cancers Article Pannexin1 Is Associated with Enhanced Epithelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition in Human Patient Breast Cancer Tissues and in Breast Cancer Cell Lines 1, 2, 3, 4 Nour Jalaleddine y , Layal El-Hajjar y, Hassan Dakik y , Abdullah Shaito , Jessica Saliba 5 ,Rémi Safi 6 , Kazem Zibara 7 and Marwan El-Sabban 2,* 1 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Beirut Arab University, Beirut 1107-2809, Lebanon;
[email protected] 2 Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon;
[email protected] 3 University of Tours, EA 7501 GICC, CNRS ERL 7001 LNOx, CEDEX 01, 37032 Tours, France;
[email protected] 4 Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese International University, Beirut 1105, Lebanon;
[email protected] 5 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Lebanese University, Hadath, Beirut 1003, Lebanon;
[email protected] 6 Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon;
[email protected] 7 ER045-Laboratory of Stem Cells, PRASE, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Lebanese University, Hadath, Beirut 1003, Lebanon;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +961-1-350000 (ext. 4765-4766) Equally contributed. y Received: 30 August 2019; Accepted: 5 November 2019; Published: 7 December 2019 Abstract: Loss of connexin-mediated cell-cell communication is a hallmark of breast cancer progression. Pannexin1 (PANX1), a glycoprotein that shares structural and functional features with connexins and engages in cell communication with its environment, is highly expressed in breast cancer metastatic foci; however, PANX1 contribution to metastatic progression is still obscure.