1. Academic Validation
  2. Protease Nexin I is a feedback regulator of EGF/PKC/MAPK/EGR1 signaling in breast cancer cells metastasis and stemness

Protease Nexin I is a feedback regulator of EGF/PKC/MAPK/EGR1 signaling in breast cancer cells metastasis and stemness

  • Cell Death Dis. 2019 Sep 9;10(9):649. doi: 10.1038/s41419-019-1882-9.
Tingting Tang 1 Qinhua Zhu 1 Xinping Li 1 Gaole Zhu 1 Siwei Deng 1 Yingshan Wang 1 Lingyu Ni 1 Xinyuan Chen 1 Yanfeng Zhang 1 Tiansong Xia 2 Ke Zen 3 Yi Pan 4 Liang Jin 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tongjiaxiang, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, PR China.
  • 2 Department of Breast Surgery, Breast Disease Center of Jiangsu Province, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, PR China.
  • 3 Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for microRNA Biology and Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China.
  • 4 State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tongjiaxiang, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, PR China. [email protected].
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Druggability of Biopharmaceuticals, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tongjiaxiang, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, PR China. [email protected].
Abstract

Breast Cancer is the most prevalent Cancer in women worldwide, which remains incurable once metastatic. Breast Cancer Stem Cells (BCSCs) are a small subset of breast Cancer cells, which are the radical cause of drug resistance, tumor relapse, and metastasis in breast Cancer. The extracellular serine protease inhibitor serpinE2, also named protease nexin-1 (PN-1), contributes to enhanced metastasis of Cancer cells mainly by remodeling the tumor matrix. In this study, we found that PN-1 was up-regulated in breast Cancer, which promoted cell invasion, migration and stemness. Furthermore, by using specific inhibitors, we discovered that epidermal growth factor (EGF) up-regulated PN-1 in breast Cancer cells through cascade activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) to the activation of protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) and extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK), which finally led to the up-regulation of early growth response protein 1 (EGR1). Moreover, EGF signaling was further activated as a feedback of PN-1 up-regulation through PN-1 blocking HtrA1. Taken together, our findings revealed a novel signaling axis that up-regulated PN-1 expression in breast Cancer cells, and the new mechanism of PN-1-promoted breast Cancer metastasis, which may provide new insights into identifying novel therapeutic targets for breast Cancer.

Figures
Products