The DOI matches its Crossref record; 77 of the 78 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
BRD4 Connects Enhancer Remodeling to Senescence Immune Surveillance
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Oncogene-induced senescence is a potent barrier to tumorigenesis that limits cellular expansion following certain oncogenic events. Senescent cells display a repressive chromatin configuration thought to stably silence proliferation-promoting genes while simultaneously activating an unusual form of immune surveillance involving a secretory program referred to as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Here, we demonstrate that senescence also involves a global remodeling of the enhancer landscape with recruitment of the chromatin reader BRD4 to newly activated super-enhancers adjacent to key SASP genes. Transcriptional profiling and functional studies indicate that BRD4 is required for the SASP and downstream paracrine signaling. Consequently, BRD4 inhibition disrupts immune cell–mediated targeting and elimination of premalignant senescent cells in vitro and in vivo. Our results identify a critical role for BRD4-bound super-enhancers in senescence immune surveillance and in the proper execution of a tumor-suppressive program. Significance: This study reveals how cells undergoing oncogene-induced senescence acquire a distinctive enhancer landscape that includes formation of super-enhancers adjacent to immune-modulatory genes required for paracrine immune activation. This process links BRD4 and super-enhancers to a tumor-suppressive immune surveillance program that can be disrupted by small molecule inhibitors of the bromo and extra terminal domain family of proteins. Cancer Discov; 6(6); 612–29. ©2016 AACR. See related commentary by Vizioli and Adams, p. 576. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 561
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“Genome-wide analysis of H3 Lys4 trimethylation, H3 Lys27 trimethylation and H3 Lys27 acetylation in senescent cells has also revealed the dynamic acquisition and depletion of large-scale chromatin domains that have been proposed to regulate the expression of key senescence downstream effectors68–72”
From Cellular senescence in ageing: from mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities (2021) · cites this paper as [71]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“BRD4 contributes to the proper execution of cellular senescence and acts, unexpectedly, as a tumour suppressor.”
From Cellular senescence in ageing: from mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities (2021) · cites this paper as [71]
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“Indeed, chemical and genetic inactivation of BRD4 blunts the SASP, limits OIS immune-mediated cell clearance and may thus fail to remove damaged cells that are prone to senescence escape71.”
From Cellular senescence in ageing: from mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities (2021) · cites this paper as [71]
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In the citing paper
“Other epigenetic regulators, such as macroH2A1, high mobility group box 2 (HMGB2), mixed‐lineage leukemia 1 (MLL1) and bromodomain‐containing protein 4 (BRD4), have been demonstrated as regulators of SASP factor gene expression in response to DNA damage.52, 53, 54, 55”
From Cellular senescence and senescence-associated secretory phenotype via the cGAS-STING signaling pathway in cancer (2020) · cites this paper as [55]
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In the citing paper
“BRD4 inactivation via shRNA or BET inhibitors has been shown to repress SASP gene expression in oncogene-induced senescent cells [29], suggesting the possibility of senescence without the SASP [30].”
From Ensemble of Time-Evolving SASP Gene Sets Identifies IGFBP7 and CDKN1A as a Potential Marker Pair for Senescent Fibroblast Subpopulations Across Tissues (2026) · cites this paper as [29]
In the citing paper
“Other epigenetic regulators such as BRD4 (Tasdemir et al., 2016), MLL1 (Capell et al., 2016), HMGB2 (Guerrero and Gil, 2016), histone variant macroH2A1 (Chen et al., 2015), and GATA4 (Kang et al., 2015) are also involved in regulating SASP.”
From Mechanisms of Cellular Senescence: Cell Cycle Arrest and Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype (2021) · cites this paper as Tasdemir et al., 2016
In the citing paper
“The SASP is thought to instigate immune clearance of the damaged/stressed cells (Tasdemir et al., 2016), but the immediate negative consequence is the potential to drive local tissue damage and systemic chronic sterile inflammation (Franceschi and Campisi, 2014).”
From DNA damage-how and why we age? (2021) · cites this paper as Tasdemir et al., 2016
In the citing paper
“More directly, the chromatin reader BRD4 is recruited to super-enhancer elements that form adjacent to key SASP genes and is required for their expression [170].”
From Mechanisms and Regulation of Cellular Senescence (2021) · cites this paper as [170]
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Citations
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Metadata
- Authors
- Tasdemir, N., Banito, A., Roe, J.-S., Alonso-Curbelo, D., Camiolo, M., Tschaharganeh, D. F., Huang, C.-H., Aksoy, O., Bolden, J. E., Chen, C.-C., Fennell, M., Thapar, V., Chicas, A., Vakoc, C. R., & Lowe, S. W.
- Affiliations
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (US)
- 1Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vakoc, Christopher R.
- Lowe, Scott W.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cancer Discovery
- Published
- 2016-06-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 612-629
- ISSN
- 2159-8274 (ISSN-L)
- 2159-8290
- PMC
- PMC4893996
- OpenAlex
- W2342055991
- Cited by
- 415
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 62 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 8
- FWCI
- 24.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Cancer Discovery (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Institutional Repository (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (submittedVersion)
- Swinburne figshare (Swinburne University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1s10od020122-01, 5p30ca045508-35)
- National Institute on Aging (R56AG016379, R01AG016379)
- National Cancer Institute (P30-CA045508, R01CA174793, P01CA013106, P30CA008748)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chromatin Remodeling and Cancer
- Keywords
- BRD4, super-enhancers, enhancer remodeling, oncogene-induced senescence, senescence-associated secretory phenotype, chromatin reader proteins, paracrine signaling, tumor suppression, senescent cell elimination
- MeSH terms
- Bromodomain Containing Proteins, Animals, Binding Sites, Cell Cycle, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Fibroblasts, Gene Expression Regulation, Histones, Humans, Immunologic Surveillance, Membrane Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Oncogenes, Protein Binding, Transcription Factors, Cluster Analysis, Cellular Senescence, Cell Cycle Proteins, Computational Biology, Paracrine Communication, GTP Phosphohydrolases, Gene Expression Profiling, Hepatocytes, Chromatin Assembly and Disassembly, Cell Line, Tumor, Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, Cell Proliferation, Mice, Position-Specific Scoring Matrices, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Nucleotide Motifs
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