Identification of Prognosis-related Hub RNA Binding Proteins Function through Regulating Metabolic Processes in Tongue Cancer

Abstract

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are dysregulated and associated with the occurrence and development in various malignant tumors. However, the role of RBPs in tongue cancer are largely unclear. Here, by integrating the differential gene expression analysis and the Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) of TCGA-retrieved RNA-seq data, we identified a total of 171 differential co-expression RBPs. Then, in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network containing 134 nodes (RBPs) and 315 network edges (RBP-RBP interacting networks), the top 30 hub RBPs were identified using the CytoHubba plugin of Cytoscape. Furthermore, we investigated the expression and prognostic value of these RBPs and their highly correlated networks. Among them, six RBPs (PGK1, SLC20A1, LEPR, CYP19A1, ZC3H12D, and PFKM) were shown to be the prognosis-related hub RBPs (prhRBPs). Based on these hub RBPs, we constructed a prognostic model and found that the patients in the high-risk group had dramatically poor overall survival compared to those in low-risk group. In addition, we validated the prognostic model in GSE41613, another tongue cancer patient cohort from GEO datasets. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of the prognostic model further confirmed the predictive capability of the risk model for tongue cancer. As suggested in functional annotation analysis, we found an intensive enrichment of these prhRBPs in metabolic pathways, including AMPK, HIF-1 signaling pathway, Glycolysis, and steroid hormone biosynthesis. Together, our study revealed the underlying role of RBP in tongue cancer biology and potentially unveiled novel targets for cancer therapy.

High SLC20A1 Expression Indicates Poor Prognosis in Prostate Cancer

“…Thus, a high SLC20A1 expression in prostate cancer may be associated with transcriptional regulation. Consistent with the findings of previous studies on breast, pancreatic and tongue cancer (8)(9)(10)(11), SLC20A1 high prostate cancer was associated with poor DSS. In addition, SLC20A1 high prostate cancer was associated with poor DFS and PFS.…”

“…Solute carrier family 20 member 1 (SLC20A1) is a gene that encodes a sodium/phosphate symporter (5,6) and has been proposed to be a viable prognostic marker for breast, tongue and pancreatic cancer (7)(8)(9)(10). Previous data showed that high SLC20A1 expression also indicates poor clinical outcomes for patients with breast cancer subtypes which are treated with endocrine therapy and radiotherapy (11,12).…”

Identification of a ZC3H12D-regulated competing endogenous RNA network for prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma at single-cell level

“…ZC3H12D is also called MCPIP4, C6orf95, and dJ281H8.1. It is a tumor suppressor gene, which plays a critical role in many cancers, including tongue cancer [ 52 ], osteosarcoma [ 13 ] and lung cancer. As for lung cancer, most of previous studies focused on the effect of genetic polymorphisms of ZC3H12D, and little was known about its potential regulatory mechanisms on lung cancer [ 53 ].…”

Subtyping of microsatellite stability colorectal cancer reveals guanylate binding protein 2 (GBP2) as a potential immunotherapeutic target

“…20 However, the relationship between RBPs and pMMR/MSS CRC has not yet been reported. Therefore, we calculated the DEGs between IC and non-IC in the COAD cohort to intersect with more than 3800 RBPs that have been reported, 21 and 682 differentially expressed RBPs were obtained. Through univariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, 22 genes were finally obtained (figure 2A).…”