The interrelationship between HER2 and CASP3/8 with apoptosis in different cancer cell lines

HER2/ErbB2, a known proto-oncogene (also known as HER2, neu), is among the most practiced molecules in the cancer area. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is over expressed in approximately 20-30 % of breast cancer tumors and also in a lot of other human cancer types. It is known to be related to the aggressiveness of the disease, increased mortality and higher relapse ratio. The unusual HER2 overexpression is associated with more severe disease characteristics in several cancers. In recent past, there have been remarkable advances in understanding the role of the HER2 gene in cancers. Caspases are well renowned proteases that act as essential initiators and executioners of the apoptotic process. The primary function of HER2 is suppressing apoptosis to enhance cell survival and eventually giving rise to uncontrolled proliferation and tumor growth. The objective of this work was to study the expression levels of HER2 and apoptosis related factors CASP-3 and CASP-8 in several breast and other cancer cell lines and finally to find a meaningful correlation between all these. We summed up by obtaining an increase in expression of HER2 in all cancer cell lines as compared to that of CASP-3 and CASP-8. In summary we conclude that HER2 promotes cell survival by inhibiting apoptosis i.e. by downregulating CASP-3 and CASP-8. This is a novel study comprising the expression study of HER2 and different caspases in different cancer cell lines simultaneously. It is thus expected that this study will aid in better establishment of correlation between HER2 and caspases in different malignancies.