TY - JOUR
T1 - Tumor suppressor DEAR1 regulates mammary epithelial cell fate and predicts early onset and metastasis in triple negative breast cancer
AU - Le, Uyen Q.
AU - Chen, Nanyue
AU - Balasenthil, Seetharaman
AU - Lurie, Eugene
AU - Yang, Fei
AU - Liu, Suyu
AU - Rubin, Laura
AU - Solis Soto, Luisa Maren
AU - Raso, Maria Gabriela
AU - Batra, Harsh
AU - Sahin, Aysegul A.
AU - Wistuba, Ignacio I.
AU - Killary, Ann Mc Neill
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a disease of poor prognosis, with the majority classified as the basal-like subtype associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis. Because basal breast cancers originate from proliferative luminal progenitor-like cells upon dysregulation of proper luminal differentiation, genes regulating luminal-basal transition are critical to elucidate novel therapeutic targets to improve TNBC outcomes. Herein we demonstrate that the tumor suppressor DEAR1/TRIM62 is a critical regulator of luminal cell fate. DEAR1 loss in human mammary epithelial cells results in significantly enhanced mammosphere formation that is accelerated in the presence of TGF-β/SMAD3 signaling. Mammospheres formed following DEAR1 loss are enriched for ALDH1A1 and CK5 expression, EpCAM−/CD49f+ and CD44high/24low basal-like epithelial cells, indicating that DEAR1 regulates stem/progenitor cell properties and luminal-basal progenitor transition. We show that DEAR1 maintains luminal differentiation as a novel ubiquitin ligase for SNAI2/SLUG, a master regulator driving stemness and generation of basal-like progenitor populations. We also identify a significant inverse correlation between DEAR1 and SNAI2 expression in a 103 TNBC case cohort and show that low DEAR1 expression significantly correlates with young age of onset and shorter time to metastasis, suggesting DEAR1 could serve as a biomarker to stratify early onset TNBCs for targeted stem cell therapies.
AB - Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a disease of poor prognosis, with the majority classified as the basal-like subtype associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis. Because basal breast cancers originate from proliferative luminal progenitor-like cells upon dysregulation of proper luminal differentiation, genes regulating luminal-basal transition are critical to elucidate novel therapeutic targets to improve TNBC outcomes. Herein we demonstrate that the tumor suppressor DEAR1/TRIM62 is a critical regulator of luminal cell fate. DEAR1 loss in human mammary epithelial cells results in significantly enhanced mammosphere formation that is accelerated in the presence of TGF-β/SMAD3 signaling. Mammospheres formed following DEAR1 loss are enriched for ALDH1A1 and CK5 expression, EpCAM−/CD49f+ and CD44high/24low basal-like epithelial cells, indicating that DEAR1 regulates stem/progenitor cell properties and luminal-basal progenitor transition. We show that DEAR1 maintains luminal differentiation as a novel ubiquitin ligase for SNAI2/SLUG, a master regulator driving stemness and generation of basal-like progenitor populations. We also identify a significant inverse correlation between DEAR1 and SNAI2 expression in a 103 TNBC case cohort and show that low DEAR1 expression significantly correlates with young age of onset and shorter time to metastasis, suggesting DEAR1 could serve as a biomarker to stratify early onset TNBCs for targeted stem cell therapies.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-22417-4
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-22417-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 36376460
AN - SCOPUS:85141967760
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 12
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 19504
ER -