Investigating epigenetic regulatory factor of organ-specific metastasis in breast cancer

Abstract

Metastasis is one of leading causes of death in cancer and difficult to cure with traditional treatment because of its genetic diversity. Unlike other cancer types, metastasis of breast cancer progressed sequentially to specific organs, such as lung and brain. This organ-specific metastasis is regulated by different group of genes. In this study, I investigated epigenetic regulator of organ-specific metastasis in breast cancer through screening candidate in long-noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and E3 ubiquitin ligases. I found out lncRNA X as promoter of brain metastasis and its upregulation in brain-specific metastatic cell lines. I confirm that knockdown of lncRNA X leads to decreased brain metastasis in vivo and that this is accompanied by reduced monocytes. Furthermore, I found that lncRNA X increases monocyte recruitment by upregulation of CCL2. On the other hand, I found E3 ligase, TRIM8, as lung metastasis suppressor because its expression was downregualted in lung metastatic breast cancer, However, I did not find reduced lung metastasis upon overexpression of TRIM8