HAUS5 Is A Potential Prognostic Biomarker With Functional Significance in Breast Cancer

Background

Breast cancer (BRCA) has become the most frequently appearing, lethal, and aggressive cancer with increasing morbidity and mortality. Previously, it was discovered that the HAUS5 protein is involved in centrosome integrity, spindle assembly, and the completion of the cytoplasmic division process during mitosis. By encouraging chromosome misdivision and aneuploidy, HAUS5 has the potential to cause cancer. The significance of HAUS5 in BRCA and the relationship between its expression and clinical outcomes or immune infiltration remains unclear.

Methods

Pan-cancer was analyzed by TIMER2 web and the expression differential of HAUS5 was discovered. The prognostic value of HAUS5 for BRCA was evaluated with KM plotter and confirmed with Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset. Following that, we looked at the relationship between the high and low expression groups of HAUS5 and breast cancer clinical indications. Signaling pathways linked to HAUS5 expression were discovered using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). The relative immune cell infiltrations of each sample were assessed using the CIBERSORT algorithm and ESTIMATE method. We evaluated the Tumor Mutation Burden (TMB) value between the two sets of samples with high and low HAUS5 expression, as well as the differences in gene mutations between the two groups. The proliferation changes of BRCA cells after knockdown of HAUS5 were evaluated by fluorescence cell counting and colony formation assay.

Result

HAUS5 is strongly expressed in most malignancies, and distinct associations exist between HAUS5 and prognosis in BRCA patients. Upregulated HAUS5 was associated with poor clinicopathological characteristics such as tumor T stage, ER, PR, and HER2 status. mitotic prometaphase, primary immunodeficiency, DNA replication, cell cycle related signaling pathways were all enriched in the presence of elevated HAUS5 expression, according to GSEA analysis. The BRCA microenvironment’s core gene, HAUS5, was shown to be related with invading immune cell subtypes and tumor cell stemness. TMB in the HAUS5-low expression group was significantly higher than that in the high expression group. The mutation frequency of 15 genes was substantially different in the high expression group compared to the low expression group. BRCA cells’ capacity to proliferate was decreased when HAUS5 was knocked down.

Conclusion

These findings show that HAUS5 is a positive regulator of BRCA progression that contributes to BRCA cells proliferation. As a result, HAUS5 might be a novel prognostic indicator and therapeutic target for BRCA patients.

ZNF131 suppresses centrosome fragmentation in glioblastoma stem-like cells through regulation of HAUS5

Zinc finger domain genes comprise ∼3% of the human genome, yet many of their functions remain unknown. Here we investigated roles for the vertebrate-specific BTB domain zinc finger gene ZNF131 in the context of human brain tumors. We report that ZNF131 is broadly required for Glioblastoma stem-like cell (GSC) viability, but dispensable for neural progenitor cell (NPC) viability. Examination of gene expression changes after ZNF131 knockdown (kd) revealed that ZNF131 activity notably promotes expression of Joubert Syndrome ciliopathy genes, including KIF7, NPHP1, and TMEM237, as well as HAUS5, a component of Augmin/HAUS complex that facilitates microtubule nucleation along the mitotic spindle. Of these genes only kd of HAUS5 displayed GSC-specific viability loss. Critically, HAUS5 ectopic expression was sufficient to suppress viability defects of ZNF131 kd cells. Moreover, ZNF131 and HAUS5 kd phenocopied each other in GSCs, each causing: mitotic arrest, centrosome fragmentation, loss of Augmin/HAUS complex on the mitotic spindle, and loss of GSC self-renewal and tumor formation capacity. In control NPCs, we observed centrosome fragmentation and lethality only when HAUS5 kd was combined with kd of HAUS2 or HAUS4, demonstrating that the complex is essential in NPCs, but that GSCs have heightened requirement. Our results suggest that GSCs differentially rely on ZNF131-dependent expression of HAUS5 as well as the Augmin/HAUS complex activity to maintain the integrity of centrosome function and viability.