A Signature of Three Apoptosis-Related Genes Predicts Overall Survival in Breast Cancer

Abstract

BackgroundThe commonest malignancy in women is known as breast cancer (BC). Numerous studies demonstrated that apoptosis appears to be critical to the management and clinical outcome of BC patients. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential connection between apoptosis and BC and establish the apoptosis-associated gene signature in BC.MethodsThe data of BC patient transcripts and related clinical information comes from the Cancer Genome Atlas Database (TCGA), and the genes related to apoptosis come from the Molecular Characterization Database (MSigDB). We identified the abnormally expressed apoptosis-related genes in BC samples. The optimal apoptosis-related genes screened by Cox regression analysis were designed to construct a prognostic model for predicting BC patients. Using the Nom Chart to Predict 1-Year, 3-Year, and 5-Year overall survival for BC patients. The gene signature-related functional pathways were explored by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA).ResultsThree genes [alpha subunit of the interleukin 3 receptor (IL3RA), apoptosis-inducing factor mitochondrial-associated 1 (AIFM1), and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase catalytic alpha (PIK3CA)] correlated with apoptosis were shown to be strongly linked to the overall survival of BC. Survival analysis shows that the risk score is directly proportional to the poor prognosis of BC patients. Risk assessment based on three genetic characteristics (age, pathological stage N, and pathological stage M) can independently predict the prognosis of patients with BC. The Nom chart is most suitable for assessing the long-term survival rate of BC patients. The results of GSEA demonstrated that numerous cell cycle-related pathways were abundant in the high-risk group.ConclusionWe constructed an apoptosis-associated gene signature in BC, which had a potential clinical application prospect for BC patients.

The cuproptosis-related signature predicts prognosis and indicates immune microenvironment in breast cancer

“…We also listed the other signatures that focus more on short-term survival, such as 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival. We found our signature have similar short-term survival (3-year) prognostic value compared with them, such as the ferroptosis-related gene signature ( Wang et al, 2021a ; Wu et al, 2021a ; Zhu et al, 2021b ), pyroptosis-related gene signature ( Chen et al, 2022 ), necroptosis-related gene signature ( Yu et al, 2022 ), apoptosis-related gene signature ( Zou et al, 2022 ), zinc finger protein-related gene signature ( Ye et al, 2021 ), autophagy-related gene signature ( Lin et al, 2020 ), and metabolic-related gene signatures ( Lu et al, 2022b ). In addition, our model only involves four genes, while other models (11/13) tend to have more, which is more convenient to use to a certain extent.…”

“…To further explore the predictive ability of our signature, a comparison was performed among several significant molecular signatures employed for predicting OS in patients with BC. Compared with the other signature, such as ferroptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, and immune-related ( Lin et al, 2020 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2021a ; Wu et al, 2021a ; Zhu et al, 2021b ; Ding et al, 2021 ; Ye et al, 2021 ; Lu et al, 2022a ; Lu et al, 2022b ; Chen et al, 2022 ; Chu et al, 2022 ; Yu et al, 2022 ; Zou et al, 2022 ), our signature indicated much higher AUCs, which indicated a better predictive ability, especially in predicting the long-term survival status. Furthermore, we constructed a prognostic nomogram that could simplify treatment decision-making for patients with BC.…”

Single‑cell RNA‑seq necroptosis‑related genes predict the prognosis of breast cancer and affect the differentiation of CD4+ T cells in tumor immune microenvironment

“…Previous studies have revealed that high expression of IFNG has a survival advantage over low expression in patients with BC and cervical cancer ( 35 , 36 ), which shows that IFNG is a protective factor, which is consistent with the results of the present study. AIFM1 is not only a risk gene for the prognosis of BC, but also promotes the occurrence of cervical cancer ( 37 , 38 ). This suggests that inhibiting the expression of AIFM1 is beneficial to the prognosis of patients with BC.…”

Identification of apoptosis-related biomarkers of apoptosis in pulpitis based on biological informatics

“…GSE92681 dataset, which included 5 normal and 7 PPS samples, was selected for external validation. A sum of 87 apoptosis related genes (ARGs) were obtained from MsigDB database [14](Table S1).…”