scholarly journals The Functional Impact of Alternative Splicing on the Survival Prognosis of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

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.

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.


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.


Author(s):  
Jindong Xie ◽  
Yutian Zou ◽  
Feng Ye ◽  
Wanzhen Zhao ◽  
Xinhua Xie ◽  
...  

Regarded as the most invasive subtype, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks the expression of estrogen receptors (ERs), progesterone receptors (PRs), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) proteins. Platelets have recently been shown to be associated with metastasis of malignant tumors. Nevertheless, the status of platelet-related genes in TNBC and their correlation with patient prognosis remain unknown. In this study, the expression and variation levels of platelet-related genes were identified and patients with TNBC were divided into three subtypes. We collected cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. By applying the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression method, we constructed a seven-gene signature which classified the two cohorts of patients with TNBC into low- or high-risk groups. Patients in the high-risk group were more likely to have lower survival rates than those in the low-risk group. The risk score, incorporated with the clinical features, was confirmed as an independent factor for predicting the overall survival (OS) time. Functional enrichment analyses revealed the involvement of a variety of vital biological processes and classical cancer-related pathways that could be important to the ultimate prognosis of TNBC. We then built a nomogram that performed well. Moreover, we tested the model in other cohorts and obtained positive outcomes. In conclusion, platelet-related genes were closely related to TNBC, and this novel signature could serve as a tool for the assessment of clinical prognosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
Xiuzhi Zhu ◽  
Boyue Han ◽  
Lei Ji ◽  
Ling Yao ◽  
...  

PurposeMicroRNAs can influence many biological processes and have shown promise as cancer biomarkers. Few studies have focused on the expression of microRNA-223 (miR-223) and its precise role in breast cancer (BC). We aimed to examine the expression level of miR-223 and its prognostic value in BC.MethodsTissue microarray (TMA)-based miRNA detection in situ hybridization (ISH) with a locked nucleic acid (LNA) probe was used to detect miR-223 expression in 450 BC tissue samples. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between two groups using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model.ResultsOS and DFS were prolonged in the high miR-223 expression group compared to the low miR-223 expression group (p &lt; 0.0001 and p = 0.017, respectively), especially in patients with the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype (p = 0.046 and p &lt; 0.001, respectively). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that TNM stage (p = 0.008), the molecular subtype (p = 0.049), and miR-223 (p &lt; 0.001) were independently associated with OS and DFS. External validation was performed with the METABRIC and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases via online webtools and was consistent with the data described above.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that high miR-223 expression at diagnosis is associated with improved DFS and OS for BC patients, especially those with the TNBC subtype. miR-223 is a valid and independent prognostic biomarker in BC.


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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen E Skinner ◽  
Amin Haiderali ◽  
Min Huang ◽  
Lee S Schwartzberg

Aim: This study examined treatment patterns and effectiveness outcomes of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) from US community oncology centers. Materials & methods: Eligible patients were females, aged ≥18 years, diagnosed with mTNBC between 1 January 2010 and 31 January 2016. Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression methods were used. Results: Sample comprised 608 patients with average age of 57.5 years and 505/608 patients (83.1%) received systemic treatment. Overall survival (OS) from first-line treatment found that African–American patients had shorter OS than White (9.3 vs 13.7 months; hazard ratio: 1.35; p = 0.006). Conclusion: More than 15% of women with mTNBC were not treated, indicating a high unmet need. Overall prognosis remains poor, which highlights the opportunity for newer therapies to improve progression-free survival and OS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Minling LIU ◽  
Wei DAI ◽  
Mengyuan ZHU ◽  
Xueying LI ◽  
Min WEI ◽  
...  

Purpose: TNBC with germline BRCA1/2 mutation (gBRCAm) have higher sensitivity to DNA damaging agents including platinum-based chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors. But the treatment of TNBC without gBRCAm remains challenging. This study aimed to develop a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) signature of TNBC patients without gBRCAm to improve risk stratification and optimize individualized treatment. Methods: 98 TNBC patients without gBRCAm were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. The univariable Cox regression analysis and LASSO Cox regression model were applied to establish an lncRNA signature in the training cohort. Then Kaplan–Meier survival curve and time-dependent ROC curve were used to validate the prognostic ability of the signature. The qPCR assay was performed to confirm the expressions and clinicopathological correlations of two potential lncRNAs HAGLROS and TONSL-AS1 in 30 paired clinical triple-negative breast cancer samples without gBRCAm. Results: We developed an 8-lncRNA signature in the training cohort including HAGLROS, AL139002.1, AL391244.2, AP000696.1, AL391056.1, AL513304.1, TONSL-AS1 and AL031008.1. Patients with higher risk scores showed significantly worse overall survival compared to those with lower risk scores (P=0.00018 and P =0.0068 respectively). 30 paired specimens of TNBC without gBRCAm in our center showed that two potential lncRNAs HAGLROS and TONSL-AS1 were found frequently overexpressed, and significantly associated with tumor grade and invasion. Conclusion: We constructed a novel 8-lncRNA signature which significantly associated with the overall survival of TNBC patients without gBRCAm. Among those 8 lncRNAs, HAGLROS and TONSL-AS1 may be potential therapeutic targets which function needed further exploration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuqi Zhou ◽  
Shu Guan ◽  
Xuemei Lv ◽  
Rong Ma ◽  
Yifan Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Alternative splicing (AS) is a pervasive and vital mechanism involved in the progression of various cancer. Studies confirm the importance of prognostic value of AS events in tumor patients, but systematic analysis of AS in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is still lacking. Methods: Information from 115 TNBC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were extracted. And we performed a comprehensive analysis of whole-genome AS events with corresponding clinical information to evaluate the roles of seven AS patterns. Prognostic analyses were performed with predictive models and splicing network built for TNBC patients. Results: Among 28,744 mRNA AS events in 20,353 genes, we detected 1,428 AS in 138 important survival genes related to the overall survival of TNBC patients event. Through functional and pathway enrichment analysis, we found that these genes are involved in ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic pathways. At 1800 days overall survival, the area under the ROC curve for prognostic signatures was 0.8. It shows that this model is very effective in differentiating patient prognosis. The use of Spearman's test to establish a potential regulatory network between survival-related AS events and abnormal SF indicates a clear trend in the role of SF in TNBC. Conclusions: In summary, we established a reliable and powerful TNBC prognostic signature. A splicing network that could be its underlying mechanism was discovered. Keywords: Alternative splicing; Triple-negative breast cancer; Prognosis; Splicing factor


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
Chao Yuan ◽  
Hongjun Yuan ◽  
Li Chen ◽  
Miaomiao Sheng ◽  
Wenru Tang

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by fast tumor increase, rapid recurrence and natural metastasis. We aimed to identify a genetic signature for predicting the prognosis of TNBC. Materials & methods: We conducted a weighted correlation network analysis of datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Multivariate Cox regression was used to construct a risk score model. Results: The multi-factor risk scoring model was meaningfully associated with the prognosis of patients with TBNC. The predictive power of the model was demonstrated by the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve and Kaplan–Meier curve, and verified using a validation set. Conclusion: We established a long noncoding RNA-based model for the prognostic prediction of 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.


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