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Acquisition of docetaxel resistance in breast cancer cells reveals upregulation of ABCB1 expression as a key mediator of resistance accompanied by discrete upregulation of other specific genes and pathways

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

The microtubule-targeting taxanes are important in breast cancer therapy, but no predictive biomarkers have yet been identified with sufficient scientific evidence to allow clinical routine use. The purposes of the present study were to develop a cell-culture-based discovery platform for docetaxel resistance and thereby identify key molecular mechanisms and predictive molecular characteristics to docetaxel resistance. Two docetaxel-resistant cell lines, MCF7RES and MDARES, were generated from their respective parental cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 by stepwise selection in docetaxel dose increments over 15 months. The cell lines were characterized regarding sensitivity to docetaxel and other chemotherapeutics and subjected to transcriptome-wide mRNA microarray profiling. MCF7RES and MDARES exhibited a biphasic growth inhibition pattern at increasing docetaxel concentrations. Gene expression analysis singled out ABCB1, which encodes permeability glycoprotein (Pgp), as the top upregulated gene in both MCF7RES and MDARES. Functional validation revealed Pgp as a key resistance mediator at low docetaxel concentrations (first-phase response), whereas additional resistance mechanisms appeared to be prominent at higher docetaxel concentrations (second-phase response). Additional resistance mechanisms were indicated by gene expression profiling, including genes in the interferon-inducible protein family in MCF7RES and cancer testis antigen family in MDARES. Also, upregulated expression of various ABC transporters, ECM-associated proteins, and lysosomal proteins was identified in both resistant cell lines. Finally, MCF7RES and MDARES presented with cross-resistance to epirubicin, but only MDARES showed cross-resistance to oxaliplatin. In conclusion, Pgp was identified as a key mediator of resistance to low docetaxel concentrations with other resistance mechanisms prominent at higher docetaxel concentrations. Supporting Pgp upregulation as one major mechanism of taxane resistance and cell-line-specific alterations as another, both MCF7RES and MDARES were cross-resistant to epirubicin (Pgp substrate), but only MDARES was cross-resistant to oxaliplatin (non-Pgp substrate).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Vibeke Jensen and Signe Lykke Nielsen for excellent technical assistance.This work was supported by The Harboe Foundation, A Race Against Breast Cancer; Danish National Research Foundation: Sino-Danish Breast Cancer Research Centre; Danish Centre for Translational Breast Cancer Research; The Danish Cancer Society and The Danish Council for Independent Research: Medical Sciences.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Sino-Danish Breast Cancer Research Center, University of Copenhagen, Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

      Stine Ninel Hansen, David Westergaard, Mathilde Borg Houlberg Thomsen, Mette Vistesen, Khoa Nguyen Do, Louise Fogh, Kirstine C. Belling, Jun Wang, Huanming Yang, Ramneek Gupta, Henrik J. Ditzel, José Moreira, Nils Brünner, Jan Stenvang & Anne-Sofie Schrohl

    2. Section for Molecular Disease Biology, Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Strandboulevarden 49, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

      Stine Ninel Hansen, Mathilde Borg Houlberg Thomsen, Mette Vistesen, Louise Fogh, José Moreira, Nils Brünner, Jan Stenvang & Anne-Sofie Schrohl

    3. Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet building 208, DK-2800, Lyngby, Denmark

      David Westergaard, Khoa Nguyen Do, Kirstine C. Belling & Ramneek Gupta

    4. Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen, Beishan Industrial Zone, Yantian District, Shenzhen, 518083, China

      Jun Wang & Huanming Yang

    5. Department of Cancer and Inflammation Research, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, J. B. Winsloewsvej 25.3, DK-5000, Odense C, Denmark

      Henrik J. Ditzel

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    1. Stine Ninel Hansen
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    Jan Stenvang and Anne-Sofie Schrohl contributed equally to this work.

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    Identification of altered molecular networks in docetaxel-resistant cell lines. Significant functional annotation clusters and pathways were identified in MCF7RES and MDARES by gene set enrichment analysis, with a KEGG pathway false discovery rate (FDR) ≤0.4 considered significantly enriched. The normalized enrichment score (NES) describes the level of downregulation (yellow) and upregulation (red) (EPS 172 kb)

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    Hansen, S.N., Westergaard, D., Thomsen, M.B.H. et al. Acquisition of docetaxel resistance in breast cancer cells reveals upregulation of ABCB1 expression as a key mediator of resistance accompanied by discrete upregulation of other specific genes and pathways. Tumor Biol. 36, 4327–4338 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-3072-4

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