Identifying and validating the prognosis and potential significance of Mitophagy related genes in breast cancer

Background Breast cancer (BC) is a common malignant tumor with high incidence and mortality rates. Mitophagy refers to a selective form of autophagy that is believed to be closely related to the occurrence and progression of BC. Identifying the mitophagy-related sites associated with BC can help us gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of BC, laying the foundation for early diagnosis and effective treatment of BC. Method Firstly, we collected RNA seq expression data of BC from the GEO database and conducted differential analysis. The differential expression sites were intersected with mitophagy related sites from the GeneCards database to obtain BC related mitophagy genes. Then, K-M survival analysis and ROC diagnosis and treatment effectiveness analysis were performed to identify prognostic biomarkers of BC. Secondly, based on the expression of mitophagy related sites and survival status, we divided BC patients into high-risk and low-risk subgroups, and conducted immune infiltration and GSEA analysis on different subgroups to understand the potential impact of mitophagy on BC. Finally, IHC images based on the HPA database were used to validate the protein expression of BC prognostic biomarkers. Result Through dual validation of K-M survival analysis and ROC diagnosis-treatment efficacy analysis, we ultimately identified 9 mitophagy-related prognostic biomarkers for BC, and found their expression was significantly upregulated in BC tissues. In addition, the results showed that the degree of immune infiltration in the low-risk subgroup was considered higher than that in the high-risk subgroup. Conclusion This study unveiled the prognosis, degree of tissue immune infiltration, and significant pathway enrichment levels of mitophagy and BC, and identified 9 prognostically related biomarkers; this has laid the foundation for the development of early diagnostic methods and in-depth research on the pathogenesis of BC in the future.