Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP levels in triple-negative breast cancer patients: clinical and pathological correlations

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
Clinical and Translational Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the expressions of TUFT1 (Tuftelin) and Rac1-GTP in the cancerous tissues of individuals with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Additionally, we aimed to explore the correlation between TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions and examine the associations of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions with the clinical and pathological indicators of the patients.

Methods

Ninety-six patients diagnosed with TNBC, scheduled for surgery between May 2022 and November 2022, were enrolled in this study. Cancerous tissue specimens were collected from these patients, and immunohistochemistry was employed to evaluate the levels of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions in the cancerous tissues. Subsequent to data collection, a comprehensive analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions. Furthermore, we sought to assess the associations of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions with the clinical and pathological indicators of the patients.

Results

The TUFT1 protein was expressed in both the membrane and cytoplasm of TNBC cancer cells, with notably higher expression observed in the cytoplasm. Rac1-GTP was primarily expressed in the cytoplasm. There was a positive correlation between the levels of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions (χ2 = 9.816, P < 0.05). The levels of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP protein expressions showed no correlation with patient age (χ2 = 2.590, 2.565, P > 0.05); however, they demonstrated a positive correlation with tumor size (χ2 = 5.592,5.118), histological grading (χ2 = 6.730, 5.443), and lymph node metastasis (χ2 = 8.221, 5.180) (all with a significance level of P < 0.05).

Conclusion

A significant correlation was identified between the levels of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP expressions in the cancerous tissues of patients with TNBC, suggesting a close association with the progression of TNBC. The two molecules play significant roles in facilitating an early diagnosis and treatment of TNBC.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

DAB:

Diaminobenzidine

GDP:

Guanosine diphosphate

GTP:

Guanosine triphosphate

TNBC:

Triple-negative breast cancer

TUFT1:

Tuftelin

References

  1. Bianchini G, Balko JM, Mayer IA, Sanders ME, Gianni L. Triple-negative breast cancer: challenges and opportunities of a heterogeneous disease. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2016;13(11):674–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Li Y, Shi XY, Sui X. Clinicopathological features and prognostic analysis of triple negative breast cancer. J Aerospace Med. 2021;32(2):135–7.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Gao XJ, Lv P, Zhuang H. Analysis of clinical problems in endodontic diseases. I. Clinical types and molecular biological pathogenesis of enamel dysplasia. Chin J Stomatol. 2009;2009(5):314–7.

  4. Wu MN, Yang JL, Shen SJ, Wang L, Zheng WJ, Yao M, et al. Expression and clinical value of enamel plexin in HBV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma. Chin J Hepatol. 2021;29(4):338–43.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Wang CY, Liang BH, Wu JY, Tang ZH, Xu XW, Yin ZJ, et al. Research progress in the regulation of RAC1 on malignant tumors and its molecular mechanism. Carcinogenesis Teratogenesis Mutagenesis. 2021;33(5):401–4.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu WG, Du J, Zhao M, Zhang L, Lin ZN, Chen B. Clinical implications of TUFT1 protein expression and correlation with RelA protein in breast cancer. Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2017;10(6):6544–51.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Zhao S, Ma D, Xiao Y, Jiang YZ, Shao ZM. The clinicopathological features and survival outcomes of different histological subtypes in triple-negative breast cancer. J Cancer. 2018;9(2):296–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2021;71(3):209–49.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Rabbani F, Yazdiniapour Z, Ghanadian M, Zolfaghari B, Maleki M, Shafiee F. Cytotoxicity and apoptosis assay of novel cyclomyrsinol diterpenes against breast cancer cell lines. World J Tradit Chin Med. 2022;8:273–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wu WX, Zhang M. Effect of baseline lipid level on prognosis of patients with non-triple-negative breast cancer. Chin Gen Pract. 2021;24(26):3316.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gao Y, Wei W, Zhang P, Zhang Q. Advances in the study of natural history and tumor growth rate of breast cancer. Chin Gen Pract. 2021;24(30):3794.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yuan KX, Wang JN. Construction and functional study of TUFT1 eukaryotic expression plasmid. J West Anhui Univ. 2017;33(2):71–4.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Shilo D, Cohen G, Blumenfeld A, Goren K, Hanhan S, Sharon S, et al. Tuftelin is required for NGF-induced differentiation of PC12 cells. J Mol Neurosci. 2019;68(1):135–43.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Wang K, Zhang YP, Yang YP. Expression of TUFT1 in rectal cancer and its clinical diagnostic and prognostic value. Chin J Lab Diagn. 2022;26(12):1788–92.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Zhou B, Lei JH, Wang Q, Qu TF, Cha LC, Zhan HX, et al. LINC00960 regulates cell proliferation and glycolysis in pancreatic cancer through the miR-326-3p/TUFT1/AKT-mTOR axis. Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2022;38(12):1155–67.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Dou C, Zhou Z, Xu Q, Liu Z, Zeng Y, Wang Y, et al. Hypoxia-induced TUFT1 promotes the growth and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by activating the Ca2+/PI3K/AKT pathway. Oncogene. 2019;38(8):1239–55.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Orgaz JL, Herraiz C, Sanz-Moreno V. Rho GTPases modulate malignant transformation of tumor cells. Small GTPases. 2014;5: e29019.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Baugher PJ, Krishnamoorthy L, Price JE, Dharmawardhane SF. Rac1 and Rac3 isoform activation is involved in the invasive and metastatic phenotype of human breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res. 2005;7:R965–74.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Velaithan R, Kang J, Hirpara JL, Loh T, Goh BC, Le Bras M, et al. The small GTPase Rac1 is a novel binding partner of Bcl-2 and stabilizes its antiapoptotic activity. Blood. 2011;117:6214–26.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Shin SK, Ryu S, Nam S, Ha SY, Kwon OS, Kim YS, et al. Clinical significance of combined epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers expression and role of Rac1 in hepatocellular carcinoma. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(2):1765.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the hard and dedicated work of all the staff who implemented the intervention and evaluation components of the study.

Funding

2021 Hebei Medical science research project plan (No.20210206).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Su-fang Shi and Rui-xi Cai have contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Breast Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China

    Su-fang Shi, Shuo Li & Dong-xiao Jia

  2. Department of Anorectal, Handan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China

    Rui-xi Cai

  3. Operating Room, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China

    Yan-fei Ren

  4. Operating Room, The Second Hospital of Handan, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China

    Yong Li

  5. Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100000, China

    Tian-lu Yin

  6. Department of Medical Imaging, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University, No. 81 Congtai Road, Congtai District, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China

    Yong-jun Li

Authors
  1. Su-fang Shi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rui-xi Cai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yan-fei Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shuo Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Tian-lu Yin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Dong-xiao Jia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Yong-jun Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Sufang Shi: Conception and design of the research; Obtaining financing. Ruixi Cai: Conception and design of the research; Acquisition of data. Yong Li: Acquisition of data; Analysis and interpretation of the data. Yanfei Ren: Acquisition of data; Analysis and interpretation of the data. Shuo Li: Writing of the manuscript; Statistical analysis. Tianlu Yin: Writing of the manuscript; Statistical analysis. Weiguang Liu: Critical revision of the manuscript for intellectual content; Statistical analysis. Yongjun Li: Conception and design of the research; Critical revision of the manuscript for intellectual content.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong-jun Li.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted with approval from the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University (No.2020[k]033). This study was conducted in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shi, Sf., Cai, Rx., Ren, Yf. et al. Assessment of TUFT1 and Rac1-GTP levels in triple-negative breast cancer patients: clinical and pathological correlations. Clin Transl Oncol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-024-03426-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-024-03426-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation