A novel bystander effect in tamoxifen treatment: PPIB derived from ER plus cells attenuates ER- cells via endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced apoptosis

Tamoxifen (TAM) is the frontline therapy for estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer in premenopausal women that interrupts ER signaling. As tumors with elevated heterogeneity, amounts of ER-negative (ER-) cells are present in ER+ breast cancer that cannot be directly killed by TAM. Despite complete remissions have been achieved in clinical practice, the mechanism underlying the elimination of ER- cells during TAM treatment remains an open issue. Herein, we deciphered the elimination of ER- cells in TAM treatment from the perspective of the bystander effect. Markable reductions were observed in tumorigenesis of ER- breast cancer cells by applying both supernatants from TAM-treated ER+ cells and a transwell co-culture system, validating the presence of a TAM-induced bystander effect. The major antitumor protein derived from ER+ cells, peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase B (PPIB), is the mediator of the TAM-induced bystander effect identified by quantitative proteomics. The attenuation of ER- cells was attributed to activated BiP/eIF2 alpha/CHOP axis and promoted endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-induced apoptosis, which can also be triggered by PPIB independently. Altogether, our study revealed a novel TAM-induced bystander effect in TAM treatment of ER+ breast cancer, raising the possibility of developing PPIB as a synergistic antitumor agent or even substitute endocrine therapy.