ATP synthase: A potential target for breast cancer therapy

Targeting therapy is one of the most promising approaches to increase the efficiency of anticancer treatment, thus the investigation into potential targets has become an important research topic in cancer therapy. In this study, we carried out a proteome-based analysis on human breast cancer tissues to probe into the tumor-specific protein expression in breast carcinoma. Conventionally, ATP synthase was believed to be localized in the mitochondrial inner membrane and served as an energy protein complex. Our study indicated that ATP synthase was abundant in tumor tissues and was also present on the plasma membrane surface of breast cancer cells. Aurovertin B, an ATP synthase inhibitor, has strong inhibition on the proliferation of several breast cancer cell lines, but little influence on the normal cell line MCF-10A. Aurovertin B inhibits proliferation of breast cancer cells by inducing apoptosis and arresting cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase. Furthermore, aurovertin B induces the cytotoxic effects in a caspase-dependent manner. This study showed that aurovertin B can be used as an anticancer agent and may be exploited in cancer chemotherapy.