YKT6 Promotes Breast Cancer Progression and Is Associated with Poor Prognosis and Immune Infiltration
Background: YKT6 is markedly overexpressed across multiple tumor types and plays a role in driving their progression. However, the correlation between YKT6 and breast cancer remains poorly understood. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the potential prognostic value and biological function of the YKT6 gene in breast cancer.Methods: Public datasets, clinical samples, and tissue microarrays (TMA) were used for YKT6 expression and prognostic value analyses. The relationship between YKT6 expression, tumor immune infiltrates, and tumor mutation burden (TMB) was examined using the TCGA database. Cellular functional assays were performed to verify the biological behavior of YKT6 in breast cancer cells. Moreover, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) was conducted to explore the underlying mechanisms of YKT6.Results: YKT6 was significantly upregulated in breast cancer tissues compared with normal tissues (P < 0.05), and higher YKT6 expression was significantly associated with worse clinical prognosis, advanced tumor stage, and distant metastasis (P < 0.05). In addition, YKT6 expression was correlated with the infiltration of various immune cells and TMB. Knockdown of YKT6 impaired the proliferation, invasion, and migration of breast cancer cells and increased apoptosis. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that YKT6 primarily influenced breast cancer progression through the cell cycle and biological processes such as autophagy, apoptosis, and ferroptosis. Moreover, knockdown of YKT6 suppressed mTORC1 activity.Conclusion: YKT6 may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for breast cancer. Its expression level is correlated with tumor infiltrating immune cells and may offer potential value for the treatment of breast cancer patients.