Expression characteristics of the yes-associated protein in breast cancer: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The yes-associated protein (YAP) gene plays an important role in many malignant tumors, but its clinical significance in breast cancer remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the significance of YAP expression in breast cancer using meta-analysis. METHODS: Seven databases will be searched to collect the case-control studies published on the association between YAP expression and clinical pathogenic features in breast cancer until December 2021: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Wan Fang Database, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. To perform meta-analysis, STATA 14.0 and RevMan5 software were used with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) as the effect index, and publication bias and sensitivity analysis were subsequently tested. RESULTS: Form a total of 10 articles used in this study, 8 studies consisted of nontriple negative breast cancer (non-TNBC) and the other 2 of TNBC. Meta-analysis indicated a positive expression rate of YAP in non-TNBC tissues that was lower than in normal breast tissue (OR = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.10-0.21, P < .001). In contrast, the positive rate of YAP expression in TNBC was significantly higher than that in normal breast tissue (OR = 18.23, 95% CI = 8.20-40.52, P < .001). Furthermore, the positive expression rate was higher in the patients with lymph node metastasis, higher tumor node metastasis stage and histologic grade, and larger diameter in TNBC. However, there was no statistical difference in the positive expression rate of YAP between non-TNBC patients and lymph node metastasis, tumor node metastasis stage, histologic grade, and tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: YAP may participate in the occurrence and development of non-TNBC as a tumor suppressor gene; however, it may also be a carcinogenic factor in TNBC and may be a potential therapeutic target for TNBC.

Gene expression alterations of human liver cancer cells following borax exposure.

Borax is a boron compound that is becoming widely recognized for its biological effects, including lipid peroxidation, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, antioxidant activity and potential therapeutic benefits. However, it remains unknown whether exposure of human liver cancer (HepG2) cells to borax affects the gene expression of these cells. HepG2 cells were treated with 4 mM borax for either 2 or 24 h. Gene expression analysis was performed using Affymetrix GeneChip Human Gene 2.0 ST Arrays, which was followed by gene ontology analysis and pathway analysis. The clustering result was validated using reverse transcription­quantitative polymerase chain reaction. A cell proliferation assay was performed using Celigo Image Cytometer Instrumentation. Following this, 2­ or 24­h exposure to borax significantly altered the expression level of a number of genes in HepG2 cells, specifically 530 genes (384 upregulated and 146 downregulated) or 1,763 genes (1,044 upregulated and 719 downregulated) compared with the control group, respectively (≥2­fold; P<0.05). Twenty downregulated genes were abundantly expressed in HepG2 cells under normal conditions. Furthermore, the growth of HepG2 cells was inhibited through the downregulation of PRUNE1, NBPF1, PPcaspase­1, UPF2 and MBTPS1 (≥1.5­fold, P<0.05). The dysregulated genes potentially serve important roles in various biological processes, including the inflammation response, stress response, cellular growth, proliferation, apoptosis and tumorigenesis/oncolysis.