EHD2 overexpression promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer by regulating store-operated calcium entry
Abstract
With nearly all cancer deaths a result of metastasis, elucidating novel pro-metastatic cellular adaptations could provide new therapeutic targets. Here, we show that overexpression of the EPS15-Homology Domain-containing 2 (EHD2) protein in a large subset of breast cancers (BCs), especially the triple-negative (TNBC) and HER2+ subtypes, correlates with shorter patient survival. The mRNAs for EHD2 and Caveolin-1/2, structural components of caveolae, show co-overexpression across breast tumors, predicting shorter survival in basal-like BC. EHD2 shRNA knockdown and CRISPR-Cas9 knockout with mouse Ehd2 rescue, in TNBC cell line models demonstrate a major positive role of EHD2 in promoting tumorigenesis and metastasis. Mechanistically, we link these roles of EHD2 to store-operated calcium entry (SOCE), with EHD2-dependent stabilization of plasma membrane caveolae ensuring high cell surface expression of the SOCE-linked calcium channel Orai1. The novel EHD2-SOCE oncogenic axis represents a potential therapeutic target in EHD2 and CAV1/2-overexpressing BC.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Department of Defence (W81XWH-17-1-0616 and W81XWH-20-1-0058)
- Hamid Band
Department of Defence (W81XWH-20-1-0546)
- Vimla Band
National Institutes of Health (R21CA241055 and R03CA253193)
- Vimla Band
Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (Pilot grant)
- Vimla Band
Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (Pilot grant)
- Hamid Band
University of Nebraska Medical Center (Graduate Student Fellowships)
- Timothy A Bielecki
University of Nebraska Medical Center (Graduate Student Fellowships)
- Aaqib M Bhat
University of Nebraska Medical Center (Graduate Student Fellowships)
- Sukanya Chakraborty
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All mouse xenograft and treatment studies were pre-approved by the UNMC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) under the IACUC protocol number 19-115-10-FC and conducted strictly according to the pre-approved procedures, in compliance with Federal and State guidelines.
Human subjects: Human tissues were collected and processed at the Nottingham University Hospital, United Kingdom. This study was approved by the Yorkshire & The Humber-Leeds East Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 19/YH/0293) under the IRAS Project ID: 266925. Informed consent was obtained from all individuals prior to surgery for the use of their tissue materials in research. All samples were properly coded and anonymized in accordance with the approved protocols.
Reviewing Editor
- Jonathan A Cooper, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, United States
Version history
- Received: June 22, 2022
- Preprint posted: June 25, 2022 (view preprint)
- Accepted: January 10, 2023
- Accepted Manuscript published: January 10, 2023 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: March 6, 2023 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2023, Luan 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
-
- 969
- Page views
-
- 176
- Downloads
-
- 2
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.
Download links
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)
Further reading
-
- Cancer Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key players of adaptive anti-tumor immunity based on their ability to specifically recognize and destroy tumor cells. Many cancer immunotherapies rely on unleashing CTL function. However, tumors can evade killing through strategies which are not yet fully elucidated. To provide deeper insight into tumor evasion mechanisms in an antigen-dependent manner, we established a human co-culture system composed of tumor and primary immune cells. Using this system, we systematically investigated intrinsic regulators of tumor resistance by conducting a complementary CRISPR screen approach. By harnessing CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR knockout (KO) technology in parallel, we investigated gene gain-of-function as well as loss-of-function across genes with annotated function in a colon carcinoma cell line. CRISPRa and CRISPR KO screens uncovered 187 and 704 hits respectively, with 60 gene hits overlapping between both. These data confirmed the role of interferon‑γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and autophagy pathways and uncovered novel genes implicated in tumor resistance to killing. Notably, we discovered that ILKAP encoding the integrin-linked kinase-associated serine/threonine phosphatase 2C, a gene previously unknown to play a role in antigen specific CTL-mediated killing, mediate tumor resistance independently from regulating antigen presentation, IFN-γ or TNF-α responsiveness. Moreover, our work describes the contrasting role of soluble and membrane-bound ICAM-1 in regulating tumor cell killing. The deficiency of membrane-bound ICAM-1 (mICAM-1) or the overexpression of soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) induced resistance to CTL killing, whereas PD-L1 overexpression had no impact. These results highlight the essential role of ICAM-1 at the immunological synapse between tumor and CTL and the antagonist function of sICAM-1.
-
- Cancer Biology
- Cell Biology
Anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin (Dox), are widely used chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. However, they frequently induce cardiotoxicity leading to dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. This study sought to investigate the role of the exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (EPAC) in Dox-induced cardiotoxicity and the potential cardioprotective effects of EPAC inhibition. We show that Dox induces DNA damage and cardiomyocyte cell death with apoptotic features. Dox also led to an increase in both cAMP concentration and EPAC1 activity. The pharmacological inhibition of EPAC1 (with CE3F4) but not EPAC2 alleviated the whole Dox-induced pattern of alterations. When administered in vivo, Dox-treated WT mice developed a dilated cardiomyopathy which was totally prevented in EPAC1 knock-out (KO) mice. Moreover, EPAC1 inhibition potentiated Dox-induced cell death in several human cancer cell lines. Thus, EPAC1 inhibition appears as a potential therapeutic strategy to limit Dox-induced cardiomyopathy without interfering with its antitumoral activity.