Effect of Hormones on Breast Cancer Cell Line Enhancers

Breast cancer pervades society, so its cell lines are studied to find therapies. Hormones and enhancer regions play a central role in messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels of genes, so observing them can help develop new therapies. We use a luminal A breast cancer cell line model, MCF-7, to determine the effect of different hormones on gene expression. Hormone effect on gene expression within cell lines needed to be determined by Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR), a process that determines the expression levels of ribonucleic acids of specific gene targets. Preliminary results suggest each MCF- 7 ligand used (E2, Dexamethasone, GW0742, AM580, T3, and Rosiglitazone) showed hormone specific effects in gene expression. T3 and ROSI both primarily up-regulate their targets, while the remaining hormones are more of a mix of up and down regulated genes. However, future studies will have to confirm this using mRNA sequencing to determine the genome-wide transcription effects of these hormone. CapStarr-seq (self-transcribing active regulatory region sequencing) will be used to determine enhancers involved. By studying the interactions of hormones on MCF-7, we hope to further understand cell line interactions in breast cancer for greater therapeutic options in patients and understand this form of breast cancer better