Activation of an estrogen/estrogen receptor signaling by BIG3 through its inhibitory effect on nuclear transport of PHB2/REA in breast cancer

Breast cancer is known to be a hormone-dependent disease, and estrogens through an interaction with estrogen receptor (ER) enhance the proliferative and metastatic activity of breast tumor cells. Here we show a critical role of transactivation of BIG3, brefeldin A-inhibited guanine nucleotide-exchange protein 3, in activation of the estrogen/ER signaling in breast cancer cells. Knocking-down of BIG3 expression with small-interfering RNA (siRNA) drastically suppressed the growth of breast cancer cells. Subsequent coimmunoprecipitation and immunoblotting assays revealed an interaction of BIG3 with prohibitin 2/repressor of estrogen receptor activity (PHB2/REA). When BIG3 was absent, stimulation of estradiol caused the translocation of PHB2/REA to the nucleus, enhanced the interaction of PHB2/REA and ER alpha, and resulted in suppression of the ER alpha transcriptional activity. On the other hand, when BIG3 was present, BIG3 trapped PHB2/REA in the cytoplasm and inhibited its nuclear translocation, and caused enhancement of ER alpha transcriptional activity. Our results imply that BIG3 overexpression is one of the important mechanisms causing the activation of the estrogen/ER alpha signaling pathway in the hormone-related growth of breast cancer cells. (Cancer Sci 2009).