Prognostic value of members of the HSP70 family in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite multiple functions in the disease, the prognosis of the heat shock protein (HSP) 70 family in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. METHODS: The UALCAN database has provided information about the expression level of HSP70 family members in both HCC and in normal tissues. Overall survival (OS) was conducted by Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM plotter). Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were accomplished by DAVID database. GeneMANIA and STRING were applied to construct gene-gene and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. RESULTS: From the UALCAN database, we found that the expression levels of eight members of the HSP70 family in HCC patients were higher than in normal liver tissues. These eight members were, namely, HSPA1A, HSPA1B, HSPA1L, HSPA2, HSPA5, HSPA6, HSPA8 and HSPA9. From KM plotter database, high expression of HSPA1A, HSPA1B, HSPA6 and HSPA8 has been observed to be associated with worse OS in patients with HCC (hazard ratio [HR] =1.49, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-2.15, P=0.031; HR=1.49, 95%CI: 1.05-2.12, P=0.026; HR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.06-2.2, P=0.021 and HR=1.81, 95%CI: 1.21-2.71, P=0.0036, respectively). We also found that the high expressions of HSPA1A, HSPA1B, HSPA6 and HSPA8 were related to unfavorable OS of HCC patients with other factors such as clinical stage, gender, race and hepatitis virus. From GO and KEEG analysis, we detected a close relationship between these eight genes and Biological process, Cellular component, Molecular function and cancer related signaling pathways. The PPI network and GeneMANIA results showed that there was a strong co-expression relationship between the protein homology and the genes. CONCLUSIONS: According to previous studies and analysis, when HSPA1A, HSPA1B, HSPA6 and HSPA8 were highly expressed in HCC patients, they generally demonstrated lower OS. Therefore, the members of HSP70 family are likely to be used as drug targets and prognostic biomarkers when treating HCC patients.

Comparative RNA-Sequencing Analysis Reveals High Complexity and Heterogeneity of Transcriptomic and Immune Profiles in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumors of Viral (HBV, HCV) and Non-Viral Etiology

“…HSP70 is overexpressed in different types of cancers; it was identified as a molecular marker of early hepatocellular carcinoma [96][97][98][99][100] and correlated with unfavorable overall survival in HCC patients [81].…”