Altered SERCA Expression in Breast Cancer.

Calcium (Ca) signaling is critical for the normal functioning of various cellular activities. However, abnormal changes in cellular Ca can contribute to pathological conditions, including various types of cancer. The maintenance of intracellular Ca levels is achieved through tightly regulated processes that help maintain Ca homeostasis. Several types of regulatory proteins are involved in controlling intracellular Ca levels, including the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (SR/ER) Ca ATPase pump (SERCA), which maintains Ca levels released from the SR/ER. In total, three ATPase SR/ER Ca-transporting (ATP2A) 1-3 genes exist, which encode for several isoforms whose expression profiles are tissue-specific. Recently, it has become clear that abnormal SERCA expression and activity are associated with various types of cancer, including breast cancer. Breast carcinomas represent 40% of all cancer types that affect women, with a wide variety of pathological and clinical conditions. : Using cBioPortal breast cancer patient data, Kaplan-Meier plots demonstrated that high ATP2A1 and ATP2A3 expression was associated with reduced patient survival. The present study found significantly different SERCA specific-type expressions in a series of breast cancer cell lines. Moreover, bioinformatics analysis indicated that ATP2A1 and ATP2A3 expression was highly altered in patients with breast cancer. : Overall, the present data suggest that SERCA gene-specific expressioncan possibly be considered as a crucial target for the control of breast cancer development and progression.