The Role of Akt and its Substrates in Resistance of Breast Cancer to Trastuzumab

Abstract

The ability of Trastuzumab, a drug for treatment of HER2 overexpressing breast cancer, to induce apoptosis in HER2 overexpressing breast cancer lines was investigated. Particular attention was paid to the role of Akt downregulation by Trastuzumab and the resulting upregulation of pro-apoptotic Akt substrates. Trastuzumab was found to induce very little apoptosis and a few Akt substrates investigated Bad and FKHR were not affected by Trastuzumab treatment. Additional studies investigated the affect of Trastuzumab on the upregulation of the GLUT1 glucose transporter in HER2 overexpressing breast cancer cells. Trastuzumab inhibited the Cobalt-dependent induction of GLUT1. This indicates Trastuzumab may have affects on hypoxic tumors because Cobalt stimulation mimics a cell's response to hypoxia which results in induction of GLUT1 which in turn accelerates aerobic or anaerobic glycolysis for tumor growth and survival.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA469240

Entities

People

  • Christian D. Young

Organizations

  • University of Colorado Boulder

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Apoptosis
  • Biomedical Research
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cancer
  • Cell Line
  • Cell Physiological Processes
  • Cells
  • Culture Techniques
  • Cultured Cells
  • Glucose
  • Glycolysis
  • Inhibition
  • Metabolism
  • Neoplasms
  • Phosphorylation
  • Side Effects
  • Substrates

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Molecular Biology and Genetics
  • Oncology (Cancer Research).