The role of splicing factor

Alternative splicing is a mechanism to produce different proteins with diverse functions from one gene. Many splicing factors play an important role in cancer progression. PRPF8 is a core protein component of the spliceosome complex, U4/U6-U5 tri-snRNP. However, PRPF8 involved in mRNA alternative splicing are rarely included in the prognosis. We found that PRPF8 was expressed in all examined cancer types. Further analyses found that PRPF8 expression was significantly different between the breast cancer and paracancerous tissues. Survival analyses showed that PRPF8 -high patients had a poor prognosis, and the expression of PRPF8 is associated with distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and post progression survival (PPS). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) has revealed that PRPF8 expression is correlated with TGF-β, JAK-STAT, and cell cycle control pathways. Consistent with these results, upon PRPF8 silencing, the growth of MCF-7 cells was reduced, the ability of cell clone formation was weakened, and p⁢21 expression was increased. These results have revealed that PRPF8 is a significant factor for splicing in breast cancer progression.