MIG-6 is essential for promoting glucose metabolic reprogramming and tumor growth in triple-negative breast cancer

Treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains challenging due to a lack of effective targeted therapies. Dysregulated glucose uptake and metabolism are essential for TNBC growth. Identifying the molecular drivers and mechanisms underlying the metabolic vulnerability of TNBC is key to exploiting dysregulated cancer metabolism for therapeutic applications. Mitogen-inducible gene-6 (MIG-6) has long been thought of as a feedback inhibitor that targets activated EGFR and suppresses the growth of tumors driven by constitutive activated mutant EGFR. Here, our bioinformatics and histological analyses uncover that MIG-6 is upregulated in TNBC and that MIG-6 upregulation is positively correlated with poorer clinical outcomes in TNBC. Metabolic arrays and functional assays reveal that MIG-6 drives glucose metabolism reprogramming toward glycolysis. Mechanistically, MIG-6 recruits HAUSP deubiquitinase for stabilizing HIF1 alpha protein expression and the subsequent upregulation of GLUT1 and other HIF1 alpha-regulated glycolytic genes, substantiating the comprehensive regulation of MIG-6 in glucose metabolism. Moreover, our mouse studies demonstrate that MIG-6 regulates GLUT1 expression in tumors and subsequent tumor growth in vivo. Collectively, this work reveals that MIG-6 is a novel prognosis biomarker, metabolism regulator, and molecular driver of TNBC.

Automated summary

MIG-6 is upregulated in TNBC and associated with poor clinical outcomes, playing a role in reprogramming glucose metabolism and driving tumor growth. This study identifies MIG-6 as a novel prognostic biomarker, metabolism regulator, and molecular driver in triple-negative breast cancer.