Fragmentomics of urinary cell-free DNA in nuclease knockout mouse models

PLoS Genet. 2022 Jul 6;18(7):e1010262. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010262. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Urinary cell-free DNA (ucfDNA) is a potential biomarker for bladder cancer detection. However, the biological characteristics of ucfDNA are not well understood. We explored the roles of deoxyribonuclease 1 (DNASE1) and deoxyribonuclease 1-like 3 (DNASE1L3) in the fragmentation of ucfDNA using mouse models. The deletion of Dnase1 in mice (Dnase1-/-) caused aberrations in ucfDNA fragmentation, including a 24-fold increase in DNA concentration, and a 3-fold enrichment of long DNA molecules, with a relative decrease of fragments with thymine ends and reduction of jaggedness (i.e., the presence of single-stranded protruding ends). In contrast, such changes were not observed in mice with Dnase1l3 deletion (Dnase1l3-/-). These results suggested that DNASE1 was an important nuclease contributing to the ucfDNA fragmentation. Western blot analysis revealed that the concentration of DNASE1 protein was higher in urine than DNASE1L3. The native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis zymogram showed that DNASE1 activity in urine was higher than that in plasma. Furthermore, the proportion of ucfDNA fragment ends within DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) was significantly increased in Dnase1-deficient mice. In humans, patients with bladder cancer had lower proportions of ucfDNA fragment ends within the DHSs when compared with participants without bladder cancer. The area under the curve (AUC) for differentiating patients with and without bladder cancer was 0.83, suggesting the analysis of ucfDNA fragmentation in the DHSs may have potential for bladder cancer detection. This work revealed the intrinsic links between the nucleases in urine and ucfDNA fragmentomics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell-Free Nucleic Acids* / genetics
  • DNA / genetics
  • Deoxyribonuclease I / genetics
  • Deoxyribonuclease I / metabolism
  • Endodeoxyribonucleases / genetics
  • Endonucleases
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* / genetics

Substances

  • Cell-Free Nucleic Acids
  • DNA
  • Dnase1l3 protein, mouse
  • Endodeoxyribonucleases
  • Endonucleases
  • Deoxyribonuclease I

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the following grants received by Y.M. Dennis Lo: Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government under the Theme-based Research Scheme (T12-403/15-N and T12-401/16-W), a collaborative research agreement from Grail, Innovation and Technology Commission Hong Kong, the Vice Chancellor’s One-Off Discretionary Fund of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (VCF2014021), and Li Ka Shing Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.