SUMMARY High Gleason grade prostate carcinomas are aggressive, poorly differentiated tumors that exhibit diminished estrogen receptor β (ERβ) expression. We report that a key function of ERβ and its specific ligand 5α-androstane-3β,17β-diol (3β-adiol) is to maintain an epithelial phenotype and repress mesenchymal characteristics in prostate carcinoma. Stimuli (TGF-β and hypoxia) that induce an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) diminish ERβ expression, and loss of ERβ is sufficient to promote an EMT. The mechanism involves ERβ-mediated destabilization of HIF-1α and transcriptional repression of VEGF-A. The VEGF-A receptor neuropilin-1 drives the EMT by promoting Snail1 nuclear localization. Importantly, this mechanism is manifested in high Gleason grade cancers, which exhibit significantly more HIF-1α and VEGF expression, and Snail1 nuclear localization compared to low Gleason grade cancers.

The characterization of cells with tumour initiating potential is significant for advancing our understanding of cancer and improving therapy. Aggressive, triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are enriched for tumour-initiating cells (TICs). We investigated that hypothesis that VEGF receptors expressed on TNBC cells mediate autocrine signalling that contributes to tumour initiation. We discovered the VEGF receptor neuropilin-2 (NRP2) is expressed preferentially on TICs, involved in the genesis of TNBCs and necessary for tumour initiation. The mechanism by which NRP2 signalling promotes tumour initiation involves stimulation of the α6β1 integrin, focal adhesion kinase-mediated activation of Ras/MEK signalling and consequent expression of the Hedgehog effector GLI1. GLI1 also induces BMI-1, a key stem cell factor, and it enhances NRP2 expression and the function of α6β1, establishing an autocrine loop. NRP2 can be targeted in vivo to retard tumour initiation. These findings reveal a novel autocrine pathway involving VEGF/NRP2, α6β1 and GLI1 that contributes to the initiation of TNBC. They also support the feasibility of NRP2-based therapy for the treatment of TNBC that targets and impedes the function of TICs.

Summary Although the α6β1 integrin has been implicated in the function of breast and other cancer stem cells (CSCs), little is known about its regulation and relationship to mechanisms involved in the genesis of CSCs. We report that a CD44high/CD24low population, enriched for CSCs, is comprised of distinct epithelial and mesenchymal populations that differ in expression of the two α6 cytoplasmic domain splice variants: α6A and α6B. α6Bβ1 expression defines the mesenchymal population and is necessary for CSC function, a function that cannot be executed by α6A integrins. The generation of α6Bβ1 is tightly controlled and occurs as a consequence of an autocrine VEGF signaling that culminates in the transcriptional repression of a key RNA splicing factor. These data alter our understanding of how α6β1 contributes to breast cancer and they resolve ambiguities regarding the use of total α6 (CD49f) expression as a biomarker for CSCs.

Understanding how the extracellular matrix impacts the function of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is a significant but poorly understood problem. We report that breast CSCs produce a laminin (LM) 511 matrix that promotes selfrenewal and tumor initiation by engaging the a6Bb1 integrin and activating the Hippo transducer TAZ. Although TAZ is important for the function of breast CSCs, the mechanism is unknown. We observed that TAZ regulates the transcription of the a5 subunit of LM511 and the formation of a LM511 matrix. These data establish a positive feedback loop involving TAZ and LM511 that contributes to stemness in breast cancer.

We demonstrate that the VEGF receptor, neuropilin-2 (NRP2) is associated with high-grade, PTEN-null prostate cancer and that its expression in tumor cells is induced by PTEN loss as a consequence of c-Jun activation. VEGF/NRP2 signaling represses IGF-1R expression and signaling and the mechanism involves Bmi-1-mediated transcriptional repression of the IGF-1R. This mechanism has significant functional and therapeutic implications that were evaluated. IGF-1R expression correlates with PTEN and inversely with NRP2 in prostate tumors. NRP2 is a robust biomarker for predicting response to IGF-1R therapy because prostate carcinomas that express NRP2 exhibit low levels of IGF-1R. Conversely, targeting NRP2 is only modestly effective because NRP2 inhibition induces compensatory IGF-1R signaling. Inhibition of both NRP2 and IGF-1R, however, completely blocks tumor growth in vivo.