Abstract 1735: DNA demethylating agents have cell type-specific effects on viability and BRCA2 alternative splicing
Authors: Werner Jordan , Siddiqui Hiba , Syed Samiha , Khan Osman , Garabito Servando Casillas , Fackenthal James D. 
Published: March 2024

Introduction: BRCA2 is one of two principal tumor suppressors responsible for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC). Patients with strong family histories of breast/ovarian cancer may carry BRCA2 DNA sequence variants of unknown clinical significance (VUSs). To evaluate which of these VUSs may contribute to cancer risk by altering splicing patterns, naturally occurring BRCA2 mRNA alternate splicing events have been extensively characterized, but it is not yet known which if any of these alternate splicing events plays a role in BRCA2 function. One variant lacking exon 3 (∆3), which maintains the full length translational reading frame, lacks sequence encoding EMSY and PALB binding domains as well as transactivation function. Previous work has shown that, while some VUSs associated with increased levels of ∆3 in lymphoblastoid cell lines are not pathogenic, germline deletions that eliminate BRCA2 exon 3 are associated with increased breast cancer risk. It is therefore of interest to characterize the factors that influence the frequency of naturally occurring BRCA2 exon 3-skipping, including cell types and therapies. DNA demethylating agents are used as cancer therapy to promote expression of tumor suppressor genes that may be epigenetically silenced in tumors. However, DNA methylation has been shown to be more frequent in exonic than intronic regions of protein-coding genes, suggesting that methylation may play a role in recruiting spliceosomal components to nascent pre-mRNA. It is therefore of interest to determine whether genomic demethylation affects alternative splicing patterns. Here, we explore whether BRCA2 exon 3 alternative splicing patterns are altered by demethylating agents.

Methods: To determine whether DNA demethylating agents can alter the levels of ∆3, MCF7 and/or the non-cancer breast cell line MCF 10A was treated with 5-aza 2’-deoxycytidine (5-AzadC) or 5-Azacytidine (5-AzaC), and isoform-specific RT-PCR was used to compare relative levels of splice junctions containing or skipping exon 3.

Results and Conclusions: 1) While the IC50 for both 5-AzadC and 5-AzaC in MCF 10A was similar (less than 1 μM), MCF7 showed considerably more resistance to 5-AzaC than 5-AzadC (IC50 of ≥ 5 μM vs ≤ 0.2 μM). 2) 5-AzaC treatment reduces the proportion of MCF 10A cultures in apoptosis but does not increase the proportion of viable cells, indicating it causes cell death by some other means. 3) While both 5-AzaC and 5-AzadC reduce relative levels of ∆3 in MCF7, 5-azadC does not reduce relative levels of ∆3 in MCF 10A, suggesting there may be a cell type-specific splicing response to genomic demethylation therapies.

Citation Format: Jordan Werner, Hiba Siddiqui, Samiha Syed, Osman Khan, Servando Casillas Garabito, James D. Fackenthal. DNA demethylating agents have cell type-specific effects on viability and BRCA2 alternative splicing [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 1735.