scholarly journals Characterization of ceRNA network to reveal potential prognostic biomarkers in triple-negative breast cancer

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Song ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Zhaoyun Liu ◽  
Qi Liu ◽  
Kewen He ◽  
...  

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particular subtype of breast malignant tumor with poorer prognosis than other molecular subtypes. Previous studies have demonstrated that some abnormal expression of non-coding RNAs including microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were closely related to tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration and drug sensitivity. However, the role of non-coding RNAs in the pathogenesis of TNBC is still unclear. In order to characterize the molecular mechanism of non-coding RNAs in TNBC, we downloaded RNA data and miRNA data from the cancer genome atlas database. We successfully identified 686 message RNAs (mRNAs), 26 miRNAs and 50 lncRNAs as key molecules for high risk of TNBC. Then, we hypothesized that the lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory axis positively correlates with TNBC and constructed a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network of TNBC. Our series of analyses has shown that five molecules (TERT, TRIML2, PHBP4, mir-1-3p, mir-133a-3p) were significantly associated with the prognosis of TNBC, and there is a prognostic ceRNA sub-network between those molecules. We mapped the Kaplan–Meier curve of RNA on the sub-network and also suggested that the expression level of the selected RNA is related to the survival rate of breast cancer. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction showed that the expression level of TRIML2 in TNBC cells was higher than normal. In general, our findings have implications for predicting metastasis, predicting prognosis and discovering new therapeutic targets for TNBC.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1820
Author(s):  
Anna Makuch-Kocka ◽  
Janusz Kocki ◽  
Anna Brzozowska ◽  
Jacek Bogucki ◽  
Przemysław Kołodziej ◽  
...  

The BIRC (baculoviral IAP repeat-containing; BIRC) family genes encode for Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP) proteins. The dysregulation of the expression levels of the genes in question in cancer tissue as compared to normal tissue suggests that the apoptosis process in cancer cells was disturbed, which may be associated with the development and chemoresistance of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In our study, we determined the expression level of eight genes from the BIRC family using the Real-Time PCR method in patients with TNBC and compared the obtained results with clinical data. Additionally, using bioinformatics tools (Ualcan and The Breast Cancer Gene-Expression Miner v4.5 (bc-GenExMiner v4.5)), we compared our data with the data in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We observed diverse expression pattern among the studied genes in breast cancer tissue. Comparing the expression level of the studied genes with the clinical data, we found that in patients diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 50, the expression levels of all studied genes were higher compared to patients diagnosed after the age of 50. We observed that in patients with invasion of neoplastic cells into lymphatic vessels and fat tissue, the expression levels of BIRC family genes were lower compared to patients in whom these features were not noted. Statistically significant differences in gene expression were also noted in patients classified into three groups depending on the basis of the Scarff-Bloom and Richardson (SBR) Grading System.


Author(s):  
Minling Liu ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Shan Huang ◽  
Xiaofen Pan ◽  
Huiru Dai ◽  
...  

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Therefore, it is imperative to develop new prognostic or therapeutic biomarkers for TNBC. Objective: To explore the prognostic and therapeutic values of autophagy-related genes (ARGs) in TNBC. Methods: Overall, 157 TNBC patients’ data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and the ARGs were acquired from the Human Autophagy Database. Differentially expressed ARGs (DEGs) between tumor and normal tissues were identified and the prognostic ARGs were developed using R software. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were both used to evaluate the accuracy of the signature. Patents about prognostic ARGs were reviewed through Worldwide Espacenet® and Patentscope®. Results: We obtained 28 DEGs and two prognostic ARGs (EIF4EBP1 and PARP1). The Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that the survival rate of patients with low 2-ARG signature risk score was significantly higher than that of patients with high risk score (P=0.003). ROC at 5 years indicated that the signature had good prognostic accuracy (AUC=0.929). The signature was independent of T, N, M, and TNM stage (P<0.05). Patent review suggested that many mTOR inhibitors alone or in combination with another anticancer agent have been provided for treatment of many cancers and shown promising results. No drug patents about PARP1 overexpression were disclosed. Conclusion: We developed a 2-ARG signature (EIF4EBP1 and PARP1) which was an independent prognostic biomarker for TNBC. As EIF4EBP1 was upregulated in TNBC, mTOR inhibitors which blocked the mTOR/4EBP1/eIF4E pathway may be a promising therapeutic strategy for TNBC.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanwei Yang ◽  
Xuemei Zhao ◽  
Naipeng Cui ◽  
Yulong Liang

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of breast cancer with poor prognosis and is enriched in cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, it is not completely understood how the CSCs were maintained in TNBC. In this study, by analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) provisional datasets and several small-size breast datasets, we found that cadherins (CDHs) 2, 4, 6, and 17 were frequently amplified/overexpressed in 47% of TNBC while E-cadherin (CDH1) was downregulated/mutated at 10%. The alterations of CDH2/4/6/17 were strongly associated with the elevated levels of several stem cell-related transcription factors (SC-TFs) including FOXM1, MCM2, WWTR1, SNAI1, and SOX9. CDH2/4/6/17-enriched genes including FOXM1 and MCM2 were also clustered and regulated by NFY (nuclear transcription factor Y) and/or EVI1/MECOM. Meanwhile, these SC-TFs including NFYA were upregulated in TNBC cells, but they were downregulated in luminal type of cells. Furthermore, small compounds might be predicted via the Connectivity Map analysis to target TNBC with the alterations of CDH2/4/6/17 and SC-TFs. Together with the important role of these SC-TFs in the stem cell regulation, our data provide novel insights into the maintenance of CSCs in TNBC and the discovery of these SC-TFs associated with the alterations of CDH2/4/6/17 has an implication in targeted therapy of TNBC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kehao Le ◽  
Hui Guo ◽  
Qiulei Zhang ◽  
Xiaojuan Huang ◽  
Ming Xu ◽  
...  

Abstract Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy among women, and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype. Increasing evidence has shown that lncRNAs are involved in tumor growth, cell-cycle, and apoptosis through interactions with miRNAs or mRNAs. However, there is still limited data on ceRNAs involved in the molecular mechanisms underlying TNBC. In this study, we applied the weighted gene co-expression network analysis to the existing microarray mRNA and lncRNA expression data obtained from the breast tissues of TNBC patients to find the hub genes and lncRNAs involved in TNBC. Functional enrichment was performed on the module that correlated with Ki-67 status the most (Turquoise module). The hub genes in the Turquoise module were found to be associated with DNA repair, cell proliferation, and the p53 signaling pathway. We performed co-expression analysis of the protein-coding and lncRNA hub genes in the Turquoise module. Analysis of the RNA-seq data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database revealed that the protein-coding genes and lncRNAs that were co-expressed were also differentially expressed in the TNBC tissues compared with the normal mammary tissues. On the basis of establishing the ceRNA network, two mRNAs (RAD51AP1 and TYMS) were found to be correlated with overall survival in TNBC. These results suggest that TNBC-specific mRNA and lncRNAs may participate in a complex ceRNA network, which represents a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of TNBC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 473-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Yang ◽  
Lei Xing ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Hong Chi ◽  
Luyu Zhang ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of highly malignant breast cancer with poor prognosis. Growing evidence indicates that Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important regulatory roles in the development and progression of a variety of cancers including breast cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Methods: Here, we compared the expression profiles of mRNAs, lncRNAs and miRNAs between 111 TNBC tissues and 104 non-cancerous tissues utilizing RNA-Seq Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were executed to investigate the principal functions of the significantly dysregulated mRNAs. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed to determine the effects of differentially expressed lncRNAs/mRNAs/miRNAs on overall survival. Subsequently, we constructed a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network, which included 66 dysregulated lncRNAs, 24 miRNAs and 55 mRNAs. The four dysregulated lncRNAs, three aberrantly expressed miRNAs and four mRNAs were confirmed in the ceRNA network by qRT-PCR in 30 pairs of samples, respectively. Results: A total of 1441 lncRNAs, 114 miRNA and 2501 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in TNBC tissues compared with controls. 109 lncRNAs and 124 mRNAs might serve as prognostic signature for patients with TNBC according to the survival analysis. Functional analysis revealed that 19 mRNAs in the ceRNA network were enriched in 17 cancer-related pathways. Conclusion: Taken together, we identified novel lncRNAs/miRNAs which may serve as potential biomarkers to predict the survival and therapeutic targets for TNBC patients based on a large-scale sample. More importantly, we constructed the ceRNA network of TNBC, which provides valuable information to further explore the molecular mechanism underlying tumorigenesis and development of TNBC.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1777-1787
Author(s):  
Katharine A. Collier ◽  
Sarah Asad ◽  
David Tallman ◽  
Janet Jenison ◽  
Andrei Rajkovic ◽  
...  

PURPOSE To determine whether specific somatic copy-number alterations detectable in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) are associated with sensitivity to platinum chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this secondary analysis of a large cohort of patients with mTNBC whose ctDNA underwent ultralow-pass whole-genome sequencing, tumor fraction and somatic copy-number alterations were derived with the ichorCNA algorithm. Seventy-two patients were identified who had received a platinum-based chemotherapy regimen in the metastatic setting. Gene-level copy-number analyses were performed with GISTIC2.0. Cytobands were associated with progression-free survival (PFS) to platinum chemotherapy using Cox proportional hazards models. The Cancer Genome Atlas and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium data sets were interrogated for frequency of significant cytobands in primary triple-negative breast cancer (pTNBC) tumors. RESULTS Among 71 evaluable patients, 17q21 and 17q22 amplifications were most strongly associated with improved PFS with platinum chemotherapy. There were no significant differences in clinicopathologic features or (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy among patients with 17q22 amplification. Patients with 17q22 amplification (n = 17) had longer median PFS with platinum (7.0 v 3.8 months; log-rank P = .015) than patients without 17q22 amplification (n = 54), an effect that remained significant in multivariable analyses (PFS hazard ratio 0.37; 95% CI, 0.16 to 0.84; P = .02). Among 39 patients who received the nonplatinum chemotherapy agent capecitabine, there was no association between 17q22 amplification and capecitabine PFS (log-rank P = .69). In The Cancer Genome Atlas and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium, 17q22 amplification occurred in more than 20% of both pTNBC and mTNBC tumors, whereas 17q21 was more frequently amplified in mTNBC relative to pTNBC (16% v 8.1%, P = .015). CONCLUSION The 17q22 amplicon, detected by ctDNA, is associated with improved PFS with platinum chemotherapy in patients with mTNBC and warrants further investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sijia Wu ◽  
Jiachen Wang ◽  
Xinchao Zhu ◽  
Jacqueline Chyr ◽  
Xiaobo Zhou ◽  
...  

PurposeTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of breast cancer (BC) showing a high recurrence ratio and a low survival probability, which requires novel actionable molecular targets. The involvement of alternative splicing (AS) in TNBC promoted us to study the potential roles of AS events in the survival prognosis of TNBC patients.MethodsA total of 150 TNBC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were involved in this work. To study the effects of AS in the recurrence-free survival (RFS) prognosis of TNBC, we performed the analyses as follows. First, univariate Cox regression model was applied to identify RFS-related AS events. Their host genes were analyzed by Metascape to discover the potential functions and involved pathways. Next, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method was used to select the most informative RFS-related AS events to constitute an AS risk factor for RFS prognosis, which was evaluated by Kaplan–Meier (KM) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves in all the data and also in different clinical subgroups. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationships between splicing factors (SFs) and these RFS-related AS events to seek the possibility that SFs regulated AS events to influence RFS. Then, we evaluated the potential of these RFS-related AS events in the overall survival (OS) prognosis from all the above aspects.ResultsWe identified a total of 546 RFS-related AS events, which were enriched in some splicing and TNBC-associated pathways. Among them, seven RFS-related events were integrated into a risk factor, exhibiting satisfactory RFS prognosis alone and even better performance when combined with clinical tumor–node–metastasis stages. Furthermore, the correlation analysis between SFs and the seven AS events revealed the hypotheses that SRPK3 might upregulate PCYT2_44231_AA to have an effect on RFS prognosis and that three other SFs may work together to downregulate FLAD1_7874_RI to influence RFS prognosis. In addition, the seven RFS-related AS events were validated to be promising in the OS prognosis of TNBC as well.ConclusionThe abnormal AS events regulated by SFs may act as a kind of biomarker for the survival prognosis of TNBC.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masayuki Nagahashi ◽  
YiWei Ling ◽  
Tetsu Hayashida ◽  
Yuko Kitagawa ◽  
Manabu Futamura ◽  
...  

Purpose It has been suggested that the biologic characteristics of breast cancer may differ among different geographic or ethnic populations. Indeed, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most lethal breast cancer subgroup, has been reported to occur at a higher incidence in Japan than in the United States. However, most genomic studies of these tumors are from Western countries, and the genomic landscape of TNBC in an Asian population has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we sought to elucidate the geographic and ethnic diversity of breast cancer by examining actionable driver alterations in TNBC tumors from Japanese patients and comparing them with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, which gathers data primarily from non-Asian patients. Materials and Methods We performed comprehensive genomic profiling, including an analysis of 435 known cancer genes, among Japanese patients with TNBC (n = 53) and compared the results with independent data obtained from TCGA (n = 123). Results Driver alterations were identified in 51 (96%) of 53 Japanese patients. Although the overall alteration spectrum among Japanese patients was similar to that of TCGA, we found significant differences in the frequencies of alterations in MYC and PTK2. We identified three patients (5.7%) with a high tumor mutational burden, although no microsatellite instability was observed in any of the Japanese patients. Importantly, pathway analysis revealed that 66.0% (35 of 53) of Japanese patients, as well as 66.7% (82 of 123) of TCGA cohort, had alterations in at least one actionable gene targetable by US Food and Drug Administration–approved drug. Conclusion Our study identified actionable driver alterations in Japanese patients with TNBC, revealing new opportunities for targeted therapies in Asian patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxing Qin ◽  
Feng Qi ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
Yuan-Sheng Zang

The objective of this study was to construct a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network using differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNAs in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and to construct a prognostic model for predicting overall survival (OS) in patients with TNBC. Differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in TNBC patients from the TCGA and Metabric databases were examined. A prognostic model based on prognostic scores (PSs) was established for predicting OS in TNBC patients, and the performance of the model was assessed by a recipient that operated on a distinctive curve. A total of 874 differentially expressed RNAs (DERs) were screened, among which 6 lncRNAs, 295 miRNAs and 573 mRNAs were utilized to construct targeted and coexpression ceRNA regulatory networks. Eight differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with survival prognosis, DBX2, MYH7, TARDBP, POU4F1, ABCB11, LHFPL5, TRHDE and TIMP4, were identified by multivariate Cox regression and then used to establish a prognostic model. Our study shows that the ceRNA network has a critical role in maintaining the aggressiveness of TNBC and provides comprehensive molecular-level insight for predicting individual mortality hazards for TNBC patients. Our data suggest that these prognostic mRNAs from the ceRNA network are promising therapeutic targets for clinical intervention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Ye ◽  
Yuanyuan Xu ◽  
Jiehao Li ◽  
Shuhui Zheng ◽  
Peng Sun ◽  
...  

The role of G protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER) signaling, including promotion of Ezrin phosphorylation (which could be activated by estrogen), has not yet been clearly identified in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of GPER and Ezrin in TNBC patients. Clinicopathologic features including age, menopausal status, tumor size, nuclear grade, lymph node metastasis, AJCC TNM stage, and ER, PR and HER-2 expression were evaluated from 249 TNBC cases. Immunohistochemical staining of GPER and Ezrin was performed on TNBC pathological sections. Kaplan–Meier analyses, as well as logistic regressive and Cox regression model tests were applied to evaluate the prognostic significance between different subgroups. Compared to the GPER-low group, the GPER-high group exhibited higher TNM staging (P = 0.021), more death (P < 0.001), relapse (P < 0.001) and distant events (P < 0.001). Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that GPER-high patients had a decreased OS (P < 0.001), PFS (P < 0.001), LRFS (P < 0.001) and DDFS (P < 0.001) than GPER-low patients. However, these differences in prognosis were not statistically significant in post-menopausal patients (OS, P = 0.8617; PFS, P = 0.1905; LRFS, P = 0.4378; DDFS, P = 0.2538). There was a significant positive correlation between GPER and Ezrin expression level (R = 0.508, P < 0.001) and the effect of Ezrin on survival prognosis corresponded with GPER. Moreover, a multivariable analysis confirmed that GPER and Ezrin level were both significantly associated with poor DDFS (HR: 0.346, 95% CI 0.182–0.658, P = 0.001; HR: 0.320, 95% CI 0.162–0.631, P = 0.001). Thus, overexpression of GPER and Ezrin may contribute to aggressive behavior and indicate unfavorable prognosis in TNBC; this may correspond to an individual’s estrogen levels.


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