DISAMPING KANAN INI.............
PLEASE USE ........ "TRANSLATE MACHINE" .. GOOGLE TRANSLATE BESIDE RIGHT THIS
..................
Proteins
conspire to make breast cancer cells resistant to drug treatment
Proteins
conspire to make breast cancer cells resistant to drug treatment
Date:
April 18,
2014
Source:
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research
Institute
Summary:
The interaction between two proteins called BCAR1 and
BCAR3 is responsible for resistance to antiestrogen drugs, paving the way for
improved diagnostic and treatment strategies. “Drug resistance is one of the
most serious obstacles to breast cancer eradication,” said the senior study
author. “Our findings suggest that strategies to disrupt the BCAR1-BCAR3
complex and associated signaling networks could potentially overcome this
obstacle and ultimately lead to more-effective breast cancer therapies.”
......................
Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
(Sanford-Burnham) provide compelling and conclusive evidence that antiestrogen
resistance in breast cancer cells requires the interaction between proteins
called BCAR1 and BCAR3. In the study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the researchers also
identified a signaling pathway that is crucial for drug resistance mediated by
this protein complex.
"Drug
resistance is one of the most serious obstacles to breast cancer
eradication," said senior study author Elena Pasquale, Ph.D., professor in
the National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and the Tumor Initiation
and Maintenance Program at Sanford-Burnham. "Our findings suggest that
strategies to disrupt the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex and associated signaling networks
could potentially overcome this obstacle and ultimately lead to more-effective
breast cancer therapies."
Breast
cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States, and despite
advances in treatment strategies, about 10 percent of these patients die within
five years of being diagnosed. One major factor contributing to these deaths is
the development of intrinsic or acquired resistance to antiestrogen drugs,
which interfere with the ability of the hormone estrogen to stimulate the
growth of breast cancer cells. Two proteins implicated in antiestrogen
resistance and malignancy are breast cancer antiestrogen resistance proteins 1
and 3 (BCAR1 and BCAR3), which can bind together to potentially connect the
signaling pathways they each regulate. Indeed, the levels of BCAR1-BCAR3
complexes are more closely associated with malignancy compared with the levels
of each individual protein. But a few studies have cast doubt on the importance
of the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex in regulating breast cancer aggressiveness.
A few years
ago, when a group of researchers generated a mutation in an amino acid that
mediates binding between BCAR1 and BCAR3, the breast cancer cells still
exhibited antiestrogen resistance, suggesting that the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex is
not required for drug resistance.
However,
Pasquale and her team subsequently found that single amino acid mutations at
BCAR1-BCAR3 binding sites may not be sufficient to adequately disrupt the
formation of the protein complex, possibly because two separate binding sites
work together to generate a very strong interaction between these proteins.
"Based on our data, we suspected that the BCAR mutations used in previous
studies did not sufficiently block the formation of the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex and
disrupt downstream signaling pathways, leaving the role of this protein complex
in drug resistance an open question," Pasquale said.
To
unambiguously answer this question in the new study, Pasquale and her team
collaborator Stefan Riedl, Ph.D., associate professor in Sanford-Burnham's
NCI-designated Cancer Center, generated mutations in two amino acids of BCAR3
to effectively disrupt the interaction between the two proteins. Consistent
with previous findings, a single amino acid mutation in BCAR3 did not prevent
the protein from interacting with BCAR1 and did not interfere with the growth
of breast cancer cells treated with an antiestrogen drug. By contrast, this
drug inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells expressing the double mutant
BCAR3, suggesting that the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex is required for antiestrogen
resistance.
The researchers
also found that antiestrogen resistance mediated by the BCAR1-BCAR3 complex
depends on ERK1/2 signaling, which was previously implicated in breast cancer
malignancy. ERK1/2 stands for extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2,
and carries out activation and signaling tasks between molecules and cells.
Moreover, analysis of more than 400 tumors from an invasive breast cancer study
revealed that higher levels of an ERK1/2-inhibiting protein called PEA15 were
predictive of longer patient survival.
On the other
hand, the antiestrogen drug did not stymie the growth of breast cancer cells
that were genetically modified to express high levels of a BCAR3-related
protein called NSP3, suggesting that this protein also promotes drug
resistance. "Taken together, our findings suggest that NSP3 and PEA15
protein levels could represent useful new prognostic indicators, in conjunction
with BCAR1-BCAR3 and ERK1/2 signaling," Pasquale said.
In addition
to improving diagnostic approaches, the findings could have important
implications for treatment strategies. "The fact that the BCAR1-BCAR3
interaction is remarkably tight and modifications that substantially weaken it
are not sufficient to impair many of the functional effects of the protein
complex suggests that inhibiting downstream signaling pathways may be a more
viable therapeutic approach," Pasquale said. "In particular,
inhibiting ERK1/2 activity through PEA15 may be a useful strategy to counteract
breast cancer malignancy and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents."
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by Sanford-Burnham
Medical Research Institute. The original article was written by Susan
Gammon. Note: Materials may be edited
for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Y. Wallez, S. J. Riedl, E. B. Pasquale. Association of the Breast Cancer Antiestrogen Resistance Protein 1 (BCAR1) and BCAR3 Scaffolding Proteins in Cell Signaling and Antiestrogen Resistance. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2014; 289 (15): 10431 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M113.541839
Cite This
Page:
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research
Institute. "Proteins conspire to make breast cancer cells resistant to
drug treatment." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 April 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140418161329.htm>.