Epigenetic profiles capturing breast cancer stemness for triple negative breast cancer control

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) contain a higher percentage of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) than the other subtypes and lack effective yet safe-targeted therapies. We would like to unveil genes relevant to the therapeutic control of breast cancer stemness at the epigenetic level. We sequenced the transcriptome of BCSCs isolated from TNBCs, identified genes differentially expressed in these cells and subjected to DNA methylation and established the Bayesian network as well as interactions out of them. We presented a core epigenetic BCSC gene panel consisting of eight genes that can be used for BCSCs and TNBCs identification, and revealed the dominant roles of and in orchestrating breast cancer heterogeneity and stemness.