Effect of BCAT1 depletion on sensitivity to Etoposide in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells

High levels of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) transaminase 1 (Bcat1) have been associated with adverse prognosis and drug resistance in several cancer types. However, the mechanistic role of Bcat1 in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) development is ill defined.We determined the effects of BCAT1 depletion on cellular sensitivity to DNA damaging agents (etoposide). Overall design: To study the effects of BCAT1 depletion on cellular sensitivity to DNA damaging agents (etoposide), we performed gene expression profiling by mRNA-seq in CCRF-CEM T-ALL cells depleted of BCAT1 by shRNA. CCRF-CEM cells were transduced with control or two BCAT1-targeting shRNAs (#223, #329) and treated with etoposide (1uM) or vehicle (DMSO) for 24h.