Role of inhibitor of yes-associated protein 1 in triple-negative breast cancer with taxol-based chemoresistance

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly clinically aggressive and taxol-based chemoresistance remains a big TNBC therapeutic problem to be solved. Verteporfin, a small molecular yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) inhibitor, is little known as an antitumor drug for TNBC. Our data showed that YAP1 expression was associated with early relapse in tissue samples of patients with TNBC taxol chemoresistance (P < .001). Verteporfin reduced migration and enhanced apoptosis or autophagy of a taxol-resistant MDA-MB-231 cell line in vitro. Knockdown of YAP1 increased epithelial-mesenchymal transition response in a taxol-resistant TNBC cell line. In an in vivo experiment, we found that verteporfin was able to shrink tumor weight and volume and decreased Ki67 expression in a taxol-resistant mouse model. Our results provide evidence that verteporfin could be a chemosensitizer for TNBC patients with taxol-based treatment.