MicroRNAs to Pathways in Prostate Cancer Progression
Abstract
The purpose of this Idea Development Award is to understand the molecular basis of early events in prostate cancer progression. In particular the proposal focuses on a class of non-coding RNAs called microRNAs that function to suppress large networks of genes during cell fate transitions. The proposal was based on preliminary data showing that in absence of all microRNAs, prostate tumors associated with PTEN loss fail to progress. The goal here is to determine the microRNAs and downstream-regulated pathways responsible for this striking block. In the past year we have isolated RNA from YFP-labeled prostates of the four genetic backgrounds (wild type, Dgcr8 knockout, PTEN knockout, and PTEN/Dgcr8 double knockout) and performed mRNA array analysis. Bioinformatic analysis of this data showed few changes likely secondary to poor correlation between reporter and loop out of PTEN and/or Dgcr8. We are currently testing alternative approaches for isolating mutant cells and performing miRNA and mRNA measurements with minimal RNA input to ensure improved homogeneity of cells evaluated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA612120
Entities
People
- Robert Blelloch
Organizations
- University of California, San Francisco