Pseudogenes play pivotal roles in tumorigenesis. Previous studies have suggested that pituitary tumor-transforming 3, pseudogene (PTTG3P), serves as an oncogene in human cancers. However, its expression pattern, biological function, and underlying mechanism in breast cancer remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated an elevated expression of PTTG3P in breast cancer and discovered that PTTG3P expression correlated negatively with estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status, but linked positively to basal-like status, triple-negative breast cancer status, Nottingham prognostic index (NPI), and Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grade. High expression of PTTG3P was also found to be associated with a poor prognosis of breast cancer. To explore the potential mechanisms of PTTG3P, a PTTG3P-microRNA (miRNA)-mRNA regulatory network was established. Co-expressed genes of PTTG3P were also obtained. Enrichment analysis for these co-expressed genes revealed that they were significantly enriched in mitotic nuclear division and cell cycle. Subsequent research on mechanism of PTTG3P indicated that its expression correlated positively with PTTG1 expression. However, no significant expression correlation between PTTG3P and PTTG2 was observed. Taken together, our findings suggest that increased expression of pseudogene PTTG3P may be used as a promising prognostic biomarker and novel therapeutic target for breast cancer.

假基因在肿瘤发生中起关键作用。先前的研究表明，垂体肿瘤转化3假基因（PTTG3P）作为人类癌症中的癌基因。然而，它的表达模式，生物学功能，并且在乳腺癌潜在机制仍是未知的。在这项研究中，我们证明了PTTG3P在乳腺癌中的表达升高，并且发现PTTG3P的表达与雌激素受体（ER）和孕激素受体（PR）的状态呈负相关，但与基底样状态，三阴性乳腺癌状态呈正相关，诺丁汉预后指数（NPI），和Scarff-Bloom-Richardson等级。还发现PTTG3P的高表达与乳腺癌的不良预后有关。为了探索PTTG3P的潜在机制，建立了PTTG3P-microRNA（miRNA）-mRNA调控网络。还获得了PTTG3P的共表达基因。这些共表达的基因的富集分析表明，它们在有丝分裂核分裂和细胞周期中显着富集。对PTTG3P作用机理的后续研究表明，其表达与PTTG1表达呈正相关。但是，没有观察到PTTG3P和PTTG2之间的显着表达相关性。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明假基因PTTG3P的表达增加可能被用作有希望的乳腺癌预后生物标志物和新的治疗靶标。