Identification of Hub Gene in Cervical Cancer by Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis

Abstract

Background:Cervical cancer(CC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in gynecology. Both its incidence and mortality are high. Despite advances in screening, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, CC is still one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women. However, in the pathogenesis of CC, the exact molecular mechanism is still unclear. It may be a multi-gene, multi-factor, multi-step, and multi-stage complex process. Hence, the pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of CC are the keys to effective treatment of it. In this study, we tried to identify candidate biomarkers for cervical cancer through weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Methods: The gene expression profile of CESC was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by the Limma package, and the gene co-expression module was constructed by WGCNA. Use the online website STRING to construct the protein interaction network of genes in significant modules, and then use Cytoscape analysis to find the 10 most important node degree genes. Results: Among these 10 genes, SOX9 expression was associated with the prognosis of cervical cancer patients. Immunohistochemical results from the online website human protein atlas showed that SOX9 protein expression was significantly higher in cervical cancer tissues than in normal cervical tissues. After collecting cancerous and paracancerous tissue specimens from 16 patients with cervical cancer, Q-PCR showed that the mRNA expression levels of SOX9 in cervical cancer tissues were significantly greater than those in normal adjacent tissues. Conclusions: The elevated expression of SOX9 is significantly related to the disease-free survival and overall survival of cervical cancer. Therefore, the SOX9 gene could be used as an indicator of cervical cancer diagnosis and prognosis.