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Genetics and Genomics

Multi-omics mapping of human papillomavirus integration sites illuminates novel cervical cancer target genes

British Journal of Cancer volume 125, pages 1408–1419 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Integration of human papillomavirus (HPV) into the host genome is a dominant feature of invasive cervical cancer (ICC), yet the tumorigenicity of cis genomic changes at integration sites remains largely understudied.

Methods

Combining multi-omics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas with patient-matched long-read sequencing of HPV integration sites, we developed a strategy for using HPV integration events to identify and prioritise novel candidate ICC target genes (integration-detected genes (IDGs)). Four IDGs were then chosen for in vitro functional studies employing small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown in cell migration, proliferation and colony formation assays.

Results

PacBio data revealed 267 unique human–HPV breakpoints comprising 87 total integration events in eight tumours. Candidate IDGs were filtered based on the following criteria: (1) proximity to integration site, (2) clonal representation of integration event, (3) tumour-specific expression (Z-score) and (4) association with ICC survival. Four candidates prioritised based on their unknown function in ICC (BNC1, RSBN1, USP36 and TAOK3) exhibited oncogenic properties in cervical cancer cell lines. Further, annotation of integration events provided clues regarding potential mechanisms underlying altered IDG expression in both integrated and non-integrated ICC tumours.

Conclusions

HPV integration events can guide the identification of novel IDGs for further study in cervical carcinogenesis and as putative therapeutic targets.

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Fig. 1: Filtering and prioritisation results of four candidate IDGs chosen for validation and functional testing.
Fig. 2: Annotation of HPV integration affecting BNC1 expression in TCGA-C5-A2LV.
Fig. 3: Annotation of HPV integration affecting RSBN1 expression in TCGA-C5-A3HD.
Fig. 4: Annotation of HPV integration affecting USP36 expression in TCGA-C5-A8XH.
Fig. 5: Annotation of HPV integration affecting TAOK3 expression in TCGA-C5-A2LX.
Fig. 6: Functional testing of candidate IDGs in cervical cancer cell lines.

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Data availability

The PacBio long-read sequencing data generated in this study have been submitted to the NCBI BioProject database under accession number PRJNA640649.

Code availability

All codes used to generate results presented are publicly available and cited with the first mention.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine Center (GSPMC) at the Medical College of Wisconsin for their assistance and technical support with PacBio sequencing.

Funding

This work was supported by the NCI R21CA241013 (to JSR) and the Women’s Health Research Programme in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Wisconsin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Marissa Iden, Shirng-Wern Tsaih, Yi-Wen Huang, Meizhu Xiao & Janet S. Rader

  2. Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Marissa Iden, Shirng-Wern Tsaih, Michael J. Flister & Janet S. Rader

  3. Department of Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Pengyuan Liu & Michael J. Flister

  4. Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Janet S. Rader

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Contributions

MI, Y-WH, PL, MJF and JSR designed the study concept and experiments; MI, Y-WH and MX performed the experiments; MI, S-WT, Y-WH and PL acquired, analysed and interpreted the data; MI, MJF and JSR wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and had final approval of the submitted manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet S. Rader.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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The study protocol was approved by the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Institutional Review Board. All the cervical cell lines used in this study were purchased from the American Type Cell Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA).

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Iden, M., Tsaih, SW., Huang, YW. et al. Multi-omics mapping of human papillomavirus integration sites illuminates novel cervical cancer target genes. Br J Cancer 125, 1408–1419 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01545-0

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