1. Microenvironment rigidity modulates responses to the HER2 receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib via YAP and TAZ transcription factors
- Author
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Lin, Chun-Han, Pelissier, Fanny A, Zhang, Hui, Lakins, Jon, Weaver, Valerie M, Park, Catherine, and LaBarge, Mark A
- Subjects
Biochemistry and Cell Biology ,Biological Sciences ,Cancer ,Genetics ,Breast Cancer ,Women's Health ,5.1 Pharmaceuticals ,2.1 Biological and endogenous factors ,Acyltransferases ,Animals ,Antineoplastic Agents ,Breast Neoplasms ,Cell Cycle Proteins ,Cell Line ,Tumor ,Cell Proliferation ,Down-Regulation ,Drug Resistance ,Neoplasm ,Female ,Humans ,Lapatinib ,Mice ,Mice ,Knockout ,Mice ,Nude ,Nuclear Proteins ,Porphyrins ,Protein Kinase Inhibitors ,Quinazolines ,RNA ,Small Interfering ,Receptor ,ErbB-2 ,Signal Transduction ,Transcription Factors ,Tumor Microenvironment ,Verteporfin ,Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays ,Receptor ,erbB-2 ,Medical and Health Sciences ,Developmental Biology ,Biochemistry and cell biology - Abstract
Stiffness is a biophysical property of the extracellular matrix that modulates cellular functions, including proliferation, invasion, and differentiation, and it also may affect therapeutic responses. Therapeutic durability in cancer treatments remains a problem for both chemotherapies and pathway-targeted drugs, but the reasons for this are not well understood. Tumor progression is accompanied by changes in the biophysical properties of the tissue, and we asked whether matrix rigidity modulated the sensitive versus resistant states in HER2-amplified breast cancer cell responses to the HER2-targeted kinase inhibitor lapatinib. The antiproliferative effect of lapatinib was inversely proportional to the elastic modulus of the adhesive substrata. Down-regulation of the mechanosensitive transcription coactivators YAP and TAZ, either by siRNA or with the small-molecule YAP/TEAD inhibitor verteporfin, eliminated modulus-dependent lapatinib resistance. Reduction of YAP in vivo in mice also slowed the growth of implanted HER2-amplified tumors, showing a trend of increasing sensitivity to lapatinib as YAP decreased. Thus we address the role of stiffness in resistance to and efficacy of a HER2 pathway-targeted therapeutic via the mechanotransduction arm of the Hippo pathway.
- Published
- 2015