The role of 17 β‑estradiol‑induced upregulation of Piwi‑like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells.

The role of 17β‑estradiol‑induced upregulation of Piwi‑like 4 in modulating gene expression and motility in breast cancer cells. Oncol Rep. 2018 Aug 31;: Authors: Heng ZSL, Lee JY, Subhramanyam CS, Wang C, Thanga LZ, Hu Q Abstract A majority of breast cancer cases are positive for the estrogen receptor (ER), which means that they can respond to the estrogen hormone to achieve growth. Hence, the ER signaling pathway has been extensively targeted in pharmaceutical research and development in order to suppress tumor growth. However, prevalent hormone therapy and targeted therapy often become ineffective as cancer cells ultimately develop resistance, suggesting that there could be unidentified signaling molecules and events that regulate breast cancer growth. Notably, recent studies have uncovered that Piwi‑like (Piwil) proteins, which were initially found in germline cells, are expressed in a wide spectrum of human cancers, including breast cancers. Although Piwil proteins have been well established to silence retrotransposons and to promote heterochromatin formation in germline cells, their somatic functions in cancer cells remain largely unknown. In the present study, we profiled the expression of four Piwi homologs in an ER‑positive breast cancer cell line, MCF‑7, and found that only Piwil4 was upregulated by 17β‑estradiol treatment. Notably, Piwil4 upregulation was not observed in an ER‑positive but non‑tumorige...
Source: Oncology Reports - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncol Rep Source Type: research