Bioinformatics prediction and experimental verification identify MAD2L1 and CCNB2 as diagnostic biomarkers of rhabdomyosarcoma

Cancer Cell International

Jingxian Wei¹  Lian Meng¹  Hao Wen¹  Tian Xia¹  Zhijuan Zhao¹  Yujun Li¹  Tiantian Zhang¹  Hao Sun¹  Feng Li²  Chunxia Liu³ 

[1] Department of Pathology and Key Laboratory for Xinjiang Endemic and Ethnic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Shihezi University School of Medicine, 832002, Shihezi, China;Department of Pathology and Key Laboratory for Xinjiang Endemic and Ethnic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Shihezi University School of Medicine, 832002, Shihezi, China;Department of Pathology and Medical Research Center, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, 100020, Beijing, China;Department of Pathology and Key Laboratory for Xinjiang Endemic and Ethnic Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Shihezi University School of Medicine, 832002, Shihezi, China;Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 510260, Guangzhou, China;

关键词: Rhabdomyosarcoma;    MAD2L1;    CCNB2;    Bioinformatics;    The tumor microenvironment;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12935-021-02347-3

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a malignant soft-tissue tumour. In recent years, the tumour microenvironment (TME) has been reported to be associated with the development of tumours. However, the relationship between the occurrence and development of RMS and TME is unclear. The purpose of this study is to identify potential tumor microenvironment-related biomarkers in rhabdomyosarcoma and analyze their molecular mechanisms, diagnostic and prognostic significance.MethodsWe first applied bioinformatics method to analyse the tumour samples of 125 patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO). Differential genes (DEGs) that significantly correlate with TME and the clinical staging of tumors were extracted. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was applied to validate the expression of mitotic arrest deficient 2 like 1 (MAD2L1) and cyclin B2 (CCNB2) in RMS tissue. Then, we used cell function and molecular biology techniques to study the influence of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 expression levels on the progression of RMS.ResultsBioinformatics results show that the RMS TME key genes were screened, and a TME-related tumour clinical staging model was constructed. The top 10 hub genes were screened through the establishment of a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network, and then Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) was conducted to measure the overall survival (OS) of the 10 hub genes in the sarcoma cases in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Six DEGs of statistical significance were acquired. The relationship between these six differential genes and the clinical stage of RMS was analysed. Further analysis revealed that the OS of RMS patients with high expression of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 was worse and the expression of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 was related to the clinical stage of RMS patients. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that the genes in MAD2L1 and CCNB2 groups with high expression were mainly related to the mechanism of tumour metastasis and recurrence. In the low-expression MAD2L1 and CCNB2 groups, the genes were enriched in the metabolic and immune pathways. Immunohistochemical results also confirmed that the expression levels of MAD2L1 (30/33, 87.5%) and CCNB2 (33/33, 100%) were remarkably higher in RMS group than in normal control group (0/11, 0%). Moreover, the expression of CCNB2 was related to tumour size. Downregulation of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 suppressed the growth, invasion, migration, and cell cycling of RMS cells and promoted their apoptosis. The CIBERSORT immune cell fraction analysis indicated that the expression levels of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 affected the immune status in the TME.ConclusionsThe expression levels of MAD2L1 and CCNB2 are potential indicators of TME status changes in RMS, which may help guide the prognosis of patients with RMS and the clinical staging of tumours.

【 授权许可】

CC BY