Vitamin D (VD) reduces the risk of breast cancer and improves disease prognoses. Potential VD analogs are being developed as therapeutic agents for breast cancer treatments. The large-conductance Ca2+-activated K⁺ channel KCa1.1 regulates intracellular Ca2+ signaling pathways and is associated with high grade tumors and poor prognoses. In the present study, we examined the effects of treatments with VD receptor (VDR) agonists on the expression and activity of KCa1.1 in human breast cancer MDA-MB-453 cells using real-time PCR, Western blotting, flow cytometry, and voltage-sensitive dye imaging. Treatments with VDR agonists for 72 h markedly decreased the expression levels of KCa1.1 transcripts and proteins in MDA-MB-453 cells, resulting in the significant inhibition of depolarization responses induced by paxilline, a specific KCa1.1 blocker. The specific proteasome inhibitor MG132 suppressed VDR agonist-induced decreases in KCa1.1 protein expression. These results suggest that KCa1.1 is a new downstream target of VDR signaling and the down-regulation of KCa1.1 through the transcriptional repression of KCa1.1 and enhancement of KCa1.1 protein degradation contribute, at least partly, to the antiproliferative effects of VDR agonists in breast cancer cells.
Keywords: K+ channel; KCa1.1; breast cancer; protein degradation; transcription; vitamin D receptor.