- Academic Editor
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Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive form
of breast cancer (BC), and it is often associated with a high tumor grade, a
younger age at diagnosis, and a low survival rate. Conventional
endocrine and anti-HER-2 therapies are usually ineffective against TNBC, creating
treatment challenges and resulting in a poor prognosis. Hence, new targets and
treatment strategies for TNBC are urgently required. Methods: The
GSE102818 dataset was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs)
between primary BC and metastatic BC lesions. The Cancer Genome Atlas and the
cBioPortal platform were employed to explore mutations in candidate genes.
Utilizing the Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource (TIMER), the relationship between
the expression of candidate genes and immune cell infiltration was assessed.
Additionally, the cell-specific expression of the candidate genes was examined in
the immune microenvironment of primary BC and metastatic BC lesions using the
single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets GSE118389 and GSE202695. Finally,
the protein expression of the candidate genes in clinical TNBC samples was
evaluated. Results: CD8A was identified as a hub gene in the
DEG network and was found to be down-regulated in metastatic BC lesions.
CD8A expression was highly correlated with the infiltration of CD8