Polyamine analogues down-regulate estrogen receptor alpha expression in human breast cancer cells

The critical role of polyamines in cell growth has led to the development of a number of agents that interfere with polyamine metabolism including a novel class of polyamine analogues, oligoamines. Here we demonstrate that oligoamines specifically suppress the mRNA and protein expression of estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and ERalpha target genes in ER-positive human breast cancer cell lines, whereas neither ERbeta nor other steroid hormonal receptors are affected by oligoamines. The constitutive expression of a cytomegalovirus promoter-driven exogenous ERalpha in ER-negative MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells was not altered by oligoamines, suggesting that oligoamines specifically suppress ERalpha transcription rather than affect mRNA or protein stability. Further analysis demonstrated that oligoamines disrupted the DNA binding activity of Sp1 transcription factor family members to an ERalpha minimal promoter element containing GC/CA-rich boxes. Treatment of MDA-MB-231 cells with the JNK-specific inhibitor SP600125 or expression of the c-Jun dominant negative inhibitor TAM67 blocked the oligoamine-activated JNK/c-Jun pathway and enhanced oligoamine-inhibited ERalpha expression, suggesting that AP-1 is a positive regulator of ERalpha expression and that oligoamine-activated JNK/AP-1 activity may antagonize the down-regulation of ERalpha induced by oligoamines. Taken together, these results suggest a novel antiestrogenic mechanism for specific polyamine analogues in human breast cancer cells.