Thrombin confers chemotherapeutic resistance by promoting transcriptional induction and post-translational stabilization of pro-survival MCL1 in TNBC

The association between idiopathic venous thrombosis and occult cancer is widely recognized. However, the comprehensive understanding of how thrombin, generated during the process of thrombosis, possesses the potential to augment the malignant phenotype is still not well understood. The coagulation protease thrombin mediates its effects by cleaving protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1), a receptor abundantly expressed on the surface of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. While emerging evidence implicates coagulation proteases in facilitating cancer progression, the precise molecular pathways underlying thrombin-mediated induction of chemoresistance remain poorly defined. Here, we demonstrate that thrombin-induced PAR1 activation in TNBC cells promotes the development of a multidrug-resistant phenotype, mechanistically linked to the upregulation of the pro-survival protein MCL1. Genetic ablation of MCL1 sensitizes TNBC cells to cytotoxic drugs despite thrombin exposure, affirming MCL1's functional importance. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses reveal thrombin triggers protein kinase A-dependent phosphorylation of serine 133 residues of cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB), enhancing CREB's affinity for the co-activators CBP and p300. Furthermore, thrombin treatment induces the nuclear translocation of CREB-regulated transcription coactivator 2 (CRTC2) in a calcium-dependent manner, which collectively interacts with CREB/CBP-P300. The coordinated action of these transcriptional co-activators facilitates the transcriptional induction of MCL1. We further report that PAR1 activation augments MCL1 binding to the deubiquitinase USP9X, reducing MCL1 turnover. Our pre-clinical breast cancer murine model also shows that genetic deletion of PAR1 sensitizes breast cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drugs in vivo. Collectively, these findings emphasize the thrombin-PAR1 axis as a novel driver of chemoresistance. Utilizing FDA-approved oral anticoagulants for selective blocking of thrombin action may serve as a potential therapeutic adjunct for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.