ULK1 Promotes the Progression of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Novel Therapeutic Target

Year 2025, Issue: 1, 31 - 41, 30.12.2025

Venhar Çinar , Nesrin Delibaşi Doğan

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains one of the most aggressive subtypes of breast cancer due to the absence of hormone receptors and HER2 expression, making it refractory to many targeted therapies. Consequently, recent studies have focused on the autophagy pathway as a potential therapeutic avenue, particularly investigating the role of Unc-51 Like Autophagy Activating Kinase 1 (ULK1), a key initiator of autophagy.
In the present study, we investigated the function of ULK1 in highly aggressive and metastatic breast cancer cells. We demonstrated that the knockdown of the autophagy-related ULK1 gene significantly suppressed cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion in the metastatic MDA-MB-231 and BT-549 cell lines, both of which exhibit high basal-autophagy levels.
In conclusion, our study suggests that ULK1 promotes cell proliferation, survival, migration, and invasion, thereby contributing to the tumor growth and progression of highly aggressive and metastatic breast cancer cells that rely on high basal autophagy. These findings indicate that targeting ULK1 may represent a promising therapeutic strategy in breast cancer.

Keywords

Autophagy , breast cancer , triple-negative breast cancer , ULK1 siRNA , invasion , migration , proliferation

Ethical Statement

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Supporting Institution

This study was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council –TÜBİTAK- research grant

Project Number

214S204

Thanks

The Scientific and Technological Research Council –TÜBİTAK-

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