Overexpressed protein converts noninvasive breast cancer into invasi...( Mice injected with a breast cancer c...),Health

Mice injected with a breast cancer cell line with both proteins overexpressed had three times the metastasis as mice with a control cancer cell line.

The researchers examined 107 invasive breast cancer cases and found that 23 of the cancers overexpressed both proteins. Those patients also had significantly shorter survival times due to metastasis-related deaths than those whose tumors expressed one or neither of the proteins.

Overexpressed 14-3-3ζ, the team showed, interacts with and stabilizes the receptor protein TβR1, which activates smad2/3 and moves them into the cell nucleus, where they in turn increase expression of ZFHX1B, which then represses expression of the adhesion protein E-cadherin.

Yu said that it will be very challenging to target 14-3-3ζ by drugs because it also regulates other important proteins in normal cellular processes. The downstream components such as TβR1 can be targeted with drugs that are under clinical trials.

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