Background: Alternative splicing is a mechanism to produce different proteins with diverse functions from one gene. Many splicing factors play an important role in cancer progression. PRPF8 is a core protein component of the spliceosome complex, U4/U6-U5 tri-snRNP.
Objective: However, PRPF8 involved in mRNA alternative splicing are rarely included in the prognosis.
Methods: We found that PRPF8 was expressed in all examined cancer types. Further analyses found that PRPF8 expression was significantly different between the breast cancer and paracancerous tissues.
Results: Survival analyses showed that PRPF8-high patients had a poor prognosis, and the expression of PRPF8 is associated with distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and post progression survival (PPS). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) has revealed that PRPF8 expression is correlated with TGF-β, JAK-STAT, and cell cycle control pathways. Consistent with these results, upon PRPF8 silencing, the growth of MCF-7 cells was reduced, the ability of cell clone formation was weakened, and p21 expression was increased.
Conclusions: These results have revealed that PRPF8 is a significant factor for splicing in breast cancer progression.
Keywords: PRPF8; alternative splicing; breast cancer; prognosis.