GSE137467
Investigating the effects on the tumour and tumour environment transcriptome, of inhibiting PKC in conjunction with Docetaxel treatment [RNA-seq]
The breast tumour microenvironment (TME) includes fibroblasts, adipocytes, inflammatory and immune cells. While treatment of tumours with chemotherapeutic agents such as Docetaxel, leads to apoptosis of tumour cells, it can also have consequences for the cellular makeup and transcriptional profile of the TME and these, like increased epithelial mesenchymal transition can promote undesirable consequences, such as Cancer Stem Cell development. PKC-theta may have a role in these undesired effects. To be able to examine the effects of co-treatment of Docetaxel with an inhibitor of PKC-theta, we performed RNA-seq on tumours from mice injected with the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. We then separated reads mapped to the human and mouse genomes in silico, creating tumour and TME transcriptomes for control, Docetaxel, PKC-theta inhibitor and combination treated mice. Separation of the tumour and TME profiles illustrated a role for PKC-theta in the induction of a more basal-type transcriptome in the tumour, and of EMT in the TME. Overall design: 4 different treatments, 3 or 4 replicates, samples mapped to both human and mouse genomes.