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Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity determines estrogen receptor positive breast cancer dormancy and epithelial reconversion drives recurrence

ABSTRACT: Estrogen receptor α-positive (ER+) breast cancers (BCs) represent more than 70% of all breast cancers and pose a particular clinical challenge because they recur up to decades after initial diagnosis and treatment. The mechanisms governing tumor cell dormancy and latent disease remain elusive due to a lack of adequate models. Here, we compare tumor progression of ER+ and triple-negative (TN) BC subtypes with a clinically relevant mouse intraductal xenografting approach (MIND). Both ER+ and TN BC cells disseminate already during the in situ stage. However, TN disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) proliferate at the same rate as cells at the primary site and give rise to macro-metastases. ER+ DTCs have low proliferative indices, form only micro-metastases and lose epithelial characteristics. Single cell RNA sequencing reveals that dormant DTCs harbor different Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity (EMP)-states, reflective of their heterogeneous and plastic nature. Dormant DTCs are in a mesenchymal-like state, with decreased CDH1 and increased ZEB2 and VIM expression levels, as well as matrisome-related genes, like FN1, ELN, COL3A1, and others. On the other hand, proliferative DTCs are epithelial-like, and express CDH1, EPCAM, KRT18, and ESR1. EMP is very rare in primary tumour cells and is not required for invasion or metastasis. In vivo, forced transition to the epithelial state through ectopic E-cadherin expression overcomes dormancy with increased growth of lung metastases. We conclude that EMP is essential for the generation of a dormant cell state and the development of latent disease. Targeting exit from EMP is of therapeutic potential.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE196936 | GEO | 2022/07/13

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Seed dormancy is the inability for seeds to germinate even under favorable conditions. In the Arabidopsis Landsberg erecta (Ler) ecotype, 2 weeks of dry storage, called after-ripening, is sufficient to relieve seed dormancy. Such seed is referred to as after-ripened (AR) and has a high rate of germination when imbibed. While widespread transcriptome changes have been previously observed with seed dormancy loss, this experiment was designed to characterize transcriptional changes associated with the increased seed dormancy and dormancy loss of the gibberellin (GA) hormone-insensitive sleepy1-2 (sly1-2) mutant. The SLY1 gene encodes the F-box subunit of an SCF E3 ubiquitin ligase needed for GA-triggered proteolysis of DELLA repressors of seed germination. In the sly1-2 mutant, GA-directed DELLA proteolysis cannot occur leading to DELLA protein accumulation and increased dormancy. sly1-2 mutant seeds are fully dormant at 2 weeks of dry storage (0% germination), but germinate well with very long after-ripening (51% germination after 19 months). sly1-2 seed germination can also be rescued by overexpression of the GA receptor, GA-INSENSITIVE DWARF1b (GID1b-OE), which resulted in 74% germination at 2 weeks of dry storage. In this experiment, we compared seeds of wild-type Ler at 2 weeks of dry storage (non-dormant), dormant sly1-2 (2 weeks of dry storage; sly1-2(D)), long after-ripened sly1-2 (non-dormant, 19 months of dry storage; sly1-2(AR)), and sly1-2 GID1b-OE (non-dormant, 2 weeks of dry storage). Samples were collected at two imbibition timepoints: 1) a 0h timepoint after 4 days at 4°C, and 2) a 12h timepoint after 4 days at 4°C followed by 12 hours in the light at 22°C. These timepoints were selected to capture the transcriptomes at an early and late time in Phase II of imbibition. Using this experimental design we were able to determine transcriptome differences associated with seed dormancy in the sly1-2 mutation (Ler wt vs sly1-2(D)), and changes associated with sly1-2 dormancy loss through dry after-ripening (sly1-2(AR) vs sly1-2(D)) or through GID1b-overexpression (sly1-2 GID1b-OE vs sly1-2(D)). Seeds for Ler wt, sly1-2(D), and sly1-2 GID1b-OE were grown alongside each other under the same conditions and after-ripened for 2 weeks. Seeds from sly1-2(AR) were grown under the same conditions in advance of the other lines to allow for the long after-ripening requirement. RNA was extracted using a phenol-chloroform-based extraction from three biological replicates per treatment.

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Project description:Aberrant activation of the forkhead protein FOXA1 is observed in advanced hormone-related cancers. However, to date, key mediators of high FOXA1 signaling remain elusive. We demonstrate that ectopic high FOXA1 (H-FOXA1) expression promotes estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer (BC) metastasis in a xenograft mouse model. Mechanistically, H-FOXA1 reprograms ER-chromatin binding to elicit a core gene signature (CGS) highly enriched in ER+ endocrine-resistant (EndoR) cells. We identified Secretome14, a CGS subset encoding ER-dependent cancer secretory proteins, strongly predicts poor outcomes of ER+ BC and is elevated in ER+ metastases vs. primary tumors, irrespective to the ESR1 mutations. Parental (P) ER+ BC cells and their endocrine-resistant (EndoR) derivatives, and ER+ BC cells expressing doxycycline (Dox)-inducible ectopic FOXA1 were used in this study. Differential gene expression analysis was performed in EndoR vs. P cells and P cells +Dox vs. -Dox. We found that the FOXA1-CGS was highly enriched in the altered transcriptomes of two ER+ BC cell models (ZR75-1 and T47D) expressing ectopic H-FOXA1. The enriched hallmark gene sets, shared by the H-FOXA1 cell models, include “inflammatory response”, “complement”, and “interferon gamma response” for the H-FOXA1-induced, and “estrogen response early” and “estrogen response late” for the H-FOXA1-repressed genes. These findings point to the common transcriptional profile exhibiting an immune- over estrogen-responsive signature induced by H-FOXA1. In addition, we found that both the tamoxifen-resistant (TamR) and estrogen deprivation-resistant (EDR) derivatives of the 600MPE P cells were enriched for the H-FOXA1-induced CGS and FOXA1/ER-activated Secretome14. Our findings uncover H-FOXA1-induced ER reprogramming driving EndoR and metastasis, possibly via a H-FOXA1/ER-dependent secretome that warrants further studies to clarify its involvement in disease progression of ER+ metastatic BC.

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Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity determines estrogen receptor positive breast cancer dormancy and epithelial reconversion drives recurrence

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