Ribavirin restores ESR1 gene expression and tamoxifen sensitivity in ESR1 negative breast cancer cell lines.

ABSTRACT: Tumor growth is estrogen independent in approximately one-third of all breast cancers, which makes these patients unresponsive to hormonal treatment. This unresponsiveness to hormonal treatment may be explained through the absence of the estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1). The ESR1 gene re-expression through epigenetic modulators such as DNA methyltransferase inhibitors and/or histone deacetylase inhibitors restores tamoxifen sensitivity in ESR1 negative breast cancer cell lines and opens new treatment horizons in patients who were previously associated with a poor prognosis.In the study presented herein, we tested the ability of ribavirin, which shares some structural similarities with the DNA-methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine and which is widely known as an anti-viral agent in the tr

SUBMITTER: Sappok A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3305339 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature