Department of Predictive Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Informatics, Cell Signal Transduction Laboratory, Bioinformatics Center, Henan Provincial Engineering Center for Tumor Molecular Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
Genomics. 2020 May;112(3):2433-2444. doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2020.01.016. Epub 2020 Jan 24.
PAKs (p21-activated kinases) are reported to play crucial roles in a variety of cellular processes and participate in the progression of human cancers. However, the expression and prognostic values of PAKs remain poorly explored in breast cancers. In our study, we examined the mRNA and protein expression levels of PAKs and the prognostic value. We also analyzed the interaction network, genetic alteration, and functional enrichment of PAKs. The results showed that the mRNA levels of PAK1, PAK2, PAK4 and PAK6 were significantly up-regulated in breast cancer compared with normal tissues, while the reverse trend for PAK3 and PAK5 was found, furthermore, the proteins expression of PAK1, PAK2 and PAK4 in breast cancer tissues were higher than that in normal breast tissues. Survival analysis revealed breast cancer patients with low mRNA expression of PAK3 and PAK5 showed worse RFS, conversely, elevated PAK4 levels predicted worse RFS. In addition, the breast cancer patients with PAKs genetic alterations correlated with worse OS. These results indicated that PAKs might be promising potential biomarkers for breast cancer.
PAKs（p21 激活激酶）被报道在多种细胞过程中发挥关键作用，并参与人类癌症的进展。然而，PAKs 在乳腺癌中的表达和预后价值仍未得到充分探索。在我们的研究中，我们检查了 PAKs 的 mRNA 和蛋白表达水平及其预后价值。我们还分析了 PAKs 的相互作用网络、遗传改变和功能富集。结果表明，与正常组织相比，乳腺癌中 PAK1、PAK2、PAK4 和 PAK6 的 mRNA 水平显著上调，而 PAK3 和 PAK5 的趋势相反，此外，乳腺癌组织中 PAK1、PAK2 和 PAK4 的蛋白表达水平高于正常乳腺组织。生存分析显示，PAK3 和 PAK5 mRNA 低表达的乳腺癌患者 RFS 较差，相反，PAK4 水平升高预示着 RFS 较差。此外，PAKs 遗传改变的乳腺癌患者与 OS 较差相关。这些结果表明，PAKs 可能是乳腺癌有前途的潜在生物标志物。
