The relationship between expression of VIMENTIN and CD146 genes in breast cancer

Abstract Objectives CD146 is an adhesive molecule that was originally reported on malignant melanoma cells as a protein crucial for cell adhesion. It is now known that high expression of the CD146 protein is not only characteristic of melanoma, but it occurs on a number of cancers, contributing to worse prognosis and increased aggressiveness. Independent in vitro studies in breast cancer have shown that CD146 protein alone can induce a change in epithelial to mesenchymal transcriptional profile, which is the basis of the tumor aggressiveness and metastasis. Methods In the following work, the correlation coefficients were analyzed between the genes of the mesenchymal profile and the CD146 gene in 10 independent transcriptomic data of breast cancer patients. Results The analysis confirmed the relationship between CD146 expression and mesenchymal profile genes, pointing VIMENTIN as the gene which expression is most strongly correlated with the CD146, suggesting that both genes, CD146 and VIM may be directly controlled by the same mechanism or regulate one another. Conclusions The analysis points a potential route for research on the CD146 gene expression, which may lead to understanding of its regulation in breast cancer, contributing to the development of new therapeutic strategies targeting highly metastatic breast cancer cells.