Expression profile analysis and the role of miRNA in breast adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Abstract To search for hub microRNAs (miRNAs) that might serve as biomarkers for breast cancer (BC), we conducted out comprehensive analysis of data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and whole transcriptome profiling (WT). For overall sample analysis, we found 3 differently expressed miRNA in BC tissues compared to para-carcinoma tissues (PT). Subtype analysis showed that 19, 36 and 19 miRNAs were respectively specific differently expressed in early-stage breast cancer (EBC), advanced stage breast cancer (ABC) and Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared to PT. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that hsa-miR-342-3p and hsa-miR-7705 were independent prognostic factors for overall BC and EBC, respectively. And we found hsa-miR-181b-5p, hsa-miR-3200-3p and hsa-miR-4789-3p were all independent prognostic factors for ABC. Moreover, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that hsa-miR-160b-5p significantly affected the survival of patients in ABC. GSEA demonstrated that tumor related KEGG items (such as cell cycle, ERBB signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, etc.) were differentially enriched in BC. The results of qPCR showed that the expression status of hsa-miR-342-3p, hsa-miR-7705 hsa-miR-160b-5p and hsa-miR-3200-3p were consistent with the results of comprehensive analysis. Finally, this study revealed hsa-miR-342-3p, hsa-miR-7705, hsa-miR-160b-5p and hsa-miR-3200-3p can be used as prognostic biomarkers for BC.