scholarly journals Hormonal Therapy Resistance and Breast Cancer: Involvement of Adipocytes and Leptin

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia Delort ◽  
Lauriane Bougaret ◽  
Juliette Cholet ◽  
Marion Vermerie ◽  
Hermine Billard ◽  
...  

Obesity, a recognized risk factor for breast cancer in postmenopausal women, is associated with higher mortality rates regardless of menopausal status, which could in part be explained by therapeutic escape. Indeed, adipose microenvironment has been described to influence the efficiency of chemo- and hormonal therapies. Residual cancer stem cells could also have a key role in this process. To understand the mechanisms involved in the reduced efficacy of hormonal therapy on breast cancer cells in the presence of adipose secretome, human adipose stem cells (hMAD cell line) differentiated into mature adipocytes were co-cultured with mammary breast cancer cells and treated with hormonal therapies (tamoxifen, fulvestrant). Proliferation and apoptosis were measured (fluorescence test, impedancemetry, cytometry) and the gene expression profile was evaluated. Cancer stem cells were isolated from mammospheres made from MCF-7. The impact of chemo- and hormonal therapies and leptin was evaluated in this population. hMAD-differentiated mature adipocytes and their secretions were able to increase mammary cancer cell proliferation and to suppress the antiproliferative effect of tamoxifen, confirming previous data and validating our model. Apoptosis and cell cycle did not seem to be involved in this process. The evaluation of gene expression profiles suggested that STAT3 could be a possible target. On the contrary, leptin did not seem to be involved. The study of isolated cancer stem cells revealed that their proliferation was stimulated in the presence of anticancer therapies (tamoxifen, fulvestrant, doxorubicine) and leptin. Our study confirmed the role of adipocytes and their secretome, but above all, the role of communication between adipose and cancer cells in interfering with the efficiency of hormonal therapy. Among the pathophysiological mechanisms involved, leptin does not seem to interfere with the estrogenic pathway but seems to promote the proliferation of cancer stem cells.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ningwei Fu ◽  
Ning Fan ◽  
Wenchao Luo ◽  
Lijia Lv ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: TFEB is a key regulator of autophagy-lysosomal biogenesis pathways, while its dysregulation is highly prevalent in various human cancers, but the specific contribution to breast cancer remains poorly understood. The main purpose of this study is to explore the role of TFEB in breast cancer proliferation, metastasis and maintaining breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) traits, thus uncovering its underlying mechanism.Methods: Bioinformatics, western blotting and immunohistochemical staining were applied to analyze the expression of TFEB in breast cancer. Stable down-regulation TFEB cells were established in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. MTT, clone formation, wound healing, transwell and 3D tumor invasion assays were used to evaluate the proliferation, migration and invasion ability of breast cancer cells. Mammosphere formation, immunocytochemical (ICC) staining were used to detect the effect of down-regulating TFEB on breast cancer stem cells. Results: we demonstrated that higher expression of TFEB was found in breast cancer. TFEB depletion had inhibitory effects on cellular proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells. Moreover, knockdown TFEB decreased mammosphere formation ability of BCSCs and expression of cancer stem cell markers. Autophagy-lysosomal related proteins were decreased by down regulation of TFEB. Conclusion: we uncovered a critical role of TFEB in breast cancer proliferation and metastasis, and BCSCs self-renewal and stemness. The underlying mechanisms involve in maintaining BCSCs traits, and dysregulating lysosome functions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12540-e12540
Author(s):  
Tae Hyun Kim ◽  
In-Sung Song ◽  
Jin Han

e12540 Background: Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in women. Breast cancers are heterogeneous, and treatment by subgroup based on hormone receptor and HER2 made a significant difference in clinical outcomes. Several studies have reported that estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) decreases during tumor development in the breast epithelium. However, the role of ERβ in relapse and metastasis of breast cancer is poorly understood. Methods: In this study, we retrospectively studied 30 case breast carcinomas divided luminal, HER2, and triple negative subtype. Among them, patients relapsed within 5 years are 6 cases. The expression of ERβ gene in breast cancer tissues (30 cases) was estimated using a quantitative PCR, and other marker (ERα, HER2, PR etc) was measured anonymously in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor sections, by using specific antibodies. Results: A low level of ERβ expression and mitochondrial translocation of ERβ was associated with relapse/metastasis of breast cancer. The ERβ depletion resulted in resistance in response to tamoxifen treatment of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Conversely, the overexpression of mitochondrial ERβ enhanced the cell death by treatment of tamoxifen in MCF-7 cells. We found that ERβ localizes to the mitochondria via the interaction with Grp75 and improves mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate and ATP production in breast cancer cells. Finally, we showed that ERβ level was a low in the breast cancer stem cells (CD24-CD44+ cells) compared with breast non-cancer stem cells (CD24+CD44- cells), whereas ERα level was a high. The overexpression of mitochondrial ERβ contribute to a decrease of sphere formation showing a tumorigenic ability. Conclusions: The mitochondrial ERβ contribute to suppress survival and stemness of cancer stem cells for relapse/metastasis, promising to the development of novel strategies for the treatment of breast cancer patients.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4350
Author(s):  
Jessica Castro ◽  
Giusy Tornillo ◽  
Gerardo Ceada ◽  
Beatriz Ramos-Neble ◽  
Marlon Bravo ◽  
...  

Despite the significant advances in cancer research made in recent years, this disease remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In part, this is due to the fact that after therapy, a subpopulation of self-renewing tumor cells can survive and promote cancer relapse, resistance to therapies and metastasis. Targeting these cancer stem cells (CSCs) is therefore essential to improve the clinical outcome of cancer patients. In this sense, multi-targeted drugs may be promising agents targeting CSC-associated multifocal effects. We have previously constructed different human pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase) variants that are cytotoxic for tumor cells due to a non-classical nuclear localization signal introduced in their sequence. These cytotoxic RNases affect the expression of multiple genes involved in deregulated metabolic and signaling pathways in cancer cells and are highly cytotoxic for multidrug-resistant tumor cell lines. Here, we show that these cytotoxic nuclear-directed RNases are highly selective for tumor cell lines grown in 3D, inhibit CSCs’ development and diminish the self-renewal capacity of the CSCs population. Moreover, these human RNase variants reduce the migration and invasiveness of highly invasive breast cancer cells and downregulate N-cadherin expression.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1133
Author(s):  
Ji Yu ◽  
Dae Shin ◽  
Jin-Seok Kim

Fluvastatin (FLUVA), which is a common anti-hypercholesterolemia drug, exhibits potential anticancer activity as it suppresses the proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis of breast cancer cells via inhibiting 3-hydroxy-methyl glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase. In this study, hyaluronan-conjugated FLUVA-encapsulating liposomes (HA-L-FLUVA) were evaluated for their anticancer efficacy in vitro and in vivo. The particle size, zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency of HA-L-FLUVA were 158.36 ± 1.78 nm, −24.85 ± 6.26 mV, and 35%, respectively. Growth inhibition of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) by HA-L-FLUVA was more effective than that by free FLUVA. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of FLUVA, L-FLVUA, and HA-L-FLUVA were 0.16, 0.17, and 0.09 μM, respectively. The in vivo anticancer effect of HA-L-FLUVA in combination with doxorubicin (DOX) was more effective than that of free FLUVA, free DOX, and HA-L-FLUVA. The longest survival of mice was achieved by treatment with FLUVA (15 mg/kg) and HA-L-FLUVA (15 mg/kg) + DOX (3 mg/kg), followed by HA-L-FLUVA (15 mg/kg), Dulbecco’s phosphate buffered saline, and DOX (3 mg/kg). No more than 10% body weight loss was observed in the mice injected with FLUVA, indicating that the drug was not toxic. Taken together, these results indicate that HA-L-FLUVA could serve as an effective anticancer drug by inhibiting the growth of both breast cancer cells and cancer stem cells.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 4622-4633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Min Kim ◽  
Minhee Kim ◽  
Hee-Bin Park ◽  
Keun-Sik Kim ◽  
Dong-Eun Kim

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