Figures index : BRCA1 Protein Deficiency in Breast Cancer Microbiopsy Lysate Delineates Patient Survival Time : Science and Education Publishing

Figures index

Journal of Cancer Research and Treatment. 2021, 9(1), 1-11 doi:10.12691/jcrt-9-1-1

Figure 1. Example of western blot showing the expression of BRCA2 (390 kDa) and BRCA1 (220 kDa) in breast cancer micro-biopsies cell lysates (n=54); as loading control β-actin is used. Most samples have lost BRCA1. Few samples have preserved BRCA2 while BRCA1 was lost (A1, H8 and I9). On this blot, two samples (A1 and I9) displayed isoforms of BRCA2. Number were scrambled to not trace patients.

Figure 2. Diagram showing the percentage of patient with no expression of BRCA1 versus expression of BRCA1 protein

Figure 3. Histogram showing the trend of tumor grade spotted by microbiopsy intervention. Among the 45 women samples analyzed by histology, most of them were at early stage of the disease (grade 1 and grade 2).

Figure 4. Electrophoresis gel showing the amplification of Exon 1 and Exon 2 of BRCA1 by PCR. The amplification of Exon 1 and Exon 2 verifies the integrity of mRNA transcription starting site that will permit translation further. The amplification of GAPDH gene was used as a control for DNA amplification accuracy and gel loading

Figure 5. Histogram showing amplification of BRCA1 gene at exon1 and 2. Exon 1 is deleted in 24% of breast cancer tissues while exon 2 is deleted in nearly 41% of them. Absence of Exon 2 impairs gene transcription and further protein translation

Figure 6. Kaplan-Meier median survival time in patient expressing BRCA1 protein (blue curve) versus patient lacking BRCA1 protein (red curve). The Kaplan-Meier curve shows that the median survival time is reduced to 20 months in women who have totally lost BRCA1 protein expression, few samples have BRCA1 protein expression. The difference of median survival time rate was not statistically significant between patients expressing BRCA1 protein (blue curve) or not (red curve); p=0.86.

Figure 7. The Kaplan-Meier curve is established according to the amplification potency of BRCA1 Exon 1 or BRCA1 Exon 2 in samples DNA extract. A: represents the Kaplan-Meier curve according to Exon 1 amplification; the median survival time is lower than 20 months for patients with deletion on BRCA1 Exon 1. The difference is statistically significant between patients with Exon1 amplification (blue curve) and patient without exon 1 represented by the red curve (p = 0.0198). B: represents the Kaplan-Meier curve according to Exon 2 amplification; the median survival time is lower than 20 months for patients with deletion on BRCA1 Exon 2. The difference is statistically significant between patients with Exon 2 amplification (blue curve) and patient without exon 2 represented by the red curve (p = 0.0043)