Breast cancer is a major health problem affecting millions of women worldwide. Over 200,000 new cases are diagnosed annually in the USA, with approximately 40,000 of these cases resulting in death. HER2-positive (HER2+) breast tumors, representing 20–30 % of early-stage breast cancer diagnoses, are characterized by the amplification of the HER2 gene. However, the critical genes and pathways that become affected by HER2 amplification in humans are yet to be specifically identified. Furthermore, it is yet to be determined if HER2 amplification also affects the expression of long intervening non-coding (linc)RNAs, which are involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. We examined changes in gene expression by next generation RNA sequencing in human tumors pre- and post- HER2 inhibition by trastuzumab in vivo, and changes in gene expression in response to HER2 knock down in cell culture models. We integrated our results with gene expression analysis of HER2+ tumors vs matched normal tissue from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The integrative analyses of these datasets led to the identification of a small set of mRNAs, and the associated biological pathways that become deregulated by HER2 amplification. Furthermore, our analyses identified three lincRNAs that become deregulated in response to HER2 amplification both in vitro and in vivo. Our results should provide the foundation for functional studies of these candidate mRNAs and lincRNAs to further our understanding of how HER2 amplification results in tumorigenesis. Also, the identified lincRNAs could potentially open the door for future RNA-based biomarkers and therapeutics in HER2+ breast cancer. Overall design: We compared changes in gene expression of both mRNAs and lincRNAs in BT474 cells that are treated with HER2 siRNAs vs cells treated with negative control siRNAs by RNA-seq.
Integrative transcriptome-wide analyses reveal critical HER2-regulated mRNAs and lincRNAs in HER2+ breast cancer.
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View SamplesCutaneous malignant melanoma is among the most deadly human cancers, broadly resistant to most clinical therapies. A majority of patients with BRAFV600E melanomas respond well to inhibitors such as vemurafenib, but all ultimately relapse. Moreover, there are no viable treatment options available for other non-BRAF melanoma subtypes in the clinic. A key to improving treatment options lies in a better understanding of mechanisms underlying melanoma progression, which are complex and heterogeneous. In this study we perform gene expression profilling of highly and poorly malignant melanocytic tumors from genetically engineered mouse models to discover important drivers of cancer progression.
Integrated Genomics Identifies miR-32/MCL-1 Pathway as a Critical Driver of Melanomagenesis: Implications for miR-Replacement and Combination Therapy.
Specimen part
View SamplesIn the present study, we demonstrate that hMSCs migrate toward human keratinocytes as well as toward conditioned medium from cultured human keratinocytes (KCM) indicating that the hMSCs can respond to signals from keratinocytes. Incubation of hMSCs with KCM induced dermal myofibroblast like differentiation characterized by expression of cytoskeletal markers vinculin and F-actin filaments with increased expression of alpha smooth muscle actin. We then examined the therapeutic efficacy of hMSCs in wound healing in two animal models representing normal and chronic wound healing. Accelerated wound healing, as determined by quantitative measurements of wound area, was observed when hMSCs and KCM exposed hMSCs (KCMSCs) were injected near the site of incisional/excisional wounds in nondiabetic athymic and NOD/SCID mice as compared with normal human fetal lung fibroblast WI38 cells or saline control induced wound healing.
Keratinocyte Induced Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Dermal Myofibroblasts: A Role in Effective Wound Healing.
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Competition between virus-derived and endogenous small RNAs regulates gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans.
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View SamplesAnalysis of the transcriptional response to viral infection in C.elegans.
Competition between virus-derived and endogenous small RNAs regulates gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans.
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View SamplesAttempt to identify small non-coding RNAs that change in levels as a result of viral infection of C.elegans Overall design: Small non-coding RNA (18-30nt) was extracted from animals either infected with Orsay virus or uninfected as indicated.
Competition between virus-derived and endogenous small RNAs regulates gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Cell line, Subject
View SamplesWe generated animals carrying a genomically integrated mir-124 promoter::gfp transgene and identified mir-124 promoter::GFP labelled cells as a subset of the C. elegans sensory neurons. We used fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate four distinct cell populations: mir-124 expressing (GFP+) and non-expressing (GFP-) cells from both wild-type and mutant animals. RNA samples obtained from the four cell populations were used for Affymetrix gene expression analysis to study the effect of mir-124 deletion on the transcriptome of mir-124 expressing (GFP+) and non-expressing (GFP-) cells.
The microRNA miR-124 controls gene expression in the sensory nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans.
Specimen part
View SamplesLeaf samples were used. We exposed young seedlings to NaCl and drought.
Identification of cis-regulatory elements associated with salinity and drought stress tolerance in rice from co-expressed gene interaction networks.
Specimen part
View SamplesThis SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below.
Function, targets, and evolution of Caenorhabditis elegans piRNAs.
Specimen part
View SamplesCarcinoma associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have recently been implicated in important aspects of epithelial solid tumor biology such as neoplastic progression, tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis. However, neither the source of CAFs nor the differences between CAFs and fibroblasts from non-neoplastic tissue have been well defined. In this study we demonstrate that human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) exposed to tumor-conditioned medium (TCM) over a prolonged period of time assume a CAF-like myofibroblastic phenotype. More importantly, these cells exhibit functional properties of CAFs including sustained expression of stromal derived factor 1 (SDF-1) and the ability to promote tumor cell growth both in vitro and in an in vivo co-implantation model and expression of myofibroblast markers including -smooth muscle actin and fibroblast surface protein. hMSCs induced to differentiate to a myofibroblast-like phenotype using 5-azacytidine do not promote tumor cells growth as efficiently as hMSCs cultured in tumor-conditioned medium nor do they demonstrate increased SDF-1 expression. Furthermore, gene expression profiling revealed similarities between TCM exposed hMSCs and carcinoma associated fibroblasts. Taken together these data suggest that hMSCs are a source of carcinoma associated fibroblasts and can be used in the modeling of tumor-stroma interactions. To our knowledge this is the first report demonstrating that hMSCs become activated and resemble carcinoma associated myofibroblasts upon prolonged exposure to conditioned medium from MDAMB231 human breast cancer cells.
Carcinoma-associated fibroblast-like differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells.
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