Modeling Breast Cancer Using CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Engineering of Human Breast Organoids.

Abstract

Breast cancer is characterized by histological and functional heterogeneity, posing a clinical challenge for patient treatment. Emerging evidence suggests that the distinct subtypes reflect the repertoire of genetic alterations and the target cell. However, the precise initiating events that predispose normal epithelium to neoplasia are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that breast epithelial organoids can be generated from human reduction mammoplasties (12 out of 12 donors), thus creating a tool to study the clonal evolution of breast cancer. To recapitulate de novo oncogenesis, we exploited clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 for targeted knockout of four breast cancer-associated tumor suppressor genes (P53, PTEN, RB1, NF1) in mammary progenitor cells from six donors. Mutant organoids gained long-term culturing capacity and formed estrogen-receptor positive luminal tumors on transplantation into mice for one out of six P53/PTEN/RB1-mutated and three out of six P53/PTEN/RB1/NF1-mutated lines. These organoids responded to endocrine therapy or chemotherapy, supporting the potential utility of this model to enhance our understanding of the molecular events that culminate in specific subtypes of breast cancer.

• Authors: Johanna F Dekkers, James R Whittle, François Vaillant, Huei-Rong Chen, Caleb Dawson, Kevin Liu, Maarten H Geurts, Marco J Herold, Hans Clevers, Geoffrey J Lindeman, Jane E Visvader
• Journal: Journal of the National Cancer Institute (J Natl Cancer Inst) Vol. 112 Issue 5 Pg. 540-544 (05 01 2020) ISSN: 1460-2105 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 31589320 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected].

Chemical References

• RB1 protein, human
• Retinoblastoma Binding Proteins
• TP53 protein, human
• Tumor Suppressor Protein p53
• Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
• PTEN Phosphohydrolase
• PTEN protein, human

Topics

• Animals
• Breast (cytology, physiology)
• Breast Neoplasms (genetics, pathology)
• CRISPR-Cas Systems
• Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
• Female
• Gene Editing (methods)
• Gene Knockout Techniques
• Genes, p53
• Heterografts
• Humans
• Mice, Inbred NOD
• Mice, SCID
• Organoids
• PTEN Phosphohydrolase (genetics)
• Retinoblastoma Binding Proteins (genetics)
• Tissue Engineering (methods)
• Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 (genetics)
• Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases (genetics)