scholarly journals STAT3 and GR cooperate to drive basal-like triple negative breast cancer gene expression and proliferation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan E. Conway ◽  
Joy M. McDaniel ◽  
James M. Graham ◽  
Katrin P. Guillen ◽  
Patsy G. Oliver ◽  
...  

AbstractBreast cancers can be divided into subtypes with different prognoses and treatment responses based on global gene expression differences. Luminal breast cancer gene expression and proliferation are driven by the transcription factors Estrogen Receptor α (ER), FOXA1 and GATA3. Targeting ER is the most effective therapy for treating luminal breast cancer because ER is the master regulator of the luminal gene expression program. In contrast, it is unclear which transcription factors are responsible for driving the gene expression signature that defines basal-like triple negative breast cancer, and there are no targeted therapies approved to treat this aggressive subtype of the disease. This study utilized integrated analysis of DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility, transcription factor binding, and gene expression in large collections of breast cancer cell lines and patient tumors to identify transcription factors responsible for the basal-like gene expression program. The results of this study indicate that glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) bind to the same genomic regulatory regions that are specifically open and unmethylated in basal-like breast cancer. These transcription factors cooperate to regulate expression of hundreds of genes in the basal-like gene expression signature and these downstream genes are associated with poor prognosis in patients. Furthermore, combination treatment with small molecule drugs that inhibit both transcription factors leads to synergistic decreases in cell proliferation in cell lines and patient-derived organoid models. This study demonstrates that GR and STAT3 cooperate to regulate the basal-like breast cancer gene expression program and provides the basis for improved therapy for basal-like triple negative breast cancer through rational combination of STAT3 and GR inhibitors.

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Walid T. Khaled ◽  
Song Choon Lee ◽  
John Stingl ◽  
Xiongfeng Chen ◽  
H. Raza Ali ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica M. Stringer-Reasor ◽  
Jori E. May ◽  
Eva Olariu ◽  
Valerie Caterinicchia ◽  
Yufeng Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Poly (ADP-ribose)-polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) have been approved for cancer patients with germline BRCA1/2 (gBRCA1/2) mutations, and efforts to expand the utility of PARPi beyond BRCA1/2 are ongoing. In preclinical models of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) with intact DNA repair, we have previously shown an induced synthetic lethality with combined EGFR inhibition and PARPi. Here, we report the safety and clinical activity of lapatinib and veliparib in patients with metastatic TNBC. Methods A first-in-human, pilot study of lapatinib and veliparib was conducted in metastatic TNBC (NCT02158507). The primary endpoint was safety and tolerability. Secondary endpoints were objective response rates and pharmacokinetic evaluation. Gene expression analysis of pre-treatment tumor biopsies was performed. Key eligibility included TNBC patients with measurable disease and prior anthracycline-based and taxane chemotherapy. Patients with gBRCA1/2 mutations were excluded. Results Twenty patients were enrolled, of which 17 were evaluable for response. The median number of prior therapies in the metastatic setting was 1 (range 0–2). Fifty percent of patients were Caucasian, 45% African–American, and 5% Hispanic. Of evaluable patients, 4 demonstrated a partial response and 2 had stable disease. There were no dose-limiting toxicities. Most AEs were limited to grade 1 or 2 and no drug–drug interactions noted. Exploratory gene expression analysis suggested baseline DNA repair pathway score was lower and baseline immunogenicity was higher in the responders compared to non-responders. Conclusions Lapatinib plus veliparib therapy has a manageable safety profile and promising antitumor activity in advanced TNBC. Further investigation of dual therapy with EGFR inhibition and PARP inhibition is needed. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02158507. Registered on 12 September 2014


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1820
Author(s):  
Anna Makuch-Kocka ◽  
Janusz Kocki ◽  
Anna Brzozowska ◽  
Jacek Bogucki ◽  
Przemysław Kołodziej ◽  
...  

The BIRC (baculoviral IAP repeat-containing; BIRC) family genes encode for Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP) proteins. The dysregulation of the expression levels of the genes in question in cancer tissue as compared to normal tissue suggests that the apoptosis process in cancer cells was disturbed, which may be associated with the development and chemoresistance of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In our study, we determined the expression level of eight genes from the BIRC family using the Real-Time PCR method in patients with TNBC and compared the obtained results with clinical data. Additionally, using bioinformatics tools (Ualcan and The Breast Cancer Gene-Expression Miner v4.5 (bc-GenExMiner v4.5)), we compared our data with the data in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We observed diverse expression pattern among the studied genes in breast cancer tissue. Comparing the expression level of the studied genes with the clinical data, we found that in patients diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 50, the expression levels of all studied genes were higher compared to patients diagnosed after the age of 50. We observed that in patients with invasion of neoplastic cells into lymphatic vessels and fat tissue, the expression levels of BIRC family genes were lower compared to patients in whom these features were not noted. Statistically significant differences in gene expression were also noted in patients classified into three groups depending on the basis of the Scarff-Bloom and Richardson (SBR) Grading System.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e109742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengliang Wang ◽  
Sheng Gao ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Ziyi Fu ◽  
Hong Yin ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Jiande Wu ◽  
Chindo Hicks

Background: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease defined by molecular types and subtypes. Advances in genomic research have enabled use of precision medicine in clinical management of breast cancer. A critical unmet medical need is distinguishing triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer, from non-triple negative breast cancer. Here we propose use of a machine learning (ML) approach for classification of triple negative breast cancer and non-triple negative breast cancer patients using gene expression data. Methods: We performed analysis of RNA-Sequence data from 110 triple negative and 992 non-triple negative breast cancer tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas to select the features (genes) used in the development and validation of the classification models. We evaluated four different classification models including Support Vector Machines, K-nearest neighbor, Naïve Bayes and Decision tree using features selected at different threshold levels to train the models for classifying the two types of breast cancer. For performance evaluation and validation, the proposed methods were applied to independent gene expression datasets. Results: Among the four ML algorithms evaluated, the Support Vector Machine algorithm was able to classify breast cancer more accurately into triple negative and non-triple negative breast cancer and had less misclassification errors than the other three algorithms evaluated. Conclusions: The prediction results show that ML algorithms are efficient and can be used for classification of breast cancer into triple negative and non-triple negative breast cancer types.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
jintao cao ◽  
SHUAI SUN ◽  
RAN LI ◽  
RUI MIN ◽  
XINGYU FAN ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The current epidemiology shows that the incidence of breast cancer is increasing year by year and tends to be younger. Triple-negative breast cancer is the most malignant of breast cancer subtypes. The application of bioinformatics in tumor research is becoming more and more extensive. This study provided research ideas and basis for exploring the potential targets of gene therapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods We analyzed three gene expression profiles (GSE64790、GSE62931、GSE38959) selected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The GEO2R online analysis tool was used to screen for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between TNBC and normal tissues. Gene Ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were applied to identify the pathways and functional annotation of DEGs. Protein–protein interaction network of these DEGs were visualized by the Metascape gene-list analysis tool so that we could find the protein complex containing the core genes. Subsequently, we investigated the transcriptional data of the core genes in patients with breast cancer from the Oncomine database. Moreover, the online Kaplan–Meier plotter survival analysis tool was used to evaluate the prognostic value of core genes expression in TNBC patients. Finally, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to evaluated the expression level and subcellular localization of CCNB2 on TNBC tissues. Results A total of 66 DEGs were identified, including 33 up-regulated genes and 33 down-regulated genes. Among them, a potential protein complex containing five core genes was screened out. The high expression of these core genes was correlated to the poor prognosis of patients suffering breast cancer, especially the overexpression of CCNB2. CCNB2 protein positively expressed in the cytoplasm, and its expression in triple-negative breast cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues. Conclusions CCNB2 may play a crucial role in the development of TNBC and has the potential as a prognostic biomarker of TNBC.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document