title: Mammaglobin 1 promotes breast cancer malignancy and confers sensitivity to anticancer drugs.
abstract: Mammaglobin 1 (MGB1), a member of the secretoglobin family, is expressed in mammary epithelial tissues and is overexpressed in most mammary carcinomas. Despite the extensive research correlating MGB1 expression profiles to breast cancer pathogenesis and disease outcome, the biological significance of MGB1 in cancer processes is still unclear. We have thus set out to conduct a functional evaluation of the molecular and cellular roles of MGB1 in breast cancer processes leading to disease progression. Using a series of breast cancer cell models with conditional MGB1 expression, we demonstrate that MGB1 promotes cancer cell malignant features. More specifically, loss of MGB1 expression resulted in a decrease of cell proliferation, soft agar spheroid formation, migration, and invasion capacities of breast cancer cells. Concomitantly, we also observed that MGB1 expression activates signaling pathways mediated by MAPK members (p38, JNK, and ERK), the focal adhesion kinase (FAK), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and NFκB. Moreover, MGB1 regulates epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT) features and modulates Snail, Twist and ZEB1 expression levels. Interestingly, we also observed that expression of MGB1 confers breast cancer cell sensitivity to anticancer drug-induced apoptosis. Together, our results support a role for MGB1 in tumor malignancy in exchange for chemosensitivity. These findings provide one of the first descriptive overview of the molecular and cellular roles of MGB1 in breast cancer processes and may offer new insight to the development of therapeutic and prognostic strategies in breast cancer patients. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Picot
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Roxann
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guerrette
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Annie-Pier
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Beauregard
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jean
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Michaud
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harquail
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Sami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benzina
authors.affiliation: Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.|Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Gilles A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Robichaud
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D060785:Mammaglobin A / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D015398:Signal Transduction; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D060785:Mammaglobin A; C556448:SCGB2A2 protein, human
keywords: EMT; FAK; MAPK; MGB1; NFκB; chemosensitivity; metastasis