GEF-H1 drives tumor formation and metastasis in breast cancer cells

FERNANDEZ CHAVEZ L; ALONSO E.G.; SCHWEITZER K; FERRONATO, M.J.; MASCARO M.; FACCHINETTI M.M.; CURINO A. C.; COLO G.P.

Congreso; LXVI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC).; 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC).

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 expressionin 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 therole of GEF-H1 in tumor development, we generated GEF-H1- knockout (KO) BC cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. A decrease inproliferation, migration, invasion and anchorage-independent colonyformation rates was observed in GEF-H1-KO cells compared to wildtype (WT) cells (p