AhR ligand aminoflavone suppresses α6-integrin-Src-Akt signaling to attenuate tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells
Recommended Citation
Campbell PS, Mavingire N, Khan S, Rowland LK, Wooten JV, Opoku-Agyeman A, Guevara A, Soto U, Cavalli F, Loaiza-Perez AI, Nagaraj G, Denham LJ, Adeoye O, Jenkins BD, Davis MB, Schiff R, and Brantley EJ. AhR ligand aminoflavone suppresses alpha6-integrin-Src-Akt signaling to attenuate tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells. J Cell Physiol 2018.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Publication Title
J cell physiol
Abstract
More than 40% of patients with luminal breast cancer treated with endocrine therapy agent tamoxifen demonstrate resistance. Emerging evidence suggests tumor initiating cells (TICs) and aberrant activation of Src and Akt signaling drive tamoxifen resistance and relapse. We previously demonstrated that aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligand aminoflavone (AF) inhibits the expression of TIC gene α6-integrin and disrupts mammospheres derived from tamoxifen-sensitive breast cancer cells. In the current study, we hypothesize that tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) cells exhibit higher levels of α6-integrin than tamoxifen-sensitive cells and that AF inhibits the growth of TamR cells by suppressing α6-integrin-Src-Akt signaling. In support of our hypothesis, TamR cells and associated mammospheres were found to exhibit elevated α6-integrin expression compared with their tamoxifen-sensitive counterparts. Furthermore, tumor sections from patients who relapsed on tamoxifen showed enhanced α6-integrin expression. Gene expression profiling from the TCGA database further revealed that basal-like breast cancer samples, known to be largely unresponsive to tamoxifen, demonstrated higher α6-integrin levels than luminal breast cancer samples. Importantly, AF reduced TamR cell viability and disrupted TamR mammospheres while concomitantly reducing α6-integrin messenger RNA and protein levels. In addition, AF and small interfering RNA against α6-integrin blocked tamoxifen-stimulated proliferation of TamR MCF-7 cells and further sensitized these cells to tamoxifen. Moreover, AF reduced Src and Akt signaling activation in TamR MCF-7 cells. Our findings suggest elevated α6-integrin expression is associated with tamoxifen resistance and AF suppresses α6-integrin-Src-Akt signaling activation to confer activity against TamR breast cancer.
Medical Subject Headings
Breast Neoplasms; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Female; Flavonoids; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Integrin alpha6; Ligands; MCF-7 Cells; Neoplastic Stem Cells; Oncogene Protein v-akt; Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon; Signal Transduction; Tamoxifen; src-Family Kinases
PubMed ID
30076704
ePublication
ePub ahead of print
Volume
234
Issue
1
First Page
108
Last Page
121
