Epithelial to mesenchymal transition, a process that is tightly coupled to breast cancer metastasis, is stimulated by TGF-ß, but inhibited by BMP. The OVOL1 transcriptional repressor promotes mesenchymal to epithelial transition of which the mechanism is not clear. Chuannan Fan and co-workers now report in a paper published in Signal Transducton and Targeted Therapy that OVOL1, which is potently induced by BMP, antagonizes TGF-ß receptor-induced breast cancer cell invasion. Moreover, a small-molecule compound FICZ was identified that activates OVOL1 expression and thereby antagonizes breast cancer cell migration. It will be interesting to explore the potential of FICZ in the treatment of breast cancer in clinical models.
The article can be found here.
Fan C, Wang Q, van der Zon G, Ren J, Agaser C, Slieker RC, Iyengar PV, Mei H, Ten Dijke P. OVOL1 inhibits breast cancer cell invasion by enhancing the degradation of TGF-β type I receptor. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2022 Apr 29;7(1):126. doi: 10.1038/s41392-022-00944-w. PMID: 35484112.