Expression of miR-1304 in patients with esophageal carcinoma and risk factors for recurrence

BACKGROUND Esophageal carcinoma is a malignant gastrointestinal tumor with a very poor prognosis.MicroRNA(miR)-1304 is a newly discovered non-coding RNA,which shows differential expression in other cancers,and its clinical value in esophageal carcinoma remains unclear.AIM To explore the expression of miR-1304 in patients with esophageal carcinoma and its clinical value.METHODS The expression of miR-1304 in patients with esophageal carcinoma was analyzed based on the data on miR in esophageal carcinoma downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database.Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was adopted to determine the expression of miR-1304 in the tissues and serum of patients.The clinical diagnostic value of miR-1304 and independent factors for recurrence and prognosis of esophageal carcinoma were then analyzed.The potential target genes of miR-1304 were predicted,and then analyzed based on gene ontology,Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes,and Genomes,and protein-protein interaction.RESULTS The expression of miR-1304 in the tissues and serum of patients with esophageal carcinoma increased,and was also increased according to the database.Patients with high expression of miR-1304 suffered increased rates of tumor≥3 cm,low differentiation and stage II+III.miR-1304 had a diagnostic value in identifying esophageal carcinoma,tumor size,differentiation and TNM stage.Tumor size,differentiation,TNM stage,and miR-1304 were independent risk factors for recurrence of esophageal carcinoma,and they had certain predictive and diagnostic value for the recurrence of esophageal carcinoma.Seventy-eight patients showed a 3-year survival rate of 38.46%,and patients with high expression of miR-1304 had a relatively lower survival rate.Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size,differentiation,recurrence and miR-1304 were independent factors for the prognosis of patients.MiRTarBase,miRDB,and Targetscan predicted 20 target genes in total.Gene ontology enrichment analysis found 18 functions with aP<0.05,and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes,and Genomes analysis found 11 signal pathways with aP<0.05.String analysis of protein co-expression found 269 relationship pairs,of which co-expression with epidermal growth factor was the most common.CONCLUSION miR-1304 can be used as a potential indicator for the diagnosis and recurrence of esophageal carcinoma and for survival of patients with this disease.

Comprehensive multi-omics analysis identified core molecular processes in esophageal cancer and revealed GNGT2 as a potential prognostic marker

BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer is one of the most poorly diagnosed and fatal cancers in the world.Although a series of studies on esophageal cancer have been reported,the molecular pathogenesis of the disease remains elusive.AIM To investigate comprehensively the molecular process of esophageal cancer.METHODS Differential expression analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed genes(DEGs)in different stages of esophageal cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas data.Exacting gene interaction modules were generated,and hub genes in the module interaction network were found.Further,through survival analysis,methylation analysis,pivot analysis,and enrichment analysis,some important molecules and related functions/pathways were identified to elucidate potential mechanisms in esophageal cancer.RESULTS A total of 7457 DEGs and 14 gene interaction modules were identified.These module genes were significantly involved in the positive regulation of protein transport,gastric acid secretion,insulin-like growth factor receptor binding,and other biological processes as well as p53 signaling pathway,epidermal growth factor signaling pathway,and epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway.Transcription factors(including hypoxia inducible factor 1A)and noncoding RNAs(including colorectal differentially expressed and hsa-miR-330-3p)that significantly regulate dysfunction modules were identified.Survival analysis showed that G protein subunit gamma transducin 2(GNGT2)was closely related to survival of esophageal cancer.DEGs with strong methylation regulation ability were identified,including SST and SH3GL2.Furthermore,the expression of GNGT2 was evaluated by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction,and the results showed that GNGT2 expression was significantly upregulated in esophageal cancer patient samples and cell lines.Moreover,cell counting kit-8 assay revealed that GNGT2 could promote the proliferation of esophageal cancer cell lines.CONCLUSION This study not only revealed the potential regulatory factors involved in the development of esophageal cancer but also deepens our understanding of its underlying mechanism.