Abstract
Background: Immunomodulatory peptides are capable of stimulating or
suppressing the immune system. Hence, deregulation of them can be
considered as an immunotherapy approach. These peptides may have dual
behavior in response to different infections. For instance, an
antimicrobial peptide may act as an anticancer, tumor marker or even
cause cancer progression. Methods: In this study, we used single-cell
RNA sequencing analysis to investigate the deregulation of
immunomodulatory peptides in malignant versus normal human breast
epithelial cells. We validated the obtained results in chromatin
accessibility level. Furthermore, we used a drug repositioning approach
to change the expression of these peptides based on their role in cancer
biology. Results: As a result, ten immunomodulatory peptides were
upregulated in breast cancer versus normal. Chromatin was more
accessible for these peptides in cancer cell lines versus normal. Among
these ten peptides, five of them were tumor drivers (i.e., BST2, GAPDH,
S100A8, S100A9 and HMGB1), three of them were anticancer (i.e., H2AFJ,
SCGB2A1 and HMGN2), S100A7 had dual behavior in different cancers and
ZG16B was a tumor marker. Using the LINCS L1000 database, we proposed a
list of drugs that can deregulate the candidate peptides according to
their role in the progression of malignancy. Conclusions: In conclusion,
immunomodulatory peptides can be considered as drug targets based on
their role in cancer biology.