Kavarthapu Raghuveer, Anbazhagan Rajakumar, Dufau Maria L
Section on Molecular Endocrinology, Division of Developmental Biology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Sep 18;13(18):4685. doi: 10.3390/cancers13184685.
Prolactin receptor (PRLR) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR/ERBB) signaling pathways activated by prolactin (PRL) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), have a major role in the mammary gland development and in the etiology of breast cancer, respectively. ER+ breast tumors comprise up to 75% of all breast cancers and 10% of these are HER2+. Elevated levels of PRLR in breast tumors, high circulating levels of PRL and increased expression of ERBB1/2 in patients that become resistant to endocrine therapy have shown to be associated with higher risk of cancer progression. In this review, we examine the role of crosstalk between PRLR and ERBB1/2 signaling pathways in the activation of unliganded ERα, cyclin-D1 and other oncogenic factors (MYC, FOS, JUN) in breast cancer. PRL/PRLR and EGF/EGFR induces phosphorylation of ERα through activation of MEK/MAPK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. PRL in breast cancer cells via PRLR/JAK2 can also induce phosphorylation of ERBB2/HER2, which in turn activates the downstream RAS/MEK/ERK pathway required for ERα phosphorylation. EGFR, independent of PRL/PRLR, can activate STAT5 indirectly via c-SRC and drive the expression of target genes involved in cell proliferation and survival. The crosstalk between PRLR and HER2, where PRL induces HER2 signaling can be an alternative route for ERα activation to induce transcription of PRLR and other ER target genes. We believe that overexpression of EGFR/HER2 and PRLR in breast tumors could maximize the actions of their ligands, and further induce cell proliferation promoting malignancy. This could also explain the resistance to endocrine therapy resulting in tumor growth.
催乳素(PRL)和表皮生长因子(EGF)分别激活的催乳素受体(PRLR)和表皮生长因子受体(EGFR/ERBB)信号通路,在乳腺发育和乳腺癌病因学中分别发挥着重要作用。雌激素受体阳性(ER+)乳腺癌占所有乳腺癌的75%,其中10%为人类表皮生长因子受体2阳性(HER2+)。乳腺肿瘤中PRLR水平升高、患者循环中PRL水平升高以及对内分泌治疗产生耐药性的患者中ERBB1/2表达增加,均与癌症进展风险较高相关。在本综述中,我们研究了PRLR与ERBB1/2信号通路之间的串扰在乳腺癌中未结合雌激素受体α(ERα)、细胞周期蛋白D1和其他致癌因子(MYC、FOS、JUN)激活中的作用。PRL/PRLR和EGF/EGFR通过激活MEK/MAPK和PI3K/AKT信号通路诱导ERα磷酸化。乳腺癌细胞中的PRL通过PRLR/JAK2也可诱导ERBB2/HER2磷酸化,进而激活ERα磷酸化所需的下游RAS/MEK/ERK通路。EGFR不依赖PRL/PRLR,可通过c-SRC间接激活信号转导和转录激活因子5(STAT5),并驱动参与细胞增殖和存活的靶基因表达。PRLR与HER2之间的串扰,即PRL诱导HER2信号传导,可能是ERα激活以诱导PRLR和其他ER靶基因转录的另一条途径。我们认为,乳腺肿瘤中EGFR/HER2和PRLR的过表达可使它们的配体作用最大化,并进一步诱导细胞增殖促进恶性肿瘤发生。这也可以解释导致肿瘤生长的内分泌治疗耐药性。