Investigation into Death-Associated Protein Kinase One (Dapk1) As A Non-Invasive Marker for Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: Malignant tumour that begins in the breast with the capability of spreading is called Breast Cancer. Breast cancer is still the single most common malignancy in women worldwide. In 2012 an estimated 1.7 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer all over the world and 6.3 million women were diagnosed five (5) years ago. The fight against breast cancer seems difficult because of cancer’s ability to proliferate and metastasize and cause damage from primary site to other areas such as the lungs and the liver. Halting proliferation is daunting because of biological capabilities of cancer cells during multistep development of cancer. Death associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) is part of the proteins involved in cancer proliferation. DAPK1 plays a role in apoptosis in wild-type p53 cell environment preventing cell growth but changes this helpful role to promoting the growth and aggressiveness of cancer in the mutant p53 environment. General Aim: The study sought to investigate into DAPK1 as a non-invasive marker for breast tumour aggression and progression. Methodology: Blood samples of participants were drawn after consent forms were signed. Data on age, treatment, and diagnosis and pathology numbers were retrieved from folders. The pathology numbers retrieved from patents folders were used to retrieve the slides and tissue blocks clients at the pathology department. Slides were screened by pathologist to indicate those particular blocks that contained a lot of malignant cells. Sections were cut and hematoxylin and eosin stains were applied. Slides were screened to confirm malignant diagnosis. Sections from confirmed malignant blocks were taken from selected archival tissue blocks for immunohistochemistry using DAPK1 antibodies. The expression levels of the protein were determined by using colour intensity and scores were generated. DAKP1 levels in blood serum were quantified using commercial anti-DAPK1 ELISA kit. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Data were presented as mean ±SEM (Standard Error) and one-way ANOVA were used as the post hoc analysis to confirm significance between DAPK1 in blood samples of breast cancer and non-breast cancer patients. Chi-square was used to test for significance in the expression of protein in tumour tissues. RESULTS: Breast cancer slides showed variable staining intensities of brown colouration but non-breast cancer tissues showed no staining intensity. There was a statistical value of 0.000008 which was significant compared to our P value ≤0.05. There were traces of DAPK 1 protein in sera of breast cancer patients but there were no traces of DAPK 1 in the sera of non-breast cancer patients with a statistical value of 0.11 which was higher than my P value ≤0.05. CONCLUSION: DAPK 1 protein was overexpressed in malignant breast cancer patients than non-malignant breast cancer patients.