Effects of Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta Selective Drug on Breast Cancer Cell Transcriptome
Conference Year
2024
Abstract
Breast cancer (BCa) is the most diagnosed cancer in women worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death in the US. Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) BCa is marked by estrogen receptor alpha, a known tumor promoter that activates the expression of oncogenes. Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta (TRb) is a nuclear receptor and transcription factor, and when activated can induce re-differentiation and tumor suppression in BCa. The Carr lab has shown that the activation of TRb with the synthetic agonist GC-1 can reduced tumor sphere formation, yet the effects of GC-1 on the transcriptome in ER+ BCa cells have not been previously shown. I conducted an RNA-seq experiment to investigate the differential expression of genes in response to GC-1 and thyroid hormone treatment. While the experiment didn’t yield conclusive results between treatments, I was able to learn the experimental design and data analysis process for RNAseq. This provides a framework for future RNAseq and other sequencing experiments.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Frances Carr
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Second Student College
Patrick Leahy Honors College
Program/Major
Biochemistry
Primary Research Category
Life Sciences
Effects of Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta Selective Drug on Breast Cancer Cell Transcriptome
Breast cancer (BCa) is the most diagnosed cancer in women worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death in the US. Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) BCa is marked by estrogen receptor alpha, a known tumor promoter that activates the expression of oncogenes. Thyroid Hormone Receptor Beta (TRb) is a nuclear receptor and transcription factor, and when activated can induce re-differentiation and tumor suppression in BCa. The Carr lab has shown that the activation of TRb with the synthetic agonist GC-1 can reduced tumor sphere formation, yet the effects of GC-1 on the transcriptome in ER+ BCa cells have not been previously shown. I conducted an RNA-seq experiment to investigate the differential expression of genes in response to GC-1 and thyroid hormone treatment. While the experiment didn’t yield conclusive results between treatments, I was able to learn the experimental design and data analysis process for RNAseq. This provides a framework for future RNAseq and other sequencing experiments.