Expression Patterns of Adrenomedullin and its Receptors in Breast Cancer Among Saudi Patients

Nada AlQahtani, Sadeem Aljabr, Emad Omar Kutbi, Mona Alonazi, Ramesa Bhat and Sooad Al-Daihan

Background and Objective: The adrenomedullin (AM), a peptide in the calcitonin family, acts as an angiogenic factor in tumors, with dysregulation linked to various cancers. Its receptors, AM1 and AM2, are complexes of calcitonin receptor-like receptors and RAMP2/3, but its role in breast cancer remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the expression levels of ADM, its receptors (RAMP2, RAMP3, CLR) and their clinical significance in breast cancer patients, to evaluate their potential as biomarkers for breast cancer diagnosis in the Saudi population. Materials and Methods: The 24 Saudi breast cancer patients and 24 healthy controls from King Fahad Medical City, with blood samples collected for RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. Gene expression was measured using RT-qPCR and protein levels were assessed by Western blotting and ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism^®, with gene expression normalized to GAPDH and comparisons made using Welch’s t-test. Results: The ADM and its receptors were significantly overexpressed in breast cancer patients as compared to control. Plasma concentrations levels of these proteins were higher in breast cancer patients with a significant difference for ADM (p = 0.0001) and RAMP3 (p = 0.01). Conclusion: These findings support the potential of ADM levels as biomarkers for breast cancer diagnosis in the Saudi population, indicating that blood tests for ADM could provide a less invasive alternative to biopsy procedures. Further studies with larger cohorts are necessary to validate and generalize these findings.

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