VBI Researchers Develop Method for Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery

Researchers from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have developed and evaluated a one-step bioanalytical approach that allows them to profile complex cellular extracts of proteins. The method has allowed the scientists to look at how the levels of proteins change in breast cancer cells when they are treated with hormones or cancer drugs like tamoxifen.

Assistant Professor Iuliana Lazar, along with Professor Ina Hoeschele and Postdoctoral Associate Jenny Armenta, developed the method, which uses proteomic technologies for fast biomarker fingerprinting in complex cellular extracts.

At the heart of the method are three developments – A data acquisition strategy that permits the analysis of different cell states and replicates; an advanced way to filter or process the data; and a novel statistical method that allows the experimental data to be checked and their relevance confirmed. The team used the method for proteomic profiling of MCF-7 breast cancer cells cultured in estradiol, a steroid hormone, and tamoxifen, a non-steroidal drug commonly prescribed in hormonal breast cancer therapy. The work resulted in the identification of 16 differentially expressed proteins, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the method for biomarker discovery and also allowed for the establishment of a link between the proteins and certain cancer-related biological processes, such as cell proliferation, cell death, tumor development, and metastasis.