Abstract LB-116: Cep55, a master regulator of cytokinesis in breast cancer pathogenesis

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Defects in the number, structure, and function of centrosomes can generate mono- or multipolar mitotic spindles and cytokinesis failure resulting in aneuploidy and chromosome instability, which are common characteristics of tumour cells. Centrosomal proteins thus play central roles in the execution of proper cell division. Cep55 is a centrosomal protein required for proper segregation of two daughter cells during cytokinesis. It often elevated in wide range of cancer types including breast cancer. To ascertain the functional role of Cep55 in breast cancer pathogenesis, we performed publically available data mining as well as IHC staining in a cohort of breast cancer patients and found that elevated levels of Cep55 is significantly associated with p53 mutation, basal like subtype, relapse free and distant-metastasis free survival. Immunoblot analysis of non-malignant and breast cancer cell lines revealed higher expression of Cep55 protein in basal like subtype. RNAi mediated Cep55 depletion in cultured human breast cancer cells resulted in decreased cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis in-vitro and failure to establish xenografts in-vivo. Moreover, these cells failed to establish lung colonisation due to less proliferative, migrative and invasive capacity in experimental metastasis models. In an initial effort to identify causal effective of Cep55 mediated breast cancer pathogenesis, we found that Cep55-depleted cells that survive following long term culture have restored their ploidy compared with aneuploid cells that have constitutively high levels of Cep55. Moreover, these non-tumorigenic cells also have defect in major signalling networks assessed by Kinexus proteomic array. In line with this finding, we found that constitutive overexpression of Cep55 in non-transformed mammary epithelial cells, MCF-10a induced ERK1/2 and STAT3 signalling possibly due to increase in chromosome instability. Taken together, these results indicate that Cep55 promotes breast cancer initiation, progression and lung colonisation through pleiotropic effect and genomic instability that likely contribute to aneuploidy state of breast cancer tumours Citation Format: Murugan Kalimutho, Jacinta Simmons, Winnie Fernando, Jodi Saunus, Kevin Spring, Sunil Lakhani, Fares Al-Ejeh, Kum Kum Khanna. Cep55, a master regulator of cytokinesis in breast cancer pathogenesis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-116. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-LB-116