Molecular interactions between endogenous and exogenous factors: Regulation of BRCA-1 tumor suppressor gene expression in breast cancer cells

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the central hypothesis that in breast cancer cells containing the estrogen receptor-α (ER-α+) and wild-type p53, the BRCA-1 tumor suppressor gene is positively regulated by the steroid hormone estrogen and negatively regulated by Aromatic Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) ligands which damage DNA. In this dissertation, we demonstrate that BRCA-1 promoter activity is reduced by the DNA damaging agent Benzo[a]pyrene in breast cancer cells containing both a functional estrogen receptor and p53 pathway. In addition, our data suggests that exposure of MCF-7 breast cancer cells to estrogen stimulates transcription from the BRCA-1 5 ' flanking region, and this increase in transcription is paralleled by an increase in estrogen receptor-alpha interaction at the BRCA-1 promoter between -46 → -14 upstream of exon 1b. We report that in both untreated and estrogen-treated M CF-7 cells, a transcriptional complex, which we have termed an "Estrogen Responsive Unit" (ERU), containing AP-1, Sp1, and CREB family members, forms at the same -46 → -14 region which binds ER-α. Moreover, we show that wild-type p53 is required for estrogen induction of BRCA-1 and overexpression of a dominant-negative mutant variant of p53 can prevent this induction. Finally, we show that overexpression of wild-type p53 is able to disrupt the estrogen receptor interaction with the BRCA-1 ERU under both basal and estrogen-induced conditions while mutant p53 is only able to disrupt this interaction when estrogen is present. Taken together, these data suggest that loss of function of either the estrogen receptor-α or p53 signaling pathways may result in an inability for BRCA-1 regulation to occur and may in turn be a risk factor in the etiology of sporadic breast cancer.