Tight junction protein Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A regulates the expression of receptor tyrosine kinase EPHA2 in triple-negative breast cancer cells

Breast tumors lacking expression of the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2), progesterone receptor (PR) and estrogen receptor (ERα) are defined as triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). A lack of targeted therapies has impaired TNBC patient prognosis. It has previously been shown that high expression of Junctional Adhesion Molecule-A (JAM-A) correlates with aggressive breast cancer patient phenotypes, and that JAM-A regulates the expression of HER2 in breast cancer cells. Accordingly, we hypothesized that JAM-A might regulate the expression of other receptor tyrosine kinases. We show for the first time that JAM-A may regulate the expression of the EPHA2 receptor in TNBC cells and propose that this pathway merits deeper investigation for its therapeutic value in TNBC settings.