Identification of transformation-related pathways in a breast epithelial cell model using a ribonomics approach.

Employing MCT-1 oncogene mediated transformation of immortalized breast epithelial MCF10A cells; we characterized the largely reciprocal association of these two RBPs with target mRNAs and their influence on protein expression vis-à-vis cellular transformation. Using a ribonomics approach, we identified mRNAs from cancer-related pathways whose association with AUF1 and/or HuR were altered when comparing immortalized with transformed MCF10A cells. Significantly, we were able to demonstrate that knockdown of HuR expression using RNA interference, reduced anchorage-independent growth capacity in transformed MCF10A cells as well as decreased protein expression of a number of validated target genes. Our data demonstrate that the global alterations in binding of HuR and AUF1 with target transcripts have a critical role in post-transcriptional regulation of genes encoding proteins involved in breast epithelial cell transformation. In this study, using a microarray approach we demonstrate that the dynamic global changes in association of two RBPs, HuR and AUF1, with cancer-related mRNAs have important influence on cell transformation in a MCT-1-mediated breast epithelial transformation model.