TRIM3 And TRIM16 As Tumor Suppressors In Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women in many countries. Clinicopathological parameters such as stage are important in cancer. Numerous factors serve as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in breast cancer. The large family of Tripartite-motif (TRIM) proteins with ~80 members has drawn attention for their role in cancer. TRIM3 and TRIM16 have shown suppressive activity in different cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the expression of TRIM3 and TRIM16 in cancerous and normal breast samples and investigate their association with different clinicopathological parameters.Methods and Results: 40 pairs of breast cancer and respective normal breast tissue samples, were selected. qRT-PCR with specific primer pairs were utilized to determine the gene expression of TRIM3 and TRIM16. With the reaction efficiency being >90%, the relative gene expression was calculated through the 2-∆∆Ct formula. The expression of TRIM3 and TRIM16 genes in tumor samples was significantly reduced to 0.45 and 0.29 fold, respectively, compared to the normal samples. TRIM3 and TRIM16 genes expression were both positively correlated with the invasion of breast cancer. TRIM3 gene expression was associated with tumors’ histological grade. However, no significant association was found between the expression of either of genes and tumor size, stage and necrosis.Conclusion: The expression of TRIM3 and TRIM16 genes are significantly reduced in breast cancer tissues. Besides, the expression of both TRIM3 and TRIM16 genes significantly plummet in lymphatic/vascular and perineural invasive samples. Hence, we suggest a potential tumor suppressor role for TRIM3 and TRIM16 in breast cancer.