BACKGROUND Approximately half of hereditary breast cancers have mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2. BRCA1 is a multifaceted tumor suppressor protein that has implications in processes such as cell cycle, transcription, DNA damage response and chromatin remodeling. This multifunctional nature of BRCA1 is achieved by exerting its many effects through modulation of transcription. Many cellular eve...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) protein inactivation in sporadic ovarian carcinoma (OC) is common and low BRCA1 expression is linked with platinum sensitivity. The clinical validation of BRCA1 as a prognostic marker in OC remains unresolved. PATIENTS AND METHODS In 251 patient samples from the NCIC CTG clinical trial, OV.16, BRCA1 protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry. ...

BRCA1 is a tumor suppressor protein involved in maintaining genomic integrity through multiple functions in DNA damage repair, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle checkpoint, and protein ubiquitination. The BRCA1-BARD1 RING complex has an E3 ubiquitin ligase function that plays essential roles in response to DNA damage repair. BRCA1-associated cancers have been shown to confer a hypersensiti...

Breast Cancer Type 1 Susceptibility Protein (BRCA1)-deficient cells have compromised DNA repair and are sensitive to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Despite initial responses, the development of resistance limits clinical efficacy. Mutations in the BRCA C-terminal (BRCT) domain of BRCA1 frequently create protein products unable to fold that are subject to protease-mediated degrad...

BACKGROUND Ovarian cancer is one of the most common hereditary cancers in women. Mutations in the BRCA1 gene increase a woman's risk of ovarian cancer. Testing for BRCA1 mutations is cumbersome and impractical for large populations. Therefore, we developed an efficient strategy to detect various types of BRCA1 dysfunction and also determined the relative frequency of BRCA1 dysfunction in ovaria...

The breast/ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 exerts its tumor suppressor function, at least in part, by participating in DNA repair and/or DNA damage-responsive pathways. BRCA1 protein is hyperphosphorylated following various DNA-damaging events. Here, we report that the ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein-related protein kinase (ATR) is involved in the phosphorylation of BRCA1 followi...

Inherited mutations in BRCA1 confer susceptibility to breast and ovarian neoplasms. However, the function of BRCA1 and the role of BRCA1 in noninherited cancer remain unknown. Characterization of alternately spliced forms of BRCA1 may identify functional regions; thus, we constructed expression vectors of BRCA1 and a splice variant lacking exon 11, designated BRCA1 delta 672-4095. Immunofluores...

BRCA1 acts as a tumour suppressor and germ-line mutations within this gene are found in a large proportion of families with breast cancer. The aim of our study was to unravel the mechanism of action of genistein, the major soy phytoestrogen, in BRCA1-mutant human breast cancer cell lines. Four breast cancer cell lines were studied for their response to genistein, three of them harbouring differ...

BRCA1 (Breast Cancer 1) has been implicated in a number of cellular processes, including transcription regulation, DNA damage repair and protein ubiquitination. We previously demonstrated that BRCA1 interacts with PABP1 (Poly(A)-Binding Protein 1) and that BRCA1 modulates protein synthesis through this interaction. To identify the mRNAs that are translationally regulated by BRCA1, we used a mic...

Numerous reports have revealed that the tumor suppressor BRCA1 may play an important role in DNA damage repair. BRCA1 is expressed and phosphorylated during cell cycle progression and after DNA damage. BRCA1 is hypophosphorylated in G0-G1 and probably during mitosis as well. Kinases known to phosphorylate BRCA1 include cyclin-dependent kinase 2, as well as ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) an...