Expression of nuclear receptor co‑activator 7 protein is associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer

Ziluo Peng; Yanlin Li; Song Xia; Qian Dai; Liang Yin; Miao Chen; Wannian Yang; Genbao Shao; Qiong Lin

doi:10.3892/ol.2024.14411

Expression of nuclear receptor co‑activator 7 protein is associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer

Oncol Lett. 2024 Apr 23;27(6):278. doi: 10.3892/ol.2024.14411. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Authors

Ziluo Peng¹, Yanlin Li¹, Song Xia¹, Qian Dai², Liang Yin³, Miao Chen^{1

4}, Wannian Yang¹, Genbao Shao¹, Qiong Lin¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, P.R. China.
² Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230022, P.R. China.
³ Department of Breast Surgery, Jiangsu University Affiliated People's Hospital, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212050, P.R. China.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Jiangsu University Affiliated People's Hospital, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212050, P.R. China.

Abstract

Nuclear receptor coactivator 7 (NCOA7) is an estrogen receptor binding protein. Its role in breast cancer progression has so far remained elusive. The present study aimed to determine the expression levels of NCOA7 in breast tumor samples and confirmed its potential utility as a breast cancer prognostic biomarker. The expression of NCOA7 was detected by immunohistochemical staining in 241 breast cancer tumor samples and 163 adjacent normal tissue samples. The association of NCOA7 expression with the clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival were statistically analyzed. Cell proliferation was determined by Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony-formation assays. Cell migration was detected using wound-healing and Transwell assays. NCOA7 was positively expressed in 44% of breast tumor tissues. The expression of NCOA7 was positively associated with tumor size (T-stage; P=0.005) and lymph node metastasis (N-stage; P=0.008). Additional statistical analysis indicated that the expression of NCOA7 was associated with patient age, tumor size and lymph node metastasis in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared with that in patients with non-TNBC. The overall survival of patients with NCOA7-positive breast cancer was significantly lower than that of patients with NCOA7-negative breast cancer (P=0.006). Among the patients with lymph node metastasis, the overall survival was reversely associated with the expression of NCOA7 (P=0.042). Furthermore, knockdown of NCOA7 expression in breast cancer T47D and MCF7 cells significantly inhibited both cell proliferation and migration, suggesting that this protein may exert a role in driving breast cancer progression. Taken together, these results indicate that the expression of NCOA7 is associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer and suggest that this protein may be a driver for metastasis and a potential therapeutic target for advanced breast cancer.

Keywords: ERAP140; NCOA7; biomarker; breast cancer; metastasis; poor prognosis.

Grants and funding

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 82172942 and 81871888 and 81472558), the Clinical Research Project of the Jiangsu University Affiliated People's Hospital (grant no. Y2022019) and Medical Education Collaborative Innovation Fund of Jiangsu University (grant no JDYY2023018).