Project description:Next generation RNA sequencing was performed to analyze changes in gene expression upon BRCA2 depletion. BRCA2 depletion was introduced in two human breast cancer cell lines with doxycyclin inducible short hairpin RNAs.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE32124: Effects of BRCA2 cis-regulation in normal breast and cancer risk amongst BRCA2 mutation carriers [expression data] GSE32258: Effects of BRCA2 cis-regulation in normal breast and cancer risk amongst BRCA2 mutation carriers [SNP data] Refer to individual Series
Project description:Introduction: Cis-acting regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at specific loci may modulate penetrance of germline mutations at the same loci by introducing different levels of expression of the wild-type allele. We have previously reported that BRCA2 shows differential allelic expression and we hypothesize that the known variable penetrance of BRCA2 mutations might be associated with this mechanism. Methods: We combined haplotype analysis and differential allelic expression of BRCA2 in breast tissue to identify expression haplotypes and candidate cis-regulatory variants. These candidate variants underwent selection based on in-silico predictions for regulatory potential and disruption of transcription factor binding, and were functionally analysed in-vitro and in-vivo in normal and breast cancer cell lines. SNPs tagging the expression haplotypes were correlated with the total expression of several genes in breast tissue measured by Taqman and microarray technologies. The effect of the expression haplotypes on breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers was investigated in 2754 carriers. Results: We identified common haplotypes associated with differences in the levels of BRCA2 expression in human breast cells. We characterised three cis-regulatory SNPs located at the promoter and two intronic regulatory elements, which affect the binding of the transcription factors C/EBPα, HMGA1, DBP and ZF5. We showed that the expression haplotypes also correlated with changes in the expression of other genes in normal breast. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence that the minor allele of SNP rs4942440, which is associated with higher BRCA2 expression, is also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (per-allele HR=0.85, 95%CI=0.72-1.00, P-trend=0.048). Conclusion: Our work provides further insights into the role of cis-regulatory variation in the penetrance of disease-causing mutations. We identified small-effect genetic variants associated with allelic expression differences in BRCA2, which could possibly affect the risk in mutation carriers through altering expression levels of the wild-type allele. Total gene expression of normal breast sample from healthy controls. This submission represents transcriptome component of study.
Project description:Introduction: Cis-acting regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at specific loci may modulate penetrance of germline mutations at the same loci by introducing different levels of expression of the wild-type allele. We have previously reported that BRCA2 shows differential allelic expression and we hypothesize that the known variable penetrance of BRCA2 mutations might be associated with this mechanism. Methods: We combined haplotype analysis and differential allelic expression of BRCA2 in breast tissue to identify expression haplotypes and candidate cis-regulatory variants. These candidate variants underwent selection based on in-silico predictions for regulatory potential and disruption of transcription factor binding, and were functionally analysed in-vitro and in-vivo in normal and breast cancer cell lines. SNPs tagging the expression haplotypes were correlated with the total expression of several genes in breast tissue measured by Taqman and microarray technologies. The effect of the expression haplotypes on breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers was investigated in 2754 carriers. Results: We identified common haplotypes associated with differences in the levels of BRCA2 expression in human breast cells. We characterised three cis-regulatory SNPs located at the promoter and two intronic regulatory elements, which affect the binding of the transcription factors C/EBPα, HMGA1, DBP and ZF5. We showed that the expression haplotypes also correlated with changes in the expression of other genes in normal breast. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence that the minor allele of SNP rs4942440, which is associated with higher BRCA2 expression, is also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (per-allele HR=0.85, 95%CI=0.72-1.00, P-trend=0.048). Conclusion: Our work provides further insights into the role of cis-regulatory variation in the penetrance of disease-causing mutations. We identified small-effect genetic variants associated with allelic expression differences in BRCA2, which could possibly affect the risk in mutation carriers through altering expression levels of the wild-type allele. Genotype of normal breast sample from healthy controls.
Project description:Approximately 25% of hereditary breast cancer cases associated with a strong familial history can be explained by mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 and other lower penetrance genes. The remaining high-risk families could be classified as BRCAX (non-BRCA1/2) families, in which no penetrant mutation has been found until now. Gene expression involving alternative splicing represents a well-known mechanism regulating the expression of multiple transcripts encoded by individual genes, which could be involved in cancer development. Thus using RNA-seq methodology, the analysis of transcriptome in immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines of high-risk breast cancer individuals could reveal transcripts implicated in breast cancer susceptibility and development. RNA was extracted from immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines of 117 women (affected and unaffected) coming from BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX families. Anova analysis revealed a total of 95 transcripts corresponding to 85 different genes differentially expressed (Bonferroni corrected p-value <0.01) between those groups. Hierarchical clustering allowed distinctive subgrouping of BRCA1/2 subgroups from BRCAX individuals, without regard for the cancer status. We found enrichment for pathways in signaling cascades including mTOR and EIF2-related pathways. No transcripts were differentially expressed between BRCA1 and BRCA2 individuals, however out of 95 transcripts, 67 could discriminate BRCAX from combination of BRCA1 and BRCA2 individuals. On the other hand, 28 transcripts could discriminate affected from unaffected BRCAX individuals. These BRCAX-associated transcripts demonstrated enrichment in Telomere Extension by Telomerase and Double-Strand Break Repair by Non-Homologous End Joining mechanisms. To our knowledge, this represents the first study identifying transcripts differentially expressed in immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines coming from the major classes of mutation-related breast cancer subgroups, namely BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX. Moreover, some transcripts could discriminate affected from unaffected BRCAX individuals, which could represent potential therapeutic targets for breast cancer treatment.
Project description:Use of DNA damaging agents and RNA pooling to assess expression profiles associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation status in familial breast cancer patients Background: A large number of rare sequence variants of unknown clinical significance have been identified in the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2. Determining the functional effect of these variants as well as their role in breast cancer susceptibility can be challenging using current classification methods. Methodology/Principal Findings: To identify predictors of pathogenic mutation status in familial breast cancer patients, we explored the use of gene expression arrays to assess the effect of two DNA damaging agents (irradiation and mitomycin C) on cellular response in relation to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation status. A range of regimes were used to treat 27 lymphoblastoid cell-lines (LCLs) derived from affected women in high-risk breast cancer families (nine BRCA1, nine BRCA2, and nine non-BRCA1/2 or BRCAX individuals) and nine LCLs from healthy individuals. Using an RNA pooling strategy, we found that treating LCLs with 1.2 μM mitomycin C and measuring the gene expression profiles 1 hour post-treatment had the greatest potential to discriminate BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX mutation status. A classifier was built using the expression profile of nine QRT-PCR validated genes that were associated with BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX status in RNA pools. These nine genes could distinguish BRCA1 from BRCA2 carriers with 83% accuracy in individual samples, but three-way analysis for BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX had a maximum of 59% prediction accuracy. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that, compared to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, non-BRCA1/2 (BRCAX) individuals are genetically heterogeneous. This study also demonstrates the effectiveness of RNA pools to compare the expression profiles of cell-lines from BRCA1, BRCA2 and BRCAX cases after treatment with irradiation and mitomycin C as a method to prioritize treatment regimes for detailed downstream expression analysis.
Project description:Introduction: Cis-acting regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at specific loci may modulate penetrance of germline mutations at the same loci by introducing different levels of expression of the wild-type allele. We have previously reported that BRCA2 shows differential allelic expression and we hypothesize that the known variable penetrance of BRCA2 mutations might be associated with this mechanism. Methods: We combined haplotype analysis and differential allelic expression of BRCA2 in breast tissue to identify expression haplotypes and candidate cis-regulatory variants. These candidate variants underwent selection based on in-silico predictions for regulatory potential and disruption of transcription factor binding, and were functionally analysed in-vitro and in-vivo in normal and breast cancer cell lines. SNPs tagging the expression haplotypes were correlated with the total expression of several genes in breast tissue measured by Taqman and microarray technologies. The effect of the expression haplotypes on breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers was investigated in 2754 carriers. Results: We identified common haplotypes associated with differences in the levels of BRCA2 expression in human breast cells. We characterised three cis-regulatory SNPs located at the promoter and two intronic regulatory elements, which affect the binding of the transcription factors C/EBPα, HMGA1, DBP and ZF5. We showed that the expression haplotypes also correlated with changes in the expression of other genes in normal breast. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence that the minor allele of SNP rs4942440, which is associated with higher BRCA2 expression, is also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (per-allele HR=0.85, 95%CI=0.72-1.00, P-trend=0.048). Conclusion: Our work provides further insights into the role of cis-regulatory variation in the penetrance of disease-causing mutations. We identified small-effect genetic variants associated with allelic expression differences in BRCA2, which could possibly affect the risk in mutation carriers through altering expression levels of the wild-type allele.
Project description:Introduction: Cis-acting regulatory single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at specific loci may modulate penetrance of germline mutations at the same loci by introducing different levels of expression of the wild-type allele. We have previously reported that BRCA2 shows differential allelic expression and we hypothesize that the known variable penetrance of BRCA2 mutations might be associated with this mechanism. Methods: We combined haplotype analysis and differential allelic expression of BRCA2 in breast tissue to identify expression haplotypes and candidate cis-regulatory variants. These candidate variants underwent selection based on in-silico predictions for regulatory potential and disruption of transcription factor binding, and were functionally analysed in-vitro and in-vivo in normal and breast cancer cell lines. SNPs tagging the expression haplotypes were correlated with the total expression of several genes in breast tissue measured by Taqman and microarray technologies. The effect of the expression haplotypes on breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers was investigated in 2754 carriers. Results: We identified common haplotypes associated with differences in the levels of BRCA2 expression in human breast cells. We characterised three cis-regulatory SNPs located at the promoter and two intronic regulatory elements, which affect the binding of the transcription factors C/EBPα, HMGA1, DBP and ZF5. We showed that the expression haplotypes also correlated with changes in the expression of other genes in normal breast. Furthermore, there was suggestive evidence that the minor allele of SNP rs4942440, which is associated with higher BRCA2 expression, is also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer (per-allele HR=0.85, 95%CI=0.72-1.00, P-trend=0.048). Conclusion: Our work provides further insights into the role of cis-regulatory variation in the penetrance of disease-causing mutations. We identified small-effect genetic variants associated with allelic expression differences in BRCA2, which could possibly affect the risk in mutation carriers through altering expression levels of the wild-type allele.
Project description:Inactivating germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations confer a defect in homologous recombination DNA repair which was found to leave traces in tumor DNA copy number aberration (CNA) profiles. In analogy to previously trained breast cancer CNA classifiers that predicted association with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutated cancer and benefit of high dose double strand break inducing chemotherapy, we trained BRCA1 and BRCA2 classifiers on CNA profiles of 50 BRCA1 mutated, 10 BRCA2 mutated and 13 non-familial ovarian cancers and investigated whether tumor type and mutation type independent classifiers could be trained. The cross validated area under the curve of the receiver/operator characteristic curve of ovarian cancer BRCA1 and BRCA2 classifiers were 0.67 (95% CI: 0.55-0.78) and 0.91 (95% CI: 0.79-1). These classifiers identified the majority of the samples with germline and somatic BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Combining tumor type or mutated gene did not yield higher AUCs than single gene classifiers, although the ovarian BRCA1+BRCA2 classifier identified most BRCA1 and -2 mutated cases, including those in the TCGA dataset, and a combined breast and ovarian cancer BRCA1 classifier may improve response prediction to double strand break inducing chemotherapy.