The clinical significance of thyroid hormone-responsive in thyroid carcinoma and its potential regulatory pathway

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of thyroid hormone-responsive (THRSP) and explore its relevant pathways in thyroid carcinoma (THCA).The gene expression data of THRSP were obtained and the prognostic significance of THRSP in THCA was analyzed through various bioinformatics databases. Then, the factors influencing THRSP mRNA expression were explored, and the function of THRSP in predicting the lymph node metastasis (LNM) stage was determined. We further performed the enrichment analysis and constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to examine potential regulatory pathways associated with THRSP.THRSP gene expression was significantly increased in THCA compared with the normal tissues. High THRSP mRNA expression had a favorable overall survival (OS) in THCA patients (P < .05). Additionally, the mRNA expression of THRSP was related to stage, histological subtype, and methylation among THCA patients (all P < .05). Besides, THRSP served as a potent predictor in discriminating the LNM stage of thyroid cancer patients. According to Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) on THRSP-associated genes, THRSP was positively related to metabolic pathways.The upregulation of THRSP predicted a good OS in THCA patients. Furthermore, THRSP might inhibit THCA progression through positive regulation of metabolism-associated pathways.Abbreviations: AUC = area under the curve, DFS = disease-free survival, EMT = epithelial to mesenchymal transformation, GEPIA = Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis, GO = Gene Ontology, GSEA = gene set enrichment analysis, KEGG = Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, LNM = lymph node metastasis, NES = normalized enrichment score, OS = overall survival, PPI = protein-protein interaction, ROC = Receiver operating characteristic, THCA = thyroid carcinoma, THRSP = thyroid hormone-responsive.