title: The roles of BECN1 and autophagy in cancer are context dependent.
abstract: Malignant tissue contains a rare population of multi-potent cells known as cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). Autophagy is an important mechanism in cancer cell survival and tumor growth; it can both suppress malignant transformation and promote the growth of established cancers. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing functions of autophagy in CSCs are not understood. Our work demonstrates that a prosurvival autophagic pathway is critical for breast CSC maintenance. Notably, we provide new evidence for the existence of two separate, context-dependent, autophagic programs that are regulated in opposite ways by BECN1.
authors.affiliation: INSERM U984, Faculté de Pharmacie, Châtenay-Malabry, France.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Erwei
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Codogno
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehrpour
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D002470:Cell Survival; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins