UNC93B1: a novel immune-related prognostic biomarker in breast cancer

Breast cancer (BRCA) is a prevalent and deadly disease among women. This study investigated the role of UNC93B1, a gene associated with immune function, in BRCA prognosis and immune infiltration. Differentially expressed mRNA (DEmRNA) data related to the prognosis and immunity of BRCA patients were obtained from TCGA, GTE, GEO, and ImmPort databases. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to identify clinicopathological parameters associated with UNC93B1 expression. Univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses were performed to assess the impact of UNC93B1 expression and clinicopathological parameters on patient survival. We analyzed the target genes' relevant functions and signaling pathways through enrichment analysis. Furthermore, the relationship between UNC93B1 expression and tumor immune infiltration was examined using ssGSEA and Spearman correlation analysis. The findings demonstrated that high expression of UNC93B1 was associated with poorer prognosis in BRCA patients. UNC93B1 was also linked to race, N stage, pathological stage, and overall survival in BRCA patients and emerged as an independent prognostic factor. Functional enrichment analysis indicated significant enrichment of UNC93B1 in oncogenic and immune-related pathways. Moreover, UNC93B1 expression displayed significant associations with tumor immune cells and immune checkpoints according to ssGSEA and Spearman correlation analysis. Knockdown of UNC93B1 expression in BRCA cell lines (MDA-MB-231, SK-BR-3) suppresses their proliferation, invasion, and other phenotypes. These results suggest that UNC93B1 may be an immunologically relevant diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for BRCA.