Multiple gene expression studies have demonstrated that breast cancer biological diversity is associated with distinct transcriptional programs. Transcription factors, because of their unique ability to coordinate the expression of multiple genes, are speculated to play a role in generating phenotypic plasticity associated with cancer progression including acquired drug resistance. Combinatorial libraries of artificial zinc-finger transcription factors (ZF-TFs) provide a robust means for inducing and understanding various functional components of the cancer phenotype. Herein, we utilized combinatorial ZF-TF library technology to better understand how breast cancer cells acquire resistance to a fulvestrant, a clinically important anti-endocrine therapeutic agent. We isolated six ZF-TF library members capable of inducing stable, long-term anti-endocrine drug-resistance in two independent estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cell lines. Comparative gene expression profile analysis of the ZF-TF-transduced breast cancer cell lines revealed a 72-gene cluster that constituted a common signature for the fulvestrant-resistance phenotype. Pathway enrichment-analysis of gene expression data revealed that the ZF-TF-induced fulvestrant resistance is associated with an estrogen receptor negative-like gene set and four unique myb-regulated gene sets. Furthermore, we identified a set of genes strongly expressed in the ZF-TF-induced fulvestrant-resistant cells that was correlated with a lower probability of distant metastasis-free or death-from-relapse-free survival of breast cancer patients.
Induction of stable drug resistance in human breast cancer cells using a combinatorial zinc finger transcription factor library.
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View SamplesBACKGROUND & AIMS: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory condition driven by loss of homeostasis between the mucosal immune system, the commensal gut microbiota, and the intestinal epithelium. Our overarching goal is to understand how these components of the intestinal ecosystem cooperate to control homeostasis and to identify novel signal transduction pathways that become dysregulated in IBD. METHODS: We have applied a multi-scale systems biology approach to a mouse model of chronic colitis. We combined quantitative measures of epithelial hyperplasia and immune infiltration with multivariate analysis of inter- and intra-cellular signaling molecules in order to generate a tissue level model of the inflamed disease state. We utilized the computational model to identify signaling pathways that were dysregulated in the context of colitis and then validated model predictions by measuring the effect of small molecule pathway inhibitors on colitis. RESULTS: Our data-driven computational model identified mTOR signaling as a potential driver of inflammation and mTOR inhibition reversed the molecular, immunological, and epithelial manifestations of colitis. Inhibition of Notch signaling, which induces epithelial differentiation, had the same effect, suggesting that the epithelial proliferation/differentiation state plays a key role in maintaining homeostasis of the colon. Confirming this, we found that colonic organoids grown ex vivo showed a similar relationship between proliferation and cytokine expression, even in the absence of gut bacteria and immune cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides a tissue-level systems biology perspective of murine colitis and suggests that mTOR plays a key role in regulating colonic homeostasis by controlling epithelial proliferation/differentiation state.
The colonic epithelium plays an active role in promoting colitis by shaping the tissue cytokine profile.
Specimen part
View SamplesLactic acid bacteria confer a variety of health benefits. Here we investigate the mechanisms by which Lactobacillus brevis KB290 enhances cell-mediated cytotoxic activity. We fed a diet containing KB290 (3 10^9 colony-forming units/g) , or potato starch, to 9-week-old female BALB/c mice for 1, 4, 7, or 14 days and examined the cytotoxic activity of splenocytes was measured. RNA was extracted from the spleen and analyzed for gene expression by DNA microarray.
Effect of Lactobacillus brevis KB290 on the cell-mediated cytotoxic activity of mouse splenocytes: a DNA microarray analysis.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesWe used microarrays to select the genes associated glioma patients survival.
Gene expression signature-based prognostic risk score in patients with glioblastoma.
Sex, Age, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesSocial stress is well known to be involved in the occurrence and exacerbation of mental illness, and also various life-style related diseases such as hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. However, there is little information on tissue-specific gene expression in response to social stress, which reflects our daily life. Liver is one of the most important organs, owing to its biological functions such as energy metabolic homeostasis, metabolization and detoxification of endo- and exogenous substances. In order to elucidate the mechanism underlying response to social stress in the liver, we investigated hepatic gene expression in mice exposed to isolation stress using DNA microarray. Male BALB/c mice (4 weeks old) were housed 5 per cage for 10 days acclimatization. Then mice were exposed to isolation stress for 30 days. After stress treatment, the mouse liver RNA was subjected to DNA microarray analysis. Taking the false discovery rate into account, isolation stress altered expression of 420 genes. Moreover, Gene Ontology analysis of these differentially expressed genes indicated that isolation stress remarkably down-regulated lipid metabolism-related pathway through peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARalpha), while lipid biosynthesis pathway regulated by sterol regulatory element binding factor-1 (SREBF-1), Golgi vesicle transport and secretory pathway-related genes were significantly up-regulated. These results suggested that isolation for 30 days, mild and consecutive social stress, not only regulate the systems for lipid metabolism but also cause the endoplasmic reticulum stress in mouse liver.
Isolation stress for 30 days alters hepatic gene expression profiles, especially with reference to lipid metabolism in mice.
Sex, Age, Specimen part
View SamplesThis study aimed to define the genes associated with PCNSL patient survival. Expression profiling was performed on 34 PCNSLs. A gene classifier was developed.
Gene expression signature-based prognostic risk score in patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage
View SamplesExpression profiles at various time points after surgical intervention for pressure-overload induced cardiac hypertrophy and failure.
Small proline-rich protein 1A is a gp130 pathway- and stress-inducible cardioprotective protein.
Sex, Age, Specimen part, Disease, Disease stage, Subject
View SamplesTumor cells utilize the so-called Warburg effect to allow for rapid proliferation with glucose as the main nutrient. We show here that, although PKCz is critical for that effect, its deficiency promotes the plasticity necessary for nutrient-stressed cancer cells to reprogram their metabolism to utilize glutamine through the serine biosynthetic pathway, empowering them to survive and proliferate in the absence of glucose. We show that PKCz deficiency enhances glutamine utilization and expression of two key enzymes of the pathway, PGHDGH and PSAT1, in cells cultured in the absence of glucose. The loss of PKCz in mice results in enhanced intestinal tumorigenesis and increased levels of these two metabolic enzymes, while patients with low levels of PKCz have a poor prognosis. Taken together, this suggests that PKCz is a critical metabolic tumor suppressor.
Control of nutrient stress-induced metabolic reprogramming by PKCĪ¶ in tumorigenesis.
Cell line, Treatment
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