Identification of an RNA binding protein-related gene signature in hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Li Wang,Jialin Qu,Xiaochun Zhang,Man Jiang,Na Zhou

doi:10.1186/s10020-020-00252-5

Li Wang, Jialin Qu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s10020-020-00252-5

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant primary cancer with high mortality. Previous studies have demonstrated that RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are involved in the biological processes of cancers, including hepatocellular cancer.MethodsIn this study, we aimed to identify the clinical value of RNA-binding proteins for hepatocellular carcinoma. We obtained gene expression and clinical data of hepatocellular carcinoma patients from the TCGA and ICGC databases. The prognostic value of RBP-related genes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and their function were studied by comprehensive bioinformatics analyses. The gene signature of SMG5, EZH2, FBLL1, ZNF239, and IGF2BP3 was generated by univariate and multivariate Cox regression and LASSO regression analyses. We built and verified a prognostic nomogram based on RBP-related genes. The gene signature was validated by the ICGC database. The expression of RBP-related genes was validated by the Oncomine database, the Human Protein Atlas and Kaplan–Meier plotter.ResultMost RBP-related genes were significantly different in cancer and normal tissues. The survival of patients in the different groups was significantly different. The gene signature showed good performance for predicting the survival of HCC patients by having a better area under the receiver operating characteristic curve than other clinicopathological parameters.ConclusionGene signatures based on RNA-binding proteins can be independent risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Highlights

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant primary cancer with high mortality
6 RNA binding proteins (RBPs) were further submitted to a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, and 5 candidate RBPs (SMG5, EZH2, FBLL1, ZNF239, and IGF2BP3) were identified to construct the gene signature (Table 2)
The gene signature and nomogram based on RBPs may be more precise than a single clinicopathological parameter

Summary

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant primary cancer with high mortality. Previous studies have demonstrated that RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are involved in the biological processes of cancers, including hepatocellular cancer. RBPs can regulate post-transcriptional regulation (mRNA stability, RNA processing, splicing, localization, and translation) by binding to their target RNAs to form ribonucleoprotein complexes (Masuda and Kuwano 2019). Some studies have shown that RBPs are pivotal regulators that regulate the occurrence and progression of cardiovascular diseases by mediating a wide range of post-transcriptional events (Bruin 2017). Previous studies have shown that RBPs are widely expressed in tumor cells, which affects the translation of mRNA into proteins and is involved in carcinogenesis (Pereira et al 2017; Chatterji and Rustgi 2018). We will better understand the function of RBPs in cancer through comprehensive analysis

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion