The Expression of Hgprt1 in the Malignant and Benign Breast Tumors: The Correlation With Clinicopathological Status Publisher



Zadeh A N ; Tehrani F S K ; Atri M
Source: Iranian Journal of Breast Diseases Published:2026

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide. Although several biomarkers, such as ER, PR, HER-2, and Ki-67, are routinely used for diagnosis and prognosis, there remains a need for additional markers that can reliably distinguish malignant from benign lesions. Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase 1 (HPRT1), a key enzyme in the purine salvage pathway, has been reported to be elevated in some cancers, but its role in breast cancer remains unclear. Methods: In the present investigation, HPRT1 was evaluated in malignant (30), benign (20), and normal breast (20) tissues using Real-time PCR and western blot analysis. The correlation between the results and tumor grade (II & III), patient age, ER/PR, stage, tumor size, and Ki-67 was also assessed. Results: Real-time PCR revealed that HPRT1 mRNA was significantly upregulated in malignant tumors compared to normal (fold change ≈ 2.1, p=0.003) and benign tissues (fold change ≈ 1.9, p=0.007). At the same time, no difference was observed between benign and normal tissues (fold change ≈ 1.1, p=0.06). Western blot analysis confirmed these findings, showing mean ± SEM expression levels of 1.28 ± 0.69 in malignant, 0.87 ± 0.05 in benign, and 0.97 ± 0.09 in normal tissues. Malignant tumors exhibited significantly higher protein expression compared to benign (p=0.002) and normal tissues (p=0.012). No significant correlations were found between HPRT1 expression and clinicopathological parameters. Conclusions: It is concluded that elevated HPRT1 expression in malignant breast tumors provides strong evidence for its use in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, as it is increased only in malignant, not benign, tumors. © 2026 Nazemi Zadeh et al.