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Huang CY, Wei PL, Prince GMSH, Batzorig U, Lee CC, Chang YJ, Hung CS. The Role of Thrombomodulin in Estrogen-Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Progression, Metastasis, and Curcumin Sensitivity. Biomedicines 2023; 11:biomedicines11051384. [PMID: 37239055 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11051384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Estrogen and estrogen receptors (ER) play a key role in breast cancer progression, which can be treated with endocrine therapy. Nevertheless, resistance to endocrine therapies is developed over time. The tumor expression of thrombomodulin (TM) is correlated with favorable prognosis in several types of cancer. However, this correlation has not yet been confirmed in ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer. This study aims to evaluate the role of TM in ER+ breast cancer. Firstly, we found that lower TM expression correlates to poor overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) rates in ER+ breast cancer patients through Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (p < 0.05). Silencing TM in MCF7 cells (TM-KD) increased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion ability. Additionally, TM-KD MCF7 cells showed higher sensitivity (IC50 15 μM) to the anti-cancer agent curcumin than the scrambled control cells. Conversely, overexpression of TM (TM-over) in T47D cells leads to decreased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion ability. Furthermore, TM-over T47D cells showed more resistance (IC50 > 40 μM) to the curcumin treatment. The PI staining, DAPI, and tunnel assay also confirmed that the curcumin-induced apoptosis in TM-KD MCF7 cells was higher (90.34%) than in the scrambled control cells (48.54%). Finally, the expressions of drug-resistant genes (ABCC1, LRP1, MRP5, and MDR1) were determined by qPCR. We found that the relative mRNA expression levels of ABCC1, LRP1, and MDR1 genes after curcumin treatment were higher in scrambled control cells than in TM-KD cells. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that TM plays a suppressive role in the progression and metastasis of ER+ breast cancer, and it regulates curcumin sensitivity by interfering with ABCC1, LRP1, and MDR1 gene expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chien-Yu Huang
- School of Medicine, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan
- Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300044, Taiwan
- Department of Pathology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11696, Taiwan
| | - Po-Li Wei
- Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Cancer Research Center and Translational Laboratory, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
| | - G M Shazzad Hossain Prince
- Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
| | - Uyanga Batzorig
- Department of Dermatology, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093, USA
| | - Cheng-Chin Lee
- Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Jia Chang
- Department of Pathology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11696, Taiwan
- Cancer Research Center and Translational Laboratory, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Cell Physiology and Molecular Image Research Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
| | - Chin-Sheng Hung
- Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
- Division of Breast Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei 11031, Taiwan
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