Project description:Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is required for embryonic breast development and has important functions during lactation, when it is produced by alveolar epithelial cells and secreted into the maternal circulation to mobilize skeletal calcium used for milk production. PTHrP is also produced by breast cancers and GWAS studies suggest that it influences breast cancer risk. However, the exact functions of PTHrP in breast cancer biology remain unsettled.
Project description:The 5-year survival rate for women with metastatic breast cancer is 29%. Potential biomarkers identification is important for new therapeutic treatment in affected patients. Previous studies have shown that Parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) plays a critical role in breast cancer growth and metastasis. The aim of our study was to use a genetically modified breast cancer mouse model to precisely examine the role of PTHrP from early primary breast cancer initiation to late progression. We identified a novel lncRNA, a new target for fatty acid metabolism that can be regulated by PTHrP in our unique mouse breast cancer model. We confirmed that a potential human lncRNA, OLMALINC, plays a similar role in fatty acid metabolism that can be regulated by PTHrP. Therefore, we validated our mouse finding in the human breast cancer cell lines. Genetically engineered mouse models provide valuable tools to study the molecular progression for breast cancer metastasis.
Project description:A PTHrP construct expressing full-length secreted PTHrP (-36-139aa) was stably expressed in MCF7 cells. The goal of the study was to determine the gene targets of PTHrP in human MCF7 breast cancer cells.
Project description:Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is overexpressed in many cancer types. This secretory protein can induce hypercalcaemia of malignancy by mimicking the action of calcium-regulating parathyroid hormone (PTH). PTHrP may also be involved in the regulation of migration, invasion, proliferation and apoptosis. It can either stimulate signal cascades, such as the cAMP pathway, or act on not yet defined targets in the nucleus. In this study, we analyzed the effect of PTHrP-specific siRNA on gene expression in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. MDA-MB-231 cells were either transfected with the PTHrP-specific siRNA (siPTHrP) or a control siRNA (siLuc). Differences in gene expression pattern in siPTHrP- vs. siLuc-treated cells were measured by microarray analysis. More than 200 differentially expressed genes were found. Some of these genes have important functions in carcinogenesis. Experiment Overall Design: Three independent transfection experiments were performed. Cells were transfected with siPTHrP or siLuc by electroporation, grown for three days and harvested for isolation of total RNA. RNAs were subjected to microarray analysis. The RNAs of experiment 1 are designated as siLuc 1 and siPTHrP 1, those of experiment 2 as siLuc 2 and siPTHrP 2 etc.. To identify siPTHrP-responsive genes, the siPTHrP- and siLuc-RNAs of the same experiment were compared.
Project description:We have sequenced miRNA libraries from human embryonic, neural and foetal mesenchymal stem cells. We report that the majority of miRNA genes encode mature isomers that vary in size by one or more bases at the 3’ and/or 5’ end of the miRNA. Northern blotting for individual miRNAs showed that the proportions of isomiRs expressed by a single miRNA gene often differ between cell and tissue types. IsomiRs were readily co-immunoprecipitated with Argonaute proteins in vivo and were active in luciferase assays, indicating that they are functional. Bioinformatics analysis predicts substantial differences in targeting between miRNAs with minor 5’ differences and in support of this we report that a 5’ isomiR-9-1 gained the ability to inhibit the expression of DNMT3B and NCAM2 but lost the ability to inhibit CDH1 in vitro. This result was confirmed by the use of isomiR-specific sponges. Our analysis of the miRGator database indicates that a small percentage of human miRNA genes express isomiRs as the dominant transcript in certain cell types and analysis of miRBase shows that 5’ isomiRs have replaced canonical miRNAs many times during evolution. This strongly indicates that isomiRs are of functional importance and have contributed to the evolution of miRNA genes