P2Y2R activation by ATP released from MDA-MB-231 cells induced hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression, lysyl oxidase secretion and collagen crosslinking, generating a receptive microenvironment for pre-metastatic niche

Tumor metastasis is considered the main cause of mortality in cancer patients, thus it is important to investigate the differences between highand low-metastatic cancer cells. Our previous study showed that the highly metastatic breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 released higher levels of ATP and exhibited higher P2Y2R activity compared with the low-metastatic breast cancer cell line MCF-7. In addition, P2Y2R activation by ATP released from MDA-MB-231 cells induced hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression, lysyl oxidase secretion and collagen crosslinking, generating a receptive microenvironment for pre-metastatic niche formation. Thus, in the present study, we investigated which P2Y2R-related signaling pathways are involved in the invasion of breast cancer cells. The highly metastatic breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 and SK-BR-3 showed higher invasion than MCF-7 and T47D cells at a basal level, which was abolished through P2Y2R knockdown or in the presence of apyrase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes extracellular nucleotides. MDA-MB-231 cells also showed high levels of mesenchymal markers, such as Snail, Vimentin and N-cadherin, but not the epithelial marker E-cadherin and this expression was inhibited through ATP degradation or P2Y2R knockdown. Moreover, SK-BR-3 and MDA-MB231 cells exhibited higher ERK and PKC phosphorylation levels than T47D and MCF-7 cells and upregulated phospho-ERK and -PKC levels in MDA-MB-231 cells were significantly downregulated by apyrase or P2Y2R knockdown. Specific inhibitors of ERK, PKC and PLC markedly reduced the invasion and levels of mesenchymal marker expression in MDA-MB-231 cells. These results suggest that over-activated ERK and PKC pathways are involved in the P2Y2R-mediated invasion of breast cancer cells.