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Thankamony AP, Ramkomuth S, Ramesh ST, Murali R, Chakraborty P, Karthikeyan N, Varghese BA, Jaikumar VS, Jolly MK, Swarbrick A, Nair R. Phenotypic heterogeneity drives differential disease outcome in a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1230647. [PMID: 37841442 PMCID: PMC10570535 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1230647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023] Open
Abstract
The triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer that has poor clinical outcome and is an unmet clinical challenge. Accumulating evidence suggests that intratumoral heterogeneity or the presence of phenotypically distinct cell populations within a tumor play a crucial role in chemoresistance, tumor progression and metastasis. An increased understanding of the molecular regulators of intratumoral heterogeneity is crucial to the development of effective therapeutic strategies in TNBC. To this end, we used an unbiased approach to identify a molecular mediator of intratumoral heterogeneity in breast cancer by isolating two tumor cell populations (T1 and T2) from the 4T1 TNBC model. Phenotypic characterization revealed that the cells are different in terms of their morphology, proliferation and self-renewal ability in vitro as well as primary tumor formation and metastatic potential in vivo. Bioinformatic analysis followed by Kaplan Meier survival analysis in TNBC patients identified Metastasis associated colon cancer 1 (Macc1) as one of the top candidate genes mediating the aggressive phenotype in the T1 tumor cells. The role of Macc1 in regulating the proliferative phenotype was validated and taken forward in a therapeutic context with Lovastatin, a small molecule transcriptional inhibitor of Macc1 to target the T1 cell population. This study increases our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of intratumoral heterogeneity in breast cancer that is critical to improve the treatment of women currently living with the highly aggressive TNBC subtype.
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Affiliation(s)
- Archana P. Thankamony
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
- Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, India
| | - Sonny Ramkomuth
- The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and Cancer Research Theme, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Shikha T. Ramesh
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
- Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, India
| | - Reshma Murali
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
| | - Priyanka Chakraborty
- Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | | | | | | | - Mohit Kumar Jolly
- Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
| | - Alexander Swarbrick
- The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and Cancer Research Theme, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- St Vincent’s Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Radhika Nair
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
- Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore, India
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Grimm D. Recent Advances in Breast Cancer Research. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:11990. [PMID: 37569366 PMCID: PMC10418708 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241511990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
This Special Issue (SI), titled "Recent Advances in Breast Cancer Research", covers 12 research articles and 1 communication in the field of breast cancer (BC) research [...].
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Grimm
- Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Ole Worms Allé 4, Aarhus C, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark; ; Tel.: +45-21379702; Fax: +45-8612-8804
- Department of Microgravity and Translational Regenerative Medicine, University Clinic for Plastic, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, Otto von Guericke University, Pfälzer Str. 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Research Group “Magdeburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung unter Raumfahrt- und Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen” (MARS), Otto von Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
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