SREBP1 drives Keratin 80-dependent cytoskeletal changes and invasive behavior in endocrine resistant ERa breast cancer

Approximately 30% of women diagnosed with ERa breast cancer relapse with metastatic disease following adjuvant treatment with endocrine therapies. The connection between acquisition of drug resistance and invasive potential is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that the type II keratin topological associating domain (TAD) undergoes epigenetic reprogramming in cells that develop resistance to aromatase inhibitors (AI), leading to keratin 80 (KRT80) upregulation. In agreement, an increased number of KRT80-positive cells are observed at relapse in vivo while KRT80 expression associates with poor outcome using several clinical endpoints. KRT80 expression is driven by de novo enhancer activation by sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1). KRT80 upregulation directly promotes cytoskeletal rearrangements at the leading edge, increased focal adhesion maturation and cellular stiffening, which collectively promote cancer cell invasion. Shear-wave elasticity imaging of tumors from prospectively recruited patients shows that KRT80 levels correlate with stiffer tumors in vivo. Collectively, our data uncover an unpredicted and potentially targetable direct link between epigenetic and cytoskeletal reprogramming promoting cell invasion in response to chronic AI treatment. Overall design: Total RNA profiling of MCF7 breast adenocarcinoma cell line and MCF7 overexpressing KRT80. Experiments were carried out in four replicates in both cell lines.