Endogenous Retroviruses and Breast Carcinoma Development.

Abstract

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) have been implicated in the etiology of neoplasia including breast cancer. Like other transposable elements, their intracellular transposition may play an important role in DNA mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. To gain insight into the role of HERV in carcinogenesis, we have examined the mechanism of expression of a HERV family, HERV-K, in T47D. breast tumor cell line as active expression is a prerequisite step in transposition-mediated mutagenesis by HERV. We show that HBRV-K expression is enhanced by steroid hormones and that an unique set of HERV-K elements containing progesterone response element (PRE) is selectively activated by the hormones. We further showed that the PRE in the viral promoter is an effective enhancer element and the ER and progesterone receptor (PR) in T47D cells are effective transcription activators. The results suggest that these parameters are responsible for the hormone-responsive HBRV-K expression. Prognosis of breast cancers is associated with their ability to respond to hormone treatment. Thus, hormone-specific HERV-K expression may be a useful prognostic marker for the progression of tumors to a hormone-resistant aggressive state.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADB218946

Entities

People

  • Chin Howe

Organizations

  • University of Pennsylvania

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cell Line
  • Cells
  • Culture Techniques
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Epithelial Cells
  • Etiology
  • Gene Expression
  • Hormones
  • Indicator Dyes
  • Instructions
  • Medical Personnel
  • Neoplasms
  • Progesterone
  • Tumor Cell Line

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Breast cancer cell signaling and growth regulation.
  • Molecular Genetics
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