Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

MST4: a Potential Oncogene and Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer

Version 1 : Received: 1 December 2022 / Approved: 1 December 2022 / Online: 1 December 2022 (04:46:12 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Arora, R.; Kim, J.-H.; Getu, A.A.; Angajala, A.; Chen, Y.-L.; Wang, B.; Kahn, A.G.; Chen, H.; Reshi, L.; Lu, J.; Zhang, W.; Zhou, M.; Tan, M. MST4: A Potential Oncogene and Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer. Cells 2022, 11, 4057. Arora, R.; Kim, J.-H.; Getu, A.A.; Angajala, A.; Chen, Y.-L.; Wang, B.; Kahn, A.G.; Chen, H.; Reshi, L.; Lu, J.; Zhang, W.; Zhou, M.; Tan, M. MST4: A Potential Oncogene and Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer. Cells 2022, 11, 4057.

Abstract

The mammalian STE 20-like protein kinase 4 (MST4) gene is highly expressed in several cancer types, but little is known on the role of MST4 in breast cancer and the function of MST4 during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has not been fully elucidated. Here, we report that overexpression of MST4 in breast cancer results in enhanced cell growth, migration, and invasion, whereas inhibition of MST4 expression significantly attenuates these properties. Further study shows that MST4 promotes EMT by activating Akt and its downstream signaling molecules such as E-cadherin/N-cadherin, Snail, and Slug. MST4 also activates AKT and its downstream pro-survival pathway. Furthermore, by analyzing breast cancer patient tissue microarray and silicon datasets, we found that MST4 expression is much higher in breast tumor tissue compared to normal tissue, and significantly correlates with cancer stage, lymph node metastasis and a poor overall survival rate (p<0.05). Taken together, our findings demonstrate the oncogenic potential of MST4 in breast cancer, highlighting its role in cancer cell proliferation, migration/invasion, survival, and EMT, suggesting a possibility that MST4 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for breast cancer.

Keywords

MST4; EMT; AKT; Apoptosis; Breast cancer

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Cell and Developmental Biology

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.