Department of Laboratory Medicine, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, No. 466 Xingang Middle Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, 510317, Guangdong Province, China.
BMC Med Genomics. 2021 Jan 6;14(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s12920-020-00852-4.
The abnormal expression of activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3), a member of the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) family of transcription factors, is associated with carcinogenesis. However, the expression pattern and exact role of ATF3 in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear.
We used UALCAN, ONCOMINE, Kaplan-Meier plotter, and cBioPortal databases to investigate the prognostic value of ATF3 expression in HCC.
ATF3 was found to be expressed at low levels in multiple HCC tumor tissues. Moreover, low ATF3 expression was significantly associated with clinical cancer stage and pathological tumor grade in patients with HCC. Therefore, low expression of ATF3 was significantly associated with poor overall survival in patients with HCC. Functional network analysis showed that ATF3 regulates cytokine receptors and signaling pathways via various cancer-related kinases, miRNAs, and transcription factors. ATF3 expression was found to be correlated with macrophage infiltration levels and with macrophage immune marker sets in HCC patients.
Using data mining methods, we clarified the role of ATF3 expression and related regulatory networks in HCC, laying a foundation for further functional research. Future research will validate our findings and establish clinical applications of ATF3 in the diagnosis and treatment of HCC.
激活转录因子 3(ATF3)是碱性亮氨酸拉链(bZIP)家族转录因子的成员,其异常表达与癌症发生有关。然而,ATF3 在肝细胞癌(HCC)发生和进展中的表达模式和确切作用尚不清楚。
我们使用 UALCAN、ONCOMINE、Kaplan-Meier plotter 和 cBioPortal 数据库来研究 ATF3 表达在 HCC 中的预后价值。
在多种 HCC 肿瘤组织中发现 ATF3 表达水平较低。此外,在 HCC 患者中,低水平的 ATF3 表达与临床癌症分期和病理肿瘤分级显著相关。因此,低表达 ATF3 与 HCC 患者的总体生存不良显著相关。功能网络分析表明,ATF3 通过各种与癌症相关的激酶、miRNA 和转录因子调节细胞因子受体和信号通路。在 HCC 患者中,ATF3 表达与巨噬细胞浸润水平和巨噬细胞免疫标志物集相关。
使用数据挖掘方法,我们阐明了 ATF3 表达及其在 HCC 中的相关调控网络的作用,为进一步的功能研究奠定了基础。未来的研究将验证我们的发现,并建立 ATF3 在 HCC 诊断和治疗中的临床应用。