Exploring the metastatic role of the inhibitor of apoptosis BIRC6 in Breast Cancer

GÓMEZ BERGNA SANTIAGO MANUEL; MARCHESINI ABRIL; AMORÓS MORALES LESLIE C.; ARRÍAS PAULA NAZARENA; FARINA HERNÁN G.; ROMANOWSKI VÍCTOR; PIDRE MATIAS LUIS; GOTTARDO MARÍA FLORENCIA

Congreso; 2nd Women in Bioinformatics & Data Science LA Conference; 2021

Breast cancer is the most common cancer as well as the first cause of death by cancerin women worldwide. BIRC6 (baculoviral IAP repeat-containing protein 6) is a memberof the inhibitors of apoptosis protein family thought to play an important role in theprogression or chemoresistance of many cancers. The aim of the present work was toinvestigate the role of apoptosis inhibitor BIRC6 (baculoviral IAP repeat-containingprotein 6) in breast cancer (BC), focusing particularly on its involvement in themetastatic cascade. We analyzed BIRC6 mRNA expression levels and Copy NumberVariations (CNV) in three breast cancer databases from The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA) comparing clinical and molecular attributes. Genomic analysis was performedusing CBioportal platform while transcriptomic studies (mRNA expression levels,correlation heatmaps, survival plots and Gene Ontology) were performed with USCXena and R. Statistical significance was set at p- values less than 0.05. Our analysesshowed that there was a differential expression of BIRC6 in cancer samples whencompared to normal samples. CNV that involve amplification and gain of BIRC6 genewere correlated with negative hormone receptor tumors, higher prognostic indexes,younger age at diagnosis and both chemotherapy and radiotherapy administration.Transcriptomic and gene-ontology analyses showed that, in conditions of high BIRC6mRNA levels, there are differential expression patterns in apoptotic, proliferation, andmetastatic pathways. In summary, our in silico analyses suggest that BIRC6 exhibits anantiapoptotic, pro-proliferative and an apparent pro-metastatic role and could be arelevant molecular target for treatment of Breast Cancer tumors.