Vasculogenic mimicry regulates immune infiltration and mutational status of the tumor microenvironment in breast...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Molecular Biology
• Genomics

Background:

• Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) describes tumor-formed microcirculatory networks crucial in invasive cancers.
• A significant gap exists in identifying VM-based biomarkers for breast cancer prognosis and treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify novel VM-related biomarkers for breast cancer.
• To develop a prognostic model for breast cancer utilizing VM key genes.
• To investigate the association between VM and tumor immune infiltration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized TCGA and GEO databases for transcriptomic, single-cell sequencing, and clinical data.
• Performed single-cell analysis, KEGG, GO, and GSEA for pathway and functional enrichment analysis.
• Constructed a VM biomarker model and analyzed its correlation with immune infiltration and gene NDRG1's role in cell invasion.

Main Results:

• Single-cell analysis identified VM-high groups in epithelial cells and VM-low groups in immune/stromal cells.
• Key pathways (TGFβ, p53, MAPK) linked to VM-mediated breast cancer invasion.
• A VM gene-based prognostic model successfully stratified patients in TCGA-BRCA and GSE58812 datasets, correlating VM markers with immune cell regulation and NDRG1 promoting cell colony formation.

Conclusions:

• The developed VM-related gene model shows potential for breast cancer prognostic prediction and patient stratification.
• This research offers insights into VM's biological regulation in breast cancer, aiding understanding of tumor angiogenesis and development.