Downregulation of delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase is associated with poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer

Delta-aminolevulinate dehydrataseis (ALAD) catalyzes the second step in the biosynthesis of heme and is also an endogenous inhibitor of the 26S proteasome. The role of ALAD in breast cancer progression is still unclear. In this study, we found that the expression of ALAD was down-regulated in breast cancer tissues as compared with the adjacent normal breast tissues. Enhanced ALAD expression was associated with a favorable outcome in patients with breast cancer. Overexpression of ALAD suppresses breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion and inhibits the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. Furthermore, we found that ALAD regulates the TGF-β-mediated breast cancer progression. This finding suggests that ALAD might be a potential biomarker for breast cancer that suppresses breast cancer progression by regulating the TGF-β-mediated EMT. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.