Non-Random Aneuploidy Specifies Subgroups of Pilocytic Astrocytoma and Correlates with Older Age
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www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/ Oncotarget, Vol. 6, No. 31 Non-random aneuploidy specifies subgroups of pilocytic astrocytoma and correlates with older age Adam M. Fontebasso1,*, Margret Shirinian2,*, Dong-Anh Khuong-Quang3, Denise Bechet3, Tenzin Gayden3, Marcel Kool4, Nicolas De Jay3, Karine Jacob3, Noha Gerges3, Barbara Hutter5, Huriye Şeker-Cin4, Hendrik Witt4,6, Alexandre Montpetit7, Sébastien Brunet7, Pierre Lepage7, Geneviève Bourret7, Almos Klekner8, László Bognár8, Peter Hauser9, Miklós Garami9, Jean-Pierre Farmer10, Jose-Luis Montes10, Jeffrey Atkinson10, Sally Lambert11, Tony Kwan7, Andrey Korshunov12, Uri Tabori13, V. Peter Collins11, Steffen Albrecht14, Damien Faury3, Stefan M. Pfister4,6, Werner Paulus15, Martin Hasselblatt15, David T.W. Jones4 and Nada Jabado1,3 1 Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University and McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 2 Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology, American University Of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon 3 Departments of Pediatrics and Human Genetics, McGill University and McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 4 Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany 5 Division of Theoretical Bioinformatics, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany 6 Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany 7 McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 8 Department of Neurosurgery, Medical and Health Science Center, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary 9 2nd Department of Paediatrics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary 10 Department of Neurosurgery, Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada 11 Division of Molecular Histopathology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom 12 Clinical Cooperation Unit Neuropathology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany 13 Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and The Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada 14 Department of Pathology, Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada 15 Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Nada Jabado, email: [email protected] Correspondence to: David T.W. Jones, email: [email protected] Keywords: pilocytic astrocytoma, aneuploidy, BRAF, MDM2, PLK2 Received: June 07, 2015 Accepted: August 15, 2015 Published: September 10, 2015 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is the most common brain tumor in children but is rare in adults, and hence poorly studied in this age group. We investigated 222 PA and report increased aneuploidy in older patients. Aneuploid genomes were identified in 45% of adult compared with 17% of pediatric PA. Gains were non-random, favoring chromosomes 5, 7, 6 and 11 in order of frequency, and preferentially affecting non- cerebellar PA and tumors with BRAF V600E mutations and not with KIAA1549-BRAF fusions or FGFR1 mutations. Aneuploid PA differentially expressed genes involved in CNS development, the unfolded protein response, and regulators of genomic stability and the cell cycle (MDM2, PLK2), whose correlated programs were overexpressed specifically in aneuploid PA compared to other glial tumors. Thus, convergence of www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget 31844 Oncotarget pathways affecting the cell cycle and genomic stability may favor aneuploidy in PA, possibly representing an additional molecular driver in older patients with this brain tumor. INTRODUCTION and to tumors harboring BRAF V600E mutation, which may be one of the molecular drivers of this phenotype. Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is a World Health Pathways favoring aneuploidy are differentially regulated Organization (WHO) grade I astrocytoma and the most in adult PA, with many expression changes mapping to common pediatric brain tumor [1, 2]. These tumors chromosome 5. This includes central nervous system generally have an excellent prognosis and limited (CNS) developmental pathways, unfolded protein response morbidity when amenable to gross total surgical pathways and the cell cycle, including overexpression of resection [2, 3], with the highest age-adjusted incidence MDM2 and PLK2, and specific gene expression signatures rate occurring in children between 0-19 years old when we identify to be strongly correlated with aneuploid PA. assessed across the lifespan [4]. In children, PAs most Furthermore, our findings suggest a link between aging commonly occur in the cerebellum, and with decreasing and the physiological non-random aneuploidy which frequency in other more surgically challenging brain occurs in the brain and may predispose to this brain tumor. locations including the optic pathway, thalamus, brainstem, spinal cord and cerebral hemispheres [5]. In RESULTS adults, the reverse gradient for location is observed, and the low incidence of PA largely contributes to the relative lack of molecular investigations in this setting [5]. Non-random aneuploidy characterizes adult PA Recent genomic studies have shown that, in tumors arising throughout the CNS children, virtually all PAs can be categorized as harboring an alteration leading to constitutive activation of the MAPK pathway. The most common genetic alteration We combined published datasets of whole- (~65%) is a tandem duplication at 7q34 creating an in- chromosomal copy number analyses of PA tumors frame fusion gene between BRAF and KIAA1549 [6-9]. [6, 7, 15-17] with newly-derived profiles from DNA Other alterations of the pathway include RAF-family methylation data [10] as well as newly-analyzed tumor fusions [7, 10], BRAF V600E mutation [11], germline NF1 samples, and assembled copy number data for a combined alterations (reviewed in [8]), and fibroblast growth factor series of 222 PAs (n = 44 adult; n = 178 pediatric). In receptor 1 (FGFR1) and NTRK-family alterations [9, 12]. our combined dataset, whole chromosomal gain in at In contrast, lower frequencies of RAF fusion transcripts least one chromosome was common, occurring in 22.5% have been reported in adult PAs [13]. Importantly, 50- (50/222) tumors overall (Figure 1a-1d; Supplementary 60% of PA in patients over the age of 20 years lacked Table 1). This aneuploidy was present in PA tumors a KIAA1549:BRAF fusion, BRAF V600E mutation or occurring throughout the central nervous system FGFR1 mutation [14]. This suggests that these tumors (CNS), with a notable fraction occurring in surgically may harbor some of the rarer MAPK pathway alterations, challenging areas such as the thalamus, hypothalamus, or that other putative driver alterations or programs may optic pathway, brainstem, 4th ventricle and spinal additionally contribute to the molecular landscape of adult cord (Figure 1b). Aneuploidy tended to favor tumors PA. occurring in non-cerebellar areas when compared with Whole-chromosomal copy number gains have the location distribution of the euploid cohort, a trend been reported in a small cohort of 44 PA analyzed using which approached statistical significance P( = 0.0552; array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) Fisher’s Exact Test). Aneuploidy was significantly more and seemed to favor older patients [15]. The prevalence, common in the adult PA subset (20/44, 45% vs. 30/178, relation to patient age and significance of this phenotype 17%; P = 0.0002; Fisher’s Exact Test) (Figure 1c) with as well as its relation to BRAF and MAPK alterations and the average age at diagnosis of patients with aneuploid possible underlying mechanisms remain, however, largely PA tumors being about 10 years older than those with uncharacterized. As such, we analyzed a large combined euploid tumors (19.5+/-2.1 years, compared to 9.9+/- dataset of 222 adult and pediatric PAs with whole- 0.8 years, respectively; P < 0.0001; unpaired, two- chromosomal copy number data, including tumors from tailed t-test) (Figure 1d). The frequency of individual previously published aCGH and SNP array studies [6, 7, chromosomes affected demonstrated a specific pattern 15-17]. We show that aneuploidy is a common feature across the 50 aneuploid PAs, with the most commonly of the genomes of adult PA, affecting 45% of tumors in altered chromosomes in order of frequency being this age range. This is a non-random process that favors chromosomes 5, 7, 6 and 11, in keeping with previous gains but not losses, specifically in chromosomes 5, 7, 6 findings [15]. These four chromosomes were statistically and 11. It is strongly associated to non-cerebellar regions, over-represented in overall events among the aneuploid which are less amenable to gross-total surgical resection, tumors (P < 0.0001). In addition, chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 13, www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget 31845 Oncotarget 14 16, 17, 19 and 22 were significantly under-represented the R2 microarray analysis and visualization platform across the background of all changes (P < 0.05) (Figure (http://r2.amc.nl), we identified differential expression of 1a). Aneuploidy did not appear to correlate with different 558 genes (FDR < 0.001, ANOVA) between