Activation of GPER suppresses epithelial mesenchymal transition of triple negative breast cancer cells via NF-κB signals

The targeted therapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a great challenge due to our poor understanding on its molecular etiology. In the present study, our clinical data showed that the expression of G-protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) is negatively associated with lymph node metastasis, high-grade tumor and fibronectin (FN) expression while positively associated with the favorable outcome in 135 TNBC patients. In our experimental studies, both the in vitro migration and invasion of TNBC cells were inhibited by GPER specific agonist G-1, through the suppression of the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). The G-1 treatment also reduced the phosphorylation, nuclear localization, and transcriptional activities of NF-κB. While over expression of NF-κB attenuated the action of G-1 in suppressing EMT. Our data further illustrated that the phosphorylation of GSK-3β by PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 mediated, at least partially, the inhibitory effect of G-1 on NF-κB activities. It was further confirmed in a study of MDA-MB-231 tumor xenografts in nude mice. The data showed that G-1 inhibited the in vivo growth and invasive potential of TNBC via suppression of EMT. Our present study demonstrated that an activation of GPER pathway elicits tumor suppressive actions on TNBC, and supports the use of G-1 therapeutics for TNBC metastasis. •GPER is negatively correlated with the progression of TNBC.•G-1 inhibits the in vitro motility of TNBC cells via suppression of EMT.•The inhibition of NF-κB mediates G-1 induced EMT suppression.•GSK-3β is involved in G-1 suppressed NF-κB activities.•PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 are involved in G-1 induced phosphorylation of GSK-3β.