Binding of the angiogenic/senescence inducer CCN1/CYR61 to integrin αβ drives endocrine resistance in breast cancer cells.

CCN1/CYR61 promotes angiogenesis, tumor growth and chemoresistance by binding to its integrin receptor αβ in endothelial and breast cancer (BC) cells. CCN1 controls also tissue regeneration by engaging its integrin receptor αβ to induce fibroblast senescence. Here, we explored if the ability of CCN1 to drive an endocrine resistance phenotype in estrogen receptor-positive BC cells relies on interactions with either αβ or αβ. First, we took advantage of site-specific mutagenesis abolishing the CCN1 receptor-binding sites to αβ and αβ to determine the integrin partner responsible for CCN1-driven endocrine resistance. Second, we explored a putative nuclear role of CCN1 in regulating ERα-driven transcriptional responses. Retroviral forced expression of a CCN1 derivative with a single amino acid change (D125A) that abrogates binding to αβ partially phenocopied the endocrine resistance phenotype induced upon overexpression of wild-type (WT) CCN1. Forced expression of the CCN1 mutant TM, which abrogates all the T1, H1, and H2 binding sites to αβ, failed to bypass the estrogen requirement for anchorage-independent growth or to promote resistance to tamoxifen. Wild-type CCN1 promoted estradiol-independent transcriptional activity of ERα and enhanced ERα agonist response to tamoxifen. The αβ-binding-defective TM-CCN1 mutant lost the ERα co-activator-like behavior of WT-CCN1. Co-immunoprecipitation assays revealed a direct interaction between endogenous CCN1 and ERα, and approaches confirmed the ability of recombinant CCN1 to bind ERα. CCN1 signaling via αβ, but not via αβ, drives an endocrine resistance phenotype that involves a direct binding of CCN1 to ERα to regulate its transcriptional activity in ER+ BC cells.