The role of PARP-1 in estrogen-dependent transcription [ChIP-seq]
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1), a multifunctional chromatin-modulating protein, has gained considerable attention as a target for therapeutic inhibitors in breast cancers. Accumulating evidence suggests a pathological role for PARP-1 in breast cancer through its effects on the transcription of tumor-related genes. Here we report the role of PARP-1 in estrogen-dependent transcription in estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-positive breast cancers. Global nuclear run-on and sequencing (GRO-seq) analyses suggest that PARP-1 controls the expression of estrogen-regulated genes in ER-positive (ER+) MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Further, ChIP-seq analyses revealed that PARP-1 directly regulates the ligand-dependent binding of ERa and FoxA1 to a subset of its genomic binding sites. Finally, we uncovered that the expression levels of the PARP-1 and estrogen coregulated gene set are enriched in luminal molecular-subtype of breast tumors and high PARP-1 expression in ER+ cases correlates with poor survival. Additionally, treatment with PARP-1 selective inhibitors showed attenuated estrogen-dependent growth of ER+ breast cancer cells. Taken together, the current study suggests that PARP-1 regulates critical molecular pathways that underlie proliferation of ER+ breast cancer cells.
Project description:Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1), a multifunctional chromatin-modulating protein, has gained considerable attention as a target for therapeutic inhibitors in breast cancers. Accumulating evidence suggests a pathological role for PARP-1 in breast cancer through its effects on the transcription of tumor-related genes. Here we report the role of PARP-1 in estrogen-dependent transcription in estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)-positive breast cancers. Global nuclear run-on and sequencing (GRO-seq) and RNA-seq analyses suggest that PARP-1 controls the expression of estrogen-regulated genes in ER-positive (ER+) MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Further, ChIP-seq analyses revealed that PARP-1 directly regulates the ligand-dependent binding of ERa and FoxA1 to a subset of its genomic binding sites. Finally, we uncovered that the expression levels of the PARP-1 and estrogen coregulated gene set are enriched in luminal molecular-subtype of breast tumors and high PARP-1 expression in ER+ cases correlates with poor survival. Additionally, treatment with PARP-1 selective inhibitors showed attenuated estrogen-dependent growth of ER+ breast cancer cells. Taken together, the current study suggests that PARP-1 regulates critical molecular pathways that underlie proliferation of ER+ breast cancer cells.
Project description:Hormone therapy targeting estrogen receptor (ER) is the principal treatment for ER-positive breast cancers but many cancers develop resistance to anti-estrogens. Cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) is a transcriptional regulator of several oncogenic pathways. Expression levels of CDK8 and ERα are inversely correlated in breast cancers suggesting a functional association between CDK8 and ER. CDK8 inhibition by selective small-molecule inhibitors, by shRNA knockdown or by CRISPR-Cas9 knockout suppressed estrogen-induced transcription, with no significant effects on ERα protein expression or phosphorylation. CDK8 inhibition also abrogated the mitogenic effect of estrogen on ER-positive breast cancer cells and potentiated growth inhibition by the ER antagonist fulvestrant. In vivo, administration of a CDK8 inhibitor suppressed ER-positive breast cancer xenograft growth and augmented the effects of fulvestrant with no apparent toxicity. CDK8 inhibitors also suppressed the development of estrogen independence in ER-positive breast cancer cells. These results identify CDK8 as a novel drug target for breast cancer therapy.
Project description:Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer is the most prevalent form of breast cancer. Although a number of available drugs are highly effective at blocking estrogen mediated receptor activity, thousands of patients die every year from ER positive breast cancers because the disease progresses to a stage at which these drugs are no longer effective. Thus, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive understanding of the biology of the estrogen receptor (ER) in ER:positive breast cancers that progress despite hormone therapy, a gap in knowledge that remains a serious impediment to successful treatment of patients with ER positive breast cancer. A key question that must be answered is how the estrogen receptor retains the capacity to activate transcription in the absence or near absence of estrogen. We have found a partial answer to this question upon investigating the effect of amplification and overexpression of Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome Candidate 1:Like 1 (WHSC1L1), a gene that is amplified in 15% of breast cancers that codes for a histone:lysine methyltransferase. WHSC1L1 lies in the 8p11:p12 amplicon, a region of gene amplification that is strongly associated with breast cancer. In this study, we performed shRNA knockdown of the catalytically inactive short isoform of WHSC1L1 in SUM44PE breast cancer cells and found that expression of the short isoform of WHSC1L1 is necessary for expression of the estrogen receptor in this highly ER:positive cell line. In addition, we found that the estrogen receptor binds chromatin extensively in the absence of exogenous estrogen, including several actively transcribed canonical ER target genes, indicating that estrogen receptor signaling is active in SUM44 cells in estrogen free conditions. These findings represent a novel model for ER biology in luminal B breast cancers harboring amplification of WHSC1L1 and provide insight into the mechanisms by which ER: positive breast cancers become unresponsive to SERMs or aromatase inhibitors.
Project description:Breast tumors are characterized into different subtypes based on their surface marker expression, which affects their prognosis and treatment. For example, triple negative breast cancer cells (ER-/PR-/Her2-) show reduced susceptibility towards radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic agents. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have shown promising results in clinical trials, both as single agents and in combination with other chemotherapeutics, in several subtypes of breast cancer patients. PARP1 is involved in DNA repair, apoptosis, and transcriptional regulation and an understanding of the effects of PARP inhibitors, specifically on metabolism, is currently lacking. Here, we have used NMR-based metabolomics to probe the cell line-specific effects of PARP inhibitor and radiation on metabolism in three distinct breast cancer cell lines. Our data reveal several cell line independent metabolic changes upon PARP inhibition, including an increase in taurine. Pathway enrichment and topology analysis identified that nitrogen metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and taurine and hypotaurine metabolism were enriched after PARP inhibition in the three breast cancer cell lines. We observed that the majority of metabolic changes due to radiation as well as PARP inhibition were cell line dependent, highlighting the need to understand how these treatments affect cancer cell response via changes in metabolism. Finally, we observed that both PARP inhibition and radiation induced a similar metabolic response in the HCC1937 (BRCA mutant cell line), but not in MCF-7 and MDAMB231 cells, suggesting that radiation and PARP inhibition share similar interactions with metabolic pathways in BRCA mutant cells. Our study emphasizes the importance of differences in metabolic responses to cancer treatments in different subtypes of cancers.
Project description:More than two thirds of breast cancers express the estrogen receptor (ER) and depend on estrogen for growth and survival. Therapies targeting ER function including aromatase inhibitors that block the production of estrogens and ER antagonists that alter ER transcriptional activity play a central role in the treatment of ER+ breast cancers of all stages. In contrast to ER- breast cancers, which frequently harbor mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor, ER+ breast cancers are predominantly wild type for p53. Despite harboring wild type p53, ER+ breast cancer cells are resistant to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in the presence of estrogen. Using genome-wide approaches we have addressed the mechanism by which ER antagonizes the pro-apoptotic function of p53. Interestingly both ER agonists such as estradiol and selective ER modulators (SERM) such as tamoxifen promote p53 antagonism. In contrast the full ER antagonist fulvestrant blocks the ability of ER to inhibit p53-mediated cell death. This suggests an improved strategy for the treatment of ER+ breast cancer utilizing antagonists that completely block ER action together with drugs that activate p53-mediated cell death. MCF7 cells were hormone-depleted for 3 days and then treated with 10 uM doxorubicin for 12 hours
Project description:More than two thirds of breast cancers express the estrogen receptor (ER) and depend on estrogen for growth and survival. Therapies targeting ER function including aromatase inhibitors that block the production of estrogens and ER antagonists that alter ER transcriptional activity play a central role in the treatment of ER+ breast cancers of all stages. In contrast to ER- breast cancers, which frequently harbor mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor, ER+ breast cancers are predominantly wild type for p53. Despite harboring wild type p53, ER+ breast cancer cells are resistant to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in the presence of estrogen. Using genome-wide approaches we have addressed the mechanism by which ER antagonizes the pro-apoptotic function of p53. Interestingly both ER agonists such as estradiol and selective ER modulators (SERM) such as tamoxifen promote p53 antagonism. In contrast the full ER antagonist fulvestrant blocks the ability of ER to inhibit p53-mediated cell death. This suggests an improved strategy for the treatment of ER+ breast cancer utilizing antagonists that completely block ER action together with drugs that activate p53-mediated cell death.
Project description:<p>Highly variable outcomes are observed in patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer who undergo preoperative estrogen deprivation therapy with aromatase inhibitors (AI). In this study, 46 baseline tumor and normal genomes and 31 baseline tumor/normal exomes of participants selected from two clinical trials of neoadjuvant AI therapy on ER+ breast cancer were sequenced to identify somatic alterations that correlate with response to AI, to screen for therapeutic targets and to elucidate the genetic landscape of ER+ breast cancer. From the same set of patients we later performed deep genomic characterization of a subset of matched primary tumors after four months of AI therapy, generating comprehensive information about the range of changes that occur when ER+ breast cancers are subjected to estrogen deprivation. This data includes whole genome sequence and transcriptome data. To better understand tumor heterogeneity and the evolution of resistance to estrogen-deprivation therapy, a subset of these tumours, along with 38 additional cases were sequenced to greater depth using targeted capture with a gene panel.</p>
Project description:Hormone-dependent gene expression requires dynamic and coordinated epigenetic changes. Estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer is particularly dependent upon extensive chromatin remodeling and changes in histone modifications for the induction of hormone-responsive gene expression. Our previous studies established an important role of bromodomain-containing protein-4 (BRD4) in promoting estrogen-regulated transcription and proliferation of ER+ breast cancer cells. Here, we investigated the association between genome-wide occupancy of histone H4 acetylation at lysine 12 (H4K12ac) and BRD4 in the context of estrogen-induced transcription. Similar to BRD4, we observed that H4K12ac occupancy increases near the transcription start sites (TSS) of estrogen-induced genes as well as at distal ERα binding sites in an estrogen-dependent manner. Interestingly, H4K12ac occupancy highly correlates with BRD4 binding and enhancer RNA production on ERα-positive enhancers. Consistent with an importance in estrogen-induced gene transcription, H4K12ac occupancy globally increased in ER-positive cells relative to ER-negative cells and these levels were further increased by estrogen treatment in an ERα-dependent manner. Together, these findings reveal a strong correlation between H4K12ac and BRD4 occupancy with estrogen-dependent gene transcription and further suggest that modulators of H4K12ac and BRD4 may serve as new therapeutic targets for hormone-dependent cancers. ChIP-seq profiles of H4K12ac in MCF7 cells treated with +/- estrogen treatment and MCF10A cells.
Project description:It is generally assumed that all estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancers proliferate in response to estrogen and therefore examples of estrogen-induced regression of ER+ cancers are paradoxical. This review reexamines the estrogen regression paradox for the Luminal A subtype of ER+ breast cancers. The proliferative response to estrogen is shown to depend on the level of ER. Mechanistically, a window of opportunity study of pre-operative estradiol suggested that with higher levels of ER, estradiol could activate the DREAM-MMB (Dimerization partner, Retinoblastoma-like proteins, E2F4, and MuvB – MYB-MuvB) pathway to decrease proliferation. The response of breast epithelium and the incidence of breast cancers during hormonal variations that occur during the menstrual cycle and at the menopausal transition respectively suggest that a single hormone, either estrogen, progesterone or androgen could activate the DREAM pathway leading to reversible cell cycle arrest. Conversely, the presence of two hormones, could switch the DREAM-MMB complex to a pro-proliferative pathway. Using publicly available data, we examine the gene expression changes after aromatase inhibitors and ICI 182,780 to provide support for the hypothesis. This review suggests that it might be possible to integrate all current hormonal therapies for Luminal A tumors within a single theoretical schema.
Project description:Hormone-dependent gene expression requires dynamic and coordinated epigenetic changes. Estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer is particularly dependent upon extensive chromatin remodeling and changes in histone modifications for the induction of hormone-responsive gene expression. Our previous studies established an important role of bromodomain-containing protein-4 (BRD4) in promoting estrogen-regulated transcription and proliferation of ER+ breast cancer cells. Here, we investigated the association between genome-wide occupancy of histone H4 acetylation at lysine 12 (H4K12ac) and BRD4 in the context of estrogen-induced transcription. Similar to BRD4, we observed that H4K12ac occupancy increases near the transcription start sites (TSS) of estrogen-induced genes as well as at distal ERα binding sites in an estrogen-dependent manner. Interestingly, H4K12ac occupancy highly correlates with BRD4 binding and enhancer RNA production on ERα-positive enhancers. Consistent with an importance in estrogen-induced gene transcription, H4K12ac occupancy globally increased in ER-positive cells relative to ER-negative cells and these levels were further increased by estrogen treatment in an ERα-dependent manner. Together, these findings reveal a strong correlation between H4K12ac and BRD4 occupancy with estrogen-dependent gene transcription and further suggest that modulators of H4K12ac and BRD4 may serve as new therapeutic targets for hormone-dependent cancers.