Noncanonical TGF-β signaling leads to FBXO3-mediated degradation of ΔNp63α promoting breast cancer metastasis and poor clinical prognosis

Abstract

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling plays a critical role in promoting epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell migration, invasion, and tumor metastasis. ΔNp63α, the major isoform of p63 protein expressed in epithelial cells, is a key transcriptional regulator of cell adhesion program and functions as a critical metastasis suppressor. It has been documented that the expression of ΔNp63α is tightly controlled by oncogenic signaling and is frequently reduced in advanced cancers. However, whether TGF-β signaling regulates ΔNp63α expression in promoting metastasis is largely unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that activation of TGF-β signaling leads to stabilization of E3 ubiquitin ligase FBXO3, which, in turn, targets ΔNp63α for proteasomal degradation in a Smad-independent but Erk-dependent manner. Knockdown of FBXO3 or restoration of ΔNp63α expression effectively rescues TGF-β-induced EMT, cell motility, and tumor metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, clinical analyses reveal a significant correlation among TGF-β receptor I (TβRI), FBXO3, and p63 protein expression and that high expression of TβRI/FBXO3 and low expression of p63 are associated with poor recurrence-free survival (RFS). Together, these results demonstrate that FBXO3 facilitates ΔNp63α degradation to empower TGF-β signaling in promoting tumor metastasis and that the TβRI-FBXO3-ΔNp63α axis is critically important in breast cancer development and clinical prognosis. This study suggests that FBXO3 may be a potential therapeutic target for advanced breast cancer treatment.