Investigating the role of cathepsins in breast cancer progression: a Mendelian randomization study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Breast cancer, a major threat to women's health worldwide, has mechanisms of onset that remain unclear. Within the human lysosomal system, a class of enzymes known as cathepsins exhibit elevated expression levels in various malignant tumors, suggesting that they may play key roles in cancer progression.

Methods

This study employed the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to investigate the potential causal relationship between cathepsin levels and the risk of developing breast cancer. Furthermore, we conducted MR analysis using eQTL data to investigate how gene expression, mediated by cathepsins, affects the occurrence of different types of breast cancer and assessed the regulatory effects of cathepsins.

Results

MR analysis revealed that increas

SUBMITTER: Zhou S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11815281 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature