HN1 contributes to migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis of breast cancer by enhancing MYC activity

BACKGROUND: Hematological and neurological expressed 1 (HN1) is upregulated in many tumors, but the role of HN1 in breast cancer progression and its regulatory mechanism have not been well understood. METHODS: To study the role of HN1 in the initiation and progression of breast cancer, we examined HN1 levels in breast cancer cells and tissues and analyzed the relationship between HN1 levels and patient survival. We used mammosphere formation assay, side population analysis, wound healing assay, transwell assay, soft agar formation assay, and xenografted tumor model to determine the effect of HN1 on the expansion of breast cancer stem cells, and the migration, invasion and tumorigenesis of breast cancer. To determine whether HN1 regulates MYC, we used quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analysis to assess the expression of MYC and their targeted genes to determine the phenotype caused by knockdown of MYC in breast cancer cell with HN1 overexpression. RESULTS: In this study, we found that HN1 was upregulated in breast cancer tissues. Patients with high levels of HN1 expression had significantly shorter survival than those with low HN1 expression. In breast cancer cell line, ectopic overexpression of HN1 not only promoted the expansion of breast cancer stem cells, but also promoted cell migration, invasion, and tumorigenesis, while knockdown of HN1 reduced these effects. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between MYC (also known as c-MYC) level and HN1 level, mechanism analysis suggested HN1 promoted the expression of MYC and its targeted genes like CDK4, CCND1, p21, CAV1, and SFRP1. Downregulation of MYC abrogated the effect of HN1 overexpression in breast cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these data reveal that HN1 promotes the progression of breast cancer by upregulating MYC expression, and might be a therapeutic target for breast cancer. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12943-017-0656-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.