Middle East Journal of Cancer

The Expression of Long Non-Coding RNA BACE1-AS and SIRT1 gene in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes of Breast Cancer Patients: A Computational and Molecular Study

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article(s)

Authors

Hadis Musavi 1, 2
Fereshteh Ahmadipour 3
Tayebeh Azramezani Kopi 4
Zahra Yazdani 5
Fatemeh Gorjinezhad 6
Fariba Ghodrati 7
Abouzar Bagheri 1
Masoumeh Karimi 8
Abbas Khonakdar-Tarsi 1, 9

1 Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

2 Thalassemia Research Center, Hemoglobinophaty Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

4 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

5 Department of Immunology, Molecular and Cell Biology Research Center, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

6 Department of Biotechnology Bacterial, Sana University, Sari, Iran

7 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

8 Department of Radiation Oncology, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

9 Immunogenetics Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

10.30476/mejc.2026.111535.2430
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer is molecularly heterogeneous, highlighting the need to identify circulating molecular alterations. This study aimed to investigate the expression of Beta-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme-1 antisense RNA (BACE1-AS) and Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) in peripheral blood leukocytes of patients with breast cancer and to explore their molecular characteristics and potential clinical relevance using molecular and bioinformatic analyses.
Method: This case–control study included 30 treatment-naive breast cancer patients and 30 healthy controls. BACE1-AS and SIRT1 expression were quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The Cancer Genome Atlas Breast Invasive Carcinoma (TCGA-BRCA) data from 1,098 tumors and 114 adjacent normal tissues were analyzed for expression, molecular subtypes, survival, correlations, diagnostic performance, and co-expression. Statistical analyses used R version 4.4 and GraphPad Prism version 9.5. A two-sided P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: Leukocyte BACE1-AS (fold change = 10.18, P < 0.001) and SIRT1 (fold change = 5.05, P < 0.001) were significantly higher in patients than controls. Their leukocyte expression was not significantly correlated (r = 0.18, P = 0.53). In TCGA-BRCA, BACE1-AS showed subtype-dependent expression, a weak positive correlation with SIRT1 (r = 0.14), and good tissue-based diagnostic performance (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.79). Co-expression analysis indicated enrichment of networks related to cellular stress adaptation and genome maintenance. Leukocyte BACE1-AS showed poor diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.57).
Conclusion: BACE1-AS was associated with subtype-dependent expression and stress- and genome-maintenance-related networks but does not support standalone blood-based biomarker use. Further mechanistic studies are warranted.

Highlights

Hadis Musavi (Google Scholar)
Abbas Khonakdar-Tarsi (Google Scholar)

Keywords

BACE1-AS
SIRT1
TCGA-BRCA
Breast neoplasms
RNA, Long noncoding
Subjects

Please cite this article as:

Musavi H, Ahmadipour F, Azramezani Kopi T, Yazdani Z, Gorjinezhad F, Ghodrati F, et al. The expression of long non-coding RNA BACE1-AS and SIRT1 gene in peripheral blood leukocytes of breast cancer patients: A computational and molecular study. Middle East J Cancer. 2026: in press. doi: 10.30476/mejc.2026.111535.2430.

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Middle East Journal of Cancer

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 06 October 2026

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