Studies on the Role of The Ah Receptor (AhR) on the Etiology of Breast Cancer: A Novel Idea of Identifying this Receptor as a New Therapeutic Target

摘要

Human breast cancer is a disease that is tremendously affected by the environment. We have discovered recently that ERalpha-negative and RelB- positive type of breast tumors show high expressions of the Ah receptor (AhR), which has been known for its role to mediate toxicity of dioxin. To study this phenomenon in the laboratory, we have obtained several AhR overexpressing breast cancer cell lines. Treatments of those cells with known AhR antagonists have clearly eliminated their transformation phenotypes such as increased proliferation, anchorage-independent growth, invasiveness into matrigel, epithelial to mesenchymal transition and resistance to apoptosis. Preliminary studies have shown that all of these phenotypic expressions of these cells are significantly reduced by several potent blockers of AhR. Although the existence of this type of inflammatory breast cancers has been known for some time (Van Laere et al. 2006), no one knew the prominent role of AhR plays. Therefore, this finding has provided an opportunity for us to test the possibility of utilizing AhR as the potential therapeutic target.