Wnt7a Deficiency Could Predict Worse Disease-Free and Overall Survival in Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer

Overexpression of FRAT1 protein is closely related to triple-negative breast cancer

Purpose

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis and a lack of targeted therapy. Overexpression of FRAT1 is thought to be associated with this aggressive subtype of cancer. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis and assessed the association between overexpression of FRAT1 and TNBC.

Methods

First, using different web-based bioinformatics platforms (TIMER 2.0, UALCAN, and GEPIA 2), the expression of FRAT1 was assessed. Then, the expression of the FRAT1 protein and hormone receptors and HER2 status were assessed by immunohistochemical analysis. For samples of tumors with equivocal immunoreactivity, we performed silver in situ hybridization of the HER2 gene to determine an accurate HER2 status. Next, we used the R package and bc-GenExMiner 4.8 to analyze the relationship between FRAT1 expression and clinicopathological parameters in breast cancer patients. Finally, we determined the relationship between FRAT1 overexpression and prognosis in patients.

Results

The expression of FRAT1 in breast cancer tissues is significantly higher than in normal tissue. FRAT1 expression was significantly related to worse overall survival (P < 0.05) and was correlated with these clinicopathological features: T stage, N stage, age, high histologic grade, estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, Her-2 status, TNBC status, basal-like status, CK5/6 status, and Ki67 status.

Conclusion

FRAT1 was overexpressed in breast cancer compared to normal tissue, and it may be involved in the progression of breast cancer malignancy. This study provides suggestive evidence of the prognostic role of FRAT1 in breast cancer and the therapeutic target for TNBC.

DSCAM-AS1 Long Non-Coding RNA Exerts Oncogenic Functions in Endometrial Adenocarcinoma via Activation of a Tumor-Promoting Transcriptome Profile

Accumulating evidence suggests that lncRNA DSCAM-AS1 acts tumor-promoting in various cancer entities. In breast cancer, DSCAM-AS1 was shown to be the lncRNA being most responsive to induction by estrogen receptor α (ERα). In this study, we examined the function of DSCAM-AS1 in endometrial adenocarcinoma using in silico and different in vitro approaches. Initial analysis of open-source data revealed DSCAM-AS1 overexpression in endometrial cancer (EC) (p < 0.01) and a significant association with shorter overall survival of EC patients (HR = 1.78, p < 0.01). In EC, DSCAM-AS1 was associated with endometrial tumor promotor gene PRL and with expression of ERα and its target genes TFF1 and PGR. Silencing of this lncRNA by RNAi in two EC cell lines was more efficient in ERα-negative HEC-1B cells and reduced their growth and the expression of proliferation activators like NOTCH1, PTK2 and EGR1. DSCAM-AS1 knockdown triggered an anti-tumoral transcriptome response as revealed by Affymetrix microarray analysis, emerging from down-regulation of tumor-promoting genes and induction of tumor-suppressive networks. Finally, several genes regulated upon DSCAM-AS1 silencing in vitro were found to be inversely correlated with this lncRNA in EC tissues. This study clearly suggests an oncogenic function of DSCAM-AS1 in endometrial adenocarcinoma via activation of a tumor-promoting transcriptome profile.

Evaluation of early post-natal pig mammary gland development and human breast cancer gene expression

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women after lung cancer, and only 5% of patients with metastatic breast cancer survive beyond ten years of diagnosis. Considering the heterogeneous subclasses of breast cancer, current cancer models have shortfalls due to copy number variants, and genetic differences of humans and immunocompromised animal models. Preclinical studies indicate stem cell activity in early post-natal mammary development may be reactivated in the human adult as a trigger to initiate cell proliferation leading to breast cancer. The goal of the work reported herein was to compare genetic expression of early development, post-natal pig mammary glands to the literature reported genes implicated in different subclasses of human breast cancer. Differentially expressed genes associated with breast cancer and present in early developing pig samples include NUCB2, ANGPTL4 and ACE. Histological staining confirmed E-cadherin, Vimentin, N-cadherin, and Claudin-1, which are all implicated in malignant cancer. Due to the homology of gene expression patterns in the developing pig mammary gland and reported genes in human breast cancer profiles, this research is worthy of further study to address a potential model using mammary development cues to unravel breast cancer biology.

LINC00460 Is a Dual Biomarker That Acts as a Predictor for Increased Prognosis in Basal-Like Breast Cancer and Potentially Regulates Immunogenic and Differentiation-Related Genes

Breast cancer (BRCA) is a serious public health problem, as it is the most frequent malignant tumor in women worldwide. BRCA is a molecularly heterogeneous disease, particularly at gene expression (mRNAs) level. Recent evidence shows that coding RNAs represent only 34% of the total transcriptome in a human cell. The rest of the 66% of RNAs are non−coding, so we might be missing relevant biological, clinical or regulatory information. In this report, we identified two novel tumor types from TCGA with LINC00460 deregulation. We used survival analysis to demonstrate that LINC00460 expression is a marker for poor overall (OS), relapse-free (RFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in basal-like BRCA patients. LINC00460 expression is a potential marker for aggressive phenotypes in distinct tumors, including HPV-negative HNSC, stage IV KIRC, locally advanced lung cancer and basal-like BRCA. We show that the LINC00460 prognostic expression effect is tissue-specific, since its upregulation can predict poor OS in some tumors, but also predicts an improved clinical course in BRCA patients. We found that the LINC00460 expression is significantly enriched in the Basal-like 2 (BL2) TNBC subtype and potentially regulates the WNT differentiation pathway. LINC00460 can also modulate a plethora of immunogenic related genes in BRCA, such as SFRP5, FOSL1, IFNK, CSF2, DUSP7 and IL1A and interacts with miR-103-a-1, in-silico, which, in turn, can no longer target WNT7A. Finally, LINC00460:WNT7A ratio constitutes a composite marker for decreased OS and DMFS in Basal-like BRCA, and can predict anthracycline therapy response in ER-BRCA patients. This evidence confirms that LINC00460 is a master regulator in BRCA molecular circuits and influences clinical outcome.

Inhibition of the Wnt Signalling Pathway: An Avenue to Control Breast Cancer Aggressiveness

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common tumour in women. Although the introduction of novel therapeutic approaches in clinical practice has dramatically improved the clinical outcome of BC patients, this malignant disease remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The wingless/integrated (Wnt) signalling pathway represents a crucial molecular node relevantly implicated in the regulation of normal somatic stem cells as well as cancer stem cell (CSC) traits and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition cell program. Accordingly, Wnt signalling is heavily dysregulated in BC, and the altered expression of different Wnt genes is significantly associated with cancer-related aggressive behaviours. For all these reasons, Wnt signalling represents a promising therapeutic target currently under clinical investigation to achieve cancer eradication by eliminating CSCs, considered by most to be responsible for tumour initiation, relapse, and drug resistance. In this review, we summarized the current knowledge on the Wnt signalling pathway in BC and have presented evidence implicating the suitability of Wnt targeting in an attempt to improve the outcome of patients without affecting the normal somatic stem cell population.

Aberrant WNT/CTNNB1 Signaling as a Therapeutic Target in Human Breast Cancer: Weighing the Evidence

WNT signaling is crucial for tissue morphogenesis during development in all multicellular animals. After birth, WNT/CTNNB1 responsive stem cells are responsible for tissue homeostasis in various organs and hyperactive WNT/CTNNB1 signaling is observed in many different human cancers. The first link between WNT signaling and breast cancer was established almost 40 years ago, when Wnt1 was identified as a proto-oncogene capable of driving mammary tumor formation in mice. Since that discovery, there has been a dedicated search for aberrant WNT signaling in human breast cancer. However, much debate and controversy persist regarding the importance of WNT signaling for the initiation, progression or maintenance of different breast cancer subtypes. As the first drugs designed to block functional WNT signaling have entered clinical trials, many questions about the role of aberrant WNT signaling in human breast cancer remain. Here, we discuss three major research gaps in this area. First, we still lack a basic understanding of the function of WNT signaling in normal human breast development and physiology. Second, the overall extent and precise effect of (epi)genetic changes affecting the WNT pathway in different breast cancer subtypes are still unknown. Which underlying molecular and cell biological mechanisms are disrupted as a result also awaits further scrutiny. Third, we survey the current status of targeted therapeutics that are aimed at interfering with the WNT pathway in breast cancer patients and highlight the importance and complexity of selecting the subset of patients that may benefit from treatment.