Investigation of candidate biomarkers and prognostic values in endometrial cancer based on bioinformatics analysis

Abstract

Background: Endometrial cancer is a common gynecological cancer whose incidence is increasing annually worldwide. However, the biomarkers that provide the prognosis and progression of endometrial cancer are still lacking. Methods: The differentially expressed mRNAs and miRNAs were screened out using mRNA and miRNA expression data of endometrial cancer from Gene Expression Omnibus, and then validated in the Cancer Genome Atlas. The Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses were conducted using the Database for Annotation,Visualization and Integrated Discovery. A protein–protein interaction network was constructed by STRING and visualized using Cytoscape. OncoLnc was used for studying the prognostic effects of the hub genes. In addition, miRecords were used to predict target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs, and then a miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed. Results: Two eligible human endometrial cancer datasets ( GSE17025 and GSE25405) met the requirement. A total of 520 differentially expressed mRNAs and 30 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified. These differentially expressed mRNAs were mainly enriched in cell cycle, skeletal system development, vasculature development, oocyte maturation, and oocyte meiosis signaling pathways. 160 pairs of differentially expressed miRNAs and mRNAs, including 22 differentially expressed miRNAs and 71 overlapping differentially expressed mRNAs, were validated in endometrial cancer samples using starBase v2.0 project. And the prognosis analysis found that Cyclin E1 (CCNE1, one of the 82 hub genes, which was correlated with hsa-miR-195) was correlated with significantly worse overall survival in endometrial cancer patients. Conclusions: These hub genes and differentially expressed miRNAs might be used as molecular targets for the treatment of endometrial cancer and prognostic biomarkers for endometrial cancer.