title: Activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in triple negative feline mammary carcinomas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in humans is defined by the absence of oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 overexpression. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is overexpressed in TNBC and it represents a potential target for the treatment of this aggressive tumour. Feline mammary carcinoma (FMC) is considered to be a model for hormone-independent human breast cancer. This study investigated mTOR and p-mTOR expression in FMC in relation to triple negative (TN) phenotype.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The expression of mTOR, p-mTOR, ERα, PR and HER2 was evaluated in 58 FMCs by immunohistochemistry and in six FMC cell lines by Western blot analysis. 53.5% of FMC analyzed were ER, PR, HER2 negative (TN-FMC) while 56.9% and 55.2% of cases expressed mTOR and p-mTOR respectively. In this study we found that m-TOR and p-mTOR were more frequently detected in TN-FMC and in HER2 negative samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, we demonstrate that there is also a FMC subset defined as TN FMC, which is characterised by a statistically significant association with m-TOR and p-mTOR expression as demonstrated in human breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: University of Turin, Department of Veterinary Sciences, via L. da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy. lorella.maniscalco@unito.it
authors.forename: Lorella
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maniscalco
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Millán
authors.forename: Selina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iussich
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Denina
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Céspedes
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gattino
authors.forename: Bartolomeo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Biolatti
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Maria Flavia
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Di Renzo
authors.forename: Juana Martín
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Las Mulas
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Maria
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western / Q000662:veterinary; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002415:Cats; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D008321:Mammary Glands, Animal / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015674:Mammary Neoplasms, Animal / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010641:Phenotype; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases