Gene silencing

Cancer research

Biochemistry

X-inactivation

Biology

Gene

Cancer

Metastasis

X chromosome

Breast cancer

XIST

Internal medicine

Brain metastasis

Medicine

Cancer Research

Up to 30% of patients with metastatic breast cancer eventually develop brain metastasis, yet the pathologic mechanism behind this development remains poorly understood. Here, we profiled long noncoding RNAs in brain metastatic tumors from patients with breast cancer and found that the X-inactive-specific transcript (XIST) was significantly downregulated in these tissues. XIST expression levels inversely correlated with brain metastasis, but not with bone metastasis in patients. Silencing of XIST preferentially promoted brain metastatic growth of XIST

Loss of XIST in Breast Cancer Activates MSN-c-Met and Reprograms Microglia via Exosomal miRNA to Promote Brain Metastasis