skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Towards replacement of animal tests with in vitro assays: a gene expression biomarker predicts in vitro and in vivo estrogen receptor activity

Journal Article · · Chemico-Biological Interactions
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3]
  1. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)
  2. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)

High-throughput transcriptomics (HTTr) has the potential to support efforts to reduce or replace some animal tests. In past studies, we described a computational approach utilizing a gene expression biomarker consisting of 46 genes to predict estrogen receptor (ER) activity after chemical exposure in ER-positive human breast cancer cells including the MCF-7 cell line. We hypothesized that the biomarker model could identify ER activities of chemicals examined by Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) Tier 1 screening assays in which transcript profiles of the same chemicals were examined in MCF-7 cells. For the 62 chemicals examined including 5 chemicals examined in this study using RNA-Seq, the ER biomarker model accuracy was 1) 97% for in vitro reference chemicals, 2) 76–85% for guideline uterotrophic assays, and 3) 87–88% for guideline and nonguideline uterotrophic assays. For the same chemicals, these accuracies were similar or slightly better than those of the ToxCast ER model based on 18 in vitro assays. The performance of the ER biomarker model indicates that HTTr interpreted using the ER biomarker correctly identifies active and inactive ER reference chemicals. Finally, as part of the HTTr screening program the approach could rapidly identify chemicals with potential ER bioactivities for additional screening and testing.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); USEPA
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0014664
OSTI ID:
1981556
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2274996
Journal Information:
Chemico-Biological Interactions, Vol. 363, Issue C; ISSN 0009-2797
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (39)

Membrane estrogen receptor-α levels in MCF-7 breast cancer cells predict cAMP and proliferation responses journal February 2004
Gene Expression Changes in the Immature Rat Uterus: Effects of Uterotrophic and Sub-Uterotrophic Doses of Bisphenol A journal December 2004
The Connectivity Map: a new tool for biomedical research journal January 2007
The Alginate Immobilization of Metabolic Enzymes Platform Retrofits an Estrogen Receptor Transactivation Assay With Metabolic Competence journal September 2020
The role of xenoestrogenic compounds in the development of breast cancer journal August 2006
On selecting a minimal set of in vitro assays to reliably determine estrogen agonist activity journal December 2017
Ontology-Based Meta-Analysis of Global Collections of High-Throughput Public Data journal September 2010
Identification of novel activators of the metal responsive transcription factor (MTF-1) using a gene expression biomarker in a microarray compendium journal July 2020
The Next Generation Blueprint of Computational Toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency journal March 2019
Mining a human transcriptome database for chemical modulators of NRF2 journal September 2020
Evaluation of estrogen receptor alpha activation by glyphosate-based herbicide constituents journal October 2017
Identification of Modulators of the Nuclear Receptor Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α (PPARα) in a Mouse Liver Gene Expression Compendium journal February 2015
Moving Toward Integrating Gene Expression Profiling Into High-Throughput Testing: A Gene Expression Biomarker Accurately Predicts Estrogen Receptor α Modulation in a Microarray Compendium journal February 2016
The molecular mechanisms underlying the pharmacological actions of ER modulators: implications for new drug discovery in breast cancer journal December 2010
A trichostatin A expression signature identified by TempO-Seq targeted whole transcriptome profiling journal May 2017
A Gene Expression Biomarker Predicts Heat Shock Factor 1 Activation in a Gene Expression Compendium journal June 2021
Development and Validation of a Computational Model for Androgen Receptor Activity journal December 2016
Relationship between the results of in vitro receptor binding assay to human estrogen receptor α and in vivo uterotrophic assay: Comparative study with 65 selected chemicals journal February 2008
Estrogen receptor beta as a novel target of androgen receptor action in breast cancer cell lines journal February 2014
Cross-platform comparability of microarray technology: Intra-platform consistency and appropriate data analysis procedures are essential journal July 2005
High-Throughput Transcriptomics Platform for Screening Environmental Chemicals journal February 2021
Analysis of estrogen receptor isoforms and variants in breast cancer cell lines journal January 2011
Variability in the Uterotrophic Response Assay (An in Vivo Estrogenic Response Assay) in Untreated Control and Positive Control (Des-Dp, 2.5 äG/Kg, Bid) Wistar and Sprague-Dawley Rats journal January 1998
Metabolism, oral bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of chemopreventive kaempferol in rats journal October 2009
Development and validation of the TGx-HDACi transcriptomic biomarker to detect histone deacetylase inhibitors in human TK6 cells journal March 2021
A Curated Database of Rodent Uterotrophic Bioactivity journal May 2016
In Vitro and Modelling Approaches to Risk Assessment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ToxCast Programme journal April 2014
The Connectivity Map: Using Gene-Expression Signatures to Connect Small Molecules, Genes, and Disease journal September 2006
Screening Chemicals for Estrogen Receptor Bioactivity Using a Computational Model journal June 2015
Identification of potential endocrine disrupting chemicals using gene expression biomarkers journal October 2019
Screening a mouse liver gene expression compendium identifies modulators of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) journal October 2015
Grouping 34 Chemicals Based on Mode of Action Using Connectivity Mapping journal March 2016
Integrated Model of Chemical Perturbations of a Biological Pathway Using 18 In Vitro High-Throughput Screening Assays for the Estrogen Receptor journal August 2015
Editor’s Highlight: Transcriptome Profiling Reveals Bisphenol A Alternatives Activate Estrogen Receptor Alpha in Human Breast Cancer Cells journal June 2017
Correction to Screening Chemicals for Estrogen Receptor Bioactivity Using a Computational Model journal August 2017
A Set of Six Gene Expression Biomarkers Identify Rat Liver Tumorigens in Short-term Assays journal June 2020
Moderated estimation of fold change and dispersion for RNA-seq data with DESeq2 journal December 2014
Identification of Chemical Modulators of the Constitutive Activated Receptor (CAR) in a Gene Expression Compendium journal January 2015
A Gene Expression Biomarker Identifies Chemical Modulators of Estrogen Receptor α in an MCF-7 Microarray Compendium journal January 2021