Neural Functions Play Different Roles in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) and non-TNBC

Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents the most malignant subtype of breast cancer, and yet our understanding about its unique biology remains elusive. We have conducted a comparative computational analysis of transcriptomic data of TNBC and non-TNBC (NTNBC) tissue samples from the TCGA database, focused on genes involved in neural functions. Our main discoveries are: (1) while both subtypes involve neural functions, TNBC has substantially more up-regulated neural genes than NTNBC, suggesting that TNBC is more complex than NTNBC; (2) non-neural functions related to cellmicroenvironment interactions and intracellular damage processing are key inducers of the neural genes in both TNBC and NTNBC, but the inducer-responder relationships are different in the two cancer subtypes; (3) key neural functions such as neural crest formation are predicted to enhance adaptive immunity in TNBC while glia development, along with a few other neural functions, induce both innate and adaptive immunity in NTNBC. These results reveal key differences in the biology between the two cancer subtypes, particularly in terms of the roles that neural functions play. Our findings may open new doors for further investigation of the distinct biology of TNBC vs. NTNBC.

Analysis of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 1 as an Independent Prognostic Factor for Gastric Cancer Based on Statistical Methods

“…However, the expression and role of CDK1 in GC are still not fully understood. Therefore, this study evaluated the correlation between CDK1 and prognosis of GC as well as other clinicopathological features from the point of view of statistics and bioinformatics ( Wang et al, 2013 ; Wei et al, 2017a,b , 2018 ; Su et al, 2018 ; Zhang et al, 2018 ; Ding et al, 2019 ; Shen et al, 2019 ; Fan et al, 2020 ; Li H. Y. et al, 2020 ; Li J. et al, 2020 ; Tan et al, 2020 ; Wang H. et al, 2020 ; Wang Z. et al, 2020 ) and provided important clues for further exploring the biological function and molecular mechanism of CDK1. In future work, if condition permits, we hope to conduct some experiments to verify the important role of CDK1 in GC from biological point of view.…”

Neuronal mimicry generates an ecosystem critical for brain metastatic growth of SCLC

“…Brain cells could serve as a supportive stroma for cancer growth by producing generic pro-cancer signals (e.g. pro-survival, or pro-proliferation), but emerging evidence suggests that cancer cells across several cancer types can acquire neuronal features during tumor progression, which may endow them with the capacity to interact more specifically with cells in the brain (Caino et al, 2016; Denny et al, 2016; Neman et al, 2014; Tan et al, 2020; Wingrove et al, 2019). There is also evidence of transcriptomic changes within brain cells when tumors are present (Quail and Joyce, 2013; Sevenich et al, 2014; Wingrove et al, 2019).…”

Transcriptome Analysis Identifies GATA3-AS1 as a Long Noncoding RNA Associated with Resistance to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Patients

“…On the other hand, there is scientific evidence that altered gene expression in breast cancer tumors is involved in neuronal-related pathways 72 and processes. 73e75 These results showed that tumors of nonresponders to NAC overexpressed lncRNA genes that are related to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, such as taste transduction and Parkinson disease.…”