Potential role of circ_WHSC1 and miR-145-5p in breast cancer promotion

This study aims to investigate the potential interplay between circ_WHSC1 and miR-145-5p in breast cancer pathogenesis using in silico tools, assess their clinical relevance, and evaluate the diagnostic utility of circ_WHSC1 in clinical samples as a biomarker for breast cancer.

This multi-component study employed a combination of bioinformatic analyses and laboratory validation. First, in silico tools were used to investigate miR-145-5p and circ_WHSC1 using public databases. Subsequently, their expression, correlation, and clinical relevance were experimentally assessed in a cohort of breast cancer patients.

Circ_WHSC1 level was significantly higher in breast tumor compared with patient-matched adjacent normal tissues (4.17-fold change, p-value <0.01). Additionally, significant reduction of miR-145-5p (9.11-fold downregulation, p-value <0.01) level was detected in breast tumors compared with neighboring non-tumor tissues. A weak negative correlation was detected between levels of circ_WHSC1 and miR-145-5p (r = -0.314, p-value <0.05). Circ_WHSC1 may serve as a weak biomarker for breast cancer (AUC = 0.683; p-value <0.01) with 71 % specificity and 70 % sensitivity. Up-regulation of circ_WHSC1 in breast tumor was linked with lymph node invasion (p-value = 0.005), HER2 negativity (p-value = 0.031) and positive family history (p-value = 0.012).

Cumulatively, circ_WHSC1/miR-145-5p can be suggested as a potential molecular axis contributing to the pathogenesis of breast cancer. However, further functional assays are needed to validate this hypothesis.