Transcription profiling by array of human HeLa cells with M1775R and A1789T BRCA1 missense mutations

BRCA1 (breast cancer 1, early onset) mutations confer a high breast and ovarian cancer risk. Most of BRCA1 cancer-predisposing mutations originate truncated proteins, but missense mutations have also been detected in familial breast and ovarian cancer patients. These variants are rare and their role in cancer predisposition is often difficult to ascertain. Our purpose in the present work was to study the molecular mechanisms affected in human cells by two BRCA1 missense variants both located in the second BRCA1 BRCT domain, M1775R and A1789T. These variants were isolated from familial breast cancer patients and their role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer was also investigated by a study previously performed by our group in yeast cells. Here we present a microarray study to compare the expression profiles of HeLa cells transfected with these two variants and HeLa cells transfected with BRCA1 wild type. Data analysis was performed by evaluating three comparisons: M1775R versus wild-type (M1775RvsWT-contrast), A1789T versus wild-type (A1789TvsWT-contrast) and the mutated BRCT domain versus wild-type (MutvsWT-contrast), obtained by considering the two variants as a unique BRCT mutation. We found 173 differentially expressed genes in MutvsWT-contrast, 201 in M1775RvsWT-contrast and 313 in A1789TvsWT-contrast. Our results showed that the considered BRCA1 variants had an impact on cell processes often deregulated in cancerogenesis, such as cell cycle progression and DNA damage response and repair. Thus, our study further supports the putative role in the pathogenesis of cancer of the M1775R and A1789T BRCA1 variants from a molecular point of view.