International Journal of Molecular Sciences

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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Breast cancer remains one of the most common cancers in women, and despite improved early diagnosis and treatments, many women will still die from this disease. This Special Issue will gather reviews and original research articles covering molecular aspects of the biology and pathology of breast cancer in humans and model organisms.

Topics gathered will emphasize ways to achieve the genesis and progression of novel therapeutic approaches to breast cancer, especially for triple-negative and HER2+ breast cancers. The development of breast cancer therapies, including new agents, endocrine therapy, radiation therapy, and genomic and other translational approaches such as circulating tumor DNA is of particular interest.

We invite contributions of original research papers and up-to-date review articles about breast cancer at basic, translational, and molecular levels for a Special Issue with expert insights and perspectives on molecular advances in the field of breast cancer.

Prof. Dr. Carla I. Falkson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

breast cancer
genomics
CDK4/6 inhibitors
hormone-positive breast cancer
triple-negative breast cancer
metastatic breast cancer
HER2+ targeted therapy
novel therapy
endocrine therapy
biomarkers
BRCA1 and BRCA2

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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29 pages, 6630 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Expression-Based Diagnosis, Treatment Selection, and Drug Development for Breast Cancer

by Qing Ye, Jiajia Wang, Barbara Ducatman, Rebecca A. Raese, Jillian L. Rogers, Ying-Wooi Wan, Chunlin Dong, Lindsay Padden, Elena N. Pugacheva, Yong Qian and Nancy Lan Guo

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(13), 10561; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241310561 - 23 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1795

Abstract

There is currently no gene expression assay that can assess if premalignant lesions will develop into invasive breast cancer. This study sought to identify biomarkers for selecting patients with a high potential for developing invasive carcinoma in the breast with normal histology, benign lesions, or premalignant lesions. A set of 26-gene mRNA expression profiles were used to identify invasive ductal carcinomas from histologically normal tissue and benign lesions and to select those with a higher potential for future cancer development (ADHC) in the breast associated with atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH). The expression-defined model achieved an overall accuracy of 94.05% (AUC = 0.96) in classifying invasive ductal carcinomas from histologically normal tissue and benign lesions (n = 185). This gene signature classified cancer development in ADH tissues with an overall accuracy of 100% (n = 8). The mRNA expression patterns of these 26 genes were validated using RT-PCR analyses of independent tissue samples (n = 77) and blood samples (n = 48). The protein expression of PBX2 and RAD52 assessed with immunohistochemistry were prognostic of breast cancer survival outcomes. This signature provided significant prognostic stratification in The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer patients (n = 1100), as well as basal-like and luminal A subtypes, and was associated with distinct immune infiltration and activities. The mRNA and protein expression of the 26 genes was associated with sensitivity or resistance to 18 NCCN-recommended drugs for treating breast cancer. Eleven genes had significant proliferative potential in CRISPR-Cas9/RNAi screening. Based on this gene expression signature, the VEGFR inhibitor ZM-306416 was discovered as a new drug for treating breast cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Breast Cancer: Advanced Development and Therapeutic Strategies)

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Review

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19 pages, 1719 KiB

Open AccessReview

Advances in Aptamers-Based Applications in Breast Cancer: Drug Delivery, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics

by Tooba Gholikhani, Shalen Kumar, Hadi Valizadeh, Somayeh Mahdinloo, Khosro Adibkia, Parvin Zakeri-Milani, Mohammad Barzegar-Jalali and Balam Jimenez

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(22), 14475; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232214475 - 21 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2747

Abstract

Aptamers are synthetic single-stranded oligonucleotides (such as RNA and DNA) evolved in vitro using Systematic Evolution of Ligands through Exponential enrichment (SELEX) techniques. Aptamers are evolved to have high affinity and specificity to targets; hence, they have a great potential for use in therapeutics as delivery agents and/or in treatment strategies. Aptamers can be chemically synthesized and modified in a cost-effective manner and are easy to hybridize to a variety of nano-particles and other agents which has paved a way for targeted therapy and diagnostics applications such as in breast tumors. In this review, we systematically explain different aptamer adoption approaches to therapeutic or diagnostic uses when addressing breast tumors. We summarize the current therapeutic techniques to address breast tumors including aptamer-base approaches. We discuss the next aptamer-based therapeutic and diagnostic approaches targeting breast tumors. Finally, we provide a perspective on the future of aptamer-based sensors for breast therapeutics and diagnostics. In this section, the therapeutic applications of aptamers will be discussed for the targeting therapy of breast cancer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Insights into Breast Cancer: Advanced Development and Therapeutic Strategies)

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