Transcriptome Analysis of MDA-MB-231 Cells Treated with Fumosorinone Isolated from Insect Pathogenic Fungi

Background: In our previous study, we have isolated a new compound, named Fumosorinone (FU) from insect pathogenic fungi, and was found to inhibit proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms for FU effects on MDA-MB-231 cells. Methods: After MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with FU for 48h, RNA sequencing was used to identify the effect of FU on the transcriptome of MDA-MB-231 cells. The validation of the relative expression of the selective genes was done using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results: The transcriptome results showed that 2733 genes were differentially expressed between the untreated and the FU-treated cells, including 1614 up-regulated and 1119 down-regulated genes. The multiple genes are associated with cancer cell growth, migration, and invasion. Functional analysis identified multitude of pathways related to cancer, such as cell cycle, ECM receptor interaction, p53 signaling pathway. We selected 4 upregulated and 9 downregulated genes, which are associated with breast cancer to verify their expression using qRT-PCR. The validation showed that HSD3B1, ALOX5, AQP5, COL1A2, CCNB1, CCND1, VCAM-1, PTPN1 and PTPN11 were significantly downregulated while DUSPI, DUSP5, GADD45A, EGRI were upregulated in FU-treated MDA-MB-231cells. Conclusion: These aberrantly expressed genes and pathways may play pivotal roles in the anti-cancer activity of FU, and maybe potential targets of FU treatments for TNBC. Further investigations are required to evaluate the FU mechanisms of anti-cancer action in vivo.