Nogo-B receptor increases glycolysis and the paclitaxel resistance of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer via the HIF-1 alpha-dependent pathway

Chemotherapy can improve the prognosis and overall survival of breast cancer patients, but chemoresistance continues a major problem in clinical. Most breast cancer is estrogen receptor (ER) positive but responds less to neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy than ER-negative breast cancer. The Nogo-B receptor (NgBR) increases the chemoresistance of ER-positive breast cancer by facilitating oncogene signaling pathways. Here, we further investigated the potential role of NgBR as a novel target to overcome glycolysis-dependent paclitaxel resistance in ER-positive breast cancer. NgBR knockdown inhibited glycolysis and promoted paclitaxel-induced apoptosis by attenuating HIF-1 alpha expression in ER-positive breast cancer cells via NgBR-mediated estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha)/hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) and nuclear factor-kappa B subunit (NF-kappa B)/HIF-1 alpha signaling pathways. A ChIP assay further confirmed that NgBR overexpression not only facilitates ER alpha binding to HIF-1 alpha and GLUT1 genes but also promotes HIF-1 alpha binding to GLUT1, HK2, and LDHA genes, which further promotes glycolysis and induces paclitaxel resistance. In conclusion, our study suggests that NgBR expression is essential for maintaining the metabolism and paclitaxel resistance of ER-positive breast cancer, and the NgBR can be a new therapeutic target for improving chemoresistance in ER-positive breast cancer.