Acid-base transporters and pH dynamics in human breast carcinomas predict proliferative activity, metastasis, and survival
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- Regionshospitalet Randers, Denmark
- University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Abstract
Breast cancer heterogeneity in histology and molecular subtype influences metabolic and proliferative activity and hence the acid load on cancer cells. We hypothesized that acid-base transporters and intracellular pH (pHi) dynamics contribute inter-individual variability in breast cancer aggressiveness and prognosis. We show that Na+,HCO3--cotransport and Na+/H+-exchange dominate cellular net acid extrusion in human breast carcinomas. Na+/H+-exchange elevates pHi preferentially in estrogen receptor-negative breast carcinomas, whereas Na+,HCO3--cotransport raises pHi more in invasive lobular than ductal breast carcinomas and in higher malignancy grade breast cancer. HER2-positive breast carcinomas have elevated protein expression of Na+/H+-exchanger NHE1/SLC9A1 and Na+,HCO3--cotransporter NBCn1/SLC4A7. Increased dependency on Na+,HCO3--cotransport associates with severe breast cancer: enlarged CO2/HCO3--dependent rises in pHi predict accelerated cell proliferation; whereas enhanced CO2/HCO3--dependent net acid extrusion, elevated NBCn1 protein expression, and reduced NHE1 protein expression predict lymph node metastasis. Accordingly, we observe reduced survival for patients suffering from Luminal A or Basal-like/triple-negative breast cancer with high SLC4A7 and/or low SLC9A1 mRNA expression. We conclude that the molecular mechanisms of acid-base regulation depend on clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer patients. NBCn1 expression and dependency on Na+,HCO3--cotransport for pHi regulation, measured in biopsies of human primary breast carcinomas, independently predict proliferative activity, lymph node metastasis, and patient survival.
Data availability
- In order to comply with the ethical approval, we share the human data presented in Figure 1-8 and corresponding Figure Supplements (data on acid-base transport activity, intracellular pH, and protein expression of transporters linked to clinicopathological information) in de-identified form. Following consultation with the legal team at the Regional Committee on Health Research Ethics, we have generated dataset files where restricted information is grouped in intervals each consisting of no less than five individuals. To provide the reader with the best possible data insight, we also show Figure Supplements with more detailed and advanced plots of the data and include the corresponding de-identified dataset.- The meta analyses presented in Figure 9, 10, and corresponding figure supplements (data on RNA expression linked to patient survival) are based on data that have previously been published by other investigators (references 28-34), as detailed in the manuscript and the dataset list.
-
A gene-expression signature as a predictor of survival in breast cancerBudczies J, Kosztyla D (2020). cancerdata: Development and validation of diagnostic tests from high-dimensional molecular data: Datasets. R package version 1.28.0.; data(Vijver).
-
The molecular portraits of breast tumors are conserved across microarray platformsNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE1992.
-
Gene-expression profiles to predict distant metastasis of lymph-node-negative primary breast cancerNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE2034.
-
The humoral immune system has a key prognostic impact in node-negative breast cancerNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE11121.
-
Oncogenic pathway signatures in human cancers as a guide to targeted therapiesNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE3143.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Sundhed og Sygdom, Det Frie Forskningsråd (7025-00050B)
- Ebbe Boedtkjer
Novo Nordisk Fonden (NNF18OC0053037)
- Ebbe Boedtkjer
Danish Cancer Society (R136-A8670)
- Nicolai J Toft
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: All participants gave written informed consent. The Mid-Jutland regional division of the Danish Committee on Health Research Ethics (M-20100288) and the Danish Data Protection Agency (1-16-02-191-16) approved the procedures for tissue sampling and data handling, respectively.
Copyright
© 2021, Toft et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,581
- views
-
- 233
- downloads
-
- 24
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Acid-base transporters and pH dynamics in human breast carcinomas predict proliferative activity, metastasis, and survival
eLife 10:e68447.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68447
Further reading
-
- Cancer Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare melanoma originating in the eye’s uvea, with 50% of patients experiencing metastasis predominantly in the liver. In contrast to cutaneous melanoma, there is only a limited effectiveness of combined immune checkpoint therapies, and half of patients with uveal melanoma metastases succumb to disease within 2 years. This study aimed to provide a path toward enhancing immunotherapy efficacy by identifying and functionally validating tumor-reactive T cells in liver metastases of patients with UM. We employed single-cell RNA-seq of biopsies and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) to identify potential tumor-reactive T cells. Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of UM metastases were created from patients, and tumor sphere cultures were generated from these models for co-culture with autologous or MART1-specific HLA-matched allogenic TILs. Activated T cells were subjected to TCR-seq, and the TCRs were matched to those found in single-cell sequencing data from biopsies, expanded TILs, and in livers or spleens of PDX models injected with TILs. Our findings revealed that tumor-reactive T cells resided not only among activated and exhausted subsets of T cells, but also in a subset of cytotoxic effector cells. In conclusion, combining single-cell sequencing and functional analysis provides valuable insights into which T cells in UM may be useful for cell therapy amplification and marker selection.
-
- Cancer Biology
In tumors with WT p53, alternate mechanisms of p53 inactivation are reported. Here, we have identified a long noncoding RNA, PITAR (p53 Inactivating TRIM28 Associated RNA), as an inhibitor of p53. PITAR is an oncogenic Cancer/testis lncRNA and is highly expressed in glioblastoma (GBM) and glioma stem-like cells (GSC). We establish that TRIM28 mRNA, which encodes a p53-specific E3 ubiquitin ligase, is a direct target of PITAR. PITAR interaction with TRIM28 RNA stabilized TRIM28 mRNA, which resulted in increased TRIM28 protein levels and reduced p53 steady-state levels due to enhanced p53 ubiquitination. DNA damage activated PITAR, in addition to p53, in a p53-independent manner, thus creating an incoherent feedforward loop to inhibit the DNA damage response by p53. While PITAR silencing inhibited the growth of WT p53 containing GSCs in vitro and reduced glioma tumor growth in vivo, its overexpression enhanced the tumor growth in a TRIM28-dependent manner and promoted resistance to Temozolomide. Thus, we establish an alternate way of p53 inactivation by PITAR, which maintains low p53 levels in normal cells and attenuates the DNA damage response by p53. Finally, we propose PITAR as a potential GBM therapeutic target.
