title: MiR-148a functions to suppress metastasis and serves as a prognostic indicator in triple-negative breast cancer.
abstract: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) presents a major challenge in the clinic due to its lack of reliable prognostic markers and targeted therapies. Accumulating evidence strongly supports the notion that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in tumorigenesis and could serve as biomarkers for diagnostic purposes. To identify miRNAs that functionally suppress metastasis of TNBC, we employed a concerted approach with selecting miRNAs that display differential expression profiles from bioinformatic analyses of breast cancer patient databases and validating top candidates with functional assays using breast cancer cell lines and mouse models. We have found that miR-148a exhibits properties as a tumor suppressor as its expression is inversely correlated with the ability of both human and mouse breast cancer cells to colonize the lung in mouse xenograft tumor models. Mechanistically, miR-148a appears to suppress the extravasation process of cancer cells, likely by targeting two genes WNT1 and NRP1 in a cell non-autonomous manner. Importantly, lower expression of miR-148a is detected in higher-grade tumor samples and correlated with increased likelihood to develop metastases and poor prognosis in subsets of breast cancer patients, particularly those with TNBC. Thus, miR-148a is functionally defined as a suppressor of breast cancer metastasis and may serve as a prognostic biomarker for this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jasper
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lykken
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Geoffrey J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Markowitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Donald P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: McDonnell
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Qi-Jing
authors.initials: QJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fan
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D039942:Neuropilin-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D051155:Wnt1 Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C550570:MIRN148 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs; C495247:WNT1 protein, human; D051155:Wnt1 Protein; D039942:Neuropilin-1
keywords: extravasation; metastasis; miR-148a; prognosis biomarker; triple-negative breast cancer