RESUMO
SRY-related high-mobility group box 9 (SOX9) is an indispensable transcription factor that regulates multiple developmental pathways related to stemness, differentiation, and progenitor development. Previous studies have demonstrated that the SOX9 protein directs pathways involved in tumor initiation, proliferation, migration, chemoresistance, and stem cell maintenance, thereby regulating tumorigenesis as an oncogene. SOX9 overexpression is a frequent event in breast cancer (BC) subtypes. Of note, the molecular mechanisms and functional regulation underlying SOX9 upregulation during BC progression are still being uncovered. The focus of this review is to appraise recent advances regarding the involvement of SOX9 in BC pathogenesis. First, we provide a general overview of SOX9 structure and function, as well as its involvement in various kinds of cancer. Next, we discuss pathways of SOX9 regulation, particularly its miRNA-mediated regulation, in BC. Finally, we describe the involvement of SOX9 in BC pathogenesis via its regulation of pathways involved in regulating cancer hallmarks, as well as its clinical and therapeutic importance. In general, this review article aims to serve as an ample source of knowledge on the involvement of SOX9 in BC progression. Targeting SOX9 activity may improve therapeutic strategies to treat BC, but precisely inhibiting SOX9 using drugs and/or small peptides remains a huge challenge for forthcoming cancer research.
Assuntos
Apoptose , Neoplasias da Mama/metabolismo , Proliferação de Células , Células-Tronco Neoplásicas , Neovascularização Patológica/metabolismo , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/metabolismo , Apoptose/genética , Neoplasias da Mama/irrigação sanguínea , Neoplasias da Mama/genética , Neoplasias da Mama/patologia , Proliferação de Células/genética , Progressão da Doença , Resistencia a Medicamentos Antineoplásicos/genética , Epigênese Genética , Feminino , Humanos , MicroRNAs/genética , MicroRNAs/metabolismo , Células-Tronco Neoplásicas/metabolismo , Células-Tronco Neoplásicas/patologia , Neovascularização Patológica/genética , Processamento Pós-Transcricional do RNA , RNA Longo não Codificante/genética , RNA Longo não Codificante/metabolismo , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/química , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/genéticaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) is highly heterogeneous with ~ 60-70% of estrogen receptor positive BC patient's response to anti-hormone therapy. Estrogen receptors (ERs) play an important role in breast cancer progression and treatment. Estrogen related receptors (ERRs) are a group of nuclear receptors which belong to orphan nuclear receptors, which have sequence homology with ERs and share target genes. Here, we investigated the possible role and clinicopathological importance of ERRß in breast cancer. METHODS: Estrogen related receptor ß (ERRß) expression was examined using tissue microarray slides (TMA) of Breast Carcinoma patients with adjacent normal by immunohistochemistry and in breast cancer cell lines. In order to investigate whether ERRß is a direct target of ERα, we investigated the expression of ERRß in short hairpin ribonucleic acid knockdown of ERα breast cancer cells by western blot, qRT-PCR and RT-PCR. We further confirmed the binding of ERα by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), Re-ChIP and luciferase assays. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis (FACS) was performed to elucidate the role of ERRß in cell cycle regulation. A Kaplan-Meier Survival analysis of GEO dataset was performed to correlate the expression of ERRß with survival in breast cancer patients. RESULTS: Tissue microarray (TMA) analysis showed that ERRß is significantly down-regulated in breast carcinoma tissue samples compared to adjacent normal. ER + ve breast tumors and cell lines showed a significant expression of ERRß compared to ER-ve tumors and cell lines. Estrogen treatment significantly induced the expression of ERRß and it was ERα dependent. Mechanistic analyses indicate that ERα directly targets ERRß through estrogen response element and ERRß also mediates cell cycle regulation through p18, p21cip and cyclin D1 in breast cancer cells. Our results also showed the up-regulation of ERRß promoter activity in ectopically co-expressed ERα and ERRß breast cancer cell lines. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis (FACS) showed increased G0/G1 phase cell population in ERRß overexpressed MCF7 cells. Furthermore, ERRß expression was inversely correlated with overall survival in breast cancer. Collectively our results suggest cell cycle and tumor suppressor role of ERRß in breast cancer cells which provide a potential avenue to target ERRß signaling pathway in breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that ERRß is a negative regulator of cell cycle and a possible tumor suppressor in breast cancer. ERRß could be therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer.