Chemotherapy-Treated Breast Cancer Cells Activate the WNT Signaling Pathway to Enter a Diapause-Like Early Persister State.

ABSTRACT: Cancer cells can acquire a reversible, dormant drug-tolerant persister state mimicking embryonic diapause to evade therapy pressure. Deciphering the precise mechanisms driving cancer cells into or out of a diapause-like persister cell state could provide strategies to overcome resistance. In this study, we showed that following chemotherapy, diverse therapeutic agents converge on WNT pathway activation to induce a de novo diapause-like cell state across various triple-negative breast cancer cell line, xenograft, and patient-derived organoid models. Among early persister cells, only transcriptionally WNT-active persisters exhibited the transcriptional and functional characteristics typical of diapause-like cells, including a negative correlation with MYC transcriptional activity and reversi

SUBMITTER: El Laithy Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12809118 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature