Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX 79430, USA.
College of Veterinary Medicine, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ 85308, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Aug 10;25(16):8732. doi: 10.3390/ijms25168732.
An imbalance in estrogen signaling is a critical event in breast tumorigenesis. The majority of breast cancers (BCs) are hormone-sensitive; they majorly express the estrogen receptor (ER+) and are activated by 17β-estradiol (E2). The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) mediates the rate-limiting step in steroid biosynthesis. The dysregulation of the epigenetic machinery, modulating E2 levels, is a primary occurrence for promoting breast tumorigenesis. StAR expression, concomitant with E2 synthesis, was reported to be aberrantly high in human and mouse hormone-dependent BC cells compared with their non-cancerous counterparts. However, the mechanism of action of StAR remains poorly understood. We discovered StAR as an acetylated protein and have identified a number of lysine (K) residues that are putatively acetylated in malignant and non-malignant breast cells, using LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry), suggesting they differently influence E2 synthesis in mammary tissue. The treatment of hormone-sensitive MCF7 cells with a variety of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs), at therapeutically and clinically relevant doses, identified a few additional StAR acetylated lysine residues. Among a total of fourteen StAR acetylomes undergoing acetylation and deacetylation, K111 and K253 were frequently recognized either endogenously or in response to HDACIs. Site-directed mutagenesis studies of these two StAR acetylomes, pertaining to K111Q and K253Q acetylation mimetic states, resulted in increases in E2 levels in ER+ MCF7 and triple negative MB-231 BC cells, compared with their values seen with human StAR. Conversely, these cells carrying K111R and K253R deacetylation mutants diminished E2 biosynthesis. These findings provide novel and mechanistic insights into intra-tumoral E2 regulation by elucidating the functional importance of this uncovered StAR post-translational modification (PTM), involving acetylation and deacetylation events, underscoring the potential of StAR as a therapeutic target for hormone-sensitive BC.
雌激素信号失衡是乳腺癌发生的关键事件。大多数乳腺癌(BC)是激素敏感型的;它们主要表达雌激素受体(ER+),并被 17β-雌二醇(E2)激活。类固醇生成急性调节蛋白(StAR)介导类固醇生物合成的限速步骤。调节 E2 水平的表观遗传机制失调是促进乳腺癌发生的主要事件。与非癌性对应物相比,StAR 表达与 E2 合成一起,在人类和小鼠激素依赖性 BC 细胞中被报道异常升高。然而,StAR 的作用机制仍知之甚少。我们发现 StAR 是一种乙酰化蛋白,并使用 LC-MS/MS(液相色谱-串联质谱)鉴定了许多恶性和非恶性乳腺细胞中推定的赖氨酸(K)残基被乙酰化,这表明它们在乳腺组织中以不同的方式影响 E2 合成。用各种组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂(HDACIs)治疗激素敏感的 MCF7 细胞,在治疗和临床相关剂量下,鉴定了一些额外的 StAR 乙酰化赖氨酸残基。在总共经历乙酰化和去乙酰化的 14 个 StAR 乙酰组中,K111 和 K253 要么内源性地,要么在响应 HDACIs 时经常被识别。针对这两个 StAR 乙酰组的 K111Q 和 K253Q 乙酰化模拟状态的定点突变研究导致 ER+ MCF7 和三阴性 MB-231 BC 细胞中的 E2 水平升高,与它们与人类 StAR 相比的值相比。相反,携带 K111R 和 K253R 去乙酰化突变体的这些细胞减少了 E2 生物合成。这些发现通过阐明这种未被发现的 StAR 翻译后修饰(PTM)的功能重要性,为肿瘤内 E2 调节提供了新的和机制性的见解,涉及乙酰化和去乙酰化事件,强调了 StAR 作为激素敏感型 BC 的治疗靶点的潜力。