Abstract
Roles of Piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 2 (PIEZO2) in cancer remain largely unknown. Herein, we explored PIEZO2 expression, prognosis and underlying mechanisms in cancer. Breast was selected as the candidate as its relatively higher expression level of PIEZO2 than other human tissues. Next, we identified a decreased expression of PIEZO2 in breast cancer compared with normal controls, and found that PIEZO2 expression positively correlated with estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status but negatively correlated with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) score, Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) grade, basal-like and triple-negative status. Subsequent analysis revealed that high expression of PIEZO2 had a favorable prognosis in breast cancer. 182 miRNAs were predicted to target PIEZO2. Among these miRNAs, five miRNAs (miR-130b-3p, miR-196a-5p, miR-301a-3p, miR-421 and miR-454-3p) possess the greatest potential in targeting PIEZO2. 109 co-expressed genes of PIEZO2 were identified. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that these genes were enriched in Hedgehog signaling pathway, including Cell adhesion molecule-related/downregulated by oncogenes (CDON). CDON expression was decreased in breast cancer and downregulation of CDON indicated a poor prognosis. Altogether, these findings suggest that decreased expression of PIEZO2 may be utilized as a prognostic biomarker of breast cancer.
Highlights
With the rapid development of economy and aging of population, cancer has been one of the most prevalent and lethal diseases all over the world, which seriously threatens human health [1]
The results demonstrated that lung, gallbladder, urinary bladder, esophagus, cerebral cortex, prostate, spleen, seminal vesicle, smooth muscle and breast were the top ten normal tissues according to expression values of Piezo-type mechanosensitive ion channel component 2 (PIEZO2) mRNA (Figure 1A)
By analyzing expression profile of PIEZO2 using the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database, we found that breast cancer was the most suitable candidate for further investigation
Summary
With the rapid development of economy and aging of population, cancer has been one of the most prevalent and lethal diseases all over the world, which seriously threatens human health [1]. The onset of cancer is an extremely complicated process, consisting of a series of steps. Considerable improvements have been achieved in cancer diagnosis, therapy and prognosis over the past few years, the five-year survival rate of most cancer patients remains dismal [4]. The majority of cancer patients will eventually recur after current treatment. Establishing an effective prognostic biomarker can estimate prognosis of cancer patients and predict therapeutic effect, thereby providing proper treatment and improving clinical outcomes
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