Abstract 22: RECQ1 promotes the expression of genes significantly associated with cancer progression

RecQ helicases (represented by five homologs in humans: RECQ1, WRN, BLM, RECQ4, and RECQ5) are vital to maintain genomic stability under replication stress and germ line mutations in WRN, BLM and RECQ4 are associated with cancer predisposition syndromes. Expression of RECQ1 has been associated with the process of cellular transformation and over-expression of RECQ1 has been reported in a variety of human cancers. Furthermore, siRNA-mediated knockdown of RECQ1 has a cancer cell specific effect in cell culture models and also suppresses tumor growth in mouse xenografts including lung, liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancer. In a panel of 60 human cancer cell lines (NCI-60), we have found that RECQ1 mRNA expression positively correlates with the mesenchymal marker Vimentin and negatively correlates with epithelial markers such as KRT8. We also observed significant positive correlation of RECQ1 expression with Vimentin and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) promoting proteins and negative correlation with CDH1 (epithelial marker) in cancer patient samples from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas). Importantly, quantitative real-time PCR analyses in a set of 16 colorectal cancer patient samples revealed strong positive correlation of RECQ1 expression with Vimentin. Furthermore, lower expression of RECQ1 significantly correlated with better prognosis of recurrence-free survival in breast and ovarian cancer patients. Global analyses of gene expression upon knockdown of RECQ1 in H...
Source: Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Poster Presentations Source Type: research