Identification of AUNIP as a candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

BackgroundOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. Patients with poorly differentiated OSCC often exhibit a poor prognosis. AUNIP (Aurora Kinase A and Ninein Interacting Protein), also known as AIBp, plays a key role in cell cycle and DNA damage repair. However, the function of AUNIP in OSCC remains elusive.MethodsThe differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained using R language. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to identify diagnostic markers for OSCC. The effectiveness of AUNIP in diagnosing OSCC was evaluated by machine learning. AUNIP expression was analyzed in publicly available databases and clinical specimens. Bioinformatics analysis and in vitro experiments were conducted to explore biological functions and prognostic value of AUNIP in OSCC.FindingsThe gene integration analysis revealed 90 upregulated DEGs. One candidate biomarker, AUNIP, for the diagnosis of OSCC was detected, and its expression gradually increased along with malignant differentiation of OSCC. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that AUNIP could be associated with tumor microenvironment, human papillomavirus infection, and cell cycle in OSCC. The suppression of AUNIP inhibited OSCC cell proliferation and resulted in G0/G1 phase arrest in OSCC cells. The survival analysis showed that AUNIP overexpression predicted poor prognosis of OSCC patients.Interpretation: AUNIP could serve as a candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for OSCC and suppression of AUNIP may be a potential approach to preventing and treating OSCC.FundTaishan Scholars Project in Shandong Province (ts201511106) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61603218).

Vitamin C Promotes Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common type of oral cancer, with both high incidence and high rate of malignancy (29). Primary tumor resection is the conventional treatment for OSCC, particularly since most OSCC patients are in advanced clinical stages at the time of diagnosis.…”

Identification of SPRR3 as a novel diagnostic/prognostic biomarker for oral squamous cell carcinoma via RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses

“…gov/about-nci/organization/ccg/research/structural-genomics/tcga), and their correlated clinical information from FireBrowse database (http://firebrowse.org/) (Chabanais et al, 2018). The RNA-seq data in the TCGA database was normalized and processed using the "edgR" package (Zhang et al, 2019) prior to log 2 conversion (Yang et al, 2019).…”

Mouse Tumor-Bearing Models as Preclinical Study Platforms for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Although cancer treatments have developed rapidly, the 5-year survival rate for OSCC is still only remained at 50% over the last few decades (3)(4)(5). Given the high incidence and poor prognosis of OSCC, an increasing number of researchers are conducting in-depth investigations into the pathogenesis and potential therapeutic targets of OSCC (6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”