Deregulated E2F and the AAA+ coregulator ANCCA drive proto-oncogene ACTR/AIB1 overexpression in breast cancer

The proto-oncogene ACTR/AIB1, a coactivator for transcription factors such as the nuclear receptors and E2Fs, is frequently overexpressed in various cancers including breast cancers. However, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Here, we identified several functional, noncanonical E2F binding sites in the ACTR first exon and intron that are critical for ACTR gene activation. We also found that the newly identified AAA+ coregulator AAA+ nuclear coregulator cancer associated (ANCCA) is recruited to the ACTR promoter and directly controls ACTR expression in breast cancer cells. Importantly, immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that ACTR overexpression is highly correlated with the expression of E2F1 and ANCCA in a cohort of human primary and lymph node-metastasized breast cancer specimens. Along with previous findings from us and others that ACTR is involved in its own gene regulation, these results suggest that one major mechanism of ACTR overexpression in cancer is the concerted, aberrant function of the nuclear coregulators such as ANCCA and ACTR, and they point to therapeutic strategies that target the Rb-E2F axis and/or the coregulator ANCCA for ACTR-overexpressing cancers.