Unveiling the Impact of Copper Metabolism on Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Identification of Therapeutic Targets - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #Copper metabolism
- #Triple-negative breast cancer
- #Metastasis prediction
- The study analyzed TCGA transcriptomic data from 229 TNBC and normal samples to identify 26 differentially expressed copper metabolism-related genes (DEGs-CM).
- A nine-gene Cox prognostic model (HEPHL1, COX7A1, COX4I2, JUN, MAPT, MT1A, AOC3, DCT, AOC2) showed strong predictive value for TNBC outcomes, with high time-dependent AUCs at 1, 3, and 5 years.
- Functional enrichment linked high-risk groups to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis pathways, with four genes (AOC3, COX4I2, COX7A1, JUN) identified as copper metabolism-related metastasis genes (CMMRGs).
- Machine learning classifiers using these genes achieved high performance (AUCs >0.97) for predicting TNBC presence, but performance dropped for metastasis prediction due to limited labeled samples.
- Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed fibroblast-specific enrichment of CMMRGs and EMT signatures, suggesting a link between copper metabolism, stromal changes, and metastasis in TNBC.