In the present study, by analyzing multiple bioinformatics platforms, we explored the potential target participating in BRCA progression and the drug sensitivity in TNBC. We found three overlapping genes among two GEO datasets and cell death genes, containing two up-regulated genes (SLC11A2 and CASP6), and one down-regulated genes CFLAR. Furthermore, in our study only CFLAR exhibited potential prognostic values in BRCA patients. Additionally, our experiment and bioinformatic prediction demonstrated that the down-regulated CFLAR was critical to BRCA pathological progression and 5-FU sensitivity.
Recent researches focus on cell death which could result in various forms of cancer. Intracellular ROS participates in inflammation, ferroptosis, apoptosis, DNA damage and plays key roles in cellular signaling and homeostasis, ROS level is strictly regulated by Keap1-Nrf2 pathway and cytoprotective antioxidant response (.Du et al. 2008, Edwards et al. 2014, Kansanen et al. 2013). Apoptosis has a number of subtypes of and that overlap exists between apoptosis, autophagy and necrosis(.D'Arcy 2019). Ferroptosis, characterized by lipid peroxidation, is an iron-dependent form of non-apoptotic cell death. The lethality to cancer cells was enhances via a combination of ferroptosis and apoptosis(.Lee et al. 2018). In human lung cancer cells, CFLAR is down-regulated in parthenolide induced apoptosis and parthenolide is reported to induce ROS which can trigger ER stress response(.Zhao et al. 2014). In pancreatic cancer, FBW7 increased cytotoxic effect of gemcitabine through activating ferroptosis and apoptosis, functionally, FBW7 could negatively regulated glucose metabolism(.Ye et al. 2021). Ketoprofen suppresses TNBC cell growth by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting autophagy(.Patra et al. 2023). However, the detailed roles of cell death genes CFLAR in BRCA prognosis and medicine resistance need further exploration. In our research, we firstly verified that CFLAR, a cell death releated gene, was a novel prognostic and therapeutic target in BRCA. In our study, we found that CFLAR was down-regulated in BRCA and its low expression conferred poor prognosis values in BRCA patients. In BRCA, miR-27a ameliorates chemoresistance of BRCA cells by disruption of ROS homeostasis(.Ueda et al. 2020).In our study, overexpression of CFLAR attenuated the 5-FU resistance by down-regulating ROS level and oxidative stress response.
Surgery, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immune therapy are the conventional treatment strategy for BRCA. The prognosis of various subtype of BRAC have vast differences TNBC is an invasive phenotype with undesirable clinical features, poor prognosis, and therapy resistance(.Vagia et al. 2020). The luminal A, ER and PR positive subtype, have improved prognosis. In our study, we verify that the expression of CFLAR differ from various cancer subtype. CFLAR was significantly down-regulated in Luminal, HER2 positive and TNBC. The gene expression of CFALR is higher in Trastuzumab, Taxanes, Anthracycline, CMF, FEC responder patients. In the patients treated with tamoxifen only, the CFLAR in high expression conferred an improved OS. These results indicated that CFLAR may be a good prognosis and therapy target.
Tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is highly correlated with the clinical prognosis of cancer patients. T cells are the main immune cells involved in anti-tumor immunity. In tumor cells, CD8 + T cells activated by immunotherapy could enhance ferroptosis, and increased ferroptosis in turn participating in anti-tumor efficacy of immunotherapy(.Zou et al. 2016). Nivolumab therapy resulting in clinical benefits was correlated with reduced expression of SLC3A2 and increased IFNγ and CD8. T cell is a novel anti-tumor mechanism via promoting tumor ferroptosis(.Yang et al. 2014). In B16 subcutaneous melanoma model, PD-L1 blockade increased lipid ROS in CD45- tumor cells and reduced tumor weight(.Wang et al. 2019). In BRCA, there are controversial conclusions of the prognostic prediction of CD8 tumor-infiltrating T cells. A systematic meta-analysis showed that high levels of CD8 + T cell infiltration conferred better prognosis, containing OS and DFS, in BRCA(.Sun et al. 2023). Our results showed that CFLAR was associated with various immune cells containing Tcm, T helper cells, Tem, T cells, B cells, NK CD56bright cells and Th2 cells. CFLAR was positively correlated with CD 8 + T cells and is correlated with the response of anti-PD1 and anti-PD-L1. These results demonstrated that CFLAR may play a vital role in BRCA microenvironments and potentially function as an immunotherapeutic target.