Project description:Human cancers result from a complex series of genetic alterations resulting in heterogeneous disease states. Dissecting this heterogeneity is critical for understanding underlying mechanisms and providing opportunities for therapeutics matching the complexity. Mouse models of cancer have generally been employed to reduce this complexity and focus on the role of single genes. Nevertheless, our analysis of tumors arising in the MMTV-Myc model of mammary carcinogenesis reveals substantial heterogeneity, seen in both histological and expression phenotypes. One contribution to this heterogeneity is the substantial frequency of activating Ras mutations, the frequency of which can be changed by alterations in Myc. Additionally, we show that these Myc-induced mammary tumors exhibit even greater heterogeneity, revealed by distinct histological subtypes as well as distinct patterns of gene expression, than many other mouse models of tumorigenesis. Two of the major histological subtypes are characterized by differential patterns of cellular signaling pathways, including B-Catenin and Stat3 activities. We also demonstrate the predictive nature of this approach though examining metastatic potential. Together, these data reveal that a combination of histological and genomic analyses can uncover substantial heterogeneity in mammary tumor formation and therefore highlight aspects of tumor phenotype not evident in the population as a whole. Keywords: Transcription factor expression analysis 20 MMTV-Neu Tumors, 25 Papillary MMTV-Myc T58A and 81 MMTV-Myc tumors of various histological subtypes were arrayed.
Project description:The goal of this study is to investigate the role of deregulated c-MYC in cooperation with activated NeuNT (mutated rat HER2) in mammary tumor molecular heterogeneity. We monitored female mice through two cycles of pregnancy/lactation in order to activate Blg-Cre expression in mammary gland after the second cycle. MYC-NeuNT mice develop tumors between 4 and 12 weeks post Blg-Cre activation, H&E images from these tumors showed histologic heterogeneity. NeuNT mice developed tumors between 28 to 44 weeks post Blg-Cre activation that also showed histologic heterogeneity.
Project description:Human cancers result from a complex series of genetic alterations resulting in heterogeneous disease states. Dissecting this heterogeneity is critical for understanding underlying mechanisms and providing opportunities for therapeutics matching the complexity. Mouse models of cancer have generally been employed to reduce this complexity and focus on the role of single genes. Nevertheless, our analysis of tumors arising in the MMTV-Myc model of mammary carcinogenesis reveals substantial heterogeneity, seen in both histological and expression phenotypes. One contribution to this heterogeneity is the substantial frequency of activating Ras mutations, the frequency of which can be changed by alterations in Myc. Additionally, we show that these Myc-induced mammary tumors exhibit even greater heterogeneity, revealed by distinct histological subtypes as well as distinct patterns of gene expression, than many other mouse models of tumorigenesis. Two of the major histological subtypes are characterized by differential patterns of cellular signaling pathways, including B-Catenin and Stat3 activities. We also demonstrate the predictive nature of this approach though examining metastatic potential. Together, these data reveal that a combination of histological and genomic analyses can uncover substantial heterogeneity in mammary tumor formation and therefore highlight aspects of tumor phenotype not evident in the population as a whole. Keywords: Transcription factor expression analysis
Project description:Gain-of-function mutation of PIK3CA represents one of the most common oncogenic events in human malignancy, making PI3K an attractive target for cancer therapy. Despite the great promise of targeted therapy, drug resistance is likely to develop, causing treatment failure. To elucidate resistance mechanisms to PI3K-targeted therapy, we constructed a mouse model of breast cancer conditionally expressing PIK3CA-H1047R. Surprisingly, the majority of mammary tumors induced by PIK3CA-H1047R expression recurred following PIK3CA-H1047R inactivation. Genomic analyses of recurrent tumors revealed multiple lesions, including spontaneous focal amplification of c-Met or c-Myc. While amplification of c-Met allowed tumor survival dependent on activation of endogenous PI3K, tumors with amplification of c-Myc become independent of the PI3K pathway. Functional analyses further demonstrated that c-Myc contributed to tumors’ independence of oncogene and resistance to PI3K inhibition. Together, our data suggest that MYC elevation in tumors may be a potential mechanism conferring resistance to current PI3K-targeted therapies. Affymetrix SNP array analysis was performed with Mouse Diversity Genotyping Arrays (Affymetrix) on genomic DNA extracted from frozen biopsies of 6 recurrent mouse mammary tumor samples. Copy number analysis was performed for the mouse mammary tumors using genomic DNA from normal mammary tissue as the reference for copy number inference.
Project description:Advances in genomic signatures have begun to dissect breast cancer heterogeneity, and application of these signatures will allow the prediction of which pathways are important in tumor development. Here we used genomic signatures to predict involvement of specific E2F transcription factors in Myc-induced tumors. We genetically tested this prediction by interbreeding Myc transgenics with mice lacking various activator E2F alleles. Tumor latency decreased in the E2F1 mutant background and significantly increased in both the E2F2 and E2F3 mutants. Investigating the mechanism behind these changes revealed a reduction in apoptosis in the E2F1 knockout strain. E2F2 and E2F3 mutant backgrounds alleviated Myc effects on the mammary gland, reducing the susceptible tumor target population. Gene expression data from tumors revealed that the E2F2 knockout background resulted in fewer tumors with EMT, corresponding with a reduction in probability of Ras activation. In human breast cancer we found that a low probability of E2F2 pathway activation was associated with increased relapse-free survival time. Together these data illustrate the predictive utility of genomic signatures in deciphering the heterogeneity within breast cancer and illustrate the unique genetic requirements for individual E2Fs in mediating tumorigenesis in both mouse models and human breast cancer. MMTV-Myc tumors were generated in an E2F wild-type, E2F1 null, E2F2 null and E2F3 heterozygous background. When the primary tumor reached the endpoint, the tumors were flash frozen. 20 tumors from each genotype were selected for microarray analysis.
Project description:We previously identified a novel SNF1/AMPK-related protein kinase, Hunk, from a mammary tumor arising in an MMTV-neu transgenic mouse. The function of this kinase is unknown. Using targeted deletion in mice, we now demonstrate that Hunk is required for the metastasis of c-myc-induced mammary tumors, but is dispensable for normal development. Reconstitution experiments revealed that Hunk is sufficient to restore the metastatic potential of Hunk-deficient tumor cells, as well as defects in migration and invasion, and does so in a manner that requires its kinase activity. Consistent with a role for Hunk in the progression of human cancers, the human homologue of Hunk is overexpressed in aggressive subsets of carcinomas of the ovary, colon, and breast. In addition, a murine gene expression signature that distinguishes Hunk-wild type from Hunk-deficient mammary tumors predicts clinical outcome in women with breast cancer. Together, these findings establish a role for Hunk in metastasis and an in vivo function for this kinase. Hunk-deficient animals were crossed to mice harboring an MMTV-c-myc transgene (Leder et al., 1986). Hunk heterozygous, MMTV-c-myc mice were backcrossed to Hunk heterozygous animals. MMTV-c-myc female animals of each Hunk genotype were mated twice, then monitored twice weekly for mammary tumors. Mice possessing tumors with a maximum diameter of 20 mm were sacrificed and organs were examined at necropsy. Tumor nodules were identified by examination of organs through a Leica Wild MZ8 dissection microscope.
Project description:Current therapeutic outcomes for breast cancer underscore the complexity of treating a heterogeneous disease. Indeed, studies have shown that differences in gene expression among patients with the same subtype of breast cancer are correlated with the response to treatment. This strongly suggests that there is an urgent need to treat breast cancer with a personalized approach. Here we employed cell signaling pathway signatures predict pathway activity in subtypes of MMTV-Myc mammary tumors. We then split tumors into subsets and developed individualized combinatorial treatments for two subtypes with distinct pathway activation patterns. In this treatment, we focus on papillary subtype-specific treatment, targeting Myc, Stat3, and Akt pathways. We compared gene expression differences after treatment.
Project description:In several developmental lineages, an increase in expression of the MYC proto-oncogene drives the transition from quiescent stem cells to transit amplifying cells. The mechanism by which MYC restricts self-renewal of adult stem cells is unknown. Here, we show that MYC activates a stereotypic transcriptional program of genes involved in protein translation and mitochondrial biogenesis in mammary epithelial cells and indirectly inhibits the YAP/TAZ co-activators that are essential for mammary stem cell self-renewal. We identify a phospholipase of the mitochondrial outer membrane, PLD6, as the mediator of MYC activity. PLD6 mediates a change in the mitochondrial fusion/fission balance that promotes nuclear export of YAP/TAZ in a LATS- and RHO-independent manner. Mouse models and human pathological data confirm that MYC suppresses YAP/TAZ activity in mammary tumors. PLD6 is also required for glutaminolysis, arguing that MYC-dependent changes in mitochondrial dynamics balance cellular energy metabolism with the self-renewal potential of adult stem cells. ChIP-Seq experiments for MYC-HA (HA-IP) performed in IMEC primary breast epithelial cells. Input-samples were sequenced as controlls.