Aurora Kinase A and Bcl-xL Inhibition Suppresses Metastasis in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease that accounts for 10–15% of all breast cancer cases. Within TNBC, the treatment of basal B is the most challenging due to its highly invasive potential, and thus treatments to suppress metastasis formation in this subgroup are urgently...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Natascha Skov, Carla L. Alves, Sidse Ehmsen, Henrik J. Ditzel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-09-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/17/10053
Description
Summary:Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease that accounts for 10–15% of all breast cancer cases. Within TNBC, the treatment of basal B is the most challenging due to its highly invasive potential, and thus treatments to suppress metastasis formation in this subgroup are urgently needed. However, the mechanisms underlying the metastatic ability of TNBC remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of Aurora A and Bcl-xL in regulating basal B cell invasion. We found gene amplification and elevated protein expression in the basal B cells, which also showed increased invasiveness in vitro, compared to basal A cells. Chemical inhibition of Aurora A with alisertib and siRNA-mediated knockdown of <i>BCL2L1</i> decreased the number of invading cells compared to non-treated cells in basal B cell lines. The analysis of the correlation between <i>AURKA</i> and <i>BCL2L1</i> expression in TNBC and patient survival revealed significantly decreased relapse-free survival (<i>n</i> = 534, <i>p</i> = 0.012) and distant metastasis-free survival (<i>n</i> = 424, <i>p</i> = 0.017) in patients with primary tumors exhibiting a high combined expression of <i>AURKA</i> and <i>BCL2L1</i>. Together, our findings suggest that high levels of Aurora A and Bcl-xL promote metastasis, and inhibition of these proteins may suppress metastasis and improve patient survival in basal B TNBC.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067