Open Access
ARTICLE
Chaperone-mediated autophagy targeting chimeras (CMATAC) for the degradation of ERα in breast cancer
JUN ZHANG, YEHONG HUANG, WENZHUO LIU, LULU LI, LIMING CHEN*
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Molecular and Medical Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China
* Address correspondence to: Liming Chen,
BIOCELL 2020, 44(4), 591-595. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.011642
Received 21 May 2020; Accepted 19 August 2020; Issue published 24 December 2020
Abstract
Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα/ESR1) is overexpressed in over half of all breast cancers and is considered a
valuable therapeutic target in ERα positive breast cancer. Here, we designed a membrane-permeant Chaperonemediated Autophagy Targeting Chimeras (CMATAC) peptide to knockdown endogenous ERα protein through
chaperone-mediated autophagy. The peptide contains a cell membrane-penetrating peptide (TAT) that allows the
peptide to by-pass the plasma membrane, an αI peptide as a protein-binding peptide (PBD) that binds specifically to
ERα, and CMA-targeting peptide (CTM) that targeting chaperone-mediated autophagy. We validated that ERα
targeting peptide was able to target and degrade ERα to reduce the viability of ERα positive breast cancer cells. Taken
together, our studies provided a new method to reduce the level of intracellular ERα protein via CMATAC, and thus
may provide a new strategy for the treatment of ERα positive breast cancer.
Keywords
Cite This Article
ZHANG, J., HUANG, Y., LIU, W., LI, L., CHEN, L. (2020). Chaperone-mediated autophagy targeting chimeras (CMATAC) for the degradation of ERα in breast cancer.
BIOCELL, 44(4), 591–595. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.011642
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