Expression, Clinical Significance, and Functional Prediction of MNX1 in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Motor neuron and pancreas homeobox 1 (MNX1) is a key developmental gene. Previous studies found that it was upregulated in several tumors, but its role in breast cancer (BC) remains unclear. In order to have a better understanding of this gene in BC, we examined the expression of MNX1 in BC tissues and normal breast tissues by qRT-PCR and by analyzing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We also assessed the association of MNX1 expression with BC clinicopathological features and investigated the impact of MNX1 on BC survival. Potential molecular function of MNX1 was predicted through protein-protein interactions and functional enrichment. The results showed that the expression of MNX1 was significantly increased in BC tissues, especially in the HER2-positive subtype, and MNX1 expression was associated with several clinical characteristics, including menopause status, receptor status, subtypes, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and race. In addition, patients with higher MNX1 expression had poorer survival. Enrichment analysis suggested that MNX1 is probably involved in biological processes and pathways related to nuclear division, cell cycle, and p53 signaling. In conclusion, our study suggests that MNX1 may act as a tumor promoter in BC. We hope these findings will draw more attention to MNX1 in future cancer studies.

Analysis of Expression and Its Clinical Significance of the Secreted Phosphoprotein 1 in Lung Adenocarcinoma

“…The relevance between clinicopathological characteristics and the SPP1 mRNA expression level was analyzed by χ 2 test with the SPSS software (version 20). For the LUAD samples in GSE68465, according to the expression level of SPP1, the samples above the median expression level were set as high-expression group (N = 222), and the samples below the median expression level were set as low-expression group (N = 221) (Tian et al, 2018;Guo et al, 2020). Using the GraphPad Prism software (version 8) and Kaplan-Meier method, the relationship between the overall survival rate and the SPP1 expression level was analyzed.…”

LncRNA MNX1-AS1 promotes progression of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma through the MNX1/Hippo axis

“…More interestingly, several studies revealed that the expression of MNX1-AS1 and MNX1 was positively correlated 29,30 . MNX1 is an essential protein in diverse malignancies including bladder cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and cervical cancer 27,28,[38][39][40][41] . The previous study revealed that the high expression level of MNX1 was associated with tumor stage and lymph nodes metastasis in cervical cancer, and it facilitated the proliferation, migration, and invasion of cervical cancer cells 40 .…”

MNX1 Promotes Malignant Progression of Cervical Cancer via Repressing the Transcription of p21cip1

“…And in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, the oncogenic potential of MNX1 was mediated via p53-p21 signaling pathway (52). In breast cancer, enrichment analysis suggested that MNX1 is probably involved in biological processes and pathways related to nuclear division, cell cycle, and p53 signaling (18). And a recent study showed that MNX1 had a role in the progression of cervical cancer, partially through upregulating cell cycle regulators CCNE1 and CCNE2 (24).…”

“…In follow-up study, MNX1 was found to be abnormally expressed in several cancer types, including prostate cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and acute myeloid leukemia (14)(15)(16). Furthermore, recent studies confirmed that MNX1 played oncogenic roles in colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and bladder cancer (17)(18)(19).…”