A BIOINFORMATICS MODEL BASED ON AUTOPHAGY RELATED GENES FOR PROGNOSIS OF BREAST CANCER

Abstract

Autophagy is a biological catabolic process that controls self cleanliness within the cell. The cellular autophagy mechanism is aimed to remove senescent organelles and aberrant long-lived proteins from the body under normal physiological circumstances, which will be helpful for preserving cell homeostasis. A stress stimulus causes cell’s autophagy to function, limiting the accumulation of toxic or cancer-causing damaged proteins and organelles while also reducing cell death. Therefore, autophagy malfunction has a significant effect on cell destiny and may play a role in carcinogenesis. Research has suggested that breast cancer cell autophagy and carcinogenesis are strongly connected. Breast CSCs are capable of self renewal & differentiation although showing favourable short term prognosis, however, cancer recurrence, chemotherapeutic resistance, and metastasis are quite common in long term. Reports show that metastatic breast cancer significantly boosts patient morbidity and mortality. Breast cancer metastasis is a very intricate process that is precisely regulated by a number of factors. Since it affects tumour dormancy, cancer stem cells, metabolic adaptability, cell motility, and migration in breast cancer, autophagy is one of the key regulatory elements regulating metastasis. Clinically, autophagy has been shown to be causative of therapeutic resistance and anti-estrogen treatment in breast cancer. Autophagy thus serves both as a promoter and a suppressor during the process of breast oncogenesis depending on the cancer stage. The aim of this bioinformatics study is to construct a novel model using the autophagy related gene signatures for prognosis of breast cancer in patients. These putative autophagy biomarkers could be evaluated in preclinical and clinical investigations to track the autophagy process in breast cancer therapy. It is possible to identify breast cancer patients who will respond to potent autophagy modulated therapy and have a favourable prognosis, although more investigation is required on this.