Abstract
Simple SummaryTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a poor outcome compared to the other major breast cancer subtypes and new therapies are needed. We sought to clarify the functions of a ubiquitous protein, Annexin A1, in the development and progression of TNBC. We found that Annexin A1 expression correlated with poor patient prognosis in basal-like breast tumors and also in the basal like-2 subset of TNBCs. Stable knockdown of Annexin A1 attenuated the growth of SUM149 xenografts, which model basal-like 2 tumors. In a polyoma middle T antigen-driven allograft model of breast cancer, Annexin A1 depletion markedly delayed tumor formation, induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition and upregulated basal markers. Finally, loss of Annexin A1 resulted in the loss of a discrete CD24+/Sca1− population containing putative tumor-initiating cells. Collectively, our data demonstrate a novel cell-autonomous role for Annexin A1 in the promotion of tumor-forming capacity in certain TNBC tumors.Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a poor outcome compared to other breast cancer subtypes, and new therapies that target the molecular alterations driving tumor progression are needed. Annexin A1 is an abundant multi-functional Ca2+ binding and membrane-associated protein. Reported roles of Annexin A1 in breast cancer progression and metastasis are contradictory. Here, we sought to clarify the functions of Annexin A1 in the development and progression of TNBC. The association of Annexin A1 expression with patient prognosis in subtypes of TNBC was examined. Annexin A1 was stably knocked down in a panel of human and murine TNBC cell lines with high endogenous Annexin A1 expression that were then evaluated for orthotopic growth and spontaneous metastasis in vivo and for alterations in cell morphology in vitro. The impact of Annexin A1 knockdown on the expression of genes involved in mammary epithelial cell differentia tion and epithelial to mesenchymal transition was also determined. Annexin A1 mRNA levels correlated with poor patient prognosis in basal-like breast tumors and also in the basal-like 2 subset of TNBCs. Unexpectedly, loss of Annexin A1 expression had no effect on either primary tumor growth or spontaneous metastasis of MDA-MB-231_HM xenografts, but abrogated the growth rate of SUM149 orthotopic tumors. In an MMTV-PyMT driven allograft model of breast cancer, Annexin A1 depletion markedly delayed tumor formation in both immuno-competent and immuno-deficient mice and induced epithelial to mesenchymal transition and upregulation of basal markers. Finally, loss of Annexin A1 resulted in the loss of a discrete CD24+/Sca1− population containing putative tumor initiating cells. Collectively, our data demonstrate a novel cell-autonomous role for Annexin A1 in the promotion of tumor-forming capacity in a model of human breast cancer and suggest that some basal-like TNBCs may require high endogenous tumor cell Annexin A1 expression for continued growth.
Highlights
Breast cancer is a common disease accounting for 15% of global cancer-related mortality in women in 2018 [1]
In a polyoma virus middle T antigen (PyMT)-driven allograft model of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer, we found that while Annexin A1 expression was dispensable for cell survival and proliferation in vitro, it was unexpectedly required for the initiation of tumor growth in vivo and for the maintenance of a luminal mammary epithelial gene expression program
We confirmed that Annexin A1 expression was significantly higher in basal-like tumors than in either HER2+, luminal A, or luminal B [27,31,33,35]
Summary
Breast cancer is a common disease accounting for 15% of global cancer-related mortality in women in 2018 [1]. The most prevalent histological type is sub-classified into hormone receptor (estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor) positive, human epidermal growth factor-2 amplified (HER2+) or referred to as triple-negative subtype (TNBC; triple-negative breast cancer) when lacking expression of all three receptors. The application of genome-wide expression profiling has enabled the elucidation of four distinct molecular subtypes, namely, basal-like 1 (BL-1), basal-like 2 (BL-2), mesenchymal (M), and luminal androgen receptor positive (LAR+), identifying TNBCs as a heterogeneous classification of tumors [4,5,6,7,8]. Gene expression profiling has demonstrated an incomplete overlap between TNBCs and the basal-like molecular subtype of breast cancer, which is enriched for basal mammary epithelial markers such as cytokeratin 5, cytokeratin 14, EGFR and TP63 [9,10]. Three quarters of TNBCs are basal-like and three quarters of basal-like tumors are TNBCs [11,12,13]
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