Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tripolt, Sabrina
• Neubauer, Heidi A.
• Knab, Vanessa M.
• Elmer, Dominik P.
• Aberger, Fritz
• Moriggl, Richard
• Fux, Daniela A.

Titel

Opioids drive breast cancer metastasis through the δ-opioid receptor and oncogenic STAT3

Ist Teil von

• Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.), 2021-02, Vol.23 (2), p.270-279

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The opioid crisis of pain medication bears risks from addiction to cancer progression, but little experimental evidence exists. Expression of δ-opioid receptors (DORs) correlates with poor prognosis for breast cancer patients, but mechanistic insights into oncogenic signaling mechanisms of opioid-triggered cancer progression are lacking. We show that orthotopic transplant models using human or murine breast cancer cells displayed enhanced metastasis upon opioid-induced DOR stimulation. Interestingly, opioid-exposed breast cancer cells showed enhanced migration and strong STAT3 activation, which was efficiently blocked by a DOR-antagonist. Furthermore, opioid treatment resulted in down-regulation of E-Cadherin and increased expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. Notably, STAT3 knockdown or upstream inhibition through the JAK1/2 kinase inhibitor ruxolitinib prevented opioid-induced breast cancer cell metastasis and migration in vitro and in vivo. We conclude on a novel mechanism whereby opioid-triggered breast cancer metastasis occurs via oncogenic JAK1/2-STAT3 signaling to promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These findings emphasize the importance of selective and restricted opioid use, as well as the need for safer pain medication that does not activate these oncogenic pathways.