Opioids drive breast cancer metastasis through the δ-opioid receptor and oncogenic STAT3.

ABSTRACT: The opioid crisis of pain medication bears risks from addiction to cancer progression, but little experimental evidence exists. Expression of δ-opioid receptors (DORs) correlates with poor prognosis for breast cancer patients, but mechanistic insights into oncogenic signaling mechanisms of opioid-triggered cancer progression are lacking. We show that orthotopic transplant models using human or murine breast cancer cells displayed enhanced metastasis upon opioid-induced DOR stimulation. Interestingly, opioid-exposed breast cancer cells showed enhanced migration and strong STAT3 activation, which was efficiently blocked by a DOR-antagonist. Furthermore, opioid treatment resulted in down-regulation of E-Cadherin and increased expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. Notably, S

SUBMITTER: Tripolt S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7815495 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature