ERCC6L facilitates the onset of mammary neoplasia and promotes the high malignance of breast cancer by accelerating the cell cycle.

backgroundBreast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of morbidity and the second leading cause of death among female malignant tumors. Although available drugs have been approved for the corresponding breast cancer subtypes (ER-positive, HER2 METHODS AND

resultsHere, we found that ERCC6L was highly expressed in breast cancer, especially in TNBC, which was closely related to poor outcomes of patients. An ERCC6L conditional knockout mouse model was first established in this study, and the results confirmed that ERCC6L was required for the development of the mammary gland and the tumorigenesis and progression of mammary gland cancers. In in vitro cell culture, ERCC6L acted as a tumor promoter in the malignant progression of breast cancer cells. Overexpression of ERCC6L promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while knockdown of ERCC6L caused the opposite results. Mechanistically, ERCC6L accelerated the cell cycle by regulating the G

conclusionsWe first demonstrated that ERCC6L deficiency can significantly inhibit the occurrence and development of mammary gland tumors. ERCC6L was found to accelerate the cell cycle by regulating the p53/p21/CDK1/Cyclin B and PLK/CDC25C/CDK1/Cyclin B signalling pathways, thereby promoting the malignant progression of breast cancer cell lines. There was a direct interaction between KIF4A and ERCC6L, and both are closely associated with mitosis and contribute to growth and metastasis of breast tumor. To sum up, our results suggest that ERCC6L may be used as a promising target for the treatment of BC.