Mechanisms Of Breast Cancer Metastasis Research Articles

Mutation of SIVA, a candidate metastasis gene identified from clonally related bilateral breast cancers, promotes breast cancer cell spread in vitro and in vivo.

Metastasis is the most dreaded outcome after a breast cancer diagnosis, and little is known regarding what triggers or promotes breast cancer to spread distally, or how to prevent or eradicate metastasis effectively. Bilateral breast cancers are an uncommon form of breast cancers. In our study, a percentage of bilateral breast cancers were clonally related based on copy number variation profiling. Whole exome sequencing and comparative sequence analysis revealed that a limited number of somatic mutations were acquired in this "breast-to-breast" metastasis that might promote breast cancer distant spread. One somatic mutation acquired was SIVA-D160N that displayed pro-metastatic phenotypes in vivo and in vitro. Over-expression of SIVA-D160N promoted migration and invasion of human MB-MDA-231 breast cancer cells in vitro, consistent with a dominant negative interfering function. When introduced via tail vein injection, 231 cells over-expressing SIVA-D160N displayed enhanced distant spread on IVIS imaging. Over-expression of SIVA-D160N promoted invasion and anchorage independent growth of mouse 4T1 breast cancer cells in vitro. When introduced orthotopically via mammary fat pad injection in syngeneic Balb/c mice, over-expression of SIVA-D160N in 4T1 cells increased orthotopically implanted mammary gland tumor growth as well as liver metastasis. Clonally related bilateral breast cancers represented a novel system to investigate metastasis and revealed a role of SIVA-D160N in breast cancer metastasis. Further characterization and understanding of SIVA function, and that of its interacting proteins, may elucidate mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis, providing clinically useful biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Activation of the YY1-UGT2B7 Axis Promotes Mammary Estrogen Homeostasis Dysregulation and Exacerbates Breast Tumor Metastasis.

Metastasis is the most common pathway of cancer death. The lack of effective predictors of breast cancer metastasis is a pressing issue in clinical practice. Therefore, exploring the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis to uncover reliable predictors is very important for the clinical treatment of breast cancer patients. In this study, tandem mass tag quantitative proteomics technology was used to detect protein content in primary breast tumor tissue samples from patients with metastatic and nonmetastatic breast cancer at diagnosis. We found that the high expression of yin-yang 1(YY1) is strongly associated with poor prognosis in high-grade breast cancer. YY1 expression was detected in both clinical tumor tissue samples and tumor tissue samples from mammary-specific polyomavirus middle T antigen overexpression mouse model mice. We demonstrated that upregulation of YY1 expression was closely associated with breast cancer metastasis and that high YY1 expression could promote the migratory invasive ability of breast cancer cells. Mechanistically, YY1 directly binds to the UGT2B7 mRNA initiation sequence ATTCAT, thereby transcriptionally regulating the inhibition of UGT2B7 expression. UGT2B7 can regulate the development of breast cancer by regulating estrogen homeostasis in the breast, and the abnormal accumulation of estrogen, especially 4-OHE2, promotes the migration and invasion of breast cancer cells, ultimately causing the development of breast cancer metastasis. In conclusion, YY1 can regulate the UGT2B7-estrogen metabolic axis and induce disturbances in estrogen metabolism in breast tumors, ultimately leading to breast cancer metastasis. Disturbances in estrogen metabolism in the breast tissue may be an important risk factor for breast tumor progression and metastasis SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: In this study, we propose for the first time a regulatory relationship between YY1 and the UGT2B7/estrogen metabolism axis and explore the molecular mechanism. Our study shows that the YY1/UGT2B7/estrogen axis plays an important role in the development and metastasis of breast cancer. This study further elucidates the potential mechanisms of YY1-mediated breast cancer metastasis and the possibility and promise of YY1 as a predictor of cancer metastasis.

Deubiquitinating enzyme OTUD4 regulates metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer by stabilizing Snail1

Metastasis is the primary cause of cancer-related deaths and remains poorly understood. Deubiquitinase OTU domain containing 4 (OTUD4) has been reported to regulate antiviral immune responses and resistance to radio- or chemo-therapies in certain cancers. However, the role of OTUD4 in cancer metastasis remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the depletion of OTUD4 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells markedly suppress cell clonogenic ability, migration, invasion and cancer stem cell population in vitro as well as metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, the tumor promoting function of OTUD4 is mainly mediated by deuiquitinating and stabilizing Snail1, one key transcriptional factor in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. The inhibitory effect of targeting OTUD4 could be largely reversed by the reconstitution of Snail1 in OTUD4-deficient cells. Overall, our study establishes the OTUD4‐Snail1 axis as an important regulatory mechanism of breast cancer metastasis and provides a rationale for potential therapeutic interventions in the treatment of TNBC.

CSF2 upregulates CXCL3 expression in adipocytes to promote metastasis of breast cancer via the FAK signaling pathway.

Recent studies have demonstrated that cancer-associated adipocytes (CAAs) in the tumor microenvironment are involved in the malignant progression of breast cancer. However, the underlying mechanism of CAA formation and its effects on the development of breast cancer are still unknown. Here, we show that CSF2 is highly expressed in both CAAs and breast cancer cells. CSF2 promotes inflammatory phenotypic changes of adipocytes through the Stat3 signaling pathway, leading to the secretion of multiple cytokines and proteases, particularly C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 3 (CXCL3). Adipocyte-derived CXCL3 binds to its specific receptor CXCR2 on breast cancer cells and activates the FAK pathway, enhancing the mesenchymal phenotype, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. In addition, a combination treatment targeting CSF2 and CXCR2 shows a synergistic inhibitory effect on adipocyte-induced lung metastasis of mouse 4T1 cells in vivo. These findings elucidate a novel mechanism of breast cancer metastasis and provide a potential therapeutic strategy for breast cancer metastasis.

The Cancer/Testis Antigen CT45A1 Promotes Transcription of Oncogenic Sulfatase-2 Gene in Breast Cancer Cells and Is Sensible Targets for Cancer Therapy.

Invasive breast carcinomas (BRCAs) are highly lethal. The molecular mechanisms underlying progression of invasive BRCAs are unclear, and effective therapies are highly desired. The cancer-testis antigen CT45A1 promotes overexpression of pro-metastatic sulfatase-2 (SULF2) and breast cancer metastasis to the lungs, but its mechanisms are largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism of CT45A1-induced SULF2 overexpression and provide evidence for targeting CT45A1 and SULF2 for breast cancer therapy. The effect of CT45A1 on SULF2 expression was assessed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot. The mechanism of CT45A1-induced SULF2 gene transcription was studied using protein-DNA binding assay and a luciferase activity reporter system. The interaction between CT45A1 and SP1 proteins was assessed using immunoprecipitation and western blot. Additionally, the suppression of breast cancer cell motility by SP1 and SULF2 inhibitors was measured using cell migration and invasion assays. CT45A1 and SULF2 are aberrantly overexpressed in patients with BRCA; importantly, overexpression of CT45A1 is closely associated with poor prognosis. Mechanistically, gene promoter demethylation results in overexpression of both CT45A1 and SULF2. CT45A1 binds directly to the core sequence GCCCCC in the promoter region of SULF2 gene and activates the promoter. Additionally, CT45A1 interacts with the oncogenic master transcription factor SP1 to drive SULF2 gene transcription. Interestingly, SP1 and SULF2 inhibitors suppress breast cancer cell migration, invasion, and tumorigenicity. Overexpression of CT45A1 is associated with poor prognosis in patients with BRCA. CT45A1 promotes SULF2 overexpression by activating the promoter and interacting with SP1. Additionally, SP1 and SULF2 inhibitors suppress breast cancer cell migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis. Our findings provide new insight into the mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis and highlight CT45A1 and SULF2 as sensible targets for developing novel therapeutics against metastatic breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Metastasis: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. Metastasis is the leading cause of high mortality in most cancers. Although predicting the early stage of breast cancer before metastasis can increase the survival rate, breast cancer is often discovered or diagnosed after metastasis has occurred. In general, breast cancer has a poor prognosis because it starts as a local disease and can spread to lymph nodes or distant organs, contributing to a significant impediment in breast cancer treatment. Metastatic breast cancer cells acquire aggressive characteristics from the tumor microenvironment (TME) through several mechanisms including epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and epigenetic regulation. Therefore, understanding the nature and mechanism of breast cancer metastasis can facilitate the development of targeted therapeutics focused on metastasis. This review discusses the mechanisms leading to metastasis and the current therapies to improve the early diagnosis and prognosis in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

NUPR1 promotes the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells by activating TFE3 transcription to induce autophagy

Recurrence and metastasis affect the survival rate of breast cancer patients. The fundamental reason lies in the lack of understanding of the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis. In this study, the proliferation, migration and invasion abilities of breast cancer cells were evaluated. The mechanism of NUPR1/TFE3 signaling pathway on autophagy-related proteins and migration-invasion-related proteins was examined in cell model in vitro. The effects of NUPR1 on malignancy formation and metastasis were investigated in vivo. We found that NUPR1 was upregulated in breast cancer cells and tissues. NUPR1 knockdown inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of ZR-75-30 cells and inhibited malignancy formation and metastasis in vivo. Mechanically, NUPR1 promoted autophagy by activating of TFE3 transcription, thereby regulating breast cancer metastasis. This paper indicates that NUPR1 activates autophagy through the TFE3 signaling pathway to promote breast cancer metastasis, and provides a biological basis for the intervention of blocking distant metastasis.

Deubiquitinating enzyme USP9X regulates metastasis and chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer by stabilizing Snail1.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women worldwide. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive and metastatic subtype that has the characteristics of easy recurrence, poor prognosis as well as lack of targeted therapeutics. Snail1, a key factor regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process, contributing to metastasis and chemoresistance in human cancers. However, the molecular mechanism of Snail1 stabilization in cancers is not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that the deubiquitinating enzyme USP9X deubiquitinates and stabilizes Snail1, thereby promoting metastasis and chemoresistance. The depletion and pharmacological inhibition of USP9X by WP1130, an inhibitor of USP9X, downregulate endogenous Snail1 protein, inhibit cell migration, invasion, metastasis, and increase cellular sensitivity to cisplatin and paclitaxel both in vitro and in vivo, whereas the reconstitution of Snail1 in cells with USP9X depletion at least partially reverses these phenotypes. Overall, our study establishes the USP9X-Snail1 axis as an important regulatory mechanism of breast cancer metastasis and chemoresistance and provides a rationale for potential therapeutic interventions in the treatment of TNBC.

Study on the Effect of PIWIL2 Expression on EMT of Breast Cancer Stem Cells and Its Mechanism

Objective: This study mainly elaborated the specific molecular mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis and EMT, which has important clinical value in judging the prognosis and treatment of breast cancer patients. Methods: A total of 493 patients with breast cancer were studied. The expression of PIWIL2 gene was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and section analysis, and the correlation between gene expression and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of the patients was investigated. TGF-β1 was used to induce breast cancer cells, and EMT model was constructed at the same time to compare the changes of EMT model cells in the control group and obervation group. The expression of PIWIL2 gene in EMT model was detected by Western bloting. After transfection and RNA interference, PIWIL2 expression was silenced. At the same time, the morphological changes of the cells after the reduction of PIWIL2 gene expression were observed through microscope. The gene changes related to EMT were detected by RT-PCR and Western bloting. The expression of PIWIL2 gene was decreased by invasion test. And the expression of breast cell invasiveness and other related expressions such as MMP-13, MMP-9, VEGF shall also be decreased. The effect of MAPKERK and P13K/AKT pathway on the regulation of PIWIL2 expression was studied by obseving the cellular mophology through the microscope. And RT-PCR and Western bloting were used to detect the expression, including Snail, Vimentin and SIug. The effects of PIWIL2 and the downstream transcription factor SIug in ER pathway in breast cancer cells were analyzed by light microscopy, RT-PCR, Western bloting and Transwell invasion experiment. Results: PIWIL2 expression was negatively correlated with its survival rate in estrogen receptor a negative patients, while was not directly related to estrogen receptor positive patients. After the induction of TGF-β1 in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, the cells were spindle shaped and would lose the intercellular adhesion. With the development of EMT, the inhibition of PIWIL2 gene expression would block the effect of TGF-β1 on EMT in MCF-7 cell lines. The changes of EMT-related genes expression can be shown by RT-PCR and Western Bloting. SiRNA sclienced the Piwi12 expression, which will decrease the cellular invasiveness. At the same time, such matrix metalloproteinase as MMP9 and MMP13 and the mRNA transcription vascular endothelial growth factor was significantly down-regulated. After silencing the expression of SIug, all EMT of TGF-β1 gene will be inhibited, and the estrogen a signal pathway can inhibit the expression of PIWIL2 and the downstream transcription factor SIug. Slug is a common downstream transcription factor of estrogen a and PIWIL2, which also serves as an important bridge connecting estrogen a and Piwi12. It can accept Piwi12 and estrogen a to inhibit or stimulate signals, and then effectively regulate the EMT of breast cancer cells. In addition, ER signal can also participate in the expression of Piwi12 and antagonize Piwi12 to promote EMT.

A novel long non-coding RNA AC073352.1 promotes metastasis and angiogenesis via interacting with YBX1 in breast cancer

Breast cancer is the major cause of cancer death worldwide in women. Patients with metastasis have poor prognosis and the mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis are not completely understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to have crucial roles in breast cancer development and progression. However, the underlying mechanisms by which lncRNA-driven breast cancer metastasis are unknown. The main objective of this paper is to explore a functional lncRNA and its mechanisms in breast cancer. Here we identified a novel lncRNA AC073352.1 that was significantly upregulated in breast cancer tissues and was associated with advanced TNM stages and poor prognosis in breast cancer patients. In addition, AC073352.1 was found to promote the migration and invasion of breast cancer cells in vitro and enhance breast cancer metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, we elucidated that AC073352.1 interacted with YBX1 and stabilized its protein expression. Knock down of YBX1 reduced breast cancer cell migration and invasion and could partially reverse the stimulative effects of AC073352.1 overexpressed on breast cancer metastasis. Moreover, AC073352.1 might be packaged into exosomes by binding to YBX1 in breast cancer cells resulting in angiogenesis. Collectively, our results demonstrated that AC073352.1 promoted breast cancer metastasis and angiogenesis via binding YBX1, and it could serve as a promising, novel biomarker for prognosis and a therapeutic target in breast cancer.

FOXO3a inhibits the EMT and metastasis of breast cancer by regulating TWIST-1 mediated miR-10b/CADM2 axis

BackgroundBreast cancer is the most common malignancy and has been considered as a leading cause of cancer death in women. Exploring the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis is extremely important for seeking novel therapeutic strategies and improving prognosis. MethodsClinical specimens and pathological characteristics were collected for evaluating the expression of forkhead box class O 3a (FOXO3a) and twist-related protein 1 (TWIST-1) in breast cancer tissues. CCK-8 assay was used to analyze cell proliferation. Cell invasion and migration were assessed by transwell assays. The expression of FOXO3a, TWIST-1, miR-10b, CADM2, FAK, phosphor-AKT and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related protein (N-cadherin, E-cadherin and vimentin) were analyzed by RT-qPCR, immunohistochemical staining, immunofluorescence assay or western blot, respectively. Xenograft mouse models were used to analyze the role of the FOXO3a in breast cancer. ResultsFOXO3a was down-regulated and TWIST-1 was up-regulated in breast cancer tissues. Overexpression of FOXO3a or knockdown of TWIST-1 suppressed the proliferation, invasion, migration and EMT of breast cancer cells. Overexpression of TWIST-1 could reverse the effect of FOXO3a on the proliferation, invasion, migration and EMT of breast cancer. Moreover, FOXO3a suppressed the growth and metastasis of breast cancer by targeting TWIST1 in vivo. ConclusionFOXO3a inhibited the EMT and metastasis of breast cancer via TWIST-1/miR-10b/CADM2 axis.

TIMELESS inhibits breast cancer cell invasion and metastasis by down-regulating the expression of MMP9

Breast cancer is the first killer leading to female death, and tumor metastasis is one of the important factors leading to the death of patients, but the specific mechanism of breast cancer metastasis is not very clear at present. Our study showed that overexpression of TIMELESS could significantly inhibit the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells ZR-75-30 and the assembly of F-actin protein. On the contrary, knockdown of TIMELESS promoted the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells. Further study revealed that TIMELESS overexpression decreased the mRNA and protein levels of MMP9. Furthermore, TIMELESS could interact with p65, leading to repress the association of p65 and its acetyltransferase CBP and down-regulating the acetylation level of p65, which inhibited the activation of NF-κB signal pathway. In conclusion, our research showed that TIMELESS may repress the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells via inhibiting the acetylation of p65, inhibiting the activation of NF-κB, thus down-regulating the expression of MMP9, and then inhibiting the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer cells.

Robust and accurate deconvolution of tumor populations uncovers evolutionary mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis.

MotivationCancer develops and progresses through a clonal evolutionary process. Understanding progression to metastasis is of particular clinical importance, but is not easily analyzed by recent methods because it generally requires studying samples gathered years apart, for which modern single-cell sequencing is rarely an option. Revealing the clonal evolution mechanisms in the metastatic transition thus still depends on unmixing tumor subpopulations from bulk genomic data.MethodsWe develop a novel toolkit called robust and accurate deconvolution (RAD) to deconvolve biologically meaningful tumor populations from multiple transcriptomic samples spanning the two progression states. RAD uses gene module compression to mitigate considerable noise in RNA, and a hybrid optimizer to achieve a robust and accurate solution. Finally, we apply a phylogenetic algorithm to infer how associated cell populations adapt across the metastatic transition via changes in expression programs and cell-type composition.ResultsWe validated the superior robustness and accuracy of RAD over alternative algorithms on a real dataset, and validated the effectiveness of gene module compression on both simulated and real bulk RNA data. We further applied the methods to a breast cancer metastasis dataset, and discovered common early events that promote tumor progression and migration to different metastatic sites, such as dysregulation of ECM-receptor, focal adhesion and PI3k-Akt pathways.Availability and implementationThe source code of the RAD package, models, experiments and technical details such as parameters, is available at https://github.com/CMUSchwartzLab/RAD.Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Impact of histotypes on preferential organ-specific metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.

BackgroundThe distant metastasis was the most predictive characters of poor prognosis for triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC). We aimed to evaluate the correlation between patient characters and preferential distant metastatic sites (DMS) and its effects on prognosis.MethodsUsing the 2010‐2014 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) data, patients with TNBC were classified into eight histologic subtypes. Patient characters were compared using a chi‐squared test. Logistic regression was used for identification of predictive factors. The log‐rank testing was utilized with disease‐specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) as the primary outcomes.ResultsA total of 23 270 patients with TNBC were involved, including 1544 patients with distant metastatic cancer. Bone metastasis was diagnosed in 559 cases, brain metastasis in 124 cases, liver metastasis found in 369 cases and lung metastasis in 492 cases. Histologic subtypes including metaplastic breast carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma showed significant differences in preferential DMS compared with invasive ductal carcinoma. Furthermore, we found different histologic subtypes with specific DMS showed various prognosis. We also evaluated different DMS of specific histologic subtypes showed different prognosis.ConclusionCertain histologic subtypes of breast cancer are associated with preferential DMS and prognosis; this knowledge may help to further understand the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis and to monitor the prognosis of patients with TNBC.

Inhibition of Mmp-9 Expression through Nf-Kβ by Natural Compounds as a Possible Therapeutic Adjuvant Strategy in Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

MMP-9 expression may be induced at the transcriptional level in response to different agents. Due to its fundamental role in cancer progression, the control of MMP expression, especially MMP-9, is the possible target of future adjuvant therapies that seek to reduce metastases and angiogenesis in women with breast cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to search in the literature available evidences of extracts/or natural compounds that have potential therapeutic capacity to inhibit MMP-9 expression. Extracts and/or natural compounds identified in this review play a significant role in the inhibition of MMP-9 expression via NF-kβ, and may act on the prevention of metastases from primary breast tumors. The majority of the studies found have shown that natural products are capable of suppressing migration and invasion of breast cancer cells, thus inhibiting the formation of in vitro metastases. Further studies are warranted to understand the potential mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis from signaling cascades intrinsic to the tumor. Moreover, the NF-kβ, followed by Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases / Activator protein 1 (MAPK / AP-1) were the major pathways affected by the extracts and / or compounds studied. These pathways are directly linked to MMP-9 expression.

Identification of Alternatively-Activated Pathways between Primary Breast Cancer and Liver Metastatic Cancer Using Microarray Data.

Alternatively-activated pathways have been observed in biological experiments in cancer studies, but the concept had not been fully explored in computational cancer system biology. Therefore, an alternatively-activated pathway identification method was proposed and applied to primary breast cancer and breast cancer liver metastasis research using microarray data. Interestingly, the results show that cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and calcium signaling were significantly enriched under both conditions. TGF beta signaling was found to be the hub in network topology analysis. In total, three types of alternatively-activated pathways were recognized. In the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway, four active alteration patterns in gene pairs were noticed. Thirteen cytokine-cytokine receptor pairs with inverse activity changes of both genes were verified by the literature. The second type was that some sub-pathways were active under only one condition. For the third type, nodes were significantly active in both conditions, but with different active genes. In the calcium signaling and TGF beta signaling pathways, node E2F5 and E2F4 were significantly active in primary breast cancer and metastasis, respectively. Overall, our study demonstrated the first time using microarray data to identify alternatively-activated pathways in breast cancer liver metastasis. The results showed that the proposed method was valid and effective, which could be helpful for future research for understanding the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis.

Molecular Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Lung: Clinical and Experimental Perspectives.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide, and >90% of breast cancer-related deaths are associated with metastasis. Breast cancer spreads preferentially to the lung, brain, bone and liver; termed organ tropism. Current treatment methods for metastatic breast cancer have been ineffective, compounded by the lack of early prognostic/predictive methods to determine which organs are most susceptible to developing metastases. A better understanding of the mechanisms that drive breast cancer metastasis is crucial for identifying novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Lung metastasis is of particular concern as it is associated with significant patient morbidity and a mortality rate of 60–70%. This review highlights the current understanding of breast cancer metastasis to the lung, including discussion of potential new treatment approaches for development.

CREB1/Lin28/miR-638/VASP Interactive Network Drives the Development of Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Metastasis remains the leading cause of death in breast cancer patients. Research on the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis has become a core issue in breast cancer research. Our previous series of studies have shown that VASP, as a key oncogene, plays an important role in the development of various tumors such as breast cancer. In this study, we find that miR-638 can target to inhibit VASP expression, and Lin28 acts as an RNA-binding protein to regulate the processing of miR-638, which inhibits its maturation and promotes the expression of VASP. In addition, we also find that CREB1 acts as a transcription factor that binds to the promoter of Lin28 gene and activates the Lin28/miR-638/VASP pathway. Furthermore, CREB1 can also directly bind to the promoter of VASP, and activate VASP expression, forming a CREB/Lin28/miR-638/VASP interactive network, which plays an important role in promoting cell proliferation and migration in breast cancer. Our study explained the mechanism of CREB1/Lin28/miR-638/VASP network promoting the development of breast cancer, which further elucidated the mechanism of VASP as a key oncogene, and also provided a theoretical basis for expanding new approaches to tumor biotherapy.

Identification of hub genes to regulate breast cancer metastasis to brain by bioinformatics analyses.

Breast cancer with metastasis especially brain metastasis represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients. In this study, we aimed to investigate the hub genes and potential molecular mechanism in brain metastasis breast cancer. Expression profiles of the genes were extracted from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were conducted at Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established by STRING database constructed by Cytoscape software. Hub genes were identified by the molecular complex detection (MCODE) plugin and the CytoHubba plugin. The transcription factor (TF) that regulates the expression of hub genes was analyzed using the NetworkAnalyst algorithm. Kaplan-Meier curve was used to analyze the effects of hub genes on overall survival. Two GEO databases (GSE100534 and GSE52604) were downloaded from GEO databases. A total of 102 overlapped genes were identified, and the top five KEGG pathways enriched were pathways in cancer, HTLV-I infection, focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction, and protein digestion and absorption. By combing the results of MCODE and CytoHubba, a total of 10 hub genes were selected. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that ANLN, BUB1, TTK, and SKA3 were closely associated with the overall survival of breast cancer patients. TF analysis results showed that E2F4, KDM5B, and MYC were crucial regulators for these four hub genes. The current study based on the GEO database provided novel understanding regarding the mechanism of breast cancer metastasis to brain and may provide novel therapeutic targets.

Newly characterized motile sperm domain-containing protein 2 promotes human breast cancer metastasis.

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Breast cancer metastasis results in poor prognosis and increased mortality, but the mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis are yet to be fully resolved. Identifying distinctive proteins that regulate metastasis might be targeted to improve therapy in breast cancer. We previously described MOSPD2 as a surface membrane protein that regulates monocyte migration in vitro. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that MOSPD2 has a major role in breast cancer cell migration and metastasis. MOSPD2 expression was highly elevated in invasive and metastatic breast cancer while it was absent or residual in normal tissue and in primary in situ tumors. In vitro experiments showed that silencing MOSPD2 in different breast cancer cell lines significantly inhibited cancer cell chemotaxis migration. Mechanistically, we found that silencing MOSPD2 profoundly abated phosphorylation events that are involved in breast tumor cell chemotaxis. In vivo, MOSPD2‐silenced breast cancer cells exhibited marked impaired metastasis to the lungs. These results indicate that MOSPD2 plays a key role in the migration and metastasis of breast cancer cells and may be used to prevent the spreading of breast cancer cells and to mediate their death.