ACSL3 As a Potential Prognostic Biomarker in Patients With Breast Cancer

Abstract Objective: To explore the expression pattern of long chain fatty acyl CoA synthetase 3 (ACSL3) in breast cancer, and evaluate the clinical significance of ACSL3 by analyzing potential function and prognostic value of ACSL3 in human breast carcinoma.Methods: The expression of ACSL3 in normal mammary tissues and breast tumor tissues was analyzed by GEPIA and Human Protein Atlas. The prognostic value of ACSL3 was evaluated by Kaplan–Meier plotter analysis. ACSL3 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 297 breast cancer patients from the First Hospital of China Medical University Furthermore, based on LinkedOmics database, analyses of GO and KEGG pathways were performed to identify the potential function of ACSL3. Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) database was used to evaluate the association between ACSL3 and immune infiltration in breast cancer. Results: GEPIA and Human Protein Atlas indicated that ACSL3 was significantly upregulated in breast carcinomas. Kaplan-Meier plotter analysis showed that increased expression of ACSL3 mRNA was significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in breast cancer patients. Results from immunochemical staining showed that ACSL3 was obviously related to clinicopathological features of breast cancer, and ACSL3 was highly abundant in TNBC tumors. Moreover, survival analysis of breast cancer patients demonstrated that higher ACSL3 protein expression is unfavorable prognostic biomarker in breast cancer patients. Results from TIMER database indicated that ACSL3 expression was significantly correlated with infiltration level of multiple immune cells. Further studies are needed to explore underlying mechanism of the pro-tumor effects of ACSL3 expression.Conclusions: ACSL3 may not only serve as a reliable predictive biomarker of breast cancer but also have impact on the occurrence and progression of breast cancer. Thus, ACSL3 may be an emerging therapeutic target for the development of molecular-targeted therapeutic strategies for breast cancer.