and -related competing endogenous RNA expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and their prognostic value.

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor that has a high incidence and mortality worldwide. Despite extensive studies, the detailed molecular mechanism of HCC development remains unclear. Studies have shown that the occurrence and development of HCC are closely related to abnormal gene expression. has been shown to be overexpressed in a variety of malignant tumors. However, the role of in HCC remains unclear.

AIM

To investigate the expression of and -related competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) in HCC and their clinical significance, in order to provide new ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC.

METHODS

The data of HCC were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas database and The Genotype Tissue Expression, including transcriptome data and clinical information. Multiple common databases, including UALCAN, Timer 2.0, cBioPortal, LinkedOmics, starBase, Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, were used to analyse the expression of , prognostic value, genetic alteration, co-expressed genes, differentially expressed genes, gene-related ceRNAs and functional enrichment analysis in HCC patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to analyze survival prognosis and the Spearman test was used to measure correlations between and immune functions. And R language package was used to analyze the correlation between and immune invasion of HCC.

RESULTS

Our study indicated that was differentially expressed in various tumor tissues. The over-expression of gene was an unfavorable prognostic indicator for HCC patients, and associated with unfavorable cytogenetic risk and gene mutations. Moreover, most immune cells were positively correlated with ( < 0.05). According to the results of functional enrichment analysis, was involved in the positive regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway and ERBB signaling pathway, and was related to DNA replication and GTPase regulator activity. Finally, our study found that based on and pathways, targeting might promote the occurrence and development of HCC.

CONCLUSION

Collectively, this study indicated that the gene was involved in the occurrence and development of HCC, and it might be a new biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC, but the specific mechanism remains to be further verified.