Ligand-independent activation of the estrogen receptors alpha and beta by mutations of a conserved tyrosine can be abolished by antiestrogens.

It has recently been suggested that mutation of a conserved tyrosine to asparagine within the ligand-binding domain of the estrogen receptor (ER) alpha confers hormone-independent activation and insensitivity to antiestrogens (Q. X. Zhang et al., Cancer Res., 57: 1244-1249, 1997). In view of the recent discovery of ERbeta and the development of the novel nonsteroidal antiestrogen EM-800 and its active metabolite EM-652, we decided to reexamine this issue by introducing a series of mutations at the conserved tyrosine 537 in ERalpha and 443 in ERbeta and measuring their transcriptional activity in the absence and presence of estradiol and the antiestrogens EM-652, ICI 182,780, and 4-hydroxytamoxifen. As demonstrated previously for ERalpha, we observed that substituting a serine or asparagine but not a phenylalanine for the conserved tyrosine 443 in ERbeta confers constitutive transcriptional activity to the receptor. This activity was apparent on both the vitA2-ERE and the pS2 promoters in Cos-1 and HeLa cell lines as well as the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. However, the ligand-independent transcriptional activity of all ERalpha and ERbeta mutants examined, including the tyrosine to asparagine substitutions, was completely abolished by the three antiestrogens tested in this system. Furthermore, hormone-independent interaction of ERalpha and ERbeta mutant receptors with the steroid receptor coactivator-1 was abrogated by these antiestrogens. Our report, therefore, indicates that antiestrogens would be effective agents against constitutively active tyrosine ERalpha and ERbeta mutants and suggests that this particular type of modified receptors are unlikely to contribute to resistance toward antiestrogens in breast cancer therapy.