Estrogen receptor α regulates non-canonical autophagy that provides stress resistance to neuroblastoma and breast cancer cells and involves BAG3 function

AbstractBreast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and approximately 70% of newly diagnosed breast cancers are estrogen receptor (ER) positive. Out of the two ER types, α and β, ERα is the only ER that is detectable by immunohistochemistry in breast cancer biopsies and is the predominant subtype expressed in breast tumor tissue. ER-positive tumors are currently treated with anti-hormone therapy to inhibit ER signaling. It is well known that breast cancer cells can develop endocrine resistance and resistance to anti-hormone therapy and this can be facilitated via the autophagy pathway, but so far the description of a detailed autophagy expression profile of ER-positive cancer cells is missing.…