Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY 10461, USA.
Professor of Pathology, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Sep 30;14(10):1899. doi: 10.3390/genes14101899.
The escalating prevalence of bladder cancer, particularly urothelial carcinoma, necessitates innovative approaches for prognosis and therapy. This study delves into the significance of genes related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process inherently linked to carcinogenesis and comparatively better studied in other cancers. We examined 1184 EMT-related gene expression levels in bladder urothelial cancer cases through the TCGA dataset. Genes shown to be differentially expressed in relation to survival underwent further network and enrichment analysis to uncover how they might shape disease outcomes. Our in silico analysis revealed a subset of 32 genes, including those significantly represented in biological pathways such as VEGF signaling and bacterium response. In addition, these genes interact with genes involved in the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. Additionally, some of those 32 genes have been linked to immunomodulators such as chemokines CCL15 and CCL18, as well as to various immune cell infiltrates. Our findings highlight the prognostic utility of various EMT-related genes and identify possible modulators of their effect on survival, allowing for further targeted wet lab research and possible therapeutic intervention.
膀胱癌（尤其是尿路上皮癌）的患病率不断上升，这就需要创新的方法来进行预后和治疗。本研究探讨了与上皮-间充质转化（EMT）相关的基因的意义，EMT 是一个与癌症发生密切相关的过程，在其他癌症中研究得更为深入。我们通过 TCGA 数据集研究了 1184 例膀胱尿路上皮癌病例中与 EMT 相关的基因表达水平。对与生存相关的差异表达基因进行了进一步的网络和富集分析，以揭示它们如何影响疾病结局。我们的计算机分析揭示了 32 个基因亚组，其中包括在 VEGF 信号转导和细菌反应等生物学途径中显著表达的基因。此外，这些基因与参与 JAK-STAT 信号通路的基因相互作用。此外，其中一些 32 个基因与免疫调节剂（如趋化因子 CCL15 和 CCL18）以及各种免疫细胞浸润有关。我们的研究结果突出了各种 EMT 相关基因的预后效用，并确定了它们对生存影响的可能调节剂，这为进一步的靶向湿实验室研究和可能的治疗干预提供了依据。
