Breast cancer has the highest prevalence among women, and the number of patients has been on the rise in recent years.
6 to 7% of breast cancers express the "estrogen receptor (ER)" that binds to the female hormone estrogen and acts on cell proliferation.Therefore, endocrine therapy that suppresses the action of estrogen is effective, but in some breast cancers, resistance is acquired, and the treatment becomes ineffective and recurrence is a problem.
For such treatment-resistant recurrent breast cancer, a joint research group of Kumamoto University, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Kyushu University, Soy Energy Co., Ltd. and others has found that a natural small molecule compound called glyceolin I obtained from soybeans causes cell death ( It was clarified that it has a physiological activity that induces apoptosis) and suppresses proliferation.
This time, we discovered an RNA molecule called Eleanor from cultured cells (resistant breast cancer cells) that imitated treatment-resistant recurrent breast cancer, and Eleanor was involved in cell proliferation by excessively activating the ESR1 gene that encodes ER. Discovered that.Treatment-resistant recurrent breast cancer may be relieved by administration of a large amount of estrogen, but resveratrol, which is a type of estrogen and a polyphenol similar to estrogen, suppresses the action of Eleanor and ESR1 via ER, and is resistant breast cancer. It was clarified that it has a physiological activity that makes it difficult for cells to proliferate.
We have now found that glyceoline I, a secondary metabolite of soybeans, also suppresses transcription of Eleanor and ESR1 to inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell death.Furthermore, it was found that the mechanism of action is a novel mechanism that induces cell death without mediated by ER, unlike estrogen and resveratrol.
This result is expected to be an opportunity to develop a new therapeutic drug for recurrent breast cancer.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Endocrine therapy-resistant breast cancer model cells are inhibited by soybean glyceollin I through Eleanor non-coding RNA