The clinicopathological significance of UBE2C in breast cancer: a study based on immunohistochemistry, microarray and RNA-sequencing data

Abstract

BackgroundUbiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2C (UBE2C) has been previously reported to correlate with the malignant progression of various human cancers, however, the exact molecular function of UBE2C in breast carcinoma (BRCA) remained elusive. We aimed to investigate UBE2C expression in BRCA and its clinical significance.MethodsThe expression of UBE2C in 209 BRCA tissue samples and 53 adjacent normal tissue samples was detected using immunohistochemistry. The clinical role of UBE2C was analyzed. Public databases including the human protein atlas and Oncomine were used to assess UBE2C expression in BRCA. Moreover, the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database was employed to investigate the prognostic value of UBE2C in BRCA.ResultsThe positive expression rate of UBE2C in BRCA was 70.8% (148/209), and UBE2C expression in the adjacent breast tissue was negative. The expression of UBE2C was positively correlated with tumor size (r = 0.32, P < 0.001), histological grade (r = 0.237, P = 0.001), clinical stage (r = 0.198, P = 0.004), lymph node metastasis (r = 0.155, P = 0.026), HER2 expression level (r = 0.356, P < 0.001), Ki-67 expression level (r = 0.504, P < 0.001), and P53 expression level (r = 0.32, P = 0.001). Negative correlations were found between UBE2C expression and the ER (r = − 0.403, P < 0.001) and PR (r = − 0.468, P < 0.001) status. UBE2C gene expression data from the public databases all proved that UBE2C was overexpressed in BRCA. According to the TCGA data analysis, a higher positive expression of UBE2C was associated with worse survival of BRCA patients (P = 0.0428), and data from cBioPortal indicated that 11% of all sequenced BRCA patients possessed a gene alteration of UBE2C, predominately gene amplification and mRNA regulation.ConclusionUbiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2C might pose an oncogenic effect on the progression of BRCA.

Combining Bioinformatics and Experiments to Identify and Verify Key Genes with Prognostic Values in Endometrial Carcinoma

“…12 and encodes a member of the E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family, which is required for the destruction of mitotic cyclins and for cell cycle progression [7]. Recent literature has reported that UBE2C plays critical role in the progression of non-small cell lung cancer [8], gastric cancer [9] and breast cancer [10]. Only one article reported that UBE2C expression in endometrial carcinoma group was significantly higher than that in benign and hyperplastic tissues [11].…”

Fabrication of an immunosensor for quantitative detection of breast cancer biomarker UBE2C

“…Higher expression of UBE2C draws a parallel with the progression of various human cancers including breast cancer. 12 Western blot analysis conrmed the expression of UBE2C in MCF-7 cell line (Fig. 1C).…”

“…11 Particularly, upregulation of UBE2C frequently causes malignant phenotype in breast cancer as observed in previous reports. [12][13][14][15][16] We also analyzed the prognostic value of the UBE2C in breast cancer with BreastMark tool. 17 The survival rate of patients with higher expression of UBE2C was found to be signicantly lower (P ¼ 1.1102 Â 10 À16 ) than those with lower expression of UBE2C ( Fig.…”

Identification of grade-specific diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of key candidate genes and pathways in breast cancer by integrated bioinformatics analysis

“…UBE2C is a crucial component of the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme complex, which is involved in the ubiquitin-proteasome system 55 . Studies proved that overexpressed UBE2C was linked to poor prognosis in BC 56 .…”