Natriuretic peptide receptor a promotes breast cancer development by upregulating MMP9

Natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPRA), one of the natriuretic peptide receptors, plays important roles in circulatory system. Recently some studies showed that NPRA was involved in tumorigenesis, however, its role in the development of breast cancer remains unclear. In this study, we observed that NPRA expression was upregulated in breast cancer tissues and NPRA high expression was associated with poor clinicopathological features. In addition, we found that patients with high NPRA expression had a worse 5-year survival and NPRA was an independent factor for predicting the prognosis of breast cancer patients. Knocking down NPRA expression reduced the proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells. Overexpressing NPRA was able to enhance the malignant behaviors of breast cancer cells. Furthermore, NPRA promoted the invasive phenotype through upregulating matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9). Mechanistically, NPRA increased MMP9 expression through activating STAT3. We identified that NPRA might serve as a prognostic marker and p-STAT3 and MMP9 could be a potential target of NPRA in breast cancer patients.