p62: a hub of multiple signaling pathways in HER2-induced mammary tumorigenesis.

We recently reported that depletion of p62 in the background of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression sensitizes mammary tumor cells to amino acid deprivation, abolishes cellular transformation in vitro, and suppresses mammary tumorigenesis in vivo. Extensive investigation on the underlying molecular mechanisms has revealed a multifaceted role for p62 in HER2-associated mammary tumorigenesis.

ERBB2 overexpression suppresses stress-induced autophagy and renders ERBB2-induced mammary tumorigenesis independent of monoallelic Becn1 loss.

Defective autophagy has been implicated in mammary tumorigenesis, as the gene encoding the essential autophagy regulator BECN1 is deleted in human breast cancers and Becn1(+/-) mice develop mammary hyperplasias. In agreement with a recent study, which reports concurrent allelic BECN1 loss and ERBB2 amplification in a small number of human breast tumors, we found that low BECN1 mRNA correlates with ERBB2-overexpression in breast cancers, suggesting that BECN1 loss and ERBB2 overexpression may functionally interact in mammary tumorigenesis. We now report that ERBB2 overexpression suppressed autophagic response to stress in mouse mammary and human breast cancer cells.