Project description:Estrogen Receptor subtypes (ERα and ERβ) are transcription factors sharing similar structure, however, they often perform opposite roles in breast cancer’s cell proliferation and tumor progression. Besides the well-characterized genomic actions of ERs upon ligand binding, rapid non-genomic cytoplasmic changes together with the recently discovered ligand-free action of ERs are emerging as key regulators of tumorigenesis. The identification of cytoplasmic interaction partners of unliganded ERα and ERβ may help characterize the molecular basis of the extra-nuclear mechanism of action of these receptors, revealing novel mechanisms to explain their role in breast cancer response or resistance to endocrine therapy. To this aim, in this study, cytoplasmic extracts from stably expressing TAP-ERα and -ERβ MCF-7 cell clones were subjected to interaction proteomics in the absence of estrogen stimulation, leading to the identification of 84 and 142 proteins associated with unliganded ERα and ERβ, respectively. Functional analyses of ER subtype-specific interactomes revealed significant differences in the molecular pathways associated to each receptor in the cytoplasm. This work reports the first identification of the unliganded ERα and ERβ cytoplasmic interactomes in breast cancer cells, providing novel experimental evidence on the non-genomic effects of ERs in the absence of hormonal stimulus.
Project description:The initiation of breast cancer is associated with increased expression of tumor-promoting estrogen receptor α (ERα) protein and decreased expression of tumor-suppressive ERβ protein. However, the mechanism underlying this process is unknown. Here we show that Pescadillo/PES1, an estrogen-inducible protein that is over-expressed in breast cancer, can regulate the balance between ERα and ERβ. PES1 enhances transcriptional activity of ERα and reduces that of ERβ, and modulates many estrogen-responsive genes. Consistent with this regulation of ERα and ERβ transcriptional activity, PES1 increases the stability of the ERα protein and decreases that of ERβ through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, mediated by the carboxyl terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP). Moreover, PES1 can transform normal human mammary epithelial cells and is required for estrogen-induced breast tumor growth in nude mice. Further analysis of clinical samples showed that expression of PES1 correlates positively with ERα expression and negatively with ERβ expression, and predicts good clinical outcome in breast cancer. Our data demonstrate that PES1 contributes to breast tumor growth through regulating the balance between ERα and ERβ and may be a better target for the development of drugs that selectively regulate ERα and ERβ activities.
Project description:Comparison of the basal and estrogen-induced effects on genome-wide transcription in ERα-positive breast cancer cell lines T47D and MCF7 after lentiviral transduction with ERβ.
Project description:Estrogens play an important role in breast cancer (BC) development and progression, where the two isoforms of the estrogen receptor (ERα and ERβ) are generally co-expressed and mediate the effects of these hormones in cancer cells. ERβ has been suggested to exert an antagonist role toward the oncogenic activities of ERα, and for this reason it is considered an oncosuppressor. As clinical evidence regarding a prognostic role for this receptor subtype in hormone-responsive BC is still limited and conflicting, more knowledge is required on the biological functions of ERβ in cancer cells. We described previously the ERβ and ERα interactomes of BC cells, identifying specific and distinct patterns of protein interactions for the two receptors. In particular, we identified factors involved in mRNA splicing and maturation as important components of both ERα and ERβ pathways. Guided by these findings, we investigated here in depth the differences in the early transcriptional events and RNA splicing patterns induced in ERα vs ERα+ERβ cells, by expressing ERβ in ERα+ human BC MCF-7 cells. High-throughput mRNA sequencing was then performed in both cell lines after stimulation with 17b-estradiol, and the results obtained were compared.
Project description:The closely related transcription factors (TFs), estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ, regulate divergent gene expression programs and proliferative outcomes in breast cancer. Utilizing MCF-7 breast cancer cells with ERα, ERβ, or both receptors as a model system to define the basis of differing response specification by related TFs, we show that these TFs and their key coregulators, SRC3 and RIP140, generate overlapping as well as unique chromatin-binding and transcription-regulating modules. Cistrome and transcriptome analyses and use of clustering algorithms delineated 11 clusters representing different chromatin-bound receptor and coregulator assemblies that could be functionally associated through enrichment analysis with distinct patterns of gene regulation and preferential coregulator usage, RIP140 with ERβ and SRC3 with ERα. The receptors modified each other’s transcriptional effect, and ERβ countered the proliferative drive of ERα through several novel mechanisms associated with specific binding site clusters. Our findings delineate distinct TF-coregulator assemblies that function as control nodes specifying precise patterns of gene regulation, proliferation, and metabolism, as exemplified by two of the most important nuclear hormone receptors in human breast cancer. MCF-7 cells expressing endogenous ERalpha were infected with adenovirus carrying either estrogen receptor beta (AdERb) or no insert (Ad) at multiplicity of infection (moi) of 50. ERβ only cells were generated from these cells by knockdown of ERα in parental cells using the following siERα sequences from Dharmacon: forward, 5’-UCAUCGCAUUCCUUGCAAAdTdT-3’, and reverse, 5’-UUUGCAAGGAAUGCGAUGAdTdT-3’. siRNA experiments were performed as previously described, and resulted in knocknown of ERα mRNA and protein by greater than 95% (GSE4006, PMID 16809442). Briefly, cells were transfected with 20 nM siCtrl [GSE4006] or siERα for 48 h after infection. Then cells were treated with 0.1% EtOH (Veh) or 10 nM E2 (Sigma-Aldrich) for 24h. All experiments were conducted with two replicates. key words; Adenovirus infection,siRNA knock-down, ligand treatment
Project description:The closely related transcription factors (TFs), estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ, regulate divergent gene expression programs and proliferative outcomes in breast cancer. Utilizing MCF-7 breast cancer cells with ERα, ERβ, or both receptors as a model system to define the basis of differing response specification by related TFs, we show that these TFs and their key coregulators, SRC3 and RIP140, generate overlapping as well as unique chromatin-binding and transcription-regulating modules. Cistrome and transcriptome analyses and use of clustering algorithms delineated 11 clusters representing different chromatin-bound receptor and coregulator assemblies that could be functionally associated through enrichment analysis with distinct patterns of gene regulation and preferential coregulator usage, RIP140 with ERβ and SRC3 with ERα. The receptors modified each other’s transcriptional effect, and ERβ countered the proliferative drive of ERα through several novel mechanisms associated with specific binding site clusters. Our findings delineate distinct TF-coregulator assemblies that function as control nodes specifying precise patterns of gene regulation, proliferation, and metabolism, as exemplified by two of the most important nuclear hormone receptors in human breast cancer.
Project description:The closely related transcription factors (TFs), estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ, regulate divergent gene expression programs and proliferative outcomes in breast cancer. Utilizing MCF-7 breast cancer cells with ERα, ERβ, or both receptors as a model system to define the basis of differing response specification by related TFs, we show that these TFs and their key coregulators, SRC3 and RIP140, generate overlapping as well as unique chromatin-binding and transcription-regulating modules. Cistrome and transcriptome analyses and use of clustering algorithms delineated 11 clusters representing different chromatin-bound receptor and coregulator assemblies that could be functionally associated through enrichment analysis with distinct patterns of gene regulation and preferential coregulator usage, RIP140 with ERβ and SRC3 with ERα. The receptors modified each other’s transcriptional effect, and ERβ countered the proliferative drive of ERα through several novel mechanisms associated with specific binding site clusters. Our findings delineate distinct TF-coregulator assemblies that function as control nodes specifying precise patterns of gene regulation, proliferation, and metabolism, as exemplified by two of the most important nuclear hormone receptors in human breast cancer.
Project description:Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly heterogeneous disease representing the most aggressive breast cancer (BC) subtype. Lack of Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα), progesterone receptor (PR) and epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) expression makes TNBC immune to common therapies, significantly limiting the treatment options and suggesting the need to identify novel therapeutic targets. It was previously reported that Estrogen Receptor beta (ERβ) is expressed in a fraction of TNBC patients, where its presence correlates with improved patient outcome. Recently, we demonstrated an oncosuppressive ERβ effect in TNBC cell models expressing exogenous ERβ. On the other hand, it was shown that ERβ is involved in miRNA-mediated gene regulation in hormone-responsive BC cells, suggesting similar effect also in TNBC. To verify this hypothesis, we performed small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) sequencing on three engineered cell lines belonging to different TNBC molecular subtypes. ERβ-specific changes of sncRNA profile revealed that the major part of deregulated molecules are subtype specific, with only few commonly regulated ones. In order to validate the obtained results, we performed sncRNA profiling of 12 ERβ positive and 32 ERβ negative TNBC tissues, whose receptor status was assessed by immunohistochemistry in our previous research. Also here, ERβ-specific group of deregulated sncRNAs was identified. Interestingly, comparison of obtained in vitro and in vivo results revealed 2 differentially expressed miRNAs, displaying the same behavior in all three analyzed cell lines and tissues. In concordance with our previous results, IPA signaling pathway analysis performed on genes targeted by deregulated miRNAs highlighted downregulation of cholesterol biosynthesis pathway and upregulation of several signaling processes. Taken together, these findings suggest that ERβ is able to exert its oncosuppressive role in TNBC through miRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression.
Project description:Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common type of cancer in women and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. BC classification is based on the detection of three main histological markers: estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), progesterone receptor (PR) and the amplification of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu). A specific BC subtype, named triple-negative BC (TNBC), lacks the aforementioned markers but a fraction of them express the estrogen receptor beta (ERβ). To investigate the functional role of ERβ in these tumors, interaction proteomics coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) was applied to deeply characterize the nuclear interactors partners in MDA-MD-468 and HCC1806 TNBC cells.
Project description:The two estrogen receptors, ERα and ERβ function as ligand-inducible transcription factors. Most in vitro studies have reported that ERα drives breast cancer growth whereas ERβ, if expressed, suppresses growth. To dissect function and gene expression profile regulated by ERα or ERβ, respectively, we generated a novel cell model expressing only ERβ, by applying CRISPR-cas9 to delete ERα in MCF7 cells with stable Tet-Off-inducible ERβ expression. This model with ERβ expression only, exhibited regulation of known estrogen responsive genes in a ligand-dependent manner. By cell proliferation assay, we found that either ER was required for proliferation, and that while E2 increased proliferation of ERα (only) MCF7, it reduced proliferation of ERβ (only) MCF7 cells. RNA-Seq analysis revealed 768 and 984 specific target genes regulated by ERα and ERβ in response to E2, respectively. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis showed that the two ER isoforms regulated cell proliferation in opposite direction. In conclusion, within the same cellular context the two ERs regulated cell proliferation in opposite manner by regulating distinct sets of target genes in response to E2. The novel developed cell model provides a novel and valuable resource to further complement the mechanistic understanding of the two different ER isoforms.