Abstract 787: Tumor suppressor p53 inhibits expression of the pro-metastasis protein Toca-1.

Abstract

Transducer of Cdc42-dependent actin assembly-1 (Toca-1) is an adaptor protein that recruits key actin regulatory proteins to invadopodia in metastatic breast cancer cells. We recently showed that stable silencing of Toca-1 led to reduced invadopodia formation, cell invasion and tumor metastasis in an orthotopic xenograft model in mice. These results raise the possibility that Toca-1 upregulation may occur during tumor progression to metastatic disease. Here we show that Toca-1 expression is higher in triple negative breast cancers (HER2/ER/PR) compared to other subtypes. Since triple negative breast cancers frequently harbor mutations in the tumor suppressor p53, we tested whether p53 regulates Toca-1 expression. In wild-type (WT) p53-expressing normal breast epithelial and breast cancer cells, stabilization of WT p53 by inducing DNA damage, or treating cells with Mdm2 inhibitor Nutlin-3, led to dose-dependent reductions in Toca-1 mRNA and protein expression. Likewise, ectopic expression of WT p53 in p53-null HCC1806 cells also led to repression of Toca-1 levels. To test if this was a direct effect of p53 on the Toca-1 gene, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) studies were performed. Indeed, the proximal promoter region and intron 2 of the Toca-1 gene (which contained a predicted p53 binding site) were detected in p53 ChIP assays in WT p53-expressing cells, but not mutant p53 expressing breast cancer cells. Together, these results identify a novel pathway to inhibit Toca-1 expression in cells with WT p53, and imply that the loss of p53 in highly metastatic breast cancer subtypes may lead to elevated Toca-1 expression and progression to metastatic disease. Citation Format: Harish Chander, Colin D. Brien, Peter Truesdell, Doris Germain, Andrew W. B. Craig. Tumor suppressor p53 inhibits expression of the pro-metastasis protein Toca-1. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 787. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-787