Department of Clinical Laboratory, Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Cancer Control. 2024 Jan-Dec;31:10732748241287904. doi: 10.1177/10732748241287904.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, but its pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to identify the potential biomarkers underlying the diagnosis and treatment of HNSCC.
Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) followed by pathway enrichment analysis, analysis of infiltrating immune cells, survival analysis, and methylation analysis were applied to identify the potential hub genes underlying the prognosis of HNSCC. The expression of hub genes was validated by immunofluorescence staining.
A total of 10,274 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Through WGCNA, the yellow module ( = 0.33, = 2e-14) was confirmed to be the most significantly associated with the histological grade of HNSCC, and the "Cell Cycle" proved to be the most enriched signaling pathway. Based on the results of survival analysis and immune cell infiltration, 10 hub genes (, , , , , , , , , and ) were identified. Eight of these (excluding and ) were confirmed by performing survival analysis using another dataset (GSE41613). Further, we identified 4 methylation loci in 3 hub genes (cg15122828 and cg20554926 in , cg12519992 in , and cg2655739 in ) as being significantly related to survival. Finally, we demonstrated the high mRNA and protein expression of and in HNSCC patients.
Two real hub genes ( and ) and 3 methylation loci were identified that could potentially serve as prognostic and therapeutic targets for HNSCC, which is significant for studying the pathological mechanisms underlying HNSCC and for developing novel therapies for this disease.
头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）是全球第六大常见癌症，但其发病机制仍不清楚。本研究旨在确定潜在的生物标志物，以用于 HNSCC 的诊断和治疗。
采用加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA），并结合通路富集分析、浸润免疫细胞分析、生存分析和甲基化分析，鉴定与 HNSCC 预后相关的潜在关键基因。通过免疫荧光染色验证关键基因的表达。
共鉴定出 10274 个差异表达基因（DEGs）。通过 WGCNA，黄色模块（ = 0.33， = 2e-14）被证实与 HNSCC 的组织学分级最显著相关，“细胞周期”被证实是最富集的信号通路。基于生存分析和免疫细胞浸润的结果，鉴定出 10 个关键基因（ 、 、 、 、 、 、 、 、 ）。其中 8 个（除了 和 ）通过使用另一个数据集（GSE41613）进行生存分析得到了验证。此外，我们在 3 个关键基因（ 中的 cg15122828 和 cg20554926 、 中的 cg12519992 以及 中的 cg2655739 ）中发现了 4 个与甲基化相关的位点，这些位点与生存显著相关。最后，我们证明了 和 在 HNSCC 患者中的高 mRNA 和蛋白表达。
鉴定出 2 个真正的关键基因（ 和 ）和 3 个甲基化位点，它们可能成为 HNSCC 的预后和治疗靶点，这对于研究 HNSCC 的病理机制和开发治疗该疾病的新疗法具有重要意义。
