mRNA-sequencing of breast cancer subtypes and normal tissue

Goal: To define the digital transcriptome of three breast cancer subtypes (TNBC, Non-TNBC, and HER2-positive) using RNA-sequencing technology. To elucidate differentially expressed known and novel transcripts, alternatively spliced genes and differential isoforms and lastly expressed variants in our dataset. Method: Dr. Suzanne Fuqua (Baylor College of Medicine) provided the human breast cancer tissue RNA samples. All of the human samples were used in accordance with the IRB procedures of Baylor College of Medicine. The breast tumour types, TNBC, Non-TNBC and HER2-positive, were classified on the basis of immunohistochemical and RT-qPCR classification. Results: Comparative transcriptomic analyses elucidated differentially expressed transcripts between the three breast cancer groups, identifying several new modulators of breast cancer. We discovered subtype specific differentially spliced genes and splice isoforms not previously recognized in human transcriptome. Further, we showed that exon skip and intron retention are predominant splice events in breast cancer. In addition, we found that differential expression of primary transcripts and promoter switching are significantly deregulated in breast cancer compared to normal breast. We also report novel expressed variants, allelic prevalence and abundance, and coexpression with other variation, and splicing signatures. Additionally we describe novel SNPs and INDELs in cancer relevant genes with no prior reported association of point mutations with cancer mRNA profiles of 17 breast tumor samples of three different subtypes (TNBC, non-TNBC and HER2-positive) and normal human breast organoids (epithelium) samples (NBS) were sequenced using Illumina HiSeq.