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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 17|pp 17079—17098

High expression of UNC5B enhances tumor proliferation, increases metastasis, and worsens prognosis in breast cancer

Shijie Wu1,2, Xinyue Guo3, Jiaojiao Zhou1,2, Xuan Zhu4, Huihui Chen1,2, Kun Zhang1,2, Yuexin Lu1,2, Yiding Chen1,2
  • 1Department of Breast Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, China
  • 2The Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, China National Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, China
  • 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, China
  • 4Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, China
* Equal contribution
Received: October 13, 2019Accepted: June 18, 2020Published: September 9, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103639

Copyright: © 2020 Wu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

UNC-5 Homolog B (UNC5B) is a member of the dependence receptor family that regulates cell survival and apoptosis in a ligand-dependent manner. UNC5B plays an important role in the development of multiple cancers, including colorectal, bladder, and thyroid cancer. However, the exact expression pattern and mechanism of UNC5B in breast cancer have not been well elucidated. Here, we showed that UNC5B expression was significantly upregulated in breast cancer using bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation. High UNC5B expression was correlated with poor overall survival in breast cancer patients. UNC5B knockdown inhibited breast cancer cell proliferation and metastasis and compromised PI3K/Akt signaling activation. In summary, UNC5B is a promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and targeting UNC5B is a potential strategy for individualized breast cancer treatment.