Research Article - Biomedical Research (2019) Volume 30, Issue 4

Mining hub genes associated with late stage adrenocortical carcinoma

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) was in poor prognosis especially the late stages. Our research tried to discover potential hub genes associated with the disease. Methods: The GSE90713 including 5 normal and 58 ACC samples were downloaded from the GEO datasets. A total of 106 up- and 299 down-regulated DEGs were identified by BrB-ArrayTools. Then their gene ontology functions and KEGG pathways were enriched by the DAVID. The protein-protein interaction network was provided by STRING. Then, Cytohubba was used to pick out the hub genes. The Webgestalt was used to predict transcription factors and microRNAs. Finally, TCGA’s data was utilized to validate our results. Results: The up-regulated DEGs were mainly involved in the processes of cell division and cell cycle. The down regulated DEGs were mainly involved in the processes of response to hormone and extracellular exosome. CDK1, RFC4, KIF11, TOP2A, CCNB1, MAD2L1, AURKA, NCAPG, CDKN3, TRIP13, were identified hub genes and they were closely related to the process of the mitotic cell cycle. The high expression of these genes indicated poor prognosis of the diseases (P<0.01) by Kaplan Meier test. After examination by the genome data of ACC patients in TCGA datasets, they were suggested not only associated with the metastasis, but also with the tumor staging. However, except CCNB1, KIF11, MAD2L1, and TRIP13, others didn’t perform an obvious connection with local lymph nodes invasion. Conclusion: CCNB1, KIF11, MAD2L1, and TRIP13 were closely associated with TMN stage and prognosis. They may serve as therapeutic targets for the adrenal carcinoma.

Author(s): Di Yu, Chen Dongshan, Yu Wei, Yan Lei

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