Identification of RNA Binding Protein Signature to Predict Overall Survival for Bladder Cancer

Abstract

Background: Bladder urothelial cancer (BLCA) is the 10th most common and 13th most deadly cancer globally. RNA binding proteins (RBPs) were reported to participate in the occurrence and progression of varieties of diseases, including malignant tumors. However, the role of RBPs in BLCA is rarely reported. Methods: We downloaded the transcriptome sequence gene expression data and the related clinical data from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database, and identified the differently expressed RBPs between BLCA and normal tissues. We explored the biological function by gene ontology (GO) enrichment and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database (KEGG) enrichment analysis. 388 key RBPs were obtained by protein-protein interaction (PPI). We constructed a prognostic risk model, explored the risk score related to BLCA, and validated the results both in the test group and HPA database. Results: In total, 388 differently expressed RBPs were discovered. Five prognostically relevant hub RBPs (YARS, EFTUD2, OAS1, DARS2, TRIM71) were used to construct a prognostic model based on multiple Cox analysis. We found that the overexpression of YARS, EFTUD2, DARS2, and TRIM71 were unfavorable prognostic factors for BLCA patients. Furthermore, we validated the results by the TCGA cohort and the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Conclusion: We identified five RNA binding protein signatures to predict the overall survival for BLCA patients, which provide new insights for the pathogenesis and treatment of BLCA.