UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases 2A3 as a biomarker for ulcerative colitis and colon cancer

Abstract

Background Ulcerative colitis has a serious impact on the quality of life of patients and is more likely to progress to colon cancer. Early diagnosis and timely intervention of ulcerative colitis are of great significance. Methods Gene expression data of active ulcerative colitis were downloaded from the GEO database, and genes with significant differential expression were identified. Biochemical markers with diagnostic significance were selected through machine learning methods. The expression differences of the selected markers between COAD and normal control groups in the TCGA database were also understood, and the diagnostic efficacy of these markers for COAD was observed. In addition, the correlation between the selected markers and clinical indicators, as well as their predictive efficacy for the survival of COAD patients, was explored. Results Through machine learning and LASSO regression analysis, UGT2A3 was finally determined as a diagnostic marker for ulcerative colitis. It showed good diagnostic efficacy in both the training set and the external validation set. Meanwhile, UGT2A3 was significantly downregulated in COAD tissues compared to normal control tissues. The ROC curve suggested that UGT2A3 could serve as a diagnostic marker for COAD with high diagnostic efficacy, with an AUC of 0.969. Immune infiltration analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between the expression of UGT2A3 and neutrophils. Correlation analysis suggested the association of UGT2A3 with the pathological classification of colon cancer. Survival analysis showed that UGT2A3 is negatively correlated with OS, PPS, and RFS in colon cancer. Conclusion We identified UGT2A3 as a diagnostic marker for ulcerative colitis through bioinformatics methods, and verified its significant downregulation in colon cancer, as well as its predictive role in the survival of COAD patients. It may serve as a diagnostic marker for ulcerative colitis and colon cancer, and also provide certain guidance for the prognosis of colon cancer patients.