scholarly journals Circular HER2 RNA positive triple negative breast cancer is sensitive to Pertuzumab

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Li ◽  
Maoguang Ma ◽  
Xuesong Yang ◽  
Maolei Zhang ◽  
Jingyan Luo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains the most challenging breast cancer subtype so far. Specific therapeutic approaches have rarely achieved clinical improvements in treatment of TNBC patients and effective molecular biomarkers are largely unknown. Methods We used paired TNBC samples and high throughput RNA sequencing to identify differentially expressed circRNAs. Sucrose gradient polysome fractionation assay, antibody and Mass spectra were used to validate active circRNA translation. The novel protein function was validated in vitro and in vivo by gain or loss of function assays. Mechanistic results were concluded by immunoprecipitation analyses and kinase activity assay. Results Circular HER2 RNA (circ-HER2) encoded a novel protein, HER2–103. Unexpectedly, while HER2 mRNA and protein were barely detected, circ-HER2/HER2–103 was expressed in ~ 30% TNBC clinical samples. Circ-HER2/HER2–103 positive TNBC patients harbored worse overall prognosis than circ-HER2/HER2–103 negative patients. Knockdown circ-HER2 inhibited TNBC cells proliferation, invasion and tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo, suggesting the critical role of circ-HER2/HER2–103 in TNBC tumorigenicity. Mechanistically, HER2–103 promoted homo/hetero dimerization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/HER3, sustained AKT phosphorylation and downstream malignant phenotypes. Furthermore, HER2–103 shared most of the same amino acid sequences as HER2 CR1 domain which could be antagonized by Pertuzumab, a clinical used HER2 antibody. Pertuzumab markedly attenuated in vivo tumorigenicity of circ-HER2/HER2–103 expressing TNBC cells but showed no effects in circ-HER2/HER2–103 negative TNBC cells. Conclusion Our results not only demonstrated that certain TNBCs were not truly ‘HER2 negative’ but also highlighted the clinical implications of Pertuzumab in circ-HER2/HER2–103 expressing TNBC patients.

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1186-1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leire Arreal ◽  
Marco Piva ◽  
Sonia Fernández ◽  
Ajinkya Revandkar ◽  
Ariane Schaub- Clerigué ◽  
...  

Abstract Oncogene addiction postulates that the survival and growth of certain tumor cells is dependent upon the activity of one oncogene, despite their multiple genetic and epigenetic abnormalities. This phenomenon provides a foundation for molecular targeted therapy and a rationale for oncogene-based stratification. We have previously reported that the Promyelocytic Leukemia protein (PML) is upregulated in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and it regulates cancer-initiating cell function, thus suggesting that this protein can be therapeutically targeted in combination with PML-based stratification. However, the effects of PML perturbation on the bulk of tumor cells remained poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that TNBC cells are addicted to the expression of this nuclear protein. PML inhibition led to a remarkable growth arrest combined with features of senescence in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, the growth arrest and senescence were associated to a decrease in MYC and PIM1 kinase levels, with the subsequent accumulation of CDKN1B (p27), a trigger of senescence. In line with this notion, we found that PML is associated to the promoter regions of MYC and PIM1, consistent with their direct correlation in breast cancer specimens. Altogether, our results provide a feasible explanation for the functional similarities of MYC, PIM1, and PML in TNBC and encourage further study of PML targeting strategies for the treatment of this breast cancer subtype.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Li ◽  
Ruan Wu ◽  
Ke Li ◽  
Wenhui Yuan ◽  
Chuqian Zeng ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) escape from immune-mediated destruction was associated with immunosuppressive responses that dampened the activation of tumor-infiltrating CD8 and γδ T cells. TNBC had a higher level of programmed cell death 1-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), compared with other breast cancer subtypes. But, clinical studies have revealed that the response rate of PD-1/PD-L1 antibody for TNBC treatment was relatively low. However, the antitumor responses of human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells or IDO inhibitor in TNBC treatment are unknown. In this study, we found that IDO1 and PD-L1 were highly expressed in TNBC patients. Analysis of the clinical samples demonstrated that Vγ9Vδ2 T cells became exhausted in triple-negative breast cancer patients. And Vγ9Vδ2 T cells combined with αPD-L1 could not further enhance their antitumor responses in vitro and in vivo. However, Vγ9Vδ2 T cells combined with IDO1 inhibitor 1-Methyl-L-tryptophan (1-MT) or Lindrostat showed substantial inhibitory effects on MDA-MB-231 tumor cells. Finally, we found that IDO1 inhibitor promoted T cell’s cytotoxicity by enhancing perforin production. These results converged to suggest the potential application of Vγ9Vδ2 T cells treated with IDO1 inhibitor for TNBC therapy.


Author(s):  
Lie Chen ◽  
Xiaofei Miao ◽  
Chenchen Si ◽  
An Qin ◽  
Ye Zhang ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has high malignancy and limited treatment, so novel molecular therapeutic targets are urgently needed. Cyclin E1 (CCNE1) promotes progression in breast cancer, but its role and inherent mechanisms in TNBC are yet to be elucidated. Competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) may be a potential mechanism. CCNE1 was selected though bioinformatics and clinical samples, and cell lines were utilized to verify CCNE1 expression by qRT-PCR and western blot. Predicting tools provided potential miR-195-5p and SENP3-EIF4A1 and tested from multilevel. Functional experiments were conducted in vitro and in vivo. Luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation experiments were implemented to ensure the interaction between miR-195-5p and SENP3-EIF4A1/CCNE1 in TNBC. Bioinformatics found DNA hypermethylation of miR-195-5p and preliminarily verified. Mechanistically, SENP3-EIF4A1-miR-195-5p-associated ceRNA could drive TNBC progress though regulating CCNE1. DNA hypermethylation of miR-195-5p might be another reason. In summary, SENP3-EIF4A1-miR-195-5p-CCNE1 axis promotes TNBC progress and may contribute to the novel diagnosis and treatment of TNBC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiyan Su ◽  
Xiaohong Chen ◽  
Yuanjie Xiao ◽  
Dan Li ◽  
Muxia Li ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has been acknowledged as an aggressive disease with worst prognosis, which requires endeavor to develop novel therapeutic agents. Bruceae fructus oil (BO), a vegetable oil derived from the fruit of Brucea javanica (L.) Merr., is an approved marketable drug for the treatment of cancer in China for several decades. Despite that the anti–breast cancer activity of several quassinoids derived from B. javanica has been found, it was the first time that the potential of BO against TNBC was revealed. Although BO had no cytotoxicity on TNBC cell lines in vitro, the oral administration of BO exhibited a gut microbiota–dependent tumor suppression without toxicity on the non-targeted organs in vivo. By metagenomics and untargeted metabolomics, it was found that BO not only altered the composition and amino acid metabolism function of gut microbiota but also regulated the host’s amino acid profile, which was in accordance with the metabolism alternation in gut microbiota. Moreover, the activity of mTOR in tumor was promoted by BO treatment as indicated by the phosphorylation of 4E-binding protein 1 (4E-BP1) and ribosomal protein S6, and hyper-autophagy was consequently restrained. By contrast, the failure of tumor suppression by BO under pseudo germ-free (PGF) condition came with indistinctive changes in autophagy and mTOR activity, implying the critical role of the gut microbiota in BO’s anticancer activity. The present study highlighted a promising application of BO against breast cancer with novel efficacy and safety.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Lepland ◽  
Alessio Malfanti ◽  
Uku Haljasorg ◽  
Eliana Asciutto ◽  
Monica Pickholz ◽  
...  

Abstract Chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive breast cancer subtype with a poor prognosis. In many solid tumours, M2-skewed tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) are known to promote progression, immunosuppression, relapse, and dissemination of the malignant disease. Although TAM depletion has been explored as an anticancer strategy, the currently available TAM depleting compounds suffer from poor efficacy and dose-limiting side effects. Here, we develop of a novel TAM-depleting agent that specifically targets CD206+ macrophages and show that it is efficacious as an anti-TNBC agent and well tolerated. This new TAM-depleting compound, called “OximUNO”, is a star-shaped polyglutamate decorated with the CD206-targeting peptide mUNO and carrying doxorubicin through a pH-responsive linker. In the orthotopic and experimental metastases of TNBC, fluorescent reporter mUNO-guided polyglutamate construct homed to CD206+ macrophages in the primary cancer lesions and at the sites of metastases. OximUNO displayed enhanced cytotoxicity towards primary M2 macrophages in vitro and exhibited no acute liver or kidney toxicity in vivo. In TNBC mouse models, OximUNO reduced the progression of primary breast cancer lesions and metastatic dissemination of malignant cells. Treatment with OximUNO had an immunomodulatory effect on the tumour microenvironment: besides reducing the number of CD206+ TAMs, it resulted in increased ratio of the CD8/FOXP3 expression. These studies suggest the potential utility of OximUNO based CD206+ TAM depletion strategies for the treatment of TNBC, and possibly, other types of solid tumours.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. e002383
Author(s):  
Jin-Li Wei ◽  
Si-Yu Wu ◽  
Yun-Song Yang ◽  
Yi Xiao ◽  
Xi Jin ◽  
...  

PurposeRegulatory T cells (Tregs) heavily infiltrate triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and their accumulation is affected by the metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells. In the present study, we sought to identify cancer cell-intrinsic metabolic modulators correlating with Tregs infiltration in TNBC.Experimental designUsing the RNA-sequencing data from our institute (n=360) and the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium TNBC cohort (n=320), we calculated the abundance of Tregs in each sample and evaluated the correlation between gene expression levels and Tregs infiltration. Then, in vivo and in vitro experiments were performed to verify the correlation and explore the underlying mechanism.ResultsWe revealed that GTP cyclohydrolase 1 (GCH1) expression was positively correlated with Tregs infiltration and high GCH1 expression was associated with reduced overall survival in TNBC. In vivo and in vitro experiments showed that GCH1 increased Tregs infiltration, decreased apoptosis, and elevated the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)-positive fraction. Metabolomics analysis indicated that GCH1 overexpression reprogrammed tryptophan metabolism, resulting in L-5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) accumulation in the cytoplasm accompanied by kynurenine accumulation and tryptophan reduction in the supernatant. Subsequently, aryl hydrocarbon receptor, activated by 5-HTP, bound to the promoter of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) and thus enhanced the transcription of IDO1. Furthermore, the inhibition of GCH1 by 2,4-diamino-6-hydroxypyrimidine (DAHP) decreased IDO1 expression, attenuated tumor growth, and enhanced the tumor response to PD-1 blockade immunotherapy.ConclusionsTumor-cell-intrinsic GCH1 induced immunosuppression through metabolic reprogramming and IDO1 upregulation in TNBC. Inhibition of GCH1 by DAHP serves as a potential immunometabolic strategy in TNBC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia M. Saraiva ◽  
Carlha Gutiérrez-Lovera ◽  
Jeannette Martínez-Val ◽  
Sainza Lores ◽  
Belén L. Bouzo ◽  
...  

AbstractTriple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is known for being very aggressive, heterogeneous and highly metastatic. The standard of care treatment is still chemotherapy, with adjacent toxicity and low efficacy, highlighting the need for alternative and more effective therapeutic strategies. Edelfosine, an alkyl-lysophospholipid, has proved to be a promising therapy for several cancer types, upon delivery in lipid nanoparticles. Therefore, the objective of this work was to explore the potential of edelfosine for the treatment of TNBC. Edelfosine nanoemulsions (ET-NEs) composed by edelfosine, Miglyol 812 and phosphatidylcholine as excipients, due to their good safety profile, presented an average size of about 120 nm and a neutral zeta potential, and were stable in biorelevant media. The ability of ET-NEs to interrupt tumor growth in TNBC was demonstrated both in vitro, using a highly aggressive and invasive TNBC cell line, and in vivo, using zebrafish embryos. Importantly, ET-NEs were able to penetrate through the skin barrier of MDA-MB 231 xenografted zebrafish embryos, into the yolk sac, leading to an effective decrease of highly aggressive and invasive tumoral cells’ proliferation. Altogether the results demonstrate the potential of ET-NEs for the development of new therapeutic approaches for TNBC.


Oncogene ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhih-Kai Pan ◽  
Cheng-Han Lin ◽  
Yao-Lung Kuo ◽  
Luo-Ping Ger ◽  
Hui-Chuan Cheng ◽  
...  

AbstractBrian metastasis, which is diagnosed in 30% of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients with metastasis, causes poor survival outcomes. Growing evidence has characterized miRNAs involving in breast cancer brain metastasis; however, currently, there is a lack of prognostic plasma-based indicator for brain metastasis. In this study, high level of miR-211 can act as brain metastatic prognostic marker in vivo. High miR-211 drives early and specific brain colonization through enhancing trans-blood–brain barrier (BBB) migration, BBB adherence, and stemness properties of tumor cells and causes poor survival in vivo. SOX11 and NGN2 are the downstream targets of miR-211 and negatively regulate miR-211-mediated TNBC brain metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Most importantly, high miR-211 is correlated with poor survival and brain metastasis in TNBC patients. Our findings suggest that miR-211 may be used as an indicator for TNBC brain metastasis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. eabc4897
Author(s):  
Catríona M. Dowling ◽  
Kate E. R. Hollinshead ◽  
Alessandra Di Grande ◽  
Justin Pritchard ◽  
Hua Zhang ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer without a targeted form of therapy. Unfortunately, up to 70% of patients with TNBC develop resistance to treatment. A known contributor to chemoresistance is dysfunctional mitochondrial apoptosis signaling. We set up a phenotypic small-molecule screen to reveal vulnerabilities in TNBC cells that were independent of mitochondrial apoptosis. Using a functional genetic approach, we identified that a “hit” compound, BAS-2, had a potentially similar mechanism of action to histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC). An in vitro HDAC inhibitor assay confirmed that the compound selectively inhibited HDAC6. Using state-of-the-art acetylome mass spectrometry, we identified glycolytic substrates of HDAC6 in TNBC cells. We confirmed that inhibition or knockout of HDAC6 reduced glycolytic metabolism both in vitro and in vivo. Through a series of unbiased screening approaches, we have identified a previously unidentified role for HDAC6 in regulating glycolytic metabolism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Yehui Zhou ◽  
Liang Jiang ◽  
Linlin Lu ◽  
Tiantian Dai ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Chemotherapeutic resistance is the main cause of clinical treatment failure and poor prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). There is no research on chemotherapeutic resistance in TNBC from the perspective of circular RNAs (circRNAs). Methods TNBC-related circRNAs were identified based on the GSE101124 dataset. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to detect the expression level of circWAC in TNBC cells and tissues. Then, in vitro and in vivo functional experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of circWAC in TNBC. Results CircWAC was highly expressed in TNBC and was associated with worse TNBC patient prognosis. Subsequently, it was verified that downregulation of circWAC can increase the sensitivity of TNBC cells to paclitaxel (PTX) in vitro and in vivo. The expression of miR-142 was negatively correlated with circWAC in TNBC. The interaction between circWAC and miR-142 in TNBC cells was confirmed by RNA immunoprecipitation assays, luciferase reporter assays, pulldown assays, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Mechanistically, circWAC acted as a miR-142 sponge to relieve the repressive effect of miR-142 on its target WWP1. In addition, the overall survival of TNBC patients with high expression of miR-142 was significantly better than that of patients with low expression of miR-142, and these results were verified in public databases. MiR-142 regulated the expression of WWP1 and the activity of the PI3K/AKT pathway. It was confirmed that WWP1 is highly expressed in TNBC and that the prognosis of patients with high WWP1 expression is poor. Conclusions CircWAC/miR-142/WWP1 form a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network to regulate PI3K/AKT signaling activity in TNBC cells and affect the chemosensitivity of cells.


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