Identification of a novel FAS/ER-alpha fusion transcript expressed in human cancer cells

A semi-nested reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied to evaluate the presence of estrogen receptor-alpha (ER-alpha) in h uman prostate cancer cells. Unexpectedly, a novel fatty acid synthase (FAS) /ER-alpha fusion transcript was identified, in which the N-terminus of FAS was fused in-frame with the C-terminus of ER-alpha. The existence of the FA S/ER-alpha transcript was further confirmed by RT-PCR analysis using variou s sets of amplification primers and different reverse-transcribed primers i n the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide to eliminate the secondary structure o f RNA. The predicted FAS/ER-alpha protein would contain largely domain I of FAS and the entire ligand binding domain of ER-alpha. The FAS/ER-alpha was expressed in a variety of human cancer cell lines including prostate, brea st, cervical and bladder cancer cell lines. Our data suggest that the prese nce of FAS/ER-alpha. may complicate the FAS and the ER-alpha signalling pat hway. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.