Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

In vivo effects of dexamethasone on blood gene expression in ataxia telangiectasia

  • Published:
Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) is a rare incurable genetic disease caused by biallelic mutations in the Ataxia telangiectasia-mutated gene. Intra-erythrocyte infusion of dexamethasone improves clinical outcomes in AT patients; however, the molecular mechanisms that lead to this improvement remain unknown. Hence, to gain a better understanding of these mechanisms, we assessed the effects of glucocorticoid administration on gene expression in the blood of AT patients. Whole blood was obtained from nine children enrolled in a phase two clinical trial, who were being treated with dexamethasone (AT Dexa), from six untreated AT patients (AT) and from six healthy volunteers (WT). CodeLink Whole Genome Bioarrays were used to assess transcript expression. The reliability of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was verified by qRT-PCR analysis. The enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms and the pathways of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) of DEGs obtained by group comparisons were achieved using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). Functional network analyses were computed by Reactome FI. The likely involved transcription factors were revealed by iRegulon. Among the identified DEGs influenced by the pathology and restored by dexamethasone, we detected 522 upregulated probes coding for known proteins, while 22 probes were downregulated, as they were in healthy subjects. These results provide useful information and represent a first step towards gaining a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the effects of dexamethasone on AT patients.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Abraham RT (2004) PI 3-kinase related kinases: ‘big’ players in stress-induced signaling pathways. DNA Repair (Amst) 3:883–887

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Biton S, Barzilai A, Shiloh Y (2008) The neurological phenotype of ataxia-telangiectasia: solving a persistent puzzle. DNA Repair (Amst) 7:1028–1038

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Chun HH, Gatti RA (2004) Ataxia-telangiectasia, an evolving phenotype. DNA Repair (Amst) 3:1187–1196

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Gilad S, Chessa L, Khosravi R, Russell P, Galanty Y, Piane M, Gatti RA, Jorgensen TJ, Shiloh Y, Bar-Shira A (1998) Genotype-phenotype relationships in ataxia-telangiectasia and variants. Am J Hum Genet 62:551–561

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Lavin MF (2008) Ataxia-telangiectasia: from a rare disorder to a paradigm for cell signalling and cancer. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9:759–769

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Broccoletti T, Del GE, Cirillo E, Vigliano I, Giardino G, Ginocchio VM, Bruscoli S, Riccardi C, Pignata C (2011) Efficacy of very-low-dose betamethasone on neurological symptoms in ataxia-telangiectasia. Eur J Neurol 18:564–570

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Russo I, Cosentino C, Del GE, Broccoletti T, Amorosi S, Cirillo E, Aloj G, Fusco A, Costanzo V, Pignata C (2009) In ataxia-teleangiectasia betamethasone response is inversely correlated to cerebellar atrophy and directly to antioxidative capacity. Eur J Neurol 16:755–759

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Buoni S, Zannolli R, Sorrentino L, Fois A (2006) Betamethasone and improvement of neurological symptoms in ataxia-telangiectasia. Arch Neurol 63:1479–1482

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Zannolli R, Buoni S, Betti G, Salvucci S, Plebani A, Soresina A, Pietrogrande MC, Martino S, Leuzzi V, Finocchi A, Micheli R, Rossi LN, Brusco A, Misiani F, Fois A, Hayek J, Kelly C, Chessa L (2012) A randomized trial of oral betamethasone to reduce ataxia symptoms in ataxia telangiectasia. Mov Disord 27:1312–1316

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Broccoletti T, Del GE, Amorosi S, Russo I, Di BM, Imperati F, Romano A, Pignata C (2008) Steroid-induced improvement of neurological signs in ataxia-telangiectasia patients. Eur J Neurol 15:223–228

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bossa F, Annese V, Valvano MR, Latiano A, Martino G, Rossi L, Magnani M, Palmieri O, Serafini S, Damonte G, De SE, Andriulli A (2013) Erythrocytes-mediated delivery of dexamethasone 21-phosphate in steroid-dependent ulcerative colitis: a randomized, double-blind Sham-controlled study. Inflamm Bowel Dis 19:1872–1879

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Bossa F, Latiano A, Rossi L, Magnani M, Palmieri O, Dallapiccola B, Serafini S, Damonte G, De SE, Andriulli A, Annese V (2008) Erythrocyte-mediated delivery of dexamethasone in patients with mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis, refractory to mesalamine: a randomized, controlled study. Am J Gastroenterol 103:2509–2516

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Rossi L, Castro M, D’Orio F, Damonte G, Serafini S, Bigi L, Panzani I, Novelli G, Dallapiccola B, Panunzi S, Di CP, Bella S, Magnani M (2004) Low doses of dexamethasone constantly delivered by autologous erythrocytes slow the progression of lung disease in cystic fibrosis patients. Blood Cells Mol Dis 33:57–63

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Rossi L, Serafini S, Cenerini L, Picardi F, Bigi L, Panzani I, Magnani M (2001) Erythrocyte-mediated delivery of dexamethasone in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Biotechnol Appl Biochem 33:85–89

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Chessa L, Leuzzi V, Plebani A, Soresina A, Micheli R, D’Agnano D, Venturi T, Molinaro A, Fazzi E, Marini M, Ferremi LP, Quinti I, Cavaliere FM, Girelli G, Pietrogrande MC, Finocchi A, Tabolli S, Abeni D, Magnani M (2014) Intra-erythrocyte infusion of dexamethasone reduces neurological symptoms in ataxia teleangiectasia patients: results of a phase 2 trial. Orphanet J Rare Dis 9:5

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Menotta M, Biagiotti S, Bianchi M, Chessa L, Magnani M (2012) Dexamethasone partially rescues ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) deficiency in ataxia telangiectasia by promoting a shortened protein variant retaining kinase activity. J Biol Chem 287:41352–41363

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Biagiotti S, Menotta M, Giacomini E, Radici L, Bianchi M, Bozzao C, Chessa L, Magnani M (2014) Forward subtractive libraries containing genes transactivated by dexamethasone in ataxia-telangiectasia lymphoblastoid cells. Mol Cell Biochem 392:13–30

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Biagiotti S, Menotta M, Orazi S, Spapperi C, Brundu S, Fraternale A, Bianchi M, Rossi L, Chessa L, Magnani M (2016) Dexamethasone improves redox state in ataxia telangiectasia cells by promoting an NRF2-mediated antioxidant response. FEBS J 283:3962–3978

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Menotta M, Biagiotti S, Bartolini G, Marzia B, Orazi S, Germani A, Chessa L, Magnani M (2017) Nano-mechanical characterization of ataxia telangiectasia cells treated with dexamethasone. Cell Biochem Biophys 75:95–102

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Saeed AI, Sharov V, White J, Li J, Liang W, Bhagabati N, Braisted J, Klapa M, Currier T, Thiagarajan M, Sturn A, Snuffin M, Rezantsev A, Popov D, Ryltsov A, Kostukovich E, Borisovsky I, Liu Z, Vinsavich A, Trush V, Quackenbush J (2003) TM4: a free, open-source system for microarray data management and analysis. Biotechniques 34:374–378

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Saeed AI, Bhagabati NK, Braisted JC, Liang W, Sharov V, Howe EA, Li J, Thiagarajan M, White JA, Quackenbush J (2006) TM4 microarray software suite. Methods Enzymol 411:134–193

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Merico D, Isserlin R, Stueker O, Emili A, Bader GD (2010) Enrichment map: a network-based method for gene-set enrichment visualization and interpretation. PLoS ONE 5:e13984

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Wu G, Feng X, Stein L (2010) A human functional protein interaction network and its application to cancer data analysis. Genome Biol 11:R53

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Janky R, Verfaillie A, Imrichova H, Van de Sande B, Standaert L, Christiaens V, Hulselmans G, Herten K, Naval SM, Potier D, Svetlichnyy D, Kalender AZ, Fiers M, Marine JC, Aerts S (2014) iRegulon: from a gene list to a gene regulatory network using large motif and track collections. PLoS Comput Biol 10:e1003731

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  25. Menke A, Arloth J, Putz B, Weber P, Klengel T, Mehta D, Gonik M, Rex-Haffner M, Rubel J, Uhr M, Lucae S, Deussing JM, Muller-Myhsok B, Holsboer F, Binder EB (2012) Dexamethasone stimulated gene expression in peripheral blood is a sensitive marker for glucocorticoid receptor resistance in depressed patients. Neuropsychopharmacology 37:1455–1464

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Menke A, Arloth J, Gerber M, Rex-Haffner M, Uhr M, Holsboer F, Binder EB, Holsboer-Trachsler E, Beck J (2014) Dexamethasone stimulated gene expression in peripheral blood indicates glucocorticoid-receptor hypersensitivity in job-related exhaustion. Psychoneuroendocrinology 44:35–46

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Cheema AK, Timofeeva O, Varghese R, Dimtchev A, Shiekh K, Shulaev V, Suy S, Collins S, Ressom H, Jung M, Dritschilo A (2011) Integrated analysis of ATM mediated gene and protein expression impacting cellular metabolism. J Proteome Res 10:2651–2657

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Watts JA, Morley M, Burdick JT, Fiori JL, Ewens WJ, Spielman RS, Cheung VG (2002) Gene expression phenotype in heterozygous carriers of ataxia telangiectasia. Am J Hum Genet 71:791–800

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Cheema AK, Varghese RS, Timofeeva O, Zhang L, Kirilyuk A, Zandkarimi F, Kaur P, Ressom HW, Jung M, Dritschilo A (2013) Functional proteomics analysis to study ATM dependent signaling in response to ionizing radiation. Radiat Res 179:674–683

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Sharma NK, Lebedeva M, Thomas T, Kovalenko OA, Stumpf JD, Shadel GS, Santos JH (2014) Intrinsic mitochondrial DNA repair defects in ataxia telangiectasia. DNA Repair (Amst) 13:22–31

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Valentin-Vega YA, Maclean KH, Tait-Mulder J, Milasta S, Steeves M, Dorsey FC, Cleveland JL, Green DR, Kastan MB (2012) Mitochondrial dysfunction in ataxia-telangiectasia. Blood 119:1490–1500

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Reichenbach J, Schubert R, Schindler D, Muller K, Bohles H, Zielen S (2002) Elevated oxidative stress in patients with ataxia telangiectasia. Antioxid Redox Signal 4:465–469

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Wood LM, Sankar S, Reed RE, Haas AL, Liu LF, McKinnon P, Desai SD (2011) A novel role for ATM in regulating proteasome-mediated protein degradation through suppression of the ISG15 conjugation pathway. PLoS ONE 6:e16422

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Desai SD, Reed RE, Babu S, Lorio EA (2013) ISG15 deregulates autophagy in genotoxin-treated ataxia telangiectasia cells. J Biol Chem 288:2388–2402

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Balogh A, Shimizu Y, Lee SC, Norman DD, Gangwar R, Bavaria M, Moon C, Shukla P, Rao R, Ray R, Naren AP, Banerjee S, Miller DD, Balazs L, Pelus L, Tigyi G (2015) The autotaxin-LPA2 GPCR axis is modulated by gamma-irradiation and facilitates DNA damage repair. Cell Signal 27:1751–1762

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Huang J, Yang J, Maity B, Mayuzumi D, Fisher RA (2011) Regulator of G protein signaling 6 mediates doxorubicin-induced ATM and p53 activation by a reactive oxygen species-dependent mechanism. Cancer Res 71:6310–6319

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Lu D, Cai H, Park SS, Siddiqui S, Premont RT, Schmalzigaug R, Paramasivam M, Seidman M, Bodogai I, Biragyn A, Daimon CM, Martin B, Maudsley S (2015) Nuclear GIT2 is an ATM substrate and promotes DNA repair. Mol Cell Biol 35:1081–1096

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Maity B, Stewart A, O’Malley Y, Askeland RW, Sugg SL, Fisher RA (2013) Regulator of G protein signaling 6 is a novel suppressor of breast tumor initiation and progression. Carcinogenesis 34:1747–1755

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Yang J, Maity B, Huang J, Gao Z, Stewart A, Weiss RM, Anderson ME, Fisher RA (2013) G-protein inactivator RGS6 mediates myocardial cell apoptosis and cardiomyopathy caused by doxorubicin. Cancer Res 73:1662–1667

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Yang JT, Chang CN, Lee TH, Hsu JC, Lin TN, Hsu YH, Hsieh WJ (2002) Effect of dexamethasone on the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophin-3 messenger ribonucleic acids after forebrain ischemia in the rat. Crit Care Med 30:913–918

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Itagaki K, Menconi M, Antoniu B, Zhang Q, Gonnella P, Soybel D, Hauser C, Hasselgren PO (2010) Dexamethasone stimulates store-operated calcium entry and protein degradation in cultured L6 myotubes through a phospholipase A(2)-dependent mechanism. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 298:C1127–C1139

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Dudeja PK, Dahiya R, Brown MD, Brasitus TA (1988) Dexamethasone influences the lipid fluidity, lipid composition and glycosphingolipid glycosyltransferase activities of rat proximal-small-intestinal Golgi membranes. Biochem J 253:401–408

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Herman P, Tan CT, Van den Abbeele T, Escoubet B, Friedlander G, Huy PT (1997) Glucocorticosteroids increase sodium transport in middle ear epithelium. Am J Physiol 272:C184–C190

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Voelkl J, Pasham V, Ahmed MS, Walker B, Szteyn K, Kuhl D, Metzler B, Alesutan I, Lang F (2013) Sgk1-dependent stimulation of cardiac Na+/H+ exchanger Nhe1 by dexamethasone. Cell Physiol Biochem 32:25–38

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Tu Y, Wu C (1999) Cloning, expression and characterization of a novel human Ras-related protein that is regulated by glucocorticoid hormone. Biochim Biophys Acta 1489:452–456

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Kosaki A, Webster NJ (1993) Effect of dexamethasone on the alternative splicing of the insulin receptor mRNA and insulin action in HepG2 hepatoma cells. J Biol Chem 268:21990–21996

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Laste G, Ripoll RJ, de Macedo IC, Souza DSV, de Souza ICC, Caumo W, Torres IL (2013) Spinal cord brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels increase after dexamethasone treatment in male rats with chronic inflammation. NeuroImmunoModulation 20:119–125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Sun H, Yang T, Li Q, Zhu Z, Wang L, Bai G, Li D, Li Q, Wang W (2012) Dexamethasone and vitamin B(12) synergistically promote peripheral nerve regeneration in rats by upregulating the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Arch Med Sci 8:924–930

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Mo JS, Ann EJ, Yoon JH, Jung J, Choi YH, Kim HY, Ahn JS, Kim SM, Kim MY, Hong JA, Seo MS, Lang F, Choi EJ, Park HS (2011) Serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1) controls Notch1 signaling by downregulation of protein stability through Fbw7 ubiquitin ligase. J Cell Sci 124:100–112

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Law ME, Corsino PE, Jahn SC, Davis BJ, Chen S, Patel B, Pham K, Lu J, Sheppard B, Norgaard P, Hong J, Higgins P, Kim JS, Luesch H, Law BK (2013) Glucocorticoids and histone deacetylase inhibitors cooperate to block the invasiveness of basal-like breast cancer cells through novel mechanisms. Oncogene 32:1316–1329

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Leuzzi V, Micheli R, D’Agnano D, Molinaro A, Venturi T, Plebani A, Soresina A, Marini M, Ferremi LP, Quinti I, Pietrogrande MC, Finocchi A, Fazzi E, Chessa L, Magnani M (2015) Positive effect of erythrocyte-delivered dexamethasone in ataxia-telangiectasia. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm 2:e98

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the patients and their families who participated in the study. We are also very grateful to the clinicians and nurses, fully listed in the original paper describing the study results (Refs. [15] and [51]), who allowed the collection of the blood samples for the study. The study was partially financed by FanoAteneo and Sparks, the A-T Society and Action for A-T (Grant Ref. 14SAP01). EryDel S.p.A. financed the study, but was not involved in its design, execution or management, nor was it involved in the analysis or interpretation of data, or the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michele Menotta.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

MMa and LR hold stock ownership in EryDel S.p.A. None of the authors have competing interests.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the participating healthcare facility (Comitato Etico Azienda Policlinico Umberto I, Pres. Prof. Aldo Isidori ref. #636/11), and all patients provided informed consent (along with the consent of their parents or legal guardian, as required).

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Fig. 1

Full image of HLC outcome reported in Fig. 5 (TIFF 21476 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Full image of HLC outcome reported in Fig. 6 (TIFF 3994 kb)

Supplementary data 1

Gene expression comparison among WT, AT and AT Dexa. The file contains the gene lists with matching fold change values obtained by statistical analysis of the three compared groups (WT vs AT, AT Dexa vs AT, WT vs AT Dexa). Fold change in linear scale (XLSX 214 kb)

Supplementary data 2

DAVID output. The file contains three Excel sheets with the DAVID functional pathway enrichment (FPE) numerical data set which were networked and visualised by Enrichment Map plugin for Cytoscape. (XLSX 91 kb)

Supplementary data 3

Reactome FI output. The file contains six Excel sheets showing the molecular functions (MF) and the biological processes (BP) of the Reactome FI assigned modules of the gene lists obtained by the three compared groups (WT vs AT, AT Dexa vs AT, WT vs AT Dexa). The probability p values and the FDR values are also shown (XLSX 48 kb)

Supplementary data 4

Reactome FI output of AT Dexa exclusive gene list. The file contains two Excel sheets showing the molecular functions (MF) and the biological processes (BP) of the Reactome FI assigned modules of the gene list exclusive to the AT Dexa group. The probability p values and the FDR values are also shown (XLSX 18 kb)

Supplementary data 5

Re-established gene expression in AT after Dexa treatment. The file contains the list of the transcripts differentially regulated in healthy people from AT patients. Some of them were re-established after Dexa treatment. Log2 Fold change scale. (XLSX 56 kb)

Supplementary data 6

AT, WT, AT NR and AT R hierarchical tree. The file contains the probes, gene symbol list and arranged expression levels from the outcome of the clusterization and hierarchical tree (HLC) among AT, WT, AT Dexa “Non Responder” (AT NR) and AT Dexa “Responder” (AT R). (XLSX 128 kb)

Supplementary data 7

AT R Vs AT NR comparison and hierarchical tree. The file contains the probes, gene symbol list and arranged expression levels after performing a direct evaluation of AT NR and AT R data also used in the clusterization and hierarchical tree (HLC) building (XLSX 39 kb)

Supplementary data 8

iRegulon outcome. The file contains six Excel sheets of the iRegulon outcome data for each compared group using the gene lists of the upregulated or downregulated transcripts as input (XLSX 226 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Menotta, M., Biagiotti, S., Orazi, S. et al. In vivo effects of dexamethasone on blood gene expression in ataxia telangiectasia. Mol Cell Biochem 438, 153–166 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-017-3122-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-017-3122-x

Keywords

Navigation