Su-Jeong Kim,1,* Jae-Ho Lee,2,* Woo-Jae Park,1 Shin Kim3– 5 1Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Gachon University, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, 21999, Republic of Korea; 2Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Dalseo-gu, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea; 3Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Dalseo-gu, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea; 4Institute of Medical Science, Keimyung University, Dalseo-gu, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea; 5Institute for Cancer Research, Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center, Dalseo-gu, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Shin Kim Email god98005@dsmc.or.krIntroduction: Sphingolipid metabolism is a highly controlled process that is involved in regulating bioactive lipid signaling pathways and serves important roles in several cellular processes in breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), which is characterized by the malignant proliferation of the ductal epithelium and stromal invasion, is the most common type of breast cancer. Recent advances in genetic research have accelerated the discovery of novel prognostic factors and therapeutic targets for the disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of sphingolipid metabolism-related genes in female IDC.Methods: The present study used gene expression RNAseq data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas breast invasive carcinoma (TCGA BRCA) datasets.Results: Sphingolipid metabolism-related genes exhibited dysregulated mRNA expression levels in IDC. The Student’s t-test revealed that SMPDL3B, B4GALNT1, LPAR2, and LASS2 were significantly upregulated, while LASS3, LPAR1, B4GALT6, GAL3ST1, HPGD, ST8SIA1, UGT8, and S1PR1 were significantly downregulated in female IDC tissues compared with normal solid tissues. Kaplan–Meier survival analyses revealed that high SMPDL3B mRNA expression levels were associated with good prognosis in female IDC, suggesting that SMPDL3B plays a tumor suppressor role. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first to report that dysregulated expressions of SMPDL3B are significantly associated with age, estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, and histological subtype.Conclusion: Taken together, our study indicated that SMPDL3B may have a pathophysiological role and serve as a novel prognostic biomarker in IDC.Keywords: SMPDL3B, sphingolipid metabolism, invasive ductal carcinoma, TCGA
