Identification of Eight Histone Methylation Modification Regulators Associated With Breast Cancer Prognosis

Histone methylation is an important epigenetic modification process coordinated by histone methyltransferases, histone demethylases and histone methylation reader proteins and plays a key role in the occurrence and development of cancer. This study constructed a risk scoring model around histone methylation modification regulators and conducted a multidimensional comprehensive analysis to reveal its potential role in breast cancer prognosis and drug sensitivity. First, 144 histone methylation modification regulators (HMMRs) were subjected to differential analysis and univariate Cox regression analysis, and nine differentially expressed HMMRs associated with survival were screened out. Next, a risk scoring model consisting of eight HMMRs was constructed using the LASSO regression algorithm, exhibiting independent predictive values in training and validation cohorts. Then, immune analysis shows that patients in the high-risk group divided by the risk scoring model has weakened the immune response. In addition, through functional analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between high-risk and low-risk groups, we confirmed that the DEGs mainly affected the nucleoplasm and tumour microenvironment. Finally, drug sensitivity analysis demonstrated that our model could be useful for drug screening and identify potential drugs for treating BRCA patients. In conclusion, these eight HMMRs may be key factors in the prognosis and drug sensitivity of BRCA patients.