Bioinformatic miRNA-mRNAs Analysis Revels to miR-934 as a Potential Regulator of the Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive subtypes of breast cancer and has the worst prognosis. In patients with TNBC tumors, the tumor cells have been reported to have mesenchymal features, which help them migrate and invade. Various studies on cancer have revealed the importance of microRNAs (miRNAs) in different biological processes of the cell in that aberrations, in their expression, lead to alterations and deregulations in said processes, giving rise to tumor progression and aggression. In the present work, we determined the miRNAs that are deregulated in the epithelial–mesenchymal transition process in breast cancer. We discovered that 25 miRNAs that regulate mesenchymal genes are overexpressed in patients with TNBC. We found that miRNA targets modulate different processes and pathways, such as apoptosis, FoxO signaling pathways, and Hippo. We also found that the expression level of miR-934 is specific to the molecular subtype of the triple-negative breast cancer and modulates a set of related epithelial–mesenchymal genes. We determined that miR-934 inhibition in TNBC cell lines inhibits the migratory abilities of tumor cells.

Keywords

• miR-934–PTEN–EGR2 axis
• mesenchymal–epithelium transition
• triple-negative breast cancer
• miRNAs