A lung cancer specific BACH1 transcriptional signature for identifying novel BACH1 inhibitors [ChIP-Seq]

The transcription factor BACH1 is a transcriptional repressor with a central role regulating oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory pathways, emerging as a promising therapeutic target for multiple conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders, ischemia-reperfusion injuries, sickle cell disease and cancer. In the field of cancer BACH1 has gained significant attention, with BACH1 overexpression correlating with poor prognosis and metastasis across various cancer types; however, despite this increasing relevance of BACH1, no universal pro-metastatic mechanism or transcriptional signature for BACH1 has been identified which is a major limitation for this growing field. To fill this gap, in this study we performed RNA-Seq coupled with ChIP-Seq in BACH1 proficient and deficient lung cancer cells and identified a set of common BACH1 directly regulated genes, which we thoroughly validated in a large panel of cancer cells. This novel lung cancer BACH1 transcriptional signature is highly sensitive and specific to BACH1 perturbations (both genetic and pharmacological) and does not respond to NRF2 modulation, underscoring its specificity. This signature not only represents a robust surrogate for BACH1 activity, but we also provide evidence of its potential value as a tool to i) identify novel BACH1 inhibitors; and ii) provide insights into BACH1’s pro-metastatic role.