Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
A novel bioinformatic approach reveals cooperation between Cancer/Testis genes in basal-like breast tumors |
| Authors: |
Laisné, Marthe, Rodgers, Brianna, Benlamara, Sarah, Wicinski, Julien, Nicolas, André, Djerroudi, Lounes, Gupta, Nikhil, Ferry, Laure, Kirsh, Olivier, Daher, Diana, Philippe, Claude, Okada, Yuki, Charafe-Jauffret, Emmanuelle, Cristofari, Gael, Meseure, Didier, Vincent-Salomon, Anne, Ginestier, Christophe, Defossez, Pierre-Antoine |
| Source: |
Oncogene; May 2024, Vol. 43 Issue: 18 p1369-1385, 17p |
| Abstract: |
Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in women worldwide. Within breast tumors, the basal-like subtype has the worst prognosis, prompting the need for new tools to understand, detect, and treat these tumors. Certain germline-restricted genes show aberrant expression in tumors and are known as Cancer/Testis genes; their misexpression has diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Here we designed a new bioinformatic approach to examine Cancer/Testis gene misexpression in breast tumors. We identify several new markers in Luminal and HER-2 positive tumors, some of which predict response to chemotherapy. We then use machine learning to identify the two Cancer/Testis genes most associated with basal-like breast tumors: HORMAD1 and CT83. We show that these genes are expressed by tumor cells and not by the microenvironment, and that they are not expressed by normal breast progenitors; in other words, their activation occurs de novo. We find these genes are epigenetically repressed by DNA methylation, and that their activation upon DNA demethylation is irreversible, providing a memory of past epigenetic disturbances. Simultaneous expression of both genes in breast cells in vitro has a synergistic effect that increases stemness and activates a transcriptional profile also observed in double-positive tumors. Therefore, we reveal a functional cooperation between Cancer/Testis genes in basal breast tumors; these findings have consequences for the understanding, diagnosis, and therapy of the breast tumors with the worst outcomes. |
| Database: |
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