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Soft Microenvironments Induce Chemoresistance by Increasing Autophagy Downstream of Integrin-Linked Kinase.

ABSTRACT: Breast cancer relapse can develop over the course of years as a result of dormant cancer cells that disseminate to secondary sites. These dormant cells are often resistant to conventional hormone and chemotherapy. Although recurrence is the main cause of death from cancer, microenvironmental factors that may influence resistance to therapy and duration of dormancy are largely unknown. Breast cancer relapse is often detected in tissues that are softer than the normal mammary gland or the primary breast tumor, such as bone marrow, brain, and lung. We therefore explored how stiffness of the microenvironment at secondary sites regulates tumor dormancy and the response of breast cancer cells to hormone and chemotherapy. In soft microenvironments reminiscent of metastatic sites, breast cancer cells were more resistant to the estrogen receptor modulator tamoxifen as a result of increased autophagy and decreased expression of estrogen receptor-α. Consistently, pharmacologic inhibition or genetic downregulation of autophagy increased the response of breast cancer cells to tamoxifen on soft substrata. In addition, autophagy was decreased downstream of integrin-linked kinase on stiff substrata. Altogether, our data show that tissue mechanics regulates therapeutic outcome and long-term survival of breast cancer cells by influencing autophagy. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings characterize the persistence of dormant cells at metastatic sites, where soft microenvironments downregulate estrogen receptor expression and upregulate autophagy, thereby promoting therapy resistance in breast cancer cells. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/80/19/4103/F1.large.jpg.

SUBMITTER: Anlas AA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7534696 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is an important signaling regulator that assembles into the heteroternary complex with adaptor proteins PINCH and parvin (termed the IPP complex). We recently reported that ILK is important for integrin activation in a Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell system. We previously established parental CHO cells expressing a constitutively active chimeric integrin (?IIb?6B?3) and mutant CHO cells expressing inactive ?IIb?6B?3 due to ILK deficiency. In this study, we further investigated the underlying mechanisms for ILK-dependent integrin activation. ILK-deficient mutant cells had trace levels of PINCH and ?-parvin, and transfection of ILK cDNA into the mutant cells increased not only ILK but also PINCH and ?-parvin, resulting in the restoration of ?IIb?6B?3 activation. In the parental cells expressing active ?IIb?6B?3, ILK, PINCH, and ?-parvin were co-immunoprecipitated, indicating the formation of the IPP complex. Moreover, short interfering RNA (siRNA) experiments targeting PINCH-1 or both ?- and ?-parvin mRNA in the parent cells impaired the ?IIb?6B?3 activation as well as the expression of the other components of the IPP complex. In addition, ILK mutants possessing defects in either PINCH or parvin binding failed to restore ?IIb?6B?3 activation in the mutant cells. Kindlin-2 siRNA in the parental cells impaired ?IIb?6B?3 activation without disturbing the expression of ILK. For CHO cells stably expressing wild-type ?IIb?3 that is an inactive form, overexpression of a talin head domain (THD) induced ?IIb?3 activation and the THD-induced ?IIb?3 activation was impaired by ILK siRNA through a significant reduction in the expression of the IPP complex. In contrast, overexpression of all IPP components in the ?IIb?3-expressing CHO cells further augmented THD-induced ?IIb?3 activation, whereas they did not induce ?IIb?3 activation without THD. These data suggest that the IPP complex rather than ILK plays an important role and supports integrin activation probably through stabilization of the active conformation.

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Soft Microenvironments Induce Chemoresistance by Increasing Autophagy Downstream of Integrin-Linked Kinase.

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