GEF-H1 DRIVES TUMOR FORMATION AND METASTASIS IN BREAST CANCER CELLS

FERNÁNDEZ CHÁVEZ, L.; ALONSO, E.G.; SCHWEITZER, K.; FERRONATO, M.J.; MASCARÓ, M.; FACCHINETTI, M.M.; CURINO, A.C.; COLÓ, G.P.

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencia; 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones Clínicas

RhoGTPases family is involved in several biological process including gene transcription, cell polarity, migration and invasion. RhoGTPases switch between on and off states and are regulated by several GEFs (activators) and GAPs/RhoGDIs (inactivators).The aim of this work is to study the role of a particular RhoA-GEF, GEF-H1, in breast cancer (BC) progression. We observed by immunostaining a significant increase in GEF-H1 protein expression in BC human biopsies compared with non-tumoral tissue (n=76, p=0.0287). In addition, GEF-H1 expression correlated with the invasive potential of human and murine BC cell lines. To further study the role of GEF-H1 in tumor development, we generated GEF-H1-knock out (KO) BC cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. A decrease in proliferation, migration, invasion and anchorage-independent colony formation rates was observed in GEF-H1-KO cells compared to wild type (WT) cells (p