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Breast cancer is one of the most frequent carcinomas and is the second most common cancer type detected in women of child-bearing age. Throughout pregnancy PAPP-A is produced and secreted by the placental syncytiotrophoblast cells; co-incidentally pregnancy-associated breast cancers often have an aggressive clinical course. The components of the PAPP-A\/IGF axis was assessed in a panel of breast cancer cell lines. Using neutralising antibodies the impact of PAPP-A\/IGF axis on cell motility was evaluated. PAPP-A was expressed in four of the twelve breast cancer cell lines tested. Blocking PAPP-A and IGFBP4 with neutralising antibodies significantly decreased motiliy of MDA-MB-231 cells. Upregulation of PAPP-A expression in breast tumours resulted in a trend towards worse overall survival. Notably, PAPP-A expression also positively correlated with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition markers. In conclusion, these results indicate that PAPP-A plays an important role in breast cancer progression and it may be a promising therapeutic target in breast cancer.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-020-70774-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,13]],"date-time":"2020-08-13T10:06:45Z","timestamp":1597313205000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Aberrant pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A expression in breast cancers prognosticates clinical outcomes"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Prashanth","family":"Prithviraj","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew","family":"Anaka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erik W.","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Revati","family":"Sharma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marzena","family":"Walkiewicz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Candani S. 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