A modular lentiviral system for multiplexed gene perturbation and functional analysis suggests interdependence of hormone receptors in breast cancer growth in vivo

A modular lentiviral system enables multiplexed gene perturbation revealing hormone receptor interdependence in breast cancer growth in vivo.

• Why it matters: Understanding gene functions in complex biological systems like cancer requires precise, flexible tools that can operate in physiologically relevant models, which are often limited by current methods' complexity and cost.
• What they did: The authors developed a doxycycline-inducible, modular lentiviral vector system integrating gene overexpression, shRNA knockdown, and CRISPR/Cas9 regulation, with over 20 customizable features, tested in breast cancer xenografts.
• The result: The system uncovered that ER+ breast cancer cells depend on androgen, estrogen, and progesterone receptors for growth in vivo, enabling high-content, multiplexed functional studies and advancing in vivo gene analysis.