PROZ May Serve as a Prognostic Biomarker for Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective The occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate potential diagnostic or prognostic markers for early HCC by applying bioinformatic analysis. Methods The gene expression profiles of early HCC and normal tissues from a TCGA dataset were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and then analysed by weighted gene coexpression network analysis. The integrated genes were selected to construct the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and determine the hub genes. The prognostic impact of the hub genes was then analysed. Results A total of 508 integrated genes were selected from the 615 DEGs and 8956 genes in the turquoise module. A PPI network was constructed, and the top 20 hub genes, including apolipoprotein A-IV (APOA4), fibrinogen gamma chain (FGG), vitamin K-dependent protein Z (PROZ), secreted phosphoprotein 24 (SPP2) and fetuin-B (FETUB), were identified. Only PROZ was significantly associated with the prognosis of early HCC. Conclusion In this study, we demonstrated that the expression of PROZ was decreased in early HCC compared with normal liver controls, and low PROZ expression might result in poor overall survival of early HCC.

Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: NT5E Could Be a Prognostic Biomarker

“…KEGG enrichment analysis of NT5E coexpressed genes showed a correlation with focal adhesion, suggesting that NT5E may be involved in the formation of drug resistance in HNSCC, which provides a reference for future treatment studies. Similarly, overactivation of the PI3K-Akt pathway is also an important mechanism of tumour growth and invasion, which shows the role of NT5E in tumour progression and suggests that NT5E is a potential target [ 32 – 34 ]. In general, NT5E is associated with immunosuppression of tumours [ 5 ], but we used TIMER analysis to show that NT5E is more strongly related to infiltration of many immune cells in HPV-negative HNSCCs, which have a poorer prognosis compared with HPV-positive HNSCC.…”

PROZ Associated with Sorafenib Sensitivity May Serve as a Potential Target to Enhance the Efficacy of Combined Immunotherapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…PROZ’s relationship with tumors: Recent research has shown that PROZ can be used as a marker of pancreatic cancer through protein identification in the serum [ 13 ]. At the same time, some studies in HCC have shown through a public database analysis that PROZ is a marker of early-stage HCC, and that a low expression of PROZ is associated with poor prognosis of HCC [ 14 ]. Coincidentally, another database-dependent analysis showed that PROZ is also one of the gene markers associated with the prognosis of HCC [ 15 ].…”

Integrated plasma proteomics and N‐glycoproteomics reveals alterations in the N‐glycosylation in Chinese hepatocellular carcinoma patients

“…Notably, our data demonstrate a stronger discriminatory effect of DE IGPs over DE proteins, indicating the potential of N-glycosylation as a diagnostic biomarker for HCC. Previous stud-ies have reported the usefulness of various protein candidates, such as VCAM1, B2M, and PROZ, in the diagnosis of HCC and other diseases[26][27][28]. For instance, elevated levels of VCAM1 in the plasma have been observed in patients with HCC, colorectal cancer, and gastric cancer, suggesting its involvement in angiogenesis and the pathogenesis of HCC[29].…”