Knockout of histone deacetylase 8 gene in breast cancer cells may alter the expression pattern of the signaling molecules

Nahid Bahrami; Mohammad Abdi

doi:10.1016/j.advms.2024.10.003

Knockout of histone deacetylase 8 gene in breast cancer cells may alter the expression pattern of the signaling molecules

Adv Med Sci. 2024 Oct 20;70(1):27-32. doi: 10.1016/j.advms.2024.10.003. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nahid Bahrami¹, Mohammad Abdi²

Affiliations

¹ Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.
² Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran; Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran. Electronic address: abdi@muk.ac.ir.

PMID: 39437892
DOI: 10.1016/j.advms.2024.10.003

Abstract

Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer diagnosed in the world and it is also the main leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Change in epigenetic mechanisms promotes BC initiation and progression. Histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) was found to act as a potential oncogene in different malignancies. For better understanding of the HDAC8 function in BC development, we investigated the effect of HDAC8 deletion on the expression of genes involved in signaling pathways.

Materials and methods: In this study, CRISPR technology was used to knockout the HDAC8 gene in MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines. For this purpose, two gRNAs were designed and cloned into the PX459 vector. The gRNA-containing vectors were transfected into the BC cell lines and then the effect of this deletion on the expression of genes involved in signaling pathway was determined using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

Results: Analysis of qRT-PCR results showed a reduction in the expression of studied genes in BC cell lines after deletion of the HDAC8 gene compared to untreated controls. Although this decline was not significant for FGF2 and FGFR1 genes, however the mTOR, IGF1R, INSR, VEGFA and VEGFR2 genes showed statistically significant reduction in the studied BC cell lines. In addition, the down-regulation of PDGFC and PDGFRA genes were only significant in the TNBC cell lines.

Conclusion: Overall, our study showed that HDAC8 can exert its oncogenic effects by altering the expression level of molecules involved in some signaling pathways, and inhibiting HDAC8 can revert these effects.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Histone deacetylase 8; Mammalian target of rapamycin; Signal pathway.