Expression of Angiogenesis-related Genes in a Group of Iranian Cases of Breast Cancer

Title:Expression of Angiogenesis-related Genes in a Group of Iranian Cases of Breast Cancer

Volume: 17 Issue: 3

Author(s): Seyyed Amir Yasin Ahmadi, Soheila Sayad, Farhad Shahsavar, Reza Nekouian*, Mahshid Panahi, Saed Sayad, Mandana Beigi Boroujeni and Soheila Akbari

Affiliation:

• Personalized Medicine Research Core, Pediatric Growth and Development Research Center, Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,Iran

Keywords: Angiogenesis, breast cancer, gene expression, personalized medicine, targeted therapy, fibroadenoma (Fib).

Abstract:

Aims: This study aims to design an angiogenesis gene expression profile; to study angiogenesis gene expression profile in breast cancer; and to map angiogenesis gene expression profile in individual participants.

Background: In molecular etiology of each disease, there are some important molecules involved in the related pathways. From the viewpoint of precision medicine, molecular etiology of a disease is different person by person because of genetic variations of the genes involved in these pathways. This point of view intends researchers of drug development to design novel drugs for targeted therapy based on the exact etiology. In the case of angiogenesis, there is a drug profile parallel to the molecular profile. Bevacizumab, sunitinib and aflibercept are examples of anti-angiogenic drugs.

Objectives: A hallmark of solid tumors is sustained angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF), VEGF receptors (VEGFR) and placental growth factor (PlGF) are involved in angiogenesis. We aimed to study the gene expression profile of angiogenesis including VEGF-A, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3 and PlGF in an Iranian group of patients undergoing breast surgery due to breast cancer and breast fibroadenoma.

Methods: Tumor tissue samples of a group of patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and a group of patients with fibroadenoma (Fib) were used. Gene expression was studied by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) and fold changes (FC) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported based on calibration with normal breast tissue.

Results: All the genes showed significant up-regulation in IDC group. The extensive up-regulation was for VEGFR-2 (FC=52.68; 95% CI=17.96-154.47; P<0.001). In Fib group, PlGF showed a significant upregulation (FC=10.41; 95% CI=5.35-20.26; P=0.002). Comparison of IDC group with Fib group showed significant up-regulation of VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3 in IDC group (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Malignancy of breast tumors is associated with overexpression of all the genes of this profile. However, only VEGFRs showed up-regulation in comparison to benign tumors. Individualized targeted therapy, according to this profile, should be studied in the future.

Cite this article as:

Ahmadi Amir Yasin Seyyed , Sayad Soheila , Shahsavar Farhad , Nekouian Reza*, Panahi Mahshid , Sayad Saed , Boroujeni Beigi Mandana and Akbari Soheila , Expression of Angiogenesis-related Genes in a Group of Iranian Cases of Breast Cancer, Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine 2020; 17 (3) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1875692117999201215161142