The Thyroid Hormone Receptor-RUNX2 Axis: A Novel Tumor Suppressive Pathway in Breast Cancer.

Metastatic breast cancer is refractory to conventional therapies and is an end-stage disease. RUNX2 is a transcription factor that becomes oncogenic when aberrantly expressed in multiple tumor types, including breast cancer, supporting tumor progression and metastases. Our previous work demonstrated that the thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRβ) inhibits RUNX2 expression and tumorigenic characteristics in thyroid cells.

Thyroid Hormone Receptor β Suppression of RUNX2 Is Mediated by Brahma-Related Gene 1-Dependent Chromatin Remodeling.

Thyroid hormone receptor β (TRβ) suppresses tumor growth through regulation of gene expression, yet the associated TRβ-mediated changes in chromatin assembly are not known. The chromatin ATPase brahma-related gene 1 (BRG1; SMARCA4), a key component of chromatin-remodeling complexes, is altered in many cancers, but its role in thyroid tumorigenesis and TRβ-mediated gene expression is unknown. We previously identified the oncogene runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) as a repressive target of TRβ.