Abstract |
Compared to other breast cancers (BC), triple negative breast cancers
(TNBCs) confer lower survival and higher disease recurrence. TNBCs lack
receptors targeted by current therapies, requiring new therapeutic target
identification. Recently, the ribosome biogenesis protein WDR12 was
identified as a potential target from RNAi databases. WDR12 belongs to the
WD40-repeat family of scaffolding proteins, which have become interesting
targets due to their druggable structure. I hypothesized that TNBC cell
lines would be more sensitive to WDR12 knockdown (KD) due to their
increased rate of ribosome biogenesis. WDR12 depletion led to decreased
proliferation in all BC cell lines that could not be attributed to
apoptosis or cell cycle arrest. Interestingly, WDR12 KD decreased
nucleolar size to a greater extent in TNBC, indicating a potential role
for WDR12 in ribosome biogenesis. In conclusion, WDR12 may be a promising
therapeutic target in TNBC, although additional confirmatory testing will
be required.
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