scholarly journals Mining hub genes correlated with immune infiltrating level across multiple tumors microenvironment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Zhao ◽  
Liang Wu ◽  
Zili Zhou ◽  
Xudan Zhang ◽  
Shengbo Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Previous studies revealed that cancer-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in an independent cancer type are rarely related to the tumorigenesis and metastasis, while the common DEGs across multiple types of cancer may be proved as potential oncogenes or tumor suppressors and extend our understanding. Although tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) have been reported to be associated with prognosis in multiple types of cancer, the hub genes regulating immune cells function in different cancer types remain unclear.Methods To screen for the hub genes regulating immune infiltrating level across multiple tumors microenvironment, the raw data containing RNA sequencing and clinical information from TCGA database and immune scores from ESTIMATE website across 25 cancer types were obtained.Results Based on the immune scores, all cases were categorized into high-score and low-score groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that a strong correlation was found in six cancer types. The functional enrichment analysis of common DEGs revealed that infection and immune response are the most prominent biological characteristics. Subsequently, the twelve common DEGs with prognostic value were identified as candidate hub genes and were adopted to construct the PPI network. Because of highly interconnected with other hub genes, protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 6 (PTPN6) was selected as the real hub gene across the six immune-specific tumors.Conclusion Due to the significant correlation between PTPN6 with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in multiple cancers, PTPN6 may well play a vital role in regulating immune response for tumor development.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Zhao ◽  
Liang Wu ◽  
Zili Zhou ◽  
Xudan Zhang ◽  
Shengbo Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Previous studies revealed that cancer-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in an independent cancer type are rarely related to the tumorigenesis and metastasis, while the common DEGs across multiple types of cancer may be proved as potential oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Although tumor-infiltrating immune cells have been reported to be associated with prognosis in multiple types of cancer, the hub genes regulating immune cells function in different cancer types remain unclear. Methods: To screen for the hub genes regulating immune infiltrating level across multiple tumors microenvironment, the raw data containing RNA sequencing and clinical information from TCGA database and immune scores from ESTIMATE website across 25 cancer types were obtained. Results: Based on the immune scores, all cases were categorized into high-score and low-score groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that a strong correlation between immune infiltrating level and survival prognosis was found in six cancer types. The functional enrichment analysis of common DEGs revealed that infection and immune response are the most prominent biological characteristics. Subsequently, the twelve common DEGs with prognostic value were identified as candidate hub genes and were adopted to construct the PPI network. Because of highly interconnected with other hub genes, protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 6 (PTPN6) was selected as the real hub gene across the six immune-specific tumors. Finally, a significant correlation between PTPN6 and immune infiltrating level, and immune marker sets of various immune cells were observed. Conclusion: PTPN6 may play a vital role in regulating immune response for tumor development, due to its significant correlation with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in multiple cancers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chen ◽  
Rui Li ◽  
Yun-Hong Yin ◽  
Xiao Liu ◽  
Xi-Jia Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a significant role in the development of cancer. However, the roles of TME in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) are not well studied. In our study, we aimed to identify differentially expressed tumor microenvironment-related genes as biomarker for predicting the prognosis of LUSC.Methods: We combined The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Estimation of Stromal and Immune cells in Malignant Tumor tissue using Expression data (ESTIMATE) datasets to identified differentially expressed genes in lung squamous cell carcinoma microenvironment. Then, functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were conducted. The top six genes in the PPI network were regarded as tumor microenvironment-related hub genes. Finally, the relationship between hub genes and tumor-infiltrating immune cells was deciphered using TIMER.Results: Our study revealed that immune and stromal scores are associated with specific clinicopathologic variables in LUSC. These variables include gender, age, distant metastasis and prognosis. In addition, a total of 874 upregulated and 72 downregulated genes were identified. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated a correlation between DEGs and the tumor microenvironment, tumor immune cells differentiation and activation. C3AR1, CSF1R, CCL2, CCR1, TYROBP, CD14were selected as the hub genes. A positive correlation was obtained between the expression of hub genes and the abundance of six immune cells.Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that ESTIMATE algorithm-based stromal and immune scores may be a reference indicator of cancer prognosis. We identified five TME-related genes, which could be used to predict the prognosis of LUSC patients.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11910
Author(s):  
Yang Tai ◽  
Chong Zhao ◽  
Jinhang Gao ◽  
Tian Lan ◽  
Huan Tong

Background Liver cirrhosis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate liver fibrosis, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood, and the interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs are not clearly elucidated. Methods miRNA and mRNA expression arrays of cirrhotic samples and control samples were acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. miRNA-mRNA integrated analysis, functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction were performed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) and mRNAs (DEGs), miRNA-mRNA interaction networks, enriched pathways and hub genes. Finally, the results were validated with in vitro cell models. Results By bioinformatics analysis, we identified 13 DEMs between cirrhotic samples and control samples. Among these DEMs, six upregulated (hsa-miR-146b-5p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-224-3p, hsa-miR-3135b, hsa-miR-3195, and hsa-miR-4725-3p) and seven downregulated (hsa-miR-1234-3p, hsa-miR-30b-3p, hsa-miR-3162-3p, hsa-miR-548aj-3p, hsa-miR-548x-3p, hsa-miR-548z, and hsa-miR-890) miRNAs were further validated in activated LX2 cells. miRNA-mRNA interaction networks revealed a total of 361 miRNA-mRNA pairs between 13 miRNAs and 245 corresponding target genes. Moreover, PPI network analysis revealed the top 20 hub genes, including COL1A1, FBN1 and TIMP3, which were involved in extracellular matrix (ECM) organization; CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL12, LCK and CD24, which participated in the immune response; and CDH1, PECAM1, SELL and CAV1, which regulated cell adhesion. Functional enrichment analysis of all DEGs as well as hub genes showed similar results, as ECM-associated pathways, cell surface interaction and adhesion, and immune response were significantly enriched in both analyses. Conclusions We identified 13 differentially expressed miRNAs as potential biomarkers of liver cirrhosis. Moreover, we identified 361 regulatory pairs of miRNA-mRNA and 20 hub genes in liver cirrhosis, most of which were involved in collagen and ECM components, immune response, and cell adhesion. These results would provide novel mechanistic insights into the pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis and identify candidate targets for its treatment.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghita Chabab ◽  
Florence Boissière-Michot ◽  
Caroline Mollevi ◽  
Jeanne Ramos ◽  
Evelyne Lopez-Crapez ◽  
...  

γδ T-cells contribute to the immune response against many tumor types through their direct cytolytic functions and their capacity to recruit and regulate the biological functions of other immune cells. As potent effectors of the anti-tumor immune response, they are considered an attractive therapeutic target for immunotherapies, but their presence and abundance in the tumor microenvironment are not routinely assessed in patients with cancer. Here, we validated an antibody for immunohistochemistry analysis that specifically detects all γδ T-cell subpopulations in healthy tissues and in the microenvironment of different cancer types. Tissue microarray analysis of breast, colon, ovarian, and pancreatic tumors showed that γδ T-cell density varies among cancer types. Moreover, the abundance of γδ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes was variably associated with the outcome depending on the cancer type, suggesting that γδ T-cell recruitment is influenced by the context. These findings also suggest that γδ T-cell detection and analysis might represent a new and interesting diagnostic or prognostic marker.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoting Lin ◽  
Conor E. Fogarty ◽  
Bowei Ma ◽  
Hejie Li ◽  
Guoying Ni ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid cancer. While many patients survive, a portion of PTC cases display high aggressiveness and even develop into refractory differentiated thyroid carcinoma. This may be alleviated by developing a novel model to predict the risk of recurrence. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death (RCD) driven by lethal accumulation of lipid peroxides, is regulated by a set of genes and shows a variety of metabolic changes. To elucidate whether ferroptosis occurs in PTC, we analyse the gene expression profiles of the disease and established a new model for the correlation. Methods The thyroid carcinoma (THCA) datasets were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), UCSC Xena and MisgDB, and included 502 tumour samples and 56 normal samples. A total of 60 ferroptosis related genes were summarised from MisgDB database. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) were used to analyse pathways potentially involving PTC subtypes. Single sample GSEA (ssGSEA) algorithm was used to analyse the proportion of 28 types of immune cells in the tumour immune infiltration microenvironment in THCA and the hclust algorithm was used to conduct immune typing according to the proportion of immune cells. Spearman correlation analysis was performed on the ferroptosis gene expression and the correlation between immune infiltrating cells proportion. We established the WGCNA to identify genes modules that are highly correlated with the microenvironment of immune invasion. DEseq2 algorithm was further used for differential analysis of sequencing data to analyse the functions and pathways potentially involving hub genes. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis was performed using Clusterprofiler to explore the clinical efficacy of hub genes. Univariate Cox analysis was performed for hub genes combined with clinical prognostic data, and the results was included for lasso regression and constructed the risk regression model. ROC curve and survival curve were used for evaluating the model. Univariate Cox analysis and multivariate Cox analysis were performed in combination with the clinical data of THCA and the risk score value, the clinical efficacy of the model was further evaluated. Results We identify two subtypes in PTC based on the expression of ferroptosis related genes, with the proportion of cluster 1 significantly higher than cluster 2 in ferroptosis signature genes that are positively associated. The mutations of Braf and Nras are detected as the major mutations of cluster 1 and 2, respectively. Subsequent analyses of TME immune cells infiltration indicated cluster 1 is remarkably richer than cluster 2. The risk score of THCA is in good performance evaluated by ROC curve and survival curve, in conjunction with univariate Cox analysis and multivariate Cox analysis results based on the clinical data shows that the risk score of the proposed model could be used as an independent prognostic indicator to predict the prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid cancer. Conclusions Our study finds seven crucial genes, including Ac008063.2, Apoe, Bcl3, Acap3, Alox5ap, Atxn2l and B2m, and regulation of apoptosis by parathyroid hormone-related proteins significantly associated with ferroptosis and immune cells in PTC, and we construct the risk score model which can be used as an independent prognostic index to predict the prognosis of patients with PTC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhixin Wu ◽  
Yinxian Wen ◽  
Guanlan Fan ◽  
Hangyuan He ◽  
Siqi Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (SONFH) is a chronic and crippling bone disease. This study aims to reveal novel diagnostic biomarkers of SONFH. Methods The GSE123568 dataset based on peripheral blood samples from 10 healthy individuals and 30 SONFH patients was used for weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) screening. The genes in the module related to SONFH and the DEGs were extracted for Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Genes with |gene significance| > 0.7 and |module membership| > 0.8 were selected as hub genes in modules. The DEGs with the degree of connectivity ≥5 were chosen as hub genes in DEGs. Subsequently, the overlapping genes of hub genes in modules and hub genes in DEGs were selected as key genes for SONFH. And then, the key genes were verified in another dataset, and the diagnostic value of key genes was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results Nine gene co-expression modules were constructed via WGCNA. The brown module with 1258 genes was most significantly correlated with SONFH and was identified as the key module for SONFH. The results of functional enrichment analysis showed that the genes in the key module were mainly enriched in the inflammatory response, apoptotic process and osteoclast differentiation. A total of 91 genes were identified as hub genes in the key module. Besides, 145 DEGs were identified by DEGs screening and 26 genes were identified as hub genes of DEGs. Overlapping genes of hub genes in the key module and hub genes in DEGs, including RHAG, RNF14, HEMGN, and SLC2A1, were further selected as key genes for SONFH. The diagnostic value of these key genes for SONFH was confirmed by ROC curve. The validation results of these key genes in GSE26316 dataset showed that only HEMGN and SLC2A1 were downregulated in the SONFH group, suggesting that they were more likely to be diagnostic biomarkers of SOFNH than RHAG and RNF14. Conclusions Our study identified that two key genes, HEMGN and SLC2A1, might be potential diagnostic biomarkers of SONFH.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiyuan Zhang ◽  
Rongguo Yu ◽  
Jiayu Zhang ◽  
Eryou Feng ◽  
Haiyang Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundOsteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic disease worldwide. Subchondral bone is an important pathological change in OA and responds more rapidly to adverse loading and events compared to cartilage. However, the pathogenic genes and pathways of subchondral bone are largely unclear.ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify signature differences in genes involved in knee lateral tibial (LT) and medial tibial (MT) plateaus of subchondral bone tissue while exploring their potential molecular mechanisms via bioinformatics analysis.MethodsFirst, the gene expression data of GSE51588 was downloaded from the GEO database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between knee LT and MT were identified, and functional enrichment analyses were performed. Then, a protein-protein interactive network was constructed in order to acquire the hub genes, and modules analysis was conducted using STRING and Cytoscape for further analysis. The enriched hub genes were queried in DGIdb database to find suitable drug candidates in OA.ResultsA total of 202 DEGs (112 upregulated genes and 84 downregulated genes) were determined. In the PPI network, ten hub genes were identified. Five significant modules were identified using the MCODE plugin unit. Functional enrichment analysis revealed the most important signaling pathways. Six of the ten hub genes were targetable by a total of 35 drugs, suggesting their possible therapeutic use for OA .ConclusionsThe identified hub genes and functional enrichment pathways were implicated in the development and progression of subchondral bone in OA, thus improving our understanding of OA and offering molecular targets for future therapeutic modalities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Yan ◽  
Shijie Zhu ◽  
Miao Zhu ◽  
Chunsheng Wang ◽  
Changfa Guo

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common tachyarrhythmia in the clinic, leading to high morbidity and mortality. Although many studies on AF have been conducted, the molecular mechanism of AF has not been fully elucidated. This study was designed to explore the molecular mechanism of AF using integrative bioinformatics analysis and provide new insights into the pathophysiology of AF.Methods: The GSE115574 dataset was downloaded, and Cibersort was applied to estimate the relative expression of 22 kinds of immune cells. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified through the limma package in R language. Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to cluster DEGs into different modules and explore relationships between modules and immune cell types. Functional enrichment analysis was performed on DEGs in the significant module, and hub genes were identified based on the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Hub genes were then verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).Results: A total of 2,350 DEGs were identified and clustered into eleven modules using WGCNA. The magenta module with 246 genes was identified as the key module associated with M1 macrophages with the highest correlation coefficient. Three hub genes (CTSS, CSF2RB, and NCF2) were identified. The results verified using three other datasets and qRT-PCR demonstrated that the expression levels of these three genes in patients with AF were significantly higher than those in patients with SR, which were consistent with the bioinformatic analysis.Conclusion: Three novel genes identified using comprehensive bioinformatics analysis may play crucial roles in the pathophysiological mechanism in AF, which provide potential therapeutic targets and new insights into the treatment and early detection of AF.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 9336-9356
Author(s):  
Sidan Long ◽  
◽  
Shuangshuang Ji ◽  
Kunmin Xiao ◽  
Peng Xue ◽  
...  

<abstract> <sec><title>Background</title><p>LTB4 receptor 1 (LTB4R), as the high affinity leukotriene B4 receptor, is rapidly revealing its function in malignancies. However, it is still uncertain.</p> </sec> <sec><title>Methods</title><p>We investigated the expression pattern and prognostic significance of LTB4R in pan-cancer across different databases, including ONCOMINE, PrognoScan, GEPIA, and Kaplan-Meier Plotter, in this study. Meanwhile, we explored the significance of LTB4R in tumor metastasis by HCMDB. Then functional enrichment analysis of related genes was performed using GeneMANIA and DAVID. Lastly, utilizing the TIMER datasets, we looked into the links between LTB4R expression and immune infiltration in malignancies.</p> </sec> <sec><title>Results</title><p>In general, tumor tissue displayed higher levels of LTB4R expression than normal tissue. Although LTB4R had a negative influence on pan-cancer, a high expression level of LTB4R was protective of LIHC (liver hepatocellular carcinoma) patients' survival. There was no significant difference in the distribution of LTB4R between non-metastatic and metastatic tumors. Based on Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, LTB4R was implicated in pathways involved in inflammation, immunity, metabolism, and cancer diseases. The correlation between immune cells and LTB4R was found to be distinct across cancer types. Furthermore, markers of infiltrating immune cells, such as Treg, T cell exhaustion and T helper cells, exhibited different LTB4R-related immune infiltration patterns.</p> </sec> <sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The LTB4R is associated with immune infiltrates and can be used as a prognostic biomarker in pan-cancer.</p> </sec> </abstract>


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Heidari ◽  
Abbas Pakdel ◽  
Mohammad Reza Bakhtiarizadeh ◽  
Fariba Dehghanian

Johne’s disease is a chronic infection of ruminants that burdens dairy herds with a significant economic loss. The pathogenesis of the disease has not been revealed clearly due to its complex nature. In order to achieve deeper biological insights into molecular mechanisms involved in MAP infection resulting in Johne’s disease, a system biology approach was used. As far as is known, this is the first study that considers lncRNAs, TFs, and mRNAs, simultaneously, to construct an integrated gene regulatory network involved in MAP infection. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) and functional enrichment analysis were conducted to explore coexpression modules from which nonpreserved modules had altered connectivity patterns. After identification of hub and hub-hub genes as well as TFs and lncRNAs in the nonpreserved modules, integrated networks of lncRNA-mRNA-TF were constructed, and cis and trans targets of lncRNAs were identified. Both cis and trans targets of lncRNAs were found in eight nonpreserved modules. Twenty-one of 47 nonpreserved modules showed significant biological processes related to the immune system and MAP infection. Some of the MAP infection’s related pathways in the most important nonpreserved modules comprise “positive regulation of cytokine-mediated signaling pathway,” “negative regulation of leukocyte migration,” “T-cell differentiation,” “neutrophil activation,” and “defense response.” Furthermore, several genes were identified in these modules, including SLC11A1, MAPK8IP1, HMGCR, IFNGR1, CMPK2, CORO1A, IRF1, LDLR, BOLA-DMB, and BOLA-DMA, which are potentially associated with MAP pathogenesis. This study not only enhanced our knowledge of molecular mechanisms behind MAP infection but also highlighted several promising hub and hub-hub genes involved in macrophage-pathogen interaction.


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