Page 60 - TD-3-3

Tumor Discovery

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
The role of pyroptosis-related genes in breast

cancer progression

Shanshan Wang 1† , Dashuang Yang 2† , Jiaqian Mo 1 , Moxian Chen 3 ,
and Rongxin Zhang *
1
1 Department of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guang Dong Pharmaceutical University,
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
2 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, Jinan University, Guangzhou,
Guangdong, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry
in Southern China and College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu,
China

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common malignant cancers affecting
females worldwide. Pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death associated with
inflammation and triggered by pro-inflammatory signals, is not well understood in
the context of BC. This study aimed to investigate the role of pyroptosis in BC patients.
Paired tumor and adjacent normal tissue samples were obtained from The Cancer
Genome Atlas. Using a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox analysis,
we identified 15 prognostic genes associated with BC. Among these, fibrinogen C
domain-containing 1, calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 H, heat shock
protein family B (small) member 8, and peroxidasin-like (PXDNL) were classified
*Corresponding author:
Rong-Xin Zhang as high-risk genes in BC. In contrast, the remaining 11 genes, such as proteasome
(rxzhang@gdpu.edu.cn) activator subunit 2 and DIRAS (DIRAS family GTPase 3), were low-risk genes. Kyoto
Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene ontology analyses revealed that
Citation: Wang S, Yang D, Mo J,
Chen M, Zhang R. The role of immune-related genes were enriched but showed reduced immunological status in
pyroptosis-related genes in breast the high-risk group, indicating that pro-inflammatory factors and immune antigens
cancer progression. Tumor Discov. were produced during cell death. Consequently, targeting immune antigens with
2024;3(3):3469.
doi: 10.36922/td.3469 new immunosuppressants may offer a novel approach to treating BC. Moreover,
the expression levels of the prognostic genes PXDNL, armadillo-like helical domain-
Received: April 23, 2024
containing 1 (ARMH1), APOBEC3D, and APOBEC3F in BC cell lines were assessed
Accepted: August 19, 2024 using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. PXDNL and
Published Online: September 24, ARMH1 exhibited high levels of expression in BC, suggesting they could be potential
2024 therapeutic targets.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Breast cancer; Pyroptosis; Inflammation; Prognostic genes; The cancer
Creative Commons Attribution genome atlas
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common malignant cancers affecting women
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional worldwide and is the second cause of cancer-related death among women, with high
1,2
affiliations. morbidity and mortality rates. By the end of 2020, BC had been detected in 7.8 million

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/td.3469