Runx1 participation in epithelial mesenchymal transition in breast cancer

SOSA, SOFIA; ECHEVERRIA, PABLO; RECOUVREUX, M. SOL; ROCHA VIEGAS L; RUBINSTEIN, NATALIA

mar del plata

Congreso; LXI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica; 2016

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aheterogeneous group of diseases with a well-known association with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).EMT is a process implicated in the early stages of the metastatic cascade, andinvolves the cellular conversion to a more invasive (mesenchymal) cell type.Recent results from our group show that the transcription factor Runx1 is able to up regulate theexpression of RSPO3 (oncogene) and down regulate GJA1 (tumor suppressor gene)on breast tumor cell lines in a Foxp3-depending fashion. Others and we showedthat Runx1 is necessary for epithelialmammary tumor cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, it was found thatRUNX1 protein expression correlates with poor prognosis in TNBC. Runx1 wasfirst described as a hematopoietic TF involved in human leukemia; however, growingresearch evidences demonstrate that there is an incomplete understanding of itstranscriptional activity in breast cancer. Theaim of this study was to determine if Runx1 is expressed and active during EMT.Using a gene expression profile database obtained by TGFb-EMT induction model onepithelial cell line, we found that mesenchymal cells express significantlyhigher levels of Runx1 mRNA, these data was validated by qPCR on NMuMG(p