title: Antiestrogen-resistant human breast cancer cells require activated protein kinase B/Akt for growth.
abstract: Development of acquired resistance to antiestrogens is a major clinical problem in endocrine treatment of breast cancer patients. The IGF system plays a profound role in many cancer types, including breast cancer. Thus, overexpression and/or constitutive activation of the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) or different components of the IGF-IR signaling pathway have been reported to render breast cancer cells less estrogen dependent and capable of sustaining cell proliferation in the presence of antiestrogens. In this study, growth of the antiestrogen-sensitive human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 was inhibited by treatment with IGF-IR-neutralizing antibodies. In contrast, IGF-IR-neutralizing antibodies had no effect on growth of two different antiestrogen-resistant MCF-7 sublines. A panel of antiestrogen-resistant cell lines was investigated for expression of IGF-IR and either undetectable or severely reduced IGF-IR levels were observed. No increase in insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) or total PKB/Akt (Akt) was detected in the resistant cell lines. However, a significant increase in phosphorylated Akt (pAkt) was found in four of six antiestrogen-resistant cell lines. Overexpression of pAkt was associated with increased Akt kinase activity in both a tamoxifen- and an ICI 182,780-resistant cell line. Inhibition of Akt phosphorylation by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) inhibitor wortmannin or the Akt inhibitor SH-6 (structurally modified phosphatidyl inositol ether liquid analog PIA 6) resulted in a more pronounced growth inhibitory effect on the antiestrogen-resistant cells compared with the parental cells, suggesting that signaling via Akt is required for antiestrogen-resistant cell growth in at least a subset of our antiestrogen-resistant cell lines. PTEN expression and activity was not decreased in cell lines overexpressing pAkt. Our data demonstrate that Akt is a target for treatment of antiestrogen-resistant breast cancer cell lines and we suggest that antiestrogen-resistant breast cancer patients may benefit from treatment targeted to inhibit Akt signaling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tumor Endocrinology, Institute of Cancer Biology, Danish Cancer Society, Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frogne
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jepsen
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Fog
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Brockdorff
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Lykkesfeldt
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D020847:Estrogen Receptor Modulators / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D020847:Estrogen Receptor Modulators; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D013629:Tamoxifen; C494918:AKT1 protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt