Oncogenic role of and its ceRNA network in hepatocellular carcinoma based on a comprehensive analysis.

BACKGROUND

Genetic alterations have important roles in cancer development and progression. (spindle and kinetochore associated complex subunit 2) is a mitotic component that plays a critical role in maintaining the silence of the metaphase plate and spindle checkpoint. However, the exact role of in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. The current study aimed to comprehensively identify the function of in HCC.

METHODS

We utilized various databases and bioinformatics tools, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), survminer package, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), cBioPortal website, clusterProfiler package, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), miRWalk, TargetScanHuman8.0, miRDB, DIANA and Cytoscape to identify the role of in HCC.

RESULTS

Our results showed that patients with HCC exhibited a high expression. Further, the high expression group had a worse overall survival (OS). And was associated with tumor stage and the immune system. In addition, 188 co-expression genes of participated in some processes including cell cycle, DNA replication and so on. The tumor had a lower hsa-miR-19b-1-5p and hsa-miR-378a-5p expression, and these two microRNAs (miRNAs) were also correlated with OS. SNHG14, SNHG15, and SPCA6P-AS were significantly negatively correlated with hsa-378a-5p, and these three long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) showed a positive correlation with (P<0.05). is a member of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). Moreover, it is related to SPACA6P-AS/hsa-miR-378a-5p/, SNHG14/hsa-miR-378a-5p/, and SNHG15/hsa-miR-378a-5p/, which play significant roles in tumor progression.

CONCLUSIONS

is associated with OS, tumor stage, and immune infiltrating cells in HCC. Thus, we propose that functions as a ceRNA and influences tumorigenesis. These findings lay the foundation for future research in the field of HCC.