Co-regulation and function of <i>FOXM1</i>/<i>RHNO1</i> bidirectional genes in cancer.

Barger, Carter J; Chee, Linda; Albahrani, Mustafa; Munoz-Trujillo, Catalina; Boghean, Lidia; Branick, Connor; Odunsi, Kunle; Drapkin, Ronny et al. · Elife · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The FOXM1 transcription factor is an oncoprotein and a top biomarker of poor prognosis in human cancer. Overexpression and activation of FOXM1 is frequent in high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC), the most common and lethal form of human ovarian cancer, and is linked to copy number gains at chromosome 12p13.33. We show that <i>FOXM1</i> is co-amplified and co-expressed with <i>RHNO1</i>, a gene involved in the ATR-Chk1 signaling pathway that functions in the DNA replication stress response. We demonstrate that <i>FOXM1</i> and <i>RHNO1</i> are head-to-head (i.e., bidirectional) genes (BDG) regulated by a bidirectional promoter (BDP) (named F/R-BDP). FOXM1 and RHNO1 each promote oncogenic phenotypes in HGSC cells, including clonogenic growth, DNA homologous recombination repair, and poly-ADP ribosylase inhibitor resistance. FOXM1 and RHNO1 are one of the first examples of oncogenic BDG, and therapeutic targeting of FOXM1/RHNO1 BDG is a potential therapeutic approach for ovarian and other cancers.

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