetic diversity implies evolution under the non-Darwinian mode. In contrast, under the prevailing view of Darwinian selection, the genetic diversity would be orders of magnitude lower. Because genetic diversity accrues rapidly, a high probability of drug resistance should be heeded, even in the treatment of microscopic tumors.

The prevailing view that the evolution of cells in a tumor is driven by Darwinian selection has never been rigorously tested. Because selection greatly affects the level of intratumor genetic diversity, it is important to assess whether intratumor evolution follows the Darwinian or the non-Darwinian mode of evolution. To provide the statistical power, many regions in a single tumor need to be sampled and analyzed much more extensively than has been attempted in previous intratumor studies. Here, from a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor, we evaluated multiregional samples from the tumor, using either whole-exome sequencing (WES) (n = 23 samples) or genotyping (n = 286) under both the infinite-site and infinite-allele models of population genetics. In addition to the many single-nucleotide variations (SNVs) present in all samples, there were 35 “polymorphic” SNVs among samples. High genetic diversity was evident as the 23 WES samples defined 20 unique cell clones. With all 286 samples genotyped, clonal diversity agreed well with the non-Darwinian model with no evidence of positive Darwinian selection. Under the non-Darwinian model,M_ALL (the number of coding region mutations in the entire tumor) was estimated to be greater than 100 million in this tumor. DNA sequences reveal local diversities in small patches of cells and validate the estimation. In contrast, the genetic diversity under a Darwinian model would generally be orders of magnitude smaller. Because the level of genetic diversity will have implications on therapeutic resistance, non-Darwinian evolution should be heeded in cancer treatments even for microscopic tumors.

intratumor heterogeneity genetic diversity neutral evolution cancer evolution natural selection

Data deposition: The sequence data reported in this paper have been deposited in the genome sequence archive of Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, gsa.big.ac.cn (accession no. PRJCA000091).
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1519556112/-/DCSupplemental.

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Abstract Full Text (PDF)

The findings, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, also call into question the widely held view that evolution at the cellular level is driven by Darwinian selection, revealing a level of rapid and extensive genetic diversity beyond what would be expected under this model.

In the study, the researchers focused on a single hepatocellular carcinoma tumor, roughly the size of a ping pong ball. They sampled 286 regions from a single slice of the tumor, studying each one with either whole-exome sequencing or genotyping under both the infinite-site and infinite-allele models of population genetics.

Based on their analyses, the team estimated more than 100 million coding region mutations in what they called an “unexceptional” tumor — more mutations than would ordinarily be expected by orders of magnitude, according to Wu.

This extreme genetic diversity, the study’s authors wrote, implies evolution under the non-Darwinian mode, which is driven by random mutations largely unaffected by natural selection. It also raises the question of why there is so little apparent Darwinian selection in the tumor.

The scientists speculated that in solid tumors, cells remain together and do not migrate, “so that when an advantageous mutation indeed emerges, cells carrying it are competing mostly with themselves. These mutations may confer advantages in fighting for space or extracting nutrients, but they are stifled by their own advantages,” they wrote.

Beneficial mutations may emerge on occasion, but in solid tumors the cell populations are “so structured that selection may often be blunted,” they stated. “The physiological effect has to be very strong to overcome those constraints.” Cancer drugs could remove those constraints, loosening up a cell population and allowing competition to occur, the investigators added.

Wu and his colleagues see the presence of so many mutations in a tumor as creating problems when it comes to treatment. “It almost guarantees that some cells will be resistant,” study co-author and University of Chicago oncologist Daniel Catenacci said in the statement. “But it also suggests that aggressive treatment could push tumor cells into a more Darwinian mode.”

Overall, the findings highlight the need to consider non-Darwinian evolution and the vast genetic diversity it can confer as factors when developing treatment strategies, even for small tumors, the researchers concluded.