scholarly journals Bioinformatic screening and identification of downregulated hub genes in adrenocortical carcinoma

Author(s):  
Fangshi Xu ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Miao Yuan ◽  
Xiaojie Yang ◽  
Tie Chong
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-532
Author(s):  
Xin Yan ◽  
Chunfeng Liang ◽  
Xinghuan Liang ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Zhenxing Huang ◽  
...  

<sec> <title>Objective:</title> This study aimed to identify the potential key genes associated with the progression and prognosis of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). </sec> <sec> <title>Methods:</title> Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ACC cells and normal adrenocortical cells were assessed by microarray from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The biological functions of the classified DEGs were examined by Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analyses and a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was mapped using Cytoscape software. MCODE software was also used for the module analysis and then 4 algorithms of cytohubba software were used to screen hub genes. The overall survival (OS) examination of the hub genes was then performed by the ualcan online tool. </sec> <sec> <title>Results:</title> Two GSEs (GSE12368, GSE33371) were downloaded from GEO including 18 and 43 cases, respectively. One hundred and sixty-nine DEGs were identified, including 57 upregulated genes and 112 downregulated genes. The Gene Ontology (GO) analyses showed that the upregulated genes were significantly enriched in the mitotic cytokines is, nucleus and ATP binding, while the downregulated genes were involved in the positive regulation of cardiac muscle contraction, extracellular space, and heparin-binding (P < 0.05). The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) pathway examination showed significant pathways including the cell cycle and the complement and coagulation cascades. The protein– protein interaction (PPI) network consisted of 162 nodes and 847 edges, including mitotic nuclear division, cytoplasmic, protein kinase binding, and cell cycle. All 4 identified hub genes (FOXM1, UBE2C, KIF11, and NDC80) were associated with the prognosis of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) by survival analysis. </sec> <sec> <title>Conclusions:</title> The present study offered insights into the molecular mechanism of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) that may be beneficial in further analyses. </sec>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenhe Yao ◽  
Xiaoling Zhao ◽  
Xuemeng Shang ◽  
Binghan Jia ◽  
Shuaijie Dou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a heterogeneous and rare malignant tumor associated with a poor prognosis. The molecular mechanisms of ACC remain elusive and more accurate biomarkers for the prediction of prognosis are needed.Methods: In this study, integrative profiling analyses were performed to identify novel hub genes in ACC to provide promising targets for future investigation. Three gene expression profiling datasets in the GEO database were used for the identification of overlapped differentially expressed genes (DEGs) following the criteria of adj.P.Value<0.05 and |log2 FC|>0.5 in ACC. Novel hub genes were screened out following a series of processes: the retrieval of DEGs with no known associations with ACC on Pubmed, then the cross-validation of expression values and significant associations with overall survival in the GEPIA2 and starBase databases, and finally the prediction of gene-tumor association in the GeneCards database.Results: Four novel hub genes were identified and two of them, TPX2 and RACGAP1, were positively correlated with the staging. Interestingly, co-expression analysis revealed that the association between TPX2 and RACGAP1 was the strongest and that the expression of HOXA5 was almost completely independent of that of RACGAP1 and TPX2. Furthermore, the PPI network consisting of four novel genes and seed genes in ACC revealed that HOXA5, TPX2, and RACGAP1 were all associated with TP53. Conclusions: This study identified four novel hub genes (TPX2, RACHAP1, HXOA5 and FMO2) that may play crucial roles in the tumorigenesis and the prediction of prognosis of ACC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baojin Wu ◽  
Xinjie Tang ◽  
Honglin Ke ◽  
Qiong Zhou ◽  
Zhaoping Zhou ◽  
...  

Background: Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is the main downstream effector of the Hippo signaling pathway, which is involved in tumorigenesis. This study aimed to comprehensively understand the prognostic performances of YAP1 expression and its potential mechanism in pan-cancers by mining databases.Methods: The YAP1 expression was evaluated by the Oncomine database and GEPIA tool. The clinical significance of YAP1 expression was analyzed by the UALCAN, GEPIA, and DriverDBv3 database. Then, the co-expressed genes with YAP1 were screened by the LinkedOmics, and annotated by the Metascape and DAVID database. Additionally, by the MitoMiner 4.0 v tool, the YAP1 co-expressed genes were screened to obtain the YAP1-associated mitochondrial genes that were further enriched by DAVID and analyzed by MCODE for the hub genes.Results: YAP1 was differentially expressed in human cancers. Higher YAP1 expression was significantly associated with poorer overall survival and disease-free survival in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), brain Lower Grade Glioma (LGG), and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD). The LinkedOmics analysis revealed 923 co-expressed genes with YAP1 in adrenocortical carcinoma, LGG and PAAD. The 923 genes mainly participated in mitochondrial functions including mitochondrial gene expression and mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I assembly. Of the 923 genes, 112 mitochondrial genes were identified by MitoMiner 4.0 v and significantly enriched in oxidative phosphorylation. The MCODE analysis identified three hub genes including CHCHD1, IDH3G and NDUFAF5.Conclusion: Our findings showed that the YAP1 overexpression could be a biomarker for poor prognosis in ACC, LGG and PAAD. Specifically, the YAP1 co-expression genes were mainly involved in the regulation of mitochondrial function especially in oxidative phosphorylation. Thus, our findings provided evidence of the carcinogenesis of YAP1 in human cancers and new insights into the mechanisms underlying the role of YAP1 in mitochondrial dysregulation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
jun guo zhou ◽  
Dongsheng Wang ◽  
Xiaorong Zhong ◽  
Wei Ying ◽  
Yanchao Feng ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: To screen out significant genes associated with occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) via bioinformatical analysis and validation using clinical specimens. Methods: Gene expression chips were obtained from GEO database, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HCC and para-cancerous tissues were identified by GEO2R and Venn diagrams. What’s more, Gene Ontology (GO) function analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs were carried out by DAVID. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and module analysis of DEGs were performed by STRING and Cytoscape to get hub genes. Subsequently, the influence of hub genes on overall survival and the expression levels were determined with Ualcan and GEPIA, and found the pathway via re-analysis of DAVID. Besides, immunohistochemistry staining were performed to verify the key genes, and follow-up results including prognoses and the clinicopathological features were statistically analyzed. Results: 49 up-regulated DEGs and 122 down-regulated DEGs were selected. There were to tally 33 Hub genes were screened out, while 28 of them were related to prognosis and high expression in HCC. Furthermore, CDK1 and RRM2 were significantly enriched in p53 signaling pathway. Meanwhile, CDK1, RRM2 were highly expressed in HCC tissues by immunohistochemistry staining. Additionally, CDK1 and RRM2 were negatively correlated with overall survival. Tumor size and AFP were significant prognostic factors, while CDK1 and RRM2 were independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: This study confirmed CDK1 and RRM2 as the key genes in HCC which could be potential biological target for diagnosis and treatment.


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