Elizabeth Brunk, PhD
UNC-Chapel Hill researchers have launched a database called CytoCellDB to address a significant gap in cancer research, particularly focusing on extrachromosomal DNA, they explain in their paper, “CytoCellDB: A Resource Database for Classification and Analysis of Extrachromosomal DNA in Cancer,” published in Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) Cancer.
“CytoCellDB provides researchers with an invaluable tool to understand which commonly used cancer cell lines contain ecDNA and other chromosomal aberrations,” said Dr. Elizabeth Brunk, senior and corresponding author of the paper, IBGS faculty member, and an assistant professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Chemistry. “CytoCellDB represents a significant step toward understanding ecDNA, paving the way to more effective treatments and improved outcomes for over 15% of cancers that harbor ecDNA.”
Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) alters how cells divide, express RNA and respond to drug treatments. Without knowing which model systems contain ecDNA, researchers cannot fully understand why some cells respond differently to drugs. EcDNA, also known as double-minute chromosomes, are established markers for malignancy and genome instability, playing a crucial role in cancer proliferation, drug resistance and epigenetic remodeling, which are changes in gene expression that don’t involve alterations in the DNA sequence itself.