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The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells
A majority of breast cancer cases are positive for the estrogen receptor (ER), which means that they can respond to the estrogen hormone to achieve growth. Hence, the ER signaling pathway has been extensively targeted in pharmaceutical research and development in order to suppress tumor growth. Howe...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
D.A. Spandidos
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6151878/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30226541 http://dx.doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6676 |
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author | Heng, Zealyn Shi Lin Lee, Jing Yi Subhramanyam, Charannya Sozheesvari Wang, Cheng Thanga, Lal Zo Hu, Qidong |
author_facet | Heng, Zealyn Shi Lin Lee, Jing Yi Subhramanyam, Charannya Sozheesvari Wang, Cheng Thanga, Lal Zo Hu, Qidong |
author_sort | Heng, Zealyn Shi Lin |
collection | PubMed |
description | A majority of breast cancer cases are positive for the estrogen receptor (ER), which means that they can respond to the estrogen hormone to achieve growth. Hence, the ER signaling pathway has been extensively targeted in pharmaceutical research and development in order to suppress tumor growth. However, prevalent hormone therapy and targeted therapy often become ineffective as cancer cells ultimately develop resistance, suggesting that there could be unidentified signaling molecules and events that regulate breast cancer growth. Notably, recent studies have uncovered that Piwi-like (Piwil) proteins, which were initially found in germline cells, are expressed in a wide spectrum of human cancers, including breast cancers. Although Piwil proteins have been well established to silence retrotransposons and to promote heterochromatin formation in germline cells, their somatic functions in cancer cells remain largely unknown. In the present study, we profiled the expression of four Piwi homologs in an ER-positive breast cancer cell line, MCF-7, and found that only Piwil4 was upregulated by 17β-estradiol treatment. Notably, Piwil4 upregulation was not observed in an ER-positive but non-tumorigenic breast cancer cell line, MCF-12A. In addition, the induced expression of Piwil4 was dependent on estrogen/ERα signaling. To explore the biological significance of Piwil4 in breast cancer growth, we knocked down Piwil4 with multiple siRNAs and observed the suppressed expression of some canonical targets of ER. The knockdown of Piwil4 expression also decreased the migration and invasion capabilities of MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the loss-of-function of Piwil4 reduced the motility of MCF-7 cells in wound-healing assays, which could be associated to decreased expression of vimentin and N-cadherin. Collectively, these findings revealed that Piwil4 is a novel regulator of ER signaling that could be targeted to inhibit breast cancer growth and migration. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6151878 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | D.A. Spandidos |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61518782018-09-25 The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells Heng, Zealyn Shi Lin Lee, Jing Yi Subhramanyam, Charannya Sozheesvari Wang, Cheng Thanga, Lal Zo Hu, Qidong Oncol Rep Articles A majority of breast cancer cases are positive for the estrogen receptor (ER), which means that they can respond to the estrogen hormone to achieve growth. Hence, the ER signaling pathway has been extensively targeted in pharmaceutical research and development in order to suppress tumor growth. However, prevalent hormone therapy and targeted therapy often become ineffective as cancer cells ultimately develop resistance, suggesting that there could be unidentified signaling molecules and events that regulate breast cancer growth. Notably, recent studies have uncovered that Piwi-like (Piwil) proteins, which were initially found in germline cells, are expressed in a wide spectrum of human cancers, including breast cancers. Although Piwil proteins have been well established to silence retrotransposons and to promote heterochromatin formation in germline cells, their somatic functions in cancer cells remain largely unknown. In the present study, we profiled the expression of four Piwi homologs in an ER-positive breast cancer cell line, MCF-7, and found that only Piwil4 was upregulated by 17β-estradiol treatment. Notably, Piwil4 upregulation was not observed in an ER-positive but non-tumorigenic breast cancer cell line, MCF-12A. In addition, the induced expression of Piwil4 was dependent on estrogen/ERα signaling. To explore the biological significance of Piwil4 in breast cancer growth, we knocked down Piwil4 with multiple siRNAs and observed the suppressed expression of some canonical targets of ER. The knockdown of Piwil4 expression also decreased the migration and invasion capabilities of MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, the loss-of-function of Piwil4 reduced the motility of MCF-7 cells in wound-healing assays, which could be associated to decreased expression of vimentin and N-cadherin. Collectively, these findings revealed that Piwil4 is a novel regulator of ER signaling that could be targeted to inhibit breast cancer growth and migration. D.A. Spandidos 2018-11 2018-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC6151878/ /pubmed/30226541 http://dx.doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6676 Text en Copyright: © Heng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
spellingShingle | Articles Heng, Zealyn Shi Lin Lee, Jing Yi Subhramanyam, Charannya Sozheesvari Wang, Cheng Thanga, Lal Zo Hu, Qidong The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title | The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title_full | The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title_fullStr | The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title_full_unstemmed | The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title_short | The role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of Piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
title_sort | role of 17β-estradiol-induced upregulation of piwi-like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6151878/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30226541 http://dx.doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6676 |
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