Abstract 33: Mammary gland-specific deletion of Sirt1 delays mammary tumor growth and progression
Authors: Ramachandran Sabarish , Pathania Rajneesh , Elangovan Selvakumar , Vadivel Ganapathy , Thangaraju Muthusamy 
Published: August 2015

SIRT1, a type III HDAC, is involved in regulation of several cellular processes including longevity, inflammatory response, energy metabolism and stem cell maintenance. SIRT1 first emerged as a potential anti-aging factor but now it is implicated in a number of age-related diseases including carcinogenesis and also in cancer stem cell maintenance. SIRT1 is over-expressed and/or catalytically activated in a variety of human cancers, including breast cancer. Several lines of evidence suggest that SIRT1 plays an important role in the activation of oncogenic signalling in mammary epithelial cells and that inhibition of SIRT1 has a direct effect on tumor cell growth and apoptosis. Despite the fact that SIRT1 is mainly involved in the promotion of oncogenic signaling, it can also function as a tumor suppressor via deacetylation and subsequent destabilization of various oncoproteins such as c-Myc, β-catenin, NF-κB, and HIF1α. Further, SIRT1 activation by resveratrol protects BRCA1 mutation-associated breast cancer. Thus, the precise role of SIRT1 in cancer is still unclear and remains debatable; it is likely that SIRT1 function in cancer is tissue/context-dependent. Therefore, understanding the precise role of SIRT1 in mammary tumorigenesis is essential for the rational design of SIRT1-based novel therapeutic drugs to combat breast cancer.

To understand the functional implications of SIRT1 in breast cancer, we generated mammary gland-specific Sirt1-conditional knockout mice. Sirt1 deletion is associated with reduced mammary gland outgrowth and terminal end bud development, leading to significant reduction in mammary stem and progenitor cell formation. This perturbed mammary gland outgrowth and reduced mammary stem and progenitor cell formation recovers either by puberty or by exogenous administration of estrogen, suggesting that Sirt1 plays a key role in mediating estrogen signalling in mammary gland. To assess the functional role of SIRT1 in mammary tumor growth and progression, we crossed Sirt1-knockout mice with MMTV-PyMT-Tg mice and C3(1)-SV40-Tg mice, two spontaneous murine mammary tumor models. Sirt1 deletion significantly reduces the development and growth of spontaneous mammary tumors in both mouse models. This phenomenon is associated with significant reduction in cancer stem cell (CSC) formation with dramatic reduction in CSC markers Slug and Sox2 expression. We also found that Sirt1 deletion reactivates tumor suppressor proteins p53 and Foxo3a.

In conclusion, our study provides direct evidence that SIRT1 plays a key role in breast cancer growth and progression by maintaining cancer stem cells via stabilization of CSC drivers and inactivation of tumor suppressors in mammary gland. Thus, pharmacological agents targeted to disrupt SIRT1 function and signalling might have potential in breast cancer treatment.

Citation Format: Sabarish Ramachandran, Rajneesh Pathania, Selvakumar Elangovan, Ganapathy Vadivel, Muthusamy Thangaraju. Mammary gland-specific deletion of Sirt1 delays mammary tumor growth and progression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 33. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-33