Identification of differently expressed miRNAs between Tamoxifen sensitive cells and Tamoxifen resistant cells
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Tamoxifen is the most widely administered adjuvant first-line hormone therapy for Estrogen receptor α (ERα) positive breast cancer patients. However, one from three patients will develop resistance, while the underlying molecular mechanisms are currently unclear. Recent studies reported that abnormal expression of miRNAs played a role in cancer progress. To study the potential function of miRNAs in tamoxifen resistance, Affymetrix GeneChip® miRNA 3.0 microarray was employed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs between tamoxifen sensitive MCF7 parent (MCF7-Pa) cells and induced resistant (MCF7-Re) cells.
Project description:Estrogen signaling pathway is critical for breast cancer development and has remained the major adjuvant therapeutic target for this disease. Tamoxifen has been used in clinic for many years to treat ER-positive breast cancer. However a great many (30%) suffer relapse due to drug resistance. In this study, the bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 was found to down-regulate ERalpha gene expression and have anti-tumor effect in cultured tamoxifen-resisant breast cancer cells. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression in tamoxifen-resistant MCF7 cells treated with the bromodomain inhibitor JQ1. Tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer MCF7 cells were treated with DMSO (vehicle) or JQ1 (0.2 uM) for 24 hours before total RNA was purified for microarray. Each sample was triplicated.
Project description:Estrogen signaling pathway is critical for breast cancer development and has remained the major adjuvant therapeutic target for this disease. Tamoxifen has been used in clinic for many years to treat ER-positive breast cancer. However a great many (30%) suffer relapse due to drug resistance. In this study, the bromodomain inhibitor JQ1 was found to down-regulate ERalpha gene expression and have anti-tumor effect in cultured tamoxifen-resisant breast cancer cells. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression in tamoxifen-resistant MCF7 cells treated with the bromodomain inhibitor JQ1.
Project description:Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is highly expressed in most breast cancers. Consequently, ERα modulators, such as tamoxifen, are successful in breast cancer treatment, although tamoxifen resistance is commonly observed. While tamoxifen resistance may be caused by altered ERα signaling, the molecular mechanisms regulating ERα signaling and tamoxifen resistance are not entirely clear. Here, we found that PAK4 expression was consistently correlated to poor patient outcome in endocrine treated and tamoxifen-only treated breast cancer patients. Importantly, while PAK4 overexpression promoted tamoxifen resistance in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells, pharmacological treatment with a group II PAK (PAK4, 5, 6) inhibitor, GNE-2861, sensitized tamoxifen resistant MCF-7/LCC2 breast cancer cells to tamoxifen. Mechanistically, we identified a regulatory positive feedback loop, where ERα bound to the PAK4 gene, thereby promoting PAK4 expression, while PAK4 in turn stabilized the ERα protein, activated ERα transcriptional activity and ERα target gene expression. Further, PAK4 phosphorylated ERα-Ser305, a phosphorylation event needed for the PAK4 activation of ERα-dependent transcription. In conclusion, PAK4 may be a suitable target for perturbing ERα signaling and tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer patients.
Project description:Approximately 40% ERα-positive breast cancer patients suffer from therapeutic resistance to tamoxifen. Although reduced ERα level is the major cause of tamoxifen resistance, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we report that FRMD8 raises the level of ERα at both transcriptional and post-translational layers. FRMD8 deficiency in MMTV-Cre+; Frmd8fl/fl; PyMT mice accelerates mammary tumor growth and loss of luminal phenotype, and confers tamoxifen resistance. Single-cell RNA profiling reveals that Frmd8 loss decreases the proportion of hormone-sensing differentiated epithelial cells and downregulates the levels of ERα. Mechanically, on one hand, loss of FRMD8 inhibits ESR1 transcription via suppressing the expression of FOXO3A, a transcription factor of ESR1. On the other hand, FRMD8 interacts both with ERα and UBE3A, and disrupts the interaction of UBE3A with ERα, thereby blocking UBE3A-mediated ERα degradation. In breast cancer patients, FRMD8 gene promoter is found hypermethylated and low level of FRMD8 predicts poor prognosis. Therefore, FRMD8 is an important regulator of ERα and may control therapeutic sensitivity to tamoxifen in ERα-positive breast cancer patients.
Project description:Tamoxifen is an effective anti-estrogen treatment for patients with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. However, about 30% of such patients receiving tamoxifen as an adjuvant therapy experience recurrence within 15 years, and most patients with advanced disease eventually develop resistance to tamoxifen. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of tamoxifen resistance, we performed a systematic analysis of miRNA-mediated gene regulation in three clinically-relevant tamoxifen-resistant human breast cancer cell lines (TamRs) compared to their parental tamoxifen-sensitive MCF-7/S0.5 cell line. Alterations in the expression of 131 miRNAs in tamoxifen-resistant vs. parental cell lines were identified, 22 of which were common to all TamRs using both sequencing and LNA-based quantitative PCR technologies.
Project description:Adjuvant tamoxifen therapy for invasive breast cancer improves patient survival but comes with side effects that impact health and quality of life. Partly due to a lack of proven animal models, the tissues and cells that mediate these negative side effects are largely unknown. Here we show that mice undergoing a 28-day course of tamoxifen treatment experience dysregulation of core and skin temperature, changes in bone density, and decreased physical activity, recapitulating several aspects of the human response. Single cell RNA sequencing reveals that tamoxifen induces widespread gene expression changes in the hypothalamus, particularly in neurons and ependymal cells. These effects are largely dependent on estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), as conditional ERα knockout ablated or reversed tamoxifen-induced changes in gene expression, thermoregulation, bone, and movement. These findings provide mechanistic insights into the effects of tamoxifen on the hypothalamus and suggest that hypothalamic ERα mediates several side effects of tamoxifen therapy.
Project description:About one-third of oestrogen receptor alpha- positive breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen relapse. Here we identify the nuclear receptor retinoic acid receptor alpha as a marker of tamoxifen resistance. Using quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics, we show that retinoic acid receptor alpha protein networks and levels differ in a tamoxifen-sensitive (MCF7) and a tamoxifen-resistant (LCC2) cell line. High intratumoural retinoic acid receptor alpha protein levels also correlate with reduced relapse-free survival in oestrogen receptor alpha-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen solely. A similar retinoic acid receptor alpha expression pattern is seen in a comparable independent patient cohort. An oestrogen receptor alpha and retinoic acid receptor alpha ligand screening reveals that tamoxifen-resistant LCC2 cells have increased sensitivity to retinoic acid receptor alpha ligands and are less sensitive to oestrogen receptor alpha ligands compared with MCF7 cells. Our data indicate that retinoic acid receptor alpha may be a novel therapeutic target and a predictive factor for oestrogen receptor alpha-positive breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant tamoxifen. Peptide and protein identification data set 1: Peptide identification from the MALDI-TOF/TOF data was carried out using the Paragon algorithm in the ProteinPilot 2.0 software package (Applied Biosystems) 46. Default settings for a 4800 instrument were used (i.e., no manual settings for mass tolerance was given). The following parameters were selected in the analysis method: iTRAQ 4plex peptide labelled as sample type, MMTS as alkylating agent of cysteine, trypsin as digesting enzyme, 4800 as instrument, gel based ID and Urea denaturation as special factors, biological modifications as ID focus, and thorough ID as search effort. Peptide identification from the Q-TOF data was carried out using the Spectrum Mill Protein Identification software (Agilent). Data was extracted between MH+ 600 and 4000 Da (Agilent's definition). Scans with the same precursor m/z 90 sec, 0.05 m/z matching with a minimum of 20 peaks in MS2 were merged. Peptide and protein identification data set 2: Proteome discoverer 1.3 with sequest-percolator was used for protein identification. Precursor mass tolerance was set to 10 ppm and for fragments 0.8 Da and 0.02 Da were used for detection in the linear iontrap and the orbitrap, respectively. Oxidized methionine and phosphorylation on S,T and Y was set as dynamic modifications, and carbamidomethylation, N-terminal 8plex iTRAQ, and lysyl 8plex iTRAQ as fixed modifications. Spectra were matched to ensembl 68 limited to human protein sequences, and results were filtered to 1% FDR.
Project description:Estrogen receptor α (ERα) is a key transcriptional regulator in the majority of breast cancers. ERα-positive patients are frequently treated with tamoxifen, but resistance is common. In this study, we refined a previously identified 111-gene outcome prediction-classifier, revealing FEN1 as the strongest determining factor in ERα-positive patient prognostication. FEN1 levels were predictive of outcome in tamoxifen-treated patients, and FEN1 played a causal role in ERα-driven cell growth. FEN1 impacted the transcriptional-activity of ERα by facilitating coactivator recruitment to the ERα transcriptional complex. FEN1 blockade induced proteasome-mediated degradation of activated ERα, resulting in loss of ERα-driven gene expression and eradicated tumor cell proliferation. Finally, a high-throughput 465,195 compound screen identified a novel FEN1 inhibitor, which effectively blocked ERα-function and inhibited proliferation of tamoxifen-resistant cell lines as well as ex-vivo cultured ERα-positive breast tumors. Collectively, these results provide therapeutic proof-of-principle for FEN1 blockade in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.
Project description:Tamoxifen, an antagonist to estrogen receptor (ER), is a first line drug used in breast cancer treatment. However, this therapy is complicated by the fact that a substantial number of patients exhibit either de novo or acquired resistance. To characterize the signaling mechanisms underlying the resistance to tamoxifen, we established a tamoxifen-resistant cell line by treating the MCF7 breast cancer cell line with tamoxifen for over 6 months. We showed that this cell line exhibited resistance to tamoxifen both in vitro and in vivo. In order to quantify the phosphorylation alterations associated with tamoxifen resistance, we performed SILAC-based quantitative phosphoproteomic profiling on the resistant and vehicle-treated sensitive cell lines where we identified >5,600 unique phosphopeptides. We found phosphorylation levels of 1,529 peptides were increased (>2 fold) and 409 peptides were decreased (<0.5-fold) in tamoxifen resistant cells compared to tamoxifen sensitive cells. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that focal adhesion pathway was the top enriched signaling pathway activated in tamoxifen resistant cells. We observed hyperphosphorylation of the focal adhesion kinases FAK1 and FAK2 in the tamoxifen resistant cells. Of note, FAK2 was not only hyperphosphorylated but also transcriptionally upregulated in tamoxifen resistant cells. Suppression of FAK2 by specific siRNA knockdown could sensitize the resistant cells to the treatment of tamoxifen. We further showed that inhibiting FAK activity using the small molecule inhibitor PF562271 repressed cellular proliferation in vitro and tumor formation in vivo. More importantly, our survival analysis revealed that high expression of FAK2 significantly associated with short metastasis-free survival of ER-positive breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen-based hormone therapy. Our studies suggest that FAK2 is a great potential target for the development of therapy for the treatment of hormone refractory breast cancers.
Project description:In this study, we probed the importance of OGT activity for the survival of Tamoxifen-sensitive (TamS) and Tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) breast cancer cells. Tamoxifen is an antagonist of estrogen receptor (ERα), a transcription factor expressed in over half of all breast cancers, and the defining characteristic of the ERα-positive disease. ERα-positive breast cancers are successfully treated with Tamoxifen; however, a significant number of patients develops Tamoxifen-resistant disease. We show here that in vitro development of Tamoxifen-resistance results in acquired sensitivity to OGT small molecule inhibitor OSMI-1. Global transcriptome profiling revealed that TamS cells adapt to OSMI-1 treatment by undergoing significant chromatin compaction. In the TamR cells, however, OGT inhibition induces ERRFI1 tumor-suppressor gene expression. ERRFI1 is an endogenous inhibitor of ERBB-signaling, while activation of the ERBB-signaling is one of the best understood mechanism for Tamoxifen-resistance. We show that ERRFI1 is selectively downregulated in ERα-positive breast cancers and breast cancers driven by ERBB2, and provide data to support that this occurs through promoter methylation. Finally, we show that increased ERRFI1 expression is associated with extended survival in patients with ERα-positive tumors (p=9.2e-8). In summary, we show that Tamoxifen-resistance is associated with acquired sensitivity to OSMI-1, and propose that this is explained in part through an epigenetic activation of the tumor-suppressor ERRFI1 in response to OSMI-1 treatment.