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Asemota S, Effah W, Young KL, Holt J, Cripe L, Ponnusamy S, Thiyagarajan T, Hwang DJ, He Y, Mcnamara K, Johnson D, Wang Y, Grimes B, Khosrosereshki Y, Hollingsworth TJ, Fleming MD, Pritchard FE, Hendrix A, Khan F, Fan M, Makowski L, Yin Z, Sasano H, Hayes DN, Pfeffer LM, Miller DD, Narayanan R. Identification of a targetable JAK-STAT enriched androgen receptor and androgen receptor splice variant positive triple-negative breast cancer subtype. Cell Rep 2023; 42:113461. [PMID: 37979170 PMCID: PMC10872270 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype with no targeted therapeutics. The luminal androgen receptor (LAR) subtype constitutes 15% of TNBC and is enriched for androgen receptor (AR) and AR target genes. Here, we show that a cohort of TNBC not only expresses AR at a much higher rate (∼80%) but also expresses AR splice variants (AR-SVs) (∼20%), further subclassifying LAR-TNBC. Higher AR and AR-SV expression and corresponding aggressive phenotypes are observed predominantly in specimens obtained from African American women. LAR TNBC specimens are enriched for interferon, Janus kinase (JAK)-signal activator and transducer (STAT), and androgen signaling pathways, which are exclusive to AR-expressing epithelial cancer cells. AR- and AR-SV-expressing TNBC cell proliferation and xenograft and patient-tumor explant growth are inhibited by AR N-terminal domain-binding selective AR degrader or by a JAK inhibitor. Biochemical analysis suggests that STAT1 is an AR coactivator. Collectively, our work identifies pharmacologically targetable TNBC subtypes and identifies growth-promoting interaction between AR and JAK-STAT signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Asemota
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Wendy Effah
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Kirsten L Young
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Jeremiah Holt
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Linnea Cripe
- Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Suriyan Ponnusamy
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Thirumagal Thiyagarajan
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Dong-Jin Hwang
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Yali He
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Keely Mcnamara
- Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan
| | - Daniel Johnson
- Molecular Bioinformatics Core, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Yinan Wang
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Brandy Grimes
- West Cancer Center and Research Institute, Memphis, TN 38138, USA
| | - Yekta Khosrosereshki
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - T J Hollingsworth
- Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Martin D Fleming
- Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Frances E Pritchard
- Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Ashley Hendrix
- Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Farhan Khan
- Department of Pathology, Methodist Hospital, Memphis, TN 38104, USA
| | - Meiyun Fan
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Liza Makowski
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Zheng Yin
- Biomedical and Informatics Services Core, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Hironobu Sasano
- Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan
| | - D Neil Hayes
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Lawrence M Pfeffer
- Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Duane D Miller
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA
| | - Ramesh Narayanan
- Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA; UTHSC Center for Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38103, USA.
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