Ceylan Hamid
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Atatürk University, 25400, Erzurum, Turkey.
Med Oncol. 2021 Apr 26;38(6):63. doi: 10.1007/s12032-021-01510-0.
Obesity, which has become one of the biggest public health problems of the twenty-first century, accompanies many chronic conditions, including cancer. On the other hand, liver cancer, which is known to be associated with obesity, is considered another serious threat to public health. However, the underlying drivers of the development of obesity-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain blurry. The current study attempted to identify the key genes and pathways in the obesity-induced development of HCC using integrated bioinformatics analyses. Obesity and HCC-associated gene expression datasets were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and analyzed to identify overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and hub genes. The prognostic potentials, survival analysis, and expression levels of hub genes were further assessed. Moreover, the correlation between hub genes and the immune cells infiltration was analyzed. The findings of this research revealed that both mRNA and protein expression levels of the four hub genes (IGF1, ACADL, CYP2C9, and G6PD) involved in many important metabolic pathways are remarkably altered in both obese individuals and patients with HCC. The results demonstrated that these dysregulated genes in both obesity and HCC may serve as considerable targets for the prevention and treatment of HCC development in obese individuals.
肥胖已成为21世纪最大的公共卫生问题之一，它伴随着许多慢性疾病，包括癌症。另一方面，已知与肥胖相关的肝癌被认为是对公众健康的另一个严重威胁。然而，肥胖相关肝细胞癌（HCC）发生发展的潜在驱动因素仍不清楚。本研究试图通过综合生物信息学分析，确定肥胖诱导的HCC发生发展中的关键基因和信号通路。从基因表达综合数据库（GEO）下载肥胖和HCC相关的基因表达数据集，并进行分析以确定重叠的差异表达基因（DEG）和核心基因。进一步评估核心基因的预后潜力、生存分析和表达水平。此外，还分析了核心基因与免疫细胞浸润之间的相关性。本研究结果表明，参与许多重要代谢途径的四个核心基因（IGF1、ACADL、CYP2C9和G6PD）的mRNA和蛋白质表达水平在肥胖个体和HCC患者中均有显著改变。结果表明，肥胖和HCC中这些失调的基因可能成为预防和治疗肥胖个体HCC发生发展的重要靶点。
