Abstract
BackgroundAlthough the rapid development of diagnosis and treatment has improved prognosis in early breast cancer, challenges from different therapeutic response remain due to breast cancer heterogeneity. DEAD-box helicase 27 (DDX27) had been proved to influence ribosome biogenesis and identified as a promoter in gastric and colorectal cancer associated with stem cell-like properties, while the impact of DDX27 on breast cancer prognosis and biological functions is unclear. We aimed to explore the influence of DDX27 on stem cell-like properties and prognosis in breast cancer.MethodsThe expression of DDX27 was evaluated in 24 pairs of fresh breast cancer and normal tissue by western blot. We conducted Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining in paraffin sections of 165 breast cancer patients to analyze the expression of DDX27 and its correlation to stemness biomarker. The Cancer Genome Atlas-Breast Cancer (TCGA-BRCA) database and the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) database were used to analyze the expression of DDX27 in breast cancer. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were used to investigate the implication of DDX27 on breast cancer prognosis. Western blot, CCK-8 assay, Transwell assay and wound-healing assay were carried out to clarify the regulation of DDX27 on stem cell-like properties in breast cancer cells. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to analyze the potential molecular mechanisms of DDX27 in breast cancer.ResultsDDX27 was significantly high expressed in breast cancer compared with normal tissue. High expression of DDX27 was related to larger tumor size (p = 0.0005), positive lymph nodes (p = 0.0008), higher histological grade (p = 0.0040), higher ki-67 (p = 0.0063) and later TNM stage (p < 0.0001). Patients with high DDX27 expression turned out a worse prognosis on overall survival (OS, p = 0.0087) and disease-free survival (DFS, p = 0.0235). Overexpression of DDX27 could enhance the expression of biomarkers related to stemness and promote stem cell-like activities such as proliferation and migration in breast cancer cells.ConclusionDDX27 can enhance stem cell-like properties and cause poor prognosis in breast cancer, also may be expected to become a potential biomarker for breast cancer therapy.
Highlights
The rapid development of diagnosis and treatment has improved prognosis in early breast cancer, challenges from different therapeutic response remain due to breast cancer heterogeneity
Expression of DEAD-box helicase 27 (DDX27) in breast cancer Analysis based on TCGA-BRCA database showed that DDX27 was significantly high expressed in cancer whether it’s a paired analysis or not (p < 0.0001, Fig. 1a, b)
Results of the UALCAN website proved that the protein expression of DDX27 in Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) database was significantly higher in breast cancer than in normal samples (p < 0.0001, Fig. 1c)
Summary
The rapid development of diagnosis and treatment has improved prognosis in early breast cancer, challenges from different therapeutic response remain due to breast cancer heterogeneity. DEAD-box helicase 27 (DDX27) had been proved to influence ribosome biogenesis and identified as a promoter in gastric and colorectal cancer associated with stem cell-like properties, while the impact of DDX27 on breast cancer prognosis and biological functions is unclear. DEAD-box helicase 27 (DDX27) pertains to the DEAD-box RNA helicases family, which is a classical ATP-dependent helicases family containing conserved D-E-A-D (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) sequences This family has been confirmed to participate in various processes containing RNA transportation, RNA degradation, glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, ribosome biosynthesis, tumorigenesis, cancer development and so on [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The status of DDX27 expression and its implication on breast cancer remains unclear
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