c-Myb/MYB is an established and key player in hematopoietic malignancies but more recently a strong case for c-Myb as an oncogene in breast cancer has emerged. c-Myb and its transcriptional target genes have direct bearing on tumour initiation and progression and thus this has opened new opportunities to the development of therapeutic approaches in a range of cancer types with the aim of treating cancer at its various stages. In this study, the requirement of c-Myb during mammary gland tumourigenesis is being examined. In addition a direct therapeutic approach to targeting c-Myb-driven gene grp78/GRP78 in the context of primary and metastatic breast cancer was assessed. / The first aim of this study is to examine the expression of c-Myb during normal mammary gland development. The expression of c-Myb is extensively characterised in a temporal and spatial fashion. Nuclear staining of c-Myb by immunohistochemisty was found to be most elaborately expressed in the ductal epithelium during early mammary gland development. Mouse mammary gland lacking c-myb showed disorganised ductal structure in virgin mice, but did not affect subsequent pregnancy and lactation. / To extend the view that c-Myb is involved in mammary tumourigenesis c-myb-transduced immortalised mammary epithelial cells and two mammary tumour prone transgenic mouse models were examined. NMuMG cells transduced with c-myb showed enhanced proliferation and reduced Annexin V staining consistent with the protection from apoptosis. This reduced apoptosis is consistent with, and perhaps contingent upon, the elevated expression observed for bcl-2 and grp78. The data assembled by expression studies raised the possibility that c-Myb is essential for the establishment of mammary gland tumor in both MMTV-Neu and MMTV-PyMT spontaneous mammary gland tumor models. Loss of c-Myb expression in these models significantly delayed and in most instances completely abolished the onset of mammary gland tumours in both models. Preliminary evidence also indicated that Stat3 phosphorylation may underpin the elevated c-Myb expression in mouse mammary tumour cells. / The focus of my thesis then shifted to examining ways to exploit elevated c-Myb target gene GRP78 expression on the cell surface of mammary tumour cells. To do this I employed a GRP78 binding pro-apoptotic chimera peptide that specifically binds to GRP78 where I examined its efficacy against primary and metastatic breast cancer models. My results demonstrated the anti-tumour activity of the GRP78-chimera peptide both in vitro and in vivo. More importantly, the peptide is also effective at prolonging disease-free survival in mice with established metastatic disease. / Evidence obtained within these studies suggests that c-Myb plays an important role in mammary gland development and tumourgenesis. Although it may be difficult to directly target c-Myb in malignant disease, alternative anti-tumoural therapy may be developed against c-Myb-regulated target genes that are also implicated in mammary tumours. Collectively my thesis studies have advanced our understanding of c-Myb in mammary cancer initiation, progression and as a direct or indirect therapeutic target.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/270045 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Miao, Yu Rebecca |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Restricted Access: Abstract and Citation Only |
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