HPV induced R-loop formation represses innate immune gene expression while activating DNA damage repair pathways

R-loops are trimeric nucleic acid structures that form when an RNA molecule hybridizes with its complementary DNA strand, displacing the opposite strand. These structures regulate transcription as well as replication, but aberrant R-loops can form, leading to DNA breaks and genomic instability if unresolved. R-loop levels are elevated in many cancers as well as cells that maintain high-risk human papillomaviruses. We investigated how the distribution as well as function of R-loops changed between normal keratinocytes and HPV positive cells derived from a precancerous lesion of the cervix (CIN I). The levels of R-loops associated with cellular genes were found to be up to 10-fold higher in HPV positive cells than in normal keratinocytes while increases at ALU1 elements increased by up to 500-fold. The presence of enhanced R-loops resulted in altered levels of gene transcription, with equal numbers increased as decreased. While no uniform global effects on transcription due to the enhanced levels of R-loops were detected, genes in several pathways were coordinately increased or decreased in expression only in the HPV positive cells. This included the downregulation of genes in the innate immune pathway, such as DDX58, IL-6, STAT1, IFN-b, and NLRP3. All differentially expressed innate immune genes dependent on R-loops were also associated with H3K36me3 modified histones. Genes that were upregulated by the presence of R-loops in HPV positive cells included those in the DNA damage repair such as ATM, ATRX, and members of the Fanconi Anemia pathway. These genes exhibited a linkage between R-loops and H3K36me3 as well as gH2AX histone marks only in HPV positive cells. These studies identify a potential link in HPV positive cells between DNA damage repair as well as innate immune regulatory pathways with R-loops and gH2AX/H3K36me3 histone marks that may contribute to regulating important functions for HPV pathogenesis 1 × 107 cells were harvested and collected in Southern lysis buffer before being treated with RNase A (5 ng/mL) and Proteinase K (7.5 ng/mL) at 37 °C overnight. DNA was purified from these samples using phenol-chloroform extractions, and 25 to 50 mg of DNA was used for each sample. DNA was sheared using a Bioruptor (Diagenode) on high power, 30 s on/90 s off cycles for 20 min or digested using 1U of mung bean nuclease for 1 h at 37 °C. Input DNA was removed before loading the samples into preblocked magnetic beads in IP buffer containing 2 mg of the RNA:DNA hybrid antibody. Immunoprecipitations were allowed to incubate overnight at 4 °C while rotating. The next day, samples were washed 8 times with RIPA buffer for 5 min while rotating. One wash in TE buffer was performed before samples were eluted for 10 min at 65 °C in 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), 10 mM Tris pH 7.4, 50 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). DNA was purified from these elutions using a PCR purification kit (Qiagen) and stored at −20 °C. Samples were stored at -80 C until being shipped to Admera Biosciences (NJ), who performed the sequencing experiments. Briefly, the library was prepared using a KAPA HyperPrep Kit (Kapa Biosystems) following the manufacturer’s recommendation. Input DNA was end-repaired and 3’-dA tailed. Adapter was then ligated to the DNA, and the ligated product was PCR amplified and cleaned up using the SPRIselect Reagent (Beckman Coulter). Quality control was then performed for the final library, followed by sequencing.