PONE-D-21-14182

Perception of breast cancer risk factors: Dysregulation of TGF-β/miRNA axis in Pakistani females

PLOS ONE

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: In the manuscript ‘Perception of breast cancer risk factors: Dysregulation of TGF-β/miRNA axis in Pakistani females’, Fayyaz etal., highlighted the different risk factors like stress, no. of children, menstrual cycles and correlated with age, stage and grade etc. of the diseases. The important thing is they performed in silico and study to pick the miRNA regulating the TGF beta pathway and confirmed the expression in clinical samples both in blood as well as biopsy. The results can help in designing the therapeutic strategy and monitoring the disease state in the population for better output. The manuscript is acceptable for publication after incorporating following revisions.

1. In abstract authors stated that miRNA ‘significantly dysregulated’, it is better to mention either the P value or the fold change observed in the study.

2. In introduction highlight and compare the risk factors of breast cancer observed in current study with that of other Asian country data.

3. In materials and methods section primer sequences used for expression analysis of TGF-beta pathway genes and miRNA are not provided. Supply it as supplementary file.

4. Result should be concluded with ‘May or can’ as more studies are required on large data set to be sure to state.

5. Under heading ‘miRNA-target genes network analysis’, where authors mentioned the ‘different cascades’, it’s better to name few important one.

6. Improve the quality of figure 6.

7. Carefully remove the typo-errors from the manuscript.

Reviewer #2: In the manuscript Fayyaz et al., studied the risk factors of breast cancer and TGF-beta pathway/miRNA interaction in Pakistani population. The result highlights the different factors that can contribute as risk factors of breast cancer. In this study, the clinical parameter, In silico and expression of TGF beta pathway genes and miRNA were studied in clinical samples (both blood and biopsy). Overall, the study is well resented, a few minor changes can be done.

1. The reaction conditions for the synthesis of miRNA cDNA should be given.

2. Where possible provide references for the methods used in the study.

3. In Table 2 authors do not need to mention Pearson correlation with each parameter studied as this information is already provided in title of the Table 2.

4. In Table 2 mention r and p-value with respective values of the correlation study.

5. In result section under heading ‘Demographic Profiling of Breast Cancer Patients’ remove the word elucidation with observed,.

6. In discussion section compare your results with other Asian countries data to highlight the differences if any observed.

7. It is suggested to mention the number of experimental repeats in figure legends.

8. Improve the quality of figures.

9. Remove the typo errors from the manuscript.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Sobia Manzoor, PhD

Reviewer #2: Yes: Saba Khaliq

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Perception of breast cancer risk factors: Dysregulation of TGF-β/miRNA axis in Pakistani females

PONE-D-21-14182R1

Dear Dr. Ijaz,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Muhammad Shareef Masoud, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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