Role of inhibitor of yes‐associated protein 1 in triple‐negative breast cancer with taxol‐based chemoresistance

Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly clinically aggressive and taxol‐based chemoresistance remains a big TNBC therapeutic problem to be solved. Verteporfin, a small molecular yes‐associated protein 1 (YAP1) inhibitor, is little known as an antitumor drug for TNBC. Our data showed that YAP1 expression was associated with early relapse in tissue samples of patients with TNBC taxol chemoresistance (P < .001). Verteporfin reduced migration and enhanced apoptosis or autophagy of a taxol‐resistant MDA‐MB‐231 cell line in vitro. Knockdown of YAP1 increased epithelial‐mesenchymal transition response in a taxol‐resistant TNBC cell line. In an in vivo experiment, we found that verteporfin was able to shrink tumor weight and volume and decreased Ki67 expression in a taxol‐resistant mouse model. Our results provide evidence that verteporfin could be a chemosensitizer for TNBC patients with taxol‐based treatment.