Identification of immune infiltration-related ZNF480 for predicting prognosis in breast cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women with high morbidity and mortality. ZNF480, a member of the KRAB-ZNFs family, correlates with cancer progression. However, its role in the development and progression of breast cancer remains unclear.

We utilized transcriptomic and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases of breast cancer patients to investigate the potential pro-cancer role of ZNF480, including differential expression of ZNF480 in breast cancer, prognostic value, clinicopathological features, immune cell infiltration relevance and function enrichment analysis.

Our results indicate that ZNF480 is upregulated in breast cancer and is correlations with survival, clinical stage, race and tumor subtype in breast cancer patients. Additionally, immune infiltration analysis revealed significant negative correlations between ZNF480 expression and multiple tumor infiltrating immune cells, including aDC, B cells, CD8 T cells, Cytotoxic cells, DC, iDC, Macrophages, Neutrophils, NK CD56bright cells, NK CD56dim cells, NK cells, pDC, T cells, Tem, TFH and Th1 cells, whereas a significant positive correlation was observed with the infiltration of T helper cells, Tcm, Tgd and Th2 cells. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis indicated that ZNF480 may be involved in Angiogenesis, Allograft rejection, TNFα signaling via NFκB, Coagulation, IL6 Jak STAT3 signaling, Inflammatory response, Interferon gamma response and other processes.

ZNF480 is highly expressed in breast cancer and correlates with immune cell infiltration, and may be a candidate prognostic biomarker, which may assist in breast cancer treatment.