P130Cas modulates TNBC proliferation, migration, and transcriptional profile

Normal expression of p130Crk-associated substance (P130Cas) in mammary tissues plays a crucial role in maintaining their growth and development. It has been found that estrogen receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancers highly expressed P130Cas, high levels of which correlate with increased cancer malignancy and invasiveness. However, the functions of P130Cas in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is ill-defined. In present study, we achieved low expression of P130Cas using lentivirus to infect MDA-MB-231 cells. Cellular experiments, quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction assay, and western blot assay were adopted to validate that knockdown of P130Cas significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and epithelial mesenchymal transition process of TNBC cells. Transcriptome sequencing demonstrated that HSPA8 is one of the differential genes enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway. HSPA8 was subsequently confirmed to be highly expressed in TNBC in cell and tissue samples. A positive trend of correlation between HSPA8 and P130Cas expression was confirmed by the GEPIA2 database. In conclusion, this study proposes P130Cas as a prospective therapeutic target for TNBC and delivers new insights into the developmental mechanisms of TNBC.