Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identifies CCNA2 as a treatment target of prostate cancer through inhibiting cell cycle.

Prostate cancer is a malignant tumor disease that seriously harms the lives of middle-aged and elderly men. Weighted gene co-expression analysis can be used to construct gene co-expression networks to explore gene sets and genes that are significantly correlated with clinical features. In this study, the transcriptome data of prostate cancer on TCGA was analyzed by weighted gene co-expression network, and the gene with a significant correlation with disease Gleason stage and tumor T stage was identified: CCNA2. CCNA2 was significantly associated with biochemical recurrence, disease-free survival and overall survival rate of prostate cancer. The ability of cancer cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis was decreased after down-regulated expression of CCNA2 in prostate cancer cell lines. Flow cytometry revealed that tumor cells were arrested in the S phase after down-regulated the expression of CCNA2. Taken together, we used WGCNA and obtain a gene CCNA2 which is significantly associated with the prognosis of prostate cancer, which may be an indicator of the prognosis of prostate cancer and a new therapeutic target.