Characterizing the Functional Mechanisms of a Novel PTEN Long Non-Coding RNA in Breast Cancer

- Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women globally.
- Alterations in PTEN gene are identified as one of the causes of cancer.
- Previous studies have explored ways of PTEN reduction in cancer.
- This research discovered a novel mechanism of PTEN reduction in different breast cancer cell lines, specifically through inefficient splicing.
- The unspliced PTEN product is processed into a long non-coding RNA.
- This long non-coding RNA has an impact on cancer cell proliferation and does not seem to affect PTEN protein levels, or EMT markers.
- The behavioral mechanism into how the non-coding RNA works needs to be further explored.