Identification of The Prognostic Genes For Early Basal-Like Breast Cancer With Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis
Abstract Background: Breast cancer (BC) has become the leading cause of death for women's malignancies and increasingly threatens the health of women worldwide. However, the basal-like BC is lack of effective targeted drugs. Therefore, biomarkers that related to the prognosis of early breast cancer need to be found.Methods: The RNA-seq data of 87 cases of early basal-like BC and 111 cases of normal breast tissue from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were explored by Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA)method and Limma package. Then intersected genes (IGs) were identified and hub genes were selected by Maximal Clique Centrality method. The prognostic effect of the hub genes was also evaluated in early basal-like BC. Results: A total of 601 IGs were identified in this study. APPI network was constructed and top 10 hub genes were selected, namely cyclin B1 (CCNB1), cyclin A2 (CCNA2), cyclin dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), cell division cycle 20 (CDC20), DNA topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A), BUB1 mitotic checkpoint serine/threonine kinase (BUB1), aurora kinase B (AURKB), cyclin B2 (CCNB2), kinesin family member 11 (KIF11), and assembly factor for spindle microtubules (ASPM). Only AURKB was found to be significant with the overall prognosis of early basal-like BC. The immune cells infiltration analysis displayed that the infiltration numbers of CD4+ T cell and naïve CD8+ T cell were positively correlated with AURKB expression level, while that of naïve B cell and macrophage M2 cell were negatively correlated with AURKB expression level in basal-like BC.Conclusion: AURKB might be a potential prognostic indicator in early basal-like BC.