Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of heat shock proteins in the molecular subtypes of human breast cancer

Abstract

[...]there are clinical trials for various cancers, including BRCA, using HSP-inhibitor compounds and other HSP-based strategies [9–11]. [...]we have to take into account that the upregulation levels of this gene might appear statistically significant, but the number of RNA molecules could be relatively low. [...]an upregulated gene could have few RNA copy numbers and we ignore if the encoded protein has biological significance. [...]among the upregulated small heat shock proteins, HSPB1 stands out as the highest expressed of the group and appeared upregulated in Luminal A, Luminal B, and HER2 (close to the cut-point in Basal); the protein encoded by this gene has been well studied in breast cancer [4, 67]. In concordance, we have found that some of these genes appeared upregulated mainly in aggressive breast cancer subtypes that were clustered in the HSP-Clust III group. [...]the complexity of the regulation of the HSPs in BRCA is further increased when we consider the high number of client proteins that are associated with the HSPs [11].