Identification Of New Breast Cancer-Promoting Gene

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Genetics
Article Date: 21 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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A team of researchers, at the Genome Institute of Singapore, has identified a new gene that seems to contribute to aggressive breast cancer behavior. As discussed in an accompanying commentary, by Gordon Mills and colleagues, the data generated in this study provide new insight into cellular processes underlying tumor cell proliferation and metastasis and identify potential new therapeutic targets.

In the study, a new informatics approach was used to analyze microarray expression profiles of primary human breast cancers and the gene RCP was identified as a potential breast cancer-promoting gene. Importantly, this gene is found in a region of the genome frequently amplified in human breast cancer. In vitro analysis indicated that overexpression of RCP protein in normal human breast epithelial cells caused them to acquire tumor cell characteristics and function. Conversely, decreasing expression of RCP protein in human breast cancer cell lines reduced their in vitro tumor cell characteristics and in vivo ability to form tumors and metastasize when transplanted into immunodeficient mice. Further analysis identified some of the molecules affected by RCP overexpression, including the known tumor-promoting protein RAS. These data led the authors to suggest that one mechanism by which RCP promotes breast cancer is likely to be through activation of the RAS signaling pathway and that targeting RCP might provide a way to therapeutically inhibit this known tumor-promoting pathway.

TITLE: RCP is a human breast cancer-promoting gene with Ras-activating function https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=37622

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Lance David Miller
Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.

Bing Lim
Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY TITLE: Genomic amplicons target vesicle recycling in breast cancer https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=40256

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Gordon B. Mills
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Source:
Karen Honey
Journal of Clinical Investigation

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