Abstract
Autophagy is closely related to breast cancer and has the dual role of promoting and inhibiting the progression of breast cancer. In this study, we aimed to establish an autophagy-related gene signature for the prognosis of breast cancer. A gene signature composed of the eight most survival-relevant autophagy-associated genes was identified by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis. A risk score was calculated based on the gene signature, which divided breast cancer patients into low- or high-risk groups and showed good and poor prognosis, respectively. The risk score displayed good prognostic performance in both the training cohort (TCGA, 1–10-year AUC > 0.63) and the validation cohort (GEO, 1–10-year AUC > 0.66). The multivariate Cox regression and stratified analysis revealed that the risk score was an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer patients. Moreover, the high-risk score was associated with higher infiltration of neutrophils and M2-polarized macrophages, and lower infiltration of resting memory CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and NK cells. Finally, the high-risk score was associated with myc target, glycolysis, and mTORC1 signaling. The risk score developed based on the autophagy-associated gene signature was an independent prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.
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Data Availability
The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the TCGA public data, GEO, and The Human Autophagy Database. The data obtained in the present study are all from public databases.
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LC, LY, and SZ conceived and designed the study. LC, NH, JW, and FL collected the data. LC, NH, JW, ZL, JW, TL, and ZF analyzed the data. LC and SZ wrote the Manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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Cao, L., Huang, N., Wang, J. et al. An Autophagy-Associated Prognostic Gene Signature for Breast Cancer. Biochem Genet 61, 1282–1299 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-022-10317-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10528-022-10317-1