CDCA7 serves as a novel prognostic marker in human hepatocellular carcinoma

ABSTRACT

c-Myc oncogene plays an important role in tumorigenesis, cell division cycle associated 7 (CDCA7), recently found that it is a direct target gene of c-Myc, is upregulated in many tumors, but its role in tumor progression is still poorly understood. CDCA7 expression and prognosis were analyzed in hepatocellular carcinoma using TIMER2.0 and Kaplan–Meier databases, while genomic changes were studied using cbioportal. LinkedOmics identified relevant genes and WebGestalt analyzed the associated pathways. Protein interaction networks were explored using the STRING database, and the core PPI network was analyzed with the MCODE plugin of Cytoscape. CDCA7 expression was detected in 30 paired HCC specimens by real-time PCR, and its effect on HCC cell proliferation was determined in vitro. CDCA7 expression was frequently up-regulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and its expression was positively correlated with prognosis. The TIMER2.0 database showed that CDCA7 was differentially expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, with high expression in tumor tissues and low expression in normal tissues. The Kaplan-Meier database shows that high CDCA7 expression has a worse prognosis. The cBioportal database showed that the genomic change rate of CDCA7 in hepatocellular carcinoma was 2.15%, including mutations, amplifications, and deep deletions. Pathway analysis of related genes showed that CDCA7-related genes were mainly focused on cell division-related pathways. The experimental results also validate our study. CDCA7 could contribute to HCC progression and raise the possibility that CDCA7 is a potential new therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• CDCA7
• HCC
• prognosis
• cbioportal
• TIMER2.0

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the faculty, staff, and patients of the Clinical and Laboratory Unit of the Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University. Thank all members of TIMER2.0, Kaplan–Meier plotter and LinkedOmics, cBioportal, WebGestalt, STRING databases for providing a good platform for researchers.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during the current study are available in the TIMER2.0 (http://timer.cistrome.org), Kaplan–Meier plotter (https://kmplot.com), cBioportal (https://www.cbioportal.org), LinkedOmics (http://linkedomics.org), WebGestalt (http://www.webgestalt.org), STRING (https://string-db.org). All the data were available from the corresponding authors for reasonable request. The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, and it was conducted in accordance with the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all the patients enrolled in this study. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Yuan Tian

Yuan Tian is a surgeon at Department of General Surgery, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

Wenwen Han

Wenwen Han is a physician at Department of Emergency, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

Long Fu

Long Fu is a surgeon at Department of General Surgery, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

Kaiji Lv

Kaiji Lv is a surgeon at Department of General Surgery, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

Shugeng Wu

Shugeng Wu is a surgeon at Department of General Surgery, Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital, The Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.