UTP23 Functions in Breast Cancer Progression and Predicts Poor Prognosis of Luminal a Breast Cancer

Luminal A breast cancer is the most common molecular subtype of breast cancer. Exploring biomarkers to identify luminal A breast cancer patients at high risk of recurrence and metastasis has important clinical significance. UTP23 is a component of ribosomal small-subunit processome, which is involved in ribosome synthesis and RNA maturation. The role of UTP23 in breast cancer has not been reported.

TCGA-BRCA data, LinkedOmics, STRING, Metascape and ssGSEA were used to analyze UTP23 expression in breast cancer and evaluate prognosis. Quantitative real-time PCR, western blot and in vitro cell experiment were used to demonstrate the role of UTP23 in breast cancer.

UTP23 showed abnormally high expression in multiple cancers and was associated with poor prognosis. UTP23 was associated with T stage, lymph node metastasis, race, histological type, molecular subtypes and survival status in breast cancer. Importantly, UTP23 was significantly associated with poor OS in luminal A or early breast cancer, not in non-luminal A or advanced breast cancer. UTP23 expression was significantly correlated with immune cells infiltration. Enrichment analysis suggested that UTP23 might regulate cell cycle and cell division. Bioinformatics analysis showed DCAF13 might be downstream factor of UTP23. UTP23 expression promoted MCF-7 cells proliferation, migration and invasion possibly through regulating DCAF13 expression.

UTP23 may function in breast cancer progression. The elevated UTP23 may be a potential prognostic biomarker for luminal A or early breast cancer.