Department of Pathology, Union Hospital, Fujian Medical University, 29 Xin-Quan Road, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350001, People's Republic of China.
Department of Colorectal Surgery, Union Hospital, Fujian Medical University, 29 Xin-Quan Road, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350001, People's Republic of China.
BMC Cancer. 2021 Aug 2;21(1):884. doi: 10.1186/s12885-021-08621-x.
Neuroligin1 (NLGN1) is a main component of excitatory glutamatergic synapses complex and is important for synapse assembly and function. The clinical value of NLGN1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) is not clear.
We obtained the expression data of 1143 CRC patients from 3 independent Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (GSE32323, GSE24551, GSE39582) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to make the comparison of the NLGN1 expression level between CRC tissues and matched noncancerous tissues, and to evaluate its value in predicting survival of CRC patients. At the protein level, these results were further confirmed by immunohistochemical staining of 52 CRC samples in our own centre. Finally, the function of NLGN1 was explored by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA).
Increased mRNA and protein levels of NLGN1 expression were associated with worse overall survival or recurrence-free survival in CRC patients from 2 GEO datasets, the TCGA database, and our cohort. In addition, multivariate regression analysis showed that NLGN1 was an independent poor prognostic factor of survival in patients with CRC in TCGA database (OR = 2.524, P = 0.010). Functional analysis revealed that NLGN1 was correlated with function involving the Hedgehog signaling pathway, mismatch repair process, and some material metabolism processes.
This study is the first to implicate and verify NLGN1 as a new poor prognostic marker for CRC.
神经黏附素 1(NLGN1)是兴奋性谷氨酸能突触复合物的主要组成部分,对于突触的组装和功能很重要。NLGN1 在结直肠癌(CRC)中的临床价值尚不清楚。
我们从 3 个独立的基因表达综合数据库(GEO)(GSE32323、GSE24551、GSE39582)和癌症基因组图谱(TCGA)获得了 1143 例 CRC 患者的表达数据,以比较 CRC 组织和匹配的非癌组织中 NLGN1 的表达水平,并评估其对 CRC 患者生存预测的价值。在蛋白质水平上,我们通过对来自本中心的 52 例 CRC 样本进行免疫组织化学染色进一步证实了这些结果。最后,通过基因集富集分析(GSEA)探索了 NLGN1 的功能。
在来自 2 个 GEO 数据集、TCGA 数据库和我们的队列的 CRC 患者中,NLGN1 的 mRNA 和蛋白表达水平升高与总生存期或无复发生存期较差相关。此外,多变量回归分析表明,在 TCGA 数据库中,NLGN1 是 CRC 患者生存的独立预后不良因素(OR=2.524,P=0.010)。功能分析表明,NLGN1 与涉及 Hedgehog 信号通路、错配修复过程和一些物质代谢过程的功能相关。
本研究首次提出并验证了 NLGN1 是 CRC 的一个新的预后不良标志物。