HER2/Leptin Crosstalk in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Obesity in postmenopausal women is associated with increased breast cancer risk, development of more aggressive tumors and resistance to certain anti-breast cancer treatments. These effects might be mediated by obesity hormone leptin. Here we tested if leptin can transactivate the oncogenic receptor HER2. We found that HER2 and the leptin receptor (ObR) are coexpressed in several studied breast cancer cell lines. In MCF-7 cells, HER2 physically interacted with ObR and leptin treatment increased HER2 phosphorylation on Tyr 1248. Studies of 59 human breast cancers revealed that the presence of leptin correlated with ObR, and the whole leptin system was coexpressed with HER2 in ~50% of all tumors. Thus, coexpression of HER2 and the leptin/ObR system might contribute to enhanced HER2 activity and reduced sensitivity to anti- HER2 treatments.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA493685

Entities

People

  • Eva Surmacz

Organizations

  • Temple University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biotechnology
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cell Line
  • Cells
  • Confocal Microscopy
  • Data Analysis
  • Department Of Defense
  • Fat Cells
  • Growth Factors
  • Health Services
  • Materials
  • Neoplasms
  • Phosphorylation
  • Proteins
  • Resistance
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Tumor Cell Line

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Breast cancer cell signaling and growth regulation.
  • Molecular and Cellular Biology