Role of glutaminyl-peptide cyclotransferase in breast cancer doxorubicin sensitivity

Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most effective and widely used chemotherapeutic drugs. However, DOX resistance is a critical risk problem for breast cancer treatment. Previous studies have demonstrated that metadherin (MTDH) involves in DOX resistance in breast cancer, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we found that glutaminyl-peptide cyclotransferase (QPCT) was a MTDH DOX resistance-related downstream gene in breast cancer. Elevated expression of QPCT was found in the GEPIA database, breast cancer tissue, and breast cancer cells. Clinical data showed that QPCT expression was positively associated with poor prognosis in DOX-treated patients. Overexpression of QPCT could promote the proliferation, invasion and migration, and reduce DOX sensitivity in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Mechanistically, MTDH positively regulates the expressions of NF-κB (p65) and QPCT, and NF-κB (p65) directly regulates the expression of QPCT. Therefore, MTDH/NF-κB (p65)/QPCT signal axis was proposed. Collectively, our findings delineate the mechanism by which the MTDH/NF-κB (p65) axis regulate QPCT signaling and suggest that this complex may play an essential role in breast cancer progression and affect DOX sensitivity.