Overexpression of centromere protein H is significantly associated with breast cancer progression and overall patient survival

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide.This study aimed to analyze the expression of centromere protein H(CENP-H) in breast cancer and to correlate it with clinicopathologic data,including patient survival.Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting to detect the expression of CENP-H in normal mammary epithelial cells,immortalized mammary epithelial cell lines,and breast cancer cell lines,we observed that the mRNA and protein levels of CENP-H were higher in breast cancer cell lines and in immortalized mammary epithelial cells than in normal mammary epithelial cells.We next examined CENP-H expression in 307 paraffin-embedded archived samples of clinicopathologically characterized breast cancer using immunohistochemistry,and detected high CENP-H expression in 134(43.6%) samples.Statistical analysis showed that CENP-H expression was related with clinical stage(P = 0.001),T classification(P = 0.032),N classification(P = 0.018),and Ki-67(P < 0.001).Patients with high CENP-H expression had short overall survival.Multivariate analysis showed that CENP-H expression was an independent prognostic indicator for patient survival.Our results suggest that CENP-H protein is a valuable marker of breast cancer progression and prognosis.

SNCG shRNA suppressed breast cancer cell xenograft formation and growth in nude mice

Background Overexpression of breast cancer-specific gene 1 （SNCG） is associated with poor prognosis in advanced breast cancer patients. This study aimed to determine the effects of SNCG knockdown in breast cancer cells by using small hairpin RNA （shRNA）.Methods Four different SNCG shRNA oligonucleotides were designed and chemically synthesized to construct mammalian expression vectors. These vectors were then stably transfected into a breast cancer MCF-7 cell line to knockdown SNCG expression. After SNCG knockdown was confirmed, the stable cell lines were inoculated into nude mice. SNCG mRNA and protein expressions were analyzed by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR） and immunohistochemistry, respectively in both the stable cell lines and xenografts.Results All four SNCG shRNA constructs significantly reduced SNCG mRNA and protein levels in MCF-7 cells, as compared to the unrelated sequence control shRNA and the liposome control mice （P〈0.05）. SNCG-knockdown MCF-7cells formed significantly smaller tumor masses than cells expressing the unrelated sequence control or the liposome control mice （P〈0.05）.Conclusion SNCG shRNA effectively suppressed breast cancer cell formation in vivo and may be a useful clinical strategy to control breast cancer