Dataset Information

Downregulation of serine protease HTRA1 is associated with poor survival in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: HTRA1 is a highly conserved serine protease which has been implicated in suppression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) and cell motility in breast cancer. Its prognostic relevance for breast cancer is unclear so far. Therefore, we evaluated the impact of HTRA1 mRNA expression on patient outcome using a cohort of 131 breast cancer patients as well as a validation cohort including 2809 publically available data sets. Additionally, we aimed at investigating for the presence of promoter hypermethylation as a mechanism for silencing the HTRA1 gene in breast tumors. HTRA1 downregulation was detected in more than 50% of the breast cancer specimens and was associated with higher tumor stage (p?=?0.025). By applying Cox proportional hazard models, we observed favorable overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) related to high HTRA1 expression (HR?=?0.45 [CI 0.23-0.90], p?=?0.023; HR?=?0.55 [CI 0.32-0.94], p?=?0.028, respectively), with even more pronounced impact in node-positive patients (HR?=?0.21 [CI 0.07-0.63], p?=?0.006; HR?=?0.29 [CI 0.13-0.65], p?=?0.002, respectively). Moreover, HTRA1 remained a statistically significant factor predicting DFS among established clinical parameters in the multivariable analysis. Its impact on patient outcome was independently confirmed in the validation set (for relapse-free survival (n?=?2809): HR?=?0.79 [CI 0.7-0.9], log-rank p?=?0.0003; for OS (n?=?971): HR?=?0.63 [CI 0.48-0.83], log-rank p?=?0.0009). In promoter analyses, we in fact detected methylation of HTRA1 in a small subset of breast cancer specimens (two out of a series of 12), and in MCF-7 breast cancer cells which exhibited 22-fold lower HTRA1 mRNA expression levels compared to unmethylated MDA-MB-231 cells. In conclusion, we show that downregulation of HTRA1 is associated with shorter patient survival, particularly in node-positive breast cancer. Since HTRA1 loss was demonstrated to induce EMT and cancer cell invasion, these patients might benefit from demethylating agents or histone deacetylase inhibitors previously reported to lead to HTRA1 upregulation, or from novel small-molecule inhibitors targeting EMT-related processes.

SUBMITTER: Lehner A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3620283 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Downregulation of serine protease HTRA1 is associated with poor survival in breast cancer.

Lehner Anna A Magdolen Viktor V Schuster Tibor T Kotzsch Matthias M Kiechle Marion M Meindl Alfons A Sweep Fred C G J FC Span Paul N PN Gross Eva E

PloS one 20130408 4

HTRA1 is a highly conserved serine protease which has been implicated in suppression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) and cell motility in breast cancer. Its prognostic relevance for breast cancer is unclear so far. Therefore, we evaluated the impact of HTRA1 mRNA expression on patient outcome using a cohort of 131 breast cancer patients as well as a validation cohort including 2809 publically available data sets. Additionally, we aimed at investigating for the presence of promoter ...[more]

PMID: 23580433

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundHigh temperature requirement A1 (HTRA1), a member of the HTRA family, is a serine peptidase involved in many crucial bioprocesses such as proliferation, mitochondrial homeostasis, apoptosis, and protein quality control. It also plays an important role in the development of various tumors. However, the potential role and mechanisms of action of HTRA1 in breast cancer (BRCA) remain unclear. We conducted a bioinformatics-based study to investigate HTRA1 expression in BRCA alongside its associations with immune-cell infiltrates and survival outcomes.MethodsThe expression of HTRA1 in BRCA samples was analyzed using RNAseq datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus. R software was employed to assess the relationship between HTRA1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and immunity-associated biomarkers in BRCA. MethSurv and cBioPortal database were utilized to evaluate DNA methylation and genovariation within the HTRA1 DNA. Receiver operating characteristic curves, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and Cox regression were performed to estimate the impact of HTRA1 on diagnosis, prognosis, and response to chemotherapy in BRCA.ResultsHTRA1 expression was significantly downregulated in BRCA tissues compared to adjacent normal breast tissue controls. Differentially expressed genes associated with HTRA1 expression primarily enriched in cell proliferation pathways. Furthermore, altered HTRA1 expression significantly correlated with patient age, tumor histological type, T stage, progesterone receptor/estrogen receptor status, and PAM50 subtype of BRCA. Both positive and negative associations were observed between HTRA1 levels and the abundance of different types of immune cells, as well as immune biomarkers, including resting mast cells, follicular helper T cells, PD-L1, p53, and Ki67. Low HTRA1 expression was related with pathological complete response in luminal B BRCA patients undergoing chemotherapy. Additionally, lower HTRA1 expression in BRCA was associated with inferior overall survival and relapse-free survival.ConclusionsHTRA1 expression is associated with immune-cell infiltration, response to chemotherapy, and survival outcomes in BRCA. HTRA1 has the potential to serve as a promising biomarker and therapeutic target moving forward.

Dataset Information

Downregulation of serine protease HTRA1 is associated with poor survival in breast cancer.

Publications

Downregulation of serine protease HTRA1 is associated with poor survival in breast cancer.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets