Cancer

Patient sample, cell culture and mouse studies suggest inhibiting ANKLE2 could help treat breast cancer. In breast cancer patients, high tumor levels of ANKLE2 were associated with disease progression and poor overall and relapse-free survival. In two human breast cancer cell lines and one human tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell line, two siRNAs targeting ANKLE2 decreased proliferation compared with a non-specific siRNA, and in the tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell line, the two ANKLE2-targeting siRNAs plus tamoxifen increased cell death compared with tamoxifen alone. In a xenograft mouse model of breast cancer, tumor-specific knockdown of ANKLE2 decreased tumor size compared with normal ANKLE2 expression. In a xenograft mouse model of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer, tumor-specific knockdown of ANKLE2 plus tamoxifen decreased tumor size compared with tamoxifen alone. Next steps could include developing and testing small molecule ANKLE2 inhibitors in models of breast cancer...