High HSPB1 expression predicts poor clinical outcomes and correlates with breast cancer metastasis

BACKGROUND: Heat shock protein beta-1 (HSPB1) is a crucial biomarker for pathological processes in various cancers. However, the clinical value and function of HSPB1 in breast cancer has not been extensively explored. Therefore, we adopted a systematic and comprehensive approach to investigate the correlation between HSPB1 expression and clinicopathological features of breast cancer, as well as determine its prognostic value. We also examined the effects of HSPB1 on cell proliferation, invasion, apoptosis, and metastasis. METHODS: We investigated the expression of HSPB1 in patients with breast cancer using The Cancer Genome Atlas and immunohistochemistry. Chi-squared test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to examine the relationship between HSPB1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics. RESULTS: We observed that HSPB1 expression was significantly correlated with the stage N, pathologic stages, as well as estrogen and progesterone receptors. Furthermore, high HSPB1 expression resulted in a poor prognosis for overall survival, relapse-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival. Multivariable analysis showed that patients with poor survival outcomes had higher tumor, node, metastasis, and pathologic stages. Pathway analysis of HSPB1 and the altered neighboring genes suggested that HSPB1 is involved in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Functional analysis revealed showed that transient knockdown of HSPB1 inhibited the cell migration/invasion ability and promoted apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: HSPB1 may be involved in breast cancer metastasis. Collectively, our study demonstrated that HSPB1 has prognostic value for clinical outcomes and may serve as a therapeutic biomarker for breast cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-023-10983-3.