Deregulation of Minor Introns Splicing in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a significant cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide, including in Qatar. Tumors form due to mutations in genes, including those involved in splicing – the process of removing introns from messenger RNA (mRNA). Minor introns, a small fraction of introns, are linked to critical cellular functions relevant to cancer. They're processed by the minor spliceosome and genes containing minor introns play roles in DNA replication, repair, and transcription. 

This research aims to understand how breast cancer cells alter minor intron splicing to develop aggressive cancer traits. It focuses on U6atac, a key component of minor spliceosomes, and hypothesizes that breast cancer cells modify minor intron splicing to produce essential protein isoforms for aggressive cancer traits. The project aims to quantify and analyze the efficiency of minor introns under various doses of U6atac inhibition in breast cancer cell lines. It also seeks to understand why certain genes behave differently when splicing is inhibited and explore motifs within minor introns for potential differences.

Our research aims to achieve several goals:
1. We want to understand why some breast cancer cell types are more sensitive to interference with the splicing process than others. We'll investigate how disrupting splicing affects the growth and survival of different types of breast cancer cells.
2. We aim to identify specific genes in breast cancer cells that are affected by the interference with the splicing process. By analyzing the genes involved, we hope to gain insights into how breast cancer cells respond to this interference.
3. We want to explore why some genes in breast cancer cells respond differently to interference with the splicing process compared to others. We'll look at different molecular pathways within the cells to understand these variations better.

Overall, our research seeks to unravel the complex relationship between minor intron splicing and breast cancer development. By understanding how breast cancer cells use this process, we hope to uncover new avenues for developing targeted treatments tailored to different types of breast cancer.