Abstract 1046: Molecular link between HER2 and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer

Abstract

Abstract Breast cancer is a second most lethal form of cancer. Metastasis is responsible for about 90% of cancer- related deaths. Metastasis is a multi-step process and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the initiating step. HER2 is overexpressed in about 25-30% of breast cancer patients and responsible for poor prognosis. Our results show a novel role of HER2 in inducing EMT in breast cancer cells. To delineate the mechanism of EMT and role of HER2, we used MDA-MB-231, MCF-7 breast cancer cells with their syngeneic variants having stable HER2 overexpression (referred to as high HER2 or HH cells) and 4T-1 cells. The Boyden's chamber assay showed that HH cells were more invasive than the parent cells. The higher invasive potential of cells was accompanied with increased expression of mesenchymal markers like N-cadherin, along with suppression of epithelial markers like Cytokeratin-18. HER2 overexpression was also associated with enhanced expression of transcription factors like SNAIL and ZEB-1 that orchestrate the process of EMT. It is known that TGFβ is a master regulator of EMT process in cancer cells. Interestingly, HH cells exhibited higher levels of TGFβ protein and mRNA levels along with increased expression of SMADs relative to the parent cell lines. SMADs are the classical downstream effector molecules for TGFβ. Hence these results indicate that HER2 overexpression modulates TGFβ signaling to promote the process of EMT. In addition, induction of SNAIL, TGFβ and SMAD4 by heregulin treatment further established the role of HER2 in EMT process. To confirm the requirement of HER2 in the maintenance of mesenchymal traits, we silenced HER2 in MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-231 (HH) cells. HER2 silencing suppressed the invasion and mesenchymal markers indicating a direct connection of EMT with HER2 in breast cancer cells. Taken together our results for the first time provides a molecular evidence for the regulation of EMT by HER2 through TGFβ signaling. Further mechanistic and pre-clinical in vivo studies are under progress. [Supported in part by R01 grant CA129038 (to S.K.S) awarded by the National Cancer Institute]. Citation Format: Parul Gupta, Sanjay K. Srivastava. Molecular link between HER2 and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1046. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1046