Dataset Information

NUCKS overexpression in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background

NUCKS (Nuclear, Casein Kinase and Cyclin-dependent Kinase Substrate) is a nuclear, DNA-binding and highly phosphorylated protein. A number of reports show that NUCKS is highly expressed on the level of mRNA in several human cancers, including breast cancer. In this work, NUCKS expression on both RNA and protein levels was studied in breast tissue biopsies consisted of invasive carcinomas, intraductal proliferative lesions, benign epithelial proliferations and fibroadenomas, as well as in primary cultures derived from the above biopsies. Specifically, in order to evaluate the level of NUCKS protein in correlation with the histopathological features of breast disease, immunohistochemistry was employed on paraffin sections of breast biopsies of the above types. In addition, NUCKS expression was studied by means of Reverse Transcription PCR (RT-PCR), real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western immunoblot analyses in the primary cell cultures developed from the same biopsies.

Results

The immunohistochemical Results showed intense NUCKS staining mostly in grade I and II breast carcinomas compared to normal tissues. Furthermore, NUCKS was moderate expressed in benign epithelial proliferations, such as adenosis and sclerosing adenosis, and highly expressed in intraductal lesions, specifically in ductal carcinomas in situ (DCIS). It is worth noting that all the fibroadenoma tissues examined were negative for NUCKS staining. RT-PCR and qRT-PCR showed an increase of NUCKS expression in cells derived from primary cultures of proliferative lesions and cancerous tissues compared to the ones derived from normal breast tissues and fibroadenomas. This increase was also confirmed by Western immunoblot analysis. Although NUCKS is a cell cycle related protein, its expression does not correlate with Ki67 expression, neither in tissue sections nor in primary cell cultures.

Conclusion

The results show overexpression of the NUCKS protein in a number of non malignant breast lesions and cancerous tissues. In particular, the NUCKS overexpression in ADH and DCIS indicates a significant role of this protein in neoplastic progression.

SUBMITTER: Drosos Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2743642 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Vascular endothelial growth factor is a multifunctional cytokine playing important roles in angiogenesis, tumor progression and metastasis. Alternative splicing results in the production of several different isoforms of VEGF. We have previously generated human breast cancer cells overexpressing VEGF165 or VEGF189 isoforms (referred to as the V165 and V189 clones, respectively) and showed that VEGF189-transfected cells were less tumorigenic. In this study, we used bioluminescence imaging to analyze the metastasis capacity of breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-321) overexpressing VEGF isoforms in nude mice. V165, V189 and control cV clones were transfected with a luciferase plasmid to generate bioluminescent clones (the V165-B, V189-B and cV clones, respectively). These clones were then injected into the left heart ventricle of nude mice. Analysis of the location of metastases shows that V189-B cells induced fewer metastases in lung and bone than V165-B and cV-B cells. Moreover, there was a delay on metastasis appearance in mice receiving VEGF V189-B clone, consistent with increase survival in these mice. We investigated the possible mechanisms underlying these effects and found that VEGF189 increased adhesion and decreased cell invasion and survival in vitro. In the other side, transcriptomic analyses shown expression of genes, implicated in breast cancer and metastatic dissemination, in VEGF165 overexpressing cells. After in silico analyses of genes differentially expressed between V189 and V165 cells,we used Q-PCR assays to quantify mRNA levels of some gene of interest in 120 breast tumors from patients with or without metastasis and/or specially lung metastasis. We found that genes have prognostical significance and /or showed an influence on relapse-free survival. These data provide the first evidence that different VEGF isoforms have different effects on breast cancer cell line invasion and colonization. Human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were used to generate stable transfected clones overexpressing VEGF165 isoform, VEGF189 isoform, or control vector (referred to as 42ctl8, 13ctl3 and PCIctl3, respectively). Analysis of the metastasis capacity of these clones in nude mice.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Breast cancer (BrC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in women, mainly due to recurrent and/or metastatic events, entailing the need for biomarkers predictive of progression to advanced disease. MicroRNAs hold promise as noninvasive cancer biomarkers due to their inherent stability and resilience in tissues and bodily fluids. There is increasing evidence that specific microRNAs play a functional role at different steps of the metastatic cascade, behaving as signaling mediators to enable the colonization of a specific organ. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the biomarker performance of microRNAs previously reported as associated with prognosis for predicting BrC progression in liquid biopsies. METHODS:Selected microRNAs were assessed using a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in a testing cohort of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary (n?=?16) and metastatic BrC tissues (n?=?22). Then, miR-30b-5p and miR-200b-3p were assessed in a validation cohort #1 of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary (n?=?82) and metastatic BrC tissues (n?=?93), whereas only miR-30b-5p was validated on a validation cohort #2 of liquid biopsies from BrC patients with localized (n?=?20) and advanced (n?=?25) disease. ROC curve was constructed to evaluate prognostic performance. RESULTS:MiR-30b-5p was differentially expressed in primary tumors and paired metastatic lesions, with bone metastases displaying significantly higher miR-30b-5p expression levels, paralleling the corresponding primary tumors. Interestingly, patients with advanced disease disclosed increased circulating miR-30b-5p expression compared to patients with localized BrC. CONCLUSIONS:MiR-30b-5p might identify BrC patients at higher risk of disease progression, thus, providing a useful clinical tool for patients' monitoring, entailing earlier and more effective treatment. Nonetheless, validation in larger multicentric cohorts is mandatory to confirm these findings.

Project description:BackgroundCeramide, a bioactive signaling sphingolipid, has long been implicated in cancer. Members of the ceramide synthase (CerS) family determine the acyl chain lengths of ceramides, with ceramide synthase 4 (CerS4) primarily generating C18-C20-ceramide. Although CerS4 is known to be overexpressed in breast cancer, its role in breast cancer pathogenesis is not well established.MethodsTo investigate the role of CerS4 in breast cancer, public datasets, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and two Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (GSE115577 and GSE96058) were analyzed. Furthermore, MCF-7 cells stably overexpressing CerS4 (MCF-7/CerS4) as a model for luminal subtype A (LumA) breast cancer were produced, and doxorubicin (also known as Adriamycin [AD])-resistant MCF-7/ADR cells were generated after prolonged treatment of MCF-7 cells with doxorubicin. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis assessed the clinical significance of CERS4 expression, while Student's t-tests or Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) compared gene expression and cell viability in different MCF-7 cell lines.ResultsAnalysis of the public datasets revealed elevated CERS4 expression in breast cancer, especially in the most common breast cancer subtype, LumA. Persistent CerS4 overexpression in MCF-7 cells activated multiple cancer-associated pathways, including pathways involving sterol regulatory element-binding protein, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and β-catenin. Furthermore, MCF-7/CerS4 cells acquired doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and tamoxifen resistance, with concomitant upregulation of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes, such as ABCB1, ABCC1, ABCC2, ABCC4, and ABCG2. MCF-7/CerS4 cells were characterized by increased cell migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Finally, CERS4 knockdown in doxorubicin-resistant MCF-7/ADR cells resulted in reduced activation of cancer-associated pathways (NF-κB, Akt/mTOR, β-catenin, and EMT) and diminished chemoresistance, accompanied by ABCB1 and ABCC1 downregulation.ConclusionsChronic CerS4 overexpression may exert oncogenic effects in breast cancer via alterations in signaling, EMT, and chemoresistance. Therefore, CerS4 may represent an attractive target for anticancer therapy, especially in LumA breast cancer.