Bioinformatic analysis of the role of solute carrier-glutamine transporters in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous disease. Solute carriers (SLCs) have been involved in the tumor progression of various cancer types. This study aimed to evaluate the role of these SLC-related glutamine transporters in the prognosis of BC patients by bioinformatics analysis.

METHODS

This study examined the transcription and prognostic data for glutamine-related transporters in BC from Oncomine Database, which is currently the largest oncogene microarray database platform in the world. As well as Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), Kaplan-Meier (K-M), and cBioPortal online resources. The Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and GEPIA were also used to examine the relationship between SLCs and immune cell infiltration.

RESULTS

The expression levels of , and were higher in BC tissues than normal breast tissues, but the expression level of SLC6A14 was lower. The expression levels of , and were related to a later clinical tumor stage. In the K-M analyses, The K-M curves revealed that patients with high expression had a poor prognosis (OS HR =1.28, 95% CI: 1.06-1.54; P=0.01). The high expression of was significantly correlated with a poor prognosis (DMFS HR =1.19, 95% CI: 1.02-1.39; P=0.027). Increased mRNA levels and decreased mRNA levels were significantly associated with a poor prognosis in terms of OS, RFS, DMFS and PPS. The high expression of was significantly correlated with a poor prognosis (PPS HR =1.35, 95% CI: 1.07-1.7; P=0.011). The high expression of SLC38A1 was correlated with a better prognosis than low expression of (RFS HR =0.84, 95% CI: 0.76-0.93; P=0.00077; DMFS HR =0.78, 95% CI: 0.67-0.91; P=0.0013). The infiltration of immune cells and their marker genes were associated with , and expression. , and have the potential to regulate polarization in tumor-associated macrophages.

CONCLUSIONS

, and may regulate the polarization of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). , and may be promising biomarkers for the BC diagnosis and may represent potential therapeutic targets for these patients.