Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) cooperates with estrogen receptor α (ERα) in the regulation of estrogen action in breast cancer cells
- Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Gliwice Branch, Poland
- Silesian University of Technology, Poland
- University of Bergen, Norway
- Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
- Rice University, United States
Abstract
Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), a key regulator of transcriptional responses to proteotoxic stress, was linked to estrogen (E2) signaling through estrogen receptor α (ERα). We found that an HSF1 deficiency may decrease ERα level, attenuate the mitogenic action of E2, counteract E2-stimulated cell scattering, and reduce adhesion to collagens and cell motility in ER-positive breast cancer cells. The stimulatory effect of E2 on the transcriptome is largely weaker in HSF1-deficient cells, in part due to the higher basal expression of E2-dependent genes, which correlates with the enhanced binding of unliganded ERα to chromatin in such cells. HSF1 and ERα can cooperate directly in E2-stimulated regulation of transcription, and HSF1 potentiates the action of ERα through a mechanism involving chromatin reorganization. Furthermore, HSF1 deficiency may increase the sensitivity to hormonal therapy (4-hydroxytamoxifen) or CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib). Analyses of data from the TCGA database indicate that HSF1 increases the transcriptome disparity in ER-positive breast cancer and can enhance the genomic action of ERα. Moreover, only in ER-positive cancers, an elevated HSF1 level is associated with metastatic disease.
Data availability
Sequencing data have been deposited in GEO under accession codes GSE159802, GSE159724 (scheduled to be released on Oct 21, 2021), and GSE186004 (scheduled to be released on Oct 13, 2022).
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Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) supports the ESR1 action in breast cancer (RNA-seq)NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE159802.
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Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) supports the ESR1 action in breast cancer (ChIP-seq)NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE159724.
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Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) regulares the ESR1 action in breast cancer (RNA-seq)NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE186004.
Article and author information
Author details
Aleksandra Krzywon
Alexander Jorge Cortez
Funding
National Science Centre, Poland (2014/13/B/NZ7/02341)
- Natalia Vydra
National Science Centre, Poland (2015/17/B/NZ3/03760)
- Wieslawa Widlak
National Science Centre, Poland (2018/29/B/ST7/02550)
- Marek Kimmel
European Social Fund (POWR.03.02.00-00-I029)
- Paweł Kuś
European Social Fund (POWR.03.02.00-00-I029)
- Alexander Jorge Cortez
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2021, Vydra 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.
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Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) cooperates with estrogen receptor α (ERα) in the regulation of estrogen action in breast cancer cells
eLife 10:e69843.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.69843
Further reading
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Background:
Cervical adenocarcinoma (ADC) is more aggressive compared to other types of cervical cancer (CC), such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and tumor heterogeneity are recognized as pivotal factors in cancer progression and therapy. However, the disparities in TIME and heterogeneity between ADC and SCC are poorly understood.
Methods:
We performed single-cell RNA sequencing on 11 samples of ADC tumor tissues, with other 4 SCC samples served as controls. The immunochemistry and multiplexed immunofluorescence were conducted to validate our findings.
Results:
Compared to SCC, ADC exhibited unique enrichments in several sub-clusters of epithelial cells with elevated stemness and hyper-malignant features, including the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster. ADC displayed a highly immunosuppressive environment characterized by the enrichment of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and tumor-promoting neutrophils. The Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster recruits Tregs via ALCAM-CD6 signaling, while Tregs reciprocally induce stemness in the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster through TGFβ signaling. Importantly, our study revealed that the Epi_10_CYSTM1 cluster could serve as a valuable predictor of lymph node metastasis for CC patients.
Conclusions:
This study highlights the significance of ADC-specific cell clusters in establishing a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment, ultimately contributing to the heightened aggressiveness and poorer prognosis of ADC compared to SCC.
Funding:
Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82002753; 82072882; 81500475) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ40324; 2022JJ70103).
