Transcription Levels of nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase and Its Antisense in Breast Cancer Samples

Objective To evaluate association of patients’ clinicopathological data with expression of nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (NNT) and naturally occurring antisense RNA of the same gene locus (NNTAS1) in breast cancer samples. Materials and Methods In the current casecontrol study, mean expressions of NNT and NNTAS1 were assessed in 108 breast tissue samples including 54 invasive ductal carcinoma samples and 54 adjacent noncancerous tissues (ANCTs) by quantitative reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (qRTPCR). Results NNT expression was not significantly different between tumor tissues and ANCTs. However, NNTAS1 expression was significantly downregulated in tumor tissues compared to ANCTs (expression ratio=0.51, P=0.01). NNTAS1 expression was significantly higher in estrogen receptor (ER) negative samples, in comparison with ER positives (P=0.01). No considerable difference was found in the gene expressions between other subcategories of patients. Considerable correlations were detected between expression levels of these two genetic loci in both tumor tissues and ANCTs. ConclusionIn the current study, for the first time we simultaneously assessed expression of NNT and NNTAS1 in breast cancer tissues. This study highlights association of ER status with dysregulation of NNTAS1 in breast cancer tissues. Future researches are necessary to explore the function of this long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in the pathogenesis of breast cancer.