Drug-Resistant Breast Cancer: Dwelling the Hippo Pathway to Manage the Treatment

LATS2 and FAT4 as key candidate genes of hippo pathway associated with the risk and progression of breast cancer: an in-silico approach

BACKGROUND

The 2020 cancer report states that breast cancer remains a significant cause of death for females, despite the use of various strategies for early detection and treatment. However, there are still gaps in the fight against this disease. Researchers are exploring the hippo pathway, one of eight significant pathways involved in cancer progression, for potential biomarkers to use in personalized therapeutics.

METHODS

The current study used bioinformatic tools such as DEGs analysis, Methsurv, Km Plotter to generate data that can predict molecular biomarkers associated with hippo pathway in breast cancer development and treatment. The protein-protein interaction pathway was generated using the STRING database to find associations of hippo pathway genes with other dysregulated genes in breast cancer datasets. A disease enrichment study was also done to explore the potential of the hippo pathway in various aspects.

RESULTS

LATS2 and FAT4 genes of the hippo pathway have shown an interesting association with overall survival, hypermethylation, genetic alterations, and decreased expression levels in the breast cancer cohort. Our findings suggest that both of these genes are associated with breast cancer progression and diagnosis and can be utilized as predictive biomarkers by oncologists for personalized therapy in patients.

TJP3 promotes T cell immunity escape and chemoresistance in breast cancer: a comprehensive analysis of anoikis-based prognosis prediction and drug sensitivity stratification

BACKGROUND

Overcoming anoikis is a necessity during the metastasis and invasion of tumors. Recently, anoikis has been reported to be involved in tumor immunity and has been used to construct prognosis prediction models. However, the roles of anoikis in regulating tumor immunity and drug sensitivity in breast cancer are still not clear and therefore worth uncovering.

METHODS

TCGA and GEO data are the source of gene expression profiles, which are used to identify anoikis-related-gene (ARG)-based subtypes. R4.2 is used for data analysis.

RESULTS

Breast cancer is divided into three subgroups, amongst which shows prognosis differences in pan-cancer cohort, ACC, BLCA, BRCA, LUAD, MESO, PAAD, and SKCM. In breast cancer, it shows significant differences in clinical features, immune cell infiltration and drug sensitivity. Machine learning constructs prognosis prediction model, which is useful to perform chemotherapy sensitivity stratification. Following, TJP3 is identified and verified as the key ARG, up-regulation of which increases tolerance of paclitaxel-induced cell toxicity, accompanied with increased expression of caspas3 and cleaved-caspase3. In addition, Down-regulation of TJP3 weakens the cell migration, which accompanied with increased expression of E-cad and decreased expression of vimentin, twist1, zeb1, and MMP7. Furthermore, the expression level of PD-L1 is negative correlated with TJP3.

CONCLUSION

ARGs-based subgroup stratification is useful to recognize chemotherapy sensitive cohort, and also is useful to predict clinical outcome. TJP3 promotes chemoresistance, tumor metastasis and potential immunotherapy escape in breast cancer.

Comparative study of breast core needle biopsy (CNB) findings with ultrasound BI-RADS subtyping

<b> Introduction:</b> Given the high prevalence of breast cancer, developing quick and accessible diagnostics solutions is critical. The BIRADS classification is a reliable method for assessing and estimating the risk of malignancy in breast lesions. </br></br> <b>Aim:</b> The aim of this study was to compare the results of core needle biopsy of breast lesions and sonographic findings based on the BIRADS category in Yazd. </br></br> <b>Materials and methods:</b> This retrospective analytical study was done on all core needle biopsy specimens referred to Mortaz hospital, Yazd, Iran from 2010 to 2019. Demographic data such as age, laterality of the lesion, BIRADS category, and pathology reports were extracted from patients' hospital folders. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. </br></br> <b>Results:</b> In total, 514 cases with a mean age of 43.9 9.4 years were studied. Among them, 104 cases (20.2%) were malignant and 410 cases (79.8%) were benign. The most common benign and malignant lesions were fibroadenoma (24.9%), and infiltrative ductal carcinoma (83.7%) respectively. The most common BIRADS was class 4A (54.9%). Patients with benign lesions were mostly in the 3rd and 4th decade of life, while malignant lesions were more in the 4th and 5th decades, and this difference was statistically significant (P = 0.001). The correlation between ultrasound diagnoses (BIRADS) and pathology findings was statistically significant (P < 0.001). </br></br> <b>Conclusion</b>: Based on the results, there is a significant correlation between ultrasound outcomes according to BIRADS and pathology results, and the radiology-pathology accordance, owing to its high accuracy, can be very helpful in correctly diagnosing, monitoring, and managing the lesion.

Expression of yes‑associated protein, β‑catenin and smoothened, and their clinical significance in invasive breast cancer

The expression profile and role of yes-associated protein (YAP) in occurrence and development of breast cancer is ambiguous. The present study aimed to explore the relationship among the YAP, β-catenin and smoothened (SMO) signaling pathways to provide a theoretical basis for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of invasive breast cancer. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine the protein expression levels of YAP, β-catenin and SMO in tumor, tumor-adjacent and normal breast tissue. The possible association between the expression levels of these three proteins and the clinicopathological features of patients with breast cancer was then analyzed by the χ² test. The protein expression of YAP was found to be downregulated, whilst β-catenin and SMO expression were found to be upregulated in tumor tissues as compared with that in normal breast tissues. In addition, the expression of YAP in breast cancer tissues was found to be associated with that of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), progesterone and estrogen receptors. By contrast, the protein expression of β-catenin and SMO in breast cancer tissues was only associated with HER2. There was a negative correlation between the expression of YAP and SMO protein in breast cancer tissues. Compared with that in the changes in each of YAP, β-catenin and SMO protein expression levels individually, their combined changes in expression were demonstrated to associate significantly with the tumor histological grade. To conclude, data from the present study suggest that the combined protein expression of YAP, β-catenin and SMO can be used as a prognostic indicator for the treatment of invasive breast cancer.