Growth factor activation of ErbB2/ErbB3 signaling pathways regulate the activity of Estrogen Receptors (ER)

It has long been appreciated that estrogenic signaling plays a critical role in the development of hormone-dependent cancers such as breast cancer. Two-thirds of breast cancers express estrogen receptor (ER) which has been demonstrated to play an irrefutable role in tumour development and progression. However the acquisition of endocrine resistance has become a major obstacle in the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers that have acquired a hormone-independent state.   Hormone-independent cancers emerge from an array of pathways involving ER activation in the absence of estrogen, hypersensitivity of ER to low serum levels of estrogen and activation by estrogen antagonists. The activity of ER is critically influenced by the cellular environment such as growth factor signaling pathways, availability of coregulatory proteins and the promoter sequence of target genes. The mechanisms studied have mostly considered the role of ERα, however with the discovery of the second subtype, ERβ, the understanding on the diversity of potential mechanisms involving ER-dependent responses have improved. Hormonal-independent activation of ER can occur in estrogen-dependent breast tumours, with concomitant rise in kinase signaling pathways, resulting in the acquisition of a therapeutic resistant phenotype in treated women. Our knowledge is relatively limited on which pathways trigger ER signaling and how these phosphorylation-coupled events affect ER activity. ERα is considered the dominant subtype and correlates with most of the prognostic factors in breast cancers. Conversely the role of ERβ remains unclear. The results presented in this thesis were carried out with the objective of gaining a better understanding of ERβ’s role in cellular proliferation by examining the behavior of ERβ and ERα during the activation of growth factor signaling pathways by cell-surface receptor-tyrosine kinases.   We demonstrate here that the activation of cell surface receptors of the ErbB family, specifically ErbB2/ErbB3, inhibits the transcriptional activity of ERβ despite the presence of the coactivator CBP, yet activated ERα. Furthermore the inhibition of ERβ was attributed to a specific serine residue located within the hinge region, not present in ERα. Additional studies of ErbB2/ErbB3-initiated signaling revealed that it triggered the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway which targeted the serine residue within the hinge region of ERβ. In fact, phosphorylation of ERβ by the PI3K/Akt pathway led to an increase in receptor ubiquitination which promoted its degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system which was subtype specific. Interestingly, proteasomal degradation required the presence of the coactivator CBP, which is normally involved in assisting nuclear receptor transcriptional activity. Although the activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway correlated with a decrease in the expression of ERβ target genes it led to an increase in the proliferation of breast cancer cells. Inhibiting the degradation of ERβ reduced the enhanced proliferation of breast cancer cells brought about by the treatment of ErbB3’s ligand, Hrgβ1.  Increasing evidence indicates that growth factor signaling pathways can selectively regulate the transcriptional activity of ER subtypes, and the ratio of ERα/ERβ expression in breast tumours is becoming a popular prognostic factor to evaluate the severity of the tumour. Therefore the molecular characterization of the coupling between growth factor signaling and ER function should provide improved therapeutical approaches to overcome or delay the onset of resistance to endocrine therapy in hormone-dependent cancers.

Keyphrases: ErbB, CBP/p300, Phosphorylation, Ubiquitination, Mdm2, PI3K/Akt, Hormone-dependent cancer, Estrogen Receptor, ER, Growth factors, receptor tyrosine kinase, RTK, ErbB, CBP/p300, phosphorylation, Ubiquitination, Mdm2, PI3K/Akt