Developing Breast Cancer Program at Xavier; Genomic and Proteomic Analysis of Signaling Pathways Involved in Xenohormone and MEK5 Regulation of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Despite the overall successes in breast cancer therapy, hormone-independent HER2 negative breast cancer, also known as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), lacking estrogens and progesterone receptors and with an excessive expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), along with the hormone-independent HER2 positive subtype, still remain major challenges in breast cancer treatment. Due to their poor prognoses, aggressive phenotype, and highly metastasis features, new alternative therapies have become an urgent clinical need. One of the most noteworthy phytochemicals, curcumin, has attracted enormous attention as a promising drug candidate in breast cancer prevention and treatment due to its multi-targeting effect. Curcumin interrupts major stages of tumorigenesis including cell proliferation, survival, angiogenesis, and metastasis in hormone-independent breast cancer through the modulation of multiple signaling pathways. The current review has highlighted the anticancer activity of curcumin in hormone-independent breast cancer via focusing on its impact on key signaling pathways including the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, JAK/STAT pathway, MAPK pathway, NF-ĸB pathway, p53 pathway, and Wnt/β-catenin, as well as apoptotic and cell cycle pathways. Besides, its therapeutic implications in clinical trials are here presented.

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Comparison of SYK Signaling Networks Reveals the Potential Molecular Determinants of Its Tumor-Promoting and Suppressing Functions

Biomolecules ◽

10.3390/biom11020308 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 308

Author(s):

Marion Buffard ◽

Aurélien Naldi ◽

Gilles Freiss ◽

Marcel Deckert ◽

Ovidiu Radulescu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Tumor Suppressor ◽

Signaling Pathways ◽

Burkitt Lymphoma ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Signal Propagation ◽

Tumor Formation ◽

Tissue Type ◽

Signaling Networks ◽

Proteomic Profiling

Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) can behave as an oncogene or a tumor suppressor, depending on the cell and tissue type. As pharmacological SYK inhibitors are currently evaluated in clinical trials, it is important to gain more information on the molecular mechanisms underpinning these opposite roles. To this aim, we reconstructed and compared its signaling networks using phosphoproteomic data from breast cancer and Burkitt lymphoma cell lines where SYK behaves as a tumor suppressor and promoter. Bioinformatic analyses allowed for unveiling the main differences in signaling pathways, network topology and signal propagation from SYK to its potential effectors. In breast cancer cells, the SYK target-enriched signaling pathways included intercellular adhesion and Hippo signaling components that are often linked to tumor suppression. In Burkitt lymphoma cells, the SYK target-enriched signaling pathways included molecules that could play a role in SYK pro-oncogenic function in B-cell lymphomas. Several protein interactions were profoundly rewired in the breast cancer network compared with the Burkitt lymphoma network. These data demonstrate that proteomic profiling combined with mathematical network modeling allows untangling complex pathway interplays and revealing difficult to discern interactions among the SYK pathways that positively and negatively affect tumor formation and progression.

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CBP/p300: Critical Co-Activators for Nuclear Steroid Hormone Receptors and Emerging Therapeutic Targets in Prostate and Breast Cancers

Cancers ◽

10.3390/cancers13122872 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 2872

Author(s):

Aaron R. Waddell ◽

Haojie Huang ◽

Daiqing Liao

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Prostate Cancer ◽

Tumor Growth ◽

Signaling Pathways ◽

Cell Cycle Progression ◽

Hormone Receptors ◽

Steroid Hormone Receptors ◽

Breast Cancers ◽

Creb Binding Protein ◽

Breast And Prostate Cancer

The CREB-binding protein (CBP) and p300 are two paralogous lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) that were discovered in the 1980s–1990s. Since their discovery, CBP/p300 have emerged as important regulatory proteins due to their ability to acetylate histone and non-histone proteins to modulate transcription. Work in the last 20 years has firmly established CBP/p300 as critical regulators for nuclear hormone signaling pathways, which drive tumor growth in several cancer types. Indeed, CBP/p300 are critical co-activators for the androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling in prostate and breast cancer, respectively. The AR and ER are stimulated by sex hormones and function as transcription factors to regulate genes involved in cell cycle progression, metabolism, and other cellular functions that contribute to oncogenesis. Recent structural studies of the AR/p300 and ER/p300 complexes have provided critical insights into the mechanism by which p300 interacts with and activates AR- and ER-mediated transcription. Breast and prostate cancer rank the first and forth respectively in cancer diagnoses worldwide and effective treatments are urgently needed. Recent efforts have identified specific and potent CBP/p300 inhibitors that target the acetyltransferase activity and the acetytllysine-binding bromodomain (BD) of CBP/p300. These compounds inhibit AR signaling and tumor growth in prostate cancer. CBP/p300 inhibitors may also be applicable for treating breast and other hormone-dependent cancers. Here we provide an in-depth account of the critical roles of CBP/p300 in regulating the AR and ER signaling pathways and discuss the potential of CBP/p300 inhibitors for treating prostate and breast cancer.

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